May 18, 2003 - A
"All These Blooms"
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And all these blossoms are yours, the ones inside your mind, and the ones outside. Hold them all, inhale deeply of their fragrance and enjoy these gifts, given freely to all.
Flower outside our home as it was originally seen
May 18, 2003 - B
"Catch Me If You Can"
Far more interesting was the video we watched earlier today, ''Catch Me If You Can''. It is the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. When only a teenager, he kept the FBI chasing him all over the world as he forged bad checks and false identities everywhere.
The second disk in the set featured interviews with the real Abagnale, who is a brilliant man. He managed to keep an aura of innocence about him through out his whole escapade. Now he is a leading authority on financial foul play. He looked thoroughly bemused that the lessons learned from his teenaged adventures have now netted him so much fortune legally.
There is something about him that reminds me of Laura. She often said people told her she 'could fall in sh*t and come out smelling like a rose'. Yes, Laura had some unique skills.
I am pleased to remember her joyfully. She'd have loved this movie. Leonardo DiCaprio did a good job playing Abagnale. I was pleased to learn he's grown as an actor. It would be such a shame if he were only a 'pretty face', however lovely that face.
I highly recommend this entertaining and fun movie.
May 19, 2003
"Of Flight And Sight"
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Do you think you can fly, Icarus burns still, so why will you try?
A thousand years later, ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Okay, some have failed,
Still, I want not to JAL, 5 - 19 - 03 |
This is referring to metaphysical flight, but it also applies to physical flight. Physical flight, as well, inspires the soul's imagination. My mother, for just that reason, likes all things to do with aircraft, and knows all the makes of planes and their history of usage. She even listens to the broadcasts of planes leaving and arriving at her nearest airport, via a special scanner.
I, however, do wish she'd get her physical body on one of those mechanical birds and come visit me.
But, yes, of course such flights are too expensive for both she and I. So there and here we sit, 2000 miles apart.
Perhaps I should experiment with astral travel. It's cheaper, at least. So what if it could be only imaginary? It may not be. I may have experienced a few friendly ethereal whispers. Where their silky voices only imagined? One, an ageless feminine presence embraced me across time and space with these words: ''You have suffered so much.'' I felt her touch, and then an ease of that suffering.
Who? What? Where? Why? I'll leave to the rationalists their ready explanations, for I like the magical ones!
So I shall dream of ethereal connections and smile. I am the richer for my imagination. Consider not my monetary lack, I have my own riches.
But, yes, they aren't material. For instance, I, attempting to be frugal, have made do with the same pair of sunglasses for fifteen years. I'd upgraded my regular glasses ten years ago, but not the sunglasses.
Today while in the library, attempting to be frugal and not spending money on a book, I dropped my ancient sunglasses while trying to check out a book. They hit soft carpet. But under that soft carpet was hard concrete. Maybe in fifteen years, they'd finally taken all the stress they could. They did, however, break along the nose bridge in such an evenly smooth fashion.
ain't gonna 'fly' no more . . .
Until I can get to the eye doctor and go through the expensive, but long neglected process of acquiring new vision-wear, I have taken the fifteen year old pair of regular glasses and snapped some dark plastic cover flaps on them.
Ever seeing the metaphysical in the physical, and vice/versa, my mind suggests this spectacle breakage is a metaphor. It illustrates that the old way I used to view things no longer works. I must seek a clearer vision. About time, n'est-ce pas?
May 20, 2003 - A
"Celebrating The 'Need For Feed'"
I'm just talking good old ordinary things for which we hunger. I awake this morning, a sense of hunger within me. I ate lightly last night, to cut back in the most weight-producing hours when the calories are least likely to be manufactured into energy, thus this morning my appetite is keen. My breakfast will taste good. Julia always makes tasty breakfasts, but today there shall be the added 'spice' of hunger. It does make food taste better.
I'm just talking plain old ordinary DESIRE, yes the thing Buddhists want to annilate. ''Desire is the source of all suffering,'' they claim. Once again, this is like killing the patient to end their suffering. No, desire is the thing that lets you know you're alive! Without hunger, the early cave men would have never left their caves. They would have just sat there blob like for the rest of their consciousness.
Some will laugh and say, ''But isn't that just what meditation is?'' My Laura would say that, and maybe for some people, that's what they attempt during their meditation. However, for others, it is to INCREASE their awareness.
But maybe, if one is trying to kill their desire, then they must of necessity kill their awareness and numb themselves. How else can they rid themselves of their 'pesky' ego? Ego is fair demanding, if we haven't zoned ourselves into a zombie state. Maybe that's how they do it.
But some of us wish to be alive, to feel the full pain of each hunger as it quickens us into consciousness. Some of us know this hunger is the prime motivator. If we have no desire, nothing gets done. Oh, one can act like the robot automaton as they go about life's necessary tasks. But I'm talking about the kind of action which CHANGES the daily stasis and creates something which was not there before.
''Sleepers, awaken!'' Is this not the cry of those seeking to enliven spiritual awareness? Wake up and KNOW your hunger! And there are so many wonderful things for which to hunger. Yes, in contrast, sometimes the human animal is driven to want things that aren't good for us. The higher intellect must determine if this is so and act accordingly.
But in these cases, again DESIRE is the motivator. The higher intellect may warn us of a harmful behavior. Why is it harmful? Because it will injure us and possibly shorten our lifespan, or injure those people around us we love, or injure planet earth, which in the long run, injures us all. If we are awakened into full love of life, we will not want this.
And so, once again, Desire from the fount of Ego * will kick us out of complacency and into action. What do YOU desire? I think smilingly of good breakfasts, music that feeds the soul, movies/plays that likewise feed the soul, and communication with kindred spirits, for these give me something to think about. For 'mind-food', I have willingly gone without other things, like new eyeglasses. If one is not wealthy, one must determine priorities.
If I had desired wealth, and put all my energies to it, what sort of life would I have had now? How many other valuable experiences would I have simply not had time for, while engaged in the pursuit of wealth? No, I prefer riches of the mind, and have lived my life accordingly.
It is all up to the individual and what they desire. What do YOU desire? Hunger well and often! Know it, this delicious enlivening awakening force, and let it motivate you into ACTION! Hunger well and often!
*
Evolution of a thought:
"The End Of An Era"
Except for Spike. He did admirably. He didn't get the girl. But he got to be the HERO, which is something he never had got to be before in his long life. Too bad it was the end of him.
And I don't have to. Grin!
...Da 'Vampire Joan'
"Maybe Tomorrow"
Note of May 11, 2006
I've grown in understanding since I wrote this. Although I agree with most everything here, I do have a better understanding of the definitions of the various aspects of the self. Instead of using the word 'ego', I would be more accurate to use the word that Gurdjieff used for the True Self, the Essence.
July 12, 2002 - If We Crave
July 13, 2002 - STOO-PID Cravings
September 22, 1998
May 20, 2003 - B
SPIKE
R.I.P.
May 21, 2003
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Today was a total loss, but eh. Shrug. Not much on my mind lately. Pfft.
Current Mood: |
![[Face]](plainfac.gif){kind=small}
unenthusiastic
That 'entry' was from the The Apathetic Online Journal Entry Generator. (Yes, I do find some weird things out there on the web!)
But, yes, I am not particularily inspired today. I wouldn't say it was because there's 'not much on my mind', however. I am just in that 'null' mood, in which things are brewing in my deep cavernous pits, stewing away. But they aren't 'COOKED' yet. Buffy's remark to Spike last night that she wasn't ready for serious romance because she wasn't 'cooked yet' must be coming to mind.
Anyway, my brilliant and elegant epiphanies shall no doubt be ready for serving SOON.
Let the hunger drive you WILD until then . . . v--v
May 22, 2003
"Peaceable?"
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If you are yourself at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world. Then share your peace with everyone, and everyone will be at peace. Thomas Merton |
Being a naturally peace-loving person, I like this quote, but it is not realistic. Only the first sentence is unequivocally true. If you are yourself at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.
Sharing your peace WILL help spread it, and make the world a more peaceful place. But not everyone wants peace. There are the cussed few, fortunately FEW, who thrive on discord. They find havens on various of the group discussion boards, and spread their dissention until the group moderators toss them off. Then they appear as a new entity, and the battles begin anew.
Yes, those groups are but a microcosm of the macrocosm. But the one being a subset of the larger, it has all the character of the larger: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Still, as a researcher of life and truth, I find it fascinating.
I don't know what these folks get out it. How do they figure this behavior ultimately is to their self-interest? Or are they simply not 'evolved' that far to be able to reason that far ahead?
I am fortunate that my dealings with them are small. Most of the discussion groups I enjoy do not attract this sort of trouble maker. And in the world at large, they are blissfully far away from me.
With all that said, I'm going to be the sh*t stirrer this morning. Normally I enjoy the Thought Of The Day, but today's brought the cynic in me out in full force.
I really, REALLY don't like this quote:
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Man's many desires are like the small metal coins he carries about in his pocket. The more he has, the more they weigh him down. Sathya Sai Baba |
My first reaction, even before knowing anything about its author is, ''Yeah, he wants you to give the 'small metal coins' to HIM.'' Then my second thought is, ''Nah, he doesn't want those HEAVY small metal coins, he likes LIGHTWEIGHT paper money. Or even more so, he likes direct infusion of credit into his ever so handy, dandy BANK ACCOUNT.''
And then I got to remembering. Didn't Laura speak of Sathya Sai Baba? A devotee had showed us a film of Sai, walking a path on which his followers awaited him. He'd mop his brow and candy would magically appear. Only Laura, a student of magic herself, could easily detect the passes. Yet the gullible are convinced he's making the candy appear miraculously from no where.
Some have just gotta believe, I guess. I took to the web, certain other skeptics may have noticed this about him. Sure enough, several pages have been dedicated to revealing his misdeeds.
The dis-illusioned former followers have quite a tale to tell. Here are the words of one:
''Another thing I would like to say is that all of the ex-devotees of Sai Baba that I know have realized that life was a misery to them while they were following Baba. Do not be fooled by the devotees that say they have peace of mind. I have seen many who proclaim better state of mind but really are very nervous people.Abdicating one's own judgmental faculties is NOT a way to achieve peace of mind. No, the relaxed confidence that brings peace needs a fully operating mind. Anything else is the zombie-state. That is not the goal of truly awakened people.
There is a mind set that enables us to be peaceful. It enables us to see the good in all, ignoring small faults. By and large, this is the happiest way to live life. But as well respected Benjamin Franklin said, ''Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.''
After-thought:
Perhaps the contentious few that live in turmoil can not see the good within themselves. Not happy at home in their own mind, they spread their misery out to others. If it is not within one to start with, it can't be created outside of oneself. The wary and wise avoid these few, but these few cannot avoid themselves.
Here, now, there shall be peace.
PEACE!
In this mind I call home, there shall be peace.
I open my windows and let the light in.
There shall be peace.
May 24, 2003 - A
"Honesty"
I desire honesty in all communications. If I am not myself, then who am I? Parcel of imagination is only fiction. Why lie? If I am not myself, then to what are YOU responding? Every flaw, every virtue is laid out here in patchwork fashion.
I have not embellished, lightened here, darkened there. I want to be known even I know myself. Anything else cannot be true COMMUNICATION. I am not afraid of who I am. I do not need embellishment. Fault or virtue, these may all be in commonality with YOU, dear reader. I will not shield either.
For in the sacred communion of the mind to mind, I will consciously create no barriers. I am here, as I am. I open the arms of my mind to you. I welcome you.
This is the world of respect. I, who respect myself, respect you, the reader. Let's create something honorable in this sharing.
May 24, 2003 - B
"Vibrancy"
