Return to the One (Amazon review)

I was led to this book by a friend who knows of my involvement with Western expressions of  non-duality and the Perennial Tradition.  Return to the One narrates Brian Hines' search  for his own spiritual identity in the Enneads, written by Plotinus.  He claims a personal resonance with Plotinus.  Consider this:
"Plotinus is not asking us to add one more to-do to our every expanding list of aspirations:(1) learn to play piano, (2) lose fifteen pounds, (3) smooth out golf swing, (4) return to the One.  No, the message of the Enneads is much more radical:  to look upon everything other than spiritual uplift as a mere pastime unworthy of being taken seriously." (page 41)
This is an awakening experience.  Some contemplatives might say that this is an intermediate step, and that the return to mundane activities, accompanied with  the new understanding, would complete one's experience. However, whether we consider it intermediate or not, Brian is pointing to a crucial Awakening necessary for the vast majority of humanity.
It seems to me that there are two messages which stand out in this important book.  First, the vital importance of knowing the difference between experiential and intellectual learning.  Second, another vital need to find a teacher whose language and approach resonate with you. Brian Hines points us in both of these directions.     Recommended..!! 

In the Enneads, 3rd century mystic philosopher Plotinus synthesized a thousand years of accumulated Greek wisdom with his own profound mystical experiences. What is the nature of God? Of spirit? Of soul? In what fashion can God be realized? How can the validity of spiritual experiences be tested? Return to the One presents Plotinus's compelling answers to such ageless questions in a refreshing modern style. Whatever your spiritual beliefs, you will find yourself challenged and stimulated by Plotinus's matchless blend of rationality and mysticism. (Amazon)

Wireless power, iPhone, and Tesla

Apple Inc. is working with partners in the U.S. and Asia to develop new wireless charging technology that could be deployed on its mobile devices as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the plans.

Apple is exploring cutting-edge technologies that would allow iPhones and iPads to be powered from further away than the charging mats used with current smartphones, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The iPhone maker is looking to overcome technical barriers including loss of power over distance with a decision on implementing the technology still being assessed, they said.
(link for full article:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-29/apple-said-developing-wireless-charged-phone-for-as-soon-as-2017-ijz3i4si

The following are past newspaper articles more than 100 years old which were taken from the Tesla Collection. These are unique original articles about the wireless transmission of electrical energy printed at the time when Tesla was alive.   (an excerpt from:  http://www.teslasociety.com/tesla_tower.htm

going to more satisfactory places

going to more satisfactory places

When unease arrives in normal places

why not erase seeming past things

realizing these have somehow

become other separate..exhausting..

and now with cleansing relaxing 

with homebound light

allow entry of new things

or even welcoming anew the old things

to experience the new shining

of things once more...

Living

"There is living and then there is living."

--Thomas Merton

A Year with Thomas Merton, January 27th

Books!

Books!

The End of Your World, Emptiness Dancing by Adyashanti
I am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj
I am, The Ease of Being by Jean Klein
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Loving What Is by Byron Katie
Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi by David Godman
An Extraordinary Absence by Jeff Foster
Wake Up Now by Stephan Bodian

With eyes wide open

With eyes wide open

Pray she insists

with eyes wide open

open to perceive

the world as it seems..

The suffering and joy

out there

reflecting what we are

within.. an apparent 

 separate self in

resplendent display

cannot hide and with

 compassion and grace

transforms in a moment

 self becomes Self...

Our Call

Our Call

When the word awakens

our identity unwrapped..

Beyond time and space

before the womb

simply I am..

Our discovered Self

sees the world

knows the perceiving..

Inner not outer

coloring I am..

Our Self as a screen

carries the movie

and knows now

movie is screen

coloring I am..

The awakening word

calls to all

offering freedom

of knowing

I am...

(see Jeremiah Chapter 1)

I am only a boy

Jeremiah’s Call and Commission (NRSV)

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” 7 But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’;

for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

and you shall speak whatever I command you.

8 Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

says the Lord.”

9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,

“Now I have put my words in your mouth.

10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

Winter

Winter

Winter now gains our attention

wind cold discomfort

seeking the fireplace as oasis..

Winter is as separation

the fireplace reminds

as it burns the separation..

In a moment

 we observe then know 

the expanding light of spring...

Knowing the 5

Knowing the 5

Let's now confront the question
what do we know..really?
Do we know anything more
than experiences of sensing
as our 5 senses sense..?
We know the seeing
hearing 
tasting
touching
smelling
and seem not to know
that which is sensed..
Are there things out there
objects of sensing
maybe so..maybe no
can we know these..really?
Such musings 
radical but simple
point to our Awareness
which we are..really...!

Left colors and Right colors

Left colors and Right colors

Science tries to find the facts of perception
in the lenses and processing of each eye..
Our materialist research and findings
are satisfying to some..but
what of our experience of perceptions
 within and actually made of
Consciousness..?
Colors become vibrations 
within and made of..
Vibrations..temporary and changing
coming and going 
each very different
in its rising
within
and 
as...

 noticed it as a child.

If I close my right eye, the world just looks ... colder. White walls take on a very subtle blue or green tint. If I close my left eye, the world becomes a bit warmer, as if filtered by very pale rose glass.

The effect is extremely, extremely subtle. It's not like my eyes are covered with red-blue 3D glasses. It's as if someone pulled up a color slider in Photoshop and adjusted the hue in each eye by just one tiny notch. I'd lie in bed as a 5-year-old and play this game — closing one eye and then another — and find wonder in the weirdness of it.

This sounds odd, but I don't think I'm alone. The question of whether our left and right eyes perceive color slightly different pops up on Quora, Reddit, and other internet forums occasionally.

So I asked a handful of visual perception experts to find out: Is this real?

It's actually quite plausible that each eye sees color slightly differently...

This is an excerpt from:

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/1/13/10761712/color-perception-eyes

Dystopia

1. 
   This word we find is pointing to a reality quite unpleasantapplied to many stories in books and film with imagination darkened..Such alternate worlds are so portrayed as a reality alienbut may we not say it is a reality all our ownright here and right now a reality born of the widespread belief in a separate self..
   
   

A Lenten Journey with Thomas Merton

The Center for Spiritual Living

What?  A series  of Wednesday evening Lenten programs, relating to Thomas Merton.

Where?  Broadmoor Community Church, 315 Lake Avenue, Colorado Springs.

When?  March 2nd, 9th, and 16th, 6:00 to 7:30 PM

Copies of a Lenten booklet published by the Merton Institute for 
Contemplative Living, will be available at the 
Church after Ash Wednesday.  ($5 cost)

Charlie Coon and Roger Butts will facilitate.

The schedule:

March 2nd:  View and discuss the video (recently shown at Library 21c),
 “The Many Storeys and Last Days of Thomas Merton"
March 9th:  Discuss readings from the Merton Institute booklet (pp 1-34).
March 16th:  Discuss readings from the Merton Institute booklet (pp 35-62).

"In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for 'finding himself.' If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence."

Thomas Merton

Google is on your side

Google is on your side

If you are on one side
Google is there..
On the other
Google aligns with you..
Our information explosion
in quantum speed 
provides one-sided power
new to our time..
Arises the temptation
to claim truth
on this side for now
until Google of a sudden
joins the other side..
Duality seems strengthened
until we contemplate
the futility and illusion
of the seeming 
separation...

Richard Rohr and the non-dual path

STRETCH

January 18, 2016

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

(charlesrcoon@hotmail.com)

Richard Rohr says:

“…there are two paths that break down our dualistic thinking and our inability to let go: The path of great love and the path of great suffering. Neither of them can be willed, truly understood, or programmed by any method whatsoever. There is no precise technique or foolproof formula for love or suffering. They are their own teachers, the best of teachers, in their own time and in their own unique way each time. If you are like me, however, you would rather have teaching in the head than what I call ‘the authority of those who have suffered’ and have emerged from the belly of the whale, transformed.” 

“When you are concerned with either attacking or defending, manipulating or resisting, pushing or pulling, you cannot be contemplative…”

"It is living in the naked now, the “sacrament of the present moment,” that teaches us how to actually experience our experiences, whether good, bad or ugly, and how to let them transform us.  When you can be present, you will know the Real Presence.  I promise you this is true.  And it is almost that simple."

"True spirituality is not a search for perfection or control or the door to the next world; it is a search for divine union NOW.  The great discovery is always that we are searching for what has already been given.  I did not find it; it found me."

power of the Spirit

QUESTIONS

1.  What words stand out to you?

2.  How do WE experience "the power of the Spirit?"

3.  Are there synonyms for the Spirit?

Consider:  Grace, Love, Now, Consciousness, Awareness, 

I am, Happiness,

Beauty, Peace...others?

4.  How does the experience of "Hearing" relate 

to these verses?

Lightness of Being

Lightness of Being

is what we long to experience..

Lightness a suggestion of relief

from our weighty culture

where struggle's contractions

seem to fill our days..

Lightness of course

refers to what is heavy

but also points to the Light

in its name and to

 Being which we know

as our true Self... 

Multiverse

Multiverse

In the science of our time
there is a reported flagging of expectation
for new cosmology discovery..
With science's point of view
not altered since the Greeks
a continuing immersion in
objectivity and assertions verified..
Despite powerful instruments  seeing
the birth of inflation in the big bang
a suggestion of multiple worlds
this explosion of diversity
also suggests futility in discovery
of newfound truth..
So..
we may  be waiting for science
to redirect its gaze with new purpose
of finding that which is observing
the vastness which centuries have seen..
Turning around to discover
a background awareness experienced
at last as real Seeing...!

In the beginning

Cosmology has been on a long, hot streak, racking up one imaginative and scientific triumph after another. Is it over?

by Ross Andersen

A dominant, infinitely flexible multiverse theory could make it easy not to strain for the next leap forward. It could lead to a chilling effect on new ideas in cosmology, or worse, a creative crisis. Steinhardt thinks we’re already there. ‘Andre Linde has become associated with eternal inflation because he thinks the multiverse is a good idea,’ he told me. ‘But I invented it, too, and I think it’s a horrible idea. It’s an emperor’s new clothes story. Except in that story, it’s a child who points out that the Emperor has no clothes. In this case, it’s the tailors themselves telling us that the theory is not testable. It’s Guth and Linde.’

Cosmologists should be searching for an alternative theory. They should not be waving away problems with the multiverse

~~~an excerpt from:  

 https://aeon.co/essays/will-we-ever-understand-the-beginning-of-the-universe?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c5b475c241-Weekly_newsletter_Friday_1_Jan_201612_23_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-c5b475c241-68637757

Relax

Relax

Our minds seem relentless

to fill with objects

the space of our lives..

The mind is not mind

without this search..

Allowing pause for rest

it sinks inward and

seeking subsides 

for a moment..

And with grace

mind dissolves into 

the Awareness I am

allowing our discovery

of mind's makeup

despite anxiety-ridden

seeming life-filled

search for objects..

Joy at last...!

Soul Link Retreat

Soul Link Retreat

Prayer: What is it? How do I do it? Why Should I Bother?

As they pursue the longings of their soul many people leave behind the traditional doctrines and practices of their faith family; prayer is sometimes a casualty of this leave-taking. Because our spiritual evolution often involves

the “death of God” as we used to understand “Him,” and because prayer is often considered a form of communication with God, traditional forms of prayer

may seem meaningless. If God is no longer considered a Supreme Being who responds to our needs, what is the point of praying?

Although many no longer bother praying, some have taken up the challenge to

find new ways of thinking about and practicing prayer. Meditation/ contemplation has replaced petition/praise/thanksgiving as a form of prayer for those who think of themselves as spiritual seekers. Prayer for them is less about communication and more a matter of communion – being present to the One with whom we are one.

Our retreat will offer the opportunity to reflect on the notion of prayer and dialogue with others who have found or are searching for meaningful ways to pray.

Date: January 16, 2016

Place: Broadmoor Community Church (315 Lake Ave.)

Time: 9:00 a.m. (registration), 9:30-2:00 (retreat)

Cost: $30 early registration (by Jan. 12), $35 at the door. Lunch included.  Scholarships available. 

Information: Tom Stella (719) 648.3939 or 
Charlie Coon (719-636-2004)

For more:  soullink@soullinkonline.org

Things that die

We all experience a fear of death

because of our view of the reality of things..

This residue of separation remains it seems

after experiences  of our true self..

Our experiences in that nondual mode

point to a confusion of our self

with the things of the world

which die when they

are recognized 
as separation's

 concealing
of Self...

Problem solving

No problem can be solved from the same 
level of consciousness that created it. 
~~Albert Einstein

Perhaps this ranks with his 
revolutionary relativity..
Pointing to the futility
of dualistic searching
in all times
especially ours
as confrontation
and violence
paint our lives..
Transcending to the
level he mentions
is to discover 
 new being
with separation
slinking away from
a lighted fire...

Birds of Appetite

“The tragedy is that our consciousness is totally alienated from this inmost ground of our identity.  And in Christian mystical tradition, this inner split is the real meaning of ‘original sin’”

“Man needs to find ultimate sense here and now in the ordinary humble tasks and human problems of every day.”

“Man’s need for a whole and integral experience of his own self on all its levels, bodily as well as imaginative, emotional, intellectual, spiritual.  There is no place for the cultivation of one part of human consciousness, one aspect of human experience, at the expense of others, even on the pretext that what is cultivated is sacred and all the rest profane.  A false and divisive ‘sacredness’ or ‘supernaturalism’ can only cripple man.”

“But the chief experience of Zen is that it rejects all these systematic elaborations in order to get back, as far as possible, to the pure unarticulated and unexplained ground of direct experience.  The direct experience of what?  Life itself.  What it means that I exist, that I live: who is this ‘I’ that exists and lives?  What is the difference between an authentic and an illusory awareness of the self that exists and lives?  What are and are not the basic facts of existence?”

Falling Upward

STRETCH...

January 18th, 2016

Location:  Myron Stratton Home
555 Gold Pass Heights (off Hwy 115)

Time: 3 PM to 5 PM

Cost:  Free

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

We will view and discuss a film based on Richard Rohr's book, Falling Upward.

Richard Rohr seeks to help readers understand the tasks of the two halves of life and to show them that those who have fallen, failed, or "gone down" are the only ones who understand "up." Most of us tend to think of the second half of life as largely about getting old, dealing with health issues, and letting go of life, but the whole thesis of this book is exactly the opposite. What looks like falling down can largely be experienced as "falling upward." In fact, it is not a loss but somehow actually a gain, as we have all seen with elders who have come to their fullness.

(Location:  http://www.myronstratton.org/contact.html)

Sensitivity

Sensitivity 

When our awareness of transparency 

is seemingly shadowed once more

by subtle expressions of duality

the recognition is a gift

it is grace..

Duality is creation

not to be left standing alone

but recognized and refined

resuming that transparency 

we have claimed as our own...

So much depends

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Things that have never been

"And now we welcome the new year.  

Full of things that have never been."

~~Rainer Maria Rilke