http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/The story of John Trimpi's continuing experience in the adventure of looking at himself through captivating poetry and fine prose. He writes of his meeting with John Sherman, his initial skepticism and doubts about the practice, and his eventual conviction arising from his own experience that everything John says about the effectiveness of this practice is true. In Trimpi's words, "The rocks and boulders of misidentification are disintegrated (...) until nothing remains to block you from the present experience of life.  The energy of fear dissipates..." Through captivating poetry and fine prose, his clear seeing and deep reflection on his own experience are gift to us all.enFri, 05 Aug 2011 17:22:00 PDTTypePad http://www.typepad.com/noThe story of John Trimpi's continuing experience in the adventure of looking at himself through captivating poetry and fine prose. He writes of his meeting with John Sherman, his initial skepticism and doubts about the practice, and his eventual convictioThe story of John Trimpi's continuing experience in the adventure of looking at himself through captivating poetry and fine prose. He writes of his meeting with John Sherman, his initial skepticism and doubts about the practice, and his eventual conviction arising from his own experience that everything John says about the effectiveness of this practice is true. In Trimpi's words, "The rocks and boulders of misidentification are disintegrated (...) until nothing remains to block you from the present experience of life.  The energy of fear dissipates..." Through captivating poetry and fine prose, his clear seeing and deep reflection on his own experience are gift to us all.johnsherman/magic_bulletshttp://feedburner.google.comhttp://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/08/hurtproof.htmlJohn ShermanFri, 05 Aug 2011 17:22:00 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c88340154344a610e970cWritten by John Trimpi Shame creeping up the back of my neck. People laughing at my poor efforts. Money lost through stupidity or misadventure. Insincerity derived from greed. Cowardice based on fear. Loved ones alienated by criticism. Friends separated by anger or resentment. These are the things leading me to think I am at risk in this life... That because of my profound reactions to things like these I am identified with what happens in my life. Ergo, I am this life since I am absolutely tied or connected to what and how I experience the circumstances of my life. But look a little more closely. Have I truly been hurt? Has my capacity to be here now been diminished? Has the me of me been altered? Am I experiencing life from a different awareness than I’ve always had? The “no” answers to those questions are good proof that the...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/08/misapprehension.htmlJohn ShermanFri, 05 Aug 2011 17:19:03 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c8834015390771419970bWritten by John Trimpi What makes it evident we have mischaracterized our background is our unease, our dissatisfaction, the sense we are at risk and have something to lose, and the obsessive need to get things right. If our background was moment-by-moment, a clean slate, then those things wouldn’t show up. But if a conviction or belief dominates our mindscape, and if that conviction or belief has as its central message that we were the lives we were leading, then we could expect those things to show up, because we would be acting under the impression we were at stake and dependent upon the circumstances of our lives. When we consciously look at ourselves, those things lose their power. They merge into the nature of everything else, distinct from the present reality — the actuality — of us. We have (or perhaps are) a purity separate from our experiences and...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/08/defragging-the-mind.htmlJohn ShermanFri, 05 Aug 2011 17:14:51 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c8834015390770e69970bWritten by John Trimpi My mind slipped a notch and fell out of gear, sending it off to the fringes of its solar system. I found myself in a picayune, peevish state, a none too familiar one but familiar nonetheless. Would that I was free of it forever. My state of mind is described thusly: vague annoyance and mild irritation; sensitivity to physical discomfort; directionlessness and faint confusion; minor agitation and apprehensiveness; feeling of being on a slightly surrealistic plateau. My mind must have gotten backed up. Or maybe it’s payback for small pleasures, since full-fledged funks are reserved for the aftermath of times of exceeding joy. This is a thin, thin, thinking state where trivial pursuit is the name of the game. Where pompous inanities are blubbered, where my mind wants justification, vindication and persistence, and where my mind roots around for a target. It’s no small feat to...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/finding-nothing.htmlJohn ShermanSat, 30 Apr 2011 12:38:35 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c8834014e882be200970dWritten by John Trimpi You must appreciate the fact that you are nothing — over and over again until the illusion is dissolved — to win freedom from the mother of all beliefs. Whether you come to know you are nothing is irrelevant; the fruit of the labor of your looking lies in the fact you will not find anything. Nothing is the absence of something. It can be inferred in looking and not finding. When you look at yourself enough to be comfortable with the absence of imperfections, the drive to do and act is based on enjoyment — not fear — and there is equilibrium in your resting state. Thus you dispel the belief that you are at stake and must do or act appropriately for protection, preservation and enhancement, for how could nothing be at stake for anything? You no longer identify with anything you are afraid...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/simple-request.htmlJohn ShermanSat, 30 Apr 2011 12:37:24 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c883401538e385c2c970bWritten by John Trimpi That’s not real, but it’s real enough. Real enough to send me into a tailspin. Real enough to cloud moments of joyfulness. Real enough to initiate funkdom which may last for days. So don’t tell me my not good enough program isn’t real. Don’t tell me it’s illusory. That makes things worse, because then I’m not good enough to get it. And don’t tell me what others think doesn’t matter, or that I have good qualities, or that I’m lucky to be alive. Altering my mindset is temporary at best. Instead, show me how to modulate the program so it fades from my life. Give me some techniques to undo the years of conditioning, the countless events and encounters I have endured proving the point over and over again, pounding it into me each time I have failed or demonstrated my ineptness. Help me to be...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/improving-my-life.htmlJohn ShermanSat, 30 Apr 2011 12:36:31 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c8834014e882be710970dWritten by John Trimpi Will I ever be done with improving my life? Constantly jockeying for the best position. Seeking understanding for the sake of gain. Bettering my living and financial circumstances. At least I know I’m about improving my life and not about improving me, That’s a pretty major statement to make. I used to think I was improving me when I was improving my life, and that it would have a permanent effect. Knowing it’s not about improving me relaxes the tendency to be so all-fired hard on me as I continue doing what I will to improve my life. When my expectations aren’t met, it’s all right to find fault with what I did. That’ll have as little effect as anything else. The urging to relax and enjoy life and stop trying to improve it subsides. Life enjoys me as much as I enjoy it. What I...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/holy-communion.htmlJohn ShermanSat, 30 Apr 2011 12:33:21 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c88340154320b424b970cWritten by John Trimpi Pointing to the sky you talk with god, but that requires articulation and a modicum of belief or faith. Communing with you is less adorned. The most private act is one with no strings attached, no chain of circumstances fettering your attention, and thought is no servant. This communion relies neither upon your senses or beliefs and avoids the clatter of ideas. Your presence is all that is required. The goal of the communion is to fit into you exactly the way you are — not how you think you are or should be. .http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/many-faces.htmlJohn ShermanFri, 01 Apr 2011 17:52:30 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c8834014e872cdb55970dWritten by John Trimpi I have worn so many faces I can’t say who I am. I can describe with conviction each one of those faces, but my present identity depends, and in that dependence changes. My search is to find stability, for that is the only environment immune from the chaos of circumstance and the magnetism of its attraction. Circumstances confer conditioning, and I am drawn to be a certain way by the shaping of who I am. My life has been devoted in conformance or resistance to that pull. From what have I been drawn is now known to me. I have been pulled from here.http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/hurtproof.htmlJohn ShermanFri, 01 Apr 2011 17:49:30 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c88340147e3ad1420970bWritten by John Trimpi Shame creeping up the back of my neck. People laughing at my poor efforts. Money lost through stupidity or misadventure. Insincerity derived from greed. Cowardice based on fear. Loved ones alienated by criticism. Friends separated by anger or resentment. These are the things leading me to think I am at risk in this life... That because of my profound reactions to things like these I am identified with what happens in my life. Ergo, I am this life since I am absolutely tied or connected to what and how I experience the circumstances of my life. But look a little more closely. Have I truly been hurt? Has my capacity to be here now been diminished? Has the me of me been altered? Am I experiencing life from a different awareness than I’ve always had? The “no” answers to those questions are good proof that the...http://www.johnsherman.org/magic_bullets/2011/04/clarion-call.htmlJohn ShermanFri, 01 Apr 2011 17:46:27 PDTtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e55019e12c88340147e3ad1135970bWritten by John Trimpi Every now and again we get hit by the clarion call of reality. It’s like sobering up after a long infatuation with life. The party is over we seem to be told. Time to get down to work or brass tacks. There’s no joy in Mudville and little hope. The good times before are of no consequence. Our circumstances revolve to echo our mood, and the world turns dingy and gray. Our attention cannot long attend anything while under the influence of gloom. It is of little solace this will pass, or that we can find our breath or turn inward to see for whom this is a problem. Nevertheless, intrepid as we are, we do turn inward and do find our breath. We gut out the crappiness and cobble together such bits of happiness as we can. And we know it doesn’t matter that we...nonadult