Lessons of the election

Today I want to talk about the lessons of the election from an enlightenment perspective. Many times, reachers of the path denigrate life in the world as a distraction. They believe the path to enlightenment is best achieved by isolation from the world in which the student can learn the secrets of enlightenment. There may be some truth to that for some, if not many. The real key to enlightenment is understanding and knowing who you really are.

That said, the world is not your enemy. THere are many things in it to experience and enjoy. The key is to understand that none of it defines who you really are.

This is the meaning of the first verse of the Tao. (see the link for Lin yu Tang) It says:

The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;
The Named is the Mother of All Things.

Therefore:
Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion
In order to see the Secret of Life;
Oftentimes, one regards life with passion,
In order to see its manifest forms.

This is the key. TO see the secret of life, you must be objective and silent. However, to see the manifest forms, one must look with passion. Note that he adds:

These two (the Secret and its manifestations)
Are (in their nature) the same;
They are given different names
When they become manifest.

They may both be called the Cosmic Mystery:
Reaching from the Mystery into the Deeper Mystery
Is the Gate to the Secret of All Life.

When you really understand the nature of the mystery-that it exists as both the secret and the manifestations and that they are really the same thing, one will be a lot farther along on the journey.

The election, with all of its energy-positive and negative, is one of the purest forms of the manifestation. We, as a society, actually created this from the Tao.

By looking at what happened and examining the flow of thoughts and energy, you can see how the people of the world manifested this entire election season.

It is one of the best examples of an expression of the Tao I know.

Feel it and know it.

Peace

A new day

It is election day and like many others, I have been caught up in this year's election fever.

It looks like Obama will win. I am pleased.

ALl is good

Bears

Just today I read another article about another jogger being attacked by a bear in Anchorage.

She was jogging (no doubt with her headphones on and oblivious to all around her) on a trail where at least three others have been attacked.

HELLO!!! I cannot believe anyone would be that dumb. But they are.

So guy wrote a letter to the editor complaining that there are just too many bears. He jogs the trails and cannot believe how many bears there are. My guess is that the number of bears is about the same. The big difference is the increase of clueless joggers who tune out their surroundings and run smack into bear country and then are surprised when a bear attacks.

This is just another example of clueless people moving through life at odds with the harmony of nature.

In all my years of hiking and fishing, I have never been close to a bear on any trail. That is because I make noise and avoid the most used bear trails. To me that is common sense. I guess that is something too many of us lack these days.

MT

Hello again

Well, it has been quite a while since I have posted. But then it's been a busy summer. Not a great summer, mind you. It has been cold and damp all summer. Really, there have only been a handful of days that were nice and only one or two that have been "beautiful".

That said, I have been busy fishing and camping in our little trailer. I have also resumed backpacking and have been going on hikes. It is great to get out and be outdoors, even if the weather is not the greatest.

I find it odd, though that there are people who go hiking with I-pods. To me, there is nothing better than the sounds of nature. Birds, the wind in the trees, the sound of a creek. I know, I know, that sounds so typical, but it is true. I can't understand why people want to shut that out with their toons.

Obviously, there are times when music comes in handy-at a crowded campsite, after a long day on the trail, etc. But for me, when I am backpacking, I want to hear the outdoors.

Summertime and the living is easy

Well, it has been a while since I've been here. I been busy with life. Too much going on to write or paint.

BUt then this is what we do. Winter is a time of repose while snow and cold and darkness surround us. Spring is a time of renewal. Well, you know that. How much more of a cliche can that be. And yet, at least up here, it still carries some truth.

THat is one of the fundamental ideas behind the I Ching. It is also called the book of changes. You see, change is all around us. It is ceaseless. Even our knowledge and "enlightenment" are constantly changing. Make no mistake. Becoming enlightened is not a dead end where you suddenly "know everything" and spend the rest of your life sitting around smiling!

No, enlightenment is really a step in a long process. It is a measure of understanding-a higher level of understanding -but it is not an end.

So enjoy the summer get out, have fun and renew.

Spring has sprung

Ah, it has been while since I've written anything. But, then spring has sprung. I've had an inch to get out and go camping, but it is still a little early up here.

Camping is a great way to get focused. It does not have to be in a tent or an RV or any particular type of vehicle.

One can go for a walk in the woods or a week on a deserted beach. Paddle a canoe in lake country-anything to get away.

What do I mean by "get away"? Well, it means breaking out of your current position. If you work in an office, sometimes you need to get out and see the world from a completely different viewpoint.

Remember, enlightenment doe snot mean solemn and somber. Rather, it means being free from the things that oppress us.

Now, when one is enlightened, one is not normally oppressed by the world around him or her. THat does not mean that you should sit in a state of bliss all day either.

Go out and experience the world. Enjoy what life has to offer 24/7. But always remember you are not limited as to how to enjoy the world.


Many enlightened people live in quieter areas of the country, however. Quiet and peacefulness are better than frantic and "busy" for anybody, but the enlightened are naturally attracted to them.

So, find a place to get away for a few days and then go out and enjoy.

Many paths

Now that I have basically covered the road to enlightenment. I want to turn my attention some aspects of the road.

There are almost as many paths to enlightenment as there are people. True, most of them are based on Eastern philosophies and "new age" thinking. However, they are not the only ways to enlightenment. We each have the ability to reach enlightenment because it is really a self awakening. So, just how each individual arrives at that awakening is particular to that individual.

As I just said, it is not necessary to follow some Eastern philosophy to reach enlightenment. Yet, that is the way most people use to get there. I wondered why we in the west have not developed more of an enlightened pathway. I have done much research to try and understand and answer this question. More on this in my next post.

Mr.T

The hard part

In my last post I explained that the process of enlightenment is really the process of knowing that we are not out body/mind/emotions package.

Just how do we do that is the hard part. I say it is hard, because we make it hard. We reject the notion that we are not our minds.

We have integrated the package for so long, we have a hard time breaking away.

In reality, true enlightenment is rather simple. Once you wake up to know who you really are, it's done. It happens that quick.

But more on this later

Mr.T

More on who we are

As I was saying in the last post, we do not realize who we really are when we come here.

That is why teachers talk about inner truth and self-realization. The knowledge of who we really are must come from within because is that's where it is. There is nothing outside of us that can give us this information. All outsiders can do is point us in the right direction. Then, it is up to us to discover it.

As I said, on earth, "we" are our consciousness. These consciousness occupy a body that has a mind and a set of emotions. The body, mind and emotions are not "us". We only use them while we are here.

As is it, most of us don't understand that so we live lives based on the understanding that we are our minds, bodies and emotions and that is all there is. And so, for most people, that is all there is.

Understanding that we are not our bodies, minds and emotions is the first step. However, that is not enough. We must come to know our consciousness. We must know that it is separate and distinct from the body/mind/emotions package before we are enlightened.

More later.......

Our true selves

Let's take a step back and come at this from another angle. As I have said, enlightenment is becoming aware of one's true self. But what does that really mean?

Most people believe they are them-a body and a mind. That's who they are. Actually, they are not. They are what I call their consciousness. That is the part of them then enters the physical lane and departs it when it is time to go. That is what never changes. Of course, people call this a "soul" as well, but I don't want to get hung up with a bunch of religious connotations. A soul is something that can be lost and condemned, A consciousness is and has no bad attached to it.

When we descend into this plane we take on a body that has a mind and a set of emotions. That package us "put on" like a suit, but it is not who we really are. It is something we adopt while we are here.

Now, because we are born into the world, when we assume this body/mind/emotions package, we undergo a period of growth and learning as we "get used to" the package. Unfortunately (or perhaps by design), as we get used to the package, we easily believe we are the package.

The mind is a powerful tool and it is easy to get caught up in the mind/emotions package and become stuck or addicted to trapped by them for many many lifetimes before we get to the point that we remember and realize just who we really are.

More later......

Knowledge and knowing

I have been talking about knowledge-just how do we know and why is it important.

For me, knowledge is not something static. I am always learning new things. Being enlightened does not me you know everything-only that you know the most important thing, which is who you really are.

Once you have done that, you see the world and everything around you differently. However, there is still much to learn.

There are some who suggest that once you are enlightened, there in no need for any further learning. One is content with oneself and the universe. However, it is not like that for me. I am curious as to why we are the way we are. Also, like I said a few posts ago, when we arrive, we "forget" our true nature. I have been working on why that is to better understand.

Since my enlightenment I have learned a lot about the past and why things are as screwed up as they are. I still have many questions and an constantly astounded by what some people say and do, but that comes with the territory.

Back to history. Why is Plato and his thinking important? Well, for me, it is important because it shows that Eastern philosophy is not limited to the east. In fact, "Eastern" philosophy is not all that special.

It also illustrates the issue at hand-knowing and awareness.

more later......

Your Path to Enlightment

All of these discussions are designed to lead to on your path to enlightenment. But what is enlightenment?

As I said before, to me, enlightenment is having knowledge of who and what you really are and why you are here.

By knowledge, I do not mean belief. I me a knowing. This knowing is not scientific. There is no way to measure or test this knowledge. Yet, once you have it, there is no doubt. How does that work? Ah! That is the end result of the path to enlightenment. That is what you are here for.

This all ties back into my discussion of Plato. Just how did Plato know about the forms? People will tell you that he really didn't know about them-he only believed they were there. Not only that-he was wrong. There are no forms. Of course, these people are really doing the thing they accused him of doing because they have no proof that the forms don't exist.

For most people in the west, all matters of religion are matters of faith. We have no way of proving that god, or any other mystical or spiritual thing exists. So it is all a mater of belief. However, for those who know, it is not belief.

more later.....

What's old is new

Yesterday I said that new age thinking was, in many ways, old. What I mean is that these ideas have been around for a long time.

Take the popular new age saying that we are really spiritual beings in a physical body. That idea is at least 2,500 years old.

Not only that, but it is not some secret that comes out of the far east. It is well known in the west.

Plato, the Greek philosopher believed exactly that. Now, he and his followers didn't couch it in "new age" terms. Nor did they make it confusing with contradictory sayings like "do nothing and all will be done".

Plato believed that we, and everything here are imperfect models of reality. He believed the Truth existed beyond us as a set of "forms" that define the ideal thing. For example, all horses on the planet are imperfect versions of the True horse form. Similarly, everything on earth, including us, is an imperfect version of these forms.

How do we know about the forms and how do we become those forms make for an interesting discussion......

Spiritual beings.

Ok, so what did Melville know? He knew what many "new age" people have been saying for years: that we are really spiritual beings having a physical experience. As opposed to physical beings having spiritual experiences.

What that means, essentially, is that we are beings who exist on a different plane from this one. In that plane we are spirits. We come here to learn or to perform some other activity. What those activities are, I will discuss in later posts.

Why we take on human form is another interesting question. Some believe we do it to slow things down. In the spirit word, there is no real sense of time and space. We can travel across the galaxy in an instant. Things "happen" quickly with no sense of order.

Coming here, slows all that down. There is a sense of linear time as well as space. It takes time to go from one place to another. We feel and experience a sense of space and dimension. There is real weight here.

All of that helps us to gain insight into many things. Unfortunately, taking on these physical forms also causes to to "forget" that we are really spirits. Our minds believe that we are really physical beings. Our consciousness is clouded by our bodies. As such, most of us spend many lifetimes stuck here without realizing or remembering why we came.

It takes many lifetimes to work up the energy to remember who and what we really are. Once we do, we can then use this place to our advantage.

Fortunately, for spirits, time is not a problem. If it takes 1,000 years to remember who cares? time has no real meaning to spirits.

Interestingly, all of this is not new. While it may be called "new age", this knowledge has been around for a long long time. I will be talking about this in later posts as well......

Moby Dick II

In my last post I started talking about how I discovered Melville was one who knew.

I was reading chapter 35 called "The Mast Head" when it happened. Melville was describing the experience of standing watch on the mast head. High above the deck, crew men would stand for hours watching the sea for signs of whales.

He says:
The three mast-heads are kept manned from sun-rise to sun- set; the seamen taking their regular turns (as at the helm), and relieving each other every two hours. In the serene weather of the tropics it is exceedingly pleasant the mast-head; nay, to a dreamy meditative man it is delightful. There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous Colossus at old Rhodes. There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor. For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what you shall have for dinner - for all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare is immutable.

Then, a little further on he adds:

.... lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mysticocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly- discovered, uprising fin of some undiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it. In this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came; becomes diffused through time and space; like Cranmer's sprinkled Pantheistic ashes, forming at last a part of every shore the round globe over.
There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or hand an inch; slip your hold at all; and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps, at mid-day, in the fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever. Heed it well, ye Pantheists!

These words show that he understood what we are and where we really come from.

More on this in the next post.

Moby Dick

Spiritual insights can be found almost anywhere and everywhere. We are not always aware of why we are directed to something or someplace, but when we are it is usually for use to gain understanding.

The trick is to be aware of what is happening. If you are aware, you are prepared to meet the experience head on and learn from it. If you are not, at best, you may realize after the event is over that something significant happened. The idea is to be there while it is happening so you can get the most out of it.

Now, not every event is going to earth-shattering. Sometimes, these events are small. They are done just to push you in a direction or to show you something new or to get you asking the right questions.

I will discuss how to be ready for these events in an upcoming post. For now, I will show you an example of one of them.

FIrst, I will set it up. It began some 10 years ago while watching an episode of "Star Trek Next Generation". In that show, Capt. Picard quoted something from Moby Dick. I can't recall what he said, but I found the quote interesting. So much so, that I decided to buy the book and read it for the first time as an adult.

While reading the book, I suddenly discovered that Herman Melville was one who knew.

At the time, it was not a big deal, but it got me thinking of others in the past-especially Westerners-who also might have known.

Moby Dick is an interesting book overall. Besides the basic story that most of us know, he has a lot of information on whales and other scientific observations. He also advocated for controls on whaling because he felt they were being overfished. That was over 150 years ago!

See my next post for the details of exactly what I discovered about Melville.....

Those who know and those who don't know.

OK, let's begin with a statement I read many years ago ina little book called "At the feet of the Master". I posted a link to a site that has the book for you to read.

In that book, the master says: " In all the world there are only two kinds of people—those who know, and those who do not know; and this knowledge is the thing which matters. What religion a man holds, to what race he belongs--these things are not important; the really important thing is this knowledge--the knowledge of God's plan for men. For God has a plan, and that plan is evolution. When once a man has seen that and really knows it, he cannot help working for it and making himself one with it, because it is so glorious, so beautiful. So, because he knows, he is on God's side, standing for good and resisting evil, working for evolution and not for selfishness."

Now, there are some who think they know,but actually, they don't know. It is not enough to have an intellectual understanding. One must have a true, complete understanding of this to really be "one who knows".

Once one gains understanding of this concept, the desire to continue to learn and grow can become overpowering. It can drive you to learn ever more.

That said, learning sometimes leads to unusual places and can open your eyes to different and unusual ideas.

In my next post, I will illustrate an odd example of one who knows that I ran into by accident while reading Moby Dick!

Till next time......

After college

After college I continued my studies. I read many books and listened to many tape programs. I meditated and work my way to a major impasse.

All of the texts said the way to enlightenment was to lose the self. This was a problem because I kept thinking that it meant I would lose "me" my personality. the part of me that makes "me" me.

As a result, I could not get past the fear that I would "cease to exist" if I went further. I stopped working on the path for many years. Then, I suddenly became inspired to get back on the path.

Soon, I found a new resource. A program (like many, this guy no longer is around) that actually helped me. As a result of this program I became self aware. I "woke up" and have been awake ever since (going on 15 years).

Since then, I have not been the same. My blog will discuss these changes and a lot of the stuff I learned over the years. I hope it helps you.

College years

Hello again,

Once I got to high school, I discovered eastern philosophy and religions. It opened my eyes. Finally, I knew I was not alone in my thinking. College expanded this understanding. I began to read everything I could get my hands on.

At first, i focused on Zen Buddhism. It was elegant and poetic. Of course, many westerners find it totally confusing, but that is because the are all blocked up. Take my favorite zen poem:

The snow goose has no mind to cast its reflection upon the water
The water has no mind to receive it.

Despite its elegance, Zen didn't go far enough for me. I was looking for the essential truth. I wanted it stripped away of all ceremony of all pretense. That is when I found the Tao. Lau tzu wrote a great book 2500 years ago. My favorite translation is by Lin YuTang. You can read it at:

http://www.terebess.hu/english/tao/yutang.html

I will write more on this later.

I also read Carlos Castenada. As well as many others. By the time I finished college, I was firmly established in eastern wisdom. But, I still wanted more. THere was still more to learn so the quest continued........

The beginning

When I was a kid, I was raised as a Catholic.  But even in 2nd grade I knew that what they taught made no sense.  However, I was much too young to really understand this.  I was afraid because what I knew was so different from what all of the adults were saying.

I knew that the universe worked by a direct interaction-that you could get what you want by thinking about it long enough.  I also knew that the god of the bible really didn't exist.  

At that time I believed that "god" was everything or, at least everywhere.  In 2nd grade the Catholic school  made us read a catechism.   That was a book of doctrine that explained church teachings.  The first question in the book was "Who is God?".  the answer was "a supreme being.  The second question was "Where is God?"  Answer:  God is everywhere.

I though that if god was indeed everywhere, that why was it necessary to be with god in church?  Why did we need priests to act as go betweens?

Needless to say, in second grade of a Catholic school, these were not exactly the kinds of questions one just popped out.

It would be many more years, however, before I discovered that I was not alone and that my thinking was not unique or strange.  more on that later......

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new blog.  I have been on a path to knowledge for 45 years and have learned many things along the way.  This blog will discuss many areas of knowledge including new age material, which, I have discovered is actually much older than the name implies.  

I hope you join me on the trip.