Homeward Bound

SIMON & GARFUNKEL 

"Homeward Bound"

I'm sitting in the railway station.
Got a ticket to my destination.
On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand.
And ev'ry stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.

Ev'ry day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines.
And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories
And ev'ry stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be,
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.

Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.
Silently for me.

Amazon Review: Joan Tollifson, Nothing to Grasp

This is a Grasping expression of non duality....teaching that there is nothing to grasp, and so no adequate expression!!  As this may be liberating enough, I could stop right here with the 5-star rating, and that should be sufficient.  Yet, we need to make concessions to duality because many will not believe Silence (or the whiteness behind this printing) to be an effective teaching approach.  Joan Tollefson, with a great efficiency in word usage, and backed by her own awakened experience, has given us a gift of immense value.  Like all good teachers of non duality, she places herself in our shoes and asks the questions that must be asked to grow into this teaching, approaching an understanding of Consciousness which is critical for our time...and for the Happiness of each of us.  Please read, and re-read, until Grace arrives!!  Now..!!

Walking on a sandy path

Walking on a sandy path

Uneven with bumps and sinking

required attention to foot placement

some loss of control

unpredictability

as each grain of sand

in its universe 

resisted in a special way..

Meditation might find

that there is a smoothness

shining through

these steps on uneven

regularity...

SSS...Februaary 29th, 2016

Soup, Salad & Scripture

February 29th, 2016

Prayer: Ron Johnson
(3/7 is Dick Longstaff, 2/14 is Jim Austin)

Attendance Sheet...Who do we need to contact?  

How are you?

Marta will be preaching on March 6, based on 
the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:  11-32)

Questions...

1.  What is a parable?

2.  How do you identify the various characters:

Father, Son, Older Brother?

3.  Do you see yourself in any of these roles?

4.  What might it mean that Jesus spoke only in parables?

5.  How does the parable relate to other Bible stories?

To the Kingdom of God?  To Our Common Purpose?

6.  How might we bring this parable into the 21st Century?

7.  How does the parable relate to remembering and forgetting?

Luke 15:11-32  New King James Version (NKJV)

The Parable of the Lost Son

11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’

20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

25 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’

28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’

31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

Thomas Merton and Zen

Zen is consciousness unstructured by particular form or particular system, a trans-cultural, trans-religious, trans-formed consciousness. It is therefore in a sense "void".

But it can shine through this or that system,  religious or irreligious,  just as light can shine through glass that is blue, or green, or red, or yellow.

If  Zen has any preference it is for glass that is plain, has no color, and is "just glass."

Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)


A century ago, at the beginning of the Great War, which Pope Benedict XV termed a “pointless slaughter”, another notable American was born: the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. He remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. In his autobiography he wrote: “I came into the world. Free by nature, in the image of God, I was nevertheless the prisoner of my own violence and my own selfishness, in the image of the world into which I was born. That world was the picture of Hell, full of men like myself, loving God, and yet hating him; born to love him, living instead in fear of hopeless self-contradictory hungers”. Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions.
~~~Pope Francis, Address to the U. S. Congress, September 24th, 2015

Coming Home

Coming Home

 Let us now go forth into the world in peace,

Home was Peace

but he longed to experience

 the Other out there..

being of good courage,

An inheritance of Peace was freely given

and he embarked in joy and  expectation..

holding fast to that which is good,

That which is good never left him

but became veiled from his sight on the 

path which he chose..

rendering to no one evil for evil,

The veiling he endured was his

dressing of evil 
appearing in his place 
 of squander and hunger..

strengthening the fainthearted,

Fainthearted he became in

his poverty and suffering

supporting the weak,

His weakness overwhelmed

helping all persons,

For assistance he begged..

loving and serving the Lord, and

At last, in one instant, he remembered
what he had forgotten on his journey

 the Home he and his brother
have never departed..

 rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Layers

The Layers

I have walked through many lives,

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

"Live in the layers,

not on the litter."

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

 (Stanley Kunitz, from his book, The Wild Braid)

The Cluster

The Cluster

It is a cluster
those thoughts
feelings and perceptions
which seem to define
the individual I
my separate self..
After our birth
the mind steps forth
applying bodily form
to the cluster..
A cluster in separation
comes with the 
unease and longing
which we all suffer..
Prompting a search
as two-edged sword:
the search reaches 
for objects
and is unsatisfied
again and again..
Until in futility
a morning dawns
with the knowing
I am already
more than the cluster
and amazingly
the cluster is 
made of That
which I am...

Revolution or not

 Revolution or not

The election penetrates

and we attend to candidates

echoing angry voices..

Revolution or not..?

A Quick change

modeled by quantum

fueled by suffering and unease ..

Will the quantum overrule

pushing aside slow evolution

or will the result

weigh on waiting...

Space

Space

Open space

points to Happiness

which without regard to

our goals for searching

this space

this Happiness

remains the Goal..

Temporary happiness

may arrive quite often

or very seldom

while we await

a realization:

Space is searching

for Itself... 

STRETCH..February 22nd, 2016

STRETCH

February 22nd, 2016

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

(charlesrcoon@hotmail.com)

"Our inner knowing may be fleeting or quietly persistent, and it is more sensation than thought. We feel it somewhere deep inside of ourselves — often in the heart area or the belly. It doesn’t explain or justify itself. It is frequently unbidden and unexpected. It can be deeply reassuring and soothing, or on occasion, it can be very unwelcome, rocking the boat, making waves, and turning our life upside down. Sometimes we may not want to know what we know — the truth can be very inconvenient. It can end marriages, friendships, and careers and disrupt families, spiritual communities, and governments. It is also very liberating to live in accord with this truth. It is a two-edged knife that cuts us out of our comfort zone and opens us to life as it is."

~~~John J. Prendergast (from his book, In Touch)

"This paradox–the undeniable existence of human consciousness set against the absence of any satisfactory scientific account for it–suggests there may be something amiss with the current scientific worldview. Most scientists assume that consciousness emerges in some way or other from insentient matter. But if this assumption is getting us nowhere, perhaps we should consider an alternative worldview–one found in many metaphysical and spiritual traditions. There, consciousness is held to be an essential component of the cosmos, as fundamental as space, time and matter."

~~~Peter Russell, physicist

"you can't put sugar on it and say it is sweet.."

"you can't put sugar on it and say it is sweet.."

This I overheard on a PM walk

two young men and this conclusion

of a conversation..

Did they mean:

Sweet is a quality of mind

ultimately of Awareness and

does not belong to

"it..."  ?

Asymptotic waves of gravity

in progress!

Merging black holes, spiraling white dwarfs, and spinning neutron stars all emit gravitational radiation. For the first time, astronomers have seen one of these elusive signals /
 Astronomy: Roan Kelly

Now that Gravitational fields have been detected and heard from deep space ~ it's time to postulate that even Gravity may be subject to a subtle but a far more powerful force through Asymptotic freedom. That psychic force field is a Unified Field of love and soul consciousness that exists not only beyond time and space but also beneath our deepest fears and whose principle property is the universal urge to unite. This is my valentine's day card to the Universe:  Allen L Roland, PhD
(for full article see:  http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/02/15/asymptotic-freedom-proves-gravity-subject-to-another-force-love/

asymptotic  

adjective, Mathematics.

1.

of or relating to an asymptote. 

2.

(of a function) approaching a given value as an expression containinga variable tends to infinity.

3.

(of two functions) so defined that their ratio approaches unity as theindependent variable approaches a limit or infinity.

4.

(of a formula) becoming increasingly exact as a variable approaches alimit, usually infinity.

5.

coming into consideration as a variable approaches a limit, usuallyinfinity:

Shadowed experience

Shadowed experience

Shadows of our earlier years

are gifts and messages

from grace..

Separation belief needs successes

but these make way

in later light

to knowing of shadows

marking separation as illusion

through all those years...

Consciousness has no religion

Questions (See letters below!):

1.  How do you respond to the argument of atheists?

Of religionists?

2.  What is the connection, if any, between science and religion?

3.  What are the strengths and weakness of rational thinking?

4.  Albert Einstein cautioned on solving problems on only

one level of awareness.  How does this apply?

5.  What do these writers say about the significance

of metaphors?  Of spirituality?  Of consciousness?

GUEST COLUMN (Gazette): Life from an atheist's perspective

By: Larimore Nicholl

February 11, 2016

It's always helpful to "see the world with new eyes" or, as the saying goes, "walk a mile in the other person's shoes."

Colorado Springs has long been known as the Home of the Religious Right. At the same time, we read a number of news stories that more and more folks are identifying themselves as agnostics, atheists, or simply non-religious. It seems that science is eclipsing religion, ever so slowly.

Even children have difficulty believing the wild and outlandish stories contained in the ancient holy books like the Bible, the Koran, or the Gita. How can they believe that the cosmos was created by a supernatural, anthropological God who swooped down from the sky, picked up some dirt, and magically made the first human? Then took a rib out of him and made the first woman? How can even children believe that a man lived for a while in the stomach of a large fish, then came out alive? Or that two of every living thing could fit into a ship of any size at all? Mark Twain, an atheist, thought it odd that Noah went back to pick up some disease-spreading mosquitoes and houseflies.

Most devout Christians don't believe for a moment the veracity of any other religion's holy book. Nor do they believe for a moment that the Hindu gods Shiva or Vishnu ever existed. They rightly believe those other gods never did exist in the first place, it's all myth and legend - nor did Allah ever exist. Yet they cling to their own Bible and God as absolute, never justifying why they pick one holy book or one god over the others....  (excerpt)

GUEST COLUMN (Gazette): Disputing the claims of atheism

By: Jerry Fogltance

February 14, 2016

Atheists take pride in claiming that what they believe is based on scientific evidence while religious dogma is based on myth. But the atheist's position that "I don't believe in God because science has not proven that God exists" is not a default position. The position that "I believe in God because science has not proven that God does not exist" is just as valid. The question then becomes: Which position carries the greatest risk if in the end proves wrong? Obviously, the atheist takes the greatest risk for the very God he has denied may hold him accountable.

Larimore Nicholl declares that he does not need God to deal with life's challenges, i.e., "we never wait for divine intervention to solve our problems." This statement reflects the atheist's claim that belief in God is a crutch for the weak and ignorant. But atheism is also embraced as a crutch by those unable to live up to their own moral standards and afraid of being accountable to God.

Furthermore, rejecting belief in God because one cannot explain who created God begs the question. Christians believe God is transcendent; that is, he exists outside the system of the universe, beyond the reach of microscopes and telescopes. That's not to say that real knowledge about God cannot be known. The complex forms of the universe reveal that he is personal (an intelligent designer) and the immense size of the universe that he is all powerful. But because God is infinite and we are finite, we may never know some of the deepest mysteries of his nature....(excerpt)

in touch

   

STRETCH...

Place:  The Myron Stratton Home

Time:  February 22nd, 3:00 to 5:00 PM

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon
No cost

We will view and discuss a video narrated by John Prendergast, a

non-dual psychiatrist.  Here is a link to an excerpt from his recently published book:

in touch

https://nondualityamerica.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/relaxed-groundedness-by-john-j-prendergast-book-excerpt/

Please pass this information on to anyone

who may be interested..!

"The heart is a remarkable sensing instrument that is capable of extraordinary intimacy. Yet it is often veiled by psychological conditioning or a simple lack of awareness. It is common to have a very clear mental understanding of nonduality along with tastes of a vast awareness while the depths of the heart remain dormant or blocked. It can lead to a subtle spiritual narcissism and arrogance (I know, you don’t. I’m awake, you’re not.) Exploring the depths of the heart requires great vulnerability. As we are willing to honestly face and experience residual fears of emotional intimacy or abandonment, or desires to be recognized or admired, the heart softens and opens. A felt sense of intrinsic wholeness reveals itself. Love, compassion, and gratitude shine more freely and steadily. As the heart awakens, new dimensions of intimacy unfold. We become more available to relate with others in an essential way. We may also discover a non-personal capacity of the heart to embrace the collective suffering of humanity."
~~John Prendergast

 - See more at: http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/secrets-of-the-heart-john-prendergast/#sthash.7H2Nwt1q.dpuf

A jailhouse disguised

A jailhouse disguised

We all seek freedom
freedom as happiness
and as we search
our chains are unnoticed..
It is perception
which fosters belief
in a separate self
a jailhouse disguised..
Forgiveness is new sight
at long last
we see the lock and bars
as only belief
fogging the truth
of freedom 
overlooked until now...!

Thomas Merton..

STRETCH schedule...

STRETCH...

This monthly program involves video and discussion using 

 the Non-Dual (Self-Inquiry) approach for experiencing

 a new level of Consciousness.  Evolution's next step?

Place: The Myron Stratton Home

(2525 South State Highway 115, Colorado Springs, CO)

Time:  3:00 to 5:00 PM

Dates: May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, 2016 

Facilitator:  Charlie Coon

Fractal Mind

Fractal Mind

There is no need 

for long searching 

for the fractal mind..

We are carrying each of us

this iterating possession

as in a trunk with branches

a complex but simple

sourcing Tree..

Knowing this identity

the creation we discover

is our iterating and

dark delusion subsides..

Though we have forgotten

perhaps from our birth

Now is our time

to remember

and feel the Peace...

Already

Already

Remembering clear light

our Real identity

of which and as which

all arises..

No Real coming

or return

just remembering

that which is

Already...

Remember the clear light,

The pure clear white light

From which everything in the universe comes,

To which everything in the universe returns;

The original nature of your own mind.

The natural state of the universe unmanifest.

Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it.

It is your own true nature, it is home.

- The Tibetan Book Of The Dead

a concern over time

a concern over time

the concern over
melting of clocks
upon which we depend
securing our separated lives..
we reach for accuracy
made of vibrations
of those atoms of matter..
if we remove the matter
which has never been found
we are left with vibrations
not localized anymore..
and we might assume
our thoughts of separation
may also depart
revealing the reality
that has been present
all along...!

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a crash program to invent miniature advanced atomic clocks that reflects growing worries about the vulnerability of Air Force Space Command's GPS satellites.

"Among their myriad potential advantages, better clocks could reduce one of the more worrisome modern-day national security vulnerabilities: a deep and growing dependence on the Global Positioning System," DARPA said in a news release.

(excerpt from:  http://m.gazette.com/article/1569000?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Update:+Defense+Department+researchers+push+plan+aimed+at+avoiding+worldwide+GPS+meltdown&utm_campaign=News+Update+-+Update:+Defense+Department+researchers+push+plan+aimed+at+avoiding+worldwide+GPS+meltdown )