Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The Time for Lessons is at Hand

Some times life can look pretty grim. Some times it looks grim down the road. It’s always grim somewhere. In some countries it can be grim for decades. Then there are the shorter spans of a few years; a few months, a few weeks, a few days and even a few hours.

Now... across the world, because of the ravenous greed of a few and the smaller, collective greed of many, some form of doom has come. It’s not just greed. Ignorance plays a big part. Stubbornness and intransigence are often overlooked as factors but they are factors none the less. That’s something that materialism does. It enforces and strengthens the negative qualities of humanity. You get a whole lot of people operating out of these states and you get a push and shove world.

The success of the mindset of materialism can be seen beneath the bridges and abutments of the landscape. It can be seen on the hungry and increasingly desperate streets as a beleaguered people try to shovel sand out of a hole they are standing in. They have no part to play in containing these runaway horses. Those who do, are whipping the horses on. They believe the horses will make it to the paddocks and fields of plenty that lie at the end of the homestretch. But there is little grain in the barn. The grain has been transported to the barns of those who whip the horses on. Somewhere there is an answer but it will not come today.

Tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, mighty institutions are going to fall. Panic is going to occur and faith and optimism are going to be as hard to come by as the products that faith and optimism and industry once made so plentiful.

For several years, more penetrating minds have warned the indifferent and deluded that this was coming. No one wants to hear bad news. They would rather hear snake charmers paint beautiful pictures of the world to come while they pick their pockets. What is now appearing has some distance yet to go and that goes into uncharted territory.

Besides the economic meltdown there are also the storm-clouds of war. This is no accidental thing. The economic meltdown is not accidental. It is orchestrated by a particular cabal who is going to use it as an opportunity to take hold of more wealth and property. Like prehistoric sharks they are going to swallow everything they encounter or desire. This is their nature.

The conflicts on the horizon are also tied in to this same effort. The bad news is that these are very bad people. You can say they are only misled. You can say they are unaware of the consequences but... that is not true. Despite whatever it is that motivates them in their dark efforts, the results speak for themselves.

Food and fuel and water; shelter and security and the money to buy them... what shall we do?

There is no shortage of fuel and there would be no shortage of food. Shelter waits in houses sealed tight and devoid of occupants. There is always enough to go around and then, suddenly, there is not enough to go around, even though there is enough to go around. What shall we do?

The fact is that humanity and those entrusted to guide them have wandered into a desert. A lesson is at hand and it is going to be a severe one in many cases. It is no coincidence that when materialism is rampant and vision departs, hard times will follow.

This world is not what people think it is. Existence is not what most people think it is. Life is not what most people think it is. The world is a theater of lessons. It was designed for this purpose and roads cross over and loop through all the stations of being so that the lessons can be learned. It does not matter how intense the lesson may be. It does not matter what the cost is; how many will die or what depravities may come. People will still forget and so the lessons repeat forever, so long as there is a world because that is all the world is.

Existence emerges from a mysterious gate and proceeds toward a place that cannot be demonstrated in a world that is only there for the lessons. The world has its limits. Life is the spirit in search of experience. Wisdom and folly attend its progress. Grievous wounds heal and are forgotten. Though injury and pain can change the way we go and how we go on our way, still... people forget. People do not remember. People often do not think and they believe that security and sanity are defined within the parameters of civilization. They think that there is safety in numbers and that the more people found in any given circumstance, the more legitimate it is.

There have always been techniques and disciplines that can take one out of the confusion, karma and destiny of the crowd; even while still in the crowd. The seven stations of being compete for attention. Survival, the belly and the groin are pre-eminent against the higher stations because the magnetism of the material world resonates upon the appetites of these stations. The world does not cry out for wisdom and peace of mind. If it did it would no longer be this world. It is foolish to expect that the world will entertain or welcome such things. It would cause industry and the rule of the marketplace to be subservient to ideals that interfere with their operations.

The closest one can come to the higher stations is to be found in religion and its tenants but religion is an industry too. Religion has its own marketplace and struggles with the rest for supremacy in the mix. As a result, fantasy and fundamentalism are always at hand. What shall we do?

Sometimes some small group of souls can come together and realize a better life together. Sometimes it becomes Jonestown and Heaven’s Gate. Sometimes the individual can find his way and leave the door ajar for others. Sometimes the individual winds up in a padded room or falls back into the comfort of the crowd. It depends on how they process information and what their intention really is.

However much the darkness may concentrate in certain places as a part of the curriculum of the lessons, the light will be just as concentrated somewhere else. Fear of the gathering darkness makes you a part of it.

There is no way to tell the world anything but what the world tells them. One had better come to terms with this and seek the hidden springs. Light, liberty and abundance are there to be had but they are dependent upon the ability to see. It has been truly said that, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Do you see men and women of vision at this time or do you see an endless progression of those who have cut deals with the architects of the darkness of the time? Follow whom you will and find yourself among them at the journeys end.

No matter how dark it may seem, everything is under control and everything is a part of the lessons that must be learned. It is up to everyone to decide what is important to them and how many times the whip must fall upon their backs before they awaken to the truth. No matter what anyone may believe, there is only one force in operation, no matter how it appears to diversify. Be at peace or be troubled beyond endurance; that is up to you.

Visible sings: Color Ball by Les Visible♫ Foolish Pride ♫
'Foolish Pride' is track no. 10 of 12 on Visible's 2007 album 'Color Ball'
Lyrics (pops up)

Color Ball by Les Visible

20 comments:

Visible said...

Ben; I tried to post the address to your blog here but it was too long and strange things happen when one tries to squeeze it in so please mention it here again so that others will know about it because I put a new post up at the same time your comment went in.

How did you get to be a hundred and sixty five years old? I could only get a hundred and seven or so.

Peter of Lone Tree said...

"The Time for Lessons is at Hand."
Yes.
The title of Chapter 13 of "The Wave" by Laura Knight-Jadczyk is
"All There is is Lessons...".
The series begins HERE and begins "The Wave is a term used to describe a Macro-cosmic Quantum Wave Collapse producing both a physical and a "metaphysical" change to the Earth's cosmic environment theorized to be statistically probable sometime in the early 21st century."

Anonymous said...

Yes Les, the universe must be/is in balance so there is light to be found.
I know it is incumbent on the Universe to be balanced; I just wish the darkness, at this time, was somewhere else.
Tony

kikz said...

you echo uncle al's words... the time has again come.

"Nevertheless, whatever follies the free people commit, even to the putting of the powers of legislation in the hands of the little competent and less honest, despair not of the final result. The terrible teacher, EXPERIENCE, writing his lessons on hearts desolated with calamity and wrung by agony, will make them wiser in time."

"... the companions of Ulysses are changed by the enchantments of Circe into swine."

painful lessons indeed.

p.s. i've found in trying to post a long url.. to these "schmooshed" columns :)
just cut in half, making 2-3 lines of it... then it can be piece pasted into the browser. inconvenient.. but workable...

Ben There said...

The world is a cosmic classroom full of harsh lessons. No doubt about it. Vishnu's dream can be pretty nightmarish at times but nightmares always have a way of sparking the desire to wake up. It appears that's what we are trying to do here.

Thanks again for turning me on to the "Awareness Watching Awareness" book; meditation with all the extraneous material removed.

Ben

Ben There said...

Ha! See we are pretty close to the same age after all. Until creating that blog I had no idea that I was born in the year of the Rat. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

My blog address is:

www.beerandincense.blogspot.com

But a strong disclaimer: At this time the point of the blog is undefined and any posting I do will probably be all over the place (subject wise). Also, my writing abilities are mediocre on a good day so a healthy dose of low expectation would be adviseable to potential readers. But I do think it's a good creative exercise to try to sit down and write something on a regular basis so that's why I'm there. (And so I can put up "deer in the headlight" pictures of myself.) Thanks for the plug!

Ben

Anonymous said...

Les,
Greetings of peace I am just glad to be here in such company I feel compelled though from time to time to add my two cents.You mentioned it already somewhere sometime and so does the ONE the battle has already been fought and won these fuckers know it we know it but where we are now and what lies ahead is not pretty and not for the timid unfortunately, but it has gotta be done we are not alone though never have been and never will be we are going to need and recognise each other throgh forums like these and HOLD tight aint gonna be pretty for sure sad but that's the way it is.
C.J

Anonymous said...

Ben; I tried to post the address to your blog here but it was too long

http://www.geocities.com/adibookz/
Utilities/tinyurlcode.html

Nina

Anonymous said...

You are always right on top of events....
Bread riots in Egypt and Pakistan already....some breads four dollars a loaf already in American stores... wait till the fed created inflation and the four dollar diesel truckers pay now wind their ways through to the empty grocery shelves this summer! A long hot summer, with wheatlands out of production for the corn ethanol boondoggle.
The criminal thing is that the Bush gang chortles and the corporate media do nothing to warn the people what is coming. Yes, they knew, and it was planned long ago. The signs were everywhere to see, even down to Neil Bush and Babbs, Jr. slumming with Alfredo Stroessner in Asuncion as their readied their potential redoubt at the Bush finca in Paraguay! Throw in a few other things like Hellary stealing the nomination from Obama and it will be a summer of hurricanes and cities in flames.

Anonymous said...

What shall we do?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow ...

Nina

Anonymous said...

Good lessons can be learnt from fairy tales Nina.
Psalm 23:4 ... though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;...
That is just so powerful!
Being a student of The Book when I was a kid nothing helped me on my (spiritual) way more than that statement.
The understanding that that power is there for each of us and that we can receive that internal power (Gods spirit??) from our Creator and what it entails, is wrapped up in that Psalm. 'I will fear no evil'. Doesn't that release you?
I can never read that Psalm without a tear; because of all of its implications.
What can’t you face knowing this?
Tony

kikz said...

convenient for poppy and babz that their ranch backs up to a UN bioreserve.. which just happens to be the largest aquifer not in Paraguay but in SA.

Ben There said...

Tony -

The 23rd Psalm... I feel you on that one. When my spiritual journey began to ramp up, those verses were so crucial to me, so powerful. I had a practice for a good while where I fell asleep every night while repeating that psalm very slowly in my mind. There's no doubt in my mind that that practice alone was deeply transformative.

Ben

Anonymous said...

Ben,
I read Awareness watching Awareness a year or so ago, feel a need to reread it but without all the extraneous stuff as you said. How do I happen upon this?

Anonymous said...

What can’t you face knowing this?
Tony

I trust you and Ben, Les et al, to know this. Its the others who don't know it that are our concern. We have our job cut out for us, we know that job is to support, nurture and reassure. Its can seem very insignificant in comparison to all that exists, but a revolution begins at home in small acts of kindness and understanding.
Nina

Anonymous said...

Hello Nina
Les constantly directs anyone who comes here to that effect.
The problem as I see it is convincing people to try. After all it is between the individual and our Creator.
There isn't much you or I can do to 'seal the deal' so to speak it's up to the individual. Direction, encouragement and nurturing are here for the people who wish to see.
Even people like godsend help. People who feel they have the deal done still continue to read and comment here, to their credit, realising there is more. Les is an excellent teacher.
Tony

Ben There said...

Susan -

My comment about the extraneous material was in reference to the act of meditation itself (not the actual text itself). As you are probably well aware there are dozens of meditation techniques out there; from various breathing techniques to visualizations to mantra repetition, etc. In my opinion awareness watching awareness is really the common end result of all of those other techniques when they are practiced successfully. So I'd say awareness watching awareness is really meditation in it's most distilled form. However, I think someone that didn't have much experience in meditation would find this practice very difficult. It's much more difficult than say breath counting or silently repeating "I AM" or what have you.

Nina -

...but a revolution begins at home in small acts of kindness and understanding.
Stated beautifully, this is my belief also. I try (with varying degrees of success) to live by this.

Ben

Anonymous said...

http://www.geocities.com/adilbookz/
Utilities/tinyurlcode.html


I see you found it. Cool!
Sorry, I suffer from sticky keys from haha crumbs on the keyboard sometimes.
Nina

Anonymous said...

Tony, it is not in our best interests to leave the conversation without a little closing clarification:

The problem as I see it is convincing people to try. After all it is between the individual and our Creator.
There isn't much you or I can do to 'seal the deal' so to speak it's up to the individual. Direction, encouragement and nurturing are here for the people who wish to see.


They don't wish to see because they feel what they see is endangering to their credibility within their personal perceptions of humanity. This IS where we come in because we are not individual, we are collective. Everybody, everything, everywhere is involved. Caring enough to listen, knowing when to encourage or refrain from encouragement, is trusting someone to walk through the door that you leave ajar - as perfectly stated in Visible's essay. This means having the capacity to forgive when the threshold isn't crossed, forgiveness being understanding. But you must be trustworthy first, trusting of yourself, and worthy of trust from others, if this means being small and insignificant, so be it.
I am not being religious here Tony, unless common sense is religious. It is only sensible when some of us don't possess paranoia, its our reponsibility to ease the paranoia. Would you not be naturally compelled to help a* blind man cross a busy intersection? You don't want to push him into traffic, you don't want to frighten him further, you don't want to press a dogma, just quietly take his hand in friendship, building trust as you go along. Everybody, everything benefits.

*please see Cathedral, short story, by Raymond Carver
http://tinyurl.com/2votg9

Nina

Visible said...

New essay here-

http://smokingmirrors.blogspot.com/





BOOKS, MUSIC, VIDEO


FEATURED READ-




Visit the recommended reading page for many more.





FEATURED MUSIC-


'I Need More Light' from the Les Visible Album
God in Country



Visit the Blog Music Page
to stream all of Visible's music for free
(purchase is always appreciated but entirely optional)





FEATURED VIDEO-


A classic Visible post:



With gratitude to Patrick Willis.

Click here to watch and comment on Vimeo and here to read the original text.



Visit the Blog Videos Page for many more.