Night
Came silently into my house
Illuminating dark spaces
The hidden, the forgotten, the not-known
Put the mind to rest
And bedded the heart
In the still-point of rapture
Night
Kisses my face
Until I am no more
Than it
Author: John
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Night
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Jewels, Food & Balloons
This title sounds like a party is near! In a way it is. Let me take a minute to introduce a few friends. These are unique and creative individuals. They have differnt vehicles to earn their livelihoods. They are intimate with many Open-Secrets as they are each dedicated to exploring their limitations and moving toward more openness and authenticity.Holly & Greg Beck have been creating balloon art and displays for over 17 years. Balloons have helped them to raise three children, purchase a fine house and connect with great friends like yours truly. An evening around the Beck’s kitchen island or outside barbeque has soothed many a soul and stirred up just as many. Dr. Inquiry, Greg, can hold your feet to the fire with some of his probing questions. When she is not scurrying all over the Bay Area with a van full of balloons, Holly is involved in quantumn health, healing the land from various psychic traumas, and communing with her yard and garden in a Findhorn kind of way. You want balloons see the Balloonman, they work with many of the large corporattions in the Bay Area as well as small businesses and individuals.
Cathleen Blunt is an artist who lives in another dimension. Cathleen is a real beauty, but the beauty that pours out of her soul creates some of the most spectacular jewelry you will ever see. Meeting Cathleen is like waking up to a day of possibilities that you could never imagine. If you want something exquisite for your beloved, visit Cathleen’s Gallery.
Geneen Roth has been the angel of compassion, hope and wisdom to thousands of people worldwide. Geneen has published more tha half a dozen books addressing the spiritual issues surrounding emotional and compulsive eating disorders. Geneen is the emodiment of her wisdom. What she writes and teaches she acquired the old fashion way – she walked the journey. In wrestling with her own issues around food and compulsion, Geneen discoverd a whole body of knowledge and understanding that she nows shares with the world. Visit Geneen if you or those dear to you wrestle with food demons. -
Pirates
Man
Likes to think
He has evolved
Above the animals
With an advanced intelligence
That can choose its destiny
But the ordinary man
Is no more evolved
Than a parrot
Parrots, too,
Only repeat their conditioning
Parrots, too,
Dress wildly to attract attention
And parrots are also known
To associate with pirates
Need I say more?Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts. – Philip Roth (b. 1933), U.S. novelist.
According to philosopher/scientist George Berkeley, our knowledge of anything is merely our sensation of it and the ideas derived from these sensations. Sound is the sensation experienced through the faculty of hearing, and there is, to the trained ear, a marked difference between the silence in an empty ballroom and the silence at midnight on a lonely road.
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." – J. Krishnamurti
Image by R Wayt Smith -
I Am NOT Knowing
Most of us think we do, but most of what we think is only the surface layer of deeper desires, motivations and longings. Exploring what underlies our desire for money, fame, love, peace, happiness eventually leads us back to our deepest longing – to be real, to be authentic, to be our deepest nature.
When attended to, every action, every interaction, every thought, feeling or sensation can lead us deeper into more intimate knowing of the real. This type of knowing has a very interesting side-effect – it frees us from the habitual, compulsive NEED-to-KNOW that drives most mental activity.
This attending is not grasping for knowledge or definition. It is more a curiosity – the best image I have is that of a dog with it’s head cocked to the side and it’s ear raised. I often find my heart, mind and soul embodying that quizzical nature.
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Perspective
It’s presumptuous to speak for all of humankind, but I think it fair to say that most of us seek meaning, a higher purpose, completeness or some form of deep personal satisfaction.
And, most likely, in that seeking, we find ourselves at times following a path or a person that turns out to have been a distraction, a misrepresentation, or a dead end.
The more constrained or distorted our view, the greater the possibility of being misled or misleading ourselves.
In my experience there are two critical tests we can use to measure the potential of a path or a teacher:
- No Sacred Cows or Stones Left Unturned
- Freedom – There should be an evolution of freedom in all facets of our unfoldment.
In properly organized groups no faith is required; what is required is simply a little trust and even that only for a little while, for the sooner a man begins to verify all he hears the better it is for him. George Gurdjieff
There is no absolute up or down, as Aristotle taught; no absolute position in space; but the position of a body is relative to that of other bodies. Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position throughout the universe, and the observer is always at the center of things. – Giordano Bruno, 1584
It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of “culture.” – John Cage (1912-92), U.S. composer
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Truth vs. Saving Face
Over the course of 5+ decades, I have had to learn the hard way to stand with the Truth. I’m not 100%, but I’m making progress.Some of the longest walks in my life were short in distance, but long in challenge and difficulty as I turned toward the Truth and walked away from saving face or self-image. I remember clearly one of the most difficult walks of this nature I made. I was in my late-twenties. That walk has supported me more than I can ever say in turning toward the Truth.
Our idealized self-image is just that an image and our dear friend, the superego, uses that very effectively to constantly harangue us, or more likely – beat the shit out of us.
When we get comfortable with losing face – letting go of the prized self-image, our hearts and minds can soar to new heights.
As this image reflects, when the self-image falls, the temple of wisdom is revealed.