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  • Einstein & Buddha

    Buddha space einstein

     

    If at first the idea is not absurd , then there is no hope for it.

    The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms-this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.   –  Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein did not know how to tie his shoelaces.

    Image by Jess Artem

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  • Love & Beauty in a Violent World

    love violence black rose

    It is not an easy thing
    The writing of these words
    There is no effort of trying
    Flowing from whence they come
    To where they go

    I am busy with a thief
    That would steal them
    That scoundrel is a constant irritation
    My vigilance prevents stray thoughts
    So, he is also a blessing

    The writing of these words
    Is not an easy thing for me
    I am still
    And cannot stop the loving

    In that room
    But not in that time
    In that room
    But not in that place
    In the endless loving
    That will not stop
    That cannot stop
    The endless loving
    Moves on and on
    Through and through

    I am here
    In the great ruin
    It is making of me

    A thousand times
    I have reached out
    And touched the truth
    Each caress a new devastation
    I am never prepared
    To see such beauty

    It is not an easy thing
    Sitting in this room of ruin
    Where the departed remain
    Each tear and smile over the years
    Continues its work
    I am the victim
    In this loving

    O, poor creature am I
    Spilling tears of gratitude and joy
    My trust runs deep
    I can’t help not to
    I am too vulnerable
    To the startling beauty
    And fierce compassion
    I have no will
    To resist the ruining

    I awoke on the cross of the world
    Every where I look
    Death and horror and violence
    Are dancing
    Cheek-to-cheek, hand-in-hand
    With love and beauty and joy
    It is beyond pain
    Beyond ecstasy

    It is not an easy thing
    My body is a three year old child
    With a leg taken by a shell of hatred
    And eyes blinded by the shrapnel
    Of ethnic cleansing
    My heart a fine filigree
    Of radiant luminous gold
    Illuminates the loving
    Beyond this violent tragedy
    Where majesty blooms
    Beyond my comprehension
    In a field of skulls and bones
    Mothers and daughters
    Fathers and sons
    Every moment in this boundlessness
    Is not an easy thing

    It is the only thing
    Moving on
    Into the next moment of ruin
    As life eats
    And renews itself
    And the loving
    Does not stop
    Cannot stop

    J Harper

    Image – Creations by Dawn

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  • Self-Centeredness vs. Selfishness

    self-centered selfish almaas instinctsMany spiritual teachings pick on the instincts equating them with temptation and “the Devil’s work.” The instincts are seen as antithetical to spiritual development and enlightenment.

    In non-dual awareness, one sees how everything is part of presence, a unity.

    Self-centeredness, inherent in the ego, is oriented around me first and what’s in it for me. At more subtle levels all experience is centered in the reference to a self. We are mostly unconsciousness.

    According to A.H. Almaas when self-centeredness is insecure, it appears as selfishness.

    Self-centeredness is an objective fact of the ego, everything is referenced to the self, one’s subjective experience.

    Selfishness is an obstacle to spiritual growth. Selfishness indicates an insecurity which means we are not being our true self because he true self is selfless in its nature. There is not a self that is separate from True Nature.

    Why does the self keep coming back? A huge factor in the resiliency of the ego self is the survival instinct. This instinct is tied to the body and the ego equates its own disolution with physical death. Mystics throughout the ages attest to the fact that life goes on when the ego disolves.

    Synthesizing the survival instinct brings toether the first and seventh chakras, the transcendent and the physical.

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  • Pythagoras’ Music

    Guitar

    Pythagoras’ discovery of the arithmetical basis of the musical intervals was not just the beginning of musical theory; it was the beginning of science. For the first time, man discovered that universal truths could be explained through systematic investigation and the use of symbols such as mathematics. Once that window was opened, the light spread across the whole breadth of human curiosity — not least in the field of cosmogony [and ultimately in quantum mechanics gravity]. The genius of Pythagoras lay in the comprehensive way he joined the inner man and the cosmos. –
    The Music of the Spheres: Music, Science & the Natural Order of the Universe by Jamie James

    A stone is frozen music
    Everything is sentient
    Pythagoras

    The argument took the shape of “Do you ask what it’s made of – earth, fire, water, etc.?” or do you ask, “What is its ‘pattern’?” Pythagoreans stood for inquiring into pattern rather than inquiring into substance. – Gregory Bateson

    Image by Kjngrafix

  • Centering – Bushido

    Omega

    By its structure Omega, in its ultimate principle, can only be a distinct Center radiating at the core of a system of centers; a grouping in which the personalization of the All and personalizations of the elements reach their maximum, simultaneously and without merging, under the influence of a supremely autonomous focus of union. – Teilhard de Chardin

    G.I. Gurdjieff described the nature of conscious being as crystalline in form, and as such spoke of the process of self-development as a series of crystallizations, which are, in this respect, identical to Deleuze’s conceptualization of the formation of plateaus of thought (within the individual) through assemblage. These assemblages are in some respects conscious, and in some respects are due to accident. – Mark Pesce – End of Man: A Cybernetic Eschatology

    Image by Bruno Smith

  • The End of Ambition

    Desire

    Yesterday, A.H. Almaas began his lecture with:

    We are all engaged in an interesting endeavor – to actualize something invisible in our lives, something not seen by the ordinary senses. This something transcends the biological imperatives of life. Our purpose transcends the simply biological.

    The lecture went on to explore the phenomena of sexual desire and its relevance to one’s spiritual search and the maturation of the soul. Instinctual desire is a topic addressed by most spiritual teachings. Most see it as an impulse or motivation to be suppressed or gotten rid of.

    Almaas looks at desire like any other phenomena – something to understand. His experience and teaching, the Diamond Approach, recognizes the value of understanding as a means of dissolving barriers and obstacles on the spiritual journey. This understanding is not an intellectual or theoretical process, but rather, a deep experiential experience.

    To understand instinctual desire so that primordial energy can be used in the service of the maturing soul, one must first free it from all of the social, mental, emotional, and personal baggage that distorts it. When the instictual drive is returned to its pure state, it can then be synthisized into soul in a way that supports her movement toward the mystery of her deeper nature.  

    Image from Deric Bownds’ Mindblog

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