What I am going to say you have probably heard before in different ways. How I am going to discuss applying it may not have been said before or certainly not as often. Of course... there’s nothing new and the only thing different in what I am going to say is that I am saying it now, at this time and because the holes in my flute are as unique to me as the holes in your own and the common force of sounds is going to say the same thing with different colors and tones.
We are all flutes with uniquely placed holes that make the music of our individual selves. Some of us naturally harmonize with others and a few have the capacity to bring others into harmony with something greater and which they are already in harmony with. Most people are dissonant and striving for harmony even though the drive of their self-interest consistently drives them away. Tribal cultures have a natural gift for this harmony and in some ways will always be superior to the industrialized world no matter how many toys and convenience items may proliferate.
One of the keys to a greater harmony in life and in purpose is in gaining the understanding that all religions are based on the same thing. The great Hindi saint Ramakrishna entered into every one of the major religions and experienced enlightenment in each of them and declared that they are all the same. Our greatest stumbling block is in the mind’s disposition to seeing the world external as a duality play. We see differences. We see differences in religious beliefs and we see differences in each other. We see all manner of differences but everything is made out of the same thing in terms of what we call matter and everything is interpenetrated by the same thing which we call consciousness. The consciousness and the matter are the same thing as well but in another aspect. You could think of kinetic and potential energy as a good example of this.
Most of us that come here are aware of what is being said. We know these things are most likely true. We know they are far more likely to be true that what the world tells us is real. Because we are not rooted in the one we are constantly shifted about through magnetic attraction. We have hopes for everything we encounter but in every case our hope fails. This is because the basic intention of life is to lead us back to the source. Everything that happens to us is geared to this destiny and for each of us it is a matter of how great our capacity is for suffering that determines how long we endure it.
So... no doubt you have heard all of this before but I want to add something else to the mix here because of the confusing appearances and relentless apprehensions that define this time in which we live. A number of people have written me and asked what they can do about their lives. They want to know if they are safe where they are. They want to know where they can move to and some of you are already in the process of moving somewhere else. That is how intense the moment appears to us.
The truth is that no one needs to go anywhere at all and, at the same time, some will go because there are features of their personal destiny that are complicit in motivating them away... away toward something, somewhere.
It is important to realize that this thing we call God, or by whatever name we address it, regardless of the characteristics and qualities we attribute to it, is much more than we will ever understand or comprehend. No one has ever fully understood or comprehended. It isn’t important anyway. What is important is to realize that it is alive inside of us and that we would have no life without it. You might think of the Sun as a good example for this. Knowing it is there is one thing and knowing that it is conscious of you is another. It knows more about you than you know. It is disposed to act in your behalf if you can get out of your own way. It is important to remember that we... our personality and force of self interest are our greatest stumbling blocks.
It has been said that the devil is the way the wicked see God. It can also be said that fear is nothing more than an awareness of our separation from the one. Some of us can sit with tigers and wild beasts of all types without any danger. Most of us cannot. This same applies to times of turmoil and the various dangers that surround us in our nations and cultures when people are made afraid of their situation and of each other.
Make no mistake, at this time some very deluded people are at the helm of the ship of the world. They are no less under the control of this one force than we are but there is a cosmic play at work in which these characters are acting out a moral lesson for the benefit of all who have the wit to see it. This same force has control of their destiny and your destiny as well. If you cannot trust this to be true then fear will be your companion. We make the constant mistake of assuming that the world and its array of intimidating images have a power apart from the one power. It is also under control. Everything is under control of the one and outworking toward a specific end.
You cannot run and hide anywhere. This does not mean that you should not seek more pleasant surrounding if you are moved to do so. It is just that you can’t go anywhere that this thing will not accompany you and already be there when you arrive. The key is to spend this time surrendering and reaching for this thing to the exclusion of all other concerns because there is no other concern. A great separating out is taking place and many might well miss the aperture as it opens because of the distractions that surround them.
You are not going to be lost and left adrift because you have family; children, pets, seeming obligations and the like. You are where you are supposed to be and if you will work at being open to the inner voice you will be led at all times. The voices outside of you and the voice within you are saying different things. Trust but verify in all cases as has been suggested by others in times before. It is important to remember that as portions of the world around us are being destroyed and transformed that something else is rising to replace them.
You have, at all times, the power and protection of the one 'always' available to you. It is always on tap. It has guided you when you had no knowledge of guides. It has looked out for you when you could not look out for yourself. Today you read what is being said here as you also read other things and none of this is accidental. A much greater portion of the world is watching TV and being told what to think by those who do not have their best interests at heart. The big dogs in the yard are dividing the spoils. They are confident in their positions and powers and they are completely blind to the fact that they are only actors in a movie where the director is on set. They will lose everything that they think they possess. Do not grant them any symbolic power in your mind. They have only the power over you that you grant them.
I know that you have heard this all before. We have to be careful not to gloss over what we think we already know because we don’t actually know anything. When our focus begins to shift it can be a scary thing and so we must have faith in our protector and act according to what we know are, “the better angels of our nature.” We came into being from an unknown place and we are headed there again on the spiral of our reaching upward toward the bright rooms of our true home. We do not live here. We are only passing through. Give great attention to the small things and handle the large ones with a light touch.
It has been said many ways, in many times that ...we are loved more than we know and certainly more than we are capable of loving in return. It has been said that if we take one step toward the divine that it will take ten steps toward us. We need to reassure ourselves and that can only happen by gaining and practicing faith, determination and certitude. You are in good hands if you want to be or... you can let self-interest lead the way.
'Love is Bound' is track no. 12 of 12 on Visible's 2007 album 'Almost A Capella'
Lyrics (pops up)
36 comments:
mornin les:)
simply...
thanks*
love
k*
p.s. had ta find 'mirrors text' in the side panel...5:30A CST
ah... we work around it:)
Les,
You never fail to amaze me. I was in the Southern Baptist "fold" for many years until I started reading other things and watching things not produced by "main media" sources, and I finally told my Mom that there is no God. If he's there he's not doing such a great job and if he let's all of these people suffer (Rwanda, Gaza), then who wants to spend time around him. I know humans who act better than that! But reading your posts, especially this one has convinced me that there is something out there, not necessarily the "God" of the Southern Baptists, but a divine force all the same. I am taking your words to heart. I know I was led to you. Thanks Les, you are my sunshine!
Much love,
K (neonurse)
This' why 'they' won't come anywhere near you Les! Minions snap around the edges like fox terriers around your heels but are unable to administer any decisive blow at all.
Trust of the truth and what flows from that is most certainly a force to be reckoned with.
Your writings must, as a matter of course, inspire many.
Tony
Yes indeed Les my man we do obstruct. If we give one moment of attention to the thought sensed duality we are thrown into the turmoil and lost in confusion. Sometimes the best "action" is in attending to the sorting out of the Singular tone. Each facet of the Universal Singular Tone reveals the pathway to the primary source of all being. There is no duality only the faces of the US[unified singularity]. You simply have to love/worship IT. As one of those "faces" I have spent 'time" surfing this apocalypse and been met by an infinite Universe of loving kindness. I "sense" things that I really should leave alone in order to let others catch on and catch up but I have to give credit to ya for being a point man [also]. Again...Big Thanks. Chipster
Spot on, man. Thanks for this. As usual, it came at a time I needed to hear it.
Les,
You are magic... You say what needs to be said in the time and place that it needs to be said.
We are all candles of consciousness, yet, you shine so very bright. There is far more than just words on these pages.
Amicus
How true.... it doesn't matter where you "are"...and you can't run and you can't hide.... I was near the Canadian border for Y2K and now for
this Meltdown I'm near the Mexican
border, not at all good place to be now, but
I'm not leaving this time and don't
plan to be 'scrambling for canned goods' either after the next 911.
It has been a weird and interesting life, "Take it as it comes/Specialize in having fun...."
Bob Chapman's International Forecaster for 2/28 is great -- even has 'Smoke and Mirrors' in the title!
Pass the tissues, I am touched. So timely, so elegantly eloquent. Mon Dieu, merci.
Inadvertently it seems you have exemplified another secret to survival which is early to bed, early to rise. Clever how that works, isn't it? That way, by attending to the envelope, you get a lot more sunshine.
In gratitude, nina
For the troubles (relative) you say you are having, that one came through with clarity and love--just beautiful.
Jj
You are the comet seeking to break the bounds of earth
And join the clarity of the universe
Vastness pales in it’s light
In all of it’s goodness
And thereby become one with it
As we always have been
Acceptance
Gratitude
We are the tail
Pulled along
Yet one with the comet
Inseparable
By design
Urging it on
Streaking madly
Just for the sheer joy
Of the ride
What is behind is behind
What lay ahead
Purity
Of Oneness
Of Consciousness
Mainlined baby
Magical
My friend
Together
In truth
The incredible lightness of
Being
Just being
Is all there is
And needs to be
Inspired
Jj
Brother you are sitting by the living waters. It must hurt something awful I suspect. I love hearing from bholanth and where is the village idiot?
Almost a year now my friend and I am still clean and have not been in jail since. Thanks for that bit of help by the way. You don't answer your emails any more.
Bruce
"It has been said that if we take one step toward the divine that it will take ten steps toward us"
And that is a good reason to take 10 steps toward the divine. It'll give us a 100 - that will surely do!!!
Good night.
Dear Les,
"What is important is to realize that it is alive inside of us and that we would have no life without it."
Yes, mon, doesn't get any more crucial than this.
And "practicing faith" appears to be 'the Work' we've all been assigned.
This one of yours is so close to perfection of expression, approaching, as Rumi says, "the end of words". Thank you for you continuous generosity.
I think this Unity (of Everything) is the thing that, once fully known/experienced is what keeps us immune from the programs/lies of the Matrix-media-religion vibes on both physical and subtle levels.
Some Masters told me that I and mine are protected everywhere, and that we will not be subjected to the horrors we have feared. So far it has held true.
At the same time, because we are fearless we remain open to FEELING all the suffering of all life/all beings. We experience depression even without bein hit upside the head. Closing ourselves off is like soul-death, so we soldier on without 'anesthesia'.
Somehow we are able to REMEMBER (in nature, in meditation) to call on the Source, and let 'it' once again lift us out of the depths of despair. That tiny spark of memory (of all the previous times) can never be extinguished, so even without 'hope' we once again kneel and kiss the earth.
This human birth is precious, the most precious thing, whether we imagine we're "just passing through" or "where we belong".
love and respects,
bholanath
Enlightenment is found. Thanks for the boot to the head Vis. Being learning and a healthy respect for the need to twist and spin your charge at times to impress upon the student the heights of the lessons far down the road is a hard class to pass and well you handed it to me. My needs all seem insignificant after just a simple poke and prod to the end. Again prescient insights from you have helped me regain my self in a very short time in my estimation Thanks. Ltr Vis.
The Cassiopaeans said one time, "It's not where you are that matters, it's who you are and what you see that counts." That phrase has stuck with me, possibly one of the most powerful and enlightening things to come out of that contact.
We are indeed where we need to be, whether it seems that way or not, and sometimes we get there without even knowing why. I have personal experience of this ... when I came back from Japan I wasn't sure why exactly ... told everyone it was to go to grad school but I'd already missed the application deadlines by months so that wasn't really it. So, a lazy summer house-sitting for my parents, then an autumn helping my Dad build his dream workshop, then his leukemia comes back and my mom needs me to help her get through it all ... didn't know any of that was coming, didn't even cross my mind before I came ... yet there it was.
And where will I be, six months, a year from now? Here, maybe. Someplace far away, perhaps. I know neither where nor what I'll be doing, and ... it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it'll be exactly what I have to be doing, then, and for now that's neither here nor there because Now is all that is.
I said I needed to hear that, and I did. So many of my good friends are off in big cities, with good jobs and careers and lovers and lives and projects and ... here I am, at loose ends, with all the signals from society telling me that I'm a loser, a wasted life. Even when no one I know says it, the programs buried inside of me really let me have it from time to time, and one of those times was recently.
So that's why this was so opportune. Thank you, Les. You play beautifully on the flute.
Psychegram: ..here I am, at loose ends, with all the signals from society telling me that I'm a loser, a wasted life. Even when no one I know says it, the programs buried inside of me really let me have it from time to time...
There was a thin little book I selected from a friend's library to thumb through poolside, while the sun tanned our bodies and children swan dived, the line in the book said "At any given time you are doing the best you can." That was it, that's what we do. We don't decide to do less than that. Even when we are idle, sleeping or dreaming, that's the best we can do at that moment.
heh heh...
Jj...
could you go over and do that at Smoking Mirrors too?
no..
never mind...
it is probably me...
les, for those of us trying to gain faith what books do you recommend to start the journey? many thanks.
I'll translate it into Mandarin and send it over--maybe the Harvard professor or the rich guy who wants to buy you a house, but won't, would be interested--then again, I think they were the same person with multiple personality disorder--or, maybe they were me with multiple-multiple personalities in order--but not in order of appearance or dis-appearance-
Who's on first?
Maybe we could just flip a coin with loaded dice?
Jj
Oh boy are you asking for trouble.
First I would recommend the book of Nature and ask you what it takes for the sun to shine and what holds the planets in their course... what makes the birds sing and the rivers run and what strange and crazy fate made you ask that in the first place or what brought you here which you could now wonder about too...
after that I would ask you to look in the mirror and consider who is looking back at you and how that came to be and whether you think some ape just dropped down from a tree.
Then I would ask you if you have ever felt love and considered that liberation was one of its greatest components while you felt enslaved by the experience itself.
Then I would ask you, as the world turns more dark and troublesome by the day why it is that you think this is not the way it is at all and ask you if that is not a kind of faith because you can't see how it should be but you surely suspect that there is something more.
Then I might say that it wouldn't hurt to order "The Way to the Kingdom" by Joseph Brenner (although his name does not appear as the author) and also "The Way of Life by Witter Bynner (only that edition) and "The Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda and I would say that is a good start and...
if you want more I suspect you are going to get flooded with selections by a lot of people that are going to be reading this too but as I said...
look around you and look within and you tell me whether or not there might be a reason for faith especially because of the fact that what we used to count on for faith in evidence becomes more hidden by the day.
We are the greatest reason for faith that I can think of and if you look into the people around you you will see them acting on faith far more often than previously supposed.
"The Cassiopaeans said one time, "It's not where you are that matters, it's who you are and what you see that counts."
Yes a great quote psychegram !!!!
Les, I feel that we do have forces that act on us, moving bodies of ideas like suns or moons, but with care and a good rythum we may get a clearer picture of ourself in their movement. It is how we come to these moving balls of engery that is up to us and of great fun.
What is and what will be, can be a very simple walk. Going back in time or looking ahead will only stop the walk.
Les, I repeat the ideas on your post daily. Sometimes in the morning when awake, but before sleep I do tell myself that it is my will that I can count on tomorrow.
Matt durkeematthew@hotmail.com
anon 6:59--Not knowing where you are right now I suppose doesn't matter--if you have some religion clinging to you, or merely the dust of it from years ago, I would recommend starting with AGE of Reason--Thomas Paine--you can find it online at infidels.org--I am also a fan of Echkart Tolle on the "western side" of things--have not dabbled, at least directly with the eastern stuff--but have read some wonderful quotes by people in here that I r-e-s-p-e-c-t--thank you aretha--
I can only speak for myself but a HUGE part of growth has been the letting go--the falling away--sometimes the "pushing" away of not just our personal past, but that which has surrounded us and influenced us (because thats what its designed to do)--organized religion, politicians, history written by the victors, etc.
I got led this way after 911--it just didn't smell right--then my wife and I jumped down the rabbit hole like greased pigs and have not stopped slidin'--you'll find some wonderful company along the way and not any shortage of wisdom--once you decide too, you'll know when your BS meter goes off--trust it--if you're not sure, let it wait--beware of the flim-flammers trying to sell you something--you made it in here, that's a huge start--and that may be for a while--the band played on--I would also urge you to go to some of the links on the mirrors page--some great stuff, and wonderful people--above all, CONTRIBUTE and SHARE--don't be shy!!
Jj
"It is disposed to act in your behalf if you can get out of your own way. It is important to remember that we… our personality and force of self interest are our greatest stumbling blocks."
Les, question
To true it is that we stop ourself before anything else. But you speak of love before us(or outside of us)? What if I can see that love/god think at all time but only within my actions outward? What have I done wrong? Im not suggesting I dont have that love for myself, but that inner god is to easy to live with, that seems to be out of balance to me? Shouldnt that love be has hard as loving others? I do feel that it(god)was been there always but so have I?
Matt durkeematthew@hotmail.com
“When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.”
Albert Einstein
"We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a 'savage' has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter."
Mark Twain
Thank you, Les.
les, thank you, i will start with your book suggestions. just looking for an alternative to western religion
Les,
Thank you I had been grappling with this one for some time now.Thank you for clearing it up for me.
C.J
I resonate with these words. Everyone knows these things, but many just have amnesia. The few also know and actively fight against it.
Thank you for helping me remember.
May I recommend "Crazy Wisdom" by Chogyam Trungpa? He illustrates the principle of crazy wisdom as the starting point of an exciting spiritual journey.
Years ago, in my self-interested days, I found myself in a somewhat dangerous situation. Under the influence of alcohol, to the point that I was not able to walk straight, and a long ways from my home. Knowing that I had to get back home, I just started walking. Staggering along, a big, beautiful dog showed up at my side, seemingly from out of nowhere. He accompanied me all that long way and when we finally arrived at my destination, I hugged and thanked him and asked him to stay right where he was so that I could go and get him a dring of water and some food. I was in the house not more than a half a minute and when I got back outside, he had disappeared, not an easy task when he should have been visible for hundreds of yards all around. Calling and calling, he failed to show up. I know that he was my guardian "angel" and that for some reason I had been kept out of danger. It seemed improbable at the time but over the years I have firmly come to believe that that was what he was. There have been other instances as well which I cannot explain otherwise than having a something looking out for this life and body.
If that is the guy who also wrote "Cutting through Spiritual Materialism" then I have to say he's one of the clearest writers I've ever read and I know some amusing anecdotes about him too.
Yes, Chogyam Trungpa is the author of "cutting through spiritual materialism". Supposed to be a tulku.
Your point about one step by us is met by 10 complementary steps. If only I could get my foot to do what my mind believes to be true.
Glenn
A sincere thank you for this origami piece and for your F2F talk of 090308. May God give you all the power you need Les to keep on blasing a trail. May He remove your underpinnings AND allow you to keep your balance in perfect harmony.
Peace and love, Glenn
Les, I so enjoy origami more than smoking mirrors. Not to take anything away from the latter. This post in particular resonates deep within me. It caused me to reflect on some of the words of wisdom and peace that I recall my grandmother often speaking and living. Perhaps this is why coming here (from day one) has always felt familiar and comforting. And it is how I recognize it's worth. I appreciate you Les and your contribution.
Dear Les--
At one of my lowest points a dear friend gave me a copy of "I Am That." It saved my life, as twenty years earlier "The Wisdom of Insecurity" had also. I'd tell you who wrote them but I'm not going to. Do it yourself!
Hey, HA, hey...Also, Les, did you get my post of Snipe Hunting?
Les --
Forgot to mention "Revolt of the Angels" by Anatole France. After treating me for awhile, my first shrink in Brookline gave it to me after reading some test results or maybe he just figured I couldn't read. I'll never know...
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