Tao te Ching #5 (Stephen Mitchell Translation)

The Tao doesn't take sides;
it gives birth to both good and evil.
The Master doesn't take sides;
she welcomes both saints and sinners.

The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it the less you understand.

Hold onto the the center.

Interpretation:  Everything and everyone arises and returns to the same source from the most evil person to the saint.  The Master knows this and see the potential in everyone to be spiritually realized.   Everyone's mission is to work through their suffering...  This is done by returning to the source over and over and over.  Go into the silence and the flow of life now and now and now...

The more you talk the less you understand is a statement that points to the duality of language itself.  The word God or Source or light has different context and meaning to each one of us.  Going into silence is not done through words.  Much like thinking about drinking a glass of water or taking a shower is not the same as actually doing it.  It's the personal and committed action of non-doing that's important.  If we talk ourselves into a relationship with God or Source, it is done through ego.  Talking and communication are only means to establishing commitment or motivation and can never fully embrace the full experience of life.  For all those words are really just a virtual reality and not grounded in full non-duality and truth. 

Lastly, Center = Source (not an ego-ic place of fixation).  There is no place to fixate on...  The flow only flows:  sometimes focused on mind, sometimes moving to sensations, sometimes in the silence and on and on and on.  It's the noticing and allowing with no resistance that is non-doing.  Non-doing = not resisting what is.  Ego = resistance to what is with the back and forth battle of solving a problem that only exists in our virtual world.  Let it go and go into the truth, the source, the silence, the flow.

Love and Death from a different perspective....

Note Woody's take on Bergman....  Love this movie. 

Silence

Ok - notice your thoughts and emotions during this one...  Ingmar was a master at provoking them...

Contemplation of what we're here for... Enlightenment?

Is enlightenment for everyone?  Honestly I don't know.  Over the past month or so I have started to realize how strongly I was attached to answering yes to this question.  Now I am seeing that enlightenment is not something to be imposed on anyone.  It's much more about really accepting everyone and everything as "it is!"  This is it!  There is nothing to change only something to experience.  From that framework I can be with life and watch change happen like I could never even imagine from the ego-ic and dualistic perspective.  It really has become about flow and staying in the context of current life.

As in many areas of my life, my initial enthusiasm creates attachment to obtaining some thought up result or "sharing the wisdom."  I historically have jumped into things head first.  Even here, from an ego-ic place I am professing that I am an "inspiration" addict.  I love seeing inspired movement.  On one hand this is passion and love and then it has the tendency to become usurped by ego.  Over the past several months my experience has become more quiet and silent.  I find myself forgiving more often and not getting as wrapped up in drama of work, home life, mind, etc...  The quietness is accompanied with no anxiety and a overall tendency to see and experience the moment.  In its true essence I see this waking up as the process of becoming yourself within the context of truth.  The truth of non-duality and the letting go of everything but truth.

Yet, only an individual can find what their truth really is...  I or no one else has any chance to impose the truth onto anyone else effectively if they are not open/ready for it.  Not to mention that there appears from my experience to be levels and processes in which we increase our contact with truth.  It comes when it comes and goes through it's own process that I cannot fully explain at this time.  I can only say that truth is never what I "think" it is...  In this vain I can only share my version of truth and what arises for me.  Of course this is done through words and thought that are potentially removed from the truth and at the same time derived from it.

It's a different place to be.  The place of non-judgement and non-effort.  I have spent so many years trying to be enlightened that I defined myself as "a seeker."  What I found is never ending seeking and a process of looking, finding something, attaching to it and becoming dissatisfied again.  Only through letting go of the seeking do I experience something more quiet.  The seeking became yet another play in the dream of my life.  Another chapter of back and forth battle of the mind to escape from, control or avoid the truth.  It certainly was more pleasurable than being caught in the fight to make experiences and relationships happen.  Yet in the end the substance and satisfaction seems to fall away.  Even these words contain the contradiction of the duality of the dream state...  They are only my meager attempt to share my experience of surrendering to life and the source.  Life is getting more and more quiet as chattering and fighting slows within myself.  There is still pull from relationships, situations and   outside forces and I continue to let go of resisting this pull.  The fear that arises is that chaos could arise.  What if I become completely hedonistic?  Worse yet, what if I fall asleep at the wheel and life passes me a load of shit or just passes by..  Yet I welcome this fear and go into it without resistance.  Pleasure seems to be arising in areas that I did not expect...  It fades into the truth and this present moment.  A conversation, seing a friend, having dinner with my children, having a moment to myself are new...  It's the same but it's different.  It's more whole...

What are you looking for....

So as I continue to embrace and attempt to understand enlightenment or awakening...  I am struck with the concept that even seeking is dreaming.  While looking or prescribing to some way of connecting with God, I am out of touch with The One.  I am separate.  Yet to say I won't seek any more can put me in the same trap.  Furthermore, the entire concept of becoming enlightened is only another dream.

One more Adyasanti...  In reality there is no place to get stuck or fixate on...  The Mind, The Body, The Material World is all a dream and is a manifestation of God, the source or The One.  Again I am left with "This is it..."  Don't resist it.  Just fall into it.  

Fear vs Love - Two side of the same coin

I have learned so much from Adyasanti and here's another:

The job of bieng a (wo)man

Our mind's job is to think, imagine and focus.  (our tool for creation and problem solving)

Our body's job is to feel, sense and store memory.  (our Karma)

Our Spirit is here to experience this life and become increasing aware of itself.  (our true self)

Ego is merely spirit caught in the experience of this dream and this experience.  It is the thoughts and feelings of being human and only being human.  It's the delusion of being something other than God or the universe.

The physical/material world provides the canvas in which to create our dream.

Our mission - experience being human.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them."


William Shakespeare 

Tao te Ching #4 (Stephen Mitchell translation)

The Tao is like a well
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.
I don't know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.

Interpretation:  The source of all things is infinite and contains everything.  It can never be used up and is always surrounding us.  It is not that there is no God, it is that there is nothing but God.  God existed even before the recognition or word: God... and within the source there is only possibility.

Summary of the Tao - Wayne Dyer

Jason Mraz sings about Creating a Life from our Present Moment Awareness and Oneness

Well you've done done me and you bet I felt it
I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted
I fell right through the cracks
and now I'm trying to get back
Before the cool done run out
I'll be giving it my bestest
Nothing's going to stop me but divine intervention
I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some

I won't hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait, I'm yours

Well open up your mind and see like me
Open up your plans and damn you're free
Look into your heart and you'll find love love love love
Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing, we're just one big family
It's our God-forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved loved

So I won't hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait I'm sure

There's no need to complicate
Our time is short
This is our fate, I'm yours

Do you want to, come on, scootch over closer dear
And I will nibble your ear

I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror
And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer
But my breath fogged up the glass
And so I drew a new face and I laughed
I guess what I'll be saying is there ain't no better reason
To rid yourself of vanities and just go with the seasons
It's what we aim to do
Our name is our virtue

But I won't hesitate no more, no more
It cannot wait, I'm yours

Well open up your mind and see like me
Open up your plans and damn you're free
Look into your heart and you'll find that the sky is yours
so please don't, please don't, please don't.
There's no need to complicate
'cause our time is short
This oh, this oh, this is our fate, I'm yours

- Jason Mraz

Realization

I was meeting with a wonderful person on Monday when they stated:  "I think I'm over the past, it's the future that gets me stuck."  The instant this was said I was taken back with my own personal realization of how very true this was for me.  I constantly am thinking about the next thing without realizing that "This is it!"  Thank you Adyshanti for your words of wisdom.  In case you did not watch him go to Tao-te-Ching #3.  I continue to softly and gently go back to the silence over and over and over again.  Another examples of how our teachers are everywhere... and everyone.

Tao te Ching #3 (Stephen Mitchell Translation)

If you over-esteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.

The Master leads
by emptying peoples minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.

Interpretation:  When we attach or believe our thoughts and perceptions about material possessions and people, we create dichotomies and separations in power.  Good leaders rid people's minds of judgement and open their hearts.  The Master assists people in becoming clear and steadfast in their resolve to create their lives through a connection to the source or silence while letting go of perceptions of knowing or misguided beliefs.  This leads to manifestation and fills them with a sense of the original self.

Everything is born out of the universe's desire to experience itself.

More on Tao te Ching #2

Accepting each moment as it is requires suspending our tendency to criticize, judge and assign meaning to everything and anything we perceive.  To engage fully in our intuition, values and conscious choice of the moment, we must connect to the silence.  By connecting to the silence we suspend judgment while being in contact with our true selves and intention.

Suspend the ego and allow yourself to engage in the life.  Here's a clip from Peaceful Warrior that embodies this notion:

We are all ONE - Spirituality meets fly fishing

My favorite lines from A River Runs Through It...

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination." - Henry David Thoreau

Children are our legacy - Self Mastery

As I spend the day with my children, I reinforce the commitment to never allow there to be an excuse to shame, blame or dismiss my child.  To do so would only serve to feed my own ego.  Children and even strangers are our mirror into ourself.  These experiences provide first hand observation of our own minds and where they go.  Here are some questions:

How well have I mastered myself?  Where is my current emotional work and am I willing to stay present with my emotion without reacting...

My children are worth it and so am I...  How about you?  You are worth it too.

Carpe Diem! Live Each Moment Fully - Dead Poet's Society

I know that this is two Dead Poet's Society clips...  but this one is just as inspiring!

"Don't die with your music in you!" - Wayne Dyer

This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies
And lads and girls;
Was laughter and ability and sighing,
And frocks and curls;

This passive place a summer's nimble mansion,
Where bloom and bees
Fulfilled their oriental circuit,
Then ceased like these.


Emily Dickinson


"This time, like all times, is very good, if we but know what to do with it" 


Ralph Waldo Emerson


Be present and live each moment fully.  

Standing in Greatness - Dead Poet's Society

"To be great is to be misunderstood." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.  The obedient must be slaves."  Henry David Thoreau

In order to be our true self we must make a stand that our heart, mind and soul agree upon.  This scene embodies that inspired stand for what is true.

American Idol contestent Jessica Sanchez standing in her Greatness

Be Unattached and Miricles Come to You

I love seeing people be inspiring and stand in their Greatness.  Jessica from American Idol did this last night.  Clearly one of the show's judges favorite contestents, Jessica stood in herself when voted off the program before and after being saved by the judges.  I love when she was asked if she expected to be voted off and responded by stating that she expects nothing, she just works hard.  For me this embodies being unattached to outcomes and doing our very best at all times:  Jessica was truly noble and inspiring in this moment.

Tao te Ching #2 (Translation Stephen Mitchell)

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't posses,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

My interpretation:

When we separate everything we see a world made up of dichotomies and opposites.  Our minds then can want to group everything in categories and judge them.  When we understand that everything arises from the same source, we can see that everything is connected and interdependent on each other.  The Master goes to the silence (source and place of the unchanging) and attaches to nothing in the physical world.  This means that Master is in harmony with the source/silence as the script of life is written.

Stephen Mitchell:

"Her actions are appropriate responses.  Thus they are effortless.  She embodies compassion, yet she doesn't try to be compassionate.  She doesn't struggle to make money, yet she enjoys spending it when it comes to her.  She goes her own way, yet she accepts help gratefully and has not pride in walking alone.  She is not elated by praise, not discouraged by neglect.  She doesn't give a moment's thought to right and wrong.  She never has to make a decision; decisions arise by themselves.  She is like an actress who loves her role.  The Tao is writing the script.

The way she buys oranges or ties her shoelaces is a teaching.  Her face is more eloquent than any scripture could be.

That is why it lasts forever.  Not in time and space, but in quality."

Stephen Mitchell's book on Amazon

How to LOVE yourself

Wisdom is knowing how to make choices that bring joy, happiness or any value/experience you wish to bring into your life.

Responsibility is owning your choices without any external blame.

In order to own our choices, we must be willing to learn and become a student of ourselves.

To be a student of ourself, we must understand who we are and how we work.

Understanding is seeing the truth without judgment.

In order to experience the truth, we must go to silence.

To go into the silence is truly an act of LOVE.

- John Kinnaird

These words came from my silent time on the morning of 4/11/12.

More on Tao #1

From silence comes all things.
From darkness comes light.
Be silent in the dark and you will feel the light dance within you...

I found that my commitment to be still to be very high today.  It was peaceful...  I also noted numerous manifestations today.  From a parking space to connecting with a long lost nephew, many thoughts were manifested almost instantaneously.  I answered the manifestations with gratitude and returned to being silent the best I could.

#1 Tao te Ching (translation Stephen Mitchell)

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.


My interpretation:

From the silence (darkness or light) comes that which we see and what we call real.  Both are God and we can learn to see life from either the perspective of mysterious (darkness/light/silence) or the manifestation (the physical world) or both. By choosing both we open ourselves to be in a state of wonder and amazement.  By going into the silence/darkness/light we open the "gateway" to understanding life's mystery and being connected to "the source."

Practice Practice Practice

"As a single step will not create a path on the Earth, so a single thought will not create a pathway in the mind.  To make a deep physical path, we must walk again and again.  To make a deep mental path we must think over and over the kinds of thoughts we wish to dominate our minds."  - Henry David Thoreau

Easter

Easter reminds me of waking up to who you really are... Be whole in your godliness today and everyday.


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Location:W Prospect Rd,Fort Collins,United States

Observation Cat

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Location:Kitchen

Dawn

as light breaks dawn
darkness spawns
fear is spread
black turns red
fire burns
clouds twist and turn
might took its toll
it hid the soul

smoldering fingers of light
songbirds sing with delight
warnth penetrates my skin
today's song now begins

the sky shines with colors
red, orange, purple and yellow
slowly consuming
ever resuming
scared horns fall
with echoed calls
a small smile penetrates
touching my infinte space

smoldering fingers of light
songbirds sing with delight
warmth penetrates my skin
today's song now begins