Category: Observations

What’s a Little Suffering Between Friends?

The suffering wasn’t as bad as I anticipated

The exact words from a friend who a few hours earlier was doing all she could do to remain present in the midst of excruciating pain and suffering!

We sat sipping coffee as she inquired into a personal situation that soon had her on the precipice of the abyss – oceans of tears could be seen behind those eyes into the soul. As she articulated the early childhood roots of the pain and suffering – we both just kept breathing, sipping coffee in a crowded cafe and being with what was arising.

In the midst of the exploration into the pain and suffering that was arising, there were bright moments of laughter and happiness. A seemingly paradoxical thing, but not for those who love the truth. One of the most interesting and powerful turnings in life occurs when the truth becomes more important that pain or pleasure.

It’s an amazing thing to share a journey into such depth and also discover a great phrase for a bumper sticker!

It’s natural that human beings don’t want to suffer. Everyone wants to feel good. Not only human beings, but all living beings want not to suffer; they want to feel good, to feel safe. It is obvious, a given. Many people approach our work with the motivation to be free of suffering. This is one of the main attractions of work like this: we hope that it will help us with our suffering, our pain, and our difficulties. Most people come to the work because of suffering and dissatisfaction, because of some or other discontent with their lives.

But what is suffering? Why do we suffer? And why do we sometimes suffer more when we start paying attention to ourselves? We know that suffering is universal, that a large part of everyone’s experience is suffering, pain, discontent, difficulty. And most of the time we don’t know what to do about it. We have no idea why there is so much suffering or what we can do to alleviate it, although we always do want to alleviate it. To really penetrate this issue, to have a thorough understanding that will relieve our suffering is no small thing. – A. H. Almaas – Inexhaustible Mystery

December 30
Sticking Your Nose into Reality

The Nose Knows – Being Nosy About Reality

To see what is in front of my nose is a constant struggle – George Orwell

If you go further than the tip of your nose to find what is truly precious, you’ve gone too far. – John Harper

Ah, the nose – it leads us into so much of our experience, even as it rejects what smells fishy or offending. Many of us rely on our “gut” for a sense of the truth, but the gut may be receiving input from the nose that we’re not aware of.

Cats arch their backs at the smell of a rival, and mice scurry at the scent of a fox. But how does the nose know who or what is lurking? Now scientists have identified several special receptors in the noses of animals that react to specific scents given off by others.

It’s these receptors that signal to the brain whether the animal needs to flee, make itself large and scary, or perhaps even woo a mate. – Fight or flight: How the nose knows what to do

If you lose your sense of smell, could insanity be next?

An Australian team from the University of Melbourne examined a group of people deemed to be at ultra high risk of developing psychosis and found those that went on to develop schizophrenia, rather than other forms of psychosis, all displayed the inability to identify smells. This deficit was present before the onset of any significant clinical symptoms of psychosis. – Could You Suffer From Psychosis? The Nose Knows

Hairy Sensitivity – Before the hair stands up on the back of our neck, our body is registering a lot of hairy information. Our hearing and smelling rely on very sensitive hairlike cilia as does our sense of balance.

The olfactory cilia inside the nose line the mucus membranes of the nose, and unlike most other cilia in the body, they are non-motile, remaining stationary in the nose rather than wiggling around in the mucus like the cilia which line the trachea and intestines do. As smells enter the nose, they dissolve in the mucus and come into contact with the olfactory cilia. The cilia in turn transmit the smell to the olfactory nerve, which passes the information on to the brain – via the olfactory bulb.

At a cellular level, primary cilia appear in key places that involve hearing, sight, and other forms of sensory input. Does this mean that when we are – sensing, looking & listening – we’re just a bunch of wild hairs interacting with biological reality?

Consider for a moment your proximity and relationship to the tip of your nose. Does soul have a face that orients forward?

[ad#post468]

October 1
Avatar, Avatars & I See You

Ubuntu Asks: Do Avatars Really See You? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Call me weird, call me strange, call me anything you like – as long as you see me? So, I started reading some books on organizational dynamics because I observed a few things involving human interactions in an organization that grabbed my curiosity. In starting to read my second book on the topic, I immediately read this:

Among the tribes of northern Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to “hello” in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, “I see you.” If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhoma, “I am here.” The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It’s as if when you see me, you bring me into existence.

This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which, from Zulu, literally translates as: “A person is a person because other people.” If you grow up with this perspective, your identity is based upon the fact that you are seen-that people around you respect and acknowledge you as a person. – Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

Which instantly reminded me of the movie Avatar – and “I See You” – which triggered a thought about avatars in religion – which was followed by some thoughts about avatars being used online as a way of not being seen (or being seen differently than one’s appearance) – which was then followed by remembering the narcissistic wound and the pain of not being seen.

Typically, the narcissistic wound arises when we feel not seen or appreciated for who we are; we feel the absence or loss of mirroring for who we take ourselves to be. This wound is connected with the original childhood hurt about not being seen or admired. At the deepest level, however, the narcissistic wound results from the loss of connection with the Essential Identity. The wound first appears as a rip in the shell, in the structure of the self-identity, reflecting the loss of a certain way that we recognize ourselves, often involving the dissolution of a certain self-image. As we experience the wound more deeply, we come closer to an awareness of the deeper loss, the severing of our connection to our Essential Identity. – A. H. Almaas, The Point of Existence

[ad#post468]

September 21
Ego Hair Extensions

Is Your Alter Ego Craving Hair Extensions?

When you wake up from one of those good hair nights, do you want to run for the scissors or the salon to build on your wild look with ego hair extensions?

Body art, tattoos, metal bits, body sculpting, cosmetic surgery, liposuction, spray tanning, eyebrow threading, hair extensions… the choices seem endless these days for creating a body image to reflect who we are, want to be or think we are. Which seems to connect to the age-old quest to know – Who am I?

In the lexicon of spirituality, self-image is usually associated with ego identity. An alter ego is a different ego identity from our normal one or sense of self… a rock star, a past life, an abandoned child – who knows? Alter egos can be anything – a wish for another theater of being?

I had no idea of the extent of the evolution of hair extensions and the contribution they are making to the world of fashion and glamor. Basic hair extension types remind me of enneagram types.

According to Alter Ego Hair Design – Hair extensions are pre-tipped strands of hair that are attached to small sections of your own natural hair near the root. Length, volume or both is now safe and comfortable to achieve, so you can stop dreaming about the hairstyle of your dreams!

Hair extensions can enable you to transform the appearance of fine, lifeless or short hair into thick, long, beautiful looking hair. Using human hair extensions, you can literally change your hair in an afternoon. Don’t wait another day to experience the excitement of what hair extensions can do for you! Whether you just need volume or you want super long locks, it’s the hair you’ve always dreamed of, made real!

The quest, the seeking, the endless search for meaning and self-worth continue – as does the desire to find the right image to reflect the self – ego, alter ego, or other.

[ad#post468]

July 9
The New Spiritual Path for the Age

Neuroscience Will be the Basis for the Next Spiritual Path

My interest in the interface between neuroscience and consciousness continues – as does my reading of The Ego Tunnel. My meditations are taking an interesting turn as well under the influence of this interest.

My 27-year interest in the Diamond Approach is fueled, in part, by seeing it as a “teaching appropriate for our times.” The Diamond Approach incorporates modern psychological knowledge and understanding into a new spiritual teaching paradigm.

As I observe the influence of my recent readings on my meditations, thought processes, matrix of attention and index of curiosity, I have little doubt that within my lifetime, I will see a new spiritual path emerge that draws heavily on the insights and knowledge afforded us by those pioneering the field of neuroscience.

The beginnings of this can already be seen in books like Mindsight, where Dr. Dan Siegel is applying understandings of awareness, attention, and mindfulness to his psychological work with clients. Of course, spiritual teachers have understood much of this for millennia. However, spiritual knowledge and insight evolve as consciousness evolves.

Over the entire course of time, spiritual paths have arisen to meet the present-day needs of people’s consciousness and capacity for understanding. Deeper understanding of neuron firing, neural resonance, and brain synchronicity will lead to specific techniques and technologies to influence an individual’s state of consciousness or even deliberately induce a transcendent state of consciousness.

Neuroscience is taking a look from a unique lens at the fundamental spiritual question – Who am I?

I don’t think any amount or degree of technology will remove or reduce some of the basic barriers and hurdles to enlightenment, namely the challenge of embodiment and integration of the nondual as well as the clarification of the personality & ego structure into a transparent vehicle for consciousness. As I learned early in life – spiritual experiences are a dime a dozen, but real change is as rare as a selfless politician.

[ad#post468]

June 24
The Vibration of Life

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God – John 1:1

It’s been a while since I posted and I have nothing in particular to say, so I thought I would see what comes forth if I just pick a couple of random images and write about what they inspire.

Interestingly enough, I was talking to a new acquaintance this weekend about vibration and resonance. This guy, David, is super-smart and has several businesses (Upgrade Company is one), inventions and patents that all involve applications of energy and resonance.

I couldn’t remember the specifics of this post on Gaia’s Brain Waveor this one Light Vision, but I am sending David the links.

Getting back to the images. I have long understood the first movement of God to precede the logos, the word, the big bang – to be the creation of vibration. What’s the Word of God mean to you? The entire spectrum of light and sound are vibration – some of which we can perceive, much of which we cannot.

If you have ever sat in silence for any length of time meditating or paying attention to awareness, you may have noticed that your vibratory rate seems to increase. The mind (human brain) can only pay attention to one thing at a time, but awareness and consciousness can hold much, much more. If we let our awareness expand to include more and more, at first, it is like our awareness is expanding similar to peripheral vision. It can be extremely challenging and even uncomfortable to maintain our focus as we allow ourselves to resonate with more and more.

While many of us can agree that vibration underlies all of manifestation, we may not consider what that may imply about us. Consider the mystics that say it ALL in a space smaller than a needle point or singularity. And of course that everything exists in side of the us, the human being. What then is this body or mind or heart? What is HU?

Whether we “tune in” or “tune out” (so to speak) – tuning refers to vibration and resonance. Walking, talking receivers and transmitters may be a big part of what we are. Why else is chanting and prayer a practice of many spiritual paths.

Oh, how the sing
those wise men can sing
their Vedas ring
they just sing OM

What’s it all mean? Beats me, check in with the brilliant.

[ad#post468]

June 19