Saturday, October 31, 2015

Waiting


Waiting 

We seem to all be waiting
we are not so happy
with this time and place
and so wanderlust rises
and we set out to discover
a place of happiness..
This is how our days are spent
becoming that which we
now are not..
Sometimes becoming is
simply waiting
we wait for a coming
improving what is now..
Becoming begets pain
with temporary reliefs
along these paths..
We are waiting
for a whisper:
Simply Be...

Friday, October 30, 2015

Institutions


Institutions

have their focus 
on collective order
yet some are found upon
statements of freedom and 
pursuit of happiness..
the tension resulting 
is recognized and praised..
but in most times
 freedom and happiness
relate to a searching for
these qualities in a series 
of desires and wants..
a temporary whiff of 
happiness and freedom
but soon drawn to the
attachments found in 
those persistent beliefs 
of separation..
and when many 
in the community
in this belief so search
real Freedom and Happiness
are veiled
and the institution's role
is here made clear...

Thursday, October 29, 2015

I am....IS....the way



I am....IS....the way

My comments below...

How To Respond to Other Christians Who Quote “I am THE Way”

One of my personal mantras is “One God. Many paths.”
I’ve been surprised by the number of fellow Christians who not only disagree with me, but who are offended that a Christian (let alone a minister) might “legitimize” other religions.
I recently had this very discussion with a conservative Christian friend at our neighborhood bar. Yep, you read that correctly, conservative Christian at a bar.
His response to the idea that God may love and include people from other religions? “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to God, but by me.”
It’s a frequently quoted scripture in discussions like this. Not infrequently, it is also accompanied by a look similar to one you might see on the face of a person who just victoriously squashed a spider.
I’m often stymied by this response. Not so much because it is a 2×4 across the forehead of Christian inclusivity, but because it is an interpretation of John 14:6 which requires such a compartmentalized, untextualized understanding of the verse that I hardly know where to begin in responding.
If I’m in a hurry, I sometimes take their own inclination for an “it says it right there” style of biblical interpretation and quote John 10:16 to them, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” Not infrequently, I also accompany it with a mirrored victorious look on my face similar to one you might see on the face of a person who just victoriously squashed a spider. If I am extremely fortunate, on that note, I can also victoriously rotate on my heel and walk away.
That’s actually how I handle it on a bad day.
On a good day, I’m more apt to take a little time and invite them into some thoughtful reflection on the text.
Here’s the thing: it turns out some Christians think that thoughtful reflection is hazardous to their faith – or maybe they simply believe thoughtful reflection is the opposite of faith?
My point here is this: if you choose route of thoughtful engagement, I might suggest some small degree of fear and trepidation in doing so – or, at least, informed caution.
One of the things I mention to them about the “I am the way” quote is that this particular statement from Jesus is meant for a specific person, in response to a specific question, within a specific setting in the Bible.
I then give that a minute to sink in. If the person no longer has the “I squashed a spider!” look on their face, I continue.
Jesus was talking to Thomas. On a somewhat related note, this is the poor guy who is frequently called “doubting” simply for doing the most reasonable thing when a dead person says they are not dead. He asked for proof. Basically, he was investigating. I actually prefer to call him “Inquisitive Thomas.” Which brings us back to thoughtfully investigating the text.
Jesus was talking to Thomas who, in an act of thoughtful investigation, had asked the question, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Shame on you Doubting Thomas! How dare you question Jesus! You faithless little… wait. Actually, good question. Yeah Jesus, how do we know the way?
Those who were there listening were Jesus followers, people of “The Way.” At some point, they became known as Christians. For Inquisitive Thomas and for all Christians, Jesus was saying, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be alright. For you, I am the way. So, when I’m gone just do the things I’ve been doing and teaching you.”
It is simply impossible for me to read the rest of Jesus’ teachings about love and inclusiveness, and then read John 14:6 and conclude it is about excluding folks.
It just doesn’t fit.
I can’t hear the guy who picked someone outside the faith, a hated Samaritan, to show us what caring for our neighbor looks like saying, “Samaritans and anyone else who don’t worship me can’t know God.”
It just doesn’t add up.
A few verses prior to this, Jesus tells us that there are many, many rooms in God’s house. Taken within the larger teachings of Jesus, it sounds like there is literally room for everyone.
One God. Many rooms. Many paths.

Charles Coon 
A much more powerful way of responding to the implied exclusivity of this statement is simply breaking the statement into two parts, the first part being "I am." These two words point to the Consciousness, Presence, or God which we are all seeking. There are 7 "I am" statements by Jesus, which are also exercises in Consciousness recognition. Simply experiencing I Am is all that is necessary, and is an inter-spiritual link to all religions. Simply, I am...!

Realist1234  Charles Coon
No, if anything the 'I am' is invoking the 'I am' of the Old Testament, ie Yahweh Himself. Jesus said similarly, 'before Abraham was born, I am' thus claiming to be the God of the Old Testament - his Jewish hearers knew full well what He was claiming about Himself and thus accused Him of blasphemy. Jesus really is the only way to God, as He is God, whether you believe Him or not.


Charles Coon  Realist1234 
Thanks, Realist...however, I must disagree. My impression is that you are looking through a dualistic lens, which does not address Jesus' example for all of humanity, that we, like he, can actually experience Consciousness, Awareness, God, Happiness, Peace, and numerous other Qualities which begin with a Capital letter. Dualism is the old software, which might have worked in the church for centuries. But Jesus was a nondual teacher, and we need to download his new software, which is experienced Grace. Beliefs, which may have been useful in times past, are increasingly found to be deficient today...Thanks again for responding!

Hana - Marmota  Charles Coon 
What do you mean by dualistic?
Personally, I can't think of any place in the Bible that would suggest what you say, if I understand what you say at all. I can think of places that suggest God can enter our lives and lift us to Himself, but no places that would suggest something like that could be done by "Consciousness" and that - what your words seem to be suggesting, anyway - we could enter God instead.
Basically, what I mean is, yes, we can experience all that, but we can't download the software, we're not the net admin. (Or something along those lines, I'm not perfectly versed in IT and English isn't my first language to boot.)


Charles Coon  Hana - Marmota 
Hana...Download, I agree, is not the right term. The "software" is already within, and just needs recognition.
The Bible is written in words and language, which are by definition, dualistic. The limitations of language need recognition, for a deeper understanding. The traditional entry of duality in the Bible is the Tree of Knowledge, which is in the Garden of Eden story. This Tree could well be called the Tree of Duality. It is the beginning of the belief in separation. The Tree of Life, or Consciousness, however, has remained the non dual reality, which we need to experience. No separation, really, between the Trees. The Bible is an accumulation of many stories, which are all birthed by the Tree story! The Tree of Knowledge (Duality) is an illusion if considered as an independent reality. Sorry if this seems a bit heavy!




Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Been searching?




Spiritual awakening is the greatest disillusionment of all.
You realise, finally, after years and years of seeking and striving, that you’re going nowhere. Nowhere at all.
Why? Because you’re fully Here. The present moment is your true home. Never coming, never going. Just so.
It can’t be escaped, it can’t be reached. How wonderful, for nobody at all.
~ Jeff Foster

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Projector and Screen

Projector and Screen

We
each of us
are as projector
and as screen..
As projector
our perception
with unity vision
is our perceiving
is our awareness
and our leap
to recognize that
we create
what is seen..
Now the screen
that upon which
the perception rests
but not affected by
the image it holds..
The screen is simply
our awareness
and another leap
to find that
we are simultaneous
projector and screen...!

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Lazarus come forth


Lazarus come forth

We are shown
 connections:
day and night
waking and sleep..
Two days delay but
time not present..
These teachings lead 
to unity in-sight and
 to our experience:
all is love..
Then we are taught
to know I-am 
with a trailing
resurrection and life..
Now our leap:
a quick un-binding
un-stoning..
I-am is the love
which shines through
death's delusion..
We are Here Now
We are ready
Lazarus come forth...!

See Gospel of John
Chapter 11

Thursday, October 22, 2015

A church


A  church

We need to stop
going to church
and find what we are seeking
in the immediacy of
who we are..
It is then that we find
that infinite and eternal
Awareness through which
all churches might flow...!


We do not have to build a church. Let us be complete in ourselves. Let us drink ourselves empty, give ourselves fully, extend ourselves outward—until, at last, the waving treetops are our own gestures and our laughter is resurrected in the children who play beneath them...

~~Rainer Maria Rilke, Early Journals

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,  60
        Hath had elsewhere its setting,
          And cometh from afar:
        Not in entire forgetfulness,
        And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come  65
        From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

~~William Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality


Spontaneity of Life


Spontaneity of Life

Step by step
science seems to be 
reaching or pointing
to a new science
a quantum reality
in which time itself
the thought of time
as only a thought
a simple vibration
experienced only in
 spontaneous Now...


"We need to think differently about the early Earth," says Elizabeth Bell of UCLA. The early Earth certainly wasn't a hellish, dry, boiling planet. A UCLA team of geochemists see absolutely no evidence for that. The planet was probably much more like it is today than previously thought the team concluded.
The UCLA scientists have found evidence that life likely existed on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago -- 300 million years earlier than previous research suggested. The discovery indicates that life may have begun shortly after the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago.
The research is published today in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (The Daily Galaxy)


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Innocence and Precision


Innocence and Precision

Innocence of a child and
precision of a scientist
these are qualities of
nondual awakening..
Innocence
is seamless consciousness
the infinite field
in which we and all things
whether recognized or not
are born and abide..
Precision
is the scientist's craft
to observe precisely
the present experience..
The careful look
will disclose the
innocence which has
not departed in
all our years...

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Awakening


Awakening

Here is a formulation
which I find helpful:

+ is Consciousness
- is ego
both make up
a non dual whole..
The real Self is +
small self -
- is illusion
if thought finds
it separate..
- is really
made of +...!

Healing


Healing

physical healing
may it be a
more or less final
frontier of
nondual realization..
might we realize 
that pain right now
is actually
as is everything
made of consciousness
of awareness..
is that what 
jesus and others
Know
and is waiting for
our own in-sight...?

Monday, October 19, 2015

Haircut


Haircut

for all those years
a small shop
in a small mall
My Korean barber stands
in dependable waiting
for my arrivals..
She is punctilious
there is a wholeness
in how she works
the circular motions
 her clippers and hands..
Twenty years and more
I have come to
answer her question:
"Same usual...?"

Psychotherapy Now!



Psychotherapy Now!

Convergence of 
consciousness and science
is the hope of our age..
The physics of  consciousness
uncovered by the quantum observer
is the path of Physics Now..
And we find that the
older linear science
Newton's own
was always made of the Now..
Psychotherapy is following
a path to the Now
in a fractal similar way..
The non dual background
of consciousness is becoming
the container and the substance
of Psychotherapy Now...!


Dr. John Prendergast is a retired professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and a psychotherapist in private practice in San Rafael, California. He has led self-inquiry groups for over a decade and offers workshops and retreats. His website is www.listeningfromsilence.com

John is a longtime student of nondual teachings, having deeply studied with Jean Klein and Adyashanti. He is the author of the recently released In Touch: How to Tune in to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (Sounds True, 2015) and senior editor of The Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy  (2003) and Listening from the Heart of Silence (2007). He is also the editor-in-chief of Undivided: The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology.

John writes, “My approach to psychotherapy is presence-centered and body-based. As we learn to relax into the timeless now and be with our body/mind just as it is, an inner wisdom and direction unfolds. We all have an innate sense of the truth, an inner knowing that arises out of a willingness to relinquish the illusion of control and to rest in not-knowing.”

In this conversation we cover the main themes of his book, In Touch. They include…

– Felt sensing and the energy body. One of the most common forms of experiencing the energy body is also one of the most painful: heartbreak.

– Questioning Core Beliefs, Dialoguing with the Inner Critic, and Witnessing Thoughts.

– Relaxed Groundedness: As we attune with inner knowing, we experience a deep relaxation in the core of our body and a growing sense of groundedness.

– Inner Alignment: There is a sense of things lining up and falling into place inside. An inner verticality opens up that we can sense as a line running through the core of the body, extending high above and far beneath. … inner alignment also brings a sense of aliveness, which differs from excitement.

– Openheartedness: The human heart opens into a nonlocalized Great Heart that is capable of embracing the suffering of humanity. Discovering and consciously living from both the Great Heart and the soulful depths of the human heart brings the deepest happiness as human beings.

– Spaciousness : When we get in touch with our inner knowing, there is often a sense of vast space within and around our bodies, and this subjective sense of space is almost always accompanied by a deep silence. Genuine openness is very still.

– Fruits of inner knowing: Self-Recognition, The Great Intimacy

– Sacred Ordinary: As the body awakens, so does the world. When we discover that the core of the body is made up of empty, vibrant, and wakeful openness, we experience the world differently. The world as other dissolves and becomes intimate. As a result, our ordinary experience is suffused with a sense of the sacred. We discover what I like to call the sacred ordinary. We feel grateful for no reason.

Dr. John Prendergast, www.listeningfromsilence.com

Punctilious


Sunday, October 18, 2015

SAND and STRETCH


Hello everyone,

STRETCH next month is scheduled for November 16th.  The session will feature Rupert Spira
as speaker in the film (about a 30 minute film this time).  Rupert is one of many participants in the
Science & Nonduality (SAND) Conference which takes place annually, during October, in San Jose,
California.  I have used videos featuring several of the conference speakers in STRETCH.

So....following are a couple relevant websites.  The first is a Conference introduction on the topic
of Consciousness.  The second will get you to the SAND website.

More later on the November 16th program..

Thanks!

Charlie



Awareness and Nanobots


Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil predicts humans are going to develop emotions and characteristics of higher complexity as a result of connecting their brains to computers.

“We’re going to be funnier. We’re going to be sexier. We’re going to be better at expressing loving sentiment,” Kurzweil said at a recent discussion at Singularity University. He is involved in developing artificial intelligence as a director of engineering at Google but was not speaking on behalf of the company.

Kurzweil predicts that in the 2030s, human brains will be able to connect to the cloud, allowing us to send emails and photos directly to the brain and to back up our thoughts and memories. This will be possible, he says, via nanobots -- tiny robots from DNA strands -- swimming around in the capillaries of our brain. He sees the extension of our brain into predominantly nonbiological thinking as the next step in the evolution of humans -- just as learning to use tools was for our ancestors.

And this extension, he says, will enhance not just our logical intelligence but also our emotional intelligence. “We’re going to add more levels to the hierarchy of brain modules and create deeper levels of expression,” he said. To demonstrate, he gave a hypothetical scenario with Google co-founder Larry Page.

Hiding


Haazinu
Deuteronomy 32:1-52

The greater part of the Torah reading of Haazinu ("Listen In") consists of a 70-line "song" delivered by Moses to the people of Israel on the last day of his earthly life.
Calling heaven and earth as witnesses, Moses exhorts the people to "Remember the days of old / Consider the years of many generations / Ask your father, and he will recount it to you / Your elders, and they will tell you" how G-d "found them in a desert land," made them a people, chose them as His own, and bequeathed them a bountiful land. The Song also warns against the pitfalls of plenty -- "Yeshurun grew fat and kicked / You have grown fat, thick and rotund / He forsook G-d who made him / And spurned the Rock of his salvation" -- and the terrible calamities that would result, which Moses describes as G-d "hiding His face." Yet in the end, he promises, G-d will avenge the blood of His servants and be reconciled with His people and land.
The Parshah concludes with G-d's instruction to Moses to ascend the summit of Mount Nebo, from which he will behold the Promised Land before dying on the mountain. "For you shall see the land opposite you; but you shall not go there, into the land which I give to the children of Israel."

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Touch


Touch

This form of sensing
 a vibration within consciousness
made of consciousness..
Mimicing human skin
as in new research
restores an expression
of consciousness itself..
Yet consciousness remains
unaffected knowing  only
itself..
Technology is teaching
that consciousness
is vastly more
than our body
of thought...!

Researchers have created a sensory system that mimics the ability of human skin to feel pressure and have transmitted the digital signals from the system’s sensors to the brain cells of mice. These new developments, reported in the October 16 issue of Science, could one day allow people living with prosthetics to feel sensation in their artificial limbs.  (KurzweilAI.net)

Friday, October 16, 2015

Placelessness



Placelessness

The reality
of who we are resides
in this word..
It may seem as loneliness
an ungrounding of roots
frightening perhaps..
Or an unchaining from the
hold of a place
a dislodging into a 
space-like fullness
 a non-local experience
 of real freedom...

The Prodigal


The Prodigal

Looking to the fringes
fringes of heresy 
for nondual expressions..
We seemingly find
that the mainstream
 in duality by contrast
is immersed..
However
a perspective
elevating unity finds
 a prodigal journey..
This perennial story
expands our vista
points to the reality
beneath surface
appearings..
Mainstream has
arisen as the prodigal..
After suffering endured
perhaps at last
finds a flickering light
and knowing now 
that nondual home
which has never
departed...

(a more inclusive and
unified view of
Christianity..)

The Hard Problem


The Hard Problem

This they state is
a most difficult
proposition:
that somehow presence
springs from limitation
from matter
the puzzlement that
this small body
might give birth
to the immense
to the infinite..
Yet..the question
might it dissolve
in our simple
asking..?

All our experience
is our sensing
observing
where never is found
the illusive matter..
The only discovery
seems to be
all our sensings are
 temporary expressions
of infinite
Now...

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Music and time


Music and time

Seemingly enslaved by 
the strictures of time
our own experience
declares for freedom..
With recapitulation
and echoes of past and future
we are reminded that
the music never departed
from the here and now..
We experience variation
as the celebration of
the silence 
as the conductor's 
wand was raised...

Noah's cleansing


Noah's cleansing

Noah's eyes were not clear
but clearer than most..
A cleansing ensued 
for those forty days..
Perceptions shifted
with new clarity
and the rainbow
with an array of colors
announced the multitude
of variation and vibration 
made of consciousness..
In an awakening
destined for repetition
in graceful moments...

Debate

Debate

The wish for power
unfolding in this
arena of words..
A search for phrases
these democratic mirrors
reflections of who we are
or think we are
coloring now this stage..
Separate selves 
arrayed in conflict
firing flames of ego..
Egos of persuasion
desperate to persuade
that on wider stages
we will prevail...

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Yellow leaves


Yellow leaves

still among bounteous green
death inching its way
these precursors of falling
of those masses remaining..
In death is beauty
our recognition of
the autumn glow
underlying death of
what appears and appears...

Battle Lines


The simple fact is that we live in a world of conflict and opposites because we live in a world of boundaries. Since every boundary line is also a battle line, here is the human predicament: the firmer one's boundaries, the more entrenched are one's battles. The more I hold onto pleasure, the more I necessarily fear pain. The more I pursue goodness, the more I am obsessed with evil. The more I seek success, the more I must dread failure. The harder I cling to life, the more terrifying death becomes. The more I value anything, the more obsessed I become with its loss. Most of our problems, in other words, are problems of boundaries 
and the opposites they create.
― Ken Wilber, No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth

Because, you see, the alarming fact is that any realization of depth carries a terrible burden: those who are allowed to see are simultaneously saddled with the obligation to communicate that vision in no uncertain terms: that is the bargain. You were allowed to see the truth under the agreement that you would communicate it to others (that is the ultimate meaning of the bodhisattva vow). And therefore, if you have seen, you simply must speak out. Speak out with compassion, or speak out with angry wisdom, or speak out with skillful means, but speak out you must.
And this is truly a terrible burden, a horrible burden, because in any case there is no room for timidity. The fact that you might be wrong is simply no excuse: You might be right in your communication, and you might be wrong, but that doesn't matter. What does matter, as Kierkegaard so rudely reminded us, is that only by investing and speaking your vision with passion, can the truth, one way or another, finally penetrate the reluctance of the world. If you are right, or if you are wrong, it is only your passion that will force either to be discovered. It is your duty to promote that discovery-either way-and therefore it is your duty to speak your truth with whatever passion and courage you can find in your heart. You must shout, in whatever way you can.
~~Ken Wilber, One Taste

Non-Duality



Non-Duality

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true but it is necessary to seek for what is false. Every illusion is one of fear, whatever form it takes. And the attempt to escape from one illusion into another must fail. If you seek love outside yourself you can be certain that you perceive hatred within, and are afraid of it. Yet peace will never come from the illusion of love, but only from its reality.” 
~~~ACIM - T-16.IV.6.

“We take that which is unreal to be real and that which is real to be unreal.” 
~~~Rupert Spira, The Transparency of Things

“This perpetual longing for happiness—which can, by definition, never be fulfilled because that very search itself denies the happiness that is present in our own being now—condemns us to an endless search in the future and thus perpetuates unhappiness. It is for this reason that the poet said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” 
~~~Rupert Spira, Presence: The Art of Peace and Happiness

“To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we have to have three spaces opened up within us - and all at the same time: our opinionated head, our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the summary work of spirituality - and it is indeed work. Yes, it is also the work of “a Power greater than ourselves,” and it will lead to a great luminosity and depth of seeing. That is why true faith is one of the most holistic and free actions a human can perform. It leads to such broad and deep perception that most traditions would just call it “light.”
~~Richard Rohr, Radical Grace, Daily Meditations