INTERESTING TIMES

"Times are difficult globally;
awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal.
It’s becoming critical.
We don’t need to add more depression,
more discouragement,
or more anger to what’s already here.
It’s becoming essential that we learn
how to relate sanely with difficult times.
The earth seems to be beseeching us
to connect with joy
and discover our innermost essence.
This is the best way
that we can benefit others."
~ Pema Chodron

Radical self love

In the tantric tradition it is said that chaos is 'extremely good news.' When you are willing to enter into your neurosis, your confusion, and your hopelessness, you approach the threshold of the sacred world. No matter where you look, all you see is path. Nothing is out of place and every state of mind is shown to be valid and workable. Even your most disturbing emotions are revealed to be of the nature of light, sent to magically evoke the infinite qualities of love buried within the darkness.

It is risky to let in the possibility that you are not broken, are not a mistake, and are not in need of fixing; that you could actually fully step into this world and participate right here and right now – that you need not wait until certain feelings are present or absent, for the right 'partner' or groovy spiritual career to show up, or for things to look quite the way you thought they were supposed to. If you will let her, the beloved will come in at once and remove all of this, leaving you naked before the truth of your illuminated presence.

Here, you will no longer be able to hide out from your unique natural perfection, pretending you are unworthy. You will no longer be able to assert your unlovability as you discover that what you are is love itself. You see so clearly that there is no 'you' here and 'love' over there; this old idea has been burned up in the fires of transmutation. When you are no longer able to conclude that a mistake has been made, you will see that even your neurotic spinning is weaved of particles of luminosity, brilliance, and intelligence.

Please do not postpone your participation here until things look the way you thought they would. Love is here now. And is burning up in its longing to move through you to set this world on fire.

~Matt Licata

Most humans exist somewhere on that line between enslavement to destructive habits at one end and total consciousness and nonattachment at the other. In exactly the same way, freedom of choice can be represented as a continuum. Realistically, very few people could ever be found operating at the positive extreme, truly conscious and consistently free.
--Gabor Mate, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, p305.

The Guru Papers
Masks of Authoritarian Power
by Joel Kramer and Diane Alstad

This book was particularly formative for my thinking.  I believe the first time I read it was about a decade ago, though it's been out longer.  I've recently loaned it to a friend and every time I pick it up I run across another awesome thought.  Basically it starts out looking at gurus, who they are and what they do, and why.  The tail end of the book is about authoritarianism, and the nuts and bolts of how people fall prey to bosses that don't even pay them.  It was partly this book that programmed me to be hyper-aware of the word "should".  I'm ready to re-read it, soon as I get it back...and have the time.

When the mind realizes
its absolute incapacity to know the unknown,
it becomes silent.

--restatement from Krishnamurti, exact quote not known

What's up with that? I mean, as I look around, I am on this path toward naturopathy. Everybody I know or meet is going toward nursing or doctoring or acupuncturing, or working as a massage therapist, or treating addicts, or teaching yoga or meditation or nutrition, or opening up a practice, or getting a new certification, or writing a book about all the important stuff they've learned in life. We're all doing it. Some are ahead of others, but we're all going the same direction, like lemmings. Everybody's got a web page. Everybody's self-promoting, wanting to be the guru, wanting to be paid for what we know. We all are hip and cool. What next?

I wonder when the day will come that there's no money for what we know and can communicate, and the matter becomes what can we DO. Besides teach. Who was it that said those who can't do, teach? And why is it that my life is full of gurus or every stripe?? Or is it that my life is full of entrepreneurs, those who have the smarts to separate a sucker from his money for no more than an idea or an experience? And what in life is worth more than an idea or experience? And are they actually making a living with all this purveying of insight? Am I in a bubble? I must be in a tiny little cultural bubble.

I know I'm going around in circles. Seems to be status quo.

The question is, how does a guru dress? And how sincere does the smile really have to be? Because after a while, all those phoney blissed out guru smiles really get tired. It's hard to maintain the appearance of enlightenment. A lot of work, and the veneer is full of gaps.

What is to give light must endure burning.
--Viktor Frankl

I recommend this book.
By Dorothy Bryant
For everyone.