You mention recognizing filters and then doing the work needed to remove them. This is to assume that you feel removing your filters are a good thing in the first place. In terms of applying a fresh outlook to situations I agree. I fear we may get into trouble if we begin completely abandoning our filters which may in fact assist us in seeing things perceptively.
I noticed that you mentioned shields but didn’t say much more than that.. Is the shield you are talking about the complete rejection of things we are not ready to accept so we ward them off for fear of what they may reveal?
This could take form via the subconscious, or it could be something even more on the surface of the conscious mind. Now shields don’t necessarily have to be a bad thing and also can arise out of wisdom. For instance I used to enjoy horror movies but then as I began to practice meditation realized that it may be better for my overall psyche to give myself only nourishing food and to limit the intake of violent imagery so I stopped watching this sort of material in an effort to protect myself from the blood and murder rife in the horror films, even if the adrenaline rush, and macabre still could be deemed as entertaining. Once again I wonder if this falls into the realm more of a shield or a filter. I can’t say for sure about your feelings about the shield because you didn’t really expand on that aspect of your thought process regarding values.
Let me move on to the idea of tools which in some ways I think can fall into an overlap of the previous too. That is I guess what I am talking about with the idea that I can’t say that filters may necessarily seen as something that may wish to entirely eliminate from our ability to take in new experience.
As a tool you mentioned qualities such as empathy and compassion. This brings to mind the teachings I received based on the work of Ernest Holmes (author of Science of Mind). He talks about the qualities of Christ as he calls it. It is important to recognize that he does couch his language in the framework of Christianity although many of his concepts seem to entirely transcend typical Christian thought. Although I hesitate to even say that much because my personal experience in the various types of Christianity is somewhat limited.
***This is some rough cut ramblings from a conversation a few months back, I wrote a bit more and may add a second post but I owed 4ceibas some thought spillage for way too long***
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Dissolving Resistance: A Shadow Encounter
Description
Resistance is the enemy of action and comes when the subconscious mind rebels against the conscious mind. This is an interference caused when accomplishing your goals is met with a fight. The heart tells the conscious mind that it wants to do something but then gets caught in a melee.
Another form of resistance is distraction. The mind runs all over the place and can’t focus on the path at hand. The world becomes too much at once. The heart goes aflutter and the things in front of oneself becomes more than one can take. Everything beckons. It is like wanting to watch TV, listen to music, and read all at once. The body gets thrown around in the distraction and the need to produce gets thrown into a tailspin along the way. This is the loss of heart. There is no reason to fear the path as it reveals itself to you. So many of the methods that are available only need to be carried out and the rest takes care of itself.
No terror can trap you more than fighting situations. Go with the flow of experience and don’t get tossed into a nightmare. Let it be and move on. As Suzuki Roshi says die in the moment and then live to die again. Then you have to keep dying over and over. Life is a light that jumps from the page. It is a super-powerful dream with great meaning. We can only remain aware of the truth as it comes into focus, realizing space as a friend and not as an enemy. The enemy is a phantom we create and we can easily get rid of. There is no reason to be at war. The eyes are led by the heart so all we need to do is keep checking in with the heart and the rest will grow through a sense of knowing. As Socrates said, “know thyself.” Don’t worry about understanding all of the texts and rituals of the world, only look deep into your heart and understand the spirit that stands before you. Unearth the shadow that shows itself to you in revelation.
Every hope and hurt is just another springboard to understanding. There is no reason to keep wondering if I am doing it right, as if there is such a thing as doing any of it wrong. The song of the heart grasps the pure sense of being alive. Keep moving forward without a terrible sense of fright about you. Resistance is not something that need be painful. Loosen it up. Shape each moment like a sculpture.
Dialogue
Resistance you have asked me to run away from what I am feeling, stunted my dreams, and turned me away from bettering myself. I have great respect for you even as I wish to overcome your sway. You have nasty teeth, and an ability to wind your claws around my mind and space me out, and stop me in my tracks. I get excited and then become a victim of my own inconsistency. How do you turn me against myself? What are your special skills that give you the ability to punish? Overcoming is an easy enough thing. Maybe I am asking the wrong question and it is not a case of overcoming at all. I ask you to reveal yourself, and tell me what journey you really hold for me. Embracing you once and for all will wind me out of this wound-up shell. The breaking of the cocoon is a step by step movement. Self-discipline and happiness means not being curled in a ball. I take a look at you and know that you are really just another tool for me to use.
Being
I am the being that overrides tension, and relaxes into knowing. I am the cause that finds itself out of a dark tunnel. I am the feeling that transcends pain and longing. Obstacles don’t exist. Words sink deep into knowing seen from beginningless time. The chariot of awakening takes you away from fear without resistance. The embodiment of success and knowing is the true state of being. Stand and take life one step at a time. Don’t feel afraid, let it all go away. Be the fullness of relaxation and joy. See what you want to do and then live it in space. Your own kind words will return back to you with goodness. You are never bound to situations. Get out your angel wings and fly. Don’t be tossed in pain, slapped into a back room hidden. Find true experience and step into the universal. I can only take you as far as you want to go. You are a gift to me as I am to you. You are not afraid. I know because we are one. We integrate with the patterns and mesh on the journey. Shape full acceptance into simple steps. Do what is true and cannot be turned away from. Realize truth and then go there without difficulty. Show yourself as an expression of wholeness, never lost in the silly fear of smallness. Staple your mind, fastened like seatbelts to the safety of absolute knowing. The gaze from the top of the mountain is joyful and immediate. It can’t be fully described. Like it is said we are just fingers pointing at the moon, but we can never fully explain what it is to be the moon. The fullness of experience is locked up inside of that very experience. Shape your existence to conform to the absolute and the relative will take shape of its own accord.
Resistance is the enemy of action and comes when the subconscious mind rebels against the conscious mind. This is an interference caused when accomplishing your goals is met with a fight. The heart tells the conscious mind that it wants to do something but then gets caught in a melee.
Another form of resistance is distraction. The mind runs all over the place and can’t focus on the path at hand. The world becomes too much at once. The heart goes aflutter and the things in front of oneself becomes more than one can take. Everything beckons. It is like wanting to watch TV, listen to music, and read all at once. The body gets thrown around in the distraction and the need to produce gets thrown into a tailspin along the way. This is the loss of heart. There is no reason to fear the path as it reveals itself to you. So many of the methods that are available only need to be carried out and the rest takes care of itself.
No terror can trap you more than fighting situations. Go with the flow of experience and don’t get tossed into a nightmare. Let it be and move on. As Suzuki Roshi says die in the moment and then live to die again. Then you have to keep dying over and over. Life is a light that jumps from the page. It is a super-powerful dream with great meaning. We can only remain aware of the truth as it comes into focus, realizing space as a friend and not as an enemy. The enemy is a phantom we create and we can easily get rid of. There is no reason to be at war. The eyes are led by the heart so all we need to do is keep checking in with the heart and the rest will grow through a sense of knowing. As Socrates said, “know thyself.” Don’t worry about understanding all of the texts and rituals of the world, only look deep into your heart and understand the spirit that stands before you. Unearth the shadow that shows itself to you in revelation.
Every hope and hurt is just another springboard to understanding. There is no reason to keep wondering if I am doing it right, as if there is such a thing as doing any of it wrong. The song of the heart grasps the pure sense of being alive. Keep moving forward without a terrible sense of fright about you. Resistance is not something that need be painful. Loosen it up. Shape each moment like a sculpture.
Dialogue
Resistance you have asked me to run away from what I am feeling, stunted my dreams, and turned me away from bettering myself. I have great respect for you even as I wish to overcome your sway. You have nasty teeth, and an ability to wind your claws around my mind and space me out, and stop me in my tracks. I get excited and then become a victim of my own inconsistency. How do you turn me against myself? What are your special skills that give you the ability to punish? Overcoming is an easy enough thing. Maybe I am asking the wrong question and it is not a case of overcoming at all. I ask you to reveal yourself, and tell me what journey you really hold for me. Embracing you once and for all will wind me out of this wound-up shell. The breaking of the cocoon is a step by step movement. Self-discipline and happiness means not being curled in a ball. I take a look at you and know that you are really just another tool for me to use.
Being
I am the being that overrides tension, and relaxes into knowing. I am the cause that finds itself out of a dark tunnel. I am the feeling that transcends pain and longing. Obstacles don’t exist. Words sink deep into knowing seen from beginningless time. The chariot of awakening takes you away from fear without resistance. The embodiment of success and knowing is the true state of being. Stand and take life one step at a time. Don’t feel afraid, let it all go away. Be the fullness of relaxation and joy. See what you want to do and then live it in space. Your own kind words will return back to you with goodness. You are never bound to situations. Get out your angel wings and fly. Don’t be tossed in pain, slapped into a back room hidden. Find true experience and step into the universal. I can only take you as far as you want to go. You are a gift to me as I am to you. You are not afraid. I know because we are one. We integrate with the patterns and mesh on the journey. Shape full acceptance into simple steps. Do what is true and cannot be turned away from. Realize truth and then go there without difficulty. Show yourself as an expression of wholeness, never lost in the silly fear of smallness. Staple your mind, fastened like seatbelts to the safety of absolute knowing. The gaze from the top of the mountain is joyful and immediate. It can’t be fully described. Like it is said we are just fingers pointing at the moon, but we can never fully explain what it is to be the moon. The fullness of experience is locked up inside of that very experience. Shape your existence to conform to the absolute and the relative will take shape of its own accord.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Creative Marriage
I woke up this morning needing to write. I think it is because so much is happening and I am in a tizzy in my head trying to get it all sorted. This leads me to want to put it out into the ether and let it rest for a bit. It reminds me of a rap piece that I still have memorized which developed out of my freestyles and writings until I became so bogged down in the thoughts that I needed to find a way to exorcise them from my noggin. The solution was a piece I call the Excorschism. Once I had given myself the space to form the jumble into a structured poem I felt relieved that I didn’t have to rely on having it swim in my brain incessantly as a nuisance.
Another thing that comes to mind is in the creative process of Utah Phillips who said that he primarily liked to create his songs in his head and fine tune them there before going into the next step and writing them down. He formed them and memorized them, made them part of him before he birthed them out into the world. I marvel at that as a writing method and will follow this structure in my own forms of creation in due time.
Now you may ask what is this thought spiral cobwebbing my brain. Well let’s see, where do I begin? Firstly as I begin my life as a married man things do feel different. My wife and I both have been conscious of the binding together taking place since we took our vows, beginning the next stage of our journeys. A big part of that I feel stems from the sermon delivered by our officiant the one and never duplicated Glen of Trees. When he spoke the 9 pages or so of text, seeming like a mini-lifetime, of the binding together Cinde and I embarked on we both felt the profundity. He really put us together as a cohesive unit. Not that we didn’t already forge that path but he gave us the external sermon on the mount, putting our promises into the air, and exhibiting our commitments before our assembled family and friends. The powerful impact shattered my earth that fateful wedding day.
Pulling together our dream and forging them into daily reality our sights span beyond the hearth looking at our lives as a way to express ourselves beyond the shackles of corporate serfdom and into financial independence. Both of us want avenues of expression for our creative talents and build independence in this capitalist structure. We decided we are no longer satisfied with breadcrumbs handed to us by the powers that be and want to operate within this system as best we are able.
This is why we have begun the early rumblings of a family business, and once again it is within this process that our path is binding ever closer together. I am brought to mind to the Hindu engagement ceremony I was invited to of a Trinidadian coworker of mine several years back. In the ceremony I really saw the coming together of two families, and the commitments being made. The ceremony seemed like it lasted forever and I was shocked at how powerful the whole thing was. In the process the families united in various forms of speech, action, music, and heart. I was ill prepared for the length of time and felt like a spectacle in the proceedings myself as I sat up front with my girlfriend at the time squirming and fidgeting as the ceremony labored on. Never was a meal so welcome than after all the rituals had expired for the day, and joyful music echoed alongside happy diners.
This is what marriage is to me as I think about this coming together. It is not a vow to be taken lightly. It is something that needs to be heavily considered and taken with great sanctity. You can’t just do it on a whim or based on a well of loneliness. In my opinion you got to step into such a situation knowing what you are doing, swathed in the expression of love, and prepared for the rocky albeit ultimately satisfying journey ahead. It is in my heart of feelings that I think the divorce rates in this country would drop significantly if people took seriously the binding together that takes place in the path of marriage.
Now as I settle my mind for a moment I will let the sun set on this series of thoughts and revisit my jottings once I have had time to muse in other areas. I feel better already knowing that I have exorcised some of the thoughts that are swimming like tadpoles in my head.
Another thing that comes to mind is in the creative process of Utah Phillips who said that he primarily liked to create his songs in his head and fine tune them there before going into the next step and writing them down. He formed them and memorized them, made them part of him before he birthed them out into the world. I marvel at that as a writing method and will follow this structure in my own forms of creation in due time.
Now you may ask what is this thought spiral cobwebbing my brain. Well let’s see, where do I begin? Firstly as I begin my life as a married man things do feel different. My wife and I both have been conscious of the binding together taking place since we took our vows, beginning the next stage of our journeys. A big part of that I feel stems from the sermon delivered by our officiant the one and never duplicated Glen of Trees. When he spoke the 9 pages or so of text, seeming like a mini-lifetime, of the binding together Cinde and I embarked on we both felt the profundity. He really put us together as a cohesive unit. Not that we didn’t already forge that path but he gave us the external sermon on the mount, putting our promises into the air, and exhibiting our commitments before our assembled family and friends. The powerful impact shattered my earth that fateful wedding day.
Pulling together our dream and forging them into daily reality our sights span beyond the hearth looking at our lives as a way to express ourselves beyond the shackles of corporate serfdom and into financial independence. Both of us want avenues of expression for our creative talents and build independence in this capitalist structure. We decided we are no longer satisfied with breadcrumbs handed to us by the powers that be and want to operate within this system as best we are able.
This is why we have begun the early rumblings of a family business, and once again it is within this process that our path is binding ever closer together. I am brought to mind to the Hindu engagement ceremony I was invited to of a Trinidadian coworker of mine several years back. In the ceremony I really saw the coming together of two families, and the commitments being made. The ceremony seemed like it lasted forever and I was shocked at how powerful the whole thing was. In the process the families united in various forms of speech, action, music, and heart. I was ill prepared for the length of time and felt like a spectacle in the proceedings myself as I sat up front with my girlfriend at the time squirming and fidgeting as the ceremony labored on. Never was a meal so welcome than after all the rituals had expired for the day, and joyful music echoed alongside happy diners.
This is what marriage is to me as I think about this coming together. It is not a vow to be taken lightly. It is something that needs to be heavily considered and taken with great sanctity. You can’t just do it on a whim or based on a well of loneliness. In my opinion you got to step into such a situation knowing what you are doing, swathed in the expression of love, and prepared for the rocky albeit ultimately satisfying journey ahead. It is in my heart of feelings that I think the divorce rates in this country would drop significantly if people took seriously the binding together that takes place in the path of marriage.
Now as I settle my mind for a moment I will let the sun set on this series of thoughts and revisit my jottings once I have had time to muse in other areas. I feel better already knowing that I have exorcised some of the thoughts that are swimming like tadpoles in my head.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Early Outward
Get up today! The sun is shining brightly.
Listen! You are the essence of my heart,
The goodness of life.
I invite you. Get up today!
Today is gone very quickly, tomorrow will come.
Please do not give up your hope
That we will have time to taste
Happiness and sorrow.
If you are the moon in heaven,
Show me your face as full moon!
If this is the season of summer,
Show me the rhododendron flowers!
On the mirror of the mind
Many reflections could have occurred.
However, the face of the beloved one
Cannot be changed.
If the heart has any pattern,
There can be no change.
Will the sun rise tomorrow?
It is useless to ask such silly questions.
Whether the sun arises or not,
I don’t make any distinctions.
My care is only for you,
That in your heart the genuine sun should rise.
If she is my dearly beloved one,
She should be called “One Who Has Stolen My Heart.”
The dance of apparent phenomena –
Mirage: is this performed by you?
When I meditate in the cave,
Rock becomes transparent
When I met the right consort,
My thought became transparent.
Dearly beloved, to whom my karma is linked,
I could not find anyone but you.
The wind of karma is a force
Beyond my control.
This good aspiration and karma
Are impossible to change:
Turbulent waterfall of Kong Me –
No one can prevent it!
When my mind recalls the dearly beloved,
There is no shyness or fear:
Majestic dakini that you are –
This must be my good karma!
By Chogyam Trungpa
Listen! You are the essence of my heart,
The goodness of life.
I invite you. Get up today!
Today is gone very quickly, tomorrow will come.
Please do not give up your hope
That we will have time to taste
Happiness and sorrow.
If you are the moon in heaven,
Show me your face as full moon!
If this is the season of summer,
Show me the rhododendron flowers!
On the mirror of the mind
Many reflections could have occurred.
However, the face of the beloved one
Cannot be changed.
If the heart has any pattern,
There can be no change.
Will the sun rise tomorrow?
It is useless to ask such silly questions.
Whether the sun arises or not,
I don’t make any distinctions.
My care is only for you,
That in your heart the genuine sun should rise.
If she is my dearly beloved one,
She should be called “One Who Has Stolen My Heart.”
The dance of apparent phenomena –
Mirage: is this performed by you?
When I meditate in the cave,
Rock becomes transparent
When I met the right consort,
My thought became transparent.
Dearly beloved, to whom my karma is linked,
I could not find anyone but you.
The wind of karma is a force
Beyond my control.
This good aspiration and karma
Are impossible to change:
Turbulent waterfall of Kong Me –
No one can prevent it!
When my mind recalls the dearly beloved,
There is no shyness or fear:
Majestic dakini that you are –
This must be my good karma!
By Chogyam Trungpa
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Weepy Doesn't Know
Why is everybody laughin'?
Weepy doesn' know
He jus' stan's there grinnin'
I guess he's kinda' slow
But Weepy don' get sore
Seems like he asks for more
Look at all them broken dishes
On the floor.
Weepy don' do nuthin'
There's nuthin' he can do
Sometimes he takes all mornin'
Jus' t' find his other shoe
An' hey goddammit, Sid
Lay off the poor dumb kid
C'mon Weep, I'll show ya'
Where it's hid.
He's so damned good natured
Jus' laughs an' takes his lumps
You never see him angry
'cept when he's croakin' gumps
But that's no big surprise
It's right there in his eyes
Looks like Weepy's found him
Sumthin' more his size.
Jus' like all these dishes
There's sumthin' in him broke
Don't guess we mean to hurt him
When we play our little joke
But the social workers say
He may have to go away
You ask him
I'll bet he'd like to stay.
-U. Utah Phillips
Weepy doesn' know
He jus' stan's there grinnin'
I guess he's kinda' slow
But Weepy don' get sore
Seems like he asks for more
Look at all them broken dishes
On the floor.
Weepy don' do nuthin'
There's nuthin' he can do
Sometimes he takes all mornin'
Jus' t' find his other shoe
An' hey goddammit, Sid
Lay off the poor dumb kid
C'mon Weep, I'll show ya'
Where it's hid.
He's so damned good natured
Jus' laughs an' takes his lumps
You never see him angry
'cept when he's croakin' gumps
But that's no big surprise
It's right there in his eyes
Looks like Weepy's found him
Sumthin' more his size.
Jus' like all these dishes
There's sumthin' in him broke
Don't guess we mean to hurt him
When we play our little joke
But the social workers say
He may have to go away
You ask him
I'll bet he'd like to stay.
-U. Utah Phillips
Monday, June 07, 2010
Drala and Shambhala Links
Western Mountain Project: http://westernmountain.org/drala.html
Shambhala Glossary: http://www.glossary.shambhala.org/
Shambhala Training (Wiki) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala_Training#The_Four_Dignities.2C_Drala_and_the_Lhasang_ritual
Rigpa Wiki (drala): http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Drala
Discovering Magic (from Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior) http://www.escapefromwatchtower.com/dis.html
Spirits (Khandro.net): http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_spirits.htm
Shambhala Times:
Drala Walk (Eva Wong): http://shambhalatimes.org/2010/06/02/drala-walk-with-eva-wong/
Karme Choling Garden: http://shambhalatimes.org/2009/04/17/karme_choling_garden/
Shambhala Glossary: http://www.glossary.shambhala.org/
Shambhala Training (Wiki) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala_Training#The_Four_Dignities.2C_Drala_and_the_Lhasang_ritual
Rigpa Wiki (drala): http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Drala
Discovering Magic (from Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior) http://www.escapefromwatchtower.com/dis.html
Spirits (Khandro.net): http://www.khandro.net/mysterious_spirits.htm
Shambhala Times:
Drala Walk (Eva Wong): http://shambhalatimes.org/2010/06/02/drala-walk-with-eva-wong/
Karme Choling Garden: http://shambhalatimes.org/2009/04/17/karme_choling_garden/
Urban Dralas
For my 3rd entry of the day I wanted to get into Drala. I googled it to see what’s available on the topic, because at the moment I don’t have my copy of Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior handy, nor my notes from the training weekends available. The first entry that came up was an essay on Drala by the Western Mountain Project so I read a little more than half of that and then went out for lunch. Once out in the world the Drala games began very much of their own accord. I took a twenty minute walk spanning the space most NYers cover in about six minutes.
The sights abounded and to be honest I don’t recall experiencing too many smells, which here in NY can be a good thing. What I did experience most clearly was the sights and the sounds, and also how it felt inside me. In many cases it is the sounds that drew my eyes into the next experience.
A woman yelling into her cellphone, “I did not say that,” over and over. Then moving into, “If you want to put words in my mouth…”
There were plenty of traffic cops of the meter maid (pardon the sexist term), out on the prowl looking for tickets to give. One guy who had just parked and obviously in good spirits said he was going to play the badge number of the traffic cop.
She said, “It never comes out.”
I saw a $70 ticket taped up against a wall for a rogue sign observed chained up against a scaffolding for a massage/foot rub joint. A man popped his head out of the liquor store with his bright red, zigzag patterned button-up shirt to check out a passing lady.
Of course above all of this is sky. Today the clouds are nice and billowy, like marshmallows streaking slowly across a blue canvas. The city is alive to be sure. Is this the witnessing of drala? I think so. The world is so alive, everywhere. Another thing that came to mind is how much space there really is all around even in the hub-bub of this frenetic city. One area blocked off from parking littered across a couple of hundred feet made a wonderful pocket to walk along in the bustle. I couldn’t help but notice nobody else chose to use this wonderful gift of urban spaciousness. I guess they aren’t that interested in space. Which in a flash I realize is not so true because in the urban plazas people sit and enjoy their space. Maybe then it is the authoritative invitation to space that gets people to stop and be.
Let’s keep in mind many of the people taking a break in the urban plazas don’t seem to be fully engaged in their space as they chatter endlessly, fixate on cellphones, and chomp on morsels of food hurriedly.
Taking it slow did give me moment to say hello to a pleasant cop who had witnessed the screaming cellphone lady with me.
Now as I settle back into the indoor experience I reflect on the richness of what I experienced. In Shambhala we are taught not to take back our experiences like little trinkets bought at the store but to let them go. It is in that spirit I allow this piece to settle itself, and let go of it into the web universe like so many fragments of reality drifting away into the ether.
The sights abounded and to be honest I don’t recall experiencing too many smells, which here in NY can be a good thing. What I did experience most clearly was the sights and the sounds, and also how it felt inside me. In many cases it is the sounds that drew my eyes into the next experience.
A woman yelling into her cellphone, “I did not say that,” over and over. Then moving into, “If you want to put words in my mouth…”
There were plenty of traffic cops of the meter maid (pardon the sexist term), out on the prowl looking for tickets to give. One guy who had just parked and obviously in good spirits said he was going to play the badge number of the traffic cop.
She said, “It never comes out.”
I saw a $70 ticket taped up against a wall for a rogue sign observed chained up against a scaffolding for a massage/foot rub joint. A man popped his head out of the liquor store with his bright red, zigzag patterned button-up shirt to check out a passing lady.
Of course above all of this is sky. Today the clouds are nice and billowy, like marshmallows streaking slowly across a blue canvas. The city is alive to be sure. Is this the witnessing of drala? I think so. The world is so alive, everywhere. Another thing that came to mind is how much space there really is all around even in the hub-bub of this frenetic city. One area blocked off from parking littered across a couple of hundred feet made a wonderful pocket to walk along in the bustle. I couldn’t help but notice nobody else chose to use this wonderful gift of urban spaciousness. I guess they aren’t that interested in space. Which in a flash I realize is not so true because in the urban plazas people sit and enjoy their space. Maybe then it is the authoritative invitation to space that gets people to stop and be.
Let’s keep in mind many of the people taking a break in the urban plazas don’t seem to be fully engaged in their space as they chatter endlessly, fixate on cellphones, and chomp on morsels of food hurriedly.
Taking it slow did give me moment to say hello to a pleasant cop who had witnessed the screaming cellphone lady with me.
Now as I settle back into the indoor experience I reflect on the richness of what I experienced. In Shambhala we are taught not to take back our experiences like little trinkets bought at the store but to let them go. It is in that spirit I allow this piece to settle itself, and let go of it into the web universe like so many fragments of reality drifting away into the ether.
Intuitive Breadcrumbs
For my second stop on my blog journey I aptly chose Linda Hollier due to her being mentioned by Anthony Lawlor in the intro to his last blog post, and also because she retweeted one of my quotes last night. In keeping with my intuitive breadcrumb theory it made sense to arrive here next. I found a post she made on Integral Life about the Burj Khalifa , a building in Dubai which is the tallest in the world. Linda gives this building the expressions of a living, breathing being.
***Please Note: due to my rambling mind, and hunger to explore I jumped away from Linda’s post and never made it back there***
This immediately brings to mind the Shambhala teachings on Drala and Yun. Dralas are the elemental energies of everyday magic that arise out of situations, and are recognized when one stops their internal chatter. It also conjures up the work of Francisco Varela when he speaks of moving from the internal into the external in order to become in harmony with our experience. This is the point of creation when we are no longer trapped in ourselves but allow the opening to take place and see the greater cosmos.
A portion of his work is described as such in the following entry from Wikipedia:
“Varela was a proponent of the embodied philosophy which argues that human cognition and consciousness can only be understood in terms of the enactive structures in which they arise, namely the body (understood both as a biological system and as personally, phenomenologically experienced) and the physical world with which the body interacts. He introduced into neuroscience the concepts of neurophenomenology, based on the phenomenological writings of Edmund Husserl and of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and on "first person science," in which observers examine their own conscious experience using scientifically verifiable methods.”
Varela talks about the interaction of the human being with their external world. This is the dance of life. As living structures we are alive, and always in concert with the physical world. Varela got the core idea of this interaction from the work of Edmund Husserl who developed a model to understand this interplay. I first came across this model in the book Presence where the authors discuss using the “U-model” to deep-dive into the space of intuitive knowing, and push out into the external world through prototyping and eventually institutionalizing the gleanings once processed through the act of seeing things as they are, letting this go, and then crystallizing the insight that is allowed to come.
In my enthusiasm to layout some of these concepts I have lost my original thread so I will backtrack a little bit to the first tangent I made which was the mention of the dralas. As a matter of fact I will leave this entry and start a new entry on Drala. It is time to go to my next breadcrumb.
***Please Note: due to my rambling mind, and hunger to explore I jumped away from Linda’s post and never made it back there***
This immediately brings to mind the Shambhala teachings on Drala and Yun. Dralas are the elemental energies of everyday magic that arise out of situations, and are recognized when one stops their internal chatter. It also conjures up the work of Francisco Varela when he speaks of moving from the internal into the external in order to become in harmony with our experience. This is the point of creation when we are no longer trapped in ourselves but allow the opening to take place and see the greater cosmos.
A portion of his work is described as such in the following entry from Wikipedia:
“Varela was a proponent of the embodied philosophy which argues that human cognition and consciousness can only be understood in terms of the enactive structures in which they arise, namely the body (understood both as a biological system and as personally, phenomenologically experienced) and the physical world with which the body interacts. He introduced into neuroscience the concepts of neurophenomenology, based on the phenomenological writings of Edmund Husserl and of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and on "first person science," in which observers examine their own conscious experience using scientifically verifiable methods.”
Varela talks about the interaction of the human being with their external world. This is the dance of life. As living structures we are alive, and always in concert with the physical world. Varela got the core idea of this interaction from the work of Edmund Husserl who developed a model to understand this interplay. I first came across this model in the book Presence where the authors discuss using the “U-model” to deep-dive into the space of intuitive knowing, and push out into the external world through prototyping and eventually institutionalizing the gleanings once processed through the act of seeing things as they are, letting this go, and then crystallizing the insight that is allowed to come.
In my enthusiasm to layout some of these concepts I have lost my original thread so I will backtrack a little bit to the first tangent I made which was the mention of the dralas. As a matter of fact I will leave this entry and start a new entry on Drala. It is time to go to my next breadcrumb.
Articulate Silences
Today begins phase 2 of my blog renewal project. I jotted down the names of people on Twitter I have come in contact in the past few weeks and will start to unpack their various blogs. I often see in blogging tips that an important component to having your own blog is to read the blogs of others. With this in mind I am beginning my exploration of the blog-o-sphere.
To start my journey I begin with Anthony Lawlor’s blog. On Saturday I put out a call for topic ideas to integrate into my freestyle rap session and he chimed in. His ideas were wonderful and I appreciated their arrival.
His tweet:
This causes me to make his blog the jumping off point for my second exploratory phase and I begin with his most recent entry about Silence being the Real Secret. I once again knew I had come to the right place when I saw mentioned in the first paragraph another wonderful Twitter presence Linda Hollier, an Integral thinker living in Dubai who has fantastic insights.
This brings me to my first thought before I go into Tony's blog, which is leaving open space to intuitively follow our hearts messages. By following the breadcrumbs of life we find new spaces and experiences. Then as we pass through these intuitive spaces we should continue to be alert to the signposts along the way. By staying in the flow of our heart, letting ourselves go beyond the dictates of conventional mind. You don’t have to hold onto your intelligence like a wayfarer to a raft in turbulent seas, our existence needn’t play out so crudely. We can dance on the stage of openness to an audience of light-beings unseen and forever attentive. I don’t mean to sound so new age-y but I am only accessing the words as they arrive. I don’t fear the assembly of mind’s toy soldiers jumping around in the popcorn popper waiting for recognition.
The following approach may seem tedious as I go through Tony’s entry line by line but this is where I am in terms of approach. I aim to take the time to soak up the words and give my reflections on each striking thought. The entry gets going referring to being tired and alone, preparing for a dismal evening until with calm acceptance the power of silence enters into Tony’s mix. This is of note to me because I have often had similar feelings where meditation or just sitting silently has carried me out of a funk. I love the immediacy of settling that can carry me away from the ordinary pain of exhaustion or isolation.
Tony calls the one line bulleted statements Silent Sutras, and the first one talks of how at times silence speaks volumes compared to the accumulated wisdom, experience, and inspiration which can lose meaning. I’m not sure that these things actually become meaningless because it is these very things that bring us to our silence. They begin to rest and settle in the present and lose their outlying significance. No longer are they the solid tangible building blocks of being but become silent players in the settled space of contentment. This is a comfy place to be especially when you realize that this is all from an outgrowth of feeling tired, alone, and possibly having a dismal evening.
Tony’s 2nd silent sutra remarks that there is no physical silence, that even in an isolation chamber we hear the blood as it circulates in our ears. I am not sure I have ever truly experienced such a sound but maybe I need to listen more, or get myself into an isolation chamber and check out the sounds. No of course that is not the point at all. Tony likens true silence to the awareness of our thoughts, words, and actions. This is the centered being opening to the flow. I am brought to the concept of the witness. In spiritual circles we are taught to be aware of our experience and develop our watcher. By noticing consciousness, and the ever-present self that observes our world passing through us we begin to glimpse the centered being beyond thought. Of course there is the further stage of development where we don’t stop at the watcher but also need to learn to kill the witnessing altogether. It is taught in the books of spirit by many sojourners that there is an even deeper experience that exists past the witness entirely. Since most of us are not super advanced 40 years of experience black belt mediators we need to grasp into the fray with lots of little techniques and tactics to get to that ultimate and complete open space. It is good to get in there as much as possible but as any practitioner can attest we won’t have very much success trying to force it to happen. This is why there are so many forms of recognizing what is inherently an absolute expression of openness to being.
This is what Tony is referring to in the 5th Silent Sutra when he says silence is the groundless ground from which practices and creation arise. This is why it is beyond the comprehension of mind (#9). By finding the ever-present silence (#3) we connect to the spaciousness in between our thoughts. There is space everywhere. If there was no space we wouldn’t be able to breathe, and subsequently live. I marvel at the amount of space present when in tight quarters. Even in the rush hour commute sardined into subway trains there are pockets of space all around. All you have to do is look up or down and you begin to notice this. When people talk you can hear that it is the spaces in there speech that makes the words convey meaning.
I am going to leave this exegesis of Tony’s wonderful insights and allow you to explore the rest on your own. I found the words soothing and of value. I can think of no better starting place for my blog exploration phase than in the pocket of active silence this entry provided. Be well all.
***I hope I am not being too familiar in constantly referring to Mr. Lawlor as Tony but it flowed better in the rhythm of the essay so I stayed with it.
To start my journey I begin with Anthony Lawlor’s blog. On Saturday I put out a call for topic ideas to integrate into my freestyle rap session and he chimed in. His ideas were wonderful and I appreciated their arrival.
His tweet:
Topics @checkback : Unity in Diversity; Facing the Unknown; Living Bigger than Your Separate Self; Appreciating What Is...
This causes me to make his blog the jumping off point for my second exploratory phase and I begin with his most recent entry about Silence being the Real Secret. I once again knew I had come to the right place when I saw mentioned in the first paragraph another wonderful Twitter presence Linda Hollier, an Integral thinker living in Dubai who has fantastic insights.
This brings me to my first thought before I go into Tony's blog, which is leaving open space to intuitively follow our hearts messages. By following the breadcrumbs of life we find new spaces and experiences. Then as we pass through these intuitive spaces we should continue to be alert to the signposts along the way. By staying in the flow of our heart, letting ourselves go beyond the dictates of conventional mind. You don’t have to hold onto your intelligence like a wayfarer to a raft in turbulent seas, our existence needn’t play out so crudely. We can dance on the stage of openness to an audience of light-beings unseen and forever attentive. I don’t mean to sound so new age-y but I am only accessing the words as they arrive. I don’t fear the assembly of mind’s toy soldiers jumping around in the popcorn popper waiting for recognition.
The following approach may seem tedious as I go through Tony’s entry line by line but this is where I am in terms of approach. I aim to take the time to soak up the words and give my reflections on each striking thought. The entry gets going referring to being tired and alone, preparing for a dismal evening until with calm acceptance the power of silence enters into Tony’s mix. This is of note to me because I have often had similar feelings where meditation or just sitting silently has carried me out of a funk. I love the immediacy of settling that can carry me away from the ordinary pain of exhaustion or isolation.
Tony calls the one line bulleted statements Silent Sutras, and the first one talks of how at times silence speaks volumes compared to the accumulated wisdom, experience, and inspiration which can lose meaning. I’m not sure that these things actually become meaningless because it is these very things that bring us to our silence. They begin to rest and settle in the present and lose their outlying significance. No longer are they the solid tangible building blocks of being but become silent players in the settled space of contentment. This is a comfy place to be especially when you realize that this is all from an outgrowth of feeling tired, alone, and possibly having a dismal evening.
Tony’s 2nd silent sutra remarks that there is no physical silence, that even in an isolation chamber we hear the blood as it circulates in our ears. I am not sure I have ever truly experienced such a sound but maybe I need to listen more, or get myself into an isolation chamber and check out the sounds. No of course that is not the point at all. Tony likens true silence to the awareness of our thoughts, words, and actions. This is the centered being opening to the flow. I am brought to the concept of the witness. In spiritual circles we are taught to be aware of our experience and develop our watcher. By noticing consciousness, and the ever-present self that observes our world passing through us we begin to glimpse the centered being beyond thought. Of course there is the further stage of development where we don’t stop at the watcher but also need to learn to kill the witnessing altogether. It is taught in the books of spirit by many sojourners that there is an even deeper experience that exists past the witness entirely. Since most of us are not super advanced 40 years of experience black belt mediators we need to grasp into the fray with lots of little techniques and tactics to get to that ultimate and complete open space. It is good to get in there as much as possible but as any practitioner can attest we won’t have very much success trying to force it to happen. This is why there are so many forms of recognizing what is inherently an absolute expression of openness to being.
This is what Tony is referring to in the 5th Silent Sutra when he says silence is the groundless ground from which practices and creation arise. This is why it is beyond the comprehension of mind (#9). By finding the ever-present silence (#3) we connect to the spaciousness in between our thoughts. There is space everywhere. If there was no space we wouldn’t be able to breathe, and subsequently live. I marvel at the amount of space present when in tight quarters. Even in the rush hour commute sardined into subway trains there are pockets of space all around. All you have to do is look up or down and you begin to notice this. When people talk you can hear that it is the spaces in there speech that makes the words convey meaning.
I am going to leave this exegesis of Tony’s wonderful insights and allow you to explore the rest on your own. I found the words soothing and of value. I can think of no better starting place for my blog exploration phase than in the pocket of active silence this entry provided. Be well all.
***I hope I am not being too familiar in constantly referring to Mr. Lawlor as Tony but it flowed better in the rhythm of the essay so I stayed with it.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Reeling in Feeling
You are a fighter
I see it in your spirit
Tackling everything
Including me
You Crumble beside me
And it kills me to see
All of this hurt
Hurled back and forth
Like a Hot Potato
Cooking with pain
Remembering
You came to my side
When I became sick
You were right there
Bringing me back from the dead with kindness
So much so that I can leave all of this anger behind us
Written 4/15/02
Revised 6/6/10
I see it in your spirit
Tackling everything
Including me
You Crumble beside me
And it kills me to see
All of this hurt
Hurled back and forth
Like a Hot Potato
Cooking with pain
Remembering
You came to my side
When I became sick
You were right there
Bringing me back from the dead with kindness
So much so that I can leave all of this anger behind us
Written 4/15/02
Revised 6/6/10
A note on these transcripts
I am a bit shocked at the voluminous nature of the transcriptions from yesterday’s jam session with St. Mark and Sal. I am allowing the open world to be privy to the machinations of uncut mind. I don’t claim that what has paraded across my blog is of high quality, or representative of my potentials as an artist. What I am doing is maintaining honesty, openness, and a level of integrity that I hold myself up to. Contained in this onslaught of words is me. It may be parts of me I want to disown, or aspects that in the past I chose to hide. Most of us hide these myriad aspects of ourselves, and don’t spin it all out into the open, but I chose my name Pathrhino for a reason. This is my path and I must forge ahead. There is little fear in my heart that I can’t face and work with. I am poised here leaving my imprint on the Webverse. A long time ago I had an idea that one could approach their art slicing and dicing, only showing their best work, or they could jump in the furnace and present themselves as it reveals itself, and allow quantity to take over the matrix. I do this somewhat hesitantly and not sure of what impacts, and karmic propulsion I am working with. All I can say is like my celestial teacher Trungpa instructs us to “lean into the sharp points.” I also keep in mind the admonitions he gives us to be responsible as artists, careful not to barrage our audiences with our neurosis. As I look ahead I hope to strike a balance between these things and make my life come into the focus that is so much a part of my future road. Those of you who will discover and stay with me I thank you for your companionship on the lonely road.
As for everyone else out there I am happy to wish you well. I feel good about where I am in my journey, even if I can’t say I am happy with the words that sprayed out of me yesterday. The thing that can’t be denied is the release that I felt yesterday, and the intuitive steps that my heart keeps telling me to take. As a formerly stifled creative I will be coming out of my turtle shell in varied ways with pep in the step. So take these transcripts with a grain of salt. I am not here to assault you but allow myself to be the Self that I strive to be. I have allowed this world to stifle me, and muffle my cries of pain. This is a situation that I am finally adult enough to strike from the gameplan. So please fell free to join me and voice yourselves in the process. I am open to whatever people have to say, and look forward to the dialogues that I am sure will soon develop.
As for everyone else out there I am happy to wish you well. I feel good about where I am in my journey, even if I can’t say I am happy with the words that sprayed out of me yesterday. The thing that can’t be denied is the release that I felt yesterday, and the intuitive steps that my heart keeps telling me to take. As a formerly stifled creative I will be coming out of my turtle shell in varied ways with pep in the step. So take these transcripts with a grain of salt. I am not here to assault you but allow myself to be the Self that I strive to be. I have allowed this world to stifle me, and muffle my cries of pain. This is a situation that I am finally adult enough to strike from the gameplan. So please fell free to join me and voice yourselves in the process. I am open to whatever people have to say, and look forward to the dialogues that I am sure will soon develop.
Jam Session Transcription (part 6)
… Used to live in the basement
With that little ass window didn’t even see the sun
Used to … (instrumental break)
Madison Avenue got us looking for all of this (2X)
Better, bigger, stronger, new, improved
Give me your money, I win and you lose
Madison Avenue got us looking for all of this
Madison Avenue
I be like the slogan shogun, you know son
When I run this game n’ now running across the track n’
Hanging with the crackheads I always got my back in
This is a backbone that means community to them ain’t …
… out of the culture a vulture running around
Like a dog named Doug in the rough, Wow I like to see the trees
But … of the disease, right there now brought up in the freeze tag
Like I was playing TV tag, red light (3X) and the green
Full head of steam locomotive, burn your votive
… Wondering when I’m ever gonna get …
Knocked a couple teeth out … but I paid for that now and I’m feeling the pain
It’s anger and it’s words, I got to get relief
… I got to be released …
The Common denominator, who be the bomb in the greater?
That’s the way they do it and the heads when they come in to play the
They think they Big Pimpin’ saying that you be fibbing
But you hating that’s why you …
Westborough and the Baptists they don’t got no love for that kids
But I say they got to rise above this now
Discovering the hovering, there’s real people in every religion
… so I got honor them no matter their affiliation
If you’re an affiliac Mukyo, what are you saying? …
People don’t really have to do all these things
But that’s okay, break through all these stings
It’s just feedback that happens so I change my angle
I’m singing in Egyptian but I don’t walk like a Bangle
… wrangle on my feathers, don’t wear a cowboy hat
How many Presidents are from Texas?
Is it the money with the oil? Is it the lye?
That be in there when you making up the soap
How you going to come wash your mouth
That’s the thing you’re talking about, that’s so wild
A chip off the old block, a daddy kind of apple
What you want to do? You want to wrestle when you grapple
MMA eh? UFC see! What do you want to be, be?
That’s all right free … I got the beast on my back
I’m just a mercenary killer from Kellogg Brown Root
I’m hanging very hectic, Halliburton’s clean up the world
… Who got the golf tournament? NBC? … privacy
I need a payday, green is profitable you know
Building up these buildings, and they building what they sow
… Baba the Nagas, smoke a lot of ganja, straight from the chillum
What we gonna do? The interspaces …
Get to the bottom of this hit off the waters
With that little ass window didn’t even see the sun
Used to … (instrumental break)
Madison Avenue got us looking for all of this (2X)
Better, bigger, stronger, new, improved
Give me your money, I win and you lose
Madison Avenue got us looking for all of this
Madison Avenue
I be like the slogan shogun, you know son
When I run this game n’ now running across the track n’
Hanging with the crackheads I always got my back in
This is a backbone that means community to them ain’t …
… out of the culture a vulture running around
Like a dog named Doug in the rough, Wow I like to see the trees
But … of the disease, right there now brought up in the freeze tag
Like I was playing TV tag, red light (3X) and the green
Full head of steam locomotive, burn your votive
… Wondering when I’m ever gonna get …
Knocked a couple teeth out … but I paid for that now and I’m feeling the pain
It’s anger and it’s words, I got to get relief
… I got to be released …
The Common denominator, who be the bomb in the greater?
That’s the way they do it and the heads when they come in to play the
They think they Big Pimpin’ saying that you be fibbing
But you hating that’s why you …
Westborough and the Baptists they don’t got no love for that kids
But I say they got to rise above this now
Discovering the hovering, there’s real people in every religion
… so I got honor them no matter their affiliation
If you’re an affiliac Mukyo, what are you saying? …
People don’t really have to do all these things
But that’s okay, break through all these stings
It’s just feedback that happens so I change my angle
I’m singing in Egyptian but I don’t walk like a Bangle
… wrangle on my feathers, don’t wear a cowboy hat
How many Presidents are from Texas?
Is it the money with the oil? Is it the lye?
That be in there when you making up the soap
How you going to come wash your mouth
That’s the thing you’re talking about, that’s so wild
A chip off the old block, a daddy kind of apple
What you want to do? You want to wrestle when you grapple
MMA eh? UFC see! What do you want to be, be?
That’s all right free … I got the beast on my back
I’m just a mercenary killer from Kellogg Brown Root
I’m hanging very hectic, Halliburton’s clean up the world
… Who got the golf tournament? NBC? … privacy
I need a payday, green is profitable you know
Building up these buildings, and they building what they sow
… Baba the Nagas, smoke a lot of ganja, straight from the chillum
What we gonna do? The interspaces …
Get to the bottom of this hit off the waters
Jam Session Transcription (part 5) ***explicit***
That’s why, why, they always picking on me
I don’t understand it that they say that they’ll be real
Your truth … part of your inner asshole
That’s why you want to live in a castle
Hanging with the vassal …
Storytelling … in the interspaces of reality
The dream comes back and it never really leaves
I’m taking all these pages like I’m taking off these reams
Make a bed out of it, out of nettles when I’m hanging
What I’m doing … I feel enslaved and where is my freedom
Like Rudolf Steiner said this is philosophy that comes intuitively
Thinking at the Bringing of disaster
Look at angels on the wall of the plaster … any type of back-up
If you want to be the … be the slave and the master of your own self
Of your own self, of you own mind time
Where are you now? Chronicide, killing time
Climb out of your little fucking box and
Feel it right now … frontal lobotomy with a bottle in front of me
Feelings I don’t know and they keep on dunning me
I owe money but I still deserve respect
They take it out of me beheaded like they lost my neck
What do you want? (2X) …
Can you give me money? Because I got to pay these checks
‘Hoe-ing for a system that lost it’s love
‘Hoe-ing for a people that don’t even care
And don’t respect the dark and the pieces that they turning
That’s why we’re caught up in arsons when we’re burning
Who started the fire? Who started to hire?
Where we going now in these corporate courses,
Wire to wire type of backing in the faction?
… I hear my calling … where’s my stall and feeling warm in?
… never be stalling in the rat race, race horses, race mind
And they now ready to toss us … death of the widow
That’s all right, I’m never getting rid of them
… consequences … feeling now, looking cross when it dispenses
Like vending machines in the Coinstar machine
… contaminated, I feel it now it’s all been cut up …
Cigarettes … my momma started cigars
I be like damn what are you doing?
… it goes far, when you’re on a budget
You’re brought up in the sludge ‘n
I break out of the Bronx and ended up cooking up in Brooklyn
I shook men with my boys from the other side of the coast
I right there now eating it up like a pig roast
But I’m vegetarian, scary and I’m hairy ‘n
That’s right now and I rhyme like a Rastafarian
When it’s suited … (2B Continued)
I don’t understand it that they say that they’ll be real
Your truth … part of your inner asshole
That’s why you want to live in a castle
Hanging with the vassal …
Storytelling … in the interspaces of reality
The dream comes back and it never really leaves
I’m taking all these pages like I’m taking off these reams
Make a bed out of it, out of nettles when I’m hanging
What I’m doing … I feel enslaved and where is my freedom
Like Rudolf Steiner said this is philosophy that comes intuitively
Thinking at the Bringing of disaster
Look at angels on the wall of the plaster … any type of back-up
If you want to be the … be the slave and the master of your own self
Of your own self, of you own mind time
Where are you now? Chronicide, killing time
Climb out of your little fucking box and
Feel it right now … frontal lobotomy with a bottle in front of me
Feelings I don’t know and they keep on dunning me
I owe money but I still deserve respect
They take it out of me beheaded like they lost my neck
What do you want? (2X) …
Can you give me money? Because I got to pay these checks
‘Hoe-ing for a system that lost it’s love
‘Hoe-ing for a people that don’t even care
And don’t respect the dark and the pieces that they turning
That’s why we’re caught up in arsons when we’re burning
Who started the fire? Who started to hire?
Where we going now in these corporate courses,
Wire to wire type of backing in the faction?
… I hear my calling … where’s my stall and feeling warm in?
… never be stalling in the rat race, race horses, race mind
And they now ready to toss us … death of the widow
That’s all right, I’m never getting rid of them
… consequences … feeling now, looking cross when it dispenses
Like vending machines in the Coinstar machine
… contaminated, I feel it now it’s all been cut up …
Cigarettes … my momma started cigars
I be like damn what are you doing?
… it goes far, when you’re on a budget
You’re brought up in the sludge ‘n
I break out of the Bronx and ended up cooking up in Brooklyn
I shook men with my boys from the other side of the coast
I right there now eating it up like a pig roast
But I’m vegetarian, scary and I’m hairy ‘n
That’s right now and I rhyme like a Rastafarian
When it’s suited … (2B Continued)
Itunes picks for Melsidwell
Silversun Pickups
Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIIxlgcuQRU
Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks – Say Hi to your Mom: http://www.last.fm/music/Say+Hi+to+Your+Mom/_/Hooplas+Involving+Circus+Tricks
Geraldine – Glasvegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMNNDINCFHg
Transistor Radio - The Helio Sequence: http://www.ilike.com/artist/The+Helio+Sequence/track/Transistor+Radio?src=onebox
Keane
Starlight – Muse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgum6OT_VH8
Lazarus – Porcupine Tree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hRYDJpitQ8
Bluegrass
Down in the Swamp – Bela Fleck
This Lonesome Heart – Yonder String Mountain Band
Trials and Troubles – Old Crow Medicine Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12N_iD1lC7k
Hero of the Day – Iron Horse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzPPmuFUicc
Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIIxlgcuQRU
Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks – Say Hi to your Mom: http://www.last.fm/music/Say+Hi+to+Your+Mom/_/Hooplas+Involving+Circus+Tricks
Geraldine – Glasvegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMNNDINCFHg
Transistor Radio - The Helio Sequence: http://www.ilike.com/artist/The+Helio+Sequence/track/Transistor+Radio?src=onebox
Keane
Starlight – Muse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgum6OT_VH8
Lazarus – Porcupine Tree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hRYDJpitQ8
Bluegrass
Down in the Swamp – Bela Fleck
This Lonesome Heart – Yonder String Mountain Band
Trials and Troubles – Old Crow Medicine Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12N_iD1lC7k
Hero of the Day – Iron Horse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzPPmuFUicc
Jam Session Transcription (part 4)
I like to have a good laugh just like the next man
Stick my neck out like a giraffe with the vexed plan
But I understand that some people they got cruelty in their hearts
And they don’t got love and they like to do it at the expense of others
Ignorance is defiance of your own self, torrential downpour
And it comes on other shores it’s
And all these sycophants …
But that’s all right, that’s behavior that’s abhorrent
In this labyrinth you got to act it better than you fathoming
This is something that be happening
I know you gonna do better, yapping it
… Kind of trapping and you having fun at the expense of others
Your brothers, your sisters, and the mothers
That’s not the way you gonna do it and discovers
Like Christopher Come-bust-us
And you lost in the train
Feeling it and play other people close, lost your brain
Getting in their way and you don’t maintain
There’s a flame in your heart, and you got to get bigger
You got to use your mind, the way to start figure
Not like a trigger, your violence don’t help you
That’s the truth … it’s nothing
But your there fronting … damaging
In the sorrow at the expense
What you gonna do erect another fence
In a gated community the doom that we have
That’s why you sit with your knife when you stab
The gift of gab can be used in so many ways … better
Let’s use the sutures put together when we settle
That’s what we do when we grab it and try to acquisit-
But I tell you man you got to break past it
The passion that I’m asking open up all the sashes
It’s the Fashion Avenue one everyone looking to
Yo I’m walking from coping and I said
yo I’m away from the dope and all the placements
I feel yo like graffiti walls when they deface this
It’s the selling myself short my mind when it gets caught
Damage and sorrow in time when they try to borrow
It’s like another loan, first they give ‘em out like it’s going out of style
Then they turn it around, and treat you like a child
… What you do emanation, my manifestation
Is a type of interpretation, that anything that T-I-O-N
And when I’m firing, I don’t obey the king ‘n
Never be singing against the siren, alarming
At times I be dormant but other times I’m funkin’
When I spoken, yo they choking form out of their cloaking
I’m there right now beyond ordinary hope ‘n
Ah yes, I got belief and more, they think that …
Gonna see coming right … trapped in the lost
I want to be free, humanity’s free
If you’re not in the court then why you testifying
If you’re not in the line then why you always fired
What you want to do? Your retirement is needed
Any type of … in the seedling in the fertilizer riser … Times Square
… it’s the corny nasty stuff that I could never really ask for
but you right there saying that’s all about the asphalt
… When I bust it before I hit the expression I hit ‘em with a lesson
They messing up my hair, they messing up my dome
They guessing that I known like I’m acting like a clone
But I got another poem that you hearing and I’m tearing
Away from the pain that’s driving me insane
I came here now, I had know-how
When I showed up now when I played your bluff
It’s a world series of poker painting the casino
Can’t be a fiend though
Win a little have some fun, that’s enough for me
I don’t want the world you can keep your billion
Rather earn it anyway and when I have a little something
Made a little for my children, and I’m loving,
And it’s okay if I lose it all in one day
That’s okay man I got another way
If I want to … Foreman name me Yuri
This is the rhythm and this is the …
That’s why you see more than what you seem to heard
That’s why you looking 360 all the time …
North west south east, so many directions that you must see
… back home … what you be doing when you reaping what you sow
Choking your mind … let it all in the door ‘n
Need a little building … immersed … science it’s defiance
… like it’s coming out my kitchen
That’s right man you can hear it in my diction
It’s science fiction, it’s turning real
That’s why, why, why?
Shaking in my mind like a slippery eel
I be looking around trying to get mass appeal
… audience … it’s catharsis … if it’s not real need a new one
It’s bigger than me now and my next next meal
What I feel it in my stomach, phased out when they done it
But now we gonna run it away, and paragon …
This is a new paradigm
Understanding, demanding, we’re handed a scam ‘n
We’re landing the words but now we coming through
From the earth it’s the birth, the children in the playground
To the old folks geriatric up in the senior home
That’s for all and leave ‘em in the middle that’s why
Now it’s a riddle for the … like a koan
There’s no real answer it’s got to come right from the experiential self …
(to be continued)
Stick my neck out like a giraffe with the vexed plan
But I understand that some people they got cruelty in their hearts
And they don’t got love and they like to do it at the expense of others
Ignorance is defiance of your own self, torrential downpour
And it comes on other shores it’s
And all these sycophants …
But that’s all right, that’s behavior that’s abhorrent
In this labyrinth you got to act it better than you fathoming
This is something that be happening
I know you gonna do better, yapping it
… Kind of trapping and you having fun at the expense of others
Your brothers, your sisters, and the mothers
That’s not the way you gonna do it and discovers
Like Christopher Come-bust-us
And you lost in the train
Feeling it and play other people close, lost your brain
Getting in their way and you don’t maintain
There’s a flame in your heart, and you got to get bigger
You got to use your mind, the way to start figure
Not like a trigger, your violence don’t help you
That’s the truth … it’s nothing
But your there fronting … damaging
In the sorrow at the expense
What you gonna do erect another fence
In a gated community the doom that we have
That’s why you sit with your knife when you stab
The gift of gab can be used in so many ways … better
Let’s use the sutures put together when we settle
That’s what we do when we grab it and try to acquisit-
But I tell you man you got to break past it
The passion that I’m asking open up all the sashes
It’s the Fashion Avenue one everyone looking to
Yo I’m walking from coping and I said
yo I’m away from the dope and all the placements
I feel yo like graffiti walls when they deface this
It’s the selling myself short my mind when it gets caught
Damage and sorrow in time when they try to borrow
It’s like another loan, first they give ‘em out like it’s going out of style
Then they turn it around, and treat you like a child
… What you do emanation, my manifestation
Is a type of interpretation, that anything that T-I-O-N
And when I’m firing, I don’t obey the king ‘n
Never be singing against the siren, alarming
At times I be dormant but other times I’m funkin’
When I spoken, yo they choking form out of their cloaking
I’m there right now beyond ordinary hope ‘n
Ah yes, I got belief and more, they think that …
Gonna see coming right … trapped in the lost
I want to be free, humanity’s free
If you’re not in the court then why you testifying
If you’re not in the line then why you always fired
What you want to do? Your retirement is needed
Any type of … in the seedling in the fertilizer riser … Times Square
… it’s the corny nasty stuff that I could never really ask for
but you right there saying that’s all about the asphalt
… When I bust it before I hit the expression I hit ‘em with a lesson
They messing up my hair, they messing up my dome
They guessing that I known like I’m acting like a clone
But I got another poem that you hearing and I’m tearing
Away from the pain that’s driving me insane
I came here now, I had know-how
When I showed up now when I played your bluff
It’s a world series of poker painting the casino
Can’t be a fiend though
Win a little have some fun, that’s enough for me
I don’t want the world you can keep your billion
Rather earn it anyway and when I have a little something
Made a little for my children, and I’m loving,
And it’s okay if I lose it all in one day
That’s okay man I got another way
If I want to … Foreman name me Yuri
This is the rhythm and this is the …
That’s why you see more than what you seem to heard
That’s why you looking 360 all the time …
North west south east, so many directions that you must see
… back home … what you be doing when you reaping what you sow
Choking your mind … let it all in the door ‘n
Need a little building … immersed … science it’s defiance
… like it’s coming out my kitchen
That’s right man you can hear it in my diction
It’s science fiction, it’s turning real
That’s why, why, why?
Shaking in my mind like a slippery eel
I be looking around trying to get mass appeal
… audience … it’s catharsis … if it’s not real need a new one
It’s bigger than me now and my next next meal
What I feel it in my stomach, phased out when they done it
But now we gonna run it away, and paragon …
This is a new paradigm
Understanding, demanding, we’re handed a scam ‘n
We’re landing the words but now we coming through
From the earth it’s the birth, the children in the playground
To the old folks geriatric up in the senior home
That’s for all and leave ‘em in the middle that’s why
Now it’s a riddle for the … like a koan
There’s no real answer it’s got to come right from the experiential self …
(to be continued)
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Jam Session Transcription (part 3)
Looking for reality that’s bigger than myself
Yo, looking for a path that takes care of my health
It’s like, yo I’m forty years (old), never even knew I would make it here
But now I’m liking life and saying I want to keep it oh yeah
That’s right, I be like sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety-nine like Wooden
Busting up and staying good in
It’s my life I don’t care if I got to right it
I want to turn it into gold like my name was Midas
Put it together, not too loose, not the tightest
Find diversity forming unity
Pursuing … stay away from the fiends
Portals in the mortals but we caught up in the birth of …
Bugging from the media when it heats in your brain
Can’t you see it Carolyn? It’s driving you, it’s insane
Jack Daw 841 gave me an idea
Communitas we got to see catharsis
Breaking from the pain, manatee’s progression
Lost in this now, I don’t find it in recession
Blessings at this church lurching not knowing the Bible …
Caught and I’m lost, and I’m hanging on the reef
Yo, looking for a path that takes care of my health
It’s like, yo I’m forty years (old), never even knew I would make it here
But now I’m liking life and saying I want to keep it oh yeah
That’s right, I be like sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety-nine like Wooden
Busting up and staying good in
It’s my life I don’t care if I got to right it
I want to turn it into gold like my name was Midas
Put it together, not too loose, not the tightest
Find diversity forming unity
Pursuing … stay away from the fiends
Portals in the mortals but we caught up in the birth of …
Bugging from the media when it heats in your brain
Can’t you see it Carolyn? It’s driving you, it’s insane
Jack Daw 841 gave me an idea
Communitas we got to see catharsis
Breaking from the pain, manatee’s progression
Lost in this now, I don’t find it in recession
Blessings at this church lurching not knowing the Bible …
Caught and I’m lost, and I’m hanging on the reef
Jam Session Transcription (part 2)
Words are like birds when they move through your nerves
It comes through your synapses like it lapses back
Into thoughts when you get caught in the reverie
Times … tell you that you got to get back into the now
There’s a reality, the spaces in between
And feeling like you lost another submarine dream
Caught in the depths you wept
Woke up with an angry kind of disposition
Clowns were laughing at me
Nobody understood I had to get to school
I had to get there on time
I got to graduate, man I’m fifty and I never had a degree
Dial three hundred sixty don’t you see me
Passing all directions and I feel like I’m growing teeny
Tiny, behind me is all of this pain
I can never be … it rides in my brain like a train
They say forget about it, get back into the now
But I’m caught up in this and I’m bumping know-how
All these things I do, ( I) had to do
But it seems like I can’t get out of it, and never stay true
It’s another lie they got me trapped in my rap
But I’m there taking all the same stupid crap
Even in this office now, yo they bump me off and how
And what me gonna do, they want to use it in a way
That they really fool, another fool
Yo they watching they surveil
I see them on my tail
And their crazy … like hail
I’m falling on the pavement
Like a crane when it’s dropped
I feel like scaffolding got socked
What we going down, up and down Dow Jones
I feel like I’m acting like another one of these clones
When I put on my suit and think I’m oh so cute
I got a nice haircut and I’m real real clean
I’m kind of Liberal in the thinking but I play it Conservative
So I can have my American dream
I ate a lot of petroleum out of my car
And here I am now with the ink of my tars
And the tar baby washed up on Pensacola ocean
This whole community’s being displaced in the commotion
Erosion of all the fish and supply
You think there was lead in it, now it’s causing you to die
I went out my fallout shelter to see if it was okay
Radiation’s running through my mind everyday
Bombed on me like hydrogen, atomic when it’s blown
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the hockey I be watching
But I lost my … caught up in the … YO!
It comes through your synapses like it lapses back
Into thoughts when you get caught in the reverie
Times … tell you that you got to get back into the now
There’s a reality, the spaces in between
And feeling like you lost another submarine dream
Caught in the depths you wept
Woke up with an angry kind of disposition
Clowns were laughing at me
Nobody understood I had to get to school
I had to get there on time
I got to graduate, man I’m fifty and I never had a degree
Dial three hundred sixty don’t you see me
Passing all directions and I feel like I’m growing teeny
Tiny, behind me is all of this pain
I can never be … it rides in my brain like a train
They say forget about it, get back into the now
But I’m caught up in this and I’m bumping know-how
All these things I do, ( I) had to do
But it seems like I can’t get out of it, and never stay true
It’s another lie they got me trapped in my rap
But I’m there taking all the same stupid crap
Even in this office now, yo they bump me off and how
And what me gonna do, they want to use it in a way
That they really fool, another fool
Yo they watching they surveil
I see them on my tail
And their crazy … like hail
I’m falling on the pavement
Like a crane when it’s dropped
I feel like scaffolding got socked
What we going down, up and down Dow Jones
I feel like I’m acting like another one of these clones
When I put on my suit and think I’m oh so cute
I got a nice haircut and I’m real real clean
I’m kind of Liberal in the thinking but I play it Conservative
So I can have my American dream
I ate a lot of petroleum out of my car
And here I am now with the ink of my tars
And the tar baby washed up on Pensacola ocean
This whole community’s being displaced in the commotion
Erosion of all the fish and supply
You think there was lead in it, now it’s causing you to die
I went out my fallout shelter to see if it was okay
Radiation’s running through my mind everyday
Bombed on me like hydrogen, atomic when it’s blown
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the hockey I be watching
But I lost my … caught up in the … YO!
Jam Session Transcription (part 1)
Jam Session Transcription (6/5/10)
… Now I’m kissing on the mike
like a little lady telling me that (I’m) acting so crazy.
Finding community blowing up in my mind
I feel like the Gulf is going to oil, boil my fish dinner
The birds were hanging in the sea and then they got overtaken by petroleum
It’s attack of the British and they got no love
Hanging with the boys it’s the colonists
I’m getting pissed off once again
I said they don’t want to mess with me, you know my friend
I got off the picket line
Brought my art from the heart
Start it now its progress yo I gots to do my best
Yo, Rest when it’s needed
Heeding in the calling of the catharsis
In the riding in the races of the horses
it’s wild the style yo child
It’s the sorrow that they borrow with the mistakes of mortals
It’s the portals of humor, It’s the way it happens in the loudscape
Screaming on this now from the top of my fire escape
Out on the rooftop with my tongue drop
Can’t afford the dentist
I heard they’re reforming on my healthcare
When they dare
Make fun of me if you think it’s funny g.
But you’ll have more fun if you make it with me
Hanging on the rhythm and my job went overseas
I was back on the picket line … through the heart
Moving through this now, progression like a dart
I was hanging in the park getting drunk every night
Wondering why I’m acting so damn wrong
It’s a song in the lawn, communitas
Is it just another meme?
Mistaken of the art I suppose it’s just another dream?
I get consumed (by) consumption
Like I act like lumpen
This is the truth but I lie when I’m …
Take-itta (X5) take it on down
(break)
… Now I’m kissing on the mike
like a little lady telling me that (I’m) acting so crazy.
Finding community blowing up in my mind
I feel like the Gulf is going to oil, boil my fish dinner
The birds were hanging in the sea and then they got overtaken by petroleum
It’s attack of the British and they got no love
Hanging with the boys it’s the colonists
I’m getting pissed off once again
I said they don’t want to mess with me, you know my friend
I got off the picket line
Brought my art from the heart
Start it now its progress yo I gots to do my best
Yo, Rest when it’s needed
Heeding in the calling of the catharsis
In the riding in the races of the horses
it’s wild the style yo child
It’s the sorrow that they borrow with the mistakes of mortals
It’s the portals of humor, It’s the way it happens in the loudscape
Screaming on this now from the top of my fire escape
Out on the rooftop with my tongue drop
Can’t afford the dentist
I heard they’re reforming on my healthcare
When they dare
Make fun of me if you think it’s funny g.
But you’ll have more fun if you make it with me
Hanging on the rhythm and my job went overseas
I was back on the picket line … through the heart
Moving through this now, progression like a dart
I was hanging in the park getting drunk every night
Wondering why I’m acting so damn wrong
It’s a song in the lawn, communitas
Is it just another meme?
Mistaken of the art I suppose it’s just another dream?
I get consumed (by) consumption
Like I act like lumpen
This is the truth but I lie when I’m …
Take-itta (X5) take it on down
(break)
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Riding the horse called emotion
A weekend came and went, and I left the blog alone for a few days. As the time slipped by I felt liberated allowing it to disappear knowing that come today I would mount the horse again and put forth more thoughts. The world is a genuine gift everyday and I am prepared to receive its offerings. Each moment is a brand new opportunity to experience the richness of life. I think of the happy go lucky, positive affirmations crowd and wonder if they may be muting their experience under the guise of optimism. I also worry about the miserable, problem-heavy, complainer crowd on the other side of the spectrum. I am not criticizing anyone here but I think of these two poles of relating to life.
The positive side has to maintain a cheerful attitude and stay upbeat. Especially if you set yourself up as a teacher or an expert in the field of positivity like so many personal development, and law of attraction gurus making the circuit do. These days every other person seems to be a life coach, entrepreneur guru, social media maven, or what not. At least that is what is bubbling over in the twitter crowd. Once you present yourself in this matter the dark side becomes hidden. Does this part of you get buried only to come up in other ways? Or can you really put enough of a lid on it to be happy and make your reality come to life trough positive thinking, and enlightened action. I don’t want to take anything away from these people but in the same breath I don’t wholly trust this approach. Or in the very least I don’t see it as my route of relating to the world. Anyone who has followed the explosion of this blog of late will know that I am one who likes to get a little messy and crack open my deep psych in the service of personal growth, and discovery.
I don’t feel right putting anything forward that doesn’t feel genuine and real. I am never going to conform to some critic’s version of reality. I want to make you feel something when I step up to the plate. I am not here to give you a false sense of warmth or security. I want to get into the eye of the storm and bounce around amid the turbulence for awhile. Then ride safely out of the mayhem, settle my wings, and breathe. I love the energy of revved up emotion. This is why I am drawn to the transformative nature of tantric and Vajrayana teachings. I want a spirituality that honors all aspects of the human condition, and transforms all situations into expressions of wisdom. I don’t need to manipulate reality like some future sailing svengali on a road to ultimate peace. My peace comes from being earnest, and gutty, lively and thorough.
I do slow down the furnace of my analytical mind on many occasions. I’m forced to recognize my tendency toward the intellectual and the logical, and push into the experiential realm regularly. If I allow myself to fall into the thought based method of existing then I fool myself and cheat my life of the being. I can’t do that and I set up things to counteract this tendency of mine. In the same vein I do honor my tendencies, and work with them as they are, never waiting for some future date when it all gets pulled together. In many ways I can stabilize my life, but I will never pull it all together
I am brought to mind about the growth processes of nature as discussed in the Havener book, Meaning: The Secret of it All, where we find that the true process of growth is always alive in the moment of now. Once a system becomes bound by rules and structure it ceases to be alive. The structure falls into obsolescence and shrivels up and dies. I take my cues from nature and see the dynamic nature of being. There is no time to be ensnared in the web of misery. No matter the circumstance there is always the possibility of applying more insight, greater effort, a clearer version of what’s real. Also the journey is uniquely personal so although we can give each other pointers, the real nitty gritty is done in the lonely individual capacity. I got a lot to offer, as do all of us whether we choose to recognize it or not. The catch is that we need to remain responsible in what we choose to offer the world. I don’t want to candy-coat experience and give everything a neat little bow, but I also don’t feel the need to burden the world with anymore misery and senseless complaining.
One of my biggest frustrations is in making real change on a global level. This world feels like a runaway train ready veer off track. That gets me upset. When I think of all the wars, famine, and horrors being played out everyday I become deeply saddened. This world has always been rife with misery and the stage seems to get bigger as we sail along in the information age. We can mentally zip across the globe and get newsbreaks about every corner of the earth. This makes the landscape seem smaller and in your face looking out into the social theater. This is where perspective is crucial to the ballgame. Let’s not get overly caught up in the affairs of others, but let us also not get too trapped in our little boxes.
We often hear about the need for balance, as if we are acrobats in a grand circus but don’t get too bogged down in these concepts. The things I am saying and doing, discovering and sharing will form in time. I do not want to rush their outgrowth or become overly psychological in my approach so I am going to let the keytap rest for now, and bid you adieu.
The positive side has to maintain a cheerful attitude and stay upbeat. Especially if you set yourself up as a teacher or an expert in the field of positivity like so many personal development, and law of attraction gurus making the circuit do. These days every other person seems to be a life coach, entrepreneur guru, social media maven, or what not. At least that is what is bubbling over in the twitter crowd. Once you present yourself in this matter the dark side becomes hidden. Does this part of you get buried only to come up in other ways? Or can you really put enough of a lid on it to be happy and make your reality come to life trough positive thinking, and enlightened action. I don’t want to take anything away from these people but in the same breath I don’t wholly trust this approach. Or in the very least I don’t see it as my route of relating to the world. Anyone who has followed the explosion of this blog of late will know that I am one who likes to get a little messy and crack open my deep psych in the service of personal growth, and discovery.
I don’t feel right putting anything forward that doesn’t feel genuine and real. I am never going to conform to some critic’s version of reality. I want to make you feel something when I step up to the plate. I am not here to give you a false sense of warmth or security. I want to get into the eye of the storm and bounce around amid the turbulence for awhile. Then ride safely out of the mayhem, settle my wings, and breathe. I love the energy of revved up emotion. This is why I am drawn to the transformative nature of tantric and Vajrayana teachings. I want a spirituality that honors all aspects of the human condition, and transforms all situations into expressions of wisdom. I don’t need to manipulate reality like some future sailing svengali on a road to ultimate peace. My peace comes from being earnest, and gutty, lively and thorough.
I do slow down the furnace of my analytical mind on many occasions. I’m forced to recognize my tendency toward the intellectual and the logical, and push into the experiential realm regularly. If I allow myself to fall into the thought based method of existing then I fool myself and cheat my life of the being. I can’t do that and I set up things to counteract this tendency of mine. In the same vein I do honor my tendencies, and work with them as they are, never waiting for some future date when it all gets pulled together. In many ways I can stabilize my life, but I will never pull it all together
I am brought to mind about the growth processes of nature as discussed in the Havener book, Meaning: The Secret of it All, where we find that the true process of growth is always alive in the moment of now. Once a system becomes bound by rules and structure it ceases to be alive. The structure falls into obsolescence and shrivels up and dies. I take my cues from nature and see the dynamic nature of being. There is no time to be ensnared in the web of misery. No matter the circumstance there is always the possibility of applying more insight, greater effort, a clearer version of what’s real. Also the journey is uniquely personal so although we can give each other pointers, the real nitty gritty is done in the lonely individual capacity. I got a lot to offer, as do all of us whether we choose to recognize it or not. The catch is that we need to remain responsible in what we choose to offer the world. I don’t want to candy-coat experience and give everything a neat little bow, but I also don’t feel the need to burden the world with anymore misery and senseless complaining.
One of my biggest frustrations is in making real change on a global level. This world feels like a runaway train ready veer off track. That gets me upset. When I think of all the wars, famine, and horrors being played out everyday I become deeply saddened. This world has always been rife with misery and the stage seems to get bigger as we sail along in the information age. We can mentally zip across the globe and get newsbreaks about every corner of the earth. This makes the landscape seem smaller and in your face looking out into the social theater. This is where perspective is crucial to the ballgame. Let’s not get overly caught up in the affairs of others, but let us also not get too trapped in our little boxes.
We often hear about the need for balance, as if we are acrobats in a grand circus but don’t get too bogged down in these concepts. The things I am saying and doing, discovering and sharing will form in time. I do not want to rush their outgrowth or become overly psychological in my approach so I am going to let the keytap rest for now, and bid you adieu.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Rethinking Rest
What an interesting day I am having. When I first opened my word document and decided I would write my blog entry I felt no pull toward anything. I closed the document and looked back at an essay I stumbled across studying web materials for yesterday’s entry on Religion and Science. I pulled it up and looked for the part that interested me, where it talked about Georgi Lazanov and the Accelerated Learning technique. The essay writer Paula Zahn mentioned that in keeping with Lazanov’s work they placed a reminder to take a 2 minute break every 20 minutes. I have never heard of Lazanov which led me to review his work.
It turns out his work centers on classroom learning and particularly the learning of foreign languages. This is attractive to me because I have often wanted to learn Spanish, and I am scheduled to go to Costa Rica in a month. The process needs the involvement of a qualified teacher according to Lazanov and also specialty textbooks since traditional domestic textbooks don’t provide the structure needed. This doesn’t dissuade me from working with some of the core principles although I do see Mr. Lazanov is a very careful man not advocating the use of hypnosis, or mechanical devices since they interfere with the vital energy needed from an energetic teacher. I respect this but at the same time firmly put myself in the trial and learn school so I am going to employ some of these ideas.
The first thing I started doing is taking the periodic breaks that Paula Zahn mentioned in her essay. I began a few hours ago and have been periodically stopping and doing nothing as she instructed in her essay. In just a few sessions I immediately began feeling a sense of settling. I also have become aware of a tired sensation around my eyes. I am not sure if this has to with eye strain centered around my time spent on a computer, lack of consistent sleep (partially caused my cat that has taken to waking me up in the middle of the night), or a caffeine related crash from the Iced Coffee I have most mornings of late.
What I do know is that I have a sense of greater awareness in general. Only time will tell as I continue to work this idea of frequent breaks.
Another thing I came across in my travels was polyphasic sleeping. I also was not aware of this concept and found the wiki page intriguing. It starts with various studies centered on Military training, and NASA missions where people try to find methods to maintain overall effectiveness when a full night’s sleep is not possible.
There is also a section about various polyphasic sleep patterns. Uberman is one where you sleep for 20 minutes every 4 hours. Dymaxion is where you sleep for 30 minutes every 6 hours and was developed by Buckminster Fuller. Another style is the Everyman where the individual maintains a core block of sleep of 3 to 4.5 hours along with 3 twenty minute naps during the day.
Most of us follow a monophasic sleeping schedule, and the polyphasic schedule probably seems excessive to most. One of the blog posters who lived using the Uberman style warned against telling people who will think you are completely nuts. The biphasic schedule is the only one possible for me to try because of my fulltime job. In a biphasic schedule you sleep the 3.5 – 4 hours core block along with a 90 minute nap. Now that is something I can pull off by scheduling my 90 minute nap for as soon as I get home from work. Today especially I feel like I could use it as I am feeling a bit worn down.
The final element I wish to deploy is increasing my meditation sessions which I have been highly resistant to ever since I began sitting 7 years ago. I have attended many programs and experienced wonderful states in the context of the meditation hall, but I continually fall short of the mark in my at-home practice. Now as the pressure inside me builds to nip this persistent hesitancy I see that between these rest and sleep structures I have a chance to build a day to day life that will include time to pursue writing, study, physical exercise, and finally a consistent meditation schedule.
So there you have it, the coming together of many elements in how I structure my day, and build them into a support for my higher aspirations. I will keep you posted on the developments.
It turns out his work centers on classroom learning and particularly the learning of foreign languages. This is attractive to me because I have often wanted to learn Spanish, and I am scheduled to go to Costa Rica in a month. The process needs the involvement of a qualified teacher according to Lazanov and also specialty textbooks since traditional domestic textbooks don’t provide the structure needed. This doesn’t dissuade me from working with some of the core principles although I do see Mr. Lazanov is a very careful man not advocating the use of hypnosis, or mechanical devices since they interfere with the vital energy needed from an energetic teacher. I respect this but at the same time firmly put myself in the trial and learn school so I am going to employ some of these ideas.
The first thing I started doing is taking the periodic breaks that Paula Zahn mentioned in her essay. I began a few hours ago and have been periodically stopping and doing nothing as she instructed in her essay. In just a few sessions I immediately began feeling a sense of settling. I also have become aware of a tired sensation around my eyes. I am not sure if this has to with eye strain centered around my time spent on a computer, lack of consistent sleep (partially caused my cat that has taken to waking me up in the middle of the night), or a caffeine related crash from the Iced Coffee I have most mornings of late.
What I do know is that I have a sense of greater awareness in general. Only time will tell as I continue to work this idea of frequent breaks.
Another thing I came across in my travels was polyphasic sleeping. I also was not aware of this concept and found the wiki page intriguing. It starts with various studies centered on Military training, and NASA missions where people try to find methods to maintain overall effectiveness when a full night’s sleep is not possible.
There is also a section about various polyphasic sleep patterns. Uberman is one where you sleep for 20 minutes every 4 hours. Dymaxion is where you sleep for 30 minutes every 6 hours and was developed by Buckminster Fuller. Another style is the Everyman where the individual maintains a core block of sleep of 3 to 4.5 hours along with 3 twenty minute naps during the day.
Most of us follow a monophasic sleeping schedule, and the polyphasic schedule probably seems excessive to most. One of the blog posters who lived using the Uberman style warned against telling people who will think you are completely nuts. The biphasic schedule is the only one possible for me to try because of my fulltime job. In a biphasic schedule you sleep the 3.5 – 4 hours core block along with a 90 minute nap. Now that is something I can pull off by scheduling my 90 minute nap for as soon as I get home from work. Today especially I feel like I could use it as I am feeling a bit worn down.
The final element I wish to deploy is increasing my meditation sessions which I have been highly resistant to ever since I began sitting 7 years ago. I have attended many programs and experienced wonderful states in the context of the meditation hall, but I continually fall short of the mark in my at-home practice. Now as the pressure inside me builds to nip this persistent hesitancy I see that between these rest and sleep structures I have a chance to build a day to day life that will include time to pursue writing, study, physical exercise, and finally a consistent meditation schedule.
So there you have it, the coming together of many elements in how I structure my day, and build them into a support for my higher aspirations. I will keep you posted on the developments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)