"It is better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out."
-- Neem Karoli Baba
I don't care if you're Einstein or Stephen Hawking, or the recipient of a MacArthur genius award, you're not going to be able to figure it all out. It just ain't going to happen -- no way, no how.
So why spin your cognitive wheels in the primordial mud of existence? Why spend you're entire life trying to explain the unexplainable. Yo, there Sisyphus, just let that friggin rock go already!
Rational thought cannot explain reality. Intuition, however, can grasp what discursive thinking cannot. You can intuit the true nature of existence. And through intuition you can know and "see" God in everything.
It ain't easy. It's like looking through a pair of binoculars that keep slipping out of focus. But with practice your seeing can become more consistent. And by practice I don't mean "trying," I mean being. Being present to reality. Getting out of your thoughts, out of your emotions and, right here, right now, taking perception to a deeper level.
When it all clicks, it's amazing! God is everywhere, in everything. It's not a concept, it's an experience of the highest order, a knowing of the deepest degree, the ultimate awesome. God everywhere, in everyone, in everything -- what could be more obvious?
You may not be prone to trying to figure out the ultimate nature of existence. I bet, however, that you vex yourself unnecessarily trying to figure out why your partner does what he or she does, why your teenager is acting like that, or why your coworkers seems so clueless and lame. Forget about it! Instead, use a different part of your mind, and see God in each and every one.
God in disguise, God in drag. Behind each and every mask, behind personas one and all, hell, in personas one and all, lurks The Divine. Everyday our joyous task is the same -- see! Simply see.
Breaking Them Rules
"Creativity originates largely in the breaking of rules."
-- Bill Romey
Many of the rules that we live by are so embedded in our unconscious that we don't even realize how they shape our lives. You work regularly until 65 and then you retire; that's just how it's done. Monogamy is the only moral form for intimate relationships. And, of course, desert is always eaten after the rest of the meal.
But what if you retired at 43 for 7 years and then went back to work at 50? What if you had three lovers instead of one -- sometimes simultaneously?! What if one meal a week you ate all your deserts for the week and skipped the so-called healthy food altogether?
Would the sky fall? The temple tumble? Or God zap your ass with lighting bolts from above?
I doubt it.
Would you have fun? Probably. Would you see the world differently? Definitely. Would your breaking of the usually unquestioned rules of everyday conduct lead to creative breakthroughs? Maybe.
Creativity isn't just about inventing a new mouse trap. It's first about transcending ruts and SOP's and experiencing the world in new and different ways. Even if they are only new and different for you.
Ultimately creativity is about consciousness. Consciously trying new ways of doing and being rather than continuing to follow the well-worn paths.
What rules does it make sense to break? Any rules the breaking of which will not directly hurt another person. So, if you eat your desert first it's not going to put weight on the other folks sitting at the table. If you rob a bank or kill your next door neighbor or dump chemical waste into the drinking water, then you've created trauma in the lives of others and have obviously broken the wrong rules. A little low level discernment should help you to know the difference.
So, today is Rule Breaking Day! First you got to find the rules, because they are usually submerged in your psyche not posted on the wall. Then break a couple. See how it feels. Guilty or freeing? Or both? See how the world changes, how your world view changes simply by surfacing and breaking few rules.
The possibilities are endless! Your playing field expands! So energizing, so interesting -- life is born anew.
-- Bill Romey
Many of the rules that we live by are so embedded in our unconscious that we don't even realize how they shape our lives. You work regularly until 65 and then you retire; that's just how it's done. Monogamy is the only moral form for intimate relationships. And, of course, desert is always eaten after the rest of the meal.
But what if you retired at 43 for 7 years and then went back to work at 50? What if you had three lovers instead of one -- sometimes simultaneously?! What if one meal a week you ate all your deserts for the week and skipped the so-called healthy food altogether?
Would the sky fall? The temple tumble? Or God zap your ass with lighting bolts from above?
I doubt it.
Would you have fun? Probably. Would you see the world differently? Definitely. Would your breaking of the usually unquestioned rules of everyday conduct lead to creative breakthroughs? Maybe.
Creativity isn't just about inventing a new mouse trap. It's first about transcending ruts and SOP's and experiencing the world in new and different ways. Even if they are only new and different for you.
Ultimately creativity is about consciousness. Consciously trying new ways of doing and being rather than continuing to follow the well-worn paths.
What rules does it make sense to break? Any rules the breaking of which will not directly hurt another person. So, if you eat your desert first it's not going to put weight on the other folks sitting at the table. If you rob a bank or kill your next door neighbor or dump chemical waste into the drinking water, then you've created trauma in the lives of others and have obviously broken the wrong rules. A little low level discernment should help you to know the difference.
So, today is Rule Breaking Day! First you got to find the rules, because they are usually submerged in your psyche not posted on the wall. Then break a couple. See how it feels. Guilty or freeing? Or both? See how the world changes, how your world view changes simply by surfacing and breaking few rules.
The possibilities are endless! Your playing field expands! So energizing, so interesting -- life is born anew.
Loving Yourself
"Loving yourself while you are doing nothing is the ultimate practice of self-esteem."
-- Phil Laut
What do you have to do to earn your own self-respect? What must you accomplish in order to feel good about yourself? Any answer, other than nothing, creates barriers between your self and your self-esteem.
What if I told you that you're perfect just the way you are? Would you belief me? I doubt it.
OK, so you're not movie star body, Einstein brain, Mother Teresa compassion perfect. Big deal. Nobody likes a clone or a copycat anyway! You're 100% real, genuine, authentic you perfect, just as you are, right here, right now, and you don't have to do a single thing, other than keep breathing! And if you quit breathing, you're dead perfect!
You see, no matter what anyone tells you, there are no "doing" requirements for this life. You don't have to do anything. The only requirement is to be. Even loving yourself is not required. It's just makes life nicer when you do.
On the whole, doing is highly overrated. Doing nothing, just being, on the other hand, is highly underrated. We're human beings, not human doings. Somehow we keep forgetting that.
So, today, take a little time and do nothing. Hell, everyday, take a little time and do nothing. Observe how you feel about yourself as you do nothing. Enjoy doing nothing. Enjoy yourself. If you watch really carefully, you might even see that enjoyment morph into love.
-- Phil Laut
What do you have to do to earn your own self-respect? What must you accomplish in order to feel good about yourself? Any answer, other than nothing, creates barriers between your self and your self-esteem.
What if I told you that you're perfect just the way you are? Would you belief me? I doubt it.
OK, so you're not movie star body, Einstein brain, Mother Teresa compassion perfect. Big deal. Nobody likes a clone or a copycat anyway! You're 100% real, genuine, authentic you perfect, just as you are, right here, right now, and you don't have to do a single thing, other than keep breathing! And if you quit breathing, you're dead perfect!
You see, no matter what anyone tells you, there are no "doing" requirements for this life. You don't have to do anything. The only requirement is to be. Even loving yourself is not required. It's just makes life nicer when you do.
On the whole, doing is highly overrated. Doing nothing, just being, on the other hand, is highly underrated. We're human beings, not human doings. Somehow we keep forgetting that.
So, today, take a little time and do nothing. Hell, everyday, take a little time and do nothing. Observe how you feel about yourself as you do nothing. Enjoy doing nothing. Enjoy yourself. If you watch really carefully, you might even see that enjoyment morph into love.
Here a Christ, There a Christ, Everywhere a Christ, Christ
"Everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified."
-- Sherwood Anderson
When my friend Sara really likes something, say a CD by a band she's just discovered or a new flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, she'll say, "Yeah, I like it, but I wouldn't hang on the cross for it." Sort of puts her liking in perspective.
And yet, as Sherwood Anderson points out, we are all, in our own way, crucified. Each of us experiences betrayal and persecution and events in life that slay us, figuratively, if not literally. The Buddha pointed it out, as well - no one goes through life without experiencing suffering. And just because our crucifixion didn't make the front page of the Galilee Gazette, just because no one founded a religion based on our resurrection, doesn't make our suffering less painful, or less instructive.
Yes, we are all crucified by life, but you see the other half of the equation is that we are also all Christ. The Divine spark is harbored within each of us. God did not have but one son -- we are all God's sons, we are all God's daughters. Indeed, that is the only way in which we can bear the crucifixion, the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," the deaths and rebirths of everyday life. We are all direct descendants of the Divine. God has not grandchildren.
We are all Christ, we are all crucified, and time after time after time, we are all resurrected. The ego dies on the cross of life, the Spirit is resurrected. Each day, every day, sometimes hour by hour, sometimes moment by moment. Death and rebirth --an endless spiral -- reaching ever upward, diving ever inward, ever and always homeward bound.
-- Sherwood Anderson
When my friend Sara really likes something, say a CD by a band she's just discovered or a new flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, she'll say, "Yeah, I like it, but I wouldn't hang on the cross for it." Sort of puts her liking in perspective.
And yet, as Sherwood Anderson points out, we are all, in our own way, crucified. Each of us experiences betrayal and persecution and events in life that slay us, figuratively, if not literally. The Buddha pointed it out, as well - no one goes through life without experiencing suffering. And just because our crucifixion didn't make the front page of the Galilee Gazette, just because no one founded a religion based on our resurrection, doesn't make our suffering less painful, or less instructive.
Yes, we are all crucified by life, but you see the other half of the equation is that we are also all Christ. The Divine spark is harbored within each of us. God did not have but one son -- we are all God's sons, we are all God's daughters. Indeed, that is the only way in which we can bear the crucifixion, the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," the deaths and rebirths of everyday life. We are all direct descendants of the Divine. God has not grandchildren.
We are all Christ, we are all crucified, and time after time after time, we are all resurrected. The ego dies on the cross of life, the Spirit is resurrected. Each day, every day, sometimes hour by hour, sometimes moment by moment. Death and rebirth --an endless spiral -- reaching ever upward, diving ever inward, ever and always homeward bound.
A Meaningless Life
"My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?"
-- Charles Schulz
Why do we think we need goals or meaning or purpose in order to be happy? Why do we believe that we must always be aiming for some target, striving for some vision, or attempting some heroic act in order to achieve happiness?
To answer Mr. Schulz question, I believe that what he is doing right is that he is living in the moment and not being sucked into the prevailing assumption that life must have meaning in order to be enjoyable. Joy is always and already present. Happiness requires no prerequisites.
All meaning is made up, anyway. You don't discover meaning, you create it. And to what avail? To convince yourself that your life somehow holds some intrinsic importance? To bolster the ego's claim of having a unique mission worth pursuing? Do those creative fictions really help you live a better life, or do they merely mollify your discontent with the life you have?
This is it, folks. Reality 101 -- right here, right now. You can play any game or any role that you want -- just don't forget that you're merely playing. Don't mistake the game, or your role in it, for reality.
Being is where happiness lives. Not becoming, not striving, not even arriving -- being. That's why it's called "being happy." It's not called "doing happy" or "becoming happy." Happiness does not lie on some far off shore. It does not even reside in the striving to reach that far off shore. It is inherent each moment, each second, each breath.
Goal -less happiness, strive-free joy. Here and now.
-- Charles Schulz
Why do we think we need goals or meaning or purpose in order to be happy? Why do we believe that we must always be aiming for some target, striving for some vision, or attempting some heroic act in order to achieve happiness?
To answer Mr. Schulz question, I believe that what he is doing right is that he is living in the moment and not being sucked into the prevailing assumption that life must have meaning in order to be enjoyable. Joy is always and already present. Happiness requires no prerequisites.
All meaning is made up, anyway. You don't discover meaning, you create it. And to what avail? To convince yourself that your life somehow holds some intrinsic importance? To bolster the ego's claim of having a unique mission worth pursuing? Do those creative fictions really help you live a better life, or do they merely mollify your discontent with the life you have?
This is it, folks. Reality 101 -- right here, right now. You can play any game or any role that you want -- just don't forget that you're merely playing. Don't mistake the game, or your role in it, for reality.
Being is where happiness lives. Not becoming, not striving, not even arriving -- being. That's why it's called "being happy." It's not called "doing happy" or "becoming happy." Happiness does not lie on some far off shore. It does not even reside in the striving to reach that far off shore. It is inherent each moment, each second, each breath.
Goal -less happiness, strive-free joy. Here and now.
Potent Giving
"Giving is the highest expression of potency."
-- Erich Fromm
True giving always arises out of strength. It is an overflowing, a flowering, an individual expression of an abundant universe.
True giving is not concerned with the attitude or gratitude of the receiver. It is not grounded in duty, guilt, or even, concern for results.
True giving is a spontaneous outpouring of trust. It is a dynamic facet of the jewel of Self, best activated and actualized by being in harmony with the One.
If there is a debate going on in your head, "Should I give? Should I not give? I don't know what to do," then don't give. True giving is never preceded by debate. Sometimes, in the process of true giving, you don't even know you gave! Only weeks, months or years later, when someone thanks you for giving of your time, energy or love, do you even recognize your actions as giving. At the time, they were just your natural, unadulterated response to whatever was arising.
But at other times, not giving is what is called for. At least not giving at the time, or in the form, that it was requested. To give or not to give is not a cognitive decision but an intuitive one. It should not be based on who has the slickest appeal, or what tugs most upon your heartstrings, but on where your energy wants to go.
So, today, just be aware. Watch yourself giving, not giving, or debating whether to give. Don't try and change anything, just watch. Feel within. Abide in your strength. See what happens.
-- Erich Fromm
True giving always arises out of strength. It is an overflowing, a flowering, an individual expression of an abundant universe.
True giving is not concerned with the attitude or gratitude of the receiver. It is not grounded in duty, guilt, or even, concern for results.
True giving is a spontaneous outpouring of trust. It is a dynamic facet of the jewel of Self, best activated and actualized by being in harmony with the One.
If there is a debate going on in your head, "Should I give? Should I not give? I don't know what to do," then don't give. True giving is never preceded by debate. Sometimes, in the process of true giving, you don't even know you gave! Only weeks, months or years later, when someone thanks you for giving of your time, energy or love, do you even recognize your actions as giving. At the time, they were just your natural, unadulterated response to whatever was arising.
But at other times, not giving is what is called for. At least not giving at the time, or in the form, that it was requested. To give or not to give is not a cognitive decision but an intuitive one. It should not be based on who has the slickest appeal, or what tugs most upon your heartstrings, but on where your energy wants to go.
So, today, just be aware. Watch yourself giving, not giving, or debating whether to give. Don't try and change anything, just watch. Feel within. Abide in your strength. See what happens.
Delicious Ambiguity
"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity."
-- Gild Radner
Nobody knows what's going to happen next. We can guess, we can predict, we can prognosticate, but we cant' know. That is so freeing! Nothing is pre-ordained, nothing is written, it's all a beautiful, ever-changing crap shoot.
Every student should have to take a required class called Introduction to Ambiguity. That class, more than algebra, more than chemistry, would help students learn how to deal with the real world of ever-shifting scenarios and free flowing possibility.
Instead, we try and teach analysis, prediction and control, all to no avail. You can waste your time analyzing the world if you want, but you can predict very little and control even less, so why bother?
Perception is where it's at. Being present, wide awake and aware. Living in the moment and enjoying life as it is, right here, right now.
That alone will help you build your ambiguity muscle. That alone will insure that your life is fully experienced and well lived. It's like a prize drawing at a charity raffle -- you must be present to win! Present without resistance. Wide open. Letting ambiguity be. Letting the world be what it is, even though a little voice (or a loud voice) inside of you doesn't like it.
In ever-changing times, your levels of success, joy and comfort are all directly dependent upon your ability to tolerate ambiguity. But why merely tolerate it when you can thrive upon it? Delicious ambiguity -- the true breakfast of champions!
-- Gild Radner
Nobody knows what's going to happen next. We can guess, we can predict, we can prognosticate, but we cant' know. That is so freeing! Nothing is pre-ordained, nothing is written, it's all a beautiful, ever-changing crap shoot.
Every student should have to take a required class called Introduction to Ambiguity. That class, more than algebra, more than chemistry, would help students learn how to deal with the real world of ever-shifting scenarios and free flowing possibility.
Instead, we try and teach analysis, prediction and control, all to no avail. You can waste your time analyzing the world if you want, but you can predict very little and control even less, so why bother?
Perception is where it's at. Being present, wide awake and aware. Living in the moment and enjoying life as it is, right here, right now.
That alone will help you build your ambiguity muscle. That alone will insure that your life is fully experienced and well lived. It's like a prize drawing at a charity raffle -- you must be present to win! Present without resistance. Wide open. Letting ambiguity be. Letting the world be what it is, even though a little voice (or a loud voice) inside of you doesn't like it.
In ever-changing times, your levels of success, joy and comfort are all directly dependent upon your ability to tolerate ambiguity. But why merely tolerate it when you can thrive upon it? Delicious ambiguity -- the true breakfast of champions!
Sin Freely
"Christ died for our sins. Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?"
-- Jules Feifferr
Who defines sin? Is there a big Catalog of Sins somewhere that I somehow missed? Or maybe I should check out www.sin.com to see if there's an online compendium.
Personally, I think the whole idea of sin is just a giant control mechanism put into place by the religious powers that be in order to control the citizenry. Hell, even so-called religious leaders, themselves, can't agree on what constitutes a sin! Is dancing a sin? Or drinking alcohol? What about drinking caffeine? How about using electricity? And how about having a threesome with some hot, blonde twins? (OK most clergy would probably agree on the last on, but given the opportunity, my bet is that more than half of them would partake).
Even crazier is the fact that many of the arbitrators of sin speak only out of unexamined theology and moldy tradition, not from real life experience. As has been said about the Pope by many a pundit and comedian, "He a no playa the game, he a no make-a the rules!" Lousy Italian accent aside, their point is well taken. How can a guy who supposedly has never had sex in his life be the arbitrator of the sexual mores for an entire planet? Patently absurd!
So, should we all just run around willy nilly doing what we want? Sort of, but not exactly. If spiritual leaders have any role at all in post-modern culture, I think it is to teach tools and techniques of quieting, centering and transcendence. By using those methodologies, we can then see what actions are really in the best interest of ourselves, others, and the world as a whole. Does it really harm anyone if two adults have consensual sex outside of a relationship sanctioned by some church or government? Are the caffeine drinkers of the world darkening really their souls with coffee and Mr. Pip, and thus rendering themselves incapable of entering the gates of Heaven?
Alot of what passes for religious belief is, in the light of either reason or intuition, just pure unadulterated crap. It is up to each of us to separate the wheat from the chaff. No one can do it for us. Not even a priest, rabbi, or preacher. Especially not a priest, rabbi or preacher!
So, if in your best judgement, it seems OK to partake in an act that others deem a sin, have at it! Sin freely! Enjoy yourself! Even if the Christians are right, Jesus has got your back. Sin now, repent on your death bed, and baby, you're home free!
-- Jules Feifferr
Who defines sin? Is there a big Catalog of Sins somewhere that I somehow missed? Or maybe I should check out www.sin.com to see if there's an online compendium.
Personally, I think the whole idea of sin is just a giant control mechanism put into place by the religious powers that be in order to control the citizenry. Hell, even so-called religious leaders, themselves, can't agree on what constitutes a sin! Is dancing a sin? Or drinking alcohol? What about drinking caffeine? How about using electricity? And how about having a threesome with some hot, blonde twins? (OK most clergy would probably agree on the last on, but given the opportunity, my bet is that more than half of them would partake).
Even crazier is the fact that many of the arbitrators of sin speak only out of unexamined theology and moldy tradition, not from real life experience. As has been said about the Pope by many a pundit and comedian, "He a no playa the game, he a no make-a the rules!" Lousy Italian accent aside, their point is well taken. How can a guy who supposedly has never had sex in his life be the arbitrator of the sexual mores for an entire planet? Patently absurd!
So, should we all just run around willy nilly doing what we want? Sort of, but not exactly. If spiritual leaders have any role at all in post-modern culture, I think it is to teach tools and techniques of quieting, centering and transcendence. By using those methodologies, we can then see what actions are really in the best interest of ourselves, others, and the world as a whole. Does it really harm anyone if two adults have consensual sex outside of a relationship sanctioned by some church or government? Are the caffeine drinkers of the world darkening really their souls with coffee and Mr. Pip, and thus rendering themselves incapable of entering the gates of Heaven?
Alot of what passes for religious belief is, in the light of either reason or intuition, just pure unadulterated crap. It is up to each of us to separate the wheat from the chaff. No one can do it for us. Not even a priest, rabbi, or preacher. Especially not a priest, rabbi or preacher!
So, if in your best judgement, it seems OK to partake in an act that others deem a sin, have at it! Sin freely! Enjoy yourself! Even if the Christians are right, Jesus has got your back. Sin now, repent on your death bed, and baby, you're home free!
Get Out of Bed!
"No matter how big or soft or warm the bed is, you still have to get out of it."
-- Grace Slick
I love big, soft warm beds -- for awhile. For about 5-7 hours, they are Heaven on Earth. After that, I want to get up! No amount of lollygagging around in bed (unless I'm with a beautiful woman) is going to add to my day one iota.
But it goes well beyond beds. We live in a culture where we are taught that the big, the soft, the warm, so to speak, is our goal. Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and yes, even Main Street, would like us to believe that true happiness is just one more purchase away. Get that big king size, pillow top, Sleep Number Bed, and, yep, you'll finally be really, truly happy. The minute you mount that giant flat screen TV on your wall, your life will become pain free. And if you were only driving the Cadillac CTS, you'd be so turned on and powerful that global warming, world poverty and the health care crisis couldn't even touch you.
I'm not sure that I agree, and by "not sure that I agree" I really mean lies, lies and more lies! The goal of life is not purchased pleasure. The one good thing that can be said about trying to buy happiness is that sooner or later disillusionment will set in, and then, hopefully, you'll search for meaning somewhere beyond the mall. Comfort is not king. It is just a brief respite between the real, exciting, simple experiences of life.
So, no matter what type of bed, television, or car you have, it's better to use them appropriately than to be seduced by them. It's time to get out of the big, soft, warm comfort of consumer culture and go out and see the big, wide, wonderful world!
-- Grace Slick
I love big, soft warm beds -- for awhile. For about 5-7 hours, they are Heaven on Earth. After that, I want to get up! No amount of lollygagging around in bed (unless I'm with a beautiful woman) is going to add to my day one iota.
But it goes well beyond beds. We live in a culture where we are taught that the big, the soft, the warm, so to speak, is our goal. Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and yes, even Main Street, would like us to believe that true happiness is just one more purchase away. Get that big king size, pillow top, Sleep Number Bed, and, yep, you'll finally be really, truly happy. The minute you mount that giant flat screen TV on your wall, your life will become pain free. And if you were only driving the Cadillac CTS, you'd be so turned on and powerful that global warming, world poverty and the health care crisis couldn't even touch you.
I'm not sure that I agree, and by "not sure that I agree" I really mean lies, lies and more lies! The goal of life is not purchased pleasure. The one good thing that can be said about trying to buy happiness is that sooner or later disillusionment will set in, and then, hopefully, you'll search for meaning somewhere beyond the mall. Comfort is not king. It is just a brief respite between the real, exciting, simple experiences of life.
So, no matter what type of bed, television, or car you have, it's better to use them appropriately than to be seduced by them. It's time to get out of the big, soft, warm comfort of consumer culture and go out and see the big, wide, wonderful world!
The Seasons
"Hope and fear cannot alter the seasons."
-- Chogyam Trungpa
Winter is coming on. Today the forecast is for a light snow/sleet mix, with blustery winds and temperatures in the thirties. Yuck! I don't like it. Nature doesn't care.
Weather just is. Seasons just are. They come and go. The cycle is outside of my control or influence. My feelings about the seasons mean as much to nature as do those dry leaves that are swirling aimlessly in the wind.
When we look at what is, and let go of our emotional response to what is, everything is just fine. Not fine in the sense that all our hopes are realized and all our fears avoided. Fine in the sense that we are no longer in a struggle with reality. Because, you know, in a battle between you and reality, reality wins every damn time!
Hope and fear are both unnecessary, emotional side trips off Reality Road. Both cloud the mind. Both take us into fantasy and away from what is. Hope may feel a little better than fear when it is running through your body, but really it's just the flip side of fear, fear in drag.
There is a prevalent notion in our culture that you must have hope in order to survive the ups and downs of life. Balderdash! And by balderdash I mean bullshit! You don't need hope, you need a clear, unsentimental view of reality. Only with open-eyed, real time information can you receive the insight necessary to make effective and appropriate decisions.
And don't even get me started on fear, the primary Republican political strategy, and one of Madison Avenue's favorite techniques to motivate consumers to partake in unwarranted spending and unnecessary consumption. Fear produces even more bad decisions and dysfunctional behaviors than hoping, wishing and fantasizing combined!
So, it's the dregs of autumn. Or the dog days of summer. Or the bone-chilling cold of winter. Or the soggy, suicidal grey skies of spring. No matter. Hope and fear are both impotent to alter the flight of one snow flake, to bend the path of one sunbeam. It's up to us to harmonize with nature, not the other way around.
When you choose the path of harmony, though, the payoff is tremendous. You can ride the energy of reality, just like body surfing a big Hawaiian wave. But it only works if you let go. Let go of both hope and fear and flow with it. When you do, I can assure you of one thing -- you're in for one hell of a ride!
-- Chogyam Trungpa
Winter is coming on. Today the forecast is for a light snow/sleet mix, with blustery winds and temperatures in the thirties. Yuck! I don't like it. Nature doesn't care.
Weather just is. Seasons just are. They come and go. The cycle is outside of my control or influence. My feelings about the seasons mean as much to nature as do those dry leaves that are swirling aimlessly in the wind.
When we look at what is, and let go of our emotional response to what is, everything is just fine. Not fine in the sense that all our hopes are realized and all our fears avoided. Fine in the sense that we are no longer in a struggle with reality. Because, you know, in a battle between you and reality, reality wins every damn time!
Hope and fear are both unnecessary, emotional side trips off Reality Road. Both cloud the mind. Both take us into fantasy and away from what is. Hope may feel a little better than fear when it is running through your body, but really it's just the flip side of fear, fear in drag.
There is a prevalent notion in our culture that you must have hope in order to survive the ups and downs of life. Balderdash! And by balderdash I mean bullshit! You don't need hope, you need a clear, unsentimental view of reality. Only with open-eyed, real time information can you receive the insight necessary to make effective and appropriate decisions.
And don't even get me started on fear, the primary Republican political strategy, and one of Madison Avenue's favorite techniques to motivate consumers to partake in unwarranted spending and unnecessary consumption. Fear produces even more bad decisions and dysfunctional behaviors than hoping, wishing and fantasizing combined!
So, it's the dregs of autumn. Or the dog days of summer. Or the bone-chilling cold of winter. Or the soggy, suicidal grey skies of spring. No matter. Hope and fear are both impotent to alter the flight of one snow flake, to bend the path of one sunbeam. It's up to us to harmonize with nature, not the other way around.
When you choose the path of harmony, though, the payoff is tremendous. You can ride the energy of reality, just like body surfing a big Hawaiian wave. But it only works if you let go. Let go of both hope and fear and flow with it. When you do, I can assure you of one thing -- you're in for one hell of a ride!
90 Miles an Hour Down a Dead End Street
"Speed doesn't give you more time -- it just botches what you've got and makes for inferior maps."
-- William Least Heat Moon. Roads to Quoz. p. 338.
The Beatles sang it "Slow down, baby now you're moving way too fast..." WLHM said it. Even the National Safety Council advises "Speed kills!" What other authorities do you need? Slow down already! You. Yeah, you. Now. Right now. Deep breath. Feel the stress drain from your body -- right out the soles of your feet into the earth, right out your fingertips into the world, right out the top of your head into the cosmos. Let the energy-of-hurry-up go.
God, time is a precious thing! And it's nothing. It's all we have. Or does it have us?
Really there are two kinds of time -- chronos and kairos. The first is clock time -- measured and demarcated, spent and hoarded, always fleeting, never enough. The second, kairos, is divine time, the doorway into eternity. It is always here, always now, and yet it transcends here and now. You never run out of kairos, you fall into it. And the deeper you go, the more you have.
Living in the world of kairos, rather than the world of chronos, there is never a hurry. What's there to hurry about? Where is there to hurry to? You're always in the Eternal Now. Living in kairos may not make for superior maps; instead it tunes you into a sort of intuitive GPS system so that even when you're lost externally, you're never really lost internally.
And it's hard to "botch" kairos. You can botch chronos from here to hell and back, but kairos is inherently unbotchable.
And here's the cool part -- the secret portal into kairos is a giant slide! By slowing down, you slide down into the Eternal Now, into the moment, into the Divine. And in so doing, you redeem both yourself and the world. It ALL comes alive! And you are there. Or, rather, here. You know what I mean.
S-l-o-w-l-y reclaim your life.
-- William Least Heat Moon. Roads to Quoz. p. 338.
The Beatles sang it "Slow down, baby now you're moving way too fast..." WLHM said it. Even the National Safety Council advises "Speed kills!" What other authorities do you need? Slow down already! You. Yeah, you. Now. Right now. Deep breath. Feel the stress drain from your body -- right out the soles of your feet into the earth, right out your fingertips into the world, right out the top of your head into the cosmos. Let the energy-of-hurry-up go.
God, time is a precious thing! And it's nothing. It's all we have. Or does it have us?
Really there are two kinds of time -- chronos and kairos. The first is clock time -- measured and demarcated, spent and hoarded, always fleeting, never enough. The second, kairos, is divine time, the doorway into eternity. It is always here, always now, and yet it transcends here and now. You never run out of kairos, you fall into it. And the deeper you go, the more you have.
Living in the world of kairos, rather than the world of chronos, there is never a hurry. What's there to hurry about? Where is there to hurry to? You're always in the Eternal Now. Living in kairos may not make for superior maps; instead it tunes you into a sort of intuitive GPS system so that even when you're lost externally, you're never really lost internally.
And it's hard to "botch" kairos. You can botch chronos from here to hell and back, but kairos is inherently unbotchable.
And here's the cool part -- the secret portal into kairos is a giant slide! By slowing down, you slide down into the Eternal Now, into the moment, into the Divine. And in so doing, you redeem both yourself and the world. It ALL comes alive! And you are there. Or, rather, here. You know what I mean.
S-l-o-w-l-y reclaim your life.
Hooray for a Senseless World!
"Deductions and inferences can be wrong. But they're not illicit; they're how history, at its best, makes sense of a senseless world."
-- Jill LePore. "President Tom's Cabin." New Yorker. 9/22/08.
Stop Making Sense was the name of a seminal Talking Heads album. And it's good advice, as well. Whether we're historians, or quantum physicists, psychologists, or garbage collectors, each time we deduce and infer, we are moving away from what is, and in so doing have removed ourselves from the realm of reality. In fact, sense-making has become such an automatic habit, a knee jerk cognitive reaction, that we don't even know we do it, and so we confuse our stories about reality with reality all the time!
What's the alternative? Let the senseless world be senseless. Quit making meaning. Stop trying to firm up the ever shifting sands of reality with your conceptual bulwarks. Perceive and breathe. Let intuitions bubble up to the surface of your psyche, but don't try to organize them into a nice bow-laden, pre-packaged Theory of Everything.
Reality is beautiful and messy and ever-changing. Whatever underlying principles, or implicit order there may be will only be found by observing reality more closely, letting it penetrate us more deeply, not by mental machinations, educated guessing, or grand theorizing.
Stories about reality are not reality, no matter how intricate, enthralling or well-crafted those stories may be. Face it: You don't know why most things happen the way they do. You don't know why most people do what they do. Hell, you don't even know why you do what you do!
So maybe, in a senseless world, "why?" is the wrong question. The answer to why is always a lie. A lie in that it is incomplete. A lie in that it is merely an interpretation based upon a small glimpse of one facet of the multi-faceted jewel of reality. Why supposedly gets at the meaning behind what happens, but really meaning is just a human made invention!
Today is a good day to stop making sense. Today is... That's all we know. Enjoy it!
-- Jill LePore. "President Tom's Cabin." New Yorker. 9/22/08.
Stop Making Sense was the name of a seminal Talking Heads album. And it's good advice, as well. Whether we're historians, or quantum physicists, psychologists, or garbage collectors, each time we deduce and infer, we are moving away from what is, and in so doing have removed ourselves from the realm of reality. In fact, sense-making has become such an automatic habit, a knee jerk cognitive reaction, that we don't even know we do it, and so we confuse our stories about reality with reality all the time!
What's the alternative? Let the senseless world be senseless. Quit making meaning. Stop trying to firm up the ever shifting sands of reality with your conceptual bulwarks. Perceive and breathe. Let intuitions bubble up to the surface of your psyche, but don't try to organize them into a nice bow-laden, pre-packaged Theory of Everything.
Reality is beautiful and messy and ever-changing. Whatever underlying principles, or implicit order there may be will only be found by observing reality more closely, letting it penetrate us more deeply, not by mental machinations, educated guessing, or grand theorizing.
Stories about reality are not reality, no matter how intricate, enthralling or well-crafted those stories may be. Face it: You don't know why most things happen the way they do. You don't know why most people do what they do. Hell, you don't even know why you do what you do!
So maybe, in a senseless world, "why?" is the wrong question. The answer to why is always a lie. A lie in that it is incomplete. A lie in that it is merely an interpretation based upon a small glimpse of one facet of the multi-faceted jewel of reality. Why supposedly gets at the meaning behind what happens, but really meaning is just a human made invention!
Today is a good day to stop making sense. Today is... That's all we know. Enjoy it!
Begin Within
"It's not the events of today that happened to you that matter (such as you lost something or something went wrong or someone forgot you or spoke to you harshly, etc.) but how you reacted to it all -- that is what states of yourself you were in -- for it is here that your inner life lies, and if our inner states were right, nothing in the nature of external states could overcome us."
-- Maurice Nicolll
Convoluted sentence structure aside, Maurice was onto something. The external events of the day can't touch you, if you are centered within yourself.
Aldous Huxley said, "It is not what happens to you that matters, but how you respond to what happens to you." Or words to that effect. And he, too, was right, as far as it goes.
But it's not just your external response that matters. It's the state of consciousness within you, out of which that response springs. Someone can snub you, and you can respond with a smile. But if that smile is tension-filled and phony, if you are restraining your true feelings and creating turmoil and stress inside yourself, then you are still miles away from Paradise.
State of consciousness is everything. It is what empowers, or disempowers, our actions. We can all tell the difference between a phony smile and a genuine one. We all know what real joy feels like-- both in ourselves and when expressed by others. It's a very different state than forced friendliness or facile fun.
So, today, focus not upon the events that transpire all around you. Give up your knee jerk reactions to them. Instead, look within. See what state of consciousness you are bringing to the events, and how that state, not the events themselves, creates the quality of life your experience.
Remember: Your true point of power always lies within.
-- Maurice Nicolll
Convoluted sentence structure aside, Maurice was onto something. The external events of the day can't touch you, if you are centered within yourself.
Aldous Huxley said, "It is not what happens to you that matters, but how you respond to what happens to you." Or words to that effect. And he, too, was right, as far as it goes.
But it's not just your external response that matters. It's the state of consciousness within you, out of which that response springs. Someone can snub you, and you can respond with a smile. But if that smile is tension-filled and phony, if you are restraining your true feelings and creating turmoil and stress inside yourself, then you are still miles away from Paradise.
State of consciousness is everything. It is what empowers, or disempowers, our actions. We can all tell the difference between a phony smile and a genuine one. We all know what real joy feels like-- both in ourselves and when expressed by others. It's a very different state than forced friendliness or facile fun.
So, today, focus not upon the events that transpire all around you. Give up your knee jerk reactions to them. Instead, look within. See what state of consciousness you are bringing to the events, and how that state, not the events themselves, creates the quality of life your experience.
Remember: Your true point of power always lies within.
Delusion Be Gone!
"You just have to remove delusion, that's all. Religious practice is simply ceasing to create delusion. When you cease creating delusion, the truth alone remains. The true-life function will manifest from inside of you. That is love; love and compassion are the true-life function"
-- Motoko Ikebe (Female Zen Master)
You don't have to visualize iconic gods or goddesses or conjure up intricate mandalas. You don't have to repeat Sanskrit mantras or prattle new age affirmations. You don't have to contort yourself into nearly impossible postures or adopt rigorous, ascetic practices. Nothing need be added or gained. The practice is one of subtraction, of reduction, of natural restraint.
Delusion is not found in nature, not found in the external world. Delusion is found in our interpretation of the world. Delusion is found between our ears.
Quit making up stories, reasons and explanations. Let the mystery of reality be.
When you do that, the true you begins to manifest. Who is the true you? Love. You don't have to try to love. You don't have to seek or chase or pine for love. You are love.
And so, you act accordingly -- compassionately, lovingly. And life goes on. And the world is still as it is. And you are still as you are, sans delusion. And that surrendering of delusion, that makes all the difference.
-- Motoko Ikebe (Female Zen Master)
You don't have to visualize iconic gods or goddesses or conjure up intricate mandalas. You don't have to repeat Sanskrit mantras or prattle new age affirmations. You don't have to contort yourself into nearly impossible postures or adopt rigorous, ascetic practices. Nothing need be added or gained. The practice is one of subtraction, of reduction, of natural restraint.
Delusion is not found in nature, not found in the external world. Delusion is found in our interpretation of the world. Delusion is found between our ears.
Quit making up stories, reasons and explanations. Let the mystery of reality be.
When you do that, the true you begins to manifest. Who is the true you? Love. You don't have to try to love. You don't have to seek or chase or pine for love. You are love.
And so, you act accordingly -- compassionately, lovingly. And life goes on. And the world is still as it is. And you are still as you are, sans delusion. And that surrendering of delusion, that makes all the difference.
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