Tony Parsons

Tony's website:  https://www.theopensecret.com/

The Open Secret...ConsciousTV
http://conscious.tv/nonduality.html?bcpid=45947084001&bclid=1610663950&bctid=1913973849

This is Compassion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n87HxTZlc2w

Wholeness manifests

Wholeness manifests

With our cultural lens

trained on our world:

dissimilarities abound

as we veil

that which manifests

such lovely attractions..

Mesmerized by variation

we ignore quiet assertions of 

that lurking Wholeness of

nothing as everything..

Ignor-ance  is suffering

amid life and death

until discovery burns

that illusory lens 

of our discontent...

Advent

Advent

Hidden within appearances of red and green 

lies a message for the season..

The message is most simple

 overlooked in the chaos and the charm 

 of red and green..

Yet it remains the pearl for which we  look

in all of those places..

With unexpected appearance..in no place...

iPhone...

How iPhone photography will change your life

Hi Charles,

Maybe you feel like you have nothing to take photos of where you live.

Or that other photographers are lucky because they live in a more beautiful area.

And that makes sense. Because I used to feel exactly the same.

But as my iPhone photography continued to improve, I realized that there are excellent photo opportunities no matter where you live. And your job is to recognize these opportunities.

I know this because I've had the pleasure of judging several iPhone photography contests with thousands of entries from all around the world. These contests had photos from Grand Canyon, Golden Gate Bridge, Glaciers of Iceland, Fjords of Norway, the Alps, Eiffel Tower and more...

But surprisingly, the best photos in these contests were not shot at famous landmarks. It was the creativity of the photographer, and not the scene itself, that made these photos great.

So it doesn't matter if you live in the middle of nowhere - or in a huge metropolitan city.

Because with the right knowledge, anyone can take excellent iPhone photos.

And as your iPhone photography continues to improve, you'll start seeing photo opportunities that other photographers don't even recognize... And they will be surprised that you can take such interesting photos in ordinary places where they see nothing to take photos of.

But even more importantly, something else is going to change...

When you grow as a photographer, you'll also start seeing the world differently.

You'll start seeing things that other people miss...

And you'll start appreciating beauty in the world that you didn't even know existed...

The things that you take for granted now - such as your daily commute - will turn into an exciting adventure as you start recognizing the beauty in the world all around you.

And that's why we love our work at iPhone Photography School so much.

We don't just teach iPhone photography. We give our students a whole new way of living.

Best Regards, 

Emil 

Gangaji Speaks...

Facing the Abyss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQMPUJJ-VI

It is Possible I Am Not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KICwgM7Bvyo

Unraveling the Knot of Suffering:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPbYyhdwaBE

Advent

ˈadˌvent/

noun

1. the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

   "the advent of television"

   
   

   https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011:1-10

   
   

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fr-richard-rohr/preparing-for-christmas_b_2250502.html
   
   Richard Rohr, Cosmic Christ:
   
   https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&shva=1#inbox/158143a6214ce5b6
   
   
   https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&shva=1#inbox/15819614b59b9e21
   
   

   
   

Happy Black Friday !

Happy Black Friday !

There must be a dish of
 happiness

in the depth of this day's seeking..

Momentary satisfaction and contentment

in midst of participation in this annual
running frenzy..running of the..
So..appropriately named..looking for
happiness
in the darkness this Friday..
Some may sit on a restful bench
in a crowded mall..or observing
a sea of people in downtown
Manhattan (I did this!)
and there seems to be at times
 a glow in the black..
Let's call it a black hole
as science speculates.. and
others remind of that 
springtime black Friday:
a new creation bursting forth...!

Darker...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6fvzGIBfQ

You Want It Darker

Leonard Cohen

If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game

If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame

If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame

You want it darker

We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name

Vilified, crucified, in the human frame

A million candles burning for the help that never came

You want it darker

Hineni, hineni

I'm ready, my lord

There's a lover in the story

But the story's still the same

There's a lullaby for suffering

And a paradox to blame

But it's written in the scriptures

And it's not some idle claim

You want it darker

We kill the flame

They're lining up the prisoners

And the guards are taking aim

I struggled with some demons

They were middle class and tame

I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim

You want it darker

Hineni, hineni

I'm ready, my lord

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name

Vilified, crucified, in the human frame

A million candles burning for the love that never came

You want it darker

We kill the flame

If you are the dealer, let me out of the game

If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame

If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame

You want it darker

Hineni, hineni

Hineni, hineni

I'm ready, my lord

Hineni

Hineni, hineni

Hineni

Wyrd

Wyrd

A word of ancient making

but in resurrecting now

bursts in meaning..

Wyrd iterates to Weird 

a uniqueness in extreme..

Not a fixed uniqueness

but one which is happening..

A momentary identity

living within and

made of Freedom..

Wyrd.. my friends

is who I am

a name which colors

my instant recognition
of

expanding..luminous

Freedom...

WYRD

Wyrd is a fundamental Anglo-Saxon concept. The word, wyrd, is related to the Old Saxon wurd , Old High German wurt , Old Norse urur. 

It is an ancestral word to the modern day English word weird. It means that which has turned/ that which is turning (some people substitute turned/turning for happened/happening). The concept is often hard to describe, frequently misinterpreted and occasionally difficult to grasp. Here is a modern definition for Wyrd: fate personified; any one of the three Weird Sisters. (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) Even this seems inadequate in describing wyrd. A key point to recognize is that Wyrd is not a set in stone type of fate, as seen in other early cultures. Fate was not fatalistic, or predestined under the concept of wyrd; rather it was believed that wyrd is continually happening and changing. 

Grooves

Grooves

There are many in the sky

possibilities among the possible..

Who will dare to take a step

outside my prison of comfort

my groove my very own..

A sky of freedom beacons

a most fearful welcoming sky 

in which all grooves live and die..

Still the sky awaits and sends

patient messages of discomfort

until a moment of surprise:

I find my groove

made only of the sky...

Gratitude

Gratitude

Thanksgiving
prompts reflection
upon the gratitude
at the heart of 
Thanksgiving this year..
If election darkness
fills one's being
and gratitude seems
contracted this year..
We need realize
as the day approaches
separation's illusory voice
seemingly amplified..
Until we find once more
with expanding gratitude
the gracious heart
in this and every
Thanksgiving...

Philosophical Cafe Broadmoor

November 22nd, 2016

Topic: Gratitude

Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. Gratitude is not necessarily something that is shown after the event, it is the deep, a priori state of attention that shows we understand and are equal to the gifted nature of life. Gratitude is the understanding that many millions of things come together and live together and mesh together and breathe together in order for us to take even one more breath of air, that the underlying gift of life and incarnation as a living participating human being is a privilege; that we are miraculously, part of something, rather than nothing. Even if that something is temporarily pain or despair, we inhabit a living world, with real faces, real voices, real laughter, the color blue, the green of the fields, the freshness of a cold wind, or the tawny hue of a winter landscape.

To see the full miraculous essentiality of the color blue is to be grateful with no necessity for a word of thanks. To see fully, the beauty of a daughter’s face is to be fully grateful without having to seek a God to thank him. To sit among friends and strangers, hearing many voices, strange opinions; to intuit inner lives beneath surface lives, to inhabit many worlds at once in this world, to be a someone amongst all other someones, and therefor to make a conversation without saying a word is to deepen our sense of presence and therefore our nature sense of thankfulness that everything happens both with us and without us, that we are participants and witness all at once.

Thankfulness finds its full measure in generosity of presence, both through participation and witness. We sit at the table as part of every other person’s world while making our own world without will or effort, this is what is extraordinary and gifted, this is the essence of gratefulness, seeing to the heart of privilege. Thanksgiving happens when our sense of presence meets all other presences. Being unappreciative might mean we are simply not paying attention.

~   David Whyte

"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord that David played, and it pleased the Lord, but you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth the minor fall, the major lift; the baffled king composing Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah 

Your faith was strong but you needed proof. You saw her bathing on the roof; her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you. She tied you to a kitchen chair she broke your throne, and she cut your hair, and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah 

You say I took the Name in vain; I don’t even know the name. But if I did, well, really, what’s it to you? There’s a blaze of light in every word; it doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy, or the broken Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah 

I did my best; it wasn’t much. I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch. I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you. And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah! Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Questions~~~

1.  What is gratitude?

2.  What might be gleaned on gratitude from the Leonard Cohen lyrics above?

3.  What has the holiday Thanksgiving meant to you in the past?  Today?

4.  How is gratitude related to happiness?  To generosity? To abundance? To experience?

5.  A favorite Thanksgiving experience?

"Hallelujah"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord that David played, and it pleased the Lord, but you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth the minor fall, the major lift; the baffled king composing Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah 

 

Your faith was strong but you needed proof. You saw her bathing on the roof; her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you. She tied you to a kitchen chair she broke your throne, and she cut your hair, and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah 

 

You say I took the Name in vain; I don’t even know the name. But if I did, well, really, what’s it to you? There’s a blaze of light in every word; it doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy, or the broken Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah 

 

I did my best; it wasn’t much. I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch. I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you. And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah! Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Post-election....from SAND...

There is a crack in everything. That is how light gets in.

                                                                 ~ Leonard Cohen

Love is seeing the unity under the imaginary diversity. 

                                                      ~ Nisargadatta Maharaji

The events of this past week have shaken even further the already fragile sociopolitical order of the world. For many it felt like a complete dissolution of the political system, while some have rejoiced at the election results.

If we truly take nonduality at heart, we find that the conditions of the world that have created the phenomenon Trump are not separate from us. We have all been brewing this conflict, this separation, this fear, in our bodies and in our cultures for a long time.

Maybe now is the moment to truly see, feel, accept and celebrate our interconnectedness. As Nisargadatta Maharaj points out  “We are the creators and creatures of each other, causing and bearing each other's burden.”  We can no longer look for any “them” to resolve our conflicts, protect our lives, and allow our growth, we need to collectively provide the alternative world view in which Trumps are no longer necessary. 

This is the time for a different form of activism. An activism that rises form a deeper level. An activism that does not spring from separation, judgment, hatred or fear. An activism deeply rooted in love, based on the profound understanding that we are all interdependent pieces of this mysterious puzzle we call life. Let’s birth a planet that accepts every human being as equal regardless of their beliefs, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and culture. And let this small SAND community be a catalyst for this emergence.

So please book your calendars for the two upcoming SAND gatherings in 2017. The first one, in Italy, will take place at the Titignano castle August 7 - 13.  Then October 18 -22, SAND17 US will STILL be held at Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose. As much as we love the desert, upon our last visit to Joshua Tree it became apparent that it is not the home for SAND. We will be one more year at Dolce, expecting to move to a new venue in 2018.

The SAND17 topic is "The Emergent Universe". Read the description below and see how much it applies to this conversation! 

Love,

the SAND Team

change

change

change seems a beaconing in time

pleading a new search and goal..

to create a new chapter

amplifying the story we know

to which we cling..

yet real change

does not become.. but

is a startling recognition

of that within which

seeming change asserts..

that.. we are..

where freedom resides...

Paradise

Paradise

It is not often considered

that paradise is empty..

We look for a fullness

with many comforts..

However..

Unless empty

paradise is not paradise..

Emptiness is the

paradoxical fullness..

Apparently only this

recognition

can satisfy our longing...

Knowing Oneness...

Knowing Oneness

desire cries in our world of suffering..
lives seemingly and obviously
split and fragmented..
do we suspect that a larger secret
might reveal an illusion..?
our thoughts of Oneness conspire to confuse
and our perceptions confirm a blaring multiplicity..  
let us try something new:
a walk in the woods
a sit on a bench
welcome those thoughts and perceptions
in their rising and exits
all within indescribable Oneness..
And then please note:
Oneness of a sudden makes appearance
as surprising fragments of joy...

(with appreciation to Tony Parsons..!)

 ~~~Tony Parsons

All there is is this . . .and that . . . 

            being 

                        the one appearing as two

                        nothing appearing as everything

                        the absolute appearing as the particular

                        emptiness appearing as fullness

                        the uncaused appearing as the caused

                        unicity appearing as separation

                        subject appearing as object

                        the singular appearing as plurality

                        the impersonal appearing as the personal

                        the unknown appearing as the known 

                        It is silence sounding and stillness moving and these

                        words appearing as pointers to the wordless 

                                                . . .and yet nothing is happening 

Change

Change

We stand comforted 

upon hearing: all is change..

..please make adjustment..

..go with the flow..

Temporary comforts these

intending to sooth

our upsets and tears..

Yet these comforts

float but seem flawed

arising as apparent truths..

..but unease finds questions..

questions of permanence  

 inklings of identity..

Temporary comings and goings

are these lodged in wider space..

space which illuminates..

is stable and restful..

in which we find

authentic identity

this arrival of Peace...