Previous Comments By 'oakmeadowwoof'
Sincerely Enthusiastic, by Gretchen Rubin![]() ![]() How often do we see the negative side of things! Even though we don't really want to add more negativity to the world, we seem to do it. How foreign it seems to look for things to be positive about. The media is filled to the brim with bleak news, global warming, failing economies, GMO's, chem trails, war, killings and murde, child abuse... ...listening to it evokes fear, anger, self righteous indignation in us, is it any wonder that we look at the negative when we are constantly bombarded with how bad things are? We are taught, from the start, to look for the negative, to react negatively. How can we change this? The world is full to the brim with positive things, but for some strange reason we gloss over those things. We fail to celebrate the sheer joy of existence, which if embraced, would be something that would add so much to our lives. Nature teaches us the lesson of beauty, of abundance, of birth, of renewal, of grace yet we ignore those lessons in our hast to criticize, condemn and complain. If we do not learn to embrace these lessons, if we don't somehow replace negative thinking with positive, it is not only we who suffer, but the whole of humanity. The whole Earth cries out for our joyful embrace. Enough of our criticizing, condemning and complaining! Let us look for and find that joy, together, moment by moment, let us embrace what is good, both in ourselves and in others. | |||
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Get a Life, by Anna Quindlen![]() ![]()
Everyone suffers, there is no getting around this fact. However what we do with our suffering is a different matter. There are different kinds of suffering, and there are different ways we can deal with our suffering. There is real suffering, like physical pain, or loss of a loved one. And then there is imaginary suffering, based on negative imagination; worry about what others may think of us, feelings of disappointment or resentment, when events don't turn out the way we expected them to turn out, feelings of being misunderstood, feelings of self pity etc.. The difference between real and imaginary suffering is often difficult to see. Real suffering is unavoidable, imaginary suffering is a result of our own negative trains of thought, and is entirely avoidable.
When we suffer, a chain of automatic internal response begins. The negativity of suffering multiplies by something like a factor of 100. Some one insults us, first we are hurt, then offended, then resentful, then angry, we turn the subject over and over, think up ways we should have responded, plot revenge and so forth, all according to our programming, and we only forget the insult very slowly. From one point of view, it is exciting to feel negative, it even gives us the illusion that we are "real", for anyone who is suffering to the extent we feel we are suffering,"must be real".
When something good happens to us, a chain of automatic response also begins. However, as odd as it might seem,the positive emotion only multiplies by a factor of something like 10. Someone compliments us, we feel a spark of happiness,a momentary thrill, we may think about it a couple of times, feel a few good feelings related to our memory of the event, then we forget about it fairly rapidly.
It takes psychic energy to sustain moments of higher consciousness. Negative emotions burn up psychic energy, which is why we feel exhausted afterwards. When we have a positive emotion it actually creates psychic energy, See full.
Everyone suffers, there is no getting around this fact. However what we do with our suffering is a different matter. There are different kinds of suffering, and there are different ways we can deal with our suffering. There is real suffering, like physical pain, or loss of a loved one. And then there is imaginary suffering, based on negative imagination; worry about what others may think of us, feelings of disappointment or resentment, when events don't turn out the way we expected them to turn out, feelings of being misunderstood, feelings of self pity etc.. The difference between real and imaginary suffering is often difficult to see. Real suffering is unavoidable, imaginary suffering is a result of our own negative trains of thought, and is entirely avoidable. | |||
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Get a Life, by Anna Quindlen![]() ![]()
Everyone suffers, there is no escape from it. How we respond to suffering, is a different matter. Some people prolong suffering unnecessarily, wallowing in self pity, resentment, anger, self righteous indignation, blaming others and etc.; others accept suffering, separate themselves from it and rise above it, thereby they attain "grace".
There are different kinds of suffering, real and imaginary. If you break your arm for instance, you experience real suffering, if you choose to be offended by the action of another, considering the action to be an insult and/or that the other "does not understand me", this is imaginary suffering, for if you had chosen to take the action in another way, or if you had tried to understand, what circumstances led the other person to perform the action, instead of feeling miss-understood yourself, then you would not have suffered.
From one point of view, it is all a question of energy, a specific kind of energy, psychic energy. Wallowing in self pity, or imagined wrong, uses up this energy, which is the very energy we need to sustain higher states of consciousness. When we accept suffering, endure it without expressing it, we transform the negative energy suffering evokes into positive energy, this process allows us to not only gain energy that would otherwise be lost, but to produce more energy, this energy fuels the state of "grace", because it can be used to sustain higher states. Upon experiencing suffering, we can choose to elevate our state above it, penetrate the present, and add to this "grace" to our true selves, or we can choose to descend into self pity, anger, resentment, bitterness, blame others, etc., and loose our Selves in these lower states, how we respond to suffering is entirely up to us.
It is difficult to separate one's true self from the suffering of the personality and body, yet the reward for doing so is an increased ability to sustain higher states within, and an increase of the See full.
Everyone suffers, there is no escape from it. How we respond to suffering, is a different matter. Some people prolong suffering unnecessarily, wallowing in self pity, resentment, anger, self righteous indignation, blaming others and etc.; others accept suffering, separate themselves from it and rise above it, thereby they attain "grace". | |||
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Get a Life, by Anna Quindlen![]() ![]() Thank-you for sharing your inspiring observation. | |||
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Get a Life, by Anna Quindlen![]() ![]()
Recently a person commented to me, "Life is what happens to people, while they are making other plans." This is true for many people today, which begs the questions: How has this happened? Can this be changed?
With the advent of mass media, our societies have been saturated with social programming that introduced new attitudes among peoples. This phenomenon has caused a change in humans, as a result, we behave differently, than generations of the past did. Through mass media programing, humanity adopted a different set of attitudinal criteria for assessing and assigning "value" . The value of "things", the value of "actions", the value of "others", the value of acquiring "money", the value of "affluence", the value of being "in", the value of "virtue", the value of "spiritual development", the value of the" inner Self", all these have been assigned a changed degree of importance or non importance by media broadcasts in our various cultures.
This has come to us in the form of advertisements, movies, it is a kind of collective propaganda, haphazardly created by people who can afford to use the media for their promoting their products,agendas, ideas, services, opinions etc.. In the past an individual or small group of people, could only effect the values of so broad a slice of humanity very slowly, if at all. Miss information was not so easily spread, fashions were not so easily influenced, trends not easily manipulated, virtues not so easily ignored. Every one alive on the planet has been effected to a lesser or greater degree by mass media programming, we share this in common.
In the past ideas governing attitudes changed slowly, trends tended to remain steady. People had more time to evaluate ideas from their own experience, to question whether an idea, a thing, an action proved itself useful, valid, according to their own set of experiential criteria for judging values, comparing values. Now many of our experiences are c See full.
Recently a person commented to me, "Life is what happens to people, while they are making other plans." This is true for many people today, which begs the questions: How has this happened? Can this be changed? | |||
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A Newly Rich Life With Yourself, by Martha Nussbaum![]() ![]()
Syd,
I have given you question deep thought, drawing on my own experience.
Holding on to a higher state does not come automatically, it is a process which requires practice. First we must find our selves, what begins the search for the Self is mind, the Self is so used to letting the mind direct attention, that it forgets that it is the rightful owner of attention, and not the mind. When the mind touches the true Self with attention, attention "sticks" to the self, its rightful owner, and the Self "wakes up" momentarily, in a higher state of consciousness. This feeling of "lost" when entering such a state, comes from the mind, which being deprived of the ability to control attention, goes into mental confusion.
We have been so thoroughly programmed by our social/cultural upbringing to find our identity through the data collected over time by the mind/body, that this separation of attention's control from the mind, back to the true self, however brief, is an uncomfortable experience, being so unfamiliar to us, and also thrilling in conscious clarity, at the same time. A true paradox.
The state is so unusual, and certainly scary from the instinctive point of view, for the body and its functions produce the sense that they, and not the living being, are the producers of our life, when the attention is no longer under the control of the mind/body, and Self surfaces, then one is faced with the fact that the body is not immortal, that the death of the body is a reality, which it only fooled us into believing is not.
One must learn to endure this uncomfortable feeling, which lessens over time. The "big trap', is believing the mind/body's fears of death and impermanence are fears the Self "should" identify with and claim as its own. As soon as the living being, who is us, succumbs to this fear, attention attaches to it, the mind grabs back control, and we loose hold of the higher state. Practice is the key, which takes a keen desire to awaken an See full.
Syd, | |||
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Ninety Six Words for Love, by Robert Johnson![]() ![]() William Blake wrote these lines, which have proven of great value to me.
Love that never told can be
For the gentle wind does move
Silently invisibly"
~William Blake | |||
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A Newly Rich Life With Yourself, by Martha Nussbaum![]() ![]()
It is indeed true that we are born into helpless, undeveloped bodies. This undeveloped body, is animated by living Being. The body in which living being takes form, is equipped with an essence, having tastes, preferences and tendencies, as well as a full set of undeveloped functions, the normal ones, instinctive, moving, intellectual and emotional, as well as some others, which are not commonly stimulated to develop by ordinary life. Our essence is designed to collect data to itself, the kind of programming it receives, tempered by its native tendencies determines the type of personality it develops.
If the programming we have received is contrary to the native tendencies in our essence, then the personality is in conflict with essence. This leads to suffering for the living being animating the body. Our culture programs us to think that the external material world, of material things, money, status...according to material possessions, compliance with the latest fashions, ability to exercise power over others, etc. has more value, than the development of the essence belonging to the body housing the internal living being. In this case, the personality plays the roll of a guard, holding the inner living being a prisoner in its programs, dictating to the being what it "should" do, think, act, feel, eat, etcetera. It slowly begins to control all the impressions the being could use for its growth, replacing the real impressions with "concepts", which at best are good translations of the real would of direct impression.
Yet, there is a part residing in the body, that, if stimulated, begins to question the validity of the acquired personality.
Under favorable circumstances this part can help us separate the life of the inner world, from that of the outer world, and that same part can help the living being realize its spiritual nature, and assist the being, which is our very life, to gain control over the "guard" and insist that the "guard" See full.
It is indeed true that we are born into helpless, undeveloped bodies. This undeveloped body, is animated by living Being. The body in which living being takes form, is equipped with an essence, having tastes, preferences and tendencies, as well as a full set of undeveloped functions, the normal ones, instinctive, moving, intellectual and emotional, as well as some others, which are not commonly stimulated to develop by ordinary life. Our essence is designed to collect data to itself, the kind of programming it receives, tempered by its native tendencies determines the type of personality it develops. | |||
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Come Home to Love, by Rick Hanson![]() ![]() Being masters the mind by degrees. | |||
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Come Home to Love, by Rick Hanson![]() ![]() Yes aj, I am now, you reminded me, so HERE I am, in the moment. BEING, reminded TO BE, is so valuable, and forgetting TO BE is so easy, like "falling off a log", as 'they' say here in the USA. One method I find quite helpful in this process of penetrating the present, after I receive a reminder such as your post, which has the effect of causing me to realize I have been sleep walking (so to speak), is to quickly make the effort that it takes to "find" myself and to RETURN to the present, instead of feeling bad about having been "asleep" as I often used to do, wasting, thereby, the opportunity TO BE. I keep making these small invisible efforts TO BE, when ever I remember to do so, for my own spiritual development, and also to participate in the elevation of ALL BEING, love for the whole of humanity, and the other forms that BEING has chosen to actualize, is the motivation, which propels the BEING residing between the "temple walls", of this body form, into the ever changing moment. In this experience I am so glad to meet you HERE. Together we, along with all the others making similar efforts, are the "leaven", our efforts TO BE are what raises the whole. From our efforts TO BE, all hope springs forth, our gratitude for the efforts of other(s) gives birth, in our own spirit, to higher forms of love. Thank-you for BEING, no matter, when ever or where ever or whom ever YOU ARE. | |||
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Come Home to Love, by Rick Hanson![]() ![]() Paashi, Thank-you for your efforts to be "present", each effort elevates the level of Being of the whole of humanity. | |||
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Come Home to Love, by Rick Hanson![]() ![]() YES! | |||
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Come Home to Love, by Rick Hanson![]() ![]()
The word "love", in English, has many meanings. When I was a child, I "loved" my mother, chocolate ice cream, to play with my friends, the color red... etc.. As a young person I "loved" science fiction, an actor in a TV show, the cute boy in class, my dog, horses, someone's hair... the list went on, of course. As a young adult, I "loved" my current boyfriend, going to parties with my friends, helping other young people out...and so on and so forth. As a mature adult, my "ideas" about what the word "love" means has developed, matured. I have suffered the meaning of the word, and have transformed much of that suffering into a deeper understanding of the higher aspects of "love". I have also learned, that the word is so loosely used, in general speaking, that it is actually inadequate, to communicate the particular emotional state I wish to express. In "talking" about "love" (which can actually, only be felt), then, I must, for the sake of honest communication, give an exact description, to the sense, in which, I am using the word.
The Greeks have four words for love, "storge", which is a kind of natural affection between ourselves and our close associates, familial love, we can even feel this type of love for our pets. Then there is " philia", which is brotherly love, a deep and abiding friendship, where one wants the best for the other and tries to do that for them. "Eros" is romantic, passion for another, with sexual overtones, it is a very strong desire to merge, with the other, it can easily become connected, over time, with a desire to own or possess the other, if this happens it usually turns into something negative. The last Greek word for "love" is "agape". Agape is a kind of unconditional love, one that cannot change, it is an enduring love, the love we have for all humanity, our love for the Universal creator, the love we have for our own higher self, that is, our own little bit of BEING, and ultimately it is a kind of unconditi See full.
The word "love", in English, has many meanings. When I was a child, I "loved" my mother, chocolate ice cream, to play with my friends, the color red... etc.. As a young person I "loved" science fiction, an actor in a TV show, the cute boy in class, my dog, horses, someone's hair... the list went on, of course. As a young adult, I "loved" my current boyfriend, going to parties with my friends, helping other young people out...and so on and so forth. As a mature adult, my "ideas" about what the word "love" means has developed, matured. I have suffered the meaning of the word, and have transformed much of that suffering into a deeper understanding of the higher aspects of "love". I have also learned, that the word is so loosely used, in general speaking, that it is actually inadequate, to communicate the particular emotional state I wish to express. In "talking" about "love" (which can actually, only be felt), then, I must, for the sake of honest communication, give an exact description, to the sense, in which, I am using the word. | |||
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Reveal Your Own Wholeness, by Carol Carnes![]() ![]() I may contain that which can become whole, within my self...but am I whole? Complete? Or do I suffer from unwholesomeness, being incomplete within myself? If I am honest with myself, I see, I am incomplete, though to realize this, is uncomfortable. | |||
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Search Inside or Outside?, by Rabiya![]() ![]() We search the inner space, peering in our mirror, the mind...WHO is searching then, and for what is it searching? Something forgotten? Is not the one who is searching in the mirror of the mind, actually searching, outside of its self, hunting for a state, the state of it's own BEING? Which it can not find, by looking at the illusive images in a mirror, it is searching for that, which to find, it must become, directly, by remembering itself. | |||
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The Golden Eternity, by Jack Kerouac![]() ![]() To be present is a golden glory, to be present with one's friends increases the golden glory, to higher level of brilliance. | |||
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A Spiritual Conspiracy, by Author Unknown![]() ![]() So many of us are here, together, on purpose. Here, in this dawning of the new golden age, the age of Aquarius. We sense each other, and experience gratitude. We trust in the higher parts of the others. You and I subtly do our work. We are become artists, teachers by example, caring not how common our lives may seem to others. We find ourselves here, observing, listening, examining, reflecting, healing, giving, encouraging, struggling against odds, changing ourselves, creating fresh ways of being, reaching out, including all. Yes, we are here, subtly together, on purpose, in common fellowship. This is our great opportunity. Faced with the experiences of war, violence, oppression, greed, destruction, suffering these, without filling ourselves with hate, we endure, and for a reason. These evils are a travail, and this arduous pain, portends the birth of the new humanity, whose appearance we all await. | |||
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A Spiritual Conspiracy, by Author Unknown![]() ![]() So many of us are here, together, on purpose. Here, in this dawning of the new golden age, the age of Aquarius. We sense each other, and experience gratitude. We trust in the higher parts of the others. You and I subtly do our work. We are become artists, teachers by example, caring not how common our lives may seem to others. We find ourselves here, observing, listening, examining, reflecting, healing, giving, encouraging, struggling against odds, changing ourselves, creating fresh ways of being, reaching out, including all. Yes, we are here, subtly together, on purpose, in common fellowship. This is our great opportunity. Faced with the experiences of war, violence, oppression, greed, destruction, suffering these, without filling ourselves with hate, we endure, and for a reason. These evils are a travail, and this arduous pain, portends the birth of the new humanity, whose appearance we all await. | |||
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Search Inside or Outside?, by Rabiya![]() ![]() Your post puts new energy in to the meaning of th word: "Insightful", thank-you. | |||
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To Have Without Holding, by Marge Piercy![]() ![]() This is beautiful, and reminds me of something that William Blake wrote, "He that binds to himself a joy, Does the winged life destroy. But he who kisses joy as it flies, lives in eternity's sunrise" | |||
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The Golden Eternity, by Jack Kerouac![]() ![]() Hope, is like a balm, isn't it? It sooths the growing pains of the soul. | |||
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The Golden Eternity, by Jack Kerouac![]() ![]() Wonderful. | |||
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Search Inside or Outside?, by Rabiya![]() ![]() The door opens to all who would enter. | |||
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Search Inside or Outside?, by Rabiya![]() ![]()
We have all heard the phrase "Take the road less traveled". One day, quite by accident, thoughts were thinking in me, about this idea. A line of thinking which led to a contemplation of the idea of "direction", as the "road less traveled" must go in the "direction least taken". Thoughts occurred about direction; there was up, down, left, right, back, forth and so on. Then suddenly the mind reminded me that outward and inward, were directions also. I examined all the directions presented to me by my mind...it was instantly apparent that, of all these directions, the direction least taken, is the one of the path, that leads inward. I began to explore this path, which led me to a whole new world, at once, both, somehow familiar and at the same time unknown, governed by laws, I understood only intuitively, logic had little place in that space.
At first I found it very difficult to maintain my attention there, I would start down that path, begin to discover new things, and then some time latter, "Bing" I would suddenly "come to" in the external world, engrossed in what ever subject the mind had randomly attached my attention. How did this happen? Why was it so difficult to maintain attention inwardly, why could I not travel further in this direction? Could I learn to control my attention, in the inward space? To answer these questions was a task I assigned to my mind. However the mind is willful, and wants to be in control, it began delivering to me useless thoughts, it constantly diverted my attention off subject, deviating it into quantities of associative trivia, distracting me from my pursuit.
Suddenly, I saw I was not in control of my mind, it was in control of itself and would think ever it wanted, and direct my attention in what ever direction it pleased. I was not daunted; realizing I lacked of control of my mind, hardened something new in me, a determined desire. A desire to wrestle control of my attention away from the m See full.
We have all heard the phrase "Take the road less traveled". One day, quite by accident, thoughts were thinking in me, about this idea. A line of thinking which led to a contemplation of the idea of "direction", as the "road less traveled" must go in the "direction least taken". Thoughts occurred about direction; there was up, down, left, right, back, forth and so on. Then suddenly the mind reminded me that outward and inward, were directions also. I examined all the directions presented to me by my mind...it was instantly apparent that, of all these directions, the direction least taken, is the one of the path, that leads inward. I began to explore this path, which led me to a whole new world, at once, both, somehow familiar and at the same time unknown, governed by laws, I understood only intuitively, logic had little place in that space. | |||
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Money is not Wealth, by Alan Watts![]() ![]()
Wealth is a word whose history is long, entomology tells us it is akin to the words..."well", as in "well-being", to feel good, or to "well-up" in abundance, a "well" of water; to the word "will"...meaning to desire or want, and to the word "weal" as in the common-wealth or common-weal or "good". Wealth is a word analogous to the word health, which is related to the words..."whole" and "hale" both of which are related to the word "holy".
We understand by this, do we not, that wealth then, is different than money. That wealth, at least in it's origins, meant "that which is good", "that which makes one feel whole, complete", " that which gives satisfaction to one's desires".
Wealth, by this definition, can be measured, but surely, only subjectively, personally. Contrary to popular belief, there can not any standard unit of measure for wealth, but must be as many units of measure, as there are different solutions rendering satisfaction to our collective personal desires. Money could be a unit, if getting a lot of money is the object of desire, a lot of it would satisfy (theoretically). However if money is not what I desire, if acquiring money does not satisfy desire, if it does not bring me well-being, does not engender in me a sense of wholesomeness, it is an unsatisfactory unit of measure for wealth. The question I find I must ask myself, is this: by what standard do I, personally, measure wealth?
When the world was more agrarian in nature, where one way wealth was measured, was by the size of the manure/ compost pile, accumulated, behind the barn in winter... because the fertilizer it represented, equaled the amount of food a person could produce in the next season. Being a farmer, I tend to measure my material wealth this way, by the size of my hay pile, by the size of my garden...however I count my total wealth as being much more than just material "things"...the spiritual side of my nature takes measure of it also, and not by ma See full.
Wealth is a word whose history is long, entomology tells us it is akin to the words..."well", as in "well-being", to feel good, or to "well-up" in abundance, a "well" of water; to the word "will"...meaning to desire or want, and to the word "weal" as in the common-wealth or common-weal or "good". Wealth is a word analogous to the word health, which is related to the words..."whole" and "hale" both of which are related to the word "holy". | |||
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Money is not Wealth, by Alan Watts![]() ![]()
Wealth is a word whose history is long, entomology tells us it is akin to the words..."well", as in "well-being", to feel good, or to "well-up" in abundance, a "well" of water; to the word "will"...meaning to desire or want, and to the word "weal" as in the common-wealth or common-weal or "good". Wealth is a word analogous to the word health, which is related to the words..."whole" and "hale" both of which are related to the word "holy".
We understand by this, do we not, that wealth then, is different than money. That wealth, at least in it's origins, meant "that which is good", "that which makes one feel whole, complete", " that which gives satisfaction to one's desires".
Wealth, by this definition, can be measured, but surely, only subjectively, personally. Contrary to popular belief, there can not any standard unit of measure for wealth, but must be as many units of measure, as there are different solutions rendering satisfaction to our collective personal desires. Money could be a unit, if getting a lot of money is the object of desire, a lot of it would satisfy (theoretically). However if money is not what I desire, if acquiring money does not satisfy desire, if it does not bring me well-being, does not engender in me a sense of wholesomeness, it is an unsatisfactory unit of measure for wealth. The question I find I must ask myself, is this: by what standard do I, personally, measure wealth?
When the world was more agrarian in nature, where one way wealth was measured, was by the size of the manure/ compost pile, accumulated, behind the barn in winter... because the fertilizer it represented, equaled the amount of food a person could produce in the next season. Being a farmer, I tend to measure my material wealth this way, by the size of my hay pile, by the size of my garden...however I count my total wealth as being much more than just material "things"...the spiritual side of my nature takes measure of it also, and not by ma See full.
Wealth is a word whose history is long, entomology tells us it is akin to the words..."well", as in "well-being", to feel good, or to "well-up" in abundance, a "well" of water; to the word "will"...meaning to desire or want, and to the word "weal" as in the common-wealth or common-weal or "good". Wealth is a word analogous to the word health, which is related to the words..."whole" and "hale" both of which are related to the word "holy". | |||
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The Golden Eternity, by Jack Kerouac![]() ![]()
In theory, the mind belongs to us, not we to it. When we appear, as babes, in this world, mind is a near blank, we are fascinated by it at once, all those sensations rush in to it, noises, tastes, colors, shapes, touches, all are new, each one a fantastic direct experience . Slowly, the mind sorts them out for us, gradually the mind comes to cognize the world for us, it interprets the world, assigns concepts to our sensational impressions. Language arises in for us, in the mind. The mind begins to "think" in concepts, in words...we slowly forget to experience the world directly, or even that we ever even did experience the world directly, without having the mind conceptualizing "meaning" for us. As God let Adam do, in the bible, we allow the mind to assign everything in the world a name. "Bird", "tree", "ball", "house", "dog", "mommy", "eat", "food", "hungry","yes", "no", "me", "you"... everything, from the simple to the abstract. Nouns, verbs, every experience is duly cataloged, by the mind. The mind fills up with ways we "should be", it chooses our opinions, based on what "sounds good" according to its programming, even if direct experience would demonstrate otherwise. The mind says "I", "me"...as if, it were "the master" of the being, who is the true "us". Where are we all this time? We are fascinated by it's doings, so much so, that we come to believe we are the mind, and rarely, if ever, question its validity. Finally we use the interpretations, the concepts provided us by the mind almost exclusively to discern the world, and barely take in enough direct perception to navigate our bodies amongst the objects of this world.
Then one day, something quite extra-ordinary happens, (while we sit beneath a tree in North Carolina for instance), for some reason,which the mind can not fathom, we "come to" have a moment of lucid awakening. Something in a particular moment penetrates through the mind's veil of conceptual interpre See full.
In theory, the mind belongs to us, not we to it. When we appear, as babes, in this world, mind is a near blank, we are fascinated by it at once, all those sensations rush in to it, noises, tastes, colors, shapes, touches, all are new, each one a fantastic direct experience . Slowly, the mind sorts them out for us, gradually the mind comes to cognize the world for us, it interprets the world, assigns concepts to our sensational impressions. Language arises in for us, in the mind. The mind begins to "think" in concepts, in words...we slowly forget to experience the world directly, or even that we ever even did experience the world directly, without having the mind conceptualizing "meaning" for us. As God let Adam do, in the bible, we allow the mind to assign everything in the world a name. "Bird", "tree", "ball", "house", "dog", "mommy", "eat", "food", "hungry","yes", "no", "me", "you"... everything, from the simple to the abstract. Nouns, verbs, every experience is duly cataloged, by the mind. The mind fills up with ways we "should be", it chooses our opinions, based on what "sounds good" according to its programming, even if direct experience would demonstrate otherwise. The mind says "I", "me"...as if, it were "the master" of the being, who is the true "us". Where are we all this time? We are fascinated by it's doings, so much so, that we come to believe we are the mind, and rarely, if ever, question its validity. Finally we use the interpretations, the concepts provided us by the mind almost exclusively to discern the world, and barely take in enough direct perception to navigate our bodies amongst the objects of this world. | |||
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This is the True Ride, by Jennifer Welwood![]() ![]() Rose seeds are coated with hard shells, the encapsulating husk is designed to keep the seed dormant, asleep. It nestles there in safety, awaiting the predetermined conditions for breaking dormancy, which have been left, encoded there, in the secret language of chemistry, a gift to the new generation, the experience story of ancient generations, who succeeded in sprouting before. When those conditions are met, the husk of the shell splits, the plant to be, struggles, it must struggle, there is no other way, it suffers that struggle, to free itself from the prison of it's seed-like state. If it does not make this struggle, if it does not endure this suffering, it will surely die. The seed that once begins to sprout, can never return to being a seed again, it must grow, or die. If it endures this suffering, if it pushes through, it shakes off its seed-like coating and sprouts, puts out roots, develops leaves. It becomes a new being, that of a rose. Once it is a rose, it does not regret leaving the seed husk behind. | |||
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All We Can Do Is Share Ourselves, by Panache Desai![]() ![]() A young man walked past a row of holes along the roadside, at the end of them was an old man, sweating in the heat and getting dirty, slowly digging even another hole. The young man, concerned for the old man, asked "why are you digging out here in the sun, aren't you too old to be doing this kind of work?" The old man pointed to a bundle of walnut trees, healed into some wet sawdust, under the shade of a bush. "I'm digging these here holes to plant those walnut trees." The young man commented "But why, use up your energy doing such hard work? You might hurt yourself... those trees won't come to bear nuts for twenty or so years, will you even be around to enjoy the fruit of your labor?" The old man, paused in his digging, and turning his full attention on the young man, responded, "I'm not planting these here trees for myself", he said, "I'm planting them for posterity." At that the young man, rolled up his sleeves, and said, "Here, I'll help you." | |||
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The Way of the Farmer, by Masanobu Fukuoka![]() ![]() This morning I sit, still, in silent beholding. The Earth turns, ever so slowly, revealing our star, first a faint soft light, which grows and grows, until it bursts forth above the horizon, splendid, pulsing with power. Everywhere around me the world pulses with life. The garden bursts with food, beans dangle, slim green spikes, ornamenting their vines, like earrings. The trumpet-like flowers of squashes are full of buzzing bees, busy gathering nectar and pollen for the hive;out in the pasture the milk cows slowly mosey toward the gate for morning milking, calves gambol in the fresh dawn...flowers drip sparkling dew. All is calm. Nature is bountiful, gifting us with life and death also, from which new life springs. Teaching us about the cycles of eternal renewal ceaselessly turning in every direction. We are part of these great cycles. Our true vocation is simply to be, here, in the ever changing moment. | |||
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