What it is?

It's a rare person who maintains an honestly scientific eye for the truth – even in scientific circles. Most seek to prove that existing theories or beliefs are correct. They feel obliged to defend the notions that they've learned, hatched or had handed down to them. They tend to see only those things that fit into their preconceptions; or, to forcibly interpret things that conflict with their notions until they mesh, acceptably. Although this may be more comfortable, it's not exactly realistic, practical or wise.

I was talking with a substantially overweight lady the other day who was explaining to me that she didn't consider herself fat; rather, called herself “healthy”. No doubt, it made her feel better. No doubt, it's about as contrary to the truth as possible. Being overly over weight stresses backs, hips, knees and ankles. It greatly increases the risks of diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and organ failure. And it limits potential by making everything from breathing to climbing stairs more strenuous and taxing.

She's hardly alone in her delusion. I was a teen the first time I heard that particular substitution of terminology. Some might say that she's better off living with the illusion, so that she feels better about her self. I think that condoning any embrace of lying to oneself sets a horrible precedent. Once it's presumed an acceptable practice, the pattern will begin to pop up any and every where. It may be cute when tykes think that closing their eyes shrouds them in a shield of invisibility, but we hardly want our children to grow up planning their lives around such notions.

We learn and evolve much better, and direct our actions far more intelligently, when we see things as they are; and then, adjust our views and beliefs to accommodate any new evidence. It may sound like a no brainer, and I suspect that a large percentage of folks assume that they do just that, but reality would disagree with most.

Religious fundamentalists and scientists can be two peas in a pod here. Feel good fantasies become die hard beliefs that no amount of evidence can dislodge. And, if it's not proven by committee, repeatable and measurable, it's obviously not real. Both close ones eyes to possibilities and close ones mind to new ways of conceiving. Previous generations, whose understandings would be laughable today, were confident in their unquestionable grasp on things. The same will surely be said of us in the future. Truth, as a concept, has to expand and evolve to accommodate our ever clearer understandings, as we crawl toward seeing an ultimate truth.

Where ever the tendency comes from, how ever it manifests, and when ever it became engrained, it can be undone. But reprogramming takes a long time, a lot of work and powerful dedication. The desire to see and know the untainted truth, as it reveals itself, has to be systematically absorbed and integrated ever deeper and more holistically. You have to want to be bathed in, and filled with, welcoming silence more than you want to entertain whatever floats through your field of awareness. You must wish to know the truth more than you wish to feel that what you think, know or believe is accurate. The roots of these yearnings need to reach as deeply as your most primal motivations.

If you haven't been there, you can't conceive it. If you've only heard tales of it, your conception is a far poorer representation than the others abbreviated phrasings of their fractured memories of their partial viewing of it. You need to go there to begin to know it, and there are places that you can't know how to get to. Creativity, intuition, invention, revelation, insight, compassion, ... none of these can be born from a logical progression of thoughts.

There's a whole world and an infinite universe out there, and to be self limited to the boundaries of a particular neighborhood is silly. How can one ever expect to make new discoveries when unwilling to go beyond the familiar? How can people ever expect to know themselves when they're obscured by junkyard sculpture representations of who and/or what they are? How can anyone not want to know the truth, on its own terms? And, how can anyone imagine that they actually know just what it is?

Anticipation

Being present is really much more active than it sounds. It's not like we finally arrive at a lounge where comfort abounds, servants attend our every need, weather conforms to our moods and there's never any decisions to make. It's not a place or a state that we settle into, at all.

Being attuned with the flowing moment demands as much involvement as balancing on one foot does. With practice, it feels more natural and becomes more stable, but without dedicated attention, balance wanes. Even if it was possible to become perfectly still in absolute balance, the world happens. Water falls and flows, wind stops and blows, and the earth moves beneath our feet. Internally, our past calls out to us, fears and fantasies paint imaginary scenarios that we call our future, and every bit of fluff floating down the stream of thought beckons to be held.

Stillness coexists with chaos. This truth is undeniable. So, focus can't be on finding or maintaining an illusory ideal; rather, it has to hover in anticipation, reaching out with all senses and sensibilities to detect the very next thing, the instant it arises.

We learn to trust that the body is capable of balancing itself. In fact, our efforts to achieve and/or sustain balance with our minds is counter productive. So we willfully establish our intentions and consciously observe, but the balancing, itself, happens from elsewhere.

Similarly, we can't think our way into the silence that accompanies our being present; and, thoughts simply can't keep pace with the now. To be present, we have to set our intentions, (initially) place ourselves in an accommodating environment with some dedicated time, and allow the quietude to manifest within and around us, as we simply observe while steadily maintaining clear intent to see purely.

The thinking/reasoning mind has a rather high opinion of itself. And in truth, the guy's got game. But if/when it tries to intercede in the act of balancing, listing and swaying will surely follow. Our bodies know what to do and will skillfully tend to themselves, if we just get our dreams and doubts out of the way.

As consciousness is freed from the confines of the assumed and expected, a torrent of awareness, understanding and questions can begin to flow. The thinker then feels an urgent need to label, analyze, judge, decipher, categorize and prioritize these experiences, in an attempt to integrate them into the “known”. Assimilation is much more honest, complete and detailed when not slowed down by or filtered through thought, which, by its very nature, only deals with the past or future. Our beings know what to do and will skillfully tend to themselves, if we just get our dreams and doubts out of the way.

Do you feel it? The present has its knuckles curled and is swinging them toward your door, right now.

What's Your Wake?

A wave crossing the ocean isn't a physical thing in motion. It's an energetic pulse in conveyance through the medium of water molecules. We are more complex than waves, but are as much manifestations of a greater unfolding than our immediate being suggests.

Our bodies rely on a constant inflow of energy. It may come delivered via molecules (which are made of atoms that are largely incorporeal) but in the big picture, it's energetic transference.

Our food comes from the energy of the sun. Previous generations have contributed their skins to enrich the soil that combines with molecules from the air and the rays of the sun to complete the energy that propels this generations plants that feed us, our livestock or the soil. The oxygen we inhale combines with nutrients, fats and sugars metabolizing as the energy that creates and sustains our material forms.

Our consciousness is energy that manifests in our physical minds, which resonates through our bodies and into the world. And it continues on and on through the matrix of existence, whether we're aware of it, or not.

If you were to be impatient and judgmental toward another and share negative energy with them by speaking harshly, that would soak into your victim, who would infect others with it, and on.

If you were to be appreciative and loving toward another and share that positive energy through laughter, a smile or a soothing touch, your energy will become a cascade of upliftment and joy.

Not that physical action is required for our energy to spread beyond our conceived borders. Its effects can even be felt without shared physical presence.

The wave itself doesn't go on forever, but its influence changes the trajectory of everything that it touches. And it never stops. We're living on the surface of a pond being pelted by rain. And, we can't help but to transmute the energy as it passes through us. But, if we're conscious and strengthen our intentions, we can choose our energetic legacies.

The wakes we leave behind us sprout into living embodiments, from flowers and fruits, to poisonous briar patches.

So, what's your wake?

The Problem with Pedestals

When people uncover anything that they think is of high importance, they want to remember it; and often, to share it with others. So memories are tweaked and tales embellished to insure that it rings of paramount relevance. Then, to insure that it's admired by all and remains up front in ones' mind, it's buffed up and propped up on a high pedestal for the whole world to see. At this point, the thing becomes a mere reminder – a representation of what was so noteworthy to begin with. Then, as others flock to the sight, they only have the totem to view; and so, build their feelings and ideas around the image, rather than the substance it represents. As the plaque says it's highly important, those pilgrims take two dimensional photos to share, or do their best to describe it verbally. This, of course, further dilutes the meaning. Then we add generations playing the phone game and it gets more distorted each time it's passed down the line. So we're left with a misrepresentation of a shadow of an echo of a remembrance of an image of something that was truly profound.

Now, people, being as they are, would much rather be told what's what, than to have to do the work of ascertaining it for themselves. So people who make grand claims and promise the undeliverable gain droves of fans; while those who guide others to make their own discoveries seem to go largely unheard.

I know that people are only able to absorb the next logical piece of the puzzle, but when the notion of what the puzzle is and how it relates to us is merely an image sitting upon a pedestal … well, it's no wonder that so many are trying to gain sustenance from a smeared sketch on a crumpled napkin.

In our quick fix society where people want reality to conform to their beliefs and lifestyles, and expect all cures to come in a bottle, it's not surprising that people expect knowledge and wisdom to be injected into their brains. But the universal laws of physics and metaphysics don't yield to desires. It doesn't matter who the teacher is or what tome is referenced, there's no substitute for first hand realization.

So the next time you unearth a gem, instead of hanging it from the sky, cover it back up and draw a treasure map to share.

Buddhism Revisited

We've been taught that the Buddha's first tenant was “life is suffering”. So all this lengthy reasoning and heavy emotional stuff has been built up to support the weighty notion of suffering. I think this is an exaggeration of his intended message. You may feel differently, but I don't experience all that much actual suffering in my life. I would surmise that, were he here today, he would say something more like, “Life is stressful” or “Life is arduous”. Perhaps it's just me, but I think that feels so much more down to earth, accurate and approachable.

He then posited, “Suffering is caused by our attachments and aversions.” and “Cessation of suffering is possible” New translations: “We create our own stress by what we focus on and how we interpret it.” And “We can reduce our stress by changing the ways we look and think.”

It's really basic psychology. Reordering the way we see our selves and adjusting how we relate with the various aspects of our totality and with the world around us. Many think that Buddhism belongs in the same category as religions, but not all. I belong to the latter camp. It's really just about seeing from a non-personalized perspective, accepting what is, and acting in harmony with the greater unfolding.

Actions, attitudes, ambitions, work, lifestyles, and such need to be brought into alignment with the new or desired inner order. This was the purpose of the Buddha's presenting the 8 fold path. To give guidelines in what we need to monitor and manage as we work to maintain balance or stay the middle way.

It may seem like it deals with other worldly affairs, but that's only when one refuses to see the thinking mind in a holistic perspective. The Buddha never spoke of God, claimed to be no one extraordinary, and professed no ultimate universal understanding. That people have deified him and made his story and messages so overly fantastical has only served to make his teachings less accessible.

The Buddha didn't create Buddhism, the disciples left after his passing and their students did. He was very clear in affirming his own common humanity and indicating that it would be an error to deify him. His teaching was that everyone else is just as capable of awakening. The same was true with Jesus a few centuries later. And, just like with Jesus, many have disregarded his teachings and made him an object of worship, anyway.

Does Buddhism fit the same template as the worlds other religions? Well, Buddhists typically refer to themselves as practitioners, not followers, believers, devotes or worshipers. And the tenants aren't based on belief of the intangible, but on honest, systematic investigation. Unlike with the other primary religions of our times, there are no deities *, no imposed moralities, no segregating charter, no threats of cosmic punishment, no claims of being the one and only true way, no obligation to believe, no need to look to an outside authority for truth and no inherent conflicts with others who hold differing beliefs.

At one point I had formulated a concept of god that seemed to mesh with the words I'd heard about it and didn't clash with my own sensibilities and discoveries. But it really wasn't the same god as the majority's notion of a supreme creator and governor of all that is. So, although I do use the term on rare occasion, I no longer try to see eye to eye with those who's beliefs are built on fairy tales and archaic dogma. Similarly, I don't feel obligated to make Buddhism fit nicely into the same category as other religions, just because it's fashionable.

I'd love to be able to bring the Buddha's teachings back down to earth, somehow. Well, I actually do; but, I'd like people to understand that his teachings were as accessible as mine – presumably more so. I see how/why it all got so blown out of proportion, but that's a topic worthy of its own article. (Look for The Problem with Pedestals)

* Buddhism does have “deities”, but this, too, is a poor translation. They aren't other worldly beings with power and influence over our lowly mortal existence. They're teaching tools meant to represent various aspects or qualities of an awakened mind.

Hug a Yogi

Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Taoism, Judaism and Christianity have all tried to stake claim to lands, long inhabited by yogis. They've harvested the yogis perspectives, insights and wisdom, and claimed them to be of their own making. Their practitioners have been given labels like Sufis or Mystics, implying that the yogic ways were off shoots of their religions, rather than the initial inspiration for their very creation.

Looking at a calendar is all that's required to refute such notions.

Once their understandings were confined to texts and churches, they were converted from the ethereal eternal wonder, that inspires grand quests and noble questions, to hollow hypothetical promises and mundane man-made regulations, that demand adherence to rules and motivate through fear. So the treasures of the yogis have largely been buried under mountains of rites, rituals, fairy tales, tenants, laws and an implied sense of separation from others who see contrasting interpretations, use unfamiliar words and follow different customs.

No longer do we find teachers guiding folks to find their way; but, preachers telling flocks what to believe, and how to think and act. Fostering the notion that adhering to religiously sanctioned actions is more important than purifying core intentions and acting in harmony with one's higher truth. Sacrificing a personal relationship with the unknowable for a scheduled appointment to listen to someone else talk about such a relationship. Trading moral sensibilities for a list of rules.

The trappings are traps. Communities of spiritual seekers are good, but the constructs that define such groups often become distractions that obscure the deeper meanings that manifested the group, in the first place. There are, of course, many exceptions of churches and religious leaders who emphasize nurturing a personal relationship with a greater awareness. And the trend toward losing the bigger picture for the details is pervasively reflected in many facets of thought, action and culture.

Nonetheless, it's unfortunate that the worth of the yogis, both past and present, has been systematically swept under the rug. And I think that they deserve a long belated standing ovation for their contributions to the maturation of humanity.

Or better yet, just as a thank you, give a yogi
a big lovey hug.

Musical Flares

A yogi who only practices
to perfect the postures
is like a musician who only
practices scales

The main objective is to be
ever more so
aware of
engaged with and
caring toward
our bodies

We can allow the prescribed alignments
to help refine our sense of orientation
without swearing fidelity to them
We can bend the notes, sweet and sour
improvise our own chords and
sing our own songs

Let your postures come to life
Let there be music