One World Flag- blogAn international symbol of diversity. A Bigger Flag to Fly. Spread the World!2008-04-10T20:16:37ZUser 568David Bartholomewhttp://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/OrgSpace NewsLogThis web log and its content is copyrighted 2007 by David Bartholomew. All rights reserved.See the Thing That Needs to Be Done (including-- Managing the Size of Your [excerpted from DoingIt!, May, 2007]
I get together with a bunch of friends for some regular hyjinx, and each time, in order to divide the labor, we choose “captains” to setup and cleanup the space, bring or replenish certain items, etc.
Taking turns is, theoretically, a good way to have ev... Didn’t wait to get nominated, assigned, roped into it. Required no cajoling, shaming, ribbing or admonishing. Just put our shoulder under the canoe, bellied up to the bar, opened up to a new… casual… way of being where such opportunities to serve the whole were continually sought out and easily dispensed with.
I work with guys who will kid each other, spur each other on— especially one on an off or lackadaisical day— with a good-natured, slightly sarcastic, “Don’t be afraid of it!” As in-- don’t be afraid of the work, of doing your share. There is “x” amount of work to be done and it needs to get done before we “knock off” for the day.
I like this. Even on the odd occasion that I am on the receiving end of the jab. Because… you can all talk about it for so long. You can give it the once over, the twice over. You can postulate and pontificate. And sooner or later… someone’s going to have to do it. Or—face that it might not get done.
I have chosen to be one working toward getting it done, and I hope you are with me in this noble endeavor. “If Not You, Who? If Not Now, When?,” went the unforgettable slogan on the wall of the team locker room at my high school. I have always understood that that motto could help one crank out a couple more reps on the bench press… or, taken to the nth degree, into a space of increased personal integrity.
Beyond the world of “I got mine” and “It isn’t my turn”; across the sea from “It’s not my job”; on the far shore that has never heard echoes of “I didn’t put it there, why should I pick it up, waa, waa, waa?”…
… is a land where the buck stops with each person, integrity and accountability are increasingly on the rise and greater possibilities reveal themselves every day.
This line of thought goes beyond the tendency of the reticent ones to relegate and dismiss such aspirations and encouragement as hackneyed, clichéd, cornpone and naïve. It becomes one of the simplest, foundational building blocks toward a better world. And p.s., it feels great on the other side of having taken it on.
As we look for the menial… and make it meaningful… we come to understand the satisfaction of serving each other on a whole ‘nother level. And isn’t this who we have come to be?
“The difference between what we do
and what we are capable of doing
would suffice to solve
most of the world’s problems”
~~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Little by little one walks far”
~~ Peruvian Proverb
"Attentiveness
is the natural prayer of the soul."
~~ Nicholas Malebranche
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000035.htm2008-04-10T20:16:37Z2008-07-03T16:29:17ZOn Humility: Smaller and Dumber… and Very OK With It[excerpted from DoingIt!, April, 2007]
I have been finding myself feeling much smaller and aware of being way more ignorant each passing day, and that it feels… swell, and freeing, to be in the midst of this.
No, this is not some masochistic tendency aimed at satisfying self-loathing on a l... I know how we got this way.
You see, as a survival mechanism we came to name things. Had to. We would experience a given thing, give it a name, file it in our reptile brains as threat or non-threat, and once we felt comfortable with that thing as a non-threat, we could easily scan it the next time we saw it, presumably file it again in the non-threat bin and move on to scanning for other things that might be out there waiting to harm us-- like saber-toothed tigers and multi-national corporations, plagues and telemarketers.
This process of naming for this purpose worked for a good deal of our evolution… but it no longer serves. For now we have come to a place where we have named just about all things, are quick to name the new things, and somehow think that we know all there is, or all we need know of these things. Done. A handful of facts on a flashcard.
We know... tree, water, Bill in accounting, ladybug, ham sandwich… and there is no surprise there, no magic and very little mystery. And so life has become rather boring and miracle-free. Sterile.
Many continue to try to experience more extreme activities, events and things… but these quickly get named and filed as well… under “been there, done that”. Hmmph, what next?
As a race, almost down to the man or woman, we wait for someone to create that next thing to amuse us, for whatever interval it can last. Having lost our way in this respect, we have become eager consumers, and look to feed this beast, this void, at the expense of resources. Empty, we sit as if at the Saturday matinee at the Roman Coliseum, and look to others to perform whatever outrageous acts they might, to fill us, at the expense of their and our own self-respect.
And so it comes back to the quest for humility, the courage to look at that common thing anew… and with an intent and focus to take the process to a level of detail where amazement is undeniable. To boldly go… inward… following our way back to our connection to that which is deeper.
Try this with a blade of grass, a penny, a living being, a drop of water. Similar to the trick where you can’t take a piece of paper of any type or size and fold it more than 7 times in half (try it)… this quest for understanding of even the smallest and most basic thing cannot be taken more than the first few steps before boggling the mind-- discombobulating it with just how much one can’t know of even the seemingly simplest nature or aspect of it or how it came to be.
Bring yourself to this point with one object… then multiply this humbled state by the millions of drops, blades of grass, leaves, particles of air within your field of vision no matter which way you turn…
… and we understand that, yes, up to this point in time, it would not have been safe to contemplate just how great the Creative Force is…
… but now, we are in a time where we are working our way back to being able to process more and more of that-- wonder, awe, majesty, any of those words that begin to sound of religion and mysticism. And rightly so.
We are working our way down this path, because we are beginning to understand at the same time, that we are extensions of this Creative Force, this Godstuff. Being with more of this understanding; processing more of this creation, light, energy; is the way we will work our way back home to more and more of it.
This is the place of richness, and true riches.
This is where humbleness and humility come in for me. I feel as a grain of sand in a talk entitled “The Precious Garland” given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When asked what it is to be a bodhisaatva-- an enlightened one—His Holiness answered, by way of this talk, that if you imagined an immense beach… with every grain of sand comprising that beach... a lifetime lived… and then enough lifetimes to fill an almost endless number of such beaches … only then could one understand what it might be to be to have the wisdom of a bodhisaatva.
On the one hand, this could be a depressing thought-- to think we might have so far to go; but on the other, to me, the sense that I am on this path, headed in the right direction… working toward being able to take in so much more wonder, beauty, all of it in every glance… witnessing myself growing in small increments in this practice… far outweighs the downside that feeling smaller and dumber, with so far to go, could otherwise take me.
Keeping the focus on all there is to appreciate… and all the fun in that-- all the times that shall be spent with so many others who we’ll come to know and appreciate, layer by layer; all the nuances and sublime lessons to be taught us by each named thing out there in our world; keeps me very excited about this process, however long it might take.
And I believe it was Kabir who said, “Path presupposes distance.” So maybe we, in all humbleness, might not be so far away after all.
First, a mountain is a mountain.
Then, when I open my eye, a mountain is not a mountain.
After practicing further, then once again a mountain is a mountain.
~~ Zen Proverb
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000034.htm2008-04-10T20:04:37Z2008-04-20T21:52:08Z40 Days in the Desert[excerpted from DoingIt!, April, 2007]
As winter is yielding to spring I bear witness that a number of people in my sphere, myself included, seem to be somewhere in the middle of a bout of 40 days in the desert, a visionquest, a sundance… whatever equivalent of a time of immense purification an... Every bit of the being, the way of being, the roles, the fears and illusions of each of us… are being laid upon the table. Everything is being offered up for amendment and correction. And piece by piece, inch by inch, sweat-soaked night after night each of us is showing up to reclaim more and more of our authentic selves.
Friends of mine have put their relationships into the hopper and have been rewarded for their dedication and hard work, with richer levels of connection and commitment on the other side of that trust and commitment. Some of us have put fear and hope, money and intimacy issues on the line… and are feeling more openings being breathed into these formerly tight situations.
I don’t feel it a coincidence that this time has us bearing down upon Easter and the season of resurrection myths and archetypes across numerous traditions; and as plants, trees, flowers, the Earth herself are being reborn across at least one hemisphere.
As the collective consciousness is embracing more quantum thought, more of the Law of Attraction and self-as-co-creator lines of thought, I feel we are beginning to move well along the way to new possibilities. But I also believe as so many are in the infancy of their time playing with these new theories, the lag between voicing and authentically believing in the prospects they are affirming… is sending small bits of intentionally veiled fear rippling into being as well.
Fear not. For as the first wobbly outings on a two-wheeled bicycle transition into a lifetime mastery and years of smooth riding… so shall these affirmations and resonations with higher frequencies and limitless outcomes come as naturally in short order.
Continue along your path. Continue doing what you are doing, which is only, and always… your best.
Allow this walk through the desert to be as pleasant as possible. Feel the sun on your face. Rest as things get too hot, and then continue the journey by the light of the moon. Allow the mind to trick itself into respites and spates of relief in the form of the occasional oasis. Use whatever of these tricks you need, until you achieve their incorporation and mastery on the other side, and are able to drink and quench from waters beyond illusion.
Feel each footstep as it gently pads the ground and know that one never covers the same ground twice. You are no longer who you were. And you are that much closer to who you are becoming.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000033.htm2008-04-10T19:54:56Z2008-04-20T21:36:10ZTaking The Wheel of Life Out For a Spin[excerpted from DoingIt!, March, 2007]
Life, so they say, is just a game,
and we let it slip away
~~ We May Never Pass This Way Again,
by Seals & Crofts
Having come, by a truly awe-inspiring and humbling set of circumstances, to a greater awakening of devotion—
-- to the Eart... This film documents the bi- or tri-annual pilgrimage by thousands upon thousands of monks and devoted worldwide, to the village of Bhod Gaya, India, reputed to be the place where the Buddha is thought to have attained enlightenment. So many staggering stories of acts of devotion— 3000 mile journeys, over 3 years, of millions of uninterrupted prostrations… the twelve day Kalachakra ordainment/initiation process… the building of the intricate “wheel of time” sand painting-- mandalic outer representation of the over 700 hundred manifestations of the Buddha consciousness… symbolizing the inner, three-dimensional visualization of the same … built by few, witnessed by thousands, and wiped away clean soon after.
So much respect in the witnessing of this chronicle, for those who guide us toward possibilities of what devotion , true devotion, can look like; these reverent people and their actions serving as signposts… large arrows pointing us in a direction on a path that many of us have newly accessed.
Such stark contrast to my being able to get myself on a consistent daily practice, stay in control of the rudder of my emotional boat, or to any of us who allow “life” to interfere with our spiritual preparations intended to evolve us into our best selves.
My devotion-- to growth, respect, integrity, you name it-- and yours can look infinitely different than theirs. Their example mainly inspires me from a perspective of scale, magnitude, degree of commitment, unwavering discipline… and especially, in the undertaking of all of it with so much joy, even through street level trials more demanding than those with which most of us might be challenged.
I come to view this program after a really fun chat with a new friend from Brazil, Luiz, an ethnographic filmmaker and “daimista”-- 17 year devotee of a Brazilian ayahuasca tradition and interested visitor/witness/participant of numerous other rituals and disciplines worldwide. During this enjoyable talk we worked our way from tradition to tradition, noting the recognition of that uplifted state achieved in so many practices out there. He mentioned it a commonality among daimistas he has known to go out and sample and share the traditions and sacred practices of others, collecting these memories and moments, as it were; perhaps pollinating the seeds of utmost inspiration here and there; this, in his noted observation, in contrast to some only comfortable enough within their own tradition, who don’t, perhaps, allow themselves the gift of witnessing the ways in which others celebrate and re-create their unique aspects of divinity and consciousness.
Alas-- to deprive oneself of the experiencing and understanding of so many of the threads that make up this tapestry of evolving humanity, to eliminate much-needed examples that so many others are DoingIt!
These are the important things going on in the world today-- in your world. Turn off the “news” that speaks and illustrates otherwise; fuel yourselves instead, as often as possible, with these true capsulizations of the real human experience-- these bits of ammunition (flower power!)—to ward off any surfacing doubt that mankind is achieving any sense of its original objective. That you, in your sphere, are doing better, getting it… are exactly where you need to be and are realizing your individual purpose.
Continue to take time and create your own acts and rituals of appreciation and celebration. Work yourself into a state of joy. Bring the sacred into even the most mundane tasks.
And devote some time to seeking out how others might be doing the same.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000032.htm2008-04-10T19:47:59Z2008-04-20T21:52:40ZWhat’s Working: Creator of Moments[excerpted from DoingIt!, February, 2007]
I consider myself a Creator of Moments— one who throws out a pinch of magic dust into an everyday situation— a conversational tidbit, a zig where one would normally zag, a fat pitch of a comedic straight-line— a real zinger— tossed right over the swee... I stopped and turned around recently and had to get her name and tell her how much she is appreciated.
Kim Dungee, who could just be shoving that spare hand in her jeans pocket and dutifully flagging everyone by because it’s her job… is instead transfiguring even the most jaded, tattered-script-toting, self-absorbed, Porsche-driving, latte-drinking, producer wannabees of the canyon… from mumbling, grumbling, clock-watching, stuck in second gear monsters of rudeness… into sweethearts.
She, as my character in “The Penny Man” -– who turns up face-down pennies, leaving all that good luck for others to find—is skirting around the law that for each and every action there is an equal and opposite reaction… and turning the asphalt, morning drive equation of a root canal appointment… into nothing but warm fuzzies.
She is a saint in the sun. She bakes so we can wake. Alright—she probably doesn’t need me to coin her an ill-thought-out slogan.
The point is—how many times, in how many places… are we on auto-pilot? How many times do we just go about our business and leave well-enough alone when we run up against someone who isn’t well, might be feeling alone… and it could be within our power to help them shift… with us receiving perhaps more out of the exchange?
I know, from our brief meeting and brief chitchat in the middle of the road, that Kim has a lot more going on, intentwise, than she lets on. Hers is a mission— a one-woman plan to tidy up her corner of the world and, hopefully, I assume, to have those well-wishes and happy na-na’s be passed forward by whatever means by their grateful recipients.
And I am for this becoming a movement.
As Arlo Guthrie advised in “Alice’s Restaurant” (in reference to protesting the draft, but you can make the mental leap)— You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both ____ [insert word, no longer politically correct, here] and they won’t take either of them. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.
So, like-minded friends-- sign on the dotted, or polka-dotted,or zebra-striped line, to join the Creator of Moments Movement. Go to ordinary places and kill people… with humor, kindness, joy and peace. A-men.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000031.htm2008-04-10T19:35:36Z2008-04-20T21:35:41ZA Blank Slate[excerpted from DoingIT!, January, 2007]
Your consciousness slowly, hazily, fades up from black… stirred back from… somewhere… by a gentle rocking and the click-clack along the track of a well-worn New York subway car methodically easing its way toward Coney Island. Gradually the strobing effe...
“How much of our past lives--
the thousands of moments we experience-- help to make up who we are?
If you took all of these remembrances, these memories away,
what would be left? How much is our personality, our identity,
determined by the experiences we have… and how much is already there? Pure us?”
-- from Unknown White Male
Enter-- fugue state. About three blocks crosstown from the Twilight Zone, remember your transfer, then grab the M line.
“The fugue state, according to an expert in the film, “ is a very interesting condition in which the individual does not have the ability to retrieve information about their past. They may not even know who they are. But what makes it so interesting is that they’re not aware of that at the time. They may be traveling or functioning in some way for hours, days even weeks… not knowing who they are. But until they are put in a situation where somehow this is brought to their attention… they’re unaware of it. At the moment they become aware, then the fugue state per se is broken, and they realize they don’t know who they are.”
I want to experience fugue state! Or an equivalent, albeit voluntary state of rediscovery. Talk about the power of now!
And, now, newly into 2007 and grappling with what of yesterday’s self to bring forward with us into our intended, intentional lives and brighter futures, such concepts are quite mad hats to try on.
Doug’s rediscovered old friend Jim summed it up this way: “He has to make the decision now as he gets to know his past which bits to re-embrace and which bits to discard. In some ways he’s quite lucky he’s in a position where he can make that decision. He can suddenly meet someone that he doesn’t like anymore and say, ‘Sorry I’m not the same person I was. Piss off’. It would be great!”
And somewhere swirling around all these thoughts, wherefores and what-if’s that this film has engendered in me, is a renewed challenge-- to myself, and you-- to really, consistently attempt to reinvent myself and ourselves… constantly. To consistently evaluate without prejudice, through clearer and clearer lenses and filters-- all that which we wish to continue to bring forward in our lives, our world; and to work toward discarding again and again any of the old thought patterns and actions, programmed thinking from bygone days, all the rusty iron filings of our lives that somehow are still magnetically re-aligning in our “field” upon each morning’s awakening, by way of habit and inattention.
“He’s had the great opportunity to reinvent himself and become a completely different person”, mentions his sister. “Not many of us get that chance. You know, start afresh and put behind all the things we wish we’d done differently or hadn’t done at all. And every day is a new day and brings new things and he learns from it, and we tend not to do that. We get sort of stuck in our daily routine and we don’t learn daily”.
Aware that this might be sounding like an endorsement of bonking ourselves on the head to achieve our own amnesiatic state (warning-- do not attempt this at home)—how luscious might it be to rediscover the taste of chocolate or a light snowfall for the first time? Or to get to fall in love with our beloved ones all over again? Every day!
And so I am inspired to attempt to voluntarily enter into as much know-nothingness as I can each moment, to continue DoingIt! by achieving, to the degree possible, a state of childlike wonder. The realm of the blank slate. This is my resolution. Happy New Year.
Hey, has anyone seen my keys?
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000030.htm2008-04-10T19:28:59Z2008-04-20T21:35:26Z3 Seconds of Bliss[excerpted from DoingIt!, November, 2006]
My friend Vicki summed up what I believe is the general quest of us all—the carrot at the end of the stick however we are maneuvering toward attaining it-- with eloquence and a simplicity that really drove the point home.
She was relating an experien... Her focus was not on what she had lost in coming back into mind and body, or how limiting words were in capturing it; rather, how amazing it was to have had it at all.
These are the moments that keep us going, that keep our eyes on the prize. Like a first wobbly and short-lived, training-wheel-free, maiden journey on a two-wheeler bike the exuberance comes from the knowledge of what is possible, and the sense of how much more of it is available… and not all that far off. Forget the skinned knee; let’s get back on and do it again! We are getting the hang of it.
We can put so much effort into a specific endeavor, and then there comes that instant-- so memorable-- that is the turning point. We measure life by these dividing lines-- between life lived before and life truly lived afterwards.
Such are our rites of passage in life. Everyone has their own precious set, held close to heart and always ready to be called up by minds in need of remembering. That we are getting it. That we know what it—our life’s purpose-- is generally about and that we are on our way there, making progress despite any mental chatter or doubt to the contrary.
There is so much talk, so much effort devoted to achieving the state of being in the now in the air these days. So many systems, philosophies and ideas on how to be in the moment have bombarded us, confused us, attempted to allay our confusion. All in all I feel it is safe to say that-- aware of it or not—the bulk of history has been lived in attempts of achieving this same natural state (a lot of work devoted to becoming natural) yet again. Certainly all or most of recorded history, and more than not of the conversations and actions mankind has taken… can be followed (in less than six degrees of separation, with or without Kevin Bacon in there somewhere), distilled down to their motivation to achieve this connection, this beingness that can only happen in the moment.
The aims of wars. The striving toward peace. Pursuits toward love, community, security, or away from hurt, pain, suffering in all planes; the endgame of every urge, by way of any discipline--religious, academic, art, sport, physical/intellectual/sensual; is to come home to this place.
Play with this. Follow any line of thinking, any thought, action or drive, any episode out of personal or world history… and see if the epitome of such does not attempt to bring all participants home, in the way they understand it; and in a way that transcends mind and the limitations of the senses (especially in trying to do it justice in the telling of it) as it is attained successfully.
Perhaps the only difference between the enlightened and those less so, the more conscious vs. the less conscious… is a keener sense of what means might yield more lasting gains and fruits of these labours.
For my money, it is never about the money. So many conquering peoples have stepped over spiritual dollars to pick up material dimes; so many of the civilized have missed the basic point lived out so successfully for so long by the indigenous ones conquered or subdued at their hand.
I am encouraged, though, and my heart is stirred by how many former pillagers of one sort or another now seem to be in better and better alignment with the highest of these principles… and are coming around to what for many has been the long-awaited obvious. I truly do seem to be catching small clusters of news stories that validate this theme on a given day—unrelated stories of folks who are getting it.
This is a time to take hope, to focus on, to share and communicate these changes, these success stories, where those still living from the acquisition paradigm have an at-stakeness in them not seeing the light of day and catching fire perhaps; but where, equally, there are potential openings and opportunities to speak to the parts in them that are ready to drop their yokes and shed illusion.
There is much good occurring in the world despite what you might be shown or told out of fear or an agenda. And this is the season to continue to direct our attention on the momentum that light and harmony seem to be achieving, in the oddest places.
I have been graced by contact, friendship and relationship with so many who are throwing more of their two cents’, and three seconds’, into the community pot in these respects-- you who continue to support the ideals of DoingIt! in your lives key among these.
I hope you will take a few moments to inventory the chunks of time-- large or small-- that you have accumulated in the now, from your deepest sense of home, throughout your life… all those times you ate or drank or spent quality time at the Source from which you stem. Let us use this season to pool our bliss and to allow it to compound, with increased interest and focus paid to it.
Let us hop back on this bike and ride.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000029.htm2008-04-10T19:19:39Z2008-04-20T21:34:58ZA Challenge to Artists-- a Trilogy in Four Parts[upon releasing the "I am a Blank Slate..." article in DoingIt!, in September, 2006, I realized it was the culmination of a number of pieces intended to rally artists of every sort (with each of us being the artist crafting our own life)...
...to raise the bar of their work, beyond what I have ...
I am a Blank Canvas On Which God is Painting my Life
[excerpted from DoingIt!, September, 2006]
“Okay. So, that means that our whole solar system could be, like,
one tiny atom, in the fingernail of some other giant being...
... That means... that one tiny atom in my fingernail could be...”
“... could be one tiny, little universe.”
“Could I buy some pot from you?”
-- the character of Pinto, connecting the dots
from within the experience of his first “high”, in “Animal House”
This piece could feel like it is picking up where Pinto, quoted above, left off. But if you hang with me I believe it could take you to a fun place. If nothing else, DoingIt! tries to use any number of tools at our disposal to shake loose the cobwebs and our fuddy-duddy, same-ole-same way of think- ing. So please play along and let’s see where this goes. As always, your name for the Creative Force can and should be substituted for any of the terms used here.
I once wrote on these pages of a meditation where I shifted from focusing on my breathing to allowing, inviting Spirit to instead… breathe me; having acknowledged that that is what is happening all the time anyway, and decided to try and work to release into it.
Recently I took that to another level as I got the next piece, the next natural progression of this concept— allow Spirit to think you.
If we are all Godstuff, if we have been created, if we allow that all we are is being allowed to be, then as sure as we are being breathed, our thoughts and all of our experience are being given to us as well, perhaps? And what if this train of thought was followed… with the specific intention of just being with each unfolding layer, from a place of non-judgment? Only what if’s, with no at-stakeness?
What follows is some of the stream of consciousness that came out of this exercise.
P.S. I was straight when this happened!
***
I am a Blank Canvas On Which God is Painting My Life.
A goal to strive for. To be that clear. Receptive. Open.
Extending beyond letting Spirit breathe you… to letting God think you… meditating on all of it. I am ok with not being ok with it; I am ok with being ok with it. I am a witness to that which Creator Energy is unfolding in the experiment that is me. At least for the time being.
Maybe part of what enlightenment is, is being clear enough, open enough, to be … with… and… in… the process of witnessing God unfold ourselves?
So tenuous… to be in this moment and not do anything and be present to what is coming next.
Just loving the increase in understanding and awareness… enjoying how much comes out of this humble position of being the vessel. How we give back for all we receive as a vessel… is in simple gratitude and appreciation of all we are shown and given.
It is sometimes easier to witness Spirit working through others as mirrors and representations of concepts and ideas to us… but to then take it further… inward… and to be with this same working through us.
We are each a work of Divine art, and the appreciators of that Inspired art, that is us, at the same time. At least we can be.
It can almost become overwhelming to start down this road, as we come up against—just how much of it all are we able to comprehend in a given moment?
I have been aware in my life of my need to take things in manageable chunks, and then take periods of time to assimilate each new awareness… and lately, I have been working on blowing my comfort zone out of the water… my perception that there need to be manageable chunks, and to be more and more present to… more and more… more and more often.
Why do things look like they do? Why am I laying on the ground in a place, with my feet touching a tv stand, and feeling/sensing the wall next to me, hundreds of miles away from what I perceive to be home? I chuckle. I don’t know. It is unfolding. Why am I touching my hand to my forehead in thought of this? I don’t know.
I don’t know, we don’t know… if we are honest…
at any level… why anything is happening.
We could be being shown cause and effect at a given time,
and we could be shown exceptions to this, or both. We don’t know.
It is for us to be with, and enjoy the show.
I believe our only work is to reach the place where we are accepting
of all we are witnessing. Being with it. Beyond mind.
Not getting hooked by the one or two or finite number of things
that mind can juggle at once; rather, to allow all of the hundreds, thousands, millions of things that Spirit can share with us simultaneously, to wash over us.
“Pure energy,” as Mr. Spock once said. “To boldly go…” Well, I hope we all go, or strive to go, where no one, not even ourselves… have gone… every microsecond.
Humbleness overtakes thought in these moments. And not false humility… at all. We cannot comprehend a blade of grass. One could begin writing about a blade of grass right now, and write 24 hours a day for a thousand years… and not comprehend it… how it got here: what it is?, what (if anything) it means?, why grass?, why green?…
How open can we work ourselves into being? How much may we one day be able to take in at a time? It is so exciting to me to contemplate this. This is what possibility has always been/meant to me. This is so much more interesting than smallness and conflict and personal problems.
A Cure for Writer’s Block, free for the taking: If I begin to believe I am writing these words I can reach a block, all kinds of blocks. I can run all kinds of stuff up against what is being written— is it good, is it worth anything, is it crafted, is it coherent, what if the ideas stop, what if I get a block? If I make it about me I am doomed. But as I work to clear myself, to become more and more of the hollow bone… to let Spirit reveal the thoughts… the epiphanies seem to be more and more limitless.
I think of Paramahansa Yogananda opening and releasing to the will of Spirit, and being able to speak in a language he hadn’t known any or much of prior: to give an amazing lecture, in English, in Boston in 1920 (Autobiography of a Yogi, Ch. 37, I Go To America). I think of other stories of stuff, knowledge, being downloaded, in full, to people...I pray for some chances at receiving such downloads—to be jolted with direct chunks of new information straight from the Akashic records. To be deemed worthy or prepared enough or whatever, and to get to receive directly, without any filters of my own to interrupt the flow. I stand for this possibility.
It is coming, for all of us. I feel it. I feel I am working to be ready. If it takes hundreds of years or lifetimes I still feel it coming. All the preparation, healing, strengthening, clearing, growing we have to do, I believe, boils down to mastery in these arenas.
Just the concept of the blank canvas… wow… amazing… pure potential… to be anything.
It is for certain numbers of people of any time to hold the vision for… way down the road. These have been our futurists, our mystics, our seers. We had them—drawing us forward, urging us on toward overcoming obstacles, disregarding limitations. And this is who we need to be for others.
But, the fearful and doubting mind, pipes up, “What if we aren’t it, don’t have it, are average and not gifted…”
The simple and encouraging answer is—What if you are? What if it is not about traits passed through the genes, rather a simple desire to clear oneself, and listen, long enough, dedicatedly enough, to begin to receive?
To become an empty vessel… limitless… unlimited… unhindered… uninterrupting… simply awaiting and observing and anticipating… whatever it is… that God/Spirit/the Universe wishes to fill us with… to create… to alter… at any moment… to blow us away in breadth and scope, to enlighten, to illustrate, illuminate, to shuck and jive, spin, and stop on a dime.
I have come to a place where I sit to write for DoingIt! just like this— attempting to draw from this place. The words that appear here… hope to speak what you need to hear, at each given time you read them.
The exercise, for me, for us, is to achieve that place where the flow comes uninterrupted, without need of editing. And there are days when we see approximations of this that fuel and excite us enough to continue the process.
I am aware of more and more people channeling beings or energy or art these days. This seems to be the way it is going-- for more of us to clearly channel more and more, higher and higher quality info… on the way up to… nameless, incomprehensible possibilities such as we have been envisioning here.
Here I issue—
A Challenge to Artists:
(And I consider each of artists of our own lives)
Create now only from this space.
Feeling/hearing/sensing/seeing Spirit moving the pens in our hands, moving the fingers on our keyboards, downloading more and more thoughts faster than mind alone can process, but not so overwhelming that a clear, open, non-resistant vessel/channel… can’t get it down… appreciate it… capture it… as it is happening.
We no longer need the evil twins and murders and sordid details of fictional and faulted people. We no longer need such conflict building, so as to allow the audience/receivers their catharsis. The songs we sing, the words we pen, the expressions we put forth must no longer lament that which we see and no longer wish for. Only visions of that for which we stand shall feed our souls henceforth.
Create out of the allowing that you will receive, and channel that which the Universe believes is needed by those you shall reach and uplift. Wisdom. Truth. Trust. Connection. These are the themes our spirits are yearning for.
This is the direction we are heading. Mind-boggling… and our minds want and need to be boggled. So thrilling to imagine what might come as we stay in the intention… of staying in alignment… with the highest we can imagine… and that which is yet higher than we can imagine.
Look only to those creations and expressions that have inspired and encouraged you, and those people who are accessing that which you ultimately wish to access, and you will know where the expressions that come through you fit into this whole.
I feel that— with this exercise, this meditation, this stream of consciousness— I have stepped over a threshold, crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed. How fun is that? To be able to know, in the moment, that you are changing in a way that you wouldn’t ever wish to be changed back from.
Learn now, and trust that Spirit by whatever name you choose, appears in the asking. So ask--
God, what will you unfold, in and out of me, today?
As we learn to play with God-- gods, goddesses, avatars, mentors, angels, guides, any and all permutations of Spirit shown to us-- in this way, surely, obviously, we are given more to play with.
They show us a way, and we must work to learn what they teach us and to emulate them… in our own unique ways.
This can be considered trance. And as our desire to be in spirit for longer and longer controlled periods increases, we begin to achieve the status of all prior yogis and masters who would enter these states at will.
Beyond this, who knows? But there must always be a beyond. This is how we—simple drops—begin working ourselves back… to the ocean.
There is no “method”, no practice, no path, that is better than another on the way to this goal. There is only the readiness, the clear statement, to God, that “I am ready”. Paths, methods, processes, are individual ways that others have used to get there, and may serve useful in guiding one to his or her own way, or appreciating that there are infinite ways, but that is all.
Once the clarity that one is ready… to be still… to receive… to witness… to acknowledge that I am a Blank Canvas… On Which God is Painting My Life… is achieved…
… one truly begins to experience oneself as that unique piece of divine art.
As you have the __________, the what? The courage? to stop that next thought, to refrain from asking that next question… to simply allow God to breathe and think you… to trust, to release into that breathing, that state… to put away any concern, of any illusion, of any need, or any concern of concern… it will happen.
The opening has always been this close—a breath, a blink, not even that far.
I accept this moment. I am getting it. We are getting it
Healing the Tortured Artist
[excerpted from DoingIt!, February, 2006]
Writers, artists and healers of all kinds, can be martyrs to a degree. I think it comes out of putting out such an authentic piece of oneself for scrutiny, open to be toyed with or rejected by others. Our real work-- the work behind the work, the spirituality within the work if you will-- is to open our ability to have ourselves and our work, received.
As we become aware of and recognize all we receive from Source... and come to be able to experience greater and greater degrees of gratitude for this... we do our part by giving up all of our talents, abilities, creativity and expression as pure acts of thanks and love in return.
This is how the circuit stays open and continues to flow.
Recognition of this alters the work we choose to do, and alters and increases its ability to affect others, which is the second reason we create. As we have been inspired, we look to inspire others. We work "in Spirit", to leave our own trail of breadcrumbs for the next to follow, where those previous have left theirs for us.
One who plants seeds isn't always present as flowers burst forth from the ground. We just have to trust that they do.
So create in the moment, and give up the work to whatever is its highest purpose, whether you understand what that is or not. We have been vessels through which projects have been birthed. Their lives, like ours, are sacred, and have their own destinies. We can have love and compassion for them, but we cannot do their living for them.
You're Only as Good as Your Last Day
[excerpted from DoingIt!, February, 2006]
I'm catching part of a movie with Robert Downey Jr. in it. I just figured out that he reminds me of the dark side of my long-lost friend Josh. I think that is why I have always clued into the demons and inability of him to kick his drug habit that had him in the news for so many years. It seems he might be past that, and is happily married and back on track. I'm glad for that.
More and more I am holding the intention that wounded people don't have to work out their stuff in art for the rest of us to commiserate with. These people who have to wear their pain on their sleeves. This is yet another thing I am working on in myself-- another thing I don't need to see in the world anymore. People working out their pain for the benefit of others. We need to find a new way.
I see so many other ways we can be in celebration without the pain and the shit.
I think it was Jamie Lee Curtis I read as saying a few years back, "The more I grow to love myself, the less I feel the need to play other people." Amen to that.
And so the work of each of us is to correct or reframe inside of ourselves, what we no longer wish to see… outside.
“It is not what we do in life that is important,
it is the love we put into the doing that matters.”
-- Mother Teresa
So, how much love are your putting into what you do each day?
Amp it up a bit and watch what will appear.
Love is the healing balm for miracles.
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000028.htm2008-04-10T18:38:18Z2008-04-20T21:55:47ZEverybody is Doing Their Best All the Time: a Key to Forgiveness[excerpted from DoingIt!, August, 2006]
The heart of forgiveness-- of oneself and others—beats in time with my new mantra— everybody is doing their best all the time.
Try it for yourself. Repeat that phrase. Over and over. And let it unfold layers and layers of its wisdom in the asking.
...
“Forgiveness is giving up the possibility
of a better past.” -- unknown
“One pardons to the degree that one loves.”
-- Francois De La Rochefoucald
Question: Why would so-and-so do such-and-such… when he-she-or-they knows better? Why would someone cheat on a spouse? Abuse someone else? Pull a scam on the unsuspecting? Do some dirty dealing to another… when they can do better? Why, why, why? Whys are rarely helpful coping mechanisms in our world.
Answer: They are doing their best at the time.
This can be a hard pill to swallow, I know. There are just things we know ought not be done, or ought to be done better. And the size of the thing never really matters. We can be just as hard on ourselves for that annoying little thing done or not done, that little peeve, as we would be on another for some heinous act perpetuated in the world effecting thousands or millions, with all of the turnabout that is fair play and accrued karma in the mix.
But what can we do to change that thing that has happened? Nothing! And what does the continued beating up of the self or the other… do, but increase the effect of that undesired act? Keep it lingering around?
“Forgiveness is the fragrance
that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
-- Mark Twain
“Know all and you will pardon all.”
-- Thomas A’Kempis
We… can… however… go on to choose differently, and allow that those others may choose differently… hopefully soon, or immediately… and in direct contrast to that hairy thing that has just passed. And this allowance… this possibility… is created out of the notion that, whatever has been done, has been done out of the best that person could do at that time. And a heartfelt hope that they will do better, choose more wisely, act more kindly the next time the wheel spins around.
This puts us back in the now.
Within this philosophy is the understanding of the understanding that Spirit and our guardian angels have with us… all the time. How many times has it taken each of us to get it with respect to a given lesson? How many times have we blundered the same blunders, taken the dubious, lower or easier roads? And still they behold us with limitless compassion.
Add in the fact that few enough of us know ourselves and our own motivations and drives well enough, much less what it is like to have walked in the shoes of another, to question whether anybody could have done any better in a given moment. And it is time for us each to now begin holding the space that we-- any of us-- have been flawed, and are working to amend and erase those flaws. From here we may attempt to bridge, with forgiveness, our imperfect and potential selves.
This is in stark contrast to a long-held practice of cutting ourselves off from darkness, evil, any of those really nasty traits that we wish to disallow living within us to varying degrees; and perhaps worse, in negating any similarity between that which lies buried within us and the behaviors of the really bad people out there who must be so unlike us to do those things they do.
The old way has created chasms of distance between parts of ourselves, between us and others; the new way pushes on toward increasing degrees of relatability and understanding within and without, and ultimately onto forgiveness of any and all of us.
Breathe easier now and forgive. We are doing our best, getting better and gaining ground.
“Our capacity to make peace
with another person and with the world
depends very much on our capacity
to make peace with ourselves.”
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000027.htm2008-04-10T17:28:10Z2008-04-20T21:38:33ZIt’s All Happening!— the Quieting of Spiritual Madness[excerpted from DoingIt!, August, 2006]
I happened to watch “Almost Famous” a couple weeks ago-- for the first time since I saw it in the theatre-- and have had this nebulous phrase from the rock movie swirling around my head ever since— “It’s All Happening!”
Then I got involved in this curv... That is not to say that we can’t receive a little clue here or there to fortify our confidence in taking larger and larger leaps into the breach.
An immense gift I received out of a friend’s dire situation recently, as well as another confirmation of-late, have my spiritual madness in check for the time being. I feel I have been fortified out of situations where I have been so within circumstances, and constantly being made aware of correlations between prayers and good intentions and their direct effects, that I hope the sharing of it all gives us each a greater foundation on which to build even greater spiritual successes.
Common to these was that each person in need asked for help on his/her behalf. That is, each recipient was open to a challenge being eased.
The most dramatic instance was of a dear friend, sober for 18 years and the most solid of an amazing group of healers I am privileged to be associated with, who for reasons still mystifying to himself, found himself at the dangerous end of a crack pipe for two weeks. From top of the world to the basement in no seconds flat. No rhyme or reason to it; no discernible trigger; just an area in which he has worked out things before, and apparently needed to resolve deeper layers at this time. He later explained the battle he felt raging between whatever got him there and the part preserving his essence… and the intangible that tipped the scales in his favor.
In healing work on his behalf by this committed group, and with prayers and phone calls coming in from around the country and beyond, he was able to corroborate—in the third of these works at which he was in attendance, and from which he has gone on to the additional help he needs to put this behind—the power of the love and prayers he felt at each crucial passage.
“There I was, among these guys, smoking every 15 minutes, for days straight. No food, no sleep. And, I don’t know what possessed me to leave my phone on! It was on vibrate. And I would listen to these calls… save them… replay them. Without them I would have still been down there.”
“I am a testament to the power of love--your love-- and will remain an example of what is possible.”
I have no doubt that this episode was contractual— contractually signed onto by all: this man, his wife, his family, and all those affected. It was intended that many rise and step past and through their greatest fears so that this healing could be achieved. I witnessed so many acts of strength and faith and honor and compassion through this protracted two weeks that I will not forget. Certain of these pivotal acts on his behalf got relayed to my friend, and these I truly believe made the difference. Courage is truly moving beyond one’s own fears… on behalf of another. And these courageous acts fueled his own.
I know, from all this man has done in service for so many up to this point, and all I expect he will do beyond this upon his full recovery, that we were blessed to store his trial in memory for future reference. Although our challenges and dark nights of the soul may look different (and many of us who are working to invoke our light may experience tests of just how deeply we have anchored it within us), the recording of such heroic acts and rising above may well be our saving grace. Our own hand- or foot-hold to latch onto and pull ourselves out of our own mire.
Another instance involved near miraculous recovery by the loved one of a member of a circle of shamans I have worked with over recent years. No less dramatic. Equal commitment on the part of well-wishers and the one in need; equal healing in the way it needed to play out.
Hopefully such true tales can be retrieved now from your minds as you need the occasional reminder that… It’s All Happening! And you are DoingIt! as you allow that what you are doing… is it.]]>http://www.oneworldflag.org/blog/article.php/__show_article/_a000568-000026.htm2008-04-10T17:13:06Z2008-04-20T21:39:14Z