Paths of Heart Without Lust of Result in the Sand

 

“This is my secret; I don’t mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom. It is a timeless spiritual truth: release attachment to outcomes, and—deep inside yourself—you’ll feel good no matter what.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

“I told you once that our lot as men is to learn, for good or bad,” he said. “I have learned to see and I tell you that nothing really matters; now it is your turn; perhaps someday you will see and you will know then whether things matter or not. For me nothing matters, but perhaps for you everything will. You should know by now that a man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting. A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it; and then he looks and rejoices and laughs; and then he sees and he knows. He knows that his life will be over altogether too soon; he knows that he, as well as everybody else, is not going anywhere; he knows, because he sees, that nothing is more important than anything else. In other words, a man of knowledge has no honor, no dignity, no family, no name, no country, but only life to be lived, and under these circumstances his only tie to his fellow men is his controlled folly. Thus a man of knowledge endeavors, and sweats, and puffs, and if one looks at him he is just like any ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under control. Nothing being more important than anything else, a man of knowledge chooses any act, and acts it out as if it matters to him. His controlled folly makes him say that what he does matters and makes him act as if it did, and yet he knows that it doesn’t; so when he fulfills his acts he retreats in peace, and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or didn’t, is in no way part of his concern. A man of knowledge may choose, on the other hand, to remain totally impassive and never act, and behave as if to be impassive really matters to him; he will be rightfully true at that too, because that would also be his controlled folly.”
–Carlos Castaneda

 

“”…thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.”
–Aleister Crowley (AL I, 42-44)

 

Three quotes all of which seem to be saying very similar things to me. Learn what is our will to do, act on it and cultivate an attitude that it really doesn’t matter if it happens or not. In the long run it is all folly, our actions written on the sand. If our actions change things, then we will live with the results. If it doesn’t we will live with the results. As long as we are travelling on a path with heart (love under will), then we have done what it is in us to do.
Blessings, G

 

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Protection / ConcernProtection / Concern by G A Rosenberg

 

Forest ProtectorForest Protector by G A Rosenberg

 

Maturing the Warrior Way

 

“There are lots of things a warrior can do at a certain time which he couldn’t do years before. Those things themselves did not change; what changed was his idea of himself.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

When we’re younger, we have a strange mixture of foolhardiness and lack of confidence. We’ll do things to do things not worried about whether they work or not and tend to give up on things faster if they don’t work the first few times we do them. Other things we won’t try at all because we doubt that we have the expertise or knowledge to pull them off successfully. As we age and gain in knowledge and experience and perhaps even wisdom (if we’re lucky) we develop both more patience and more confidence. We are willing to make mistakes and try again after we’ve learned that very few mistakes are permanent. We have seen evidence that if we follow through on our intent, eventually we will be successful and perhaps that willingness to see something through is the beginning of wisdom.
Blessings, G

 

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DiscourseDiscourse by G A Rosenberg

 

Night Flower BloomBlooming Night Flower by G A Rosenberg

Breaking the Shell

 

“Don’t try to hurry,” he said. “You’ll know in due time and then you will be on your own, by yourself.” “Do you mean that I won’t see you any more, don Juan?” “Not ever again,” he said. “Genaro and I will be then what we always have been, dust on the road.” I had a jolt in the pit of my stomach. “What are you saying, don Juan?” “I’m saying that we all are unfathomable beings, luminous and boundless. You, Genaro and I are stuck together by a purpose that is not our decision.” “What purpose are you talking about?” “Learning the warrior’s way. You can’t get out of it, but neither can we. As long as our achievement is pending you will find me or Genaro, but once it is accomplished, you will fly freely and no one knows where the force of your life will take you.” “What is don Genaro doing in this?” “That subject is not in your realm yet,” he said. “Today I have to pound the nail that Genaro put in, the fact that we are luminous beings. We are perceivers. We are an awareness; we are not objects; we have no solidity. We are boundless. The world of objects and solidity is a way of making our passage on earth convenient. It is only a description that was created to help us. We, or rather our reason, forget that the description is only a description and thus we entrap the totality of ourselves in a vicious circle from which we rarely emerge in our lifetime.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

Breaking through the skin
I crack the shell of my life
the ongoing show in which I act
giving importance to things that never were.
Free of the things that ‘matter’
matter not
surrendering the pull of false emotions
and the endless mind traps that i set myself.
Liberation is bliss yet even that is but the inner face
Conscious existence is all that remains
The Being Now

 

Blessings, G

 

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Breaking Out of My ShellBreaking Out of My Shell by G A Rosenberg

 

Light ExplosionLight-Explosion by G A Rosenberg

Banishing Doubt

 

“What we need to do to allow magic to get hold of us is to
banish doubts from our minds. Once doubts are banished anything is
possible.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

My doubt would have me believe
that I cannot do it
My doubt would have me believe
that if I do do it, I will not do it well
My doubt would have me believe
that it or I will not be well received
My doubt would have me believe
that I cannot believe.
I hear my doubt’s whispers
in the sinking of my heart
and then I say a resounding “F**K YOU!”
I will do it
I will do it well
It will be received as it will
and belief is not as important as doing
I send my doubt packing
at least for the moment
I do this as often as needed
for doubt don’t stay away long
Still, no reason to let them unpack anyway
they are the unwanted solicitors of my being
always trying to sell me something.

 
h4>Blessings, G

 

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StarfallStarfall by G A Rosenberg

 

Star Well MandalaStar Well Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Golden Web2Golden Web by G A Rosenberg

In Fear and Wonder

 

“The art of being a warrior is to balance the wonder and the terror of being alive.” Fea
― Carlos Castaneda

 

To wake in wonder with sounds of nature all around. The sun rises painting the sky more colours than I thought possible. I look into the tent at my love sleeping and I am overwhelmed with joy. Then several months later I meet a three year old waiting to be adopted. His little hand in mine as he leads me to eat cookies with his stuffed tigger. Can I truly be this blessed? I wonder at the universe. Flowers and new born animals and puppies. Small kindnesses showed by strangers and people who I’d never expect it from. My spirit wakes in wonder every day.
Fear taps me on the shoulder. Fear that something could happen to my partner or our son or one of those I love. Am I adequate to the tasks that my life asks of me? What if I let someone down? What if I let myself down? What is that noise in the basement? How do I explain to an eight year old that his dog has passed? The whispers of fear make me shiver. I seldom listen but still that voice continues in its cold wet tones.
I can live with fear and wonder. They are both part of this life and my path. One leads me on and the other is my teacher and they both add to the fullness of life.
Blessings, G

 

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Music Loomed Large For HimMusic Loomed Large For Him by G A Rosenberg

 

StarabstractionStarAbstraction by G A Rosenberg

New Worlds to Conquer

“We are men and our lot in life is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

I admit it. I’m a knowledge junkie. Each new area of interest I come into contact with expands my world and my existence. It telescopes outward and expands in fractal patterns. In each new area, psychology, metaphysics, art, history that captures my interest also works microscopically in reverse bringing me greater self-awareness and self-knowledge which of course becomes expansive in its own right. What new thing can we learn today and where will it take us?
Blessings, G

 

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Padding towards the SwordPadding Towards the Sword by G A Rosenberg

 

Spinning InverseSpinning by G A Rosenberg

The Dangling Sword

“You have little time left, and none of it for crap. A fine state. I would say that the best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

I work best when under pressure. I have found that if I have a deadline I can push myself through and accomplish whatever I set out to do. Conversely if I just set myself a goal without a time limit I find all kinds of distractions that pull me away from the work at hand. Deadlines (swords) tend to focus me. The goal can be self-imposed such as this blog where each day I have committed to produce at least one picture and at least a hundred words on any given subject. For the last twenty-five months, I haven’t missed a night of blogging. Success has bred success tho I wonder at times whether quality suffers.
Similarly my work on the tarot book has been most successful when I have set commitments for myself. It is only when I let things become open-ended that I find myself slowing down. I need that sword dangling, otherwise the crap gets in the way.
Blessings, G

 

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Astral PalaceAstral Palace by G A Rosenberg

 

Silent ConversationSilent Conversation by G A Rosenberg

Mindfulness Makes the Difference

“For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

How do we make every act count? So much of what we do seems to be either of distraction or necessity. Both of these have their uses for sure but do they count? Well distraction can often feed our spirit and give us a chance to recharge. When we do things out of necessity (as long as they are things that we feel are necessary as opposed to what we are told by others) then we have some investment in them. Perhaps that makes the difference between an act that counts and one that doesn’t. When we do something that we are present and invested in, that we are mindful of than what we are doing counts, whether it is saving a child or reading a comic book. Mindfulness makes the difference.
Blessings, G

 

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DeterminedDetermined by G A Rosenberg

 

Shooting StarShooting Star by G A Rosenberg

Path or Direction?

“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

I have reread this passage many times and put a lot of thought into it. Tonight it struck me in a new way. If as I’ve talked about before, our path is not one that we follow as much as one we choose each step of the way then maybe it is not so much about choosing a path with heart as choosing to have heart in every part of our path. That is choosing each step we take with commitment and yes with love. The distinction may be a fine one but of late I have been investigating the concept of responsibility. Maybe I’m just paraphrasing the line from Sondheim that it is not so much do what you like as like what you do. To me that also ties in with the Thelemic law of ‘Do what Thou Wilt’. If we are making choices according to our true will than those choices will by their very nature be ones that are heart-filled.
Blessings, G

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Buffeted by Cosmic WindsBuffeted by Cosmic Winds by G A Rosenberg

 

Answer His Question2Answer His Question by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 5 2013

“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

Choose the day’s new sign
it’s colour and its sigil
walk out on its path
and discover its truth
Is it true for you?
The signs will show the way
and if its truth doesn’t sound
the heart’s agreement
know that there are other ways
and feel free to take them.
Love guides and sometimes protects
compassion provides the lessons
either there or absent
along the way
Follow your heart your bliss and your wyrd
the council of the wise and that of the foolish too
for sometimes we need to explore the false
in order to know the real

 

How do we know whether or not our path is a path with heart? Listen. Chances are if you’re asking, it’s not. Never doubt your story.
Blessings, G

 

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EYecentric
Eyecentric by G A Rosenberg

 

Pictures in the Multi-Hued Flames
Images Seen in a Multi-Hued Flame by G A Rosenberg