Month: October 2012
Quote of the Day – October 6 2012
“The thirst to be boundless is not created by you. It is just life wishing to know itself.”
– Sadhguru
What is the primary drive? Could it be freedom? Isn’t everything we seek to know and relate our way of going beyond ourselves, exceeding the limitations of not only our bodies but ourselves as well? We free ourselves at birth and from there we free ourselves from helplessness and keep finding other ways of freeing ourselves from ourselves. What is not driven by freedom?
Blessings, G
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Grocking the Earth in its fullness by G A Rosenberg
Quote of the Day – October 5 2012
““It’s so hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”
― Chuck Palahniuk”
It seems part of existence. If we’re fortunate we learn from our pain and from the lessons and road blocks we put in our path. Of course we put the easy kind gentle stuff in our path as well. According to Don Juan Matus as described by Carlos Castaneda, a warrior sees neither blessings nor curse but sees everything as a challenge. Perhaps warriors learn from it all. After all, our happiness brings lessons and challenges as well, It gives us perspective, endurance and perhaps makes the painful parts that much easier…
Blessings, G
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Sixties Sun by G A Rosenberg
Faded Rose by G A Rosenberg<
Quote of the Day – October 4 2012
”Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant? ”
— Henry David Thoreau
We hunger to understand and be understood. Does one take precedence over the other? Can we listen to the heart of another without knowing our own heart? Why bother?
Well, if we lived in a vacuum away from all others perhaps we wouldn’t. Tho studies show (so I’ve been told) that a prisoner in solitary for years will befriend the insects that crawl into the cell and anthromorphise it and tell it all kinds of secrets never heard by another human.
By understanding another I can understand myself better. Just as each viewpoint on reality brings me closer to understanding the overall nature of things, each person i can grock, brings me closer to the grocking of myself.
Blessings, G
By the way a site I heartily recommend and one that has linked often to this site is : http://www.consciousazine.com. (Art, and articles for the conscious minded)
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Angel’s Reverie by G A Rosenberg
Quote of the Day – October 3 2012
“Why is it that the word ‘another’ is the crulest word in the language, Pop?”
“How d’ya mean?”
“Well, when he’s alone with himself a man may get real honest and acknowledge—and accept—that he is a fool. But nobody wants to be ‘just’ another fool. ‘Another couple of dumb Atlases,’ he called us, and of all the things he said that hurt the most.”
“Here now—easy! Here, use this here bar rag. Be right back.”
While Freddy wiped his eyes, the old man quickly filled a tray of orders for the waiter. By the time he returned Freddy was under control and had begun repairing his makeup with a hand mirror.
“See here,” Pop said, “if you’re hip deep in used food, well, maybe you could climb out. But if you see a whole other bunch of people hip deep too, then the chances of you becoming the rare one to climb out seem to go down drastic. But you see, that’s a kind of optical illusion. All those others don’t affect your odds atall. What matters is how bad you want to get up out of the shit, and what purchase you can find for your feet.”
— Spider Robinson
I can’t see to escape it. I enjoy talking and listening to people and the one thing that keeps coming up for me is that nobody gets through life unscathed. Some people had horrible traumatic childhoods with history of various kinds of abuses, physical, sexual or what not. If not in their childhoods then in their teenage years, if not then as they hit adulthood. I get it I do. However I see more and more evidence of a phenomenon that disturbs me. More and more people seem to fall into the role of victim, willingly imprisoning themselves in their past. We get a lot of validation for doing this. The media is filled with shows where people are encouraged to drag up every ounce of pain they ever felt and display it for others to see. Again, in no way do I belittle what anyone has gone through. However part of me wonders especially when I look at my own past. Do I let myself become disempowered by constantly displaying my wounds and using them as an excuse for abdicating responsibility or do I try to face them and move past it?
I do know people who have done it. Some people get crushed by the pain of their past and others integrate it and use it to become magnificent. I know a woman who was born with cerebral palsy who despite only having movement in one hand and her mouth has become an incredible artist who sets goals for herself and achieves them more often than anyone I know. I’ve seen people who hurt who use their pain to understand others, sometimes even the ones who caused the pain, faced it and have become, what one friend of mine would call Buddhas. I know victims of rape and incest who have become councillors teaching others how to empower themselves.
Looking at both sides and again not belittling anyone’s past, I wonder what can be achieved by not looking at my past as a curse or a blessing but seeing it as a challenge, something that I can move beyond if I but have the determination to do so. That way to me lies enlightenment. So I leave it to those of you who’s comments I treasure. What has helped you move beyond your past?
Blessings, G
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Tiger Warp by G A Rosenberg
Electric Mandala by G A Rosenberg
Quote of the Day – October 2 2012
“The more we know, the better we forgive. Those who feel deeply feel for all living beings.”
–Madame de Stael
More on empathy:
When I lived in Boston, I met a friend whom I learned quite a lot from. Things like the difference between a want and a need. In a few of the many conversations we had, he talked about various addictions he had. One to crack cocaine that he demonstrated and also his attraction to children.
He explained to me that he believed that we’re attracted to others who are the same emotional age as ourselves and that on some level he knew he was very young.
He realized it was an abuse of authority and removed himself, at least at the time I knew him, from that temptation…
Still he realized it in himself…
Understanding it from his point of view I could see it. I didn’t feel the temptation myself nor did I condone his acting on it…yet I could understand where he was coming from..
I have always felt this need to understand other’s viewpoints. I’m not sure if it reflects an incompleteness in myself or the opposite but it seems like time and time again I have been drawn into the lives of some of the most diverse people, usually befriending them and ultimately at least getting a glimpse of the world behind their eyes. This has given me insight but also has kept me often hovering around the edges examining the paths of others rather than choosing one for myself. Oh I have a life, married, kids, the works but as far as a definitive viewpoint, not so much. I rather like it that way but still get rather wistful at people with strong beliefs.
Blessings, G
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In the Shadows by G A Rosenberg
Dark Flower by G A Rosenberg
Astral Encounters While Hanging on the Threshold
Hanging On The Threshold By G A Rosenberg
Shadow images
exploiting weaknesses
and laughing at the strengths I fear
I watch the wall and see images
puppets of mind and imagination
not hand
The elements that I deny
Clowns riding fanged serpents sensuously
A skeleton offers me a rose and asks me to play
I feel an animal howling inside of me
He wants its prey
I leap
and force myself down
frustration bars the way and I know
that one day it will break free
I will break free
A child cries, another laughs
in wanton cruelty
Naked dancers revel
in many different combinations
urging me to join
Masks laugh, devoid of faces.
Tears of blood fall like a monsoon
The tide pulls me down
I grab two pillars to prop myself up
They collapse leaving me spinning
Samson with a brush cut looks on sadly
knowing he can’t help
I look for the centre
but at 23 it can’t hold on?
The light beckons me through
as I seek to ride the wave
— G A Rosenberg
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Astral Encounters by G A Rosenberg
Quote of the Day – October 1 2012
“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
–Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
What is it you can’t stand? Who do you despise? Do you have problems with the heads of any particular governments? Can you just not abide at all the people who run the banks? Your boss? People on welfare? Bigots? Rapists? Child Molesters? When was the last time you tried to truly empathize with them? Could you walk a mile in Mitt Romney’s shoes and understand him? I don’t say agree but truly understand his viewpoint and where he’s coming from. To me this is the true epitome of empathy and if you can’t do that then there well, you still haven’t gotten it.
How can we consider ourselves compassionate if we only empathize with the people who we like and agree with. If nothing else, understanding may bring solution where not understanding just exacerbates. Yes its difficult. I’ve worked at this most of my life and it saddens me that more don’t do the same. Very few people are villains in their own mind and understanding may actually make it easier to change these viewpoints.
Blessings, G
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Creation Mandala by G A Rosenberg
Journey Mandala by G A Rosenberg