Authenticity, Ecstasy & Iceland. . . .

. . . .no man can create a Zen garden like this.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.
- J. Krishnamurti



Act One:

au·then·tic·i·ty
n.
The quality or condition of being authentic, real, genuine.

I have just returned from a two week trip to the UK and Iceland. I didn't bother to keep a daily log, check e-mail, or wear a watch. So in attempting to relate the events I will have to go with an overall theme, and feel, rather then a minute by minute account. And that will be far more accurate.

It was 24/7 daylight the entire time we where there. So here is the scene. . . . .


I started the trip in Manchester UK. My first night there we stopped into a small jazz club, along with friends from Estonia. Live Jazz, when done well, seems to be a great method for experiencing different states of consciousness. The musicians wait until just the right moment to enter into the music, like surfers waiting for just the right time to catch a wave. Once in . . . they are gone, and what is left is the music itself, with itself.

This music is impossible to plan, and that is exactly what makes it so dynamic, so valuable, so worthwhile.

I taught a few sessions on slow rolling with an emphasis on the three stage formula of slow down, let go, and observe position. Slow down the tempo, the pace. . .let go, don't rely on muscular contractions to hold onto to any single position. . . and, observe where you are in that moment.


Slowing down means relaxing. And relaxing cannot be emphasized enough. Letting go means exactly that, releasing.
And to observe means being fully present to what is now. This allows the athlete the ability to respond in time. They are more response able, which has to be the real meaning of responsibility.

On Monday we flew to Iceland. . these are pictures from the trip.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first create the Universe."
- Carl Sagan

As I stepped off the grid and into the countryside of Iceland, I was overtaken by a total sense of reverence.


The events of this trip always pointed back towards the same realization, the same theme, time and time again. The reality that trying to deal in cause and effect is truly absurd; that instead of that typical backwards vision we could be pointing the awareness inwards. We all have an innate ability to take ourselves inside, on an interior journey, which penetrates past the superficial layers of who we take ourselves to be at a cursory level.

And any attempt to work instead on the external levels of causality is not only superficial, it is absolutely upside down.



"People prefer to fight imaginary windmills rather then stare the dragon of their own unconscious in the eye. They are scared of the sacred."
- Georg Feuerstein


It is about Natural Being versus Trying. . . .

The truth of the sincere action is that it cannot be known by the ego, which will become prideful of it, ashamed of it, and always attempt to use it in some way shape or form for the purposes of manipulation.

you cannot try to be humble. .
you either are, or are not in the moment
you cannot try to be sincere. .
you either are, or are not in the moment
you cannot try to be genuine. .
you either are, or are not in the moment
you cannot try to be giving. .
you either are, or are not in the moment
you cannot try to be authentic. .
you either are, or are not in the moment
you cannot try and be ecstatic. .
you either are, or are not in the moment
You cannot try to be good. .

it just IS.


So the practice then is clearly observing which you are right now in the moment. . . trying only hinders this process of clear seeing. Seeing clearly is enough.

"Spiritual practice can never be fulfilled by imitation of an outer form of perfection."
- st John of the cross


In otherwords, to copy a virtue in another is copying, but never virtue.

We took a jeep way out towards a glacier, and visited a small mountian which we climbed up. The view from the top was undescribable. At one point I found a quiet spot on the edge of a cliff overlooking this large valley at the bottom of a glacier. The moss was close to a foot deep in places, having grown over hundreds of Years. It was softer then any carpet I can remember. I layed down in that area and hung my head over the cliff, watching the birds, the water, and breathing in the whole scene.


Reykjavik is also a beautiful city. . . lots to do and see.

The sun never sets here at this time of Year. The streets are filled with people at 3:30 in the morning, and it seems like noon. It's a good few evenings, and I remember as I look around that I never know exactly who I am talking to. Demons will disguise themselves as Angels, and Angels will take the form of Demons in places like this. And that is not a bad thing.

One day during the week we visited the natural hot spings known as the Blue Lagoon.

Iceland is one of those places with an ancient and deep biological memory. A land literaly glowing with a certain dynamic quality.



What I am talking about is this. . . .

Act Two:

ec·sta·sy
n. pl. ec·sta·sies

1. Intense joy or delight.
2. A state of emotion so intense that one is carried beyond rational thought.
3. The trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation

Control versus Surrender

Control is: - Surrender is:

Holding tight - Letting go
Try - Observe
Fight - Flow
Struggle - Release
Achieve - Dissolve

"As long as you want real power, you can't really have it."
- Ram Dass



"You see the fact that your spiritual journey is an entirely different ball game from the path you thought you where on. It is very difficult to make that transition."
- Ram Dass


The first and maybe biggest misunderstanding is that the individual can free himself, can become 'free'. . . .it is only consciousness that can become free of the individual, and not the other way around. But most everyone will see this inside out, most of the time.

"The soul attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of the Divine."
- St John of the cross


Act Three:

Genialis Lectus

How rare is it that we let someone see who we truly are in the moment. How rare is it that we don't throw on yet another mask.

Any attempt to try, force, mimic, or otherwise manipulate, takes us immediately out of the realm of authenticity. It is just another mask, another filter between self and grace.


Salome, described as a fiery girl, was the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter to Herod, ruler of Galilee during biblical times. Legend has it that Herod was holding John the Baptist captive throughout a grand celebration. Herod demanded that his stepdaughter, Salome, dance for him as entertainment. In return for her impressive exertions, he promised,

"Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom."

Some say that Salome deferred to her mother, who suggested she ask for the head of John the Baptist (on a silver platter). And because Herod was a man of his word, he complied.



"The minute you don't want any real power you will have more then you ever dreamed possible."
- Ram Dass

Even the head of a prophet won't bring real freedom.

Fundamentalists will see John the babtist as the victim there. But that is completely backwards.

You cannot plan for it, imitate it, manipulate it, or bring it about through the petty force of will.

It is. . . .GRACE.

Final Act:

Indulgere Genio

As Allan Watts would say. . . . So what if everything becomes strange.

On the flight home from Iceland I get the morning paper and see the seminar written on its pages. I have no idea what it says as it is all in Icelandic, but I can understand the words Bob Marley and Vibe, so I know we must have done good.


Sometimes I lose my ability to speak. The farther I go, the less there is to explain to myself. And if I go to far, all I can do is smile.

On the last night of the trip Karl and I wandered back to the same Jazz club that kicked started the journey. Kali Ma in one of her many forms recognizes me across the room, and she lips I am right there with you.

Have I enjoyed my trip, she asks?

That's all that matters. . .that is all she say's she needs to hear. And I know the level on which she is absolutely sincere, I hear it that way. . . . and my answer is a complete YES, authentic in every sense.

And there is no reply for that, because that takes her up as well. She drinks from my glass. And it is time to go home.


Talem vidi qualem capere potui

I saw her as such, in the way in which I was able to understand her.

It is not about cause and effect.

It is always inside.

And it's Now.

.

I Realize. . . .

. . . .that when I said this in the last entry:



"Scientifically speaking, we never see anything as it occurs real time. We can only perceive what has already happened. This has to do with the way the nervous system and brain operates, and it is a fact. In short, what you consider the present moment, is in reality always a memory. It is the remembered present."

That some people may like to quibble about whether or not it is actually always a 'memory'.

But just remember this. . .



Reality tells us that the moment you think about anything, that anything is a memory. But only every single time.

Have a beautiful series of days. See you after Iceland.

"One day the sun admitted
I am just a shadow
I wish I could show you
The infinite incandescence."
- Hafiz

Off the "Grid". . . .

. . . .aka: Indra's Net.



I am headed overseas again in a few days. I will be going back to the UK, and then Iceland. It will be another great trip. Before I leave I thought I would throw out the 'grid' idea, and let it float around out 'there' for a bit. So here it is. . . .

What is the Grid?

Like all things, it can be taken one of two ways, literally as in a "thing" itself. Or, as a metaphor. And like all things written or spoken, only one will be correct. And like all things written or spoken, it is always a metaphor. So, metaphor for what, should be the question.

The answer is MIND.



Not 'your' mind, or 'my' mind, but MIND itself.

Let's go into it.

Where do thoughts come from? The average person tends to answer that question quickly with "from my brain". And although that is accepted by the common individual as rational, it is in reality backwards.

It is just another unexamined assumption.
How many of these do we have?

Here is an alternative concept. . . .

Since the time of our births we are enveloped by all sorts of stimulus. Input from parents. Input from people we make contact with, or who contact us. Input from television, or from radio. Input from billboards, lights, sounds. . . .ALL kinds of things. . . .in fact, all things.



All of these things, a category which is unlimited and includes all things that can be known, have one thing in common. They 'connect' to us through our nervous system.

Scientifically speaking, we never see anything as it occurs real time. We can only perceive what has already happened. This has to do with the way the nervous system and brain operates, and it is a fact.

In short, what you consider the present moment, is in reality always a memory. It is the remembered present.

The body/mind acts upon the outside stimuli, based on it's previous programming - conditioning, and an-other output, or "event" is created. And most individuals among us call that process 'free will'.



A common thought to arise at this moment is, "Yes, but can't we choose to act or not act on that stimuli, regardless of programming?"
And that is a very-very superstitious belief.

What is it that would choose? Is it the body itself? Everyone, from athiests to religious followers agree that the body is in fact just meat. Meat with an expiration date.

It is good if at this point we re-visit what Voltaire has to say on the subject:

"Everything happens through immutable laws, ...everything is necessary... There are, some persons say, some events which are necessary and others which are not. It would be very comic that one part of the world was arranged, and the other were not; that one part of what happens had to happen and that another part of what happens did not have to happen. If one looks closely at it, one sees that the doctrine contrary to that of destiny is absurd; but there are many people destined to reason badly; others not to reason at all; and others to persecute those who reason."
- Voltaire

So who is the 'doer'. . . .and one concept that would explain that is the 'grid'.



Lets share an idea, it's just an idea. No more, no less. It wont hurt you. Think of each human being as a cell of a much larger organism. The universe itself supports billions and billions of stars. And one of those stars supports life in a very small galaxy, on a very small rock, called Earth. The planet creates people in the same way an apple tree creates apples. . .and those people learn to communicate amongst themselves, as cells are prone to do. . . . .but at a much more "sophisticated" level. Using the magic of language, the cells are able to share accumulated information that has been gathered through the nervous system, and MIND is created.

The massive GRID is now in place.



This grid moves s l o w l y at first. From cell to cell, from cell to cells, over camp fires, and on walls. Then something incredible happens. . . Dynamic quality emerges, and. . . . carved symbols are used as representations of other things. . . . .writing is created.

Now the grid moves a little quicker, but still slowly by today's standards.

Then another burst of creative light. . . .a man named Johannes Gutenberg pops up, and he creates the first printing press. If the old world moved at 10mph, the new world now moves at 1000mph, thanks to the ability to mass produce printed symbols on paper. Paper which moves its way through the peoples/cities (think hardware). Spreading the programming (think software) in a way that was never before possible.



Can you guess the rest? Telegrams, telephones, and phonographs, all of which is allows cells to talk to each other over greater distances. The radio. . .spoken symbols, transmitted to cells through invisible waves. Moving pictures, talking pictures, television waves, satellite, and of course, the internet. If the old world moved at 1000mph, the new world now moves at 10,000mph

The internet is in its own way an example of what MIND is. The internet is a piece of the GRID. A piece that is highly visible, and easy to identify. A grid within a grid.

Information floating from point to point, on one massive, interconnected WEB.

This is Indra's Net. Indra's net is an ancient Hindu fable about a great net the creator God Indra decides to hang.

Indra's net is the sublime metaphor for the Grid, for Mind.



"Far away in the heavenly abode of the great God Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out indefinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of the Deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel at the nets every node, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hung the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold.

If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that process of reflection is infinite.

- The Avatamsaka Sutra

Isn't that beautiful?!

This is the holographic nature of the Universe.
This is the interconnected nature of ALL things.
This is non locality.
This is innate - primal Wisdom.
This is Maya - Illusion.
This is MIND

This is the grid.
This is Indra's Net.



Can you think of a new prime color? There are no new thoughts. There is nothing new under the sun. It's all a reflection. . . with every moment being exactly every-thing. But only all the time.

When Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches" he could have also stated "You are the Vine AND the Branches."

After all, is he talking about ONE plant or TWO there?
Is it not one plant?

In truth, each part of the plant interdependent on the next for it's total life. Just as your foot is part of your body, or a tree is part of a forest, or a forest is part of an eco-system, or an eco-system is part of the planet, or the planet is part of the solar system, or the solar system is part of the galaxy, or the galaxy is part of the universe.

I am the vine and you are the branches

Same - same. . . .It is ALL. . . .THAT.



Getting caught in the shadows. . . .

Some places on the grid are very noisy. Lots of input, lots of programming, lots of stimuli. This can be tiring on individual cells. It can also be highly destructive depending on the causality being played out. So it is natural for us as humans to seek refuge from the noise at times. Shelter from the input. . . . .Sanctuary.



Enter the Hungry Ghosts. . .

All desire comes with equal measure fear. And all fear comes with equal measure desire.

This is because they are in fact one and the same thing.

You cannot separate fear from desire anymore then you can separate the front of a coin from the back of a coin. You could slice it to incredibly thin dimensions. But no matter how thin you slice it, you wont have a front without a back.

Welcome to duality.



Advertisers discovered this simple reality long-long ago. As did salesman, priests, politicians, the church, and all forms of like minded "kind".

Consistent exposure to this advertising is designed by it's very nature to make individual mind/body's feel scared, inadequate, needy, insecure, and weak. The perfect state to be manipulated. The perfect state to be controlled.

Try this experiment, the next time you are observing commercials, or advertisements, see if you can spot where the FEAR is being planted. Will you not get the beautiful girl if you don't get that car? Will you not be able to work as well without that new truck? Will your breath be so bad nobody will talk to you without that new mouthwash? Spend a day playing spot the fear. I promise, it's always placed in there.



When we seek refuge from this onslaught of corporate garbage we turn off the television, and we turn down the commercials on the radio, and we limit to some degree our exposure to that part of MIND. . .to that part of the GRID. This helps calm us, and makes for a happier state. That is a very natural process.

It is also natural to want to get outside. To get away from the urban areas, from the noise, smog, advertisements, and stimuli, and get back to nature. This helps calm the mind, and as the mind becomes quieter, so do our emotional states. This is also natural.



The city is not a 'bad' place. In fact a good city can be a brilliant place filled with lots of Dynamic Quality. Artists, musicians, and creators or all things good and beautiful, tend to by their very design seek each other out and congregate in certain urban areas. This makes for healthy portions of the grid where creative ideas sprout, and a more vibrant programming is available.

I think an ideal state would have a combination of Artistic Dynamic Quality found in a healthy city, as well as the beauty and peace of nature in it's own, wild state (un-gardened). I have seen a few communities like this, usually located on coastlines. But it doesn't take long before the more bureaucratic automatons find out about it. . .lawyers and business men buy summer homes in the area in an effort to appear creative, parking lots get put in, a Wal Mart is built, and before you know the whole neighborhood has gone to hell.



The carriers of light move on, migrating to greener pastures. Is as always, as they always have.

Contrast that with the suburbs. I have visited cities all across the USA. And the way things are moving, if you are in a "modern" downtown area, you cannot tell if you are in Kansas, Illinois, CA, WA, TX, FLA, or Alabama, or any other State. . .other then the few natural landmarks left in place, all you will find is the EXACT SAME corporate owned chain stores, restaurants, gas stations, and architecture. Yes folks, it is just one giant shopping mall for the medicated robots. . . one giant corporate fishbowl. . . . truly demonic in design.



I am teasing, kind of.

What I find really interesting is that although we all know what I stated above is fairly accurate, we DO find comfort and refuge in nature, we DO find more creativity out in the open in the cities then we do in the homogeneous suburbs. . . .does anyone really ask WHY?



When we are in the wild, natural environment, we are in a part of Earth that was NOT created by thought. At least "thought" as we know it.

A house is the product of thought. A chair is the product of thought. A car is the product of thought, etc.

A tree is NOT the product of thought. A waterfall is NOT a product of thought. Thought is used now to help try and conserve these places, but it certainly didn't create them. These where all existing long before the human animal began here. Before the GRID.

So when we get away from urban areas, we get away from things created by human thought. And this has a profound effect on the human mind.

When we are in a lively and healthy city then we may be surrounded by products of human thought, but in some cases that thought may be highly creative thought, being made and produced by architects and designers that knew how to tap into the soul of the Absolute. This too can be refreshing for the human spirit. In it's own way. . . .a different way.



But when we are surrounded by the mass produced, homogeneous, uniform, architecture, stores, advertisements, and fear based programming of the large corporate culture, you are not only surrounded by things made by human thought. . . . .you are surrounded by things made for the lowest common denominator of human thought. By the uncreative, stale, unimaginative, cookie cutter, uninspired, unoriginal, portion of the grid.



And we wonder why we suffer.



In Buddhism they have a saying. . . .they will take refuge in the Three Jewels.

The three jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

According to this understanding. . .

The Buddha would be your own silent nature. What was before the grid, after the grid, and under the grid. The screen on which it all appears. That which does not come and go. That which does not die. So to take refuge in the Buddha is to say I take refuge in my own real self, my own true nature.

The Dharma is the Truth. Truth is just another way to say Reality. No more, no less. So to take refuge in the Dharma is to say, I take refuge in Reality.

Reality is not what you think about it.
Reality is what is.

The Sangha is community. Community is now.

And since YOU, REALITY, and NOW are actually three words for the same thing. . .you may as well say I take refuge in THAT.

And THAT refers to what IS.

What IS is Consciousness. What appears in it is Mind. And there is only ONE.

We call it "I".

But I mean that literally of course.



. . . . Have a beautiful June.


"O Noble Lady, no mater how I sought you
I found no truth - substantiated certainty,
My mind - youth tortured by fabrications -
Till you bestowed upon me deep relief
In the forest hut of inexpressibility!"