Sunday, March 02, 2008
Repost: Attitude of Gratitude
My greater intention at all times is simply to open more and more to love and joy - my essential nature and cling to nothing, "nothing," my true home. In the service of love-Bliss there is an underlying attitude to which the ego is to be trained or entrained to emulate - to come into resonance with. It is an attitude of gratitude. This opens the door to a fuller expression of the Self, the Most High, Lord of Hosts.
Every experience is a gift - from Life itself. Unlike social gift giving, the gifts of Life are not to be kept or hoarded. They are to be passed on, circulated and returned to their ever renewing source condition.
Naked we came into the world and naked we leave. As Spirit we are clothed in memories, knowledge, and emotional addictions which obscure or essence. As is advised in the Gospel of Thomas, "… take off your clothes without being ashamed and put them under your feet like the little children and tread on them, then you shall behold the Son of the Living One and shall not fear." - perceiving then what your is your destiny, rebirth as the Divine child, a magical child, without judgments, without the baggage of the storybook past we identify with as adults.
Similar to the Four Agreements as described by Ruiz, I ask of the "grown up" ego - my personal identity - that it commit to giving thanks for the experience of life as it comes, moment to moment. This is not presently the ego's preferred mode of being in the world. There are reactive emotions and unlimited arguments why "I" should not be thankful. To which - when attuned to my higher Self - I answer, "thank you, I love you!"
Hubbard describes "thank you" as a completion for any two way communication. It is as the period at the end of a sentence. A marker from which to move on. When you say thank you, you do affirm the "other," yet in so doing neither agree nor disagree with a viewpoint. There is no argument, simply a closure by acknowledgement and perhaps an opening, pregnant for unfettered release of love and enjoyment, a possibility of communion.
There is always something to be thankful for. You do not even need to know what it is. Used as a kind of mantra, say "thank you" and then simply listen into the silence, stare into the world containing space, feel into the unity of continuity and change which appears as time. Something good is likely to pop into mind in the midst of your present experience and in response to the affirmation of gratitude. Even if that goodness is to catch yourself being pessimistic or argumentative! That is the perfect setup for letting it go, to return the gift back to its source, back to emptiness of pure potential, a potential for transformation through the mysterious operation of the Universe and its Law of Love.
At breakfast this morning where I wrote this, I say thank you as I drink my coffee, savor it as awareness becomes present to the taste, and this returns me to joy. I say thank you to the egg I eat and I open in love for the gift of its sacrifice for my sustenance. I think of the chicken farms and ask forgiveness for any suffering my participation in the act of eating may have caused and ask permission to absorb its life force into me that together we shall continue the walk of conscious evolution. This fills me with more love and gratitude. (OK, so now you know I'm crazy : )
As I do these simple things I notice my internal energy changes, that indeed this is a mental yoga of high order. I become lighter inside and my own light of consciousness begins to permeate the environment of the cosmos more and more. And more there is to be grateful for. And more beauty to behold, more love to circulate and more Bliss to unfold me into realization of Truth.
And the ego becomes servant, hardly noticing that it is participating in its own reactive undoing. It becomes thoughtlessly infatuated with the presence of love-bliss in its spontaneous arising, which seems to rain down upon it. Ego too becomes aware of a different kind of power, a power of faith. The recurring sense of struggle disappears from life little by little. In time, it is as if the ego becomes gratitude - a remarkable thing this - a confirmation that everything has its proper place and function and that when it is found all things do work for the good.
It is a subtle error to try and love from the ego. That is not its place or function. That is in part the failure of religion. Love is of G-d and is G-d, The Self of all selves operative in the world of duality. Ingratitude is among the first signs of the self's alienation from the Self in the unfolding process of involution and evolution. When the "I" is thankful, it basks in the glory of the "I AM" singing holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 6:1-8).
© Arjay 2008, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The Cross of the Intercessor
Historically, in the time of Abraham, human sacrifice was practiced in many cultures as a way to appease the gods. Then was substituted the sacrifice of animals as human life was cherished more than for its mere instinctual survival value.One may look upon the Christian drama of the Cross as the end of an age for both human and animal sacrifice. The meaning of human life gaining greater value in its potential for immortality, expanding the idea that life was in the physical blood and givining it a universal meaning.
No longer does a body's blood serve the cause of salvation as an outward sign of life's significance. Life remains the object of sacrifice yet now emerges a greater refinement with a deeper understanding. What the Divine calls us to do now is sacrifice our very own soul - that G-d breathed into Adam (I will speak of the spiritual breath/winds at another time). Psuche means life as well as soul.
This sacrifice of the soul-life is still necessary for each of us to enter into the Divine Life (Zoe) which Jesu came to increase within us abundantly. Thus the saying that he who seeks to save his soul-life shall lose it. Jesu did not do it for us but rather prepared the way for us to follow him; much like the one who first broke the four minute mile - called impossible - somehow prepared the way for others to do the same, which they did in rapid succession.
We offer this sacrifice of soul every time we give up judgement and offer forgiveness; forgetting and releasing our own will of separation. Or when we surrender our thinking for waiting upon the inspiration of the Holy Wisdom of G-d. These are but a couple of examples of the method and means of carrying our cross and following Jesu. This in a nutshell is the New Covenant based on the revelation and understanding of life which Jesu espoused.
I Understand that this challenges Christian doctrine suggesting Jesu dies for our sins, erasing them for the sake of our salvation. Yet remember that we are the Body of Christ and we are to enter into the mind of Christ and as such we must never be content with glib doctrine. We must ask again and again like a child; "but what does that mean?". The Logos is not above reason but is the very reason behind all things.
Most Christians will not like this interpretation of the Cross and their relationship to it. It requires that we take responsibility rather than assume we can sit back having let Jesus do it all. But Jesus was master and teacher in the sense of mentor - teaching us to fish rather than giving us a single meal as the wise saying reflects.
Most Christians will offer prayer when they or their loved ones are in need, and give from their abundance. I question if this was Jesus' Way. He asked us to pray for our enemies and and gave from an apparent lack to the multitudes in feeding the 5,000 in an emergency, with a few loaves and fishes.
Simone Weil wrote that if the Christian Church fails to offer truth sufficient to the needs of the congregation , it is their duty to seek out other religions. Perhaps the mass exodus we see from the churches today is a reflection of that search for full disclosure of the Divine Truth. And before a belief system is declared defunct and shredded into a myriad "new age" teachings, a certain die hard fundamentalism seems to surface. This too is happening today.
As for me, I have sought not to reject or digress into literalism, but to become inclusive, certain that G-d has always left guidance that The Children of G-d may not want for direction. In that spirit, I offer a Buddhist practice to help understand the meaning if taking up ones cross. It is a two part practice called "Taking" and "Giving."
In taking, one imagines that the sufferings of all beings are taken from them, invited and accepted upon oneself. The two fold fruits of cultivating compassion and selflessness are the desired results. This aligns well with Jesu saying; "Greater love has no man than this, to give his life for his friend."
The other half of the practice is Giving, in which one imagines that one is giving perfect happiness to all beings. As (by the LAW of the Tetragamaton) one can not give what one does not have, so in the act of giving, ones having is subconsciously assumed. And the more one gives the more to receive. Jesu echo's this in the saying of the Gospel of Thomas that. "what you do not have within you will kill you."
Thus in this second practice one participates in the resurrection as well as the role of salvation. And remember Jesus saying, these things I do you shall do and greater things.
© Arjay 2009
No longer does a body's blood serve the cause of salvation as an outward sign of life's significance. Life remains the object of sacrifice yet now emerges a greater refinement with a deeper understanding. What the Divine calls us to do now is sacrifice our very own soul - that G-d breathed into Adam (I will speak of the spiritual breath/winds at another time). Psuche means life as well as soul.
This sacrifice of the soul-life is still necessary for each of us to enter into the Divine Life (Zoe) which Jesu came to increase within us abundantly. Thus the saying that he who seeks to save his soul-life shall lose it. Jesu did not do it for us but rather prepared the way for us to follow him; much like the one who first broke the four minute mile - called impossible - somehow prepared the way for others to do the same, which they did in rapid succession.
We offer this sacrifice of soul every time we give up judgement and offer forgiveness; forgetting and releasing our own will of separation. Or when we surrender our thinking for waiting upon the inspiration of the Holy Wisdom of G-d. These are but a couple of examples of the method and means of carrying our cross and following Jesu. This in a nutshell is the New Covenant based on the revelation and understanding of life which Jesu espoused.
I Understand that this challenges Christian doctrine suggesting Jesu dies for our sins, erasing them for the sake of our salvation. Yet remember that we are the Body of Christ and we are to enter into the mind of Christ and as such we must never be content with glib doctrine. We must ask again and again like a child; "but what does that mean?". The Logos is not above reason but is the very reason behind all things.
Most Christians will not like this interpretation of the Cross and their relationship to it. It requires that we take responsibility rather than assume we can sit back having let Jesus do it all. But Jesus was master and teacher in the sense of mentor - teaching us to fish rather than giving us a single meal as the wise saying reflects.
Most Christians will offer prayer when they or their loved ones are in need, and give from their abundance. I question if this was Jesus' Way. He asked us to pray for our enemies and and gave from an apparent lack to the multitudes in feeding the 5,000 in an emergency, with a few loaves and fishes.
Simone Weil wrote that if the Christian Church fails to offer truth sufficient to the needs of the congregation , it is their duty to seek out other religions. Perhaps the mass exodus we see from the churches today is a reflection of that search for full disclosure of the Divine Truth. And before a belief system is declared defunct and shredded into a myriad "new age" teachings, a certain die hard fundamentalism seems to surface. This too is happening today.
As for me, I have sought not to reject or digress into literalism, but to become inclusive, certain that G-d has always left guidance that The Children of G-d may not want for direction. In that spirit, I offer a Buddhist practice to help understand the meaning if taking up ones cross. It is a two part practice called "Taking" and "Giving."
In taking, one imagines that the sufferings of all beings are taken from them, invited and accepted upon oneself. The two fold fruits of cultivating compassion and selflessness are the desired results. This aligns well with Jesu saying; "Greater love has no man than this, to give his life for his friend."
The other half of the practice is Giving, in which one imagines that one is giving perfect happiness to all beings. As (by the LAW of the Tetragamaton) one can not give what one does not have, so in the act of giving, ones having is subconsciously assumed. And the more one gives the more to receive. Jesu echo's this in the saying of the Gospel of Thomas that. "what you do not have within you will kill you."
Thus in this second practice one participates in the resurrection as well as the role of salvation. And remember Jesus saying, these things I do you shall do and greater things.
© Arjay 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Crossing the Ocean of Tears
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Repost Crossing the Ocean of Tears
Newcomers here please pay attention to the difference between self and Self (spelled with a capital)
In "Crossing the Ocean of Tears," I follow now the thread of Rasa (bliss essence, meta mood, felt meaning in its Sanskrit interpretation) which ties all spiritual teachings together. The rasa of love is shringara - King of the Rasa's - which includes the erotic sentiment, wherein life surges within psyche and soma, mind and body. Shringa unites the two loves - of the serpent and the dove.
Thus there are four primary essences; desire, love, bliss and not the least, selflessness, who's high names include also silence and zero (the attainment of which leads to Sahajaya - liberated action by spontaneous inspiration). Their permutations are many, their gifts beyond measure, yet little else is there to understand… except that the rasa's also enumerate the many moods of suffering and this too is key.This one who writes - speaking much of Bliss - is no stranger to tears. Show me one who does not cry and I show you one who's heart has become weak; become dependent on cognitive massage to keep alive their soul, oblivious to life in the highest as it becomes numb to the base.
I love the ocean. I imagine it as the tears of the gods, reminding us that in rebirth, like in birth pain, it has its rightful place. Such too is love which is, though we know it not, the patient nurturing of the embryo of the divine child and finally the bringing it to term as the Self.
Love indeed is King. There is no more noble act than to awaken love through love - extending love to all creatures of and within consciousness. This is the hearts exercise which proffers wholeness and no poison can then cause it to skip a beat. And there is no greater purpose than loves sacrifice of self righteousness. Then love ascends to the throne of life incorruptible, inexorable, yet infolds everything in its embrace.
All teachings are tricks and subterfuge to lead the knower to a place beyond the influence of the deceiver, the pretender to the throne of "I". Many are the rituals and practices of the Temple (body). Many the distractions which draw one out of the house of the heart, the chambers of the bride and groom. Yet as they sever the root of Divine Ardor, do not cultivate the tree of loves flowering virtues and free not the fragrance of Bliss into the winds, they lead only to decay and are as compost for the continuing cycle of rebirth and forgetfulness.
Love and let go … the true will is to love and let go in light of love-bliss. Once this is known the way is simple if not easy. Almost immediately comes grace & blessing. The challenge is to abide in this through all trials until the angel of death repents. There is greater depth here to explore but if anyone claims a higher revelation I dare them speak their word of blasphemy.
To speak of love as a power rather than an affection is to know that it rests on a foundation of self love. At its most basic this is about the body - not our judgments about our bodily imperfections but about the feelings that are locked within the cells and strangle the life force.
As an exercise then, scan your body for feelings. Begin looking into the chest and the region of the heart. In the space of the organs of breath and the metronome of life's rhythm, are likely to be stored many pains of the psyche as emotional turmoil. Should you become aware of them, extend love to them as a parent would love a child.
From Plato to Freud a three fold division of mind has been described, yet mot useful is perhaps the Kahuna description of the unconscious as child, the rational conscious as the adult and then a super conscious essence as parent of all - the Self. I would place the self in the center of the circle of unconsciousness and the rational self as on the periphery. The path then to realization of the Self is then through the unconscious and this model reflects the kind of love I speak of above - love as for the child.
Just like our solar system is positioned on the outskirts of our galaxy far from its center, the adult self has a long way to go to know the parental Mother-Father Self. And the body-mind is as a microcosm of this universe. Its sense of separation from the energy field of all Life is from the knots of obscuring emotions, reduced ultimately to the feelings of fear and abandonment by the Parental (Mothering) Self. When you extend love to these tacit body feelings, you re-parent all the irrational children of the unconscious with conscious love. And clear away the debris of unconscious content which occludes the knowing of the Self. Long have I focused on cultivating positive emotion of joy even before its spiritual depth is understood. Its purpose is to gather strength of suficient psychic energy to enable one to address the issues of the unconscious which the body holds frozen in time and space. Release them and the spirit takes back its wings. Meaning: as you learn to release unconscious content, you rise above attachment-by- identity-with and discover there is only one thing left to do … let go even of the self.
The unconscious and its content IS our spiritual ignorance - not some misinformation or information's lack. There is inevitable pain in becoming thus conscious and my aim here is simply to make it more bearable to confront, that one might emerge into unreasoned Bliss of Self.
There are many means to escape this pain, lifetime after lifetime, including some spiritual practices so called. There is however only one way to erase it and that is to face it directly as it comes. For that I have offered simple tools I have found effective. And the above is but an application of such I have to recommend.
So then talk to your heart, find its fears and concern. And listen and respond, like women tell men, not to solve anything, simply to offer love and encouragement. Then will the child transform, growing in the direction of light, lightness and freedom.
One could say - and quite rightly according to the western metaphysical philosophers - that G-d is the hidden beauty within all things. One must find the beauty within - in even the dark corners of the body-mind - and then one may find the beauty without. Ones perception is dependent on the lens one looks through after all. It is the beauty which calls forth love. One could call this beauty the perception of potential perfection; the potential good and true which life ever aspires to become as if dreaming somehow it could. Look then and see the desire to become - which is the Divine Ardor imminent and inherent in all things.
All love has been said to be self love as we are all joined in the hub of the Self. But how to love oneself? To love ones body or personality indicates at best a high self esteem and at worst a uncomely narcissism. Both are ego based. Herein is described a process whereby one might love oneself as might the Divine and in a way that leads to the Self. One can not correctly love ones neighbor as ones self until one learns to love from the Self. Giving love to self and other is then a learning of the same art - crossing the ocean of tears in the boat of love-bliss.
© Arjay 2008, 2009
Repost Crossing the Ocean of Tears
Newcomers here please pay attention to the difference between self and Self (spelled with a capital)
In "Crossing the Ocean of Tears," I follow now the thread of Rasa (bliss essence, meta mood, felt meaning in its Sanskrit interpretation) which ties all spiritual teachings together. The rasa of love is shringara - King of the Rasa's - which includes the erotic sentiment, wherein life surges within psyche and soma, mind and body. Shringa unites the two loves - of the serpent and the dove.
Thus there are four primary essences; desire, love, bliss and not the least, selflessness, who's high names include also silence and zero (the attainment of which leads to Sahajaya - liberated action by spontaneous inspiration). Their permutations are many, their gifts beyond measure, yet little else is there to understand… except that the rasa's also enumerate the many moods of suffering and this too is key.This one who writes - speaking much of Bliss - is no stranger to tears. Show me one who does not cry and I show you one who's heart has become weak; become dependent on cognitive massage to keep alive their soul, oblivious to life in the highest as it becomes numb to the base.
I love the ocean. I imagine it as the tears of the gods, reminding us that in rebirth, like in birth pain, it has its rightful place. Such too is love which is, though we know it not, the patient nurturing of the embryo of the divine child and finally the bringing it to term as the Self.
Love indeed is King. There is no more noble act than to awaken love through love - extending love to all creatures of and within consciousness. This is the hearts exercise which proffers wholeness and no poison can then cause it to skip a beat. And there is no greater purpose than loves sacrifice of self righteousness. Then love ascends to the throne of life incorruptible, inexorable, yet infolds everything in its embrace.
All teachings are tricks and subterfuge to lead the knower to a place beyond the influence of the deceiver, the pretender to the throne of "I". Many are the rituals and practices of the Temple (body). Many the distractions which draw one out of the house of the heart, the chambers of the bride and groom. Yet as they sever the root of Divine Ardor, do not cultivate the tree of loves flowering virtues and free not the fragrance of Bliss into the winds, they lead only to decay and are as compost for the continuing cycle of rebirth and forgetfulness.
Love and let go … the true will is to love and let go in light of love-bliss. Once this is known the way is simple if not easy. Almost immediately comes grace & blessing. The challenge is to abide in this through all trials until the angel of death repents. There is greater depth here to explore but if anyone claims a higher revelation I dare them speak their word of blasphemy.
To speak of love as a power rather than an affection is to know that it rests on a foundation of self love. At its most basic this is about the body - not our judgments about our bodily imperfections but about the feelings that are locked within the cells and strangle the life force.
As an exercise then, scan your body for feelings. Begin looking into the chest and the region of the heart. In the space of the organs of breath and the metronome of life's rhythm, are likely to be stored many pains of the psyche as emotional turmoil. Should you become aware of them, extend love to them as a parent would love a child.
From Plato to Freud a three fold division of mind has been described, yet mot useful is perhaps the Kahuna description of the unconscious as child, the rational conscious as the adult and then a super conscious essence as parent of all - the Self. I would place the self in the center of the circle of unconsciousness and the rational self as on the periphery. The path then to realization of the Self is then through the unconscious and this model reflects the kind of love I speak of above - love as for the child.
Just like our solar system is positioned on the outskirts of our galaxy far from its center, the adult self has a long way to go to know the parental Mother-Father Self. And the body-mind is as a microcosm of this universe. Its sense of separation from the energy field of all Life is from the knots of obscuring emotions, reduced ultimately to the feelings of fear and abandonment by the Parental (Mothering) Self. When you extend love to these tacit body feelings, you re-parent all the irrational children of the unconscious with conscious love. And clear away the debris of unconscious content which occludes the knowing of the Self. Long have I focused on cultivating positive emotion of joy even before its spiritual depth is understood. Its purpose is to gather strength of suficient psychic energy to enable one to address the issues of the unconscious which the body holds frozen in time and space. Release them and the spirit takes back its wings. Meaning: as you learn to release unconscious content, you rise above attachment-by- identity-with and discover there is only one thing left to do … let go even of the self.
The unconscious and its content IS our spiritual ignorance - not some misinformation or information's lack. There is inevitable pain in becoming thus conscious and my aim here is simply to make it more bearable to confront, that one might emerge into unreasoned Bliss of Self.
There are many means to escape this pain, lifetime after lifetime, including some spiritual practices so called. There is however only one way to erase it and that is to face it directly as it comes. For that I have offered simple tools I have found effective. And the above is but an application of such I have to recommend.
So then talk to your heart, find its fears and concern. And listen and respond, like women tell men, not to solve anything, simply to offer love and encouragement. Then will the child transform, growing in the direction of light, lightness and freedom.
One could say - and quite rightly according to the western metaphysical philosophers - that G-d is the hidden beauty within all things. One must find the beauty within - in even the dark corners of the body-mind - and then one may find the beauty without. Ones perception is dependent on the lens one looks through after all. It is the beauty which calls forth love. One could call this beauty the perception of potential perfection; the potential good and true which life ever aspires to become as if dreaming somehow it could. Look then and see the desire to become - which is the Divine Ardor imminent and inherent in all things.
All love has been said to be self love as we are all joined in the hub of the Self. But how to love oneself? To love ones body or personality indicates at best a high self esteem and at worst a uncomely narcissism. Both are ego based. Herein is described a process whereby one might love oneself as might the Divine and in a way that leads to the Self. One can not correctly love ones neighbor as ones self until one learns to love from the Self. Giving love to self and other is then a learning of the same art - crossing the ocean of tears in the boat of love-bliss.
© Arjay 2008, 2009
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