Saturday 24 December 2011

on reading of Laurence Freeman ‘monastery without walls’ in FT

Whilst one can gather a common thread of mystical or transcendental basis for religions - it might be more direct to see all interpretations and descriptions - and their derivatives - as an expression of what might be called experiential Fact. "THAT anything exists - That Awareness Is". Such Fact is not subjectively or objectively approachable via what we call the mind. Insofar as we attempt to speak of what reveals itself WITHIN the acceptance of BEING, we tend to use cultural symbols, concepts and stories, that inevitably become referred to and given currency - OUTSIDE the awareness of the Acceptance as IS, and as such, are subverted to the realm of 'interpretations and descriptions', that are invested in, believed, identified with - and part of the game of self in a world conflicted.
Meditation in the outer sense, might be whatever circumstance of intent and investment of receptivity serves to allow the restoration of perspective of wholeness of being.
To live out from a fragmented or conflicted self sense may be exciting and full of promise, for a while. But the mind spins its story and commentary upon what is essentially a dissonance of being.
No matter how many minds collude in self validating their own personal 'reality' - the underlying dissonance is active because it is 'made real' by the attempt to overcome it.
The Perspective of a direct awareness, is innocently empty of problem based identity, and inherently serves the dissolving and resolving of a problem based consciousness, one step at a time. The problem solving (and problem creating) mind wants to 'know or understand' in advance, so as to strategically 'survive and prevail' as an independent agent. So it is resistant in refusal to stop and listen and feel - without an object of reaction from which to get a reflection.
But the feeling of Being cannot be substituted for with anything that the mind can get or gain or acquire - beyond a momentary hit of peak experience. So often it is those who have succeeded in worldly terms who genuinely come to seek for a depth of wholeness, integrated being and clearly guided purpose.
To enter Silence or the resting of the mind of thinking, is always an individual willingness. One can militantly silence aspects of the mind - but the force that is applied is not receptivity, trust or recognition of the Movement of Being. But its very essence, is the releasing of the wilfulness of an wish for independent authority, and as such is an opening to a Truly Relational Being.
Within the Peace of Wholeness, is every dynamic by which we identify life - but seen from an Inclusive Perspective. In such a shift of perception, the problem may be seen as the answer - but ONLY from such a shift - because the self defining mind is an act by which all is perceived externally as separate polarized forces. Everyone knows this at some level in their life; to be in the zone, in the flow, an at-one-ness or sense of guided or supported act. But they tend to seek to get it, try and hold it and lose it. And so spend most of their life actively maintaining the conditions of distraction from the awareness of the Unified Integrated Wholeness of this and every Moment - allowed to be itself one with you.
In one way or another the shift from what does not and can not really ever work, to The Way Things Work - is natural and inevitable, because sooner or later, the game is up and one cant even pretend otherwise. Amidst the breaking through of the new one can cling to the old and take a crash course later, or recognize the Change and tune into it. Fear distorts and blinds the mind in reaction and reenactment. A means of calm is essential and desired in order to discern truly.
Wisdom cannot be stored or handed down directly, but in our own willingness of trust and receptivity, we abide IN relationship with whatever LIFE IS - and listen for that which is recognisably of a Unified Will - as our true expression. And abide in it as it abides in us.
The urgency of the call for true vision in our times is acute, but paradoxically this is a call to Be, to freely align our self under or in service of Being - and regain the integrity of honesty and trust within ourselves - as a basis for all our relationships and dealings. One step at a time, or rather, this step now.

Thankyou for your attention

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Scientists say Turin Shroud is supernatural

By an Intimately Mysterious Power is Awareness. Awareness-I of thought and of identification with thought, allowing thought-me to think that I am as I think I am - and while by that same Power, the illusion persists, I may experience my interpreted version as if it were real.

Wishing something be true - or that it be NOT true is not the same as desisting from assertions based on the thought-me - which NEVER CAN be a separate, independent actor or observer - much as the WISH for such power appeals to the fascination with self-creation.

Awareness beyond interpretations - that is Intimately allowed to be all that it is - Opens a Perspective that thought-me inherently blocks, distorts and misinterprets.

The thought-me may identify with religion or atheism - while it invests in the outcome for its own self validation.
But (for want of words) Self, - the Unified non-local Field of Awareness/Energy, is not affected by modifications of the thought-me, any more than clouds affect the Sun. But this is not true for the local view - that experiences the shadow of its own wish-belief-assertions as a polarized play of action and reaction.

There is Communication from the Self to All That It Is - because being Unified, no part is excluded. But to the local view - which experiences itself as if inside a body that is itself inside a world - it seems as if there is a para-natural Order or Power or Being - of which it tends initially to be terrified - because awareness of Being is the undoing of the 'reality' of the thought-me.
But the thirst for Truth - (in distinction to the search for truth as an extension of the thought-me) - is the condition of preparing for and welcoming of Self - (even though the identification with thought-me as a condition of dissonance and darkness, tends to call it God or Spirit or Light) - in the false conviction that it is a Separate Power to itself. Whilst this is true at the level of thinking and identifying - it is not true at the level of Awareness.
The Awareness, so taken for granted that we presume it to be a given, is, for want of better words, the Light of You.

The experience of self-creation plays independence like a prodigal child - but can only do so within an absolute dependence of which it needs to be unaware in order to play.
But when the ground or reality of the thought-me disintegrates from under it, and its concepts, definitions and beliefs rendered meaningless, (be they religious or atheistic), the 'game' is up - and the thought-me becomes repurposed as a teaching-learning device - in place of being an unquestioned basis of self survival.

Until there is a glimmering of such, the thought-me is impenetrable - because it 'already knows'.
We can observe this in our minds  in any moment.
But if we try to think our way - we will slip from  observing the programming, and instead be mesmerized by the programmed me-thought.

There is no benefit to the thought-me in quieting itself to allow a deeper listening in Awareness. But there is every benefit in releasing a false and limiting self sense, and allowing what is Already true, to register with You - such as your current capacity allows.

Religion decays and becomes degraded, insofar as it is used  to validate the thought-me, or to manipulate the thought-me or engage in conflicted struggles of the thought-me. But at its Root it is not a man made Movement, that awakens and serves as Unifying Awareness and Principle, for the reintegration of self as Self.

In a dis-integrated me-thought world, the Need is for Unifying Perspective that serves to uncover an innate Integrity - as a true basis to live out from. Not as mere ideas - but as a currently felt presence and participation in relationship - instead of in war of 'relationships' that the thought-me engenders.

Thank you for your attention

In Peace

Brian