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.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

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...

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!