Friday, January 14, 2011

Drifting Together

Looking at snowflakes under magnification,
they all appear different.
Watching them fall from the sky,
they all seem the same.
Seeing them on the ground,
they're all one.

I guess we're all a little flaky.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A New World

I seek to understand another world beyond what I can experience. I'm a dolphin wishing to know of mountain goats, dust storms and forest fires. I don't want to build on my understanding, but want it to be erased and replaced with another template, in a new context. I long for this notion of what is, this fantasy that I've been cobbling together for a half of a century, to be shredded and scattered and forgotten. I want to trade in my five senses for six new ones, to exchange my clumsy thinking for clear knowing. There's so very much that I can't perceive and that won't fit into my simple story. I intuit that it's there and yearn to embrace it, but here I am, left to frolic beneath the waves, merely dreaming of dragonflies and tumble weeds.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Faithfully Yours

People are always crediting God for getting them through tough times, when it's really their faith that did it. They chose to believe that some benevolent deity would look after them and theirs, but that needn't be a part of the equation, at all. Faith, in and of itself is the source of the spirit of perseverance, and the strength to overcome trials and triumph, despite any echoing voices of doubt. Faith that things are OK and will work out for the best, that one will survive, prosper or be a force for good. Faith that no matter what happens, adversity will be overcome and one will become better as a result.

God doesn't do anything, faith does.

Certain Freedoms

Philosophers, spiritual aspirants and scientists have certain freedoms, not permitted in the halls of religion and politics. They're able to hold multiple contradictory theories at once, without feeling conflicted. They comfortably embrace a quest for the honest truth, at whatever cost to their history and suppositions. They're strengthened by knowing that unquestioning commitment is fool hearty and disempowering. They see being proven wrong or shown another way, as welcomed progress. They understand that faith can, and does, thrive in the absence of fixed belief. And they're allowed, in fact, expected to think and judge for themselves.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Mother Universe Theory

Just as a ray of sunlight cast upon a wall is merely a glimmer of the suns radiance, so to our essences are but a glistening of the universal consciousness. The universe itself is engaged in a search for knowing and in its quest has fragmented itself, investing its consciousness into everything that is and all that is between. We are, in essence, a small part of the universe’s quest to understand itself.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

On Meditation:

We don't meditate to gain something.
We meditate to free ourselves of all of the things
that obscure our ability to open to that which we have,
yet don't, and can't, possess.

Question(s) d'jour:

How do you want to feel?
Knowing that your presence affects how others feel,
how do you want to make others to feel?
Are the two compatible?

The Truth is Bigger than Us

Denial is pervasive in all areas of life and across all segments of society. Sometimes it's very benign, sometimes it threatens the entire planet. Research has shown that people are less likely to believe truthful realities when they contradict beliefs, lifestyles and cultural attitudes. If someone's mom passed deep fried lard off as good eats, then it'll likely take a coronary to convince him to take it off the menu. For a 4th generation coal miner, acid rain and global warming will sound like deceptive hoaxes. A culture built around consumerism isn't going to be easily steered toward a conservational lifestyle.

Too many people are getting by, if not rich, in the current system and will provide their own “facts” to prove that there's no need for change. And people are comfortably ensconced in their ways of living and thinking, and will be more eager to believe that all is well, as it is.

Masses have been shouting warnings of the potentially dire consequences of abusing our environment for millennia. No doubt there were those on Easter Island who cried for a dose of sanity. They were probably burned along with the last tree – right before the remaining residents all died off or were forced to flee.

Our presidents (presumably reflecting on what had become of the natural environment in Europe) have been preserving specific regions and articles of nature's splendor since the mid 1800's. The industrial revolution has upped the ante, and the volume of many of the activists. Yet, by and large, momentum and money continue to win out over the world that nurtures our very existence.

There are millions of people who live their entire lives without ever leaving the major metropolis of their birth. I've heard people react to the notion escaping society and immersing themselves in the wilderness as though it was akin to drinking used motor oil.

There's plenty of factual evidence to sway societies course, but that's not sufficient. Emotions have to join rationale for change to occur. Watching nature on TV can be helpful. (Which, unfortunately, millions never do.) Ideally it inspires people to go out and experience the real thing for themselves. That is where the heart gets the message.

The truth is that our hearts aren't all that intelligent. They trust the thinking mind to know what our main priorities are, and react to how life is conforming to them. When people live in cities and televisions and computers and phones, they lose their heart connection with the greater world. Their personal lives are front and center and determine their values and judgments.

While there are many that are too afraid of change to change, most people will naturally begin to feel their smallness and the glory of the larger world when steeped in it for even a short time. This is of great value for the individual, as well as the planet. When seen in terms of global and universal perspectives, our personal struggles and obstacles seem trivial and inconsequential. We can learn to feel content, just being. The more we embrace nature, the deeper and longer lasting the contentment we receive from it.

And it doesn't have to be sweeping vistas. A single insect can have the same affect, if one chooses to see life “in its shoes”, instead of ending its life under his/her shoes.