Here's my favourite passage from Emissary of Light:
Excellent article about prayer wheels ... ... yes, you don't see TOO many in modern techno-societies ... the article describes them as 'spritual technology from Tibet
May type up some of stuff from December's SHINE consumer newsletter ... as usual, some thought-provoking contributions ...
Overheard on the bus, early this morning - "Why didn't you finish that assignment like you promised." - "I don't know and I'm not crazy. We don't even tell people how to walk through the milk and talk from the stillness. I am a lonely and troubled soul. My life is filled with human conflict and one day I might even do away with these shoes. In the beginning, I wanted a new soul but now all I see is a cold, dark hole. Why are people so afraid of all the decisions they've necer made. Is it true and is it clear when people die they stay quite near."
Golden moments in a plastic bowl and still we dig a deeper hole.
"My little doctor taught me how to believe in all the strangeness of life."
That's my new mantra. I find it works best around 2:35 PM but that may be due to an illness I suffered as a child in the fourth century BC. It's hard to be sure. You might like to eat a chocolate sandwich instead. I always buy the best home-made bread. In four days, the sun will rise and bounce around the southern skies. If you could only see this sight then you'd never be scared in the dark at night.
Note: some people may prefer to substitute the word 'awkwardness' for the word 'strangeness'. I suppose that's alright as long as you wash your hands before mixing the dough.
... albatross ...
This page
has that aldous huxley quote ...
More Huxley - doors of perception
Click here for some interstin calendars
One of my photoeditor creations - here
... I should see if there's some software to enable people to make their own animated GIFS, I'd imagine there would be ...
some interesting rumi stories -
tales from Masnawi
That heartwood book - full title is "Meditations on Southern Oaks" - click on image below -
... if I upload it ... or click here to see full bookcover - here
Sea Kayaking at the Freycinet Peninsula
Had another read of that link, The Bliss of Inner Fire ... another of those books I may get around to reading 'one day' ... :)
Rinpoche was saying that this is happening in the Tibetan community, but it is good for us, too, to keep his words in mind. Can you imagine spending twenty or thirty years studying the Dharma and still not improving within yourself, still not even knowing how to begin to practice? You might think that this is not possible, yet it can happen. The Six Yogas of Naropa are not something philosophical. You have to act, so that some inner transformation takes place. The teachings must become real for you. Take karma, for instance. When we talk about karma, we intellectualize so much. We need to come down to earth. Karma is not something complicated or philosophical. Karma means watching your body, watching your mouth, and watching your mind. Trying to keep these three doors as pure as possible is the practice of karma.
There are many monks leading ascetic lives in Dharamsala in India, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama lives. Even though they are perhaps not very learned, they spend many years meditating and doing retreat in small huts on the mountainsides. On the other hand, there are other very learned monks who do not want to live ascetic lives. Those living in retreat on the mountain really try to taste the Dharma, and I think they succeed. They taste the chocolate, while the famous scholars miss out. In the end, it doesn't matter who you are; if you want to taste something, you have to go to the taste-place.
It is exactly the same in the West. Many people easily gain an incredible intellectual understanding of Buddhism, but it is a dry understanding that does not fertilize the heart. There are some Western professors, for example, who have studied Buddhism for years. They have high degrees in Buddhist studies and have published books on the sutras and tantras. Yet many of them admit that they are not even Buddhists, which means they haven't actualized what they write about. They can read Lama Je Tsongkhapa's texts and translate them using incredible words, but for them it remains mere theory. I find this shocking.
On the other hand, some people have heard just a few lam-rim teachings, such as the workings of the negative mind, but they begin to look inside themselves and to meditate. The teachings gradually become part of them. The mere intellectuals, however, think that the negative mind is somewhere else--up on top of Mount Everest, perhaps. They don't care about the negative mind because they think that it doesn't refer to them.
...
... may post to forum ... someone was asking about dharma the other day ... and suffering ... and 'justification' ...
All of which reminds me of that simple passage from
Cave In The Snow, where Tenzin Palmo basically says that loving-kindness is not an idea, it is part of our true nature. It just gets covered over with a whole load of nonsense as we have drifted away from a real sense of connection with our true selves ...
When you look at the lifestyles of the mahasiddhas, many things become clear.
We can see from their biographies that intellectual knowledge of Dharma alone is not enough--we have to practice. There are many stories of learned Dharma scholars having to ask for guidance from people who have not studied any of the vast treatises but who have really tasted the few teachings they have received. I remember Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, the Junior Tutor to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, saying in his teachings that when it comes to practice, many intellectuals have to go to beggars on the street to ask for advice. Even though these scholars may have intellectually learned the entire sutra and tantra teachings and may even teach them to many students, they are still empty when it comes to practice.
Click here - the six yogas of naropa mentioned ... no wonder they spend years meditating ... :)
Plus another page about Naropa - Click here
Plus some Buddhist art links - Click here
Article about climbing Mt Warning, which includes an artists impression of the landscape ...
click ...
"I like to believe in all the messages from lifetimes."
Simon the likeable -
click here
Some more cartoons - here ...
Interesting personal page - here
Becker script -
http://becker.tktv.net/Episodes1/15.html
Yes, some interesting Rumi links ... so I sent another message to the forum ...
You asked about a recording that involves Rumi. The CD in question is probably A Gift of Love which contains much of his poetry recited by various people. I haven't heard it myself, but here's a little excerpt from a review I found:
Endocrinologist-turned-spiritual-teacher Dr. Deepak Chopra hopes that the release of
the new CD set A Gift of Love -- Deepak & Friends Present Music Inspired by the
Love Poems of Rumi, "may open the door for some people to experience the ecstasy
of love, the only balm which can truly fulfill some of our deepest longings." It's an interesting equation: our
deepest human longings, the experience of ecstasy and the love poems of Rumi. Dr. Chopra
clarifies, "Our unfulfilled longings result in addiction which, I believe, is the #1
problem in our culture today. And addiction is just a second-class substitute for the true
experience of ecstasy." The experience of ecstasy is what
Chopra and Donna D'Cruz, president of raSa Records, which just released the album as its
label debut, are hoping buyers will feel. To provide this experience, Chopra and D'Cruz
have gathered an ensemble of some of World Music's most rapturous performers. They weave a
sensual, Middle Eastern-inspired musical tapestry as background for Rumi's sensuous
poetry. "Rumi's poetry is an expression of
universal love," says D'Cruz. "And for me, the new translations by Deepak and
Fereydoun Kia on A Gift of Love feel even more languid, poignant and personal
than earlier ones." Chopra says Rumi's poetry "expressed the deepest longings of
the human heart for its beloved, for the transcendent intimacy that's the source of the
divine." ...
"The possibility of opening these doorways to our inner experience of ecstasy is the reason we think people will want to own this special collection," notes D'Cruz. "Not too many CDs suggest such a possibility,"
Click here for the full details.
Anyone out there have a copy? Did it 'work' the way its creators hoped?
At any rate, that line above is spot on: 'addiction is just a second-class substitute for the true experience of ecstasy'. And anything that aims to open up such access for more people has to be a good thing, doesn't it ...
As I was composing the previous message off-line, I suddenly had a strange thought - maybe I should be made president of the US. After all, the first 3 letters of my first name coincide with one candidate's first name and the first two letters of my surname (Allen) coincide with the other candidate's first name. Freaky, isn't it. In fact you can make Al Gore from the letters in my name with a few left over ... let's see GEOFFREY ALLEN take away the letters in AL GORE and what are you left with ... FLENYEF, which we all recognise as an ancient Sanskrit word meaning 'he whose mind is unclouded and uncluttered'. Must mean something. :)
I suppose living in Australia might be one thing against me but then again ... with modern communications ...
is it too late for my lawyers to make an appeal?
Heard interesting report on the radio about the 'Australian Temperament Project' - yes, tha age-old 'debate' of nature versus nurture ... is behaviour and temperamnet largely 'biologically determined' ... which tends to disempower parents ... funny how the idea of reincarnation rarely surfaces in such a discussion ... :) Yet, it is a deep mystery - where does the personality come from ... how much influence does conditioning and environment play in shaping it ... what is it anyway ... why do some people have negative experiences and are seemingly 'crushed' by them while others are transformed by them ...
Click here for a transcript - not available when I clicked on it but this may be remedied by the time anyone else reads these words ... :) ... if not ...
click here
For the audio content - click here
So I plug 'Australian Temperament Project' into a search engine ... as one does ...
Boys will be boys (unles you believe in reincarnation, in which case they most likely will be girls in the next time around :)
Report in The Age in August 2000
Yes, parenting may well be a damn lot easier in an environment less governed by the blaming and judging mentality currently prelavent in this techno-society ... and indeeed if we all suddenly saw how bleeding obvious it is that we incarnate literally hundreds of times ... then the 'cause' of a person's behaviour may well be some unresolved karma from a lifetime 1000 years or more ago ... we'd be a tiny bit less inclined to label anyone a 'shocking parent' ...
... then I happen to get onto the Zig Ziglar site and one of his titles is Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World ... then again, the 'old me' wonders ... if it's so un-instinctive that we need to read books about it ... hmmm ... Book review
Had an idea for a piece for the Murmur or my site - 'The challenge of staying positive in a cynical world' - esp for those in current mental health 'system' ... preliminary thoughts ...
click here
... then I just happened to pick up a printout of Return of the Dove which I hadn't read in a while from the Aum Ru site ... hmmm ... put an excerpt in here ... better still, here's a link to the whole thing -
Return of the Dove and I added a couple of links from a quick search
In case you're too lazy to click on that link, here's a bit of the early stages of the chapter, just to whet your appetite ...
Of course, we still have with us in these latter days the diehards, the spoil-sports, the screwballs, the odd balls, the sad sacks, and a whole assortment of wet blankets in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and shades. They are the ones with the souped-up egos; they do not buy the idea of spaceships, music of the spheres or the singing of angels. They are the foolish ones who want to continue their foolishness. In the hospital world that we have known for millions of years during our cosmic quarantine, it is correct to say that most of us have been foolish in the majority of our embodiments. We have been dreadful phonies, strictly hams, acting out roles on a stage called the world, a stage like a mixed-up upside-down cake with an animated crazy quilt for a platter. With such a design for living, it is a matter of no wonderment that Whoever- Is-In-Charge had to send flying saucers to rescue us, warn us, cajole us, or to just haul some of us off to a new dumping ground, to a new sort of hospital planet devoted exclusively to drying out wet blankets and removing the sadness from sacks - and that, if you please, just at the very moment when the chemise became high fashion. But those of us who are left here on planet Earth, who will continue our evolution here after the saucers have flown the cracked cups away to a new repair shop - well, we will have a whale of a clean-up job ahead of us because this globe has been lacking in good housekeeping for a long, long time. We will have to step out and keep up with the Joneses, only this time they don't live down the street; they live up there on those gay, sparkling spheres called Venus, Mars, Jupiter and so forth , and in places which sound like a melody - Aquaria, Clarion and a tiny, little lighted jewel of a planet called Excelsior. Excelsior, it has been said, is a delightful little place inhabited by little people, but real little people, very beautiful little men and women of exquisite stature towering two or perhaps even three inches in height. They have perfect forms which move and float in rhythmic dances of breathtaking beauty and grace. They have never known distress of any kind; they are God's dedicated little children; their Fire Dances in honor of the Sacred Flame are all expressions of thanksgiving to their Creator for His gift of Life. That is their way of praying. Dancing is to them synonymous with living, or the expressing of gratitude for limitless cosmic abundance.
"My doctor warned me about the careful namesakes of life."
... re-reading that piece ... yes, the 'old me' would say somethin like "Well, if I had lived on a planet which had 'never known distress of any kind', I'd probly have less of an attitude. Give me a break!" ... something like that ...
Another intersting read ...
Obituary: Common Sense
Found the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive ... here is
Be your own therapist
added heaps to Sanctuaries and the Pooh excerpts ...
I may post some of those links from my internet history ... or I may not ...
Quote from one of the links - "The mantra of compassion, OM MANI PADME HUNG:
if you have a mouth, you must recite it!"
- Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Then I find Lama Yeshe & Zopa have their own websites ... :)
Some more thoughts from yesterday ... yes, in the area of 'psychiatric disbility', the idea of coercing people who are emotionally or psychologically fragile to do things their heart & soul are not in is somewhat Orwellian to me ... mutual obligation ... the very notion smacks of a mentality we need to evolve well beyond ... the carrot-and-stick mentality is alive & well ...
... in fact IF I were inclined towards polemic (as I once was), I might be tempted to say something along the lines that the suggestion that the solution to our current social problems lies in punitive measures is absolutely neanderthal ... needs re-working but you can see where I'm headed ...
Okay, here's a few of the places we visited today -
(Many of course are to be found in the
Sanctuaries excerpts)
List of FPMT links (Mahayana Buddhism)
Sacred Texts Archive - found some Chuang Tse texts there, including 'A Happy Excursion' & "On Levelling All Things'
(click)
No point weeping for the windies
The enlightenment project for purification and merit
Quindalup Permaculture Farm - also some intriguing links like Root Cellaring for storing vegies during winter, which is a skill learnt by any animal living ina cool climate ...
Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre
# 55,532 and a few interesting posts about the difference between 'romance' and genuine love ... and 'make yourself happy' ...
Edible garden links -
Edible cacti from Gardening Australia ...
McGrath 9/27 off 32 overs. Best ever 10 wicket haul apparently 10/49 ...
... 10/27 ...
Transcribed a little of Sanctuaries into ...
here
Yes, from yesterday - it is tricky to point some things out softly ... then again ... a shock to the system can often be beneficial ... and to be told that the vast majority of people in this society are confused or mistaken about the true nature of love does constitute a considerable shock to the system, especially if it is a well-articulated explanation that 'attachment' is NOT love and is ultimately painful & unhealthy ... any desire to change or control the beaviour of another is anything but love ... actually a simple test is to ask whether you could envisage yourself extending that feeling to all tyou encounter ... if the answer is no, then it is not love ...
In fact it would constitute such a shock that many people would dismiss such statements as 'nonsense' ...
composed email to herald & weekly times about drugs & 'cleaning up the streets' ...
may send it as a HTM file ...
here
Yes, typing up those excerpts for Sanctuaries ... WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) sounds interesting ... web search ... :)
Found some more links for pooh excerpts & sanctuaries ... WWOOF ... plus fixed up a link on front page - madnation is down? or has moved the page about dalai & new millennium ... so I did cherish.htm ...
A spot more Christmas shopping - The Tao Of Pooh (I open it to page 170 and may type that into a HTM ... here) - The Lord Of The Rings colection on sale (actually I've never read it - so the kids can lend it 'back' to me maybe) - along with Sanctuaries & The Undiscovered Mind ...
... see wwoof.htm - if I upload ... hmmm ... pros & cons ... but it is awfully reminiscent of the 'flavour' of
My ideal day program ... hmmm ...
... and as always I meander in typing up those 'pros & cons" ... I'm reminded of somethin posted to the Forum a while back - He who wanders is not necessarily lost ... anyway i touched on 'mutual obligation' and heart & soul and fostering the current unhealthy status quo ...
One book of quotes & excerpts had this idea I have encountered before - All limits are self-imposed ... which started me musing while on the bus back home ... yes, intellectually i am coming (swiftly) to that conclusion but the limits seem VERY real until you challengee them and what would happen if we all let go of our inhibitions and our belief in limitations simultaneously ... the mind simply boogles to contemplate what that might do to the structure of society ... it might be complete chaos ...
... not to mention the nagging question even after one has accepted (on an intellectual level anyway) that each of us has literally unbounded potential ... you have to wonder why such a massive percentage of that potential is currently being (seemingly) squandered, stifled, crushed or starved of opportunity ...
Also saw in the ABC shop (include link?) - Awakenings by Tony O'Connor ... didgeridoo and seeks to 'balance the chakras through sound' - something I also would have absolutely scoffed at less than 2 years ago ...
Click here ...
Reading a few recent forum messages - one was about 'flow' and 'spontaneity' ... but isn't it catch-22 (like that Dharma The Cat cartoon) - if we are so un-natural that need to read 'instructions' or reminders to be spontaneous ...
Add to yesterday's list of aspects of the prevailing climate ... the revenge/punishment mentality ... the victim mentality ...
Also from recent forum discussions ... yes, saying the DNA contains the 'instructions' for making a human body - compare that with say the instructions for making a kite. You still require some ONE to read and comprehend the instructions and follow them step-by-step ... some agent ... the biggest of all questions is who/what is that agent ... to say it 'just happens naturally' doesn't really explain anything ...
Interesting results from search for 'gratitude poem' - well, actually I put the words the other way round ...
here ... other words ... or search engines ...
... then a search for 'edgar guest' whose poem 'gratitude' was the first 'hit' ... the things you find ... :)
... and the webrings they belong to ...
Here is a link to
Yes, gratitude ... having spent a huge chunk of this life in place as far away from any sense of gratitude as anyone could ever be ... it is literally impossible to be angry or resntful or cynical while being grateful ... absolutely impossible ...
Back on the roof - rust and tiny holes in the corrugated iron need attention ... then again a house is just a dwelling and is not my true home ... what would the world be if everyone had that view ... hmmm ...
Interesting collection of links, from the site with "Of Butterflies & Essence" -
here
Random cartoon links - added to favourites
Here is that link to the maps of near earth objects - scary ... :)
Yes, a bit more contemplation of what an extraordinary decision it is in this prevailing climate dominated by blaming, judging, complaining, cynicism, skepticism, etc ... to consciously decide not to do any of those things regardless of circumstances ... that alone shows you there's something else at work other than 'conditioning' and social 'programming' ... though not that long ago i would have said anyone suggesting such a possibility was completely nuts ... and that remains one way of looking at it ...
To that list - add demonising, antagonising, adversarial & 'Us & Them' thinking ...
Oh ... and if Gary Zukav is to be believed ... once you make that conscious decision to challenge those aspects of your nature ... the wise & compassionate universe will strat tossing 'stuff' at you to provide you with endless opportunities to see if you have transformed ... :)
"FWEBADOLCHO-OF-THE-LIFENESS" is an alternative mantra but the state of mind to aim for is one where there is no sense of 'rehearsal' ... again this takes practice ... :)
Idea for a book or chapter title - "On the verge of bliss" ... I am still absolutely FLYING for 'no reason at all' ... and part of me says, 'Why the hell not! I deserve this! but then so does everybody 'else' ...
Yes, reading those sections in Quantum Healing made me curious to search the web for 'schizophrenia & diet' or 'schizophrenia & brain chemistry' ... I mean i am the one who advocates that one should not cling to any particular point of view ... :)
Though, like possibly millions of others, it is very debatable if i was ever correctly 'diagnosed' anyways ... not that it matters really, I mean once you attain a heightened awareness and a fundamental shift away from the conventional 'wisdom', you realise that attaching labels is of very limited use ... there's joy and there's an entire spectrum of lack-of-joy. Attaching a specific label to each brand of human misery is not in itself terribly helpful ...
All this recent
Oh too much ... I've been reading Quantum Healing and about the sadhus and rishis of India ... then I happen to flick onto "Good Medicine" while I'm cooking a stir-fry ... and the doctors first name is Rishi ... too much ...
Interesting 'postcard' books of cartoons about meditation & enlightenment etc ...
madhukar thompson -
here
Ramesh Balsekar - interesting perspective -
Click for more details
Plus some more cartoons in the 'far side' genre -
here
Plus a couple of cartoonist webrings -
Click here for a random site in the Comic Strip webring
Click here for a random site in the Cartoonists webring
Interesting story on making candles by hand in France - on the excellent SBS program
Global Village
From yesterday's thoughts on 'cause' & 'effect' and the true origin of illness ... this may be a better way of expressing it - I believe that a person's thoughts and beliefs and emotions play a pivotal role in creating illness or creating health. But we can't measure these things so we tend not to consider them as vital factors. I mean, we can say things like smoking causes cancer but then what is happening with the people who smoke their entire lives and never develop cancer. Obvious the mechanisms of illness and healing and mysterious and have many fatcors and aspects to consider ...
Added a few more bits from Quantum Healing into those transcripts ...
click here and there is heaps more ... 'birth of a disease' for instance ...
Second episode of the series Superhuman - about 'spare parts' for the human body - either mechanical or transplants - makes you realise hos exquisite what we have is when technology cannot approach the sophistication and function of the heart, eye, ear, brain, the immune system ... :)
"As a result of this understanding, the attitude "Enlightenment? Who cares!" may then arise in the seeker, and this is seen by Ramesh as indicative of the imminent occurrence of enlightenment. At this stage, even the goal of enlightenment has lost its allure. The seeker understands that he has all the while been seeking enlightenment because he was hoping to enjoy it. Now he realizes that enlightenment (representing, as it does, the annihilation of the individual) is a state in which there will be no "enjoyer" left to delight in the culmination of the spiritual search, hence there is really no point getting all worked up about it why bother?
In relation to yesterday's posts at the forum ... "I'm employing the principles of Zen - trying to assist all Forum readers to instant enlightenment by thoroughly disrupting their addiction to linear thought processes." ... if I am going to fill my messages with nonsense I try to make it inspired nonsense ...
Here's a link to "Sunday" -
here
Click here for this week's story on miracle healers ...
Plus the site of the original producer of the story -
here
"I used to believe in the getless of lifetimes."
I hadn't been reading many of the forum messages (apart from those mentioning or replying to my recent nonsense :) ... here's one that caught my eye - just before I posted a link about
The Neurology of Spiritual Experiences ...
... you don't strike me as looking to be moved by other perspectives :-)I suppose that most of us here are not in fact looking to be swayed in our understandings either. I'm not. Personally I am here looking for input and to hear how others perceive things to help in forming my own world view---so I guess we're even ;-) The reason I say that you don't seem open to new views is based on my perception of you which is that you are open only to the standard approach to understanding things, the rational approach...and the rational approach has many many merits. But spirituality, by its very nature is somewhat "irrational" or perhaps beyond reason--it is about things unseen and largely immeasurable (although one might measure certain "feats") But these feats are not the essence of spirituality. It's like love in many ways--which is often not rational, is unseen, immeasurable by any concrete means and which may have unpredictable results. it's like other things that are real but nevertheless beyond the scope of examination by science--honor, wonder, respect etc...and just as with spirituality, many "use" these things in dishonest ways, making claims for selfish reasons etc...but it does not negate the reality of these "things" just as people who claim they can cure your cancer for money and without real ability don't negate those who actually can and do heal people of various ails out of love and a sense of service.
Anyway, I apologize if my perecption of you is off or is offensive somehow (may be my ignorance showing ;-))...but there it is...I would sincerely be interested in what topics you might find interesting or worthy of discussion...you know you really might like Ken Wilber--he does not negate the significance of the physical realm and is very "logical" in his understanding/explanation of things--though he is a mystic--big drawback, eh? He even pokes fun at some New Age thought :-) I've only read his "A Brief History of Everything"--but I thought it was good.
Good nightall!
Then I apologise again ... for too quickly deciding a link was not what I originally thought ... oh well ... some more discussion on experience and chemicals in the brain ...
'On the subject of experiences and chemicals in the brain, I'm sure the experience of being in love alters the chemicals in the brain but I'm equally sure most human beings would object to any suggestion that this experience of love is simply the result of changes in brain chemistry. :) So there may be a causal link between experience and brain chemistry but which is 'cause' and which is 'effect' is debatable.'
Yet more ideas for the forum - I do occasionally forget myself and step over the line and get caught up in trying to 'prove a point'. I deserve to be severely castrated whenever I do this. Oops, there's another typo ... :)
And no amount of studying the physical mechanism of the brain really sheds any light on such questions as what is a thought? where do thoughts come from? where do they go? what is consciousness? who is the thinker behind the thought and where is he/she? and why does he keep losing my socks?
... and the only real way to explore such questions is via meditative techniques and thoroughly probing your own consciousness.
'MY dad was awfully fond of saying that we are all moulded by circumstances to a large extent but it remains a matter of choice as to whether we allow circumstances to make us mouldy ... '
Resolving some of those questions is not of paramount importance anyway ... but I find it useful as it draws my attention to how much we take for granted. If we had to consciously direct all the bodily processes that sustain our lives we would all perish - the digestive system, the circulation, the lungs and all the other organs happily hammer away day after day automatically ... makes one wonder what's keeping the whole thing ticking over ... :) ... to call these things 'natural functions' of the organism isn't explaining much ... and where would we tap into the amount of energy that would be required to sustain such unwavering concentration ...
See "Today's Mantra" ... may do it as a separate file ...
click here
I've been a bit crazy lately. Please ignore all my past and future messages. I now realise I know absolutely nothing. It's wonderful.
Yes, all thuis discussion of the body and brain chemicals and illness ... well, I do agree with what
Conversations with God says. Namely that all illness has a far deeper source than merely faulty biology - but to acept that view means letting go of playing the role of the victim and I can understand that many are quite reluctant to do this ... I was ...
Yet this notion that all illness is self created is one I would have absolutely laughed at less than two years ago ... :)
Here's something LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE SAID TO A YOUNG EX-GANGSTER, SERVING LIFE IN PRISON: "Your prison is nothing in comparison with the prison of ordinary people: the prison of ego-grasping, the prison of attachment, the prison of anger, depression and pride."
From a couple of days ago - Karl Kruszelnicki taking questions on radio - where is his website? Part of the
ABC website ?? ...
Anyway, someone rang up and asked how bees make honey out of pollen ... he gets to a part where he says 'somehow' ... she said yes, it's the 'somehow' that I'm asking about ...
Also questions about icecream headaches and clay and DNA ...
Plus Julius Sumner Miller ... Why is it so ...
From a search for 'how do bees make honey' ...
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question300.htm
Messages # 55, 236 & 7 - I really am in a 'funny' mood ... :) ...
Yes, a few 'weird' or silly poems lately ... here's another ...
I like to count my brain cells
Just before they die
People like to sit and watch me
But they rarely ask me why
... on 'miracles' & the notions of 'proof' and the focus of our individual & collective attention ...
Wrote a couple of poems too ...
... oh, plus i found a couple old poems that may not be at my site just yet ... especially Self Portrait in watercolours ...
click here
Here's an interesting link - when i get around to checkin it out ... (sent to me in my email...) -
had an interesting session manipulating photos in Photo Editor - placing one person's head on other people's bodies ... and putting heads in trees etc ... or eyes ...
Should include a link to Sanctuaries - found through search at Collins Books website ...
Also shiva-ashram book -
here -
also the brahma kumaris link - with the pic of the human head and the aspects of the mind ...
here
A few more notes on scraps of paper I may eventually type in here ... busy-busy-busy ...
(Where was that near-earth-object site ... )
Sian's story
Plus ... a skepdic posts a link to "Why people believe weird things" - but the VERY word 'weird' ONLY exists once you ASSUME that life/reality/experience is LIMITED to that which you call 'ordinary' so that anything which ventures beyond this TINY TINY realm is automatically labeled 'weird' ... :)
Not to mention the fact that weird is also a relative term - if 99.9% of people believed in astral travel and auras and ESP and life-after-death then anyone who suggested we are solely physical beings who live once then perish completely from existence would be regarded as extremely 'weird' ... :)
A few more thoughts pop into my head ... how do you prove you can see auras to somebody else? ... a bit like the notion of 'proving' that meditation & higher levels of consciousness exist ... only direct personal experience ... an analogy? learning to fly a plane - a skeptic hops into a plane with no training and can''t fly it ... so therefore no human being can learn to fly one ... needs work ... :)
... or another analogy ... supposing a species were blind but intelligent and then suddenly you have the power of sight ... who would believe you ... could they even imagine what you would be describing ... I think there is a Buddhist parable about the turtle and the fish - the fish cannot imagine walking or moving on TOP of solid ground ... :) ...
Another trip to the library - actually borrowed Quantum Healing after flicking through it yesterday - it's one of his earlier works bu right now everything I read is 'hitting the spot' ... or is that just me ... :) ...
So I may make it into a separate HTM file - like my website needs a bit more material ...
Yes, the old brain ticking over again ... reading about others in a somewhat similar boat to me (well, the Zen Buddhists would say we are all in precisely the same boat - it just doesn't appear that way because we focus our attention on the ephemeral and the transient and the insignificant ...) but anyway it is so sad that if you walk round in this current cynical and skeptical climate speaking in rapturous or wondrous terma about God & the universe ... people automatically think you have flipped ... and in a very real sense you have ... or that you are 'on' something ... and you are ...
Already typed up a few pages from Quantum Healing ... some fabulous descriptions of meditation & expansion of awareness & bliss states ...
Interesting emails continue ... "The ten warning signs of normality" - I know a few who'd appreciate it ...
http://www.efn.org/~dendron/healNorm/10signs.html
click here
OzLit is excellent website - Australian Classics online and a CD for sale as well -
I searched ALLTHEWEB for While The Billy Boils & Clancy of the Overflow:
Some Kahlil Gibran OTHER than his best-known The Prophet -
Patterns of Happiness - excellent website with other stuff to browse ...
Interesting search for "Patterns of Happiness"
Test to see if fractal zooms can be easily incorporated into a 'standard' HTM file -
click here
Note - you will NOT see a zoom movie without the plugin -
click here for details ...
Or click here for my links and more instructions on installing plugins ...
"Yes, I know ... :) ... people who have never ventured beyond the TINY realm known as normality ..."
Interesting trip to library - Quantum Healing & "Foods That heal" ... yes, we feed our bodies and our mind such junk 'food' & practically ignore our spirits ... then we wonder why we get sick ... or go crazy ... it's actually quite astonishing that more people don't go completely round the bend ... :)
Search for Quantum Healing & "Foods That heal" ---> into newstuff.htm ... sure ... if I remember ... :) ... plus 'herbal remedies' ... recipe.htm ...
More humour -
... ONCE I upload em ... angelfire site a bit congested ?? ...
A few more webcams -
Fractal called 'Twisted buddha' -
here
Online version of "Pageant of Summer" at interesting site called "Author's Library" ...
The Secret to My Lack of Success - a different Richard Jefferies ... :) - also an interesting site called "Word Player" ...
Bevis - The Story of a Boy - includes a link to "After London" ...
Yes, ANZswers seems an excellent search engine - tossing up 'hits' that alltheweb did not ... hmmm ...
here
Expedition Photography - http://www.expphoto.com/
On a list of links - http://rainforestexpeditions.net/links/index.htm
Add this to my list of Dalai Links -
That Fractal Extreme Software - has a free movie plug in and some demos -
click here to download it & see some demos
Some of their links are broken so i did a search for "fractal zoom movies" -
Interewsting site promoting a Calendar for 2001 -
here - the inspiration for the theme was:
It lists all the festivals & holy days from all cultures and faiths ...
Lessons from the Himalayas
here
or
here
or
here
or
here
or
here
or
here
"I was in Peru to greet the new millenium and whilst there, participated in an Andean rebirthing ritual. I emerged from a deep group meditation in a cave, and sat against the rocks under the stars to wait for the others. Then, from nowhere, came such beautiful music - much like the sounds of the didgeridoo and deep church organ music. I heard the words "I AM ALIVE". These were earth sounds! For the first time in my life I felt our Earth as a living entity.
Plus an interesting kids site -
here
Plus some panoramic shots of Melbourne - live -
here
An excellent site devoted to space exploration -
www.space.com
Checkout these - only briefly visted on Saturday -
www.hanksville.org - from one of Native American links
California Wild Archives - one of their links is broken - "Faith in the Universe" - conversations with cosmologists about belief or otherwise in a 'supreme being' - pity, should email them ... as I have read this piece before and it's excellent ...
Awesome Library (that's the title NOT an evaluation - I have yet to check it out sufficiently to make such an assessment)
Send email postcards of aussie scenery
Fractal Extreme website - it has an excellent gallery of fractals and you can download a trial version of the software to create your own fractals and animations. Plus a link to the "Infinite Fractal Loop" webring
saved cells.htm - the 'cells do remember' site seems to have rearranged itself - may send email ...
here was the original address of the article ... may send it to my site as cells.htm ...
Mark Boyle - Aussie photography - from one of the vast no of australian links I found yesterday ... his site (naturally) in tuirn also has a few links ... like
The Alternative Museum ...
Advice on the benefits of prayer wheels
The 10 Indian Commandments - also has some links worth exploring ...
I had forgotten trancsribing the following - I mean it must be all of six to eight months - William Ricketts philosophy
Interesting Discussion on Buddhism
Here's a test - an idea from a page I visited yesterday ... :)
Attention: Would all ERMHA staff who have been abducted by aliens in the past week please report to Owen bright & early Monday morning I'm not kidding around here This means YOU!
Added my stir-fry recipe to my links page -
click here
Interesting episode of Deep Space Nine - called "Rocks & Shoals" - about unquestioning obedience & the way of things and control and manipulation ...
Also on Quantum - the evolution of the human face - both in terms of the overall 'evolution of species' and in the evolution of the embryo in the womb ...
Include my musings while listening to US election news in bed this morning ... BUSH GORE ... EGO BRUSH ... plus a couple of poems ...
Amazing US election! - in a race for the world's 'most powerful' political job ... it could get down to a few hundred votes ... not to mention some dubious voting procedures which invalidated thousands of votes due t confusion ...
Added some interesting new links to
"New Stuff"
This one - has an interesting background image - I must learn how to do that properly ... :)
Discovered after at least 2 years with Melb PD User Group as my IP ... they have a members home pages section -
here - including hobbies, melb photos, etc ... should add mine ... why not ... Here's one about
Rock Climbing
A site called
Religious tolerance has excellent quote:
"Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge; rather than accepting bread and toast [sic] from the Holy Priest, I smoke a ceremonial pipe to come into Communion with the Great Spirit; and rather than kneeling with my hands placed together in prayer, I let sweetgrass be feathered over my entire being for spiritual cleansing and allow the smoke to carry my prayers into the heavens. I am a Mi'kmaq, and this is how we pray." Noah Augustine, from his article "Grandfather was a knowing Christian, Toronto Star, Toronto ON Canada, 2000-AUG-9.
Disclaimer
Many followers of Aboriginal religions, such as the many types of Native American Spirituality, do not regard their spiritual beliefs and practices as a "religion" in the way in which many Christians do. Their beliefs and practices form a integral and seamless part of their very being.
Click here
New TV series being advertised - "Super Human" - should see if the
ABC or the
BBC has any extra info - about medical advances and the wonders of the human body ... and how it responds to disease or trauma ...
Yes, the ABC site does - though depending on when you read this the page contents may alter ...
New link at hazel's site - seems to be a 'broken' link - "The Story of a Proud Nut Case" - a search tosses up the following -
A message about Psychiatric Violence by Victoria Gaines, who is the quthor of the 'broken' link ...
CLICK here for the correct address of the 'broken' link ...
Parts of it are just eerie (like many things in past couple of years :) -
"When assessing my life, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps all that has happened to me was fated and that my hospitalizations were inevitable. Without them I would never have learned what an exceptional, worthy human being I am and why I experienced such animosity from so many people. Nor would I have realized how much I had learned from life. Without my ex-boyfriend I don't believe I would have reached my spiritual high. I don't think I could have spent 23 years with anyone else but him. And without my sick family I would not have felt like such an outcast and turned to myself and spirituality. It does make me wonder if I was reincarnated and selected these folks for my evolution. They were so perfect for the task!"
Checking a few recent links ... ah, somebody during a NDE asked "Which is the best religion", expecting a specific reply such as 'Presbyterian' ... the answer he received was 'The best religion is the one that brings you closest to God ...
Plus an Interesting commentary on the Ten Commandments -
"For instance, a person almost starves to death and is very weak. He and his wife and children are dying of hunger or his parents are dying of hunger. If he goes out and steals some bread or rice to feed his family, he doesn't break the commandments. I'm speaking frankly, if this person stole from me, I wouldn't accuse him; instead, I'd give him more. By doing that, he wouldn't break the commandments. In that kind of situation, we can't say that he stole.
On the other hand, if we have enough to live on or people have offered us enough to live on, yet we desire to be more comfortable, more beautiful and more glorious, in this case, even if we steal only a blade of grass, it's stealing, because it's unnecessary! Therefore, we should make a judgment only after we've clearly understood the commandments and considered the intention and situation."
click here for real Video highlights ...
* No alcohol or tabacco or other mind-altering chemicals as the aim is to do-it-yourself from the INSIDE rather than take the lazy option ... :)
* Far less 'entertainment' as such - for similar reasons and certainly a different 'flavour' of leisure activities ... (to even label some activities as 'leisure' ...
* Most likely NO restarants
* Most likely NO cosmetics or jewelery etc
* Not to mention the obious - no violence or disharmony amongst individuals or amongst nations ...
* Far less injustice and separation between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' ...
* Far less complaining, gossiping, blaming, judging and other bad habits (and that is ALL they are - HABITS)
* Details of why the above would or would not occur ...
In fact i shall paste all these embryonic ideas into a file -
"I used to believe that I was the NUZZY-NUZZLER until my doctor taught me how to believe in my own metabolic lifetime"
"Get me from the getting of life and get me from the getless of getting."
What the world might be like if everyone suddenly became a Buddhist
online form guide for the races
Some Horse Racing Links - includes VATC VRC etc. & a Phar Lap virtual exhibit
Do family members reincarnate together?
Exploring cases of reincarnation
An Alternate View of Reincarnation
Born Again and Again and Again: Reincarnation in Christianity
Virtual Library History of Science, Technology & Medicine
Rose's Birthday party
Virtual tours of museums - I was searching for virtual tours inside pyramids ...
Webcams in Melbourne - includes surf coast and city panoramas etc
Also decided to add these & other new searches to a file called 'newstuff' -
click here
... IF I remember to UPLOAD it ... :)
As I often do, I wondered what the world would be like if everyone suddenly became a Buddhist ... there would probly be no photgraphy as the aim is to live COMPLETELY in the present MOMENT rather than in the past by trying to 'capture' it on film ... probly no horse racing either :) ... or McDonald's burgers ... hmmm ...
"If you wish to confine your exploration of reality to the TINY region commonly known as normality that's fine ... JUST don't expect everyone to be as timid as that ... "
Many times, I am severely tempted to say well if you expect to make ANY real progress this is PERFECT practice ... anyone can stay calm when all is well & nothing is bothering them ... :) ...
Likewise the automatic "I'm very disappointed" ... yes, whenever THAT statement exits your mouth or ENTERS your consciousness ... it's TIME to explore the thought BEHIND the thought ...
New Mantra - simply pops into my head -
Some fabulous shots of Ireland -
click here
"Can we ever know that our lives have been strange. The only things we notice are those which change."
http://www.zenentrepreneur.com/ also looks interesting ...
Re-compiled my list of 'interesting sites' into categories YET again ... click here
Some sites I revisited were - www.cyberkids.com - virtual fishtank & pinball & writing etc ...
'It's the little-bibby-bibby-little-bibby one' {Twice before breakfast and several times throughout the day at 'irregular' intervals} ...
"I used to believe in the multiple namesakes of Jesus."
If you're into chess ... try
this site - after 15 years unchallenged as the world's best player Kasparov seems to be in 'decline' - I read an interesting article in yesterday's paper ... apparently his clashes with Karpov back in 1984 & 85 were really something ...
I found a match inside the box and went outside to light some rocks. It was dark so I fell over in a field of giant clover.
Should send syntropy link to ermha and/or to the NetNation email list ... yes, I wonder how many people are accessing that list of sites I compiled here ...
Interesting discussion board at 'afterlife knowledge' website ... it will be interesting to see how it compares with the Chopra Forum ...:)
For example ... the first one I read was 'contact' - and having recently watched the Jodie Foster movie ... well this is not THAT kind of contact ...
: OK. This could be the only afterlife contact that I received from Renee(my daughter 22yrs old). When she would come home from SIU, we would sit in front of the TV. After a time she would put her head on my shoulder and curl up next to me. After she died, I ordered the hemi-sink tape Focus 10. I shut the lights got rested and Imagined that she put her head on my shoulder. My shoulder got very warm and I could feel a presence of an imaginary body curling up next to me. I started to cry. After I got to C-1. I went to my portable CD player and turned on an old CD of Renee’s. The song that played was I am your guardian angel.
: This could have been contact or just wishvull thinking -any comment?
: Were guardian angels fit in?
Carlo, I agree with Bruce! My eyes watered up when I read your post! Renee is with you! Peace and love! Jan
click here ... and Bruce participates ... his books are ALSO on my list of "I'll get around to reading that ONE day ..." :)
There was also a link to a chat room at the 'after death' site -
here
So, now my list of accessing that list of "Mental Health sites" I compiled is approaching 200 and each site has its own list of links ... which in turn ... nowonder they call it a 'web' ...
click
Yes, the mischievious part of me feels like posting a message to the skeptics along the lines of "Here's a few sites I'm sure you'll love -
Enjoy ... :)
... but that would smack of smugness which can be extremely irritating to others ... :)
* Afterlife Knowledge
* Angel Therapy
* Starbuilders
* Are you a starseed?
* Is a car alive?
* Reality Shifters
* After Death
* Angel Scribe
* Expect Miracles
* SPIRITWEB
* Visitations from the afterlife
* What's wrong with being a closed-minded skeptic
* You cannot die
* God's handiwork at its finest (flowers - did not connect when I tried -
click
* Light Matrix
* Soul Questions
Yes, that's a fabulous list of links - may save it myself as a page ...
click here
or
here
I keep finding more sites - I mean it would take a few months to FULLY explore all the links at that syntropy site alone ... :)
Botanical Artwork - after I walked home from the shops and picked a gorgeous flower or two - its spring here in Melbourne ... I should make a trip to the nearby hills one day soon ... :)
plus www.travelphoto.net
Another interesting page - with quotes about the outdoors -
here
Flicking through some of my 'old stuff' (like less than 2 years ago I was a 'complete' atheist :) ...
I read some stuff by Bruce Moen (I seem to recall he has a website called 'Afterlife Knowledge' where he describes various regions and places in the 'afterlife') -
'To expand one's awareness of what's possible, there are places to learn and open one's imagination beyond its old limitations. There's a place that hlds everything ever thought of or know by any human being who has ever lived. This Education Centre is open to anyone desiring to study there, and access to this information is limited only by the breadth of one's desire to know and one's willingness to explore'
Sounds like a souped-up version of the Internet! I have often wondered what happens to all of my thoughts after I have stopped thinking them. I wonder how much benefit 99% of my past thoughts would be to anyone else but it's nice to know they are being stored away for 'posterity', I suppose. :)
Link to his site ?? -
Afterlife Knowledge
or ...
here for a magazine article
Watched that Zukav tape again - interestingly after a lively exchange of perspectives at the forum around message # 54,630 - about the things that 'irritate' us about the behaviour of 'others' -
click here for Gary's site ...
Anyway, yes on anger - "Behind anger can be sadness ... or grief ... or disapointment - it's always disappointment that the world is not the way you want it to be and that is an excruciatingly painful experience and it's easier to be angry than it is to face the intense pain of the world not being the way you want it to be ... "
... {a bit later} "Whenever you are angry, in that moment, stop and become aware of what you are feeling. Remind yourself that the thoughts you are thinking and the feelings you are feeling are coming from a part of yourself that is frightened. Remind yourself of that in that moment."
"What do you mean by frightened?"
"Scared." (audience laughs)
"Yes, I know frightened means scared ... but scared of what?"
"Of being alive ... scared that you don't have a place on the earth that is really yours ... frightened that people won't accept you ... frightened that you can't live up to the expectations of others ... and your own expectations ... frightened that you're not good enough ... frightened that you will never find the love in your life that you're so desperately seeking ... if you stop and become aware of what you're doing ... and before you start to analyse what you're afraid of, ask yourself if you want your decisions to be made by a part of you that is frightened ... The next step is to ak yourself what you would do in this situation if you were a wise and a compassionate person ... that's for you to decide - nobody can make that choice for you ... and it may be that you know what a wise choice would be but you decide not to make that choice and there is no shame in that ... there is learning potential in every decision that you make ... in this way you can experiement with your own life ... " {I could transcribe heaps more but that might be enough for today}
More to add to
Meditate-meditate-meditate link ...
* Yes, if you feel the need to insult or ridicule or diminish those you disagree with, you've already lost far more than just the argument before it even begins ... and I know this from direct painful personal experience ... :)
So, I create a couple new files -
Yes, when somebody says "I find that irritating" - the absolute KEY word is 'find'. "Seek and ye shall find" - I take that to mean if you look for reasons to be irritated you will surely find them. Likewise if you look for reasons to be inspired ... or filled with wonder ... or love ... or cynicism ... or gratitude or forgiveness ... or whatever ... :)
also a new couple of links to the kids humour page -
click - from library trip and search for 'kids funny thoughts god' - many permutations ... as they say, 'kids say the darndest things' ... because unlike most adults their minds are still open and exploring ... :(
Someone logged on to advertise their online book Syntropy -
click here
Palazzo Farnese
www.websitetips.com
Plus added a link or two to "Mental Health Sites" -
click here - including
Soul Questions - the first TWO of which are the biggies -
(1) How do you know? & (2) What is the Source of Your Information?
Following the syntropy links a little way led me to a few sites about Baha'i faith - sounds like my kind of religion - not dogmatic - each person should investigate the truth themselves and not follow ancestors or authority figures blindly ... to read more -
click here
I love this quote -
"To consider that after the death of the body the spirit perishes is like imagining that a bird in a cage will be destroyed if the cage is broken. Our body is like the cage and the spirit like the bird. Though the body dies, the spirit continues to exist in a new condition without the physical limitations of this world."
Continuing a busy day I find (after a 'frivolous' search for 'religion extraterrestrial') a site with writings of Brother David. :) Here's a little excerpt -
"The Universal Spirit, God, Divine Mind, or whatever else you wish to call it, (God doesn't get hung up on words the way humanity often does.) resides within each of us. Within our minds, within our hearts, within our souls, is the only temple where we can communicate and worship that Infinite essence which is our lives. Outer worship and ritual are no more than a symbolic acknowledgement that brings comfort to the conscious mind, but without the inner worship, there is no substance, nor truth, nor wisdom."
"It does not matter what words you use, what remains is that unless you know and embrace, the great inner silence, you cannot hear the voice of that divine essence which is the source of all life. If you do not look within you cannot see the sacred fire that burns within you that is your life. It does not matter what temple or church your worship in, nor what sacred text you study. Without the inner understanding that can only be provided by the spirit of God in you, none of it has any true meaning or value..
"
- from www.library-of-wisdom.org
(click here)
Their "Thought for the day" was -
"Practice forgiveness and you'll free your spirit to live positively each day, unburdened by the past mistakes of others."
Actually, that was a banner advertising the
Daily Motivator website
And continuing yesterday's list of photography sites - The Image Bank - has a searchable database -
click here
click here for a reclining buddhist statue
And ... as if all that were'nt enough ... email tells me of a clubhouse site which I have yet to checkout -
Fountain House
Phew ... yet my energy level remains remarkably high ... then again, who says life shouldn't be completely effortless ...
Click here for main Journal list
