12/23/2022

Shamanic shift


 

Describing her childhood training in the Indigenous Sciences

of the Oneida tradition, our teacher and colleague,

Paula Underwood Spencer, wrote:


"Since Universe is Energy, part of the process of understanding, at least as I experience it, is to learn to 'see' flows of energy and specificities of energy.  

Both are necessary. Because, you see, Universe is both Whole and Specific. Western science is beginning to understand this through explorations about particle and wave.  

Both particle/particularity/specificity of Universe and the wave/flow of Universe were aspects I was encouraged as a child to apprehend and understand. I was asked to 'see' the dancing points of light and then to apprehend the shift from location to flow.  Much of shamanic practice has to do

with developing the ability to enter and use this shift."

12/05/2022

The Veil lifts

 


"God is not always silent and humans are not always blind. In every person’s life there are moments when there is a lifting of the veil at the horizon of the known, opening a sight of the eternal. Each of us has at least once in our life experienced the momentous reality of God... The remembrance of that experience and the loyalty to the response of that moment are the forces that sustain our faith.In this sense, faith is faithfulness, loyalty to an event, loyalty to our response." ~ Rabbi Abraham Heschel

11/29/2022

stranger yet

 


Not only is the universe stranger than we think,

it is stranger than we can think.”


~ Werner Heisenberg

11/21/2022

One's mind

 


 

“During meditation one’s mind, being evenly settled in its own natural way, is like still water, unruffled by ripple or breeze,and as any thought or change arises in that stillness it forms, like a wave in the ocean, and disappears back into it again. Left naturally, it dissolves; naturally. Whatever turbulence of mind erupts—if you let it be— it will of its own course play itself out, liberate itself; and thus, the view arrived at through meditation is that whatever appears is none other than the self-display or projection of the mind. In continuing the perspective of this view into the  ctivities and events of everyday life, the grasp of dualistic perception of the world as solid, fixed and tangible reality (which is the root cause of our problems) begins to loosen and dissolves. Mind is like the wind. It comes and goes; and through increasing certainty in this view one begins to appreciate the humor of the situation.”  ~ Dudjom Rinpoche

Grapes of Wrath


 

Salinger, J.D.


 

Thomas Moore

 


Wrong/Right


 

More Noam


 

Mission Mountains Late November afternoon


 

10/08/2022

Compassion

 

"The beautiful thing about compassion is that when it spontaneously arises in you, an inner door opens into an experience of love, which is a part of our fundamental reality....When the inner door opens, it becomes effortless to reach out and connectwith others. This is why the greatest antidote to insecurity and sense of fear is compassion. It brings one back to the basis of one's inner strength. A truly compassionate person embodies a carefree spirit

of fearlessness,born of the freedom from egoistic self concern."  ~The Dalai Lama

10 Things Christian

10 things about Christianity that Jesus would not be happy about if he returned:

1. That his vision for a transformed society, got twisted into an afterlife fantasy about heaven.

2. That a religion was formed to worship his name, instead of a movement to advance his message.

3. That the gospel says his death solved the problem of humankind's separation from God, instead of accepting that his life revealed the truth that there is no separation from God.

4. That the religion bearing his name was conceived by the theories and doctrines of Paul, instead of the truth Jesus lived and demonstrated.

5. That he was said to exclusively be God in the flesh, putting his example out of reach, rather than teaching that we all share in the same spirit that empowered his character and life.

6. That the religion that claims his name, teaches that his wisdom and teachings are the only legitimate way to know truth and God.

7. The idea that humankind stands condemned before God and deserving of Divine wrath and eternal conscious judgement, requiring the death of Jesus to fix it.

8. That people are waiting on Jesus to return to save the world and end suffering, rather than taking responsibility for saving the world and solving suffering ourselves.

9. That people think there is magical potency in uttering the name of Jesus, rather than accessing our own natural powers and capabilities to effect change.

10. That people have come to associate Jesus with church, theology, politics and power, rather than courage, justice, humanity, beauty and love.



Polite Yoda