A Note for the Dying

 

 

 

THE ESSENCE OF your mind is not born, so it will never die...

YOU may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself: 

 

what is the essence of this mind? 

 

Think only of this. 

You will need 

no more. 

Bassui 

Happy Mother's Day! from Lao Tzu

 The spirit that never dies is called The Mysterious Feminine.

Although she becomes the whole universe, her immaculate purity is never lost.

Although she assumes countless forms, her true identity remains intact.

The gateway to the Mysterious Feminine is called the Root of Creation.

Listen to her voice; hear it echo through creation.

~~~~

... in the opening and shutting of Heaven's Gate, can you play the feminine part?

Can you love your people and govern your domain without self-importance?

Giving birth and nourishing; having, yet not possessing; working, yet not taking credit.

Leading without controling or dominating.

~~~~

Know the strength of a man but keep a woman's care.

 

~~~~

All under heaven have a common beginning; this beginning is the Mother of the World. 

Having known the Mother, we may proceed to know her children.

Having known the children, we should go back and hold onto the mother.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                            

The Highest Goodness

 

上善若水

The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to.

Tao te Ching 

... the sun rises on the evil and the good; rain falls on the just and the unjust.

 Matthew 5:45

 

Hail to you, divine, unfathomable, all purifying Waters!

Rg Veda

 

 

 

Five Colors Dull the Eye

  

Why do the five colors dull the eye?

They artificially limit your expectations.

 

There is a demonstration  of this currently in Tony  Robbins' conferences, where he asks the group to look at all the red objects in the room, then close their eyes. He then asks them to estimate the number of brown objects they think are in the room. An excellent device to show us how we can program ourselves -- and be programmed -- and furthermore, de-programmed.

If we had been told all our lives that dogs are required to put on pants and only cats wear skirts, and saw it reflected in society, we would, as the Bible says, learn something when we are young, and keep believing it in old age. But some may have traveled and saw different animals wearing different things. How would they express this reality of their experience? In an age where images and recordings are no longer thought of as immutable proof.

What kind of programming are you operating under, Grasshopper?  Know where your beliefs take root. Where did you get them? Are they really yours? Are they even real?  

 

 

Sasq'et Heart

 

Even though the Tao te Ching asks if we think we can do a better job weaving the time and space for the universe, I couldn't help but wonder aloud to my teacher if we could affect just a little corner f it, the place we live. A new heaven and earth, sung into existence from a new song, as has been prophesied. 

"Well, how would YOU do it?" I was asked.

"I would want mine to have a spirit of community, equality, and value individual eccentricities. I would link the health of the planet to the people's hearts, such that it would need ahimsa agape to function to the fullest!"  I said, satisfied with my idea.

"What if I told you that it has already been done so?"

Sigh.

Now we may begin.

Merkaba

 

 

i do not shy from holy glory

i need to know how to look upon it

i bow to her, she bows to me,

in a whirly gig of heaven and shit. 

Shekinah Sundays is Expanding!

 

 

 The beginning of this year coincided with a relocation -- a temple home was badly needed, for a long time! Funny thing is, it appeared when I had resigned myself to wait as long as it took. Then, boom. It was hard to believe, after having spent 10 of the last 20 years as a homeless disabled vet, when I read over and over in the Tao te Ching, that when you are "in" the tao, what you need flocks to you. Let this serve as living proof, if only to myself, that this is true. It all started / and ended?/ with meditation, with quieting my type A mind, meeting the lord of my own ego, and resolving the Great Matter in myself.

Our sanctuary and sound room are in repair, instruments are arriving, furniture is getting arranged. In the meantime, we had an equinox bath, and can't wait for the solar array to power evening lights and summer night sessions. In addition to sharing the teachings I receive, it is my hope to stream the sound creations on the Shekinah Gwaii YouTube channel. It has taken years, and now the vision is within reach! Farther down the timeline, a specially outfitted vehicle will take this shine on the road.

Shekinah Sundays - we're back!

 

"The spirit that never dies is called the Mysterious Feminine.

Although she becmes the wholel universe, her immaculate purity is never lost. 

Although she assumes countless forms, her true identity remains intact.

The gateway to the Mysterious Feminine is called the Root of Creation. Listen to her voice!  Hear it echo through creation. Without fail, she reveals her presence.Without fail, she brings us to our own perfection. Although it is invisible, IT ENDURES. It will never end.

Heaven is eternal; the earth endures. Why do heaven and earth last forever? They do not live for themselves only.

This is the secret to their durability.

Mind the Gap

 

 

There has been a pattern I've noticed, while reviewing many experiences lately. I call it The Gap.

There is, for instance, a gap between our synapses, where a flood of molecules make the leap, mill about in a snow-globe type structure, and eventually land on a sensor/receptor, whose function is to read the room and adjust accordingly. It is how chemistry is orchestrated for varying effects. I just wonder why the extra step, an indirect sampling of a soup to see when it's ready for the next stage. It is a curiosity.

The time between a stomach becoming full and the sensor alerting fullness. A fact of about 20 minutes, but ... again, so indirect, slow to be responsive, instead of what I imagine could be a streamlined, immediate and efficient system. Just a curiosity.

There are other types of gaps. 

An article was titled, Why are People so Obsessed with Their Individuality? which sounds like a question a robot would ask.  The corporations, medicine, and government entities have made us all into Bell curves, and only pay attention to the middle. My question would be, why are all the agencies we are required to deal with so obsessed with our homogeny?  

Another gap, this one in understanding.

 

My brother was badly injured at work, and required months off for rehabilitation. During that time, the agency responsible for disbursing his benefits and resources failed to correctly put the paperwork through, so it took almost 2 months to get what he was supposed to get in 2 weeks. Even during his recovery, his employer had counted some of that time inaccurately, which needed addressing to retain benefits he was due. His friends wondered why he didn't get a second job the time he was off.

So many gaps.

When the State of California learned my mother had a disabled "child" (the term they use no matter the age) who applied for her death benefits, they required me to fill out loads of forms, doctor's info, and even travel for a hearing, only my injuries were from the Gulf War in the Army, and the state does not recognize any Veteran documentation, evidence, diagnoses, or treatment. They said I would need to undergo an evaluation by a Social Security doctor, but they had no responsibility to do so. They kept the money from the sale of her house when she died, out of the hands of a service-connected, permanently and totally disabled person, injured during a war, homeless and in need. Even my doctor, a medical director for an entire county and trained in both Western and Naturopathic medicine, the one who accidentally found the meningioma 2 yrs ago, opted out of treating me any longer, telling me my head surgery made her uncomfortable to have as a patient. "You are beyond my healing arts," she told me twice. I asked her to recommend a primary care with as much training as needed for a case like mine, to take over. No answer yet, in over a year.

Like I said. Gaps.

Many, many instances, going over decades. Everyone has them. It's just that in my diminishing abilities leave me with more time than most have, to review the impetus and response. Trace your own situations, keep track of the chain of custody of the responsibility potato. My brother has the triple threat of being nice, good looking, and perseverant. He got those stuck balls rolling. He had a great advocate, himself. His abilities and disabilities were of such a combination that he could be present to consistently make it to the places he needed to go to get stuff done. Homeless disables have difficulty self advocating, in that the somatic involvement often prevents timely interaction with agencies who do not recognize disabilities more than the law makes them, in providing access. My car tabs were late due to months of seizing, but the state said being on one's deathbed, even a literal one, was not reason enough to waive the $125 late fee. 

Try going one day with a single hand, or arm. Do you want to thank a Vet for their service? Wish to connect with the disabled population? Find a way to help, instead of excuses for why things get in the way.  One arm, one leg, the inability to pee the way we were born to... those don't disappear with excuses. Those who are supposed to help and treat turn us away: "We don't serve Vets." How many times I have heard this. Moreover, it is nothing to the disease where a person received injury, so being a neglected veteran is no worse in my book than being a neglected civilian - civilians have fewer resources and no governmental advocacy (which is hard to claim still AS a vet, but even so). My counselor reminded me that all the accessibility we see isn't out of the goodness of anyone's heart -- it came from years of legal battles for acknowledgement of the impact on our daily lives. We have to not only adapt and overcome our struggles that never used to be any struggle at all, we have to fight our HR, our insurance, even city hall! Remind me to write about the time the city illegally stalked and towed my RV, swindling me for hundreds of dollars until we faced off in court). Nobody can ever tell me this country loves its veterans. I would have to ignore every intersection I have had with authorities, companies, even some so-called friends. All of them wanted more from me than literally my body would allow, and I could never measure up, never be enough. They punished me with their absence, then their silence. There was the difference between what they thought I could do, and reality.

Another gap.

 Attrition works wonders. Add to your mantra: Evil Must Be Opposed. Say NO. Always be maintaining or improving your well-being. If it is the season to rest, rest! If it is the season to shop, make choices, travel -- make the determination! Frequently check with actual facts, and stay the true course, no matter how many corrections you make to the trajectory. No sailor set sail and expected the ship to navigate itself to the destination. You need to be at the helm of your boat!  We allow ourselves to be distracted to the point of loss of self. RESCUE yourself. Let no harm come to you, or those around you. Recuse your person, if that is what you need. 

When you are not allowed to say NO, are no longer free to make your own decisions and choose the consequences, that is slavery, says our brother Sadhguru. You must at least be free inside, happy with yourself, regardless of the exterior drudgery and hard living we are born into. I agree that beings are only beings when they have the agency to express their being-ness in their way. Anyone who lays claim to a being because of where it is born or some other random circumstance, seeks power over others, to mine others' time and effort for their own gain, to the detriment of the individual who is used up and discarded. It is easy enough for anyone to measure their leadership against farmers of animal crops. Don't know about you, but I'm tired of feeling farmed, fed, fumigated, failed and flogged. 

 

There is a gap between what the world wants from you and what is healthy for you.

Please, please, mind THAT gap. It can get in the way of our inner contentment, which is how we find / sustain enlightenment! Engage in the Primal Union described in the Tao te Ching, and find contentment within yourself -- because to be enlightened really only means to find the Greatest Love of All. But have you built a foundation to hold space for it? Or did you think you could just touch it once, and it would solve everything? There is a reason the Masters conditioned their disciples. There is a harmonic to enlightenment that requires a steady heart -- it can throw your old life completely out the window like an old priest. And continue to do so until you uncover the programming nugget hidden like a pearl of personal wisdom in your shell. As my friend says -- When you're going through hell -- KEEP GOING.

You can be at peace in your own life, a kind that surpasses all understanding.

Sasq'et Heart

 

 

There was a move, a couple separations, a few adoptions, lots of fixing and adapting – but the Sound Temple is underway. Soon sound baths will be ringing throughout the Olympic hills, and even livestreamed sometimes. Exciting!

This is me sharing some of the teachings I receive during my pre-meditation lessons.

During a particularly grueling session in performing (is that the right word?) the Primal Virtue, as laid down in the Tao te Ching, I could not shake loose my ego and self pity. Circumstances and situations were causing physical, mental, and emotional/spiritual havoc, and even though I was constantly reminded those were outside of me, I couldn’t get them to stop affecting my insides.

My teacher encouraged me to keep with my mindfulness, and to be humble, and still. With a big breath, I inhaled and let the air out, tipping my head forward in my reflection pose, but the instrusive thoughts… intruded. Remembering certain events, my ire worked up again, and the suffering returned. I wondered for a moment how Gautama would achieve peace in a prison camp. It must be possible! And all I’m going through are insults, injuries, and breaches of contracts. Which is what I expressed to my teacher.

 

At once there was a challenge question. “What effect can any of those things have on a feather?”

 

I sighed. Of course, there was none. “It’s the load of bricks heaped upon me! How can a feather get out from under such an oppressive pile?” I asked.

“What feather?” 

 

 

(When these zen moments happen, it is both a kick in the crotch and ecstatic joy).

 

Now we may begin.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Are you as excited for the Year of the Dragon as I am?

 

It has been 12 years since 2012, and it seems somehow significant that we are back here, halfway through the procession. Personally, life went downhill in general after that year with some huge losses in the departments of Loved Ones and Health, and only seemed to stop spiraling a month ago. 

 

There has been an upswing in the number of Loved Ones and Health departments, as accidentally and suddenly as the leaving of the previous. No more New Years Resolutions, I've been fully resolved! It is a time of freedom and reaping, of the abundance of hope springing forth, out of the coin bank where I put every dashed hope secretly, where it was buried in mud and mire for a long time. Let the lotus be born out of every poor situation and each awful circumstance, rising up at last, to shine.

I find no need to identify myself or anyone else by what they eat, where they put their genitals, what kind of genitals they have OR had, where their parents were born. Does it conribute to life, or death? Is the only question. Lao Tzu says we can see the Tao in things -- "To truly see it, see it as it is: in a person, see it as a person; in a family, see it as a family; in a country, see it as a country; in the world, see it as the world." Furthermore, we can see this and more by 'looking inside' ourselves. This is the day you were waiting for, when you realize your agency! Your own relationship with the universe that brought life through the millenia, to end up sitting right here inside you. You are free! Free to explore it, free to give and receive, to live without end. Make every moment a movement toward perfection. Let nobody dictate your heart, your soul, your inner person, your thoughts, your actions -- your character. Only you choose. Choose everything, make your outer life as intentional as your inner one. Take GREAT care of your hair, skin, nails, teeth -- along with your skeleton, your organs, and your mind.

 

Just as you may push aside extra sugar, caffeine, and processed convenience foods, also push poor choices away from what you let enter your mind. Step up and move away from droning news channels at the waiting rooms, balance the frenetic chaos of network and cable with meditation, silence, serenity. Your mind is not a slop bucket for anyone and everyone to dump their garbage. Not after today. Not ever again. Those muscles may be weakened, and need your attention, and exercise. This is where we break out in song.... click to be inspired!

 

Thanks, Kenny Loggins.

 

 

Here's Your Sign

 

 

With the greatest leader above them, people barely know one exists.

Next comes one whom they love and praise.

Next comes one whom they fear.

Next comes one whom they despise and defy.

When the leader trusts no one, no one trusts them. 

The Great Leader speaks little, never speaks carelessly, works without self interest and leaves no trace. When all is fnished, the people say, We did it ourselves.

When the greatness of the Tao is present, action arises from one's own heart; when the greatness of the Tao is absent, action comes from the Rules of Kindness and Justice. If you need rules to be kind and just -- if you act virtuous -- this is a sure sign that Virtue is absent. Thus, we see the Great Hypocrisy.

When kinship falls into discord, piety and rites of devotion arise; when the country falls into chaos, official loyalists will appear, and Patriotism is born.

Give up sainthood; renounce Wisdom, and it will be a hundred times better for everyone.

Throw away Morality and Justice, and people will do the right thing; throw away Industry and Profit, and there will be no thieves. 

 

🙔

Guard the Senses

 

"Keep your mouth shut; guard the senses; and life is ever full.

Open your mouth; always be busy; and life is beyond hope."

Lao Tzu

No wonder the world seems drained of hope lately!

What is the prescription? 

 

Lots of feelings of unrest, unwellness are coming over the airwaves, from all over the world.  Grasshopper, how can you even think of worrying for this, too, on top of your own unsolved worries? Did you tape a note on your back? Is your psyche being a bully, intruding with demands like 'woulda, coulda, shouldas' and 'why isn't its' ? And why do you let the bully just give you more and more bags to hold, and you just take them?  No questions, no complaints? Are you aware of how much garbage is waiting and available to be poured out into anyone? And you keep standing in line...

Grasshopper, take away the funnel.

Is there any part of your loneliness that is for your own company? Like when you could sit alone with your thoughts, and take some time to apprehend and process and determine yourself? There seems little about our American life that is self-determined. Many towns have grocery stores with zero options for toothpaste without fluoride. Before you say, "order it online," think of the myriad assumptions that entails, from having internet access, equipment, a bank account for a debit card, an address for a bank account, a job for an address, the stomach and ableness for the job... that is just one example.

Grasshopper, move away from the chute.

We use meditation and the Eightfold Path to cleanse our insides, and renew our minds. There is a spirit, a soul under there who is weary. Begging that you listen, as the voice gets weaker. Tugging at your sleeve with a ragged, gaunt hand. Waiting to be freed from the pile of Everything that has been dumped on it since the time you came into the world (or even longer - see: Your Karma). 

Grasshopper, what is your true nature?

Because it is eternal. It is not this body, that will soon die. The trees which observe the seasons teach us how and when to grow, how to reap and sow, then gently flutter below. The tree is not dead! But just as there is a time to inhale and a time to exhale, there is a time for the tree to be full, and a time to be bare. The WHY is the part we are supposed to fill in ourselves. Where in the laundry list of what we are expected to do as adults here is THAT supposed to go? Where are we fitting it in?  

We were fashioned to sit quietly and find the truth within.  What if the truth is, that I should find a different job? Or not even have a job for a while? What if the truth upsets our cart such that it becomes imperative th change our living situation? As our souls begin to realize and communicate with that which is eternal, we realize our true nature, and it is NOT to be bullied by economics. We didn't lay roads so THEY could tell us how to drive; that is up to us, collectively and individually. Why would we let anyone rent the best years of our lives for cheap? 

Hooray for the newest generation -- we told them their feelings mattered, so they live closer to them and can act concordantly, not emotionally dissonant, as most of us were taught. First we learned to ignore our own pains; then the pain of others; how is it any surprise the world wants us to ignore the global pains of all living creatures? But we are sure quick to know just about every piece of bad news, as it is happening! This is not necessary. This is not even desireable. It certainly is not the way to get to know yourself or happiness.

You are a precious, uninterrupted divine spark, wondering why you can't seem to get things done in your own life, while powering a civilization. You have plenty of time... for the machine. You have plenty of flexibility... for the machine. You have unlimited patience every time it needs to get something better, or do something right. Because what would it look like if you didn't.

Give yourself the gift of yourself! 

"Block all the passages;

close your mouth;

cordon off your senses;

dull your sharpness;

untie your knots;

soften your glare;

settle your dust.

This is called Primal Union."

Tao te Ching

 

 

 

Without Leaving my House

At meditation today, my mentor instructed me on grounding myself for deep meditative journeys. As we prepare, we acknowledge the spark of life within us.

This eternal plasma, this flame, has been passed to you. Not from your parents; rather, through them. Their sparks came through their ancestors, and so on, and so on...

Some peoples have in their history that the spark was given to their people directly. Others say their people came from the branches of life that made the australopithecines, and the hominin before them -- the ancestral mammals who survived the great dinosaur destruction -- the time before lungs, when it was only gills -- the primordial ooze hit by lightning in a pond... some go still further, beyond our solar system, from places like Alpha Centauri, Sirius, the Pleaides...  

All these are divine.

All have come a long, LONG way to arrive as a guest in your House.

As has every spark.

There have been so many! But now there are so few. Acknowledge the spark in the ones to your right, and to your left, those above and those below. Know that each and every spark has been traveling, adapting, surviving, in an unbroken line, since the beginning! There has been no instance of spontaneous generation, no apparition of life plasma ex nihilo.  

 

Every single spark is a piece, a division of the Original. 

Even the animals, who are all fellow travelers.

This is why hunters give thanks for an animal's sacrifice: acknowledging the spark they have put out.

It gives us the ability to run our mahayana vehicle like the engine in a car... we can't build it, we only get to drive. Some aren't yet aware there is anyone else on the road! Still, acknowledge the spark, not necessarily the driver.

 

Inside this flame is all of history.

Each soul is a direct line from divinity. What person is competent to stand in between? To speak to the universe on my behalf, or translate cosmic intentions for my journey? We almost missed out, listening to others tell us our relationship to the universe. Once we realize the Great Matter for ourselves, we can tap into that spark inside us, which is why we see sayings in the Tao te Ching like, "To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders"... and "Without leaving my house, I know the whole universe."  

"Ever desireless, one can see the mystery; ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations... and the mystery itself is the doorway to all understanding." Once we are found, we see the recipe of what it took, and know all did what needed to be done, not failing a step, to get us all here, now. 

 Setting us free to show gratitude to each and every spark, for being part of our awakening. 

Feeling centered and grounded for our meditation, we begin.

 

🙔

Time is Over for Divided Mind

 

For some reason this quiet solstice feels like it is a crossroads.

We are years into recovering from our worldwide troubles, yet the troubles further complicate. 

Lao Tzu says to give something as much care at the end, as you gave in the beginning. This usually works.

BUT does anyone else notice that some situations actually seem to worsen as attention is paid to them, that they somehow get even more complicated with care? This defies logic and the natural way of things. Or does it?

We have been whacking moles, only to find more and more. Stepping into these feels like sticky taffy, getting more brittle the more we mess with it, slowing progress to a halt. These systems that have this type of energy sink are to be avoided if you  value your sanity. But we are entrenched in these in all aspects of our modern lives. How do our easy solutions not make it all better? The little things we do each day that get us through can also be detrimental to long term solutions. Why does it seem so hard?

As a person who became too disabled to participate in the Great American Reindeer Games, now I have had nearly 3 decades of an outsider's perspective. Having grown up an all-American girl, stayed in school and in shape, got degrees and worked hard, did everything that model citizens do, even more by joining the military during the Gulf War to serve my country as a linguist analyst. Award-winning unit... decorated...

it wasn't enough.  

As soon as my body stopped working, after doctors and hospitals made limp attempts to figure my vagus nerve damage out, my country was done with me. So I had to move on and be done with wanting it to want me. But the perspective and awakening I have had to the big thing we call the Truth shows me that all the systems here are geared toward production, and being productive, with no tolerance for those who aren't. And so I finally could untangle those seemingly entrenched emotional roller coasters and heart sinks we call our society, our infrastructure, and can see that it was never going to work for all of us. Those systems are facades, serving a few with minor inconveniences while more and more people face their own personal apocalypses. More faces each year have that same emotionally shattering realization that jobless, homeless, un-able people have no place here. After all, it IS a Republic, and we know that they are made for colonization, not so adaptable when we need to recognize our social concerns.

If you can, search yourselves and see if you can feel it, this solstice feels like a coming awakening on a mass scale. We are calling out lies. We are showing out people's once secret deeds. All shall be known, and then we will have to decide what to do about it. But as we anticipate the big boom we can ALL feel coming, we can take care of each other. Find your tribe and BE a member. Organized religions and other charities have been doing this for centuries... we must find our own reasons, all of us, to be good neighbors, helpful people, communicative. Space equals love! Tolerance is important, when dealingn with our garden variety personalities... we must understand like our Tao te Ching says, 

 

ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN ARE SACRED VESSELS, NOT TO BE CONTROLLED

Can we learn to see that? to show the respect and care for all vessels, even unto the level as if you had made them yourself... in a country where industrialization has deadened our ability to see inanimate objects and art as special, irreplaceable, WE MUST bring back the unique, the sentimental. Let nobody tell you to just get rid of your special things because you can get more later when it's convenient. Anyone who is being told how to feel, what to like or dislike, or even what you should do with your day, let alone your LIFE = being controlled.  

 

The Romani people understood this, having been shuffled about and still maintaining their ways - very strict, in behaviour and attire - also had very few belongings, and because they were so few, were made FABULOUSLY. They are who I turned to, in order to find my way, since I did not want to sleep in my truck in the streets of Seattle or go to any of their shelters... I knew there had to be another way. I used millenia - old techniques of Egyptian women to keep my person in good fettle, and found that clays, coffee/tea and oils were so much better for my body, inside and out, than the store made stuff-- and soon, those store products were not even acceptable alternatives while traveling anymore.  Let alone the production of the bottles, printing labels, carbon footprints tallying up and up...  no more. Not for me. Not for the last decade now. That's how I came up with the Traveler's Cloak protocols, field testing in real life, a real disabled girl in a real tent in a real Olympic forest for a really long time.

Just to show it can be done.  

We CAN care about ourselves more than the agovernment does. and should!!

We  CAN find alternative ways of being, room for everyone, sharing food, clothing, shelters... and for some it will save their lives. It is time for the gathering of ourselves together, not for rallies -- but for each other. It is a time to put away petty grievance. Is it something that hurts people? We can make it stop. Is there something that is replicatable and helpful? we can share it amongst ourselves. 

We were not put on this planet to painfully give away 20 to 40 years of the best youthful vigor you will ever have. Bad enough we do that to farm animals. Which is how this country views us. Trying to lower minimum age of working, encouraging farm births, maximizing age before retirement, not really caring about the living standards the whole time, because once you are done, they are no longer responsible for you, and the measly amount of rock-bottom priced healthcare that non working elders and disabled get feels like -- say it with me veterans -- they are just waiting for us to die. If it did not feel that way to millions of vets, that would not be a saying. Neither would it be known that Vets get two chances to die for their country -- once during service, and the other at the VA hospital. Ask any vet you know.

This rant is sponsored by a meditation message recently, which came across to me as "The time is over for the divided mind."  We are all suspicious that our galaxy, maybe the universe, is just the order created by a cosmic sonnet, cymatically spinning matter into what we now see... and that we are the mind of the universe itself, having the same ratio of matter to space and nebulae exactly that our own brain neuronal map has. We see thensong is ending. Drift and calculations, the shddering of our great planet... The magnetic field was recently found to be diminishing more than we thought, even a few thousand years ago = 1.5x what we currently measure. So we have to know that ther are more important things in our brief, magical existence than working for people who have profitted off our misery for long enough (look up how many new billionaires were created during the pandemic, and how many are being made due to Ukraine/Palenstine issues).

ENOUGH. 

Lao Tzu says when you divide things into parts, you have to name everything. THERE ARE ENOUGH NAMES.  You are a creator. You have divine origins. What you think of, comes to be, bad or good. What you focus on is brought to life. You are capable of amazing feats, your ideas bring about marvels and changes! What a brilliant mind you have, I cannot wait to see what you do! When you wake up on the other side of heaven and realize this was all for you, that you were a player in a beautiful, amazing opera, and that you were given divine powers to reason and create. Look within yourself, and wonder how you really want to spend your ticket to this ride.  Take this wee existence and make it yours!

I would have been an analyst forever. Thank goodness life didn't let me. I would have never awakened. Even through my TBI, MS, central apnea, gastroporesis, severe carpel tunnel, thoracic crush damage, and now non working limbs, I feel a connection that surpasses any awareness I ever had.  That is how much the universe wanted my attention. Now that I have connected with the Tao, there is no fear of physical death. Now there is just universal mind. And it is calling out --

 

Come together for each other. No longer shall we be or feel separate.

The time is truly over for a divided mind. 

🌞

The Tools of Those Who Oppose Wise Rule

 

 

 

 Lao Tzu:

 

One who would guide a leader in the uses of life will warn against the use of arms for conquest.  Weapons often turn upon  the wielder.

 

 💧

 

Where armies settle, nature offers nothing but briars and thorns.

After a great battle has been fought, the land is cursed; the crops fail, the earth lies stripped of its motherhood. 

 

 💧

 

After you have attained your purpose, you must not parade your success; you  must not boast of your ability, you must not  feel proud. 

You must rather regret that you had not been able to prevent the war.

 

 💧

You must never think of conquering others by force. Whatever strains with force will soon decay -- it's not attuned to the Way!

Not being attund to the Way, its end comes all too soon.

 

💧

 

Weapons are the tools of violence.  All decent people detest them; therefore, followers of the Tao never use them.

Arms serve evil -- they are the tools of those who oppose wise rule. Use them only as a last resort -- for peace and quiet are dearest to the decent heart, and even a victory is no cause for rejoicing. One who thinks triumph beautiful is one with a will to kill; and one with a will to kill shall never prevail upon the world.

 

It is a good sign when our higher nature comes forward; a bad sign when our lower nature comes forward.  

With the slaughter of multitudes, we have grief and sorrow. Every victory is a funeral; when you win a war, you celebrate by ... mourning.

 

 💧

 

The eternal Tao has no name. Although simple and subtle, no one in the world can master it.

If kings and lords could harness them, the 10, ooo things would naturally obey. Heaven and earth would rejoice with the dripping of sweet dew! Everyone would live in harmony! not by official decree...  but by their own goodness.

 

 

🙔

All Things Under Heaven

 

 

Do you believe you can take over the universe 

-- and improve it?  I do not believe it can be done.

Everything under heaven is a sacred vessel, and cannot be controlled!

Trying to control leads to ruin; trying to grasp, we lose.

Allow your life to unfold naturally. 

Know that it, too, is a vessel of perfection!

Just as you breathe in, and breathe out, there is a time for being ahead, and a time for being behind. A time for being in motion, and a time for being at rest; A time for being vigorous, and a time for being exhausted.A time for being safe, and a time for being in danger.

To the sage, all of LIFE is a movement toward perfection.

So what need for the excessive, the extravagant, or the extreme?

 

~~~~

 

There is a time to be asleep, grasshopper; but you can only live your dreams while you are awake.

🙔

Let Your Heart Be At Peace

 

Our true self is ETERNAL, yet we think, I am this body and will soon die....

 ~  ~  ~

Become totally empty.

Let your heart be at peace.

Amidst the rush of worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings.

Things flourish each by each only to return to the source, to what is and what is to be. 

 

 

To return to the root is to find peace; to find peace is to fulfil one's destiny.

To fulfill one's destiny is to be constant; to know the constant is called Insight.

Not knowing this cycle leads to Eternal Disaster.

 

 

Knowing the Constant gives Perspective; this perspective is impartial.

Impartiality is the highest nobility, the highest nobility is divine.

Being Divine, you will be at one with the Tao; being at one with the Tao is ETERNAL.

This Way is everlasting, not endangered by physical death.

 

Lao Tzu

 

 

I tell you this, Grasshopper, so you can find peace.

 

You must continue to put yourself first. Catch your breath. After all, you wouldn't drive your car with only three wheels out of four... but that is just what you do when you busy yourself with worldly concerns, without comforting your own heart first. 

 

A cup with too little joy cannot overflow and heal your people. Only the true note rings long. 

 Endure, friend!

 

🙔

I Alone Am an Imbecile

 

 

 

 

 Chapter 20 of the Tao te Ching

Give up learning, and you will be free from all your cares.*

What is the difference between yes and no?
What is the difference between good and evil?
Must I fear what others fear? 

Should I fear desolation, when there is abundance?

Should I fear darkness, when that Light is shining everywhere?

In spring some go to the park, and climb the terrace;
But I alone am drifting, not knowing where I am.
Like a new-born babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.

Most people have too much; I alone seem to be missing something. Mine is indeed the mind of an ignoramus, in its unadulterated simplicity!

I am but a guest in this world.

While others rush about to get things done, I accept what is offered. I seem foolish, earning little, spending less. Other people strive for fame; I avoid the limelight, preferring to be left alone.

Indeed, I seem like an idiot -- no mind, no worries. 
I drift like a wave on the ocean, I blow as aimless as the wind.

Everyone settles down in their grooves; I alone am stubborn and remain outside. But where I am most different from others -- is in knowing to take sustenance from the Great Mother.

 

~  ~  ~

 

*  Many interpret the translation in the first line as "thinking" -- but this misses the mark. Reading the Tao te Ching many times, it is like a circle, such that once you jump in and begin following, it explains itself. The 48th chapter explains why LEARNING is such a burden: because "Learning consists of daily accumulating; the practice of Tao consists in daily diminishing." To ease our burdens, we stop piling them on, and begin unburdening ourselves of the 'Wisdom' (programming) we carry already.  

We set ourselves free.

 

 🙔

Three Treasures

 

I have three treasures which I hold fast and watch closely.

The first is Mercy; the second is Frugality; the third is Humility.

From Mercy comes Courage; from Frugality comes Generosity; from Humility comes leadership.

There is no greater misfortune than feeling I have an enemy; for when I and enemy exist together, there is no room left for my treasures.

Lao Tzu

 

 🙔