convenience, plastic and the inner freedom fighter

"It's all the plastic, that is the problem."

"That's the symptom. What is the cause ?"

"Huh ???
What do you mean?
We need to deal with the plastic waste."

"Yes, we do.
BUT, what is the cause?"

"Too many bags, too much wrapping. "

"Take it up a few steps, go a few levels higher."

"You mean, why do we have so much plastic ?"

"Yes: Why do we ?"

"It's convenient, it's easy."

"Exactly. Not take it bit higher, where in ourselves is that coming from ?"

"Lazy."

Ernie nodded and looked at Arthur. Poured him some more Cinnamon tea and leaned back. "We are learning, the balance...."
He sighed.

row row row your boat.... life is but a dream.....

And then I woke up.... so glad it was just a dream.

But while you were IN the dream, you  felt it was the only reality ?

Yes. Sometimes I dream and I know it's a dream, but that's rare.

What if life is like that ?
What if we are in a dream, and when we die we 'wake up' ?

That's a strange idea, I don't know I believe it. 

I'm not saying it is TRUE, just imagine if it was like that. What would you feel ? How would life be different ? 

Nice, I think it would be nice. 

But hang on, wouldn't people want to die to wake up and go 'home' ?

I don't know. Maybe. 

For me I want to do stuff, achieve things. That's what keeps me here. 

Most people feel that I think. 

Hmm....yea.

It's an idea that pops up every now and then, but not in our culture.

Have you heard of the 'Dream of Akinosuke' ?

No. 

Lafacadio Hearn, the Japanologist wrote it, over a hundred years ago now. 

But isn't that just a nice fairy tale ? 

What is ? 

Going home, waking up and being in a more real beautiful place ? 

You mean it's too easy, too simple and not "tough enough?" 

Kind of yes. 

Sure, if "you want it darker" go for it   :-) 

No, I want to know the truth. 

Sure, we all do. 

But imagine this: a universe where you experience whatever you believe. 

Your truths will always be confirmed. 

Ha ha... now that would be interesting. 

But who's to know ? 

You can't 'know' with your mind, you can play with  the idea in your imagination. 

Hmm.....

Well that's my way anyway. 

If you want double blind six sigma proof for everything, feel free, be my guest, enjoy that you universe :-P 

Designed to hurt

I fell the other day, it took me months to heal.

One piece of metal from a bomb, hurt my friend, he took 10 years to recover.

The world creates more and more weapons, designed to hurt, kill, maim, injure other humans.
Why ?

To ensure peace !

How do weapons ensure peace ?

Simple: "be good or we shoot you."

Oh!

But it does not work.

No it doesn't.

So why do we continue ?
We think that one day we'll get it right.
One day we will have the power to ensure peace and keep the 'bad guys' out.
And then it's safe to be happy.

We'll just turn on each other then.

Yes.

So why ?

There's a better question.
Let me give you a hint: As within, so without, as above to below.

You mean there is war within us ?

Isn't there ?

Where ?

Where do you tell yourself "Be good  or I'll shoot you ?"

I don't understand.

You feel the truth, can you say it ? can you do it ?

No, I push it away. I behave as I'm expected to. I create an "oppressed people" within myself.

Exactly.
It starts within each of us.
You can create peace, by starting within yourself.

I want to work for peace in the world directly.

Of course.
But it's very easy to "fight for peace", and you end up creating another fight, another duality.

What do you mean "duality" ?

Either or. --  Win Lose. --- Right wrong.

But some things are right and others are wrong.

Yes.
So it seems.

Not seem, it IS that way.

Try replacing 'bad' with "not yet good"
Try replacing every authority with "student learning his/her lessons...."
Tell me what the difference is,....
See you next week. ;-)

Matta, neh.... Next week.....

Go your own way, all else is straying' - mindfulness HOW, WHAT?

"I am sick of it!" everyone gives me a different explanation."
Orion looked at Arthur, refilled his cup and sipped hot cinnamon tea.
"Everyone is different," he said.
Arthur looked at the master in frustration.
"Yes, everyone is different," he repeated, and that's why everyone gives a different explanation for 'mindfulness?'"
"Yes," Orion watched his visitor.
They sat in his cave in the great Oriander cliff,   outside windriders circled in the breeze coming in from Umi-Jabour, the great desert, created by the technocrats over three thousand years ago.
"But they all say their definition is the only way."
Orion shrugged, sipped tea, and watched  the sea of sand, the circling windriders.
"Learning to walk, no one can do it for you. Once you can do it, it's easy and you are the expert."
Arthur chuckled, "yes, that's true, So what do I do ?"
"Keep learning."
Arthur took a deep breath, "How did you learn to walk ?"
Orion shook his head, smiled his upside down smile, "I tried and tried."
Orion glanced at the small picture of his teacher the back of the cave, "my master told me to feel the ground, to listen to the sounds around me ....and I listened and I followed. And I became more and more heavy and  focussed on the physical world. It didn't help me, didn't work for me.. I thought it was my fault."
He smiled, "but one day I saw. My master was teaching me what had worked for him. He needed that way, but it didn't work for me."
Orion drank from his cup, poured some more from his teapot and leaned back.
"So what worked for you master?"
Orion shook his head, "so you can copy my path ? Don't."
Arthur smiled, "I guess, yes, sort of, I want to hear your story,  I need to try something."
Orion nodded, "I to copy someone until I realized it wouldn't work for me.
Then  I tried something else."
"What ? "
Orion smiled, shrugged, "so you can walk my path ? Ok do it, if you like. But let it go one day and do YOUR thing, 'Go your own way, all else is straying'." 
Arthur nodded slowly, "Tell me more, please."
Orion sighed, smiled, " ..- you will tell your students the same thing one day.
I played with my awareness:  I realized how much I was focused out of myself.
I decided to feel, to become  aware of my feelings, my breath at the SAME time as I lived my daily life."
"Oh," Arthur looked disappointed.
Orion took a small rock from a pile on his right side, looked at it and threw it out of the open cave. It would fall three hundred yards. He listened for the impact, but the whistling of the windriders, and the  sounds of the wind rushing  from the Sea of Sand, smothered it.

He looked at Arthur: "as you listen to me, as you  look at me, at the SAME time, feel inside,  FEEL, -- what do you feel ?"
Arthur was silent for a while.
"Terror. It feels bad."
"Yes, that's the first gate."
"Oh."
Orion smiled.
"What's the second?"
A wry grin was the answer.
A keen cry from the outside brought their attention to the windrider soaring past their cave. The wings of her glider almost scraped the rock.
Arthur rushed to look up, watch and resumed his place on the cushion.
"She made it, only just."
Orion nodded.
"You knew?"
"No..." Orion stood up, walked to the very edge of the cave, looked down, the three hundred yards. "If you like to try something: imagine what your goal will be, feel it, let the images talk to you... " he turned and looked at Arthur with a crooked smile, "I've probably said to much already".

.....to be continued......->

The Windriders' meditation - 2

"I tried it!" 
Orion nodded, pushed a cup of hot cinnamon tea and cloves across the table towards Elantha and looked at her without seeing her. If she was accepted by the guild, life as windrider was perilous, lonely and set apart from others. 
"a beginning..." Orion said and smiled, the corners of his mouth going down.
The cave in which they sat was carved into the face of the great Oriander cliff,  running for thousands of miles east to west. Windriders practiced in the breeze coming in from the desert, circling and driving like giant birds. 

She had asked for his help, 'but does she know what she is asking?' he asked himself. 
Yet, she had asked him.
"Yes, I know what I'm asking." 
Orion looked at her, surprised.
"Is it that obvious?"
She nodded, "master, you are like an open book."
Orion sighed, "I know, I know" 
"Windriders vanish, the desert takes them, it is lonely --- they are different."
"I know," she looked at him intensely, "I KNOW. I am different already."
Orion sighed, looked out at the great desert Umi-Jabour, the Sea of Sand, "let's get started. What do you do in your meditation?"
"Breathing in, breathing out, - awareness." 
"And ?"
"That's it."
"Does it bore you ?"
"Yes."
"Add to it then. Go deeper, play." 
"Is that ok ?"
"Is that ok ?" Orion let out a long breath of frustration, "of course! Who teaches you this fear ? ....your heart... let her speak..." he shook his head. 
"...a necklace of beads ?"
"Yes, that will do. Keep it dynamic, movement, and add to it the things you want it in your life..."
Elantha nodded, she was familiar with those ideas.
Orion looked at her for a little while, "you are practicing now?!"
"Yes," she smiled.
"You can keep it going while we talk ?"
She nodded.
"Good." 
"What's next ?"
"breath, intent, awareness, .... breath, intent, awareness...."
"breath, intent, awareness...." they repeated the last incantation together. 
"Flow with it, don't fix it." 
He smiled, and added, "that's all, that's it." 
"In that case, I'm sure there is more to it," she smiled a challenge at Orion.
She was determined, she was older than any who had joined the windriders, and she was of the Aesinth, a people with all black eyes, no whites. They had unpredictable abilities. 
Orion, poured himself another brew of tea, from a pot he made for himself, the scent of cinnamon and cloves was very strong.
"Please let me try that?"
He poured a little in a cup for her. 
She wouldn't like it.
Elantha took it, drank, said nothing as she watched the circling windriders. 
Her face broke out into bright smile, she nodded, pushed her cup back to Orion. 
He filled it. 
"What is the next step?"
Orion remained silent. 
There was only the sound of the wind soughing up the cliff, three hundred yards up, over countless cave openings like Orions. 
They sat in silence for an hour. 
Meditating. 
In a voice barely audible above the wind, Orion spoke, "follow the heart lines of intent," he looked at her, "always".
Elantha closed her eyes. 
An hour passed.