Saturday, September 29, 2018

is it so Simple?


is it so Simple?

Consider:
just a recognition
that this page is white
and the print thereon
seems to declare
a difference..
appearance is different
but the difference melts
when it is noticed
the print is in and of
the white page..
difference is appearance..

Consider:
might this recognition
this brief metaphor
replace all religions
in the world's story?

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Experience


Experience

How 
does Experience
appear..?
Mainly it is flow
sometimes swift
sometimes gathering..
It is the 
temporary seeing
and hearing which
the river can teach..
We make a shift:
the river separated
to the river within..
And when the river
is found within
we know then
the river is made
of what we are..
This subtle shift
experienced
is all of
Everything 
we can know...
~~CC


Rupert Spira:  Nature of Experience 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ9omxg4IIA 

RS:  Shining as the Simple Knowledge, I Am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOa87_zL2Tg

Unmani: The mind can't be present

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNcAjkkYuK0  

Unmani: How do I Identify with Who I Really Am?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Va5UhdR140&t=13s




Monday, September 24, 2018

Stumbling Blocks



Stumbling Blocks

Considering how this
phrase lingers from
recent conversations..
What are the blocks which
scripture mentions..and
have entered modern 
discourse..?

Often it seems
a stumbling block
is posed as criticism
of a belief confessed:
 vital to one
not to another..
Or..attachment to a
teacher comes under
scrutiny..

These sometimes 
hurtful exchanges occur 
when thought and
perception are awarded
more than their due.. 
What is crucial now
is to ask the Question:
How may these blocks
be swept away..?

There is 
a most direct way
which recognizes the
simple truth of  our
incarnational identity..
Knowing our identity
we can experience 
all blocks burning
in one fiery
ever-present
 Self...

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Moving the Needle



Moving the Needle

If we imagine a scale:
on one end we are unfocused
and the other focused..
(subjective and objective
if you like..)

The needle seems pegged
on focus for many centuries
and may be stuck..

Focus has brought us much
but has..alas.. compressed our
peace and happiness..

We may now be entertaining
the possibility of moving
the needle toward unfocused..

Perhaps sliding the needle
all the way.. removing
all focus and form..

Moving the needle may
show us we can slide it
bringing new freedom..

Finally.. then to know
the needle is made
for sliding...!



Kindling



 Kindling

there 
are presumptions
concealed within most of our
Questions..
and the presumption
hidden away is
ironically
the answer we seek..!
presumptions are kindling
awaiting the fire
which will burn both them
and their home in the
Question..
kindling is chopped by our
language which cannot
help itself..splitting the whole
into many halves..as
knower and known..
So..in the asking of the
Question
our peace requires
igniting the kindling
blowing the spark and
 gently burning the
Question...!


Thursday, September 20, 2018

Pursuit of Perfection



Pursuit of Perfection

I am a veteran..

An extreme example
of a pursuit of perfection
comes to mind..remembering my duty
on a missile crew..in those frightful
days of the Cuban Missile Crisis..
A nuclear weapon was a new thing
populations were at risk
a dark existential threat loomed..
Error-free 
performance was expected
from those awaiting a
launch execution order..
Perfection was sought in
communication authentication
by endless testing
by psychological reliability
and by sidearms at the ready
for a suicidal bent by
a crew member suddenly 
deciding to begin a war..

My military career began in
Durango..where I sought 
perfection in my grades..and was 
appointed to the military academy..
This is an institution dedicated  to
the pursuit of perfection in
a most unrelenting manner..
Demerits were the measure
and ever-present reminder
which informed 
of the distance one's life
stood away from perfection..

I had two roommates: 
Walter and Tom
Walter the perfectionist
descended from a line of
high ranking soldiers..
Walter's military appearance
and his dedication were for 
all to behold..while Tom
seemed displaced as a
California surfer..
My report today is that
Walter rests in Arlington
and Tom yet lives..surfing
near his shoreside home
on the island of Oahu..

The military purpose
in the end..seems a recognition
that the fragmented self
(which we all experience in
our conventional lives)
must strive for the perfection
which seems
not present in what appears..
Thus a need
to build barriers from others
whose similar fragmentation 
projects outwardly 
in harmful ways..

Yet..
what is important to discover
is that futility resides
at the end of all
paths toward perfection..
Perfection 
of the fragmented self
is denied by the pursuit itself..
 And can only be realized
by ending the pursuit 
and recognizing the
Perfection
we already are and 
have always been..

(Perfection is sought 
in accomplishment
for recognition and praise
 for a new self-identity
leaving behind that which
cried out in pain..
It is a promise of a new you:
stepping on a ladder
and climbing out of a
unsatisfying whirlpool
 of fear and desire...)


The Virtue of Imperfection



SouL Link Retreat

Wabi-Sabi: The Virtue of Imperfection

Many of us are prone to striving for perfection. Often thought a virtue to be attained, when we attempt to rid ourselves of faults, when we cannot be content with doing/being our imperfect best, we become anxious, intense, and incapable of resting in the present moment. Striving for perfection is a problem in the spiritual life.
Ours is a culture that applauds effort, hard work, productivity, and accomplishment. These are all good things without which the world would be the poorer and our individual lives less full. However, when it comes to matters of the soul, it is more often beneficial to linger, to wait, to be still, to accept the reality of what is - to trust rather than strive.
Because perfectionism is so universal and so detrimental, it may be helpful to look at the often subtle ways it is manifest in our lives. Our retreat will be an opportunity to do just that, to consider in what ways we may be driven by the need to be perfect and, in sharing about this, to discover how we might let go of that need, accept our faults, and realize that imperfection may just be a virtue.

From Ten Poems to Change Your Life Again and Again by Roger Housden:

To praise the imperfect, the ordinary, is not something that comes easily to us in the Western world, wedded as we are to the idea of the new, the young, the latest innovation. But in Japan there is an entire worldview that appreciates the value of the imperfect, unfinished, and faulty. It’s called wabi-sabi, where the first term refers to something simple and unpretentious, and the second points to the beauty that comes with age. Wabi-sabi is the aesthetic view


that underlies traditional Japanese art forms like the tea ceremony, calligraphy, and ceramics. It’s an aesthetic that sees beauty in the modest and humble, the irregular and earthy. It holds that beauty comes with the patina of age and in the changes that come with use. It lies in the cracks, the worn spots, and the green corrosion of bronze, the pattern of moss on a stone. The Japanese take pleasure in mistakes and imperfections.

Date: September 22, 2018
Place: Broadmoor Community Church (315 Lake Ave.)
Time: 9:00 am (registration), 9:30 am— 2:00 pm (retreat) Cost: $30 early registration (by September 18), $35 at the door. Lunch is included.
Scholarships available.
Information: Tom Stella (719) 648-3939


Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Strings










Strings

This is the new theory 

created by scientists to approach
an intuition of the possibility of
a theory of everything..
Strings are esoteric objects
residing in mathematical manipulation
beyond all observing which
science has demanded heretofore..

Have string theorists reached the edge
at which their next question will
sweep them into the abyss
of no-thingness..?


Thanks for this, CP!


https://youtu.be/AuWDzQ-tiZ8

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Selfsame

We..the disciples 
know we live in the vicinity
of a special teacher..
We follow..!
But seem slow to discover
the greatness in each of us:
our Self and his..
we are..Selfsame..
We forget the child within
the child who knows
what is special in all..

The child neglected
we search for happiness
in many wrong places..
 We wish to climb
a hierarchical ladder
deserved by our following
 a special teacher..
Yet, we are thwarted by
his universal teaching:
Don't receive me:
receive yourself
we are..Selfsame...
~~CC













Cracks



Cracks

do we know
that words and language
create cracks..and
we might be held hostage
to words and language
without knowing their
propensity to crack..

it is the crack of an eggshell
an eggshell of whiteness
allowing life to emerge..
whiteness appears to divide
shaping the world and us
with distinctions galore..

we work with distinctions
as each finds her own..
yet..within each journey
we are invited to
observe once more
a white eggshell
and to notice how words
seem to crack
what cannot be cracked..

then to notice.. cracks 
appear and disappear
demonstrating for all
the strength and weakness
indeed the beauty
of our words...



Saturday, September 15, 2018

the story





the story

is a life experience
in and of that which we are..
we in seeming smallness
are mind infinite and eternal
which molds each new story..
conceiving and perceiving
our storytelling tools 
frame time and space
within that which we are..
and so..a caution: experience
in dreaming and waking
and telling
may seem to conceal 
that which we are 
with this story..then another..

we know there are many...!







Friday, September 14, 2018

Life as character



Life as character

living as a character
in the play of life..and
not believing 
there is only the play..
this seems the journey
each of us takes
whether liking or no..
as  character..we limit
and suffer separation..
when not believing
we enter a frightening ride
an abyss of not-knowing
fear..edged in freedom..
what is Arrival..?
knowing we appear
as suffering character
free-falling in a sky
of peace and joy...



Wednesday, September 12, 2018

shopping



shopping

the orange sweater 
harbinger of autumn..
this leaf coloration reminds and
a warm texture promises
fall sunshine and wind chills..
these thoughts and perceptions
we might observe
as paul cezanne 
checked out his carrot
with revolutionary results..
inviting the ordinary
to expose Itself...!





Monday, September 10, 2018

Effulgent Nothingness

  

Effulgent Nothingness*

a phrase of elegance
suitable to its elegant originator..
knowing this as our identity
we step away
from the corrosive divisions
which hold our attention
and feel the relief of a
 paradox of named meaning..
questions of how and why
are dismissed as we bathe
in the beauty and peace
of an embracing effulgence... 


*I owe this title to my friend in Australia,
Miriam Louisa Simons: See

Who is conscious?


Who is conscious?

this question seems to be
a shortcut to understanding..
science is compiling and 
moving the bar
to surmise a conscious location..
a rock?
a rose?
a cat named mardi?
a dog named smokey?
selina?
robert?
the usa?
the blue marble?
the vast universe?
a sigh of relief comes
when experience reports:
only consciousness is
and you and all
are that...

Saturday, September 8, 2018

Speculations




(below is an exchange on the
Google blog: Metaphysical Speculations)

speculation 
is the use of the mind
attempting to discover what is possible
to discover..using the mind..
often there seems to be no sense
of limitation..as the endeavor 
indefinitely moves 
on and on..

speculation 
tries to unify the parts
assumed separated..and
we have gone many miles
as speculation lighted the way..
but we now seem to be
at the end of the road built
by speculation..
might we find futility in 
pressing on
at the end of the road...?




CC, et al,

One can be a hard-core Ontological Idealist and a practical materialist. Would not a fully-enlightened medititator who experienced a life-threatening auto accident want an ambulance to take her or him to the hospital emergency room?

I find the persistent either/or logic which is applied grandly and grandiosely across the question to be quite frustrating when, at any location less than the whole enchilada of M@L or God or the Ontological imperative, it is ALWAYS a question of both consciousness and matter and this is why Buddha offered as practical advice, The Middle Way.

I agree that matter is contained higher density consciousness. This creates confusion because to the materialist consensual mindset is looks like consciousness arises out out of matter but this false view based on the reality that matter is consciousness become and made firm into relatively stable form.

Lou,

My problem with that is that there seems to be compromise to produce the middle way.  I think
that perspective is a better approach.  The materialist perspective, the predominant perspective in
science, assumes an independent reality outside of consciousness, aka duality.  The consciousness-
only perspective understands that the material outside is really inside, and actually made of
consciousness.  The appearance of things in both perspectives remains the same, but in the
c-perspective, appearance is understood as appearance, not independence...

Thanks!
CC

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Solitude Self





           
the Solitude Self

it seems as exhilarating and fearful
to one person and the next..
the sense and belief in separation:
in these are rooted the fear..
in these..experience hides the
Solitude Self..which in the guise
of nothingness..becomes the fear..
yet this Self remains and waits
for belief rendering unbelief
and darkness falling at midday..
a reckoning crisis in solitude
may then uncover the
      the Solitude Self...


https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&shva=1#inbox/FMfcgxvzKQrNLgZhgTMHstjMscZqtcxH

Monday, September 3, 2018

Birthday time..





Time

is simply the line we draw
in our minds..to help us explain..
(despite our real experience of
everything at once..)
how we each have a birthday..
now consider this:
without the line no birthdays
have we..!  no cake and no wishes..! 
and lost is the Happy..  :)


Birthday time..

a day of accumulation
memories and friends..
a time to discover time..

Dan and I in Cheyenne Mountain
watching satellite orbits
tried to train on the subject of time
time was not to be found..we were uneasy
no explanation would do..
we didn't figure it out..not at that time..!

in my time in Washington D. C.
my teacher of time was one Henry McIntyre
arriving at work in our little office
reading and clearing speeches and
pushing freedom of information..
Mac would start work with much hesitation
he was the Google tech..before Google time..
he was outside of time..co-workers in awe..

Jim Chapman was our pastor at Broadmoor Church
I assisted him in preparing Worship in Meditation
these..in thinking back..were all about time..see below.. 




























Sunday, September 2, 2018

The Funeral


The Funeral

Juxtaposed we find
metaphorical possibilities
on the 'oft heard word
"Great.."
in  recent discourse..

The funereal gathering
marked with precision
and heartening oratory
celebrated a life representing
a centered consensus..
claiming a greatness
past and present..
but with darkness lapping
in places too close..

The golf outing
with creditable swing
stands circumferential 
representing "deplorables" who
find the center not their own..
yet..a clubbing of truth
and a rough savaging
of human interchange
seem as arousal..

Arousal for rejection of
both sides of this
juxtaposition:
Are we witnessing the 
birthing of what is "Great"
all anew...?

  

Assumptions




Assumptions

separation:
this is what most assume
perhaps or perhaps not
on lifelong journeys..

oneness: 
the other assumption
seems to lie in potential
or in possibility
in all of our days..

the latter assumption
closes all gaps
or more truthfully:
discovers the gaps
never were..

all journeys
with their destinations
foreseen and promising
are many searchings
guided by the
first assumption..
apparently
these journeys continue
until..an ending...