"BE STILL..."

The whole universe together with the minds and bodies of its human beings is in constant movement: pursuing and avoiding, planning and remembering, day dreaming and night dreaming.

"Be still... and know that I am." Don't stir it up with the spoon of desire and it will settle of its own accord. The shining consciousness that remains contains all its secrets buried deep within you.

STILLNESS is

the space between movements

the crack in the universe

the gloved hand

with the art

to pull apart

two thin life stitches

and let a stab of nothing in.

An eye

with sky behind

for mind,

a face blind,

a sunflower petal falling

stamen to earth;

or bird-song-bird calling

either side of the path.

No eye to meet your eye.

NEW PROJECT: "ENOUGH OR TOO MUCH."

PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS ARE DIFFERENT

Pleasure is a feeling. When one of our six senses touches a sense object, the result is feeling. Feeling can be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

      It all comes down to the struggle to survive,
      the endlessly obstructed urge just to stay alive.
      All use just one rule as measure;
      avoidance of pain and pursuit of pleasure.

      Pain leaves an imprint which says, “Leave it be!”
      The sirens of pleasure leave a note, “Follow me!”

Happiness is different from pleasure. It's the natural state of mind, at peace in the absence of all desires. People seek happiness in their pursuit of pleasure. But pleasure can only provide the satisfaction of desire. And once a desire is satisfied and pleasure experienced, it soon fades and desire reappears to chase something else.

People think that the pleasure they get from sense objects makes them happy. This is not the case. When a desire is being satisfied or has been satisfied, happiness is often present. But it is not the pleasure that has causes the happiness. The satisfaction and subsidence of desire leave a temporary gap in the mind. Through this the ever-existing happiness can shine. Until it is obscured by new clouds of desire.

One needs to distinguish between pleasure and happiness. Pleasure is always temporary. It always needs a sense organ and a sense object. It always needs a body to provide sense organs. It needs birth to get a body. A birth always results in a death. If the desire carries over after death, it will produce another birth, but where and under what circumstances? And in any case, there will be another death. Moreover, no life produces an unending sequence of pleasures, of desires being satisfied. Quite the contrary. There are at least as many unpleasant experiences: sickness, old age, disappointment, loss (and still the inevitable deaths).

      The rattling of teeth within the jaw
      mocks the tongue murmuring:
      "Please some more!"
       
Happiness, on the other hand, does not need pleasure. It is always there and easily accessible when one gives up pursuing pleasure and obscuring happiness with the clouds of desire. If it needs anything, it is Ethics. Ethics means not causing pain to others. A bad conscience causes obscuring clouds, too.


NEW PROJECT: "BE STILL..."

SOWING SEEDS DELIBERATELY

Thinking, speaking, doing: - we are scattering karmic seeds all the time. These affect others for good or ill and, in due course, return to confront us too. Though by then we may have no idea that we are facing the results of things we have done - maybe long ago. 

It is easier to chop down
an acorn
than an oak.

(The branch you bang
your head on
was an acorn
that you missed.)

Most of the time, the harm we do may be unintentional. Many of our words and actions (and especially our thoughts) are haphazard.  

Becoming more conscious of the seeds as we actually sow them rather than just impulsively scattering them at random, helps us to realise what we are up to and gives us the opportunity to select and choose. 

We can then create a garden for ourselves (and others) and not just be the cause of a wilderness.

NEW PROJECT: PLEASURE AND HAPPINESS ARE DIFFERENT

THREE KINDS OF LAWS

The Laws of the Body are those which restrict the body's freedom: gravity, chemistry, ageing, temperature etc.

The Laws for the Mind are those which others attempt to impose on the mind and limit its freedom: legal penalties (pay your taxes), highway code (drive on the left here, on the right there,) moral prohibitions (don't lie, don't steal, you can eat a sheep's child but not your own). These are sometimes legal prohibitions as well. They involve the body in those areas where it is considered to be under the control of the mind. It is not yet illegal to grow old but you are not allowed to kill yourself (although you are allowed to change your sex).

The Laws of the Spirit are those fundamental laws which are inescapable and affect the very essence of a man. Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. Do good, be happy, Do bad, suffer (inevitably, sometime).The basic one is that permanent total freedom and happiness is only possible by withdrawing from the limitations of mind and body and remaining in the pure realm of the Centre.

NEW PROJECT: SOW SEEDS DELIBERATELY

FREEDOM AND LAWS

The Laws in a given system are co-extensive with that system. They limit my Freedom to (do what I want) and interfere with my Freedom from (outside influences).

If one goes outside the system, its laws disappear. If one enters another system, one will meet another set of laws.

As Newton discovered with the help of an apple (though Adam had beaten him to it with the help of Eve), gravity is a fundamental law in the system which is the earth as we know it.

However high you jump, this spinning sphere drags you back down. However high you throw your apple, it will come hurtling back (though, unlike Newton, you can move your head).

But, as the astronauts have shown, if you can generate enough power and move off at the correct angle, you can escape this spinning system we call the earth and be free from its law of gravity. Then you are in a different system and can travel in a straight line forever (or at least until some other spinning system (some other Eve?) acts upon you and drags you in (and down).

Freedom from is another way of saying Peace.

If you were to be completely still and refrain from impinging on anything, physical or mental, anything in the world would not impinge upon you. You would experience the freedom from being impinged upon, being affected by, discomforted by, bothered by, attracted by, hurt by; in short, from suffering.

Freedom to is another way of saying Power.

Power is the handmaiden of Desire. Freedom to is the power to fulfil your desires. Unfortunately, since others exist, it may be that your desires conflict with their desires. Then it would be just a question of who has the greatest power and therefore the greatest freedom to.

If you were to enter the Centre by refraining from any action whatsoever, physical or mental, you would achieve Perfect Peace, Perfect Freedom from.

You would also achieve Perfect Freedom to because, in the Centre, there is absolutely no desire to do anything whatsoever. One's power to achieve what one wants is unimpeded because there is absolutely nothing one wants. There are also no others.

The ultimate Freedom from is, among other things, Freedom from Freedom to. This is a perfect definition of Perfection itself.

NEW PROJECT:  THREE KINDS OF LAWS

                              Of the BODY

                              For the MIND

                              Of the SPIRIT

LET THEM HAVE ENOUGH ROPE AND THEY WILL HANG THEMSELVES!

(NO NEED TO DRAG THEM SCREAMING TO THE TO SCAFFOLD)

The seed grows steadily and becomes its own fruit. Everything takes its course and fulfils itself if left alone. The good ascend to the heaven their goodness created. The bad descend to the hell their minds have made. No-one is unrewarded. No-one gets away with anything, although he may appear to in the short term. One may use one's freewill to pick up a sword of justice if one wants. But it isn't really necessary and often one's judgement turns out to be wrong. Or one becomes ensnared in what doesn't really concern oneself. One's true concern is putting oneself right. If one completes that, one can look around.

The Law is mirror-like in its precision

and its simplicity needs no revision;

that Good breeds good

and Evil has a price;

that Virtue is its own reward.

And so is Vice.

That all things pass away

from butterflies to stars,

and though the World's a prison

it's the Mind that made the bars.

NEW PROJECT: FREEDOM AND LAWS

THE CHAIN IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS WEAKEST LINK

The weakest link in the chain is the point at which the intended journey from A to B veers off at C.

* Blondin, halfway across Niagara, is distracted by a seagull and is sidetracked to the rocks below.

* The white grains stirred into the tea were salt and not sugar.

* The best football team chose a goalkeeper who urgently needed an eye-test.

* Some time in the early centuries AD, the Christian hermits and ascetics who had retreated from the world into the desert accepted and acquired a taste for temporal power (ignoring Jesus' advice that you cannot worship God and Mammon). At this point Christianity was grafted onto the tree of Jesus' teaching. The entirely different kind of fruit which has resulted is clearly seen in the jungle world of today and also in the history of the Churches' activities (wars, suppression, Inquisition, torture and accumulation of wealth et cetera.) 

* You answer your mobile on the motorway and reach home later than intended (via the back of a truck, a hospital and a stretcher).

Every time things don't turn out as expected, look for the weak link in the chain of events and take precautions for next time!

NEW PROJECT: LET THEM HAVE ENOUGH ROPE AND THEY WILL HANG THEMSELVES!

(NO NEED TO DRAG THEM SCREAMING TO THE SCAFFOLD.)

CHRISTMAS. WHAT DID JESUS ACTUALLY SAY?

What did Jesus say? Not his followers. Not the Cardinals. Not the popes. Not the Archbishops and bishops. Not the Patriarchs. Not Moses or David or Solomon. Not Paul. Not the priests. Not the biblical scholars. Not the historians. Not Augustine or Thomas a Kempis or Origen or Aquinas. Not your grandmother.

Christianity grew out of what Jesus said and did. What he did was to heal all manner of diseases (including death) and cast out devils. What he said could be reduced to just three things (if you really had to choose only three things).

Love the Lord your God.

Love your neighbour as yourself.

Do unto others as you would be done to. 

Out of these seeds has grown the enormous jungle which is Christianity today. Full of the fighting of wars against Moslems, the killing of Christians by Christians. The burning of "heretics" and "witches" by the "Holy" Inquisition. The mental and physical enslavement of South American Indians. The sexual abuse of children by priests. The accumulation of wealth.

The accumulation of unprecedented wealth and "treasures upon earth" in the Vatican.

What did Jesus say? Jesus said unto him, If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Matthew 19: 21

Every year, the Pope urges the rich to give to the poor. 

If he followed Jesus' advice and put it all up for auction with Christies, he could go a long way towards wiping out the Third World Debt!

He would no longer need a bullet-proof pope-mobile.

NEW PROJECT: A CHAIN IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS WEAKEST LINK