Cosmic Download: Duende (Chapter Eleven)

We respond to the deep song of our soul. We transform out of the ordinal everyday human-created world into the power of the cosmos that we are. Mysterious, unknown, even and especially to ourselves. Responding as song so deep within, the groaning and moaning of creation borning, birthing, exclaiming, shouting, sighing, deepening, releasing.

Duende. Spirit moving. Spirit on the move. Calling all to life and love, to pain, to the despair of a cup too small to hold the exuberance, the passion, the joy. 

The call. The calling. The how-ling of no why-ning, no caul.

Fluid cosmic streamings of the Alone birthing the Alone. Finding voice in all capaciousness, in all willing opening, fluting with all hollow reeds.

Intense spontaneity, spontaneous intensity. Synchronous and synthronous.

Interspiraling interflow. Wailing and weeping, chanting and singing, birthing and letting go. Allowing go.

Duende. Confronting the lion in his den and devouring each other whole.

Deep laughter bubbling from the Wellspring.

Cosmic Download: Space (Chapter Ten)

We generally think of space as empty. Not so. We are the ones who make it empty and dead or lively and dynamic. The space between two strangers withdrawn into themselves, wishing they were elsewhere, is dead space, at best sluggish and murky. When one notices the unobserving other, a dynamic unidirectional river flows through space. The other feels it, notices. The river becomes an interflow, then an ocean. The space between the two persons enlivens. No longer is there a between. Now it is an among.

Friendship and love are qualities of space. So is enmity. We affect the quality of space around us through emotional discharge. We create a certain atmosphere. This can be and usually is quite subtle. The red space of anger and the black space of despair are extremes. 

Many of us have a public face for public space. We don this face like a mask as we move into the world. The mask is one we have carefully cultivated. We have a different mask for different groups. 

We carefully orchestrate our facial muscles to (temporarily) fool ourselves and trick the other into our sociodrama. We do this without thought. The space around us and between us and others is no longer lively, creative, freeflowing and dynamic. It is a stage, a theater. We dominate the space and turn it into our own production. We entrance the other with our glamor. The space has become a spider’s trap for pouncing.

Not me, you say. But any time that we look at another with desire and intent, not necessarily amorous, we transform the space between us. Space is qualitative. Babies sense it. Dogs respond to it. Cats see it. We all feel the quality of space, the atmosphere of a room, the transformation of room atmosphere when certain folk enter or leave. 

We have a default space quality, a surrounding energy field that we create, fall into and wear through the day, transforming space as we go. The default mode we continue to choose affects our physiology, our breathing, our soul. Your default mode is YOU. Default modes of space transformation range from a self-created monster inflicting terror, pain, and suffering within self and others to an angel of delight and joy. Many seem to occupy a middle ground of bland indifference.

The spatial quality of ourselves and others determines our movement mode. We move toward and look to move into radiant space. We move away from and move against alarming space. We move with identical space, the spaces most like our own. 

We are space beings who think ourselves solid. Space calls us into being. Space is our home.

Cosmic Download: No Thing (Chapter Nine)

No Thing

Cosmic Download: The Circulatory System of the Gods (Chapter Eight)

A coming to awareness of the circulation system of diaphaneity, of transparency, in which we are all engaged, not just with humans but with the Entirety, was exampled in Chapter Seven: Circulation. Let us now open to the realm of the Imaginal, which is more “real” than many would imagine. 

We each have our gods. For some, the god is God: the One both producing and behind the Seens, the Scenes. For others of a less monotheistic nature, a god is an energy packet with perhaps and probably a human face: the face of one who walked the earth before or exists in the translucent reality of myth, of story. For those of a more prosaic nature, a god is that clung to in times of desperation. A god gives us energy, solace, and understanding.

The circulatory system produced when we invoke our god, when we open to personal relationship with the spiritual energy packet to which we have grown accustomed, involves not just the heart but one’s whole being. The heart is only part of the circulatory system, vital to be sure, yet of what use if it pumped energy into nothingness? 

The eyes of my god look deeply into mine and in doing so sends energy much as energy was sent from tree to us and us to tree as described in Chapter Seven. That energy moves down and through my energetic or spiritual body along definite circulatory pathways, down into the ground of my being which is also the ground of my god’s being and up through my god and back around to me so that one vibrant system comes into play, is established. 

But wait. We are not done. Now we reverse the flow. We send energy to our god. We are not followers and takers only but co-partners. We give. We look deeply into the eyes of our god with love and joy. We send energies of lovingkindness down into the crown of our god, through the body, and into the ground of being. It returns and moves up through me and is sent out again.

Both circuits, the giving and receiving, merge as one. Now energy is a freeflowing dynamic sphere. We are vibrant with life. We affect all that is. As Arthur Eddington once remarked: "When the electron vibrates, the universe shakes."

We are twins. My god and I are twins with one heart, one mind, one circulation system.

I can be religious with this, enclosing it within one system that has its doctrine and bounds or I can live life freestyle with the boundless openness of continuous transformation. My god(s) and I choose the latter.

Cosmic Download: Circulation (Chapter Seven)

A tree is faced, not just any tree, but a tree that calls, that stands out from all other trees. This mutual calling, or intercalling, is also an answering, a calling and an answering. You are called out of your trance state. You are called into relationship. You are called into the circulatory system of the cosmos. You answer. A tree will do to start.

Purposeful interplay in and as this energetic circulatory system jumpstarts you out of the human societal cha-cha into the smooth, rhythmic, and highly energetic cosmos tango.

You face the tree. The tree faces you. Interface. Your hands move with the directional flow of already existing energy, up the trunk of the tree, out through its crown, into the air above and down into your crown, through your trunk, your roots, into and through the earth, into tree roots, up the trunk and around again. And again. A circulatory system is acknowledged, made more clear. Both tree and human are transformed, transforming.

The circle of energy is now reversed. The tree has been giving its heart, its energy to you. You have been receiving this energetic transfusion and acknowledging it with the connection of your roots to tree roots. Now you give. You give of your heartful energy to the tree. Not to worry. Your heart is always full.

Your hands move up your trunk, out through your crown, across and into the crown of the tree, down its bodily trunk, into its roots below, through the earth, into your roots and up your trunk. You give energy to the tree. The tree receives.

These two circulatory systems, giving and receiving, exist simultaneously and continuously with all life, from the subatomic to the metagalactic, a large conversational interflow in which one is rejuvenated and rejuvenates.

To fully participate, you come out of your identificatory trance that you have developed since birth as a shell of security, defiance, and protection. You stand, walk, move, breathe as an energetic interflow of the cosmos. You are diaphanous, transparent, fully disclosing. Your blood, the cosmos blood, same blood.

You move through the day. This day.

Cosmic Download Chapter Six: The Constellation of the Soul

I dreamed last night of seven glowing circles. I awoke with the vision still glowing before my eyes. I sat quietly and listened for understanding.

The two above were close to each other but not touching. 

O O 

Commentary: Biune twins, the heaven angel and the earth angel, the right and left brain, the interbreathing of God and Man, of man and god that Peter Sloterdijk describes so beautifully in his “Bubbles: Spheres I.” The interbreathing of O and O creates an infinity sign.

The two glowing circles in the middle of the constellation, below The Interbreathing Twins, were further apart as if they were the “sides” of the soul.

O        O 

Commentary: These glowing sides present consideration, the seeing of all sides, and by this seeing the bringing together of the infinities of division while allowing all separation to continue. As The Ribs they are breathed into, allowing and producing deflation and expansion.

The three “stars” at the base of the constellation present The Foundation.

O        O        O 

Commentary: The eternal uniting, unifying. Trinity uniting all dual. Each of the three is a separate blaze of energy while moving and residing as one. I am reminded also of the Crescent Moon and Child supporting Our Lady of Guadalupe and the rocker arm assembly in automotive language where radial movement is converted into linear.

The vision is a mapping of The Constellation of Our Soul.

Cosmic Download: Gun Barrels, Targets, Boats, and Photos (Chapter Five)

Any consensus of opinion is an aligning of individual points of view into a singular focus then sighting down that gun barrel to a target created by the gun barrel itself. The individual opinions call the target into existence and their consensus makes the target more real, more clearly defined. The clearer the target, the greater the attachment to the target -- one feels as if one is getting somewhere.

A target school is formed with educational material, teachers, and orthodox target journals. The target school and thus the target becomes a target itself through the dissension of the unorthodox, the unwashed, the heretic.

This continuous formation of targets through opinion consensus appears to be a favorite entertainment system of humans. One builds a boat and then gets in it. From a larger point of view, it is the Cosmos, forever restless, solidifying and dissolving, perhaps in order to take a look at Itself; the boundless coming into bounds for a quick peek, a photo, putting that into the album and moving on.

The Cosmos moves on while humans still stand gazing at the photo.

Cosmic Download: Curious (Chapter Four)

One is either curious about our origin and the journey we are on or not. Some seem to have no curiosity in this realm at all. Amongst those who are curious, a subset seems to settle into an explanation (religion or science, metaphysics or materialism) and become uncurious except within the bounds of the accepted explanatory system. A few keep an open curiosity yet give the matter little further thought unless prompted by a conversation or reading. Fewer still stay openly and assertively curious, refusing to create or follow a designated system of conceptual explanation, including the two current horses in this explanatory race: theism and science.

 Who are we? Where do we come from and where are we going? The easy answer is an Imitation Zen one (for which I have no patience) uttered with vacuous sincerity: “We are no one going no where which is now here.” Bam! Slap you silly! One has given up one’s curiosity for a false nirvana.

My wide ranging deep thinking friend, Brad Olson, and I were puzzling over these questions of origin and journey this very morning at breakfast. Well, not so much with the questions but with the value of wrestling with them. (In previous conversations, we called it wrestling with the Angel, making reference to the story in Genesis of Jacob wrestling with the angel all night, refusing to let go until a blessing was received, even though he suffered a wounding (hip put out of joint) in doing so. (Perhaps this is why many folk don’t want to wrestle with these questions and settle into a schema: a less pain free life is sought, an explanatory blanket one can snuggle into.)

One is always wounded when struggling with these questions yet one always receives a blessing: a transformation of consciousness, increased awareness. One does not stop there. One explores the new territory with both intuition and logic. The new territory is only a temporary base of operation. At some point, one will be called to go out again, beyond all bounds and see. Future, past, and now collapse into one, one so vast and deep it will never be understood yet will always be understanding.

One remains curiously open to Cosmic Download.

Cosmic Download: Story (Chapter Three)

For the clarity of my own thinking, I am now substituting STORY for RELIGION, for SCIENCE, and for all other positional assumptions about the origin and process of life. STORY is neither true nor false; that dichotomy does not hold here. STORY is simply STORY.  Each STORY can be entered (and left) as with any other physical or social domain.

STORY is an imaginal realm and imaginal is real. Imagine a snake and you will have a visceral reaction. The body understands deeply the reality of the IMAGINAL.

STORY is like a virtual reality helmet. One can put a STORY on and take it off. Scorners and scoffers of STORY other than their own (whether RELIGION, SCIENCE, or MYTH) appear to have their helmet firmly welded to their head.

Is it possible to go outside all STORY? My affirmative answer is based upon experience which when described becomes another STORY. A subset of Zen practitioners, contemplators, and mindful folk will understand this. For those who do not wish to admit such a possibility, that a STORYless space exists, you can perhaps consider that your mind, your awareness can move from one STORY to another, can adopt at least temporarily a STORY other than you  DEFAULT STORY. (Ewert Cousins has called this STORY adoption ability "shamanistic epistemology.")

I find adopting the view that all views are STORY, as is this view itself, rids you of scorn, scoff, prejudice, hierarchical rankings and general negativity when regarding anyone's STORY. You are pleased to be converted to that STORY for a moment or many moments, delight in its nuance and its adventuresomeness and move on, always able to come back for another and no doubt deeper telling.

Cosmic Download: Urge (Chapter Two)

From whence and where do urges come? How is it that we have the urge to do something? What is an urge? What is the urgency of understanding our urges? Are there levels of urges? Are some urges more urgent than others? Is there a difference in the urge to scratch a physical itch and the urge to scratch a spiritual itch?

An urge is a compelling need for action. Some urges appear to be more compelling than others. Urges exist in differing realms: physical urges, emotional urges, cognitive urges (the desire to luxuriate or obsess in certain thought domains), social urges, spiritual urges (the desire for deep knowing and moving in accord).

Some say that all urges arise from the meat we are, from our physiology. Others say that urges are a characteristic of our consciousness state or of our soul. Others ask who it is doing this saying.

If we perceive that we are in a hierarchy, we follow a chain of command. It becomes urgent that we follow the orders from “above” and that those “below” us follow our orders. Our urges are constrained within a militaristic code of conduct. All is in order and we know our place in the universe. We are a thing among things. Somewhere above us is the Great Thing which knows all things.

If we perceive that we are in a holoarchy, a concentric universe in which spheres of awareness are nested within spheres ad infinitum, we live in an instructional interflow. We realize that we are not our body, not our emotions, not our mind. As Roberto Assagioli used to say: “I have a body but I am not my body. I have emotions but I am not my emotions. I have a mind but I am not my mind.” I would add to this: I have urges but I am not my urges.

All becomes less urgent and transforms into emergent. I follow what is unfolding in this moment now. Here is no next moment. Here is only momentum.

Cosmic Download: Opening To The Vertical (Chapter One)

Some years ago, as a Marine on Okinawa, I began learning the moves and principles of hand to hand combat under the tutelage of Tatsuo Shimabuku Sensei, founder of Isshinryu Karate. I followed and taught those practices over the years and added Jujutsu, Tai Chi, Chi Gung, and the Ki principles of Aikido to my repertoire.

Along the way, I saw that most people would not practice the martial arts so I began focusing on understanding and teaching the application of martial art principles to daily life. (All martial arts are relationship arts, defining the encounter between and among people. Thus the martial teachings are directly applicable to interpersonal communication.)

I developed a simple structure that seemed to me to encompass all martial art principles, hence all relationship art principles. I called it The Wheel Of Keen Weapons. Each "weapon" is a necessary tool for engaging in effective relations with oneself, with others, and with the world at large.

I am not so interested, for purposes of this writing, in the weapons depicted in the diagram, though they are useful in living one's daily life, as I am in the empty space at the core of the diagram. This empty space is at the core of our being if we but allow it, get out of our way and ways, stop standing in our own light. This empty space is the conduit through which the informational energies of love and wisdom flow.

Eventually I began to call the diagram "The Wheel of Radiance." You are this wheel. Imagine that you are standing with legs apart and with arms extended into the heavens. Your legs and arms form an X. Your right leg represents the practice of Relentless Intent, your left leg Mindful Presence. Your seat or lower body between the two legs represents Grounding & Deepening.

Your right arm extending into the heavens at about a 45 degree angle represents Compassion, your left arm Surrendering Attachments. Your head and crown represent Opening, opening to the infinity of the heavens.

Two horizontal lines are at your waist level. The horizontal is the plane of action in this world. The horizontal line extending to your left represents the practice of Calmness, to your right Firm Action.

The warrior of spirit (life force) embodies all of these at once, though each may be practiced separately: Grounding and Opening, Relentless while Surrendering, Mindfully Present Compassion, and Calm Action.

At your core where these eight lines potentially intersect is Vast Openness of your heart. This open space is the conduit for the inflow and outflow of the Life Force that forms us, that calls us into being. Here is great wisdom, true power and strength. This is the realm of Emptiness, empty of our little fearful selves that clutch and cling, empty of our man-you-factured identity. We must be empty to be filled. The conduit must be open, unclogged. This is spirit-ual practice.

We are born of the cosmos. We are the cosmos embodying. When we realize (real eyes) that, we open to our true being. When we are at home in the cosmos, we relax and begin to learn from our Source.

[Note: A more complete description of these eight principles and accompanying practices can be found in my book "Embodying Spirit: The Inner Work of the Warrior" online for free.]

yes

Centering and Opening! All else is of entertainment value.

cleaning my room

An old note I found this morn while cleaning my room:

When any of us says something is true, we are saying we believe it. "It is part of my belief system, therefore true."

Some parts of one's belief system are held as true by most, hence a popular delusion that works for the moment and only works within a certain context, i.e., the current worldview or generic thought domain.

The next realm's thought domain, as evidenced by the Copernican, Newtonian, Einsteinian, and Quarkian progression, might and probably will reveal our current metaview as old-fashioned, ignore-ant, even prmitive.

I don't know that there is anything to be done about this, except to acknowledge it, and to step outside our belief system, our thought domain. Of course, for many this is unthinkable and will not be thought (or unthought). For others it is understood but seen as too much trouble; attention is best directed elsewhere. For some, however, the possibility / probability of existing outside thought, without reflection, is attractive and seen as a worthy endeavor.