(no subject)

Fri 5 Jan

Just watched a good movie called U-571 about submarines in WWII. Made me think about life as being a rough ride on a choppy sea, alternating between confusion, frustration, ambivalence, and peace; I try to focus on the peace most often.

This really is a dream. It has been hitting me hard, that fact, this week. It's an interesting question, that: what body, what consciousness, is dreaming this dream? Whatever that body is, it seems incontrovertible that it originates from a single source. If everyone was aware of that reality (irrespective of such inanities as race or religion), I imagine that the world would be a pretty different place. I think that might be what nondual activism means.

Social activism from the nondual perspective: what a profound and potentially effective concept. Activism borne not out of pursuit of a common goal, but rather out of abidance in a shared understanding and awareness of a universal reality. Environmental health because our own health is directly shared and interdependent with it.

One day, maybe not quite in our lifetimes, it will actually become essential for us to change our societal values in order to guarnatee our very survival. I sometimes used to ask myself if I should strive to be part of the force for change. But that's not really the point, I don't think.

Doing your own part is actually the only (and the most effective) activism there is. It's great if you can play a supportive role to help others participate, but if you're doing your own part, then you're the greatest social and environmental activist there is.

In the short term, is there a business opportunity lurking about in there somewhere? Some portal to purchase environmentally-friendly products, to learn about everyday practices we can each undertake to do our own parts? What about a web-based car pooling site? Something to help people share rides, pick up people going to other places when you're driving somewhere alone?

I think we're all like one of those drawings you make when you're a kid where you never lift your pen from the page - one unbroken line, each object in the world connected in some way to the next, and so on. Doesn't that make sense?

(no subject)

Fri 5 Jan

I used to admonish myself for not being able to maintain a daily meditation practice. Then I began to feel a greater importance in keeping mindful awareness throughout the day, not simply relegated to a period of time on a meditation seat. I now realize that there is no method of effective use to become self-aware. It's lifestyle, it's mindset, it's disposition, and at its truest state, it's absolutely constant. Ironically, I do think that there might be something specific to be gained in meditation, but it really is something specific, and doesn't pertain to the natural state of self-awareness in any constructive way.

There are no tools, no methods. You and I are constructs of the cosmic consciousness; method is nothing but another construct, another part of the dream, and it's nothing that actually allows you to see through the dream. Nothing you can do or say or feel or discuss can penetrate this dream state; all action, thought and speech serve only to propagate it.

I strive only to Exist in the Natural state. One "day" I will vanish from the earth and my persona will be burned into dust. Until then, I will live out a mindful, peaceful, aware life; throughout this life, I will remain Aware, perched without sign on the egg of consciousness itself.

These qualities of life are but a dream. Death, birth, pain and happiness are aspects of and events in the dream. Who is dreaming the dream? We're all a part of it, right down to the subatomic particles that are not yet known, out to the farthest galaxy we will never see. The universe is part of the dream too - but it's no more than 15-20 billion years old, anyway. Placing a single human life in context seems silly (or impossible) in that light. In that context, the cosmic context, there is no context for us as humans. We're beyond a blip on the radar screen; we're that subatomic particle that will never be known. When we are known, we will be gone; no evidence of our existence will remain.

Living in the dream... What does it mean, this morning, next week, 40 years from now? It only means whatever the quality of your connection with it is. Keeping a constant connection with the I AM is the only possible meaning of the dream. But of course, even that is superficial in some way. The connection is still part of the dream, if it's connected to you in the dream.

Is there anything that's NOT part of the dream? If we could find it, what would we do? What could we do? Is it possible for us to find anything that's not part of the dream? How would we recognize it if we did? Is whatever is not part of the dream part of reality? IF we find something that's not part of the dream, is it Real?