Gaia Community: Rob's Blog

Calibrations of Books According to the Map of Consciousness

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:30:49 -0000

A few Self Calibrations of books that were lying around (subject to error as I'm just starting to get the hang of the technique):

Robcore:

965 - Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, by David R. Hawkins
722 - The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi w/ Foreword by C.G.Jung
720 - I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
715 - The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, edited by Arthur Osborne
710 - Prayer: Seeking the Heart of God, by Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Brother Roger of Taize
700 - God is Love Alone, by Brother Roger of Taize
588 - Praying Our Goodbyes: Understanding the Spirituality of Change in Our Lives, by Joyce Rupp, O.S.M.
579 - Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery - Complete with New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs, by Dr. Robert Hemfelt and Dr. Richard Fowler
560 - A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson
556 - The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle
553 - All For Her, by Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C.
552 - One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, by the Al-Anon Family Group
549 - Transitions - Prayers and Declarations for a Changing Life, by Julia Cameron
546 - You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise L. Hay
539 - Letter To Families, from Pope John Paul II
525 - Love, by Leo Buscaglia
521 - Dreams and Healing: A Succinct and Lively Interpretation of Dreams, by John A. Sanford
520 - Called to be Friends, by Paula Ripple, FSPA
520 - Confessions of St. Augustine, Translated by F.J. Sheed
517 - Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III, by Jack Canfield
512 - Meditations from the Road, by M. Scott Peck
511 - The Monastic Journey, by Thomas Merton
511 - Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul, by Jack Canfield
510 - The Road Less Traveled-25th Anniversary Edition, by M. Scott Peck
505 - Chicken Soup for the Soul, by Jack Canfield
505 - The Image of His Maker, by Robert Edward Brennan, O.P.
501 - Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl
500 - Beyond Codependency - And Getting Better All the Time, by Melody Beattie
499 - Plato's Theaetetus, Trans. by M.J. Levett, Edited by Bernard Williams, Revised by Myles Burnyeat
498 - The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents, by Deepak Chopra
494 - Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide, by Deepak Chopra
494 - The Pain and the Possibility: Divorce & Separation Among Catholics, by Paula Ripple, FSPA
492 - Now For Something Totally Different: A Study of The Sermon on the Mount, by Stuart Briscoe
490 - We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love, by Robert A. Johnson
490 - On Death and Dying, by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
490 - Descartes' Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy 4th Ed., Translated by Donald A. Cress
489 - Gray's Anatomy, by Henry Gray
485 - When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold S. Kushner
483 - The Journeys of Socrates, by Dan Millman
480 - The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren
480 - Plato's Republic, translated by G.M.A. Grube and Revised by C.D.C. Reeve
480 - A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
478 - The Wisdom of Healing: A Natural Mind Body Program for Optimal Wellness, by David Simon
477 - The Man Who Wrestled with God: Light from the Old Testament on the Psychology of Individuation(Revised and updated), by John A. Sanford
475 - Plato's Gorgias, Translated by Donald J. Zeyl
475 - Feminist Issues: Race, Class, and Sexuality 4th Ed. edited by Nancy Mandell
473 - Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, 6th Ed., by Brooke Noel Moore and Kenneth Bruder
470 - How to Enjoy Your Life in Spite of it All, by Ken Keyes, Jr.
469 - Philosophy of Education: An Anthology, Edited by Randall Curren
465 - Plato's Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo 2nd Ed., Translated by G.M.A. Grube
465 - Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, by George Berkeley
463 - The Great Philosophers, by Jeremy Stangroom and James Garvey
462 - Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine, by Deepak Chopra
460 - The Essential Ken Wilber, by Ken Wilber
458 - Dynamic Anatomy, by Burne Hogarth
458 - Constructive Anatomy, by George B. Bridgman
457 - Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life, by George B. Bridgman
455 - Allison DuBois: Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye, by Allison DuBois
453 - The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, by Norman Doigde
450 - The Sedona Method, by Hale Dwoskin
450 - The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
450 - Utilitarianism and the 1868 Speech on Capital Punishment 2nd Ed., by John Stuart Mill
450 - The Question of God, by Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.
450 - An Introduction to Brain and Behavior, 2nd Ed., by Bryan Kolb and Ian Q. Whishaw
446 - Atlas of Anatomy, Giunti Editorial Group
444 - The Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav
440 - The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Philosophy of Education, edited by Wilfred Carr
440 - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding with A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh and Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature, by David Hume
437 - You & Your Adolescent: A Parent's Guide for Ages 10-20, by Laurence Steinberg, PhD., & Ann Levine
437 - Social Psychology: Unravelling the Mystery, 3rd Ed., by Douglas T. Kenrick, Steven L. Neuberg, Robert B. Cialdini
430 - The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell
423 - Guilty, O Lord: Yes I Still Go to Confession, by Bernard Basset, S.J/Meditations: Reflections on the Incarnation, by Ladislaus Boros (Two books in one volume)
420 - Yielding to Courage: The Spiritual Path to Overcoming Fear, by Judith C. Lechman
420 - My Mother/My Self: The Daughter's Search for Identity, by Nancy Friday
420 - Good Business, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
418 - The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino
412 - Little Visits with God: Devotions for Families with Grade School Children, by Allan Hart Jahsmann and Martin P. Simon
412 - Feng Shui: The Traditional Oriental Way to Enhance Your Life, by Stephen Skinner
410 - The Five People You Meet In Heaven, by Mitch Albom
400 - Philosophy of Natural Science, by Carl Hempel
394 - How to Raise Your Self-Eseem, by Nathaniel Branden
392 - The Zahir, by Paulo Coelho
376 - Unequal Relations: An Introduction to Race, Ethnic, and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada 5th Ed., by Augie Fleras and Jean Leonard Elliott
356 - Beckoning Lights, by Monica Hughes
340 - Irish Red, by Jim Kjelgaard
340 - Beardance, by Will Hobbs
330 - Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert
305 - The Agent's Secret Child, by B.J. Daniels
290 - Poems for Pleasure: An Anthology (Book II), by A.F. Scott
288 - The Rapture of Canaan, by Sheri Reynolds
244 - The Prayer of Jabez, by Bruce Wilkinson
239 - Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World, by Karen Armstrong
225 - Underground to Canada, by Barbara Smucker
215 - The White Mountains, by John Christopher
212 - Race Against Time 2nd Ed., by Stephen Lewis
210 - Leaving Home, by David French
205 - The First Nations of British Columbia 2nd Ed., by Robert J. Muckle
177 - A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey
85 - Sacrifice of Isaac, by Neil Gordon

VonBegg:

550 - The Tibetan Book of The Dead (trans. Gyurme Dorje)
530 - I and Thou, by Martin Buber
490 - The Abundance Book, by Lawrence Cane
490 - The Heart of Philosophy, by Jacob Needleman
470 - Thresholds of the Mind, by Bill Harris
470 - The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis
465 - The Power of Letting Go, by Patricia Carrington
450 - Fear and Trembling, by Soren Kierkegaard
440 - The Dark Side of The Light Chasers, by Debbie Ford
440 - A Moth to the Flame, by Connie Zweig
420 - The Prophet's Way, by Thom Hartmann
420 - Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy
420 - From Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzan
410 - Boomeritis, by Ken Wilber
400 - Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
400 - The Three Theban Plays, by Sophocles (Hawkins has calibrated the author at 465)
400 - The Power of Partnership, by Riane Eisler
(somewhere in) 400’s - Everyday Grace, by Marianne Williamson (see Stargazer)
380 - Getting Things Done, by David Allen
365 - Master Key System by Charles F Haanel (see Stargazer)
360 - Flow, by Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi
350 - Architects of the Culture of Death, by Donald De Marco and Benjamin Wiker
320 - 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help, by Benjamin Wiker
320 - Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, by Susan Jeffers
no permission - Notes to Myself, by Hugh Prather - no permission
no permission - Aquarian Gospel [of Jesus the Christ, by Levi & Eva Dowling]

Stargazer:

620 - Marianne Williamson's "Everyday Grace" (see VonBegg)
?580? - The "Master Key System" by Charles F Haanel (unsure; wanted confirmation – see VonBegg)

TimD:

750's - Perfect Wisdom - The Short Prajnaparamita Texts (trans. Edward Conze)
560 - Philosophical Texts, by St. Thomas Aquinas
550's - The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon
511-519 - The Philosophic Basis of Mysticism, by T.H. Hughes
501-509 - The Breath of God, by Swami Chetanananda
480's - Cosmic Consciousness edited, by R.M. Bucke
466 - A Brief History of Everything, by Ken Wilber
440's - The Hidden Gospel, by Neil Douglas-Klotz
430 - The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning
420's - Out of My Later Years (compiled writings by Einstein, mainly from the 1930's and 40's)

Greymagus:

799 – "Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism"
795 – Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev – "Encounter the Enlightened"
780 – The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Sri Swami Satchidananda translation copyright 1978, 1984, 1990 Integral Yoga Publications)
770 – Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev – "Mystic's Musings"
740 – Harish Johari – "Chakras: Energy Centers of Transformation"
740 – Paramahamsa Yogananda – "Autobiography of a Yogi"
700 – Richard Smoley – "Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition"
700 – Elaine Pagels – "The Origin of Satan"
675 – Thom Hartmann – "The Prophet's Way"
655 – Andreas Moritz – "Lifting the Veil of Duality"
625 – Masaru Emoto – "The Hidden Messages in Water"
615 – Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney – "Hidden Wisdom"
599 – Fritjof Capra – "The Tao of Physics"
595 – Elaine Pagels – "Adam, Eve, and the Serpent"
570 – Mantak Chia – "Awaken Healing Energy Through the Tao"
565 – Marianne Williamson – "Illuminata: A Return to Prayer"
560 – Elaine Pagels – "The Gnostic Gospels"
560 – Caroline Myss, Ph.D. – "Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can"
540 – Daniel A. Helminiak, Ph.D. - "What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality"
535 – "From the Ashes: A Spiritual Response to the Attack on America" (a compilation of essays by spiritual authors/teachers in response to 9/11)
500 – Christian de la Huerta – "Coming Out Spiritually: the next step"
500 – Thom Hartmann – "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight"
499 – Graham Hancock – "Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization"
485 – Barbara Honegger – "October Surprise"
480 - Elaine Pagels – "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas"
475 – Thom Hartmann – "We The People: A Call to Take Back America"
445 – Thom Hartmann - "Unequal Protection"
400 - Paul Devereux – "Places of Power: Measuring the secret energy of ancient sites"
135 – David Ray Griffin – "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11" (author calibrates at 445)
90 - Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler

And here are book calibrations from other sources:

999.8 - I: Reality and Subjectivity, by David R. Hawkins
980 - The Eye of the I - From Which Nothing Is Hidden, by David R. Hawkins
970 - The Upanishads
910 - The Bhagavad Gita
905 - The Zohar
895 - Nicene Creed
880 - Lamsa Bible(minus the OT, Revelation, but incl. Gen, Psalms, Proverbs)
850 - Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour, by David R. Hawkins
840 - Dhammapada
810 - Ramayana, by Valmiki
795 - Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma
790 - New Testament(King James Version minus Book of Revelation)
780 - Lotus Sutra
780 - Heart Sutra
740 - Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
720 - The Koran
705 - The Cloud of Unknowing
710 - Shankara
705 - Rig Veda, by Krishna
700 - The Diamond Sutra
699 - Gospel of St. Luke
665 - Midrash
665 - Mishna, by Yeduha Ha-Nasi
660 - Genesis(Lamsa Bible)
660 - Gospel of St. Thomas
650 - Psalms(Lamsa Bible)
645 - Aggadah
640 - New Testament(King James Version from the Greek)
640 - The Flowing Light of the Godhead, by Mechthild of Magdeburg
635 - Vijnana Bhairava
610 - Tao te Ching
605 - The Dark Night of the Soul, by Saint John of the Cross
600 - A Course in Miracles(Workbook)
600 - Omniology: Secret of Cosmos, by Yang Hee Lee
595 - Talmud
595 - Saved by the Light, by Dannion Brinkley (neardeather), Paul Perry, and Raymond A. Moody
595 - Embraced By The Light, by Bettie Eadie
595 - Chuang Tsu
575 - The Practise of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
570 - The Book of Kells, by Keltic monks, R.A. MacAvoy [editor]
560 - Glamour: A World Problem, by Alice Ann Bailey (channelled by Djwhal Khul)
550 - A Course in Miracles(textbook)
540 - Conversations with God (Trilogy), by Neale Donald Walsch
505 - Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence, by Dr. Lee Sannella
505 - Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri
495 - Lamsa Bible(From the Aramaic)
480 - Tractatus theologico-politicus, Baruch Spinoza
475 - King James Bible(From the Greek)
430 - I Ching
420 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
405 - The Book of Mormon
400 - Gnostic Gospels
350 - Proverbs(Lamsa Bible)
320 - Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, by Susan Jeffers
265 - The Keys of Enoch, by Professor J.J. Hurtak
265 - The Dead Sea Scrolls
260 - Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowlings
190 - The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins
190 - The God Gene, by Dean Hammer
160 - The Skeptic's Dictionary, by Robert T. Carroll
150 - The Urantia Book, by the Urantia Foundation
130 - Stupid White Men, by Michael Moore
130 - The Capital and Manifest of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx
70 - The Book of Revelation(New Testament)

-Rob

Poetry Collection Version 2.0

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:58:32 -0000

Way back when I first joined zaadz, I made an entry with a bunch of poetry that I'd written, which I periodically updated. Since I last updated it, I've written a lot more, and figured that I might as well make a new thread since it's not likely that people will go back and check the old one at this point. Soooo, here are most of the poems that I've written over the course of my life. Enjoy!
(I hope the formatting works in the posting here...a lot of blog sites automatically align everything to the left...and there are a few that have some different sorts of formatting in the originals, so if it doesn't work, I apologize in advance!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
attatchment

Humbly Waiting
Ego Blazing
I Know it will go away.
Patient with me, for one day I'll be ready
to be unready

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
nonconditional

experiencing the soft warmth of a flesh I have never touched
looking into the eyes of one with whom I've never spoke.
knowing the love intimately without having the love.
or do I?
Am I living the love, or is it passing me by?
It's no less real when it's no more shared.
or am I wrong.
I can't say I'm scared.
If it is meant to be there's no point to it anyways.
It's meant to be good, meant for a certain way.
If it's not meant to be, it's still meant to be right.
Freedom is not 'yes I will' it's 'I might'.
A love with no bounds,
A love that may never happen,
has happened.
A love that is perfect
is happy
whatever the outcome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
acceptance

Smiling at praise.
Nod at criticism.
hold my thoughts still.
Wonder about things.
Bold my stance
Firm my stability
With silence and heavy eyes
gently my heart sings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to Say Nothing, and Mean It

a point without a premise.
a premise without a point.
the intent has been set forth,
but the path is out of joint.

a premise without a point.
a point without a premise.
a shot without a target,
yields a hit that marks a miss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Awareness

Silence
The song that needn't be played
Melody
In notes that can't be made
Beauty
As voices haven't sung
Peace
As It and I are One

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terminus

a river of love
ebbs and flows
float with the current
wherever it goes
twisting and turning
effortlessly
in every direction
timeless beauty

with eloquent rhythm
softly it calls
lowering gently
over the falls

the current slows down
the river wide-opens
back to it's source
One with the Ocean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One

What fortune found
To have a friend
Whereupon this journey
We could spend
A moment here
Seeing clear
The Silence

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surrender to Grace

gazing, full with wonder
aesthetic fluence in the world around
as a boat on the ocean
with waves the soul bounds
caress of the heavens
fills hearts of space
cognitive efforts
surrender to grace

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love Poem

This feeling fills
It doth persist
A healing warmth
Vague as mist

Betroths this heart
A radiant field
All wants and needs
The feeler yields

He gives up All
So to embrace
A higher Truth
To bathe in Grace

He loves her not
It's not from him
Veritably
He feels on a whim

No, this Love subsists
Even when disaligned
It encompasses souls
So that they're combined

The caring endures
Glowing forth from his chest
By no will of his own
This union impressed

Her joy is his own
As hers is in he
Entangled by Love
Two drops meet in the sea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Involvement

So involved in desire
So involved in the pain
So involved in the story of the hero once again

So involved we compete
So involved we show pride
So involved in the view that we have from outside

So we just let it in
So we just let it go
So we know that the mind is the screen for the show

So we bend with the wind
So we go with the flow
So we follow the plot that continues to grow

So the reel nears it's end
So the credits start to roll
So we find all along that we watched from the soul

So we've learned who we are
So we aren't what we see
So we're not so involved
So in truth we are free

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heart Chakra

A fire without sound
let spirit abound
pouring forth from the chest
by love at last found
thru the door of the soul
enter into the whole
as inside, all around
what the heavens extol

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Portrait

A dancer and her dance
Existence as one with her essence
Though it may not be apparent

Figuratively perfect
Since she does well not to realize it
of the moment she is fervent

Her mind is ripe
Humility makes her bold
her honesty the root component

She’s on the edge
Of discovering herself in this perspective
Seeing herself in the moment

Above and beyond
She’s all this and less
Words can’t relay what’s inherent

The paragon of woman
The epitome of God’s grace
Divinity’s crowning adornment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Love

As it comes
Loving you by loving the world
Yeah this love is what hearts are made for
Escaping eloquence gripping us tight

When it holds you it holds every child
When you breathe it’s what fills you inside
It’s the spirit that carries
the will that subsides
It’s the depth of your soul
And the light for your eyes
It’s the malleable stone
Soft hands work to the bone

Sculpting links in a chain that can lead us back home

It’s the wind in the forest
The sound of your voice
It’s the driver beside you
Your freedom of choice

And it flows
And it fills
Sometimes pushes
Sometimes gives
As it comes
Loving you by loving the world

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What to Bring to Work

An arbitrary assertion
'this is hard'
lame as can be
defeated at once by the force I call 'me'
is the puzzle inherently tough?
the Truth shall set me free
a prisoner of my impressions
is the honeycomb so complex to the bee?
why should this be such a challenging feat?
as easy as moving my arms
walking on my legs
turning a wrench
hauling kegs
no task is stronger than my mind
all work is as difficult as I find
when I bring it joy
it brings me peace
and when I bring love
the work loves me back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flo and I

"Nothing real can be threatened."
A phrase seared in my mind.
How it was so easy to accept, after the first time I saw her,
That we might never meet again.

Talk about impressions burned in the mind though!
Her love.

Her warmth.

Her kindness.

Radiant like the glow of the sun.

Something about her...
This encounter would change the course of my life.

I knew.

~

Almost a year later we met again.

"Wow. She is just..."

It seemed impossible that I let her go the first time.
Her Joy is now my soul's desire. My Self is hers.

A deep sense of living completeness...
Perhaps due to the way my spirit is reflected so clearly in hers;
Perhaps in the way our reciprocal strengths and hurdles compliment.

A nurturing wholeness.

Her heart has opened parts of me I never knew.
The journey into her soul and the road to mine are a singular path.

When once, the edge of my being was marked by a Mind,

Now it seems difficult to distinguish where I end and where she begins.

~

Freedom in the uncertainty of Life.

Anchored in the Truth of our Love

A phrase comes to mind...

"Nothing real can be threatened."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nondual

The indivisible totality of existence
as viewed through pinholes in the fabric of time.
A timeless, changeless, limitless whole
seems constrained – to the temporal, changing, limited mind.
Like frames on a film strip passing by...
The illusion. The excitement. The interest.
What’s to come? What’s to find?
Cassette in hand; the whole plot fulfilled.
listen,
as pa,
after par,
after part,
is spilled.
O Perception: the Great Constraint.
What of the Truth is there left to paint?
Do we think that we’re painters,
when in fact we’re the brush?
Do we think that we’re brushes,
when in fact we’re the push?
From the Artist’s hand,
to the Artist’s mind.
We step forth through the gate
then look back just to find,
That no gate e’er was there;
that before we were blind.
But who was blind?
With eternity found,
we are set free from time.
Where unending Silence,
is the stage for all sound.
Where from infinite Stillness,
is all movement found.
Where on eternal absence,
doth Light shine its face.
Where the world of form,
dwells in l-i-m-i-t-l-e-s-s Space .
Moving.
Changing.
Growing.
Learning.
Aging.
Appearing.
Artefacts of Totality nearing,
a realization of its true Self.
Nondual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who Am I?

Perception the Bridge,
Or perception the Wall?
Which stands between me and the world.

Or is it a mirror,
Reflecting at me
My Self come completely unfurled?

Could I be an illusion?
A thoughtless conclusion?
A something which stands clear apart?

Or am I a question?
Pre-answer digestion,
A mystery from bottom to top?

Am I a persona?
Which stands quite alone?
A window to all that's outside?

Or am I a vessel
For something that's more?
Or have I just come for the ride?

Perhaps I'm a fish?
Could I be the water?
Or could I be both as a whole?

I might be a tooth,
Which can't bite itself.
A something that never may know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Squish. Hmm. Ha. Ahh. Good Karma.

Squish.
A life ends at the sole of my shoe.
No thought for its life.
No thought for its soul.
No thought for the life which once made the world whole.

Hmm.
Is there anything I can do?
Can I remedy this?
Can I pay for my crime?
Can I bring back its life? Can I go back in time?

Ha.
I could hold a bug funeral!
Would it ease my mind?
Would it please the bug?
Would it hold off the wrath that I'm due from above?

Ahh.
There's a lesson in this.
Thank-you bug.
Thank-you life.
Thank-you universe, for setting me right!

Wow.
Two lives begin at the soul of my being.
Reborn with awareness.
Reborn to care.
Reborn with a spider I was meant to meet there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Letting Go

Drop what's in my hand,
without a second thought.
But with layers
layers
layers of frustration,
hold on with all I've got.
Take the anger.

Grip it tighter.

Grip it tighter yet.

This feeling of discomfort;
Closed as a fist can get.
I open up my sweaty palm
and roll the object 'round.
Notice that it's not attached;
that I'm not tied or bound.
I am it,
or I have it.
Why struggle to hold on?
If I could only let it go,
my hurting would be... G o n e.

Find my comfort.
Focus Inward.
Live with open hand.
I needn't grip things any longer,
blown away like sand.
At core I'm silent,
I'm at Peace.
Air in a bubble,
finds r e l e a s e.
No more with pain or darkness,
no longer hurt by lies.
No longer blinded by scales,
which once covered my eyes.
This is what the wind feels like.
Unhindered by confine.
Set free all my frustrations;
they're here
but they're not mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Perfect Tree

A sapling
guided up through soil by the sun
from its source in the ground to its source in the sky
to a spire from a seed, it becomes

In infancy the tree endures
over storm, step and struggle, life is won
recorded in the rings of time
trials help the tree to grow tall and strong

As it ages it seeks space to grow
solidly established it climbs on
ever longing to hug heaven's light
it opens up its arms one branch by one

It reaches up and reaches out
does not deny its shade to anyone
though not the tallest, thickest, or most picturesque
its service to the world is not undone

A perfect vision of itself
through birth and life and death goes Nature's son
an everlasting gesture of Her wealth
for in its wake we find new life begun

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Simple Life

V1
If you remember how love put the beat in your step
and how the rain never got your heart wet
you can go back to a time when we all got along
If you remember that love is the breath of this living song...
you can put all your pain in the past
and we'll carry on

V2
So open on up and let the love shine in
I know we've done it before-we're gonna do it again
Come on and live your peace, go on and shine that light
With just a little faith, we find that things go alright
I know that life is good for the soul
as we all grow on

Chorus
Just look at where we've come
Take your time
and understand
it's a simple life

Bridge
I know that you've got your handful of troubles
and you know that I've got mine
But when you look out for me, I can look out for you
Just got to trust in people, not much else we can do
'cuz when it all falls down, I'm gonna pick you up
you know that we're all brothers and that's more than enough
we'll just lean on each other as life
keeps on moving on

Chorus
Just look at where we've come
Take your time
and understand
it's a simple life

Take your time
and understand
it's a simple life
and things will work out right

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emergence

Elementary particles
Created; not coloured
All alone they have nothing to show
But arranged as an atom
Bombarded by light
We witness a glorious glow

A single Molecule
Water; not wet
A pair of 'H' with a unit of 'O'
Limited.
Finite.
Alone.
So little to it
This lone unit
Some traits, only union bestows

An endless vacuum
There; not here
A volume without a divide
But fill it with objects
and orbits
and light
Then a context connects all inside
Though the vacuum has not a locale of its own
Its contents are spatially tied

Then what of Love?
Unconditional; under the right conditions
An emerging property too?
Does it only appear, between me and you?
Or is it always here?
Though it's not always clear?
Is emergence its coming to view?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Death and Loss

all the data of the holographic universe
stored in the quantum computer
whether it's accessed or not
though I know not all,
it is yet known,
just not by me

therein lies my bias
since I can't imagine death
to imagine the hollow;
the empty...
takes awareness

I just can't manage to smother the Self
long enough to allow
for the possibility of nothing

an after life?
after what?
can I ever evade the Now?

how?

even Loss,
I can't quite grasp
though fear of loss has made me gasp

if I say goodnight, is your love not mine?
how far apart, in space and time,
must someone be?

can we ever lose what we've set free?

as sure as I am that I can't lose you
you were never mine, this much is true
can I try the same on my Self too?

if I set me free
will I not be lost?
I do not know.

when did life even begin?
Now?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peace

Simple kindness has no backlash
never leads to loss or despair
If I'm to be the change
it's kindness
that my world should get to wear

I can't just dream about it
it's something I must be
like the flame of a candle
lights another
to give myself
does not hurt me

To live with Peace does not consume
nor overwhelm
it does illume
it paints the world with Love and Light
does not divide the wrong and right

It ends all conflicts with forgiveness
melts all worry
caters to bliss
complete and perfect; life benign
in every moment – yours and mine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, Love!

V1
Hey, Tree! Come on and shine your shade
Give rest and comfort by your design
Let me hang from your branches
Let me roll in your leaves
Let me live life with freedom
Cherish the breeze

Chorus
...these are expressions, of Her embrace
Caress of the heavens, surrender to Grace
Hey, Love!
You're the silence in sound
The cure to my worries
You're all that's around

V2
Hey, Wind! Come on and give your touch
Lift up my spirits with your gentle push
Let me roar in your streams
Let me ride on your waves
Let me go your direction
Feel like I'm safe

V3
Hey, Rain! Come on and drip your scent
Wash me clean with refreshing descent
Let me be free of anger
Let me be free of pain
Set me free from resistance
And I'll be pure again

Bridge
The rain, it doesn't just fall on the bad
And the rose when she smiles...

It doesn't matter who you are
Or what your trial is

Just live Love
'Cuz that's what life is

V4
Hey, Sun! Come on and wrap that warmth
Blanket the world with nurturing arms
Let us comfort each other
Let us heal in your light
Let us change our direction
Live for what's right

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And there you have it! Enjoy!

-Rob

What gives you hope for the future?

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:27:58 -0000

The realization that everything is the perfect expression of that which it is. A rosebud is not an imperfect rose. It is a perfect rosebud. So it is with the present and the future. There is hope, because the future is inevitably the perfect expression of that which it is as well. 'Future' is but another name for a rose - which, as you know, smells just as sweet by any name we would like to call it!

-Rob

Take a few paragraphs to describe a perfect world.

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:05:11 -0000

a perfect world is the world as it is, from an enlightened perspective.

-Rob

What is one book that has changed your life? How?

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 07:35:10 -0000

'I: Reality and Subjectivity' by David R. Hawkins. Before reading the book I only thought I knew what my life was...the book perhaps did not change life itself...though it revealed what this life truly is...and in that sense, though nothing appears to have changed, nothing has remained the same either.

-Rob

What's your dream job? Describe it.

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:03:54 -0000

A paintbrush. A paintbrush is happy to be a paintbrush. A paintbrush is not concerned with painting, nor with art...it is concerned only with being that which it is.
Plus, 'The Painter' is the best boss in the universe.
When one knows who one is, appropriate action follows automatically. 'Be the change' means just that. What do I want to BE when I grow up, is not the same as what do I want to DO when I grow up. What I want to do, is to act appropriately according to what I am. Whatever form that action takes is inconsequential, and ever changing, so long as what I am is anything less than the infinite totality of existece.

-Rob

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:36:49 -0000

Absolutely nothing. Everything would be allowed to unfold perfectly without the constraints of expectation. It is fear that keeps the doer in the deed. With no fear, there is only love, nothing else.

-Rob

On Wanting

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:35:03 -0000

Suppose you are writing a multiple choice exam.

1. You want to choose the correct answer.
2. The correct answer is (a)
3. You think the correct answer is (d)

Suppose you chose (d). Did you get what you wanted?
This is the basic gist of the argument that Socrates makes against Polus in Plato's Gorgias.

The gist is, that all we want is what is good for us, and so, though we may think that we want one thing, we may in fact want something else.

Consider the example of knowledge. It is possible to believe something that is false, though it is not possible to know something that is false.
eg:
One can believe that Los Angeles is in the province of Quebec, but one cannot know that Los Angeles is in the province of Quebec.

If we apply the same principle to 'wanting', it seems understandable that one can think he desires something which he truly does not.

(Note: Aristotle had some very good criticisms of Socrates' approach to this, but primarily the difference in views arises from a preference for a different context and a different set of definitions)

It appears as though the main thing which interferes with our acting upon our true wants is the problem of thinkingness. Our thoughts simply are not trustworthy when it comes to discerning these differences.
In the absence of thinkingness reality as-it-is, is self-evident. We often seem to be of the persuasion that within our thoughts is contained our humanity, when the case seems to be just the opposite - that in thinkingness we are trapped in a state of oblivion; where we can know about a great many things, only by virtue of the dualistic view, we're never quite able to truly know such things. We fear that if we surrender our dreams, and our thoughts and our ideas, that we will somehow surrender something which is real in the process.
What we call our dreams are really what we think our dreams and ambitions are.
What we call good ideas are merely those things that we think are good ideas.

Having understood these principles it seems as though the way to truth dwells in the silencing of the mind...and since we are not the mind, the task of silencing it is no easy task...it does not succumb to our will(just try and predict your next thought! impossible!).
The mind is like a tiny tv screen in a massive arena. We give it so much attention that it seems to occupy the whole of our being...but the stadium is over 99% empty.
All we need do is disengage from the mind...thinking will come to rest on its own.

"Truth is verifiable only by identity with it, not by knowing about it." -David R. Hawkins

-Rob

Paintbrushness

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 05:40:58 -0000

"...as a paintbrush in God's hand...my service to God is complete...my service to God is completely in God's hands."

-Rob

To Give and to Receive

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 06:17:53 -0000

"It is actually impossible to forsake our own spiritual development in favor of someone else's." -M. Scott Peck, from 'The Road Less Traveled' "If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway." -Mother Teresa "To give and to receive are one in truth." -A Course in Miracles, lesson 108 ...in making the distinction between giving and receiving we often deny ourselves a considerable opportunity to rejoice in one aspect of the process or the other. When we give, we receive. When we receive, we give. In both cases humility plays a prominent role. In both cases we serve. In regard to nonduality and nonattatchment, breathing is an excellent metaphor. To breathe in and to breathe out are essential. Attatchment to one's breath inhibits breathing. Detatchment to air inhibits breathing. So it is with giving and receiving. In truth they are one; service of the whole. The key is to remain focused on God, from which all that can be given or received arises; to live as a vessel for Divine Love. Be God's paintbrush. To the paintbrush, there is no greater significance or blessing to picking up more paint than there is to spread it over a canvas. Love, -Rob

How to Know God

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:17:24 -0000

First off, it's impossible to prove God.
Second, knowing about God is not the same as knowing God.
Thirdly, God has a lot of immitators.

So, to start off with, it's important to figure out what it is that we're trying to know.
As God is classically defined, God is omniscient(all knowing), omnipotent(all powerful), and omnipresent(everywhere). Basically, God is a limitless phenomena.

All knowingness...
imagine all of the 'information' in the universe...all the information about how the world is, how the world was, and how the world can/will be.
It's common to say that the past is dead, and that the future doesn't exist...but consider potential for a moment. For anything to exist...for anything to happen...for anything to be conceptualized...the potential for it to exist...for it to happen...for it to be conceptualized, exists.
In order for these letters to appear on this page, the potential for them to appear on this page had to have already existed. Like files on a computer, the information exists even when it isn't being accessed. The potential for every possibe arrangement of everything exists in timelessness.
We can call this perfect organization of information 'omniscience'.

All Powerfulness...
At first glance, one could presume that omniscience might as well be synonymous with all powerfulness. However, if one wished to go a bit deeper, it wouldn't be amiss to outline more of the traits that constitute all powerfulness.
In order to be all powerful, it would seem that a thing would have to not be subject to threats. From 'A Course in Miracles' we're taught that "that which is real cannot be threatened". Threatening realness cannot influence realness to cease being realness. Attacking realness cannot threaten realness. Truth is that which does not change.
The question of All-Powerfulness also raises an important question: the question of evil.
If God is all powerful, and all good, then why does God permit 'bad' things to happen?
The answer to this question is both simple and complex. Suffice it to say, for our purposes, that an omniscient Divinity would not operate in such a way that was contrary to perfect reason.
Buddha taught that 'suffering exists, but none who suffer'.
This lesson is integral to understanding All-Powerfulness. Surely, if we may percieve suffering, yet not be the actual subjects of that suffering(on a spiritual level), then we must consider the possibility that nothing which happens is actually bad, but rather, that everything which we percieve as 'bad' serves a plethora of divine purposes: to establish karmic opportunities; to achieve karmic equilibrium...essentialy to teach us.
That which is real cannot be threatened. It seems as though existence as we know it is all the evidence necessary in order to witness omnipotence. There is order to the universe after all. A tree sprout will not grow into an inside out hippopotamus after all.

Omnipresence...
It's the puzzle of locality. If everything exists in the universe, then what does the universe exist in? and what does that exist in? and so on.
At some point, locality has to arise out of nonlocality...just as it does in the mind when we imagine a table. We can imagine its hardness, its texture, its weight, its colour...and yet that table exists nowhere in discernable locality.
The fact that God is not provable, as circular as this may seem, is evidence for the nonlocality of Divinity. And if everything exists in nonlocality, then everything which exists occupies the same space as nonlocality. Omnipresence.

So omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence are all real phenomena...
timelessness...infiniteness...and nonlocality...all real phenomena...
These are essentially the Nature of nature. Divinity. God.

...so having established the basics of what we can know about God, how does one go about actually knowing God?
How does one appeal to the will of Divinity, when Divinity already has a perfect knowledge? It doesn't seem as though it would make sense for Divinity to go and change its will for someone whose will has already been anticipated...
How does one appeal to omnipotence? if everything already operates according to its unstoppable order?
"Truth is verifiable only by identity with it, not by knowing about it." - David R. Hawkins.
To know God, one must surrender all disagreement with God's will.
To know God, one must surrender all resistance to God's power.
When God's will and one's own will are no longer dualistic...when God's power is no longer separate from one's own accountability, then one is One with God. There is no longer a knowing 'about'. There is only knowing.

...the only thing now, is that we must be weary of God's many immitators.
How to identify immitators of God:
if something has finite locality...as kind and loving as it may appear, it is not God(at best an expression of God's Love...but be sure to remain focused on God, and not simply the manifestation).
if something appeals to you by coersion/bribe/temptation, it is not God. God is all powerful, and has no need to seek your compliance.
if some force comes to you looking for answers, even if they are answers about yourself, it is not God. God knows you. At best, these questions may arise out of some desire to know yourself...at worst, they may come from some entity that would play on those questions to create doubt, and inflate its own importance in such a way as to inspire you to follow it.
if something is not expressing all goodness, it is not God. No suffering is the fault of God...it is the fault of false identification...of ego...of illusionary attatchments.

Basically, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence and all-goodness are the qualities that we must keep in mind. If we maintain a focus on knowing these when we see them, then it can only follow that we will also know God.

-Rob

The Absolute, the Relative and True Knowledge

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 06:44:45 -0000

If reality is infinite context, then the Absolute and the Relative are the same thing. Assuming that reality is True Knowledge(not to be confused with knowledge about something), then reality must be that which can be known, not simply the sum of the things that we know about. What can be known though? Everything appears to be subjective and relative. I am. Knowledge is Identity. That I am is the only subjectively verifiable fact. If reality is the sum of that which can be known,and all that can be known is that I am, then True Knowledge is to identify oneself as the totality of All that exists! including the accountability of all that exists!(an important distinction to make, simply that the ego isn't the sum of the Self, but the Self is the sum of totality.) As Christ taught, one must die unto oneself that he may truly live. How can one live, without knowing life? How can one live, without being life, if this premise is indeed correct? To die unto oneself then, is to relinquish attatchment to any limited identity. â€œTruth is verifiable only by identity with it, not by knowing about it.â€ -David R. Hawkins -Rob

Creativity

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:01:48 -0000

In an interview with Deepak Chopra he once said something to the effect that "creativity requires uncertainty; after all, with certainty, what room can there be for creativity?." The basic idea then, is to get something from nothing. Inspiration from the mundane; life from a pencil and paper; clarity from a mess; certain awesomeness from total unknowingness. Something from nothing. Creativity is a nonlinear process. So the question comes up: "How can I be more creative?" A wiser pursuit might be to experience creativity itself more deeply, since creativity itself is a constant. Everything arises spontaneously out of uncertainty in every instant. Therefore, to experience creativity more deeply requires alignment; finding agreement between one's will and the nature of creativity itself. As 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 so beautifully outlines the nature of Love, so ought we to outline the nature of Creativity. Firstly, creativity is not frustrated. There's no need to worry about fighting frustration though, just be concerned with fostering patience. The frustration will dissolve entirely of its own when patience begins to flower. Creativity is patient, but not so much in the sense of waiting calmly, as in the sense of proceeding calmly. Creativity is not impatient. With creativity there's no sense of urgency, but never any hesitation either. Creativity is a phenomena that one participates in, not something which one can orchestrate. Creativity is the music that is played though we, the instruments. Creativity is not limited or conditional. Creativity is spontaneous. Creativity is not synonymous with wit or cleverness; they are its weak immitators. It never serves nonintegrous intent. Creativity is a phenomenon that is served by one's willingness to participate in it. Creativity is not retaliatory. True creativity is influential. True creativity serves God above all else. Saint Hildegard of Bingen described herself as God's Trumpet; an instrument for His work. Mother Theresa described herself as a pencil in the hand of God, writing the most beautiful love story. It seems that such an approach is evident even with the most celebrated creators in history. As we have witnessed them creating, it always appears to be effortless. The works of Shakespeare are hardly the work of a methodical intellect, and yet they shine with brilliance. Creativity appears to flow through us, eventhough we often suggest that it has been executed by us. The claim to authorship is often a difficult one to surrender. Even with our thoughts, it's only in the instant after the fact that we claim authorship of the thoughts. In 'The Power of Now', Eckhart Tolle suggests an excersize which can help to reveal this lack of copyright that we have on just our own thoughts, not to mention the creativity that we claim to be our own. He suggests that one merely sit quietly and try to predict what his next thought will be. It's really impossible. So, surrendering the sense of authorship can only help to deepen one's experience of creativity. What seems to be at the core of creativity is a love and devotion to Divinity(whether that occurs consciously or unconsciously). In Love of God, all of life is experienced as creative unfoldment. "God, make me an instrument of Your Love." In bearing witness to the ways that prayer is answered, every second of every day, we are blessed to see God; the Nature of nature, whose essence is Creation; whose Creation is "I"! -Rob

Welcoming TimD and Charity to Zaadz!

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:06:09 -0000

Tim and Charity both signed up at Zaadz recently...and for his introductory blog entries, Tim has posted an early summary of Dr. Hawkins' work...well worth reading for anyone who's curious about it! Part 1 of 4 Part 2 of 4 Part 3 of 4 Part 4 of 4 Enjoy! -Rob

Gratitude

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:39:25 -0000

Got my Zaadz Ambassadors package in the mail the other day. So awesome. (Thanks Brian & the Zaadz team!) Wore the Zaadz t-shirt all day yesterday...and after humbly thanking people for their compliments on my snazzy attire, explained what Zaadz was and invited people to check it out! I haven't even really given any thought as to where I'll go placing all the li'l cards yet, and already the Zaadz awareness field is growing. I'm thinking I'll send a few with my sister who recently started working with Erika at the local youth center. Not sure if it's the kind of thing that many teenagers will be interested in, but it's all about expanding potentiality. How does it expand positive potentiality? Well, basically it gives people more positive things to choose from--so whether they choose Zaadz, or some other outlet for their spiritual/philosophical expression, simply having more options of that variety means that the odds of choosing positivity go up. And in regards to that model of awareness building, I offer up much gratitude to Zaadz for simply existing in the first place as a positive outlet! High integrity is most awesome by virtue of what it is, and only secondarily by what it does(and it does a lot of awesome things!). -Rob

Humility

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 19:39:48 -0000

According to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, humility is best defined as "a reverent love of the Truth." What a beautiful and appropriate definition. -Rob addendum: On the topic of surrender, it seems to come up all the time where people ask "well how exactly does one surrender something? Humbling oneself in the fashion that St. Bernard describes would seem to be a very effective way of surrendering. To truly revere the Truth in this way is to surrender All to it. St. Augustine once explained that, in the pursuit of holiness, three virtues are fundamental: the first being humility, the second being humility, and the thirdâ€¦humility!

Qs and As

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:39:23 -0000

4 + 3 = 7 The left hand side of the equation is equal to the right hand side of the equation. The same principle can be applied to virtually all questions and answers. By understanding the question(left side), we have the answer(right side). The question is equal to the answer. One cannot even formulate a question if he's not aware of the answer that the question is seeking. One does not ask if cows are green when he wishes to know about sports cars. As such, an extremely useful spiritual practice is to observe, document and analyze our questions. Explore the field that they have arisen out of. Can I move on? = Courage Can I remain unbiased? = Neutrality Can I deal with this? = Acceptance Should I go on? = Willingness What does it mean? = Reason Question = The Field Then there are also fields that bring about questions of less integrity: Am I better than you? = Pride Why don't I get what I want? = Anger Can I have it? = Desire Is it safe? = Fear Can I ever be more than my mistakes? = Guilt It is extremely useful to examine the field that a question arises from. The only acceptable answer to any question is going to be one that arises out of the same field. For those familiar with the Map of Consciousness, it is an especially helpful reference: Between 500 and 600 there is a massive drop-off when it comes to the arising of questions. Beyond 600 it becomes very apparent that Truth can only be validated by identity with it and not by knowing about it. Complete surrender of one's beingness to the Allness of existence is the process which carries him further. Contemplation occurs spontaneously, but there is no longer attatchment to questions or answers. A boddhisatva deals with questions that arise out of the collective field rather than his own individual field(A boddhisatva is an enlightened one who remains in this realm by the will of Divinity, to lend assistance to mankind and the raising of its overall level of consciousness). One of the main techniques of the boddhisatva is to simply recontextualize a question so that it becomes meaningless. On the map of consciousness, a question that arises out of Pride is quite meaningless once one looks at it from the perspective of Courage, or Neutrality, or any of the higher levels. This is a technique that we can practice for ourselves once we have examined the field that the question has arisen out of. We can look at it from the perspectives of (in the context of: ) the higher levels of consciousness, and subsequently practice the surrender/release of those questions as they appear unimportant in this new light we have shone upon them. -Rob

Genius: One of the Many Paths

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 21:54:19 -0000

Now, to begin, let us be clear that genius and high IQ are not the same phenomenon. --at least not in this context. While a high IQ might reflect a vastness of experience and inherent ability to calculate and discern based on observable factors, genius is much simpler. Genius is doing exactly what is most appropriate in any given situation. Anyone can be a genius. Not everyone can have a soaring IQ. It's not uncommon for a genius to live out on the countryside, living very simply. A genius doesn't try harder than is necessary, nor does a genius waste energy on laziness. The beauty of the path, is that it draws one into Prescence. Being in prescence is what is most approriate in any given situation. Making calculations based on past memory and future expectation is not prescence. When one's attention is not on 'what is' he is not present in the Now. Now is the only chance anyone ever has to do anything, and the genius lives this truth. Genius only works with that which is tangible. The present reality is the only tangible thing at anyone's disposal. Being in prescence is the only access that one has to any of it! So one might ask then, "without consideration for past or future, how can one do the most appropriate thing?" Consider the nature of the question... What answer does it seek? It seeks a future where one can do the most appropriate thing! It comes from a past where appropriate action perhaps was not always the case. A question from the past; about the future. In prescence, there is no question, and no answer! --only what is appropriate. As soon as one begins to view it as either a question or an answer, he's no longer the moment! just a perspective of the moment. The unfolding of existence as experienced on the edge of that unfolding is prescence. At this point, the paths of the heart, of the mind, of surrender and of negation, all merge into one. 'Process' dissolves into beingness. From here, there is only the service of Grace. -Rob

Not One, Not Two

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:32:45 -0000

"All is One" People often say this. Few attempt to substantiate the claim. Mostly, it depends on context. Clearly, there are more than one letter in this sentence...so in this context, all is not One. Hundreds of billions of separate molecules are the building blocks for a lake...and yet the lake is a single mass of water. One might observe the individual pieces as emergent alterations in an infinite pattern....so, although they can be percieved as many, they really are just one. Some go so far as to say that the line between where I end and the computer screen begins gets awful blurry at particular stages in consciousness. To the linear mind, this doesn't make any sense at all. We tend to say that we have a body more readily than we say that we are a body...but just for a moment, we can ask ourselves, "If I am a body, where do I end and my eyeball begin? Where do I end and my fingernail begin? Where does my hair end and my body begin? Am I my hair? or am I my eyeball? Am I my brain? or am I my nerves? So, the line between myself and my body can easily be blurred when we go deep enough into the illusion that we are our bodies...so why not the line between the body and the computer screen, right?.... The line where I end and the eyeball begins is the same line where I end and the rest of the universe begins. It's a scary notion though....because if beingness begins at the point where I end, then it's quite possible that I don't exist at all! ha ha This would probably be the 'Void' that people refer to in high stages of consciousness...where the 'I' is really the formless substrate of reality that is the source of all beingness. Something coming from no thing...and so we resolve then, that nothingness must be ultimate reality....since something cannot come from no thing. ...but as consciousness forges onward, even further up the proverbial ladder, the notion of void, is transcended for a state of Allness. Getting back to the title of the blog...'Not One, Not Two', I think the gist of that notion points to the un-separateness of existence and essence...the dancer and her dance. The dancer and the dance are two things, and yet they are one thing...for the dancer is only a dancer whilst she dances. All is One, and yet all is not One. There's a duality between duality and nonduality to be observed here...and it can only be resolved by identity with both notions as though they were the same notion. -Rob

What is Thinking?

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:06:34 -0000

Awareness is like a field of potentiality. You might imagine it like a thick fog, and whatever we can see in that fog is within our field of vision. In the case of a very unevolved state of consciousness/awareness, the potential for certain thoughts to occur within the field is very limited; limited to the point where the odds of something happening are quite predictable. Black or white. In being so predictable, one may believe that he's decided that the thoughts were chosen or created by himself. When an intention manifests, one becomes aligned with the pursuit of that intention, and so does his field of awareness. We can imagine a bowling lane. There's a pursuit; a desire to knock over the pins. This desire pulls our attention/alignment in the direction of that pursuit. So the thoughts which arise in the field relate to the alignment of the field. When the potentiality is limited, and the thoughts are related to the intention, people still think that they are 'thinking'. They believe that what happens to the bowling pins is the direct consequence of their intention. Narrow awareness, specific intention, and low potentiality contribute to the idea that all which appears is very linear(i.e. I roll the ball, the pins fall over). As the field of awareness expands, so does potentiality increase exponentially, dealing with ever greater numbers of variables. Less predictability means that identification with the self as the source of the thoughts is less plausible. One might still claim authorship of some of them, and attribute the rest to the influence of external factors. He still believes himself to be 'thinking', only there's the notion that his thoughts are affected by things beyond his scope of awareness also. The thoughts are still governed by his alignment, though the scope of his field of awareness expands further than the scope of his attention/focus(similar to a person's peripheral vision). There's a consideration for factors outside the narrow focus of the core intention. Factors which exist outside the scope of the overall intention may have appeal, which can lead to a realignment of the immediate intention, unlike in the case of a narrow awareness, where one is concerned only with getting that which is in his immediate attention. The person still believes that he's doing the thinking, since the thoughts that arise in consciousness are still related to the ever changing alignment. He believes that he's picking the directions that are most 'good'(eventhough one cannot change what he thinks is good, against his own good judgement!). With ever greater expansion of awareness, many possibilities begin to appear favourable, so the overall intention/alignment is forced into expansion as well. The overall intent becomes 'service to the greater good' as there's a recognition that the individual doesn't 'decide' what is best/what is good, but rather, that there's an overall goodness which prevails in the field completely of its own. This letting go of the will to 'decide' what is good, is the beginning of disidentification from thought. The individual becomes aware that he is not the sum of his thoughts. There still appears to be 'thinking' though, since the thoughts which arise in awareness at least appear to relate to eachother, even if not to the intention of the individual. When consciousness keeps expanding even further, to the point where 'all that exists' is something comprehensible, 'thinking' ceases. The timelessness of thought and awareness is witnessed as having been totally complete, always and forever. Further yet, it's realized that thought only ever made up 2% of the entire field of awareness, and that the rest of it was always just silent essence. In terms of 'potentiality', just for the sake of clarification, it refers to the possibilities that may appear within a field of awareness, and the odds of that possibility coming into manifestation right 'now'(Though it also refers to future possibility, it is not limited exclusively to future happenings. It is very much a quality of the 'now' as well). The odds of a tree sprouting from your forehead in the instant that you're reading this are pretty low, while the odds that you'll continue the act of breathing are fairly high. Awareness can expand across a threshold where even potentiality ceases to exist too, where the scope of one's awareness is inclusive of Allness as being simultaneously manifest and unmanifest, since, for something to be manifest, there must also exist the potential for it to manifest. Like data on a computer, just because the files are not being accessed at this moment, does not make the data any less existent. All of the past, present and future are registered in the timeless totality of consciousness. ...and it's not so much that the future exists right now, as it is that all of the potentiality of the future exists right now. For example, the death of the physical body might be immanent, but there are different files on the computer(potentialities) which dictate the means of that physical death. We arrive at those different potentialities according to our alignment. One of the most effective ways to potentiate the expansion of one's consciousness beyond the limitations of thought, is to practice devotional surrender...which is essentially nothing more than alignment with divinity at whatever the cost. In Peace, -Rob Addendum: Since it seems to come up whenever people are 'thinking' about thinking, some thoughts on drugs and altered mental states: Keeping with the fog metaphor, it would appear as though the effect of drugs, is that they temporarily dissolve the clouds so that the sun can shine through; so that the individual can experience some of the qualities of higher consciousness, without acually expanding his awareness. Physiologically, the conditions of altered perception and presence of the drug are always concurrent...which is to say that the drug use and altered state are connected, yes, but that there's no hard evidence to say that one causes the other. They're simultaneous.(sometimes the mental condition can occur with a placebo, sometimes the presence of the drug has no apparent effect on perception...so one could theoretically lean one way more than the other, but it doesn't appear conclusively governed by either the mind or the chemicals). I wouldn't know where to even start investigating this in order to find the bridge between consciousness and the body...and how exactly the drugs temporarily dissolve the fog of awareness...but such an effect seems to be why the altered states occur.