Power

Power

seems inextricably wrapped

with the illusionary

separate ego..

A formation after birth

healthily growing and with hope

to fill creation's purpose..

Increasingly

separation's burden weighs

prompting discrimination

and a rising to witness of

power in play..

The witness is found

as unlimited and

joyful relief of

power's burden...

(Today's Pillar Cafe topic..)

for Janice

for Janice

We have experienced

the treasury of friendship..

Over time we have

shared and expressed 
our Truth..

A Truth that lives

and will always live

between and around us

and in our one heart..

This is our Truth

our Peace

our Wholeness

our eternal Love...

Casting and Mending

Casting and Mending

Casting 

stretches and searches

for what..?

For new possibilities

 netfuls of happiness..

For abundance

in forms distinct and subtle..

Netting results most often

in temporary respites

calling for mending and new

casting..

Then on this day

a permanent mending

is glimpsed..

A mending for clarity

of our Self before

 casting...




What about Zebedee..?

He remained..
No complaints..for
he must have known
of permanent mending..
He knew that his sons
were now going
to the place 
the placeless place
his already home..
The home where
casting and mending
merged as one...




The Sea

had always been there
a habitual presence
bringing mending..
contemplation..
But they remained 
with small identities
enclosed by their work
of casting and mending..
The new teacher passing by
immediately accosted them:
Did you know
you are as the sea..as I am
I am..as You are..?
Yes..we must depart
immediately...

Is science infinite?

Science

rambles to find consciousness
and never seems to come to grips
with the centuries-old Truth:
science in all its expressions
is thought..and thought is limited
and temporary,,and made all the while
of consciousness..
science thought has assumed separation
observer and observed..until quantum thought
suggests a revolution..
science seems intent on circling and circling
the Truth..avoiding it's own dying in
Truth's quantum fire...
most scientists seem to be circling
in our day..not realizing the goal of 
their searching lies experientially
very close...


David Deutsch: “I think nothing worth understanding will always remain a mystery. And consciousness (qualia, creativity, free will etc.) seems eminently worth understanding.”

Martin Rees: Science “will hit the buffers at some point,” .."There are two reasons why this might happen. The optimistic one is that we clean up and codify certain areas (such as atomic physics) to the point that there’s no more to say. A second, more worrying possibility is that we’ll reach the limits of what our brains can grasp..."

(for more see: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/is-science-infinite )

We are projecting

We are projecting

It may seem

as a leap to say

we are projecting

not passively perceiving..

We seem to live

in a perceiving world

which is upheld by

those persistent centuries..

But now..in our time

perceptions may be shaking

as they insist separation:

viewer and object..

Perception props materialism

as this paradigm 
weakens and wavers.. 

So..let's go ahead

take the leap:

Know and feel our

projecting Wholeness...

Transparent power

Transparent power

Consider this relationship
in which power 
comes to health and peace:
From transparency we observe
with clarity
that power appears solid 
in seeming separation..  
But the line of separation fades
as we search for that boundary..
Power is absorbed in transparency
and now there is the possibility
to speak with loving authority...

Entanglement

Entanglement

polarityinplay

is the name of this blog..

It is simply the entanglement 

of poles

dancing and longing..

Longing for what..?

Longing for wholeness

which contains the poles.

The dance is a search

for:  I Am...

The real teacher

The real teacher

as we are evolving to understand
is Consciousness..
In a recent class or lecture or movie
perception of sights and sounds
argued most strongly that the teacher
or the conveyer of entertainment
was over there..external to we in our chair..
We were not taught that seeing and hearing
are much closer..lying within..made of ourselves..
This move of our attention inward
identifies our real teacher..
All thoughts and perceptions simply
color and configure Consciousness
only temporarily..
We are colored and configured and know
..have always known..that We are
the real teacher...

Words

Words

If we know that

Consciousness is Truth

how do we find words

to express..

Words are all objects

some subtle..some not

and

Consciousness is not..

The word Consciousness

is another object

pretending..

Words provide metaphors

concepts

pointers

polarities

but in the end

all falsely claim

to give us Truth..

And yet:

We all know

Consciousness is Truth...

Responsibility

Responsibility

A question of burden:

imagining a future

where responsibility falls..

Light or heavy

is the measuring stick

which swings at

us all..

There is variation:

light to one

heavy to another..

These are perceptions

which result from

imagining departure

from our

peace just now..

However..might we

observe these departures

from our peaceful place

 allowing their departure

within our peace...?

Certainty

Certainty

In 
our cultural cloudiness

we believe that there 

is no certainty..

When beliefs are raised

there are retorts of doubt..

Some reluctantly and

grudgingly admit that

their beliefs are carriers

of doubt..

So where do we go

to find a certainty

unencumbered..?

Perhaps all we need is

 an experience of blue sky 

standing in clarity behind

those clouds of belief...

STRETCH...April 2018

STRETCH

Sponsored by:  the PILLAR Institute for Lifelong Learning

facilitated by:  Charlie Coon

charlesrcoon@gmail.com

polarityinplay.com

Where/When:  The Myron Stratton Home

South Highway 115 

Third Monday of each month, 3:30 to 5:00 PM

For Monday, April16th, the topic is:

The Perennial "Light" 

“When he awakened from sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it.... This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16–17). In the Celtic world that gateway is present everywhere. In every place is the immediacy of heaven. In every moment we can glimpse the Light that was in the beginning and from which all things have come. As Oliver says, “The threshold is always near.”3 We can step over this threshold and back again in the fleeting span of a second. In a single step we can find ourselves momentarily in that other world, the world of eternal Light, which is woven inseparably through this world—the world of matter that is forever unfolding like a river in flow.” 

― John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God: Christianity's Struggle for New Beginnings

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/26853/the-rebirthing-of-god

MO video:  Make of Yourself a Light, Buddha's Last Instruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn4ngWs2Sz0

MO Video:  The Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr785gBEtng

MO Video:  Sunrise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ato15zwJVws


RS video:  The Light of Pure Knowing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df1vjEifNlo


RS essay:  Awareness Shines in Every Experience
http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/read/awareness_shines_in_every_experience

RS:  on the Perennial Tradition!
https://www.youtube.com/user/rupertspira?annotation_id=annotation_756070653&feature=iv&src_vid=S53mwl13u24

________________________________

For Monday, March 19th, 2018, the topic was:

"The Perennial Teachings of John Philip Newell"

"May the deep blessings of earth be with us.

May the fathomless soundings of seas surge in our soul.

May boundless stretches of the universe echo in our depths,

to open us to wonder..."

--John Philip Newell

Just as God speaks to us through the words of scripture, so God speaks to us through the elements of creation. The cosmos is like a living sacred text that we can learn to read and interpret. Just as we prayerfully ponder the words of the Bible in Christian practice, and as other traditions study their sacred texts, so we are invited to listen to the life of creation as an ongoing, living utterance of God.


~~John Philip Newell, Christ of the Celts

“Humanity’s great wisdom traditions are given not to compete with each other but to complete each other. We need each other as much as the species of the earth need one another to be whole. Rebirthing will happen within our Christian household when we reverently approach the heart of other traditions. It is what Griffiths in his work in India calls the “marriage of East and West,” a conjoining of what has been tragically torn apart.” 
~~John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God

“Bede Griffiths says of the way of relationship with other faiths that we need to stop living from only “one half of our soul.” We need to open to the treasure of wisdom in traditions other than our own. Not only have they much to teach us, but they also hold the key to unlocking depths within our own religious inheritance that we know nothing of as yet. Jesus says, “You must be born anew.” Rebirth means letting go of the cords of confinement so that newborn vision may emerge.” 

~~John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God

“But we will be aware of life’s oneness only to the extent that our ego is developed. At birth, our ego has not yet formed, so everything is experienced as a sea of undifferentiated oneness.  Only gradually do we become aware of life’s differentiations. And it is the development of the ego that enables us to do that.  Part of what we deeply owe our children and one another is the fostering of a strong sense of selfhood that can distinguish between the one and the many, the parts and the whole.  The ego must first learn to distinguish before it can then reunite.
The problem for many of us, however, and the problem that faces many of our religious traditions and cultures norms, is that development of our consciousness has been arrested. It has stopped short…We have graduated from undifferentiated oneness, but have neglected to move on to differentiated oneness.” 
~~John Philip Newell, A New Harmony

“When he awakened from sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it.... This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:16–17). In the Celtic world that gateway is present everywhere. In every place is the immediacy of heaven. In every moment we can glimpse the Light that was in the beginning and from which all things have come. As (Mary) Oliver says, “The threshold is always near.”3 We can step over this threshold and back again in the fleeting span of a second. In a single step we can find ourselves momentarily in that other world, the world of eternal Light, which is woven inseparably through this world—the world of matter that is forever unfolding like a river in flow….
~~John Philip Newell, The Rebirthing of God

Showed the following 3 videos...

JPN:  The Rev. Dr. John Philip Newell (introduction)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4KK4i1r7eQ 
JPN:  Sermon:  Listening for the Heartbeat of God 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACXweYygR_o&list=PLI5_n6iA4RUS_fetND5SZCcazO1up4nMv&index=4&t=0s
JPN:  The True Self:  The Marriage of East and West 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5qcFHcm3Xk

thinking makes it so

thinking makes it so

thinking is creation
expressing polarities
of many sorts
to include this one:
good/bad..
but thinking is only
consciousness expressing
as sensing and perceiving
also express..
Consciousness as thinking
forms the polarity
and becomes for now
in illusory separation
a chooser...

Universal I-Am

Universal I-Am

For both East and West
I-Am is the universal experience..
I-Am is the white screen
around these words..and
that out of which the words
are made..
I-Am is the space imagined
around each thought and
perception on this Saturday
morning..
I-Am is the perennial space
around all science..all religion..
Yet I-Am is overlooked and 
hides entangled in our
objective attention..
So..we need extract and then
return I-Am to these words
and to those multiplicities
of our rapt attention
on this Saturday morning...

Am I Surrounded..?

Am I Surrounded..?

Not enclosed

or restricted..

But do I allow

remember

the white space

surrounding my circumstance..

With the space remembered

there is the possibility

of the circumstance

fading and revealing

its whiteness...

A lesson in grammar

In the final analysis
is it a lesson in grammar..?
Most all of us have 
lived and believed
in the objects out there..
And we have been
much less interested 
in the subject in here..




However..once in a while
signs of a shift seem brewing..
The question arises:
Subject and object..they
seem entangled..one seems
one of a coin's sides..
Experience shouts..but
subject/object strikes back..
until it doesn't...!

Perception is Creation

Perception is Creation

Originally..Oneness Is (not-twoness)..

Oneness is sufficient

and of infinite potential..

Oneness yields perception

within and as itself..

Perception remains Oneness

and simultaneously

appears as form..

You are Oneness

and occasionally perception..

You are Creation...!

Happiness

Happiness

(in progress...in the meantime critically check out the video below)

happy? Matt Miofsky

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


Matt Miofsky:  happy?..what it is and how to find it
https://www.amazon.com/happy-what-find-Matt-Miofsky/dp/1501831100/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

happiness/pursuit/objects

happiness/pursuit/objects

our identity lies here
in these three..

a pursuit is formed

when a desire irritates..

we survey surroundings

pursuing an object

to still the desire..

And..finding the object

desire ends in stillness..

however..here is the rub:

stillness does not linger

and new desire irritates

along with new pursuit..

the pattern repeats

at more subtle levels
or more noble settings

until the Realization:

happiness lives here

 and now

as pursuit and objects
 come to an untimely end

in stillness...

polarityinplay...!


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 
--Declaration of Independence

Cezanne's book

Cezanne's book

Books indeed are intermediaries

but some are deeply engrossed in

the struggles of the mind to explain..

Thus..entangling the truth which is

enmeshed in many twists and turns..

Information does somehow flow but

intermediary chores are abandoned..

Lack of recognition of these chores

results in clouding 

the manifold picture 

of Nature's eternity...

But not the Louvre...!?

Razor Sharp

Razor Sharp

To discriminate

in our conventional living

on the nature of things out there

and of our thoughts in here

we must maintain 

a vigilence

to properly name

the many objects

including those most subtle ones

which claim their very subtle

importance..

Our perception need be

razor sharp

to call out the deceivers

lying in wait

masking our Nature:

ego incognito...!

Consciousness and Materialism

Consciousness and Materialism

Below is a summary of a blog entry by a friend (Thanks, Tom!)
which addresses the relationship between consciousness and materialism.  
in juxtaposition I have included a link to another scientist, Bernardo Kastrup 
(has many videos on YouTube) who has been outspoken on this topic.  
In my monthly STRETCH discussions on consciousness/non-duality, a primary 
reference is Rupert Spira's new book, The Nature of Consciousness.  
Bernardo contributed an Afterword to the book in which he talks about the 
seemingly miraculous correspondence between scientific formulation and 
conventional reality.  From a materialist-first point of view, this correspondence 
seems to be a miracle, but much less so from a consciousness-first point of
view...   (Good Poor Richards material, Tom and Charlie P!)

In summary:
The idea presented above is that there is a timeless, necessarily existing, 
realm of abstract mathematical and logical relationships, and these are 
selected (by a God, Deity, or panel of Gods or “Overlords”) to be 
mathematically consistent to form a world. Well, there could be a great 
many ways (again, maybe an infinite number) that these relations could 
be extracted out, while remaining fully mathematically consistent, to 
form a great number of mathematically consistent worlds.
Sentient beings 
are selected in some manner to occupy life within these worlds, and 
are carefully isolated from each other, although they all bathe in, and 
couple to, the consciousness field created to fill the universe.  
(For Tom's entire blog entry see:  https://bigthickglasses.blogspot.com )

Bernardo Kastrup:  Top 10 Materialist Fallacies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m7BxlWlvzc&t=4s

The Beacon

The Beacon

A beacon of light

stands as a lighthouse 

at last seen

through waves and wind

of a troubled sea..

A lighthouse is fixed

as was Epiphany's light..

This light of recognition

with overwhelming joy

of That through which

and as which

the waves and wind

and all that is not fixed

move and unfurl...

 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. (Matthew 2)

truth/thought/word

truth/thought/word

each of these

stand in their layer..

below conceals upper..

upper is subject

lower is object..

object alone

is an illusion..

the object's role

is to point

to the subject..

word conceals thought

thought reveals word

thought conceals truth

truth reveals thought..

there is only truth..

polarity/in/play

Seeing

 Seeing

Considering seeing

which is a powerful instrument

in our conventional experience..

But when we allow our focus to dim

and then to fade away

we sense our wholeness seeing

our subjective self rises

observing its truth..

Seeing ourself

we see our Lord

as the Sufi taught

and as Abraham experienced

with his visitors...!   (see below)

Rupert Spira:  How Awareness Sees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwtYr03VxZw

https://www.spiritawake.net/whoever-knows-their-self/

from Genesis 30:  18 The Lord appeared to Abraham[a] by the oaks[b] 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. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.

Fear

Fear

It seems that fear arises
with our believed departure
from Now..
With this departure
those many others arise
with unknown intent and
oft-perceived threat..
And so..the military budget
gains our attention revealing
unfavorable measurements..
Or the anti-virus software
becomes a moment's priority..
Meanwhile..others in fear
mirror our frightened ways..
We participate in discussions
which with accuracy lay out
the numbers for all to see..
So.. it seems..this is how it has 
always been..
The secret of Now
awaits revelation by the few
who tire of futile repetition...





The Atlantic:  Cuban Missile Crisis
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real-cuban-missile-crisis/309190/