A Psychokinetic Life

How so necessary it is for humankind to 'think correctly' and to transform those thoughts into transformative energies - human life is about living a psychokinetic life...about coming into contact with great forces on levels above us:

We are now too close to each other for the old kind of individualism to be bearable: the interaction is too powerful. What is in front of us is the need to change to an attitude in which we accept that every man has to serve a cosmic purpose, that every life serves for something, not just for its own satisfaction and not for some otherworldly purpose either.

It may be that the future of life as a whole is more important than the future of man, and there may be demiurgic powers whose task it is to see that life is not wantonly dismembered by the human race. If so, those intelligences can certainly find means to keep human wantonness in check and eventually prepare a new race to take our place if we have to be removed from the face of the earth.

It is an integral and essential part of the psychokinetic attitude toward life that we need and can count on help "from Above". Communication with higher worlds is very much dependent on how we are with each other. The act of worship and certain manifestations that are called ritual enable a certain state of energy to be created in which the whole process of transformation is enormously reinforced. These things cannot happen unless there is full confidence between people.

If this new world is going to be based on communities, as I believe it will, the first requirement is that people shouldn't be slaves to their likes and dislikes. If you can get rid of that slavery, a community will always work.

The possibility of realizing our destiny depends upon a force that is not our own and that has its origin on a much higher level than the human. Therefore, everything for us really depends upon the possibility of coming into contact with that great force.

Man didn't come into this world for nothing. Man is an extraordinary achievement that has required long and difficult preparation. This achievement is not complete. It would be quite a considerable cosmic disaster if this experiment with man on this earth were to fail, and for this reason much is being done to prevent this experiment from failing - not because man deserves to survive, but because he is really needed.

Progress in self-perfecting is not automatic, it requires the use of the right methods and the determination to persevere against all discouragements.

All quotations are from 'Needs of a New Age Community' by J.G. Bennett

Thank You J.G. Bennett

More than enough...

This is the story of ... The Melon

Traveling, a teacher and his disciple were having a rest. At a certain moment, he took a melon from his saddle bag, he divided it in two and both began to eat it.

While eating, the disciple said:
- My wise teacher, I know that everything you do has a reason. Sharing this melon with me perhaps is a signal that you have something to teach me.

The teacher continued eating in silence.

- By your silence, I understand the hidden question - the disciple insisted - and it must be the following one: the taste which I am experiencing when eating this delicious fruit, where is it: in the melon or my tongue?

The teacher didn't say anything. The disciple, excited, continued:
- And as everything in life has a sense, I think I am close to the answer of this question: the taste is an act of love and interdependence between both, because without the melon there would be no object of pleasure and without the tongue.

- Stop it! - said the teacher - the biggest idiots are those who think they are more intelligent than others and search an interpretation for everything! The melon tastes good, this is more than enough. Let me eat it in peace!

Empowerment

I have decided to make available online most of my writings: this includes most of my poetry collections (going back to 1992); 2 novels (the rest will perhaps never be made available!); and my one and only play.

It is not for vanity that I 'release' these writings - it is more for finding them an online home should hardware ultimately fail...

The writings can be found from linking on my homepage site - kingsleydennis.com

...

The above image is 'Empowerment' - from Janosh

Truly Important Things

Nasrudín began to chat with some friends. One of them, suddenly, asked him about his wife:

- Oh, my wife! - he said - she stays at home.

- What is her occupation? - the others asked.

Nasrudín shrugged his shoulders and said:

Insignificant activities, unimportant things, small things without any transcendence. She takes care of the work at home, takes care of our children and helps them with their homework, goes to the market, does repairs when it is needed, like painting the house and fixing whatever is broken. She takes water out of the well and waters the orchard, also takes care of her ill mother and my mother too; sometimes she visits her sister and helps her out with the children... those kind of things, small things of no importance.

- and what do you do? - someone asked

- Ah friends, I am truly important, of course! I am the one who investigates if God exists.

...

The High Road

A Long time ago in the small town of Hondo, Texas, there used to live a cowboy nicknamed H.R. One day someone asked him:

“H.R., why do people call you H.R.?”

He replied: “H.R. stands for “High Road”, but people do not understand.”

“They do not understand what?” the other asked.

“Well you see”, said H.R., people want to take the high road because it makes them feel superior. Some people think that the high road is the road less traveled and they believe it will help them avoid roadblocks, road rage and low riders. Some even try the middle road. The fact is that there is no such a thing as a high or low road. Actually, there are no roads at all! We are the high road, and the low road, the only road. That is why I call myself H.R.: “The High Road.”

How Do You Change the Human Brain?

I was just listening to an interview with psychologist Christopher Hyatt and his comments were:

'How to educate ourselves....we can throw all manner of things at ourselves yet where does the real work begin?...We cannot educate stupidity - but we can educate ignorance...We have to do the work at a much deeper level'....

I wonder, where does the real work begin...?

Perhaps to change the brain we must first change our minds... and those change in thoughts will produce a finer vibration...

My thoughts are endlessly charging like this, arrows let loose and looking for the alleyways of finer things... I wonder...

The above image is called 'Wisdom' from Janosh

Amen

A friend reminded me of what a friend once said, grateful that I am:

For love my friend is not a thing like money
nor can it be a word however sweet
for love is measured not in words of honey
not words, not even deeds but in a heartbeat

and until we meet again may Friendship
hold us in the palm of his hands

Amen

Transformation

The very aim of our society seems to be to remove from people responsibility for their lives and acts. The way of transformation must be the exact opposite of this. Whatever else it may lead to, it must make us into free, responsible individuals, able to direct our own lives in accordance with the greatest objective good.

J.G. Bennett - Transformation

-

Shems Abode

My old audio site 'Shems Abode' has now closed down - somehow,
without me knowing, it disappeared from the Web!

A new audio site has been set-up: this is the new 'Shems Abode'

Also, some of the audio posts can be accessed from the lists
of links here on BT on the right side of this page.

I hope in the future to be adding some new material... once I gain some time...

THE FIVE MONKEYS

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not?

Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.



Is that how things will always be done - without change!?

Be The Change

God decided to come down to Earth for a quick look at
how his creation was coming along.

He approached Earth and happened to look at a big tree
full of howling monkeys. As He looked down, one of the
monkeys happened to look up and saw him.

The monkey became excited and started to shout:

"I see God.....I see God!"

None of the other monkeys paid any attention. Some thought
the monkey was crazy or perhaps just a religious fanatic.
They went on about their daily lives of collecting food, taking
care of their young, fighting with each other, etc., etc. Not getting
any attention, our monkey decided to try to get attention from God, and said:

"God, Almighty, You are the Beneficent, the Merciful, please help me!"

In an instant, the monkey was transformed into a man living in
his own human community.

Everything changed, except for one thing: the monkey's mind.
The monkey immediately realized *that* could be a problem.

"Well, thank you God, but what about my mind?"
"That, said God, you will have to change yourself."

take this longing

take this longing from my tongue
all the lonely things my hands have done.
let me see your beauty broken down
like you would do for one you love.

The three old men

A woman left her house and saw three old men with long beards seated in front of her garden.
- I don't know you - she said - but you must be hungry. Please come into my house and eat something.
They asked:
- Is your husband at home?
- No - she said - he is not.
- Then we cannot enter - they said.
On late afternoon, when the husband arrived, she told him what happened.
- Well, tell them I arrived already and invite them to come in.
The woman went outside to invite the men to come into her house.
- The three of us cannot enter a house together - said the old men.
- Why? - she wanted to know.
One of the men pointed towards one of his friends and explained:
- His name is Wealth - he pointed towards the other - his name is Success and my name is Love.

Now go inside and decide with your husband which one of us three you wish to invite into your house.
The woman entered her house and she told her husband what they told her.
The man, very happy, said:
- That's good! If that's the way it is, let's invite Wealth, and have him fill our house with wealth.
His wife did not agree:
- My dear, why don't we invite Success?
Their daughter was listening from the other corner of the house and came running with an idea:
- Wouldn't it better to invite Love? Our home would be full of love then.
- Let's pay attention to our daughter's advice - said the husband to his wife, go outside and invite Love to be our guest.
The wife went outside and asked the three old men:
- Which one of you is Love? Please come and be our guest.
Love stood up and began to walk towards the house. The other two also rose and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success:
- I only invited Love, why are you also coming?
The old men responded together:
- If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two would have remained outside, but since you invited Love, wherever he goes, we go with him. Wherever there is love, there is also wealth.



If you truely follow your heart, the rest will arrive as well.

Beautiful Messages

Something I tell myself

Something I tell myself:

'When a person faces an uncertain future, it is best for them to view it as an opportunity for personal growth and not to be fearful of the unknown'

Ruth Montgomery

Always Be In Love

An old Persian tale:

Once upon a time, a fish that was a bird up to the waist fell in love with a bird that was a fish down to the waist. Therefore the fish-bird told the bird-fish:

'We have been created in a way we'll never be able to live together: you in the wind and I in the waves. What a pity for both of us!'

'No, how lucky we are', said the bird-fish, 'as we'll always be in love because we'll always be separated'

Time Net

Have you noticed how time appears - or 'seems' - to be accelerating these years?

The phenomena tries to be imperceptible, like a subtle field/net that has caught us all up in its sweep...

Days have less 'time', the end of the day quickens;
Years fall by more rapidly...

As if there is a hurry to be somewhere, to get somewhere...

Racing ahead for some great event, perhaps?

This is not a poem; it is a moment of reflection...

More Honey from the Turquoise Bee

More honey drops from the tantric-pen of Tsangyang Gyatso:

When I held the jewel in hand
I didn't know its worth.
When I lost it to another
The wind of loss howled in my chest.


Small black written letters
Can be destroyed by water or crossed out.
An unscribed figure in the mind may fade
But will never be forgotten.


Lover who was joy to me,
Married to another -
This sickness of mind
Though inside
Consumes the flesh of the body

The Turquoise Bee

The colour of turquoise has adorned the rulers of Ancient Egypt, the Aztecs, Persia, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and to some extent in ancient China since at least the Shang Dynasty: A common belief shared by many of these civilizations held that turquoise possessed certain prophylactic qualities; it was thought to change colour with the wearer's health and protect him or her from untoward forces.

The Turquoise Bee is a collection of Tantric lovesongs of Tibet's Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1706)....

By drawing diagrams on the ground
The stars of space can be measured.
Though familiar with the soft flesh
Of my lover's body
I cannot measure her depths.


Your smile with white teeth flashing
Is meant to lead this young man on -
But if you really want me
Please, lady, swear it from the depths of
Your heart.

Bees produce the most beautiful honey...

In The Garden

A gardener must first cultivate and tend to their own garden before being useful to other gardens... this is because a garden can feel the knowledge and compassion of its gardener, and as 'like attracts like' responds to the energetic field of resonance that the gardener's Heart emits.

Yet until the gardener has shaped his own Heart, there is little use in wandering into another's garden.

Except

Except the intensive love, except love,
I haven't any other work.

Except the tender love, except the tender love,
I don't have another seed to sow.

Rumi

Approach to Reality - More of the New Design

I was aware of other, cosmical intelligences, far more evolved than my own. These Beings should not be confused with spacemen, or Supermen - they have evolved beyond all planetary form; and I was merely one pupil amongst many, all undergoing some manner of quickening and applied stimulus. Mankind is a cradle, or chrysalis, in which such potential exists as a possibility, or in an embryonic latency.

In this state I perceived a vast act of direct intervention in the life of mankind, like a realignment with the source of all manifestation, which necessitated the prior removal of an obstruction to its correct development. This occurrence coincided with the release of a fresh inflow of magnetic influences, also a stepping-up of vibrationary pressure, like entering a more powerful force-field, or submission to a forced process of growth - designed to produce an evolutionary 'leap'. But it all happened in the dimension of the higher Self, and has not yet externalised into our world of linear time, though its foreshadowings are already apparent.

From Approach to Reality

Approach to Reality - A Whole New Design

'There seems to be a framework -a structure...a whole new design for life and inner development...moving into manifestation immediately ahead of us in time...filtering already through an intermediary strata to specially selected points. Every detail pre-planned; originating from above to below... not in linear time at all... thus superseding our planetary laws of cause and effect. And absolutely nothing can stop it... its already there, out of range of our vision, but as real and solid as life itself. How it will manifest I can only surmise...

...A new force, or influence, is reaching us - coded to produce precise results that will supersede the old modes of development - almost a forced process which will have effects unique in world history as we know it...

...A stepping-up of transformative force must cause resistance...and in this respect, the animal kingdom and all natural life will fare much better than humanity - having followed its own instinctive laws without deviation...

...an influx of beings of a higher development than man, born into human bodies for preordained reasons - one of which perhaps is to 'burn up' or transmute at a vastly higher rate the 'effects' created by the mass of men, which obstruct their own progression towards their true destiny.'

From Approach to Reality by A.J. Peterson

All is Flux

Life is in flux. Uncertainty is management of moments...

‘Nothing endures but change.’

‘There is nothing permanent except change.’

‘All is flux, nothing stays still.’

‘Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise.’

Sayings of Heraclitus

A thing of amazing beauty

An individual person has an integrity, a
quality, a being and an existence; two people

acting in a harmonious and complemantary fashion

produce an extra factor and a number of people working

and thinking and feeling and offering themselves together,

and each consciously involving their essential being, are capable

of producing a thing of amazing beauty.

Omar Ali Shah

More Than Words

What is Sufism?

What is Sufism?

The most obvious question of all is for us the most difficult question. But I’ll try to answer. Sufism is experience of life through a method of dealing with life and human relations. This method is based on an understanding of man, which places at one’s disposal the means to organize one’s relationships and one’s learning systems. So instead of saying that Sufism is a body of thought in which you believe certain things and don’t believe other things, we say that the Sufi experience has to be provoked in a person. Once provoked, it becomes his own property, rather as a person masters an art.

Q - So ideally, for four million readers, you would have four million different explanations?

In fact, it wouldn’t work out like that. We progress by means of Nashr, an Arabic word than means scatter technique. For example, I’ve published quite a number of miscellaneous books, articles, tapes and so on, which scatter many forms of this Sufi material. These 2,000 different stories cover many different tendencies in many people, and they are able to attach themselves to some aspect of it.

Suppose we get a group of 20 people past the stage where they no longer expect us to give them miracles and stimulation and attention. We sit them down in a room and give them 20 or 30 stories, asking them to tell us what they see in the stories, what they like, and what the don’t like. The stories first operate as a sorting out process. They sort out both the very clever people who need psychotherapy and who have come only to put you down, and the people who have come to worship.

If a pot can multiply: One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbor, who was giving a feast. The neighbor returned them, together with one extra one - a very tiny pot. “What is this?” asked Nasrudin. “According to law, I have given you the offspring of your property which was born when the pots were in my care,” said the joker. Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbor’s pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get them back. “Alas!” said Nasrudin, “they are dead. We have established, have we not, that pots are mortal?”

In responsible Sufi circles, no one attempts to handle either the sneerers or the worshippers, and they are very politely detached from the others.

No Guru

Idries Shah was once asked in an interview: 'You are the West’s leading exponent of Sufism, that rich religious tradition growing out of the Middle East. Why, at a time when new cults are springing up, do you refuse to be a guru? You could easily become one'

Shah's reply was:

There are a lot of reasons. But if we are talking about the teacher who has disciples, it’s because I feel no need for an admiring audience to tell me how wonderful I am or to do what I say. I believe that the guru needs his disciples. If he had a sufficient outlet for his desire to be a big shot or his feeling of holiness or his wish to have others dependent on him, he wouldn’t be a guru.

I got all that out of my system very early and, consistent with Sufi tradition, I believe that those who don’t want to teach are the ones who can and should. The West still has a vocation hang-up and has not yet discovered this. Here, the only recognized achiever is an obsessive. In the East we believe that a person who can’t help doing a thing isn’t necessarily the best one to do it. A compulsive cookie baker may bake very bad cookies.

The Golden Portal

In a city two persons where born, at the same day, at the same
time, in the same place. Their lives unrolled and each one lived
many different experiences.

At the end of their lives both died at the same day, at the same
time, in the same place. According to the legend,it is said that
at death we must pass through a great gate of pure gold, where a
guardian makes us certain questions so that we may pass.

The first one arrived and the guardian asked him:"What have you
made of your life?"

The person answered:"I knew many places, had many friends, had
businessess that made much money, my family had the best and I
worked hard."

The guardian asked:"What have you brought with you?"

The person said:"Everything was left behind, I do not bring
anything with me."

At this the guardian says:"I am sorry but you cannot pass,
because you have not brought anything with you."

Hearing these words the person sits down beside the portal crying
with great sadness of heart in not being able to pass.

The second one comes to the portal and the guardian asks :"What
have you done in your life?"

The second person answers:"From the moment I was born I was a
wanderer, I had no riches, all I sought was the love in each
persons heart, my family abandoned me, and I never really had
anything."

The guardian asks:"Did you find what you sought?"

The person answers:"Yes, it has been my only sustainance from the
moment I found it..."

"Very well, you can pass...!"

But with this answer the second person says:"The love I found is
so great that I wish to share it with this one sitting here
beside the door, suffering for his fortune..."

The legend says that this one's love was so great that it was
enough for both to pass through the portal.

The Message

A video that spreads the message... for sharing...



Thank You for sharing...

And thanks to Sophia for the link...

-

The Unseen World

Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world.
The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same.
Every wonderful sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade,
But do not be disheartened,
The source they come from is eternal, growing,
Branching out, giving new life and new joy.
Why do you weep?
The source is within you
And this whole world is springing up from it.

~ Rumi ~


I shall be away for the next 2 weeks - Blessings

-

To Share

‘How can I capture beauty?’

you ask me.

‘Be an open-hearted hunter’

I say

‘Who upon snaring a bird

throws it back to the sky.’

‘But why?’

‘For beauty holds dear only

to a master who can share.’

SATAN'S MEETING

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said,

"We can't keep people from going to pray."

"We can't keep them from reading their holy books and knowing
the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship
with their GOD."

"Once they gain that connection with GOD, our power over them
is broken."

"So let them go to their prayers; let them have their covered
dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time
to develop a relationship with GOD."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil:

"Distract them from gaining hold of their GOD and maintaining
that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent
innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the
husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they
can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children."

"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no
escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that
still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever
they drive." To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going
constantly in their home and see to it that every store and
restaurant in the world plays non-religious music constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with God."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers."

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

"Invade their driving moments with billboards."

"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,
sweep stakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional
offering free products, services and false hopes.."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so
their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's
important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives."

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night."

"Give them headaches too!"

"If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they
will begin to look elsewhere."

"That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them distractions to distract them from teaching their
children the real meaning of life."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."

"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."

"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's
creation.
Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts,
and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in
gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled
consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time
to seek power from GOD."

"Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing
their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work!"

"It will work!"

It was quite a plan!

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing people
everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and
there.

Having little time for their God or their families.

Having no time to tell others about the power of GOD to change
lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his
schemes???

Does "BUSY" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

Amen.

Go, seek...

The Road Not Taken

I walked, for my feet carried me through wooded paths
amidst fallen twigs and trodden, scented crushed leaves.

And the sun tried to creep through like the soothing
arms of a morning mistress when she wakes..

there was freshness in folded air as it held me
in an embrace I long to return to,

where I am going only my destination can truly tell;
blind as I am to my follies and struggles...

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Land

Michael’s wanderings led him from one odd job to another; meeting new people, gaining new experiences. Never bored yet moving within a fabric of lack: lack of money, lack of security, lack of consistency; lack of knowing. This was coupled with a lack of caring beyond his immediate needs, and a lack of worry too. Perhaps it was a lack of gain.

Michael knew well enough that his ways were out of the net of contemporary society. He wasn’t being a member of the social formation; yet he was attempting, and hoping, to be a member of humanity. Things were changing; fixtures were seemingly becoming more fluid. Fixed notions of the self and how to interact with ones environment were breaking away from their moorings and casting adrift those who held dearly to their anchoring. Too many years, and too much reliance, upon an iron anchor of belief and hope was beginning to tear at people’s civilised psyche. Michael was noticing this infraction as he moved across the landscape of a country increasingly alien and unfamiliar. And the cities were burning.

Urban sprawls had slowly been turning into hardened wombs. Just like the Auschwitz experiments of injecting concrete into the veins of victimized death-camp inmates, so too had the degradation of negativity slowly been poisoning the urban veins with concrete viruses and piss-stinking twisted love. The painful cold heat of urbanity finally drove Michael away from the cumbersome cash-in-hand dishwashing jobs into the retreat of rural grasslands. It was the air too that Michael craved for; the open air of expanse and a Nature that did not bite in judgement but welcomed as family. And finally Michael rested upon a small farm in some hills far away from his home town, and took on the hired-hand of a farm labourer.

It was hard, manual work. It rubbed against his skin as much as it rubbed coarsely against his upbringing. Both his finger skin and his conditioning began to fall away from the soft-textured patterning. Back aching and body-battered did Michael often fall into bed at night – exhausted yet satisfied. Michael began to feel himself becoming stronger little by little each day.

The farm employers treated Michael well in the circumstances. He was treated almost as family, and ate at the same table and afforded the same privileges as everyone else who worked on the farm. The sole condition was that Michael pulled his weight and did his job well. For Michael this was demanding, yet fair. And so in this challenge Michael sought a life opportunity to fulfil. It had been a circumstance placed before him, either to confront or turn away.

The strength of will inside Michael’s chest urged him on to face this step like a compassionate hunter of the self.

Although Michael felt neither like a hunter nor a warrior, he still felt as if he was engaged in a constant war. Yet it was not a destructive war, nor a fearful one. It was a constructive war of apprehension and renewal; not knowing the prey until it spoke deep inside with the hunter’s own voice. As if to cure yourself you must first kill that which is most precious to you – your very own conception of self. The belief in you: yet that belief which is not you. To dig up the implanted and sew anew.

After two years on the farm Michael felt a strengthened change had come over him. Still quiet yet not timid, just like the lay of the land.

Waking Sleep

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.

Rumi

Reclaim Me - I Walk Through

Reclaim Me... alkaline fluid in the veins of an unknown...

In the midst of some music there is a burning

that cannot be undone, or done without.

Like it or not I walk through.

Cancerous or not I walk through...

Wondrous Harp, splintered filaments,
coppered Heart burnished to Gold:

nothing is sold but the Spirit Be.

If it could be done, I would.

If it can be done, I will.

I will...

The Eternal Embrace

A human embrace - through life into death and bones...

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed two skeletons thought to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old, locked in an embrace.

The pair from the Neolithic period were discovered outside Mantua, about 40km (25 miles) south of Verona.

"It's an extraordinary case," said Ms Menotti. "There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging - and they really are hugging,"

Real hugs should not be taken lightly... we carry them with us as we move through our ages...

From Italy mystery of prehistoric hug

Judas

His parents named him Judas so that he would learn the depth of loyalty to that which one holds dear.

Judos never forgot the power of his name for he carried it about with him wherever he wandered, and treasured it as a jewel in his heart. For Judas was the name of the most loyal, of the one who would die for that most precious thing.

Yet one’s journey should not be announced or advertised like branding. The self is not to be commercialised. So he called himself Michael whilst he wandered the world.

Michael believed in doing what was right for the moment. And that in each event, encounter, a person should leave differently from how they came.

For Michael, everything that is needed exists in the present moment, and this moment is all that exists. So each moment he enjoyed in the time he was in, for that very moment may not come again. Nothing was to be ignored for fear of hesitancy within.

In life, moments seek, but do not return. Golden moments must always burn.

Michael had left home when he was sixteen, wanting to find an unknown thing from the world. He sustained himself on his own innocence, fed by faith and fearlessness. And the understanding that the worst to come could only be death. Such a small price to pay for the sense of freedom gained from Michael’s own secret pain.

A pain that told Michael, incontrovertibly and irreversibly, that he had a special one thing to do in his life. One thing to do, and no matter what else he did, whether he courted Kings or ruled corporations, if he did not do this one thing in his life he would have done nothing. Yet if he could achieve this one thing, then anything else he did would not matter, nor would it constrain him. His freedom came with the price of this one thing.

Yet how could he know what it was?

Rather than sit at home wondering, musing through moments as if they were abundant and endless, Michael opened his own front gate onto the world and stepped out from the family familiars and comfort furnishings. Like a sailor on a sinking ship, the only thing to save was himself. Similarly, the only thing to lose was himself. In-between Michael knew a balance could be found, and there was no harm in trying.

Just as the hand of winter reveals the secrets of spring, the fractals of nature conspire towards connecting all seeming coincidences. Even those things thought of as a hindrance have a purpose: shade protects from the sun; cold preserves and protects the buds; and hurt provides the pleasure of knowing joy.

It sounds so simple, so easy, so childlike. The world isn’t always so simple. The world keeps its own secrets for the seeker to discover.

Michael had secrets too; so engrained that they had become a part of his flesh. So he couldn’t give them away lest he lose a portion of his skin.

Instead Michael went looking for someone he could tell his secrets to. He knew there must be someone who can keep secrets.

When the heart longs for fresh water it will no longer dwell near the brackish water of ditches and stagnant ponds. Nor will the salt water of the sea suffice. As the swan glides effortlessly, so does the temptation drag the duckling in its wake.

KLD

Thankful

There I go again... into the whispers again,

running in the air again like a no-motion dream...

I'm here - have always been, yet slightly askew.

A stance that is not new.

Mindful, playful, longing... careful.

Thankful

The Rooster

In old China, there once was an extraordinary painter whose fame crossed all borders. Shortly before the year of the Rooster, a rich businessman thought that he would like to have in his house a picture representing a rooster, painted by this fabulous artist. So, he went to the village where the painter lived and offered him a very generous amount of money for the work. The old painter agreeded immediately, but under one condition: he had to return a year later to pick up his painting. The businessman became a little bitter. He had dreamed about having the picture as soon as possible and enjoying it during the year signed by this animal.

But, the fame of the painter was so great, that he decided to accept and returned home without comments.

The months passed slowly and the businessman waited for the longed moment to arrive and go pick up his picture. When the day finally arrived, he woke up at dawn and went immediately to the village of the painter. He knocked at the door and the artist received him. At the beginning, he didn't remember who he was.

- I come to pick up the painting of the rooster - said the businessman.
- Oh, yes, of course! - answered the old painter.

And right there, he extended a blank linen cloth on the table, and in front of the eyes of the businessman, with a fine brush he drew a rooster with a single line. It was the simple image of a rooster, and by some kind of magic, it enclosed the essence of all the roosters that exist or ever existed. The businessman remained with an open mouth, stunning about the result, but couldn't avoid to ask him:

- Master, please, answer me a single question. Your talent is unquestionable, but, was it necessary to have me waiting for a whole year?

Then the artist invited him to come to the back room, where his workshop was. And there, the anxious businessman could see, covering the walls and the floor, accumulated on the tables and in enormous stacks up to the ceiling, hundreds and hundreds of sketches, drawings and paintings of roosters, the intense work of a whole year of search.

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Shavings

A disciple asked Hilmi:

'Why are you so interested in subjects that have nothing to do with the progress of human beings?'

'When you want to know if a copper craftsman has been working hard, check if his workroom is covered with shavings'

Old with New

Valencia was a delightful city - a mix of classical heritage with future design... where the old sits harmoniously with the new.

Some pictures are now available here

In Transit

Just landed... back in the UK after 8 days of wanderings... this time in sunny climes:

through streets lined with orange trees, and the sun in glaring kindly...

Easy to be romantic in such spaces - it all depends on how you cling to them.

Even thoughts and imaginations are baggage we carry, like a mind lost in reverie at some distant image that hangs like it is stuck to your insides with glue...yes, even our private thoughts are attachments that can linger beyond their time if we allow too much of a drift into their persuasion...

As always, I enjoy my travels. It only confirms that we move through a transitory world...