The whole universe

Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't.

Our veiled perception, our monkeymind, distracts our minds eye from the truth. The monkey has been taught to want something different than what we have, right now.

Peace. A quality that comes from the inside, not from conditions outside of us.

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." ~ Franz Kafka

Are you grateful?

It is pleasant to have been to a place the way a river went. But each second the time-river has passed, it's never the same river. You can't get back 'there'. There is no there there, there is only here.

It leaves it's residue, and we should be grateful to have felt the waters passing over us. They change us, moisten us, nourish us, revive us.
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Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."
-Albert Schweitzer

Are we what we do?

We live in a human dream, being one in which everything appears purely in the guise of it's human utility, and held in place by it's human name. Names are small and sinister metaphors which restrict, absolutely, the use of an object. Our eyes open to this madness every morning and at night we dream within the dream; whole lives are spent without so as a ripple of doubt reaching the surface.

But when the object is allowed to shrug off it's name, it begins the long journey back to it's own mystery- on upon reaching the core of it's own estranging fire, radiates until the whole world is unified by it. The rose or the paper clip; either could open the path back to our awakening.

-Don Pattersen-, Best Thought-Worst Thought (aphorisms)
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My thoughts: By naming, assigning, we lose the intrinsic object and instead replace it with the idea of the object instead of the object itself. Can you look at a flower, and not think "flower"? Assigning values and memories to it?

When this is applied to people, we lose the uniqueness we all seek; the marvelous fact that we exist at all is mired in roles, functions. We get boxed up in titles, creating a self-image that exists no where but in our own minds. That 'self' we create is not in the minds of others (duality of existence?) They do not see us as we see ourselves. We rarely think of ourselves as our actions, but that is how others see us, define us.

When we think of another, it's a string of words or memories in relation to how we know them, what their role is against our own. This is of course colored by our interactions, both good and bad. Memories of that person become charged with emotions, sometimes attracting, sometimes repelling, sometimes neutral. But rarely can we think of anyone's uniqueness, to revel in the marvel that they exist, like we do.

It's that existence that is just so incredible.

Quote

"On a lazy Saturday morning when you're lying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, there is a space where fantasy and reality become one. Are you awake, or are you dreaming? You see people and things; some are familiar; some are strange. You talk, you feel, but you move without walking; you fly without wings. Your mind and your body exist, but on separate planes. Time stands still. For me, this is the feeling I have when ideas come."

Lynn Johnston

What is not there?

Do our thoughts on an object then change the nature of the object, or does it mean a change in us? When you think of white, can you see it without the contrast and comparison of black? Can I see the white hole, without the surrounding black?

Is the absence of something the same as Not-That-Thing or is it non-existence?

I would answer: the absence of something makes everything else Not-That-Thing, not the non-existence of that thing.

Once you have knowledge of a thing, everything else can be Not-That-Thing. That can be a very hollow feeling. Sometimes I think our memory and knowledge of the past can be a torturous, longing ache. My thoughts every day, are still a Not-That-Thing process.

Message to Tod

Hi Tod,

Its nice to see how at peace you are.

Thanks for listening to me Sunday night. The mind is a funny thing. I wonder sometimes why we continually get in our own way. (I have a monkey mind for sure). All of this, all of it, is in my own mind. My perspective on things changes, sometimes every day (thoughts of that person, are not that person). I wonder if I will ever know what the TRUTH was. It just seems so slippery

It’s funny how I know, I know that all I have to do is sit quietly in the moment. Yet, my mind insists that it can still fix things in the past. If I work it just right, if I find myself getting to a good place, I continually THEN to try and go back in. Firm ground, is firm ground. Nothing about jumping back into the quicksand helps stabilize me.

I watch the process, and each time I watch it, I get better at getting back onto dry land and staying there. Whew. Deep breath. Today is a really, really good day. Nothing to do, or undo.

I am working at trying to be a better listener, and not just a talker. I have hardly ever learned anything by talking. I know whatever I’ve gone through, and am going through, you’ve been there too. I want to hear more, when and if it’s not too painful to go back there.

It’s always really helpful to talk about it. You and Scribbly have been a big part of my healing, for no other reason than to just listen. I’ve been talking now for ….close to four months, and I probably should have started talking sooner. I think I am almost done talking. I know I’m done talking, and reasoning, and justifying circumstances, but I’m not done talking about the mind and it’s process. (FYI: I think Scribbly has some stuff that needs work. He hinted at it yesterday on our paddle. A beautiful day!)

Thanks again Tod.

Can you surf?

When you are in emotional turmoil it's interesting to watch, if you have enough cognition, the waves. How from day-to-day, your perception of events, and feelings about things change.

Waves.

One day, you feel good. On top of the world. You are the elephant, and your problems are like flies. You can face it, directly.
Can you realize those emotions are going to come and go? Rise and fall?


Can you surf?