See, Answer.
How many births, how many
Deaths must I see before me,
Before I will see, as stillness,
I count time in numbers before
The Roman Christus calendar,
How many risings, how many
Settings, look up but to see the orange
Fettered cloud whitening, one
Before, one behind – grey
And curved for darkness,
A shimmer of one more
Gone, a reflection of past again,
So I say how many until I
Weather, loosing grip willingly,
To the core of my eye where
I will see,
A day in perspective,
Elephant, mosquito and
A turning away and to,
A revolution not counted
By them, yet number to us,
What are the additions for, when
We can multiply the living
Of a second and get the same enduring
Answer.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Friday, June 30, 2006
Sunday, June 25, 2006
EMF
I am trapped in the hollows of incandescence.
The penetrating hums of air conditioners
This summer night, makes me feel
Cold in search of a healing space.
I stroll empty of my human silence.
The electricity numbing a humanity
Mesmerized by light, makes me forget
Of wisdom only legible by night.
I am blind in the fields of fluorescence
I am trapped in the hollows of incandescence.
The penetrating hums of air conditioners
This summer night, makes me feel
Cold in search of a healing space.
I stroll empty of my human silence.
The electricity numbing a humanity
Mesmerized by light, makes me forget
Of wisdom only legible by night.
I am blind in the fields of fluorescence
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Much can be learned by listening. I fear we have placed too much emphasis on sight, that we are blind of our other senses. Are not they just as adequate at perceiving? Indeed we have overdeveloped our sense of eye sight as to practically neglect our other senses, and nearly loose our even finer ones. For is not everything just a vibration, a switching of on and off of nerves, this binary code that sends messages to the brain – 0 or 1? How else could we model our computers? Our senses are just developed to pick up different frequencies of these vibrations, and these vibrations may have infinite frequencies, for the breadth I can not know of. Science has found that the brain can only process one of our senses at a time. Though our neurons are quick, at any moment we limited to use only one of our senses. This theory I have found to be true, for when I deeply listen to music I seem to forget my surroundings, even when my eyes remain wide open. I have come back from a delightful symphony to recall I don’t remember seeing anything at all! Ask a blind person what do they perceive and they may tell a world of sounds and textures, a world alien to most of us sightseers. The Rishis of India are seers, though one can not compare our common sight with theirs. They see the divine in everything – a frequency lost unto the majority. Indeed it is yoga that teaches me to perceive the more subtle vibrations of life through blocking off the lower senses, and concentrating on a different channel of receptivity. So I say if you want to know the beauty of the world, shut your eyes and listen first. You may then be propelled to take deep breath in through the olfactory and learn what is afloat. Above all, follow your intuition, do not trust your eyes but your heart, for it is the greatest perceiver we have. When your heart is able to listen to the heart of all things, then it may speak as well. And when your heart speaks it can only sing of bliss; this is the only frequency that may befall the ears of Truth. So when we are ready to fully see our reality we need only to ask with the vibrations of our heart.
If we are to know sound, we must know the soundless.
If we are to know sound, we must know the soundless.
The microwave scrolls “PRESS START” across its indigo screen. There was one second left before I stopped it from further radiating my oatmeal. What’s one second anyway? One second less of the bombarding waves. One second less agitating for my molecules. Would I miss one second of my life if it was taken from me? What would I do with one more second?
The BEEP.
Finished.
Done cooking.
STOP/CLEAR.
The plateau
Of motionless.
The BEEP.
Finished.
Done cooking.
STOP/CLEAR.
The plateau
Of motionless.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
It is not the separation of states that divide countrymen; it is the multitude of churches that estrange us. For what need do we have to put a different church or temple on every corner, save to support our capitalistic desires, competition I say. Freedom of religion? but this phrase is rooted in our forefather’s freedom of economy; every man for himself – the richest men can make the laws. Name, if you will, any religion which is truly free, which one will not ask you to attend to it? It is only the naturalist which may claim nature as having such qualities, but it would be a misnomer to call Her a religion, for Nature asks naught of us. Which religion could survive without any human benefactors? Religion is but of Man, while Nature depends not on Man for Her survival, in fact, she implores Him to do nothing at all. One may point to the Native peoples as having a religion of the Earth, however, we must see that they know nothing of religion and everything of a way of living. If they merely believed, as one does in a religion, then we may not know of them at all, for faith in something suggests separation from it, and they lived only to hold no such thoughts. To be separated from such a power, indeed our source, is to die a slow, chilling death. Evidence of such a claim may be found in modern man, captive in his zoos, possibly in your mirror.
So why is it I was told I must go to church every Sunday? Does it matter not which church I choose? Oh, but it does – it must be the church of my fathers, else I will not be saved. Saved from what? Man creates his own poisons, undoubtedly, and I might be well enough to stay away from all that Man has constructed. I must claim it is only the James which can save me from thoughts of separation. It is Sunday and I take to my best Sunday clothes and hop on my bicycle. Riding through Richmond this morning, the churches are not without their custard. People gathering to enter their holy places spy me with a pity in their eyes as to suggest I might be a lost gorilla, but did they see the pity reflected in mine? The children’s energy speaks differently, their eyes ask if they could worship where I’m going today – “no, no child, you’re already here, you might as well go through with it,” the tall ones say. From one church to the next, as the road I take passes at least six of these medieval buildings, they feel the same to me - all of them splitting the city into race and class. Though I have known solace in a church before, it was only when nobody was around to tell me what to think, or how to pray. There is a peace that survives in the echoes of tall halls, but it all gets pushed out when too many bodies are forced in a place they wouldn’t rather be, with their minds in a place they ought not to be. So I take to the River James as both a place I want to be, and a place I ought to be, for gorillas have no life in the city.
So why is it I was told I must go to church every Sunday? Does it matter not which church I choose? Oh, but it does – it must be the church of my fathers, else I will not be saved. Saved from what? Man creates his own poisons, undoubtedly, and I might be well enough to stay away from all that Man has constructed. I must claim it is only the James which can save me from thoughts of separation. It is Sunday and I take to my best Sunday clothes and hop on my bicycle. Riding through Richmond this morning, the churches are not without their custard. People gathering to enter their holy places spy me with a pity in their eyes as to suggest I might be a lost gorilla, but did they see the pity reflected in mine? The children’s energy speaks differently, their eyes ask if they could worship where I’m going today – “no, no child, you’re already here, you might as well go through with it,” the tall ones say. From one church to the next, as the road I take passes at least six of these medieval buildings, they feel the same to me - all of them splitting the city into race and class. Though I have known solace in a church before, it was only when nobody was around to tell me what to think, or how to pray. There is a peace that survives in the echoes of tall halls, but it all gets pushed out when too many bodies are forced in a place they wouldn’t rather be, with their minds in a place they ought not to be. So I take to the River James as both a place I want to be, and a place I ought to be, for gorillas have no life in the city.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Bi-Cycles
The decomposing purple fructose
The battlefield of red stickyness
Stops me and my squeaky seventies bicycle
For a double take
Can it be true? What a rare treasure –
And where have all the pirates gone to plunder?
For surly I can not be the first to acknowledge
This scene
Yet, they float among the outstretched branches
Rubies in fruit form: Plums in the city!
The pavement explains the history of weeks –
The flesh of matured soldiers did their best to carry
Out their purpose
And now the others wait for their time
Following in the same fashion of their brothers
A shake of a branch and two drop into my sack
Another shake and more fall
I rescue what I can, but I can not save you all
It is rare when a city seed can serve its purpose
Even rarer still
Are those who stop their self constructed cycles
To participate in the one they were born into
The decomposing purple fructose
The battlefield of red stickyness
Stops me and my squeaky seventies bicycle
For a double take
Can it be true? What a rare treasure –
And where have all the pirates gone to plunder?
For surly I can not be the first to acknowledge
This scene
Yet, they float among the outstretched branches
Rubies in fruit form: Plums in the city!
The pavement explains the history of weeks –
The flesh of matured soldiers did their best to carry
Out their purpose
And now the others wait for their time
Following in the same fashion of their brothers
A shake of a branch and two drop into my sack
Another shake and more fall
I rescue what I can, but I can not save you all
It is rare when a city seed can serve its purpose
Even rarer still
Are those who stop their self constructed cycles
To participate in the one they were born into
Seeing
He said phrases like “let me dingle with it” and
“If you want to see God, look into a mirror”
It was a blur of speech, my mind didn’t have time to drink his gushing words
“When you’re asking three questions you know your dealing with a Hindu”
It was like opening your mouth in a snowstorm, with flakes flying all around,
You can see thousands of them, but it takes a while
Before you get just one flake on your tongue
He spoke with satire and a sandpaper Hindu accent
He was hairy too
Hair grew all over, and I could see it. I wasn’t looking for it
But it was almost all I could see, except for his squirrelly brown eyes
He wore a tight white tang top
“If someone came to you saying they could walk on water, you say: Ahh, that’s very nice my friend, now come with me and let’s get on this boat.”
He looked like a professional wrestler
Ready to throw me against the ropes of my own spirituality
He had running shorts that didn’t fit his body,
And a belly overlapping the leather fanny pack
The shorts were maroon and covered just enough to be legal
“When they come with exclamations of truth and dogma,
its ok, let the dog bite the dogma.”
His forested legs shot massive trunks into black high top army boots
“We are all allowed to have happiness in our dreams,
just don’t force your dreams on another.”
They were laced so tight that his calves were molting over the top of his boots.
“Under the soul of things, there’s always something more”
Like a scoop of ice cream on a mini cone
“There’s no Cielo out there, Cielo means heaven in Latin, we got telescopes that have seen as far as four hundred years into the past and future. You want to find heaven, look right here,” he taps the worn glass countertop, “look, oh, but you scratched it.”
His laugh turns into a cough that’s unnatural
“I’ve been meditating for thirty years.”
Out walks the wrestler self titled “the Hindu priest”
In walks the Man – photo badge says department of state
The kind that still thinks he’s a high school jock – calls this place a head shop
Makes jokes about drugs, he bets there’s drugs in the back
He won’t tell anyone
Questions the validity of the magnetic copper bracelets under the worn glass countertop
Conduct a scientifically controlled experiment and sue for false advertising
“I love bullshit like that just so I can prove it wrong”
Cynical – bullshitting, he calls Christian Science bullshit
“I want to see it”
Metaphysics is bullshit
“What are you doing working at a bullshit head shop like this?”
After he finds out I’m a VCU senior about to graduate in environmental studies
He gives me fatherly advice and admits he’s sounding like my father
He hopes he’s giving me wisdom
“I hope I’m giving you some wisdom here”
Oh he is – if he only knows the universe I see in him
“Religion is such bullshit, show me the proof, right? I mean, come on…”
When you have such a hard shell, there must me something you are trying to protect
So dearly
Something so vulnerable that you surround yourself with jagged overconfidence
“Why don’t you have any self hypnosis CD’s? You think you would at least have that”
I saw it peak out, checking if the coast was clear
“I gave him all these great opportunities. I talked with some people to get him a job with NATO. But he didn’t want to, now he works at a cleaners
Where the most intelligent thing he says all day is ‘um, that’s $1.75.’
When I was a kid no one gave me those opportunities, no one gave me anything”
You thought I was your son, you brought me up. I played along, because.
We talked about global warming, bullshit,
“I’m going to live till one hundred and twenty”
Seriously, with a straight face.
“I’m not that old now, but I remember Virginia Beach and how the beach houses
had more than fifty feet of beach, now its all gone to shit.”
The bullshitting made the air smell like Napoleon
Like a battle had been fought down to a drawl
Out walks the suit
In walks twenty something tattooed girl
She buys the magnetic copper bracelet under the worn glass countertop
“I love copper”
Next customer
“You look familiar, have I seen you before?”
God is everywhere
Am I looking into the mirror yet?
He said phrases like “let me dingle with it” and
“If you want to see God, look into a mirror”
It was a blur of speech, my mind didn’t have time to drink his gushing words
“When you’re asking three questions you know your dealing with a Hindu”
It was like opening your mouth in a snowstorm, with flakes flying all around,
You can see thousands of them, but it takes a while
Before you get just one flake on your tongue
He spoke with satire and a sandpaper Hindu accent
He was hairy too
Hair grew all over, and I could see it. I wasn’t looking for it
But it was almost all I could see, except for his squirrelly brown eyes
He wore a tight white tang top
“If someone came to you saying they could walk on water, you say: Ahh, that’s very nice my friend, now come with me and let’s get on this boat.”
He looked like a professional wrestler
Ready to throw me against the ropes of my own spirituality
He had running shorts that didn’t fit his body,
And a belly overlapping the leather fanny pack
The shorts were maroon and covered just enough to be legal
“When they come with exclamations of truth and dogma,
its ok, let the dog bite the dogma.”
His forested legs shot massive trunks into black high top army boots
“We are all allowed to have happiness in our dreams,
just don’t force your dreams on another.”
They were laced so tight that his calves were molting over the top of his boots.
“Under the soul of things, there’s always something more”
Like a scoop of ice cream on a mini cone
“There’s no Cielo out there, Cielo means heaven in Latin, we got telescopes that have seen as far as four hundred years into the past and future. You want to find heaven, look right here,” he taps the worn glass countertop, “look, oh, but you scratched it.”
His laugh turns into a cough that’s unnatural
“I’ve been meditating for thirty years.”
Out walks the wrestler self titled “the Hindu priest”
In walks the Man – photo badge says department of state
The kind that still thinks he’s a high school jock – calls this place a head shop
Makes jokes about drugs, he bets there’s drugs in the back
He won’t tell anyone
Questions the validity of the magnetic copper bracelets under the worn glass countertop
Conduct a scientifically controlled experiment and sue for false advertising
“I love bullshit like that just so I can prove it wrong”
Cynical – bullshitting, he calls Christian Science bullshit
“I want to see it”
Metaphysics is bullshit
“What are you doing working at a bullshit head shop like this?”
After he finds out I’m a VCU senior about to graduate in environmental studies
He gives me fatherly advice and admits he’s sounding like my father
He hopes he’s giving me wisdom
“I hope I’m giving you some wisdom here”
Oh he is – if he only knows the universe I see in him
“Religion is such bullshit, show me the proof, right? I mean, come on…”
When you have such a hard shell, there must me something you are trying to protect
So dearly
Something so vulnerable that you surround yourself with jagged overconfidence
“Why don’t you have any self hypnosis CD’s? You think you would at least have that”
I saw it peak out, checking if the coast was clear
“I gave him all these great opportunities. I talked with some people to get him a job with NATO. But he didn’t want to, now he works at a cleaners
Where the most intelligent thing he says all day is ‘um, that’s $1.75.’
When I was a kid no one gave me those opportunities, no one gave me anything”
You thought I was your son, you brought me up. I played along, because.
We talked about global warming, bullshit,
“I’m going to live till one hundred and twenty”
Seriously, with a straight face.
“I’m not that old now, but I remember Virginia Beach and how the beach houses
had more than fifty feet of beach, now its all gone to shit.”
The bullshitting made the air smell like Napoleon
Like a battle had been fought down to a drawl
Out walks the suit
In walks twenty something tattooed girl
She buys the magnetic copper bracelet under the worn glass countertop
“I love copper”
Next customer
“You look familiar, have I seen you before?”
God is everywhere
Am I looking into the mirror yet?
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Pure Offerings
They look like white mammoth butterflies,
Perched with nothing better to do than
Show off their metamorphosed beauty.
The magnolias are in bloom.
Born in bloom,
This towering, flowering tree is right
In the stern gaze of General Lee.
A living monument to behold
Where otherwise one would catch carved stone down
This historic Avenue
But today the rigid General has given
Up his pedestal to the pure offerings of blossoms
June stops her tears and clears her eyes
The pigeons dive for dinner
They look like white mammoth butterflies,
Perched with nothing better to do than
Show off their metamorphosed beauty.
The magnolias are in bloom.
Born in bloom,
This towering, flowering tree is right
In the stern gaze of General Lee.
A living monument to behold
Where otherwise one would catch carved stone down
This historic Avenue
But today the rigid General has given
Up his pedestal to the pure offerings of blossoms
June stops her tears and clears her eyes
The pigeons dive for dinner
Greece under my converse
I did it with complete confidence that it could be done - a climb to the highest point with high top chucks, at one point they were the highest pair of black canvas high star shoes in all of Greece.
No reservations while others took minutes to strap up their waterproof, ice gouging, ultra hiker 6000 boots,
No hesitations when even our guide slipped and was injured, nope, not one when I stayed behind to assist him, carry his bags, and get snow to ice his injury.
Up and down in two days and all Chuck could say was “let me know when you need a break Mike cause we can run circles around those overweight Tims – come on let me at em” They did it too, boy they did. What? the water that did seep in provided some extra cool and cleansing to my sweaty toes, and the rubber that rubbed off a bit was just to carry the experience further, a trophy, a scar to be proud of - like a knife fight or wrestling crocodiles. And that’s Mt. Olympus – Zeus’ biceps, triceps, and pecks flexed with the snow capped curves and rocky ridges, his seat was taken over by a bunch of foreigners who gulped thinner air and carried digital cameras. Temporarily. For all who make it to the top respectfully hand over to its caretaker and only take back the pebbles that get stuck in between their toes. On the way down the pines patted us on the back because they also know only One can throw lightning bolts with the accuracy of justice.
How about being at the highest point one day and the lowest point the very next – sea level, 2918 meters to 0. Sarti, the second peninsula in the north provided slim recuperation time – my legs needed it and my converse needed to air out. Yet hiking along the sidewinder roads along Greece’s ancient fingers provided a different kind of air – the kind men of the sea have multiple words for, they swear and sail by them. Our goal was in mind too – our very own private beach to lie out and camp for the night, and so my legs didn’t buckle but to carry the rest of my body to the sand we staked out. The radioactive quartz contrasted the ice sea – its one of those things you just have to jump into head first.
The night was ended with bread, beans and rice under the night’s sky – with billions of worlds watching us and us watching them and hopefully no one watching our illegal campfire.
See the barnacles and snails? The water was so clear that it turned blue, it’s like the sky doubling over on itself – for all infinite things carry a similar color. Wait, did you see that thing? – I think one touched me... it did. I didn’t know brine shrimp were so brave.
Nearing the afternoon we pack up and aim towards town along the path where our shadows give the dirt a chance to cool off. Bus leaves at 5:30 – its 5:10 now, yeah? You want a crepe? Is there chocolate on my face? That was the best banana chocolate crepe one could ask for sitting under the awning of a café. Across the street is his competition, and probably his uncle, selling exactly the same thing at the same price but with a different name tag – different colors. Sorry, the red and white had me sold. Wait a second, what time is it? We quickly pay, Ciao and a wink returned and we’re off. To the bus stop around the corner where we sit down on the bench and wait for the bus to come.
And wait for the bus to come.
I think we missed the bus. No we didn’t. we were only 4 minutes past 5:30. We didn’t. Those crepes were good. Is there chocolate on my face – why didn’t you tell me! I think we missed the bus. Go ask them...
I don’t want to, they’ve been staring at us since we got here. These guys with tight jeans and mustaches – drinking frappes and beer all day on the corner. You do it, no you do it….I DON’T SPEAK GREEK!
We go to some other lady and she informs that the bus came and went and evidently we were eating crepes. Oh well, next bus is tomorrow at 7am. YOU mean tomorrow as in after the sun goes down and back up again – that tomorrow where Omar has an exam at noon? Oh ok, thanks dear. This is expected when you decided to go backpacking without a watch, but we’re adaptable, right? The ATM is out of cash and all we have is enough money to pay for the bus ticket back to Thessaloniki – a 4 hour ride that cost us 13 euro each to get here.
Our food money is down to maybe a euro and a half – couldn’t even buy another crepe and its only 6 pm…..what to do, what to do…
I got it! lets go up to the main road see if we can hitch a ride
But they don’t do that here in Greece, I mean, its rare, especially with a bunch of sunburned foreigners – come on.
No, we’re going to try at least for an hour, then we can figure out what else we can do. I’m pretty sure someone will stop – in the back of a truck or whatever, we’ll get some place where we’ll have more options.
We throw down our gear at the top of the road – look both ways along the lined asphalt where we can see for miles on either side. Nobody. I grab a stalk of dried grass and start to chew on it while Omar is lying out in the middle of the road. Minutes later a car is coming and we’re waving – they wave back and keep going, no, they actually accelerate. We got a routine down, thumbs up, money in hand – Thessaloniki?
An old Greek native comes strolling up the road behind us. Silence. He has the aged skin and the sun worn shirt and pants, a mouth grown never tired of feta cheese and olives. The long eyes stared miles ahead, Thessaloniki?, I must be using the wrong accent, or maybe it’s the chocolate on my nose. What was funny was that we were pretending that we meant to be standing there at the top of the single lane road with all our bags, like this was our destination. Yet, it was that we were a bit ashamed of the whole thing, for his presence caught us up in deep reverence for the simplicity of old, as the experiences and wisdom floated before us - we were too ignorant to see past our situation as apparently left behind in a quite town which we perceived as having nothing we could use or want. We were nothing to him because we had already turned our back and our desires rushed to be anywhere but here, we weren’t there and he didn’t see us.
Fewer cars went by than minutes and even fewer gave any sign that they understood what we were doing.
Up pulls a four door fiat with a burly Greek from the same road behind us coming out of the town. Thessaloniki? – hop in
and we didn’t step twice about it
Introductions and pleasantries were due - all in Greek of course and then not much else to be said – he was going where we wanted to go and had 3 extra seats. Theres something satisfying in traveling 100mph in a car with a man you don’t know sitting next to you smoking cigarettes like they were after dinner mints. Minutes of uninterrupted silence – slowing to let the curves do what they do and slowing to let the goats do what they shouldn’t do.
A stop at a café: Frappe, Coke, Beera?
No, no, but thanks, ok?
Ok, coke then
The drivers buying – quite men are the most generous if not but to give the silence a turn to talk.
We continue on with smiles hurting our faces, the sunburn didn’t give it away? I’m American. More silence and wind banging on my window because its wants a ride – wouldn’t you get tired of chunks of metal flying through you at ridiculous speeds?
Thessaloniki in an hour and a half and I believe we beat the bus that never needed us anyway. The old man was Poseidon reminding us that what’s behind us is just as important as what’s in front.
To be continued…..
I did it with complete confidence that it could be done - a climb to the highest point with high top chucks, at one point they were the highest pair of black canvas high star shoes in all of Greece.
No reservations while others took minutes to strap up their waterproof, ice gouging, ultra hiker 6000 boots,
No hesitations when even our guide slipped and was injured, nope, not one when I stayed behind to assist him, carry his bags, and get snow to ice his injury.
Up and down in two days and all Chuck could say was “let me know when you need a break Mike cause we can run circles around those overweight Tims – come on let me at em” They did it too, boy they did. What? the water that did seep in provided some extra cool and cleansing to my sweaty toes, and the rubber that rubbed off a bit was just to carry the experience further, a trophy, a scar to be proud of - like a knife fight or wrestling crocodiles. And that’s Mt. Olympus – Zeus’ biceps, triceps, and pecks flexed with the snow capped curves and rocky ridges, his seat was taken over by a bunch of foreigners who gulped thinner air and carried digital cameras. Temporarily. For all who make it to the top respectfully hand over to its caretaker and only take back the pebbles that get stuck in between their toes. On the way down the pines patted us on the back because they also know only One can throw lightning bolts with the accuracy of justice.
How about being at the highest point one day and the lowest point the very next – sea level, 2918 meters to 0. Sarti, the second peninsula in the north provided slim recuperation time – my legs needed it and my converse needed to air out. Yet hiking along the sidewinder roads along Greece’s ancient fingers provided a different kind of air – the kind men of the sea have multiple words for, they swear and sail by them. Our goal was in mind too – our very own private beach to lie out and camp for the night, and so my legs didn’t buckle but to carry the rest of my body to the sand we staked out. The radioactive quartz contrasted the ice sea – its one of those things you just have to jump into head first.
The night was ended with bread, beans and rice under the night’s sky – with billions of worlds watching us and us watching them and hopefully no one watching our illegal campfire.
See the barnacles and snails? The water was so clear that it turned blue, it’s like the sky doubling over on itself – for all infinite things carry a similar color. Wait, did you see that thing? – I think one touched me... it did. I didn’t know brine shrimp were so brave.
Nearing the afternoon we pack up and aim towards town along the path where our shadows give the dirt a chance to cool off. Bus leaves at 5:30 – its 5:10 now, yeah? You want a crepe? Is there chocolate on my face? That was the best banana chocolate crepe one could ask for sitting under the awning of a café. Across the street is his competition, and probably his uncle, selling exactly the same thing at the same price but with a different name tag – different colors. Sorry, the red and white had me sold. Wait a second, what time is it? We quickly pay, Ciao and a wink returned and we’re off. To the bus stop around the corner where we sit down on the bench and wait for the bus to come.
And wait for the bus to come.
I think we missed the bus. No we didn’t. we were only 4 minutes past 5:30. We didn’t. Those crepes were good. Is there chocolate on my face – why didn’t you tell me! I think we missed the bus. Go ask them...
I don’t want to, they’ve been staring at us since we got here. These guys with tight jeans and mustaches – drinking frappes and beer all day on the corner. You do it, no you do it….I DON’T SPEAK GREEK!
We go to some other lady and she informs that the bus came and went and evidently we were eating crepes. Oh well, next bus is tomorrow at 7am. YOU mean tomorrow as in after the sun goes down and back up again – that tomorrow where Omar has an exam at noon? Oh ok, thanks dear. This is expected when you decided to go backpacking without a watch, but we’re adaptable, right? The ATM is out of cash and all we have is enough money to pay for the bus ticket back to Thessaloniki – a 4 hour ride that cost us 13 euro each to get here.
Our food money is down to maybe a euro and a half – couldn’t even buy another crepe and its only 6 pm…..what to do, what to do…
I got it! lets go up to the main road see if we can hitch a ride
But they don’t do that here in Greece, I mean, its rare, especially with a bunch of sunburned foreigners – come on.
No, we’re going to try at least for an hour, then we can figure out what else we can do. I’m pretty sure someone will stop – in the back of a truck or whatever, we’ll get some place where we’ll have more options.
We throw down our gear at the top of the road – look both ways along the lined asphalt where we can see for miles on either side. Nobody. I grab a stalk of dried grass and start to chew on it while Omar is lying out in the middle of the road. Minutes later a car is coming and we’re waving – they wave back and keep going, no, they actually accelerate. We got a routine down, thumbs up, money in hand – Thessaloniki?
An old Greek native comes strolling up the road behind us. Silence. He has the aged skin and the sun worn shirt and pants, a mouth grown never tired of feta cheese and olives. The long eyes stared miles ahead, Thessaloniki?, I must be using the wrong accent, or maybe it’s the chocolate on my nose. What was funny was that we were pretending that we meant to be standing there at the top of the single lane road with all our bags, like this was our destination. Yet, it was that we were a bit ashamed of the whole thing, for his presence caught us up in deep reverence for the simplicity of old, as the experiences and wisdom floated before us - we were too ignorant to see past our situation as apparently left behind in a quite town which we perceived as having nothing we could use or want. We were nothing to him because we had already turned our back and our desires rushed to be anywhere but here, we weren’t there and he didn’t see us.
Fewer cars went by than minutes and even fewer gave any sign that they understood what we were doing.
Up pulls a four door fiat with a burly Greek from the same road behind us coming out of the town. Thessaloniki? – hop in
and we didn’t step twice about it
Introductions and pleasantries were due - all in Greek of course and then not much else to be said – he was going where we wanted to go and had 3 extra seats. Theres something satisfying in traveling 100mph in a car with a man you don’t know sitting next to you smoking cigarettes like they were after dinner mints. Minutes of uninterrupted silence – slowing to let the curves do what they do and slowing to let the goats do what they shouldn’t do.
A stop at a café: Frappe, Coke, Beera?
No, no, but thanks, ok?
Ok, coke then
The drivers buying – quite men are the most generous if not but to give the silence a turn to talk.
We continue on with smiles hurting our faces, the sunburn didn’t give it away? I’m American. More silence and wind banging on my window because its wants a ride – wouldn’t you get tired of chunks of metal flying through you at ridiculous speeds?
Thessaloniki in an hour and a half and I believe we beat the bus that never needed us anyway. The old man was Poseidon reminding us that what’s behind us is just as important as what’s in front.
To be continued…..
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Albert Einstein
US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Tradition
The Tao does not speak of itself
So the Two came forth to describe but One
The One body is a mountain – knowing sun and shade
The One body is a stream – being swift yet still
The One body is a pine – yielding but strong
Harmony with Yin and Yang, there is nothing wrong
The landscape is forever intimate, knowing when to stop and begin
The One body is never divided in Yang and Yin
So the Two came forth to describe but One
The One body is a mountain – knowing sun and shade
The One body is a stream – being swift yet still
The One body is a pine – yielding but strong
Harmony with Yin and Yang, there is nothing wrong
The landscape is forever intimate, knowing when to stop and begin
The One body is never divided in Yang and Yin
GOING HERE
Some people just can’t sit still – they got to go all around in circles, see this and that, and forget about that stuff under their feet – what’s that? Oh, its HERE. Well excuse me for butting in but I’m HERE, where are you? What’s the problem with just stopping for a second, or even for a day, but sorry to trouble you for you got the whole year planned out and you can’t be bothered to stop until you get there. But where are you actually going? Well you can run in circles all you want but what happens is that you end up forgetting yourself, because you’re never completely HERE to think about it. and what’s the trouble with just stopping for a moment to see your reflection, no not the mirror to see how you look for the dinner you have tonight then you got to make sure that its all tidy and in order on the outside cause you know that its got to cover up what it really looks like on the inside. what it is – is that your afraid of what might reflect back to you when you stop – so you keep going only to let yourself forget about it until one of two things happens: either all this mess builds up on the inside, where the pressure becomes too great cause you haven’t been paying any attention to it – then – boom the mess is released in a fury of tears and you’ve lost control - you are forced to feel all that which you have been running from – well, not forced to because its natural, just that you have been delaying all those little guys saying we need attention and your just delaying having to deal with them, and then finally they all get together and protest and break down the castle doors and demand to get their issues resolved – they just want justice. That’s option number one and I’ve seen it happen. Option number two is stopping for a minute and letting someone like me talk you into just sitting for a minute and playing a game called who can be silent the longest – allowing you finally to arrive to that place you’ve been running to, you thought it was behind your back but now its in front of you. The HERE is telling you to take off your shoes and stay a while. The Here is telling you how to deal with those guys lined up behind that big door you put up, one by one. whispering in your ear that you are all you ever need and that you’ve got it right HERE. Both options are difficult, but one involves a lot less suffering to learn an important lesson – I cant tell you, I cant, but what I can do is point you in the right direction where we don’t have to be running anymore, where we don’t have to have a check list to make it look like we’ve gotten things done – because once you sit to let this hurried you take in some oxygen, take in some serenity, then you just might realize that you’ve done it all before and it always seemed the same, I mean you didn’t actually go anywhere at all and you’ve been carrying all this suffering around so why not try something new that is actually doing nothing at all, but then you might find out that you were doing this all along – nothing. So why waste the energy when you don’t have to do anything for the same results? If you put all that energy into HERE, then you might actually go places…..I’ve seen it.
Some people just can’t sit still – they got to go all around in circles, see this and that, and forget about that stuff under their feet – what’s that? Oh, its HERE. Well excuse me for butting in but I’m HERE, where are you? What’s the problem with just stopping for a second, or even for a day, but sorry to trouble you for you got the whole year planned out and you can’t be bothered to stop until you get there. But where are you actually going? Well you can run in circles all you want but what happens is that you end up forgetting yourself, because you’re never completely HERE to think about it. and what’s the trouble with just stopping for a moment to see your reflection, no not the mirror to see how you look for the dinner you have tonight then you got to make sure that its all tidy and in order on the outside cause you know that its got to cover up what it really looks like on the inside. what it is – is that your afraid of what might reflect back to you when you stop – so you keep going only to let yourself forget about it until one of two things happens: either all this mess builds up on the inside, where the pressure becomes too great cause you haven’t been paying any attention to it – then – boom the mess is released in a fury of tears and you’ve lost control - you are forced to feel all that which you have been running from – well, not forced to because its natural, just that you have been delaying all those little guys saying we need attention and your just delaying having to deal with them, and then finally they all get together and protest and break down the castle doors and demand to get their issues resolved – they just want justice. That’s option number one and I’ve seen it happen. Option number two is stopping for a minute and letting someone like me talk you into just sitting for a minute and playing a game called who can be silent the longest – allowing you finally to arrive to that place you’ve been running to, you thought it was behind your back but now its in front of you. The HERE is telling you to take off your shoes and stay a while. The Here is telling you how to deal with those guys lined up behind that big door you put up, one by one. whispering in your ear that you are all you ever need and that you’ve got it right HERE. Both options are difficult, but one involves a lot less suffering to learn an important lesson – I cant tell you, I cant, but what I can do is point you in the right direction where we don’t have to be running anymore, where we don’t have to have a check list to make it look like we’ve gotten things done – because once you sit to let this hurried you take in some oxygen, take in some serenity, then you just might realize that you’ve done it all before and it always seemed the same, I mean you didn’t actually go anywhere at all and you’ve been carrying all this suffering around so why not try something new that is actually doing nothing at all, but then you might find out that you were doing this all along – nothing. So why waste the energy when you don’t have to do anything for the same results? If you put all that energy into HERE, then you might actually go places…..I’ve seen it.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
The beautiful lights reflected daily
Pregnant women and pastels
Grey men and grey beards
Walking sticks and hobbles
The ones in neck braces
Children with chocolate on their faces
Triplets and twin smiles
The ones sitting and holding hands
Asian ladies and Mercedes
Enthusiastic stylists and invitations
Coffee cake bakers and talkative shoppers
The cashier offering nickels
Task givers and task takers
The teenage music fakers
Last minute lecturing and tea searching
Business men and business cards
Motorcycle couples thinking hard
Black men in plaid and black ear hair
The Cell phone glued with gold flair
Large sunglasses and divorced mothers
Angles sparkling and walking in the sun
Pregnant women and pastels
Grey men and grey beards
Walking sticks and hobbles
The ones in neck braces
Children with chocolate on their faces
Triplets and twin smiles
The ones sitting and holding hands
Asian ladies and Mercedes
Enthusiastic stylists and invitations
Coffee cake bakers and talkative shoppers
The cashier offering nickels
Task givers and task takers
The teenage music fakers
Last minute lecturing and tea searching
Business men and business cards
Motorcycle couples thinking hard
Black men in plaid and black ear hair
The Cell phone glued with gold flair
Large sunglasses and divorced mothers
Angles sparkling and walking in the sun
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
A visible night
There’s a people that’s invisible
That’s why we’re here
We offer our solidarity
For eye opening light to be there
We accept the aching bones
The lone concrete for this night
For my brothers and sisters
Who don’t deserve to live in fright
For a country that we’ve never seen
For a people that we’ve never met
The possibility of pervading peace
The sustainability of one society
We go without certain needs
Even our prayers prayed on their knees
That’s why we’re here
We offer collectivity
For soul strengthening love to be there
There’s a people that’s invisible
That’s why we’re here
We offer our solidarity
For eye opening light to be there
We accept the aching bones
The lone concrete for this night
For my brothers and sisters
Who don’t deserve to live in fright
For a country that we’ve never seen
For a people that we’ve never met
The possibility of pervading peace
The sustainability of one society
We go without certain needs
Even our prayers prayed on their knees
That’s why we’re here
We offer collectivity
For soul strengthening love to be there
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Listen, Sweetheart
Do I seem the same
Look at the eye that remains,
For eternity.
The green blankets just cover,
My salutations,
Under my breath I bless.
We walk for shade,
And put on sunglasses.
Never questioning the brightness,
Which sustains and grows,
With an intensity only One knows.
Lets not forget,
The little balls of light,
Which dance and sing,
When our thoughts hold their hands.
Looking something like this -
The squiggles and the straights,
To form sense in cooperation,
Yet still barely blanketed with green.
Now some will lay,
Absorbed unconsciously playing,
With the fluffy energy that tickles,
Asking only for the barriers to be broken.
The sun shines,
And only the ones in the way create shade.
Didn’t you know, sweetheart,
Sunglasses are for the blind.
Shining Questions
Everything shines in its presence
Love knows no distance
Light smiles of tranquil tones
White footprints not alone
A seeming breeze
Stirs a question out loud
Where was I, just now?
Do I seem the same
Look at the eye that remains,
For eternity.
The green blankets just cover,
My salutations,
Under my breath I bless.
We walk for shade,
And put on sunglasses.
Never questioning the brightness,
Which sustains and grows,
With an intensity only One knows.
Lets not forget,
The little balls of light,
Which dance and sing,
When our thoughts hold their hands.
Looking something like this -
The squiggles and the straights,
To form sense in cooperation,
Yet still barely blanketed with green.
Now some will lay,
Absorbed unconsciously playing,
With the fluffy energy that tickles,
Asking only for the barriers to be broken.
The sun shines,
And only the ones in the way create shade.
Didn’t you know, sweetheart,
Sunglasses are for the blind.
Shining Questions
Everything shines in its presence
Love knows no distance
Light smiles of tranquil tones
White footprints not alone
A seeming breeze
Stirs a question out loud
Where was I, just now?
Saturday, April 22, 2006
One love
All we need to know
One eye, one sight, one truth
One love
One step, one path, one word
One love
One earth, one body, one purpose
One love
Multiple moments converge into one
One chance, one effort, one action
To know one
One love
It takes one
One death, one life
One man, one woman
One love
One passion, one fruit
One moment, one memento
One love
One child, one miracle
One creator, one destroyer
One eye, one sight, one truth
One love
One step, one path, one word
One love
One earth, one body, one purpose
One love
Multiple moments converge into one
One chance, one effort, one action
To know one
One love
It takes one
One death, one life
One man, one woman
One love
One passion, one fruit
One moment, one memento
One love
One child, one miracle
One creator, one destroyer
One heart
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
To my dearest
To the paths that present themselves
You are not the path
To the words that weave themselves
You are not the word
And to the thoughts that arise out of silence
You are not silence
What are you all doing here?
I invite you elsewhere
To my eyes that keep watch
You can retire
To my ears that stiffen their drums
You can relax
And to my back that straightens it all out
You are relieved
Duty is your calling, yet
Duty you do not call
I need you inasmuch
As I need to realize I don’t need you
The master is ready to serve
While the servants are eager to master
Such is the law abiding light
Those who carry it, have the lesser need
I cry let the light shine
I cry in the ignorance of your night
To my tears which have been held back
You can flow
To the paths that present themselves
You are not the path
To the words that weave themselves
You are not the word
And to the thoughts that arise out of silence
You are not silence
What are you all doing here?
I invite you elsewhere
To my eyes that keep watch
You can retire
To my ears that stiffen their drums
You can relax
And to my back that straightens it all out
You are relieved
Duty is your calling, yet
Duty you do not call
I need you inasmuch
As I need to realize I don’t need you
The master is ready to serve
While the servants are eager to master
Such is the law abiding light
Those who carry it, have the lesser need
I cry let the light shine
I cry in the ignorance of your night
To my tears which have been held back
You can flow
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Silent Student
What is all around can be found
In daily stepping
Observing without sound
Actions of masters who have managed so far
Teachers that don’t even know they know
What am I in this mess
Absorbing it so fast
The wisdom can not be put in words
The words only imply wisdom
But what I feel is beyond:
My thinking mind - My daily tunnel vision
Hovering between sound and silence
For the deepest lecture means nothing
Without the silence - which teaches just the same
When I find the boundary between the two
It will describe my state exactly
Because I’ll know the only boundary that exists
Is the one I’ve constructed
Sound is the same as silence – I’ve found
But these words try to imprison my ideas
With the overabundance of speaking lips
That creates an empty sound
I prefer taking silent sips
From the silent tea that awaits silently
To teach me
What is all around can be found
In daily stepping
Observing without sound
Actions of masters who have managed so far
Teachers that don’t even know they know
What am I in this mess
Absorbing it so fast
The wisdom can not be put in words
The words only imply wisdom
But what I feel is beyond:
My thinking mind - My daily tunnel vision
Hovering between sound and silence
For the deepest lecture means nothing
Without the silence - which teaches just the same
When I find the boundary between the two
It will describe my state exactly
Because I’ll know the only boundary that exists
Is the one I’ve constructed
Sound is the same as silence – I’ve found
But these words try to imprison my ideas
With the overabundance of speaking lips
That creates an empty sound
I prefer taking silent sips
From the silent tea that awaits silently
To teach me
Monday, March 20, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Over stepping
why are we afraid
of the eyes of passer bys
we may reflect ourselves
I'm tired of the taboo
of feeling something
I'm not supposed to in you
anxiety breaks bridges of experience
of true feeling we're never
told about
there's no doubt
we bury our treasure deep
inside
we weep for attention
yet receive with apprehension
trusting illusion over intuition
confusion over realization
becoming beggars on the path to peace
we distract ourselves with waiting
over stepping simple bliss release
why are we afraid
of the eyes of passer bys
we may reflect ourselves
I'm tired of the taboo
of feeling something
I'm not supposed to in you
anxiety breaks bridges of experience
of true feeling we're never
told about
there's no doubt
we bury our treasure deep
inside
we weep for attention
yet receive with apprehension
trusting illusion over intuition
confusion over realization
becoming beggars on the path to peace
we distract ourselves with waiting
over stepping simple bliss release
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Her Sacred Cavity
the void gives rise to that which is erected
space provides room for existence
that which receives can hold the sending
spontaneity lends its self to structure
whence do all things come and go?
being nothing, now we have something
emptiness knows existence
through being filled in
alas! members need a place to sit
which comes first -
the breathing in or the breathing out?
Substance is nothing - no thing
how else could we measure it?
the void gives rise to that which is erected
space provides room for existence
that which receives can hold the sending
spontaneity lends its self to structure
whence do all things come and go?
being nothing, now we have something
emptiness knows existence
through being filled in
alas! members need a place to sit
which comes first -
the breathing in or the breathing out?
Substance is nothing - no thing
how else could we measure it?
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Love is-
It is very difficult to actually define what love is. We may try to define it in terms of what love is not. Love can not be contained; it is nothing made of molecules. Love is not taking anything; it is not wanting. Love is never the cause of unhappiness; it is not a weakness. Love is not sexual in nature; it is not of the physical senses. There are many conventions which we may attach the word love to – but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Love is indeed so simple that we make it all complex and wishy-washy, and we get in trouble when we try to define it with our limited terms. It is just as crazy as defining what God is – can we really put it in a box of conventions and hand it to someone else – we say “here is my love, look, don’t you see it?” Oh, the trouble we get ourselves into. Indeed we feel pain at this misunderstanding. To feel love is to feel everything – who can describe that? Jesus said “God is Love”, well then Love is God. It is the one thing we all have, yet go about looking for. What we really desire as humans is to give it – for the more we give away the more we open ourselves to receive it, though it is not something we can run out of. It is the all underlying cause of our life – for we search for that which makes us smile – to be happy at the end of the day. And this is realizing that we are in love – in love with life. Love is the eternal fabric of our being – and the single most ‘thing’ that we realize is worth living for. When we hear all the business of that we are all connected somehow – well love is that connection. It is more than the connection, but the page in which we write our words on. It is the canvas that we paint on. So how is it that we are not all brimming with love in bliss with each other? We see the fascinating colors and objects painted in this world – yet we easily forget that none of it would exist without the painter – and the painter wouldn’t be able to paint without the underlying canvas which allows the paint to be visible. The canvas is love, for it gives us a chance to experience life while humbly staying in the background. It asks not to be recognized. To the one who can see beyond the pretty colors, love presents itself! And we say “Ahhh, it’s so simple and it was there all along, how did I ever miss it?” Use whatever metaphor you like, for love can be found in everything.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Most of us have kept the dove of our spirit bound in a cage, it has forgotten how to fly. It has become weak without exercise - this is the stagnation of the spirit. This is the deeper cause of our sufferings - for the beauty of the dove is not to be kept in a cage - it is to let it fly out into existance and experience. Let us have no desire to keep it for ourselves, for true bliss is not to be contained.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
Bible thoughts for today -
Mark 16:15-18
Then he (Jesus) told them: “go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation. The man who believes in it and accepts baptism will be saved; the man who refuses to believe in it will be condemned. Signs like these will accompany those who have professed their faith: they will use my name to expel demons, they will speak entirely new languages, they will be able to handle serpents, they will be able to drink deadly poison without harm, and the sick upon whom they lay their hands will recover.”
Interpretation according to Michael:
Accepting baptism during the time of Jesus was accepting the truth of the spirit. It is a first step to outwardly accepting that we are more that our bodies and ‘baptism’ was the ritual for this, using the cleansing and renewing symbol of water – which is a powerful symbol in almost all religions.
Signs will accompany those who have professed their faith – this profession is the total acceptance of the realization of who we actually are. By professing we are doing more than speaking out, we have no doubt – we have understood a greater truth and are amazed at the bliss we have found! There is no other way to express our new found love but to profess it unto others through every expression of our being.
With this realization we are able to live through the greater Will of God, there are no limits, no boundaries to our minds – miracles can be worked. But actually they are only miracles to those who have not opened up to this greatness – deeming what they see to be impossible! That is what we call miracles – but to the spirit, there is no miracle at all – only actions coming and going, for no definition can be placed on God. What it comes down to is that the realized soul is beyond suffering – for they will be able to do what most perceive as fatal, handling snakes – drinking poison and such. It is even more amazing that we are then bestowed, through right discernment (only because our discernment is the same as Gods), the power to heal through the laying of hands. This similarity also follows most other spiritual / religious thought (reiki). The dispelling of demons was also another way of healing disease – for in that era unexplained medical conditions were thought to be caused by demons. Indeed, that is why the bible is thick with cases of when Jesus expelled demons. Though what is illness other than a malady of the spirit caused by ignorance?
Mark 16:15-18
Then he (Jesus) told them: “go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation. The man who believes in it and accepts baptism will be saved; the man who refuses to believe in it will be condemned. Signs like these will accompany those who have professed their faith: they will use my name to expel demons, they will speak entirely new languages, they will be able to handle serpents, they will be able to drink deadly poison without harm, and the sick upon whom they lay their hands will recover.”
Interpretation according to Michael:
Accepting baptism during the time of Jesus was accepting the truth of the spirit. It is a first step to outwardly accepting that we are more that our bodies and ‘baptism’ was the ritual for this, using the cleansing and renewing symbol of water – which is a powerful symbol in almost all religions.
Signs will accompany those who have professed their faith – this profession is the total acceptance of the realization of who we actually are. By professing we are doing more than speaking out, we have no doubt – we have understood a greater truth and are amazed at the bliss we have found! There is no other way to express our new found love but to profess it unto others through every expression of our being.
With this realization we are able to live through the greater Will of God, there are no limits, no boundaries to our minds – miracles can be worked. But actually they are only miracles to those who have not opened up to this greatness – deeming what they see to be impossible! That is what we call miracles – but to the spirit, there is no miracle at all – only actions coming and going, for no definition can be placed on God. What it comes down to is that the realized soul is beyond suffering – for they will be able to do what most perceive as fatal, handling snakes – drinking poison and such. It is even more amazing that we are then bestowed, through right discernment (only because our discernment is the same as Gods), the power to heal through the laying of hands. This similarity also follows most other spiritual / religious thought (reiki). The dispelling of demons was also another way of healing disease – for in that era unexplained medical conditions were thought to be caused by demons. Indeed, that is why the bible is thick with cases of when Jesus expelled demons. Though what is illness other than a malady of the spirit caused by ignorance?
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Mans Eternal Quest
words by Paramahansa Yogananda:
"When we pass through the door of the spiritual eye, we see inside ourselves the factory of intelligent Life energy that has created the whole universe. Because we don’t concentrate within, we are mystified by the imprints of the invisible Spirit in nature. We behold the productions of God; His name written in the flower and in the sky, in everything – but He is silent. As human beings we are very much privileged, for among all God’s creaters man alone has the physical, mental, and spiritual endowment necessary to seek Him, to find Him, to know Him, and to understand His language of silence.
To be happy under all circumstances is real success.
Success is not a simple matter; it cannot be determined merely by the amount of money and material possessions you have. The meaning of success goes far deeper. It can only be measured by the extent to which your inner peace and mental control enable you to be happy under all circumstances. That is real success. When you can look within and your conscience is clear, you reason unprejudiced, your will firm yet flexible, and your discrimination strong; and when you are able to obtain at will the things you need and the things you consider worthwhile, you are a success.
Receive Knowledge directly from spirit.
Don’t waste your time. God wants you to be a balanced individual. If you allow your life to become unbalanced you will be punished by the cosmic law. Live simply, have daily physical exercise, study rewarding books, and cultivate the habit of daily meditation. If you meditate you will find much more happiness than you have ever known. All knowledge will be given to you from within.
Learn how to cultivate the consciousness of Spirit. That is why you were born a human being. You were created under the evolutionary law that you might exercise your divine powers to find God. The only meaning of life is to find the all loving God, who has kept us apart from Himself by shyly hiding from us. We must find Him. Mankind is engaged in an eternal quest for that “something else” he hopes will bring him happiness, complete and unending. For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that Something Else. There are various techniques for discovering the Spirit. Silence is one of them. Practicing silence means to silence all desires that try to percolate into your consciousness from outside, so you can go deeper within to feel your soul".
words by Paramahansa Yogananda:
"When we pass through the door of the spiritual eye, we see inside ourselves the factory of intelligent Life energy that has created the whole universe. Because we don’t concentrate within, we are mystified by the imprints of the invisible Spirit in nature. We behold the productions of God; His name written in the flower and in the sky, in everything – but He is silent. As human beings we are very much privileged, for among all God’s creaters man alone has the physical, mental, and spiritual endowment necessary to seek Him, to find Him, to know Him, and to understand His language of silence.
To be happy under all circumstances is real success.
Success is not a simple matter; it cannot be determined merely by the amount of money and material possessions you have. The meaning of success goes far deeper. It can only be measured by the extent to which your inner peace and mental control enable you to be happy under all circumstances. That is real success. When you can look within and your conscience is clear, you reason unprejudiced, your will firm yet flexible, and your discrimination strong; and when you are able to obtain at will the things you need and the things you consider worthwhile, you are a success.
Receive Knowledge directly from spirit.
Don’t waste your time. God wants you to be a balanced individual. If you allow your life to become unbalanced you will be punished by the cosmic law. Live simply, have daily physical exercise, study rewarding books, and cultivate the habit of daily meditation. If you meditate you will find much more happiness than you have ever known. All knowledge will be given to you from within.
Learn how to cultivate the consciousness of Spirit. That is why you were born a human being. You were created under the evolutionary law that you might exercise your divine powers to find God. The only meaning of life is to find the all loving God, who has kept us apart from Himself by shyly hiding from us. We must find Him. Mankind is engaged in an eternal quest for that “something else” he hopes will bring him happiness, complete and unending. For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that Something Else. There are various techniques for discovering the Spirit. Silence is one of them. Practicing silence means to silence all desires that try to percolate into your consciousness from outside, so you can go deeper within to feel your soul".
Friday, February 03, 2006
No effort, One activity
Don’t be strewn across the landscape of activity
Let thine eye be single
A One pointed mind can move mountains
And there is no difference between this and that
Because that is this and we are all that
Which is One
So let no effort be carried out
Without the effort of knowing nothing else
Other than that the effort has become
One with the single eye and the One pointed mind
This is the way of no effort
This is the way of One activity.
Don’t be strewn across the landscape of activity
Let thine eye be single
A One pointed mind can move mountains
And there is no difference between this and that
Because that is this and we are all that
Which is One
So let no effort be carried out
Without the effort of knowing nothing else
Other than that the effort has become
One with the single eye and the One pointed mind
This is the way of no effort
This is the way of One activity.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Bliss Simplicity
Waking up and going to sleep
Just give me twenty four hours
To understand life and death
It all comes and goes in a day
All an entire lifespan
Of learning life and giving it away
To dreams that last seconds
But seem like years
Gaining hope and overcoming fears
In the calmness of the afternoon
It comes to me
Bliss simplicity
In the aura of the setting sun
It comes to me
Bliss simplicity
Waking up and going to sleep
Just give me twenty four hours
To understand life and death
It all comes and goes in a day
All an entire lifespan
Of learning life and giving it away
To dreams that last seconds
But seem like years
Gaining hope and overcoming fears
In the calmness of the afternoon
It comes to me
Bliss simplicity
In the aura of the setting sun
It comes to me
Bliss simplicity
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
The Immutable
I walk among ghosts
I walk among zombies
I walk among the dead before they have died
Who are these souls so young and so old
So accepting of time
Of which has no bearance on the soul
Why have they forgotten the immutable?
Why have they forgotten that
It is not by their will
That blood runs through their veins.
They have given up giving up
So much so they drop bread to the birds
And say that they are hungry
So much so they sleep with lions
And say that they are afraid
So much so they follow like sheep
And say that they have no direction
Who are these souls so young and so old
So influenced of mind
Of which has no bearance on the soul
Why have they forgotten the immutable?
I walk among ghosts
I walk among zombies
I walk among the dead before they have died
Who are these souls so young and so old
So accepting of time
Of which has no bearance on the soul
Why have they forgotten the immutable?
Why have they forgotten that
It is not by their will
That blood runs through their veins.
They have given up giving up
So much so they drop bread to the birds
And say that they are hungry
So much so they sleep with lions
And say that they are afraid
So much so they follow like sheep
And say that they have no direction
Who are these souls so young and so old
So influenced of mind
Of which has no bearance on the soul
Why have they forgotten the immutable?
Sunday, January 29, 2006
The man who changed my day:
Stumbling old man, with overgrown light blonde beard with hints of rust, snot accumulating on his mustache. Tattered jacket with dirt smudged sweater underneath. Ripped jeans, with black tennis shoes with Velcro.
“I’ve been great until now”
“I moved into a new place and it stinks. Well it doesn’t stink the people do.”
“People are like assholes – everyone has them and they all stink”
(walks away…then comes back 15mins later)
“You took these pictures?”
“I used to take pictures, when I was in my twenties.”
“Where are these?”
“I ate fish soup twice a day at gunpoint for three years”
“I was shot down over Cambodia.”
“I was a helicopter pilot, fighting in Vietnam.”
“The beat me everyday, knocked my teeth out, I have a metal plate in my skull, and replaced knees”
“They pissed and shit on me everyday.”
“When I got back I wanted to piss and shit on the President”
This let me to realizations: that the keys to solving many of our present problems are forged in the past. so many of us are conditioned by habit, fearing that we are stuck someplace we can never get out of and always a victim of reality. Really, - we create our own prisons cast out of our own judgments – creating these cells we choose to live in, or choose not to. Some things that happen may lie beyond our power of control, but we determine how to view the situation, and it is never beyond our power to heal and be at peace.
Stumbling old man, with overgrown light blonde beard with hints of rust, snot accumulating on his mustache. Tattered jacket with dirt smudged sweater underneath. Ripped jeans, with black tennis shoes with Velcro.
“I’ve been great until now”
“I moved into a new place and it stinks. Well it doesn’t stink the people do.”
“People are like assholes – everyone has them and they all stink”
(walks away…then comes back 15mins later)
“You took these pictures?”
“I used to take pictures, when I was in my twenties.”
“Where are these?”
“I ate fish soup twice a day at gunpoint for three years”
“I was shot down over Cambodia.”
“I was a helicopter pilot, fighting in Vietnam.”
“The beat me everyday, knocked my teeth out, I have a metal plate in my skull, and replaced knees”
“They pissed and shit on me everyday.”
“When I got back I wanted to piss and shit on the President”
This let me to realizations: that the keys to solving many of our present problems are forged in the past. so many of us are conditioned by habit, fearing that we are stuck someplace we can never get out of and always a victim of reality. Really, - we create our own prisons cast out of our own judgments – creating these cells we choose to live in, or choose not to. Some things that happen may lie beyond our power of control, but we determine how to view the situation, and it is never beyond our power to heal and be at peace.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
All things go back to their source
Nature is the highest metaphor for the way we can live best. It the way of teaching through creation, and through natural law, which simply equals being. Trees give oxygen, we breathe oxygen. Trees need carbon dioxide, we breathe out carbon dioxide. So it is in the cycle we are ever attached to what is outside us, breathing in creation. There is nothing beyond this very breath, for death looms with every inhalation and exhalation. “Breath is the cord that ties the soul to the physical body.” This works at the highest level as well, being that we can not live on ‘bread’ alone, that spirit is breathing into us life, and we get to be life, due to our actions and the actions of the spirit. It is never one or the other but a mutual balance. It is said that “man shall not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4:4) What are words but breath and vibrations? This says to me that it is the spirit that brings about life through the vibrations of energy creation – thoughts of God – and the breath is the flowing winds of our soul. We must not forget our creative power of words and intention that we have inhearited from our creator.
The quest of water is not unlike our own. Every drop flows in a manner that it is taking the path of least resistance, yet flowing with a purpose to return to its source – the ocean. So what is our purpose? To flow without resistance – to aim towards an immoveable bliss, as every being wants happiness and not suffering. If we return to our essential nature – our source – we can only find that we have all it is we are looking for. And it had been inside us all along – realizing the self is the path of water – realizing that although it seems we are separate molecules racing about this way and that, we are actually flowing towards a greater awareness of our being, which is eventually the goal of becoming one with the great ocean of truth: Love.
Nature is the highest metaphor for the way we can live best. It the way of teaching through creation, and through natural law, which simply equals being. Trees give oxygen, we breathe oxygen. Trees need carbon dioxide, we breathe out carbon dioxide. So it is in the cycle we are ever attached to what is outside us, breathing in creation. There is nothing beyond this very breath, for death looms with every inhalation and exhalation. “Breath is the cord that ties the soul to the physical body.” This works at the highest level as well, being that we can not live on ‘bread’ alone, that spirit is breathing into us life, and we get to be life, due to our actions and the actions of the spirit. It is never one or the other but a mutual balance. It is said that “man shall not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4:4) What are words but breath and vibrations? This says to me that it is the spirit that brings about life through the vibrations of energy creation – thoughts of God – and the breath is the flowing winds of our soul. We must not forget our creative power of words and intention that we have inhearited from our creator.
The quest of water is not unlike our own. Every drop flows in a manner that it is taking the path of least resistance, yet flowing with a purpose to return to its source – the ocean. So what is our purpose? To flow without resistance – to aim towards an immoveable bliss, as every being wants happiness and not suffering. If we return to our essential nature – our source – we can only find that we have all it is we are looking for. And it had been inside us all along – realizing the self is the path of water – realizing that although it seems we are separate molecules racing about this way and that, we are actually flowing towards a greater awareness of our being, which is eventually the goal of becoming one with the great ocean of truth: Love.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Monday, January 16, 2006
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
I die in the moment
Leaking through the picture screen
My eyes dazzle and dance for the unseen
If only for a moment’s high
I lift my heart up in a burning sky
To unveil – to encompass
Speaking syllables of silence
In the temple of unfaltering bliss
The light lets me know what it means to die
If only for a moment’s high
This Land
The mountain of my spirit
springs forth a stream of tears
to renew the valley of my heart
just as fields are most fertile
after the rageing floods
so shall my land be bountiful
with the bread of bliss again
Leaking through the picture screen
My eyes dazzle and dance for the unseen
If only for a moment’s high
I lift my heart up in a burning sky
To unveil – to encompass
Speaking syllables of silence
In the temple of unfaltering bliss
The light lets me know what it means to die
If only for a moment’s high
This Land
The mountain of my spirit
springs forth a stream of tears
to renew the valley of my heart
just as fields are most fertile
after the rageing floods
so shall my land be bountiful
with the bread of bliss again
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Bottle Opener
I am a wave, but I see no Ocean
Tossing and churning
Likened to monkeys swinging
So ignorant that I think my water
Is independent from that which surrounds me
I am bottled from the source
And labeled with a delusion
That there is some difference
To the purity that lies
Within this one of a kind skin
When we close our eyes
It all has the same taste
And satisfies all thirst desire
I am but a wave
Yet, it is the Ocean
That empowers me
I am a wave, but I see no Ocean
Tossing and churning
Likened to monkeys swinging
So ignorant that I think my water
Is independent from that which surrounds me
I am bottled from the source
And labeled with a delusion
That there is some difference
To the purity that lies
Within this one of a kind skin
When we close our eyes
It all has the same taste
And satisfies all thirst desire
I am but a wave
Yet, it is the Ocean
That empowers me
Friday, January 06, 2006
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Happy holidays and peace on earth!
time of giving means a time of selfless being - we may achieve abundance in giving that which we want for ourselves, that which is most difficult for us to give is what will create the most growth and bliss in ourselves. so during this time it is important to think of giving the smiles and love that we have eternally and can never exhaust. when we give this great gift to those around us = the generosity is passed along creating such a great effect that we are uplifted to a place of tranquility so easily - by thinking not of ourself we can realize how much we give to ourself in spirit and we can then know that a great blessing is upon us, somthing that is worth more than any thing we can give away - and somthing that lasts as long as we keep this state of mind. please let peace come into us through these acts - the acts of the inner love for a truth that is contained in every one of us.
time of giving means a time of selfless being - we may achieve abundance in giving that which we want for ourselves, that which is most difficult for us to give is what will create the most growth and bliss in ourselves. so during this time it is important to think of giving the smiles and love that we have eternally and can never exhaust. when we give this great gift to those around us = the generosity is passed along creating such a great effect that we are uplifted to a place of tranquility so easily - by thinking not of ourself we can realize how much we give to ourself in spirit and we can then know that a great blessing is upon us, somthing that is worth more than any thing we can give away - and somthing that lasts as long as we keep this state of mind. please let peace come into us through these acts - the acts of the inner love for a truth that is contained in every one of us.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
"In my own hands I hold a bowl of tea; I see all of nature represented in its green color. Closing my eyes I find green mountains and pure water within my own heart. Silently, sitting alone, drinking tea, I feel these become part of me. Sharing this bowl of tea with others, they, too, become one with it and nature". - Soshitsu Sen XV
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
The painings below are done by Alex Grey, a very enlightening artist. I'm excited to go check out his gallery in NYC at the end of this month.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
this is my latest painting. its the heart- the heart energy - the everything - the center of all of us. to me it represents a giving, an emitting of pureness which can be simply put as love. 'i am that i am' is this essence to me - it is the all that pervades and means that i am a part of everything as that which flows through all things. i am that - and that- and this. whatever you say you are i am that too, we are all i am's - and are born from the same light.
Friday, December 09, 2005
We’re all artists, rightfully so, we all take our own paint to the medium of life. We all have different ways of expressing human, emotions and colors, voices and sculptures of realities. The art of being human is expressed in who we are – what we do (and what we don’t do), and even the subtle thoughts that no one could possibly know about. So what does this all mean – that I’m the center of the universe- and the thing is, you are too. Each human expression is a soul’s expression, and that is universal expression. Artists at work creating our own meanings to life – but what’s at the heart is truly becoming the expression you are and realizing it. What color are you today – what sound, what vibration, what echo, what sensation? Don’t categorize it just be it.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Q: What is self-realization
A: Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven within, getting out of the field of relativity, crossing all limits of creation, and getting to the field of the Creator, is realizing the Self. Suppose anything experienced - a flower- the flower has occupied the mind so fully that the nature of the mind is not found, the nature of the experiencer is mising. Only the eye, the sight, and the object remain. The subject is annihilated, only the qualities of the object remain. Pure Bliss Consciousness, that Bliss Consciousness of Absolute Nature, has been overshadowed by the impression of the object.
Meditation is a way to reduce the impact of the object gradually. It cannot be overthrown suddenly. If we want all of a sudden to forget the flower, we will be remembering to forget! So, we just use a technique. If suddenly is not possible, then gradually do it. The best way is this.
If we know the process of continously going from the subtler to a point, and as the object is being reduced in its status, the experiencer increases his status, until object is nil and subject is full. This is Self-Realization. Self is realized in its full 100% glory, devoid of any objective experience.
This is the way to increase the capacity of experience. As it is, the senses are capable of experienceing only gross, long experiences though the eyes, nose, and ears, entirely gross experiences. And experiencing the gross for a long time, the capacity of subtle experience is rusted, the machinery is not used. Only gross facilities are used and when all the time the gross facilities of experience are used and the finer facilities of experience are not used, then life becoms dry and dulled. Tense.
Meditation is just oiling the machinery and making the unused parts come into use. Refining the faculty of experience. Eventually the faculty of experience is increased to such a great degree, that inner Bliss, the all pervading God, comes to be lived a hundred per cent. When this stage is reached, and the flower comes before the sense, the subject maintains himself and experiences the flower at the same time. The quality of the subject, the Self, is maintained and also the flower is experienced.
this is the process of getting to the field of Being, and then coming out, the Self is maintained by Itself. Get to that status of the mind where the individual mind gets on to the Cosmic mind, and is That. Meditation is the way. Just a matter of learning a technique.
- Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi-
A: Entry into the Kingdom of Heaven within, getting out of the field of relativity, crossing all limits of creation, and getting to the field of the Creator, is realizing the Self. Suppose anything experienced - a flower- the flower has occupied the mind so fully that the nature of the mind is not found, the nature of the experiencer is mising. Only the eye, the sight, and the object remain. The subject is annihilated, only the qualities of the object remain. Pure Bliss Consciousness, that Bliss Consciousness of Absolute Nature, has been overshadowed by the impression of the object.
Meditation is a way to reduce the impact of the object gradually. It cannot be overthrown suddenly. If we want all of a sudden to forget the flower, we will be remembering to forget! So, we just use a technique. If suddenly is not possible, then gradually do it. The best way is this.
If we know the process of continously going from the subtler to a point, and as the object is being reduced in its status, the experiencer increases his status, until object is nil and subject is full. This is Self-Realization. Self is realized in its full 100% glory, devoid of any objective experience.
This is the way to increase the capacity of experience. As it is, the senses are capable of experienceing only gross, long experiences though the eyes, nose, and ears, entirely gross experiences. And experiencing the gross for a long time, the capacity of subtle experience is rusted, the machinery is not used. Only gross facilities are used and when all the time the gross facilities of experience are used and the finer facilities of experience are not used, then life becoms dry and dulled. Tense.
Meditation is just oiling the machinery and making the unused parts come into use. Refining the faculty of experience. Eventually the faculty of experience is increased to such a great degree, that inner Bliss, the all pervading God, comes to be lived a hundred per cent. When this stage is reached, and the flower comes before the sense, the subject maintains himself and experiences the flower at the same time. The quality of the subject, the Self, is maintained and also the flower is experienced.
this is the process of getting to the field of Being, and then coming out, the Self is maintained by Itself. Get to that status of the mind where the individual mind gets on to the Cosmic mind, and is That. Meditation is the way. Just a matter of learning a technique.
- Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi-
Sacrifice Suffering
Oh Lord, the way is yours
I am tired of spinning in fantasy
Drawl the curtains that blind me
I would cut out my eyes to see
Speak words of simple wisdom
I would tear off my ears to hear
Remove the dams on the river of bliss
I would break my limbs to swim
Oh Lord, the way is yours
I am still imprisoned in alien thought
Tortured with misinformation
Bring peace in daily bread
I would burn my tongue to taste
Teach compassionate justice
I would loose my head to know
Be love eternal
I would sacrifice all to feel it
Oh Lord, the way is yours
I am tired of spinning in fantasy
Drawl the curtains that blind me
I would cut out my eyes to see
Speak words of simple wisdom
I would tear off my ears to hear
Remove the dams on the river of bliss
I would break my limbs to swim
Oh Lord, the way is yours
I am still imprisoned in alien thought
Tortured with misinformation
Bring peace in daily bread
I would burn my tongue to taste
Teach compassionate justice
I would loose my head to know
Be love eternal
I would sacrifice all to feel it
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Born unto Light
My motherfather knows me
My motherfather planted me
My mother waters me
My father shines on me
I was born on
The sacred mountain of fire
Where the word is spoken and all can hear
I break my flesh
And bury it
They regenerate cyclically
My motherfather pervades
All colors converge
On the sacred mountain
Where pure light is born
And the beacon in my chest is fueled
My motherfather calls
The names of all children
With one word
That burns us unto
Our essential nature
My motherfather planted me
My mother waters me
My father shines on me
I was born on
The sacred mountain of fire
Where the word is spoken and all can hear
I break my flesh
And bury it
They regenerate cyclically
My motherfather pervades
All colors converge
On the sacred mountain
Where pure light is born
And the beacon in my chest is fueled
My motherfather calls
The names of all children
With one word
That burns us unto
Our essential nature
Monday, December 05, 2005
The snow made me skip class, it made me...and stole my milk money too (soymilk). But at least i got some good pictures of it, jee, why am i'm so optimistic.
that reminds me i was watching a documentary and this is a quote:
"i am cursed with an optimistically looking face, but really im not optimistic at all"
p.s.
Forgive me, but i guess i had to
that reminds me i was watching a documentary and this is a quote:
"i am cursed with an optimistically looking face, but really im not optimistic at all"
p.s.
Forgive me, but i guess i had to
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Reverberate Emptiness
My heart has lost its strings to serenade
They’ve been plucked before
They’ve made music before
But now all that’s left is a hollow body
Ready to reverberate
Waiting to be restrung
My heart has lost its strings to serenade
What good are the curves of acoustics
If they can not even sing of sorrow
Without a single vibratory string
My heart flat lines
With the soundless songs
Of yesterday catching up with today
This score waits to be compiled again
With the single syllable of creation
Reverberating the truth
Reverberating a passion
To want to be warmly humming
The tune will want to
Want to
Love the days that harmony
Flowed swift in the vessel of my heart
If the purpose is to serenade
My instrument remains only an echo overplayed
My heart has lost its strings to serenade
They’ve been plucked before
They’ve made music before
But now all that’s left is a hollow body
Ready to reverberate
Waiting to be restrung
My heart has lost its strings to serenade
What good are the curves of acoustics
If they can not even sing of sorrow
Without a single vibratory string
My heart flat lines
With the soundless songs
Of yesterday catching up with today
This score waits to be compiled again
With the single syllable of creation
Reverberating the truth
Reverberating a passion
To want to be warmly humming
The tune will want to
Want to
Love the days that harmony
Flowed swift in the vessel of my heart
If the purpose is to serenade
My instrument remains only an echo overplayed
I Only Wanted
A starving shadow waits to be blown across a skull capped desert
The cacti provide the spiritual source of greenery
The clouds wait to rain
Wind hesitates to breathe
Oh bold sun, forty times you reappeared
With poisoned water and stolen bread rejected
I wait
To glimpse the source
A starving shadow waits to be blown across a skull capped desert
The cacti provide the spiritual source of greenery
The clouds wait to rain
Wind hesitates to breathe
Oh bold sun, forty times you reappeared
With poisoned water and stolen bread rejected
I wait
To glimpse the source
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
I Fly my Kite
Whistles are melodies flying in the wind, tethered to the heart,
Constantly dynamic depending on conditions both within and without.
The spirit decides to let colors go flapping
While the chain of command is sitting and watching
The relatives of rainbows reunite,
Inspired to cycle up their own emotional mountains.
When the outside gets a chance to play with the inside
We float in the bath of decompressed bliss
Whistles are melodies flying in the wind, tethered to the heart,
Constantly dynamic depending on conditions both within and without.
The spirit decides to let colors go flapping
While the chain of command is sitting and watching
The relatives of rainbows reunite,
Inspired to cycle up their own emotional mountains.
When the outside gets a chance to play with the inside
We float in the bath of decompressed bliss
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
"Grandma said everybody has two minds. One of the minds has to do with the necessaries for body living. You had to use it to figure how to get shelter and eating and such like for the body. She said you had to use it to mate and have young'uns and such. She said we had to have that mind so as we could carry on. But she said we had another mind that had nothing atall to do with such. She said it was the spirit mind. Grandma said if you used the body-living mind to think greedy or mean; if you was always cuttin' at folks with it and figuring how to material profit off'n them...then you would shrink up your spirit mind to a size no bigger'n a hickor'nut. Grandma said that when you body died, the body-living mind died with it, and that's the way you had thought all your life there you was, stuck with a hickor'nut spirit, as the spirit mind was all that lived when everything else died. Then, Grandma said, when you was born back - as you was bound to be - then, there you was, born with a hickor'nut spirit mind that had practical no understanding of anything. Then it might shrink up to the size of a pea and could dissapear, if the body-living mind took over total. In such case, you lost your spirit complete. That's how you become dead people. Grandma said you could easy spot dead people. She said dead people when they looked at a woman saw nothing but dirty; when they looked at other people they saw nothing but bad; when they looked at a tree they saw nothing but lumber and profit; never beauty. Grandma said they was dead people walking around. Grandma said that the spirit mind was like any other muscle. If you used it it got bigger and stronger. She said the only way it could get that way was using it to understand, but you couldn't open the door to it until you quit being greedy and such with your body mind. Then understanding commenced to take up, and the more you tried to understand, the bigger it got. Natural, she said, understanding and love was the same thing; except folks went at it back'ards too many times, trying to pretend they loved things when they didn't understand them. Which can't be done. I see right out that I was going to commence trying to understand practical everybody, for I sure didn't want to come up with a hickor'nut spirit. Grandma said your spirit mind could get so big and powerful that you would eventually know all about your past body lives and would get to where you could come out with no body death atall."
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Monday, November 07, 2005
I can feel the way...we all can. It is running through us, our very veins, the connections between spirit and man. We all have it, we are all it, and there is no separating - no duality - no nothing because it is everything. This very thought doesn't exist, to speak of it - "it" is not it. It is simply a matter of being, a feeling coursing through life - mine and yours and all. my matter is energy, my mind is not matter, all is vibrations of the Way - dense or free. creations - thoughts - manifestiations -
why is this spirit experiencing humanity - so limited, but only to relize itself.
why is this spirit experiencing humanity - so limited, but only to relize itself.
Friday, November 04, 2005
"Don't feel sad, Little Tree. It is The Way. Tal-con caught the slow and so the slow will raise no children who are also slow. Tal-con lives by The Way. He helps the quail." Grandpa dug a sweet root from the ground whith his knife and peeled it so that it dripped with its juicy winter cache of life. He cut it in half and handed me the heavy end. "It is The Way," he said softly. "take only what ye need. When ye take the deer, do not take the best. Take the smaller and the slower and then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat. Pa-koh, the Panther, knows and so must ye." And he laughted, "only Ti-bi, the bee, stores more than he can use...and so he is robbed by the bear, and the 'coon...and the Cherokee. It is so with people who store and fat themselves with more than their share. They will have it taken from them. And there will be wars over it... and they will say a flag stands for their right to do this...and men will die because of the words and the flag...but they will not change the rules of The Way."
-The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter-
-The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter-
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
What is the Reason?
The earth gives up her children
To feed our burden
The leaves fall for a reason
She’s falling, but when do we rest
Life goes on with the clamor of being
Forgiveness for the pavement that nature calls treason
The leaves fall for a reason
When the human dream turns to human drama
The wind sweeps and the trees collect karma
The pigeons gather to watch Shakespeare in action
The Way is a living lesson in every season
The leaves fall for a reason
Children play infatuated with our mother
As they grow they forget about sister and brother
TV replaces the weather and grass turns to plastic
Our living womb has been renovated into another statistic
Where is the world we learned to dance on
The leaves fall for a reason
The earth gives up her children
To feed our burden
The leaves fall for a reason
She’s falling, but when do we rest
Life goes on with the clamor of being
Forgiveness for the pavement that nature calls treason
The leaves fall for a reason
When the human dream turns to human drama
The wind sweeps and the trees collect karma
The pigeons gather to watch Shakespeare in action
The Way is a living lesson in every season
The leaves fall for a reason
Children play infatuated with our mother
As they grow they forget about sister and brother
TV replaces the weather and grass turns to plastic
Our living womb has been renovated into another statistic
Where is the world we learned to dance on
The leaves fall for a reason
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