Observations that dive deep into life and come up with treasures for all

Alzheimer’s Rising

There’s a difference in how we remember. When our tree is sprouting leaves and growing fruit, yesterday’s leaves are but compost. If our tree is in winter and nothing is growing, yesterday’s leaves become our refuge against the cold and we live buried in them waiting for the spring.

Posted under up lifting

Have you ever watched from a hidden corner as a mouse investigates a cheese trap? Imagine the stillness, the held breath and the mind so quiet it dares not even think as the mouse sniffs the trigger that holds the cheese that sets the trap. This is, you could say, a metaphor for stillness in the mind. And the cheese set trap is also a metaphor for the reaction the mind has when, say, someone throws an unkind word at it.

But in real time, we never notice the stillness before the trap springs. We only are aware of the dart and the retaliation, the attack and the defense, the pain and the pain. Have you ever noticed that all these cheese traps are like scripts we’re reading in a play? If you take away the current content that comes from each unique place and time, you just have a pattern that is prior to the content of the moment. That pattern is a conditioning of the mind and it is predetermined for playing over and over the same thoughts and emotions. This pattern is the cheese trap.

The cheese, of course, is our expectation that this time in this situation we will get the cheese. Someone throws a dart at us and we throw one back hoping that this time we’ll hit the bull’s eye and punish that person into changing his or her ways. Or we image that in some weird calculation that in exchanging pain for pain we will come out with peace. This is the cheese our mind never gets. Traps only bring is one reward, suffering.

So how can we get out of this trap? The only way out of a trap is to begin observing the trap and not the content of the trap. There is a space before the trap is sprung. There is a still moment before the mind reacts that when noticed begins to expand—with practice, of course. It takes no effort to observe this space just as it takes no effort to notice that you are alive. This space, this stillness is your living consciousness. The trap is your reactive mind that is your unconsciousness.

So if you want to be free from the cheese trap of the conditioned mind, begin to play the game of catching a glimpse of the still moment before the trap is sprung. In that moment you will discover that you have a choice of life over death, and given that choice you will effortlessly and always choose life. But life is an unknown so if you choose it be prepared to do something different and unexpected, but something wonderful.

Posted under meditation help, up lifting

I often find the best books through chance encounters at Barnes & Noble. This time I discovered Jesus & Buddha, The Parallel Sayings on an unrelated shelf where it had been misplaced. And this morning during the “monsoon” of tropical storm Hannah I began reading it and felt the urge to share its wisdom with you.

There has been much research and debate over whether Jesus was influenced by wisdom of the east through yoga and Buddhism, but while historical tracks are inconclusive, the direct perception of their teachings side by side are not. Their parallel tracks point our minds to the horizon and signal our hearts to the liberating knowledge that Truth is One, Paths are Many—the mantra of Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral Yoga. Of all the wisdom pills I have ever taken, this one is the most powerful.

So let the healing begin with this two world saviors walking hand and hand into our hearts:

Jesus: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke: 6.31
Buddha: Consider others as yourself. Dhammapada 10:1

Jesus: If anyone strikes you on the cheek, off the other also. Luke: 6,29
Buddha: If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon any desires and utter no evil words.

Jesus: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. From anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Luke 6,27
Buddha: Hatreds do not even cease in this world by hating, but by love; this is an eternal truth…Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth. Dhammapada 1.5 & 17.3

Posted under up lifting

After the New Image Kick-off for Blackstone’s downtown revitalization project, I took this picture of a rainbow descending on the town.  Everyone thought the sudden appearance of a rainbow was very auspicious, if not just beautiful. I perhaps was alone in noticing that the rainbow was coming down on my house just over the trees. I rushed home to find the gold promised to be there, but there was nothing but my house, my family, my friends, and my karma. This is who I am, I realized. This moment, this history, and this promise of the rainbow is all there is. And it was enough.

I believe the treasure at the end of the rainbow is to discover that you always have the ability to create yourself anew in every moment by using your karma (what is given) as the pole to vault to a higher bar. God gives us the pole and we create the bar through our vision. If you watch a pole vaulter, he pulls himself up into the air with his pole, every inch of it, and then he lets go of the pole and slips over the bar that is always just a little higher than the pole.

The treasure at the end of the rainbow is the heart felt realization that whatever we have, wherever we are, and whomever we are is sufficient to realize our highest vision. Rainbows come back again and again to remind us that it is our vision that lift us higher and  higher. Rainbows can find us wherever we are.

Posted under General Observations, up lifting

Truth must be discovered. This truth keeps coming back to me from all angles, especially since I’m wasting so much effort spelling out the truth. But as Chogyam Trungpa pointed out to me in this morning’s reading, “When you spell out the truth, it loses its essence and become either “my” truth or “your” truth; it becomes an end in itself. When you spell out the truth, you are spending your captial while no one gets any profit. By implying the truth it doesn’t become anyone’s property. Truth is generated from its environment; in that way it becomes a powerful reality.”

The LOTUS temple at Yogaville is such a good example of this truth. One discovers truth in the very architecture of the building and grounds; one walks into truth, moves around, sits down, gets up, and walks away in truth.

Every moment is our architecture that is an opening lotus, and truth is the flowering of consciousness that fulfills that moment. Suddenly the moment is rich, full of meaning and infinitely beautiful. We walk around in it, sit down, stand up, turn around, wake up and then sleep and wake up again. Truth is our own being. It is ours for the discovery.

Posted under up lifting

Now I don’t mean physical pain, like cutting your finger or getting a tattoo (although some might think that pain is good, otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it). The pain I’m talking about is psychological pain—the pain when a friend hurts your feelings, or even a stranger for that matter. When my sensitive ego gets a cut, that’s a good pain to me.

All of my expansions have come from hurt feelings. Pleasure will never do the job. Praise and pleasure can’t make you grow in your truth, but it can make you grow in your delusion. Pain is a check and balance. Pain lets you know you have over extended. Pain lets you see the shadow your ego is casting on the light.

So only friends, family, strangers, and even enemies can give us the pain we need to grow in our truth, to know who we really are, and to find our basic goodness upon which the giver of pain and the receiver of pain both stand. The only way to find that basic goodness is through forgiveness.

Pain gives us the opportunity to forgive and find wholeness. Pleasure never will.

Posted under up lifting

“You belong to the people now,” I whispered to my hungry bride at the reception last night as she fought for a moment to just eat a meatball. Friends and family were lining up for a hug and a blessing from her radiant being—but that’s the way it is with brides. When the girl gets married, she cannot know what it will feel like to be a queen, even if it is for one day.

“Dance with me,” the bride said late in the reception, as I was getting ready to leave. I’ve been photographing brides for 21 years but I’ve never danced with the bride. It has never crossed my mind. But tonight she asked me. I don’t know if it was because my wife stayed home with a bad knee, or if it was the special relationship I had with this bride, having been to her home to take her bridal portrait there.

I photograph weddings because this seems to be our culture’s last ritual that connects us all to the divine, no matter what our race or religion. Everyone goes to a wedding. In the wedding you can see the whole show: God and the Goddess, Christ, the Church, death, creation, love, family, sacrifice, all of existence and the dance of life as it renews itself eternally. And so in my poetic mind, Life tapped me and asked me to dance. The Queen picked me out of the crowd and said, “Dance with me.”

Posted under current events, up lifting

We’re serving Peace Pie here at Peace House. Walk-ins are welcome. This pie has been cooking for many, many years, and there have been many poor pies, but the recipe was never just right. You know when the pie isn’t a full Peace Pie when it starts giving out, or when you have to make an effort to bake it. Making a Peace Pie takes no effort, first of all; and secondly, it never gives out, no matter how many slices you cut.

So how does one make a Peace Pie? Well, I hate to tell you this, but there is no recipe. Oh, there is a recipe, but you have to discover it yourself. No one can give you his or her recipe. But the good thing is that we all have an original recipe for a Peace Pie, and when you eat a slice of peace, no matter who made it, it always tastes the same. “Oh, that’s good. I feel so peaceful.”

Now, you can have a slice of my Peace Pie so you can get an idea what a piece of Peace Pie tastes like, then you will have an idea what to work for in your own kitchen. You keep making pies and check to see if they taste like a Peace Pie.

Peace Pies are made in the mind so you have use the ingredients that you find there. Some of the best ingredients are the spiciest. Anger is great, and then you can throw in a little depression for balance. It’s really quite easy. You get a little piece of peace from someone who has a Peace Pie, you let your mind eat it, then you keep that peace alive by throwing all these so called negative ingredients into it. Peace feeds on all the stuff you have lying around in your mind. Once you start mixing, you just can’t stop, it’s so much fun.

Peace has a way of transmuting whatever you mix with it into peace. Peace is magical that way. But you have to practice making peace in order to experience peace. You can’t have a Peace Pie and not give it away. Just give someone you know some peace, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Posted under up lifting

We love new recipes, and it’s a funny thing, no matter how many we get, there is always room for more. But what is a recipe if we take away the immediate content, such as interesting food. A recipe is a promise and an expectation of completeness. Good food, or even bad food, will make us feel full, and what is being full but the absence of being hungry. Recipes are also an order that you can impose on your cooking, and if not your cooking, then upon your life. When we feel like we need something, when there is a hunger, we look for a new recipe. And recipes must come from some external expert or authority that sells us on the hope that his recipe will satisfy us. Can you see the endless nature of recipes? When you look at them as a formula before the content, they are as endless as the stars.

Is it possible to life without recipes? Lately I’ve been looking at the recipes in my life, and one of the biggest one is the recipe of yoga. I’m a yoga cook and here’s my recipe. Sit down at my table and learn how to cook your meal of life so that you will be satisfied. I even advertise this recipe on my house: Blackstone Yoga Center. There are many such recipes in town. You have a Methodist recipe, a Catholic, a Presbyterian, and Assembly of God, and so on, all advertising their recipes with signs and claiming there’s is the best. Even the Fitness Center is a recipe. And those who don’t use these popular recipes make their own, which are also mainstream but aren’t advertised as such so those that use them can belief they don’t need any recipes. I call this kind of recipe “practicing southside Virginia,” or whatever culture you are in. All this recipe asks you to do is watch TV, drink socially, have sex when you can, and lose yourself in your work, and this will bring you satisfaction promises the recipe.

The question I ask goes deeper than the recipe, since all recipes are belief systems, an order or system, if you will, that is imposed on one’s life from the outside. Even our minds impose, or try to impose, an order on our thoughts, but we are never successful in that, as we all know.

So now we notice that when you follow a recipe, there must be conflict. It’s like when you train a dog. The dog wants to go one way, you want to go another, so you impose your order on the dog’s order, and hopefully the dog learns to heel and sit and roll over. A recipe is like that. There must be some existing order that we find unsatisfactory, and then we choose some new order to make things come out better, to replace dissatisfaction with satisfaction. And have you noticed that all recipes are thought sturctures, the blueprints of the mind?

But after you try a recipe for a while the satisfaction usually gets watered down. Maybe you say the recipe wasn’t that good after all, and that there must be a better one around the corner? Some recipes use guilt to keep you following them. The dissatisfaction of the guilt you get from quitting the recipe is greater then the dissatisfaction of the recipe itself. You get caught between two dissatisfactions, and the greater one usually wins.

So I ask again, is it possible to live without following some recipe? You should really look into this. Your satisfaction depends upon it. But there is more. If there is the possibility of living without any foreign order (a recipe) imposed upon you, then there must be a basic and undiscovered order upon which you want to lay this recipe. Now is that basic order a basic goodness, a natural moral order, if you will, or is that basic order no order at all but a kind of chaos? And if we believe our basic self is chaos, the we must feat that chaos.  In otherwords, we fear our own natural order, whatever it is.

If we are going from one recipe to another looking for completeness, are we not doing that because we don’t believe we have a native order, our own natural completeness and basic goodness as our ground? Well, this digging is getting us deeper and deeper, so we’ll rest for awhile.

Posted under up lifting

“Have you seen the RV keys,” I asked everyone at Peace House yesterday, trying not to sound pathetic.  “I had the keys in my hand, now I can’t find them. I think I left them in the shop.” But since I lose my keys with the regularity of a cuckoo clock, no one stopped their life to help me look for them. This morning when I put on my pants and reached in my pocket, there they were. I was so happy, not so much in finding the keys, but in realizing a truth that I keep forgetting with the regularity of a cuckoo.

“The keys are in your pocket, stupid.” Keys, of course, are the master metaphor that opens just about any door we want in life. When we come upon a locked door, some obstacle to our life’s purpose, we need to remember this note. In fact, we should tack this wisdom reminder right in the center of our mental theater. “The keys are in your pocket. You had them all the while.” And when you realize this truth once more, a little call will sound in the mind: “cuckoo, cuckoo.”

Posted under up lifting