A New Relationship

    “The loss of a relationship is not the same as the loss of a life. Suffering a sudden betrayal is not the same as dying from heart failure. Yet both can teach us how to cultivate a new relationship to surrender and acceptance.” Sunita Puri MD

    “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? ' ” 

    Betrayal by the Divine, Nature, Source, God, the Force, Ultimate Reality; by a human being we love dearly; or even by a pet that 'suddenly turns on us,' is perhaps the ultimate shock to the system. Even the death of a loved one is a kind of betrayal. Even dropping & breaking something we've worked so hard to make for someone else is a kind of betrayal. We assume that if we're doing good, surely then the Force is with us. Nope, not necessarily.
    Nature is constantly reminding us who we already ARE - to BE who we are, have always been & will be, and not to be so busy trying to do more, trying to become someone else, to go somewhere else.
    We resist hard truths. To the extent we attempt to resist reality, we suffer needlessly. We demand not 'a spoonful of sugar' to make the medicine go down, but gallons of syrup. In the 1992 movie "A Few Good Men" Jack Nicholson's character famously yells, 'You can't handle the truth!'

    In the 2016 movie, "The Dreamseller" (Netflix) the main character, once a workaholic billionaire who prioritized his business over his wife & young daughter, sees his wife & daughter perish when his private jet explodes. At the same time, he loses his business empire when his best friend & colleague betrays him. These events completely transform him - which many see as 'madness.' He now understands that true success is attaining what money can't buy. 

      Spiritual maturation or evolution or 'pulling up our big boy pants' involves a new relationship with reality. Aging involves losing EVERYTHING we've worked so hard all our lives to learn, master, accumulate, depend upon etc.
    NOW we must learn to accept loss after loss, after loss, till we have no thing left to lose - the material evaporates - ONLY THEN the Mystery!

Leonard Cohen - Anthem

What is Trustworthy?

    "Einstein was asked what he thought the most important question was that a human being needed to answer. His reply was, ‘Is the universe a friendly place or not?’
    Our answer to that question is the cornerstone on which many of our values & beliefs inevitably rest. If we believe that the universe is unfriendly & that our very souls are in danger, peace will be elusive at best."
    Joan Borysenko. “Fire in the Soul. A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism.” Warner Books, 1993.

    Many years later, one of the world's foremost PTSD experts expanded on the same topic:
    “If you feel safe & loved, your brain (is) specialized in exploration, play, & cooperation; if you are frightened & unwanted, it (is) specialized in managing feelings of fear & abandonment."
    Bessel Van Der Kolk. “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.” Penguin Books, 2015.

    "The Great Way is not difficult
     for those who have no preferences..." Sengstan

    We all have many, perfectly harmless preferences, like enjoying one flavor of ice cream more than another.
    But why does not getting what we want so powerfully grab our attention? Perhaps it's because many of us live under the (mostly subconscious) assumption that survival & safety depends entirely on our ability to control our environment. We live in fear that failing this, will quickly bring chaos, sickness, starvation & death. No wonder we're triggered every time life appears indifferent to our personal preferences.
    Yet realistically, how often does our every wish (preference) come true? Rarely, & then only briefly. So most of us spend our lives striving mightily against reason & reality by trying to capture & sustain personal preferences. We cling to our preferences like drowning people cling to bits of wood floating by. This is how we create most of our suffering, and it's completely unnecessary!

    “Life rarely unfolds exactly as we want it to. And if we stop and think about it, that makes perfect sense. The scope of life is universal, and the fact that we are not actually in control of life’s events should be self-evident. The universe has been around for 13.8 billion years, and the processes that determine the flow of life around us did not begin when we were born, nor will they end when we die. What manifests in front of us at any given moment is actually something truly extraordinary – it is the end result of all the forces that have been interacting together for billions of years. We are not responsible for even the tiniest fraction of what is manifesting around us. Nonetheless, we walk around constantly trying to control and determine what will happen in our lives. No wonder there’s so much tension, anxiety & fear. Each of us actually believes that things should be the way we want them, instead of being the natural result of all the forces of creation.
    Every day, we give precedence to our mind’s thoughts over the reality unfolding before us. We regularly say things like, ‘It better not rain today because I’m going camping’ or ‘I better get that raise because I really need the money.’ Notice that these bold claims about what should and shouldn’t be happening are not based on scientific evidence; they’re based solely on personal preferences made up in our minds. Without realizing it, we do this with everything in our lives – it’s as though we actually believe that the world around us is supposed to manifest in accordance to our own likes & dislikes. If it doesn’t, surely something is very wrong. This is an extremely difficult way to live, and it is the reason we feel that we are always struggling with life.
    The question is, does it have to be this way? There is so much evidence that life does quite well on its own. The planets stay in orbit, tiny seeds grow into giant trees, weather patterns have kept forests across the globe watered for millions of years, and a single fertilized cell grows into a beautiful baby. We are not doing any of these things as conscious acts of will; they are all being done by the incomprehensible perfection of life itself. All these amazing events, and countless more, are being carried out by forces of life that have been around for billions of years – the very same forces of life that we are consciously pitting our will against on a daily basis. If natural unfolding of the process of life can create and take care of the entire universe, is it really reasonable for us to assume that nothing good will happen unless we force it to?
    There must be another, more sane way to approach life. For example, what would happen if we respected the flow of life and used our free will to participate in what’s unfolding, instead of fighting it?”
    Michael A. Singer “The Surrender Experiment. My Journey into Life’s Perfection,” Harmony, 2015.

    A few more insights from Singer - a meditator & businessman, who maintained a very deep meditation & yoga practice WHILE creating & running highly successful companies:

    “the personal mind (with it’s neurotic chatter) always returned once I got up (from sitting Zen meditation) and became active. … one day in a flash of realization it dawned on me that perhaps I’d been going about this in the wrong way. Instead of trying to free myself by constantly quieting the mind, perhaps I should be asking why the mind is so active. What is the motivation behind all the mental chatter? If the motivation were to be removed, the struggle would be over.
    This realization opened the door for an entirely new & exciting dimension to my practices. As I explored it inwardly, the first thing I noticed was that most of the mental activity revolved around my likes & dislikes. If my mind had a preference toward or against something, it actively talked about it. … it was these mental preferences that were creating much of the ongoing dialogue about how to control everything in my life. In a bold attempt to free myself from all that, I decided to just stop listening to all the chatter about my personal preferences, and instead, start the willful practice of accepting what the flow of life was presenting me.
    I would let go of my preferences and let life be in charge. … If life brought events in front of me, I would treat them as if they came to take me beyond myself. If my personal self complained, I would use each opportunity to simply let him go and surrender to what life was presenting me. This was the birth of what I came to call ‘the surrender experiment.’
    Surrender – what an amazingly powerful word. It often engenders the thought of weakness & cowardice. In my case, it required all the strength I had to be brave enough to follow the invisible into the unknown."

     Singer's experiment was very successful. His suggestion?

    “Do whatever is put in front of you with all your heart & soul without regard for personal results. Do the work as though it were given to you by the universe itself – because it was.”
    Michael A. Singer “The Surrender Experiment. My Journey into Life’s Perfection,” Harmony, 2015.

    It's understandable, especially if we've had a rough childhood & a harsh life in general, for us to be flailing frantically for control. And yes, it's almost impossible to teach more effective swimming techniques to someone WHILE they're drowning. Nevertheless, there ARE MUCH wiser ways of being in the world than remaining trapped, identified with our neuroses.

 

Gentle Reminders

The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry

 
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

 

      “I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” E.B. White

     “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

     "We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activities." Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

     “Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right and a perfect contentment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

     “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”
     Joseph Campbell, “A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living”

 

www.soteric.org/psychedelics

Can We Change Now?

     "'Is the universe a friendly place or not?' ... If we believe that the universe is unfriendly ... peace will be elusive at best." Joan Borysenko. “Fire in the Soul. A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism.” Warner Books, 1993. 

     In the interim, ever more human beings keep ravaging our fellow humans, animals & Nature. We continue to prioritize short-term gain & profit over sustainable peace. We are not merely unfriendly, but openly hostile. Can we change sufficiently before we destroy our planet & ourselves along with it?

      "Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry asleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics – Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion – are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.”
     Anthony de Mello. “Awareness. The Perils and Opportunities of Reality.” Doubleday, 1992.

     “If a man achieves or suffers change in premises which are deeply embedded in his mind, he will surely find that the results of that change will ramify throughout his whole universe.” Gregory Bateson

     "The non-dual understanding (direct path or Advaita Vedanta) addresses two essential questions: one, ‘How may we be free of suffering and find the lasting peace & happiness for which all people long above all else?’, and two, ‘What is the nature of reality?’
     In relation to the first question, the non-dual approach suggests that happiness is our essential nature, or simply that we are happiness itself. We might then ask, if happiness is our essential nature, why is it not experienced all the time? And the reason is simply this, that whilst all people have a sense of being or knowing their self, not all people know their self clearly. It is this absence of clear self-knowledge that is responsible for the feeling of lack that accompanies most people’s lives and drives them to seek fulfillment in objects, substances, activities, states of mind and relationships.
     ... chances are that the search for happiness in objective experience has failed you sufficiently often to make you doubt that it can ever be truly found there. The non-dual understanding suggests not. In fact, it suggests that in order to find lasting peace and happiness one must know the nature of oneself as one essentially is. As such, self-knowledge is considered to be not only the means by which peace and happiness may be found but the very experience of happiness itself. It is for this reason that the non-dual teaching starts with an investigation into the essential nature of our self, and you can find a video giving an ‘Introduction to Self-Inquiry’ in this section of the website.
     This clear knowledge of oneself is also the basis of the second aspect of the non-dual understanding, namely, the recognition that reality is an infinite, indivisible whole, made of pure consciousness, from which all separate objects and selves borrow their apparently independent existence. Everything we know or experience is mediated through the mind, and therefore, the mind’s knowledge of anything can only ever be as good as its knowledge of itself. In order to know what anything truly is – that is, what reality truly is – the mind must first know its own essential nature. Therefore, the investigation into the nature of the mind must be the highest endeavor upon which any mind can embark, and the knowledge of its essence or nature the highest knowledge.
     Thus, whether we approach non-duality as a means of finding lasting peace and happiness or, more philosophically, as an answer to the ultimate question about the nature of reality, we begin with an investigation into the nature of our self. This understanding is found at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, and is expressed in the particular language of the time and place in which it arose. For instance, in Christianity it is said, ‘I and my Father are one’. That is, the essence of our self and the ultimate reality of the universe are the same. In the Sufi tradition, ‘Whosoever knows their self knows their Lord’. That is, whoever knows the essential nature of their self knows the ultimate reality of the universe. And in Buddhism, ‘Samsara & Nirvana are one’, meaning the nature of the world and the essence of the mind are identical.
     Indeed, the words ‘Know Thyself’, carved above the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, indicate that at the very foundation of Western civilization lies the non-dual understanding that our knowledge of our self is not only the means by which lasting peace & happiness may be found within an individual, but is also the basis for peace amongst individuals, communities & nations, and must, as such, be the foundation of any truly civilized society." Rupert Spira https://rupertspira.com/non-duality/introduction-to-non-duality

 

Listening in Silence is an Act of Trust in Life Itself

     Can I trust life enough to sit quietly and deeply listen to nature for a few minutes?
     Can I trust the universe not to fall apart for a few minutes during which I do nothing; go nowhere; be no one?

      Einstein felt the most important question a human being needs to answer is, "‘Is the universe a friendly place or not?’ ... If we believe that the universe is unfriendly ... peace will be elusive at best."
      Joan Borysenko. “Fire in the Soul. A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism.” Warner Books, 1993.

7-minute Adyashanti video

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.

Quotes to Ponder

     Some weighty quotes are, like open questions, to be pondered perhaps over a lifetime ...

     "Nature delights in discovering herself by manifesting in infinite variations of phenomena." Source?

    “You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe.
     An intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person.
     But a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself.
     What an amazing miracle.” Eckhart Tolle

     “Life or the source of life becomes conscious of itself through the individual. Human beings have an immense part to play through the recognition and conjoining of the opposites. The significance of a human life is potentially amazing in both its light and its darkness. It can be amazingly enlightening and amazingly darkening.” Adyashanti

     “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,

      Love is knowing I am everything,

      and between the two my life moves.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

      "There are only two ways to live your life.
       One is as though nothing is a miracle.
       The other is as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein
 
     "There never was a time when you or I did not exist. 
       Nor will there be any future when we shall cease to be." Bhagavad Gita

Ludlow, England

On Nature

     Nature delights in discovering herself by manifesting infinite variations of phenomena.       Ralph Waldo Emerson? - please do send me the accurate quote & author
 

     "There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent."         Ralph Waldo Emerson


     “Nature is the incarnation of thought. The world is the mind precipitated.” 
Ralph Waldo Emerson


     "When we pay attention to nature's music, we find that everything on the Earth contributes to its harmony."         Hazrat Inayat Khan


          “We are so lightly here.
           It is in love that we are made.
           In love we disappear.”                   Leonard Cohen 



     “The purpose of life is not to transcend the body, 
       but to embody the transcendent.”          Dalai Lama 
 

Courtesy of Buddha Doodles www.buddhadoodles.com

Robert Frost - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Self-defense

     "In your heart let there be generosity as large as the sea which accepts both clean and unclean water.
     Let your mind be as merciful as nature which loves the smallest tree or blade of grass. Let your mind be strong with sincerity that can pierce iron or stone. Repay the forces of nature, work for the good of all and make yourself a person whom nature is pleased to let live. This is the true purpose of training."

       Koichi Tohei. "Aikido: The Arts of Self-defense."                                     WisdomAtWork.com

Nurturing, Caring, Thriving

"The eyes of the future are looking back at us
and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint,
that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come.
To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle.
Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats,
the silent space that says we live only by grace.
Wilderness lives by this same grace.
Wild mercy is in our hands."

Terry Tempest Williams. "Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place." Vintage, 1992.

 

 

Journey to the Place of Vision and Power

"Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself. It is not far, it is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and on land."               Walt Whitman
       Metzner R. “The unfolding self. Varieties of transformative experience.” Origin Press, Novato CA, 1998. 

     How we relate to ourselves - our self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-care and self-transcendence - is how we think, speak and behave. Critical indicators of our heart-mind's health are how we treat women, children, elders, Native peoples, handicapped people, minorities, Nature, other living spaces, the arts.
     A profound confusion, disorientation within each of us requires healing. Each and every one of us is on a lifelong healing journey of self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-care and self-transcendence. Health and wholeness are at hand.

 

Maurizio Targhetta   www.dpreview.com

Meditating in Nature

               We sat together, the forest and I
               Merging into silence
               Until only the forest remained.                Li Po

       Jack Kornfield & Christina Feldman. Soul Food. Stories that Nourish the Spirit & the Heart. HarperCollins, 1996.

Authenticity, Certainty, Self-centeredness

     "All of us have had the experience of dropping our guard when engrossed in the natural world and living for a brief moment free of our mental discursiveness and language. We suddenly feel 'at home,' relaxed, and connected to the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations around us. In fact, this loss of self-centeredness and the accompanying sense of connectedness may be one of the reasons we appreciate being in nature. With this experience as a guide, we can begin to question whether this self-center is authentic or whether it is keeping us from something natural. Could our mental need to label and fix experiences into a rigidly certain world be the only inauthentic aspect of nature?"

       Rodney Smith. "Awakening. A Paradigm Shift of the Heart." Shambhala, Boston, 2014.


     "The small man builds cages for everyone he knows. While the sage keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful, rowdy prisoners."                                Hafiz
       http://wisdomandcompassion.us/

Getting Closer to the Source

     "All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws."          John Coltrane

       Enjoy CBC Radio's program Tapestry: "A Love Supreme: God in the Music of John Coltrane" http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/episode/

Sunday morning in Halifax, February 9, 2014

"Am I Dreaming, Underwater?"

Joyously running ahead

Exploring & playing

In her element

My dog

Senses

Spirit-about

Spirit-at-large

In-breath, out-breath

What’s in? What’s out?

What’s it all about?

What is this?

Who am I?

With amness all about

Everyday Ordinary Magic

     Early this morning when I was about to drive to work, I saw a narrow linear band of bright blue in the sky. It was amazing and mysterious. I had no idea what it was, until it seemed that the whole sky started moving. Only then did I realize that the amazing and mysterious linear band of bright blue was not in the sky, but was the sky itself! (and all of the dark stuff was just a huge dark gray cloud.)
     This was very meaningful for me. The gray I had incorrectly assumed to be the dark early morning sky, but was but a cloud. While the amazing apparition was in fact what we normally take for granted, the endless sky!

Summer Night by Kristiina Lehtonen   http://www.kristiinalehtonen.fi/index_en.php