Peace prospects

Peace prospects

is there something new:
two heads of state..often said to be
unpredictable..even unstable..will
meet concerning an intractable
standoff.. a division decades old..
we know that peace will only arrive
as parties meet knowing shared identity
before discussion of history and fences..
the recognized single identity enters 
and shines..recognizing egos as 
illusory barriers..yet..let us give 
peace a chance..by knowing now:
their shared identity 
is mine and ours...


Several readers have shared a report:
North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday. In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country's only known underground nuclear test site.

The comments by Mr. Kim were made on Friday when the leaders of the two Koreas met at Panmunjom, a village on their shared border, the spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, said on Sunday, providing additional details of the meeting. "I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific or at the United States," Mr. Kim told Mr. Moon, according to Mr. Yoon's account of the meeting. It was another dramatically conciliatory statement by Mr. Kim, whose country threatened to do exactly those things during the height of nuclear tensions last year.

~~SLASHDOT

Paris (2)

Paris (2)

art provides a glimpse

of eternal reality

pointing to our identity

an identity that seems hidden

until an artpiece parts the curtain..

and the curtain itself now glows

as it has always glowed behind

 our curtained perceptions...

extricate yourself

extricate yourself

do this and 

taste the beauty

in the seascape

and all around..

extricate the tangling

and regard yourself anew

as the luminous whole

which is your birthright..

then look again at the 

sea and mountain

and experience

the taste of the

forenamed beauty...!

Paris (1)

Paris (1)

the day soon to arrive for departure

for this city of springtime..

gathering maps and luggage

and passport and advice..

the imaginings of Paris

color pre-departure awareness..

thoughts and perceptions

are bundled with expectation

for new colorations as the

journey unfolds..

my father was in Paris

during the war to end all wars

and my own military memories

will likely lead to Normandy

and new appreciation for 

those fields of sacrifice...

One of the reasons we love to travel is that that element of ourselves which never goes anywhere is, by contrast with the movement involved in traveling, brought into focus. The changes emphasize the changeless. The sense of deep peace that often accompanies a journey is the peace of our changeless presence. We love to go to different places only to taste again and again the recognition that we never go anywhere and to feel the peace that accompanies that recognition. ~ Rupert Spira

ambition

ambition

brutus finds the truth
of the ego's struggle
upward..seemingly for each
new ladder rung..
to discover from the top
that temporary happiness
accompanied each rung
but eluded finally
on each and from the top..
there is the thought
that the discovery of futility
could have been discovered
nearer the bottom of one's
ladder of life...

Julius Caesar

2.1.21-27

Brutus

But, ‘tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

Who is the lord?

Who is the lord?

check it out: 

Emerson's Experience

who speaks of

7 lords of life..

and Mary Oliver with

6 recognitions of the lord..

and from Belyani:

knowing oneself is

knowing the lord..

what is the common..?

each seems to recognize:

that we have the capacity 

each of us

to experience here and now

what's traditionally named

as the lord..

a discovery of ourselves

as the light

and a discovery of the 

universe as that

same light... 

burning branches

burning branches

the vine

a new name coloring I am..

the shepherd is now the vine

the hired hand the branches..

the colors change

but I am..our identity..remains..

branches express the separation

which we all experience..

we live in what seems as

a subject-object world..

as branches we seek the vine

unaware that we already are

the vine..!

then it happens in a moment

as the seeking wearies

our false identity as branches

is burned..at last revealing:

I am the vine..and the

fruits of joy burst forth...

John 15:1-8 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Jesus Is the True Vine

15 Jesus said to his disciples:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit. But he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit, so that it will produce even more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of what I have said to you.

4 Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. 5 I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. 6 If you don’t stay joined to me, you will be thrown away. You will be like dry branches that are gathered up and burned in a fire.

7 Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you. Then you can pray for whatever you want, and your prayer will be answered. 8 When you become fruitful disciples of mine, my Father will be honored. 

A soft defocus

A soft defocus

with blurred edges

obscuring precise definition..

the attention drifts freely

and the experience of equality

rises in what seemed before

a hierarchical display..

then as we allow the focus

to return and separate

there is an insight of 

a source

of all focusing..

and the focusing simply

and temporarily seems to

shape that which

we name as

consciousness...

Separation in prayer

Separation in prayer

an assumption of separation
is found in many prayers..
separation is assumed in requests
seemingly to Someone distant..
the non-duality teaching closes the
distance..and experiential prayer
arrives..



AN ALTERNATIVE TO SELF INQUIRY
From an ultimate point of view it doesn't make sense who or what would pray to God. It would have to be something other than God. But at a more relative level if we seem to be something other than God, then praying to God; by praying we don’t mean, “God, Please may I have this.” A prayer in the sense of turning yourself towards God is valid. One might pray to be filled with God alone. When I was eight or nine, we used to sing hymns everyday and on Sunday evening we’d had this very particular hymn. We were used to sing every Sunday evening for five years and it’s lodged itself in my memory. It was such a beautiful prayer and it went like this: God be in my head and in my thinking. God, be in my eyes and in my seeing. God, be in my ears and in my hearing. God, be in my mouth and in my speaking. God, be in my heart and in my understanding. That would be a good prayer for the separate self. God, just replace me with you, just fill my whole being with your presence. That would be a legitimate prayer. It would be an alternative to self inquiry. In fact, it's the same thing through a different channel. But the God that we are speaking to is not a god (pointing upward), we're speaking to infinite Being, infinite Consciousness. - Rupert Spira

Earth Day

Earth Day

earth day today
implies a wholeness
of the earth and of
each of those dwelling
therein..

our spiritual traditions
seem to point to a 
common linkage..

perhaps this day can teach
of the meaning of the universal
name:  the Lord..
the name names the experience
of knowing oneself 
and with the same knowing
knowing that the earth
indeed the universe
all are apparent colorations
of one luminous whole..
yet these are all words
which must fall silent
in recognition of their own
limitations..
the one who knows the Lord
must know silence...

from the east:

Isha Upanishad, The entire universe is to be looked upon as the Lord.

The Bhagavad Gita,  The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahman, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater.

Srimad Bhagavatam, Ether, air, fire, water, earth, planets, all creatures, directions, trees and plants, rivers and seas, they are all organs of God’s body. Remembering this a devotee respects all species.

from the west:  

Psalm 23. Green pastures, still waters. 

Matthew 25:31-46. Caring for “the least of these.”

John 20:11 – 18. Jesus as “the gardener.”


full references:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2018/04/dozen-bible-passages-preaching-creation-care-sermon/#CkxIyfQrWB5VcQr2.03

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/samudra/2018/04/7-hindu-quotes-about-nature-earth-day-world-environment-day/#q83WblVlzjWjf1wx.03

The hired hand

The hired hand

I am..identifies the good shepherd..
The good shepherd recognizes her identity
and the sheep as appearances of 
everything she experiences ..coloring
the wholeness of her life..
Appearances are not separate but
shine as the oneness she knows..
The hired hand has not yet recognized
his true identity and lives in separation
in quiet desperation..as the wolf comes..
She realizes there are many sheep
in the wide world and beyond..
These are also not separate..which
she realizes with Joy..
He will have every opportunity..24/7
to lay down his faulty assumptions of
separation..and to find the same Joy...

~~CC


John 10:11-18 New International Version (NIV)

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Attention

Attention

Where do we place our attention..?

The question is similar to the question of silence

and how we apparently need to break the silence

to learn of the world..

However..the problem in our culture is that

we come to believe that that world out there

is independent..and the place we go

for all future learning opportunities..

That is..

until we notice that the world out there

is never-ending in the information

that it provides and provides..

The world viewed in this way

becomes burdensome until

a recognition arrives

softly or perhaps with a jolt

that a new direction is a possibility

for our attention..

The new direction we find

is not a direction..but a placeless place

where we have always been..

At which time..the world changes its face...!

Deepak YouTube videos

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=deepak+chopra+life+as+dream

Deepak:  Rational Knowledge...and Ignorance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-Fv8d95vy0

Deepak:  Life is But a Dream

https://www.facebook.com/ankiit.chawla/videos/1931926613486365/

RS: Is World Peace Possible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwZli4iUAvE

RS and Deepak Chopra...

https://www.facebook.com/DeepakChopra/videos/10155479643675665/UzpfSTE4NDcwMzQ4MTU5NDkwMToxNzQ3MTc1MDc1MzQ3NzI2/

RS: You cannot lose something precious (Abundance and scarcity)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC09EmQ5-c4

Quantum Directness

Quantum Directness

There is an approach 

to self-recognition

arriving daily to many..

A direct recognition

of what we are

comes from a 

very subtle noticing..

A soft kick

off the line on which

we have walked

in years of practice

and assumption

and fear..

A quick quantum

recognition of some

arrangement of nature and

past futilities of a sudden

are bared... 

Silence

Silence

The only Truth is Silence
which also says that
anything taught is untrue..
However..we know that teaching
needs a voice to break the silence..
The key to happiness or to
the freedom of Truth
is to realize that teaching is made
of Truth..but as itself..is untrue..
Know this and Enjoy...!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqhlOa5dcRM

Fractal animals

Fractal animals

You are invited to

check this on google:

"fractal animals"

and you will find familiar animals

perhaps those on Noah's Ark..!

Notice the depictions of light

in and around and through

each of the animal images..

Now a quick reminder of

fractals as insight displays:

Fractals speak of vibrations

calculation/feedback

iterating unique variations

of light..each expressing differently

the light of consciousness

named by the fractal formula..

This is the consciousness-only

model of reality within which

shapes arise and appear

in countless ways..

You and I are this formula

perceiving our iterations:

the shining animal kingdom.. 

 Prophetically announced

by google...

The Perennial Light

The Perennial Light

Religions may be born again

when invited..or urged to return  

to the Perennial Light

 their home and source..

Religions develop as a 

prodigal..securing adherents 

to their veiled vision..

Forgetting their source with

esoteric practices and colors

adding fearful demands for

adherence..for control..

Scriptures seem opaque 

but carefully viewed

often point to their source..

As adherents depart

and the light of criticism

penetrates many layers

there remains 

a longing for new birth..

It is a call from grace

to resurrect and remember

the Perennial Light

and watch for emergence

of something brand new...



MO video series:  Grasshopper, Wake Early, Praying, Night and River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16CL6bKVbJQ&index=3&list=PL668E92F8EA6CF22E&t=0s

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

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 Video:  Is Experience Veiling of Our True Nature
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qHQPdBWt-I

JPN video:  Interbeing:  Moonlike Consciousness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRrxUcNgz24

JPN video:  The True Self:  The Marriage of East and West 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5qcFHcm3Xk

Consciousness comes knocking

Consciousness comes knocking

We often find in these days
science in struggle but advancing
toward the universal experience:
consciousness is all..
There remains..however..their
need to locate objects while
subjectivity knocks at their door..
Computers and brains are seen
as objects of interest residing
in old familiar locations..
Subjectivity asks that processes
in and of consciousness replace
the fixity science still holds dear..
Astonishment results from 
sightings of vastness and mystery
but..alas..without experiencing
that within which and as which
all forms form and unform..
and remains...



Scientists Found That the Soul Doesn’t Die – It Goes Back to the Universe (from: irelease.org)

It turns out that the human brain could be similar to a “biological computer,” and that human consciousness may be like a program which is run by a quantum computer within the brain. What’s even more astonishing is that after someone dies, “their soul comes back to the universe, and it does not die.”

This is all according to American physicist Dr. Stuart Hameroff and mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose, both of whom argue that the soul is maintained in micro-tubules of brain cells. The two scientists refer to this process as “Orchestrated Objective Reduction,” or “Orch-OR.” Allegedly, when human beings are “clinically dead,” microtubules in the brain lose their quantum state but are still able to retain the information inside of them.

This theory was recently outlined on The Science Channel’s ongoing documentary show Through the Wormhole, in which Dr. Hameroff elaborates: “Let’s say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing; the micro-tubules lose their quantum state. The quantum information within the micro-tubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, and it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large.

If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the micro-tubules and the patient says ‘I had a near-death experience.’ If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.”

Hameroff’s words suggest that human souls are much more than mere “interactions” of neurons in the brain. In fact, this theory indicates that these “souls” could have existed since the very beginning of time itself. And with all of the recent discoveries pertaining to dark energy and dark matter—substances which humans cannot see or interact with, but substances which we know exist, nevertheless—this theory could end up explaining things that are even more mysterious and fascinating.

*This content was inspired by an amazing article that can be found here: https://www.peacequarters.com/scientists-found-soul-doesnt-die-goes-back-universe/.

Real and Unreal

in progress...





The right perspective:
The basic ingredient of any endeavor is right perspective, so Krishna right away delineates two universal principles that must be kept in mind at all times, whether engaged in outer activity or inner meditation.
“It is found that the unreal has no being; it is found that there is no non-being for the real. The certainty of both these propositions is indeed surely seen by the perceivers of truth” (2:16). Swami Prabhavananda’s interpretive translation is: “That which is non-existent can never come into being, and that which is can never cease to be. Those who have known the inmost Reality know also the nature of is and is not.”
“Know that that by which all this universe is pervaded is indeed indestructible; no one is able to accomplish the destruction of the imperishable” (2:17). Prabhavananda: “That Reality which pervades the universe is indestructible. No one has power to change the Changeless.”

for more see:  https://ocoy.org/dharma-for-christians/bhagavad-gita-for-awakening/the-unreal-and-the-real/

a doG meditation...

a doG meditation...

this is about what we call "pets"

about ownership..objectivity..

an anachronism now..?

the inner model of

consciousness-only

may provide a hint:

only consciousness Knows

not plants..not animals..not us..

that is a radical reversal

of our heretofore belief

that consciousness springs separately

from each compartment of life..

considering again:

only consciousness Knows

is aware..and is expressed in

every-thing..every-where..

this equality of Knowing
filters through our finiteness
our body and mind

and through our "pet" dog
and through the turtle at sea..

So.. we pause:

consciousness only..Knows

Six Recognitions of the Lord (Mary Oliver)

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

~~Mary Oliver, in Thirst



Six Recognitions of the Lord

I know a lot of fancy words.
I tear them from my heart and my tongue.

Then I pray…..

I lounge on the grass, that’s all. So
simple. Then I lie back until I am
inside the cloud that is just above me
but very high, and shaped like a fish.
Or, perhaps not. Then I enter the place
of not-thinking, not-remembering, not-
wanting. When the blue jay cries out his
riddle, in his carping voice, I return.
But I go back, the threshold is always
near. Over and back, over and back. Then
I rise. Maybe I rub my face as though I
have been asleep. But I have not been
asleep. I have been, as I say, inside
the cloud, or, perhaps, the lily floating
on the water. Then I go back to town,
to my own house, my own life, which has
now become brighter and simpler, some-
where I have never been before.

~~Mary Oliver, in Thirst

MO in New Yorker:  What Mary Oliver's Critics Don't Understand
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/27/what-mary-olivers-critics-dont-understand

Holy Humor Sunday

In humor

the boundaries of belief

are shattered with

explosive expansion

loss of control

and happiness..

Suddenly 

and with others 

 the careless abandon

is a gateway to

the truthfulness

so often concealed

by those boundaries

we assume..!

Happy HHS...!  :)

Thomas the Twin

Thomas the Twin

Thomas brought our attention

to the reality of seeing and touching..

Seeing and touching reveal Knowing

Knowing is finding

our true Self

as beauty and truth

not the self with nail scars

and those misconceptions..

And then Thomas was told

about those in the future

who would Directly

experience beauty and truth

without the intermediate 

seeing and touching...!

The perennial dance

The perennial dance

They wish to marry

after a number of years..

One is Jewish..the other Christian..

The families of each

seem wary and quietly

oppositional..a dearth of

enthusiasm over a 

ceremony of marriage..

Advice could involve

compromise..a common

denominator..

Agreeing to disagree
adjusting the boundaries

as time moves forward..

The words above 

comprise a shadow

over a holy celebration..

Might we now introduce

the perennial dance:

partners in difference

are..temporarily..painting

the Source 

that Oneness experience

of partners in motion..

This..the perennial dance

a discovery in joy...

Using a thorn to remove a thorn

Using a thorn to remove a thorn

All endeavors in life
need a start in Peace..
Peace is our experience
without the 
thoughts and perceptions
which seem convincingly to
 declare an independent world..
Another name is Silence
which all may experience
any time and any place..
That is the start..
Now appear words
 of sameness and difference
which appear to break
the Peace and Silence..
Words bring longing
for that place before
wounding words unfold..
(The cosmic joke:
the place we were is
the place we are..?)
We await the arrival
of life's many teachers:
scripture and nature
neighbors and friends
an evening concert
 a startling dream..
Teachers carry words
words as thorns
to remove the thorns
which hide the place
we long to return..
And finally: all thorns
burn in the glow
of returning Peace... 
~~CC

Meditation is not an activity. It is the cessation of an activity. 

In the final analysis, nothing that is absolutely true can be said of meditation, not even that it is the cessation of an activity, because meditation takes place or, more accurately, is present beyond the mind and the mind therefore, by definition, has no access to it. 

However, in order to understand that meditation is not an activity, we first come to the understanding that it is the cessation of an activity. This understanding is a very efficient tool for undermining the belief that meditation is something that we do. Once we have fully understood that meditation is not an activity, the activity that we previously considered to be meditation will naturally come to an end. At that point, the understanding that meditation is not an activity has fulfilled its purpose and can also be abandoned. 

Once the thorn has removed the thorn, both are thrown away. ~~~Rupert Spira

Also see:  http://www.nevernotpresent.com/satsangs/thorn-remove-thorn/