Quote of the Day – November 10 2011

Beyond a certain point, the whole universe becomes a continuous process of initiation.
–Robert Anton Wilson

I’ve bee contemplating arrogance the last few days, my own as well as that of others. We feel ourselves subjected to intolerance and yet we limit the points of views that we can hear never mind accept as valid. We claim to be without fear which to me sounds a whole lot like being without the colour cyan or the note fa (arbitrary picks on my part, I make no correlation between fear and cyan nor fear and fa) Not that I believe that we should ever let fear rule us, but see it as a teacher, one with particularly harsh lessons at times. By understanding our fear, we gain a better understanding of ourselves and our universe. I said all this to someone and immediately came to a realization. For years I have bragged about how I never feel boredom. What arrogance, Sure when i get impatient or have to do something I might not feel like doing, I feel time go to a crawl and things can become tedious. Yes, that sounds like boredom to me also. Oh it seldom lasts long and in the universe inside my mind I can go exploring or revisiting points of interest and then once again I fly free. But saying I NEVER experience boredom? That word never and its brother always share a particular cognitive dissonance in my head. They seem so absolute. More on that another time. Namaste
— G A Rosenberg

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Colour Play on Crumpled Paper by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – November 9 2011

“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
–Buddha

 

Choices
Despise the compromise
yet despair the unyielding

Never so clear
so I follow my instinct
not what may be right ultimately
but right ‘right now’
i stay the path
as the decisions become harder
what good would be gaining my soul
yet losing my life
what’s the good in keeping my life intact
at the cost of my soul..

Funny thing about compromises, they tend to be inherently unstable. Pressures both within and without, knowing we don’t follow the highest standards for our spirit, our diet or our growth will eventually spur us on either to compromise more, perhaps make us insensate to our own inner wisdom, or compromise less, ever moving towards healthier diets and lifestyles even if it means sacrificing lives we have chosen.
People, such as the two of you tend to echo our own inner voices hastening the decision points.. Many can’t stand to listen.
Me, I tend to be appreciative so thanks.. Wow, a bit of a long-winded one here.
— G A Rosenberg

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Ancient Cave by G A Rosenberg

Icarus Transfigured

why does it seem that those most resistant to change tend to be the ones most unhappy with their lives? Can fear be that strong? Do we all have elements of Hamlet’s dilemma that we stick with those ills we have rather than face the unknown. Despite the words old Willie spoke with Hamlet’s voice I don’t believe that conscience rules in the situation as much as misguided attachment. We do seem to know our pain and fear losing it.
What of all the people involved in Occupying Wall Street? They seem to want change because they find themselves unhappy with the current status quo? Does that disprove my theory? Yet look at the demonstrations and the people you see marching. They may not like the current state of things but they don’t appear to be miserable. I see excitement over the idea of change and that they may be part of it. I see people secure in themselves and the idea that life can be better and the realization of the need for change but unhappy? Not so much
I look at the people in power. The media and banking moguls who seem to be following Ghandi’s pattern. “First they ignore us, then they laugh at us then they fight us then we win”. They seem to be the most unhappy not only with the idea of change but with the lives they live. They have more than they could ever need yet something inside of them screams “MORE”. No matter how much they have, they always want MORE.. Somehow that doesn’t seem happy to me.

What would happen if Icarus, instead of believing that his wings were melted by the sun, believed instead that he could fly anyway, would new wings, wings that had greater reality than the melted ones of wax appear in their place as Icarus took his place among the stars?
–G A Rosenberg

 

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Icarus Transfigured by G A Rosenberg

On Boxes

If all beliefs resemble boxes in which we enclose ourselves as David Icke states then we owe it to ourselves to exist in the largest most dimensionally transcendant box possible. Ones that encompass multitudes of possibilitied.

After all who wants to spend a lifetime in a shoebox made up of shoulds and should nots. Living like that may offer the ‘safety’ of limited much as a prison or other institution might but I can’t see a difference between living safely and living in fear. Here’s to taking chances with our lives and to living, thinking and being bold and free.
–G A Rosenberg

The Shadow Knows

OBAMA APPOINTS MONSANTO’S VICE PRESIDENT AS SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE COMMISSIONER AT THE FDA

Just putting that in and letting it sit there in its incredible wrongness…

Lots of stray thoughts tonight. Part and parcel of the strange energy this past week. Lots of good art coming out of it but it does seem like there is a whole lot of clearing going on. Many different aspects of my psyche coming up, screaming to be heard. Funny tho, at one point some of the more (aesthetically? , ethically) negative ones would have had me a lot more freaked out…At some point, I finally learned that what we keep hidden causes the most damage not what we let expose itself in the light. I deny none of my thoughts or feelings. Do I need to act on them? Hades, no but much better to see the shadow then to try to keep it inside. Exposed, standing out naked in my psyche, they tend to loose whatever power they may have had over me.

Also if I don’t face my own bullshit, however can i have any compassion for that of others? As it is, wow, i am surprised at the amount of ugly thoughts that still find their way through this cranium…so much negative programming. and the debugging continues….

Not that all the surprises seem negative. Occasionally they just illuminate aspects that I don’t usually identify with. Still I am large, I contain multitudes or something like that. I love the weird stuff, I love the good stuff, I even love the darkest shadows of my being. They teach me to love others.

Everything happens Now!

Namaste

Things to Be Grateful For (In No Particular Order)

A Youtube friend of  recent aquaintance (http://www.youtube.com/mahanomi) challenged people to journal on 10 things to be grateful for and to post it as a video response. I don’t know if I’ll do that or not but the idea intrigued me enough to do it. So in no particular order (and I’m not sticking to 10 as once I started contemplating the things I feel gratitude for I found it hard to stop. Which as far as problems go would be one I would wish for everyone

    • My Family – Aaron, Zev, Amanda and our various pets. Each in their own was has been such a gift to me. Aaron and I have been together for 12 years. We are so different in outlook yet we share a language and interests. He has done amazing work in his field and he is one of the most creative, thoughtful people I have ever met. Zev, my son and teacher. Now twelve, with all the challenges that brings. He is so full of life, love and energy. We have so many commonalties tho he is totally his own person with astonishing presence and self-posession. Amanda, my foster daughter, who has helped me so much with developing and using my empathy. Our Various pets (Rufus, Maggie, Brownie, Princess, Luke)
    • My Senses and my ability to perceive the phenomenal world – The Navajo have a beautiful prayer / greeting,  “May you walk in beauty”. It has taken me many years to realize how much of that has to do with attitude and outlook towards life. Now more often than not, I have been seeing beauty express itself in my life way more often even with things that I once would have found off-putting.
    • Souce, Spirit, The Way, God – However you wish to refer to that higher power from which we come, who’s nature is unconditional love.
    • My Imagination- We all have this amazing ability to create something from nothing. We can see how the world can become a better place and make it so. We can see how we may become better, happier, more centred and evolved people and make ourselves so.
    • The Earth-Mother and Provider. Forests, Beaches, Mountains, Cities.
    • The Sun
    • Animals
    • The amazing group of family and friends I have found in cyberspace- I have met so many amazing people from all over the world. I have shared laughter, tears, thoughts, beliefs, art, poetry, music and so much love.
    • My Parents – who raised me to believe that I could be anything that I wanted and showed me that there may be barriers along the way. They have been amazingly supportive.
    • This journey of discovery that I’ve been on
    • People  (including Government, Religious or Corporate entities ) whom anger or frustrate me because they too show me who I am and areas in which I need to grow
    • My art and writing- Self-expression rocks. Finding ways in which I can express myself rocks even harder
    • Music-Of all kinds, so central to my life.
    • Books, Poetry, Blogs, Videos, Art, Movies, Theater – We have so many ways in which we convey who we are and our views / experience of the universe. Through these forms of communication, we are able to commune with voices from the past, present and reach out to those who come after us.. We walk and fly on the shoulders of giants.
    • My Own Being- Within me, as within all of us, universes exist.  I have found vast potential to love, grow and grow in love
    • The time in which I live- There has been a spiritual and societal awakening that has been happening in the world that each month it seems becomes more and more prevalent. There also seems to be a counter-movement towards that but its fascinating to view this.
    • This exercise

Thoughts on the Journey

It is always in progress

It is not a race. Our spirits all move towards actualization (full self-realization through lifetimes) at their own pace and we move towards knowledge of our spirit at our own pace. There is no prize for getting there first.

We do accelerate tho when we slow down to help out another. Indeed realizing that we’re all in this together seems to be a main realization point along the road…
By all means train if that is your inclination.. Training (meditation, energy manipulation, energy charging etc) is fun and useful. When it becomes something you have to do rather than something done in joy that doesn’t seem like training and can set you back…

There is no one path to get there. If anything, every aspect of spirit (each of us) has their own road. For moments or for lifetimes ( a less brief moment in eternity) our road may converge with other’s. Our higher selves (or inner master or Spirit guides, whatever guidance system you use or all of them) will tell us for how long or how far..

There is not one being whom we draw into our path whom we cannot learn something from. Likewise there is no being who cannot learn from us.. Be open to the lesson or lessons. Be open to when they’re over.

We are limitless… Any limits we feel are those we needed at some point in able to help us along…Don’t be afraid to exceed your self-imposed limitations.

Any words we use to describe ourselves, any definitions are by their nature limiting. We may be this for a time but we are so much more…

The journey never ends

Everything on this list may be wrong =)

Random Thoughts on a Sleepy Evening

Pick a card, any card and we shall have a subject. I object but would that be a subjective objection? Words dance and play but does meaning get lost or can we find it in the subtlest of jests? Digest, to absorb and process food, Readers digest but do writers or do we merely feed?  Life seems so funny, we take the meaningless so seriously yet five years from now will it matter? Can this be a turning point? I guess any moment can. We can jump out of our boxes at anytime. Will it be a turning point? The moment at which my direction will change. I stand perpetually at the crossroads encouraged to stay or go on, sometimes both at the same time…

The evening continues. The dog has been walked and each of the humans exist in our separate corners. Do I choose at random, an ideal to hold as I write or do I continue letting words bubble up?

Wow a few days ago, a friend wrote that she was trying to find a way out of the doldrums. I thought “the doldrums? yeah wouldn’t want to be there… how can I help my friend out of the doldrums. I equated it somehow with boredom, which surprisingly I rarely suffer from tho I may I fear inflict it on others 😀

I just looked up what the doldrums are. According to that venerable source of half-accurate information, Wikipedia,

“The Doldrums, also called the “equatorial calms”, is a nautical term for the intertropical convergence zone, with special reference to the light and variable nature of the winds”..

Calms? Why would anyone wish to leave calm? Wouldn’t that be the zero point that so many of us search for. The emotional crossroads, if you would from which one could go anywhere? How do i find my way into those ‘doldrums’ , I wondered? Then I continued reading….

“This region is also noted for extremely calm periods when the winds disappear altogether, or are light and shifting. Hurricanes originate in this region. Because of these unpredictable weather patterns, the Doldrums became notorious for trapping sailing ships for days (or even weeks) without enough wind to power their sails.”

Ah, so it is a calm that can trap you? I think of Buddha sitting for years under the Bodhi tree. Was he in a state of calm where the winds of emotion didn’t influence him? Was he in the doldrums?
Sometimes there seems to be so much going on that a time of quiet, of peace where decisions and activity don’t come at me in a constant parade might be nice….Time to reflect, to meditate, to dream, to make art, to create….
and yet….
Whenever I have been in what has been called ‘being caught in a holding pattern’ like an airplane unable to land, I have found myself less than thrilled. All I wanted at those moments were to get to a destination, to get on with the next chapter….
Continuing with the wikipedia entry:

‘In colloquial usage, “being in the doldrums” refers to being in a state of listlessness, despondency, inactivity, stagnation, or a slump, as characterised in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’

Wow. I sure like the sound of ‘equatorial calm’ more than I like ‘despondency’ and ‘stagnation’. Once again, I grow amazed how one term can seem to have so many meanings. I hear Lewis Carroll’s version of Humpty Dumpty scornfully telling me that ‘the question is which is to be Master” In this vision I may or may not be dressed like an english school girl. No, I guess, strike that, I definitely am not….
and yet…if the doldrums are truly stagnation and inactivity then doesn’t the way out seem self-evident? Do something, even more do something that will bring enjoyment. Go shopping, get laid, paint a picture, arrange flowers or work in your garden….Make it a point to meet someone new.. Explore and or adopt a new point of view that you’ve never held before…
If you truly are stuck in a hovering pattern on an airplane unable to land than build yourself an imaginary world and loose yourself in it…at least temporarily. Doing these things has always worked for me in the past…..
Lately it seems for me, that days hold too few hours, weeks hold too few days and many many things all vie for my attention… I contemplate the different god and goddess forces that lie within and without grateful to all for their influence, the sweet music of their songs, realizing that they all blend into one transcendental melody.
I realize the potential decisive turning point that each moment brings and realize that for being yet another trap….
The hour grows late and I have rambled on….
Om