Friday, October 31, 2008

Whitman Sampler

We dream within a collective dream, and inside our dream homes, we are the software of dreams living within the dream hardware of that domestic dream.

The walls are adorned with the art of dreams. The bookshelves are filled with dream words about dreams within dreams ad infinitum.

Outside the picture window is the elementary energy we dream as nature.

I step outside and I am... reality.
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes,

I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,

The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation, it is odorless,

It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,

I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,

I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

~from Song of Myself; Walt Whitman

Act Two: Acting Oneness

I feel as if I’m in a boat, and I’ve just discovered that the oars I had been using to propel myself across the water aren’t in the boat any longer.

At first, I don’t know what to do. But the sun shines bright; the water sparkles.

“The livingness continues,” says Sailor Bob, and I agree.

So I raise a mast, unfurl the sail, but still, everything is still.

“Act as if you’re already that oneness,” Sailor Bob suggests. “You’ve already lived as if you’re a human, and you’ve won Academy Awards at that. Why not act as what you really are. You’ll find it much easier.”

Laughter happens and I feel the wind begin to stir.


Sailor Bob Adamson quotes from ‘Living Reality’ by James Braha (p. 108)

Thursday, October 30, 2008

No Thought, Best Thought

Jack Kerouac famously said “First thought, best thought” in regards to his style of automatic writing (as practical evidence, there’s his typing ‘On the Road’ using a hundred twenty-foot scroll of tracing paper, way before the advent of the word processor).

Considering said "thought" is really intuition originating from the source of Quantum Spirit, and not some illusion coming from the mind, shouldn’t the saying go:

Third eye, best eye.

Awakening by Trinity

Just a few thoughts for what they’re worth (and we both know what thoughts are really worth). In truth, there’s nothing you can do to awaken: no practice, no matter how much and how long, will help (or is needed). On the other hand, in the dream, you must work hard at awakening. But ultimately, awakening only happens through Grace. I think that says it all.

After responding to a post titled "Practice Vs No Practice" on a blog called Anthro Yogini, and after reading said response, I decided I wanted to keep a copy of it here for further reference (although there is no reference point for referencing).

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Quantum Decider

This is only a translation from the Nothingness.

This life dwells in Quantum Spirit as a dream rests within sleep. Awake and there is no dream. Emptiness!

But “before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.”

So who’s the Decider? A sixth sense, an intuition, consciousness, awareness, Quantum Spirit: since all is one, One knows it all.

Thought only gets in the way.

Using all five senses in awareness is one-half. (Plus no thought.) The sixth sense is the other half.

Equals One.

As such, clairvoyance, astrology, all ESP and insight too: these too abide in the One of Quantum Spirit.

Reincarnation too.

Meaning of Life Unplugged (Parts 1 to 3)

1. GENESIS
In the beginning, consciousness (spirit) became matter.

2. EVOLUTION
On Earth, the evolution of matter is always moving towards the amplification of that consciousness.

3. HUMAN BEING
The Human Being has evolved to a relatively high level of consciousness amplified by its nervous system and brain, developing the instrument of speech, and in turn the implement of internal speech called thought, resulting in a separate virtual reality of knowledge.

(This was the original version of the previous posting.)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

To a New Meta-Paradigm 1: From Not to Thought

In the beginning, consciousness appears as matter. Out of the Emptiness of Spirit, this universe came into being. And in essence, every quanta of the universe is thereby sentient; in other words, the universe is intelligent.

On Earth (and possibly elsewhere) the evolution of matter is always moving towards the amplification of its consciousness, its divine spirit. Evolution is not just survival of the fittest. It's a creative movement towards higher levels of consciousness. It's the song of the cosmos.

The Human Being has evolved to a relatively high level of consciousness amplified by its highly refined nervous system and brain, in time developing the instrument of speech, and in turn the implement of internal speech called thought.

Monday, October 27, 2008

On Native American Spirit

Vine Deloria, a Standing Rock Sioux, thought that whites in America should investigate the roots of their own spiritual traditions rather than adopt Native American spirituality. I would tend to agree (although I would not limit the quest in a parochial manner).

Not that Native American spirituality cannot provide direction. It’s earth-based rituals, its respect for all life, and its understanding of unity are all beneficial if practiced with an according respect for their origin and cultural possession, especially considering the history of horrendous atrocities made upon the American Indian.

But as practiced by American Indians, and especially by Pre-Contact Native Americans, they come from a pre-existing sense of unity, and a very different relationship with ego. In other words, before the fall.

To we who have fallen, such practices will not help in the rising. They certainly will not help eradicate the ego. In fact, they could become another set of beliefs and identities assisting in a further separation.

For those who are not native to it, Native American spirituality can be a beautiful window into the wondrous world of unity, but it seldom will be the door.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Sunday Son Rivers Poem

Loving Samsara

Tonight I call to Walt
invoking all that poet’s
spirit toward my own
as he already has
entreated mine. I stop
tonight to bless this dream,
illusion of creation,
unbelievably
variable, instilled
with photosynthesis
and playful respiration.
Breathe the present moment,
greenery and steel,
aware with every conscious
gulp that it’s not real.

23-May-08

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Dreaming On with Soundtrack

Sitting by the river in the late October morning, soaking up the clear New England sun, sipping my Dunkin Donuts coffee, I hear a radio downriver. At first, I feel upset that somebody needs to play their music way too loud, but then I see that irritation as a thought, and understand I'm creating this disturbance in my mind, thought creating thought. To try to ignore it though would be to resist a thought that really doesn’t exist, thereby giving it more power. Instead, I let it be what it is: just a dream.

And begin writing in my journal. I’ve been practicing exactly that this week: being vigilant for any thought with which I had been identifying as me and therefore filtering the dream through it instead of letting the dream just be. And when such a thought is caught, I’ve been divesting it of any belief I may have been giving it. Not fighting it (although I may investigate it for its origin), I see it for the thought it is: illusionary ego stuff. And then I let the dream flow again from the source. Let the self be moved by Self. Like this river flowing from the White Mountains more than one hundred miles north.

Finished making an entry in my journal about this practice, I just sit beneath the sun and soak, feeling the energy of the manifest reflected in its warmth. Soon a song from that radio downriver begins to seep into my consciousness. I recognize the Aerosmith tune, smile at its felicity, feel the rhythm, and listen to the lyrics: “dream on, dream on, dream on, dream until your dreams come true.”

I know that’s not coincidence; this dream is not without design.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Second Fall in Four Phases

Phase One: Doris Gets Her Oats

To caveat with that old Seinfeld-Advaita cliché, not that there’s any problem with this nor is there anyone to have one but—

There are many roads to the truth. Almost all contain a similar thread like a silver line running down their middle speaking to the illusion of ego with the suffering it engenders, and the underlying unity of the unmanifest universe.

Some call it Sacred Wisdom.


Phase Two: Watch That Second Step

Floyd Henderson in his blog writes, “Few will ever awaken (snip) Because six billion persons... have fixated at the religious (and/or spiritual) step” I’m not sure about the actual number, but I agree with the gist of the statement.

I feel it’s not as linear as Floyd thinks though. The religious effect is not a semi-permanent pause in some upwards momentum towards realization. Rather it is actually more insidious than that.

It is the second fall.


Phase Three: Giving You the Business

If the first fall is the belief in thought, the birth of the ego, and the resultant separation from unity, driving humans from their home in paradise and leaving them in a state of exile, the second fall provides a new home in hell.

The pointers of sacred wisdom have become misunderstood, and worse, transformed into the exact opposite of their intent. They have become hard thoughts, creeds and dogmas, that actually dualize unity and sacralize the ego.

Suffering is thereby a guarantee from their business (and I do not use that word lightly).


Phase Four: A Prayer

Sacred Wisdom addresses the first fall. No teaching really addresses the second. Instead, personal disillusionment is the universal means, and that only leaves the individual nowhere except back in exile. I know; I’ve been there.

I pray for a teaching that will point the way for those blocked in such a manner: a liberation non-theology and anti-proselytism. Because that second fall was a doozy.

Not that there’s any problem with this nor is there anyone to have one.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

I Go, You Go, We All Go for Ego

Adyashanti says that spirituality is a surrender game. Certainly eradicating the ego and all its resultant suffering is. There are two chief ways of doing so.

The first involves some worship of a higher power, so that your self is humbled to a greater cause or being. The ego is ultimately sacrificed on that altar.

The second involves an intellectual quest, an investigation really, into the nature of the self. In so doing, the ego is discovered to be an illusion.

In both ways, the ego is surrendered. In the former, it is killed. In the latter, it never existed.

Still, they are radically different in their worldview. In worship, there is a Creation. In self inquiry, there is, at most, a dream. Beyond that, Nothingness.

Call me Ishmael. Call me Quantum Spirit.

Manifest Mutiny

(Having defined the infinite in the past three posts, this follows.)

If the world I sense is actually a mirage, an illusion, then in that way, the world is a manifestation of my mind.

And if I, ego, the self, am a thought, and therefore an illusion too, then I, myself, am a manifestation of my mind as well.

And if my mind is the sum of my thoughts, the grand total of all these illusions, then my mind is a manifestation of itself.

Therefore Everything is a manifestation of my mind, including itself.

And in that way, everything collapses, I let go of my mind, surrender myself, and the Self, unmanifest, is all that remains.

Then the Self, Quantum Spirit, provides all.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Giving the Infinite Definition: Truth

So then, let’s look at TRUTH.

How to say this? But even illusion is illusion. The manifest behind illusion is just more illusion. The self that senses the illusion behind illusion is illusion as well.

To paraphrase the 1992 Clinton campaign, it’s all about the unmanifest, idiot.

When the wise man points at the moon, the idiot looks at the finger. There really are no words to describe the truth. There are only pointers. Metaphors. Stories. Parables. Koans.

The truth is the unmanifest. And when the self realizes the truth, it knows that it’s not the self, but it’s the Self.

There are many words used to name the unmanifest: God is one. Self is another. I’ve been using Quantum Spirit (although confusing it sometimes with Quantum Energy, but I’ll try to avoid that error of definition in the future).

So to quote Edith Ann, “And that’s the truth.”

Giving the Infinite Definition: Thoughts

Let’s continue with ILLUSION.

My THOUGHTS are also illusions, especially opinions, beliefs, and judgments. They consist of binary evaluations (hence duality), just like that of a computer and lead to something more than just a virtual reality, but a virtual persona. Call this the EGO. It too is just a thought.

Some call this the self, with a small s. This non-capitalization, by the way is a very important distinction. There is another Self, with a capital S. They are definitely not the same. Much confusion can come in this regard. But more on that later.

The ego, the self, is just a thought. It too is an illusion.

Giving the Infinite Definition: Mirage

Let’s begin with ILLUSION.

The world we experience through our senses is one illusion. Let’s call this one MIRAGE.

High school chemistry taught me all about atomic structure. Kind of. And some surface reading of Quantum Physics taught me some more. In a way. It’s enough to know a few things about this world I sense.

First, it’s not solid; in fact it’s mostly empty space. Second, it neither consists of particles nor waves, but either, depending how and when we view it. Third, these particles or waves may arrive from nothing at any time, made manifest from the unmanifest. Lastly, although we attempt to experience the universe in discrete units, it is not; it is one energetic interaction.

The world we sense is therefore an illusion, like a mirage. But there's more to illusion than this.

After Awakening, Then What

Miguel Ruiz calls it the Dream of the Second Attention. You write your new story with love.

Eckhart Tolle calls it Awakened Doing. Consciousness flows through you and into this world in three modalities: Acceptance, Enjoyment, Enthusiasm.

Adyashanti speaks of a New Way of Being, resting in awareness, experiencing the ordinary as extraordinary, more like love than anything else, for no reason or purpose, knowing the story isn’t true.

Robert Adams says that the universe is a manifestation of your mind. And in that realization you become Self, which includes everything you need. The trees do not lack for leaves.

Jesus simply said to consider the lilies of the field. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today is enough for today.

Buddha held up a golden lotus flower silently before his listeners.

So I’m blogging.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Brahman Dreaming

Traditional Advaita saying: The world is an illusion. Brahman alone is real. Brahman is the world.

The first two sentences appear to summarize sacred wisdom. The world, as we experience it, is not real. The underlying reality, Quantum Spirit (spirit, consciousness, the kingdom of God), alone is real.

But the third sentence is the way back to the world after Self-realization.

Yes, the illusory world is but a dream, an illusion. But the dream is also Brahman, it too is Quantum Spirit.

Only now, dream it accordingly.

Monday, October 20, 2008

The Danger of the Dashboard

The great danger of living in this material world is believing it.

Our senses are fine instruments evolved through the eons of evolution to discriminate among the various energies that have evolved on the surface of this ball of energy we call Earth in order to better survive in its universal mission towards self-realization of consciousness.

To then mistake the instrument panel, that is the world of matter that our senses provide, for the real world of energy, that is Quantum Spirit, is indeed living in illusion. Or Samsara.

The dashboard is not the journey.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Binary Thoughts

Maybe the greatest benefit of the personal computer is the metaphor it supplies for a spiritual understanding of the nature of duality.

All these computer programs from Microsoft Word to whatever game of your choice originates in pure binary code. Ultimately everything in the screen we see, as well as everything in the background is controlled by ones and zeroes. Such is its virtual reality.

And such is our so-called reality as well, the only real difference being one of speed and materials. Our mind processes its world with an amazing quickness. Ones and zeroes. Duality.

Its easy to see that software is not really real. How much more difficult then to realize our thoughts aren’t real as well?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Need for Eggs

First comes the recognition that our so-called reality is really a dream, a binary computation accomplished by the wonder of our mind. And suffering is the inevitable result of such a virtual reality, as one is always looking for something to fill the void, and nothing ever will.

But then comes the rub: the dream is an addiction as well. We love the romance and comedy and even the drama.

It’s like the Woody Allen joke:
This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs."
In this way, spirituality is more than the art of dying. It’s even more than the fine art of euthanasia. It’s going cold turkey on the egg addiction.

I’m still feeling withdrawal symptoms.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Nothing Is Bad

Actually, there is no bad.

Even evil exists only in the mind: an ego run rampant, stoked by fear, and uncontained by a conditioned lack of love and compassion.

All misfortune, physical, mental, or emotional, is only part of the dream. It’s really not real.

Not to say that the dream can’t feel very real. And hurt like hell. Of course it can. Otherwise, there would be no such thing as the need for spiritual pursuit.

Spirituality also exists only in the dream.

In the world of Quantum Spirit, there is only That, or as Robert Adams names it: choiceless, effortless, Pure Awareness.

Everything else is part of the dream.

Nature is Good

In the essence of duality, we live in our dream (a binary program developed over the years, decades, centuries, etc.).

And while it is true that a tree is a tree because we dream it to be so, it is still, in its essence, raw quantum spirit.

Whereas buildings and such are quantum spirit manipulated to play an integral role in our dream, to such an extent that for the time being such constructions are, in fact, hard dreams, and will be so until they begin their inevitable decay.

When you become steeped in pure nature, the hardware of the dream is left behind, and the possibility of reunion with quantum spirit is greatly increased.

And that is a good thing.

Monday, October 13, 2008

The Real Reality Show

Duality is a survival game.

Reality, on the other hand, is quantum energy, undifferentiated: unity, in other words.

But from the single-cell on earth and upwards, not only has consciousness been amplified, but the environment has been further differentiated in the name of survival: duality eats duality in a logarithmic repast of evolution.

Thus, the amplification of consciousness has a Catch-22.

And, in a very real way, the spiritual pursuit is all about dealing with that catch.

The Big Leap of Faith and Consciousness

Within my previous personal paradigm, there was a leap of faith concerning consciousness.

Somehow, some way, inert matter became conscious. This leap of consciousness landed ultimately on the human here on earth.

But this new paradigm of Quantum Spirit suggests that the universe itself is conscious. All matter is sentient to some degree. And human consciousness is merely one of amplification through the evolution of the brain and nervous system. (See Peter Russell's "From Science to God" for further amplification.)

So rather than call the beginning of the universe the Big Bang, I suggest we call it the Big (or maybe Large) Leap instead. In that way, we honor the Mystery with:
1. the recognition of our limitations in understanding such a beginning;
2. the realization that a leap of faith is necessary in any such understanding;
3. the common sense that such a leap should begin at the beginning;
4. the use of a name that didn't originate entirely in jest.

Dropping A Paradigm

Naturally, our viewpoint of the world rests upon the paradigm from which we view it.

In this blog, I will bid farewell to the Scientific Materialist paradigm from which I once viewed things. That's the paradigm I'm dropping.

In its place, a new paradigm is appearing: one of the Quantum Spirit.

That's the one I've been picking up the past few years.