On Our Way Home

      “There is a light in the core of our being that calls us home ..."
       John J. Prendergast. “The Deep Heart – Our Portal to Presence.” Sounds True, 2019

     “The center is the focal point that stands for whatever is of enduring importance – the core, the meaning, or the hub around which life evolves. For archaic humanity, the creative mound represented the feminine principle, the womb of life and the center of the world. Later, as the masculine principle emerged, the mound was surrounded either by upright stones or an enduring central pillar, symbolically connecting earth and sky as the world’s axis, ensuring the continuity of life.
     A human personality, initially an ego, that cannot journey toward the center of its own being, the Self, is left unconnected, at the mercy of unconscious compulsions and motivations as well as social conventions. Paradoxically, however, these same drives may create the suffering that reflects our inner healer’s efforts to get us into sufficient conflict to begin the voyage home.
     An ancient legend speaks of the old Hebrew shepherd who, in speaking of his small village on the edge of the desert, remarked, ‘I am happy living here.’ Then he added, ‘But if I saw Jerusalem, I would not be happy anymore.’ His simple words are filled with a natural wisdom.
     Jerusalem, Delphi, Mecca (the eternal cities), Mount Fuji (the central mountain), the Holy Land, and other numinous places have been considered symbolic centers of the sacred world. Ironically, many people among us live – metaphorically – in small villages far from their center, on the outer fringe of their personality, and seem quite happy there. Others of us seem chosen by life to be thrust into an inner journey. We become seekers. Initially, we seek peace and happiness. But once we see Jerusalem, once we see through ourselves to the center, we cannot be happy again where we were. We see beyond the external, material destination we are likely to have been seeking and become aware that the pilgrimage is eternal – and inner. We may even feel alone in this crowded world, with only our inner Hidden One for a companion. However, if we can learn to continue, turning our (often reluctant and too rational and willful) focus inward to cooperate with this inner healer, then we begin our pilgrimage to completeness, to wholeness, toward feeling at home in ourselves and in the world.”
     Bud Harris. “The Journey into Wholeness: A Jungian Guide to Discovering the Meaning of Your Life’s Path.” Daphne, 2020. 

      Mindfulness practice is "cultivating a certain kind of intimacy with the core of our being."
Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD

The Way It Is              by William Stafford

“There's a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.” 

 

What is a Poem?

Suddenly I manifest in the world
of ‘10,000 joys & 10,000 sorrows.’ 
Strange parents, friends & acquaintances, 
all with unique perspectives, 
yet one common language – 
small-talk: 
‘Hi, how are you? Nice day isn’t it?’

What is a poem?

What is a life?


      "When all the layers of false identity have been stripped off, there is no longer any version of that old self. What is left behind is pure consciousness." Anam Thubten

      "What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?" Thomas Merton

One of an infinite number of never-to-be-repeated moments

Embracing Paradox

     "Intimacy with all things" includes apparent paradoxes. Here's a striking example of this from a learned, seasoned explorer of consciousness, Ralph Metzner PhD:

     “I came to a new understanding of the two key mottos that run through much of the alchemical literature of the European Middle Ages. 
     One of these is natura naturans – ‘nature doing everything naturally.’ This is also the fundamental concept in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine, as well as in western Hippocratic and indigenous medicinal practice: that the body basically heals itself, and we just need to support that process. We can rely on our primal, unconditioned, instinctual mind to sustain our health and well-being as we go through the life cycle from conception to birth, youth, maturity, old age, and death.
     The other motto, equally pervasive in the alchemical literature, is opus contra naturam – ‘the work against nature.’ This image and motto seemingly contradicts the first one. It avers that in order to really wake up and become conscious we have to practice working with mindful intention against the inertial pull of the unconscious sleeplike habits of everyday life. Gurdjieff and other masters of the so-called Fourth Way, as well as some teachers in the Sufi, Zen, and Taoist lineages, are often identified with this way.
     D.T. Suzuki (1980) wrote: ‘What is awakened in the Zen experience is not a “new” experience but an “old” one, which has been dormant since our loss of innocence … The awakening is really the rediscovery or the excavation of a long-lost treasure … the finding ourselves back in our original abode where we lived even before our birth.’ ”

      Ralph Metzner. “Searching for the Philosophers’ Stone. Encounters with Mystics, Scientists, and Healers.” Park Street Press, 2018.

Our Human Body, The Universe, & Finding Home

     "In the Vajrayana traditions of Tibet, in the yoga traditions of India, in Taoist meditation in Taoist yoga, and elsewhere in world religions, the human body, and the totality of the universe, are equivalent realities, only in a different scale. To put it in another way, the human body (microcosm) is the reality of the totality of the universe (macrocosm), with all of the space, all of the eventfulness, all of the energy, all of the vast display, only happening in a different frame of reference, a different scale – the scale of the human body. 
     When we do somatic descent, it’s very important that we have this understanding. At the end of the day, the ultimate mysteries, the ultimate sacredness, the ultimate power, the ultimate immeasurable expanse of the universe is actually present in our human body. Now we can say that these are equivalent realities happening on a different scale, but there’s one way in which they’re not equivalent, and that is that we don’t have direct access to the infinity of the universe. But we do have access to the infinity of the universe in our body. So the external universe can only be known by observation, measurement, deduction, and we’re very reliant on scientific technologies to know about the universe in its most expansive extent. But within the human body, we are given the opportunity to experience those very same cosmic realities through direct experience, through the non-conceptual experience of our body. ...
     What we’re saying here is that when we breathe into the lower belly (hara or dan tien), and we discover the space – the empty, open, vast space – that is the source of our life, in our lower belly, we feel this is me. This is really me. And when we bring that energy up and we uncover it, discover it in the central channel, we feel this is my core. If I’ve been wondering my whole life who I am, and if I have been looking my whole life for my identity as a person, my ultimate identity that will be unshakable in the face of any storms and any onslaughts, we feel, we experience, that this is me. It’s probably one of the deepest experiences of human life. This is who I am. This is who I’ve always been. And we see that it’s indestructible, and it’s neither born, nor dies. 
     This experience of our eternal aspect, again it’s not abstract, and it’s not theoretical. It’s one of the most intimate, personal, affecting experiences you can ever have in your life. Once you discover that space in your own body, in your lower belly, and in your central channel, and you see for yourself, in terms of your own experience, that this is who you are. It gives you a different foundation for your living."

       Reginald A. Ray “Somatic Descent.” Sounds True, 2016. 
       www.soundstrue.com/store/somatic-descent.html

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Membership's Benefits ... and Drawbacks

     Sometimes we enthusiastically join, support and become strongly identified with certain groups. How completely we become identified with & transformed by the group depends on us, as well as the group. Our level of psychosociospiritual development determines the type of group(s) we wish to join. There's a very broad range of groups from which to choose: from sports teams, charities, political parties, professions, unions, the armed forces, religions, nations, ethnic groups, to outlaw gangs, etc.
     Not surprisingly, we're in a very different place in our life if we choose to join & identify with, say the Hell's Angels instead of Save the Whales. Besides different activities, one group may demand strict obedience ("dogmatic"), while another may be laid back & informal ("liberal"). Interestingly, many of us, at a certain point in our lives, are strongly drawn to dogmatic groups that completely take over our thinking, behavior - our whole lives. The very same person who's a peace-loving humanitarian in their 60s, could have, in their teens, enthusiastically enlisted for combat duty to fight "the enemy" of the day.
     When we feel lost, empty, like a nobody, marginalized, hopeless, angry, without any sense of belonging, as soon as we join a dogmatic group, we instantly feel proud, connected, accepted, have both an identity and a home. A dogmatic group has a strong distinctive brand, and we're thrilled to be branded, wear the uniform, fly the flag, repeat the slogans. For many, this means a radically-improved quality of life. There's no looking back at what we might have given up - our immediate assumption is nothing, since they had nothing. Group-think is demanded and easy to go along with - easier than thinking for oneself. One develops very strong, almost unbreakable emotional attachment to such groups. Many dogmatic groups explicitly teach that leaving the group has catastrophic consequences for the individual - shunning, court martial, eternal hell-fire. So reason is rarely successful against such powerful emotions to extricate oneself (or another) from dogmatic groups. Members tend to be paranoid, and may respond violently to any criticism - feeling as if their very life were being threatened.
     But human evolution of consciousness is an entirely natural process, whereas the core basis of dogmatic groups is a set of fixed ideas - dogmas. Most of us simply outgrow dogmas. 
     "Cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time; performs an action that is contradictory to their beliefs, ideas, or values; or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas or values. (But) humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance, as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance 
     So as we mature psychosociospiritually, cognitive dissonance increases. The question then is how much authenticity can I tolerate suppressing while I'm with my dogmatic group? This is a wrenching, quasi-life-or-death decision - a form of ego death, since the group for many of us is/was our core identity. But living a lie - a "divided life", is for some of us, deadening, soul-destroying.
     When we quietly observe the mind during meditation, we notice a huge amount of self-talk - mostly transient, unnecessary ego noise. Our real identity is beyond all this noise: words, concepts, including all dogmas. When the noise from our own or our group's ego settles down, we touch authenticity, freedom.
     

Brant Hansen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rh8uywILZk

Opening, Intimacy, Meaning, Mindfulness, Happiness, Authenticity

     "Mindfulness is a phenomenon generally understood in cognitive terms, although it has a holistic impact on an individual’s being. Meaning in life is seen as a construct that expands beyond what a person does in life (meaning through doing), but it also depends on each person’s relationship with her or his essential being (meaning through being)." 

      Bellin ZJ. "The Meaning Connection Between Mindfulness and Happiness." Journal of Humanistic Counseling 2015; 54: 221-35.

 

     Essential intimacy with "self", others, & life:

http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2016/09/28/Out-on-a-Limb

http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2016/09/28/Relating-Well-and-Happiness

http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2016/09/30/Authenticity-is-Central

http://jglovas.wixsite.com/awarenessnow/single-post/2016/10/03/Coming-Home

 

Opening to Nature through the Mind-Heart of a Four-legged

What Drives Behavior?

     Are we not "driven" or "feel compelled" to do things at times? How do we feel physically / emotionally in these instances? Do we feel an ache in the heart, a hunger in the belly, a generalized restlessness, feeling lost & needing to return home, emptiness desiring fulfillment, incompleteness desiring completion or wholeness, dividedness desiring a sense of undividedness?
     As we become increasingly aware of our body as a physical reality, we're surprised at how frequently the above unpleasant physically-felt sensations actually drive our behavior.
     Can we recognize these physical sensations, accept them, let them go, bring awareness back to the present moment, and deal appropriately with what's in front of us? Appropriately means letting go of the compulsive component! Appropriately means letting go of "me, myself & I" - the clamorings of the ego.  Appropriately means approaching the present moment from equanimity, stillness, silence, wisdom. When coming from this place, we don't feel "driven" or "compelled" at all - when we act, it's a natural response to just what each situation requires - no big deal. THIS is HOME.

tassosl   www.dpreview.com