Because I Love By Kathleen Raine – Dedicated to the memory of Michael Jackson
Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky,
Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night.Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long.Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep,
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.— Kathleen Raine (1908-2003)
Real Talk w/ Dave 1
Hey Friends,
I’m sure you have at one point asked your self, what is the point of all this mystical stuff. You hear the same thing each time, Man is asleep, we are infinitely perfectible, the mind is so much more powerful than you can imagine. You can go to any yoga class hear talks of opening chakras, doing exercises to harness the power of your third eyes <said like I am selling you Oxyclean on a home shopping network>.
At some point maybe some of you have to said like I said to myself this is all bullshit. Bullshit in the sense that if I read tons of book they all say the same thing, I feel better an happier for reading it but I have not found what I want. I can read about Zen Buddhism, Sufism, Yoga, Gnostics, Esoteric Traditions, but after a while and a lot of money spent on books or traveling to distant lands I am back at the same place on the couch watching reruns of What’s Happening,or Good times 
Dyno Mite!!!
Very few things are as frustrating as looking for something you can’t articulate or visualize well, but makes its presence so well known in your life. From my own life I can say my search started from a rejection or some sort of disturbance. Massive amounts of saddness, pain and unhappiness. It was unbearable so I looked for something that could make this life seem bearable. To me there is no spirituality or mysticism, those are just words people who read some books like to argue over dinner or drinks. Its like two balding men fighting over a comb.
There is just life. Just this moment. Surprise, there is no big secret. Yes we can align ourselves with many hidden laws that are seemingly undiscovered or recognized by the established scientific community. And yes, we can use these laws to move our advancement further. But what good is that if we arent 100% centered or balanced in whats real? As Reshad Feild says “Even if our motives are good, it is rare that we ever fulfil our original intention.” For me I am trying to find out what is really, really beyond all these forms I see , behind all the faces I see. I want to live one moment free from all that which binds me which is none other than is myself. You know the saying ” I will walk a thousand leagues in faslehood so that one step ofthe Journey maybe true”
It’s a struggle everyday, many times I’m content with things as they are I dont feel any compulsion to change, to get out of bed other than to pay bills. I dont want to meditate, I dont want to smile and be courteous. Most of the time I dont feel like talking or being social. It warm and nice being wraped up in my own little world. But then there are thngs that happen that tell me there is something happening beyond me, out of curiosity, out of a yearning to understand, a desire to know I started looking, Its like smelling someone cooking something good and all of a sudden you realize you are hungry. You get a little tastes here and there and then before you it u are waiting to be invited to dinner. Whatever you were doing before doesnt matter.
to be continued…..
I dare You to Think a Genuine Thought – The Reality of Intention vs Being Asleep (1) -selection from Steps to Freedom from Reshad Field
Hey Guys/Gurls
One questions I got recently was “What is all this talk about humanity being asleep nadunable to think and do? . I would like to present you with a excerpt of a lecture from Reshad Feilds’ Steps to Freedom and then give you my own experiences.
Almost everything we do in this world is unconscious and based on reactions from the conditioned mind, which is in a state of “sleep”. The avergae man, sleepwalking his way through life, seldom if ever goes into the questions of motive and intention. He istossed about by waves of fate, the control of which has already slipped from his hands. He does not know that he is asleep.The rest of this sleep can lead him only into further slep states. Not only does he not know the purpose of life, but he does not care to question why he was born and what he is doing in this world at this time. He actually considers that he can “do” somethings. He thinks that he can think a though, whereas in reality a thought thinks him. Until he awakens to serve the present moment, thought-forms influence his life. These thought-forms are materialized from the biosphere through human being who do not realize that they are vehicle for Divine Will and transformers of subtle energies. We each have a job to do, which is to be of service in this world. And the law of the real world an be brought into ordered manifestations here and now.
Brb for part 2
Dave
Scars of the Heart – Daily Inspiration Wednesday June 24th
The earth and the sand are burning. Put your face on the burning sand and on the earth of the road, since all those who are wounded by love must have the imprint on thier face, and the scar must be seen. Let the scar of the heart be seen, for by their scars are known the men who are in the way of love.
– Prophet Mohammad (Praise and Blessings be Upon Him)
Kool Aid and An Excerpt from the Introduction to Mystics at Prayer by Many Chilar (1)
Friends
OH YEAH!!!!
Lately I have been hearing a lot about prayer and also been asked questions about prayer, which kind of boggles my mind. My knowledge run the gamit of old episodes of the Ghostbuster’s cartoon and Kool aid. I figured I would put this information for all of you who are interested. Before gettinginto that youmay want to enjoy a tall refreshing class of Kool Aid. The chemical taste and the 100% Vitamin C covers up for the total lack of good nutritional content.
An examination of the prayers which appear on the following pages reveals the fact that the great mystics of all ages understood the real process of prayer and knew how to pray.
Christians have the beautiful examples of the prayers given to them by Jesus the Christ as a standard and it is a most beautiful standard but long before the Christian era the mystics the avatars and those through whom the light of god shone among men knew by divine inspiration how to prayer. Examples of their prayers contained in these pages prove this fact.
The Mystic and those who were touched with the light of cosmic consciousness had a very definite understanding of the process of prayer in the western world today millions of person have digressed very greatly from these processes and making their prayers long and filled with personal petitions are often disappointed with the seeming lack of efficacy in their prayers or the inefficacity of praying. . It may be permissible therefore briefly to outline and or review true processes of prayer as understood by the mystics.
According to the mystical viewpoint praying to God is based upon the conviction that God is omnipotent in Power, present everywhere and willing to listen to our sincere petitions. This is all that we should have in mind praying. The average person in praying however has in mind some assumptions which mislead him in wording his prayers and in approaching the very attitude of prayer. He assumes that God is not only omnipotent in power omnipresent and merciful but that with all of His power, all of His intelligence with all of his mastership and control throughout the world and with all His attunement with the beings which he created He is nevertheless ignorant of our wants and needs and completely unacquainted with what we require in life in order to live abundantly and secure our everyday necessities. Very often, he prayerful petitioner also assumes that God has given no thought to the outcome of certain contests in life or struggles between various factions of human beings, and is incapable of justly deciding such contests or awarding victory to the right side. These false assumptions are responsible for the mistake that are made in prayer and for the failure of prayers to be highly efficacious.
To go into prayer with the idea that God does not know what we need or even what we want, or what is best for us and that we must advise Him, argue with Him, stress our viewpoint and convince Him, to adopt our ideas and decisions and grant what we ask for, is to make the most serious mistake in the process of praying.
In the first place, the process of prayer is a transcendent method of communion with God. It is the most intimate, personal contact that human beings can make with their Father the creator of all beings. This sublime period of communion should be approached with clean thoughts, but most of all with a clear understanding of our privileges and total absence of any feeling that we have a right to petition God to grant our wishes.
MYSTICS AT PRAYER
The Mystics know, also that true prayer is based upon a Cosmic and Spiritual Law. That law is this: “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” The ancient mystical injunction was that you must ask in order to receive, that you must proffer your hand in order to have the token given unto you, that you must express your desire before it will be answered. In all mystical processes, the expression of a sincere wish or desire, opens wide the doorway to the reception of spiritual blessing. The asking in sincerity and the reverential expression of such wishes attunes the person with the one who has the power to give and, unless there is a meeting of the minds and a meeting of the consciousness of both persons, there can neither be attunement nor the passing from one to the other of the spiritual thing desired. To the Mystic, therefore prayer is a meeting of the minds. It is not an occasion for personal petitioning, but for spiritual communion. It is time when the soul within us and the deepest and most inner parts of being sacredly, sincerely, an quietly speak to God and express the deepest wishes of our hearts and minds. The belief therefore that, our human conception of our needs must be outlined in the minutest detail and expressed in great elaboration is also a misconception since the thoughts moving us to prayer are easily transmitted to the divine consciousness during the communion, and the lips need only speak the fewest words of appreciation and thankfulness.
A Life lesson and story from Baha-ud Din Naqshband
Friends,
At one point in life, I read an enormous amount of books. I was hungry for knowledge and to find answer. What I learned changed my life completely but it wasnt until I reached a point where I wanted to not just know the truth but feel it resonate within me. Though I still read a lot its under a totally different compulsion and reason. But enjoy these words from Baha ud Din Naqshband.
Shah Baha ud Din Naqshband
If I give out an empty book, meaning, ‘You cannot yet profit from my book’, you will perhaps think, ‘He is insulting me.’
But if I give out a full and understandable book, all readers will take its superficialities for their stimulation exclaiming ‘how magnificent, how profound.’ People will follow these outward things after I am gone, making them a source of stimulation and debate. They will read didactics into them, or poetry, exercises or stories.
If I give out no books, or a small one, scholars will scoff and ruin the minds of potential and vulnerable students with alternative literature, even more than they do at present.
Baffled students become destructive, imagining solutions and then trying to impose them upon others.
If I give out a large book, some people will imagine that it is pretentious. All these suppositions are there, you notice, because the suit the people to have them, not because they are even likely to be true.
If I give out a cryptic book, people will imagine that it contains strange secrets. Or they may become unnecessarily artful through trying to understand it.
And the more that you say these things, the more people petulantly or with disdain say: ‘You do not understand us. We have no such behavior. The lack of understanding is with you.’
But if I say all these things, and you will look at all of them, even for a time, giving each statement equal attention, I shall be content.
A Touching Poem that lightened the mood at work
WITH THAT MOON LANGUAGE
Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud,
otherwise someone would call the cops.Still, though, think about this,
this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives
with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying, with that sweet moon vision,
what every other eye in this world is dying to see?Hafiz
Final Thoughts – Consciously obscuring the line between Joy, Pain and Difficulty – The Right Attitude Towards Suffering w/Poems by Rumi (FES)(4)
Friends,
My final thought can well be encapsulated in this brief excerpt from The Last Barrier by Reshad Field:
When you truly say ‘I will’ unconditionally to a life of service to God, there is always pain and confusion at first. In the early stages you experience ‘your’ pain, or ‘my’ pain. But as we come to understand the nature of the path we have chosen we no longeer see the pain as ours alone, but we begin to experience the suffering of the world ignorant of the Truth. This is the pain of separation, the cry of man wanting to know his essential unity with God. Yet this painw as never intended. God never wanted us to suffer, but if we are to come totally into knowledge, all illusion must be stripped away, leaving only clarity. It is our own ignorance and pride that cause the pain. The more we think we can do anything ,the less we realize our complete dependence on God, and the worse the pain becomes.
Finally…..
Longing is the core of mystery
Longing itself brings the cure.
The only rule is, Suffer the pain.Your desire must be disciplined,
And what you want to happen
In time, sacrificed.Rumi
Consciously obscuring the line between Joy, pain and difficulty – The Right Attitude Towards Suffering w/Poem by Rumi (FES)(3)
Friends,
I am continuing the same theme from earlier. Its rather interesting to look back at ones life and to look at the up and downs,the failures and the victories, and maybe for a moment, see what was really manifesting there being the empty symbols of language.
I’ve broken through to longing
Now, filled with a grief I have
Felt before, but never like this.
The center leads to love.
Soul opens the creation core.
Hold on to your particular pain.
That too can take you to God.
It is my feeling that our suffering is caused by our in ability to see things as they are. We do things with the best intent and they turn out horribly wrong. We can do things with malicious intent and good can end up as the result. Welike to comfort ourself saying that this is good for us and bad for us, but many a time we are a mystery to ourselves. Who are we really? aside from the name, social identity, beyond all of that.
This situation reminds me of a kaleidoscope,which etymologically speaking means literally beautiful to look at. Each image of the kaleidoscope is an aspect of the beautiful sight, that is external to the kaleidoscope. The true beautiful sight is the sum total of all these little images but then something infinitely more. Look at the following words about the works of Dr Roberet Ornstein, world famous psychologist, neuroscientist and student of Idries Shah.
Dr. Ornstein’s focus also extends upon the nature of the mind and consciousness, which he has explored in such books as The Roots of the Self, The Psychology of Consciousness, The Evolution of Consciousness, Multimind and Mindreal. In these works, he has shown the human mind to be quite different from the way most of us imagine it. For one thing, far from being a unified whole, it is composed of many disparate “selves” each having their own agenda and are “wheeled in” from the sidelines – some of them quite frequently, others only rarely – to deal with very specific types of situations.
Whenver one is quite and introspective one can yousee these different selves in action. We have built up such eleborate psychological schemata to deal with the world based on our limited understanding of the world around us,ourselves and of course their subsequent interaction. Where do suffering and Longing enter into this equation?
