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!
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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'
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
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...?
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...?
Sunday, September 10, 2006
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
Thursday, August 31, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
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.'
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.'
Thursday, August 17, 2006
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.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
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
Thursday, August 03, 2006
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
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
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
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.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
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...
Monday, July 03, 2006
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
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
Thursday, June 22, 2006
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...?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
