Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas and Karma, Surrender and Love.

Christmas Day is on the horizon. Ramadan is over. Diwali is over. The solstice is coming as preface for the Christmas that was grafted upon it, though that takes nothing from the eternal message of the Prince of Peace, independent of the damage done by those who milked the faith of others for their own profit and to the ongoing detriment of the world in which we live.

This is not a reasonable age and therefore we cannot expect a more pervasive awareness of the eternal. The density of form holds the ordinary mind fixed upon present representations of the eternal, rather than allowing for a more boundless contemplation upon the everlasting. It should be obvious that religions, for the most part are celebrations of the timeless rotations of Nature which is the mirror of God... or God manifest as opposed to God hidden from the senses.

In Nature there is the constant cycling of condition and circumstance which mirrors the ages of humanity in its individual and collective transitioning. Every thought, word and deed makes its impression in Nature and brings forth the fruit of that imprint which is known as Karma. Life begins as tabla rasa and continues as the search for tabla rasa. Innocence is lost and then sought. Regenerated innocence is the true, unspoken goal of life. The general accomplishment is senility which is the shadow self of innocence returned. Few achieve this because of the ease of compromise as opposed to the lonely struggle on a narrow highway.

Every cosmic state has its shadow self. A good analogy is the perversion of elves into goblins. This is the blocking of the light from passing through the stained glass windows of the personality. What blocks the light is Karma and Samskaras which are a feature of Karma.

What is true about that which religion represents is different from the representation. Religion is the goblin to the elf. So we are left with sad, tired spectacles of celebration seen through dirty spectacles. This is also Karma. Everything is Karma. The message of salvation given by The Christ, by Mohammed and by Buddha is all about being made free of Karma. The promise of being made “whiter than snow” and all the companion scripture in all of the major religions is about Karma.

Karma is inflexible except in relation to Grace and that too is Karma. The secret to the best and most expeditious management of Karma can be best illustrated in the act of throwing a ball against the wall. Once the ball has left your hand it is beyond your control and will continue in the direction of your intention. It will hit the wall and bounce back but... you can run toward the returning ball and catch it before it reaches you and this brings me to the story of the life of Jesus Christ.

As I said, this is not a reasonable age and because of this... the general mindset is to take everything on faith and avoid inquiry which has the sense of heresy about it. We are not encouraged to question and consider. I sincerely doubt that any of the principals, upon whose lives these religions were based, would forbid you to inquire as deeply as possible into the nature of existence and the meaning of their words. Question everything I would say and... the application of reason will open the portal of intuition.

According to the Koran, Jesus was not crucified. Those who are purported to have carried out this act were deceived into believing that they had but they did not. This is what the Koran says and this is echoed in certain occult texts. Some of them say it was Judas who was crucified. I’m not pushing any of these possibilities. I say, only... look.

As with the returning ball, the life of Christ showed the quickest way to be free of Karma. The submission to the will of the one that is exemplified in the life of The Christ is also found in Islam as well. Islam basically means... total surrender to God. You will find parallels in the life of The Buddha as you will find parallels in all other scripture. In the Way of Lao Tzu we are told to be like the green sapling that bends easily with the wind and not as the hard stem that cannot yield and must therefore break. The teachings of the Christ are filled with companion sayings that mirror this perspective.

I submit that the life of The Christ was a metaphor for the most precise way to accomplish freedom from Karma; if you are a Christian. All of these portals provide a similar relief if you are capable of bypassing the dogma and ritual into the essence of the thing itself. Every event in the life of The Christ and the others is an example for the best behavior. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the promise of our own liberty. The name Jesus comes from the name Joshua which translates as ‘salvation’. Easter and the living truth of resurrection is there to show you that no condition on Earth, not even death, should have power over you. It is fear of death and want that forces us to compromise and is the cause of much Karma. Desire is the cause of much Karma but, desire is the agent of God’s will so... you are either ‘one’ or you are ‘two’ and there’s that house divided.

Jesus had Karma too. This does not conflict with the idea that he was without sin. Karma is more than the general definition of it. Jesus was a man. Christ is a station. Gautama was a man. Buddha ’hood’ is a state and the hood is a cobra hood which is also the source of the corona around the heads of the saints. God is a serpent. Understanding this clears away a great deal of mystery but mystery will always remain.

You’ve perhaps heard the phrase that one should, “walk contrary to all things in the world” also, “I come with a sword”. This is the same sword which is the sword of Islam and is not a sword of war. It is a sword that is meant to piece the heart. Many lies have been told. We are told that Islam was spread at the point of a sword. This isn’t true. It is a lie. We are surrounded by lies which even a little research would dissolve.

The reason that The Christ presents a message of Love is the reason that Islam speaks of total surrender to God and is the essence of the teachings of The Buddha as well. That reason is that we are in a dark age -the Kali Yuga- and nothing but total surrender or the attitude of a Bhakti yogi will prevail. It is true that there are some singular souls who might walk a different path but that is Karma too.

Love is a flame. Flames consume. This flame consumes Karma. Those who love much are forgiven much. In times of darkness one needs a light. Such a light is concealed within every one of us and it is that which we must feed and celebrate rather than the perversions of the marketplace which are the norm of our time. We’re here to serve and that is the manner by which our karma is reduced. We brought nothing with us but what we had become before and we will take nothing with us but what we have further become after. Given this... there is nothing of greater importance, yet... every day we find some new distraction to take our mind away from the only real consideration in front of us all.

Hard times come to refine the metal but we refuse to endure the fire that will burn away the suffering and so we suffer even more. Intellectuals will tell you what their arrogant limitations have provided them in their worshiping of the vanities of their tiny little minds. Politicians and religious leaders will spin the message according to the material profits they are seeking but... they haven’t got a clue. You don’t have to look that hard for what you are seeking, in every other medium, but can only find in one location, always waiting to be born, in the Bethlehem of the heart.

Visible sings: Then You Let Go by Les Visible♫ Then You Let Go ♫
Lyrics (pops up)

Monday, December 08, 2008

That Indefinable Ease Thing

As it gets harder and less satisfying to compose for Smoking Mirrors, it gets easier to do the same here at Visible Origami. I want to talk about world conditions today and how to live with a greater ease in the midst of uncertainty and punishing confusion. Of course, what you do and where you live can have a lot to do with providing a greater peace of mind but these are considerations you have to sort out for yourself. Besides, we need something that’s going to work wherever you are. Also... it’s quite possible that the right frame of mind will naturally affect what you do and where you are.

It’s your choice whether you believe that there are entities and agencies involved in disrupting your balance for whatever their reasons may be. Let’s assume this is the case, both internally and externally. Let’s also assume that the one mirrors the other and that everything is in your mind and that everything is composed of mind stuff which, depending on your capacity to concentrate and to focus ‘the’ will, determines your capacity to shape the plastic mind stuff and the speed at which you can do it.

Probably everyone wishes they had the ability to cause instantaneous change in their circumstances and surrounding... and, one day you will. But does it matter if what you can do is more gradual as long as it occurs? I assure you that everyone does what masters do only they do it more slowly and less effectively. We don’t want to do the work that gradual transformation requires. That’s how it is in our instant, “I want it right now” world. So... there’s something we are lacking that we need to begin with or we’re not going to get very far. This thing is a little like ‘ease’.

I don’t know exactly what to call this thing but I can describe it for you. I had a friend visit recently and I noticed that he was fidgety, like there was somewhere he wanted to get off to or something he wanted to do. There wasn’t anything scheduled though. We were supposed to just continue sitting where we were and chatting for another hour or so.

I wasn’t fidgety at all. I had sunk into myself and I was pretty relaxed. This is something that has come to me over the last few years that I didn’t have before. I can sit somewhere and not have to do anything... just be. Most people might not know what I’m talking about but... there’s this delicious settling effect that you can acquire by removing your mind from the consideration of time. You have to cultivate it. You have to let go completely of the idea that there is anything more important anywhere else or that there is anything that has to be done and... it wouldn’t hurt to also let go of the idea that you actually do anything anyway.

This is a critical mindset to accomplish before you begin to engage in the gradual materialization of something. It’s important because otherwise, the usual operations of your mind will interfere with it. People can encounter this condition by being around a realized master and also just by being around anyone who has it to some degree. People can encounter it by consistent practice of meditation. You can encounter it by continuous surrender and also by rotating the mind around something like a prayer or a chant... though... you have to watch it with that because it can also busy you up and generate a certain tension unless it is conscious.

It’s right there in your mind right now, this ease thing... this relaxing and letting go of everything so that your center ‘emerges’ and swallows the rest of you. Now we’ve all heard about, ‘letting go’ and all the permutations of this thing that is hard to name. I may not be talking about what your mind may be telling you I am. After all... if it was one of those things we associate with the explanations and interpretations we’ve heard so many times in books or from new age practitioners then we would already have it and most of us don’t.

I tried many different things to get to this sense of ease but they didn’t do it so that I could just have it when I wanted it. How it worked for me was that I discovered it was there all along and I found I could ‘let it happen’. It seems to be aware of itself and it knows what to do. I don’t have to tell it anything, I just rest in it.

This ease thing is the key to being able to do a great many things that seemed difficult before. This ease thing also has the ability to communicate itself to others and so you find that you’ve got less difficulty with people than you had before. You might almost say it’s like ‘being cool’... that’s right, sunglasses and all but different than the posed variety. See... everyone has a heat envelope that they carry around with them. You could call it the desire body. People unconsciously react to each others heat bodies. And there are heat tunnels too, like highways and subways and traffic zones that push and pull us collectively. You can find it in a supermarket line or at the post office. It’s urgency and need along with some other things that you don’t need and which don’t serve you. See... either you are serving it or it is serving you.

Think of it as having a fire in your belly. You can adjust the flame just like a gas stove. You can dial it down. It gets itchy when you try to do this. It requires focus but not effort because it is already there. Cities are high heat areas. That’s what makes New York City what it is. The steam rising out of the grates on the sidewalk is a compelling image.

Timelessness is what you are after and these agencies and entities want you time conscious for whatever their reason may be. There’s a reason why there are few single income families any more. There’s a reason for economic uncertainty and the constant desire for things you don’t have and think you want. There’s a constant advertisement from the market place for stuff and there’s also a constant magnetic pulse for things to stick part of yourself into or to stick things into yourself so as to ease this discomfort of urgency. So... you could say that in some ways it has a lot to do with the sex force and how you channel it.

When the sex force is externalizing... that ages you and hollows you out. It burns you up and anger can enter the mix as well through frustration. When the sex force is internalized it feeds you and maintains your health and makes you vibrant. When you’re young you have a lot of this and that is why youth glows and is the object of such attraction. You get the idea that what you want is outside of you but actually it is inside you. This is the sole purpose of the world... to suck you out into it. It is a conscious personal choice not to go.

This is a warming engine when routed properly or otherwise you ‘might catch your death’ so to speak. I’m talking in riddles but there isn’t any other way. You have to catch the idea behind the words. This thing I’m talking about is listening to you right now. In some ways this is connected to what I said about going into Nature and speaking ‘into’ it. It’s all you but there are rituals that make it possible for you to talk to yourself and get results.

Once you find this thing I’m talking about you will realize that you don’t actually want anything else. It rounds sharp edges and it gives you a space cushion in the traffic of life. When you ‘really’ start to pay attention to what is going on around you, you can see that you have been being played. It’s possible to step outside of what is going on around you while you are inside of it and it deepens and deepens and widens as it goes. This is an actual road that moves like it had eyes toward those states that have been called Satori and enlightenment and the like. Enlightenment is not some instantaneous awakening though... no doubt... that has happened here and there. Generally it is a gradual thing that deepens and widens as it goes.

Well, we’ll give the impression, for now, that we are stopping here but you know that’s not the case.

Visible sings: God in Country by Les Visible♫ Imaginary Queen ♫
'Imaginary Queen' is track no. 10 of 11 on Visible's 2001 album 'God in Country'
Lyrics (pops up)

God in Country by Les Visible

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Richard Dawkins Tells it Like it's Not.

You come across curious things on the internet as a matter of course. Some of them don’t stay with you very long and some of them make you wonder. I can’t remember how I arrived at this site that is set up for promoting one Richard Dawkins but there I was and so I wound up watching him being interviewed by some lady in Vancouver.

I’d never heard about this fellow before but I guess he’s pretty well known. The site says that he’s sold 1.5 million copies of one book and he’s got a lot of other books and DVD’s. In the thread below the video there is one ASMarques who may be one of the smartest people I have come across in many, many a day. He gets roundly hammered by the other residents but it’s clear that he is very clear on what he is saying as it is clear that his opponents have no argument worth mentioning and that they are not bright enough to get his points.

The thread doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the video so, that’s another curious thing one runs across while surfing on the high seas of the vast internet and it’s not relevant to what I’m going to be talking about here today anyway.

Let’s talk about Richard Dawkins. He’s a debonair, professorial kind of a guy which that particular preening vanity that we encounter in academic circles. I get the feeling that Mr. Dawkins thinks he’s an erudite and powerful voice of reason in an age of religious superstition. I watched the video because I was curious to see an atheist argue his take on the indefinable incomprehensible.

I’ve been aware, for a long time, what the main argument of most atheists is based on. In one form or another, from one position or another, it is all about religion. There are some of a scientific nature who may use evolution or the lack of empirical proof as their argument but generally it’s all coming out of the shortcomings of religion as an impossible representative of the divine.

So I listened to Mr. Dawkins only to be gravely disappointed at his performance. I have never seen anyone argue for the cause of atheism who was as shallow and superficial in his presentation. You’ll have to see it to believe it. He doesn’t seem to have an argument at all. To be brief, which, in his case, is the desirable thing, he just basically says, “This is how it is. There’s no God.” And that’s that.

Yes... he’s an evolutionary biologist so he throws in some elements of the other arguments that are not just based on the absurdities of religion. I haven’t read his books or seen his DVD’s. I’m just going on what I have heard him say in the video. However, listening to Richard Dawkins it is apparent that he knows as much about his subject matter as Daryl Dawkins.

Well, you’ll notice if you watch this video that Dawkins just isn’t very interesting. He says nothing new and for a scholar with his credentials he’s an even bigger disappointment. It comes as no surprise to me that he is extremely successful. The secular humanist crowd would certainly appreciate his take and in this age of celebrating the trivial he fits right in with that superficial glibness that earmarks the spokes ‘persons’ of our time. He says pretty much nothing and evades what physicists have already proven about the world being ‘thought born’ and doesn’t enter into the realm of metaphysical inquiry at all. It’s true that the interviewer doesn’t ask him anything that would open to door for this but his evasion of certain considerations makes you wonder. Surely he has a cogent argument for these vast areas which have attracted some of the greatest minds who have ever appeared here and in whose company he is surely not to be counted.

As I’ve said before, the God that the atheist does not believe in does not exist. The God whose existence he is disproving... never was ...and Richard Dawkins isn’t necessary to make this known. This God is just as much of a fantasy as the God of the religious fundamentalists. They are both anthropomorphic absurdities. What Dawson and Christopher Hitchens, what Christian and Muslim fundies refute and believe can be seen as a private cage match that has only to do with each other and upon whom they both rely for their existence. It’s a self contained world that is the theater in which a peculiar karma works itself out over time.

Whether God does or does not exist is not the issue. Science has proven the existence of a mysterious something that interpenetrates everything and there are many examples in many lives over the course of recorded history which stands as definite evidence of some unknown force. The question really is, “What is God?” or “What is this mysterious something that contains everything and made everything out of itself?” We’ll never know that. We don’t need to know that. What we need to know is who we are and once accomplished that will answer as much as anyone will ever need to know about what God is.

The primary and most important area of inquiry is the self. Self inquiry is the only pursuit that anyone who aspires to a greater understanding of life need engage in. The whole of the mystery of life and its creations can be resolved by answering Ramana Maharishi’s question, “Who am I?” If you did no more than to ask, “Who am I?” for as long as it takes to get an answer you will receive the answer. Does that make sense? It wouldn’t to Richard Dawson. It does to me.

I have not the slightest shred of doubt that there is a God. I have seen some of the personalized representations projected outward by my mind upon the world of appearances. I have seen holographic Buddhas in the garden among the plants and I have seen them many times. I have seen Hindu deities at various times and though that may well be a projection of my mind they are no less real. In a certain sense, the mind is everything.

You are, each and every one of you, free to believe or disbelieve as you like. It is not my concern either way. Refuting Richard Dawkins is not the point of this post. He refutes himself very well without my help. This is just to say that you can’t argue about apples and insist that your argument applies to oranges. You can’t deny, without even much of an argument, a false God and expect that this would also apply to a real God. Well, you can but it won’t mean anything.

People find justification and examples that prove anything they want to believe. Logic and reason can be manipulated to prove or justify anything; any behavior and any point of view. The evidence of this surrounds us. The important thing, it seems to me is to separate the real from the false first, before you choose to believe in anything. What is real? ...That which endures. What is not real? ...That which does not endure. Yes... there is relative truth and absolute truth. You may treat with this according to your own way of seeing. One thing is for sure, Richard Dawkins will not endure but that which he has no knowledge of ...that will surely endure. It always has and it always will.

Have I proven anything here? Have I proven anything more than Richard Dawkins has disproved anything? Probably not. My job is not to prove anything to anyone except myself. My life and every life will be the proof of what it believed according to what it proved to itself. Wherever I will wind up and wherever Richard Dawson will wind up will not be known to anyone but the one involved. I wish you all good fortune in your pursuit and it is my sincere hope that you find what you seek, if what you seek is real.


Visible sings: When I Lose You by Les Visible♫ When I Lose You ♫