Fierce Grace

A Message for the New Year!!


Trump as Fierce Grace
https://medium.com/@chuckgafvert/trump-as-fierce-grace-a91b5a5467bd?fbclid=IwAR2kjF8EDOuyZhYAgseLQ_iOGkXGUQuQFG1EX5AlfwuePnXk_eEfQfb1ukU


The Challenge

Responses to this message
were that it represents a challenge
for realization of fierce grace..
perhaps it is not..
the experience of grace is the
recognition that all is grace
with nothing outside or other..
it is a recognition of what we are
as unlimited grace..and those
discomforts in the political realm
are limited yet are a temporary
configuration of ourselves
and of course..made of grace..
this recognition may come in
a flash
without effort and challenge...

Depression

Depression

is a serious veiling of our true nature
and a sensitive subject when portrayed 
within a metaphoric perspective..
truth reveals that depression simply is
the inability to see that we are not 
the one we believe we are..we believe our
story..more..we are our story and our
story blankets any new identification..
we can only hope that there is a glimpse
of a blue patch midst the cloud cover 
which when approached reveals the
immensity of who we are..and disperses 
the temporary cloud of depression...



Rupert Spira on Depression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLAx-bxdkCw

What is Contact?

What is Contact?

we tend to believe what we have always believed
that contacts in life require the dual objects of 
the one experiencing the contact together with that 
which is contacted..but with careful attention we find
that all that is known of that which is contacted is
a thought or perception..and these are simply the
experience of the one experiencing..and going further
the one experiencing is also a thought which rises
in the unlimitedAwareness we are..so..I hasten to say: 
that contact is a temporary appearance within and
made of Awareness..this is all we know..
or can know...



Rupert Spira:  I have no Name or Form...(What is the meaning of Contact?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQkWYnA9VQ&t=514s&fbclid=IwAR0JjHthTEe7a0Z4-bS6wsO_Pc4nGmz3RDZPjM4RFXFOlWwfVOdZvLFqmvU

Ego beware

Ego beware

ego is self we believe we are

and this self wishes for a long life

a life of happiness and recognition..

threats to the ego are encountered warily

and with stealth and flex..

the most serious threat comes with a

denial of existence..a red alert..!

it is then that the ego can assume the form

of that which threatens..

ego as small self expands to Large

and claims to a knowing of the unity of all

and for a moment wins us over to

a concept placed on a pedestal..

ego beware...!

http://inspirationalvideosandquotes.com/hp_wordpress/?p=505.    (Rupert Spira)

"Transcending the ego, gaining an objective view of the "ego-making machine" is self-realization. Getting caught in it ceases.
Liberation is when the reality-constructing machine is exposed. Concepts are seen as they arise and do not influence action. Action that arises in "one" who is liberated is traditionally called non-action.
Then one might ask how can any movement be initiated? Here, the nondual approach is recognizing pure consciousness as the wisdom of that which works only as a unit. The unit comprises all that we know and the unknowable. Any interference of mind modules/thought mechanisms is not the liberated state but a returning to a state of hypnosis."
~Jac O'Keeffe

Books and the inner guru

Books and the inner guru

there is for some an attachment to books
which is not recognized..as attachment..
reading can become a master
whose mastery over our waking hours
encroaches on the clarity we seek..
it seems that at some juncture we must
declare a pause to what can become
endless seeking..by directing attention 
within..to the guru lying and waiting and 
prepared to provide the clarity with joy 
which has been sought..endlessly.. 
in books...
~~CC

"There will be a day when there is a realization that books just don’t do it for you any more. Keep reading and soaking up all that you are drawn to take within until that happens. Feel into the instructions you come across, and follow what has a rightness, an appropriateness, for you. Whatever brings more clarity—use it. Whatever feels dry and barren, drop it. Otherwise we are just following concepts of the "right thing" to do, and that’s a path that goes nowhere! There is a difference to what feels like the "right thing for you" and the "right thing." This is discernment and cultivation of the inner guru."
~Jac O'Keeffe

Inherence

Inherence

From the dictionary 

comes a meaning of 

permanent or essential..

Inherence 

then stands for 

that within which

all relational activities 

take place..

The world is 

the imagined body

containing the relations

 formed and residing

in temporary fashion..

Imagination presents its

connecting stories

but forgets the

origin and substance 
and the permanence 

of what is named here as 

Inherence...

in·her·ent·ly

/inˈhirəntlē,inˈherəntlē/

adverb

1. in a permanent, essential, or characteristic way.

   
   

   "the work is inherently dangerous"

Religions in Afterlife

QUESTION: RELIGIONS IN THE AFTERLIFE Will those who practice a religion remain in their religion for all eternity? For example, will Christians remain Christians forever?

Victor: Highly credible information from afterlife teachers tells us that in the early stages after arriving in the afterlife, people do continue to practice their own particular religion. There are beautifully constructed mosques, temples, cathedrals etc. But as spirits go to the higher realms, they completely drop ALL religious beliefs. They accept that there is one God and one religion, the religion of love. from:  http://victorzammit.com/December28th2018/


Religions

contain the stories and creeds
and building of temples and cathedrals
which in their best teaching role
point to That which contains all
thought and perception..seeming
to compose this objective life..

in a more idolatrous role
religions demand belief in these
many constructions of 
thought and perception..
however..these also are made
of That which contains..and
provide only temporary 
expression and color..which
fade with knowing of Truth..

awakening in "this life" involves
discovery of the perennial truth
of the only-Reality of Consciousness..
so why not imagine the same
in what is referred as Afterlife...?

Why Investigate Consciousness?

WHY INVESTIGATE CONSCIOUSNESS?
"If ordinary people really knew that consciousness, and not matter, is the link that connects us with each other and the world, then their views about war and peace, environmental pollution, social justice, religious values, and all other human endeavors would change radically." Dr. Amit Goswami, (left) Theoretical Nuclear Physicist, University of Oregon Institute of Theoretical Science. from:
 http://victorzammit.com/December28th2018/





Why indeed?

because it involves a crucial flip
in our understanding of reality..
this flip is upon us and is available
to help us discard the long outworn 
standard model of science and life
so compelling for these many years..
knowing consciousness-only as
what is Real..and that our model
we thought to be real
is really unreal..that is the roadmap
to resolve the dilemmas that 
seem to threaten and crush
and make meaningless the 
lives of temporary satisfactions
we have so long endured...

...the light gets in

...the light gets in

or might we say:
we recognize
the light..
the light does not need
to get in
light already is in
but is seemingly veiled
by what appears as
separation and brokenness..
we lift the veil
and discover our purpose
the only purpose
for the life we live...

The key hole

The key hole

Many appearances 

in this holiday season 

seem as locked doors..

War zones we view

wondering what string

of complexities led to 

the soldier standing

in a protective stance..

Homeless people with

cardboard signs

withstand cold wind

stating their ensnarement

and wish to belong..

Immigrants end their

long journeys in

detention..looking 

outward to that which

appears free beyond..

Many outward paths

seem impeded by

an ancient lock

guarding a hole

without a key..

We apparently wait

for a single key

filling many holes

with recognized light...

Emily sat on her porch

Emily sat on her porch

in her silence she watched

bees on a warm day

and the square structure

of the porch beams

her travel destination

she did not know..

We might imagine how

these external passings

filled and then emptied

her trip within..

And we might know

that she did know

always the same

destination..after the

summer stations and

nature's buzzing had 

entered and departed..

She was then 

the luminosity

allowing her trip

on this sunny morning... 

(Emily Dickinson's porch

portrayed in the photos..)

New Google Group: Nonduality Journeys

See my new Google Group, "Nonduality Journeys" here:  

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nonduality-journeys

Time's Deception

Time's Deception

In this season of the year
we hear many expressions
noticing the passage of time..
The year disappeared
and we are unaware how
time seemed to melt
as we send our greetings 
for the new year..

Our experience of the frailty 
of time may be
an experience of truth..
That time is not more 
than a thought or assumption
appearing from time to time.. ( :) )
which in an ancient deception
claims a sequence..making sense
of our voyage from birth to death..

Yet back to our seasonal experience
we  glimpse something seamless
a momentary vanishing of time
which might bring to each of us
the real Joy of the season...

Emerson's Vision

Emerson's Vision:


"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Many Journeys

There are many journeys...  

There are journeys in which we as travelers observe 

the world from conventional windows of body and mind.  

There is another journey which involves a recognition

that I Am much more than my old belief that my limited 

body and mind is who I am.  Also.. to discover that my 

belief in limitation is the root of my suffering and 

longing.  The new journey belongs to the experience of 

Non-Duality, in which are found to be two legs:  the 

inward, and the outward.  The inward leg results in the 

discovery of our Unlimited nature, and the outward leg 

is a "return" to the world..beginning a life-long 

realignment in our lives based on a joyful new 

Understanding...

See my new Google Group: 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nonduality-journeys 

Beauty

Beauty

lies not in things as they are..
beauty lies in That which
we are...







“Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she:
Truth and beauty buriéd be.”
~~ William Shakespeare



That Sun
Whatever you love here in existence
Has been gold-plated by God's qualities;
When that gold goes back to Origin
Only a dull copper will remain,
And you will be disgusted and reject it.
Don’t go on calling counterfeit coin "beautiful"
That beauty you love is only borrowed.
Gold will abandon all surfaces in the end
And return to the Mine of Magnificence.
Why not set out for that Mine?
The light will return from the wall to the sun;
Go now to that Sun that dances always in harmony.
From now on, take your water from heaven directly
Why go on trusting a rusting drainpipe?
~~ Rumi

Nonduality....(using Anais Nin quote)

Nonduality unmasked

Take a few minutes to

contemplate the quote..

Seem to be true for you..?

Some resistance..?

Why resistance, if so..?

What are "things"..?

Rephrasing:  I don't know things as

they are, but as I am..

Do you prefer "I" over "We"..?

Who is the "I"..?

Evolution NOW...

Evolution NOW

a troubling juxtaposition..?
troubling due to seeming 
strength and longevity 
of a science model
which..after centuries of success
is exhausted by challenges which lie
beyond and subversive..
the root of the dilemma:
the brazen model not recognizing
its limited qualifications to
understand the unlimited reality of
NOW..

the NOW experience removes  
science bedrocks of time and space  
and suggests a fuller reality..
but what of evolution's timeline
and fossil records appearing in space..?
a troubling query 
relieved only by newborn perspective
proposing that NOW is 
now the reality..and always has been:
the truth of wholeness
colored in a variety of ways
by this science model or that...


RS:  Time is Never Actually Experienced (with 13 year old boy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjDhov4p6Sg

Freedom itself...

I had difficulty with this article (see below). It seems based on an assumption of duality, which, if considered independent reality, is an illusion. Waiting 'til later for the experience of freedom is a prison sentence. The way out of this agony is to ask simple questions, such as: Who am I? Or, Who is observing all of the thoughts and emotions and perceptions which I experience? A new self-identity is then experienced which is found to be freedom itself...


https://www.dailyom.com

The Neanderthal Perspective

The Neanderthal Perspective

scientists can see changing shapes in brains
and surmise evolved powers of language and 
use of tools..
their perspective is one of duality..the prevailing
paradigm of our culture..appearances of fossils
and shapes..and gaps in the fossil record.. these
comprise present knowing of what went before..
an assumption of time and space as containers
is unstated and unchallenged..origination is
believed to be hidden in the artifacts..

might we consider that speech articulation
and tool use may be progenitors of our entrenched 
dualistic outlook..continuing to our own time..?
was the earlier Neanderthal perspective one of
more wholistic foundation..?  does the gap in
the record cast doubt on evolutionary dot connecting..?
a paradigm flip..encouraging these questions..may be
the dawn of a consciousness-only perspective
hastening our understanding of who we are..



But there’s a gap in the fossil record after that period; the next oldest skulls that Dr. Gunz and his colleagues have studied are just 36,000 years old. These have the distinctive roundedness of living humans...modern humans evolved more sophisticated powers of language. They may have also become better at making tools...tool use and speech articulation are hugely dependent on motor circuitry...Both require the brain to send fast, precise commands to muscles. And it may be no coincidence that the cerebellum and putamen are crucial parts of our motor circuitry — the very regions that helped change the overall shape of the modern human brain...To learn what they (genes) are doing in the brain will require that scientists discern very faint signals amid the noise of the human genome.

“That’s a long way off, if ever possible,” Dr. Capra said.

Above are abbreviated excerpts from:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/science/neanderthals-humans-brains-skulls.html

Misleading words

Misleading words

considering those 

 seasonal messages:

words are presented 

formed to tell

a long-ago-story of

 divine dissatisfaction

with creation's shadows..

 a unique birth ensues

purposing correction and

eventual salvation..

belief in this tale

grounded a religion

which has left many

temporarily filled..yet 

searching for more..

others step back

and know anew

the possibility of

experiencing their own

joyful presence

through a reminder

by a story..now

 filled with grace...

Allowing

Allowing

whether we like it or not
thoughts and feelings
arise in each of us..
some are welcomed..others not..
welcomed or not welcomed 
our attention..temporarily
fixes our identity..
we seem to become those arisings
of thought and feeling..

until..we notice their brief
appearance on a stage
on which all past thoughts
and feelings..have made their 
debut and departure..
but what of that stage..?
the discovery dawns:
we have always been
that empty and full stage
of most simple Allowing...


RS:  Allowing is What We Are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4iyE1V7Pbc&frags=wn

Peace and the Earth

Peace and the Earth

we hear the seasonal words
peace on earth and good will..
we also hear warning words
of apocalyptic happenings to
insect populations..of our
wasteful proclivities..of the
forgotten sacredness of earth..

it seems..that most urgently
we need to find the reality of
Peace..
and to consider and question
where is Peace located..?
does Peace have a boundary..?
or is Peace already with us
and the real substance
out of which each of us
and our Earth are made..?

such experience of clarity
of our own and the Earth's
identity..as Peace..may lead
to reconsideration of the
appearances of insects and
their travails..and our own..
a veil may be lifted
inviting our reentry to the
apparent work which
must be done..but now 
energized by a birth of
Knowing..that Peace is 
moving and shaping
itself...!







Peter Sawtell's Eco-Justice Notes
http://www.eco-justice.org/E-181214.asp

Sermon:  "The Windshield Effect"
http://www.eco-justice.org/Windshield_effect.pdf

Equality

Equality

when the question of equality arises
responses refer to differences of this and that
and equality recedes into a cloud of uncertainty..

it is then time to ask:  in what do all of the
protruding differences reside..?

honest experience then reports that there appears
to be an open space seeming to wrap and house the
infinite intricacies of color and shape..

in further exploration..again of the honest kind
we find that boundaries are not located and
the space seems as one..with the space itself
forming and deforming..coloring and decoloring..

the space seems permanent and vast
and each and every thing can claim to be made
of such vastness..

does not the reality of Equality assert itself
in this moment...?

essence

This is what Reality

really is..

It is not the multiple

appearances  

demanding our attention..

Colorful appearances

assert themselves in

such a persuasive way

that we grant their

exclamations of difference

as the one life we live..

We are deceived..!

we live unaware that

the essence of all 

displayed difference 

is exactly the Same..

Without the Sameness

(their Essence..that is)

all would never

have appeared

whether  a rose

or bumblebee

Batman

or us...!

Bathing..a Meditation

Bathing..a Meditation

A sense of grayness

perhaps of depression

in these holiday days..

times before

we have searched for

restoral

in downtown windows

in company of another

in comforting wine..

this morning we desire

more..more permanence

causeless happiness..

we wish for a bath

washing the hurt..

A warm bath rises

in our awareness..

stepping in to the

immersing water we

find a penetration of

water and warmth..

a body form now

is water form..

shaping our bathing

with only

waterywarmth...
~CC


also:

When the lightning of love for the Beloved
Falls from heaven and strikes this heart –
Know that love is also firing that heart,
And when the love for Him brims over in your heart,
Know that love for you is also brimming in His.
Can the sound of clapping come only from one hand?
When a thirsty man moans, "O water, O delicious water!"
This thirst that is in all our souls
Is the Water drawing us always to It.
We belong to It, and It belongs to us. 

- Rumi

Metaphor blindness

Metaphor blindness

many teachers of Self
past and present
have and do understand
the power of metaphor..
scripture texts assume
the readers lenses 
are tuned for metaphor..

this seeing has been 
distorted by fundamental
seeing which portrays
beliefs as anchoring truths..

beliefs sustain and then fail
leaving adherents living
through uplift and pain..

how might we understand
that a tree walking is lodged
in Truth...?



Also, please see:

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/12/07/a-cure-for-metaphor-blindness/

Advent

Advent

The themes are offered:

Hope..Prepare..Joy..Love..

This is the season

for preparation..

Preparation for:

Self recognition

possibly remembering

what has been 

recognized..
Recognizing one's Self is
recognizing the Lord
religion or no..

The veiled is unveiled

revealing Joy

which overcomes and

appears as every-thing..

This is the birth of

awakening Love

and the real Reason

for the season:

The Season

never-ending...

~CC

IV

Give up to thy soul—–

Let it have its way—–

It is, I tell thee, God himself,

The selfsame One that rules the Whole,

Tho’ he speaks thro’ thee with a stifled voice,

And looks through thee, shorn of his beams.

But if thou listen to his voice,

If thou obey the royal thought,

It will grow clearer to thine ear,

More glorious to thine eye.

The clouds will burst that veil him now

And thou shalt see the Lord.

VI

This is the reason why thou dost recognize

Things now first revealed,

Because in thee resides

The Spirit that lives in all;

And thou canst learn the laws of nature

Because its author is latent in thy breast.

~~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Excerpts from his poem,

Gnothi Seauton, (Know Thyself)

Forum map:

Knowing Ourself

Joy

Luke 1: 39-56 

Knowing Yourself 

“Knowing our Lord”

Recognition of our real Self

Recognition of our True Nature

Awakening

Fulfillment

Remembering

Identity as “I Am”

Oneness

Now

Grace

Love 

Luke 2: 1-14

Prepare     Hope

      Luke 3: 1-6                                         Luke 21: 25-36   

Separation/sin/ego

Fear/Desire

Beliefs

Questions??   (Who am I?)

Recognition of limitation

Recognition of illusion

Repentance (Turning)

Forgiving

Forgetting

Veiling of our real Self

Searching for Joy

Experiencing  “I Am