Contact Connection Conviction

Today IS a good day!

The future unknown

Lest we forget to celebrate

Walking in a dead man's shoes

I had a dream about an old man I somehow knew. I didn’t know him well but had some assumptions about him. He seemed to have had a full life. I was going to help him become more active, do some walking, the next day. The next day though he quietly died. I went to his house, where he lived alone. All I could hear was a whispering sadness. I found his walking shoes next to his bed. They were old, but never worn. I instinctively put them on. They fit perfectly.

Unlived lives, unanswered calls, unrequited love, unwritten songs, unopened letters, undiscovered selves, unfinished stories, unspoken words, unembraced mornings, untaken risks, unawakened belief, undoing what has to be undone.

The riposte: saying yes to the now, being consciously present, living the questions.

Neigh-incarnation

"You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking." - Malachi 4:3

"All of the truly important battles are waged within the self. It is as if we are all tempted to view ourselves as men on horseback. the horse represents a lusty animal-way of living, untrammeled by reason, unguided by purpose. The rider represents independent, impartial thought, a sort of pure cold intelligence. Too often the pilgrim lives as though his goal is to become the horseman who would break the horse's spirit so that he can control him, so that he may ride safely and comfortably wherever he wishes to go. If he does not wish to struggle for discipline, it is because he believes that his only options will be either to live the lusty, undirected life of the riderless horse, or to tread the detached, unadventuresome way of the horseless rider. If neither of these, then he must be the rider struggling to gain control of his rebellious mount. He does not see that there will be no struggle, once he recognises himself as a centaur."
- Sheldon Kopp in If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!

Storyteller and poet Rives in the free-spirited rhyming verse of a fantastical mockingbird lullaby

I live my life

I live my life in growing orbits,
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

RAINER MARIA RILKE
Translated by Robert Bly

I am not I

I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.

JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ
Translated by Robert Bly

Modern religion as the counter balance to mass-mindedness

Christianity has a paradox (probably only one of many): the individual trying, also being assured that it is safe, to pursue individuation in faith because of the personal and intimate relationship with a Saviour versus the collective prescriptions of keeping the faith as it is currently understood. Jung stated that, “Resistance to the organised mass can only be effected by the man who is as well organised in his individuality as the mass itself” and organising oneself through individuality is not always blessed by the religious institution who needs compliance for its own sake. When individuality is governed by a set of rules applicable to the homogenous mass the individuality could at best be a murky reflection of the mass-ideal. I further agree with Jung that it is not Christianity that is finished, but rather our conception and interpretation of it, which has become antiquated in the face of the present world situation. “The Christian symbol is a living thing that carries in itself the seeds of further development. It can go on developing; it depends only on us, whether we can make up our minds to meditate again, and more thoroughly, on the Christian premises. This requires a very different attitude towards the individual, towards the microcosm of the self, from the one we have had hitherto” - CG Jung. Is it then not appropriate, as Rob Bell has done in part, in “Velvet Elvis,” to redefine our relations, to pursue new definitions, to state new intentions, to ask new questions, which invariably will not be bigger that a big God?

We would rather be ruined than changed
we would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the present
And let our illusions die
- W. H. Auden

Lessons from Albion

I really enjoyed playing Fable II, heightened by the fact that I felt compelled by an inner urging to explore the unfolding plot. These are some of my takeaway-thoughts:

• When faced with the question "Who will you become?" it is best to live the question
• Everyone has a shadow whether or not you deny it, rebuke it, or honour it
• The end is inevitable and known, but the journey or path is not predetermined
• Sometimes you have to look twice at the same spot to find your treasure. The first time your eyes adjust, the second time the mind sees
• Veering off the visible path often leads to pleasant surprises
• Risk taking has its rewards, not taking risks has a price
• Buy early, invest cleverly and the money will flow: the miracle of compound interest
• Being a hero can be a real pain
• Moral choices always have two equal sides
• You cannot please everyone; trying to do so might cost you the quest
• Be who you want to be, stay true to yourself
• Finding time to rest, eating healthy food, drinking water, and sleeping in your own house makes you more attractive
• Not all quests are worth pursuing, some are distractions, some are worthless - which sometimes make them worthwhile. Some roads are dead ends. Some dead ends have penetrable barriers that lead to new discoveries
  
• Strength, Skill and Will can be absorbed after every battle or challenge. Breathe it in.
  

Wounding and scars

Robert Bly in Iron John recounts that some old traditions say that no man is adult until he has become opened to the soul and spirit world, and they say that such an opening is done by a wound in the right place, at the right time, in the right company. A wound allows the spirit or soul to enter. I recall the wound to Jesus' side, the all to familiar wounds parents give, maybe even the wound of abondonment God gave his only son by turning his face. Is it therefore too much to think that the wound is divine? Again Bly says: "People too healthy, too determined to jog, too muscular, may use their health to prevent the soul from entering. They leave no door. Through the perfection of victory they achieve health, but the soul enters through the hole of defeat." A new perspective on my own numerous defeats fills me with gratitude and well-placed appreciation for the scars.

American Indians see the value in scars: "When you die, you meet the Old Hag, and she eats your scars. If you have no scars, she will eat your eyeballs, and you will be blind in the next world."

May we see with new eyes!

Musings about godliness

There seems to be existential godliness in relationships. Relationship to self, to others, and to nature. Although the relationship to nature is an awe inspiring, humbling and all engaging affair, there is little power in the single human to alter his position in relation to it. You cannot make a mountain, you cannot stop a raging river, you cannot move the stars (yet). But it is in the relationship towards another human being where the magic happens. When you are present and connected creative energy flows. New attitudes are born, potential is revealed, limits are shifted. God is present. And this presence and connection is born out of a relationship with self. When choice in relation to the Wholly Other finds its meaning and place you know God is near. From this vantage point dependence seems godly and self-assuredness seems vain.

The bluntness of reality

"Facing the bluntness of reality is the highest form of sanity and enlightened vision....Devotion proceeds through various stages of unmasking until we reach the point of seeing the world directly and simply without imposing our fabrications....There may be a sense of being lost or exposed, a sense of vulnerability. That is simply a sign that ego is losing its grip on its territory; it is not a threat."
- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

All things known

Maybe there is more to the senses, more than the observable. Maybe there is life between the spaces. Maybe it is there that God lives. Maybe we are closer than we think - to each other, to ultimate knowing. I don't know how but I know I'm here and I might have been here before. I wish to explore the limits, find resonating truth...maybe you wish to join me.