~~~~~~Impermanence~~~~~~

Everything is impermanent, except the love of God.

~ Neem Karoli Baba

~~~Mystery Religion and Personal Religion~~~

   There isn't any adam and eve ashamed of their nakedness within the mystical feminine, these ladies, pictured above. It's a celebration of all of nature, this life, and there seems to be no personal religion and it's judgements clouding their consciousness, at all. It's like The Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas, Nevada in the late single digit years of the beginning of  the 2000s, except the equation for bodily pleasure doesn't involve any Ben Franklins, a world we have created here in The Great American Spiritual Desert. In Las Vegas 'the savage heart of the american dream' it's most always an orgy 'controlled by money'. The painting above is a celebration of youth. Either way, it's this kind of personal freedom that personal religions have no desire to allow, as their Gods always seem to be dressed up in holy robes, or a business suit.

   Empires and religions walk hand in hand down the corridors of time as The King or The Caesar have a special audience, the preemminent relationship, with their God, or gods. Heirarchial control rests at the top of every totalitarian pyramid of power, be it held by a king, emperor, priest, or shepherd. Speaking for God and telling everyone what God wants them to do is every psychopaths wet dream. When religion gets personal, personal freedom vanishes. Brave New World. 1984. The former ecumenical christian community, Lamb of God, Incorporated. When you have that kind of power it's like an addictive drug, something you have to use, for when you really get down to it all of any society's behaviors can be controlled.

   Constantine and the cannonization of The Bible. Justinian I and the doctrinational elimination of reincarnation. Christianity lifted from obscurity by a dying Roman Empire and shaped in content by two Roman Caesars. Christianity is an extremely personal religion for it guarantees the salvation of your soul, he self, the little you. No longer do you have to fear death for your consciousness will be delivered into eternity by your own personal savior, Jesus, and through what he did you will be able to live forever, in Heaven, with God, and the other people he saved. That power a personal religion gives to the organization that represents God in this world is the deepest penetration and most controlling hook one person can have over another. Knowing God's Will for you creates two classes of people: those who know, and those who are told. An elite class, the master race spiritually speaking, and the common man who needs their help. Personal religions get really personal in their control of all that is personal, and that's why they're the best political religions ever invented. The Roman Empire and The United States of America, so what's the difference between these two? One sold religion 'over the counter', one 'under the counter' due to 'prohibition', but either way their personal religion was sold, it was toxic. The implosion of  Lamb of God personally illustrates just how personally violent personal leaders of personal religions can get, for it's just what happens when you try to establish, and manipulate, that which is sacred. The genocide of the Native American Peoples and the theft of their continent, the religious crusades and all their veiled conquests, The Final Solution of The 3rd Reich and mass extermination, the psychic slaughtering of all the sheep in Lamb of God, all of these holocausts, are examples of how personal religions go toxic. Doctrines that divide the whole, festering the belief that they are the best, that god is on their side, and they the chosen ones, and that all other non believers have no value whatsoever, such are the toxic mutations personal religion manifests, in mankind's consciousness.

   What in time is released into the timeless? What besides That Which Is can reside in both places? Is time just an illusion? What survives death? Mystery religion say that All Is One and the creator of all, That Which Is, is all around us and dancing within this temporary maya, this violent world, our earth, and all of it's seeming seperateness. Mystery religions tear at the veils of the illusions of thought, beg us leave the confines of Plato's Cave, awake from the dream, open our eyes, and see things as they actually are, timeless. The Life is within all of us, no one besides ourselves holds the key of our being alive, to all,  and to everything. Through the valley of the shadow of death, all this seemingly violent impermanence, space time, where everything comes and goes, is born and dies, has it's beginning, and then? The End. Mystery religion embraces the everchanging dance of maya, trusting the life, it is elways dying, always being reborn anew, in the moment; while personal religion, hangs on to what it's got, the illusion, for dear life.

   Mystery religion is molten, fluid, organic, alive and not fixated, while personal religion is set in doctrine, belief, and all the rigidity that the dead words of set cannons brings to consciousness. I've vacillated between these two religions all my life, from spiritualist hippie, to fundamental christian, and now, some kind of vedantist who really doesn't know a thing, but trusts the life that is within us all, like a little child, thankful for all that I have been given.

   Old wineskins can't hold new wine, and maybe next lifetime, I'll be frolicking in the springtime of our youth with those naked girls, having the freedom to be lost, and dance to the mystery. It sure wasn't in this lifetime, until I walked in the door of The Spearmint Rhino in the winter of 2005, and I was 55 years old.

  Life isn't death's opposite, birth is. Life is something altogether different and the only way to 'discover this' is, to live your life, not try to hold onto it, with thought and belief, for old wineskins can't hold new wine. Life is too expansive, alive, connected, whole, sacred, and one for that to happen. Life can not be held in a rigid vessel, for how could time ever contain, that which is timeless?

  Dead trees don't move with the wind.

  

~~~~~~~~~Flying Dreams~~~~~~~~~

   i've had two~~~flying dreams~~~that i can remember. one was half a lifetime ago when i was 31 years old~~~the other two nights ago. i've named the 1st dream~~~Takeoff~~~and the 2nd~~~Landing, but they might as well have been named~~~Birth and Death. the 1st dream came after escaping from the personal strictures of fundamental christianity~~~and finding my tenuous balance~~~in the spiritual world~~~once again. the dream consisted of finding myself floating above lush green fields scored by rows of trees and streams~~~much like springtime in baltimore county. 1st feelings of apprehension were replaced with a growing trust as i found breath controlled my altitude~~~for as i breathed in i gradually went up~~~and out~~~i gently descended. the dream ended when i landed on my feet near an old stone wall~~~and only slightly turned my ankle. it was a dream of empowerment.
   two nights ago~~~my brother david and i were in a convertible car that was bigger and more powerful than mine~~~and i was driving as dave rode shotgun. something bad was back there and after us and we were on the run~~~as i gunned the car down the pavement that became off road smooth rock~~~and then~~~we were launched into the late afternoon air...
  dave took off and went much higher than me~~~and i found myself wearing an old weightlifters back brace belt that arched my body into a foil shape~~~kinda like the foil shapes of the kites~~~that the guys that ride boards on the ocean with~~~and i was as one of those foil sails that pull them. below us was southwestern desert~~~with rocks and cacti~~~and dave descended as i arched my back and rose higher. he was wearing that gray flannel hat of his and a clint eastwood poncho as he hit shoulder 1st into cacti and a rock shelf~~~and at impact his legs came up so that i saw his tennis shoes. he hit slow enough that i knew he survived~~~and was probably cussin' up a storm'.
   he was 1500 feet or so below me and i knew that i could not get down near him as my foil shape kept me too high aloft~~~and i was being pushed westward by the wind. spotty fog began to cover the ground~~~and i could see the light was fading~~~and the fog thick~~~where i was heading. no way to tell what was below the fog~~~the lay of the land~~~or water. whatever it was~~~i was headed there~~~and then? i woke up.

~~~Our Symbols Are Ourselves~~~

and you can't Take That with you ..........................

Kinfonet Quote of the Day: To worship another is to worship oneself; the image, the symbol, is a projection of oneself.

~~~We're All Just Camping Out~~~

Kinfonet Quote of the Day: You are always a guest on this earth and have the austerity of a guest.

~~~~~~~Living In The Spirit~~~~~~~

   "It is accumulation that is the cause of sorrow. We do not die to everything from day to day; we do not die to the innumerable traditions, to the family, to our own experiences, to our own desire to hurt another. One has to die to all that from moment to moment, to that vast accumulative memory, and only then the mind is free from the self, which is the entity of accumulation."  Jiddu Krishnamurti, As One Is, page 62

   This is kinda funny~~~because~~~I would be one of the last ones to lay out a delineated spiritual path or program~~~as~~~Bill Gothard's spiritual erector set of how to do everything christian~~~or~~~Bill Bright's four spiritual laws~~~hell~~~I used so much yellow magic marker on Francis Schaeffer's books that the pages warped from the wetness~~~and there was hardly any white left on them! Thought's detailed lists~~~and~~~convoluted gymnastic techniques~~~never worked for me~~~they all ran their course~~~and~~~ran out of steam~~~but~~~The Living Moment~~~is filled with a most sacred and timeless consciousness that self's abilities are unable to capture~~~or~~~as Jesus put it~~~old wine skins can't hold new wine~~~their lack of flexibility doesn't allow for the expansion of the new. Krishnamurti put it this way~~~Truth Is A Pathless Land~~~and~~~when you are there the other is not.

   So here goes~~~Living In The Spirit 101~~~or~~~how one thing leads to another. It's like Van Gough's The Sower pictured above~~~it all starts with a seed~~~and~~~as it is with all seeds~~~even the ending is contained in the beginning~~~so just open your heart once~~~to God~~~and~~~that seed is planted.

   Lesson #1   You can't take anything with you. Not even your self. The birth of the spiritual life occurs when the seed cracks~~~and living roots dig into timeless soil. Such life only arises from death~~~and even flourishes within the violent impermanence of  this universe of which we are a part. It's like The Parable of The Pearl of Great Price~~~you give up all that is in time~~~for~~~the timeless~~~and then~~~you give it all up~~~again~~~and again.

   Lesson #2   Living In The Spirit is a constant emptying of what you have come to think you are~~~every moment is new~~~and you have to be empty of the time bound~~~to be filled with the timeless.

   Lesson #3  This Is It~~~it's all here~~right now.

   Lesson #4   You have to do the meditative and spiritual work~~~yourself~~~only you can live your life~~~no one can do that for you~~~and that means that there is no spiritual authority~~~no one~~~nothing~~~that stands between you~~~and~~~the spirit~~~the creator of everything.

   Lesson #4   Acceptance Of Things as They Are~~~brings about~~~a sacred thankfulness~~~for all that has been given~~~to you. When all measurement and comparison cease and you no longer see and strive to be better and have more than all the others~~~when all ambition and accumulation~~~stop~~~you see that you are just like all the other people on this Earth~~~and that empathy~~~that spirit~~~timelessly explodes~~~throughout your heart. Freedom from the grind of having to become somebody~~~freedom from psychological becoming~~~freedom all striving~~~unleashes the shackles of self.  You are The World.

   Lesson #5   You simply trust in the spirit as a little child trusts his parents~~~there is no question that what life has in store for you~~~moment by moment~~~is what you need.

The Good~~~The Bad~~~and~~~The Ugly.

   Lesson #6   We're all just camping out here~~~this world is impermanent~~~and not~~~our timeless home. It's a big change from seeing things materialistically~~~to seeing that we're all trapped in a spiritual Plato's Cave~~~and this world is no longer all that is.

   Lesson #7   Living and Seeing are always moment to moment~~~and when you live in the now~~~and not in thought~~~timeless synchronicities happen~~~all the time.

   Lesson #8   When you see Life from this timeless consciousness~~~and what you once thought important reveals itself to be not that important at all~~~there is a Divine Humor that pervades your conscious life~~~and even the tragedies that once befell you~~~are like branches that had to be pruned~~~to let the light shine in. Sometimes everything seems to be funny~~~when once it was all so serious~~~as your perspective completely shifts when you see this world is not your home~~~and not so important~~~one day it will cease to exist.

   Lesson #9   There is No Perfection of Consciousness in this world~~~except That~~~of the spirit~~~of the creator~~~of the timeless~~~of God~~~or whatever you wish to name That Which Is Sacred.

   Lesson #10  There are No Spiritual Lessons :) only the spirit can teach you :)

  

  

It Is~~~The Seeing Of Things As They Actually Are~~~That Changes You

~~~~~~The Spiritual Pilgrimage~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~Back From The Dead~~~~~~

Political Wackjobs: ~~~~~~~~~Just Desert~~~~~~~~~: " 'Why are you going there? It's just desert.' This is what the convenience store clerk told my brother~~~when he said~~~we wer..."

The Spiritual Pilgrimage Blog RIP August 1st 2010

There are many things that happen to us within this violent universe. Things we do to each other. Things we do to ourselves. Within the horribly twisted duality of all the lives that have been led some of us have had a Sophie's Choice to make~~~even responsible for the suffering and death of innocence~~~or someone you loved more than life itself. Sophie had to choose which of her two children would live or die. People driving cars have maimed and killed strangers and loved ones. Fathers have shot and killed their sons, and sons fathers~~~hunting in the woods. Too many military scenarios to mention. Oppenheimer and The Bomb and designers of all types of killing machines. And what do you do with that? Say I didn't? But our brother and sister human beings have been visited with every tragedy imaginable.

How does one put forth an ideal or fundamental belief system as the all encompassing truth? Deal with this messy universe by cleaning it all up with words and thought? Is it that they want to be right and then tell all the others what's right and wrong? No system of thought can embrace the wild duality of things as they exist in this world. There can be no path to truth~~~as Krishnamurti put it Truth is a Pathless Land. Truth is a living thing and only that life that is can embrace us~~~and it~~~all. This is something that thought can not contain. It just Is.

And why do we end up with such tragedy? Such heartache? One thing about this world~~~we pass through it. Have we been somewhere else before? Will death lead us to somewhere different? And where do you find such answers? Not in books~~~although many of the best sellers are such~~~paint by numbers spiritual books.

If there are any questions their answers lie inside of you. Here. In the moment.

One. All is one. Connected. Whole. Alive. Sacred. One.

What Meaning Does This Illusion Hold?

Does God throw us out in the spiritual woods of space time just to see if we can find our way back home? To see in a moment that which is timeless~~~through all the Maya of nature's turnings? The forest for the trees? To see things as they actually are~~~though they seem to be something else~~~through the lens of thought? Or maybe it's a joke how far from the truth we are~~~we all come to~~~when we think we've arrived? It's for sure in this world of duality someone ends up taking every dead end path. Hell~~~I've been on a lot of them. Thank God for figuring a way to clean up all this mess he started with the Big bang~~~cause every galaxy has a black hole at it's center. Death is at the end of everything~~~and that~~~is beautiful. All illusions gotta end don't ya know? And what does it all mean?

What Does The Future Hold?

The Oracle at Delphi

The Way We Live Is Insane~ & this great TV Show documented it~~THE WIRE - 100 Greatest Quotes (spoilers)

Iris Dement~~~~~~Let the Mystery Be

Psychic Bubbles

Today is the 6th of May 2010 and these days we're all aware of The Housing Bubble and The Financial Bubble and even remember The High Tech Bubble of some ten years ago. Bubbles, and what is it about bubbles? Even the literal ones that float through the air on a mid-summers day? It isn't a long journey before they pop~~~and disappear.

Bubbles are inflated by hot air or true belief and there's not much difference between the two~~~and their illusions only last for so long. They are houses built on sand. Bubbles can never stand up to the test of reality for very long. They exist only as long as the surface tension holds them together~~~or the tension involved within a network of false belief~~~take your pick.

Political and Religious Cults are living within bubbles too. Psychic Bubbles. It is True Belief of a spiritual kind that is The Best Drug of All~~~and when these bubbles pop civilizations fall and cultures disintegrate. The essential duality of the universe that we live in provides a tapestry that allows maya and illusion to flourish~~~with many thanks due to thought and it's limitations. Yeah we can live the lie~~~but only for so long. That's the beauty of it~~~death always brings us back to reality.

So creation is all about bubbles~~~even the universe of which we are a part~~~is an expanding bubble. Becoming somebody is a bubble~~~for some day if you live long enough to have Willard Scott say look who's 100 years old today~~~he probably won't mention what you did for a living~~~but that you like prunes in the morning~~~or something like that.

What is the basis for bubbles? Even though they are temporary~~~they do exist for a short while. Is it greed? Ambition? Stinking thinking? False Hope? Or just a very long Hail Mary Pass? But? Maybe bubbles are memories of the way things used to be? Reminders of where we came from? Harbingers of a reality of where we used to be? So what is real and what's illusion? One thing is for sure around here though~~~bubbles exist within the consciousness of all of us~~~it's just who we are~~~none of us gets it all right~~~and the bigger and deeper the bubble~~~the bigger the pop.

Searching for The American Dream

Is there a Yellow Brick Road that true believers of The American Way can follow? To a Bright and Shining City set high upon a Hill? America? Merica? The Promised land? Or maybe that's just The Repressed Feminine walking hand in hand with All That We Lack? Courage, Brains, and a Heart. Wizard of Oz, or no, America lacks the courage to admit she was founded upon The Genocide of The American Indian and The Enslavement of Other Human Beings. America has brains, as we all know, but it is Thought that is destroying our planet. The Multi-National American Corporation has been granted super individual rights, as those of a human being within our society, and it is at The Doorstep of these Corporate Entities that the rape of indigenous cultures, the extinction of species, and the destruction of the environment lay. America has spawned a managerial class of these Psychopathic Groups of People bent on profit and having no human values whatsoever~~~except the craving for The More. Yeah, Dorthy you're skipping up The Yellow Brick Road, but good luck on finding a Shining City on That Hill. Remember Love Canal? The cigarette executives and their spiel? The S&L fiasco of The 80's? Enron? Coal Mine disasters? All the car company CEO's flying to DC in their separate jets to ask for bailouts? The health care reform Tea Partiers screamin' like Holy Bejesus? The Wall Street Smart Boys makin' bets that Americans would fail? Well? Is there a Moral to This Story? Yeah. America has No Morals. Just a bunch of laws, and Obama would impress me~~~as he cleans up All The Shit That Texas Dumb Fuck left behind~~~instead of shakin' his head at the health care smucks and the investment mechanical monkeys and the crazy assed fundamentalist republicans~~~if he could somehow someway get a Heart into that silly assed American Corporate Strawman. Barack~~~if you're really gonna set things right~~~you're gonna have to require Corporate America to adopt the values of the human beings they serve. Otherwise? There just gonna be more and more messes.

Plato's Cave Metaphor

It's The Grandaddy of Them All when it comes to spiritual analogies, a Through The Looking Glass experience to say the least, as both the personal death involved in enlightenment and the physical murder of the social heretic walk together hand in hand. It's 'kinda like leaving a cult~~~or any dysfunctional symbiotic relationship~~~as death awakens you with a jolt. Are things what they seem to be? What society teaches us? What we watch on TV? Or is thoughts web of images that construct our worldview a little off? Or way off? All meaning skewed? Or nullified? Thought is too blunt an instrument to cut into either spirit or truth~~~and when things aren't illuminated from the inside you can be as sure as shadows that something basic is missing. Have you ever been untied so that you can walk to the mouth of your own cave? Have you seen the world beyond? Only seeing things as they actually are changes you. Everything is in the seeing.

All Things Must Pass

Impermanence

Death swallows up every form born into this universe of ours~~~The Sun, The Earth, The Moon, and All of The Stars~~~even you and me. Hey~~~it's all temporary~~~don't ya know?

You Can Tell A Tree By It's Fruit

The tree was alive, marvellous, and there was plenty of shade and the blazing sun never touched you; you could sit there by the hour and see and listen to everything that was alive and dead, outside and inside. You cannot see and listen to the outside without wandering on to the inside. Really the outside is the inside and the inside is the outside and it is difficult, almost impossible to separate them. You look at this magnificent tree and you wonder who is watching whom and presently there is no watcher at all. Everything is so intensely alive and there is only life and the watcher is as dead as that leaf. There is no dividing line between the tree, the birds and that man sitting in the shade and the earth that is so abundant.

Krishnamurti's Notebook
Madras, December 4, 1961

This Is What You Get For Asking Questions

Socrates Drinking The Hemlock

It's been a long time since society questioned itself~~~I guess~~~not since The '60s. Environmental groups may prove me wrong on this~~~but it's the environment itself that's gonna get us all questioning everything about everything~~~as the talking heads say these days~~~at the end of the day.

Life's Reflections

Like Old Narcissus here~~~we surely like to smell our own piss when we're young don't we? Oh it's very hard to see beyond your own nose when life is so 'a hot and poppin' with the wild electric energy of youth~~~all about becoming~~~your beloved you. And then as you grow a little older~~~expected to carry your own weight and produce something of value~~~becoming centers on what you do and the role you play~~~to turn that something~~~into as much money as possible. Becoming is a tough nut to crack~~~but Death does the trick. Only in confronting our own mortality do we sober up and see~~~something different~~~in the mirror.