Category Archives: lost & found

The view is great from here…

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Talking with a friend the other evening we got on the subject of being nice to others even though we don’t feel it. My friend thought that there was an aspect of in-authenticity or just being phony when we were nice to needy annoying co-workers. while not feeling that way, at all.

My thoughts were that the only thing that matters is how we act, not how we feel. Our feelings are extremely mutable; we feel rancor towards someone and they bring us a little gift when we have a birthday, now we like them. We feel friendly toward someone and they don’t respond to us in a way we want and now we’re on the fence about them; so on and so forth…

If we act in a kind or neutral way, despite how we feel, we are developing a mental/physical habit that will, in time, often change how we feel. This is good.

The phoniness comes from our intentions in acting nice. If our intentions are mostly selfish, then we are in phony territory, ready to homestead. But just a natural human aspect that could use a little help or tidying up.

Most of our “personality” and our general response system to the world, is just an accumulation of old habits (some of them older than we may know), that are so ingrained that we falsely use them to identify us, as “me”. One proof of this is the fact that many of us have had the experience of transforming some old and unhelpful habits that were not useful and during that process we were somewhat surprised that we had never noticed the negative aspects of that part of our “personality”. Hell, we may even have thought is was cute or manly.

The tricky part of this is to see the situation(s) clearly and our part(s) in it. We have to face and look very closely at our most cherished possession; our story of ourselves, and that many times, we just sort of scroll roll past those parts of the story that we know to be unhelpful, or just not fair, right, honest or even true. It’s tough to face the fact that mostly we are full of baloney; or just straw. We grow the straw, and lord knows we slice the baloney.

The good news is, that is not a problem, it’s the human condition. Not seeing clearly. Not being able to step back just a few inches, or feet, or miles from our insitence that our view may be blocked, or skewed and generally inaccurate.

That is the place where change is initiated, not just waited on while simultaneously waiting to die.

 

The view is great from here, its filled with me, 

I like what I see, except when I don’t;  and

A voice-over starts, just like in the movies,  that

Explains me, and how I act and feel, to me; and then

And there my view changes to go along with my story,

About me, you, them, those, this, that; and all them

Things that seem outside of the me, yet some-

How I know can’t exist without. How, how to

Connect? Is the truth just a glance away? Maybe?

 

 

 

 

 

Rain-natter…

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The Mind,

My Mind.

It is. The

Object and

The observer.

Somewhere between

Those distinctions lies

the Truth of the

Matter.  Yet  I  can

See  that the fact is

I  forgot  what  I  was

Going to do,  yet one

More time.  Is anything

Going wrong?  No, not ever,

Just,  there’s always another

Tomorrow to  remember you,

And me, and them,  ‘n those

That  were then.  Or was it

Another time,  yet again?  I am

Not sure,  but one thing I do

Know;  is,  it is all,  slowly, going

Away,  Never to return.  Nor will

I.  We are all going a way,  One

Way,  or another.  This Thing,

It  is  an  Open circle  that  lets

Everyone in  and  not One  out.

Because  It  can not  contain.

We  go away,  on our  Own.

Memory and forgetfulness.

Birth and death,  in-between 

We spend  and invest  our time.

There’s so little of it  and 

So  much  too it all.

Right here.

Whoops! Gone. 

Any One Mind?

 

Anti-matter=natter…

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All the choices in my life today are staggering when I stop to consider, that within a fairly wide range, I can do just about anything that can be dreamt of. On some things I would have to spend every penny that I have in one day, still I can actually live the life of the Gods of not too long ago.

I can be anywhere in the world in one day. I can eat food from thousands of places around the globe; fresh. I can be in snow and within hours be on a warm beach. I can send a thought or a clear image to thousands of people instantaneously. I can fly. I have at my fingertips the accumulated knowledge of mankind, of every tribe, every empire, every clan, every school that has ever kept records of its teachings.

It’s all at my beck and call.

What am I doing with this awesome power?

I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cold drink of tonic water and lemon.

I’m watching a group of local Warriors engage in modern athletic competition (war), with a group that is known for having Blazed a Trail all the way to Portland, OR from far-flung distant points to the East many years ago.

I am connected to another person through a small device that lets me plan a future meal, while also connected to yet another person to arrange a meeting three weeks hence thirty miles away across a cold and deep Bay in the Pacific Ocean; 7,000 miles from where I was born.

All of the things that I can do today are possible through the help and effort of countless other beings, humans and otherwise. Beings that invented, built, transported, wrapped, delivered, set-up, and in some cases made possible by giving their lives during the thousands of discrete transactions that had to take place, so that I could have this evening as a small God-ling on a small planet in the incalculable immensity of the Universe, and still, I  suffer from the mistaken idea that I matter.

And,

I can make a small difference

And,

That matters

 

 

Just a thought…

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A nice day started with a powerful acupuncture treatment, a shopping trip to Costco and a bunch of other stuff including staying in touch with old friends in far-flung places from disparate  parts of my travels from there to here, physically and temporally.

We are all challenged by being whoever we are, especially if we have any degree of self-awareness and are working on being that way, and that’s the only kind of people I choose to spend time with nowadays, life is too short. However, it can be even more of a challenge to be our friend, or partner, or mate, or any combination thereof.

I used to comment to my wife that she was driving me nuts, and she would point out that it was a putt, not a drive. We all have some real Bodhisattvas in our lives. People who not only put up with us, but choose to spend time with us, and, often choose to live with us. Yikes!

I have certainly been blessed with the people that I can call friends and those that act that way towards me. Go figure!

In a conversation with a friend this evening a formulation occurred regarding dealing with hurt feeling or a sense of personal affront. It went something like this.

We offer the “resentment” up in the opened palm of our hands, both of them, as if it were a stunned bird we found on the ground. We hold it up so it can become aware and gather its energy up for the flight back to where it belongs.

It may take some time for this to take place. So we wait, palms open.

In the meanwhile we also see (visualize) our hearts opening up in the same way the palms are offered. Open and up. Then, we can see that our open palms are also in the position to accept the help that comes to us from the Eternal. And, we need not know what the particulars of that help are, just be prepared to be, in a position mentally, physically and spiritually to accept what is given.

We will be aware of something going on in this process because it will actually feel like the right thing to do. And that, is sufficient.

Just a thought…

A movement of the mind,

The heart, the body; all

Three in concert being

That whole which is

Greater than the parts.

 

5th of the Five Thoughts

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This last of the Five Thoughts sort of roll together all of them and the key word is acceptance.

“We accept this food so that we may become enlightened.”

I think the basic premise in this thought is to remind ourselves as to our real purpose in life. What could be more important than to become aware of our True selves, our actual purpose for life; to really come to know a peace and depth that we did not know was possible.
We accept this food so that we may stay healthy and continue our training and practice to become as the Buddhas and Ancestors, for they were once as we are now, and we will become as they are now.
We accept this food so that we may become more than the small roles we have assigned (or resigned), ourselves to.
The Truth is never far away, it just seems that way because we can’t imagine it.
We accept this food because we intuitively know that the whole of life is contained in our attitude towards sustaining all of life and seeing the inevitable end to that condition. If we can accept this we can get at the root of our own suffering.
We accept this food because there is more and we want to see …

It is good to remember that these Thoughts are just helpful pointers to keep in mind during our daily activities. I have tried to substitute these Thoughts when engaging in a variety of human activities, and they have the same use as before a meal.
Stop and look!
Stop and see!

Accepting this food and linking it to “becoming” enlightened is the big hint towards the Truth that we already are Enlightened, we just may not be aware of it because we are hampered in our awareness by how we act.

These Five Thoughts can be the beginning on how we act, interact, look at, see, treat and allow the various conditions in our lives to be our teachers. They can be the beginning because we have a consistent opportunity to practice and look at them every time we eat.
Accepting is accomplished with hands and heart open, and trying to see that everything in our lives is a gift.
Accepting is not receiving, getting, or acquiring something.
It is acknowledging a gift with small smile and a slightly bowed head or sometimes, with a full prostration and an aching heart; and all the various possibilities between the slightly bowed head and the full prostration(with or without aching heart); depending on the situation or circumstance. 

Acceptance and Gratitude….Horse and Carriage.