2007

Again, I go travelling over the New Year period... to welcome in the new year from a different position on the earth...

And 2007 will be another year of great changes...

It is also a time to turn evermore towards the Great Spirit - to reach out and ask for our evolutionary gifts... it is a road we must all travel, in our own Way.

May 2007 bring you Happiness, Health & Spirit

Bring on 2007

'I should have been a pair of ragged claws,
Scuttling across the floor of silent seas...'

Silence is needed. Silence is beneficial. We need to talk to Our-Selves.

There is an increase in static interference in the air - battering us to numb our senses.

Ever more important now to walk the Way of the Warrior...

Blessed to All Sky-Walkers... Bring on 2007

Boosting the Spirit

DNA is conscious. It is the part of us that retains the knowledge of the reality of consciousness, and thus all life has within the capacity for evolution up to a point where the species becomes conscious of its own existence as a separate form yet in union with the ‘Divine’ consciousness – I use the word ‘Divine’ since there are no suitable words for this ‘whole’ Truth. 97% of DNA is not for regular protein-building: the scientists thus refer to it as ‘junk’ DNA as they have no idea of its function – it is latent:

‘new organs of perception come into being in accordance with need – therefore increase your need!’ (Rumi)

This so-called ‘junk’ DNA holds the code for activating greater perceptive faculties within the body, that then are able to receive, to a higher and finer degree, the consciousness that surrounds and pervades us. It is for this reason that inner teachings prescribe particular breathing exercises and ‘activation’ exercises. Yet the signal is still very weak for us – it needs boosting. This is the role of the ‘Teacher’ or ‘Master’ – they act to booster the signal for us. Let us use a contemporary analogy: our mobile phones don’t always receive a signal, depending where we’re located. Some remote areas are too far out to receive a signal from the main mast, so the company needs to place a mast in that area – hence the thousands of mobile masts that litter our landscape – they boost the signal so that the mobile devices can receive. We too are like these mobile devices: and a Teacher acts as a local mast. This is why there are often reported feelings of tremendous energy when near to a Teacher. When a person is developed enough to have a direct connection with the Divine consciousness, the Teacher’s role is ended. Humanity as a whole needs a boost towards receiving consciousness – for this purpose many enlightened beings have set up energy-centres across the globe. Think in terms of sacred/holy places: temples, places of worship; tekkias – sometimes they are not even recognisable places at all so you wouldn’t guess its true function – yet someone, somewhere is always being helped by these boosting-stations. The design is to accelerate humanity’s shift into conscious beings.

Individuals who have begun to have a better reception of consciousness also give off a ‘charisma’, or ‘energy’ or other similar descriptions of that ‘something different’ – for this reason, people on the inner path are encouraged to spend time with such Friends as it helps to send a signal to them:

‘When you visit a rose garden, would you sit next to the thorns or the roses?’ (Saadi)

Gurdjieff in Paris

It's always a bonus to come across new Gurdjieff material for the first time - and now we have G. on video:

Here is a brief yet original video of G. on a Paris Street in 1949, the year of his death - a 1m 18sec segment from his life -

Download G. here

And lets try not to feed the moon!

Timeless Simplicity

The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking a pipe.

- Why aren't you fishing? said the industrialist.

- Because I have caught enough fish for the day

- Why don't you catch some more?

- What would I do with them?

- Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats, even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.

- What would I do then?

- Then you could sit back and enjoy life.

- What do you think I'm doing now?

Days in Berlin

The seat of history...


The seat of governance...


Through the passage of my staying...


Near the sun...


I was here...


The Passage...


On the street... was I waiting?


Entertainment in a darkened room...


Through a glass.... looking for clarity through the champagne...

In the Streets

Currently I'm walking the streets of Berlin... through the old 'Eastern' parts... just walking... past the river, the Brandenberg Gate... past, in, and through the bars...

...as a cold wind blows, wrapping chilly around me... as I experience this city for the first time...

...staying with friends in a large old building that used to be for squatters... fueled only by old coal burners...

yet the welcome and hospitality is warm... Everywhere there exists both distance and familiarity... and running along with the times is only as meaningful as the running you can do within your own spaces, places & peace...

Coming Unity

The emerging awakening of global collective consciousness has been described in various ways: some see it as The Second Coming; others as part of the 2012 agenda; others as somehow involved in the Coming Singularity.

I let each person decide on the emerging wave of global consciousness: here is a link to 'Sufi' Llewellyn Vaughan Lee in a quick video clip explaining his own take on the coming unity.

Written in the Sands

A stream, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sand, its waters disappeared. It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this desert, and yet there was no way. Now a hidden voice, coming from the desert itself, whispered: “The wind crosses the desert, and so can the stream.”

The stream objected that it was dashing itself against the sand, only getting absorbed: that the wind could fly and this was why it could cross a desert.

“By hurtling in your own accustomed way you cannot get across. You will either disappear or become a marsh. You must allow the wind to carry you over to your destination.”

But how could this happen?

“By allowing yourself to be absorbed in the wind.”

This idea was not acceptable to the stream. After all, it had never been absorbed before. It did not want to lose its individuality. And, once having lost it, how was one to know that it could ever be regained?

“The wind,” said the sand, “performs this function. It takes up water, carries it over the desert, and then lets it fall again. Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river.”

“How can I know that is true?”

“It is so, and if you do not believe it, you cannot become more than a quagmire, and even that could take many, many years; and it certainly is not the same as a stream.”

“But can I not remain the same stream that I am today?”

“You cannot in either case remain so,” the whisper said. “Your essential part is carried away and forms a stream again. You are called what you are even today because you do not know which part of you is the essential one.”

When he heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream. dimly, he remembered a state in which he - or some part of him, was it? - had been held in the arms of a wind. He also remembered - or did he? - that this was the real thing, not necessarily the obvious thing to do.

And the stream raised his vapour into the welcoming arms of the wind, which gently and easily bore it upwards and along, letting it fall softly as soon as they reached the roof of a mountain, many, many miles away. And because he had had his doubts, the stream was able to remember and record more strongly in his mind the details of the experience. He reflected, “Yes, now I have learned my true identity.”

The stream was learning. But the sands whispered: “We know, because we see it happen day after day: and because we, the sands, extend from the riverside all the way to the mountain.”

And that is why it is said: The way in which the Stream of Life is to continue on its journey is written in the Sands.

Via Seeker After Truth

Mirrors

It is said that Reality mirrors itself... a reflection of the thoughts we process, let pass through our body - for the mind does not reside within the 'brain' alone - not the result of the complexity of neurological connections (as reductionist science is fond of thinking)...

No, the mind runs through the whole body... and thus the thoughts we attract and categorise as 'our own' affect the health of the body...

and they also affect how Reality interacts with the person.

Reality mirrors itself

Micro-Gravity

This is a picture of a candle burning in micro-gravity.

Yet it still radiates. All things radiate, even when we feel we are in micro-gravity.

We still burn inside... creating our own colours.

Is that we burn each other, as humans?

Afraid of some annihilation...?

Filling One's House

An old man on his deathbed called his three sons and told them:

'I can't divide all I have into three parts because I would hand over to you very few possessions. So I have decided to give all I have as an inheritance to the one of you who shows he is the cleverest and most capable. I have left a coin for each one of you on the table - take it. The one of you who buys something with which to fill the house will get everything.' The three sons left home.

The first one bought some straw but he could only fill half the house.

The second son bought bags of feathers but he couldn't fill more than the first brother.

The third son, who got the inheritance, bought just a candle...

...and he waited til night came: he lit the candle and the light filled the house.

10 Things We Didn't Know Last Week

1) Women who attended single-sex schools earn more than those who were taught in mixed schools.

2) Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.

3) A Smurf is three apples tall.

4) Mosquitoes have a sweet tooth, a weakness to be exploited by an anti-malaria project.

5) Four of the top 10 people on the Forbes rich list derive their wealth from the Wal-Mart chain.

6) Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five litres of cooking oil a year.

7) More than one in four pupils have played truant from school in the past year.

8) Pearl and Dean's a-pa-pa pa-pa theme tune, played in cinemas before the ads, is called Asteroid.

9) Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life.

10) There were no numbers in the very first UK phone directory, only names and addresses. Operators would connect callers.

This list comes from 10 Things We Didn't Know Last Week - see for more details of the above... and keep learning!

Idries Shah Speaks...

TRUTH: ‘From time to time ponder whether you are unconsciously saying: ‘Truth is what I happen to be thinking at this moment’

COMMON KNOWLEDGE: ‘The more you look at ‘common knowledge’, the more you realise that it is more likely to be common than it is to be knowledge. No real knowledge is common’

SOCIETY: ‘You say that this society will come to an end, because societies always have done so. I wonder whether they have ended because they were not really societies at all’

BOOKS AND DONKEYS: ‘Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise’

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: ‘One of the big differences between questions and answers is that, a question may be asked at almost any time and place, but its answer may come at a special time and place’

Idries Shah - 'Reflections'

The Position

A time to reflect back on some of Gurdjieff's words...

George Gurdjieff explained our situation this way:

"There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins and this they did not like.

"At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians.

"And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins.

"This tale is a very good illustration of man's position."

How good...? How timely...?

Laughter in the womb

Like Attracts Like... the thoughts we give out, whether we verbalise them or not, shape how this universe responds and conspires with us... it is a cosmic imagination that we wander in... and so laughter keeps us on a sane journey:

"Locked double doors blow open.
Water pours. Fire catches. Wind breaks up!
The Spring ground lifts a little finger.
It's all laughing." Rumi


What have You come for?....

"I have come into this world to hear this:
every song the earth has sung
since it was conceived in the
Divine’s womb and began
spinning from
His wish" Hafiz

Then there is Kyron

Much has been talked about concerning the New Energies that have shifted into alignment on this planet. These energies are different from the old frequencies, and are here in order to assist in the 'phase change'.

Useful in this regard is the channeled information given by the Kyron. Of note is the recent UN 2006 Channeling.

For some, this material will not seem appropriate. For others, it may appear to come at the right time. You may 'warm' to it or not.

This is for you to decide.

A Spy of the Heart

Seeker of Truth Robert Darr became interested in Sufism through the writings of Idries Shah, and was the member of a Shah group for over 10 years. Then he decided to learn Persian and travel to Afghanistan to see what was really behind it all.

Robert Darr draws a distinction between Shah’s writing (which he sees as working) and the groups which Shah directed, which he describes as all being problematic. He writes that his meeting and spending time with the Sufi Ustad Khalili liberated him from that structure.

Robert subsequently converted to Islam and became Robert Abdul Hayy Darr. His book of travels and encounters in Afghanistan is called 'The Spy of the Heart'. From the forward:

'Between 1985 and 1990 I travelled in and out of Afghanistan delivering medicines and humanitarian aid to those affected by the war with the Soviet Union. I learned Persian while working with the refugees and became friends with many of them. While there I observed how the war brought religious fanatics to power and attracted militant zealots from all over the Islamic world, and how the United States funded organizations that preceded and helped shape the Taliban. These were seeds that would lay the groundwork for the events of September 11th, 2001.

Although it includes some political analysis, this book is also an exploration of Islamic spirituality. It was within the chaotic setting of the Afghan war and its sectarian struggles that I was drawn into the heart of Islam—ultimately to convert. After decades studying Afghan culture and spirituality, I felt it was time to share what I have learned from my companionship with various teachers of Islam and from my efforts to follow the Sufi way.'

The book is available online as an e-book here.

Effort...and moving forwards

Living through experiences requires gaining tastes: when specific tastes have been acquired they can then resonate with other 'experiences beyond the veil' - as like attracts like. Pushing through these experiences require effort, and trust in oneself... and letting go the trivial.

As Idries Shah says in 'Knowing How to Know':

'When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters. If you have not registered this yet, observe it in yourself and in others, and you will see that it is true.

When there is an emergency, for example, something which takes up a great deal of attention, triviality is reduced. In order to enable people to be less trivial, and to tackle things which really help them develop, they should undertake tasks which provide the right kind and degree of stretching.

People who have achieved great things, genuinely effective accomplishments, will be found to have done so through this method: stretching. When it goes wrong, people apply stress, not stretching. Stress is damaging and does not product constructive results.

Mistaking stretching for straining: labour for exercise, is what causes a great deal of trouble.

When triviality disappears, even temporarily, people are able to work at a higher level. This is true of all kinds of human endeavour: it is to be seen in attainment of all kinds and also even in a social milieu: people who are less trivial are more respected.'

Leave differently

Leave differently from how you came.

Everything that you need exists in this present moment, and this moment is all that exists.

A brief flicker - brighter that atomic sparkles.

In the nowness of now.

What holds us together

Everything spins in its own orbit: nothing stays still or static. What holds us in these orbits? What is the force that compels creation?

Creation is formed from one force only. Negativity cannot create - it does not have that kind of power. Creation is the force of attraction. Everything is pulled together: a life is lived through attraction. The coming together.

Everything conspires towards this coming together. Even those things we thought of as a hindrance: shade protects us from the sun; darkness allows rest and brings the dawn; hurt allows us to experience the absence of joy.

There is nothing that is not: all is

Nikos Kazantzakis

I haven't mentioned the Greek writer, thinker, philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis here - yet it is now time. He wrote a book called 'Saviors of God - Spiritual Exercises'.

Extracts:

THE PREPARATION

First Duty

1. WITH CLARITY and quiet, I look upon the world and say: All that I see, hear, taste, smell, and touch are the creations of my mind.
2. The sun comes up and the sun goes down in my skull. Out of one of my temples the sun rises, and into the other the sun sets.
3. The stars shine in my brain; ideas, men, animals browse in my temporal head; songs and weeping fill the twisted shells of my ears and storm the air for a moment.
4. My brain blots out, and all, the heavens and the earth, vanish.
5. The mind shouts: "Only I exist!
6. "Deep in my subterranean cells my five senses labor; they weave and unweave space and time, joy and sorrow, matter and spirit.
7. "All swirl about me like a river, dancing and whirling; faces tumble like water, and chaos howls.
8. "But I, the Mind, continue to ascend patiently, manfully, sober in the vertigo. That I may not stumble and fall, I erect landmarks over this vertigo; I sling bridges, open roads, and build over the abyss.
9. "Struggling slowly, I move among the phenomena which I create, I distinguish between them for my convenience, I unite them with laws j yoke them to my heavy practical needs.
10. "I impose order on disorder and give a face - my face - to chaos.
11. "I do not know whether behind appearances there lives and moves a secret essence superior to me. Nor do I ask; I do not care. I create phenomena in swarms, and paint with a full palette a gigantic and gaudy curtain before the abyss. Do not say, 'Draw the curtain that I may see the painting.' The curtain is the painting.
12. "This kingdom is my child, a transitory, a human work. But it's a solid work, nothing more solid exists, and only within its boundaries can I remain fruitful, happy, and at work.
13. "I am the worker of the abyss. I am the spectator of the abyss. I am both theory and practice. I am the law. Nothing beyond me exists."
14. To SEE and accept the boundaries of the human mind without vain rebellion, and in these severe limitations to work ceaselessly without protest - this is where man's first duty lies.
15. Build over the unsteady abyss, with manliness and austerity, the fully round and luminous arena of the mind where you may thresh and winnow the universe like a lord of the land.
16. Distinguish clearly these bitter yet fertile human truths, flesh of our flesh, and admit them heroically: (a) the mind of man can perceive appearances only, and never the essence of things; (b) and not all appearances but only the appearances of matter; (c) and more narrowly still: not even these appearances of matter, but only relationships between them; (d) and these relationships are not real and independent of man, for even these are his creations; (e) and they are not the only ones humanly possible, but simply the most convenient for his practical and perceptive needs.
17. Within these limitations the mind is the legal and absolute monarch. No other power reigns within its kingdom.
18. I recognize these limitations, I accept them with resignation, bravery, and love, and I struggle at ease in their closure, as though I were free.
19. I subdue matter and force it to become my mind's good medium. I rejoice in plants, in animals, in man and in gods, as though they were my children. I feel all the universe nestling about me and following me as though it were my own body.
20. In sudden dreadful moments a thought flashes through me: "This is all a cruel and futile game, without beginning, without end, without meaning." But again I yoke myself swiftly to the wheels of necessity, and all the universe begins to revolve around me once more.
21. Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.
22. This is how, with clarity and austerity, you may determine the omnipotence of the mind amid appearances and the incapacity of the mind beyond appearances - before you set out for salvation. You may not otherwise be saved.


Long out of print and copyright expired this book has now fallen into the public domain: an online copy can be found here

Days of Return

On 'home' soil again, after the wayfarer travels... was good to visit some of the old favourite places again. To pay respects, and to pass through. Moving on with enough space to visit places of past retreat - yet there is no room for nostalgia; for our Way is forward.

Silence for a while

I leave now for a couple of weeks away from my desktop...

Roaming through some of my old territory; through the streets of Istanbul...



Soaring through the spirit of the Semazens...

So this site will be quiet for a while... silence for a while, breezy and deep...

Silence is precious

One of the most precious commodities in this life is something just as hard to fight for as other precious requirements: the need for silence. The need to still the mind.

As I attempt to sit, daily, and clear my mind of everyday chatter, thoughts, clatter & clutter I realise what primal energies I am attempting to quell...

The world is awash with noise...its so hard to be alone with oneself... to learn about the world from inner spaces...

Perhaps this is a conspiracy against the spirit...?

Keep the spirit tangled up in knots of noise and non-coherence - so a daily dose of quiet time is something I feel I'm needing more and more.

Silence is precious

A Summer Walk

Now that the summer solstice has passed, the longest day dawned, and the hours of daylight once again descending, spiralling, turning towards darker days, I relay some incidents of a recent walk in the sunshine.



I began by following the river wide, as it ran and sparkled through the fields. Sounds of dancing song, birds skipping in air streams, perfumed currents swaying as I stepped along grassy paths, thoughts both rambling and quiet. Trying to silence the mind. I stopped by a tranquil opening on the river.



The water was almost still here: it waited to collect its thoughts, memories, remembrances of its past places. A river carries all its history in the cells of its water, each molecule a celebration of a moment. I stood still too, embracing moments in no time, yet neither timeless. Simply sharing a space together. Then I walked on.



I passed through a path in the woods, shaded by the shelter of trees from the gaze of the glorious sun. I am a son. You are a son. Sons to the sun, I knew expectations would not serve me. Perhaps there are two paths: one is fate, the other is desire. And somewhere down the road they join and mingle like the meeting of two rivers. I stopped at a bridge to gaze myself.



Life is a field of intersections, lines of crossing paths, crossroads after crossroads, and choices after choices. There is never an insignificant decision, nor a permanently blocked choice. All movements merge, then separate. I left the bridge behind and went to find a place in the sun...



I permitted myself to be swallowed in gaze, absent yet present...perhaps waiting for the revolution of a self... or the revelation of some way...?

Perfection

Nasrudin was talking to a friend:

'So, have you ever thought of getting married?' said the friend.

'Yes, I have' answered Nasrudin. 'In my youth I decided to look for a perfect woman. I crossed the seas, I arrived in Istanbul and met a very spiritual and beautiful woman; but she didn't know anything about this world. I went on travelling and arrived in Cairo; there I met a woman who knew the material and spiritual kingdom, but she wasn't beautiful at all. Then, I decided to cross the open lands and go to Damascus, where I had dinner at a beautiful, religious young lady's house who knew the material world very well.'

'Why didn't you marry her?' his friend asked.

'Oh, my friend, unfortunately she also wanted a perfect man'

Riding the Design

There is order in seeming disorder; and purpose in life's fluctuations: everything flows.

Whether we look at the stars and planets in their courses or examine the miraculous processes of life, we see abundant evidence of faultless organization. Only human affairs seem to be an exception to the general rule - Edward Russell in Design for Destiny

And somewhere in this design, in the technologies that drive forces forward, there is room for human love:

Someday after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The human is enmeshed within the cosmos; within infinite energies. All technologies are information; all information are energies. Likewise, all thoughts, materialities, and actions are nothing but energies. Energy is that which is the field of existence: we can influence its fluctuations, yet never escape its consequences. Like a ripple in an almighty ocean, we ride the tides caused by the actions around us. We can sooth those tides too...

If you...

If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it.

If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it.

If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why.

If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?

~ Idries Shah ~

Dervish Francis

I am currently reading an inspiring biography of St. Francis of Assisi by James Cowan called Francis: A Saint's Way : Cowan is sensitive enough to recognise and cite the comparison between St. Francis and Sufi thought. In fact Francis has strong connections with the Troubadour tradition, itself a specific projection of Sufi material.

Then today I came across the latest post from a website I pop into - making the very same connections: The Sufis and Saint Francis of Assisi

Seeker After Truth

I know many people are seekers in their own right... in multiple ways: as Rumi says, 'There are as many paths as there are men's hearts'

Yet here I wanted to point towards a website called Seeker After Truth that in fact is not too bad.... a variety of articles from contemporary people; interviews; and reviews - enough good stuff for a little lightish reading each day...

Sufi thought explained through computer software

Just thought I had to make mention of this. Turkish 'Sufic teacher' Ahmed Hulusi has recently published an article called 'Master Spirit of the Age' that tries to give an analogy between spiritual disciplines and the competing software of Windows and Linux...

so it just needed to be mentioned here... and if interested, you can read most of Hulusi's writings for free on his site.

Riding the night skies

Well - there are many things to download these days...not just games or Google Earth!

I've just downloaded the latest version of the Stellarium:

'Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.'

If you want to educate yourself about the night sky...just ride into your own planetarium at your own leisure - recommended...

Invisible Community

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) once said:

‘Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.'

A choice to make is whether we too wish to join the 'invisible community' - and if we do...there is no-one we can tell: we just act.

The Seeker

Seeker After Knowledge:

'While you live, you are learning. Those who learn through deliberate effort to learn are cutting down on the learning which is being projected upon them in the normal state. Uncultivated men often have wisdom to some degree because they allow the access of the impacts of life itself...If you try actively to learn from them, you learn certain things, but they are predetermined things... By that I mean that you are seeing what you want to see. This has become an automatic action... You cannot judge...You have set yourself a task: to find spiritual truth. You have sought this truth in the wrong directions... The excessive concentration upon the theme, the anxiety and emotion which is engendered in you, will ultimately pile up to such an extent that you will seek a relief from it...You will become converted to some cult which takes the responsibility...The alternative, which you will not take, is detachment.'

"DO YOU WISH THAT WE SHOW UP ?"

Can the world be changed by one single act? An event in the skies??

There is a document currently circulating the Internet called:

'CHANGE THE WORLD! "DECIDE WHETHER WE SHOULD SHOW UP!"'

This document claims to have been transcribed from non-terrestrial intelligences which outlines our position on earth, in terms of our geopolitics and eco-catastrophes, and which also claims that if it is the will of enough conscious people then the physical appearance of a benign alien race will manifest on earth and the 'truth' regarding our situation finally revealed.

Okay, so I am being overly brief here. In itself the document, oddly enough, is worth reading as it does'not overly attempt to coerce or convince.

Why not give the document a read and decide for yourself if you would like 'them' to 'show up'... decide with your own free will.

With the roses

Back from Barcelona: tis good to spend time with those who yearn for the Roses rather than the thorns.

We make our choices in life, and determine how events form around us.

How our minds operate is a measurement of how we mingle with the cosmos.

Integral Lives: Entangled Lives.

Time is nothing without capacity

For now...

For the time being I shall be visiting Barcelona...again... and having a week away from work-thoughts and research writing - to be with a friend and the sun and a city.

Move freely, for your own fears are the only limitations.

Mapping our Way

Maps have always been drawn in a bid to chart our terrain, our territory, our way ahead. Some, like the one above, show that our past was once joined together as a whole continent: PANGEA - all the world's land mass as one. Now our physical earth has separated, and we are left to find the union again:

'True philosophers are those who embark upon a voyage into the unknown, unsure of their destination or whether they might even return...a journey to a distant place can be as a mode of discovery. With our paths in life mapped out for all of us, it usually takes the one that leads us away from our goal (to where we are not) to affirm where we should be' - A Mapmaker's Dream

Time is liquid

It is true that the previous post was referring to Time as used in the US way of writing the month before the day.... in the UK style, this special time will come around on the 4th of May - again, same digits:

01.02.03 - 04.05.06

And 2 minutes, 3 seconds past 1 am will depend which time zone you are in - in short: this Special Time does not occur in any objective instant. Instead, it occurs in several instants...

We all live our own moments - sometimes artifically separated by constructs of time and space. Yet in each moment we are also united through an endless ocean of consciousness.

Like corks on the sea - swirling separately, joined in the water. Time is a liquid that fills all containers.

A Special Moment in Time

A special moment of time is truly upon us:

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04.05.06

This will never ever happen again - Live It.

Cannot be Said

'Love is that that never sleeps,
nor even rests, nor stays
for long with those that do.

Love is language
that cannot be said,
or heard'

Rumi

A new albino yeti? What the crab for?

It looks like we have a new friend on the global scene: this is the Yeti Crab - Kiwa hirsuta - Until last year, no one even knew he existed.

Yeti crabs live next to the volcanic vents 7,500 feet beneath the surface, 900 miles south of Easter Island, and they're pretty weird and mysterious creatures: they're blind, albino, only distantly related to other lobsters and crabs and we don't actually know how they manage to survive where they live:

check out this BBC article :

I'm sure soon we'll be finding the Yeti Crab in shop windows as the new must have stuffed toy...

Yeti for dinner anyone??

Uxorious

I've just learnt that 'uxorious' means: excessively fond of or submissive to a wife.

Is to be excessively fond of a wife the same as to be submissive?

Is it detrimental to be excessivley fond??

I wonder...

Just wanted to say

Just wanted to say:

"Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move."

Mevlana

Odd feeling

I just thought it was interesting that, according to today's 'Dictionary word of the day' that arrives daily into my inbox:

crapulous = sick from, or marked by, excessive drinking.

Is anyone feeling crapulous today?

The snowy journey

This morning the clear blue skies and the sun against the snow compelled me to drop all work and enter the snowy fields... walking with no thoughts... just fresh breath being breathed like golden icy air into my cells... and I wandered on...



The tree welcomed me, as it danced with the sun's rays between its bleak yet resilient branches... I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with... and I wandered on...



A family of trees waved in the distance as if encouraging me on... silently they spoke of histories, of seasons like wisdom generations, the swing and sway of events...and I wandered on...



Everywhere was a blanket of snow, covering all like a lover veils the dirt from their eyes, not wanting to see anything but the shine... the glorious shine... and I was alone, yet was not alone...and I wandered on...



The road taken seemed straight, yet it was not easy: it was slippery, it tempted me away onto softer snow, onto easier snow: should I leave the road I had chosen? I saw a gap in the fence - was this shortcut beckoning me? Teasing me? Oh, how so easy...yet so difficult to turn away... yet I did not...and I wandered on...



Until I finally saw my way home...

Bring on the journey. Bring on the Love. Amen...

and I wandered on...

Riding

I'm riding through the wind now, riding through the wind.

It's blowing in my ears.

There is nothing to lose now, nothing to lose:

except everything.

Bless our redundancy. Bless the loss.

Endless Sun

The sun comes a long way
To give us
A touch of its ray:

And it shines for no reward
Other than to give.

Endlessly and unconditionally
It shines forth.

Rarely do we give thanks
Or turn our heads sunwards.

We used to do this, in the
Days of our remembrance.

As sons and daughters we are cared
for continually; even as we whimper.

Merciful Father, compassionate globe;
Our endless sun.


10.51
26.2.06

It's time to change the world

The wonderful site Worldchanging presents issues on changing the world - from environmental sustainability, emerging technologies, molecular engineering, civil participation... as they state on their site:

'Worldchanging shows us a different world - the future we could create. A bright green future, a sustainable, prosperous, dynamic future for all. On a planet full of problems, Worldchanging calls attention to solutions, illuminating tools, models and ideas for building that future.

We have a choice to make. We can build a future of green products and industry, renewable energy and leapfrogging technologies, clean water and fresh air, livable cities and healthy children. Or we can have another kind of world'

To see a slide show of some thoughtful world pictures - go here - and view the slides (choose your format - I would recommend windows media as it downloads without crashing).

Secrets need expressing

Again, I pop over to visit the PostSecret site, and am moved by all the expressions, confessions, revelations, and admitions...

This is the week of Valentine: despite it being a commercial exploitation, it is also a time where emotions are expressed.... and PostSecret has its share.

I wrote this poem a few years previously: perhaps now is a suitable time for a re-surface:

ST. VALENTINE’S DAY



St. Valentine’s Day
Is a great day
For lovers:

But why one day
When we have
Every day for this?


10.30pm
14.2.98

A Beautiful Reflection

I always remember the lines,

'Let us go now, you and I,
as the evening spreads out against the sky,
like a patient etherised upon a table'

Of course I paraphrase, I hope its correct:

T.S. Eliot - 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'

I taught this poem to students for 2 years whilst teaching English literature in
Istanbul, Turkey....

...remembering also how the poem ends...

'I should have been a pair of ragged claws,
skuttling across the floors of silent seas'

...'I grow old, I grow old,
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled'

In the years that live me, I shall never fear the growing old.

I shall embrace. It is the beauty of experience.
No experience is universal.
It is lived within us like a myriad of mirrors.

Humanity is like a room full of mirrors:

I hope we form a beautiful reflection.

Every thought etched in fire

There is a line from Mikhail Naimy's 'The Book of Mirdad' that resonates with what has been said many times in different ways...and yet never seems to lose its truth:

'So think as if your every thought were to be etched in fire upon the sky for all and everything to see. And so, in truth, it is. So do as if your every deed were to recoil upon your heads. And so, in truth, it does.'

Every thought and act is remembered, and has an effect. Nothing exists in a vacuum.

We can be the creators of our own future.

Love is the Law, Love under Will

A sleepy golden storm

There is a past, a present, and a future - always


"I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,
your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,
yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new,
in city and in forest they smiled like me and you,
but now it's come to distances and both of us must try,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye."

Another Veli

RUBAI

'Look around and you'll see the big secret of a lifetime
In a tree with a single root left in the soil, yet still standing tall.
How sweet life must be, since thousands of people
Keep living, with no arms or legs at all.

I love that drunken soul.'

Orhan Veli

Drunk in our own juices....only Faith tastes this sweet...

A little death

I sometimes think that we need to die a little iin order to understand how to live...

To nearly die - to experience the brink of death; the edge of living...

so as to experience the passion for life.

Many of those who have experienced near-death, have returned with a new exuberance for life.

Yet so many of us experience life as a lethargy. We trudge through life as we do through mud.

Sleepwalkers. We're so far from being Dreamweavers.

Perhaps a little death will awaken us, make us glad.

Take this body and break it into beautiful pieces: make this drunken soul mad...

Make this beautiful traitor glad.

I'm not saying this right

'You bind me, and I tear away in a rage
to open out into air, a round
brightness, a candlepoint,
all reason, all love.

This confusing joy, your doing,
this hangover, your tender thorn.

You turn to look, I turn.
I'm not saying this right.'

Mevlana


How can we say something right when we do not know what are the words?
In a body that burns with unknowing I feel like wax waiting to dissolve.

There's no knowing which way the wind is blowing... ah, this uncertainty
lies on my skin like a stinging kiss.

I don't think I'm saying this right...I'm only a beautiful traitor

Lighter days

Haven't left the house for 5 days... No, my beard isn't overgrown or I'm walking around in pajamas (if I had any!)... just the days of essay marking...listening to music, reading, and drinking red wine in the evenings...

Have just come across an interesting band from Iceland called 'MuM' with some similarities to Sigur Ros..

And started to read Tahir Shah's 'House of the Tiger King'...finally!

The evenings still get dark early, yet waiting for the lighter days...

there is a light that never goes out...

More words

More words....audio signals..have been posted on Shems Abode:

this is a place where I give poetry a voice.

The art of farewell

When I was living, working, and studying in Istanbul, one of my teachers and friends was the Turkish poet, translator, and dramatist Cevat Capan. He taught me how to analyse and appreciate drama. I went to his house for drinks - we drank Raki and talked of his old friends in Istanbul whom he still meets every week.

We swapped poetry. He gave me a few poems he had recently translated into English for an upcoming publication - I gave him a collection of my own. I then presented him with a copy of my first, and only, play that I had written. His comments were favourable. That was the last time I saw him.


Winter is Over

"I've studied the art of farewell,"
specialized in exile.
I've learnt how a boat puts out from port.
Learnt the bitterness of a train whistle.

For years I lived on letters, lived
on smuggled tobacco, banned
publications. I've not forgotten a thing.
Nothing. Ever.

In the icy loneliness of the steppes
the sails at sea were what I missed the most.
There were no mountains, no mountains:
I leant back on the winds.

Was I out of my mind? A prisoner, say,
in the heart of darkness?
The blood dried -
and I was a rose, blown into flower.

Cevat Capan

In the Eyes

My Eyes are in Your Eyes

Do you always look so childlike?
Do they always have this fire burning deep inside?
There is something in your looks that calms me down;
As if I am at the shore of the calmest seas...
I am a sailboat now, at your harbor
I came from thunderstorms, resting in you.
I wish this tranquility, this silence never ends;
I wish these matchless moments with you last forever...
Never close your eyes, never let your light go away,
My day, my light, my silkworm!
My last flower alive in my fall garden!
I wish my tired heart never sees grief with you;
Don't separate your childlike eyese from my eyes,
Your pure, honest, secluded eyes

Umit Yasar Oguzcan


To Stay Grieved

I could get angry at
The people I love,
If love
Hadn't taught me
To stay grieved.

Orhan Veli

Beautiful Images of Insides of Meteorites

Check out these microscope images of the insides of meteorites. Beautiful, and strange. Some of them are reminiscent of bacteria and computer circuit boards.

All things

Last night I slowly came downstairs after a period of quiet sitting - and cooked grilled butternut squash and parsnip, with raisons and crushed walnuts... and raised my glass of red wine to the connectness of all things, and all continuance:

'What I loved in my old life
I haven't forgotten
It lives in my spine...

The days of kindness
It rises in my spine
and it manifests as tears
I pray that a loving memory
exists for them too
the precious ones I overthrew
for an education in the world' - LC

Turkish delights...

Some Turkish poets...some words of delight...

-----

There is One Thing I learned from What I Lived

There is one thing I learned from what I lived:
When you live something, you must live it fully
Your lover must be exhausted from your kisses
You must be exhausted from smelling a flower

One can look at the sky for hours
One can look for hours at the sea, at a bird, at a child
Living on this world is being one with it
Growing unbreakable roots into it

When you hug your friend, you must do it with all your power
You must be in a fight with all your muscles, body and passion
And when you lie on the hot sand,
You must rest like a grain of sand, like a leaf, like a stone

One must listen to all the beautiful music
Such that the sounds, the melodies fill inside

One must dive headfirst into this life
Like diving from a rock into an emerald sea

People you don't know must attract you to distant lands
You must live with the desire to read all the books and to know all
the lives
You must exchange nothing with the happiness of drinking a glass of
water
But for all the happiness there is, you must be filled with the
longing to live

And you must also live grief, with honor, with all your presence
Because grief also maturates one, like happiness
Your blood must be intermixed with the large circulation of life
The never ending, fresh blood of life must circulate in your veins

There is one thing I learned from what I lived:
When you live, you must live big, like being one with the rivers, the
sky, and the whole universe
Because what we call lifetime is a gift presented to life
And life is a gift presented to you.

Ataol Behramoglu

-----

I Will Hide You

I will hide you, believe me
In what I write, in what I draw
In what I sing, in what I say.

You will stay and no one will know
And no one will see you,
You will live in my eyes.

You will see, you will hear
The gleaming warmth of love,
You will sleep, you will wake up.

You will see that the days passing by
Are not like the ones you used to live,
You will lose yourself in thought.

Understanding a love
Is spending a life,
You will spend it.

I will live you, it can't be told,
I will live in my eyes;
I will hide you in my eyes.

One day, you will just start to tell...
You will look,
I will close my eyes...
You will understand.

Ozdemir Asaf

-----

Remaining Silent

There is no word unsaid under this sun..
That is why I say at nights that I love..
There is no word unsaid either at night or during the day..
And I say what has already been said in new forms..
There is no form in the world not tried...
And I remain silent, hiding my love inside...
You hear how my silence screams, don't you...
There are many declaring their love with silence, my love...
But there is no one who loves like I remain silent...

Aziz Nesin

In the luminescence of light....2006 is welcomed in like a guest

Like sparks in a dancing cosmos...our selves welcome 2006

Lights bring in the light of 2006 - Lisbon Sq.

You at Your Absence

Today is the beginning of the Kurban Bayram - the time of sacrifice for those who surrender to the will of Allah in the Muslim faith.

To share, I would like to pass on a poem by a Turkish poet. Peace to All.


You at Your Absence

I am not alone again, as always
I am with your absence at this far-eastern night

Twenty five thousand kilometers between us
You live winter, I live summer
You are in one half of the world,
I am in the other half
Still, your absence does not leave my hand
You are even more 'for me'
That burning nakedness of you, in flames
Is a thousand times more beautiful than your presence
And as your hands talk about the deepest secrets
I don't want to write to you without saying that
We love each other across twenty five thousand kilometers

Aziz Nesin

Where one can find the harbour

Recently a friend sent me this simple paragraph. Simple perhaps, yet swimming in deep water: I too wanted to share

"harbours are there for damaged or weary ships. Ships travel afar but
the harbour stays right where it is. And it resists waves that are
much higher than you can imagine because ever since the day it is
built as a small dock, its one and only wish is to become a harbour.
It prepares itself for titanic ships, and its story of becoming a
harbour starts with the first little boat approaching."