Manning and Snowden most likely broke the laws on the books, but morally they upheld the basic principles the USA is based on. The people and practices they exposed undermine the soul of America.
In Nazi Germany, hiding jews was a crime. A few brave souls broke the law and hid jews. In slavery days in America hiding an escaped slave was against the law; a few brave souls upheld a higher law. Today we honor those people as heroes. Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, and all the other whistleblowers are the true patriots, people who uphold the moral laws and basic principles of America.
For these reasons, President Obama must pardon them.
Tell the President that
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
In the realm of hungry ghosts, a protest poem
IN THE REALM OF HUNGRY GHOSTS
In the realm of hungry ghosts
bellies the size of beach balls
throats the size of a small straw
never able to get enough
always wanting more
constantly remodeling their houses
buying bigger houses
newer cars
bigger TVs
the latest electronic toys,
cell phones, computers, and all the rest
always in their heads
their only sensations in their bodies
food and sex
otherwise, only pain
reminds them that they have
arms, legs, fingers, toes
and lots of skin
Success is not success
if it takes you away from
your birthright as a living being
to be fully alive in your body
A sociopathic, ecocidal society
where the only value put on the land
is to develop it
with constantly rising prices, where
even those who are not hungry ghosts
have to struggle just to survive
in the realm of hungry ghosts
-----------------
here's an older poem on the same themes
A naked pagan
dancing with the sky
i am alien in your world
Your houses, factories, TV sets
It is difficult for me to understand
how can you live this way?
but you do
I need trees, grass, sky
rushing rivers and willing consorts
fresh strawberries picked from the ground
You tell me of vaccines, hospitals
guaranteed food supply
heat in the winter
Yes, these are good things
when enjoyed properly
but why give up
the joy of feeling
the sun on your heart
the waves on your flesh
trances
the companionship of spirit
Why do you seem to lack
joy, contentment, fulfillment
serenity, and
integrity
You sell yourself to the highest bidder and
live in fear of not selling yourself
why can you not find a way to have it all?
If this technology is so wonderful
why are so many unhappy
sick at heart
filled with all manner of diseased emotions and
homeless in the streets
I don't understand
The gifts i offer
you think worthless
I offer the sand, the sea
compassion, and
deep feelings
What you want from me is to be a robot
For that i may earn enough to buy food and pay rent
since you have set a price on every inch of the earth
by what right do you control this land?
I don't understand
but, after all
I am only
A naked pagan
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Full Disclosure
God knows why i am writing this now and posting it, but anyway...
Somewhere, i believe in some past life, i lost the sense that i could count on anything on earth to last, and that's been the underlying substratum of my whole life. Money can be lost, people can die or just leave you, or almost worse, your feelings change, houses can burn down, fame is fickle...
I"m 57: i don't have much income, no home of my own, no girlfriend, not much public recognition in my field of music (other than a person here or a person there).
But there have been times in my life when i did have a girlfriend, and often i was still unhappy.
Times i made money, often still unhappy
etc.
When i get into moods of "poor me", i remember those times, and i realize that what i am really looking for is a feeling of peace and joy, and seeking that feeling from external stimuli is ultimately fruitless, an up and down seesaw.
Not that i don't want home, girlfriend, money, success, i do, and at times acutely feel the lack. Not that i diminish the importance of having a happy and healthy physical life, i want those too, but what i really want is an unbreakable sense of happiness, a sense of happiness that's not just the effect of and dependent on external causes, which are not reliable. Meditation and yoga are the things that have brought me the most peace and happiness, and they are not mutually exclusive with a happy human life.
I've had no real desire for kids or to own a home or a lot of stuff, and that has allowed me a lot of choice. I understand that doing karma yoga in the world, job and kids, householder, is a very valid path, which i may be entering on, but up to now my path has been to withdraw from the world, to keep myself as protected as possible, safe from the overstimulation and unrelenting busyness i see so many people caught up in, 1000 Facebook notifications/10 thousand emails/500 cell phone messages a day.
I've lived in tents a lot, probably a total of 4 and 1/2 years of my life, in Big Sur and Mt. Shasta and some other places, and i have to say that, generally speaking i sleep and feel better in nature, and my ideal situation was when i had full access to kitchen and indoors and had the tent as an extra bedroom, so i'm not totally a nature boy, i like some comforts. Still, while it's nice to have power and a refrigerator, it's just too easy to get sucked into hours each day on the computer, and i don't like all the EMFs of modern life.
What i really want is to truly feel myself as spirit incarnate, as tat tvam asi, as the hindu scriptures and the western teacher Joel Goldsmith, and so many others, speak of. (go buy any book by Joel Goldsmith, they all say one thing). I can't say i've done that yet, but what i can say is that living a life with lots of free time, much of it in nature, relatively free of busyness and overstimulation, with as nearly constant mindfulness as i can manage, gives me occasional glimpses, and i'm at the point where it's time to re-enter the world and participate.
I've found so much truth in the saying "attitude is everything" and in the buddhist teachings, which basically amount to learning how to be happy and methods to accomplish that. I started out adulthood, like so many of us, as a wounded, damaged person. I've spent years healing, to the point where, despite my lack of externals, i don't feel wounded anymore. If i die tomorrow, it was time well spent, and, i want to fulfill my humanity and have a good human existence, and give something back, especially my music.
So, today, i got into the headspace of "i need this, i need that". Maybe i'm just writing this to remind myself of what i really need, maybe i'm writing this because it pains me to see people who are looking for peace and happiness from externals, and suffering much in the process, especially people i know. Maybe i just don't have enough wisdom yet to accept that.
So, i've written 700 songs, many of which nobody but me has heard, many of them not played in years.
I do Watsu and massage and energy work, i teach guitar, i can be very loving, nurturing and giving in relationship, and i am officially declaring that i am open for business as a human being, not a dis-embodied mind.
Amin
Somewhere, i believe in some past life, i lost the sense that i could count on anything on earth to last, and that's been the underlying substratum of my whole life. Money can be lost, people can die or just leave you, or almost worse, your feelings change, houses can burn down, fame is fickle...
I"m 57: i don't have much income, no home of my own, no girlfriend, not much public recognition in my field of music (other than a person here or a person there).
But there have been times in my life when i did have a girlfriend, and often i was still unhappy.
Times i made money, often still unhappy
etc.
When i get into moods of "poor me", i remember those times, and i realize that what i am really looking for is a feeling of peace and joy, and seeking that feeling from external stimuli is ultimately fruitless, an up and down seesaw.
Not that i don't want home, girlfriend, money, success, i do, and at times acutely feel the lack. Not that i diminish the importance of having a happy and healthy physical life, i want those too, but what i really want is an unbreakable sense of happiness, a sense of happiness that's not just the effect of and dependent on external causes, which are not reliable. Meditation and yoga are the things that have brought me the most peace and happiness, and they are not mutually exclusive with a happy human life.
I've had no real desire for kids or to own a home or a lot of stuff, and that has allowed me a lot of choice. I understand that doing karma yoga in the world, job and kids, householder, is a very valid path, which i may be entering on, but up to now my path has been to withdraw from the world, to keep myself as protected as possible, safe from the overstimulation and unrelenting busyness i see so many people caught up in, 1000 Facebook notifications/10 thousand emails/500 cell phone messages a day.
I've lived in tents a lot, probably a total of 4 and 1/2 years of my life, in Big Sur and Mt. Shasta and some other places, and i have to say that, generally speaking i sleep and feel better in nature, and my ideal situation was when i had full access to kitchen and indoors and had the tent as an extra bedroom, so i'm not totally a nature boy, i like some comforts. Still, while it's nice to have power and a refrigerator, it's just too easy to get sucked into hours each day on the computer, and i don't like all the EMFs of modern life.
What i really want is to truly feel myself as spirit incarnate, as tat tvam asi, as the hindu scriptures and the western teacher Joel Goldsmith, and so many others, speak of. (go buy any book by Joel Goldsmith, they all say one thing). I can't say i've done that yet, but what i can say is that living a life with lots of free time, much of it in nature, relatively free of busyness and overstimulation, with as nearly constant mindfulness as i can manage, gives me occasional glimpses, and i'm at the point where it's time to re-enter the world and participate.
I've found so much truth in the saying "attitude is everything" and in the buddhist teachings, which basically amount to learning how to be happy and methods to accomplish that. I started out adulthood, like so many of us, as a wounded, damaged person. I've spent years healing, to the point where, despite my lack of externals, i don't feel wounded anymore. If i die tomorrow, it was time well spent, and, i want to fulfill my humanity and have a good human existence, and give something back, especially my music.
So, today, i got into the headspace of "i need this, i need that". Maybe i'm just writing this to remind myself of what i really need, maybe i'm writing this because it pains me to see people who are looking for peace and happiness from externals, and suffering much in the process, especially people i know. Maybe i just don't have enough wisdom yet to accept that.
So, i've written 700 songs, many of which nobody but me has heard, many of them not played in years.
I do Watsu and massage and energy work, i teach guitar, i can be very loving, nurturing and giving in relationship, and i am officially declaring that i am open for business as a human being, not a dis-embodied mind.
Amin
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Personal and political
Petsitting in the Bay Area for month of July. Just got back from 2 months in Cambria, Big Sur and Monterey, mostly camping. I sleep so well in a tent, away from a lot of electronics, especially in Big Sur. It's so somatically rich. Lying on the ground looking up at redwoods during the day, going to bed more or less with the sun at night.
On a physical level, the best i ever felt was when i lived at Harbin, my tent right by a stream, full use of kitchen and showers and hot springs, leave for the winter, come back in the spring. And, while somatically rich, there's more to life, and i've learned and grown so much since those days.
Even in Big Sur this trip, it was great, and after a while i needed more societal interactions. Maybe some day i'll be ready to go out to pasture, but not yet.
---------------
On this trip i met a lot of homeless people. Not down and out San Francisco types, just regular folks who had lost their job or place or had a health issue, and were trying the best they could to keep their heads up in the face of difficult circumstances. A number of them had a real sense of community.
What i saw, in political terms, was what a sham the American dream has become for people who don't have skills, especially computer skills, at least in California. To think that someone, starting from zero, can a) get a job in the first place, especially if they don't even have money to pay their cell phone, and b) even if they get a job, how can they get a place making minimum wage, $8/hr, and apartments are $800 month and up, not to mention utilities, etc., is a joke. Anybody who can add 2 + 2 can do the math, and it doesn't add up. These are the people i met.
Anybody who says "fine, go someplace else", well, where's the money to get there, knowing nobody, where to stay, etc. In short, not so simple.
For myself, i don't have a place of my own, mostly because i seem to travel endlessly, haven't had much money, but do have skills, prospects and practices, more of an old fashioned drifter, although today that distinction seems to be getting lost. To some extent i could relate to what these folks were going through, on the other hand i felt a bit above it all, even though at times my bank account was down to $120 and i did get a bit nervous, but i always have miracles in my life. I've learned to expect and count on them and this time was no exception.
Still, i do have a strong sense of "there, but for the grace of god, go i". Every time i think of getting a place, i look at the rents, and i see the effects on me personally of a system that encourages exploitation. i have some advantages; educated, frugal, skills, good with money, white (let's tell the truth), strong spiritual grounding.
What about the people who don't have those going for them?
-----------------
So, personally, i'm in a great place petsitting, looking to get my own life together, and i expect i will... and i think about all the people who were pushed over the edge, they didn't fall over the edge, they were pushed, by a social/economic system that empowers greed and exploitation, an ethic of "i got mine, screw you", the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I win, you lose, "the very thing that makes you rich makes me poor" (a song title from a Ry Cooder album)-------the greed of all the executives who downsized and moved jobs wherever they could pay desperate people almost nothing, just so they and the people at the top, the %.01 (it's really not 1%, it's the %.01 could add millions and tens of millions of dollars to their own pockets, while millions and tens of millions of blue collar folks lost everything. Sure, it's everybody's responsibility to make the best of whatever happens, and i don't deny that many people are just as much victims of themselves as of a corrupt and exploitive system, but i would at least like to see the system set up for average people, not just the smartest and most ambitious, to live a decent life, and it all comes down to the basic values of individuals and the society collectively, the most basic one being compassion for everyone. Instead, America, to a large extent, at least the laws governing money, functions on dog eat dog, i win, you lose, tough shit.
Especially as someone who has followed my calling as an artist, rather than maximizing my income, i see how, despite cute PBS programs, the underlying pressures in the society are for people to sacrifice their integrity and their dreams to the necessity of making MONEY, wasting their lives as wage slaves, often in useless and ecologically destructive ways, and then i see how the people who do that so often seem stressed and unhappy, hardly enough time for themselves to pee.
I always struggle with the fact that, in metaphysical terms, i really do believe in divine justice and that it's all perfect, and the struggles are to learn from, but when i meet and hang out with people i like and have good conversations with, people who, on one level, are getting fucked over by the system, it's a lot harder for me to be so philosophical about it.
----------------------------
I add three links from Barbara Ehrenreich, who has written compellingly and beautifully on this topic
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/thislandistheirland.htm
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Falling-Inner-Middle-Class/dp/0060973331
some more links
David Cay Johnston Perfectly legal
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wages-fall-at-record-pace
I've done other posts on this blog on similar topics, just check the politics tag.
On a physical level, the best i ever felt was when i lived at Harbin, my tent right by a stream, full use of kitchen and showers and hot springs, leave for the winter, come back in the spring. And, while somatically rich, there's more to life, and i've learned and grown so much since those days.
Even in Big Sur this trip, it was great, and after a while i needed more societal interactions. Maybe some day i'll be ready to go out to pasture, but not yet.
---------------
On this trip i met a lot of homeless people. Not down and out San Francisco types, just regular folks who had lost their job or place or had a health issue, and were trying the best they could to keep their heads up in the face of difficult circumstances. A number of them had a real sense of community.
What i saw, in political terms, was what a sham the American dream has become for people who don't have skills, especially computer skills, at least in California. To think that someone, starting from zero, can a) get a job in the first place, especially if they don't even have money to pay their cell phone, and b) even if they get a job, how can they get a place making minimum wage, $8/hr, and apartments are $800 month and up, not to mention utilities, etc., is a joke. Anybody who can add 2 + 2 can do the math, and it doesn't add up. These are the people i met.
Anybody who says "fine, go someplace else", well, where's the money to get there, knowing nobody, where to stay, etc. In short, not so simple.
For myself, i don't have a place of my own, mostly because i seem to travel endlessly, haven't had much money, but do have skills, prospects and practices, more of an old fashioned drifter, although today that distinction seems to be getting lost. To some extent i could relate to what these folks were going through, on the other hand i felt a bit above it all, even though at times my bank account was down to $120 and i did get a bit nervous, but i always have miracles in my life. I've learned to expect and count on them and this time was no exception.
Still, i do have a strong sense of "there, but for the grace of god, go i". Every time i think of getting a place, i look at the rents, and i see the effects on me personally of a system that encourages exploitation. i have some advantages; educated, frugal, skills, good with money, white (let's tell the truth), strong spiritual grounding.
What about the people who don't have those going for them?
-----------------
So, personally, i'm in a great place petsitting, looking to get my own life together, and i expect i will... and i think about all the people who were pushed over the edge, they didn't fall over the edge, they were pushed, by a social/economic system that empowers greed and exploitation, an ethic of "i got mine, screw you", the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I win, you lose, "the very thing that makes you rich makes me poor" (a song title from a Ry Cooder album)-------the greed of all the executives who downsized and moved jobs wherever they could pay desperate people almost nothing, just so they and the people at the top, the %.01 (it's really not 1%, it's the %.01 could add millions and tens of millions of dollars to their own pockets, while millions and tens of millions of blue collar folks lost everything. Sure, it's everybody's responsibility to make the best of whatever happens, and i don't deny that many people are just as much victims of themselves as of a corrupt and exploitive system, but i would at least like to see the system set up for average people, not just the smartest and most ambitious, to live a decent life, and it all comes down to the basic values of individuals and the society collectively, the most basic one being compassion for everyone. Instead, America, to a large extent, at least the laws governing money, functions on dog eat dog, i win, you lose, tough shit.
Especially as someone who has followed my calling as an artist, rather than maximizing my income, i see how, despite cute PBS programs, the underlying pressures in the society are for people to sacrifice their integrity and their dreams to the necessity of making MONEY, wasting their lives as wage slaves, often in useless and ecologically destructive ways, and then i see how the people who do that so often seem stressed and unhappy, hardly enough time for themselves to pee.
I always struggle with the fact that, in metaphysical terms, i really do believe in divine justice and that it's all perfect, and the struggles are to learn from, but when i meet and hang out with people i like and have good conversations with, people who, on one level, are getting fucked over by the system, it's a lot harder for me to be so philosophical about it.
----------------------------
I add three links from Barbara Ehrenreich, who has written compellingly and beautifully on this topic
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/thislandistheirland.htm
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Falling-Inner-Middle-Class/dp/0060973331
some more links
David Cay Johnston Perfectly legal
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wages-fall-at-record-pace
I've done other posts on this blog on similar topics, just check the politics tag.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Fuckup, again (new poem)
When I eat too much late at night I don't sleep well. This poem is the result of my latest .
------
FUCKUP, AGAIN
Yeah, you fucked up, again
It would have been better if you hadn't
done what you did, said what you said,
but you did
again
All you can do is start where you are
again
You can lie there in the dust,
kicking yourself in the head,
again
for having fucked up
again
or you can re-apply yourself
again
to the job of fixing whatever broken parts there are inside yourself
Rebuilding your own engine
Replacing your own dysfunctional gears,
mostly dysfunctional thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, cravings and aversions,
that don't mesh with health and happiness
Replacing them with healthy, functional parts
Useful, functional thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, equanimity
that work to create health and happiness
All you can do is start where you are
again
every moment of your life
-------
------
FUCKUP, AGAIN
Yeah, you fucked up, again
It would have been better if you hadn't
done what you did, said what you said,
but you did
again
All you can do is start where you are
again
You can lie there in the dust,
kicking yourself in the head,
again
for having fucked up
again
or you can re-apply yourself
again
to the job of fixing whatever broken parts there are inside yourself
Rebuilding your own engine
Replacing your own dysfunctional gears,
mostly dysfunctional thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, cravings and aversions,
that don't mesh with health and happiness
Replacing them with healthy, functional parts
Useful, functional thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, equanimity
that work to create health and happiness
All you can do is start where you are
again
every moment of your life
-------
Healthy Practices, Unhealthy Beliefs
here is the latest installment of my personal growth manual
----------------------------------
Certainly yoga, organic food, etc. are healthy practices, yet so many people seem to have unhealthy beliefs and attitudes underlying them. For example:
if you have the underlying belief that you are the victim of toxins in the environment, and that you must live really healthy just to counteract that, and perhaps the further belief that even then it may not be enough, and perhaps the belief that these poisons in the environment, which are affecting YOU!, were put there by other, unconscious people, often bad, selfish people motivated only by making money, who don't care who they hurt
(notice all the judgments and assumptions)
well, although you may be minimizing the physical toxins you are directly taking in, you are certainly creating a lot of poisons in your mind, poisons which will impact your body as the result of stress, if nothing else.
Further, if you have an attitude such as "i'm better than other people because i do this stuff", that attitude itself is also a poison, creating a sense of alienation in yourself, poisoning your relationships, because people can sense your judgment and condescension, and, perhaps worst of all, that attitude keeps you in the illusion of separateness, cutting you off from the higher, some would say highest, spiritual truth, which is that we are all One.
Another example:
if your unconscious programming, self images and beliefs about yourself, perhaps picked up in childhood, is that you are
--bad, weak, unhealthy, undisciplined, damaged or wounded. Do you deserve to be happy,
seor whatever your negative programming is--
then you may find yourself constantly fighting a losing battle against the unseen foe of your unconscious/subconscious negative self images and beliefs.
If you are trying to change or accomplish anything in your life, you need to look inside at what your self images and beliefs are. The most important part of positive change and accomplishment, is releasing the dis-empowering self images and beliefs and replacing them with empowering self images and beliefs. At the minimum, the belief that you CAN change and grow, and if you can, add easily.
Can you tell that i am writing from personal experience. I wish that i were the only person that this applies to, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Furthermore, what are your less personal beliefs. For example
*What are your metaphysical beliefs, the framework, the lens through which you view everything, about the nature of the universe. the rules of the game, so to speak, and about other people and "humanity".
Is the universe inherently a loving, hostile, or neutral place. is there enough for everybody, or not"
Is there some sort of God, Great Spirit, or whatever. What are your beliefs regarding that, and how it affects your everyday life.
Do you "create your own reality", and to what extent. How much, or how little, ultimate control do you believe that you have over your own life. Are you totally at the mercy of greater forces, such as the unemployment rate, or do you have some input into your own situation, and how much.
*What are your beliefs about people and the society you find yourself in. This is a big one.
Are people inherently good, bad, or whatever. Inherently selfish or unselfish, conscious or unconscious?
Are you at the mercy of your genes?
Etc.
All these deeper beliefs really do affect, in a big way, your experience and your possibilities in your life.
----------------------------------
Certainly yoga, organic food, etc. are healthy practices, yet so many people seem to have unhealthy beliefs and attitudes underlying them. For example:
if you have the underlying belief that you are the victim of toxins in the environment, and that you must live really healthy just to counteract that, and perhaps the further belief that even then it may not be enough, and perhaps the belief that these poisons in the environment, which are affecting YOU!, were put there by other, unconscious people, often bad, selfish people motivated only by making money, who don't care who they hurt
(notice all the judgments and assumptions)
well, although you may be minimizing the physical toxins you are directly taking in, you are certainly creating a lot of poisons in your mind, poisons which will impact your body as the result of stress, if nothing else.
Further, if you have an attitude such as "i'm better than other people because i do this stuff", that attitude itself is also a poison, creating a sense of alienation in yourself, poisoning your relationships, because people can sense your judgment and condescension, and, perhaps worst of all, that attitude keeps you in the illusion of separateness, cutting you off from the higher, some would say highest, spiritual truth, which is that we are all One.
Another example:
if your unconscious programming, self images and beliefs about yourself, perhaps picked up in childhood, is that you are
--bad, weak, unhealthy, undisciplined, damaged or wounded. Do you deserve to be happy,
seor whatever your negative programming is--
then you may find yourself constantly fighting a losing battle against the unseen foe of your unconscious/subconscious negative self images and beliefs.
If you are trying to change or accomplish anything in your life, you need to look inside at what your self images and beliefs are. The most important part of positive change and accomplishment, is releasing the dis-empowering self images and beliefs and replacing them with empowering self images and beliefs. At the minimum, the belief that you CAN change and grow, and if you can, add easily.
Can you tell that i am writing from personal experience. I wish that i were the only person that this applies to, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Furthermore, what are your less personal beliefs. For example
*What are your metaphysical beliefs, the framework, the lens through which you view everything, about the nature of the universe. the rules of the game, so to speak, and about other people and "humanity".
Is the universe inherently a loving, hostile, or neutral place. is there enough for everybody, or not"
Is there some sort of God, Great Spirit, or whatever. What are your beliefs regarding that, and how it affects your everyday life.
Do you "create your own reality", and to what extent. How much, or how little, ultimate control do you believe that you have over your own life. Are you totally at the mercy of greater forces, such as the unemployment rate, or do you have some input into your own situation, and how much.
*What are your beliefs about people and the society you find yourself in. This is a big one.
Are people inherently good, bad, or whatever. Inherently selfish or unselfish, conscious or unconscious?
Are you at the mercy of your genes?
Etc.
All these deeper beliefs really do affect, in a big way, your experience and your possibilities in your life.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Personal Growth
Personal Growth-A Work in Progress
A few years ago i started writing a personal growth manual, which is still very much unfinished. Here are my latest additions, which at some point i will integrate into the main file.
-------------------------
BECOMING MORE CONSCIOUS
The path of personal growth eventually becomes the path of spiritual growth. We start by working on healing our healing our wounded human selves, which starts by simply becoming conscious of the wounded parts of ourselves, and sooner or later, this lifetime or another, we journey on to becoming aware of our higher selves, the Self, as it is called in the East. Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964), a great modern American mystic, speaks of this in all his books.
Plan of Action
We become aware of, through paying conscious attention to:
1) Our bodies, our somatic selves. Awareness of sensations in all the different parts of our body. Our left big toe, right ankle, skin of the upper back, etc. This is not just awareness of the body; it is said that our consciousness is not just in our brains, but in fact is spread all through our bodies. It is also said that we have memories, emotions, traumas locked into different parts of the body. This is one of the reasons why, when getting a massage, people often go through emotions or have memories come up.
2) Our thought-awareness of thoughts, control of thoughts is one of the key practices of the East, and also of much of what is called the new age.
3) Awareness of our emotions. At every moment, we are experiencing some e-motion, yet how many people are aware of what their emotion is at the moment.
How many people are fully aware of all this? I'm certainly not, though this has become my life's work, to be as fully conscious at all times as i can.
My belief, based on some minor experience, is that as we become more conscious we begin to experience ourselves as part of a greater whole, as a kidney cell might, at some point, become conscious of itself as a part of Dick or Jane.
The journey is from the small self, the selfish me i got mine who cares about you self, to the Self, which ultimately knows in the deepest sense that we are all One, and acts accordingly.
----------------
SOLVING OUR PROBLEMS
Are our problems just problems, or lessons and opportunities to learn and grow from? The answer we give to that question makes a huge difference in our experience of our lives.
Everybody wants the same things.
A short, general list
Love and good relationships of all sorts; connection with others
Health
Prosperity
Pleasure
Success in one's chosen profession
A sense of meaning and purpose
Self Expression
Home
Who doesn't want those things?
So we all do what we can to get them: work, exercise, go out on dates, etc.
We believe that
happiness=getting what we want,from external stimuli
but does it?
Some people get what they want and still aren't happy. Some don't get, and are happy. Getting what you want does not guarantee happiness.
Distinguish between pleasure, ego gratification, happiness and joy.
How much of our unhappiness is based on the belief we have that "I can't be happy without ____", rather than the actual experience of our lives (not speaking of survival needs).
What if happiness is a state of consciousness, perhaps a state resulting from clear energy flows in the body, that has nothing necessarily to do with external stimuli, even though it seems it does.
What if
our levels of happiness and our sets of problems are the results of our level of consciousness,
including the openness and condition of our chakras and our meridians, the level of our intentions and aspirations, and the degree to which we have cleansed ourselves of psychic poisons such as fear and hatred and have healthy self images and beliefs, and at the highest level, the degree to which we have realized the Self?
Each level of consciousness has a different set of problems that go with it, just as children have different sets of developmental problems at each age. What if raising our consciousness would result in problems solving themselves, and of course the new level of consciousness would have a new set of issues to solve.
What if states of consciousness are like frequencies on a radio dial, and through practices and releasing internal static we develop the ability to tune in to higher frequencies, frequencies with progressively more happiness and less suffering?
A basic part of raising our consciousness is clearing the garbage and negative programming out of our psyches and replacing it with healthy material.
According to (in my understanding) NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and Louise Hay and other teachers, our unconscious self images and beliefs run our lives. If we have negative unconscious/subconscious self images and beliefs of ourselves such as- i am damaged, wounded, weak, bad, undeserving, etc., then as much as we may struggle and work on the conscious level, it's going to be very, very hard to get results. Some people have unconscious fears of having what they want, for example women who are overweight very often have fears of the negative attention they would receive if they were more attractive, perhaps a fear of being attacked. Often the fears are much more complex.
So much of our lives are based on thoughts of the future, "when i get (this or that)", but the only time we ever live is now. It's always now, and if happiness is an experience, the only time we can have that experience is now.
I am not saying be a hedonist, not saying don't make plans and work towards goals, not saying don't live in the world and have sex and make money. I am very much saying that don't just think achieving your goals will make you happy. You will almost certainly get a momentary rush, but real happiness is a state of consciousness, an energetic experience, not a winning scorecard.
You expect at work that if you work the hours you will get a paycheck of money. Well, if you work the hours of personal/spiritual growth you will get a paycheck of higher consciousness.
I would like to mention a point that Goldsmith stresses very much in his writings, a point made in the Eastern traditions: If you are seeking to realize the Self just for purposes of health, pleasure and prosperity, you will never realize the Self, never experience the real thing. Desiring/needing consciousness keeps you from the highest. It's an apparent contradiction, because as human beings how could we not want health, relationship, pleasure and prosperity. My best understanding at this time is that we usually have mixed motives, and it is important that ones' primary motive be to experience the Self, not the worldly goods, that it's a long journey, and we start where we are.
Motive is something that can't be faked. I think that probably, over time, ones' motives get purified through doing the work. To me this is maybe the toughest question of all, that of motive. We can work, meditate, do yoga, and all the other practices, but how to purify motives and intentions is not so clear to me, yet in my own life it has just gradually happened, not that i'm so fucking pure, but a lot more than i used to be.
People put lots of hours into making money and working out, but how much time do most people put into working on themselves, the effort which would produce the greatest results?
some reading, a very short starter list
NLP-the new technology of achievement
Louise Hay-You Can Heal Your Life
Joel Goldsmith-Practicing the Presence (or any other title by him)
Marie Manuchehri-Intuitive Self Healing (about the Chakras)
Bhagavad Gita
Aldous Huxley-The Perennial Philosophy
A few years ago i started writing a personal growth manual, which is still very much unfinished. Here are my latest additions, which at some point i will integrate into the main file.
-------------------------
BECOMING MORE CONSCIOUS
The path of personal growth eventually becomes the path of spiritual growth. We start by working on healing our healing our wounded human selves, which starts by simply becoming conscious of the wounded parts of ourselves, and sooner or later, this lifetime or another, we journey on to becoming aware of our higher selves, the Self, as it is called in the East. Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964), a great modern American mystic, speaks of this in all his books.
Plan of Action
We become aware of, through paying conscious attention to:
1) Our bodies, our somatic selves. Awareness of sensations in all the different parts of our body. Our left big toe, right ankle, skin of the upper back, etc. This is not just awareness of the body; it is said that our consciousness is not just in our brains, but in fact is spread all through our bodies. It is also said that we have memories, emotions, traumas locked into different parts of the body. This is one of the reasons why, when getting a massage, people often go through emotions or have memories come up.
2) Our thought-awareness of thoughts, control of thoughts is one of the key practices of the East, and also of much of what is called the new age.
3) Awareness of our emotions. At every moment, we are experiencing some e-motion, yet how many people are aware of what their emotion is at the moment.
How many people are fully aware of all this? I'm certainly not, though this has become my life's work, to be as fully conscious at all times as i can.
My belief, based on some minor experience, is that as we become more conscious we begin to experience ourselves as part of a greater whole, as a kidney cell might, at some point, become conscious of itself as a part of Dick or Jane.
The journey is from the small self, the selfish me i got mine who cares about you self, to the Self, which ultimately knows in the deepest sense that we are all One, and acts accordingly.
----------------
SOLVING OUR PROBLEMS
Are our problems just problems, or lessons and opportunities to learn and grow from? The answer we give to that question makes a huge difference in our experience of our lives.
Everybody wants the same things.
A short, general list
Love and good relationships of all sorts; connection with others
Health
Prosperity
Pleasure
Success in one's chosen profession
A sense of meaning and purpose
Self Expression
Home
Who doesn't want those things?
So we all do what we can to get them: work, exercise, go out on dates, etc.
We believe that
happiness=getting what we want,from external stimuli
but does it?
Some people get what they want and still aren't happy. Some don't get, and are happy. Getting what you want does not guarantee happiness.
Distinguish between pleasure, ego gratification, happiness and joy.
How much of our unhappiness is based on the belief we have that "I can't be happy without ____", rather than the actual experience of our lives (not speaking of survival needs).
What if happiness is a state of consciousness, perhaps a state resulting from clear energy flows in the body, that has nothing necessarily to do with external stimuli, even though it seems it does.
What if
our levels of happiness and our sets of problems are the results of our level of consciousness,
including the openness and condition of our chakras and our meridians, the level of our intentions and aspirations, and the degree to which we have cleansed ourselves of psychic poisons such as fear and hatred and have healthy self images and beliefs, and at the highest level, the degree to which we have realized the Self?
Each level of consciousness has a different set of problems that go with it, just as children have different sets of developmental problems at each age. What if raising our consciousness would result in problems solving themselves, and of course the new level of consciousness would have a new set of issues to solve.
What if states of consciousness are like frequencies on a radio dial, and through practices and releasing internal static we develop the ability to tune in to higher frequencies, frequencies with progressively more happiness and less suffering?
A basic part of raising our consciousness is clearing the garbage and negative programming out of our psyches and replacing it with healthy material.
According to (in my understanding) NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and Louise Hay and other teachers, our unconscious self images and beliefs run our lives. If we have negative unconscious/subconscious self images and beliefs of ourselves such as- i am damaged, wounded, weak, bad, undeserving, etc., then as much as we may struggle and work on the conscious level, it's going to be very, very hard to get results. Some people have unconscious fears of having what they want, for example women who are overweight very often have fears of the negative attention they would receive if they were more attractive, perhaps a fear of being attacked. Often the fears are much more complex.
So much of our lives are based on thoughts of the future, "when i get (this or that)", but the only time we ever live is now. It's always now, and if happiness is an experience, the only time we can have that experience is now.
I am not saying be a hedonist, not saying don't make plans and work towards goals, not saying don't live in the world and have sex and make money. I am very much saying that don't just think achieving your goals will make you happy. You will almost certainly get a momentary rush, but real happiness is a state of consciousness, an energetic experience, not a winning scorecard.
You expect at work that if you work the hours you will get a paycheck of money. Well, if you work the hours of personal/spiritual growth you will get a paycheck of higher consciousness.
I would like to mention a point that Goldsmith stresses very much in his writings, a point made in the Eastern traditions: If you are seeking to realize the Self just for purposes of health, pleasure and prosperity, you will never realize the Self, never experience the real thing. Desiring/needing consciousness keeps you from the highest. It's an apparent contradiction, because as human beings how could we not want health, relationship, pleasure and prosperity. My best understanding at this time is that we usually have mixed motives, and it is important that ones' primary motive be to experience the Self, not the worldly goods, that it's a long journey, and we start where we are.
Motive is something that can't be faked. I think that probably, over time, ones' motives get purified through doing the work. To me this is maybe the toughest question of all, that of motive. We can work, meditate, do yoga, and all the other practices, but how to purify motives and intentions is not so clear to me, yet in my own life it has just gradually happened, not that i'm so fucking pure, but a lot more than i used to be.
People put lots of hours into making money and working out, but how much time do most people put into working on themselves, the effort which would produce the greatest results?
some reading, a very short starter list
NLP-the new technology of achievement
Louise Hay-You Can Heal Your Life
Joel Goldsmith-Practicing the Presence (or any other title by him)
Marie Manuchehri-Intuitive Self Healing (about the Chakras)
Bhagavad Gita
Aldous Huxley-The Perennial Philosophy
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Recommended Reading
Dhammapada
Upanishads
Bhagavad Gita
Tao Te ChingHafiz (persian poet)
There are so many great books, because there are so many great teachers. I am well aware that there are many, many titles not on this list.
Every book contains information. The question is, will the book serve to help our transformation to a higher level of consciousness.
A book is a transmission of spirit from the author to the reader. The books I list here have served me well as textbooks for a lifelong course in higher consciousness. Most of them I have read and reread a number of times. My wish is that this list serves you in raising your own consciousness. Not everyone will resonate with every book. Just take a look, either in a bookstore or on the internet, and see if you feel drawn to any particular author or title.
Marshall Rosenberg Non Violent Communication
Louise Hay You Can Heal Your Life
The Dalai Lama The Art of Happiness
Joel Goldsmith-any title you find by him
Most of these folks have lots of other great works out there in addition to the titles I mention.Ram Dass Be Here Now
Aldous Huxley The Perennial Philosophy
Emmanuel Emmanuel’s Book
Thich Nhat Hanh The Miracle of Mindfulness
Jacob Needleman Money and the Meaning of Life
Carolyn Myss Anatomy of the Spirit
Emmet Fox The Sermon on the Mount
Bernard Gunther Energy Ecstasy
Christian Science Testimonials of Healing
THE MINDNLP The New Technology of Achievement
Meeting the Shadow a collection of essays
ReincarnationGladys V. Jones The Flowering Tree
Gina Cerminara Many Mansions
PHYSICAL body and foodStephen Chang Internal Exercises
Thomas Hanna Somatics
Macrobiotics-lots of books out there
Yoga- pick the style that suits you
William Dufty Sugar Blues
Bob Anderson Stretching
50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
This is cut and pasted from my website. I'm not computer literate enough to know how to reformat, and i'm not ready to retype the whole thing (i'm a very slow typist), but the books are worth reading. I've just listed a few, trying for a manageable set of basics, rather than an exhaustive list.
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