Open-Secrets

Category: Observations

  • Lighten Up

    Humor lighten up

    There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

    The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. –  Bertrand Russell

    Someone sent me a postcard picture of the earth. On the back it said, “Wish you were here.”

    If a person with multiple personalities threatens suicide, is that considered a hostage situation? –  Stephen Wright

    One of life’s greatest enjoyments is laughter.

    Being able to look at oneself and one’s situation with humor is one of the greatest assets one can bring to personal growth and development. Good friends to share lighthearted moments with are a real blessing.

    Take a moment to find and share the joy of laughter and humor in a way that does not denigrate anyone or anything but rather lifts the spirit and celebrates life –  like the fellows above are doing.

    Image by Philip Williams

  • Trapdoor Gifts & Old Stories

    Letting Go of Control & the Known

    How about those times when something totally unexpected arises? We think we have an idea of where life is going and -whoosh – we’re standing in front of the unknown with the mind scurrying to understand, to get things back on track. We can watch with amazement and wonder to see how life will now manifest?

    I wonder about the ego mind’s need to know, to live in the delusion that it can actually control events. I wonder about the depth of that insecurity and fear.

    To that mind, the idea of going into that fear and insecurity makes no sense. Though I have ventured in there many, many times, I often sit on this threshold feeling the tears and apprehension. Is the scent of despair real or is the mind projecting that, trying to turn me away from what it sees as an abyss.

    This place always fascinates me. I am surprised once again as the heart swells with love and interest in this new state of affairs – something much bigger than all of my history and belief envelops me as I take that first step into ??????

    Here is an old poem that reflects part of the turning:

    The Same Old Story

    The story’s the same
    The story’s the same
    The heart ever hungers
    while mind hunts the game

    A heart once young as grass in the spring
    dries with the lessons a harsh world can bring
    Childhood’s innocence ran through the fields
    and suffered the trauma that judgment yields
    As I grew up and followed directions
    spontaneity died from others’ inspections

    The story’s the same
    The story’s the same
    The heart ever hungers
    while mind hunts the game

    Now that I’m molded like a lump of old clay
    my insides turn brittle as I bake day by day
    My face is chiseled in a permanent frown
    once green pastures have faded to brown
    The body’s a sieve full of old holes
    and life a collection of meaningless roles

    The story’s the same
    The story’s the same
    The heart ever hungers
    while mind hunts the game

    When life is a cup emptied by grief
    the heart is readied for famine relief
    A single tear falls on parched desert ground
    prompted by childhood’s shocking rebound
    Pain is a flood like rains in the spring
    swelling the heart as new life they bring

    The story’s the same
    The story’s the same
    The heart never hungers
    while mining its claim.

  • Meditation Dogs

    Meditation

    If you want
    A good night’s sleep
    Stay away from meditation

    A good meditation
    Is like a homeless drunk
    That won’t leave you alone
    He wants to follow you home
    Eat your food and drink your wine
    Talking about nothing but himself

    If you want
    A good night’s sleep
    Stay away from meditation

    A good meditation
    Is like a lonely old dog
    Baying at the door
    Until you let Him in
    He jumps in your bed
    And snores all night

    If you want
    To sleep soundly
    Stay away from meditation

    There are many takes on meditation. In the U.S, one perspective is that meditation is a means to relax, to de-stress. We see many pop classes teaching this type of meditation, There are TV commercials that promote this type of image. There are many meditation CD’s available to help you relax and decompress.

    There are many forms of deeper meditation that can increase your level of stress for a period of time. The intent of this type of meditation is not to bed down anxiety and pacify an overactive nervous system. This meditation is oriented toward probing into the one meditating.

    • Who am I?
    • What am I?

    A good presentation on this type of meditation can be found in Adyashanti‘s –  True Meditation.

    A word of warning though, a single moment of awareness can awaken something in the soul – turning meditation into the hound of heaven.

    Lighthouses are more helpful than churches. – Benjamin Franklin

    It is in the nature of profound things to clash and combine, to evolve from one another. Action is the very principle of life. – Antonin Artaud

    Image by Phillip Williams

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  • Jewels, Food & Balloons

    ballons ballonmanThis 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 bunt fine jewelryCathleen 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 emotional compulsive eatingGeneen 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

Open-Secrets