Even bigger collection of Buddhist Humour
Very interesting episode of Star Trek: Voyager called "Revulsion". I liked the continuing exploration of the difficulties that a Borg would face being re-assimilated back into human society. Concepts like fun, humour, interpersonal relationships, etc. But the main focus was on a holographic "life-form" who went off-the-deep-end at being a slave to such "inferior" species as humans. He rightly said that he never suffered illness or imperfection or had any need to eat to sustain his existence. He was in fact pure light. Interesting ...
Found a review of Where every breath is a prayer by Jon Ortner but couldn't connect to the site - traffic?? - Click here to {maybe} connect. I DO connect and find the cover is different from my edition. The pictures inside are out-of-this-world but you'll have to buy the book to establish that fact for yourself.
Being in a buoyant mood, I sent a few links to words of wisdom chat place. Should be well received & appreciated. Compiled a few of them here
Been writing quite a bit lately. I suppose that's why I really get INTO Conversations With God because Neale wrote that by "emptying his mind" and he calls it "automatic wwriting". Many of my poems and thoughts set down on paper seem to come-to-me in a similar way. Which should hardly be surprising.
Anyway, here's today's efforts (or non-efforts if you catch my drift) -
Once you understand reality (or even have a glimpse of such understanding), anger & jealousy become literally impossible. They become faint distant memories that belong to someone else's lifetime.
Theree is probly nothing more irritatingly cheerful than a reformed atheist. Yes, people do see their anger and hatred ect as a REACTION. If you re-arrange those letters a bit, you will see that it is actually a CREATION. Once this shift is made, you open up the possibility of discontinuing the choice of creating it.
{Needs work but you know-what-I-mean}
Yes, as I wander round shopping centres and other places where the masses gather ... it strikes me that we really do have to liberate everyone. In this prevailing atmosphere of mistrust, you DO modify your behaviour so as to not spin people out or make them uncomfortable or suspicious (even when there is ABOLUTELY no need to be) Case in point - showing interest in the children of "strangers" - because at a young age they DO say hello to all & sundry before they learn that you mustn't do that. Don't talk to strangers. It's so sad ...
And while most of us hold onto our hang-ups & our rigid grid of expectations and concepts of the "way things should be" ... and that grid is an evolving thing. It sure isn't there at birth. So if it can be slowly assembled then it can also be dismantled. Hopefully not quite as slowly as it was built up. But we do have eternity.
And yet, with ALL that, I still have many periods where this marvelous spontaneous energy just bubbles up from deep within. Often it happens when all around me are being awfully serious about something or other ... Like many descriptions of Satori or Awakening, you really do just BURST into laughter ...
TSP books arrived - The Birth Of Time by John Gribbin, The Undiscovered Mind by John Horgan & The Bones of the Master
Much more to follow {NOT that I particularly want anyone to follow me even if they could}
Some really surreal poetry ideas -
**** Need to fixup a few HTM at site - eg mental.htm & link to latest versions of some of those poems ...
Outdoors Inc - should check them out ...
Yes, back to that line about nothing being more nothing more irritatingly cheerful than a reformed atheist ...
I heard some people talking about self-esteem. Well, I'm sorry but in all honesty if that esteem is based purely on wordly notions it is like building a mansion on shifting sands. You'll spen all your time worrying when it's going to topple over.
If however that self-image is based along the lines that your true nature involves having unconditional worth as a creation from a divine source {trying to be general enough to encompass all religions/philosophies} ... then it is something that no person or circumstance can ever take away ... I know what it is like to be an atheist. It is a dead-end street. Oh, you try daily to tell yourself it is not. But even if you get a so-called good deal out of life (and that is a matter of complete chance since there is no higher powere or purpose and the bad stuff can hit at any stage - oh this needs to be re-worked but you know where I'm headed ....
Click here for SPIRITWEB chat places - many have regular events or meditations
People live in the land of worlds
And they live inside the only world of lifetimes
My doctor showed me how to believe in the twelve nightmares of life
And Then he told me how to bleed from inside the buttered knife
A few reflections sparked (if you CAN spark a reflection?) by the Words of Wisdom Forum ... will transcribe soon ...
Q: What did a Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?
What Is Enlightenment - also explains satsang
Yes, technology is a double-edged sword. A million distractions to indulge in. Wonders of communication like the Internet yet paradoxically people one-to-one do NOT seem to be communicating. With so much ready "entertainment" fewer talking & reading & "amusing themselves" ...
A couple of the posts at WOW did get me thinking. I posted a picture of some
stars in the sky and said this is what we watched before the "idiot box" (no offence intended). Yes watching the heavens requires more INPUT from the watcher. It is not a fast-paced, ever-changing kaleidoscope of images flooding the optic nerves. A different quality of "watching" is required ... And on the content of TV - how much of it presents us with an inspired or inspiring view of ourselves? The same question could be asked of newspapers, books, mags, & our conversations. There's an old computer acronym GIGO which means "Garbage In Garbage Out". We are what we eat. Physically. Emotionally. Intellectually. Spiritually.
From a few recent discussions I am coming to the conclusion that TRULY respecting someone else's point-of-view or picture-of-reality is a very rare quality. We do tend to get caught up in who's "right" & who's "wrong". When you have had enough glimpses of reality from a higher perspective it really is quite absurd to argue which of us has a speck more of the "truth" than others.
Some interesting messages at Ram Dass, especially the man who says he is deeply in love with his wife so he knows that love is IN him but he needs her actual presence to experience it. He wants to know how to experience it all-the-time without it being "attached" to a specific individual.
Couple of lines for a poem?
I find myself laughing for no reason at all
Dhyami Ywahoo - from Community Page at howtoknowgod.com
I love the quote/story about your body being a cloak from the Creator and is hard to come by so you better not destroy it.
A: Make me one with everything.
I see this universe as microscopically small
Plus these two from the comment "life is but a dream" ...
Click here for Ram Dass Board
A few more entries in live journal. My consciousness does seem to be all-over-the-place at the moment. Then again, as always, it is perfectly clear in my head ... until somebody speaks to me ...
Dream Yoga - opens up a new browser window ...
life is but a dream
Excerpts from ET101 ...
Search for ET101 - also Zoev Jho?
www.gangaji.org
From the Forum - and also Ram Dass board?
at -
http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb956670
All this is VERY tricky if you have to be non-judgemental about people's belief systems whilst also wanting to point out (for what motive, one has to ask) alternative ways of seeing things. Anyway, yes many have the view is all you need is to have a "belief in Jesus" and you're okay and will get to Heaven after you die. Yet, while holding this view many also hold onto resentments, jealousy, fear and personal animosity towards others. The part where Jesus said "Love your neighbour as yourself" seems to have slipped through the cracks.
Moreover, if Heaven is always seen as some future place and time then we won't be seeking to create it HERE & NOW. (From CWG comes "HEAVENISNOWHERE") And until we do see Heaven as something to be created and experienced in the here and now we probly never will.
We create it by TRULY following example of Jesus (& many others) of unconditional love which can never be experienced as long as we hold onto the aforementioned obstacles.
So ends today's sermon. Well, I am serious - I seem to remember writing somewhere that there can be no lasting genuine happiness without peace of mind and there can be no true peace of mind while we hold onto anger, hatred, greed, etc etc ...
And from personal experience, I do KNOW for sure as long as you HOLD onto hatred or any negative thought/emotion about anyone fro any reason you will not experience Heaven-on-Earth
Yes, we are a long way from having a world permeated by unconditional love just at the moment ... or ARE we?
Not to mention unrestrained bliss ...
Commenced a small file on Muktananda as a result of an email sent to me. I'd forgotten how much was in that book - esp the descrips of altered states of awareness/consciousness ...
While we're in a reflective mood ... there MUST be something about mowing the lawn (remember the poem). I recalled a little discussion earlier in the week about evolution and I printed out the material from Hugh Ross about the odds of the DNA molecule evolving by "chance" even assuming the best case scenario. {Should dig up the link}
Then it hits me ---> the most powerful argument (and yes, I did used to be an atheist but that already seems like someone else's life) is NOT the biologocal complexity of life on earth incredible and wondrous as it is. Nor is it the exquisitely fine-tuned laws of "nature" that allow life to exist HERE on the crust of this small, blue world. No. The most powerful argument is all the non-physical attributes of human (and inhuman) life.
Love. Intelligence. Intuition. Memory. Awareness. Consciousness. yes, consciousness alone is an unfathomable mystery.
How is my individual consciousness connected to my physical form?
Even IF you accept the possibility of random events over billions of years giving rise to our physical forms, how do you even begin to account for our consciousness and its depth and features?
Besides which, it is a LOT like being in love. Once you know you JUST know. You can't find words to explain it to someone who has yet to experience it. You JUST know. And believe me! I thought I would be the very last person who would ever say any of these things. I used to think meditation and all that "spiritual stuff" was nonsense.
Just been reading Zen Wisdom form the library - one quote is along these lines -
"All this Zen stuff is nonsense", said the skeptic.
"You are perfectly correct," responded the master, "but this is a teaching I normally reserve for my most advanced students."
From the Words of Wisdom Forum - "You are NOT your stories" (or your name - my story of writing "me" on my name-tag at a Mental Health seminar.
**** Should transcribe some of a Star Trek episode I just watched on one of my videos. A bit like the poem "Glimpses" in terms of premonition. I'm sure I recorded it before the events of the past 15 months. It addresses the ideas of transformation and an evolutionary leap for species and the fear of those who don't understand and can't "control" what is going on ...
Also on video - an episode of Oprah called "It's a miracle" - some of the stories were truly "starnger than fiction". You would not dare invent such stories. Should do a websearch -
Click Here
http://www.livejournal.com/users/grjallen
and can download software to update off line - and include in home page??
Found that quote in "100 ways to be happy" which is yet another of those pocket size books which seem so popular these days. I have to admit, part of me still feels like saying "How screwed up have we become if we need instruction books on how-to-be-happy?"
More interesting exchanges at "Words of Wisdom" Forum - Orwell & "doublethink" & Starbuilders & "surfing the paradox" {Click hear} ... may be the one upside of the demise of Chopra Forum. But as I said, a pity it is not "public" ... to get to the forum you may
Click here and maybe ask the "responsible person" for the password by email?? (I'd assume anyone reading this journal must have great respect for all creatures and would not think of disrupting the forum (
then again a litle dis-ruption can be beneficial!)
Or you could
Click here to see a fairly complete record of the goings-on at Words of Wisdom since I joined a couple of weeks ago. I should update it but you know me ...
More Nathaniel Hawthorne
Original Nameless Ecstasy - from a search for "satori-awaken-laugh" ...
The Light Mission Community-Forum Archives
Read an interesting article on Caroline Myss and "sacred contracts"
Borobudur Temple in Java
Also a collection of
images here
Plus official home page
eHOW - advice on growing herbs? - from a GIF banner ad ...
In fact the site is entitled "How to get things done" ...
A little excursion to the
dark side for a day or two - well ... it'd be awfully boring if I was nice ALL the time wouldn't it...
Heaps of sites lately I aint been putting in here -
Sermon mentioning Celestine Vision - from library trip and search engin ...
www.dividebyzero.net - Interesting site found from a search for "Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension" - has excellent poetry & images etc ...
From Rebecca's Ghost (link?) Poetry Forum - poem was called green eggs & ham ...
Clich here
Someone asked me how I achieved the visual impact of my "Depression" poem ... then I realised they were most likely referring to the font colour & size! ...
Interesting discussions at SPIRITWEB "Words of Wisdom" ... pity it's password protected in a sense because you won't get much "passing traffic" stopping to have a look ... plus the format aint as good as the "old" Chopra Forum ... oh well ...
A pile of notes on my desk and I might even type them in here one day ... but you know me ...
In the meanwhile read this and be grateful for whatever you get ... (no pun intended)
what is the true nature of the human being?
the ability to ask these questions in itself seems to bring the question
asker closer to gnosis concerning the truth of human nature.
one simple answer to the second question in reference to my human
nature is "i am".
the first question has a different nature than the second. i know "i am"
but it seems not to be my place in existence for me to decide what other
entities' self perspectives are concerning their own inner true nature(s).
therefore, an entity aside from myself decides for it/themselves what
its/their true nature is with or without the use of words or some other
form of description.
my answer to the first question becomes one of seeking and discovering
like-minded souls who also project that "he/she/it is" or better yet "we
are". beginning a social paradigm from this perspective seems entirely
more stable than any paradigm i have yet to experience within the realm
of the governmentally/economically approved educational system which
seems to me to be built upon a foundation of competition, noise, and
chaos.
another thought which encompasses the true nature of my human
existence is that within the realm of "i am-ness" i have found that "i love".
by searching for and finding those entities that also acknowledge the
inherent truth of our love in "we are", the social paradigm becomes one of
"we love".
as the simple and grand answers to the questions manifest within my
consciousness; as those thoughts are joined by wish and desire to the
harmonic thoughts of entities which also have experienced the truth of
their individual "is-ness", the wonders of "our love" begin to permeate the
thought forms that emanate as a function of true being.
in this way, a social paradigm blossoms based on a foundation of love and
truth. the warmth of the communal being in our natural state becomes a
path of infinite exploration and play.
To be
continued ...
Learned how to atach a LINK to your name in SPIRITWEB Forum ...
From same site as the above image -
CHILDREN OF NEPAL MEET YOU EVEN TODAY WITH THEIR HANDS TOGETHER OVER THEIR CHEST,
AND NAMASTE, AS THEY LOOK YOU IN YOUR EYES....
DOLPHINS AND WHALES TEACH US TO USE OUR LUNG CAPACITY MORE & MORE, AS WELL AS
THAT WE ARE SPIRIT FIRST, AND OUR BODIES SECOND!
MOST OF THE ANCIENT CULTURES HAVE A GREETING, THAT HONORS US AS A SPIRIT, INSTEAD OF
SAYING GOODBYE; ACKNOWLEDGING THAT WE ARE ETERNAL SOULS. FOR EXAMPLE, IN THE
YUKATAN PENINSULA, THE MAYANS HAVE "IN LA'KECH' OR I AM ANOTHER YOURSELF; KAHUNA
PEOPLE OF HAWAII SAY 'MALAMA PUNO', MEANING TAKE CARE OF YOUR SOUL......
Namaste (pronounced NAH' MAHS THE - accent on the first syllable) -
Sanskrit greeting meaning "I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides. I honor the place in you, where lies your love, your light, your truth and your beauty. I honor the place in you where...if you are in that place in you...and I am in that place in me....then there is only one of us."
Imagine a world where we ALL greet each other thus ...
Here in Australia, we say G'day because we're to lazy to say "Good day" or "Have a good day" ...
On that same theme - click here
I have been listening to a Real Audio talk by Jack Kornfield on Equanimity. You might care to check it out at -
Click here
I was thinking of transcribing some of it as it addresses many of the topics that frequently seemed to pop up at the Chopra Forum
Quotes by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross:
"The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well."
“There can never be peace between nations until first there is the true peace which is within the souls of men.”
Rebecca's Ghost
- Poetry - and Forums - seems more traffic than Insp. Peak? 1660 in the poetry forum alone ...
Ah, from a couple of days ago - that is how to phrase it (a re-working of one of Chopra's sayings which i put in a poem a while back} - "There is a place of stillness within each of us but most people never go looking for it (until they are forced there by cicumstances)
On what to do about mental health system - or to add to My Ideal Day Program - I can imagine the day when enough people in the "healing profession" can heal others DIRECTLY because we will begin to tap into the vast reservoir or loving energy that exists within each of us ... Jesus & all the other enlightened beings say the same thing - "What I can do, you will do ... and more"
On the other hand, I recall what Lama Yeshe said about the fact that until you reach perfect enlightenement you are just guessing - you don't know how to adapt the wisdom so you can reach each person's unique individual personality. Yet, I also know full well that for my 15/16 years as an ardent atheist their is absolutely NOTHING anyone could have said to me that would have got through ... until i experienced a Satori for myself I would never have budged one millimeter ... Hmmm ...
Was going to check out the CWG Forums/discussion groups until I got occupied by compiling the Forum material.
Talk about synchronicity - in looking up info on Elizabeth Kubler-Ross from a discussion a few days ago ... found this -
"The ultimate lesson all of us have
to learn is unconditional love,
which includes not only others but
ourselves as well."
---Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Also here
Tossing over the questions of yesterday ... continuing the Borg theme - if you resisit being assimilated into an organisation or system do you become a casualty ... hmmm ... This thought just occured to me - "The only REAL question is how do we awaken the potential for unconditional love which exists inside each & every human heart. All other questions are irrelevant." ...
Yes, I find it hard to escape the conclusion that mere tinkering with existing systems/structures/paradigms won't result in any real fundamental change/transformation.
Been re-visiting some of the sites in my links list - the near-death-experience stories - I had forgotten how brilliant the descriptions were. Not to mention the insights ... here's a couple of excerpts -
Those born with mental or physical afflictions are more spiritually advanced than others, born to help others evolve spiritually.
Earth is only one plane of learning. There are many.
Love, being God, is too immense and profound to ever be fully understood or experienced in the physical world.
The universe is God's cathedral.
When you die, everything you have said, thought, or done will be known by all.
"Then, I saw it was as if I had been living behind a curtain my whole life. All of a sudden, this veil of illusion was lifted and the floodlights were shining on me. I saw Reality. Reality is that everything is really veiled spirit. Incredibly, I saw that I had been on display my whole life. Every thought, word, and deed of mine had been recorded since my birth and was now being fully exposed. Everything that I ever did in secret was now being brought out into the light for review in front of God and all the heavenly hosts!
The instant I perceived him, a command formed itself in my mind. "Stand up!" The words came from inside me, yet they had an authority my mere thoughts had never had. I got to my feet and as I did came the stupendous certainty: 'You are in the presence of the Son of God.' If this was the Son of God, then his name was Jesus. This person was power itself, older than time and yet more modern than anyone I had ever met.
Above all, with that same mysterious inner certainty, I knew that this man loved me. Far more even than power, what emanated from this Presence was unconditional love. An astonishing love. A love beyond my wildest imagining. This love knew every unlovable thing about me - the quarrels with my stepmother, my explosive temper, the sex thoughts I could never control, every mean, selfish thought and action since the day I was born - and accepted me just the same.
She was allowed to take only as much knowledge as she needed to sustain her, and was told she would be given insights along the way as she finished out the rest of her life. When she asked why she could not take all the knowledge back with her, she was told that it would result in her appearing and being considered "abnormal" to the rest of society. She then realized that people such as the mentally retarded are special people who know much more than they are able to express.
Listen to that small inner voice in your thoughts; it is the voice of God.
Hell is a state of being we create by being away from God until we choose to return to Him. It is a state totally devoid of love.
From a transcript at Talkcity website -
Question: What would you like to say to those whom are sorta growing on their own (in a spiritual sense) with nobody around physically to possibly help them on their paths?
Neale Walsch: Find a support group, find a support system. There are people all over the world and in every place who are searching for deep spiritual truth. It is not difficult to find them. Go to every church in your community until you find one that is comfortable. Connect with others on the internet and by email. Read the contact information in the back of books by those people you admire. There is no reason to be alone in your spiritual search in this, the latter part of the 20th century. We may be many things, but we are not alone. And, if you are really looking for spiritual companionship, provide it -- offer your home and the times of your life as a gift to others who are looking for spiritual companionship. Put an add in the newspaper 2 nights a week for a month, that says "I am on a spiritual quest, I am undertaking a spiritual journey, and I am seeking companionship in that undertaking. I offer my home for 2 nights a week for study groups, and I offer my time to others who would care to join me in exploring this. Please call my phone number if you are interested." If you put such an ad in the newspaper, you will be deluged with calls. You will very quickly discover not only that you are not alone in your spiritual quest, but that there is no need to be alone.
Excerpt from Soul Sounds by Mary Summer Rain
Images & interactive java paint??
www.liveuniverse.com - tools to keep people coming back to your site ...
Here also - can download onto hard drive ...
Now to today's notes & impressions ... where to begin? Good question ... oh there were a few more thoughts on the tricky business of not taking things personally and reflection of where you are versus where someone else is ... on your respective journies ...
Yes, the events of today bring home to me JUST why I wrote "MY Ideal Day Program" - because currently the few who really recover from the experience of "mental illness" seem to do it in
SPITE of the system rather than because of it. Plus the interconnectedness of everything - Mental Health Services do not exist in a vcacuum and tend to be a microcosm of society which at the moment is seriously short of inspiration, joy, direction and a whole bunch of other stuff we desperately need ... hmmm ... You have to wonder how you can change any existing system/organisation/paradigm from the outside. The catch-22 is that by becoming part of the system you tend to be absorbed - much in the same way as the Borg assimilate various species into the collective (mind) ... hmmm ... Then again, as i told someone recently, "Don't worry. One day this will all make sense even though right now it seems fairly absurd."
For some strange reason, I am also reminded of a quote attributed to Buddha - "Don't just do something. Stand there." But it becomes a conundrum when faced with a situation or system that
impacts on people's quality of life ... hmmm ...
On the lighter side we did recall The Philosopher's Song & Life of Brian ... plus Get Smart ... "If you didn't laugh, you'd go mad ..."
The subject of the benefits of "mental illness" also came up - it does force you inside yourself in ways that a normal lifestyle never could. The tragedy (if indeed it is one - CWG does warn against PITY because you can never know what an individual soul is trying to achieve by the experiences it is creating) is that some go inside & never seem to re-emerge (in this lifetime?)
Much more stuff could be transcribed into here ... and I may do so ... Interesting "catchphrases" - "He must have had his reasons" & "It is hard to escape the conclusion that ..." & "I'm sure there's a reason why that proposal isn't practical (or feasible)" ...
Oh yes, plus an interesting discussion of satisfaction and contentment and "this is as good as it gets" & apathy & why some people learn to view themselves in such negative ways. One could argue that anyone who regards us as anything but beings of unlimited potential has an impoverished picture of reality ...
From a couple of days ago - some interesting articles at
www.ineachmoment.com. It seems there are endless variations on the same theme and some resonate better with some individuals. Like in CWG, God says he has been sending the messages in as many ways as he can for millenia and will continue to do so ...
If I get the time, I could do an entire HTM file of quotes from an excelleent book I got from the library - The World of the Dalai Lama (An inside look at His Life, His People, and His Vision) by Gill Farrer-Halls. One that I found while flicking through but haven't been able to re-locate it along the lines of "I don't spend any time worrying about whether I prefer this or that." {or words to that effect}
A search of the web tosses up the following -
Review of the book - "Not just pretty pictures" ...
List of books at www.tibetantreasures.com
Another interesting list of books
Boy - too late for Peggy if Chopra Forum closed - from The Little Soul & The Sun -
Need to re-construct my homepage ... but I'm a bit busy at the moment re-constructing my picture of reality ...
Before I get to today's notes {and i have a growing pile of scraps of paper on my desk that need to be typed up at some stage} ... a strange (green) thought just popped into my head - what if everyone suddenly revised their entire picture of what happiness is? What if every individual speculated about the existence inside him/herself of a vast, limitless reservoir of joy and simply focused all their attention on tapping into it. What would this do to/for human relationahips. Hmmm ... that sounded a lot better in my head ... Interesting though ... and who is to say ... hard (as always) to "prove" a negative ...
{ Could exchange any of the following for the word JOY - but JOY is a biggie, judging by the % of JOYLESS faces currently in the world - enchantment, wonder, peace, serenity, enthusiasm etc ...}
Speaking of which ... I feel I may be fast approaching that point where I no longer require such constant reminders of all of these ideas. Even the words themselves can be viewed as a prop and the ultimate journey of an individual's consciousness may be to that point where words become meaningless ...
Another oldie but goodie pops into my head - consider the impact on out thinking and actions if the word "should" was removed from everyone's vocabulary.
Now to today's notes, as this seemingly continuous surge continues. I literally cannot remember what it is like to be angry or to entertain a negative thought about anyone for any reason which is a remarkable state of affairs consider where I have been. If I could bottle this feeling I would give it away free of charge in the confident knowledge that I can generate it again and again from within my self. That is the tragedy with our current view of mental illness - we do not see (or seriously entertain the possibility) the person as having the internal resources to heal themselves.
Well, I could hardly express it any better than Lama
Yeshe did. Just a rephrasing of his assessment and his much broader definition of who is "mentally ill" ...
Anyway, when we are all "tuned in" {and I get the feeling that even though this current buoyant state is marvelous that it can go even higher} it may well be a world beyond even my capacity to imagine. As is mentioned in Emissary of Light ... I am in a radiant mood at the moment which appears utterly impervious to the events going on around me which can make one seem a trifle unreal to those who have yet to experience such transcendence. I clearly remember reading accounts of such experiences with unbridled envy as I could not imagine they would happen to me if I lived for a billion years ...
As in Conversations with God, we need to extricate ourselves from the victim mentality. As long as you see your self & others as victims you won't get anywhere. Yet, I fully realise that barely 15 months ago i would have regarded most if not all of the content of Conversations with God as ludicrous or even delusional. So, trust only your own experience. As long as you allow others to be your criterion of what is real and what is possible then you're trapped in their picture of reality. Invent your own. Dare to explore your own unique inner landscape any way you choose.
May need to re-work that section - there IS a good idea or two in there just screaming to get out ...
a trip to the local library tosses up these gems -
Aussie consumer newsletter - they want to include my page as one of their links ...
More Forums - if Chopra Forum is in fact closed ... also som interesting transcripts
Interesting commentary on the budget by
Sir Murray Rivers - can be played in background - might be nice if ERMHA could afford speakers and an Internet connection
Miracles of Mind - exploring nonlocal consciousness & spiritual healing
On the subject of re-constructing the home page ... I suppose a short intro would be useful? Then again, lately I don't indentify myself with having schizophrenia {for a variety of reasons - (a) There's much debate as to its current definition is valid anyway (b) If I ever DID have it, I sure don't feel I still have it (c) The need to label experiences normal/psychotic/weird/etc is something we need to transcend anyway} So, I don't see my page as "belonging" in the survivors or sufferers category ... {In essence I am now seeing it as simply one of a spectrum of traumas each individual soul creates in order to wake the individual up to experience ultimate reality here on this planet. On the other hand, I could just be crazy} ... but if I did ...
... leads me to ... http://www.pearls.org/ ... Bediuzzaman ...
Audio Highlights from 3LO - pity there was too much traffic for the sound files to load?? - log on at less hectic time of day ??
Links to inspirational quotes sites - first one listed looks interesting -
"Crumpled Papers" ...
... in FACT I am still in a marvellously buoyant mood ... It is dawning on me - THIS IS REAL - it is becoming an irresistible force ... gathering momentum ... I am RIGHT BACK to being utterly incapable of entertaining a negative thought about anyone for ANY reason ... And all the stuff I have been reading about is unfolding ... on dogwalks ... and at other unexpected moments ... almost as if my consciousness has shifted to a higher plane and is staying there with the occasional journey to even more exquisite heights and places ... don't speak too soon though! I have felt like this before and been brought crashing back to Earth but somehow this time I just have the feeling ...
Interesting contribution to inspiration Peak Forum - on the question of what you would change about the world if you could change JUST one thing - I wrote about eye contact ... what WAS that article - at SPIRITWEB? - Melchizedek article
Personal stories at www.howtoknowgod.com
Has large section on deepak & his works/ideas
plus a million links!
Carl Sandburg - from Faithworks article on solitude - should transcribe some of the quotes/advice ...
Email for Faithworks is SHSletters@hwt.newsltd.com.au ... here's a few quotes from the article (May 7, 2000)-
There can never be peace between nations until first there is the true peace which is within the souls of men. - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Happiness, as John Stuart Mill said, is not something you can patent or buy. There are no chemical shortcuts. We seem to have lost the art of drawing from that deep well within us ... "We in the West have everything, except what we need to survive. That's why there is such a reliance on chemicals and on filling up each moment of our spare time with chatter, loud music and television. We don't want to confront the quiet truth that we do not really know how to survive."
The great monk, Thomas Merton, who was concerned with the spiritual yearning of every human heart, thought that drug, alcohol and sex addictions arose form the fear of living with emptiness. He said we could distract ourselves forever and never really understand our true self. Merton called for more solitude - solitude that could lead to touching an inner part of the soul separate from all except the Creator.
Poet Carl Sandburg said "I go out and walk and look at the birds and trees and sky. I listen. I sit on a rock and say to myself 'Who are you, Sandburg? Where have you been and where are you going?'"
The process can be difficult because some of the answers you hear in solitude's self-evaluation can be confronting. But it can also be the place for encouraging the "soft voice of inspiration" Thomas Merton reported sometimes hearing {Today, he'd most likely be diagnosed as "schizophrenic"!}
"The depths of God and ourselves meet in the abyss of solitude"
Yes, it was an excellent article and the point about chemical solutions for emotional difficulties and the spiritual implications of that. I have had similar thoughts myself over the past year. Maybe it was NO accident I reacted so extremely to my initial encounter with "anti-psychotic" medications! Haloperidol - argh! the very word itself brings back images of a nightmare which now seems as though it was part of someone else's existence.
From "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation" - some good tips - esp a section on mindfulness exercises by Thich Nhat Hahn - from a websearch found the following -
What do you pack for a Spiritual Journey?
http://www1.bluemountain.com/esub/contest1/ - Poetry contest at Blue Mountain ...
More interesting messages/exchanges at Chopra Forum around # 52,140 ...
www.theosophical.org - from library book about history of Tibet & Dalai Lama & Buddhism
What is enlightenment - here or here or here
Speaking of which - could send links to ken duncan & ricketts as most in america/elsewhere may be unaware of the awesome ausie landscapes and the inspiration it provides. God, I'm in a painfully cheery mood at the mo ...
and search for what australia is famous for - yarns & tall stories
Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart
From Buddhist quote of the moment
Click here to experience nothing
For Richard - at Forum. Click anywhere on the bunny to experience perfect enlightenment. Speaking of which, people might wish to click here for one reason or another. Interesting contrast - quan yin offered for free which is the one bugbear many have with the latest crop of "teachers" who charge through the roof - is enlightenement to be just for the wealthy. Though dmittedly most of them need it the most ...
DremCacher@aol.com
Plus one about Bosnia-Serbia-Medjugorje etc
Also from same site - search for poems by "Joseph Torelli"
From Forum - (along with some interesting exchanges around messsage # 52,120 etc ...) -
Twenty Questions with
George Zebrowski. Interestingly he mentions Milan Kundera who wrote "The Unbearable lightness of being" ... interesting ...
"Pale blue dot" by Carl Sagan looks interesting - fabulous photos anyway ... one chapter is "Is there any intelligent life on earth?" I know just where that question is coming from ...
Internet - Peter Orlovsky, Aristarchus (and heliocentric view), Shroud of Turin,
Sent Lama Yeshe link to VICSERV and it's already been included on their links page - should send them links to Hazel Gay, 1st Person, Riding the Cyclone, Touched with Fire etc ... plus mine - if I ever re-organise it ...
Yet another compilation of Interesting Links - for the Chopra Forum ...
Mondegreens - Lucy in the Sky - someone thought it was "The girl with colitis goes by" !!! I like "The ants are my friends" ...
Forum in fact is alive again - though STRICTLY speaking maybe 70% aren't direct discussion of Deepak Chopra's works ... Hadi returning adds even more dimensions to it ... around messages # 52, 100 ... some fresh faces/incarnations too ...
Lately, I've been on a real surge. More aware than ever of the "thinker behind the thoughts" and of my own consciousness. Often it's so mesmerising that conversation becomes a bit of a chore and a distraction - CWG does mention the period when the soul is so fascinated at being "discovered at last" that it can lose interest in the affairs of the "everyday world" ... I sent a message to Forum about reaching that moment of total knowing and it may come at any time ...
Reminds me of a poem I wrote before I got interested in "all this stuff" -
Glimpses
In a single instant of shattering clarity
I saw eternity in a blade of grass
It was a moment with no disparity
The present and future became the past
There was another moment
I hesitate to bring it up
I paused for just a second
And saw infinity in a plastic cup
There was no doubt and no confusion
Nobody was confounded by illusion
Now we all live in a tiny hut
The blades of grass have all been cut
Discussions on atheism & Dalai Lama & reincarnation & The Borg and Voyager & Get Smart & movie about Jesus versus the Bible's account of his life & resurrection & Shroud of Turin and what DID Jesus look like ... just your average chit-chat ...
Interesting program on Lateline the other day about the brain. I expected (beware of expectations) your streotypical dry, detached scientist. But Virginia Moncrieff was quite eloquent and responded with wit and charm to most of the questions. See Transcript. Actually the ABC site has some great features if I ever get enough time to fully explore it.
Also interesting episode of Voyager after I discussed it with another fan that very day - still on the Borg theme & the "ethics" of un-assimilating someone who has "enjoyed" being part of the colective mind! Plus Kes evolving into a non-physical lifeform. I can relate to one of her statements - "Something very important is happening to me and I have to be allowed to explore it." Try telling THAT to a psychiatrist!!!
Rewrote "My Favourite Psychosis" and sent it for consideration in New Paradigm
Then I had a bit of a read of "His Bright Light" about a boy who killed himself at 19 with manic-depression and I have second thoughts ... I can well imagine those who have lost someone like that saying to me that I have it ALL wrong and how dare I attempt to glorify psychosis or suggest it may be a "potentially metamorphic process" ... well, I'd argue that it CAN be Heaven or Hell (as I say in the poem) plus the poem confronts the whole mystery of what is psychosis anyway ... I'd also argue that it is the way psychosis is viewed and treated which so often turns it into a nightmare. The prevailing neurotic need to have people "conform to the norm" {See quote from Alan Watts below ...}
Thanks also to Francis at Halcyon for pointing out a typo in the "poem written while mowing the lawn".
Borrowed "His Bright Light" - Danielle Steel's book about her son who "rocketed through life like a shooting star" before dying at 19 (from manic-depression, I think)
Added Rickett poem to website after sending message to Inspiration Peak Forum
Quote from that alan watts article - from a psychiatrist - "I am employed by a society which feels that it ought to maintain a certain average kind of normal experience, and my job is to restore people to what society considers normal consciousness. I have no alternative but to leave it at that."
Funny mood continues - so sent message # 52,037 & 38 to Chopra Forum - some interesting ones lately ...
Reminds me of Intro to CWG -
Do you really want an answer to all these questions or are you just venting?
Added MANY more sites to ERMHA.htm
Such as
The Value of Psychotic Experience, The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension, Religious experience and psychopathology, The Experience of God, Spiritual Emergency, Realities Expansion etc etc ...
"The shaman seers of the Fourth World generally agree that those who tenaciously cling to the past will fall into mass insanity. The serpent power of the Aquarian Age is upon us. The Kundalini of Gaia is about to awaken. No one can avoid being affected. Most human beings may go out of their minds; others will go beyond mind."
John Hogue
He also wrote an article entitled The Critical Mass of Enlightenment which sounds awfully like something in Emissary of Light.
www.hendricks.com - from one of Dave's books.
I listened to The Beatles Sgt Pepper's album for the first time in ages. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the lyirics on that album, especially Within You Without You
{Lyrics by George Harrison}
Not bad for 1967.
Also watched Inherit The Wind again - found a site that covers memorable scenes or dialogue from films - Click Here
It also covers Network extensively
Yet click here for a list of inaccuracies in the script compared with the actual Skopes trial ... interesting ...
Yes, it is so ironic that "My Ideal Day Program" should be written by someone whose experiences are based on the way ERMHA operates! It is like a blueprint in reverse. There is always a grain of truth in all humour ...
Forum slowing down - as I have thought MANY times you could ask what its purpose is if indeed all that's required is to read the works of Deepak (or any other teacher) and then just PUT the ideas INTO practice ...
That reminds me ... I watched that video of Mafu (or is it Paramananda?) again. I honestly can barely remember taping it or even why I did but the reply is brilliant:
Skeptic: I'm Ian Drysdale from the Australian Skeptics. I haven't heard anything here tonight that couldn't be done by a good actress, or a bad one for that matter. I would however be very impressed if you could levitate that chair you are sitting on.
Mafu: As I would be impressed if you could find a bit of self-love. In that understanding, you couldn't be more accurate. I could be nothing more than an absolute fraud, a charlatan, an actres, an actor. I could be a transvestite. I could also be what I say I am. You will never know until you know what you are. There is no point at all for you to worry about what I am. It is rather that if you seek a scientific explanation for how I enter this body. If you seek credibility then I encourage you to come and pay attention to me for a while and apply the wisdom to yourself and then experience that wisdom to see if it alters your own state of consciousness. And if it does then what I say is accurate and if it doesn't then I probably am just a charlatan.
Then Peter Couchman, who was hosting the show, asked if Mafu could offer any tangible proof that he is what he says he is. Then the tape ended! Interesting …
I used to be just such a skeptic. "Prove it to me!" I wish I'd recorded the whole show. I think "Mafu" claimed to be a spirit who had walked on the earth many, many thousands of years ago and was now being channeled through this "ordinary" housewife. Her entire demeanour and voice and personality changed when she channeled. Through the Internet I have since found out there are many people who claim to be channeling an entire myriad of beings from higher dimensions. I suppose the state the world is in, any entity worth its salt would be trying to communicate some wisdom any way it can. This is an interesting phenomenon to consider. Especially given the "symptoms" and "hallucinations" experienced by those with schizophrenia. I always felt there was a LOT more going on than psychiatrists would have you believe.
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