I am Rubber you are Glue

I have a tendency to use a wide range of language to express myself. I use old expressions and cliches in such ways as to laugh at the absurdity of them. I have recently found myself surrounded by people who don't see things the same way as I do. It is refreshing to be challenged on some of these things. I will try to express my feelings on the matter here.

Words can never be inherently good or bad; only intention and interpretation involve this dualistic value system. People have such difficulty distinguishing between interpretation, intension, and actuality. What I mean, what I say, and what you hear are rarely the same.

Comedy helps remind us that these differences exist. The absurd is often used to disarm rather than reinforce. The butt of many a great piece of humour is the individual who takes everything too seriously. Political correctness is not the answer. Laughter is the answer. You are in control of your reaction.

Personally I feel that the moraly self righteous are a far greater threat to this world than any words could ever be.

Meditation Clarification

It has come to my attention that there exist some common misconceptions of the art of meditation. One is that meditation is all about not thinking or not feeling and another is that it is an escape to a blissful place. I will attempt here to give my perspective and hopefully clarify the issue.

Meditation to me is a process of progressively facing a truer reality. This process is a personal training regimen to allow the transcendence of the shackles of craving, aversion, and ignorance. Meditation is not confined to sitting quietly: any act of living with awareness and a focus on increasing awareness is meditation. Meditation is simply living true.

The image that meditation is about not thinking is flawed. My meditation involves the process of observing my thought and my reaction to it. Only through this awareness of my mind can I understand that I am not my thoughts and must not allow myself to be enslaved by them; my mind is but a tool for my consciousness.

Thus the quieting of the mind is not so much a goal of the process but a result. Experiencing my thought as it is encourages my mind to begin submitting to my consciousness and to the acknowledgment that its control of the show has been an illusion hard fought to maintain.

Once my mind has begun to become silent the process can begin to focus on my body. As with the observation of my thought, the gradual increasing awareness of my bodies sensations (which thought is simply a special instance of) or feelings and my reaction to them allows me to understand that I am not my body and must not allow myself to be enslaved by its conditioned responses; my body is but a tool for my consciousness.

Thus the image of dulling of emotional responses as a result of meditation is inaccurate. The process of meditation is focused on sharpening emotional response moving away from blunt generalized reactions and moving towards detailed specific experiences of life.

The problem with the blissful escape image is that it does not capture the difficulties of the journey. Coming face to face with a truer version of yourself hurts. The process of transcendence hurts. The come down from excess hurts. As in nature, rebirth is fueled by decay and destruction. The process continues. Once you have accepted a new perception of yourself you realize that there is a deeper truer self to confront.

The results of the journey are a broader, higher, and deeper understanding; an acknowledgement of a connection to something greater than one's own conception of being; and an increased interest in how things are rather than how they seem.

Earth Day

Just got back from driving a big blue bus across the province and back. I met lots of great people and felt that I was treated like a very welcome authority and celebrity. So much so that I didn't feel worthy. I got to talk to the media, share myself with the public, and hear countless stories from people who are trying to make a difference in the world by making small changes in their own lives.

Phase Change

Do you know that overwhelming feeling of experiencing that which will elude understanding for some time; who's spoken silence will only be heard from another phase; when the significance of the moment outstretches your imagination. The stirring torrent of mystery that you feel lapping at your insides. Fear and anticipation. The trembling struggle at the fringe. Connections transcending preconceived possibilities. Solidity giving way to a fluttering of chaos; the turbulent dynamic transition to a new consistency. Transient. Elusive. Suddenly empty.

The Juggler

Are you active or reactive? How can you explain the value of planning to a knee jerk personality? Does an outline have to restrict spontaneity? Does the ability to juggle twenty-five balls at once demand that you do? Do you treat the people around you as only means to your ends? Do you interpret the suggestion of a potentially better way as criticism of your way? Do you file your email into folders or just have thousands of them sitting in your inbox?

Wind Energy

How often do you remind yourself that you don't know what you are? How attached are you to the idea that you do?

I seem to be allowing myself to get caught up in tornados of chaos and finding it difficult at times to remain at the calm center of my storm. Frequent visits help me to keep tabs on its location as it does not remain in one place for very long.

I sometimes try to stop the wind rather than flow with it. I deplete my reserves in the resistance rather than recharging through generation. Energy can be transformed. Energy can be transmitted. Energy can transmit. Energy can transform.

We've got us surrounded.