On the Wisdom of Knife Wielding

The master takes a knife and butters her toast; she creates no attachments to fools, or the wise

On the Wisdom of Knife Wielding

Fools take
a knife
and stab
people in
the back.

The wise take
a knife,
cut the cord,
& free themselves
from the fools.

The master takes
a knife
and butters her toast;
she creates no attachments
to fools,
or the wise.

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Awakening with Doris Lessing

If you travel with us you will have to learn things you do not want to learn in ways you do not want to learn them. ~ Doris Lessing

Travel with us and learn.

Why have you done this to me?

Jane Mooney wrote to Doris Lessing after reading Shikasta, a science fiction novel with spiritual overtones and themes. Mooney would later say,

Shikasta had the most astonishing effect on me. I just thought, “That’s it now. Everything is different. I don’t know how I can leave the house tomorrow.” And that was really frightening, and I felt very angry with her, for having written a book that took everything away. So I wrote her a letter saying, “Why have you done this to me?”


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Let go or be dragged

Let go or be dragged. ~ Zen Proverb

Just let it go

I expected tonight to be a difficult sleep. Unfortunately, I was not disappointed in that expectation.

Yesterday I made a mistake at work. A bad one. Nothing that couldn’t be repaired, but the repair took time and put an entire film production on hold while that repair was made. A fairly bad mistake in the film biz, and one easily avoided with a little more attention to detail, and being more attentive to a fundamental step in my job.

So, a learning experience. Learn, and move on.

But I tend more to learn and hold on. Read more »

Mind the Unconscious

Unconscious Fate

Unconscious Fate

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

~ Carl Jung

This insight alone, ultimately, is what Laozi wrote 81 chapters about in his Dao de Jing.

Except that Laozi wouldn’t quite mean ‘know the unconscious’ the way we think about it … he does not want us to know with the ‘reasonable’ consciousness of a thinker — say, a scientist — but the mindful awareness of a master.
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Karma is a bitch, but only when I am.

Karma: no need for revenge.  Just sit back and wait. Those who hurt you will screw up themselves. and if you're lucky, God will let you watch.

Watching Karma

Cute, and a very common and popular thought, but…

Karma doesn’t discriminate, unfortunately. Karma isn’t a mechanism for making the world right for me by punishing others. Wishing ill on others, even those I might feel richly deserve it for wronging me, has a tendency to draw Karma’s attention. When I’ve taken a seat in the theatre to watch Karma at work, I’ll usually find myself on the stage rather than in the audience.

So I remind myself: Karma is a bitch, but only when I am.

How people treat you is their karma;
how you react is yours.

~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Naming is the origin of all particular things.

When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them. ~ Don Cherry

Don Cherry, Jazz Legend, Quote

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

~ Laozi, Dao de Jing, Chap. 2
(Stephen Mitchell, Trans.)

Call it fate, then laugh at it

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Call it fate, God, the universe or guardian angels … I think Gregory David Roberts has a pretty good feel for whatever guides my spirit through this grand human experience.

Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised, and we can never know which one is which until we’ve loved them, left them, or fought them.

~ Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram
Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting.

~ Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram

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Meditation provides insights Google cannot.

Meditation: Because some questions cannot be answered by Google.

Meditation vs Google

Mmmmm… Yes, Google can’t answer all my questions. Actually, it can’t answer any of the most important ones. For these I must look within. Rather, no, I must listen within.

I don’t mean listen to my mind, nor look into it. I wrote once, with uncanny insight, “Your body knows more about your spiritual well-being than your mind does; Teach your mind to listen to it.” Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi: these practices are all about getting to know your body while quieting the mind so the mind can listen rather than create all that chatter noise.

Even when I was meditating, which was quite a number of years ago, well, I wouldn’t ever have called it “a practice”. Still, meditation calls to me, along with Tai Chi and, perhaps, yoga, other practices which enlighten us in ways Google can’t. I don’t understand what blocks me from practicing these.

But, that does not matter.

I do understand the call. It’s my body speaking to my mind.
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