"You teach best what you most need to learn" (quoted from "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach). It is self-obvious why I would open with a quote like this, yes? Our ability to laugh at ourselves---especially at the revelations of our own foolishnesses--- is far more valuable than we usually realize…
I share with you a seemingly small success…. that since my recent waterfast I have not consumed any form of salt or oil (excepting what is found within the whole raw foods themselves) or any spices. This is a big deal for my body---in particular for my liver---and each day that I keep making the choice to continue in this direction I am experiencing my liver strengthening AND the re-awakening of my taste buds on a much subtler level (and thereby discovering a new level of 'taste' ). Previous to fasting I had been using a fairly wide assortment of condiments regularly (for the taste--even though I knew they were not 'good for me').
I am viewing this shift as occurring within the larger context of a deepening and broadening sadhana. What I mean is that I don't think of sadhana as just meditation practice--- I think of it as all the practices I am committed to maintaining because of the experience that they are support to be the best version of David/Daud that I can envision.
Of course this includes meditation and the contemplation of written, video or audio satsang from various wisdom teachers, but it also includes dietary practices, regular physical yoga, daily musical and art practices, ahimsa and honesty practices, presence practices, karma yoga (self-less service), and sun-gazing. Looking back, my experience now is that the fast was a time of inner and outer cleansing and that through it I arrived at a new 'here'. The opportunity is to maintain that hereness and go forward from it. Clearly that means taking the opportunity seriously, which translates into being committed to the discipline of walking the talk. So I am seeing that sadhana (when stabilized) is 24/7/365 for life, and that its purpose is to swallow all arising duality with the Truth of the underlying Unity.
Why? To see what is possible. …? Some people climb the (physical) mountains 'because it is there'. I choose to climb the sadhana mountain to demonstrate (especially to myself) that I truly AM unlimited--free--infinite, and that All Good is possible. As a being of Love, I can think of no better use of the gift of life.
Synchronistically this week, I found myself reading an article by a longtime genius-level friend (David Rainoshek). The article was in large part based on Ken Wilbur's book A Theory of Everything, wherein is presented a psychologically valid 'narcissistic to selflessness' scale measuring both the evolution of individuals and the various social/political groupings that those differing evolutionary levels create. One of the points I found interesting was the assertion that each stage or level is a necessary precondition to it's subsequent growth beyond that level, i.e., 'the way out is through'. This parallels my personal experience (and I assume yours also) where I can look back at various past sub-periods of my life and recognize that I certainly was not then capable of being the quality of consciousness that is my normal state currently. Yet it seemed then to me that I was 'awake'… I certainly knew a lot of the correct language and I had a functional idea of what an enlightened being was 'supposed to look and act like'… yet the place my 'I' existed in was still primarily about a 'me', and 'my Self as all Others too' was not very experiential. In other words, compassion and empathy (among other things) were still deepening (and still are :-).
Also synchronistically this week, I enjoyed reading some of Adyashanti's book The Impact of Awakening. I say 'enjoyed', but what is more accurate is 'I blissed out' when reading it…. because that is the level of Self that I AM present to within this me-ness when reading the spontaneously uttered words of such an embodied master soul as Adya. Such words strike me as great poetry, for they strip away all pretenses of the ego and leave the Truth shining gloriously for any able to see to see it. By the way, Rumi uttered all his poetry completely spontaneously also (another significant little tidbit of information that showed up and when 'chunk!' inside me this week). Of course this would be so, as a clear sign that 'nobody is home' (meaning 'as an ego') is the ability of the Awakened to allow such beauty to arise through them with no attempt to control, limit, alter, or claim it as personal.
Given that demonstration, it is interesting to consider whether anything is actually really 'personal'. On certain levels of awareness that David Rainoshek's article described, the question would be viewed as insane, because of course most people have the experience of themselves as being a person, which makes nearly everything personal. But at the level of true holistic awareness, there is clearly available a choice about all that. There is 'being AND non-being'. This is not the same as 'dead or alive', by the way. It is more about whether in the moment we are functionally choosing 'personally' or 'cosmically'. Ram Dass once commented that on the path it was necessary to have a fluency in this… to be able to operate at the level of those you happen to be around (otherwise they tend to lock you up somewhere). But while we are out in the world as cosmic actors pretending to be normal, let us not forget that our true mission is more like a sentinel… that we are the vanguard from which issues the call to higher levels of alertness. To not be viewed as crazy simply takes a mastery of the skills of communicating--- for anything can be made to make sense (even to the sleeping) if the approach is from within their dream. By the way, David Rainoshek's full article can be read at: http://davidrainoshek.com/2013/06/why-vegetarians-didnt-vote-for-george-w-bush-gwb/
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Segwaying to new-to-me sentinel issues, this week I also became aware for the first time of a 'new' environment danger that I recognize needs to be taken very seriously. It is all laid out in the video at the other end of this link ( http://lasthours.org/ ). By viewing you will be educated to the extinction-threatening impact of the global-warming triggered melting of huge amounts of methane currently laying frozen below our arctic seas and tundras. Please take the time to watch, and then pass this information on. Only if we, the sentinels, speak out… is there the possibility of the mass awakening needed to assist Gaia to thrive again.
Another tidbit of highly interesting news that found me this week was an email about the media-suppressed Nobel-winning science breakthroughs around reversing the aging process (which if widely known could seriously impact the cancer cartels). I received notice of this via an email list I am on from a somewhat controversial out of the box non-vegetarian MD named Al Sears (whom I have been following for some time due to our similar interests [even if approached differently]). The subject of his information is a tiny bit of genetic material "at the end of each DNA strand called a telomere. The length of these telomeres determines how young or old your cells act." In his email, Dr. Sears writes about the suppressed but proven technologies to reactivate the growth of telomeres (ie, get them to lengthen) which results in dramatic age and disease reversal. I have no way of sharing his email with you other than forwarding it (which I will do if you so request) but here is a link to one of his webpage articles on the subject. That should get you started, and of course you can then join his e-list if you wish. http://www.alsearsmd.com/2013/04/the-telomere-we-never-thought-it-would-be-this-simple/
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A brief family report…
Last summer while I was 'walkingabout', my Mother was in the 'time-shared' care of a brother and sister in the Pacific Northwest. As the summer waned, the consensus grew that at 88 (coupled with rapidly increasing physical and mental limitations) she could not safely live alone any longer in Yuma (even with the support of my usual come & go presence--ie, I'm usually here except for business trips) and because of that alternatives were actively investigated. The one most siblings envisioned as best was that she enter a Seattle-area assisted living facility very close to my youngest sister, and much was done to attempt to persuade her of this. As my fast ended, I discovered I was unprepared for this and found myself processing feelings of loss about it. Then I received a vision of how much happier she would be in Seattle with grandchildren and great-grandchildren near enough to visit, and I released my Mom to her new destiny and began looking at a lot of possible new choices for my own life. However, it was not to be a week later reversed itself. My Mother is not 'incompetent' and has a very strong will of her own---and she doesn't like 'the unknown'. Therefore, she would only agree to entering assisted living if it was here in Yuma (at the same facility that she'd lived in with my father for the last year of his life)… and so she will arrive here to enter it in a couple of days. And I and another sister (from Tucson) have spent the last several days preparing her apartment so that it is 'turn-key'… inclusive of all her personal mementos, photo albums, freshly laundered clothes, office fully set up and functional, pictures hung, frig stocked…. you get the picture. Thus, it is again…"transition time" for both she and I. I pray she adjusts well. I know several staff that loved her in the past are still there and are happy she is returning. I will visit her often, but of course, it will not be the same.
By being her onsite son for the three years since Dad passed, I have had the experience of sharing with my mother the last of her best years, and made it possible for her to have them in her own home. I am profoundly grateful for having been given this privilege. While with this change the tether between us is loosened somewhat, I am still on duty as 'the local family member'. There is a rightness about this and I am at peace.
OK, that is what I have for you this week… time to go finish off the prep at Mom's new home.
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