Tag: Jed McKenna

A Larger Right

“When something seems to go wrong, it’s invariably part of a larger right.”
–Jed McKenna

 

It’s happened to me often. Something in my life seems to go incredibly wrong. Plans are missed and I start to feel stressed. Then because of the mishap I end up in a situation that feels so right and planned that I realize that while it may seem like my life has been derailed, I are still on our life’s path. Indeed it is impossible to step off of it. It is just veering off in an unexpected direction.
Once I was working in another state from where I lived. I was supposed to go home for the weekend and my plane got cancelled. I went out and met someone who’s friendship was to mean a great deal to me over the next few decades and from whom I learned a lot. Another time it felt like my life was falling apart. For a year and a half, I had lived with someone who messed up my head and with whom I plumbed the depths of my integrity. I left there and started rebuilding my life. I felt humbled and devastated. Then the pieces came together. I found a job and started building a life from the ground up. A few months later I was to meet and fall in love with someone wonderful. After fourteen years of marriage we are still together.
Each time I thought that I was lost, I found myself in better shape than I’ve ever been. At this point, I have finally learned to trust that no matter how things may feel, I am always on the right track.
Blessings, G

 

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CentrepieceCentre Piece by G A Rosenberg

 

A turn in the weatherA Turn in the Weather by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 3 2013

‎”Self-deceit is the hardest habit to break cuz it tells us the we ain’t self-deceived.”

                — Jed McKenna

 

It occurred to me today that Love is the opposite of Pity.  hen we pity someone we disempower them. “That’s ok, how could you have done differently, these things happen.” Love empowers “You’re better than that and you’ve shown it in the past. You will show it again”
Pity: “There there, its not your fault. you were the victim”
Love: “Do you see your responsibility in the situation?”
Even the body language of the two. When we feel pity, we tend to stroke someone’s head from above or pat their shoulder (effectively topping them)
In Love we give a direct hug directly on level with each other.
I would rather have one friend who loves me enough with the truth than one hundred feeling sorry for me and encouraging me to feel sorry for myself.
Blessings, G

 

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Om Eye Mandala

OM Eye Mandala (George Takai) by G A Rosenberg

 

Machine in the GhostMachine in the Ghost by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – June 25 2012

“The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into existence. Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth.”
–Jed McKenna

Compare this to:

“Perspective – Use It or Lose It. If you turned to this page, you’re forgetting that what is going on around you is not reality. Think about that.”
–Richard Bach

Sometimes its so easy to get caught in our lives like a fly on a fly strip. We take things so very seriously. We forget that the play’s the thing and we are here to work things out, experience it. We find ourselves in relationships with kids and it becomes so easy to believe that that is us. When things go wrong, we bemoan our fates or at least I do and have…I feel glad that I can also shift perspectives..eventually and realize it is all an act. Funny I have done the same thing in parenting moments with Zev. I start out by giving him a talking to and then at some point we both realize that father and son are roles we are playing and we start smiling. Then the talk resumes but at a much more comfortable level.

I have also fallen prey to the opposite effect. Getting so into trying to live the underlying reality that I forget that quite often the people around me are taking things a lot more seriously than I am. That can as I’ve realized in others and myself can come off as quite insufferable. So I strive for balance and hope one day to achieve it in this as in so many other things. At this point I figure the point of balance will probably come about five minutes before I leave this body. Perhaps that’s the way it should be.
Blessings, G

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Fire Nymph by G A Rosenberg

Radiating Spectrum by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 30 2012

“Wake up first. Wake up, and then you can double back and perhaps be of some use to others if you still have the urge. Wake up first, with pure and unapologetic selfishness, or you’re just another shipwreck victim floundering in the ocean and all the compassion in the world is of absolutely no use to the other victims floundering around you.     — Jed McKenna

As I was looking for a quote for this evening, I held a question in my mind. How could I balance spiritual development with getting involved politically and compassion for those made to suffer by others. For me one of the largest elements of a spiritual path is to develop empathy and compassion for all. What good does it do one to mediate for weeks and achieve deepest satori if it means that we can’t hear the cry of a hungry child? OK extreme example yet pertinent.
I can find merit in what Jed McKenna is saying here tho I don’t know that I agree with him. Surely on my path to travel I can find a way combines spiritual practice with political awareness. It will be found.
Blessings, G

 

& nbsp;

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Sun Shining Down by G A Rosenberg

Coiled by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 25 2012

“Relax into the moment and let the universe do the driving. If there was a secret to happiness in life, I’d say that was it.”
–Jed McKenna

Five of us come upon a rock with that quote engraved on it in five different places. The 16 year old teenager in Connecticut, so very unsure of himself but so sure of what he knows doesn’t get it and scoffs pretending he does. Another, twenty-four and living in Boston just opening up to aspects of his personality he couldn’t before and that he still feels the need to hide nods but can’t quite figure out how to apply it. There is a thirty-four year old man in Toronto. He’s kicked the tires of life a few times, had some adventures, knows that what the rock says is true but is worried that things may get even stranger. The boy’s father laughs and laughs, thinking he gets it as he chases his son and their dog down the hill as his partner awaits them. For me now at fifty, it’s how I roll.
I’ve learned a lot from being all five. I still have many lessons from each of those younger men that I have yet to integrate tho I know that will come with time. The pieces are mainly there. Any needed I have no doubt will come my way. Tho as I type this, I feel bemused by the idea of seeing my younger selves as my teachers.
Blessings, G

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Pyramid of the Wheel by G A Rosenberg

Zev Having Fractal Dreams by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 3 2012

“The universe isn’t vague and ignorant. I am vague and ignorant. Something is true, and it doesn’t matter what it is, I’m not going to be false any more. I have not even the slightest trace of the slightest reservation that I would rather suffer and die figuring out what is true than continue this life as a slave to lies and ignorance.”
–Jed McKenna

Wow, I am relating to this on so many levels. THere are periods on this journey where I see just how far I have to go. The parts of my life that feel less authentic needing to be shed like a snake sheds his skin to find what lies beneath. Longing for the truth of the moment every moment and reaching for the courage to not only say it but live it.I know I have nothing to loose but my chains. Some chains are easier to loose than others. Yet all will fall away in time. Each moment brings new opportunities and new beginnings.
Blessings, G

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Protection by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 28 2012

“The teachers we need will always be there when we need them; no reason to track down somebody else’s.”
–Jed McKenna

Sometimes the teacher’s we most need to learn from tend to be the unexpected ones. Someone enters our life, it could be a teacher, a student, a customer who comes into our store and that person either in a moment or over the course of years. This person might not be a teacher for anyone else but he or she becomes our teacher because they are uniquely qualified to convey that thread of truth which we need at that time.
No ‘guru’ can teach us what that person can. When we need those teachers, they are there or at least I have found that to always be so. BLessings, G

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Cosmic hang five by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 12 2012

“I want what’s best and I trust the universe, not my little brain, to be the judge of what’s best and how best to make it happen.”
–Jed McKenna

To me this doesn’t mean that I should stop striving to Master my emotions more. Quite the opposite. Increasing my awareness can only be a step in the right direction towards what’s best.
It does to me tho mean that I don’t have the right to choose what is best for others

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Rainbowed by G A Rosenberg

Challenged Kingdom by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 17 2012

“You can’t manage to avoid your own true nature forever. It’s a wonder anybody manages it at all.”
— Jed McKenna

Yet we try. I spent so many years playing peak-a-boo with my true nature, adopting personas at the drop of a hat and wearing them until they disintegrated and all the ways they weren’t me just fell away like rags. I then realized that part of my true nature is someone who adopts personas to see how well they fit getting clues from each one. Going even deeper, I seem to be the one who believes that part of my true nature is someone and so on and so on. All this time, I’ve spent searching for the real instead of being while actually being it all the time because you can’t avoid it. Know what? It’s a lot easier not trying.
Blessings, G

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A Universe Lives Inside A Flower by G A Rosenberg

Empressed by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – February 10 2012

“I like happiness as much as the next guy, but it’s not happiness that sends one in search of truth. It’s rabid, feverish, clawing madness to stop being a lie, regardless of price, come heaven or hell. This isn’t about higher consciousness or self-discovery or heaven on earth. This is about blood-caked swords and Buddha’s rotting head and self-immolation, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something they don’t have.” – Jed McKenna, Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing,

Thanks to vajra krishna for the quote

I read this quote today and it blew me away. It sums up so well my thoughts about authenticity that have been circling my psyche for the last year. What does it mean to be authentic? How can I allow myself to be vulnerable and expose myself warts and all in truth without fear of what anyone (especially those whom I love) might think. Indeed how can I not? Today I realized how much fear I have about being open. Not fear of being hurt, that’s never been a motivator for me but fear of discomfort. I fear being exposed to other people’s disapproval and having to justify my feelings and not knowing whether I can. For the past few years I’ve been helping people face their fears while tucking mine under the carpet. All I can say is I’m working on it. I hope in the next few weeks to share deeper and more interestingly in this blog and start showing not only who I am but how I feel about things and my ever forming beliefs as I circle around truth.
If this is not to your taste, the pretty pictures will still be here. Namaste, G

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Eye Mandala by G A Rosenberg

One Day All This Will Be Yours by G A Rosenberg