Teaching "Peace of Mind Healing" in Cork college of Commerce and maybe Colaiste Stiofan Naomha next week. First class is introductions and explanation about becoming present. I get people to look at a view, any view and tell me what they see. And then we'll do the scan our bodies. The main idea is to get people to accept that there are no right answers because we live in a subjective universe.
I get people to make observations. I emphasise that all observations are subjective. What I see and what you see may not be the same even though we use the same words to describe it. And even the words we use are subject to our own interpretation of them. The "Word" or "Logos" was always one that fascinated me.
Recently I came across an explanation that the original Greek word 'logos' meant ratio or proportion. The idea that the Greek philosophers were trying to get across was that there is a common ratio inherent in everything. They referred to this ratio as the Golden Mean, but now it is more commonly referred to as the Phi Ratio. The number is 1.618033988...
Gregg Braden in Fractal Time advanced the idea that time also behaves according to this ratio. It gives a good explanation of why time seems to be speeding up. In the first cycle, 100 years felt like a 100 years, in the second cycle it feels like 61.8 years, in the third cycle it feels like 38.2 and in the fourth cycle it feels like 23.6 and so on (Keep dividing by 1.618033988).
The other idea that Gregg postulates is that the universe is participatory. While we can make observations, we can not make objective observations. We are taking part in, and changing, the universe by observing it. Wow! "What we see is what we get" is true.
So, ask yourself what you really want from the universe. Having tried many ways, diets, exercises, and life-style changes the conclusion I've come to is that the only way to be happy is to be happy; the only way to be in peace is to be peaceful.
08 July 2012
Compartment Dreams 20 September 2010 exLJ
Recently, I've been having strange dreams. It's not the first time in my life that I've had this type of dream. They are not nightmares because nightmares are defined as "a dream arousing feelings of intense inescapable anguish, fear, horror and distress".
I've decided to call them compartment dreams after the psychiatric concept of 'compartmentalisation'. This is a very big word that describes what we do with experiences in our lives that we can't handle when they are happening. We lock them up in a part of our mind that we can't normally access.
Anyway, these dreams have nothing to do with my life, that I'm aware of. In them I'm doing totally out-of-character things. When I wake up from them I'm still totally immersed in them, and it takes me a long time to realise that it's just a dream. When I wake up the following morning, I remember that I had one, but have absolutely no recollection of the content.
The good news is that their intensity seems to be waning.
I've decided to call them compartment dreams after the psychiatric concept of 'compartmentalisation'. This is a very big word that describes what we do with experiences in our lives that we can't handle when they are happening. We lock them up in a part of our mind that we can't normally access.
Anyway, these dreams have nothing to do with my life, that I'm aware of. In them I'm doing totally out-of-character things. When I wake up from them I'm still totally immersed in them, and it takes me a long time to realise that it's just a dream. When I wake up the following morning, I remember that I had one, but have absolutely no recollection of the content.
The good news is that their intensity seems to be waning.
No Such Thing as Random 27 July 2010 exLJ
You might be wondering if I am ever going to update my blog. I am, but I just have to get through Ruishk and David's 'crisis' with the Church. Anyway, I sometimes wonder if the direction of my blog is the right one. Then, along comes confirmation. I was writing about Carrick on Shannon and I was in one of the Charity Shops in town. A woman was asking for directions to Carrick on Shannon. This is the first time ever that I heard anyone in Cork talk about Carrick on Shannon, never mind looking for directions to it.
I was trying to come up with a sentence that showed the different uses of words. I chose 'will' and wrote the following. "Hello, my name is Will. It is my will that you will do what it says in my will." That afternoon in GF, I treated a young American who's name was Will. As the title says - there is no such thing as random. We are always in the right place at the right time.
I was trying to come up with a sentence that showed the different uses of words. I chose 'will' and wrote the following. "Hello, my name is Will. It is my will that you will do what it says in my will." That afternoon in GF, I treated a young American who's name was Will. As the title says - there is no such thing as random. We are always in the right place at the right time.
Blessing 26 September 2010 ex?Peace!
Everything depends on what we look for. All words and images are of the 'ego'. (Ego is that part of mind that believes that it is separate from mind). Every idea has a range of interpretation. How we interpret an idea depends on the thought system that we have learned. The following words are my mantra or my prayer - Love, Light, Life, Peace, Joy, Truth, Power, Strength, Free, Safe, Open, Holy.I offer them to you and to everybody, many times each day.
Choice 13 January 2010 ex?Peace!
The emphasis is on choice. We always have the ability to choose how we look at what is going on. Even though I do not always achieve it, my goal is always peace. When I find that I am not in peace, I just watch the screen or scan through my body. I usually find that I recover my peace within a few moments.
Round and Round - 9 January 2010 exLJ
From one plane to another - thoughts going round and round. The part of us that can't see what is really going on finds it difficult or nearly impossible to trust the part that does. And, thus, has a real problem with letting it take control.
How do we undo decisions that we had no part in making. For that matter, how do we undo decisions that we feel completely responsible for. Our parents had sex and we were conceived and later we were born. The society, the religion, the social class, the bodies we were born into, we had nothing to do with. A few questions arise
"I" is a declaration of separation. We believe that we are each separate and that we are separate in our own bodies. And from this belief springs nearly all the concepts that we use.
There is only mind, always and everywhere present. To mind, the whole universe, past, present and to come is freely available. So to go back or to go forward, to go here or to go there is simply a matter of tuning into the state we want!
Always!
How do we undo decisions that we had no part in making. For that matter, how do we undo decisions that we feel completely responsible for. Our parents had sex and we were conceived and later we were born. The society, the religion, the social class, the bodies we were born into, we had nothing to do with. A few questions arise
- who or what is this "I" of which we speak?
- how do we know that we have no part in our non-decisions?
- how do we know we were completely responsible for those decisions we think we made?
- can we go back? Can we really go back?
"I" is a declaration of separation. We believe that we are each separate and that we are separate in our own bodies. And from this belief springs nearly all the concepts that we use.
There is only mind, always and everywhere present. To mind, the whole universe, past, present and to come is freely available. So to go back or to go forward, to go here or to go there is simply a matter of tuning into the state we want!
Always!
07 July 2012
Constantly, Constantly, Constnatly 7 January 2010 exLJ
I was tempted to make the third Constantly "Constantinople" but that would have been misleading as this post has as little to do with Constantinople as it has to do with New York, New Delhi, Beijing or Cork.
We are constantly changing - round and round. Constantly framing impressions. Our view frame is surrounded by a frame of reference that is made up of stored images. Surrounded implies a 2-D matrix, but it may be just a continuum like a circle. A first impression is never a first because it is always compared with some previously stored image.
Constantly watching people's behaviour. Constantly judging their behaviour against some socio-moralistic code. This code was learned during our formative years and persists through most of our lives. The judgement is made instantly and then the tolerance factor comes into play. Tolerance is based on the idea that we are all learning. But it always comes after the judgement. So! How can we drop the judgement? Or maybe the question should be - How can we drop the ego?
When we just look at a blank scene there is no judgement triggered. We are just looking. When we look at a scene with a pattern, our pattern recognition triggers an association with a previously learned pattern. This is the same with behaviour patterns. In both cases we maybe looking for what's wrong, what's out of place. The problem arises more so with behaviour patterns because we wind up judging the person exhibiting the behaviour pattern, rather that trying to understand the pattern and not reacting to it.
Our behaviour pattern recognition system develops by watching and imitating the behaviour pattern of our parents, other adults and older children around us. So we develop a core pattern that we regard as the right one because it is based on all we know and is based primarily on mother's pattern. If not mother, it is based on the primary care giver's pattern. The pattern is associated with the images we have stored. Our first impressions of other people are based on a comparison with our primary image and our core behaviour pattern.
The stored images we have little control over because we had no ability to decide if we wanted to store them in the first place. In infancy we are busy gobbling up the images and impressions of our childhood environment. We have no discernment, no capacity for sorting, we're just soaking them up or absorbing them.
Much later we try to look at things, scenes or images without pattern recognition and that it is very difficult or almost impossible. The pattern recognition system has become dominant. However, closing our eyes and watching the screen has become one of my key ways for overcoming the ego. It does not have the movement problem associated with watching scenery or people-watching. Open-eyed stillness is difficult because something moves and our eyes and our attention becomes focussed on the movement. We start trying to figure out what's going on and sooner rather than later we're back in pattern recognition mode and it's inherent judgemental risks.
Constantly going round and round. All time and space is based on movement. No movement, no time, no space. In the Flower of Life scheme of things it is the projection of mind outside itself and it's subsequent movement which leads to all creation. It's all based on movement in egoland. The earth rotates and dances round and round with the moon. And in turn goes around the sun, which travels around the galaxy with the solar system in tow. On the surface of the earth all is movement. And within everything there is always movement.
But to our ego-centred view it appears mostly still. Even though we have rediscovered that earth/moon go around the sun, that the solar system goes around the galactic core, all of our thought systems are centric. There is a theory that the universe is omni-centric, that every point in it is at the centre of things. Maybe our egos aren't such ejiits after all.
In ego-centric terms each of us is at the centre of the universe, even if we regard this personal universe as a very small part of a much larger whole. Within our own sphere of influence we play a major part, even though we know that in the grand scheme of things our part is rather insignificant. When we look at the big picture we are inconsequential.
But there is no big picture, no ego based view that can see it all. To get to see it all we have to move outside ego and return to mind. And when we return to mind we cannot take any of the ego based stuff with us. So now we have a real problem for ego. Everything that we use, to think, to see, to hear, to speak, to do is all based on an ego system of symbols, words, language, images and sensations which are only representations and are not real.
We are constantly changing - round and round. Constantly framing impressions. Our view frame is surrounded by a frame of reference that is made up of stored images. Surrounded implies a 2-D matrix, but it may be just a continuum like a circle. A first impression is never a first because it is always compared with some previously stored image.
Constantly watching people's behaviour. Constantly judging their behaviour against some socio-moralistic code. This code was learned during our formative years and persists through most of our lives. The judgement is made instantly and then the tolerance factor comes into play. Tolerance is based on the idea that we are all learning. But it always comes after the judgement. So! How can we drop the judgement? Or maybe the question should be - How can we drop the ego?
When we just look at a blank scene there is no judgement triggered. We are just looking. When we look at a scene with a pattern, our pattern recognition triggers an association with a previously learned pattern. This is the same with behaviour patterns. In both cases we maybe looking for what's wrong, what's out of place. The problem arises more so with behaviour patterns because we wind up judging the person exhibiting the behaviour pattern, rather that trying to understand the pattern and not reacting to it.
Our behaviour pattern recognition system develops by watching and imitating the behaviour pattern of our parents, other adults and older children around us. So we develop a core pattern that we regard as the right one because it is based on all we know and is based primarily on mother's pattern. If not mother, it is based on the primary care giver's pattern. The pattern is associated with the images we have stored. Our first impressions of other people are based on a comparison with our primary image and our core behaviour pattern.
The stored images we have little control over because we had no ability to decide if we wanted to store them in the first place. In infancy we are busy gobbling up the images and impressions of our childhood environment. We have no discernment, no capacity for sorting, we're just soaking them up or absorbing them.
Much later we try to look at things, scenes or images without pattern recognition and that it is very difficult or almost impossible. The pattern recognition system has become dominant. However, closing our eyes and watching the screen has become one of my key ways for overcoming the ego. It does not have the movement problem associated with watching scenery or people-watching. Open-eyed stillness is difficult because something moves and our eyes and our attention becomes focussed on the movement. We start trying to figure out what's going on and sooner rather than later we're back in pattern recognition mode and it's inherent judgemental risks.
Constantly going round and round. All time and space is based on movement. No movement, no time, no space. In the Flower of Life scheme of things it is the projection of mind outside itself and it's subsequent movement which leads to all creation. It's all based on movement in egoland. The earth rotates and dances round and round with the moon. And in turn goes around the sun, which travels around the galaxy with the solar system in tow. On the surface of the earth all is movement. And within everything there is always movement.
But to our ego-centred view it appears mostly still. Even though we have rediscovered that earth/moon go around the sun, that the solar system goes around the galactic core, all of our thought systems are centric. There is a theory that the universe is omni-centric, that every point in it is at the centre of things. Maybe our egos aren't such ejiits after all.
In ego-centric terms each of us is at the centre of the universe, even if we regard this personal universe as a very small part of a much larger whole. Within our own sphere of influence we play a major part, even though we know that in the grand scheme of things our part is rather insignificant. When we look at the big picture we are inconsequential.
But there is no big picture, no ego based view that can see it all. To get to see it all we have to move outside ego and return to mind. And when we return to mind we cannot take any of the ego based stuff with us. So now we have a real problem for ego. Everything that we use, to think, to see, to hear, to speak, to do is all based on an ego system of symbols, words, language, images and sensations which are only representations and are not real.
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