"Holy. Holy Holy.
If you could live with(in) the dynamic created by seeing the true soul of everyone & everything imagine what a release of energy there would be – instead of seeing only separateness and individualism you'd see interconnectedness. And from that would flow collaboration, wholeness, belonging – every worthwhile vibration.
"The way you find the way to this state is by simply taking the next step that appears to you. If you will let yourself be led by this impulse towards clarity & sacredness the power that is within will do the rest. It means doing the natural thing: being loving: being enthusiastic (god filled): being willing to step out & embrace others."
2006/03/23
2006/03/17
Be still & know
"Well hallo!
Reconnect with that pure stillness. There are no words, no pictures, no sounds – just calm life-giving stilness. You don't have to justify yourself, or argue in favour of anything – just be and experience your full uniqueness."
Reconnect with that pure stillness. There are no words, no pictures, no sounds – just calm life-giving stilness. You don't have to justify yourself, or argue in favour of anything – just be and experience your full uniqueness."
2006/01/09
On the development of a musician
> A butterfly mind is a tremendous asset IF it is grounded in a self-identity that is moving forward in a clear direction. But if the principal focus is lost a person's 'balance of probabilities' gets out of kilter and the result is an airhead. I remind young pianists that if they were training to be a competitive athlete they couldn’t afford to let themselves get out of condition during holidays.
> In my role as a mentor I have two modes: the helpful encourager of those whose 'natural equipment' predisposes them to dabbling: but for those who have the potential to engage more deeply with music I play the trainer who can not only keep them up to the mark, but help them constantly to stretch themselves & thus raise it.
> Now, most teachers fulfil that role by placing rigid structures like exams & curriculums around the child & forcing it along a certain path by means of carrots & whips. [God, do I understand why teachers turn into dragons! - it's much easier to scare children into be(com)ing good than to be constantly having to cajole & woo them.] Just because I don’t, doesn’t mean that I’m not looking for the same pace of development in those who have the potential.
> As a child grows, its consciousness (its spirit, if you will) flutters just ahead of it, drawing it on. In a way that spirit IS its truth, its inner connectedness. I believe that if you can show a child that YOU value that spirit part of hir & show hir how to grow without its intrinsic delight getting trapt in books like a pressed flower, then you’ve fulfilled the real function of education.
> Unfortunately, as we know, schooling tends to beat children around the head with objects (objectivity so-called) which make them lose faith with that pre-verbal world of subjective delight to which music gives pre-eminent access. In state schools it happens 'by accident' because teachers willing to take any real responsibility for pupils' learning are a dying breed. In private schools it happens because they (over?)load pupils with exciting activities.
> The raw material of a pianist is physical dexterity, but the glue that holds hir together is meta-physical - attitude. Keeping a student's attitude focused is not just the glue, it's also the mechanism /the software by which s/he can decode hir experience & integrate it into that exciting sweep of (self-)development which defines achievers from everyonelse.
> Musical excellence does not allow you to idle, 'leisure time' is for people with BORING jobs! You need to keep fit, to keep training - not like a lycra-clad obsessive, but at a reasonable, constant, even pace.
> In my role as a mentor I have two modes: the helpful encourager of those whose 'natural equipment' predisposes them to dabbling: but for those who have the potential to engage more deeply with music I play the trainer who can not only keep them up to the mark, but help them constantly to stretch themselves & thus raise it.
> Now, most teachers fulfil that role by placing rigid structures like exams & curriculums around the child & forcing it along a certain path by means of carrots & whips. [God, do I understand why teachers turn into dragons! - it's much easier to scare children into be(com)ing good than to be constantly having to cajole & woo them.] Just because I don’t, doesn’t mean that I’m not looking for the same pace of development in those who have the potential.
> As a child grows, its consciousness (its spirit, if you will) flutters just ahead of it, drawing it on. In a way that spirit IS its truth, its inner connectedness. I believe that if you can show a child that YOU value that spirit part of hir & show hir how to grow without its intrinsic delight getting trapt in books like a pressed flower, then you’ve fulfilled the real function of education.
> Unfortunately, as we know, schooling tends to beat children around the head with objects (objectivity so-called) which make them lose faith with that pre-verbal world of subjective delight to which music gives pre-eminent access. In state schools it happens 'by accident' because teachers willing to take any real responsibility for pupils' learning are a dying breed. In private schools it happens because they (over?)load pupils with exciting activities.
> The raw material of a pianist is physical dexterity, but the glue that holds hir together is meta-physical - attitude. Keeping a student's attitude focused is not just the glue, it's also the mechanism /the software by which s/he can decode hir experience & integrate it into that exciting sweep of (self-)development which defines achievers from everyonelse.
> Musical excellence does not allow you to idle, 'leisure time' is for people with BORING jobs! You need to keep fit, to keep training - not like a lycra-clad obsessive, but at a reasonable, constant, even pace.
2006/01/06
How long can you stay cool?
"Ah my friend, the call to (a fresh) battle fires up your synapses! How long can you remain calm within the action, & not be sucked into surrendering to the excitement so that you lose contact with your angels?"
2006/01/02
Transforming energy during aging process
> I was struck by reading articles in the weekend papers on a new book about Robert Graves's amorous relationships with various 'muses' toward the end of his life by the Moral of the situation. It's ironic how, in these accounts, Moral & moral overlap if Moral signifies underlying lesson & moral signifies underlying intention.
> Like many another male creative artist I have had amorous relationships with various 'muses' & know how a trick of the light, 'un certain regard', can bring about an enchantment that serves both parties – indeed I would go so far as to say that it's up there with the other great mysteries of life's profound experiences.
> Having previously made this blog a record of my experience of a transpersonal awareness which I have sensed wishing to use me as a medium to bring into collective consciousness esoteric perceptions about the metaphysical nature of existence, the '3 Blogs' posting I made on New Year's Eve reflects the random conjunction of 3 strands in my life that I have sought to reconcile, that of personal faith, that of personal eroticism, and that of collective spiritual awareness. Those who know me may have heard me say how I found Casanova's Histoire de ma vie an extremely influential book when I read it some 8 years ago. I took two lessons from it, or rather a lesson & a warning, which together exemplify the Moral/moral nexus found in Graves's case.
> I found padre Giacomo's narrative circumstantially convincing. Maybe he exaggerates here & there, but the whole autobiography struck me as among the most vivid evocations of the pre-Revolutionary world I've encountered. You can smell the shit in the alleys. I would regard it as essential reading to any musician who studying historically-informed performance styles. After a couple of volumes of this dazzling account of dedicated priapism I had to ask myself: 'how did he do it? How did he avoid entangling himself with relationships that never got further than talk?' [What follows is every bit as esoteric as my meta-physical reflections. Some people, some women, may be shocked, but I think it worth setting down as it expresses certain profound truths about the perennial riddles that men & women come together in order to resolve.]
> The more I thought about it, the more I attuned to Casanova's unique moral vision & realised two things: he had learnt to spot women who were 'up for it' & simply didn't waste time on the others: & he understood how every princess yearns to play the gipsy. 'It is true that he lived in an age altogether devoid of knowledge of the nobler relation between the sexes,' says the editor of my 19thC edition of Alexander Pope! But Casanova wasn't in search of 'the nobler relation between the sexes'(!) he was out to enjoy himself & the vibration he projected attracted the appropriate partners. So at one level, the Moral is 'if you're clear about the reality you want to create, you will create it.' On the other hand, in Casanova's moral (intentional) world, he had the self-awareness to know that he wasn't The Marrying Kind. He did The Daicent Thing by a couple of women with whom he'd had long (for him) relationships & left them with enough money to live independent lives.
> From these observations I abstracted a further lesson. If you can use your moral vision to decode women's availability -which god forbid I would do, already!- you can use it to decode the intentionality (moral vision) of anyone you meet. From this I have developed a 'second sight' for recognising those who are purposefully engaged on their inner resolution, as opposed to those who are merely pussy-footing around it.
> This brought me to a much more significant lesson: a theory of 'valuable people'. If you wish to build alliances & inspire groups to bring about change it is counterproductive to involve
yourself closely with people whose motivation isn't of the same depth – because when the going gets tough they'll only stand to the depth their foundations equip them for. There's nothing judgmental about this, it's a simple law of karma – & the fault is not theirs, it's that of the 'engineer' who misjudged or misread their stress qualification, albeit due to inexperience.
> 'As gold is tried in the fire, so are the chosen in the furnace of humiliation.' Proverbs. There's much more I could say around this issue, but I have projects needing attention.
> The warning I read in Casanova's memoirs was that here was a man of exceptional mettle who, in Shakespeare's immortal expression, 'melted down his substance in divers beds of lust.' Casanova saw himself as a man of letters and boasted of his reception by Voltaire, yet he left nothing that has stood the test of time except the record of his sexual adventures. He undoubtedly achieved considerable esoteric insight, the Histoire is shot throu with it, but instead of using this for the benefit of humanity he used it for personal gain, to swindle and to seduce – and he paid the price. He missed the mark which he had set himself for his own life ... and ended miserably, a librarian mouldering in a remote country estate among rustic servants ignored by a Count who lived the high life in Viennese society to which Casanova had once prided himself on having entré.
> His guiding principle 'sequere deum' (follow the god =energy) had been an ignis fatuus, a will o' the wisp, that led him far from his true -divine- nature because Casanova had misidentified the emotional clarity /intensity of erotic encounters with the physical, instead of understanding that it is the meta-physical or spiritual aspects of relationships that are to be worshipped. As a result he had attached his soul irrevocably to the earth plane instead of de-taching it in preparation for departure. These are the lessons which tantra exists to teach.
> Robert Graves too, we are to understand, made this error with appalling consequences for nearly everyone around him. He continued to worship the illusion of eroticism after he could no longer perform its ceremonies – and as a result instead of integrating its lessons into
his life and achieving beauty, he achieved ugliness by disintegrating the lives of his family and those of his lovers.
> Thus the moral intertwines with the Moral. I am not one to speak from high ground, but I have put a great deal of energy into making positive choices in my life designed to avert such gruesome conclusions. Call it soul-preservation if you will – but ultimately, one of the greatest challenge facing men (I cannot speak for women) as we enter that strange 'no man's land' which is old age ['the disaster which occurs to everyone & which noone expects' as I've heard it called, & of which I now have some inkling] is to make the transition to a state where we find /retain the same level energy from somewherelse, which formerly we received from sexuality.
> This tests to destruction those lifestyle decisions we have made throughout our lives. In some future blog I may perhaps speak of this aspect of my own journey.
> Like many another male creative artist I have had amorous relationships with various 'muses' & know how a trick of the light, 'un certain regard', can bring about an enchantment that serves both parties – indeed I would go so far as to say that it's up there with the other great mysteries of life's profound experiences.
> Having previously made this blog a record of my experience of a transpersonal awareness which I have sensed wishing to use me as a medium to bring into collective consciousness esoteric perceptions about the metaphysical nature of existence, the '3 Blogs' posting I made on New Year's Eve reflects the random conjunction of 3 strands in my life that I have sought to reconcile, that of personal faith, that of personal eroticism, and that of collective spiritual awareness. Those who know me may have heard me say how I found Casanova's Histoire de ma vie an extremely influential book when I read it some 8 years ago. I took two lessons from it, or rather a lesson & a warning, which together exemplify the Moral/moral nexus found in Graves's case.
> I found padre Giacomo's narrative circumstantially convincing. Maybe he exaggerates here & there, but the whole autobiography struck me as among the most vivid evocations of the pre-Revolutionary world I've encountered. You can smell the shit in the alleys. I would regard it as essential reading to any musician who studying historically-informed performance styles. After a couple of volumes of this dazzling account of dedicated priapism I had to ask myself: 'how did he do it? How did he avoid entangling himself with relationships that never got further than talk?' [What follows is every bit as esoteric as my meta-physical reflections. Some people, some women, may be shocked, but I think it worth setting down as it expresses certain profound truths about the perennial riddles that men & women come together in order to resolve.]
> The more I thought about it, the more I attuned to Casanova's unique moral vision & realised two things: he had learnt to spot women who were 'up for it' & simply didn't waste time on the others: & he understood how every princess yearns to play the gipsy. 'It is true that he lived in an age altogether devoid of knowledge of the nobler relation between the sexes,' says the editor of my 19thC edition of Alexander Pope! But Casanova wasn't in search of 'the nobler relation between the sexes'(!) he was out to enjoy himself & the vibration he projected attracted the appropriate partners. So at one level, the Moral is 'if you're clear about the reality you want to create, you will create it.' On the other hand, in Casanova's moral (intentional) world, he had the self-awareness to know that he wasn't The Marrying Kind. He did The Daicent Thing by a couple of women with whom he'd had long (for him) relationships & left them with enough money to live independent lives.
> From these observations I abstracted a further lesson. If you can use your moral vision to decode women's availability -which god forbid I would do, already!- you can use it to decode the intentionality (moral vision) of anyone you meet. From this I have developed a 'second sight' for recognising those who are purposefully engaged on their inner resolution, as opposed to those who are merely pussy-footing around it.
> This brought me to a much more significant lesson: a theory of 'valuable people'. If you wish to build alliances & inspire groups to bring about change it is counterproductive to involve
yourself closely with people whose motivation isn't of the same depth – because when the going gets tough they'll only stand to the depth their foundations equip them for. There's nothing judgmental about this, it's a simple law of karma – & the fault is not theirs, it's that of the 'engineer' who misjudged or misread their stress qualification, albeit due to inexperience.
> 'As gold is tried in the fire, so are the chosen in the furnace of humiliation.' Proverbs. There's much more I could say around this issue, but I have projects needing attention.
> The warning I read in Casanova's memoirs was that here was a man of exceptional mettle who, in Shakespeare's immortal expression, 'melted down his substance in divers beds of lust.' Casanova saw himself as a man of letters and boasted of his reception by Voltaire, yet he left nothing that has stood the test of time except the record of his sexual adventures. He undoubtedly achieved considerable esoteric insight, the Histoire is shot throu with it, but instead of using this for the benefit of humanity he used it for personal gain, to swindle and to seduce – and he paid the price. He missed the mark which he had set himself for his own life ... and ended miserably, a librarian mouldering in a remote country estate among rustic servants ignored by a Count who lived the high life in Viennese society to which Casanova had once prided himself on having entré.
> His guiding principle 'sequere deum' (follow the god =energy) had been an ignis fatuus, a will o' the wisp, that led him far from his true -divine- nature because Casanova had misidentified the emotional clarity /intensity of erotic encounters with the physical, instead of understanding that it is the meta-physical or spiritual aspects of relationships that are to be worshipped. As a result he had attached his soul irrevocably to the earth plane instead of de-taching it in preparation for departure. These are the lessons which tantra exists to teach.
> Robert Graves too, we are to understand, made this error with appalling consequences for nearly everyone around him. He continued to worship the illusion of eroticism after he could no longer perform its ceremonies – and as a result instead of integrating its lessons into
his life and achieving beauty, he achieved ugliness by disintegrating the lives of his family and those of his lovers.
> Thus the moral intertwines with the Moral. I am not one to speak from high ground, but I have put a great deal of energy into making positive choices in my life designed to avert such gruesome conclusions. Call it soul-preservation if you will – but ultimately, one of the greatest challenge facing men (I cannot speak for women) as we enter that strange 'no man's land' which is old age ['the disaster which occurs to everyone & which noone expects' as I've heard it called, & of which I now have some inkling] is to make the transition to a state where we find /retain the same level energy from somewherelse, which formerly we received from sexuality.
> This tests to destruction those lifestyle decisions we have made throughout our lives. In some future blog I may perhaps speak of this aspect of my own journey.
2006/01/01
The right conditions ...
"Intunity is being in the flow, like a ball floating on top of a fountain. Imagine there's a 'forwards' & you fall straight off. It's the fountain of the heart that keeps the ball of intelligence aloft. And it requires all your focus to stay there bouncing gently in the flow. Animals & plants know this; they have no other awareness except their instinctive sense of this intunity. They don't need to call it God, because they know. When they lose it their life-force is extinguished.
"But humans experience duality. Simply to keep love alive seems ridiculously simple – until you try to do it. Keeping your consciousness focused in your sense of truthfulness is no activity for a grown man, you think! No: building an empire, hogging the limelight, driving other people off your patch – that makes sense. But being still, being attentive to 'that of God' within – how much sense does that make when there are mouths to feed & bills to pay & meals to cook? Yet it is in doing this that we experience our ultimate fulfilment, that we experience our greatest intunity with ourselves and our greatest harmony with nature.
"Duality is always present, of course it is. Nothing is static. The (spiritual) weather changes with the seasons (of life) and creates new environments for us to experience ourselves in. This is to be expected. There are eruptions in the heart which vary the fountain's pressure tremendously. Our focus may drift from keeping the ball of intelligent compassion aloft to external scenes or relationships. But we are incredibly privileged, we do not fall sick & die when we lose our sense of inner truth as animals do. We are given time to recover it.
"And what is it for? What is anything for? Everything in the universe exists to serve and to be (ob)served. It cannot predict how it should serve – it fulfils its destiny simply by being utterly & absolutely who & where it is and reacting intuitively & mathematically to its environment. What a lesson that is!
"All life is intelligent. The harmony it creates may be savage and raw but it never loses its intunity. Is the same true of humans? Only if we use our duality to honour the unity which less-evolved life-forms know do we truly become human beings.
"Once we catch an echo of this inner harmony life can never be the same again. Pursuing it matters more than food or relationships – and yet, all the time, there it is within us: the ball of buddhi /intelligence just waiting for our loving attention to reunite it with the fountain of innergy spurting up from the heart – and then, and only then, the true power of evolutionary love is released."
Happy new year.
"But humans experience duality. Simply to keep love alive seems ridiculously simple – until you try to do it. Keeping your consciousness focused in your sense of truthfulness is no activity for a grown man, you think! No: building an empire, hogging the limelight, driving other people off your patch – that makes sense. But being still, being attentive to 'that of God' within – how much sense does that make when there are mouths to feed & bills to pay & meals to cook? Yet it is in doing this that we experience our ultimate fulfilment, that we experience our greatest intunity with ourselves and our greatest harmony with nature.
"Duality is always present, of course it is. Nothing is static. The (spiritual) weather changes with the seasons (of life) and creates new environments for us to experience ourselves in. This is to be expected. There are eruptions in the heart which vary the fountain's pressure tremendously. Our focus may drift from keeping the ball of intelligent compassion aloft to external scenes or relationships. But we are incredibly privileged, we do not fall sick & die when we lose our sense of inner truth as animals do. We are given time to recover it.
"And what is it for? What is anything for? Everything in the universe exists to serve and to be (ob)served. It cannot predict how it should serve – it fulfils its destiny simply by being utterly & absolutely who & where it is and reacting intuitively & mathematically to its environment. What a lesson that is!
"All life is intelligent. The harmony it creates may be savage and raw but it never loses its intunity. Is the same true of humans? Only if we use our duality to honour the unity which less-evolved life-forms know do we truly become human beings.
"Once we catch an echo of this inner harmony life can never be the same again. Pursuing it matters more than food or relationships – and yet, all the time, there it is within us: the ball of buddhi /intelligence just waiting for our loving attention to reunite it with the fountain of innergy spurting up from the heart – and then, and only then, the true power of evolutionary love is released."
Happy new year.
2005/12/31
3 very different blogs
After uploading my inner writings to this blog I've made a habit of clicking Next Blog. I have been redirected to many fascinating & extraordinary sites. Those which have most attracted me have mostly been from the Far East - where the openheartedness of the writers is in fairly marked contrast to postings from the West; well, the western end of the West!
Over Christmas 3 blogs have touched me deeply, all in quite different ways -
Diary of a Muslimah is by a young woman living in Dubai, with family in Pakistan. She writes of her decision to adopt the hijab as a symbol of her faith, even tho some of her relatives teased her about it. Throu the links I encountered some on-the-ground blogs of life conditions for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, which are all the more shocking for the banality of the violence.
Richard Emblin could scarcely have been more different. He is a photographer, until recently picture editor of the Colombian El Tiempo, with 3 different websites reflecting his professional activity. This one, The Girl in the Picture, is of his erotic pictures & links. Most sex on the web is grotesque & garish, which makes one wonder who actually finds it titilating? – but this had an elegance & candour which I found attractive. To be sure it's still men gawping at women, but maybe that's how it works? What would I know!
Simon Barrow is another move away. Based in England, he maintains several comprehensive & comprehensible websites linking those who practice faith (mostly Christian, mostly US/UK) in an open-minded way. As one who is not currently in a faith community, but for whom the issue remains important, I found it heart-warming.
Over Christmas 3 blogs have touched me deeply, all in quite different ways -
Diary of a Muslimah is by a young woman living in Dubai, with family in Pakistan. She writes of her decision to adopt the hijab as a symbol of her faith, even tho some of her relatives teased her about it. Throu the links I encountered some on-the-ground blogs of life conditions for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, which are all the more shocking for the banality of the violence.
Richard Emblin could scarcely have been more different. He is a photographer, until recently picture editor of the Colombian El Tiempo, with 3 different websites reflecting his professional activity. This one, The Girl in the Picture, is of his erotic pictures & links. Most sex on the web is grotesque & garish, which makes one wonder who actually finds it titilating? – but this had an elegance & candour which I found attractive. To be sure it's still men gawping at women, but maybe that's how it works? What would I know!
Simon Barrow is another move away. Based in England, he maintains several comprehensive & comprehensible websites linking those who practice faith (mostly Christian, mostly US/UK) in an open-minded way. As one who is not currently in a faith community, but for whom the issue remains important, I found it heart-warming.
2005/12/11
Embrace your darkness
"So now you see what all the hardship was about: training your spiritual muscles. Your natural mind has to be christed /anointed. Instead of thinking any experience, be it good or bad , is about itself, you should begin to realise that its purpose is to take you on a journey away from your ego-mind toward your true self.
"Embrace the darkness; it will lead you by the shortest route to your redemption from what troubles you. That doesn't mean you mustn't 'mind the shop': you still have responsibilities as a conscious being – but take courage that the universe is a loving space, not a hostile one. You may find your transformation taking you throu some tight corners and winding ways, but it will always be for the purpose of leading you by the surest and shortest route to the wholeness which you crave as your birthright."
"Embrace the darkness; it will lead you by the shortest route to your redemption from what troubles you. That doesn't mean you mustn't 'mind the shop': you still have responsibilities as a conscious being – but take courage that the universe is a loving space, not a hostile one. You may find your transformation taking you throu some tight corners and winding ways, but it will always be for the purpose of leading you by the surest and shortest route to the wholeness which you crave as your birthright."
2005/12/01
Don’t cling to what is past
"Sometimes the hardest answers to acknowledge are the ones you already know. They may represent what is unattractive to the ego. The call is to go beyond your limits, to accept the wisdom that flows throu you, rather than the one you feel you own. That requires exceptional trust, so don’t look down, look forwards.
"Oh, so you don’t know which way is forward?
"Which way seems most exciting? Which way feels most like growth?
"Two dangers here: 1, Don’t be trapt by the past, don’t retain guilt for things that were never your responsibility. Be free in mind, and allow the physical expression of that freedom to manifest. 2, Don’t be discouraged if the way you wish to follow is not immediately possible. You may have old karma to deal with. Similarly, be free in mind, and allow the physical expression of that freedom to manifest.
"Don’t cling to what is past. That’s why it's passed!"
"Oh, so you don’t know which way is forward?
"Which way seems most exciting? Which way feels most like growth?
"Two dangers here: 1, Don’t be trapt by the past, don’t retain guilt for things that were never your responsibility. Be free in mind, and allow the physical expression of that freedom to manifest. 2, Don’t be discouraged if the way you wish to follow is not immediately possible. You may have old karma to deal with. Similarly, be free in mind, and allow the physical expression of that freedom to manifest.
"Don’t cling to what is past. That’s why it's passed!"
22/8/91
2005/11/23
What do you want of me?
"I have put my affairs in the hands of humans …
"At your heart, you are me: at my heart I am you. That is what you need to discover to become whole /be healed.
"To discover is to uncover what exists but was previously unknown to you. This knowledge is uniquely personal & requires your complete commitment if you are to realise its power. It's like a PIN-number which only activates one individual's 'card'. The words alone 'At your heart, you are me: at my heart I am you' meaningless, a cliché — unless psycho-activated by your individual will; unless your search for meaning has been so intense that their simplicity is like a cup of cold water in a desert. You no longer care how vulnerable they make you, you are just grateful to have found what you need to renew your life.
"You map every aspect of the material world, yet leave the central goal of existence out of your calculations altogether! You cannot eat it, or make money out of it. It exists as springs exist. Does the natural world charge you to experience it?
"What a privilege to be a musician or a dancer, what great ways of encountering the heart of your otherness – yet how tragic if you restrict this unique point of contact with your true self to mind-numbing 'entertainment'.
"The street where you live is the centre of the universe. Your own front door is the only gateway you need to enter to align your self with the undying life force which is your potential."
"At your heart, you are me: at my heart I am you. That is what you need to discover to become whole /be healed.
"To discover is to uncover what exists but was previously unknown to you. This knowledge is uniquely personal & requires your complete commitment if you are to realise its power. It's like a PIN-number which only activates one individual's 'card'. The words alone 'At your heart, you are me: at my heart I am you' meaningless, a cliché — unless psycho-activated by your individual will; unless your search for meaning has been so intense that their simplicity is like a cup of cold water in a desert. You no longer care how vulnerable they make you, you are just grateful to have found what you need to renew your life.
"You map every aspect of the material world, yet leave the central goal of existence out of your calculations altogether! You cannot eat it, or make money out of it. It exists as springs exist. Does the natural world charge you to experience it?
"What a privilege to be a musician or a dancer, what great ways of encountering the heart of your otherness – yet how tragic if you restrict this unique point of contact with your true self to mind-numbing 'entertainment'.
"The street where you live is the centre of the universe. Your own front door is the only gateway you need to enter to align your self with the undying life force which is your potential."
2005/11/13
All you need is
There are two ways of experiencing god-energy – by aligning with the forces within nature, and by experiencing the inspiration of a parallel reality which transcends our natural senses. Both are equally valid. Ultimately there is no contradiction between them. They are complementary. Indeed both are required if we are to form a clear picture of the being who is the source of all energy. We are both matter and spirit and cannot begin to express our true nature until both are in balance.
We need to align ourselves with the rootedness of an immobile life-form if we are to understand the geographical, ethnic & cultural root stock from which we've grown. Yet this alone cannot tell us everything about who/what we are called to become. Spirit is as-it-were the sun that provides the energy for us to grow towards our true nature, which is to be in harmony with both created matter and its spiritual foundations.
If we see that the source of all life is a profound yet ever-evolving harmony that progresses by resolving /integrating dissonance then we can understand how the forces we call evolution and love are not separate but synonymous.
See also
We need to align ourselves with the rootedness of an immobile life-form if we are to understand the geographical, ethnic & cultural root stock from which we've grown. Yet this alone cannot tell us everything about who/what we are called to become. Spirit is as-it-were the sun that provides the energy for us to grow towards our true nature, which is to be in harmony with both created matter and its spiritual foundations.
If we see that the source of all life is a profound yet ever-evolving harmony that progresses by resolving /integrating dissonance then we can understand how the forces we call evolution and love are not separate but synonymous.
See also
2005/10/16
Help is at hand
"If you're stuck in a hole don't churn your feet in the mud - call for the air rescue service, your angel support team. They're real, ready and more than willing. But like human rescue workers they need to be called into action."
2005/10/12
Not going mental
"To be locked into your mind is to be stuck on the earth plane.
"Generosity, vision, love, eco-wisdom, all these come from spirit – but they're also part of nature, indivisible aspects of creation.
"Open up, lighten up, release … you really don't have to know all the answers!"
"Generosity, vision, love, eco-wisdom, all these come from spirit – but they're also part of nature, indivisible aspects of creation.
"Open up, lighten up, release … you really don't have to know all the answers!"
2005/10/10
What purpose do our perpetual financial crises serve?
"To keep you in touch with yourself, and keep you humble & grounded.
"As you have to keep in prayerful contact so you charge your spiritual batteries - that's a good bargain, isn't it? And don't you enjoy seeing constant miracles?
"But there's something else you can do to change the vibrations around you - start being your own best friend! Debts are a challenge to find more ways to give love unselfishly. They arise from possessiveness. Share more – give more – be simpler.
"Be realistic – expect miracles – but remember, miracles give you what you need not what want."
"As you have to keep in prayerful contact so you charge your spiritual batteries - that's a good bargain, isn't it? And don't you enjoy seeing constant miracles?
"But there's something else you can do to change the vibrations around you - start being your own best friend! Debts are a challenge to find more ways to give love unselfishly. They arise from possessiveness. Share more – give more – be simpler.
"Be realistic – expect miracles – but remember, miracles give you what you need not what want."
2005/10/04
Trust the process
"If you can't think what to do, then praise – praise s/he who is the source of all life – s/he who makes hirself known in the natural world – s/he whom we sense in the system design of all life forms. S/he who is the evolutionary power of love.
"Trust, even in times of dryness. Trust not because you understand what's happening, but trust that you are understood and that your needs are being met as you evolve into the new being for whom these experiences are preparing you.
"Does the baby know what is happening as it being born? No. Keep praising to keep your energy high & trust the process. It is flawless in design."
"Trust, even in times of dryness. Trust not because you understand what's happening, but trust that you are understood and that your needs are being met as you evolve into the new being for whom these experiences are preparing you.
"Does the baby know what is happening as it being born? No. Keep praising to keep your energy high & trust the process. It is flawless in design."
2005/09/13
A sacred place is a high place
"The beauty of your ideas is beyond price. Keep them where they belong, don't start trying to bring them down to make them 'fit' or you will lose your crown."
2005/09/06
Be Open - Be Lucky
"You can only be open.
"You must trust me to know what's best. You'd so much like to plan your own life - but what do you really know? You only have human eyes, you cant see how things need to fit together. That's why I need you to be open.
"Dont assume any scenario - just be open.
"This is the essence of being lucky: the ability to turn on a sixpence. It doesnt mean being shalllow or flighty, it means being flexible. Remember, flexibility always wins over rigidity."
"You must trust me to know what's best. You'd so much like to plan your own life - but what do you really know? You only have human eyes, you cant see how things need to fit together. That's why I need you to be open.
"Dont assume any scenario - just be open.
"This is the essence of being lucky: the ability to turn on a sixpence. It doesnt mean being shalllow or flighty, it means being flexible. Remember, flexibility always wins over rigidity."
Love & Joy
"Let us love and bring joy. This is how we can tell the difference between profound love and the shallow counterfeit that goes by the same name. With the former there is no sting in the tail, only opern-heartedness.
"Does your love lead you to open-heartedness?"
"Does your love lead you to open-heartedness?"
2005/09/01
Dragonflies
Sitting by the brook watching the butterflies darting about on the warm earth, I thought back to the previous evening when focussing on Sai Baba produced an immediate cessation of my virulent head cold. I was given to understand that any saint or holy emissary could be summoned by quiet focus – which is to say that we can attune ourselves to a specific vibration.
At that moment a dragonfly skimmed up the open patch of stream between the dense undergrowth. I readied my camera for its return – but instead a second dragonfly flew up in the same direction. This made me reflect how the various insects are all like the spiritual vibrations that surround us – we have to study their behaviour patterns if we want to receive them.
One or other dragonfly made half a dozen more sorties while I sat there - whether I was attuned enough to get a decent shot, only subsequent inspection will reveal.
Anghiari, near Arezzo, Italy
At that moment a dragonfly skimmed up the open patch of stream between the dense undergrowth. I readied my camera for its return – but instead a second dragonfly flew up in the same direction. This made me reflect how the various insects are all like the spiritual vibrations that surround us – we have to study their behaviour patterns if we want to receive them.
One or other dragonfly made half a dozen more sorties while I sat there - whether I was attuned enough to get a decent shot, only subsequent inspection will reveal.
Anghiari, near Arezzo, Italy
2005/08/31
Where should we be – & how do we know when we're there?
There are times when everything clicks into place. We all have them, those effortless days.
If you consider the circumstances when it last happened, you'll probably find two things:
1) You were carefree and thus full of energy:
2) You were in tune with what was going on.
In a word, you were lucky.
We see therefore that luck arises from attunement, albeit unconsciously, betwen our inner & outer reality/ies. In other words, one unified reality exists at such moments.
Perhaps, having had this insight, we have tried to rercreate a carefree mood – yet found the magic mytseriously absent. Why? Because experience is like a moving water – even when it flows in the same course it is now the product of different dynamics to what it was then. One thing we can all attest to is that any exercise of will or intention is generally inimical to the fragile conditions which luck demands.
An important step therefore to understanding where the right spot is for us, is to accept that there is never a way back to a longed-for state of feeling – only a way forward to a situation where we may possible reencounter it in a new form. This is particularly true of relationships.
The question gets a whole lot more challenging if I explore luck in relation to my spiritual dynamic. Nearly every spiritual path teaches that in order to make progress I must exercise my will to choose one direction in preference to the millions of others. The more actively I follow this advice, the more I am likely to negate the carefree conditions luck demands.
And here the conundrums multiply.
Can I pursue my spiritual path wholeheartedly and yet remain open to contradictory experiences?
Should I just go with the flow rather than hold to any one direction?
How can I create favourable conditions for magic /luck?
There is no single answer – everyone's different. There's no single route to any spiritual destination. (The distorting effect of religions is to articulate a certain note and address only those people whom that vibration manifests, creating the effect of marginalising anyonelse.) But there is an underlying spiritual truth – balance.
We are driven by impulse & conditioning to race for ladders, but it is often the snakes that of adversity that make the best teachers. The Christian concept that truth is a revelation that comes from a book has taught us to see knowledge as something outside ourselves - but this is an illusion, as the great mystics have repeatedly reminded us.
The snake of adversity on which we have unhappily landed may in fact be -to the unconscious- the snake of healing wisdom. If you consider the caduceus: the writhing snake takes us throu a series of wild arcs as we veer erratically in our initial search for identity, but happily each is balanced with its twin. As we ascend the snakes of awareness the swings are less wild and the crossing points more frequent, until we see that the two paths are in fact one.
At this point, perhaps, we see that the buffeting of fate was designed to bring us to a natural feeling of centredness - not a prescribed place, nor yet an intellectually determined one, but one where the native energy or ’fluence of the godhead can use us as it sees fit.
If you consider the circumstances when it last happened, you'll probably find two things:
1) You were carefree and thus full of energy:
2) You were in tune with what was going on.
In a word, you were lucky.
We see therefore that luck arises from attunement, albeit unconsciously, betwen our inner & outer reality/ies. In other words, one unified reality exists at such moments.
Perhaps, having had this insight, we have tried to rercreate a carefree mood – yet found the magic mytseriously absent. Why? Because experience is like a moving water – even when it flows in the same course it is now the product of different dynamics to what it was then. One thing we can all attest to is that any exercise of will or intention is generally inimical to the fragile conditions which luck demands.
An important step therefore to understanding where the right spot is for us, is to accept that there is never a way back to a longed-for state of feeling – only a way forward to a situation where we may possible reencounter it in a new form. This is particularly true of relationships.
The question gets a whole lot more challenging if I explore luck in relation to my spiritual dynamic. Nearly every spiritual path teaches that in order to make progress I must exercise my will to choose one direction in preference to the millions of others. The more actively I follow this advice, the more I am likely to negate the carefree conditions luck demands.
And here the conundrums multiply.
Can I pursue my spiritual path wholeheartedly and yet remain open to contradictory experiences?
Should I just go with the flow rather than hold to any one direction?
How can I create favourable conditions for magic /luck?
There is no single answer – everyone's different. There's no single route to any spiritual destination. (The distorting effect of religions is to articulate a certain note and address only those people whom that vibration manifests, creating the effect of marginalising anyonelse.) But there is an underlying spiritual truth – balance.
We are driven by impulse & conditioning to race for ladders, but it is often the snakes that of adversity that make the best teachers. The Christian concept that truth is a revelation that comes from a book has taught us to see knowledge as something outside ourselves - but this is an illusion, as the great mystics have repeatedly reminded us.
The snake of adversity on which we have unhappily landed may in fact be -to the unconscious- the snake of healing wisdom. If you consider the caduceus: the writhing snake takes us throu a series of wild arcs as we veer erratically in our initial search for identity, but happily each is balanced with its twin. As we ascend the snakes of awareness the swings are less wild and the crossing points more frequent, until we see that the two paths are in fact one.
At this point, perhaps, we see that the buffeting of fate was designed to bring us to a natural feeling of centredness - not a prescribed place, nor yet an intellectually determined one, but one where the native energy or ’fluence of the godhead can use us as it sees fit.
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