World events have lately overshadowed the inner life and it is regretful that I haven’t been to this site which is more in line with what I am about than commenting on the world which is, after all, the world and is always presenting the same challenges and tests. There is a tradition of understanding that weaves its way through most of the world’s religions and metaphysical traditions that says you have to be in a physical body to make progress on the path. I’d rather it wasn’t so. There can be some real enjoyment and delight in a physical envelope but I am not sure that the pros outweigh the cons. As Buddha said, “All life is pain caused by ignorant desire.”
One of the readers at Smoking Mirrors (and here) made mention of not commenting due to the negative appearance of the last several posts over there. Truth be told, I’m fiercely optimistic about things but... for those who are captured in the web of materialism I am not optimistic. That particular state of being always comes to a bad end because it is the nature of spirit to free itself from the material realm. It is the nature of the soul to collect experience and move on once the work is done in a particular vehicle. Oh... you can argue that it’s all spirit and that God composes everything. I won’t argue about that but... saying something and being in a living state of awareness in relation to saying these things are two different things. Sometimes readers drop in and give me some routine about being and nothingness; about perfect balance and detachment, about the perspective of the eternal witness... as if I hadn’t come across these things in my inquiries. My position is not about pontificating from some snowy heights, speaking in pure math as the snow melts and turns into all the audible colors of the valley below.
There is no question that the state of being that Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna spoke of is valid. I’ve been in those states on occasion but I was not allowed to remain. You can’t storm the gates of Heaven. You can’t be where you aren’t allowed to be until you have earned that right. So I don’t like to present things that encourage a remote and detached space. I don’t feel that it helps people to tell them that everything is meaningless and nothing matters. At a certain level this is true but within the bandwidth where most of the readers and I reside... a wall is a wall and if you hit it it’s going to hurt. No amount of telling yourself that the space between the atoms is relatively as large as that between the planets... or however that actually works out affects your contact with the wall.
This is why I stress Love. For me, love answers all and serves every need. Love contains Wisdom and Understanding and all the qualities- the armor of God. Some people are naturally disposed toward the mental end and some toward the emotional. Sure... the emotions operate from a certain location in the brain but no one can tell me the heart is not the seat of a number of states and, in the end, I believe the heart should swallow the mind. We can argue till doomsdays break about minutiae and get all Thomas Aquinas and Aristotelian on each other but that’s late night dorm room stuff regardless of where it’s taking place.
Not without reason do the greatest teachers we have encountered; in person or in books, speak with such enduring humility about their status in respect of the all. I have personally met realized beings and they are inflexibly consistent in denying special status to themselves. They know something. We know it too if we would only be open to the magnitude of that which penetrates and contains us. Pride and vanity are dangerous companions. You don’t want to encourage their presence at all. One of my ongoing prayers and requests is to have my shortcomings and weaknesses removed and replaced by the qualities of God. Paramahansa Yogananda said that you should go to God and ask him for a loan from his spiritual bank. It’s like any other loan. You have to pay it back. Of course, this sort of a loan is repaid by giving it all away to whomever may need it. It made me laugh when I thought this out for myself. If anyone ever needs an example of how to be they have only to consider The Sun. You don’t really need to know more than that and eventually you may not. Sure... there are different yogas for different soul types. Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are definitely across the spectrum from one another; so... some of us may know a great deal at some point but...
It’s my belief that no matter how much you come to know... you have to come back and become a Bhakti Yogi afterwards. Total surrender is the final word in realization. One of the reasons that I am so attracted to Ganesha/Ganapati is that he is the remover of obstacles to Self Realization. It’s said that he is the one that introduces you to your teacher and that you have to get that from him. Of course, what Ganesha represents is differently personified in other fates but that same force is active in them all. It is Ganesha who gave us The Bhagavad-Gita and he is also the Lord of the Devic Realm, the Lord of Categories and the patron deity of the arts... especially writers. I’ve been working on an album about him and the lines to one of the tunes goes, “If your God can walk on water and rise from the dead, my God can have an elephants head.”
In India, Ganesha is the household God and most every house will have a Ganesha statue around the front door. He’s also the patron God of businessmen and the one you go to, to ask for material things. So, many people would reasonably think that he was less than he is and not so diversified as he is. He’s the most easily approachable of the Gods because he is nearest to us in the way these things are understood and he contains the material world in his belly. Well... although I have framed posters of him around the house they are just reminders to me. I engage in no rituals besides meditation- which comes and goes ...and psychedelic periods where God can be interacted with in a very intense way. Sure... this sort of thing is proscribed by many but this is the Kali Yoga and a time of intense material darkness and I need to burn through the carbon for necessary reminders. That’s me.
Recently I’ve been having experiences with a variety of divine personas from various faiths. For a long time I was very involved in considering the Amitabha Buddha. You can go to his Western Pure Land and reincarnate there as long as needed and not have to come back here. I find that very attractive and I expect to see more of him at some point. For now it’s been a lot of Ganesha and certain realized yogis who have had my attention in a very direct way. I never imagined that I would consider the divine with the head of an elephant but I don’t question this sort of a thing because these things change just as things change down here. It’s a stage I’m going through. We move through different stations and different teachers until ‘the one’ is revealed to us in the most appropriate form for us... after that... awareness of the formless may follow. I don’t think it’s such a good idea (for me) to go after the formless first. It always gets a little too impersonal for my present state and I like God as a friend and a companion and he’s more than willing to give me that. He also turns into the mother at times depending on the need of the moment.
Yes the world is at a critical state presently and I apologize if I’ve been a little intense about it but you will see that that was not inappropriate to the situation. However, I am very, very optimistic about the potential for anyone to come out of this and into a brand new world. I’m extremely optimistic about my own situation, even though not much of what I wanted initially has come to pass... I’ve been surprised to find that I am delighted with what has. God has been very good to me but not so much in the ways so many look for. What is possible within is so far beyond anything the world can offer that to me, what the world offers and the intense competition for it is the very definition of insanity.
Those blessed with so much of the worlds riches are actually mostly cursed and will endure real suffering over it. Those with so much celebrity and power are also in an unfortunate state. It is a truly rare individual who can possess these things and not be possessed by them and these are not just words.
Yes... the world is what it is and points need to be made about that but... there’s another world, unaffected by this world and the door is open if you can find it. You can ask for help and help will come. The more intensely and comprehensively you ask, the quicker it will arrive. How bad do you want it? Don’t think God isn’t aware of that. The real reason you lose everything you have and suffer so much in the process of living is so that you can learn what is enduring and what is not and be capable of asking for the right things. There isn’t much more to it than that.
'The World is a Rumor' is track no. 8 of 13 on Visible's 2007 album
'The Sacred and The Profane'
Lyrics (pops up)
24 comments:
"The real reason you lose everything you have and suffer so much in the process of living is so that you can learn what is enduring and what is not and be capable of asking for the right things. There isn’t much more to it than that.'
No offense, Les - but this speaks volumes more than the entire entry.
probably why I saved it for last.
Where we err is by putting faces or labels on "Our God"..we limit the perspective and flow within ourselves and the universe when we use words to describe something that is not able to be described...we're in a hurry to label everything instead of letting it be as it is...how can it be anything but what it is. To desribe at times is limiting and does not honor the fullness that is..We limit it for ourselves as well as for others--words can only convey what the words mean to different people. I note that Les chooses his words very carefully...not from a dictionary or thesaurus but from a wisdom. There is never more than there needs to be...he is not describing the whole trip, just the general direction--the route that is opening up before him..I choose to think that there is no car involved..and he's barefoot...that is as far as I go with that thought. Yes, words have to be used in order for us to even get close, but they can be very limiting as well. Read wisely the good writers...there is so much there that even the writer will see in different ways upon reflection....certain hands are guided--should they accept the guidance...readers are no different...much more than meets the eye at times...
The "All that Is " (I dislike the term "God") is just that, and can be nothing less. There has to be evil for us to experience good, hate to experience love . How can one describe love, the ocean, the universe to one who has not been there...or allowed love, or the infinite universe (All That Is) to wash over them and through them? Love is also not separate from you, like All That Is is not separate from you. You can look at a picture of a beautiful mountain stream running through the forest and be inspired...but only by being there can you hear it, and touch it....only by being there can you smell the freshness of the morning dew....only by being there can you appreciate the majesty that doesn't need man to make it, or care for it. It is simply there for us to honor what it is--not what it isn't
Even if you walk into the forest, you may miss it because you never allowed yourself to hear it in the distance and wander toward it.
I picked up a guitar for the first time at 50 and have been teaching myself to play for the past year. I can play other peoples songs so that you can recognize them...but they are not my songs. My moments come when I am just strumming and finger picking....going where the vibration leads me.....how can it be any different? Quiet the house tonight and put on the headphones....find some instrumental music and let it take you where it goes.....NO WORDS....nothing where you know how it goes.....don't think ahead...just let it go.
Let it wash over and through you....and just be. Instead of watching the stream, liquify your spirit and become a part of it--surround it and let it surround you--there is no difference now--you are one and all..join it for a time in wonder and laughter....flow with it....evaporate with it into the clouds.....provide life with it.....roll over the rocks and around the bends.......and take the time to freeze with it and simply be still....
jj
Mr. Visible, I have been reading your postings here (and there, and everywhere) and have to say that this one is the most powerful I have seen yet. I thank you for summarizing certain processes in a way that is immediately felt in that place that indicates a true understanding. Thank you so much - I needed this a great deal.
I often feel that being awakened from my slumber has left me naked, hungry and still with too much sleep in my eyes - and the schoolbus is outside getting ready to pull away. Some seem to have so much study behind them, so much information about the who, what and why, that I can never hope to catch up in this lifetime. I am often left in a state that simply says "fuck it, I'm ready to die and hit the reset button". That, of course, would be so supremely selfish that it passes and the suffering continues. Like it or not, I am here. But in spite of it, the love that I have in my life is the most amazing thing I could hope for. I am so blessed that it seems silly to spend much time pondering any of the previously mentioned what or why. The brain needs to chill and stop trying to "get it" I think.
Mentioning the heart and mind is very timely for me as well. When I was in a treatment program, I used to marvel at the tales of woe told by other addicts and I would always say to myself "I didn't suffer any of these things - I had no great drama or loss or legal trouble" etc. It is somehow ironic to me that my physical affliction is a literal entombment of my heart by scar tissue. Today, I have a rare disease (Fibrosing Mediastinitis) that creates an overabundance of scar tissue in my chest cavity that is slowly enveloping my heart and squeezing off the blood supply to the rest of my body. If the states you speak of are literally produced by the heart, there is great effort being made to surround mine and render it useless. Scar tissue produced not by actual physical wounds, but by some other mysterious process that seems to start and stop without any reason. Funny how that works, huh?
My time here may be short, but who can't make that claim? I am certainly not "special" in any way. I would welcome death any time it wants to come for me, but I will not seek it out or invite it. I have no understanding of any of the Eastern Gods or much of anything, really, but have had a couple experiences that have made me KNOW that God is hanging around keeping an eye on things. When I hear you and others talk about all these different manifestations of God, I am so drawn that it hurts a little to think what I might miss before I go. So much to learn! Finding the balance between time spent maintaining the physical while seeking the Spiritual has become tough as the "real world" seems to be pounding ever harder on the door, but in spite of all that the thing that I feel the most when I allow myself to tune out the noise is Love. In that department, I am wealthy beyond measure and you help me remember that. My gratitude for your work is easily described by that same word. Thank you so much.
Z
"Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it"
Jimmy Buffet
"It's the city I live in, it's full of culture... and whores"
Frank Morey
jj
What a nice surprise to have found a new Visible Origami post this morning. With all that is going on in the outer world it has been more of a challenge to continue the inner work. But in my personal situation, it is these very circumstances that serve to remind me the importance of doing just that. There have been plenty of distractions these last few weeks and much to consider. The mind is especially active and tenacious right now, at times behaving like a racecar operated by a methamphetamine fueled madman. It was frustrating at first but now I just have to laugh about it as I sit each night and morning trying to bring it to a halt. I hope this makes one bit of sense. I realize I'm rambling on here...
On a related note, assuming they get this gas issue sorted out in the southeast within the next few weeks I'll be taking a trip to northeast Georgia and look forward to a visit with Roy Davis.
Peace.
bravo! :)))
Total Consciousness: Writing something so profound and earth-shattering in the comments section that Les writes back and tells you that he has now achieved total consciousness....which is nice!!
Apologies to Carl Spangler--aka Bill Murray--Caddyshack
Hello, Les. This is the first time I've really looked at Visible Origami. Wow. It catches my breath up in a good way, making my unihipili happy indeed.
And I recently acquired a Ganesha statue for myself. In fact, he was who I connected with in meditation this morning. I connect with various deities, and I am rather his gentle and lightening presence...
"So I don’t like to present things that encourage a remote and detached space. I don’t feel that it helps people to tell them that everything is meaningless and nothing matters. At a certain level this is true but within the bandwidth where most of the readers and I reside… a wall is a wall and if you hit it it’s going to hurt. No amount of telling yourself that the space between the atoms is relatively as large as that between the planets… or however that actually works out affects your contact with the wall." Sometimes I'm guilty of this, but it's odd--it's more that I'm in the thick of appreciation, r/t being in a place of remoteness, and I just want others to join me in "dancing in the rain" as it were.
I can get so serious a lot of the time. And I kind of don't want to. I pray jubilee in the spirit of joyousness. If it be Divine Will. I too feel a welling optimism and active (as opposed to passive) hope about it.
There are some quibbles with language I have in this posting--I see arrogance and egotism as distortions of "right pride" and "right Self possession" for example. The absence of pride becomes shame, and the absence of self-possession becomes listless duty. I like to think of arrogance and shame as extremities with the pride that is also humility being an appropriate middle range. And yes, pride and self-possession are dangerous. As are sex, passion and power. These are words that all exemplify a middle range when in proper use, but they are easily distorted one way or another.
Still, it's nice along this tortuous way to meet other "doomsaying optimists." (A paradox? an oxymoron? Well, split the difference and call it a paradoxymoron!!) Thanks for lighting your candle and shining it for those of us with eyes to see and appreciate.
Blessings.
Peace be with the reader.
The number one priority should
be, to unlearn, NOT to learn.
>< w&s_word >
SEVEN SOULS - Music:Material Words:William S. Burroughs
The ancient Egyptians postulated seven souls, Top soul, and the first to leave at the moment of death, is Ren, the Secret Name. This corresponds to my Director, He directs the film of your life from conception to death. The Secret Name is the title of your film. When you die, that's where Ren came in. Second soul, and second one off the sinking ship, is Sekem: Energy, Power, Light The Director gives the orders, Sekem presses the right buttons. Number three is Khu, the Guardian Angel. He, she, or it is third man out . . . depicted as flying away across a full moon, a bird with luminous wings and head of light. Sort of thing you might see on a screen in an Indian restaurant in Panama. The Khu is responsible for the subject and can be injured in his defense- but not permanently, since the first three souls are eternal. They go beck to Heaven for another vessel.
The four remaining souls must take their chances with the subject in the Land of the Dead. Number four is Ba, the heart, often treacherous. This is a hawk's body with your face on it, shrunk down to the size of a fist. Many a hero has been brought down, like Samson, by a perfidious Ba. Number five is Ka, the Double, most closely associated with the subject. The Ka, which usually reaches adolescence at the time of bodily death, is the only reliable guide through the Land of the Dead to the western Lands. Number six is Khaibit, the Shadow, Memory, your whole past conditioning from this and other lives. Number seven is Sekhu, the Remains.
Hey Les,
Somehow I've switched and I seem to be grooving more on your stuff here than over at the mirrors. To a certain degree I feel as if I've done the geopolitics to death. I don't need to delve into the intricacies of it all anymore. Basta! I get it now. It is what it is and it's going to go where it's gonna go. Time to do something else, to direct my head elsewhere. Anyway this one was chock full of useful thoughts. Thanks mate.
And Z, I grooved on this - 'So much to learn!'. Exactly. My variation on it was - 'So much to marvel at!'. I'm in no hurry to die simply because there's too much beauty in the world.
What if one were to have nothing in one's head apart from awe at the beauty of the world? Is it possible? Would it mean anything? Would it be sustainable? Perhaps this is a very slight notion, or a silly thought. If someone wants to shoot it down, or rephrase it, I'm up for the reply. Be as cruel as you like, it's all good.
More worldly upheaval in heaven??
Trouble in Lamaville
Tony
noby...
always good ta cya on this side of the mirror :)
k*
Beware of the Gathered SPICE of Life for it is a toxic substance. Await he Help and a Spice of such heavenly import will be your reward to share with all willing to partake it's virtues.
Very nice post.
and yourself kikz... as always.
Birds singing, cars rolling past, children playing, bread baking, sprinkler sprinkling, breathing happening, phone calls answered, markets collapsing, buds unfurling.
It is all so perfect is it not.
I heard a coming over the hill... Cows with guns and Chickens in Choppers!
"Moo-tao-ts'un!"
I was halfway to Merlin the tech guru's house when I realized the Detroit dinosaur was running low on the devil's excrement(petrol). I thought o well it's too far to turn around now. As I got off the interstate I was the first vehicle, the light was red. I looked down in the broken glass, old rubber and debris and spotted something green and folded. I got out and took a closer look it was a 5$ bill! I laughed merrily and said thank you divine source you are always true and ultra-reliable. Merlin showed me a Mac OSX machine that was the cool. He also had a machine with 4 operating systems on it which I thought was neat. We got an old P3 laptop going by using a live (bootable) linux disc to bypass the password and brought a socket 478 business machine back from the brink, I look forward to playing games and movies on the 'business' machine. The moral is expect the unexpected and laugh at what people say can't be done and use that for your starting point.
You all would be amazed to no end about the things folks will just plain GIVE you if you asked nicely.
I got TWO half a million dollar machines with 4-$17,000 dollar CPU's an 8 gig of ram. You can get ANYTHING for free with out anything more than a humble request.
Your project for this week is to acquire some thing you would like to have but is too costly to purchase for nothing more than the asking for it.
Once i started to have this fun i never stopped.
Now i think years ahead (with the good force) to amass the precious elements of the walk through the test. My goal is to do the WHOLE thing on as ZERO cash as i can do.
Oh and i have 4 of the coolest UltraSpark II CPU fridge magnets.
Every day i see them and laugh.
I like your style Masher1 what a fine bunch of peoples coming here. Most of machines I got by asking hehe. The guru said your too proficient not to have a worthy machine, I said thank you kind sir.
I try to calm all that i can. ;)
Peace be Upon You All!
Try to walk as everyone is learning lessons an all will be Fine!
About 5 years ago I was sitting in a laundrymat reading. I looked up and a person with the head of an elephant walk right in front of me I quickly looked away because my first reaction was it was some kind of deformity when I looked back there was no one
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