All Things Indigo

Meditation is The Ultimate Bullshit Meter.

2014-02-28T23:02:00.001-08:00

Excerpted from:

The Book of Gardens: a Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

◊ ◊ ◊

"[...] Today, psychologically and literally, even in our most wise and radiant moments are we each pinned into our place as economic units: bricks in the wall of a labyrinth where it is far too easy to simply hide behind the latest appearance of a new freedom found. Think here on fashion for now, and on the feeling which arises when matching something external to the otherwise internal experience of your person: though we can buy a sense of freedom, we often become chained to its purchasing.

I think an argument has long stood – which is being argued very effectively today – in that we play a direct role in our physical health by virtue of the attention and care we devote to our emotional health. As my arguments forthcoming are bound to stir up some emotionality I invite you to continually go back through the basics in part one, sit, and experience your physical body in rest and recovery from the movements of its thinking. Do not focus so much on the content of your thinking: you can always return to the content later, and forthcoming, with what I trust will be an increased amplitude for awareness and clarity.

As you move forward with this technique look always for an open space to your thinking, where you can recognize alone the physical act of thinking. That is: look for the door. Look for a sensation of breadth, width, or height, or internal spaciousness. As we proceed, the sensation of thought-as-movement within this spaciousness will steadily increase, as will the witnessing of its immediacy – that sudden changing of your course away from the task at hand.

Provocation and inspiration share the same body. Yours. The force of your thinking has its persuasiveness and its pervasiveness, and with complete respect for the intelligences innate to you, I invite you to simply look behind the thinking directly upon the sensation of this force itself. That, in time, is to 'open the door.' It is the thing about meditation which is rather easy to 'understand,' or picture oneself doing, and because of its 'easy' nature we by and large avoid doing it. We resist taking part in something which appears to be a complete nothing, or delay doing so, ever drawn back into the seeming excitement of the day-to-day. Yet we still seem to yearn for something else to do... The causes of this have made me very curious, and by such I've grown to enjoy the fact of a corpulent gulf between what is 'easy,' and what is 'simple.'

I think the life forces which course through our veins ultimately make us a creature with good intentions. Their constancy tells me as much. Whatever the face of our excitements be, we seek pleasure, curious toward our fullest enjoyment of life. However, when we look at the remarkable prevalence of neurological disorder today, these fun intentions may not be coming to the surface in the way we initially had hoped. Abuse, divorce, addiction, emotional disturbance, the expanding array of diagnoses to our mental states – like the now popular self-diagnoses of personality disorder, or ODD, Obedience Defiance Disorder – when and if we view these dis-eases somewhat topographically, from above, in consideration with the economic factors of today, Western cultures are in a very interesting time to say the least.

{ Source }

Mental illness is essentially having a seriously industrious day in the sun...

I see very little distance between the economic shape of a nation and how we shape our selves. In a word: Bhutan. In two words: Happiness Index. Out from our perpetual blind-spot, The United States as the chief world reserve currency is so in title, yet barely so in practice. That is, the things which herald any nation's place amongst the rest is being challenged - reordered. Regime change at the level of global power is usually, and invariably, uncomfortable. The current world reserve currency hosts disorder, and we, its subjects, prove again the adage: as above, so below. Put succinctly: there is a big thing going quite nuts, and so, kinda, are we.

{ Source }

By an ever thinning veil is our world-view presently changing regardless of how staunchly the prevailing power insists upon keeping the blinds drawn. It is as if the human mind, our institutions, and many of our social contracts, are entering an outright failure. We simply cannot continue to think as we have been lest we accept going legitimately batty, accepting the dichotomy between what we hope to be possible, and what is actually, truly, upon us.

I am of the opinion that the Invisible Hand may as well come out from hiding now. Its presence hangs over every major Western city not unlike an animated real-estate balloon, or a mickey-mouse hand zipping from cloud to cloud spelling out through the puffy white and into the blue sky behind: 'L-o-o-k! I'm i-n-v-i-s-i-b-l-l-l-l-l-e! Hee-hee-hee!' If the rest of the emperor to this invisible hand be just as naked, if the power which holds sway the actions of our days be in disarray, let us look upon a few rules the hand plays by as our first bit of evidence.

If bipolar behaviour could be made observable at the cultural level I believe the long-standing feud of environment-economy today expresses exactly that.

Recall, if you will, transitioning from Carter to Reagan (and if you cannot recall this, I think you will be amazed by the radical directions Western cultures followed – or almost followed – by these two men). Our species couldn't possibly be more divided on this issue, and Reagan's words on the environment – and 'environmentalists' – have pretty well stood the test of time since.

As our economy continues pulling itself apart at the seams – fracking its foundation for further support and sustenance – as the world reserve currency comes up for questioning, as our oceans acidify and as our forests wither, as the permafrost prepares to embrace a warming atmosphere with the gift of an unprecedented release of carbon, so too does it feel as if our sense of self comes apart at the seams. We feel threatened, and any traditional sense for order clings rather dearly to what is familiar and readily understood.

Because we are not truly offsetting the outcomes for our predicament at the cultural/policy level, a lust intensifies for the narrative of smooth and constant-growth to remain buoyant. "When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this alone is ugliness," says Lao-Tzu. And indeed I find such a self-reinforcing denial of situation unmistakably difficult to look upon. We have not entered an economic recovery.

In response, I also see the salience of Mindfulness on the steady increase. It stands right upon the balance point of our most intense wishing. It is an authentic echo from the wilds for fresh air and renewed thinking. It is that quiet and mature power whose song could well retune our public policy.

Our minds do not wish for us to be sick yet there is an unusual sense of pressure today. There is a constant contradiction, split between the dis-ease of a shrinking Earth, begging us each to raise our standard of accountability personally and culturally, while simultaneously our positivist psychology has us simply humming along as we have been doing. A voice within, ready to scream the name of freedom to each and every hillside, wants to sprout claws and tear through the skins containing it to enjoy better its natural ether. This sickness – or discrepancy at least – is at the level of psyche, and I haven't crossed paths with too many who have developed their immunity. Certainly the cultural narrative which covered the baby-boom is alive and well, but the page is turning – as I believe it will under the dichotic banners of sustainability and exponential growth. And yet, regardless of socio-economic status, we believe ourselves helpless to the unfolding of this larger story: we believe it is Our Nature now to behave solely as economic units, so much so that it can hardly be called a belief next to its being just a plain ole fact.

Beside such a discrepancy have I found meditation to be key. It is a psychical sieve. It is the ultimate bullshit meter. [...] "

◊ ◊ ◊

The Book of Gardens

: a Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

Contact me today for

I-Ching Guidance

Like and Share on fB

The Book of Gardens

I-Ching Guidance

Connect with me on LinkedIn

◊ ◊ ◊

{ Source }

Further reading: "Meet Your Brain Waves -

Introducing Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta, and Gamma"

Gen X the Cross-roads. Gen Y the Fork.

2014-02-20T10:38:00.000-08:00

{ Source }

Gen X marks for me a crossroads. A calling out within the species which into our bones the message came 'enough.' Mid-life, I am thrilled to see so many ready hands in Gen Y picking up the torch. It's been exhausting frankly: writing to representatives who are so star-struck by post-war policy – indeed made wealthy and comfortable by such policy – that the limits of growth are simply as much of fantasy as is the reality for so many to ever own a house.

Certainly environmentalists have tread through every generation, yet the dominant economic paradigm of constant-growth has unceasingly ruled the day. But the day for change has arrived, and those younger than myself feel it very dearly: they own it. They own the need for change, whereas my Gen X cohort simply marked it. (I have long seen the 'X' like the marking for a railroad: a big 'Stop!' sign, denoting oncoming danger.) Attracting young people onto the importance of voting can be as much of a struggle as getting them in for work, and both symptoms appear natural to me when I plot through to the available outcomes, each concluding upon the potential of never-ending debt servicing.

{ Source }

World currencies used to be tied to gold. Gold gave the currency credit, and if a nation had access to gold, their currency carried with it a trust and confidence. After WWII, all currencies became tied to the USD as a means of nationhood stability. And the USD continued to be tied to gold. 1971 rolls out 'the Nixon Shock,' and the USD was “freed” from gold, confessing insolvency essentially, confessing that the splurge of credit created was too much for the little yellow metal to handle. Flash forward forty years, and this insolvency has become a problem we'd rather continue ignore while the US exports its inflation: witness Argentina, Venezuela... Japan… and witness the price of gold. Greece fights for the drivers seat in a joy-ride traveling at unparalleled speed toward a very real brick wall – an edge. Our web of credit, leveraged evermore to an uncertain future, a culture fuelled more with questions than answers, is truly remarkable. Such monetary policy resembles a big fat spider who got caught in its own web.

{ Source }

The question arises: why slave for the entirety of one's life to pay out the comforts for others while the natural world languishes? Surely it is not the baby-boom's fault for the presence of this economic paradigm, as they were babies when it was crafted. As this narrative came out of the horrors of WWII, one cannot lay blame for it being followed so thoroughly either. Re-routing all this effort is bound to bring about a vast amounts of bitchy-ness, but these large economic habits have no place left to store themselves, not ecologically, and ever less so in our minds: an increasing few are positioned to take of their advantage. As the Have become more visibly defensive or socially isolated and nervous, the Have-Not don't give a fart: they follow what is renewable out of necessity.

Tit-for-tat aside, economic de-growth is truly upon us at the marker of ecology alone. The invitation is loudly upon us to redefine the energy sources which fuel our actions, and subsequently, the thinking-energy which pertains to that. Our sense of self is something that is created and reinforced choice by choice by choice; and like anything else we build, the shape of our self is something we can walk away from at any moment, rethink, and reassemble differently later. Currently, our outward activity is greatly incongruent with our inner, and this calls out in a whole host of ways for our steadfast attention.

Get the book.

Get the full text:

The Book of Gardens:

ALover's Manual for Planet Earth

Dear Mr. Gates.

2014-02-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

Bill & Melinda Gates have posted an invitation on Linked In, asking for input toward what would make a better world. This was my reply:

Hello Mr & Mrs Gates,

Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to share my thoughts with you, on how we can make a better world.

In recent years I’ve taken to a study of macro-economics, and am a huge fan of the author Charles Eisenstein and his book “Sacred Economics.” I spent so many years trying to ‘do the right thing,’ and be the best global citizen I could, and what I wound up with was less than desirable: the chagrin of my colleagues. It was troubling, as by our words, it would have seemed we shared similar value principles; but in practice, we were operating quite differently.

Put succinctly, our growth model of economics is reaching its limit. And not just ecologically (which, in my estimate need be of higher priority), but the numbers game of our macro economic situation is steadily directing our species toward some very large decisions for how we wish to live.

I think growth economics puts us all into fight-or-flight psychology: more for me is less for you, and more for you is less for me… Constant growth on a finite planet no longer adds up to profitability - social or financial. Nor does a growth oriented system create equality. Nor access to fresh water. Nor access even to the inalienable rights which are so prized and cherished. This way of interacting - interest based currencies/usury - has run its course in terms of the Ecology, which of course includes our human ecologies.

As the oceans continue to acidify, as the Canadian Prime Minister continues to restrict information toward climate change, as the Fed prints our global wealth and well-fare out of existence… The time when we each need to sit with the emotionality of our collective situation intensifies. In my book, I propose a method of Non-Denominational Meditation by which any person can look back into their body to find a true sense of calling and of place. Becoming more mindful about our time and the way our actions dove-tail into the actions and behaviours of others I believe to be a crucial skill, given the impending changes upon each of us.

I appreciate your mission. And I would encourage people to develop the skills of Emotional Resilience at this time, by which meditation is key. The decisions we face today will truly mark us for all of history.

Thanks again Mr Gates for this opportunity to write to you.

Best & best,

Philip W. Sarsons

www.thebookofgardens.com

More For You is Less For Me. More For Me Is....?

2014-02-17T14:46:00.000-08:00

{ Source }

I think much of our troubles today are being mis-identified as something to do with human nature. When I attempt to have a discussion on economics with the average person, they reveal quite quickly an inability to balance a check-book. I've found this to be so for most all my life: people are largely economically... mis-educated, yet every facet of human culture is borrowed into existence by the things we call money.

So this hesitance toward economics, coupled to our use of it, keeps me very curious. I'm inspired greatly by Charles Eisenstein, who sums up much of our economic behaviour as "more for you is less for me/more for me is less for you." I find that this twin statement reveals the underlying psychology for our Situation: constant-growth on a finite planet. It has us instantly into fight & flight, by which some thrive and many do not, or can not. It is our lesser, beta, thinking, priming the situation for a misdiagnosis of what actually is Alpha.

An Alpha is someone who can provide, and I'll argue that the financial elite today does not do this. The money printing of the Fed is corrupting cultures world-wide - and by 'corrupt' I intend more-so to say 'corrode.' Some would rather loudly say 'rob.' Regardless of who-has-more, our futures are being borrowed out of the ecology which permits us to do and think - everything.

Again, Eisenstein is inspiring. As I cover in my own book:

"If we can monetize mini-vans landing on Mars to drill holes in little rocks with even littler laser-beams, what is so crazy about monetizing the cleaning of stream-beds and the plucking of old toothbrushes out of the coral reefs? If we can observe that we have an ozone layer, what would be so maniacal about tending to it in a generative way? The distance between these two sets of activity seems packed with confusion if you ask me. So the key to opening these doors comes alongside the courage to sit, developing a comfort with gentleness, curiosity, and kindness: qualities which are generally seen as antithetical to financial prosperity within consumer driven, constant-growth-economics. I find these nurturing and regenerative actions no less manly than digging things up or paving them over: that is, our currently careless economic Situation often gives rise to an equally careless persona. Our minds are simply too nimble, fast, and creative, to not contribute a solution to any given problem, regardless of its amplitude. So I find cooperation to be tops in confidence: it is the highest ground to rest your mind upon, it feels better, and from its awareness you have much less, or nothing, to lose. Making a positive contribution to a cultural conundrum requires great self awareness and fine self control to create a pervading assertion; one which would truly sooth the emotionality our situation and personalities routinely squeeze out of us."

The Book of Gardens:

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

Thanks kindly. Our 'human troubles' today, our economic puzzles will be solved by courage alone. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please visit http://www.thebookofgardens.com for more - especially if your opinion is contrary to my own. There are two distinct audiences for this book, and how I'd truly enjoy bringing them together. Enjoy the Day.

{ Source }

Meditation is key. It is the ultimate bullshit meter.

2014-02-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

{ Source }

Today, psychologically and literally, even in our most wise and radiant moments are we each pinned into our place as economic units: bricks in the wall of a labyrinth where it is far too easy to simply hide behind the latest appearance of a new freedom found. Think here on fashion for now, and on the feeling which arises when matching something external to the otherwise internal experience of your person: though we can buy a sense of freedom, we often become chained to its purchasing.

Mental illness is essentially having an industrious day in the sun...

The Book of Gardens:

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

{ Source }

I see very little distance between the economic shape of a nation and how we shape our selves. In a word: Bhutan. In two words: Happiness Index. Out from our perpetual blind-spot, The United States as the chief world reserve currency is so in title, yet barely so in practice. (*1) That is, the things which herald any nation's place amongst the rest is being challenged - reordered. Regime change at the level of global power is usually, and invariably, uncomfortable. The current world reserve currency hosts disorder, and we, its subjects, prove again the adage: as above, so below. Put succinctly: there is a big thing going quite nuts, and so, kinda, are we.

{ Source }

If bipolar behaviour could be made observable at the cultural level I believe the long-standing feud of environment-economy today expresses exactly that. Recall, if you will, transitioning from Carter to Reagan (and if you cannot recall this, I think you will be amazed by the radical directions Western cultures followed – or almost followed – by these two men). Our species couldn't possibly be more divided on this issue, and Reagan's words on the environment – and 'environmentalists' – have pretty well stood the test of time since.

{ Source }

Because we are not truly offsetting the outcomes for our predicament at the cultural/policy level, a lust intensifies for the narrative of smooth and constant-growth to remain buoyant. “When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this alone is ugliness,” says Lao-Tzu. (*2) And indeed I find such a self-reinforcing denial of situation unmistakeably difficult to look upon. We have not entered an economic recovery.

In response, I also see the salience of Mindfulness on the steady increase. It stands right upon the balance point of our most intense wishing. It is an authentic echo from the wilds for fresh air and renewed thinking. It is that quiet and mature power whose song could well retune our public policy.

{ Source }

Beside such a discrepancy have I found meditation to be key. It is a psychical sieve. It is the ultimate bullshit meter.

The Book of Gardens:

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

Notes:

*1 - Over the course of editing this [section], the number of countries included as 'safe' reserve currencies increased – including Canada. At the time of writing, the global financial system is now rather outwardly dancing to its own tune of diversification, looking for as many soft landings as it can find. Factions are developing faster than I can form my sentences; new financial mechanisms are being created out of thin air, and it is difficult to tell into which direction this new global market may bend.

*2 - Wu. JCH. Tao Te Ching. Shambhala 1990.

That Rainbow Connection Thing.

2014-01-24T14:32:00.001-08:00

I love being 40.

Everyday I'm able to sing to myself "We have done just we set out to do!" I recognize my privilege in that every day that passes I am able to keep doing just that: face-down forward into goal setting and achieving, and my-god-it's-not-easy, but odds aside, here's my latest:

http://www.nelsonstar.com/community/241351941.html

www.thebookofgardens.com

What The Heck is the I-Ching. (Part I)

2014-01-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

Have you ever had that moment when you realize you have become so deeply passionate about something and then think: "Maybe no one knows what I'm talking about anymore..." Luckily, the I-Ching is a well traveled thing, - many people have at least heard of it - and in having moved toward working with others from the past few years I am avoiding this pitfall.

However(!) Just in case(!) I'm going to write a few posts to introduce my guests to just what-the-heck I'm doing.

I host for I-Ching readings, and each one proves to be a very meaningful experience for my guests. And(!) it always proves to be a step-along-the-path for myself. I-Ching is truly one of the great Wonders...

Sitting with others contemplating I-Ching is truly my favourite thing to do. It is perhaps one of the oldest methods for decision making, inner contemplation, peace, and experiencing oneself by a seamless extension of nature. The I-Ching is the study of Yin & Yang, the two most universal energies to all things, all people, and all time.

The process revolves around crafting or uncovering a question unique to you. We all have multiple themes and relationships running through our lives, and underneath our actions and busyness resides a question: perhaps scratching under the surface with a bit of unrest, pushing you forward, holding back its clear understanding... Sitting with I-Ching is a time to uncover this question, and to use meditation to reveal the process by which you may proceed with greater certainty and understanding.

{ source }

It never ceases to surprise me how deeply calming (and relevant!) I-Ching is for the questioner. I-Ching simply reveals 'what-is,' pointing a way to greater sensations of Acceptance and even Gratitude. And here's an interesting thing... I never want to know what your question is. ...

I'm not a psychologist or a counsellor or anything like that. I am quite simply 'well-traveled.' (Like, getting-old.) I speak only toward the actions of Yin & Yang at the time of our reading, which allows you your much deserved Privacy. And it allows me to speak with ease about the thing I've studied so dearly.

The method is easy to follow, step-by-step, and progressive. I take you through this at your unique pace - like untangling a ball of Christmas-lights(!..) When you first 'take them out of the box,' it's kinda like "Why, again, do we do Christmas?.." But, strand by strand, the thing gets lain out in a highly manageable sequence, you set up the tree, and by the time the sun goes down there is a thing of beauty to gaze upon. ... Such is Your Question. The first reading acquaints a person with the breadth of I-Ching, and subsequent readings deepen your own process of discovery.

Even though I keep rather busy, my time is flexible. I do not charge for the I-Ching session (just yet!) however, I do have my own published book on the subject ($25 www.thebookofgardens.com) and am donating 20% of proceeds to Johnson's Landing to aide in transition and recovery from the largest landslide to hit the region in 12,000 years.

I'd be very happy to step through the book with you after we sit together over tea, your question, and a guided meditation. I would also be happy to work with you on-line as well if there is too great a distance to travel to me for tea.

Enjoy the day - talk to you soon.

Phil

www.thebookofgardens.com

This Way: Peace and Your Direction.

2014-01-11T09:48:00.001-08:00

In my most favourite book, the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu speaks with a unique precision about Virtue. He is precise while being esoteric; hence the book's timeless allure, and its sense of mystery. This is also why Lao Tzu remains what I call a 'true teacher,' in that he gives you a definite invitation toward something he has learned - without spelling it out for you. In the Taoist tradition, he is called an "immortal" by this, his effective teaching, and the universal depth he offers.

Reading the Tao Te Ching you indeed gain a sense of Lao Tzu being a kind and gentle companion. His words - without an ounce of force - truly inhabit you. His wonder, his inner peace, his clarity, his humour.... these things are passed onto you through this idea he wraps up into the word Virtue. It becomes a jam packed word - radiant - and countless people like myself move through their lives with a sense of certainty and gratitude for him having (eventually) shared his knowing.

Taoism is understood through the observing of Yin & Yang. And the I-Ching is the Tao symbol described in complete detail. If you think of this symbol as a mask, and pull off the mask, behind it are sixty-four symbols, called Hexagrams, which depict the very fine balancing of Yin & Yang: Yang the solid line and Yin the 'broken' - like two dashes.

In my Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, I have gone through the lessons of meditation from each line of the I-Ching, condensing my study into sixty-four six-line poems: "The Gardens." At the end of these poems is a long poem, "The Shorelines of Johnson's Landing" which reflects back the totality of this study, and what a more mindful life feels like and what it may look like, encouraging a grace and acceptance of our ecological and spiritual limits. The book also contains sections on how to use the I-Ching toward your own life decisions, whilst holding in the backdrop the meta-goal of a complete sense of self-acceptance and awareness of Tao. I include a brief non-denominational meditation instruction, and two longer essays on where all of this can be readily applied today: an essay on growth-only economics, and where we need head as a species, toward an appreciation of our one world, our Earth. I call this Eco-Theology, the Practical Value of Wonder.

Best to You - Phil

www.thebookofgardens.com

The Soft Fish Hook

2013-12-31T13:04:00.002-08:00

“… those who know well how to live meet no tigers or wild buffaloes on their road, and come out from the battle-ground untouched by the weapons of war.” Lao Tau

{ source }

‘Ancient Chinese Wisdom’ can often sound hocus-pocus or even nonsensical until you sit with it. Tigers & Wild Buffaloes are easy threats to ignore when seated comfortably, wrapped in a blanket or shawl, but when the door to our imaginations are opened even a little, it is not much farther a distance before realizing how present the feelings of being threatened really are.

In my Book of Gardens, I look into the seeming abyss of behavioural economics, and just how pervasive the sensation of scarcity is, under our current version of economy. Constant Growth on a Finite Planet simply cannot add up to much else, and a reconciliation is forthcoming putting us all - psychologically at least - in potential positions of peril.

Each morning during my Sit and Tea, I re-read a verse from the Tao Te Ching. I’m currently on #50 where Lao Tzu speaks of tigers and buffaloes (oh my!)

Lao Tzu is arguably one of our species most prominent Teachers ever, keeping good and easy company with Socrates et al. - despite having penned so little himself. The Tao Te Ching consists of a mere 5000 Chinese characters (81 verses in English), which is the entirety of what he put to paper. That’s it. And yet the book is alive and well - and as relevant - as ever. Lao Tzu is a very subtle teacher.

Despite having stepped through the Tao Te Ching about six or seven times, I still catch myself breezing over a sentence here and there - only to come back to that exact point for clarification.

Such moments are like soft fish-hooks...

{ source }

Given my current ‘obsession’ to fully understand the ramifications of growth-only economics, I found a ready comparison with Bear & Bull psychology, and Lao Tzu’s Tigers and Buffaloes. Both the bear and the tiger attack with their claws, both are large predators, capable of mischief, stealth, agility, and possess a fierce strength to pull down its prey. The bull and buffalo are herbivores, prefer the open calm of a field where they can observe anything coming their way, and similar to the degree of strength of the tiger and bear, become a frightening force to deal with once enraged.

Such pairings to my mind reflect back to me our sympathetic nervous responses; ones which invariably arise out of our current economic situation. I’m very excited to see Hollywood’s latest “The Wolf of Wall Street,” whose timeliness ought to be of no surprise given the long standing connection between Hollywood and Washington… However, I’m always rather amazed at what Scorsese ‘gets away with’ in terms of suggesting how things really-are.

{ source }

Playing with juxtaposition in meditation - pairing of things - is very beneficial and in fact quite fun. Our imagination gladly cork-screws toward an idea, passing its point through each side of a pairing, looking for the central root: between the tiger and buffalo, between the bear and the bull, between fight or flight…

What is the lesson here...

Lao Tzu ever so gently draws you in toward his understanding. He is quite the timeless ghost in this regard, ever ready and glad to teach and help. I find it continually noteworthy that Lao Tzu - so far as I understand - refused many offers to be part of King Wen’s court… Such a way, suggests to me that he prized the open space of his autonomy so dearly, that no riches - even in name - were of greater value.

{ source }

It cannot be said enough today that what is taking place on Wall Street has very little benefit for Main Street. Without becoming too biblical about it, the sins of Pride and Greed readily come to mind. The path of Libertarianism dances somewhat dangerously with both of these - a strange three-some - but instead of becoming entangled by them, moves instead toward the purpose of an actuated freedom and autonomy: our status quo, regrettably, merely gives us the husk of such things. It strikes me that, to know autonomy and to possess freedom, one must know intimately what your enemy is.

The Bears of this world, which economically speaking I am currently quite glad to identify with, are for better or worse a rather proud bunch. They look at fundamentals. The lively cynicism in these circles puts the ‘fun’ in fundamental, with the ‘mental’ part trailing close behind, tripping upon the lack of restraint and reality our supposed ‘economic recovery’ is deemed to possess. There is an occasional sense of being the victim underneath that pride, as if the bullish enmity took a solid swipe out of their side, impinging their wind.

{ source }

Paradoxically then, the bulls and buffalos, the seeming innocuous herbivores, as they put their charge and horns into a thing, lifting it ever higher, have the quality of the addict - of greed - being given a window to express their otherwise dormant powers. It is also a kind of pride, ever-quick to invert into action. All of these qualities - pride, greed, victimhood, the addict - reside within our psyche moment to moment, and gently, it is up to each of us to discern our direction. Such is the work of Emotional Resiliency, and the main offering throughout

The Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth.

www.thebookofgardens.com

So a few questions come to mind. Mainly: What is it to be at Peace with Oneself... We understand such a statement, but what does it FEEL like? Why are such individuals, or moments, so rare? Why does our inner peace disappear? Have we not looked into that 'blind-spot' repeatedly? Why do we remain 'blind?'... And where then is the point of entry for this feeling? Such arises Lao Tzu’s concluding statement in his 50th verse:

“… a buffalo would find no butt for his horns, a tiger nothing to lay his claws upon, and a weapon of war no place to admit its point. How is this? Because there is no room for Death in him.”

In one of the poems in The Book of Gardens, (#26), I write “Being of no threat / how, can you be threatened?” And such is Lao Tzu’s lesson here: aware of one’s enemies - or rather, aware of enmity - one is not so passive as to lay oneself open for unwelcome and attack, and one is simultaneously not so defensive so as to become the cause of unwelcome and abuse. Walking such a path, there simply cannot be any room of Death…

The Entry & The Balance Point

{ source }

Finding this entry point asks that we sit with ourselves in quiet for a little part of the day each day. I do recommend the early morning hours to be sure. The morning possesses an inherent peace worth capitalizing upon. The sensation of breadth, watching the light spread out into the time before you (I live somewhat in the North) is a wonderful thing to allow in to yourself. It is a place to rest one’s breathing - fully and freely.

Staying on that balance point is of course the challenge. Growth-Only Economics generally prohibit that, siphoning our time into the pursuit of a currency, keeping the ready bulk of us dancing to the tune of “more for you is less for me…”

In The Book of Gardens, I call this process, Crossing the Bridge, and Opening The Door. And I’ll conclude here with a selection from this point in the book. I give a very brief beginner-styled intro-to-meditation in the book before diving into the deep end of my take on today’s behavioural economics. Bringing out a truer understanding of how practical the study of Taoism actually-is, and the method of I-Ching is the soft fish hook I offer.

◊ ◊ ◊

Visit

www.thebookofgardens.com

to order a copy.

Or Click Here.

◊ ◊ ◊

“The traditions which have long addressed meditation in their pedigree are fantastic to their detail, yet I found many groups functioned best by an initial acceptance of the tradition at large before learning anything on the practice of meditation. I respect that the process a person need accept toward an embodied compassion is multi-faceted, and next to the fact that cultural or behavioural change is a gradual process, I continue to see a consistently growing, immediate, and intimately felt need for mindfulness on the steady increase. That is, our culture today is experiencing the pressures of an intrinsic change, and it is between this inward pressure and the externalities of our situations where I invite in your concentration here. Readied cultural change is rare, and making a behavioural shift becomes an overtly broad exercise to ones psychology when greeting something otherwise foreign. It can be difficult to begin, and if constantly propelled by the busyness of ones external situation, the intrinsic invitation for change often gets discarded. So the remainder of this Prelude is a primer toward a way of mindfulness through the lens of a cultural critique, reasoning out how mindfulness may well be the cultural salve to apply to our current ecological and economic confusion. If you find yourself in agreement that this is indeed a potential remedy, or a preparedness to bring forward into this rather intense predicament, you might then further explore cultural traditions should you be inspired to do so.

◊ ◊ ◊

Under the banner of Western psychology there are now many discoveries to be made on the subject of Mindfulness. Yet they come to us only after a considerable length of scientific resistance to apply scientific scrutiny toward things seemingly 'esoteric' and tricky to observe. And it is the resistance which is interesting to me here. I am finding it compelling to watch these seemingly disjunctive pursuits of religiosity and science come together, and I am of the opinion that my fellow Westerners will find less arising antagonism when meditation is presented in a form closer to that of an exercise. Which is not to lessen the thorough impact of meditation overall; under the banner of an exercise might its introduction and efficacy travel much farther. I had too often seen in our culture a general confusion between a seeming oblivion and the pursuit of enlightenment; and by such confusion, catalyzing a rather contentious, dark and culturally divisive mess toward something which is otherwise profound, beautiful, and reliable. Perhaps now the balance on this tips...

Those already into a mindfulness practice may have found Part One as a kind of review, and I hope I didn't bore you to tears. There is always much to be said in any avenue of learning for sticking to the basics though. It is my hope here in 'Opening the Door' that my point of view on the economy will supply an interesting and pointed degree of awareness – an influence tucked neatly into a cultural blind-spot - by which one may find very practical, moment-to-moment, interpersonal applications for everyday decisions and conversation.

It is my wish for us all to begin to see just how dominant of a factor the economy has become in how we are able to experience the fullness of our minds and our lives. Reducing the economy to a factor within a psychological landscape may be insulting for some – threatening certainly – however, I have not found this one element of human civility to reflect accurately Our Nature."

www.thebookofgardens.com

◊ ◊ ◊

Fuel Your Wonder. Know Your Authentic Power. Discover the I-Ching.

2013-12-21T22:34:00.000-08:00

{ source }

Ian Mackenzie recently described the "mind bomb" which has been Occupy. His message is excellent, describing well the social conundrum of an 'underprivileged meme.' I'd like to add to his message with sharing an age-old method for self analysis and mindfulness meditation - an often neglected, misunderstood, or romanticized meme - encouraging a renewed sense of culture much needed to heal our planet, our relationships, and our sense of freedom.

The Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, is a manual of self-study via the I-Ching. In sixty-four poems, The Book of Gardens contains the lessons of mindfulness meditation held by this true and great classic.

Briefly, the I-Ching is the original study of Yin & Yang. You might compare the practice with Tarot, but there is a significant step away from egoic energies. Yin & Yang are pure energies flowing through all things, and are in proportion throughout all space, matter, and time: Yin & Yang dance through the weather before you, just as much as they dance through every moment of your thoughts. The I-Ching, is the method of observing Yin & Yang within yourself, distilling thought and emotion, experiencing your sense of self as a seamless extension of Nature.

Inspired by Charles Eisenstein, I am giving proceeds from the sales of this book to the Johnson's Landing community, recovering from the largest landslide to hit the area in 12,000 years. The area remains widely unstable, with all major rivers in the area literally moving mountains. In this region of glacier-fed lakes this event marks yet one more symptom of climate change; and this otherwise quiet and self-sustaining hamlet is now deep into a Transition thrust upon them.

"Sacred Economics" put to rest so many of my long-held fears and ambitions which seemed to go nowhere. His book illustrated that many of the solutions we need in action today are already here - waiting for us to engage with them. We already know what to do, and where to go for our solutions. One such method is Gift Economy.

In terms of our emotional resilience, The I-Ching is a profound tool for facing transition and transformation. The Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, makes this otherwise foreign process, familiar.

My study for this book took place in Johson's Landing - sitting in the exact creek which flooded - six years prior to publishing The Book of Gardens. I had honestly never heard True Silence before living there. You can hear the entire valley on the smallest hint of wind… I began my study of the I-Ching in 1995, and its practicality continues to feed me both surprise and Wonder for this beautiful life.

In a nutshell, I am committed to making a contribution of Emotional Mastery and Emotional Resiliency during this Great Transition. The Book of Gardens introduces what the I-Ching is (the first ever study of Yin & Yang), how to use it, and essays on why this skill is crucial for us as we head ever deeper into Transition - into Change. The book has a brief primer on non-denominational meditation, pointing readers toward The Practical Value of Wonder. Or what I also call, Eco-Theology.

All the preparedness in the world - all the gold, guns, and baked-beans - mean little without a new Emotional Accountability at our collective fingertips. The economic collapse coming is without any doubt excitable, but as old systems peel away, revealing our much-needed changes, no doubt many may find chaos where before we had felt secure. At some level, we all know Change is coming...

Kaun Yin by Moonlight.

Having long been part of an underprivileged meme, the I-Ching (also known as the book of changes) has been my guiding light for nearly two decades. This study has always stood as the hermit of spirituality: that one quiet book waiting for you to introduce yourself to it. It is a true blend of science, method, discipline, and true Wonder. It is a map of the human psyche as palpable and physical as a dollar bill...

I know I am far from alone, yearning for cultural and economic change, and in these pages I offer you both my story and my study, that you may gain strength in this skill-set, which, as the SHTF, will serve you greatly toward building your community, thriving by the meme of your truest choosing.

Bring Gift Economy into practice. Visit:

www.thebookofgardens.com

or Lulu.com to order a copy.

Fractional Reserve Banking: How to describe a Paradox.

2013-12-21T20:47:00.003-08:00

{ source }

I experience this particular paradox as a nightmare. Hubris sealed into derivatives; the seed of each our unrest, leveraged so far we can now barely name it or claim it... The 'fraction' of this fractional-reserve system has grown thin to the point of transparency: it simply no longer exists. We are not a free culture, but one adept at Insolvency Management.

Our current understanding of Wealth is now a fiction we drink, a bitter decoction soaking up the human spirit, and with it our sense of truth, coagulating into a seeming and eternal slow-motion clot, winding its way into the heart of our one ecology… Constant Growth, on a finite planet…. We long to escape from the bonds which we ourselves designed - we, our victim - and cannot do anything other than continue submitting to it. We are not just spent: we are over-spent, and spent for years to come.

At the heart of such a philosophy - one which dates back to a time when the Earth by all rational measurement was flat - Fractional Reserve Banking now strikes me as the most bitter refusal to accept that Life is temporary and gentle. A bubble. This age'd business ethic is diamond for its inability to accept the seasonality of things, believing never-ending growth is the cause of happiness, singling out one thrust in human thought amongst a panoply of choice and consideration. This way of bringing forward human-motivation may have been very useful during more tribal times, but no longer holds relevance for an actuated global civility. Its catalyst and follow-through appears more and more of the fallen angel who had grand ideas; who felt the intense and blinding love of this creation - this universe - and desired so greatly to share its power, and to know it by its completeness. A shared demon - a potential, posing inert - who in perfect and unceasing detail has now surrounded the soul of humanity, making slow a silicon museum of something once covered with lush green.

Prohibit once, and double enmity... It is the natural psychological response to a situation which catalyses scarcity. Right at the heart of our currency system - constant growth on a finite planet - resides the key to the problems we mislabel innate to human nature.

{ source }

This voice within our psyche - this constant-growth impulse - understands something can be created from the thing which prefers a steady-state, and then offers no Return. Constant Growth economics is arrogant, flying only toward the light, hooked on the idea of the infinite. Such perpetual one-way motion, such youthful and happy-blind thinking, inevitably forces all things toward an ever grand reconcilliation to recognize how amateur we handle Choice. Is this a punishment from above or from the past?.. Mentally ill - manic - forcing the rapture into the face of all grand wishes for peace and unity, muddying the sentiment of a brighter tomorrow, any hope for human social values becomes slave to constant-growth instead: it is the dark heart of a vast - and-so-then-an-ever-vast - Shadow.

Such is Our Situation, and not each our personage. It is how Che Guevara winds up on a t-shirt. It is the monetization of yoga. It is deforestation. It is shooting John Lennon. Or Kennedy. Or Ghandi. And then Lee Harvey Oswald. Or barely noticing the Mother Theresa passing in the shadow of a Diana. It is the acidification of the oceans. It is species extinction. It is shitty food served quickly. It IS poison. It is the loss of top-soil. It is GDP versus Happiness. It is the picture of a golden time, and only a picture.

It is a surface, underneath which fall only dead echoes, haunting us in unison 'That was Yesterday, and of course, it didn't matter...'

{ source }

Knowing this - feeling the unrest pulsing within our psyche - we stick to a certainly-uncertain future like fly-paper, lamenting the Present in lieu of thriving by the rules of a glorious and BLUE bio-sphere.

It is not something we can take personally. We were born into it, and such rules shape our Psyche. But it is something we can address - reshape - and purge - if we direct our attention onto the centre of the conundrum.

The study of metaphysics may make your neurology feel good, but the study of Wealth will allow those feelings to last. Both reveal the physicality of our psyche. One symptom of Our Conundrum lies with Gold. Such a proposition may seem ludicrous, but the feeling of ludicrousness can only come to you from a blind-spot: the fallacy of normalcy. A bias. Today the COMEX and the LIBOR are being systematically killed. The very elements which have always conjoined human energy to that of the planet, are being herded and hoarded, manipulated, discredited, and seemingly drained of that inherently nebulous possession, Wealth. Psychically, it is no less epic than Darth Vader slaying Obi Wan; dreamer of that profound and deliberately-thin diplomacy… Wealth today is being concentrated as the means for future population control.

Peak Oil, peak metals extraction, peak currency creation, peak extinctions... It is a battle contained to a nook within our thoughts, playing out the drama for the rest of our creations to live by. The opulence now available within the species will not travel well for seven billion: and yet we all want to know its taste, and fill our cupboard by it. There is a saying in some think-tank circles across Canada which arose from the universal-health-care debate several years back: 'If you kill it, it will die.' Which surely feels like the solution for an economic situation whose conclusion is invariably falling upon us. It is a terribly optimistic course of action. And I do emphasize terribly. If we look to the future with any anticipation and authenticity, we await the opportunity to forgive ourselves, smelting down every grail in hope of starting-over.

{ source: from a contrary point of view }

Certainly we would all have our cake and eat it too: we would have unending riches and comfort pinned to ever-less work, but that truly involves cooperation. Even with the cosmos. And especially with the seasonality of the given things before us... Insider-Trading is a form of cooperation, but more so it is a confession of bitterness and childishness, as if Cake were not a thing for sharing - let alone gratitude. And those-without-cake(!) must have inherently never deserved to experience cake in the first place. Not a crumb. But such thinking is again Our Situation - when given a voice. Such is the inevitability of classism, which is the inevitability of constant-growth.

Which brings then four levels of confidence to mind, of which Growth Economics speak to these lower and lesser expressions: supplicant, combative, competitive, and finally, Cooperative. Each creates the next as we mature, and, given our Situation, we either progress through these stages toward the pinnacle of cooperation, or we stagnate or stalemate-ourselves within one of these steps. Those fine-and-good with this system grow comfortable into their competitions and their combats; happy to find supplicants, ridiculing the Cooperative.

The thing I find most curious about human Life is that we can observe from deep-down when we can be doing better. There is something about the inherent stubbornness tucked inside a bitter gesture which tells me so, and I believe growth-economics to be a very large, and very bitter, gesture. Hence its appeal: it does satisfy many an amazing thing - landing on Mars, say, or the will to conquer having known what it is to be divided - but again, the overall system offers no Return. Our investments offer a return (on paper), but rarely to the ecology which issues forth our current level of prosperity (not to mention the paper). It would be akin to selfish love-making, the supplanting of an exercise which might otherwise reveal much more beauty and soul. And so this way of living is condensing the pleasures we might also and otherwise find in the future.

Is such a system Creative? Quite possibly. Divine: definitely no. In spite of its architects. It is busy work, and not our Best. If we have the audacity to label our own human lives sentient and the endless black matters standing between one another and up to the planets not-so: what grants us that authority? Where does this power to self-author come from? It strikes me that matter itself is intelligent - that the light which passes through a thing, holding a thing together is where the ingredients for an idea discover themselves thriving - and our good chances are to have had us born with some fine sense to see them(!) Will we monetize this too? Moreover: have we not already..?

Courage, is simply to do the right thing then. True and authentic growth is to see that One is not alone; that any thought new-to-you came from circumstance, and from the same set of circumstances which float through the ages and the cosmos. Growth economics truly skew and dampen our inner, best, and authentic sense of what-is-right and what-is-possible. It assumes a win-loose outcome within a garden where All, thrives ever by Win-Win.

Constant growth on a finite planet pits us against anything we experience as holy: our time, firstly, our creativity, our social values, and of course Nature herself... Our basic needs, rather than moving in tandem with the natural abundance of this ripe planet, are sought out against those who surround us. We assume distrust is natural and good... How contrary to the human heart(!) Bound to the system which organizes us, we are simultaneously divided by it. By such is war made inevitable, and all the peace protests in the world spell out m-i-s-d-i-r-e-c-t-e-d e-n-e-r-g-y.

Our focus would serve such "lofty" goals better if focused instead on monetary policy and not the missiles… as money gets a thing done… The rules to our wealth are simply out-dated and in need of reckoning. "The Russians Love Their Children Too," so let us get on with it. Let us sharpen our focus onto the root causation of our many issues; let us learn the current set of rules to the currency which binds us, and let us play afterwards quite differently. You and I, are overdue for a Return to the Garden.

Welcome to:

www.thebookofgardens.com

~ A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth ~

UN Report Says Small Scale Organic Farming is the only way to Feed the World

2013-12-18T15:00:00.002-08:00

Well the ole say 'better late than never' comes to mind. In terms of health & happiness this decision certainly points toward a brighter future. Happy Reading:

http://www.technologywater.com/post/69995394390/un-report-says-small-scale-organic-farming-only-way-to

Close To The Heart There Are No Obstacles.

2012-08-09T12:33:00.001-07:00

Ben Capozzi

This has been a year of surprises. Opening always to change, listening always deeper for change, knowing the direction I take is truly now impossible to be forced - old trick! - but discovered, through appreciation and listening. Closely: I find daily patience.

Close to the heart there are no obstacles.

The farther we stray from the heart, the more obstacles we will find, and life will feel difficult.

I am learning to not follow these strains... naming them either as triumphs, ambition, or careerist-success; or, as the necessary 'have to's.' Success is contentment. It is the sigh alone, upon the moment we complete a thing. And to follow success only - to be lead by that sighed sensibility - is to find that there is no burden near the heart: that place where we feel our radiant best. When I reside near that heart, appreciative of my own very life, that alone is the compass by which I discover: community, friendship, honesty, trust, wonder, joy, welcome forthrightness... forgiveness coupled to love, the shared tears which are all of the above through the lens simply of another and others. We all move together so. And we all wish to do so, always more thoroughly - deeply.

◊ ◊ ◊

I Ching Trigram Study

Writing is a collected set of wrapped presents - words - which give life to others. Writing is, and is not, sharing that immediate 'thing' before you: It is to share that-thing and of-yourself toward your own benefit absolutely last. Words are like blood, or money: no one owns either, truly: we all use them temporarily. By such light, words themselves are the last vestiges of The Commons, flowing unhinged between us all. The day we monetize words alone - and I regret to say that we are not above such crazy sub-division - is the same day stupidity makes itself a visible entity and truly catches up to us - and keeps pace! - and stares us into the face.

Likely, there will be no such decree of monetizing words, but I think there will be a time soon - full - when we take that second glance, that long look as if the sun did something different, and from this changed light see all things new.

Our monetized psyche of today has the opportunity to change.

◊ ◊ ◊

Writing is blood, writing is money, but never is writing blood-money. It has been a true freedom for me. I think it is the most precious thing I partake of (next to shared food, and the sparkle in the Others eye as we eat). Writing is where I feel a sense of totality - where I understand I can be of best use in this life. Words have been my study in many forms: theatre, poetry, reading avidly...

Kuan Yin

when honest - at rest -
knowing this here me a riverbed

which over words and ideas

are shared, borrowed flowing

long enough to bend their

shape, their arrangement

words the water

eyes clear through

skyward: I write,

I write, I write

Please Visit:

The Book of Gardens:

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

The Commons & Common Sense - mid-way book review

2012-07-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

Charles Eisenstein's "Sacred Economics," continues to be an excellent read. It provided great thinking-backdrop during the perma-culture internship I join earlier this year, aiding to personalise and deepen for me the cultural shift taking place on our sweet globe. His words inspire and coordinate otherwise random bits of information from having mere subtle connections, into a pleasant, deeply sober, and obvious whole.

I'm approaching the end, and, anticipating no disappointment, allow me to share some of my insights which I've been enjoying mulling over.

Courtesy of Eisenstein, I've been thinking a lot about 'The Commons,' and I've made parallel to that, Common Sense. The Commons, foremost related to land; and since the inception of 'property,' whatever was once freely roamed upon becomes guarded, gated, and fenced; protected by law. Eisenstein very graciously demonstrates that once something becomes a privilege for one - person or entity - it turns into a place of lack for the rest. "Gated Communities," is a phrase which more correctly falls into a real estate lexicon than one of a cultural, person to person exchange. As the economy 'grows,' that is, diversifies its activities and areas it occupies, what is common to existence (land, songs, access to water and food) shrinks. 'Access,' here, is key: access to land being the obvious example, and access to our (collective) psyche being the subtle.

So looking now to our day to day thinking, once something is removed from the Commons, becoming someones possession, it is also distanced, if not removed, from common sense. We suddenly need "experts." We quite strangely loose confidence to take on any task other than the one our "speciality" gives us. If you've ever experienced something akin to, "oh the drain is plugged, I had best call a plumber" in a big sort of panic, I'd like to suggest that the underlying feeling is one of scarcity - as the solution is probably within the reach of a $20 wrench. As what is Common dissolves, the feeling of scarcity takes its place in our mind, and folks no longer seem able to think about that thing that has been removed from the commons as something that has ready access within themselves. That new 'found' possession, now 'belonging' to someone else, is lost unto our collective use. "Property," echoes Eisenstein, "is theft."

Though this does not make me very popular in various social settings, I do argue that this current recession is an exception to the otherwise 'normal' boom and bust 'growth' cycles which have defined our time over the last (drop-in-the-bucket) fifty years. Some call it the Greater Depression, and my intuition tells me to agree. Heartily. I believe we are entering such an era of renewed self-sufficiency, that our current version of economy truly does not have many legs left to throw plaster-casts and band-aids upon. I don't know what the picture is going to look like on the other side, but if natural disasters could speak, I'm sure they would happily regale in countless examples of communal troubles where people banded together. The degree to which a person can experience this shift toward greater self-sufficiency depends greatly upon where one is living. I would hasten to argue that it is much more difficult to see how vulnerable the situation is when a person is living in an urban setting: the walls carving up the commons are thick and high, I find, and generally well maintained from any encroaching plant life.

The upcoming set of troubles, are, however, human made; though earthquakes, volcanoes, and tornadoes continue to do their part. And this is why I agree to arguments which concentrate upon just how exceptional the contributing factors are in today's economic climate: The limits of paper currencies is becoming a widely published fact. As Voltaire said famously: "Paper currency always returns to its original value. That is, nothing."

But there are forces - including our own good will and worry - which can be highly stubborn to change, refusing to read the writing on the wall that exponential growth drawn from a finite resource base spells collapse: either for the thing growing, or the thing being drawn upon. It would be too easy to blame this all on government, or a secret tribe of stone masons, or corporations (who all do have a hand in this), but as anyone who has "worked for a living" is now clearly part of the story.

a Charles Eisenstein site -
CLICK HERE

The balance points of power are the places to direct ones questions, I find. The competing expectations between the Baby-Boom, GenX, and GenY are very interesting - to say the least. What is common to everyone though, is the fact that when a person is given a social insurance number and a birth certificate, they are in the eyes of our institutions an economic unit, ready for training (that is, getting 'educated'). Economic units within a version of economy demanding in its policy of exponential growth can only do one thing: seek out new civilisations, new markets, and boldly go where no one has gone before. Put more simply: pass along new inroads into the commons for further and ready consumption: 'Without others consuming the thing I possess, I will not be able to meet my own needs' - so the story goes. And the boarders now are no longer just in the physical realm... Consumption has gone quantum: We think we are on track, and remove Common Sense from the Commons at an increasing pace.

I find human fear much like the hare who easily dashes ahead of its racing partner, the tortoise, whose movements in time bring out our fondness and yearning for the salve to human fear and arrogance: none other of course than human love. Which brings me with great relief to the subject of Mindfulness.

I think Mindfulness has such an important role in creating a permanent culture as each our individual thinking marks the forefront of the 'crusade' for cultural (and inner) peace. Things move differently within our hearts than in our brains, but both organs are rooted to the movement of thought. It does not matter where I travel, nor how remote nor public a setting I find myself in: so long as the majority of people are subject to a currency whose growth depends upon increasing levels of indebtedness, the more deeply are wedges into our commonalities permitted to move: our Commons, our common sense, finds less ground to stand upon as it shifts apart below us, though in our nature we wish to live in accord with the preferred state of love and peace.

Love, in this light, can simply refer to our ability to relax into each others' company; which is difficult to do when our currency is host to the inherent suggestion that our needs are separate. Truly: here I am out in the woods, and the human ego around here is just as panicked as it is at the heart of any downtown core: Just as panicked to meet its needs, in as deep a battle against the increasing and literal scarcity, impending doom breathing down the back of ones neck. And of course it is. It is a doozie of a collective situation, and there is no other place to 'hide' other than delusion: we are invited daily into a tea party for seven billion. Seven billion economic units scouring the planet to meet our 'individual' needs. A credit must be given to those practicing perma-culture, in that the preservation of food knowledge, of soil health, and efficient water usage is at the core of its intent.

Without planting the seeds of Mindfulness though, I find that the headlong race of consumption finds little rest or respite. ... And I suppose my question, still, is along these lines: What limit will be surpassed before we culturally act any differently, rediscovering and rebuilding the bridges between our needs and our nature? When will we find pause to listen? If this cannot take place on a mountainside acreage... if not now, then...?

To be continued :)

On Children...

2012-05-03T21:17:00.003-07:00

I've been enjoying the company of the children of my friends quite a bit lately, and still find myself holding true to not wanting any of "my own." Usually, the 7B population argument wins me over, though I'm finding my heart in 'continuous-break' cycle when granted an audience of the 'miniature variety.'

Kids take to me. I'm big. I'm friendly. I lift them up onto my shoulders... They make fun of me. I make fun of them... and I find I am simply fascinated to watch a mind being fascinated - as children can only do.

Aside from the population argument, I think there is also a social argument for holding off on the urge to reproduce. So many of our long-standing social contracts are in great transition today (witness a baby boomer, a genXer, and gen-Y in the same room...) and certainly the social contract between men and women is of no exception. While driving back to BC today, I thought I'd catch some of my musings 'on tape,' and I later paired it with a video of me walking from a few years back. The video is 4:38, in length. Enjoy!

--> Or View Here on YouTube <--

I may be self identifying my age in this video. The attraction stage is where my argument points. It seems we rely on this stage to carry us through a relationship, through into a happily-ever-after state of being. I think anyone in a long standing partnership would be the first to laugh at such an idea - and laugh the loudest. Simply, I hope this gender-fuelled dialogue could aim toward things like reflexive listening or generative discourse, not simply staying in 'talking nice,' or 'talking tough.'

Generative Discourse in relationship is very much like a dream for me. I simply have a difficult time following social scripts, for better or for worse. I have difficulty believing 'talking nice,' when I know full wall that 'talking tough' is right below the surface. I have very little to fight about in relationship, and so moving into reflexive listening (also reflective l.) for me comes readily. Yet this never seems to satisfy. It seems people do not trust a partnership unless you fight. And fight. And fight. And fight.

If that were true - that one needs to fight to gain the health of a relationship - then why so high a divorce rate? Is this truly successful strategy? What are other ways available to us to learn of a person's personal boundaries...?

So I'd like to suggest that the quality of the 'fighting' needs attention. Usually when disagreement rises, the assumption comes to the fore that the relationship is soon to end - as if there were only two options: fight until the other submits, or, abandon ship. It just strikes me that somewhere along the way, we've lost the skill set of relating for the long haul.

This bachelor, for one, is not going to stop looking, nor asking, for the quality of interchange I desire, no matter how long it takes to develop.

Cheers all & thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the video! And I look forward to you're feedback and insight on this topic.

... And I decide the Sea.

2012-05-01T11:34:00.002-07:00

Taking a break from my Perma-culture Internship, I headed to Victoria. Over an incredible salmon-eggs-Benny at the Chateau Victoria, I noticed a few ships in the harbour: the exact kind I had sailed upon during Jr. High, aboard the SALTS program. I had a few hours to spare, so I grabbed my camera to get up close again to these two-masted beauties, knowing full-well how 'the Ship,' has become a central metaphor for my understanding of the human psyche.

I discovered Dr. Paul Debransky's "Mind OS" system several years ago now, and have found his visual model extremely useful in navigating not only the day-to-day, but also for making large decisions. In time, I recognised a parallel between his three axes, and how a ship operates.

The emotions, I parallel to the mast and sails of the ship: some emotions fly above you, out of control, others come from way below, travelling vertical and downwards through our body. At the extremes of the scale, elation and depression alone denote this vertical movement. Standing on the mid-deck, though, one has a sense of security, of happiness and well being. Dr. Paul goes into tremendous detail on the two emotional spectra, positive and negative, so I find here the double mast ships to reflect which 'pole' one can be gravitating toward.

I believe I was all of fourteen years old on this sailing voyage, and I spent most (if not all) my spare time in the Robin's nest; and getting up there was an enjoyable challenge. We would tie a rope around our waist - having studied all kinds of knots - and clip ourselves onto the rope-ladder with each step until we climbed to the top. For some odd reason, I was the only one who really enjoyed it up there... I remember - so clearly - seeing a seal, far into the distance: The afternoon was sunny, and I sent out my imagination for miles and nautical miles upon all the diamonds... conjured up by wind and sunlight sparkling on the sea(!) It was perhaps one of my earliest experiences in a very consciously chosen Mindfulness state....

As I took this picture of the mast, I was thinking of how tangled a person can become, navigating the emotions we are all sway to, and I remember clearly, also, falling near-dead asleep below in the bunks. My assigned bunk was right foremost into the bow of the boat, so it was very dark and isolated. I had to crawl over one bed through a narrow opening, sleeping right at the that front tip in the bow, just below the deck, where gracefully I was rocked to sleep each night by the living ocean. I learned of bioluminescence on night watch, and funnily, it was my principle whose bunk I had to crawl through to get to mine!

This 'nap,' had me out like a light for the better part of the afternoon. I missed lunch, and upon waking I had an incredible headache - probably one of my first migraines - and crawling out from the dark recess took a seeming eternity. I had missed an on-board class too, which I believe cost me the end exam... I was having such trouble in school that year, and though I failed the section on 'Sea-Faring Right-of-Way,' I still passed, and the overall experience continues to prove both memorable and formative. How interesting: my elation in the Robin's Nest, and how terrible my mind having extended my time "below."

◊◊◊

Later, returning to the Chateau, I discovered a whale tour with this incredible jaw-bone: also a reminder of how our imagination can intensify emotions. Through Mindfulness meditation, we can understand and harness that exact energy to befriend emotion, and the emotion in others, avoiding Gilligan's "three hour tour."

I am an advocate for Marshall Rosenberg's 'Non-Violent Communication,' whose content is better reflected in the title "Compassionate Communication." As emotion, when recognised, isn't as scary as we might otherwise imagine.

◊◊◊

The intellect, I parallel to the oars of a boat. On these particular ships, there are no oars. Life-boats, yes, but a complete dearth of Viking action. Dr. Paul calls the complimentary halves of the intellect 'book smarts,' and 'street smarts.' I found that the side-to-side - steering - aspect of the ship mirrors this movement: at some point the 'people' on one side of the boat are going to over-power the people on the other side, and so too with your knowledge. Sometimes you'll need hard facts to navigate what lies before you, and at other times you'll need a clear, more intuitive sense for the situation at hand. When both sides are rowing in tandem, one has a feeling of control, or, as Dr. Paul suggests, of success.

Finally, I parallel Dr. Paul's decision making with the length of the ship, the keel from bow to stern: consciousness is out in front of us, while our intuition speaks to us from behind - sometimes each at a distance. The balance point between the two, Dr. Paul claims as being wisdom.

Each balance point on each of the three axes arrives at a common central point. Balanced emotions bring us happiness, a balanced intellect (or perspective) moves us toward success, and any balanced decision enhances our wisdom.

Happiness, Success, and Wisdom: each then are we captain of our own vessel. Standing upon the ship-deck, centred, we are able to navigate our lives effectively. I captured it once in a poem to a now former lover:

decisions: the keel

sails: the emotions

oars: to know the water

and understand the waves

three axes, intersect finely above deck

in the mind of the shipwright

...

The title of this blog post derives from a different poem I wrote in my "Book of Gardens: I Ching inspired Eco-Theology," based on hexagram number 60, "Regulation." Regulation is a time described within I Ching of finding "joy within danger," which I find to be a fine metaphor for the day-to-day. Conscious awareness of one's own emotions - top to bottom - while navigating the world of emotions in others is clearly one of the giant joys in life - if one chooses it as joy. Certainly this day to wander downtown Victoria brought out much much elation, well harboured in my memory.

Dr. Paul Debransky is a very eloquent speaker and writer, and his years in the psychology profession have brought him to a place of very mature compassion. I have listened to him speak on pod casts countless times, until his visual model embedded itself into my daily knowing. I highly recommend his work, and it is tailored for Men. As I wandered along the Victoria Harbour, I felt so elated about the things I have learned thus far in life. I spoke to some of the youngsters about to depart on their first sea-faring trip, to let them know such an adventure was a true highlight of my life.

It was wonderful to have that elation overtake me again. I am amazed at just how completely 'the Ship' continues to resonate with me.

Children...

2012-04-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Call me slow, but I think I get it now. Despite all the stats on divorce and the effects of a new child upon a marital-like union... the right attention and love determines the growth of a thing: puppy, plants, and of course, people.

Perhaps it is this valley I am in currently, but I have been paying closer attention to examples of parenting and family which are giving my 'everything-in-its-place' bachelor mentality a gentle run for its money. ... I am 6'2" and 39 so fat chance it will catch up with me, but nevertheless...

Just this weekend I was befriended by a long time friend's six year old, and I am looking forward to playing lego's, colouring, and reading with her again.

It is truly special how these other lives ask only (and always) for our loving kindness.

Why I Love Chris Martenson

2012-03-31T19:30:00.001-07:00

On the subject of adaptivity I find author and economist Chris Martenson to be such a satisfaction to read. He writes so eloquently on the subject of currencies, one is left to wonder just how deeply his advice and wisdom runs. For example: below, though he is speaking on the subject of gold, I find his insight to be directly applicable to All Things Indigo, and Mindfulness.

www.chrismartenson.com

"When a strong emotional response surfaces during a conversation of ideas, it usually means that beliefs are in play -- neither facts nor logic. Experience has taught me that when someone becomes dismissive or angry or hostile when [an] idea [of price manipulation] is discussed, it's best to simply drop the conversation and move on. No combination of logic or facts is effective against a deeply-held belief. It's better to wait until some new evidence calls that belief into question, opening the door for revisiting the topic."

Money issues and macro economics aside: I love this.

In following his pod-casts, I am encouraged by Chris Martenson's ability to "move on," which, I think, may truly be the lesson of passion: moving-on brings ones passion back into ones self, reinvesting at the source.

Having sought a Mindfulness practise for years, having engaged in the arts from a point of Mindfulness for many years more, I have learned nothing other than our personality is truly the most flexible thing about us.

This may be an easy thing to accommodate intellectually, but emotionally, acceptance of this is a completely different task, as emotions are embodied upon the instant. Under the heat of emotionality, our personality is - today - often the first thing stood upon to mark our point of view. It most especially is the thing we stand upon to lesson the stance of our perceived opponent when our lesser defences are in full swing.

"Already Gorgeous"

I find such, unfortunate, as it appears to be fast becoming our foremost exchange of social currency. In a phrase: reality TV. The split between 'good' and 'evil' seems to have split widely into two very distinct camps, notably so in the last ten years. I loathe to dip into the territory of conspiracy, but allow me to say that under this umbrella of viewing each other, we become much like a horse with blinders. The horizon we perceive within each other is much narrowed. Worse, our own goals are decreased in their success as we cut ourselves off from our best and finest resource: each other.

From this, I find any - if not all - assessments of character to be only a cheap form of currency; borrowing from Martenson, akin to a paper currency which is so readily (instantly) made available. Deeper analysis of anyone's behaviour need move beyond the surface, which in my experience involves self examination.

photo credit

Inside questions and statement as, 'Why would so-and-so DO such a thing?' or, 'People like that are so untrustworthy/selfish/deceitful/lesser-than-me, etc,' I find that the seeming riddle unravels from asking oneself 'If I were to behave as such... WHY would I have done so?'

The latter is in my opinion much more fruitful. Truly. Especially in terms of developing our social values, like compassion.

It is not a dream, not an impossibility: compassion, as its base and core, is self development. A different kind of Mind.

So here is a test: in the article I've linked to above, replace 'gold' with anything that is of dearest value to you - perhaps even, dare I say, your Self. Read the article from this point of view, and I would most welcome your input to the All Things Indigo conversation: If Self is but a belief ... where then does the action of Mindfulness begin?

By such I am convinced Mindfulness may grow into a virtue on no less a scale as patience.

No Mumbo Jumbo

2012-03-25T22:48:00.001-07:00

Under All Things Indigo, let's briefly take a look at the nature of social activism.

There are numerous immediate ways we can all be good citizens, intrinsically: being kind to service people like waitresses and cashiers, for example. If they're having a rough day, trying to put themselves through university, it costs nothing to give them a friendly smile and a bit of pleasant conversation.

Extrinsically, by comparison, there are countless very large issues at play today. Getting involved invites us to take these smaller intrinsic actions of Mindfulness into the world at large.

photo credit

I had the pleasure of joining in at the Keep Jumbo Wild vigil in Nelson BC this evening. I've been following this issue for over a decade, and kudos really must be given to the local EcoSociety on this one. Coming in from Alberta, over the years I have seen numerous "I *heart* Jumbo" buttons, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and even wooden signs hanging on doors throughout Calgary. Pretty impressive, considering how much money flows through Calgary, and how avid the average person is about skiing.

For those just entering the loop, various levels of government just approved a 5000+ room hotel to go into Jumbo Glacier: An area know for its grizzly bear populations, and - surprise - glaciers. The road alone will cost 250M to construct, and French investment (backed by the French government) is currently raising 450M for the project. Just under the umbrella of peak oil alone, this is one crappy investment, and creating a mega-project in the midst of a glacial field is simply bad taste. Supplying the future energy needs to this massive structure - for any investor keeping current to peak oil issues - is blindly catastrophic for their pocketbook...without it being lined with our tax dollars, of course. Unless the design has a serious off-grid strategy, one simply has to ask: who, in fifty years time, will be able to afford to go there?

At the close of the meeting, the EcoSociety president postulated that the French people will be rather upset to learn that their tax dollars will be going toward a mega-project as this, which will surely evict one of the grizzlies last habitat strongholds on the planet. And as for the fresh-water issues this project touches upon... The EcoSociety is looking for support toward the films in production currently (being made in French) which they wish to circulate globally, notably in France.

photo credit

This hotel is in my opinion simply a fine example of short-sighted-ness on the behalf of big money. Yes, the project will create jobs, but it does not address the countless list of pressing social issues facing our species today. In the face of rising energy costs and increasing resource scarcity - namely oil - the cost to maintain the road alone is something no tax-payer will be wanting to inherit. ... Which is the general pattern with such projects: government money helps to fund the project, and the tax-payer pays the bills afterwards, especially if there are problems, which in this case will likely include routine and preemptive avalanche maintenance. I wish we were using this wonderful resource - oil - with greater prudence, or any prudence, and I could use your help.

The questions brought up at the candle-light vigil were great. At a time when our social needs of education, health care, and pension obligations are experiencing remarkable pressure, why would any of us be interested in this project going through? Teachers, Doctors, and Baby Boomers all have a stake in this project, and I am not speaking of its recreational potential. If your classes and waiting rooms have been at capacity for the bulk of your career, and/or if you have felt a squeeze on your retirement savings, now is the best time to get involved with making a public appeal on issues like these. We may be able to print as much paper money as we want, but mother nature is like good wine or soup, which takes time to cure.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/bc/news/bc-081103-jumbo-glacier-poll.pdf

So I wonder if being kind to service people is enough, frankly, given the ripe and ready climate of issues we are all facing today. After repeated polls like the one above, is it not clear that we have a governmental system/elite which is not listening - not adhering to the democratic principles we believe ourselves to be living by?

{ MLA Michell Mungall's Open letter to Nelson/Creston Constituents. }

I respect that these larger issues can generate fear and anxiety when looked upon for the first time. I also need respect that we develop our activism muscles one action at a time, at whatever juncture within ourselves we make room for. I do think, though, that we are indeed rooted into the infinite (just as the native elders speaking at the vigil explained, offering tobacco this evening) and following on such, we then have infinite capacity for action. I think the invitation on such issues is clear, and to do the right thing is equally clear. Our ideas of economy are going to change - are in process of changing - and the exercising of social responsibility is going to be a muscle-group each of us is going to have to tend too, ever increasingly as we proceed into our near - and collective - future.

Please share with me your thoughts and opinions - especially if you believe I am in the wrong, as I would welcome your insight.

Conscious Decisions - A RANT.

2012-03-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

Those of you well familiar with this process may well wish to pass this article along to those... less familiar with conscious-based decision making, and read on for pure enjoyment. I do think we are passing through a time, though, where self-centeredness is up for question, and those who would prefer their personal pain are being left out to the open to dry. They feel the change upon them acutely, as the rest of us move into Change.

What do I mean by that? Well...

We're at a time when the idea of economic security is changing rapidly. How the balance of power swings is already interesting, and I think it is going to get a lot more interesting very soon. As Victor Frankyl said: "The best of us didn't come back," and I can't help but wonder what aspects of culture are going to thrive, and which other ones will not. We can observe Change on all its levels, hermeneutically if you will: personally, interpersonally, and societally, simultaneous to any given juncture in our experience.

North America has been 'on top' for quite some time. Mark Carney only last month said something akin to "We need to get used to the idea that our neighbours to the South may not recover for a very long time." To translate: the US$ is no long the reserve currency of the world. It just needs to be made official. Somehow.

photo credit

Whether the BRIC makes this official, or the US, or the complete collapse of paper currency, isn't really of concern here. Propping up Greece's debt with more debt, creates, well, debt. The end. The question I'm pursuing is: what does this mean for you? and, are you preparing?

Parallel to this, is that nasty Peak Oil thing, playing itself out in the background for the last forty years. That we are only just beginning to make the Green Collar Economy at the height of peak oil production, is probably a strong indicator of how well prepared we are to alter which currency we refer to as a benchmark in the coming years, ie: we'll probably wait until we have to panic, cry foul play, and then indulge in victimhood stories for decades.

Not pretty.

For my money, it comes back to a question of VALUE. What, do you value - intrinsically - and have you actually examined this? Or, are you sway to unconscious swings and "surprise" motivations? I call such impulsivity no less than personal pain. That unsightly 'forgetting' which our consumer culture encourages.

For example, one person I recently met, by her own words, sat idle in a marriage of 16 years until she accepted that her husband was most likely homosexual and that her needs were deeply mis-satisfied. My question for anyone in a similar situation is: do you really need to commit adultery before you acknowledge your own needs? Is this best-strategy of self-discovery, and bringing new people - new information - into your life? ... Obviously not: however, the example illustrates the lengths a person can go in allowing less than conscious decisions to be at the helm of ones thinking.

photo credit

The emasculation of men is by no means an end-goal of self esteem; rather, I think it a terrific route to full blown sex addiction. ... But perhaps, dear feminists, these points deserve posts unto themselves: I am not making a gender claim here, as the social contract between men and women is of great concern to me. And that said... I would love to meet a Babe In Total Control of Herself... but am not convinced I have yet.

Under All Things Indigo, what is disturbing me greatly in our predicament today, is the over-abundant availability of spiritual teaching. Some of it is good, and, naturally, I rely upon select authors myself. Though I am not Christian, I believe there is a prophecy or two about "false teachers arising in abundance near The End," which I respect and even admire. What exactly we're at the end of is up for debate, but I think there is something in such prophecy to the abundance of watered-down-crap out there on the subject of spirituality (especially Taoism!!) which, frankly, is used as a way to further mask an authentic dialogue with oneself and others, rather than uncover and deepen. Hence this posting here: Mindfulness as Action

Let's just say, Oblivion is Not Enlightenment, and it strikes me that the current bulk of economic activity would much rather keep us seemingly happy on the oblivion side of this equation.

"Education appears to be the thing
that enables a man to get along
without the use of his intelligence."
GB. Shaw.

Our minds are like sponges all through the life span - not just as children. We constantly model. By being wary of "education," (how and what we learn) you may have a chance at finding intelligence - whatever your educational goals happen to be. Our underlying needs - our dialogue with our self - is a really difficult thing for North Americans. I am speculating that we are just so used to 'being on top,' that attending to our needs hasn't really been of dire concern. But we've ran out of land: We've ran out of indigenous territory (and peoples) to exploit. (Damn hey, if only the Earth was flat!) And our paper currency had best get on with putting a green stripe into its legislation, or otherwise tear itself up and move out of the way for mother nature to take back all of her crusted-up, paved-over body: And as individuals, we are either making daily choices to move back into an accord with Her, or we're lost in our heads trying to live some other man's dream.

Which brings me back to this person I met recently. Given the rising economic transition we are in, given peak oil is at its height, and given also the baby boom trying to retire... given all these massive pressures upon the way we have been organising ourselves, I believe that using ones inner values as a compass to be best-method: Actual embodiment of ones ideas is going to cost something. ...Continuing to hide out in a pre-fab tool shed of products made cheaply in China is no way to forge ones future... China, always a fine subject unto itself, is in such an enviable spot: they have the means of production - period - they have the willing labour - period - they've been buying up American gold - period - and they work @$#!ing hard... economically I say: well played China! (See my profile to the right;)

A bourgeois ethic, on the other hand, is a bourgeois ethic. Chick-flik libertarianism is but a doe in the headlights. And anyone who has played 'Buck Hunter' even once... well... you know what comes next.

Cheers.
- P.

Please visit my other blogs for interesting articles and how-to videos:

http://phils-natural-building.blogspot.ca/

http://i-ching-guidance.blogspot.ca/

www.sta-sis-arts.com

Non-Denominational-Meditation Instructions - Part I.

2012-03-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

The first few years introducing myself to meditation involved a lot of sleeping in chairs. I was always so disappointed with myself when this happened, but in time I came to view it as a natural part of gaining "stamina" inside of a meditative awareness. It shocked me how I could come to a class full-of-beans, full of piss-and-vinegar, or just plain full-of... gas, and be out like a light in the first minute. I attribute this to a couple of things now: having sincere teachers, and my own sincere desire to learn about meditation.

I hold the popular view that the first step of meditation is "to sit." ... Big deal, certainly, but to do only that - to only sit - is actually quite challenging, as our wonderful brains are so very well equipped to accomplish things and stuff. However, take faith that your mind can attend to all those things it needs to - and the stuff - LATER.

For now: sit.

Say whatever you need to say to yourself to welcome you onto the chair/floor/mat/etc, like "clear your mind," or, the dreaded "relax..." or, "shhh..." Repeat, as much as you like.

I call this "walking over the bridge, heading to the door."

Photo Credit

Travelling into your instruction (clear the mind, relax, shh, etc), all kinds of thinking will arise. Each item will want to hold your attention: "go to the store, buy things, write an email, don't forget, beware, I hate so-and-so, my life is super..."

If you divert an attention to the physical energy fuelling these arising items, you'll soon notice that the energy has a similar force between each of them - if not outright identical - regardless of the subject matter.

Continuing to discover thinking in terms of physical energy,

thoughts themselves begin to ring out less loudly,

less audibly, as if fading away.

I call this: "the door comes into view."

◊◊◊

Photo Credit

Continue "viewing," "the door." And as the thinking continues to subside, please know that there is the pitfall of thinking "Eureka! I'm enlightened." ... Well... I have some news for you... Simply gaining an awareness of the energy which thinking consumes, is a great beginning. :) It is a delicate skill which can vanish from your life in a heartbeat regardless of how long you have practised.

The quality of your energy is not necessarily relevant at this juncture. People experience all kinds of emotions after they begin sitting and the stirring thoughts start to relax and loosen. Don't worry about this for now - we'll save that for Part II. For now, just focus at how your mind is capable and ready for thinking. That's all you need to do. Keep it physical, and keep it real: I am not going to teach you how to levitate into the clouds and live happily ever after on the moon. I promise...

( ...Okay, maybe later ... ;)

Photo Credit

Thinking itself, is of course not bad. Thinking is merely one way we accomplish 'things and stuff.' Thinking, is the way I created this blog post, yet my intention, is that I want very much for people to be able to exercise the meditative mind in a very technical way, and then develop a stamina for this quality of mind.

How you personally apply the technique to your life is your own business and pleasure, and I would be most happy to hear of how you are doing.

Aware of the thinking energy, viewing the door, now how do we go in...

Well... this is where I would usually fall asleep(!)

Captivated by the physical energy of thinking, and, as is common, held captive by my thinking, I was actually quite weak to hold any attention and concentration upon Mindfulness without having some voice or coaching to keep me moving along through life... That is, with the babble subsiding, my mind needed a serious break(!) After quite some time of giving myself this break routinely, slowly I began to develop Concentration, and slowly after that, Insight. But these are topics for much later posts, and I look forward to sharing them with you then :)

There is a popular expression in the business of salvaging and re-purposing (using scrap materials to create new functional things) which goes something like this:

sometimes a door is a bench...

Indeed: some old doors make the finest and most interesting places to sit.

Photo Credit

In Part II we'll discover

"opening the door."

Much love to you,

www.sta-sis-arts.com

Troubled?

2012-03-21T13:13:00.001-07:00

photo credit

The washing machine switches to "Tumble" when inspiration strikes this morning. I was thinking back to all the different spiritual communities I've wandered through, remembering the steps along the way in coming to terms with just how 'troubled' people seemed to appear in these communities.

I had the grace fairly early in life to have walked through some interesting social circles in the theatre world, and strangely, I often came across a distaste for spiritual pursuits there. Certainly the theatre is a sect unto its own, and I respect fully how each person has the power of choice in finding their own brand of wisdom.

Truly, I do.

What fascinated me most were the tinges of hostility in people's voices on subjects of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and religion. Since the 90's we've grown considerably in our cultural predisposition, but I find this hostility persistent, and, given the natural tenaciousness with which the average person pursues a career in theatre and art, I find this a little, well, let's say... confusing. On one hand, the pursuit of theatre art is the holy grail to drink from and transform our culture's woes; and on the other, any curiosity toward something outside of ones preferred control becomes an influence dangerous, and almost demonic.

Certainly one can exhaust oneself quickly chasing every health fad, fabrication, or fact which tumbles onto the market. One can create more problems inside oneself than what may actually exist, and I think it is this self-haggared-ness which those outside of spiritual circles react to in a negative way - naturally - faulting a person's 'personality,' prior to investigating the person's pursuit.

I think the 'troubled' factor which appears in spiritual community would be more properly named as disillusionment. At some point - and of this I do have complete, er, faith - every person will experience a total and complete rift with their way of life. The entry point will be completely unique for everyone: economy, physical health, the death of a loved one, social habituation, a memory... or just plain-ole-curiosity for what may lay elsewhere.

photo credit here

In the presence of such a person in throws of disillusionment, naturally, the arising discomfort becomes shared. Each to their own, and each to their own success, I say. But what fascinates me to no end is that hostility... I find this no different than the unfortunate chicken who started to bleed amongst her fellow chickens, for which panic and mayhem abound at the sight of blood. Humans, thinking ourselves civilised, likewise compound the shame of the questioning mind when one of us should touch upon a little (naturally occurring) pain.

I am not an advocate for needless suffering. I am, however, an advocate of finding facts, and if this hostility is in actual fact a frustration of not knowing how to best help - let's call it that, lest we appear - and become - prejudiced. I have yet to find a person who can tell me exactly what the heck is going on here on this fine planet, what we're doing, why blue is blue, why we breathe, why are the planets zipping around in circles, or why a squirrel chirps and the robin sings(!) ... I enjoy all these things. But the notion of 'expertise' is to me a thing anyone can purchase.

photo credit here... :)

Yes we've made all kinds of wonderous technological gadgets, interesting shelters, bizarre agricultural methods, have landed on the moon, and circulated MacBooks across the globe and put one into my lap... That all took ingenuity, patience, and skill. Yet I do not find our busyness to be bringing us any closer to pulling back the face of this thing called Life, that we may finally see its true face.

This... consequently... makes me a poet.

All the way into the centre of my heart, I speak a different language. I see differently, and have always seen differently. If I did not have seventeen questions behind my eyes at all times, maybe I would have gone into today's professional sciences, earned a high paying salary, got that picket-fence-and-spouse combo, and just not have worried about any of this... but I didn't. And with every passing day, I accept further:

I couldn't.

The Chinese have a saying that, once you are thirty, "you are ready to walk." And once you are forty, "no one can fool you anymore." ... This week, I turn 39.

Rudolf Steiner predicted we would need spiritual scientists one day here in the West. He also predicted that a new religion would begin in the western provinces of Canada. I do not claim myself to have any standing to initiate such, yet I believe that day is here upon us - Ekhart Tolle being a fine example. Yes, we have had monks and nuns, and Henry David Thoreau's. Yes, we have had Einsteins and Glenn Goulds and Mother Teresas... But what about the everyday... What about you and I?

Jasper National Park, Canada. www.sta-sis-arts.com

I have never been naturally dazzled by Things. Trees however, strike me as a complete puzzle. Sunlight after rain. Wind upon the Lake. Fire underneath the mountain. The idea of dragons... Fog hanging low in a valley. ... I count myself lucky to be single, unhinged, and as of today unemployed(!) Divorce is 70%. I have met more single parents and lost divorcees than parenting couples. I have been dreadfully unhappy chasing the dollar, and I know full well I am far from alone... I have entered all of these conventional avenues with absolute full cooperation, but pleasurably, I still question, question, question... What, on earth, is going on here?! :)

As the only conclusion that has come back to me thus far, is that we're all just making it up as we go along... well then... I choose poetry(!) I choose the phenomenal shared radiance from gazing upon something until I know and feel the thing to be my brother, my ancestor, and my future. And I ask only of one thing: time to put this into words - to make "my agony sing" as Arthur Miller once said...

Outside the hills
birch-wood awaiting
the splitter, I wish you
much love to your mind
and heart.

Do We Have It Easy?

2012-03-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Paved roads everywhere; diet modification as per the fashion of the day; food whenever we want; cheap everything from China (for a little while longer) cars, phones, and pleasure, pleasure everywhere...

Don't get me wrong... I am grateful for it all. I recognise that my degree of privilege includes being critical of my privilege. However, I'd like to look at the fine balance which keeps many upon that treacherous edge of addiction and over-consumption.

It's easy to imagine a person addicted to say, buying shoes, so I'd like to take the idea of 'purchasing' a little deeper into the realm of thoughts. Imagine that each thought we create is like a kind of financial transaction, and in so doing, ask: what am I purchasing with this thought? What am I agreeing to be responsible for by following through on this 'transaction?'

"Heathrow Mindfulness..."

If you find that to be labyrinthine - don't worry - as watching ones thoughts is much like a foreign exercise. It is much different that following ones thoughts. If you have a good pot of tea nearby, I think you'll get along much farther, and it would be my hope that you experience that dreaded word - discipline - as something which is instead both gentle and loving.

Just as an example: I'm currently staying with two lovely-hearted pups in the Kootenays. Last night while trying to sleep, and again this morning, these two free spirits were joining in with the wilderness chorus: barking at birds, barking at squirrels, barking at the fog, barking at their own breath... if they were "barking for cancer" we'd have a billion dollars raised by 2pm.

Now, for my money, discipline is a stoic beauty; and airspace, is noise-space, even on the solitude of a mountaintop. To know, and love, solitude, is to hear it... One of the greatest joys I've ever known is a true and complete silence - like listening to trees breathe on a windless day - and I would listen to such a movement non-stop if I didn't have to break for tea, food, bathing, and tending to the fire. Certainly the mind is "lively," and when we match our mind to our potential (Thomas Cleary), there is something Other which moves in tandem with us.

So too with these pups. And so too with our sense of self. Mindfulness is constant abiding, standing in contrast to the over-consumptive norm. And yes, it involves a little (gentle) discipline. Where there is sentience, there lay the seeds of Mindfulness.

Discipline is that thing which guides us whether we want it to or not. Some are very disciplined in being un-disciplined. Truly! However: discipline is the rudder to the ship, the keel to the waves, the sail holding the wind, and the bow pointing toward our visions. It gives our lives form. Regardless of the knowledge that 'we are all one,' and so-forth, our bodies do travel through this time contained to our form, and needing to interact with other things of form. We are interdependent at best - for the time being - yet I would argue that our course is better-made by a little prior preparation (photo source)

One can easily argue formlessness an equal pursuit of Mindfulness. However, without a practise to support this aspect of mind - this way of observing oneself with the world - there are truly many dangers. Becoming a total blockhead, for starters, and then, falling into oblivion.

I have found one beauty which is a close second to the radiant silence of the mountainside, and that is a wonder-filled pup who knows his or her place. A pup always wishes to do the right thing. Always. Those big brown eyes looking up to us always reveal the mind of their inner-puppy, up until we give them our constant and loving guidance. If we ourselves are disciplined with them, they grow into the very things which we do feed them.

To illustrate: I once ate an entire steak at a fireside with a beautiful big black lab beside me. There were all kinds of opportunities for me to loose that steak, as I was sitting in a lawn chair, dinner in my lap. "Happy," as the pup was named, didn't budge. He never once begged: never once whined, never once hunted about for scraps. He kept me good company, and kept watch on the fire and what may have come upon us from outside the fire's circle.

Happy, was Zen.

Odin & MacKenzie

Discipline's finest, is cooperation. It is an appreciation of self, and where we might travel aboard that self. And such was that time by the fireside with Happy, a place to travel. Discipline creates an interdependence not only with each other, but also with our higher selves. Our visions for our lives are a guaranteed beauty, and when we arrive to our place, so much of that scattered liveliness simply falls away from the forefront of our minds. Our wishing and hopes see the way through any turmoil given -when given a chance to be heard - and when we stand tall upon the deck of our own sea-faring vessel, each moment asks of us for greater degrees of navigation. It is impossible to steer the ship with any confidence or safety from the crows-nest...

I see too many young people lost at sea today and my heart goes out to them, as I myself have spent many months tossed about by waves, having believed oblivion, enlightenment. Though this is clearly not the exercise of Mindfulness, such a time to wander may be necessary when one leaves a nest. Our spirit's best health needs constant tending lest we allow ourselves to sink into anything less than a pleasurable alertness; and often, the arising youth within us needs a good long walk. Death by pleasure and wonder is just as much the prison as anything, and by such I am an advocate of little daily inner housekeepings - themselves a pleasure.

These beautiful pups know that every chirp and squeak in the forest is not a true danger, but their barks say otherwise, revealing a restless state of mind. The same way coughing in the theatre can be contagious, so too do the dogs in the valley set one another off. No doubt the small pleasures feel hilarious - and certainly 'squirrel-versus-dog' is a grand way to let off steam and have a good laugh - but without being able to return to a steady presence, a mindfulness in action, we miss out on the larger, grander, pleasures to be found within our time.

Steadiness in silence has been key for me. It is so rare to find such in ourselves or in the world, but we are given one chance here, so far as I can tell: One chance in this body and mind to uncover something of true wonder for ourselves. All the forms of pleasure in the universe do not combined reveal it, and yet its invitation does not cease for our seeing it.

Kindly and with love I wish for you regular and resolute periods of great calm.

www.sta-sis-arts.com

Indigo Washing

2012-03-08T20:54:00.004-08:00

My colleague Michael and I have been in a several years long discussion on this topic. I believe we are all quite familiar with the term 'green washing,' where an endeavour of some kind tries to paint itself in a favourable and popular light by aligning itself with an environmental ethic. So too, it follows, that those aligned with a spiritual ethic can fall prey to "indigo washing."

Where in green washing, the central issue may well revolve about profitability versus what is of value, I'm going to postulate that in the case of indigo washing, the central issue is one of intimacy.

Rudolf Steiner, suggested that in time we will need "spiritual scientists," people who would be willing to put scientific and empirical rigour upon the subject and experience of spirituality. I mistakenly argue that I Ching is an empirical endeavour, as Michael has pointed out quite rightly that some people would oppose my use of empiricism in this case. So... perhaps "primitive empiricism" might due for the time being.

The complexity of this issue is that spiritual experience is open for all to take of, bask in, or neglect. ACDC, as I often say, is as much of a valid spiritual pursuit as meditation an Metallica. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and at some point, one's world view will be challenged: At some point, one's level of accomplishment, or understanding, or skill, is going to be challenged by new information and new experience, and the skin of the former attainment will be shed. Plumbers, artists, philosophers, and beggars... no one is immune.

Where I think those of us who strive to have a practice must stay alert, is whether or not we are using the practice as a mask, or if our search is genuine. And here's the trick:

At some point the practice will become a mask by necessity.

Just as an artist must have a high esteem of their own opinion - by necessity, in order to just have an opportunity to sell their work - so too must a spiritual scientist step out on a limb. The question must be asked: who is going to care about this, and why? Vulnerability, is a necessary tool, which can be difficult to appreciate regardless of which side you are on in any given moment. The method to proceed deeper and deeper into practice - or not, and to remain as one is - makes itself very pronounced by the presence or absence of discipline and attention to detail. This discipline, permits the vulnerability to find certainty, like a young writer 'finding their voice.'

Generally, after the first peak experience, a person is going to be in a sort of a vulnerable reverie for some time. I do not know enough about the use of drugs to be their advocate or opponent: I do believe, however, completely, in Life, and I believe our innate rejuvenative powers a fine place to orient a sense of faith. However, this reverie makes a lot of people nauseous. To their credit, it is difficult to be around people who are speaking on things one may have difficulty relating to, as people need - very dearly - to feel important. Amid new knowledge, those just off of the peak experience may well be using said knowledge to shield themselves from an otherwise 'mad' world. It is at those points where contention can set in. I believe we need to feel important because we have so many fundamental, potentially unanswerable, questions on our plate from the moment we are born; and from this central need, we tend to avoid reminders of the unknowns in our midst because they challenge our perception of a calm, comfortable, confidence. Conversely, by flaunting these reminders that 'all is not what it seems,' is not necessarily the best option of spreading ones personal gospel.

If we are to become a compassionate culture, I do think such situations beg the question: what does the uncomfortable behavior serve? Rigid behaviour amid contention points back to the notion of intimacy, and being able to generate meaningful discussions. The claimant of a peak experience is a call to action by presence alone, but this does not excuse the person from respecting the social mores into which they are situated. Such awkwardness, after a peak experience, generates an ensuing vulnerability abundantly. All kinds of random behaviour can follow as a means of dealing with this contention, and the potential detail and mutual learning can be swept under the nearest rug: 'being one,' or 'in pursuit of enlightenment,' or 'following abundance' are easy maxims to grab onto to either protect oneself, or dismiss someone in pursuit of these things.

But contention, like anything, cannot last. If the behavior allows a person to grow better into their well being, and garner the ability to articulate the causes of well being, then the person most likely was attending to something in their life which demanded rigor and responsible awareness.

And therein lies the key: responsibility. I think it is easy to sit upon a truth, or an identity, and consequently have its affective territory shrink over time. To take on a practice like yoga or meditation is to willingly enter something bigger than yourself, and to become an ambassador to the tradition whether one wants to or no. These practices are a "place to go," (Thomas Cleary) and by going there, to that 'place,' though one risks being vastly misunderstood, outcast, and ridiculed, if one remains true to their initial curiousity, perspective will continue to bloom - intrinsically and extrinsically.

Which is why cultural growth is difficult: who wants to risk social isolation, the dinner on their plate, the idea of gain, a career, and even the roof over their head to pursue something which may have no real guarantee? Yet any long standing artist can tell you quite quickly that to "turn your back on your bliss" (Joseph Campbell) is to essentially say no to Life.

{photo by Janet McIntyre}

Life is an invitation. Every heart beat. Every first moment of waking on every morning: The little bolt of thunder which reaches down from our skull and sends its gentle instruction to the heart to keep going, is the greatest invitation I've ever paid witness to.

I would like to recommend that the next time you have the opportunity to witness one person condemn another with the platitude 'so-and-so is just crazy,' or, 'people like that are so x-y-z...' to take a moment and reflect on that key question: what, intrinsically, is this behavior serving? Eventually, you can witness reciprocal behaviours in yourself, too. And should you find that the person to be in pain or distress of some sort, do you have the courage to ask them such? What then is the nature of compassion if not at least one part courage; and what is the cause of the behaviour which would otherwise condemn? Are not these two distinct choices linked?

These quick agreements we make - condemnations, complaints, criticisms - may well be some of the most powerful forces known to us. And as I say, I think indigo/spiritual endeavour is very much a matter of intimacy: an invitation of constant calling.

Food for thought:

Try Non-Denominational Meditation.

Green Tara

2012-03-08T14:51:00.003-08:00

I am enjoying other Mindfulness blogs here on Blogger, and there is one in particular I would like to point out:

http://upward-spiralling.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-makes-green-tara-services-unique.html#more

Each post I read affirms that Mindfulness is alive and well, and that the root of our human issues is soon to be found and plucked.

Thanks so much Julie!

All Things Indigo

Meditation is The Ultimate Bullshit Meter.

Gen X the Cross-roads. Gen Y the Fork.

Dear Mr. Gates.

More For You is Less For Me. More For Me Is....?

Meditation is key. It is the ultimate bullshit meter.

That Rainbow Connection Thing.

What The Heck is the I-Ching. (Part I)

This Way: Peace and Your Direction.

www.thebookofgardens.com

The Soft Fish Hook

“… those who know well how to live meet no tigers or wild buffaloes on their road, and come out from the battle-ground untouched by the weapons of war.” Lao Tau

Such moments are like soft fish-hooks...

The Entry & The Balance Point

Visit www.thebookofgardens.com to order a copy. Or Click Here.

Fuel Your Wonder. Know Your Authentic Power. Discover the I-Ching.

Fractional Reserve Banking: How to describe a Paradox.

UN Report Says Small Scale Organic Farming is the only way to Feed the World

Close To The Heart There Are No Obstacles.

The Commons & Common Sense - mid-way book review

On Children...

... And I decide the Sea.

Children...

Why I Love Chris Martenson

No Mumbo Jumbo

Conscious Decisions - A RANT.

Non-Denominational-Meditation Instructions - Part I.

Troubled?

Do We Have It Easy?

Indigo Washing

Green Tara

Visit

www.thebookofgardens.com

to order a copy.

Or Click Here.