I'm always amazed at how time can fly by when you get busy doing something you enjoy. I am in the midst of making a new series of self-hypnosis recordings, creating a storefront for my website and a whole bunch of similar endeavors. I started the whole task mid-morning (after shamelessly oversleeping - again). Before I knew it, it was mid-afternoon.
In the process, I found a bunch of things had happened - nearly all of them positive, but none of them anticipated. I had several client inquiries and a couple of bookings. I had a whole lot of mail exchanges with people regarding presentations at new age shows, marketing booths, etc. I am starting to get in the swing of things (I hope) in getting a business going and so I find myself getting busier and busier. And then, as I was getting back to work on my CD's, my CD/DVD drive started to act up.
Perfect timing, of course. This laptop is several years old, now, and I've been expecting something to start acting up. But at this stage of the game, I can't afford to be without a computer. So the question arises. Do I take it in or do I simply work around the problem until some more convenient time to replace the CD. Questions like that are like fuel for the fire that keeps the mind turning way too long late at night. Progress continues, but so do the little hiccups.
This evening (about twenty minutes ago, actually) I was sitting up, intending to meditate for a bit before packing it in. I usually follow the Himalayan Tradition of meditation. In this tradition, one focuses inward on the breath, and then begins the mantra, thought silently in synchrony with the breath. In this case, at first, I felt myself going into a meditative state. Then suddenly, the mind chatter came back in full force - what most yogic traditions refer to as the monkey mind. It is the flood of random thoughts, one leading to another, wandering away from the meditative thought stream. One thought leads to another and before you know it, I am thinking about what I had for dinner the last Tuesday I was in California.
Usually one simply acknowledges the thought and lets it float past, wandering off to the oblivion from which it came. Still, the monkey chatter is one of those annoying little features of the human mind. It also tells me how out of practice I am, how little time I have actually spent meditating in the last few months.
In the end, the challenge is to turn off the busy-ness of the day, quiet the monkey mind, do a half-hour of meditation, and then pack it in. The challenge is, once the pack-it-in part has begun, to let the chatter finally return to the background, letting my own mind drift in to sleep. In the background, I hope remaining there, go the images of a day's worth of progress, a bulky CD drive and a whole lot of chattering monkeys.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The Breath of Synchronicity
I just finished reading The Breath of God, by Jeffery Small. I had talked about this book in an earlier blog post, so I won't go into detail on it here. However, the idea of Jeshua (Jesus) having traveled in the east during at least some of the years before his ministry is fascinating to me. So my ears perked up when I learned that in the Christian Ed that our church has after the service was on 'Who Was Jesus?'
The class is in several installments and this one dealt with the backstory of Jesus' ministry - the political and religious conflicts that were going on in the years up to about 70 CE, when the second temple was destroyed. It looked at the different sects involved, the Roman occupation, and other aspects of the tensions in the region at the time.
While the class, itself, had no really new information, it presented existing ideas in a way somewhat different from the way I had always heard it. It was pretty good at rolling the whole scenario together into a coherent whole, something I had not seen done so well before.
But to me, the interesting part came later, when I went up afterwards to ask the teacher a couple of questions one-on-one. He made it quite apparent that he had little belief in the story of Issa, common (I think) to Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim traditions, in which a man later named St. Issa studied in India in the very early first century. The teacher of this particular class, however was quite open to the idea of a more diffuse form of influence from East to West, i.e. Jewish thinkers being exposed to Hindu and Buddhist ideas. He also told me more about the spread of Christianity from Israel to India as Phillip, one of the 12 disciples, traveled into the east. But the idea that Christianity might actually be part of the Hindu/Buddhist family of religions was not very acceptable to him.
The other question I asked him was about his view of the meditation traditions that are common in most other religions, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc., but missing in Christianity. Christianity has very little tradition of meditative lineage, while Hindu/Buddhist lineages are quite prominent, the guru principle, the tradition of teacher-to-student lineages. His answer was that some of the monastic orders have traditions like that, but not specific lineages per se. It is more at the level of students of a school. They don't continue the guru principle from predecessor traditions.
He was quite open to the idea that perhaps the gnostic branch of Christianity had originally continued that line. Perhaps teacher-student lineages extended into the west in a similar way to how Buddhism spread from India to China. That would be in keeping with the gnostic texts, several of which describe Jesus intuitively passing esoteric knowledge directly to his disciples in a way that couldn't be captured in print. This is at the core of the guru principle, that the most esoteric knowledge is passed intuitively from teacher to student, and that it cannot be written down.
Unfortunately, that branch of Christianity was pretty much killed off in the third century CE. Thus, it appears that Christianity lost much of this rich lineage of tradition. While there have been a number of esoteric movements within Christianity over the centuries, the original teacher-student lineage was lost. It wasn't until the late 20th century that such lineages have again returned to the west, beginning with the Transcendental Meditation, Yoga, the New Age movement, the Himalayan tradition, etc.
Thus, I have found myself studying the some of the Vedic-derived traditions of meditation (albeit probably not very diligently). It will be very interesting to see how this branch of spiritual tradition fits in with other mainstream (and not so mainstream) religions in the near future. In the mean time, for me, it was synchronistic that I attended this class so soon after reading a book on the Issa tradition, The Breath of God.
The class is in several installments and this one dealt with the backstory of Jesus' ministry - the political and religious conflicts that were going on in the years up to about 70 CE, when the second temple was destroyed. It looked at the different sects involved, the Roman occupation, and other aspects of the tensions in the region at the time.
While the class, itself, had no really new information, it presented existing ideas in a way somewhat different from the way I had always heard it. It was pretty good at rolling the whole scenario together into a coherent whole, something I had not seen done so well before.
But to me, the interesting part came later, when I went up afterwards to ask the teacher a couple of questions one-on-one. He made it quite apparent that he had little belief in the story of Issa, common (I think) to Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim traditions, in which a man later named St. Issa studied in India in the very early first century. The teacher of this particular class, however was quite open to the idea of a more diffuse form of influence from East to West, i.e. Jewish thinkers being exposed to Hindu and Buddhist ideas. He also told me more about the spread of Christianity from Israel to India as Phillip, one of the 12 disciples, traveled into the east. But the idea that Christianity might actually be part of the Hindu/Buddhist family of religions was not very acceptable to him.
The other question I asked him was about his view of the meditation traditions that are common in most other religions, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc., but missing in Christianity. Christianity has very little tradition of meditative lineage, while Hindu/Buddhist lineages are quite prominent, the guru principle, the tradition of teacher-to-student lineages. His answer was that some of the monastic orders have traditions like that, but not specific lineages per se. It is more at the level of students of a school. They don't continue the guru principle from predecessor traditions.
He was quite open to the idea that perhaps the gnostic branch of Christianity had originally continued that line. Perhaps teacher-student lineages extended into the west in a similar way to how Buddhism spread from India to China. That would be in keeping with the gnostic texts, several of which describe Jesus intuitively passing esoteric knowledge directly to his disciples in a way that couldn't be captured in print. This is at the core of the guru principle, that the most esoteric knowledge is passed intuitively from teacher to student, and that it cannot be written down.
Unfortunately, that branch of Christianity was pretty much killed off in the third century CE. Thus, it appears that Christianity lost much of this rich lineage of tradition. While there have been a number of esoteric movements within Christianity over the centuries, the original teacher-student lineage was lost. It wasn't until the late 20th century that such lineages have again returned to the west, beginning with the Transcendental Meditation, Yoga, the New Age movement, the Himalayan tradition, etc.
Thus, I have found myself studying the some of the Vedic-derived traditions of meditation (albeit probably not very diligently). It will be very interesting to see how this branch of spiritual tradition fits in with other mainstream (and not so mainstream) religions in the near future. In the mean time, for me, it was synchronistic that I attended this class so soon after reading a book on the Issa tradition, The Breath of God.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Lessons in the dark of night
It's late on a chilly night in mid January. My wife has gone to bed and I am tired but not sleepy, so I'm sitting up late. I can hear the wind howl outside. It's cold and dark. I am alone.
For several weeks, I have felt pretty positive about how everything is going. Getting laid off from my day job has been an impromptu 'retirement' as I have found myself suddenly thrust into the freelance world. I have had a long list of things to do to get my business going. I have been busy 12 to 14 hours per day doing things like working on my website, writing, blogging, etc. I have felt really productive. It's been fun. But now, I'm getting done with the easy stuff. Now, the increasingly difficult stuff remains. The low hanging fruit is just about gone.
Suddenly, a lot of stuff has begun to close in on me. Today, instead of feeling like I was on an unexpected vacation, I began to feel like I was in the middle of a long haul challenge. I began to ask myself what the hell I am doing. The walls of the house began to feel close and confining, and I began to realize I have really gotten out very little and seen very few people in the last couple of weeks.
Today, the weather was crappy, cold and blustery with a few flakes of snow in the air. So it was a lot more difficult to simply go outside and take the dogs for a walk, much harder to get out of the house. And if I did, I really didn't have any place to go. Today, it hit me. I am between jobs.
Regardless of what the job is - at a chair and desk in a corporate cubicle, in a self-employed entrepreneurial role, or as a full time anomaly researcher, it is that time of transition. The previous thing has ended but the next thing hasn't yet begun. In my case, the next thing is launching my business, getting my hypnotherapy practice going. And that effort has only begun.
It is a time when one questions what they are doing. It is a time of close-in walls and darkness outside the window. It is a time of uncertainty and self doubt. It is late on a dark winter night.
I was warned that this time would eventually arrive. At some point, I would be alone in the gray world of January. Still, when it comes, one can never really be prepared. One simply has to forge ahead and do the next thing on the list.
Especially at this time, it is important to remember the lessons of mindfulness meditation - to focus on the present moment, to not dwell on the past or the future but concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. It is vital to become the self-observer, to step back and dispassionately but mindfully observe the world - both internal and external.
This is when things grueling. Faith wears thin. At this moment it is important to remember the lessons taught during the easy times. It is important to take each day one day at a time as one trudges down the path through the winter chill.
It is a time in which one begins to feel and live the lessons, to experience the true meaning of the lessons in the dark of night.
For several weeks, I have felt pretty positive about how everything is going. Getting laid off from my day job has been an impromptu 'retirement' as I have found myself suddenly thrust into the freelance world. I have had a long list of things to do to get my business going. I have been busy 12 to 14 hours per day doing things like working on my website, writing, blogging, etc. I have felt really productive. It's been fun. But now, I'm getting done with the easy stuff. Now, the increasingly difficult stuff remains. The low hanging fruit is just about gone.
Suddenly, a lot of stuff has begun to close in on me. Today, instead of feeling like I was on an unexpected vacation, I began to feel like I was in the middle of a long haul challenge. I began to ask myself what the hell I am doing. The walls of the house began to feel close and confining, and I began to realize I have really gotten out very little and seen very few people in the last couple of weeks.
Today, the weather was crappy, cold and blustery with a few flakes of snow in the air. So it was a lot more difficult to simply go outside and take the dogs for a walk, much harder to get out of the house. And if I did, I really didn't have any place to go. Today, it hit me. I am between jobs.
Regardless of what the job is - at a chair and desk in a corporate cubicle, in a self-employed entrepreneurial role, or as a full time anomaly researcher, it is that time of transition. The previous thing has ended but the next thing hasn't yet begun. In my case, the next thing is launching my business, getting my hypnotherapy practice going. And that effort has only begun.
It is a time when one questions what they are doing. It is a time of close-in walls and darkness outside the window. It is a time of uncertainty and self doubt. It is late on a dark winter night.
I was warned that this time would eventually arrive. At some point, I would be alone in the gray world of January. Still, when it comes, one can never really be prepared. One simply has to forge ahead and do the next thing on the list.
Especially at this time, it is important to remember the lessons of mindfulness meditation - to focus on the present moment, to not dwell on the past or the future but concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. It is vital to become the self-observer, to step back and dispassionately but mindfully observe the world - both internal and external.
This is when things grueling. Faith wears thin. At this moment it is important to remember the lessons taught during the easy times. It is important to take each day one day at a time as one trudges down the path through the winter chill.
It is a time in which one begins to feel and live the lessons, to experience the true meaning of the lessons in the dark of night.
Notes on the novel, "The Breath of God"
I just got done reading The Breath of God, by Jeffery Small.
It's a fascinating look at the idea that Jesus traveled in India during his late teens and into his 20's. I love the idea that Saint Issa (Jesus) studied Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., which in turn would lead to his teachings - founding Christianity.
It's well written - unfortunately as a novel, rather than as a non-fiction. As such it is constrained by the rules that govern the novel, the need to have a dramatic story line, the main character(s) in peril, the bad guy(s) being truly evil, etc. But it's written well enough that the drama doesn't obscure the main idea, and that is the strength of the book.
I read it downloaded to my Kindle app on my laptop. I was amused to note that a number of passages in the book, those that convey essential Buddhist tenets, are highlighted. Not sure if this was by the author, by the publisher, or someone else along the supply chain. But this, in my view, only seemed to emphasize the books strength, its ability to convey the spiritual nature of the main character's quest.
In the story, the main characters, Grant and Kristin. During the story Grant is transformed from secular researcher in comparative religions, to a spiritual path (read, Buddhist). Kristin is transformed from a rather cynical journalist into a similar spiritual path.
The novel does have a fair amount of sex and violence (more violence than sex) in it, which somewhat detracts from the main message. Unfortunately, that's necessary in the current world of the novelist. In a novel, you have to have good guys and bad guys, the very polarity of good and evil that Buddhism seeks to transcend. Yet, I thought that this story handled that problem very well.
Unfortunately, the bad guys in this story are mainstream Christians, of which I am one (well, sort of). It does portray fundamentalists, especially, in a rather negative light.
I've read other books, especially by Evangelical Christian authors who do the exact same thing in reverse, portraying eastern spiritual believers in a negative light, with a negative agenda, while the solitary heroic Christian good guy has to save the day. (Strangely, Christian novels have very little sex in them. Go figure.)
The main message of the book, that spirituality is the intent of religion, and that an overburden of ritual and rules gets in the way of the way of the relationship between God and each of us. Ultimately, as Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within". Each of us has the God-spark of life, the Atman, within. It is a little spark of soul, a little piece of the Holy Spirit within each of us. By focusing on that, living in the present moment, focusing on what's happening now, rather than on the past or the future, we can be truly happy.
I won't give away the end of the novel, except to say that it has a bit of a surprise ending. That surprise ending ties the book together in a unique and unexpected way. To understand that statement, you will simply have to read the book.
What I most truly loved about the book was the way it conveyed the teachings through the action of the characters. And that, it does well.
It's a fascinating look at the idea that Jesus traveled in India during his late teens and into his 20's. I love the idea that Saint Issa (Jesus) studied Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., which in turn would lead to his teachings - founding Christianity.
It's well written - unfortunately as a novel, rather than as a non-fiction. As such it is constrained by the rules that govern the novel, the need to have a dramatic story line, the main character(s) in peril, the bad guy(s) being truly evil, etc. But it's written well enough that the drama doesn't obscure the main idea, and that is the strength of the book.
I read it downloaded to my Kindle app on my laptop. I was amused to note that a number of passages in the book, those that convey essential Buddhist tenets, are highlighted. Not sure if this was by the author, by the publisher, or someone else along the supply chain. But this, in my view, only seemed to emphasize the books strength, its ability to convey the spiritual nature of the main character's quest.
In the story, the main characters, Grant and Kristin. During the story Grant is transformed from secular researcher in comparative religions, to a spiritual path (read, Buddhist). Kristin is transformed from a rather cynical journalist into a similar spiritual path.
The novel does have a fair amount of sex and violence (more violence than sex) in it, which somewhat detracts from the main message. Unfortunately, that's necessary in the current world of the novelist. In a novel, you have to have good guys and bad guys, the very polarity of good and evil that Buddhism seeks to transcend. Yet, I thought that this story handled that problem very well.
Unfortunately, the bad guys in this story are mainstream Christians, of which I am one (well, sort of). It does portray fundamentalists, especially, in a rather negative light.
I've read other books, especially by Evangelical Christian authors who do the exact same thing in reverse, portraying eastern spiritual believers in a negative light, with a negative agenda, while the solitary heroic Christian good guy has to save the day. (Strangely, Christian novels have very little sex in them. Go figure.)
The main message of the book, that spirituality is the intent of religion, and that an overburden of ritual and rules gets in the way of the way of the relationship between God and each of us. Ultimately, as Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within". Each of us has the God-spark of life, the Atman, within. It is a little spark of soul, a little piece of the Holy Spirit within each of us. By focusing on that, living in the present moment, focusing on what's happening now, rather than on the past or the future, we can be truly happy.
I won't give away the end of the novel, except to say that it has a bit of a surprise ending. That surprise ending ties the book together in a unique and unexpected way. To understand that statement, you will simply have to read the book.
What I most truly loved about the book was the way it conveyed the teachings through the action of the characters. And that, it does well.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
An interesting exercise and a new personal mission statement
I just completed the ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment) course on developing a personal mission statement. It was fantastic.
I received it when I renewed my membership to ARE (www.edgarcayce.org).
It is a very structured set of exercises that combine the left and right brain to walk you through the development of a personal mission statement. It includes 12 lesson videos and an associated workbook with exercises involving brainstorming, itemizing personal talents, identifying high (and not so high) points in life, and then using them to figure out what you came to Earth to do.
Here is what I came up with from my own sequence of exercises:
To explore the unknown, and to bring that understanding to the service of humanity:
I received it when I renewed my membership to ARE (www.edgarcayce.org).
It is a very structured set of exercises that combine the left and right brain to walk you through the development of a personal mission statement. It includes 12 lesson videos and an associated workbook with exercises involving brainstorming, itemizing personal talents, identifying high (and not so high) points in life, and then using them to figure out what you came to Earth to do.
Here is what I came up with from my own sequence of exercises:
To explore the unknown, and to bring that understanding to the service of humanity:
- To research/study/explore the unexplained, the unknown and the undiscovered.
- To seek and discover the truth in esoteric, new science, UFO and contact studies
- To be a healing bridge between the human world and the cosmos
- To bring the extraordinary into the service of humanity
Artifacts and anomalies
In all of the hustle and bustle of starting a business, etc., I have been able to enjoy a few moments off. This morning, Gwyn and I attended one of the Tuesday with a Scholar presentations she goes to each week. It's part of the OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) program that she is involved in. I am quite impressed with OLLI, so far. Gwyn loves it. While I doubt I will have enough time to attend many of these classes, I found this one fascinating.
This particular talk was a fascinating look at problems with ownership of antiquities and art, especially looted and stolen art objects. He looked at various problems with art theft, looting of antiquities, etc., and talked about the various protection treaties in place.
One question I asked the speaker after the talk was when an object qualifies as an art or archaeological artifact. In archaeology, there are a number of gray areas, in which something might or might not be artificial. Specifically, the Ararat Anomaly (Noah's Ark?), the Bimini Road formation, the apparent ruins found off the coast of Cuba, etc. At least not as far as I know, these are generally not accepted in the scientific community as being legit, but if any of them are, they would be truly priceless. So when does something come under the protection of antiquities treaties, etc.
Archaeology is a fascinating topic, one that I would love to pursue more - if I had the time. I love things at the frontier of our knowledge, and I have the feeling we have only scratched the surface of what is really in our past. I suspect that there is a deep hidden history that we have truly forgotten. But I guess that will have to wait for a while - until I retire from my retirement... :-)
This particular talk was a fascinating look at problems with ownership of antiquities and art, especially looted and stolen art objects. He looked at various problems with art theft, looting of antiquities, etc., and talked about the various protection treaties in place.
One question I asked the speaker after the talk was when an object qualifies as an art or archaeological artifact. In archaeology, there are a number of gray areas, in which something might or might not be artificial. Specifically, the Ararat Anomaly (Noah's Ark?), the Bimini Road formation, the apparent ruins found off the coast of Cuba, etc. At least not as far as I know, these are generally not accepted in the scientific community as being legit, but if any of them are, they would be truly priceless. So when does something come under the protection of antiquities treaties, etc.
Archaeology is a fascinating topic, one that I would love to pursue more - if I had the time. I love things at the frontier of our knowledge, and I have the feeling we have only scratched the surface of what is really in our past. I suspect that there is a deep hidden history that we have truly forgotten. But I guess that will have to wait for a while - until I retire from my retirement... :-)
Progress and a few breaks
It's been nearly a month now since my impromptu 'retirement' from the day job. It's truly been busy the entire time, including a whole week in there to deal with a death in the family, etc.
Just after New Years day, my mom passed away, unexpectedly. She had been ill for only a day or two. It really came on fast, and was quite a surprise to all of us. It's hard to say goodbye to the woman who brought me into this world, and who cared for me all through childhood. I will miss a lot.
Meanwhile, as a result, I spent most of last week in Madison with the family, helping out with funeral details and other items, as well. Now, hopefully life will settle out - at least regarding family stuff. I sure hope things are quieter now.
My last post (just a short time ago) talks about my newsletter. That's now ready to roll, as well. I also got a draft of my book ready for review (a friend of mine already found some oops's in it). So once I get the feedback from her, I can update it and send it out to the next set of reviewers. Hopefully it's closing in on being ready to start querying again.
The next task is to get my storefront going. Currently, I am simply linking to my lulu.com storefront. Unfortunately, Lulu.com discontinued selling CDs. So I need to find a different storefront for those. My current plan is to use the Coffeecup.com shopping cart designer/creator program to build a new storefront and store it on my website location. At least initially, I will have self hypnosis MP3s available for download through that site.
I still need to figure out the technology for making my books and CDs available through this same storefront. I think that will take some more doing. It is not easy to forward orders to another site using that technology.
In addition to the business-related work, I started the outplacement workshop that Boston Scientific provides for RIF-ees. So far I'm pretty impressed. They provide you with a personal coach, and are flexible enough to facilitate an entrepreneurial or active retirement approach as well as the more traditional route of simply finding another job in the same field.
So the pace continues. Life goes on, building the business and dealing with all of the former day-job-related residuals. Its a time of progress - and for better or for worse, a few breaks as well.
Just after New Years day, my mom passed away, unexpectedly. She had been ill for only a day or two. It really came on fast, and was quite a surprise to all of us. It's hard to say goodbye to the woman who brought me into this world, and who cared for me all through childhood. I will miss a lot.
Meanwhile, as a result, I spent most of last week in Madison with the family, helping out with funeral details and other items, as well. Now, hopefully life will settle out - at least regarding family stuff. I sure hope things are quieter now.
My last post (just a short time ago) talks about my newsletter. That's now ready to roll, as well. I also got a draft of my book ready for review (a friend of mine already found some oops's in it). So once I get the feedback from her, I can update it and send it out to the next set of reviewers. Hopefully it's closing in on being ready to start querying again.
The next task is to get my storefront going. Currently, I am simply linking to my lulu.com storefront. Unfortunately, Lulu.com discontinued selling CDs. So I need to find a different storefront for those. My current plan is to use the Coffeecup.com shopping cart designer/creator program to build a new storefront and store it on my website location. At least initially, I will have self hypnosis MP3s available for download through that site.
I still need to figure out the technology for making my books and CDs available through this same storefront. I think that will take some more doing. It is not easy to forward orders to another site using that technology.
In addition to the business-related work, I started the outplacement workshop that Boston Scientific provides for RIF-ees. So far I'm pretty impressed. They provide you with a personal coach, and are flexible enough to facilitate an entrepreneurial or active retirement approach as well as the more traditional route of simply finding another job in the same field.
So the pace continues. Life goes on, building the business and dealing with all of the former day-job-related residuals. Its a time of progress - and for better or for worse, a few breaks as well.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
News from the Bridge is ready to roll
I finally finished up my newsletter today and uploaded the full articles to my website. I posted a message on Facebook with the link to my signup form for my e-mail list.
For those who read this blog but haven't seen that posting, here is the link to join my e-mail list. I plan to send it out late tomorrow, after people have had a chance to confirm their selection (it's a double opt-in, meaning you will get an e-mail with a link to confirm that you actually intended to join the list).
For those who read this blog but haven't seen that posting, here is the link to join my e-mail list. I plan to send it out late tomorrow, after people have had a chance to confirm their selection (it's a double opt-in, meaning you will get an e-mail with a link to confirm that you actually intended to join the list).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)