Paradise Perspective

…begins with a single step”, I think, as another inch of spun bamboo slips into the orifice of the wheel. Being of the West (ern paradigm where everything is measured and calculated), I timed the spinning of 3 grams to 14 minutes. I have over 400 grams to go. So this is going to take a while, and for sure it won’t be the only thing I work on. Having finished one large (baby blanket) project and several small ones (a hat, two pairs of socks), I am in the space between. For maximum comfort and productivity, I will have to start no less than 4 (and as many as 7) projects by the weekend. I’ve got a music thing (recording parts for the family reunion chorus) going, so that makes 2.

New Subject

While J and I were hiking on the ridge yesterday, we discovered Morel mushrooms up there (shhhh…..don’t tell anyone local–they guard known morel locations with their lives, and are always on the lookout for more). I haven’t even seen any since the late ’70s when I lived in Iowa. I heard they were here, too, but never saw any ’til now!! They are delicious for two weeks a year. We (J) took some pictures of them (and also a May Apple–especially prolific this season), and will wait for a few more to manifest before harvesting them for dinner. A few heavenly bites.

New Suject

A close personal friend with marital problems has been consuming me for a couple of weeks. I know she understands that her situation beats the hell out of most people’s. And I believe she will come to her senses before she completely jeopardizes the balance of the precious lives of those she loves the most. But I can’t help projecting about various scenarios that could conceivably result from certain choices at this juncture. If she were to split with her old man, will I then be required to choose which of them to include in my plans? Hmmm. How many others touched by this would face similar decisions? I remember when my first husband left me, I felt like my whole circle of friends left, too. They were still my friends, of course, but they felt torn, and since they had known him first they felt their loyalties lay there.

I can’t say for certain what it is that anybody needs. But I DO know this: Happiness is NOT the result of circumstances. It is the exact opposite. Happy circumstances are the result of the decision to BE happy. Looking outside of yourself for gratification and fulfillment will only perpetuate the necessity for you to do that. Finding that you are already complete will enable you to choose happiness in any scenario without the need for any permanent damage to the current participants.

Girl, I love you dearly, but get your head out of your butt because your choice now will affect many peoples’ choices in the future.

After a couple of (really fun) weeks with kids and g-kids, I’m bursting with new ideas for speculation.

First, I am not superior to anyone.  I have had experiences others haven’t, and I have learned things that others have yet to, but the same is true of every single entity.  Second, I am not inferior to anyone by the same token.

The things we learn are contributions to the whole, and every lesson ever learned by anyone, ever, is what the whole has become (and is becoming).

Now that I understand this, I can focus on learning things, and integrating those lessons that I believe will benefit the whole.  Because if it doesn’t benefit the whole, it can’t possibly benefit me or any other individual entity.

When an altercation arises, we feel that it is paramount to establish which party is right.  How does that benefit the whole?  A better approach would be an attempt to accept the fact that both perspectives are correct from some viewpoint.  A personal victory over someone else’s stand is not any victory, but a minimization of one’s own perspective in relation to all perspectives.  In other words, if any point of view can be dominated, all points can, and no perspective can stand alone.

My whole thought process is erroneous!

Here is yet another example of how we have accepted a single interpretation of something, and collectively subscribed to it without question. The commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” means “Don’t lie”. Does it?

Actually, to bear has more to do with holding something than giving something up. And witnessing is more about observing than telling or saying anything. Bearing witness might just be about “seeing” something as it really is.

So…God is everywhere. There is no place where God isn’t. God (Love) is really all there is. When we see our neighbor as not only someone separate from us, but someone NOT Love, we could be bearing false witness.  Jesus said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, that you do unto me”.  We see Jesus as God, or at least a prime manifestation of God’s love, and He is telling us that if we DON’T see someone else that way, we are NOT seeing Him that way either.

When you think about the accepted interpretation, to not lie, the command becomes an excuse to judge. We can’t really know Truth from inside the confines of the third dimension, so the whole deal is batting it around like a tennis ball into each others’ courts. Truth can only be a perspective here, and cannot be adequately judged from any perspective, like or not.

There is a command in an Eastern philosophy that says: “See God in everyone”. I think the command to NOT bear false witness is supposed to mean the same thing. Do not see anyone differently from who they really are in eternity.

This would have a profoundly different effect on our behavior than not lying. ‘Course, not too many people obey that commandment anyway.

Just returned from a 3-day visit with my folks. Dad is losing it. He always knew who I was, and J (lost J a few times the last visit), but kept referring to my sister Rose–the one who’s always there and does everything–as ‘that nice lady who takes me for walks sometimes’. Looking at pictures of us all, dad needs to be reminded most of their names and who they belong to (whose husband, whose kids/g-kids). While reading riddles in the paper to us, he couldn’t stay on the same riddle for the answer, and then kept reading the same ones over and over. Trying to make trivial conversation is not possible for him because he forgets his point before he can finish verbalizing the thought. Most times the thoughts themselves were indecipherable for us.

So I’m there with him thinking how much, despite all of my understandable grudges from the past (walking on eggshells because of his often ill-tempered demeanor, not ever being able to discuss a topic on which we disagreed, and especially the way he has constantly criticized and found fault with mom, etc.), I love this man deeply (and have gotten my musical skill and mechanical aptitude partially from his genes).

I can’t let what he knows or doesn’t know change anything. We must love him and each other through this. And taking the whole thing a step further (as I am likely to do), loving each other through all of this (third dimensional life) is the point always. So why does what we know or don’t know EVER matter?

We just have to let it all go at some point.

This is going to be like tarot: Not that someone has to die, but that serious change is imminent. The death card is about change, and this is important because we all draw the death card occasionally. We are not victims of this death, we must be the perpetrators of it.

Something about me–the way I feel, the way I respond to something, the way I want something to be different–is wrong or undesirable. It is likely that I will see it as someone else’s wrongdoing that I am responding to, and THEY are the ones who should change so that I can feel better. First, this is hardly ever the case and second, what another does (says, feels, etc.) is never a good excuse to feel negative. I can only control ME, and if I control me, I can decide to feel peace no matter what!!

It is important, when looking to achieve an attitude of unconditional love, to establish an unprecedented trust. Faith that wherever our lives take us, all will be well. All IS well and has always been well, even when I did not subscribe to it’s wellness because I was busy looking for an excuse to feel sorry for myself or be offended. Even while I waited for another to take responsibility for my happiness. Even while I believed I just needed such-and such, or this-or-that to just be over (or start).

Happiness, peace, salvation–all the same thing–all dependent on one thing only: My choice to be happy, peaceful, liberated.

My choice is to be love without conditions, and perpetrate death upon any other feeling that is in contention. Kill it. It’s not real and it won’t let you be at peace as long as you give it any energy whatsoever. And living in peace is more important.

There is wisdom to be gained by studying ancient history.  But that wisdom isn’t (for me) exactly “new knowledge” as much as establishing a new way to look at what we supposedly already know.  First off, most of what we “know” is perspective, and really narrow perspective at that.  Thinking that what mankind illustrates in the present is the apex of evolution in any sense, physical, mental or spiritual is erroneous.

There is an amazing amount of incontrovertible evidence that we were flying way before the last century, and have been visited repeatedly by other worlds (and/or dimensions).  That we ourselves came from outside the earth is also in evidence.

These ideas do not compute within the present paradigm and so are dismissed off-handedly, ignored, misinterpreted, perverted, or otherwise debunked.  And we have bound ourselves with this ignorance.

The point here is not what is or isn’t real, but what we will allow ourselves to entertain within the confines of our limitations.  If we believe our (God’s) creative power is NOT limited, then these ideas would not make us feel threatened or fearful in any way.  (Or condescending.)

Jesus told Thomas at the last supper that “No one can go to heaven who didn’t come from there,” and “You know where it is and how to get there.”  (my paraphrasing)

We already know everything, we always did.  I think that the consummation of any philosophy is death, and salvation is rebirth outside any limitation.  And although physical death is indicated, it is not completely necessary.

Yesterday was the first day in four that my head didn’t hurt. The whole time I rode the migraine bus, I struggled with the purpose for this. I know (and knew this before) that all difficulties and obstacles are drawn to me by my need for some lesson/wisdom I have not yet integrated. The main thing I got from it was pissed off.

At one point, F told me to tap on my forehead with fingertips and repeatedly tell myself how much I love me regardless of my defects. I’m sure this is relevant because while I berate myself for having it (the headache) in the first place, I need to address my necessity for it. I do NOT always love myself, and I know that I have created the parts I don’t love. It’s up to me to either change the undesirable aspects or release them from their influence/importance altogether.

This totally goes along with my thoughts and the energy given them. Although I believe I am in good health and I’m doing the things that will sustain it, there is still a small element of doubt. And although the scales seem to be tipped toward the positive in light of time spent (I spend less time doubting than being healthy), the doubt still has a profound effect. Here’s why: When I am thinking about being in good health, it is more a taking for granted than an overwhelming gratitude. When I feel doubtful, there is a rush of fear, an emotional charge that tips the scales exponentially because of it’s higher energy.

The unconditional love I speak of must have to start here.

How do we separate speculation/evaluation from judgment?  After a conversation this morning with M about default perspectives, I believe that any statement could be construed as judgment, whether or not it is intended as such.  It is  determined, of course, by the conversant participants and their current state(s) of mind.

If I am thinking thoughts of unity and unconditional love, no thing anyone says can illicit negativity.  If I am thinking thoughts from any dimension of fear (anger, offendedness, vindictiveness, etc), everything said will magnify the negativity.  And no matter what the subject, this is true.

When this one concept is understood and integrated, I will have achieved my ideal, and can then become proactive in terms of co-creating my life beyond any (self-)imposed limits.

It’s very close.

The thing that is happening now, is that instead of me being able to monitor my own thoughts before speaking energy I don’t want to speak, I’m much more inclined to notice what YOU are saying and question your intentions. “Do you really want to be putting out THAT energy?” Etc.

It has always been a sort of first step for me in any such endeavor: project my intention onto my loved ones and “guide” them toward the result that I myself am aspiring to.

However annoying it might be to them, however, it IS a way for me to become more mindful of those things my own self, and it DOES help. I am paying more attention to the things I speak, and ultimately speaking less “trash” (unproductive energy) and more desirable subject/object matter.

It’s fun.

No matter what else is going on, or what else, if anything, I have done about my spirituality the rest of the week, Sunday morning is a time for introspection.  As part of this week’s “Master Key” lesson, there is a statement about the way we act:  “Our actions are not governed by knowledge, but by custom, precedent and habit.”  How true.

It goes on to say that knowledge does not apply itself.  So, if I’m learning anything/adding knowledge to my stash, it does me no good without the aspiration of application.

Here’s what I know:  My thoughts are things that not only have energy but direct that energy into whatever the object of those thoughts are.  If my thoughts are vitalized with emotion, the energy is increased exponentially.   The creative energy of any thought is also increased  immensely when clothed in words.

My dad always told me to “think before you speak”, a thing I never mastered.  He was concerned with being embarrassed or offending someone vicariously, but his admonition nevertheless was a wise one.  50 years later, I get it.

Now, it will be necessary to attempt reversing 50 years of habitual ’speaking without thinking first’.  Next, if I can stop and think first, I could change my thought to a positive one, and then vitalize it with peace and love before I dress it with words.

Another thing is, in my last post I talked about vigilance, and now I want to put a different outfit on that thought:  Insight.

I think ‘insight’ addresses the same idea, only with an added dimension of understanding, and a warmer, more peaceful aura.

How’s that for application?