This blog is available to readings of The Daily Now who want to share their experiences and understandings related to the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Michael Brown and Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Please note that sharing from personal experience is encouraged and advice giving is asked to be avoided.
Please keep entries reasonably short and move away from being ’teachy’ or ‘preachy’.
This blog is moderated.
Love is not a mere emotion. Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
I am not the author of this quote. I dont know the author. But when I heard those words, I could feel the truth beyond the mind, beyond knowing. Peace,Gratitude,Love
I’m going out on a limb here but maybe the main reason the one/we seperate into many, is to experience the loss of unconditional love.
The need for unconditional love is where/what all other wordly desires come from.
Maybe the one/we need the experience of the absence of unconditional love, to appreciate what we have when we are once again merged with the ONE-the source of unconditional love.
MB ” Our past thoughts, words and deeds wrote the script now being played out as our current life experience.”-The law of cause and effect.
I agree with MB’s statement except for the word (our), which implies (to me), that we as seperate selves are the creators/owners of past thoughts, words, and deeds that the mind/body experienced.
I know the individual has the thought/feeling that everything one chooses or does comes from one’s own free will. Because one has this feeling of free will, it would be very difficult to convince one that he/she does’nt have free will. How can I argue against what one obviously feels. I live as though I am the chooser and doer, although I know it is the program that is choosing and doing. And where does the program come from? Where/what everything else comes from.
JVS: “Who are other teachers who make that point as clearly as ET? Anyone?”
He is wonderful. If anyone has a copy of “The Power of Now” on page 220 he talks about the two chances of surrender. Accepting the reality of the moment. What “is” cannot be undone. This is surrender that Byron Kate speaks of I think.
Then he says we get a second chance at surrender by accepting what is inside. Do not resist the pain. Surrender to the grief, despair, anger. “By giving full attention, you use the power of the Now, which is the power of your presence.” This is the surrender that Michael Brown speaks of I think.
ET, BK and MB are all wonderful.
Last night I was watching a movie I ordered on Netflix called: The Flowering of Human Consciousness. It was ET giving a talk I think in 2001.
He was talking about acceptance. He gave an example about being stuck in a traffic jam and fighting it or relaxing and accepting it.
An hour or two later I picked up this book I have been reading slowly for the past 10 days. It is about people that are happy. The author interviewed the happiest people she could find.
I started reading about this man who had been so unhappy he was ready to commit suicide. A number things happened which caused him to change his mind. The main thing I noticed was he received an annoymous fax that contained a matra from a zen master: “Thankyou for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever.”
It was a message I needed to hear. So it was repeated 3 times. I guess the powers that be, know I’m a little slow. Namaste
I had an interesting experience tonight. I’m getting used to surrendering to my angry feelings, impatience etc. But I was thinking about my son (who usually brings up fear or anger or frustration) and I felt love and I sat there I just felt it like I have done so many times with the fear and anger and it got very, very intense. After it subsided I realized that love is something I didn’t allow my self to feel very often.
Craving born of memory is also the destroyer of memory.
How’s this for an explanation?
I remember that I love Chocolate ice cream.
I go get some.
I forget who I am!
Was it MB who said:
Your life is the answer to your deepest questions?
I really like that.
Nis: Craving born of memory is also the destroyer of memory.
My take on this is:
If I have a craving based on what I know (memory), I am attached to the outcome as I know it (also memory) – I am no longer allowing myself to be open to unlimited possibilities (creation of new memories). (ET: You see how you have been reducing it to abstraction by labeling and interpreting everything.)
Whenever The words (I) or (Me) are mentioned what is being referred to is a set of beliefs, ideas, thoughts, etc. In other words a program, not a personal self. But this program has a lot of faulty or wrong ideas and it needs to learn. And this program is really the One in disguise.
It has been easy to love and feel gratitude for the one. Especially for all the wonderful gifts given by the one.
What is more difficult, but what I am learning is to accept and say YES to what I used to say no to. Now if I feel unlovable I say yes to that and accept it. If I have a painful physical condition I say YES to it. I accept it. I realize it was given me to help me learn what I need to learn. Also I realize what I resist, persists. All is given by the one. The pesonality and mind might not like it, but I have recently learned to over rule the mind. I realize it is (all) a gift even though it is not always seen that way.
hey, on a lighter note, what if the one isn’t all ‘growed’ up yet and we’re helping (the) one grow up? maybe we’re all different aspects,ie growth stages of the one…like baby, teenager, adult, etc. but it doesn’t necessarily correspond to someone’s actual age, eg a grown man or woman might actually still be in the baby, child or teen stage and a child in an older stage (i don’t mean this psychologically).
i know this probably isn’t making much sense, but i was observing my 14yr old son, who is now 5′10 (i’m 5′6) and how different parts of his body are growing at different rates. he’s so cute (when he isn’t driving me nuts) knocking over things because he’s not used to his long arms or completely forgetting to do something i just had him repeat back to me (so he wouldn’t forget it). He used to fall over his feet because they were so much bigger than the rest of his body….oh, i don’t know why i’m bringing this up…just some of the posts got me to thinkingfeeling about my son and how he’s growing, all uneven yet perfectly. i’m just bursting with love!
hmm…maybe, like joy,(hey! the poster AND the emotion) love is not something i allow myself to feel to the fullest hardly at all…yes, that definitely has been true for me.
namaste
~mf
MF,
At least to me, you made perfect sense. Ever since I was little I thought these thoughts about “God”, “the one”. I grew up in a fundamental Baptist church and noticed how different “God” seemed to be from the Old testament to the New. I figured “it” was growing right along with everything/everyone else.
Namaste
“Craving born of memory is also the destroyer of memory.” This passsage brought me great insight. To me, it means that if you have too much emotion regarding remembering, then this will make it more difficult to remember. Or more simply, putting pressure on yourself to remember is a desire which detracts from your ability to remember–sort of a paradox. I think he is talking about the act of remembering rather than an actual memory.
I’ve never thought I had a very good memory, and over the past couple years that I’ve been reading and following presence teachings, it has at times appeared to have gotten worse. But perhaps it is the same, only I am more aware of and present when it happens. Or I am uncovering deeper, repressed fears regarding forgetting or not remembering (i.e. embarassment, shame) that arise as stronger reactions in the moment.
MF,
You are actually on to something quite profound. Everything moves through cycles. Infancy, adolescence adult hood, and old age (wisdom) in numerology this is what the number 4 represents these cycles. We move through these and build stability with our experience. We are moving to grow up and be like our creator. When we are grown up then we are at one with. An acorn holds the complete blueprint for the tree but it has to mature to be like the tree that gave the seed. We also have a blueprint held in the inner levels of consciousness. It is from here that all the life force flows that sustains the universe. Congratulations on your observation of your environment and what is
mf, when you wrote “on a lighter note” I realized how serious many of my posts are. It’s good to be aware of that. I get to see this personality from another point of view.
I remember reading about someone who would have a good time, by having a good laugh. I thought, thats interesting. For me, having a good time was having a good cry.
I think it’s important to look within these personalities, and get a sense of where we are comming from.
Larry: “I thought, thats interesting. For me, having a good time was having a good cry.”
I laughed out loud when I read this, I guess because I could relate so much.
Thanks
Joy, I’m writing this for you because you can relate to suffering but also to everyone else. We all have suffered or probably will.
I was walking and talking to God about an hour ago. I said ” God you have revealed yourself and some of your power to me. I believe you have the power to heal me of my emotional and physical pain, and yet you don’t do it. If you cure me, my life would be so much happier and more joyful. I could enjoy my life.—— I got an answer. This is how this mind understood it.
The One-The Divine was waiting for me to do or realize something and would not heal me until then.———- Right then something came into the mind. It was Larry’ [YOU DO NOT EXIST]. You Larry, are a character in a story. There is something real-but it is not you. I said “I thought I had accepted that.”
God— “If you fully accepted that, you would’nt say (MY life). How can you say (MY life) if there is no you. Once you fully accept that there is no you, we can discuss healing, if there is still a need to.”
So I said and will keep saying “There is no real Larry. Namaste
We have all heard Eckhart Tolle was really miserable and was ready to commit suicide when he had an awakening. I don’t know what he realized or went through but now he seems to be pretty happy. He was happy when he was living on a park bench before he wrote his book and made a lot of money.
I think maybe there was a realization that Eckhart Tolle did’nt exist. What really and only existed was consciousness in the present moment. ET realized he was not this person he formerly could’nt live with.
I have not read ET’s discription of his awakening, but I have read of other awakenings and in most, there seems to be these repetitive themes. One is the realization that the body/mind and the seperate self is not real. There is only the One that exists, and it is everyone and everything.
I was horribly in the future for the last two days. I just couldn’t get out of it. I tried everything, feeling what was going on inside, trying to stay present and accepting what was going on outside. I was SO miserable. I had to make a decision and it was choosing the lesser of two evils. And I couldn’t accept either choice. It was horrible. Then this morning there was acceptance. That’s all. Just acceptance of the choice that made the most sense, the one that wasn’t based on fear. Peace, for now at least.
I don’t believe suffering is the only ticket or portal to have an awakening. I do know Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie both had an awakening or some very intense experience, while they were at a very low point in their lives. Then there are those like Robert Adams and Tony Parsons that had an awakening when they apparently were feeling fine. So I would definately say, dont try to get to a place of suffering in order to awaken. I believe everyone is (where) they are supposed to be.
I believe one can be open or can allow awakening to happen. There are different methods put forth by different teachers so you can try many of them and find the one(s) that seem to work best for you. Joy seems to resonate with being present and the teachings of Byron Katie. I also like being present but mainly I do what is called direct inquiry seen on the Stillness Speaks link. I dont believe you can make awakening/enlightenment happen. If it happens it happens.
I Do believe God is all and God is what we would call profoundly Good. I can feel this is friendly universe filled with unconditional Love. Peace
ET: “To bring presence into a movement means that at no stage is the movement a means to an end.”
I eat really fast and rather unconsciously. In the morning I’m usually half way finished with my waffle when I realize “Where am I going?” I then sit down, (I’m usually doing something else while I’m eating breakfast,) and savor the whole experience. Putting the waffle in my mouth, chewing, actually tasting the flavors, swallowing, just being in the present. It becomes this wonderful experience, just eating a waffle.
Larry: Direct inquiry does intrigue me, I just don’t get it. (And I know there is nothing to get) But I am open to it. I was just listening to John Sherman in my car, actually, this morning. I’ll check out Stillness Speaks.
Sidebar:
I have ” The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi” And I actually really like it. But he says: “Destroy the ego by seeking its identity.” This I believe is the same as John Sherman’s “Look at yourself.”
Maybe someone can help me here, I just don’t understand. My gut feeling is Eckhart is saying the same thing, possibly, but in a way that I can understand. Anybody?
Joy,
If you do causal felt resonance as MB talks about on this site at the bottom of the page.When sitting with the energy an urge will come to get up to do something. To get away. This is the ego. It is best described as an urge to do.It is very unconscious and subtle. You to need to be able to identify this and know it otherwise it will always get you to do… and you want to be. We are identified with our doings we think his urge is us but rather it is a reflection. When you are present you are “I Am”
Joy, when I do direct inquiry I notice how different it is from what I do, and I believe most of us do our whole waking lives. We mostly feel, smell, taste, hear, and look OUT at the material world. Direct inquiry is changing the direction of that attention. We look deeply into what is looking out, or for me the source of what is looking out. The reason I say the source of what is looking out is because I can not find an independant core pesonal me that is looking. I can only find consciousness/beingness. A lot of people try this and give it up after a while because it is so different from what they are used to doing- Looking out at the world. At first it is somewhat difficult to turn one’s attention away from the material world and to the source of what is looking.
I could not do it at first, and it took about two weeks of doing it every night from 5 to 15 minutes. Then it became easier as I started to get the hang of it. Some say just do it. You can’t get it wrong no matter what the mind is saying. Eventually I began to feel a sense of peace in doing it. The worldly experience became more like a play and less serious. Before I took beingness for granted. Now I appreciate beingness.
There are some great teachers and teachings on the Stillness Speaks link. It explains this direct inquiry very well. Namaste
Since I can do this (putting my attention on the source- or what is experiencing) anywhere as long as it’s safe to take your attention off the material world for even one minute I just did it while walking to the store. It is night and the streets are less noisy and more peaceful.
I noticed at times my attention was split between the dark streets and what was experiencing the dark streets. I was fine with that. When I do this whatever I notice, is OK.
At times when I put my attention on the source of me (or what was experiencing), I became that. I also had a knowing that this was not only the source of me but the source of everything seen and unseen.
I think John Sherman saying put your attention on (you) might be confusing for some. Instead I put my attention on what is seeing-what is experiencing- or try the source of me. There is some way to say it-see it, that may work best for you. Namaste
One more thing. When I put my attention on what is experiencing- or the source of me, it’s always much more of a feeling than a thought. Namaste
i just tried to notice “what or who is aware” that i am reading (and now typing in) this blog…and i felt nothing. except this fear(?) that there is no one or nothing (or whatever) there.
mf-
From what I’ve read, that fear is your ego saying “Stop doing that.” Michael Brown calls us warriors.
Thanks for all your input everyone. I’m so glad we are all here.
ET- “You can practice little things, like picking up a glass of water, and drinking it, in the state of pure awareness.”
Well, he’s trying to help. It doesn’t seem like a bad practice to me(as practices go) better than gulping the water unconsciously. And I enjoy my waffle so much more.
Francis Lucille was particularly clear (and scary) today.
FL: “Consciousness never says, I want this or I don’t want that.”
That I am not my thoughts is scary. I can feel my “little me” (as ET calls it) contract.
I just had a “thought” come into consciousness. Is the ego merely thought?
Something says or feels “I am or I exist”. Even a child says and feels “I am”. What does it feel like (to be)? Try putting attention on that.
mf, after reading your post-where you tried to notice “who or what is aware” of reading or writing and you found nothing so you felt fear.
I know who was aware of the reading or writing. [You were]. That is why John Sherman says “Look at You”. He is talking about the same you that saw a child a teenager and an adult in the mirror. That you has [never changed]
That is all you do. Put your attention on that you. [That you] is what is looked at.
Consciousness/beingness is not some entity that is foreign to me. It works through me. I am the divine expression. So I find it by looking into me. I look into me to find God. The me that has never changed. Namaste
Doesn’t Michael Brown look like Jesus (or the likeness we have come to know anyway) in this particular photo. Just noticed that. It’s really a great photo, the lighting is amazing.
When my husband walked in and saw the MB picture he said, “So now Jesus is on this site?” And yes, Joy, the lighting is amazing!
In honor of Mother’s Day I have a question. A while back a friend with teenager’s(mine are 8 and 6 1/2) was lamenting over the fact that she wasn’t more aware when they were little. She wished tht she had already read the books she’s now read, done the meditations she now does, etc. I said to her, “Obviously, you were supposed to be wherever you were at that time. You must have been what they needed then. Now you’re this other way.” So why can’t I talk to myself that way? Namaste
Does the Daily now qualify:
ET
“And you can see that is the grasping quality…the next thing might be a magazine, or the TV, because the mind seeks reincarnation into the next stream that it can identify with.”
I am somewhat addicted to my daily fix.
Is this like working one’s way to the top and out?
Elizabeth:Very funny about your husbands comment.
“So why can’t I talk to myself that way?”
Because you don’t have her guilt I would guess.
The unconscious parenting I did (and I did plenty of it) in my past is something that is still in my face daily as my son is an active alcoholic. My guilt caused me to be really angry at him because if he “just stopped drinking” I wouldn’t have to feel the guilt! Actually, Byron Katie helped me to see that I was using him to justify my misery.”It’s his fault!” Poor guy. I was just continuing my unconscious parenting. Big wake up call. I’m a much better parent now and when thoughts of the past come up I try not to pay too much attention to them. And when anger comes up I try to just feel the anger but not attach it to him, just feel the anger. Then what comes up is anger at my mother, interesting? She wasn’t an alcoholic but she was really angry and scary sometimes and I’ve never allowed myself to feel that anger before. Interesting, huh?
William:
“Does the Daily now qualify” I actually had that same thought but it is nice to have a place where people actually understand what you are talking about.
Elizabeth: I realize what I said made no sense in the first part of my reply.
“So why can’t I talk to myself that way?”
Because you have guilt, perhaps. You can talk to her like that because you are not carrying her guilt around. You can be objective. (In my professional opinion) Ha
If was me that’s how I would see my behavior.
I agree. I thought it was a great picture of Michael. The way the lighting was done seemed like an aura or halo around his face.
I do think it is important to not mistake the messenger for the message. Even though I dont believe this is what MB wants his students to do. I think we do have to be careful when we have a charismatic teacher. We have to be careful to not enhance the teacher/messenger so that we loose sight of the message.
There is a tendancy where the followers can become more confused and submissive. The usual effect of those involved can be unquestioning adulation, disillusionment, or an awakening and moving on.
Sometimes I say things like this because I see my ultimate teacher to be within me, or the true part of me.
I am not saying anything about MB here. I’m just saying one needs to be careful when following the spiritual path.
After I read ET,s blog about being present while drinking the water I thought:
Theres many a slip, twixt the cup and the lip.
Meaning even while your going through the movements of drinking the water, the mind can be all over the place. If left on it,s own, the mind does’nt want to slow down, let alone stop.
Larry,
Just to be clear, I thought it was really quite amusing that he looked like Jesus. I wasn’t reading anything else into the likeness. I’m sure it was accidental on Micheal’s part as well.
The trouble with blogging is you cannot hear the tone and inflection in someones voice.
Thats why i repeated more than once that I was’nt saying anything about MB. Just a general principle to make sure we listen and consider the message rather than idolize or see the messeger as more than a teacher. This is something I found could happen as I checked out various spiritual paths. The diciples would get carried away with the teachers charisma, and thus accept any message. It is just something to be aware and careful about. If you look back at some of the despots of history you’ll see what I mean.
I am not really saying anything about you, Elizabeth, or Michael. Just be careful and follow your heart. Peace
I do, to be honest, have some psychological problem with what I call “Hero Worship”. Something really bothers me about people getting together to extol the virtues of another person. How wondeful they are, how fantastic and charming,and smart they are.
It is something I need to look into but it’s comming from my past conditioning. Maybe when I saw another kid getting a lot of praise and I was geeting nothing, I remember that really hurt.
So it seems if we have a strong feeling about something negative or positive it is usually comming from a past traumatic experience. It helps to be aware of that. Of course it is not one situation. This came after I was told by my stepfather many times (without any protection from my mother), that I was worthless, uaeless and was incapable of doing anything right.
I still dont believe someone someone should “fall in love” with their teacher. This can be a recipe for disaster.
I wonder if Jesus looked like Jesus!
William,
Doubt it!
Larry,
Glad we could be helpful in bringing up stuff for you to process.
I’m liking Francis Lucille a lot. He is only about an hour away from me and holds meetings most weekends, I may go to one. I’ll let you all know how it is.
And I thought I didn’t get the direct way or whatever it’s called.
Joy, it really helps to reread my posts and notice if there is a strong feeling associated with them. It seems to be an easy way to see the psychological content driving the feeling.
I wish I lived an hour from Francis Lucille. I’d love to talk to him. He explains direct inquiry in a way that is easily understood. Where does he hold his meetings?
I was reading some recent Adyashati info. I like Adya and what he has to say. Although somehow I was’nt surprised to find all this new info about Mukti. I think that is his wife or girlfriend. It was all about her retreats and her books and writings. I guess I’m a bit of a cynic but why not make it a family business. Twice the money. Still what Adya has to say is helpful. I just feel a little less respect for him now. Maybe thats comming from a psychological place also. Any comments?
hi larry
francis lucille is up the road (from LA) in Temecula. A little over an hour and a half drive. was thinking of checking it out myself one day…a well to draw from that isn’t too far away.
Hi Larry,
As I read your last post re: Adya, this came to mind. Jesus wept. I think even the most enlightened human is still a human doing human things. I have the feeling that it’s a good thing when I notice that because it keeps me from attaching too strongly to the person instead of looking within.
Personally, I usually say, “Good for them!” when I notice a spiritual teacher making lots of money. Think of all the seemingly useless stuff we sometimes spend our money on.
Namaste
Again, really great FL stuff.
“Really, how strange and marvelous!”
I love this response.
I also love the word “uncolored” to qualify awareness.
“I’ll never understand why the truth is always contradicting itself! ”
No words can describe it, that’s why there are so many books on the subject.
Elizabeth, I guess there is nothing wrong with being spiritual and rich as opposed to spiritual and poor. This is just my own stuff. Your right. More happiness to them. Namaste
I live in Santa Monica CA. 1 to 2 hours does’nt seem to far to see someone as advanced as Francis Lucille. I’m going to get in touch with them and go to a weekend meeting. From the vibes I get from FL, I feel like I could get something from just being near him. Mean while I see John Sherman once a month, because his meetings are about 3 miles from my residence.
It seems to me what JS explains, is a little difficult for the average person to do, at least at first. But for me it turns out to be worth it. Peace
It seems there are two things I can do with awareness. I can imitate awareness. I could do that only in the present where I put dedicated attention on whatever the senses notice-like the taste of food-the pain in my leg- the sound of an airplane. What ever awareness notices I follow.
The other thing I can do with awareness is put my attention directly on it. Instead of noticing what awareness is aware of, I put my full attention on it. At first it is like a feeling of being in the body. Then that can change where I actually become awareness. Then awareness can expand and become everything. The feeling is like I’m being what I really am. To me that is a beautiful feeling. It feels like I’ve come home because I’m actually being what I am. Namaste
yes, I think presence grows when you are around someone who is present. I’ve watched a few of his videos, could be great.
Larry,
I think ET would say from one perspective they are two different things but from another they are the same.
By doing the awareness/consciousness work (I dont know if work is the right word because I love it), I noticed some of my psychological feelings are comming up and I am willing to see them as repressed feelings and not “I’m right and your wrong” Also if I read something written by one of the teachers, I used to have this strong egotistical feeling, to openly disagree and then argue why I was right and whoever was wrong. I dont know how it’s happening but this need to argue with someone’s position is receding. And it feels good like a relief. Peace
Hey, if you guys do end up at a sitting with Francis, I think he would interested to know that you found out about him through The Daily Now.
Also, be sure to check in with Chris Hebard (aka, OnceChris, StillnessSpeaks.com) – he’ll probably be there. Jordan
Hi everyone,
i would be interested in carpooling with someone who wants to go sit with francis lucille — its a bit of a distance for my car. happy to pitch in for gas but not sure how to coordinate though (since we probably shouldn’t post our contact info on a public blog).
oh well, i’m putting it out there anyway — maybe someone smarter than me can figure out how we can safely contact each other if that is meant to be.
namaste
marie-francoise
mf,
At this time I also dont have a vehicle I could trust to make the 200 hundred mile round trip so we’ll see if things change. I assume your talking about leaving from the LA area.
On 5-31-09 I’m going to the John Sherman meeting in Santa Monica. It is on a street called Kensington. Kensington crosses Lincoln. It’s about too blocks north of Lincoln up a hill. There is a park there with a building on it. They hold the meetings in the building.
When John says look at the self or look at you he is talking about the self with a small s. Just the everyday you. Not the ONE SELF that is everything. He is saying just look at whatever you think you are. He tries to make it as simple as possible. So you might find what he says interesting.
I should mention the meetings are always on Sundays at 2:30PM
If anybody (Larry, MF) can make it near OC, I can drive from here. It’s about an hour from here. We could meet somewhere neutral,like a Starbucks somewhere in the vicinity of the 60 and the 57 freeways, for you guys coming from LA. Then I could drive that last hour.
It looks like you can just show up.
The next meetings are:
Saturday, May 23 3:00
or Sunday May 24 1:30
Either day is fine with me. Let me know. If we don’t go now he’s gone until August according to his website.
I also want to check out John Sherman at his Westside meeting.
When is the next one Larry?
JS: Yes, we’ll be the “Daily Now” crowd.
Larry,
Sorry I didn’t see your post. I can make that John Sherman meeting. Hope you both can make it to FL however.
Joy, right now my car is barely running. I would’nt trust it for more than 5 to 10 miles so unless someone could drive me and mf to OC I dont know how I could get there. By the way does OC mean Ocean Side? I think Ocean Side is about 60 or so miles south of LA. If anything changes I will let you know. Like if I win the money for a new car. Peace
I was reading a little out of a book I bought maybe 15 years ago called Zen without Zen Masters. In it was a story about these guys talking about what they would do with lottery money. One guy said to the other that since he didn’t care too much about money, he would buy this expensive car and give it to a spiritual teacher for no reason. I think just to blow his mind.
So in the days to come I’m halfway expecting Larry to post that a car just showed up on his doorstep for no reason. Wouldn’t that be fun!
Of course, at the end of the story the spiritual teacher asked the guy, “what will you do now?” The guy said, “I’ll take the bus.”
Namaste
Larry,
I hear you about car issues. It’s really a shame we still have to drive at all. Our public transportation is not very present.
No, I’m in Orange County. But that would be one hell of a drive for me to go to LA and then to Temecula and back.
Well, I’ll see you at John Sherman and tell you all about it. (Can you pass on someone else’s presence?)
Elizabeth,
Great story.
I have a funny story, true story.
My sister brought me a couple of spiritual books and said:
“Here, these sound interesting, you read them and then tell me about them. I don’t really have time to be spiritual.”
@joy
your sister sounds really smart!
so what have you told her so far?
namaste
My sister is quite funny, her spirituality is linked to how much money she has. If she is making money, she feels very “spiritual and connected.”lol
@joy
if i can figure out the train schedule (and get up my nerve) i can take a train to the OC and maybe you could pick me up from there?
you’re right the public transportation system here could do with some Presence.
i just had another thought: maybe a train goes to Temecula, and you could pick me up from the station? i’ll check it out and let you know what i find, if anything.
otherwise, i will check out John Sherman again (i’ve been to one of his talks in santa monica before).
namaste,
~mf
mf-
The train sounds like fun. Just let me know a day or two in advance. (so I can clean my car)
A few days before the John Sherman meeting I’ll post it. To be more exact with the directions, this park on Kensington is two blocks (West) of Lincoln up a hill. Lincoln is a major street that runs North/South through Santa Monica. Lincoln is also an exit off of the Santa Monica or 10 freeway. Lincoln crosses Wilshire Blvd, SM Blvd, Pico Blvd. Kensington is about three blocks south of Pico and is six blocks south of the 10 freeway. The park on Kensington is called Joslyn park. There is one main building. Go in the building to the crafts room. Or go to :riverganga.org/calender. There is a link to a map there.
I will usually try to get there 10 minutes early or about 2:20pm on Sunday May 31.
Jordan, I’m very sensitive to the feeling of being abandoned. I was very aware that certain people that were writing (one was a great poet), dropped out after being asked to moderate their blogs. It seems to me they were very reasonably asked to share from their own experience, and not act like a know it all advice giver. They wanted to tell others (who had a question or a problem), exactly what needed to be done. They would even quote spiritual teachers to back up their advice.
It seems like we lost people that were afraid to make (I) statements or write about a personal experience. I guess that can feel like a vulnerable position to be in. I dont feel that, but I can understand it. It is actually pretty freeing to express oneself honestly and be willing to be human. Or maybe their ego could’nt take being told, they wrote something that was not acceptable on this site.
It is a shame that people that may have alot to offer, have ego’s that are so fragile.
I think writing and talking about personal experience is REALLY scary. These are just a few of my most popular thoughts that go through my mind after I’ve been honest(as I can be) or just revealed something personal.
1. They are going to think I’m crazy.
2. They probably think I’m really egotistical.
3. They are going to leave (the group, the relationship, whatever)
4. They are going to think I’m an awful person.
These thoughts still pass through (like right now) but today I can feel the fear (in my jaw) and then on to the next piece of bait as MB calls it. And the bait seems to be freakin endless.
I actually had to pause (while writing this message) to feel the fear in my jaw.
5. Oh.. I almost forgot…. They will think I’m stupid.
I understand Joy, but I have found that others want to hear about your own real experiences. They feel like your not trying to hide your true thoughts and feelings and that makes them feel safer. Your admitting your not perfect. I believe that breaks down walls. I feel better and closer to those that share their true feeling and thoughts.
But obviously many people feel like you do. Thats one of the reasons people drop out of sharing on this site. They are encouraged to share their true thoughts and feelings. And that scares them. There are certain things I’d be reluctant to share but my general feeling is being honest is worth a lot. It is worth more than what others might think of me. I believe there are people who read this blog who might think that guy Larry is a little off or crazy, but it’s more than worth it to be honest. Because even if people think something negative about me, they also think at least he tries to tell the truth about himself.
Joy,
Loved the bit about your sister. Hilarious!
Larry,
Still waiting to hear about your new car arriving. Would you believe last night I was watching a movie where two strangers were standing in front of a car dealership window. One said to the other, “The Ferrari is yours.” The other one couldn’t believe it.(Neither could I after what I wrote yesterday) Someone was giving him this car for free and for no reason! Then they hugged and the first guy stole the other’s wallet. And of course my next thought was, “Oh crap! So much for Larry’s car.”
Well, I try not to tell myself too many stories about why people come and go, write or don’t write.
I’ve been thinking alot lately about how people who have blindness must have to maintain a sense of the world around them through their own imagination or thoughts. Void the visual sense, ’seeing’, they have to construct a reality beyond the four senses they ‘do’ have.
This is alot like that. We construct a reality – fill in the blanks – about who or what is behind the key strokes. On both ends, actually.
It ‘is’ interesting that the ‘egoless-no-mind-nothingess-That-I-am’, when challenged, will always seem to find something to defend.
To be clear, there is nothing ‘here’ that claims to be egoless, awakened, or free. (I can only fool myself for so long.)
I don’t know if you’re aware that the first Michael Brown elist, not sure what it was called now, self-destructed (imploded) from egoic no-minds telling each other what they should and shouldn’t be doing. That could happen here but doesn’t seem to be.
Another kind of funny thing I’ve noticed lately is that I’ve been more interested in – felt more warmly about – people trying to connect up rides to see FL. Seemed more spiritual, or something, than talk about ’spiritual’ stuff.
I don’t think the poet was ever moderated.
Regarding feelings of abandonment:
I’m aware that when any two people part there is a drop or shift in the energy field that was created through resonance when the two were together. Some people feel it some don’t. Sometimes I feel it, sometimes I don’t.
When separation occurs, what I must be feeling is my own energy field without the resonance of the other.
What is that feeling?
If I call it ‘lonliness’, it is about me but implies time. Past. (“My friend left so now I feel lonely.”
If I call it ‘aloneness’ then that is about me and points to Presence, I suppose. (“In this moment, I feel the aloneness that I am.”)
If I call it ‘abandonment’ then isn’t that making it about the other? (“They have abandoned me.”)
Also, the word/concept of ‘abandonment’ implies time – past, as it were. That is, something had to be happening prior to Now for me to be having this feeling of ‘abandonment’ now.
+++++
That was funny about the wallet.
I’ll admit, I got sucked in. I was thinking, “Oh crap, we’re back to “The Secret” again.”
I can see why you’d think that, Jordan. There are so many times that I wish I could just talk face to face with all of you. When I read that you(Jordan) got “sucked in” I wasn’t really sure what you meant. I think it was Joy who said once that there can be so many different interpretations of the written word. I see so much humor in life and joke a lot of the time. Sometimes I think later, “now how did that come across?” This site has been good practice for me to let go of what another might think. I’ve really appreciated(needed) the practice.
JS says:
“Another kind of funny thing I’ve noticed lately is that I’ve been more interested in – felt more warmly about – people trying to connect up rides to see FL. Seemed more spiritual, or something, than talk about ’spiritual’ stuff.”
Yes, yes, I felt it too. It was real. It felt really good. Although I must admit it was a little scary at first.
My Grandmother used to call everyone who wasn’t family, “strangers” even my good friends. And she would say “strangers” with such an ominous tone that I think it ingrained a sense of fear of “strangers.” Gotta laugh really. But I did have to push past the fear. My circle of “friends” is very small but I am trying to process the fear that causes me to close off.
I was reading ET last night (a book I’ve read many times before) and came across a page that I must have skipped or that just didn’t sink in a year ago. It was about “My Life.”
He said, and I’m paraphrasing, that if it’s “your” life then you can lose it. But we are life, so there is nothing to lose.
I got it, not in the sense that there was a big breakthrough and suddenly everything was joyous, more like I had to put the book down and go to bed because it was too big to deal with in one night.
When I am aware of having a feeling that hurts, I am not always sure what to call it. Every word that comes up can be seen to have all kinds of implications i.e. it’s about them, it’s about me, it’s about the past, it’s about the past and the present. I don’t try to intellectually figure it out. That seems for me, to [take away] from the pure experience of the feeling or pain.
I did say as this adult it felt like abandonment, but really to the 5 year old that feels it, it just hurts. The 5 year old does’nt understand past, present, them or me. It just feels the pain in the truest way I know how to feel. Without understanding it.
Elizabeth, since your getting so many synchronistic messages about winning a car maybe your going to win one. So far I have not had any signs about winning a car. Of course synchronistic signs can be simply that. Something (anything) repeating over and over. For me, that alone, is pretty miraculous. It defies what we think of as natural cause and effect. I think we both see that as a gift. I see it as the one revealing itself. Peace
Jordan, it seems the only time I have ever heard you use the word (crap) is when talking about (the secret). It seems like you see the word (crap) and (the secret) as being synonymous.
It seems behind these words is a strong negative feeling. Especially since it is the only time I can remember you using the word “crap”. That is about the most negative four letter word I have ever seen you write.
Do you know or can you explain where such intense negative feelings are comming from?
Although I assume the secret does’nt work for most people, I dont have intense negative feelings about it.
If you dont know why (the secret) causes you to feel such intense negative feelings I completely understand. You just feel them. It is not important unless you need to know why.
Yeah, I have a bad attitude about The Secret.
I don’t know what is being triggered in me.
I can talk about it and give reasons but they would be about The Secret and not about me.
Maybe it is from early disappointment, when ‘it’ didn’t work for me. Was it me? – self-blame. Asking, “What is wrong with me that ‘positive’ thinking didn’t work for me?” And going down that path.
Actually, I can argue for it, as well. It is a ‘thought structure’ that may need to be put in place. It’s a great first or second step; but it’s in the ‘mental body’ so it can only go so far. It’s limited as to impermanance and duality.
There’s something about ‘getting rich (or whatever) just by thinking about it’ that’s against my early conditioning. But I don’t what that was. Words or attitudes related to ideas expressed in The Secret are antithetical to my beliefs, I guess.
I haven’t sat with it long enough or deep enough to get at the source. It may not interest me or it may be too threatening. I don’t know.
Thanks for pointing out the ‘crap’ thing. It ‘felt’ right and still does. I was so deeply in the current that I didn’t feel the intensity. j
Jordan,
Thankyou for your honesty. It means a lot to me. Peace
FL: The presence of an intense desire for awakening is a sure sign that this recognition has taken place.
Awakening implies loosing everything including one’s self. There is a realization that there is something real and it has nothing to do with this world or what is on it. Awakening is wanting to surrender to what we previously thought was real but now realize is illusory.
Winning lifes lotto cannot be it, because all you are winning is illusion. Everthing of this world and the whole physical Universe is illusion and temporary.
This exchange is so fun to watch. Maybe “fun” isn’t the right word. I feel appreciation for getting to see the process of clearing a charge. I can imagine that on another site there would be a week long dialogue on the pros and cons of “The Secret” without delving into the root cause of the charge. Thanks, guys.
I did’nt say that the righr way.
If it is something you get from the material world you need to realize it’s temporary and ultimately an illusion. It turns out to be nothing.
You might as well surrender the illusory body and everything else material to the only thing that is real. The one Self. That is home and eternal.
Larry,
I think we’re on the same page as far as these synchronistic events go. When they happen to me it feels like a gift or grace. They’re never, ever something I seem to have any control over. They just happen and I’m delighted. Then I believe, at least for a time, that my vibration is raised or awareness or something.
Jordan,
I’ve had similar feelings around “The Secret” that I believe stem back to childhood. This is just coming to me now. I felt ever since I was little that Jesus came, taught a lot of great stuff and then was misinterpreted for a few thousand years. That was sad to me. It felt like a terrible veering off in the wrong direction. It felt like moving away from Source. As I would sit in church listening to a pastor preach on hellfire and brimstone I would think, “that can’t be the point.”
As I watched “The Secret” become so popular I had a similar feeling. Here is this sort of esoteric teaching, some is misinterpretted and many are missing the point. I believe it’s a no-brainer that everyone is really just going for a state – a better feeling state than whatever they are presently in. And, of course, that has nothing to do with getting anything.
For some reason, though, this apparent misinterpretation didn’t bother me as much. Was it because I had already processed some of that childhood stuff? In fact, as I would hear about more and more people trying to “get stuff” by applying what they thought they had learned the feeling wasn’t sadness. I don’t know what word to use but the feeling would sound like, “hmmm. how interesting. and isn’t it nice that this created an opening for some to get to a path that might be closer to truth.”
“…isn’t it nice that this created an opening for some to get to a path that might be closer to truth.”
You might get to heaven with that thought!
j
When I read “The Secret” over a year ago now. I taped a one dollar bill on my ceiling above my bed. I had added with black marker 6 zeros, to make 1,000,000 dollars. I think that the money was supposed to come within a year, and as the end of the year closed in, it became this running joke to my self, ” I’ve only got a month to make that million, oops, only a week.
It’s still on my ceiling, it makes me laugh to look at it now. But, maybe it’s more spiritual then even the writers could imagine. By money kind of being in your face like that, it kind of destroys its meaning. Sometimes money (the actual bills) seems really strange to me. Actually,lately, the whole concept of money seems really weird.
ET: It might not even come through you because there is the field through this form.
He was talking about just being there with another person and being so intensely present that healing can occur in the other person and it really doesn’t come from you because at that moment you are in the field of awareness. In fact, you ARE the field of awareness…. Me thinks.
“the whole concept of money seems really weird.”
That’s how I feel too, Joy. Also, ownership of anything seems crazy. It’s like here are all these crazy people just agreeing on something. This is yours, this is mine. At any time someone stronger or a whole group that is larger could come along and decide, “No. that doesn’t belong to you.” And then it wouldn’t. They could just take it.
For some reason, when this idea came to me, it gave me a lot of peace. There was no longer a reason to scramble and strive to get more stuff. Everything and nothing seems to “belong” to everyone and noone. That doesn’t mean that I never buy stuff that I don’t need. I do. But the crazy urge to possess seems to be diminished.
Elizabeth,
For me it first happened this way, I was explaining to my Grandson (5) the concept of rent or mortgage payment. I can’t remember how it came up. After explaining it to him, it felt really strange to pay money for a place to live. So I said to him isn’t that weird? He agreed.
Joy,
Re going to Francis Lucille this upcoming weekend — I looked up the amtrak train schedule to Temecula — well there isn’t one! The closest I can get is either Santa Ana or Irvine or San Juan Capistrano — don’t know where any of those places are in relation to you. I think Irvine is in the OC? Also, with some of the prices it might be cheaper to rent a car! But let me know if any of those locations are in your area…might be fun. I can be flexible re Saturday or Sunday but Saturday may be better (train) schedule-wise.
namaste,
marie-francoise
Joy: “the whole concept of money seems really weird.”
i also have felt that for a very long time. but when you talk about money & housing, medical care, etc and whether people should have to ‘pay’ for it folks can get very upset. there probably needs to be a more flexible model but one hasn’t been invented/imagined yet (that works).
i also have difficulty with spiritual teachers charging a lot of money for their teachings. i wonder, if i had some spiritual knowledge or whatever would i also sell it? i have no idea really. i was raised catholic, so the whole collection plate thing rankles me. also, spiritual disciplines which require you to tithe to experience prosperity also set me on alert. but at the same time i don’t mind Osho was or Reverend Ike (both were outrageously unabashedly materialistic). i find them quite humorous. but money does seem too important somehow for the spiritual and non-spiritual alike. my sister is born again and is always talking about how ‘blessed’ she is. she does have a big house, lots of material things, dental practice, etc etc. but i wonder, would she be any less blessed if she didn’t have those things? i suppose she looks at me and thinks that i am very NOT blessed — when i am in her presence (which is rare) i often do feel not blessed – which is my problem not hers, of course. how do we ascertain how well we are doing if not by comparing ourselves? i may not be blessed according to my sister’s (and maybe also my) criteria, but am i compared to someone who doesn’t have food to eat? in other words, how do we know?
because even if you are blessed or you have some spiritual knowledge, and the ‘reward’ seems to be that you get to be wealthy…doesn’t that lend itself to the assumption that there is something wrong with you if you are not? it also seems that we need money for almost EVERYTHING. and it’s not even real! it’s just weird to me. maybe i’ll ask FL.
My mother really taught me an interesting way to look at money and work.
When I was around 15 I asked my mother for some money for an icecream from the icecream truck. She said ” If you want money for icecream, then get a job. She suggested a paper route.
Later I asked about work and why do people work. She explained in her overly dramatic way. “Everyone HATES to work but they have to. If they dont they will STARVE or FREEZE to DEATH.
From being told this more than once, I came to believe the following. Work is very much like being in jail. You go some where everyday to suffer for a large part of the day, for most of the rest of your life. Or you can choose not to work and freeze or starve to death. To my 15 year old mind this idea made life not seem worth living, unless I could figure a way out.
It’s amazing, what we are taught as children, can affect a big part of the rest of our lives as this teaching did to me.
I have to admit, I became what is considered in our society a criminal.I tried to find ways to obtain money without working for it in the normally considered way. The alternative seemed on a par with suicide. A miserable life of suffering. Why did I believe what my mother told me? I dont know. I just know I had to.
Maybe this is one of the reasons I dont believe I am the chooser or doer. I was programmed to choose and do what I did. I am not proud of what I did but neither do I blame myself or anyone for choosing and doing what they do. They and their actions are a result of their programming or brainwashing.
Because of how I lived it is easy for me to see how everyone is living their program including the program that they are an individual seperate self. Ofcourse this has to include the program that one is personally responsible for every thought they have and every move they make. Actually that program is’nt as bad as some others, although I see it as causing regret and self-hate for ones past thoughts and actions and anxiety and fear of how one will be punished in the future. Unless ofcourse one has lived a completely moral life, never having a negative thought or having made a negative action. And always knowing the positive or negative results of their actions. Ones regrets of past thoughts and actions and ones fearful thoughts of future punishment seems like a good way to keep one out of the present. What I like a lot is the program of unconditional love and forgiveness, even though there is nothing to forgive.
By the way even if one has lived a very moral life this time, what about your past 100 lives. Most cant even remember what they have done in those. You could have done things similar to Hitler and have’nt been punished for them yet. Does anyone see how the belief in karmic debt can cause all kinds of worry and keep one out of the present.
There is and has always been one doer. The one that causes everything. Peace
“She explained in her overly dramatic way. “Everyone HATES to work but they have to. If they dont they will STARVE or FREEZE to DEATH.”
I actually laughed when I read this because it sounds like something right out of “South Park” Between the two of us Larry we could probably do a whole adult comedy cartoon show.
And then I felt really sad for both you (as a child) and your mother. READ… I felt sad for MY child(self) and MY parents.
They know not what they did.
The really great thing is we all get another chance to have a great childhood, and that chance is now. (I’m paraphrasing someone, I don’t know who)
mf-
Santa Ana would be great. Metrolink is cheaper than Amtrack I know. Saturday is good.
Elizabeth- are you in California?
Larry,
I know you don’t resonate with Byron Katie but I really think you would like her. She is sooooo open and completely without judgement. When I saw her at an Esalen wookshop, she invited those who could not speak in front of a crowd about what they wanted to work on. She said: “And I’m not legally bound to turn anybody in to the authorities as regular therapists are.”
She has heard everything and see’s beyond everything.
I know John Sherman’s background, and I very much like that about him. He’s been there, done that. Gotta love him.
Joy,
I do like Byron Katie. I have a few of her tapes and I can hear and feel the forgiveness and unconditional love in her voice. I need and will learn more about her, but I could feel this beautiful essence comming out in her loving forgiving presence.
It’s funny to find someone who had a mother that was even close to mine. When my mother was telling me something that was important to her, her voice shook with intensity and fear. It seems she wanted to teach me through fear, and wanted to make sure I felt it.
After I wrote about my mother I walked to the supermarket to fill up two gallon bottles of water. They were heavy for me to carry 5 blocks home because I have an old motorcycle injury to my left leg. Instead I pushed a supermarket cart the manager always lets me take. It was kind of noisy on the streets.
Then I saw this guy with his girlfriend. He had a shaved head a lot of tatoos and he looked like a weightlifter.
Suddenly this whole imaginary scene started to play out in my head. In my imagination he says “hey that noise is bothering me”. I said “I can go another way.” He says “No It’s too late for that. I’m going to make you pay for annoying me” as he comes at me with a knife. I feel this intense anger surge in me. I punch so hard I break his jaw. Then I thought “I should’nt be doing this.” but this inner voice said “Yes you should.” He came at me with the blade again and I broke his ribbs with my fists. The scene with full anger kept playing out all the way home. My body is still tight from the imaginary fight. It felt right.
Hi Joy,
No, I don’t live in California or I’d be finding a way to meet up with all of you. I much prefer talking face to face with people over emailing or telephone or whatever. This blog thing is something I’ve never done until The Daily Now came along. It’s feels like a good thing to me.
I live in Fargo, North Dakota. Not a lot of(not any) satsang going on here that I know of. There seems to be a rapidly growing “spiritual” community.
I was really interested in your story about the tatooed guy, Larry. After what you wrote about your mother, it sounded like an interesting and probably really effective way to process the stuff from when you were 15. Not that that was what you were doing.
Namaste
Larry,
I hear you.
MB: When we learn how to become our own parents…we let go of our tendency to manifest outer drama.
Too bad Michael Brown stopped doing meetings or whatever you call them. Cuts to the chase. (I’m my sister’s sister:)) He really does give you everything you need in one day. (Although you don’t necessarily “get that” when you leave.)
Elizabeth,
Fargo, wow. You had some flooding. Everything OK now?
hi joy
well, i checked out metrolink (much cheaper than amtrek!) and i can get to santa ana in time for us to make it to the saturday afternoon FL meeting but i can’t get home! the last train is around 6 and FL doesn’t end until 6:30pm. and sunday (as i suspected) is even worse train schedule-wise.
i’m not a ‘green’ person per se, but i have to laugh at how hard it is in california not to have a car. i guess you can do it but you can’t go anywhere and your life has to be really really small.
i may have to end up renting a car anyway, which is something i didn’t want to do. but i’m not sure if i want to spend all that money on amtrek (not even sure if i could get back on that train either anyway). rats.
ok well, i guess i will sit with this.
mf- I will sit with it too.
I have this strong intention to heal myself psychologically and physically to make this experience of (life) happier and to make my connection with the One stronger.
That scene with the intense feelings of rage had to do with my mother and stepfather. It seems like a big part of healing and awakening is [intention]. Then a higher intelligence takes over. Namaste
In todays daily now FL is speaking to my heart. It feels like truth is just pouring out of him. It [feels] like he is as or more spiritually advanced then anyone alive today. He is in a group of very few spiritual teachers that can touch my heart with their words.
It seems like what many say is to put all intention and attention on awakening. Once awakening happens there would be no need to heal this life experience. I would’nt need to heal psychologically or physically because I would realize on a deep level that this personal self is’nt me and is’nt real.
I am not there yet. I’m still putting attention on healing this personal self that actually does not exist. But as John Sherman says as long as you work on awakening, it does’nt matter what else you are trying to do as far as healing yourself. It is beside the point. Do whatever feels right as long as you keep looking at self. John’s way is to start by looking within at whatever you consider [me].
Nis: Beyond the mind, all distinctions cease.
Beyond the mind, all is one.
And on that note:
Larry- About the fight in your head. If it were my dream…. (this is what we would say in dream group) If it were my dream… I would interpret it as the fight between the mind and awareness or whatever you want to call it.
Your mind is saying… “Your going to pay for annoying me.”
You are annoying the mind with all this spiritual (get rid of the me stuff)
“It’s to late…” (You have come to far in your spiritual quest…no turning back now!)
Mind says: “I shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Yes you should” the higher you, the inner self says.
Fabulous!!!!!!
If it were my dream.
Joy, I like that interpretation. It makes sense. It seems like certain dreams can have a number of meanings.
Just about a week ago I bought a small tape recorder. I felt it was time to start recording my dreams again. The best time is as soon as I awaken from a dream. So even if it’s in the middle of the night I grab my recorder. That way I get a lot more details than if I wait. I’ve already had a dream about a person I would see the next day and I did. The part of my mind that dreams, is often able to see something, someone or a situation that will happen the next day. Thats why I wonder if on some level the future already exists. I understand there are a number of people that have this type of experience.
I hope you talk to FL and bring back some pearls of wisdom.
@ Joy
The Fargo flood was something else. It was fascinating to watch. For a while we didn’t know if our part of town(or the whole town) would be evacuated and that was interesting. Except for the people who lost their homes, things are pretty well back to normal.
I do quite well during crisis situations. My whole family was that way. But I have a HUGE problem with other stuff. In fact, right now I’m so agitated I want to scream. I HATE having a dog. I don’t hate the dog. I’m quite fond of her. I hate HAVING a dog. We got a goldendoodle last summer. Without going into the whole long story let’s just say we felt drawn to do this. It almost felt like something that was out of our hands. When she first came to us I would look at her and could feel the words “teacher” or “trainer” coming from her. And I don’t mean that I would be training her but the other way around.
She has given me a wonderful gift. Ever since I was little I felt as though any animal I got close to was about to bite me. I never “thought” this. It was a startle sort of feeling in the body. (I’ve never been bitten by an animal) With the help of a friend and Lena(our dog) I was able to process this and no longer feel that way. Wonderful. But I still have this dog.
And now I have to go. She’s outside barking and in my opinion it’s too early for that.
Yes, I think she is your Zen master. My neighbor has a labradoodle and I thought they were going to go insane for a while. It grew huge (I call it the GreatDaneadoodle.) It definitely is their Zen Master, however, they don’t recognize it as such.
I have a cat “Padawan” who is a teacher of mine as well. I let him outside and I worry about him but when I try to keep him in he cries and is so miserable, so I let him go out. He is forcing me to face feelings I don’t want to.
Aren’t we lucky?
I bet the flood was fascinating. We just get earthquakes here in California. I kinda like them. They shake you into being really present (for a short time.)
Larry said:
“That’s why I wonder if on some level the future already exists. I understand there are a number of people that have this type of experience.”
Well, from what I understand, there is no future. Future is a thought as is the past, There is only the now. So I guess you are right from one perspective… the future is now, it already exists.
I have never had a premonition dream, I don’t think. But once when I was really open, in waking life, I had the experience where I just knew something particular would happen, and it did. That has only happened once, that I am aware of.
Thank you, Joy. I have a small handful – OK two – friends who “get” that even though Lena is driving me crazy it feels purposeful for her to be here. Why is it such a comfort to feel understood?
And yes, we are lucky!
Could one say (what we experience as the present) is also only a number of thoughts? Infact just about everything is thought/energy. I think thats enough philosophy for me-at least for today.
I dont know if this qualifies for a normal animal story, but for a few years I lived with a woman who collected 16 cats. That was after I told her I had pretty severe asthma, and I was allergic to cat dander.
I guess most of my life does’nt qualify for [normal]. But I assume thats true for many. Who or what is normal?
joy,
i figured out that a metrolink train will get me to santa ana and an amtrak train will get me back to LA saturday night (for only 5 bucks more. yay!) the train back to LA leaves at 8pm. the FL meeting ends at 6:30, right? so, with a few minutes for chatting, if FL sticks around that is, do you think that’s enough time for you to drive from temecula to santa ana? there’s a later train at 10pm but i would prefer not to be in a train station so late at night by myself in an area i don’t know.
hey larry, you’re more than welcome to travel with me. the metrolink departs from downtown LA. it might be fun! just an idea. i for one miss taking the train occasionally…
namaste
i’ve had quite a few ‘lucid’ and ‘premonition’ dreams. i’ve also had significant dreams when i was very ill or in danger. i had a dream that told me how to cure a recurring physical ailment i had by not drinking orange juice. i stopped drinking oj and the condition cleared up immediately. it was nothing short of miraculous. i don’t own any animals now (i had ‘wild cats’ as a child but i can’t say i ‘owned’ them) but i dream about them. i don’t have as many significant dreams anymore — or maybe i’ve stopped paying attention. its all about attention and intention.
@joy: if the future is now, is the past now too? the concept of time has always been slightly elusive to me, i can never quite get a handle on it.
During the day a question has somehow come to the mind. I dont know if this question could be answered anyway.
If we assume time, matter, space, and phenomena are illusory, then the experiences of this life would be more like a movie or a dream. In other words imaginary.-The assumption that follows for me is there has to be a source for this movie/dream. That could be thought of as a projector/light, which I think of as the One or God. But somehow The One/God is not seperate from it’s projection. It is somehow part of it’s projection. Thats intuitive on my part. Thats how it feels to me.
Anyway in this imaginary movie/dream, the illusion of time would obviously include past and future, but would it not also include what we experience as present (which is a word pointing to a specific time)?
mf- are you starting your journey from Downtown LA Station? Because if we miss the 8p train in Santa Ana, I can just drive you to downtown that one way. It was just driving all the way to Santa Monica for Larry (both ways) that was pretty much too grueling for this neck and back.
Also Saturday there is some traffic going to Temecula. My dad and my sister live in Temecula so I’m out there quite frequently and know the ropes.
I’d like to leave Santa Ana by 1:00. Is that possible?
mf_ “if the future is now, is the past now too? the concept of time has always been slightly elusive to me, i can never quite get a handle on it.”
I think its more, there isn’t anything but the present.
Eckhart has this really great way of explaing it. He say’s: It sounds plausible that the Roman’s lived 2,000 years ago, but they didn’t, they lived in the now.
“for a few years I lived with a woman who collected 16 cats.”
16 Zen Masters. WOW.
If past present and future are imaginary then everything that apparently ever happens can already be imagined. As these body/minds, we can only experience one thing/time at a time and that is usually the present. Even when I am having a prophetic dream, I am dreaming about A present in THE present. So in a way past, present and future are all only present.
It is said the reason that time exists is so everything wont happen at once. If everything is already imagined, then it could all happen at once, except for linear time. The intelligence that went into creating this creation, (dreamlike or not), is beyond anything this human mind could imagine.
Larry, that sounds right. You may be way ahead of me. Since I don’t have prophetic dreams it is beyond my scope of awareness to discuss them.
I was in a Jungian dream group for a year or two, can’t remember, so I tend to interpret the characters (all of them) and the symbols for that matter (houses, cars,) as parts of me. It’s a lot of fun until it becomes obvious that your dreams tell more about yourself than what you are willing to tell the world. Then it becomes apparent that your own interpretation of another’s dream is all about you. That’s when I quit.
PS
I only noticed the other day that there is a link to “Presence Portal Radio” in Michael Browns little square of blue in “The Daily Now” eNewsletter. Click on it and it takes you to him.
Muchos Gracias Jordan
So wonderful, he is. (said in a Yoda voice)
mf-
parlez vous français ?
joy
je parle un petit peu de francais…
not much now at all really, i very rarely have the opportunity to speak it. funny you should ask though. a good friend of mine is going to paris in the fall and has invited me to come along. maybe i’ll be going! hmm…i better start brushing up on my french…
a bientot!
hi joy
so here’s the scoop for saturday 5/23 to see FL:
Metrolink
Depart LA (union station) 12:45pm
Arrive Santa Ana 1:35pm
There is only one earlier train at 8:45am, but since the ride is less than an hour i would be sitting in the station for a while.
As i said before, there is an 8pm amtrak train but if you’re ok with driving me back to union station that’s cool too, i’m flexible. i’m also happy to kick in some cash for gas.
a beintot (i guess for real)
mf-
I know very little, that is about the extent of what I know. I asked because of Francis Lucille. Thought you could have a little spiritual conversation in French. You once signed your name on the blog “marie-francoise” so I figured there was some fairly recent French heritage.
My fathers family is Norman French. Originally, Island of Guernsey, I think. They then went to Prince Edward Island and then down to Massachusetts. My parents owned a farm on Prince Edward Island until around 15 years ago when it became too much of a trip for them as they aged. (They would spend only the summer months up there.) I still have many relatives up there.
I went to Paris with my sister, oh my, 16 years ago. So great. We want to go back sometime this year if the money manifests. But this time go south and then into Spain.
She writes historical romance fiction and wants to visit the places she writes about.
mf-
Oh good (about the train thing) See you at the Santa Ana train station around 1:30. I’ll be holding a card that says “mf”
see you then
hi everyone
the strangest thing happened last night. i was watching tv, channel surfing, chatting to my son, doing nothing really (it felt great!) and the twilight zone came on. not the new one, but the old black and white original. in this episode, a man was in jail(a young dennis weaver!) awaiting his execution and he was having an argument with, i think, the district attorney who put him away. the prisoner was arguing that he should be released because everything that was occurring was a dream! the prisoner kept arguing that he was asleep and that nothing, the execution, the prison, the trial, the district attorney himself was real — that they only existed because he dreamed them! he said, sometimes the people get mixed up, and play different parts but it was always the same story.
of course, the da didn’t believe him and thought he was faking insanity to get out of being fried in the chair. he asked him the logical question “if you’re asleep why don’t you just relax then? whats the big deal? laugh about it, be executed and wake up. what difference does it make?” but the prisoner got more upset and said “how would you feel if you kept having the same dream over and over?” and then he said that even though he ‘knew’ it was a dream everything FELT ‘real’, and that if he could just stop the execution this time maybe the ‘dream’ would be different, that his experience would be different (and less painful?)
then the da asked the prisoner “what about me? am i not real? what about our parents & families?” and the prisoner laughed and said “you only exist because i dream you that way. and when you create a dream you create the whole thing, parents everybody…” then as the da was leaving the cell the prisoner told him what his wife had cooked him for dinner and what was going to happen next in his life.
of course, the da went home and what the prisoner said about what his wife cooked was true, and the da began to have doubts. he tried to stay the execution. in the meantime, the poor prisoner was getting his last rites and trying to figure out who the priest was. the prisoner told the priest that the priest had been his teacher, who died, when the prisoner was ten years old in one of his previous dreams. the priest didn’t know what he was talking about and decided that the prisoner had lost his mind. the priest said “be still, my son.”
then the prisoner is executed.
in the very next scene, the prisoner is at trial and again sentenced to death. the poor prisoner screams because he knows its happening again…and he can’t ‘wake up.’
++++++++++++++++++++
i really love the twilight zone and i’ve watched (nearly) all of them, but i don’t remember seeing this one. i probably have but it didn’t hit me like it did this time. i couldn’t believe the synchronicity of the subject matter and issues i’ve been thinking/feeling about lately such as time and our experience being a dream. and today’s DN quotes:
MB: Our experience is only happening because we are in it.
Nis: But where are your scientists and their sciences? Are they not again images in your own mind?
i don’t pretend to understand it but i am noticing. what does it mean that i(we)are only dreaming? can we change/influence the dream? also, why so many painful dreams? and why can’t you just ‘wake up’ once you know you’re just dreaming? why are you (i,we) forced to experience it regardless?
namaste
~mf
joy
yes, my background is french. my family is from Haiti (and france), and i was born in the u.s. our mother made the decision to have my sisters and i only speak english when we were young to give us a better chance in this country. i can see her reasoning. i took french later in college but its not the same as being raised with it of course.
sounds good re the placard. is there a general area that i should go to? an information desk? just so we don’t miss each other!
namaste
~mf
mf- it’s very small. No fear. The train lets out in like an outside courtyard. I’ll be in that outside courtyard.
“the priest said “be still, my son.”
Perhaps if he would just “be still” the dream would stop.
I love Twilight Zone too. (the old ones)
mf, thanks for the invitation but maybe i’ll see FL another time,another present.
MB: ” Our experience is only happening because we are in it.”
I think the following is being implied.-If I or we are standing in the middle of a forest I/we will experience all the sights, sounds, smells, coolness, humidity, etc. On the other hand if I/we, no one is in that forest, the forest does not exist.
I think it’s a zen thing. Both the object and the subject or the viewer and the viewed have to be there, for what is experienced to exist.
Now I need to put my attention and intention on the one. I’m praying that it will destroy this identity or in some way stop this suffering and loneliness. Namaste
I need to get to the point where I can remember, I am not this guy that is suffering and lonely. I am what is watching a story of a guy who is going through some pain, he calls suffering and loneliness.
Perhaps Larry, you might try getting to the point where you forget you are this guy who is suffering and lonely. For me, the world of duality is about forgetfulness. We forget who we truly are so we can find ourselves. And time is the best tool for forgetfulness there could be. It says this happened then, this other thing is happening now, and something else will happen in the future.
So, in a way, it is our original nature that causes us distress. We think we should know and understand everything about ourselves. And of course, on a soul-level, we do. Only, if you can accept that we are here specifically not to already know or understand but to experience ourselves through discovery; then you are more likely to embrace the experience of being human, yes?
I find the entire concept of “spirituality” funny. How could we (or anything else) be anything other than spiritual?
Whether we are aware of it, or not, it’s the very essence of what we are. We incarnate (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say we anchor our attention through physicality) in a limited plane to be something else, too.
Being human is an addition to what we are, not a negation (that’s impossible, you see). Why do we not then say, “Okay, I’m going to do all kinds of human things while I’m human and trust that I won’t be able to mess up my spirituality because spiritual is already built into the equation beneath my awareness.”
And isn’t the universe excellent at pulling our awareness back to who we truly are when it wants to make a point? Doesn’t it feel like discovery?
Just rambling a bit. Would love some feedback. Oh, and by the way, my name’s Carol.
“Humans are difficult.”
Well, humans are difficult and I include myself in being difficult, but we need them to complete our journey. (I believe.) And there’s the rub. The things I need most are difficult and I tend to back away from difficulty.
AND that’s why we are warriors. I read or heard something, somewhere, that “Warriors aren’t brave, they feel the fear and do it anyway.” Thank You whoever said it.
Larry,
See you at John Sherman’s perhaps?
@joy
re train station: sounds good. see you tomorrow!
larry, maybe we’ll meet again at john shermans.
namaste,
~mf
joy: “the priest said “be still, my son.”
Perhaps if he would just “be still” the dream would stop.
maybe he did just say ‘be still’, i can’t remember. i could have added that last bit on from my own experiences with priests. now, i want to see the episode again! i guess it is mirroring my ‘worry’ that he (i really) couldn’t wake up from his bad dream even though he knew it was dreaming…feels very stressful and frustrating (and sad?) that ‘knowing’ isn’t enough. i think ET may say something about that but i can’t remember exactly (i’m apparently having problems with my memory today).
Yeah, the facts aren’t enough. However, in the end I think that’s the good news. I have no idea what that means but it just came out. I’m really tired.
I’ll be at john shermans meeting. The one thing I can say about john is I can feel the compassion comming through him. He really wants to help people. He wants to make their experience of life better. He feels the main thing one needs to do is settle the issue of identity. He stays away from the word (spiritual). Maybe thats a good thing.
The main thing (beside hoping what he teaches will help me in an everyday way), is that I like him.
I feel you’ll like FL’s meeting.
You are most welcome Jordan.
It was my pleasure.
I’m signed up for Kip’s free bliss music quote so I just read it. In it he says, any knowledge of the mind, will take one away from the spiritual experience or a spiritual experience whatever that is. He says one should do some kind of practice or process like meditation without understanding anything in particular. The mind cannot have a spiritual experience. For the most part I agree.
The only thing that bothers me about this idea, is I dont like to generalize. I dont like to say something (no matter what), is true for everyone. Some do approach spirituality starting with ideas or knowledge. They may later start doing some kind of process but continue to think about spiritual ideas. That way may work for some. It may not for others. I believe most people (not all) need to find their own path. What works for one may not work for another and visa/versa.
The dream I had 2 nights ago.
I’m traveling to Las Vegas with, Shannon (my daughter), and Gillian, Liam and Aidan, (my son Sean’s kids.)
Gillian (she is 3) is on a tricycle inside a moving van of some sort. She wheels out and falls directly on her head on cement. It has been a fatal blow, her head swells and I hear her in death throws of breath. (a lot of horror and grief)
I am trying to get 911 on my cell but I get this guy who is not 911. I’m on the phone to this guy as I’m watching her die.
The dream kind of switches to me thinking, with some guilt, “If I had only been able to get through to 911 she might have had a chance. This thought soon changes to “Well, even if I could have gotten through to 911 she would have died anyway.” It was a fatal blow and she died very quickly.
Now my job is to tell everyone in the family Gilly is dead. I cannot call Sean (my son) and tell him, I know it will hurt him to the extent he may not survive. I go to a bar, (which is weird because I rarely drink) and ask for something to drink and the bartender is mixing it and I look around and my friend Teresa is there and I wave, she is smiling. I don’t remember drinking the drink.
I return to the hotel where the boys are with Shannon. I talk to the boys, and they know what happened. They seem to be OK. I ask then if the have called their mommy and they say yes, But they tell me, they just couldn’t tell their dad.
End of dream.
I wake up and at first I don’t remember the dream, and then it hits me (all at once, not in pieces.) I lie down on the couch and sob from my gut, I go deeply into my grief, it seems to be in my entire body. At one point I think I’m not going to be unable to do the tasks I must take care of that day. That I will sob all day.
But I pull myself together (I get my son’s kids off to school in the morning) I drive over ( I cried in the car, on my way over) I’m having a cup of coffee with him and I tell him I had this really powerful dream that involved his family. I said it wasn’t a premonition dream, but it was really sad, I asked him if he wanted to hear it. He said, No. I said, yeah I couldn’t tell you what happened even in the dream. He left for work, and I cried some more.
Hi Joy,
I have had dreams like that, that are fearful.
I recently had one, a dream that was fearful. The content of the dream I had was not important. I found out it was not important until after I awoke.
When I awoke, I realized, there was no fear. I went about my daily activities conscious of the fact that there was no fear.
It was amazing to realize there was no fear, because before, when I had similar dreams, I awoke with fear.
This time, the fear was only in my dream, in my awakened state there was no fear.
It was not until recently that I understood what that dream meant.
When you awaken to Truth, there is no fear. There is just Truth.
It is very nice to meet you all.
I think the daily now is great….
Carol, I liked your comments.
Yes the universe or whatever you call IT, is excellent at pulling my awareness back to who I truly am. Funny you should mention it because just a few hours before reading your blog, I realized I am the ONE. I guess from your point of view you are the ONE.
Usually no matter whatever experience is had, an hour or a day later I’m back to being Larry. This big baby that feels he is suffering and feels sorry for himself. It seems I am attached to this body/mind.
Part of being Larry is wishing or somehow causing his apparent present circumstances to change, to what he considers more pleasant.
Kip: “By remaining focused on this me, with all it’s desires, fears and problems you lose touch with the infinite peace, bliss and love that exist beyond the ego.
I believe it’s time to put away the violin and stop the pity party. There is a part of this program that feeds off of pity from anyone, and it does’nt feel right. So peace, bliss and love.
Frances Lucille Meeting Yesterday
I think he comes from the heart. What first kind of startled me is that he looks a lot like my dad. Physically and the same mannerisms. And then I realized (with the help of mf) that my dad also comes from the heart.
I also had a great connection with mf. She feels like family.
PS
We also met OnceChris and had quite a conversation with him.
He is filled with fun.
It seems to me, from listening to others describe their experience, as best as words can describe, and knowing my own experience; it seems to me we are all one.
When I hear another describe their experience, or when I read another’s words regarding their experience, I know it is my experience as well. I know it has happened to me; I then know what I did not know before, that it has happened to others and again, I then become aware, it seems to be one awareness.
We enter into awareness. But these are only words that try to describe something that is beyond words.
I see that it gets better.
Carmen,
Re: my dream.
I didn’t awake with fear, I awoke with grief. Intense grief.
Not being able to tell my son (in my dream,) that his daughter had died perhaps was the fear of feeling more grief.
Since I had this dream, I have done some work on “figuring out”
what it all meant.
Carmen… if it was your dream, what would that dream mean to you?
I would love to hear from anybody, what would it mean to them, if it had been their dream.
Joy, when I dream about a baby or a child, I am usually dreaming about the pure original me, before it was traumatized in many ways, many times in chilhood. In a way that pure child full of unconditional love died. It’s purity was killed by all the abuse and trauma.
I had a dream of trying to save a baby (the pure me), from drowning. I was trying to hold it’s head above the water. I think I wanted to save that chid of pure open love (me), that was killed by physical and emotional abuse. I am grieving the pure child that was me.
That childs death is the part of your dream I can relate to. I believe that little girl represents you before the pure, open part was killed.
It makes sense to me that we all come from a place/situation of unconditional love. We come here open and vulnerable, needing what we just came from, when we were merged with the one.
This is an experience of the absence of pure unconditional love, to various degrees. Maybe one or the main reason we have this experience, is to appreciate what we have and really are.
Hi Joy,
Sometimes dreams come as a continuation of feelings/emotions we were not in touch with when we were awake.
One day I may be experiencing something, feeling some kind of emotion as I am thinking about this something, or going through it, but I am not in touch with the deep feelings associated with that something, whatever it may be.
Then, that night, when I go to sleep, I may have a dream and sometimes I do not understand what the dream signifies, but other times, as I go about my daily life, it hits me, and I understand it was a continuation of the deep emotion I had when I was awake and going through that something, whatever it was.
I know with me certain dreams happen that way. It seems to me that there are different kind of dreams with different purposes.
I think that you may understand what your dream meant to you at some point.
You guys aren’t playing my game properly. LOL
Just so you don’t misread my LOL above:
That LOL was laughing at myself for wanting you guys to “play my game properly.”
Joy, what game and how do we play it properly?
I’m glad you asked Larry. You were pretty close, actually but you just didn’t use my dream.
OK
This is the game. It’s a pretend game. And it goes like this:
You pretend to wake up in the morning and you’ve had the exact dream I had (see above.) You probably will just have to change the fact that they aren’t your grandchildren but just small children, masculine and feminine. My son would be a masculine figure younger than you. My daughter, a younger female.
These figures are all different parts of you. The very young feminine and masculine inside us, the extremely sensitive older, closer in age masculine. The symbols, the bar, the trycycle, the accident, THE DEATH, the moving van, Las Vegas, 911. Everything should have a meaning unique to you.
The game is to describe it all and you start out by saying:
If it had been my dream I would interpret it this way:
And then you describe, completely from your point of view.
Are you game?
You really have to get into it. That it is your dream, not mine.
I’d prefer to keep these blogs related to the postings in The Daily Now. Thanks, j
ok new game—-FL: “From the point of view of awareness, everything is awareness, thus everything is in it’s place. Nothing is tragic. All is light, all is presence.”
Fl is saying, he knows the point of view of awareness. He has got to that non-state I would like to realize. I am completely willing to deeply realize this personal self is a temporary illusion. It’s just a character in this play/movie. Why try to hang on to this character and pretend it’s real when I know it is going to die, and soon? Even though I have not had that permanent shift of awakening, there have been so many experiences pointing to the idea that something else is operating here. In the past few days I’ve had 5 or more strong synchronistic experiences. I’m amazed and so grateful to be given this connection. Somehow I can feel love through these experiences. I somehow know that the one is unconditional love eternal and is bliss. And WE are the one. Rejoice!
I have an odd view of “moderation” when it comes to posts. Both when we do it ourselves and when someone does it for us.
It’s true that a lot of garbage comes out but is it not here, of all places, that we should feel comfortable simply saying what we feel? And isn’t it the greatest gift to be with someone who truly listens to your words and understands what’s in your heart?
How can you speak your heart if you are worried you will say the wrong thing? And how can you understand someone if you are looking to edit what they are saying even as they say it?
Is this, all this, not about learning to sit with our discomfort? To not interfere? To sift through what has meaning for us and what does not even when it comes packaged in a way that is not our way?
And finally, how can there be alchemy without a true exchange, and how can there be a true exchange if we moderate ourselves?
Have I asked enough questions? Dare I ask more? Will someone make me stop?
~ Carol
jshafer:/
Wow, thanks for giving me the opportunity to work on some of my father material.
And mom even came to the rescue!
I’ll probably have some good dreams tonight.
Larry: I was very impressed with your flexibility! Just OK, new game. The brother I never had.
The whole family is here tonight!
I would say Jordan encourages us to speak from our hearts. To write from our own experiences and feelings. I believe he would prefer that we keep the subject matter at least close to the teachings by the various teachers of the Daily Now. Most of the teachings are centered around non-duality. Peace
I was just saying how I was triggered by his response.
I AM really thankful for him triggering my response which was sadness.
I was just having a little fun and I did feel the wind taken out of my sails. That dream was so powerful and I was able to process a lot of grief which is totally Michael Brown.
If you don’t want us talking about processing grief, why is Michael Brown even on The Daily Now?
I don’t think it’s my fault that it came up because of a dream.
That dream and the grief I felt shifted something in me, back towards the being I was. I think I just wanted to share that with someone and was feeling very playful this morning.
Me wanting to play with that dream was more about grief than the dream. The dream was just the vehicle.
The processing of our grief and anger (to me) is what it’s all about. I feel like I’ve suddenly been put in a double bind.
I assume you want us to move along on our journey but when it takes a bit of a turn…. it’s whoa don’t go there.
I think this place does become our family as everything else in life does. It’s going to bring up feelings and we can run, sedate or control them or we can feel them and then move on to the next piece of bait.
Bring it on.
Ineresting little dust-up, here.
Joy, thanks for the explanation between the dream and MB, I was missing that.
When you said, “Wow, thanks for giving me the opportunity to work on some of my father material.” I got what you meant. And that was the perfect response, I think.
Of course, I could work on whatever was coming up for me about the dream material and my sister material. But I’m lazy.
From Carol, “How can you speak your heart if you are worried you will say the wrong thing?” That’s a good question…
I cried for about an hour last night. And it felt so right.
Thanks again, from the bottom of my heart.
oh, and after I cried I felt kind of a surge of strength. That’s the only way I can explain it.
You just never know what’s going to happen here at the “Daily Now”
you guys are all amazing. fearless. courageous. i’m glad we’re all one. LOL. (joy i can hear you laughing that i, of all people, said that!)
love
namaste
~mf
mf-
Actually, I’m not surprised or laughing. AND I’m really glad you’re here.
I think MB encouraging us to process feelings is great. In various ways I have been doing that type of thing for years so i’m always game when it comes to feelings,-mine or yours.
For me it seems feeling work (which I probably have a lot more to do) led to a connection with the infinite. By that I mean experiences of prophetic dreams, lots of synchronisity and even dreaming about what close friends were talking about on the phone while they were doing it.
For me it all points to connection,unity, oneness. It is amazing to think beyond this time based dream, we are all one and yet that is what I am being shown.
Also the strong feeling of love for all/one is right there.
There are a number of methods of awakening or self realization taught by various teachers of non duality. There is even one teacher that says there is no way you can make awakening happen. You can just be open to it and put your attention on whatever is being experienced in the present moment. He says this is no guarantee. If it happens it happens. Then there is Ramana and his diciples that do inquiry. They ask themselves- Who am I?-and then look deep inside the beingness that they are. They are looking for the source of the little me. John Sherman a diciple of Ramana says, just as often as you think of it–Look at the everyday me-you think of as yourself. Then there is presence. Being in the now. I see how that can take your mind off of the past or future but I am not sure how it applies to awakening.
I just started this other method I heard of. I’m not sure who teaches it. I step outside of the body and watch what it thinks and does as if I am watching a story/movie about a person that is not who or what I am. Since I am having a tough time being this particular person, it is something (I) am attracted to doing. Also I believe it is true. Has anyone tried any methods, and what results have you experienced?
When I read my last blog I could see this desperation. I desperately want to awaken. I do have wonderful experiences but in general I’m not looking for much in this life or this personal self. I can see beyond it in an intellectual way, but I want to go further. I want to feel be and merge with oneness and I feel ready to let go of this ego (personal self). Well maybe someday. For now I need to accept what I have to.
J. Krishnamurti used to give talks in Ojai southern california. During one of his talks he paused and said “Do you want to know what my secret is?” Everyone became completely alert and leaned foward in anticipation. Then he said in a soft almost shy voice “You see, I dont mind what happens.”
Just a quick note, because I have to get something finished tonight and my cat “Padawan” is in the animal hospital tonight. They are not sure what’s wrong with him. (I thought he might have been poisoned, because I have a newly developed cat hater next door but they don’t think that’s it, thank God) MORE grief and anger work!
OnceChris gave me a dvd, (mf-have you watched it yet?) it is from a retreat. In one of the chapters there is a mention of an ancient teaching of somebody or another that is rarely talked about. I’ll have to watch it again and get back to you on details, but it is something about always trusting the feeling over the mind. I don’t remember much but I think it is fascinating because I don’t believe the Advieta people talk about feelings at all. Very interesting, very interesting indeed.
Larry-
I think they all work, if they are real. If you get my drift.
PS They removed a 7 inch piece of saw grass from Padawan’s throat late last night.
I, on the other hand, removed some grief and anger from my pain body last night.
And if a storm should come and if you face away,
That may be the chance for you to be safe
And if you make it through the trouble and the pain,
That may be the time for you to know his name
From the song “Heaven/Where True love goes”
By Yusuf Islam
Lately I’ve been thinking of myself as a small child learning how to walk. If someone were watching me spiritually, I would walk a few steps then fall. Sometimes I would sit on my butt and cry for a while, sometimes I would get right back up on my own and sometimes I would haul myself up using this or that teaching. Some days I would walk a lot and others not at all. Sometimes I would hurt myself falling on a table or a chair or a relationship, and I would sometimes blame the table or the chair or the relationship.
But, the thing is, I know I will walk, however long it takes me to learn. I will walk because I have the desire to walk and its programmed in me to be able to eventually grow into a walker. And I have a feeling that once I learn how to walk I will completely take it for granted because “shucks, anyone can do it, walking’s for sissies.”
What I’ll really want to do is learn how to fly. And then, of course, I’ll really fall. Splattering myself at the bottom of some cliff blaming the cliff, or God, or my stupid freaking wings, all the way down…
Nis: ” Your idea that you were born and that you will die as a body is absurd : both logic and experience contradict it.”
I first read a similar statement a few years ago and I did’nt get it untill I realized the (You) that is being pointed to, is not who I used to think I was. It is the (You) that is who/what I really am. Consciousness/beingness/awareness/etc.
I relate to the idea that these body/brains are similar to receivers, radios, tvs for consciousness and so it seems that these body/brains are where consciousness originates from. It (seems) that way.
I watched the FL dvd again and found the part I was talking about.
It was actually the teachings of Ramana, And Ramana said: Something like (cause I didn’t transcribe it) If you are trying to find the “I” always trust the feeling of “I” over the thought of “I.”
On a stranger note:
I had this really interesting experience in the middle of the night, last night. I woke up and my brain felt very empty of thought, and as I kind of sunk into that feeling, I felt like (if I let go of control completely) I would disappear, that I would merge with the bed and never appear again. It was scary but at the same time completly amazing. It felt like a very real possibility that this could happen.
I had to get up and listen to music and write.
These are just some writings of today.
Transformation begins when you surrender, when you genuinely let go, when you stop trying to control the circumstances you are in, when you stop trying to make everything right with the world, when you just let go.
When you ’surrender’ to “Now” (present moment awareness), you see things unfold as they will. Surrender is the action that opens the door to “Stillness” of the Spirit.
In Stillness, you become aware of the observer, the true self, the “I am”.
Of course, all this happens in the heart.
Carmen,
Somehow your words help me. I feel I need to be able to surrender more than I do.
On the other hand if there is something that is causing suffering and I can do something(s) about it, I usually try to do that or them.
I’m not sure but when you say, all this happens in the heart, do you mean we surrender in our attitude, but not so much in this world?
Carmen,
Beautiful, but you must not be a control freak. I had a scary childhood and to let go of control feels like death to me.
Little by little fear is releasing it’s grip on me but there is still a way to go for me. I have much fear, grief and anger to process yet.
Larry said:
“I first read a similar statement a few years ago and I didn’t get it until I realized the (You) that is being pointed to, is not who I used to think I was. It is the (You) that is who/what I really am. Consciousness/beingness/awareness/etc.”
Oh this is good. I didn’t know what they meant (those darn Advaita’s) until right now. Yes, yes, it’s who we really are.
Thank you Larry
See you Sunday at John Sherman’s? mf_ you in? Anybody else?
FL: In fact, nobody experiences enlightenment…
JVS: That’s what they all say.
JVS: Your answer made me laugh. Those darn Advaita people again.
I don’t know. Larry?
@ Carol
Loved what you wrote about “learning to walk”
Namaste
I think when someone awakens, one is basically still the same program except one now deeply realizes that this (person I was identifying as being me) is not me. It’s a fictional character living a fictional story. One realizes I am what is watching this fictional person/story. No matter what it seems the body/mind is going through, I realize I am the still, blissful awareness that is watching it. You can still process real feelings of pain, grief, fear and at the same time remain present and watch this character and it’s story and see it as not who you really are.
I’m not sure, but are you replacing the word “realizes” for “experiences.” Me thinks it’s an invalid argument. Sorry, I was a Philosophy major, I can’t help myself sometimes.
Dont through the baby out with the bath water.
An attitude of the heart, if you want to call it attitude.
It is simply your experience. Here, now.
When I read the writings of others like, Nisagarrdata, Francis Lucille, Adyashanti, I realize that we are all here and now and we can all live that way. And in doing so, we live the way we were meant to live, in the here, and now. When you look at it from that perspective, it always has been, here and now, and it always will be. Time, if it exists in the now, is different, than our usual perception.
I do not know another’s definition of awakening, I think there is no singular definition, I can only speak of my experience as you can only speak of yours.
When we come together, and listen to each other, in the now, sometimes we experience the unity of that moment and we see things more clearly.
We all live our lives apart from each other, geographically, but in the now, we are united.
I think that is what Nisagardatta, and Francis Lucille and Adyashanti, and others, are saying.
Well, it looks like I have put my foot in it this time. We all make our choices.
Carol, May 22nd, I think so too.
Larry,
There was a baby? Boy or Girl?
I did’nt notice if the baby was male or female. I just know there was a baby. I guess you did’nt see it.
By the by there will be a meeting with John Sherman on Sunday, May 31 at 2:30 pm.
Joslyn Park – Crafts Room
633 Kensington Road
Santa Monica, California. 90405
He asks you arrive 5-10 minutes early.
I’ll be there.
Who are you?
Wierd and wonderful
PS
I just got an invitation to a party at the cat haters house. I’m going.
PSS
Today I was waiting for my Grandson (the 7 year old) to get out of school, sitting on the bench just looking around. A little girl (someone I don’t know) ran up to me with a beautiful pink flower and said ” This is for you” then ran away. For some reason it felt miraculous.
A few days ago I read something like (no one gets enlightened.)J said, they all say this.
I think what is being refered to is – there is no one. there is only oneness appearing as many.
Enlightenment is experiencing this.
Enlightenment is the dissapearance of the one who experiences it.
This post contains the dream I had last night, although OnceChris is in it so I think it qualifies as an Advaita dream.
At Sean’s (my son) watching the kids. In the dream, he lives in a (really) huge home with two stories and a pool in the backyard. (This dream is rather spotty) While I am there an older man, maybe my age, but he appears older, comes to visit. Apparently he is interested in getting to know me. I think he even asks me if he can stop by sometime again, and I say “ok but as you can see I have my hands full” as there are many children running around.
Then, awhile later he comes back and this time, although he seems quite genuine, I feel like he is pulling me away from what I should be doing (watching the children.) Oh and this time he has his dog with him. I let him and the dog in and the dog runs up the stairs. At this point I’m getting a little anxious because there seems to be a lot of people in the house and Sean and Kim are due back.
Aidan and Liam are in the pool and I go outside to check on them quickly, because I wasn’t paying very close attention to them.
Liam (5) is submersed completely (vertically) with his eyes open and a blank stare. I go to rescue him, pulling him by his hair up out of the water and he starts to laugh hysterically (cause he fooled Grandma) we laugh together (because there was a part of me(in the dream) that knew this could be a gag, he is quite the comedian) but I tell him he gave me a fright.
Then, Im just trying to get all these people out of the house.
Then it does seem like a party is going on, Sean or OnceChris, I don’t know which (you know how people merge in your dreams, well, in real life for me lately) says, about the man who is calling on me, something like ” He is not the one, you should wait ” He is smiling, it has a very light feel.
All my secrets. All your secrets. In oneness nothing is hidden. How could it be? Namaste
Surely you mean “How could it not be?”
As usual your right. Right after I posted it I saw it, but there was no way to change it. And then I knew, it (had) to be that way. Otherwise it would have been written correctly.
Interesting
oh God, this personality is “The Corrector” actually, it’s kind of “The Editor.” LOL
I guess it beats being “The Punisher.” I would write a Graphic Novel but there wouldn’t be much action.
By the way, my 12 year old Grandaughter (daughter’s daughter) asked me about the spiritual blogging I do, “Are there just a bunch of people who write about spiritual stuff?”
And I said: “Sometimes, but mostly its ‘The Joy and Larry Show.’ “
I’ve enjoyed the “Joy and Larry” show. Might have to make a trip to California some day to see it in person.
I think this blog has gotten off track from the original intention. I’ll see if I can do a better job of moderating.
If personal conversations want to happen then I’ll be glad to facilitate that; for example, by passing along email addresses.
I’m not a rules person, as such, so I’m not going to get into developing detailed guidelines about how it needs to be or what can or can’t be said, or whatever.
I think I am interested in providing a forum for people to share their personal observations and experiences with the teachings presented in The Daily Now. But maybe not. Who knows, really?
There may be a better format I can use.
I smell abandonment. Wow, must be ready to feel those feelings.
Thanks Jordan
jshafer,I agree.I am new to this site and I am finding that this site is like the others I have tried.When a few people blog and those new as myself try to get to know the site and ask questions thqat the others are so into their convo’s that those like me who are new feel stupid for even blogging as no one even responds to our questions because we aren’t part of the convo.It’s sad because I live in a town where it is very judgemental and fundamental.I have had very profound happenings in my life since reading the power of now,but am having hard time meeting others who aren’t into themselves soooo much that they can’t answer one or two questions on the site about what it’s about or even what the topic is.I am now reading michael brown and read his letters and the “here comes the sun” letter.They are awesome but what,where can I go to blog that the people aren’t into their convo’s so deep that they don’t recognize others trying to get in on the convo…..still searching for that EGOLESS blog……………………b
bonnie,
Were all the same here. If you have a question, ask it. I don’t think I can answer most spiritual questions directly. If I can relate to your question or experience, (because I believe I had a similar question or experience), I am completely willing to write about it. In other words you may be new to this site, but you are accepted just like every one else.
Umm, okay. As I interpret Michael Brown, trying to regulate what anyone says or does in the environment around you, including, but not limited to, this blog, is like giving back an unopened gift because you don’t like the wrapping.
If it is in front of you, then you are meant to learn from it precisely because it is in front of you. If you like it, that says something about you. If it bothers you, that says something about you. The goal is to observe how everything makes you feel so you can process those feelings. And when you are ready to process something, exactly what you need will appear before you.
Control of any kind is based in fear. Acceptance is based in spirit. In spirit there is no duality. No right and wrong, no good or bad, there is only love. The love you allow yourself to feel (light) and the love you don’t allow yourself to feel (dark) but it’s all love no matter how you look at it.
Anyway, that’s how I see it.
~ Carol
I agree Carol. No matter what appears to be happening, it is comming from love.