Flying in a Cloudbank.

Dog Poet Transmitting.......

New Year’s Day and a tabla rasa of possibilities extend before us. In some cases we can initiate conditions and changes within ourselves and in some cases we are changed and our conditions are changed by the manner in which we rise up to the unexpected, or let it slip by with no reaction at all. Command of one’s self has been likened to mastering a team of unruly horses who symbolize the senses. It seems to be the primary duty of life because there is Arjuna in the chariot, overshadowed by Krishna. Self mastery is the difference between success and failure in anything and everything.

The mind is connected to the senses. You might say the senses are the mind’s feelers. How we analyze and respond to the information received makes all the difference in our state of being. The wheel of birth and death will just keep turning as long as the desire body clouds the mind and operates the senses in pursuit of the objects of desire.

I mentioned that self-mastery seems to be the primary duty of life. Krishna is behind Arjuna. It implies to me that wherever Arjuna is, or wherever Arjuna goes, Krishna is still there. Anyone who is reading these words has evidence that life can be easy and life can be hard. Somehow, at least to me, this seems to be tied in with self-mastery. All of the stress; uncertainty, fear and discomfort of life is made more or less intense depending on ones degree of self mastery. Meanwhile all of these conditions are set into being for the purpose of accomplishing self mastery. It doesn’t seem fair does it (grin)?

Some will be more comfortable thinking of Jesus Christ or whatever your particular brand of breakfast food might be... that’s all it is really... the package and contents you prefer. It’s all made from the same thing and it all has the same enduring purpose but we like to particularize it and it particularizes itself for us.

I prefer the Hindu presentation myself because it is what I have encountered in altered states, both natural and chemical. It’s what I have seen when I was able to travel outside of the bandwidth of the senses or to increase that bandwidth, which was something that attracted me most of the time. The objects and opportunities of ordinary life did not have sufficient pull on me to keep my attention. There must be something more is what I told myself and there was more, a great deal more. In the end it may well come back to ordinary life again but it won’t be ordinary any more. It might look ordinary to everyone else but it will not be ordinary for you because of who is riding in the chariot behind you. Some might prefer the term, “inside you” and some might prefer “above you”. I think if you throw in the term “all around you” and then add the others as well it will fall short of the reality.

I have found myself placed in a certain state of being lately and it’s there when I lay down and when I get up. I don’t know what the reason is for it. Am I supposed to do something or am I just supposed to go through it? We all find ourselves in states of being that we don’t understand. It’s certainly not uncommon for me. Ordinary life is going on around me, from what I can see of it. I have a number of ordinary chores and duties that concern me but I don’t have much enthusiasm for them. I will do them but the inertia is pretty terrific.

Because I write about what is happening in the world, I find myself reading about what’s happening in the world. I don’t finish most of what I am reading because I know they’re lying and usually I know why they are lying. Last week it was Pakistan and this week it is Yemen. Other sites which receive a small fraction of the attention of the full on, committed, mass media, lie and disinfo sites are not lying but sometimes they aren’t right either and, yes... sometimes they are lying too.

It goes without saying that I would like to change the world. It is probably truer that I would just prefer to leave it and go somewhere else. Neither of these is operative at the moment. Turn in what direction I will, Krishna is still behind me; behind ‘the me’ inside me, or back of and within the projected personality that is overshadowed by the pervasive personality that is working itself into full bloom within all of us... say it however you like. You have to made sense to yourself.

I don’t know if the way I am feeling is because of the way the world is at the moment or because of the way I am, as the planets exert their influence and I try to listen to the being within, as I am affected by the conditions without. I am supposed to take the reins and I accept without question that everything is under control. I know that everything works out in the long term while appearing as if nothing is working out in the short term. It is a little like flying without instruments in a cloud bank when you know the sky is not empty.

I am unable to directly state anything here because of the immensity of what I don’t know. I have a months worth of emails waiting for replies and I suspect they will continue to wait. Things have to be done here but they aren’t getting done. Of course, what must be done is getting done but everything has the sense of just being gotten out of the way so that I can sit and wonder about why I feel the way I do and how to position myself accordingly but not being able to.

I have heard it said in many different ways that when God appears to be absent that he is closer than he has ever been and that it is in times of struggle and unknowing that the greatest amount of work is being accomplished. I have heard a lot of variations of this. What is working for me is not thinking and not being concerned about what I think I should be doing, even if I am sure I should be doing certain things.

Large forces are loose in the world and lost souls are riding at the helm, with victory just beyond their grasp. They too are flying through a cloudbank. They have plenty of instruments and they are flying in a sky that is not empty. They are supremely confident of the outcome even though the same consciousness that is behind me in the chariot is behind them too. I do not see their confidence as being justified. We can’t both be right.

We’ve all heard about how we should ‘know ourselves’ and that the “proper study of mankind is man”. We don’t know what that means exactly but we all have some idea about it. Mostly we hear it and nod our heads as another thought replaces it. I think it means that we are supposed to seek contact with that which has authored us and knows us entirely. In achieving this we come to know ourselves. I don’t think we just suddenly discover ourselves one day, apart from everything else. I get the feeling that it’s a guided tour.

I started writing this on New Year’s Day and then wandered off somewhere. I’ve thought about other things I might have written but didn’t get around to writing since. I had to finish this today because I have the radio show tonight and I always write a post so that I can announce it; another one of those things I’m supposed to do.

In the past I would just change my location or do something wild and crazy to force the hand of circumstance but those are not attractive options for me now. What I am doing is just getting really small inside myself and letting everything go by except for what I have to do or in relation to lives that might depend on me for something to eat. I’ll be changing location anyway in a relatively short period of time and wild and crazy is happening all by itself, at some remove.

I can’t second guess the guy behind me but I am under no illusions that he can’t second guess me, so maybe I’ll just keep my eyes open inside and out and I might see something and I might not but I do know that just about everything changes and this will too.


End Transmission.......

Visible sings: ♫ Gone Too Far in Front ♫
'Gone Too Far in Front' is track no. 2 of 13 on Visible's 2007 album 'The Sacred and The Profane'


The New Shangri-La