Intimate space

What birds plunge through is not the intimate space,
in which you see all Forms intensified.
(In the Open, denied, you would lose yourself,
would disappear into that vastness.)

Space reaches from us and translates Things:
to become the very essence of a tree,
throw inner space around it, from that space
that lives in you. Encircle it with restraint.
It has no limits. For the first time, shaped
in your renouncing, it becomes fully tree.


Submitted and Translated by Gabriel Caffrey
Rainer Maria Rilke

Awakening

Marta,

First of all, I think you have a good set of questions (see below!).

My nonduality flavor would include:

The creation story about the animals, and naming them, and the Adam and Eve story, all

relate to duality.  It is the (seeming) splitting of Consciousness (the Divine) into all of this multiplicity.

The Kingdom of God is Consciousness, which has always been present, but its pure unity has

been veiled by the multiplicity mentioned above.  

Marriage symbolizes the return to unity, or the recognition of the Kingdom of God (Consciousness)

which has never really been absent. Grace is another name for Consciousness, as is Awareness.

So...what we are talking about here is an Awakening to our real identity, which is Consciousness.

And some level of Awakening is necessary for the two partners in a marriage.  The Course in Miracles

Movie, which I will be showing, refers to "special love relationships" and "holy love relationships,"

and the importance of the holy kind.  Seems to relate to the blessing, Namaste, in which there

is a recognition of a common holiness (Consciousness) between people, without which the

 ego (duality) jumps up and gets in the way...which points to much of life, as we know it!

OK, don't know if that helps or not.  I think much of this lies beneath what you are already planning

on saying and asking.  In the SSS discussion, it would be important to me to distinguish between

beliefs and experience.  Or intellect (the head) and experience.  Not what, but how!!

See you tomorrow!

Charlie

The text are: Genesis 2:18-24 and Mark 10:2-16 

Here is what I am thinking, I would love your flavor: 

1) With both these texts, how do we receive and/or understand the Kingdom of God. ( Jesus is more concerned about what is intended for the kingdom of God not about what is not allowed). 

2) If we are to have union between two people- in a sense we are creating community as God intended. 

- providing companionship 

- a context for creating community (procreation)

- a place to be intimate in building the beloved community. 

How can this formula for "marriage" be translated to the larger union of people in faith communities? 

3) What might you have learned about these texts in your early years and how much has your understanding of them changed or not changed? Do you still understand it as sin/punishment or do you think about is as more communion with humanity? How does this impact or reflect your relationship to the divine? 

What does the Kingdom of God represent to you or when have you experienced the kingdom of God? 

These can be changed! Thoughts? 

Marta 

Universe awakening

Universe awakening

As the universe learns to observe itself
using our instruments of perception
consciousness is birthed
or recognized at last..

Identity of the observer is questioned
and recognized as no-thing
but actually most full..

The question remaining:

why the separation 

universe and observer..?

Then the universe will examine 

its own experience and find

that time and space come about

exactly when things do
and separation is illusion..

a Memorial service

a Memorial service

on this Day of Atonement

at day's end..

Reading of names

remembering

military service

dust 

Psalm:

What are we?

The Book...

Otherness

Otherness

'ness is a state of being

being other

but not other

than our Self..

Thus the tree

the lake

the animal

the bird

we perceive these others

and they in richness

join and bless

bless our Being

our one Self...

Before Felling a Tree

Don’t kill me, don’t fall on me.

Sacred Tree, Sacred Pine

It’s because I am in need

that I cut you down….

Give me your firewood, your kindling,

your torchlight so I can see what I’m eating, Kajval.

Give me your heat to bake my tortillas, to boil my beans.

Give me the beams to build my house

and pillars to support the thatch, the vines, the mud.

Kaxil, Godmother:

I’m going to split your wood, your arms, your legs,

your face, your head.

I’m going to chop you down with my ax,

with my machete.

Don’t scold me, don’t drip your tears on me.

I don’t want to cut you down, but it’s cold….

Antonia Moshán Culej’s poem “Before Felling a Tree” exemplifies the Mayan women’s respect for and connectedness with nature:

Raw materials

Raw materials

for poetry

the best are prompts

from everyplace attended

none stand outside

of a poetic eye..

For those happenings

we wish to forget we need

 expect a rich resource..

Interconnections abound

calling out 

for acceptance

 for expression...

Migrants

Migrants

We witness the scenes of overflow

fleeing from the throes of war..

Images of suffering

edges our comfort..

All are migrants

this our hidden condition..

We seek out there

as the distant beacons..

Longings are embedded in 

present places..

Might we see as common

the seeking of migrants there

and our continual seeking..

We and they look for happiness

in that new place

a human seeking

for the grace

flooding 

each and all...

Silence

Silence

A Shift

A Shift

It seems remembering who we are
a presence of

luminous-awareness-peace-happiness

brings a shock each time..

Departures from the forms of the world

into what is experienced as en-lightenment

happens again and again

due to years of engrained duality..

Remembering

each Shift into not-a-thing

shocks with joy...!

Music musing

We are taught 

that we have only one perception

in a given moment..

That perception seems to mix:

thinking-feeling-seeing-hearing

all joined in that

given moment..

As in meditation

listening to music requires 

perception be composed

in large measure

of the notes

in intimacy

and a dimming

of other arisings...?

(Thoughts after last Friday's concert

per the image)

Heisenberg truth

Heisenberg truth

What is uncertainty 

but the awe of being

not here or there

in the space-like presence

in which everything appears

and

of which everything is made...

The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa. 

--Heisenberg, uncertainty paper, 1927

I am aware!

I am aware!

As we remember this powerful and new

subjective identity

we form a space-like field

which we experience as a Witness

then as the Substance

of the seeming separate reality

we have seen

but now as I Am...!

Quantum Self

Quantum Self

Our real Self

astonishingly 

is not the body and mind

which we have so readily believed..

In Reality no body or mind is here

as we usually claim..

This claim runs counter to our experience:

thoughts-sensations-feelings-perceptions
are really

thinking-sensing-feeling-perceiving
which are colors of
Consciousness or
the Quantum Self...!

Intriguing?

OCTOBER 7th and 14th
Center for Spiritual Living @ BCC

Wednesday Evenings at Broadmoor Comminity Church

315 Lake Avenue, Colorado Springs, Colorado

6:00 to 7:30 PM

On these two Wednesdays Charlie Coon will facilitate 

a movie and discussion introducing:

A Course in Miracles (ACIM)

ACIM, since the 1970's, has become an important spiritual practice for many

persons around the world.  The Course could well be considered a course

in Nonduality.  Although coached in Christian religious language, the Course

 is often used by those with a more universal orientation to spirituality and 

Self-discovery. It is one way to develop an experiential nondual approach to living, 

which could be life-changing.  Significantly for some, ACIM may stand closer to 

Jesus and his teachings than do other approaches which are based on more 

dualistic assumptions.

"Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God."

(from the Introduction to ACIM)

Intriguing?

If so, please mark your calendars..!

Cognitive Disonance

Cognitive Dissonance

occurs

when that which is said

seems simultaneously

not to be understood

and a soft ring of truth..

The mind tasks itself

to discover the object

of meaning

but unease settles in

after some tiring probes..

What is history?

A question as this

and the mind cognizes 

timelines with dates

stories beginning and end

but hints of fragmentation

loom with suspicions

of larger stories which 

 the mind cannot find..

Unease or dissonance 

produces the longing

waiting for a recognition

of grace...

Rebellion and Independence

Rebellion and Independence

These words spark memories 

of history classes and teachers

words which allude to 

ego and separation

in our collective lifetime..

Those many events:

British offensive acts

Stamps and Tea

Intolerable 

Lexington and Concord

Bunker Hill

 Jefferson's Declaration..

These are all vibrations 

living now in our

momentary Awareness..

Another Eden experience

expressing colorful duality..

Rebellion and Independence

shining when known 

as Awareness alone...! 

(Reflection after attending Dr. Jesse Gatlin's

survey of American history on September 18, 2015)

Now is the Quantum Reality

Now is the Quantum Reality

The gifts of science
portrayals of entanglement 
and non-locality..
These present our primary Reality
which is experienced
when we remember right Now...
Earlier science 
in its linear fashion
seemed to veil
the expansive Self
made known Now
in Quantum words...!

Been searching ?

Been searching ?

Seeking the new

material or spiritual

finding pockets and clues

encouragement

to search some more..

Persistence we are advised

pays big in life

so press on for the prize..

And then happenstance

some would say grace

on a park bench

or standing in line

for this or that..

A small voiceless voice

You at last are

the prize Now found...

Radical Truth

24/7 Opportunities

24/7 Opportunities

Once we awaken

to the light of awareness

a return invites

a return to situations

in life ordinary..

Now unlike before

(really only Now!)

opportunities arise

stimulating our

wakened glow...

Before the Bang

Before the Bang

The struggle in science
is the struggle of each..
We struggle to know
Who am I?
And the mind 
moves in time
forward and back
and in space
in here and out there..
Consciousness is patient
quantum in nature
non-local and entangled
awaiting the surrender
of mind's attempts
to answer the
Question...!

What came before the big bang?

Has the universe existed forever? Or was there something before it? To find out, we need a working theory of quantum gravity and a new conception of time

What came before the big bang?

(Image: Matthew Richardson)

PAUSE. Rewind. Suddenly the outward rush of 200 billion galaxies slips into reverse. Instead of expanding at pace, the universe is now imploding like a deflating balloon: faster and faster, smaller and smaller, everything hurtling together until the entire cosmos is squeezed into an inconceivably hot, dense pinprick. Then pshhht! The screen goes dead.

According to the big bang theory – our best explanation for why space is expanding – everything exploded from nothing about 13.8 billion years ago. Cosmologists have been able to wind things back to within a tiny fraction of a second of this moment. But now they’re stuck.

The trouble is, our understanding of space-time, and gravity in particular, is built from Einstein’s equations of general relativity, whereas the extreme conditions of the very early universe can only be described by quantum mechanics. No one knows how to reconcile the two ...

(from:  New Scientist 2 September 2015)

Miracles

Miracles

A temporary departure

from the illusion 

of the separate (small) self..

A sudden abundance

the small self astonished

the large Self in clarity

and directly

finds itself...

Hospitality

Hospitality

Hospitality as open space
allowing what is here now
That open space is consciousness
it is grace
and knowing this we see
that the boundaries separating
are as waves in the ocean
all Hospitality...!

A table-full of welcome!

~~William Shakespeare (~1564-1616), English playwright & poet. 
From: A Comedy of Errors, 

Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. 

~~Henri J.M. Nouwen, Catholic priest, professor and writer

To end the misery that has afflicted the human condition for thousands of years, you have to start with yourself and take responsibility for your inner state at any given moment. That means now.

~~Eckhart Tolle, modern spiritual teacher

True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person. Henri Nouwen has described it as receiving the stranger on his own terms, and asserts that it can be offered only by those who 'have found the center of their lives in their own hearts'.” 

~~Kathleen Norris, American poet and essayist

There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the stranger at once at his ease.

~~Washington Irving, 19th Century American author 

One great reason why the rich in general have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is that one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it – and then plead their voluntary ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of heart.

~~John Wesley, Anglican minister, founder of Methodism

 The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.  2.  He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground.
~~Genesis 18: 1-2

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

~~Hebrews 13:2

Everyone seeks for love as you do, but knows it not unless he joins with you in seeking it. If you undertake the search together, you bring with you a light so powerful that what you see is given meaning. 
― Foundation for Inner Peace, A Course in Miracles

Rainbow

Rainbow

An experience of perception

as I walked facing a line of sprinklers

rainbows shifted from faucet to faucet

rendering the experience that

I and the water and the sun

created each rainbow..

Light of the sun is consciousness

water and colors

temper consciousness

I am aware..

Co-creation...

STRETCH...ACIM

STRETCH

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

"A Course in Miracles, The Movie"

Introduction (to ACIM)

This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.
This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.

What am I?

What am I?

If not the witness of the world

nor the world itself being witnessed..

Might it be that I am only 

I being aware that I am aware..

And if that is so what are all of those

apparent objects and the witness

that apparently perceives them..?

Those are..my friend..

 you and I as our awareness...

ACIM

STRETCH

September 14th, 2015

Mackenzie Place

(corner of Fillmore and Union)

4:00 to 6:00 PM

No cost

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

We will view and discuss

"A Course in Miracles, The Movie"

The teachings of A Course in Miracles have been supported by such mainstream commentators as Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer & Marianne Williamson, and are additionally supported by countless “New Thought” churches, such as Centers for Spiritual Living & the Association of Unity Churches.

Currently over two million volumes of the book, A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM or the Course) have been published worldwide. Additionally, A Course in Miracles has been translated into 19 different languages with many new translations underway.

This powerful new Special Edition movie is designed for ACIM teachers & students to support them and their communities.

TGIF

It seems part of who we are:

stress-filled stretches of time

and why many say

with an exhale

TGIF..!

Lodged in duality we are

each in her measure..

The root is separation

which some minds know 

but perception argues

with a vengeance..

Might it be suggested

this quick remedy:

a warm immersion

in warm water

as a bath in

Awareness.. 

A remedy always near 

which demonstrates again:

TGIF points to stresses

which together with

the water and you and I

are all expressing 

only Awareness...!

Schedules

are they founded on illusion

of a future in time

time which really

only shades the moment

the Now..?

Yet schedules rule

as our cultural stress

keeping illusion alive...!

Adversity

may be a gift

when it reminds

as gently as possible (!)

of our nondual reality

in which the adversity

is submerged

and in which

it gently dissolves...

Schoolyard bench

Schoolyard bench

Disordered small benches

not arranged in the schoolyard shade

under a pine tree with large and solid

base secure to the earth..

The shade broke the rays and with

a slight breeze some comfort arrived..

Cars in the distance in orderly following

as the children single file emerged and followed..

This micro portrait on a waning summer day

this brief stop for my rest on the bench..

Letting go

Letting go

When in a lifetime

nights lengthen and

the world with us

seems more insistent..

Bad news mixes with good

as it seems now

and as we notice 

ever before in memory..

I write these words

after hearing at lunchtime

her new intent

to simply let go..

Perhaps to experience

her real Self abiding

unblemished and shining

carrying the message of

 happiness and peace...

Dualistic Rules

The disasters, catastrophes, tragedies and shocks in your life were not mistakes, failures, or punishments from the universe. The universe does not reward or punish – it does not play by dualistic human rules. These times of difficulty were wake-up calls, and they caused you to slow down, take stock of your life, stop distracting or numbing yourself, and ask profound and often difficult questions about reality. They caused you to re-focus on what really mattered to you, to re-commit to your path of curiosity and never-ending exploration of form.

~ Jeff Foster

Nonduality for all

Great time with nondual guy Evan Gattis of the Houston Astros this past Monday at Yankee Stadium. Gattis was depressed and suicidal and had given up on baseball when, after a long search, including time with a few nonduality teachers, he encountered John Wheeler. John inspired a shift in Evan. Instead of standing in the batters box of thoughts, anxiety, depression, Evan now took his stand in the batters box of awareness itself.

With that shift, with stressful thoughts no longer driving him crazy, all that was left was to go play baseball again. Simple, in a way. We see many people turning their lives around with such a shift in perception but it's rarely with a high profile person.

Evan was aware of my mandate to bring nonduality to the streets, to make it a topic of conversation between people when they're in the supermarket checkout line. He said he has the same mandate. He loved it when Sports Illustrated used the word "nonduality" in their fine article about him.

Evan generously provided a field pass where we talked for about ten minutes about nonduality during Houston's batting practice. He told me that a few years earlier he was begging for money in the New York subways, "Now I'm in Yankee Stadium," he said. He told me he felt free having nothing, that it was a great feeling in the subways. In my own way, I knew what he was talking about. We hugged and soon the game began.

The game was a pitcher's battle, the Yankees winning 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th. Evan had two hits though. After the game he treated a few of us to something to eat and drink at the Hard Rock Cafe. After that, me, him, his girlfriend Kim, and his friend Joe hung out at my motel room till 4am talking baseball and nonduality.

Among my favorite things Evan said were simple ones like, "It's not easy to hit a 3-2 slider." He told me baseball is so beautiful it makes him cry. I interviewed Evan for three hours about everything. Don't know how much of the recording will be heard as we're still working on saying what needs to be said.

The Astros won the next two games against the Yankees and Evan hit three home runs. Like he said to me once, "You can't miss with non duality."  (Jerry Katz)

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