This leaked Pentagon report made the news in the UK, at least. God knows what our own press was talking about at the time, but I don’t remember anyone broadcasting the fact that the Pentagon was warning that climate change is a far greater threat than terrorists, as it may cause nuclear buildups and nuclear war as more nations try to protect their resources. They also warn that Britain’s climate might become "Siberian" by 2020.
When I posted my entry on The Day after Tomorrow, I was shocked to find that prominent scientists were predicting scenarios not that far from the film. Now the Department of Defense is believes the same thing, with an administration that insists global warming is no more real than Santa Claus. God, help us.
Thanks to Derek K. Miller for posting it on his blog.
It’s occurred to me how much noise there is in most spiritual websites, spiritual books, and so forth. (And this one is one of the worst!) That’s because most writers, like me, try to use concepts to get beyond the concepts. We blather about this tradition and that tradition, this Scripture and that Scripture, this teacher and that, this experience and that. In addition, this blog is the "online journal" variety, sharing my downs as well as my ups.
But since the little revelation I had Sunday night, I see that the noise itself is the silence, that "samsara is nirvana." It’s hard to describe—I see garbage by the curb, and it seems as beautiful as a painting in a museum, although I still have the urge to pick it up (or wish someone else would!).
I can only laugh at the energy and time I’ve invested in spiritual "seeking." What is there to seek, when God is in everything you are, everything you see, touch, smell, and hear? Why do we seek the return of the Lord, when he said "I am with you always"?
Just renounce wanting, having, needing. Live your life, meet your responsibilities, do what’s appropriate to do, and don’t resent or resist unpleasant things, or crave or try to hold onto the pleasant circumstances. A roller coaster has ups and downs, without them, the ride’s no fun at all. You wanted to go to heaven right? Open your eyes. "There" is here!
I’ve made a few changes to the site this last week. I’ve jazzed up a couple of the stylesheets, revised and reposted the pages on Biblical Panentheism and Universal Salvation. Also I completely rewrote the review of Waking Life. Its vision of life as a lucid dream was something which I could not get when it first came out. Now, it’s screamingly obvious. When I’m more aware, I see that my existence is very much like a lucid dream. Ordinary life, without awareness, is like a sleep. One who’s begun to realize his true nature, begins to see it as a lucid dream, aware that he is dreaming. It’s an incredible metaphor, actually much better as metaphor than The Matrix.
I also came back to two texts with much greater understanding. The Tao Te Ching was the first Eastern religious text I had ever read. I’ve read it several times, but not in the last five years since I began meditating and exploring the nature of things. In the past, my "mysticism" was philosophical, now it’s much deeper. There’s so much in there that no one can understand deeply until they begin practicing it deeply, and then it opens up.
Also, I revisited The Gospel of Thomas again. I read that more recently, but going back again, since my practice has deepened as a quest to know my being in the Ground of Being, I understand so much more there than I ever did before. The scholars write commentary after commentary, but cannot "get" it, since it’s beyond everyone who’s not practicing.
Come to know what is in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will become clear to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest. —Thomas 5
That brings me to what really "updated" me tonight. In my last post I was quite discouraged and in a state of "spiritual indigestion." But taking Mark’s advice regarding SI was helpful— very, very helpful. As he suggested, I sat down quietly and renounced knowledge and desire from my heart. (I know nothing, I need nothing, I want absolutely nothing.) Tonight, after sitting in the quiet of that no-thing-ness for a little, something just "popped," and I realized, this is it. This is really it!
Soto Zen calls just-sitting meditation "the first enlightenment." The thing is that simply being in that awareness of Being is what enlightenment is. The abbot of The Cloud of Unknowing and the Book of Privy Counsel pretty much says the same thing, that this is the contemplative work of eternity. It’s so easy to get caught up in seeking the big, explosive, once-and-for-all "capital E" Enlightenment, which is nothing more than neurotic, clinging, desire. My teacher told me to give up wanting enlightenment, and now I think I have. I can see its here.
As Jesus said: Come to know what is in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will become clear to you.
It’s so easy. My heart overflows with gratitude. Thank You, Father.
Probably the most helpful spiritual website I’ve ever seen is Pure Silence. org by Mark McCloskey. I came across this post today, and it hit home, to put it mildly.
I’m disgusted with my own "spirituality." I’m sick and tired of mysticism, I’m weary of wanting to awaken. I feel like I just want to go back to sleep.
I’ve got to apologize for going so long between posts. Sometimes what I want to share here in this space feels so personal, or so difficult to put into words, that I end up not doing it at all.
Something that’s been on my mind the last couple of weeks is “the world” vs. “the earth.” There’s a big, big difference between the two, and probably the easiest way to distinguish them, is simply by realizing that the world is not real. What do I mean by not “real?” Well, take a look at the earth, for contrast. Look at your friends, spouse, kids, your cat, dog or parakeet—those are real. Look at yourself. Feel your skin, your clothes, your headache or your peace. That is real. They are there. Go outside, see the cars, the grass, the sky, birds, clouds, bushes and asphalt. Real again. Better yet, give yourself a nice, total immmersion experience of reality—go canoeing in a park, or mountain biking, or swimming in the ocean, with a minimum of thinking or conversation. You’ll start to get to know the difference.
What’s not real? Everything that exists only in the mind. Chances are, as soon as you start talking with someone, conversations will turn to things that have no basis in reality. Whether someone or something is “good” or “bad.” Whether something “means” something else or not. The past. That’s right, the past happened, but it is not real. Past sounds like passed for a reason. The future is obviously not real, but we devote inordinate amounts of our thoughts to it.
When you feel stress about the future, you’re feelings are real enough, but their cause is unreal. There’s some profound truth in the trite workplace sign “FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real.”
But there’s a lot more non-reality to become aware of. Our very identities are pieces of the past we esteem and carry on with us into the present. If you ask my name, I’ll say, “Jon.” That’s a real sound, but how does it become a shorthand for me? I could have been named Douglas, Vladimir, or Akhbar. And if I so chose to, I could change it. Ask my nationality, and I’ll say “American.” What I really mean is that I was born in a part of the earth where people had agreed to recognize an organization of people as having some authority over them, and by agreement, this organization was known as the government of the United States of America.
But look at a view of the earth from space, and there are no lines drawn, no square patches colored blue, pink, or yellow, and no names written upon the land. There’s no “United States of America” there, no “Switzerland,” and no “Iraq.” What’s real are the nameless landmasses with their nameless forests, plains and deserts and the nameless oceans, lakes and rivers.
I am not my past, my name, my family, my upbringing, my country, my religion, my ideas, nor my thoughts. Neither are you. Kind of makes you wonder why all the fights about names, families, lifestyles, countries, religions, and ideologies, doesn’t it?
Meditation is an opportunity to begin stripping away the conditioning, the associations, and shared hallucinations that comprise “the world.” What are you, there in the dark, with eyes closed, with no name, no past, no future? What is that? It’s worth getting to know, because that is real. That is you.
A Dazzling Introduction to the Frontiers of Physics, Biochemistry, and Consciousness
About 20 years ago, I encountered quantum mechanics in The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, and the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. Despite the relative popularity (note the emphasis on “relative”) of such books, the average person in the street has never read a science book that wasn’t assigned to them in high school or college. And those books certainly weren’t using the implications of quantum physics to speculate on the nature of Life, the Universe and Everything!
But I found myself very inspired by the fuzziness of the new science. It seemed to me to be showing the undefined edges of Creation, and left me with a conviction that the Universe is held together in God’s imagination. That, along with many other things, helped to start me on my study of Christian mysticism and other traditions. So imagine my delight when I learned What the #$*! Do We Know? (pronounced “What the Bleep Do We Know”) promised an exciting investigation into the cutting edge of science and spirituality. I couldn’t wait to see interviews with people like Drs. Rupert Sheldrake, Freeman Dyson, Amit Goswami and Larry Dossey!
Well, Goswami, physicist and scholar-in-residence for the Institute of Noetic Sciences was among the experts interviewed, and although they were new to me, all the other scientists chosen seemed capable speakers on quantum weirdness. Besides physicists, there are also a number of medical researchers and psychologists interviewed, who bring interesting information on the connection between mind and matter, as well as some “spiritual teachers, mystics, and scholars.” Strangely, What the Bleep didn’t identify any of the speakers until the final credits. (And only then does it become apparent why they made that choice.)
What the Bleep has a striking visual style, with razor-sharp photography, dazzling graphic effects, and it even escapes typical “documentary mode” by creating a small story of a woman encountering new dimensions in the world and herself. At times the style skirts the edge of being a little too hyper, and the directors clearly intend to go for breadth over depth. (If you want to actually learn something about the mind-blowing edges of science, a great place to start is with PBS’s NOVA production,The Elegant Universe.)
The story shows Amanda, a deaf photographer, going through a couple of frustrating days as she has some surreal encounters with quantum physics. In the middle of the film, the discussion shifts briefly from subatomic physics to neurochemistry, while the story takes our heroine into a Polish wedding sequence which is so hilarious, it might have you rolling in the aisles, as I was! More importantly, some the opinions shared may be eye-opening for many viewers who have never considered the inter-connectedness of mind, the universe, and God.
The Flipside: Ramtha will see you now.
The disappointment, (which is acute), came from the aforementioned “spiritual teachers, mystics, and scholars” used. Yeah, it sounds like an impressive lot, but there were only two. One was Miceal (or Micheal) Ledwith, former prominent Catholic theologian, whose retirement from Ireland’s Maynooth College in 1994 has been linked to abuse accusations (see the Irish Times article of June 1 2002). The other, a blonde woman who had more screen time than any other “expert,” was revealed in the closing credits to be—get ready—RAMTHA! Yes, Ramtha, the laughable 35,000-year-old entity with the pseudo-Sanskrit name, channeled by Ms. JZ Knight. No wonder names were withheld till the end!
Both Ledwith and “Ramtha” had little to do except bash conventional religion with vague, emotional mutterings about “the shackles of restrictive doctrine.” I was left wondering why would a group of people go to the trouble of creating an otherwise impressive film about the scientific plausibility of a mystical universe, only to undercut it with sophmoric dismissals and the spoutings of the queen of New Age nuttiness? Perhaps it’s because, as stated on their own FAQ page, all three filmmakers are students of Ramtha! Not only that but it turns out that Ledwith now happens now to be a lecturer for Ramtha, as well, and another expert, chiropractor and writer Joe Dispenza, is also a Ramtha student!
So it ends up being a mixed bag. It is a charming, beautiful, and entertaining introduction to quantum physics, and for thousands it may be the only glimpse they’ve had of mysticism. Overall, it’s well worth seeing, but I just wish this had some actual spiritual substance. It’s a pity. People are starving for the Wild Things of God, and are kept starving. With very rare exceptions, our teachers, preachers, priests, and imams don’t teach our own deep traditions of union with God. Furthermore, half-witted schlock like The Da Vinci Code, The Celestine Prophecy, and Ramtha drowns out the voice of authentic mysticism. Ramtha will see you now. Keep your ego, but bring your checkbook.
Update, January 15, 2005. What is Enlightenment? magazine has a penetrating review of What the Bleep? online. It’s excellent reading.
Last weekend at the Naro, I had the pleasure of watching the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. Simply put, it’s brilliant. I discovered Darko on video two years ago, rediscovered it with the deleted scenes last year (and watched it four times in two days!), and relished the short run of the director’s cut at Naro. (And it’s probably fair to say that no recent movie has needed a director’s cut more than Darko.
I’m going to have to post a full review of this. Till then, all I can say is you’ve got to see this. And if you think you’ve got it figured out, let me know!
In an unexpected moment of candor less than two weeks ago, the President of the United States said regarding “the war on terror:” “I don’t think we can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror are less acceptable in parts of the world.”
Knowing that such honesty doesn’t play well at the polls, the President and his handlers rapidly spun it to mean nearly the exact opposite, that the United States can and will definitely bring an end to terrorism. Of course, his opponent, John Kerry, must also pretend that such a war is winnable.
Of course the war is unwinnable, at least by the methods presently used by nations. Great Britain’s war against the Irish Republican Army has been going on for eighty years now, Israel’s against the PLO for nearly sixty, Russia’s against Chechnya for a full decade, and the list goes on. A war is winnable only if its fuel can be exhausted. The fuel of violence is resentment. How is resentment brought to an end? By either the complete and total exhaustion of one of the two warring entities, or by ending the underlying resentment that fuels the violence.
World War II was won by the utter exhaustion of the Axis powers, after the destruction of millions of people on both sides. A single entity, like a government, can indeed be brought to such exhaustion. The Taliban fell, Saddam Hussein fell. But Iraqi and American forces are now wracked by almost daily terror attacks. Al-Qaeda still commits terror attacks around the world. Afghanistan is now back in the control of local warlords financed by the opium trade, and Iraq has largely disintegrated into chaos. Brutal dictatorships like Pakistan are propped up with weapons and money to become even more dictatorial to their citizens.
This is the simple truth, which no one wants to say, and no one wants to hear: War doesn’t stop terrorism. It fuels the resentment, and for every terrorist killed, more rise up, as long as the resentment grows.
This is the bitter truth that world leaders must face, regardless of their country or party: do what is needed to end the resentment, and you will cut off terrorism at its source. It’s essential that we try to understand why our enemies hate us, and how we can change that hatred into something else.
Not a thousand American troops, nor ten thousand Iraqi civilians killed, nor any number of insurgents, militants, or terrorists killed will bring peace, as long as people are angry enough to die.
I told you you didn’t want to hear it, but that’s Jedi life in the real world.
OK, I’m a geek. I work in front of computers all day long, I play mostly in front of a computer all evening. But it’s occurred to me that I live too much of my life (almost all of it!) in boxes. I live in a box, work in a box, and get from home to work (and vice versa )by means of driving a smaller box. This is true of a LOT of us. (You know who you are.) Today I had a pleasant day with several hours outside the box at Cape Hatteras. It was great!
New goal for the Frimster: a hour of unboxed living every day.
Last weekend at