idenity

Some time ago I lead a workshop entitled, "identity."  I had drawn a neutered figure of a human being on a piece of paper: arms no hands, round face, no hair, nose,  eyes, ears, torso, legs no feet,  and gave each participant a copy.  I instructed them to write down every thing, in a column, that they believed identifies their selves' as "me."  A curious thing happened before the participants begin to write their identities down, many of them felt compelled to complete the neutered form by drawing in hair, eyes, nose, ears, lips, hands, and feet, according to their race and gender .  It seemed to me that they had a  personal need to fill in the blank spaces because they had already identified their selves' with that neuter form.  My next instruction was to take those identifying features, and select and place each feature under four categories: physical/material features, psychological/mental features, emotional/sensitivity features, and spiritual/religious features.  I advised them that they could change, add on or subtract, any of the identities of the four columns as they wished.  My next instruction was to rank each of the four classifications and their specific identifications in terms of their importance to them: either, high, medium, or low, and their accompanying feelings of either, happiness, joy or bliss.

What I was intending to do with all the above classifications is to awaken an awareness within the participants that their identifications make up a defining matrix for their living persona.  There are obvious questions that should be asked and answered within this identification process: "What is it about our identifications that allows us so incidentally, to attach them to our selves, and what is the process that makes it possible?"  The simple answer to both of these questions is, the processor is our mind.   Our minds are an essential piece of the unity of the cosmic technology that make up human beings.  Our minds are a highly sophisticated soft-ware implanted within our bodies.  Our minds are always on, 24/7, 365. and are subtle and fluid, moving quickly in and out, attaching to our memories-past, present, and projecting memories into would-a, could-a, should-a, stories. The ancient alchemists claimed that the most powerful qualities of mind are: will, imagination, and faith, and also added a qualifier, "desire" as the instigator.  Our mind is agile, flitting from one thing to another, seemingly beyond our conscious control, excuse the following pun, our mind seems to have a mind of its own.  Our mind is so frenetic because it is seeking, under a unrelenting cosmic urge, to find repose, and not just repose but total repose, total peace, total fulfillment.  This cosmic urge is built into the technology of all manifestation.

The mind is not an objective thing, but encompasses many functions, and  one of these functions is intelligence.  The mind's intelligence is qualified evolutionarily, to the dimension of the physical world.  It receives memories and sensations from the senses, and then asserts direction from our lived experiences. This part of our mind we call our intellect, and our intellect is built to dissect, to discriminate one thing from another.  Once your intellect identifies with something, you begin to move within the sphere of what has been identified.  Whatever you are identified with, all your thoughts and emotions evolve from that identification.  It is your identity that determines your intellect.  I can hear you saying to yourself, "What!!!!."  Our mind is usually considered on an equal par to our brain, however our brain is the physical computer, a desk-top, if you will, of the mind. The mind can bridge the physical dimension, and can exist naturally in the higher cosmic, or if you will, spiritual dimensions.

Our minds are the frenetic, primary culprit for our inability to bring it under our control.  The mind operating within the material plane can satisfactorily maneuver, with its quality of rationality, bringing a level of consciousness for survival. However, because of its lack of complete repose brings mostly suffering, stress, and anxiety to our lives.  St. Augustine is said to have said, para-phasing, "I can tell my finger to move and it responses, but when I command my mind to do something it has other ideas."  Those spiritual seekers who try to discipline their mind tell us "It is like lassoing the wind,"  Yet, as Yoda might say, "Difficult yes, impossible no."

So, the difficulty with controlling our mind is it's fleeting quality, its magnetic ability to identify itself with objects, ideas, senses, and emotions.   You maybe asking yourself,  is there a practice or an assortment of practices I can use to control my mind?  Let us take an example, you are driving with a friend, and suddenly a car passes you and cuts in front of you, nearly hitting your car. You become enraged, yelling and screaming.  Your friend tells you to take several deep breaths. You take the advice and almost magically you calm down, but it takes more time for your emotions to settle.  The seekers of mind control tell us that the mind follows the breath.  So, you can control your mind by using breathing techniques.  Seekers of mental control tell us that using a mantram is another practice to help control the mind.  A mantram or Holy Name, is a powerful spiritual formula which has the capacity to transform consciousness when it is repeated silently in the mind. The mantram works to steady the mind, and all those enflaming emotions and anxieties.  Select a mantram that appeals to you deeply. My mantram is "Father."  Another powerful practice that fits in with our mind control is meditation.  Meditation is the most powerful practice for control of your mind.  Essentially, you sit quietly with yourself, paying attention to your breath, going in, and going out.  Some Zen Masters are known to have sat for fifteen hours or more, and some gurus have sat for days.  

Let us bring the discussion back to identity, and tie it into the elements of the above.  Our lives dwell within the dominant, evolutionary period of our current material world.  We perceive the objectivity of this world as unqualified truth, and fix our intellect and rational around identifying with specific objects that fit in with our perception of ourselves: body, gender, family, qualifications, society, race, creed, community, nation. etc.  Our perception originates from our intellect which is rationalized
by dissecting one thing from another, and then making a judgment which is the more valuable.  This judgment process brings in a certain amount of prejudice, because it functions from limited data derived from our discrinatory intellect.  So, each feature of your identity is a choice made under the auspicious of most value or belief or opinion. 

At this point, you are identified with so many labels, and at the same time trying to employ practices for the control of your mind, a task which is too difficult.  Make your first goal to disencumber your intellect with your identifications, thus freeing you up to move naturally toward your ultimate nature. It seems that every human being has self hypnotized themselves into their own fixed boundaries, and believe they must live within the limitations of that reality.  If you can undo that hypnotism, your life will move from suffering to joy. You will become like a child again.

        
                             THE PLAY OF LIFE

As human beings living in our material world we constantly
move through a wave of conditions and circumstances.
Our lives seem to be constantly bombarded by them.  They
are the realm and environment in which we navigate. If we
are not prepared to deal with them they bring us suffering,
stress, and anxiety, a triple threat to our stability.

The conditions and circumstances are schools through which
we pass to invoke within us, knowledge which we can process
into a foundation of wisdom. And when our foundation is built
strong and sturdy, no amount of negativity can brake our
stability, we will remain "four square."

Stand forthright, my companions, with integrity and right action
inherit the bounty of your gained wisdom, and then share it with
all beings.

 
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the fault dear Burtes is not in our stars. But in ourselves.

As you move through your daily life, listen carefully to the words and to the kinds of experiences those with whom you associate are expressing.  You will probably hear about someone who was "let go" from a job in which he or she had accumulated many years of satisfactory service, and where the reason given by the company for termination was to "trim the fat."  You will probably hear someone who's medical coverage had a hidden technical exclusion for their particular illness, and found out about the exclusion only after incurring the expense. You will probably hear about someone who had fallen victim to a violent crime, murder, rape, or assault. You will probably hear cruel and debasing words directed at certain races, people with different sexual orientation and with different religious beliefs. You will probably hear words impregnated with emotions of disgust and unfulfilled rage coming from someone talking about the abandonment of the public trust by political leaders.  You will probably hear about schemes directed at employers, institutions, or relatives or friends for purposes of personal ambition, profit, or fulfillment of hatred, revenge, or jealously. You will probably hear stories of excesses of all matter of sexual debauchery.

After your listening, what conclusions could you draw about the general conditions of your associates.  One obvious conclusion is that the kinds of experiences your associates are expressing are of a low moral quality.  Another conclusion you could draw is that the frequency of low quality experiences seems to be very high among your associates.  These conclusions would probably not surprise you, but would serve only to reinforce what you have already intuitively suspected.  Your listening however, may have provided you a surprise.  It may have sparked an insight, that the problems of our nation and the problems perceived among your associates are common in essence and differ only along the lines of scale.  For instance, when you see race riots in our cities, and when you hear racial prejudice and hate coming from your own associates, you should then understand that the problems are not centered exclusively in our cities, but are also rooted in the hearts and minds of your acquaintances.  When you see and hear local, state, national politicians, governmental institutions, and business men and women, invested with the public trust and civil welfare, flagrantly disregard that trust for their own ambition, power, and profit, and when you see and hear your fellow employees scheming to cheat their employer, you should have understood that the problems are not contained within the circle of your acquaintances.  And there may even be a bigger surprise waiting for you when you take the measure of your own conduct and personal prejudices.  You should then understand that the problems are not exclusively centered with our nation, our own cities, our acquaintances, but are also rooted within your heart and mind.

In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar, the scene where Cassius is speaking to Brutes about Caesar's high renown as compared to their's, he says, "The fault dear Brutes is not in our stars.  But in ourselves, that we are underlings."  In like manner, the fault dear citizen is not in our governmental system, but in ourselves that, as a nation we are in grave trouble.

Little by little, generation after generation, we have been moving at an increasing pace away from the good of the Commonwealth, towards self-satisfaction, while at the same time rationalizing, that what is good for us as individuals must be good for the Commonwealth, and that our governmental system has an innate ability to automatically conduct itself towards the good of the Commonwealth.  Thus with our heads filled with self profit, material ambition and power, we have shamefully neglected our responsibilities as human beings and as citizens, by allowing our selfish impulses to dominate our minds, we corrupt and falsity those lofty and grand principles which corner-stone the organization and development of our nation.   Now in our false display of freedom, we give prizes and honors for every best thing: the fattest hog, best pie, the strongest man or woman, the best pornographic actor, and on and on.  While, proclaiming our nation's principles far and wide to be of the highest value, we allow vice under every form to flourish in every city and community.  We have become slaves to our own lower selves, to our own vices, to foolish social customs, and current cultural thinking.  This is a form of moral and mental decay of the most pernicious kind. The fault dear Citizen, is not with our system of government, but in ourselves; in our own hearts and mind.

"But!," you may protest, "I live a moral life.  I don't injure anyone; obey the laws, even recycle, and I know there are many others citizens just like me."  But! what did you do or say when a woman in your work place was sexually harassed?  How much time do you allow, apart from your "getting and spending," and your entertainment, for your children's physical, mental, and spiritual needs?  When you see or hear acts or words of racial prejudice what is your response?  "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing."  This statement by Edmund Burke. clearly portrays the weakness of the above protest.  Silence or the none action in the face of unethical acts or spoken prejudice by good men and women, even though they hold to ethical ideals, is an act of complicity.  What good are cherished ideals unspoken and undone?  Every citizen of America is responsible, either by overt thoughts and actions, or by silent complicity, for the moral degraded condition of our nation.  The fault dear Citizen is still in ourselves.

When as a nation we choose to focus the majority of our mental and psychic energy on selfish impulses the result is a repression of our moral conscience, and a corresponding weakening of our moral resistance.  We lose are ability and the strength to do what is right for the Commonwealth.  Under the influence of our selfish thoughts and conduct we see no urgent or compelling reason why we should do right, when "no one else is doing it," and when what is right conflicts with personsl profit, material ambition and power, and sensual satisfaction of all kinds.

Citizens. in order to bring harmony and truth to our nation we must unencumber our conscience, and begin to heed its voice.  Good men and women every where must speak out or act in the face of prejudicial words and unethical conduct, where ever, and with whom ever it appears.  We cannot allow silence or none-action, to be our answer.  We must cultivate, foster, and praise, maybe even give prizes for expressions of moral virtue.  We must expand our definition of our lives, to not only encompass our immediate community, but also the entire planetary community, and must learn to express and to live that new definition.  We are in truth, sons and daughters of the Cosmos, and as such are intricately involved and connected in a most primal manner.  As the poet, Frances Thomson says, "You cannot move a flower without troubling a star."  Hear is a corresponding piece of wisdom from Gandhi, "If you  seriously want to change something, become the change." 

We are not beings thrown haphazardly into the eternal expanse and there to dwell as worthless spects until physical death takes us, but are a complete living analogy of the entire Kosmos, a magnificent participant.  The same forces and qualities that uphold the Kosmos, uphold us; we in it, and it in us.  We are a microcosm of the macrocosm.  We straddle two distinct but unified and harmonized realms: the realm of space and timelessness and the realm of manifestation and time.  This unique position of ours grants wondrous potential, awesome enough even for the comprehension of the principles of the whole of Universal Nature.

Citizens, the fault still lies in our hearts and minds for the poor condition of our nation, but there also resides the remedy.  We can but look into our own reflections and inner consciousness to find that which will convince us that we are more than we seem.  Can you go out under the night sky or read a line of beautiful poetry, or listen to beautiful music, without being awakened to higher possibilities?  Cosmically, we are all  related, and cosmically none of us is ever over looked or forgotten in any situation from the most important to the most trivial.  There is a chamber of our hearts were we can begin to know our true Kosmic heritage, one that lies beyond mere color, race, gender, or creed, and the knowledge of which leads not to self-importance, but to great impersonality, balance, and unity.
 


        

   

my two cents again

I have written several blogs with the title "my two cents again."  It all started with my friend, Burke Rogers. We would be eating lunch in the school cafeteria, and he would say, "If what I had to say would be lessened to by the administration, here is what I would say, " then he would say to me what was on his mind.  In the tradition of Burke and I, this blog will be "my two cents" worth.

Within our being, where our memories are the effects of our desires and wants, all under the whimsical control of our mind, we tend to neglect the primary aspects of our lives.  The most damaging neglect coming from not  being aware of our relationship with our Mother Earth and our bodies. These two, 'taken for granite' parts of our being, are essential, without which we would not have a habitable place to live or a place to live within.  We are familiar with our earth and our body, but we have not thought it necessary to create a deeper relationship. There is a saying, "familiarity breeds contempt," but even worse, is neglect.  With us, and the earth and our body, it is usually "a one way street."

When we think of  "me" we certainly include our body as "me," but although we place our experiences  and sense memories within our body we only think of our body as an archive.  This sense and experiential memory archive we use as a foundation for our survival.  The poet Delmore Schwartz, wrote a poem called, "The Heavy  Bear Who Goes With Me," This poem will give you an idea how, more then a few humans, view their bodies.

       "The heavy bear who goes with me,
        A manifold honey to smear his face,
        Clumsy and lumbering here and there,
        The central ton of every place,
        The hungry beating brutish one
        In love with candy, anger, and sleep,
        Crazy factotum, disheveling all,
        Boxes his brother in the hate-ridden city...
        ...The scrimmage of appetite everywhere."

Our body however, is the ultimate technological system manifested on our earth. Think about it!  Our body is an intricate, multi-associative, unity of operative systems and qualities, under the directive of evolution,  balance and survival, impregnated by multilevels of  mind, intelligence, senses, and emotions; a full package!  Think about its involuntary control systems.  What if we had to operate our own heart beat, blood flow, nervous system, digestion system, we would kill ourselves in no time.  Think about the zillions of cells, bacteria, that are all coordinated using their special qualities to maintain general health, and how about our organs and glands, muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage.  Our body is like  your dog, always happy to see you and to please you, regardless of any mistreatment on your part.  Our body works over time trying to bring health back to balance, when the unstable mind fixates on our negative obsessions and compulsive behaviors, it responds with wagging its tail.  Our problem is that we view the ingredients which make up our body as commodities, used to accommodate our whims and  not as an organic part of our life process.

It is not surprising, that given the limited quality of our current awareness we have a similar relationship to our body as we do with Mother Earth.  The reality is that our earth, our "space ship earth," is our home, and we have a mutual responsibility for the well-being of both of us.  Our commodity view of earth is enhanced in that we believe that earth's primary purpose is to furnish us with our material needs; again, a one way street approach.  All the ancient and contemporary masters and sages that walked the earth, taught that the entire kosmos is united by life, and that you cannot disturb  a flower without disturbing the stars.  Life permeates all; the organic and inorganic.  Our earth is a being, and within the kosmic unity of all beings there is a symbiosis.  We see this relationship clearly playing out within our present time. We humans are presently, fearful, paranoid, stressed, anxiety ridden, all this extreme, negative energy, is vibrationally affecting earth's behaviors.  Mother Earth is sensitive to our negative behaviors and positive behaviors, however when she acts-out, on  her affected behaviors they are on a more extreme scale: extreme climate and weather events, deluge of rain and snow, tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, mud slides, floods.  Therefore, if we could bring our minds under only a slight control of our negative thoughts and actions, Mother Earth would in equal parts limit her affected behaviors. 

The path towards harmonizing with our body and Mother Earth, is to become more aware in an experiential manner.  That is, to bring awareness not merely from an intellectual perceptive, but from an inner consciousness perceptive.  For instance, watch your breath, see how your breath changes its breathing pattern in relation to your slightest movements.  As you use your consciousness to experience your body you will become intimate with its operations, bringing you to a greater unity  and consciousness with your body.  The same consciousness approach in transforming your relationship with your body, will work with transforming your relationship with Mother Earth.  To begin, bring your consciousness to bare on the cosmic truth that you and Mother Earth are created out of the same "star stuff," the only difference is that you are the micro being and earth is the macro being. Therefore, you both were created out of the same "stuff," making you off-spring; brother and sister.  As your consciousness expands towards knowing your body and Mother Earth, you will fine that the new joy and stability that you will realize will be beyond anything you could have imagined.
             




      

be true to yourseelf

Have you ever entered into an unfamiliar group of people, and felt that all of their eyes where upon you.  We are uncomfortably aware of ourself as an object of the observation of others.  We speak of this kind of feeling as "self-consciousness."  We say, 'I was so self-conscious, that I spilled the drink all over my clothing,'  In such a situation, you are aware of your every movement, every word, and measure and judge each and every expression.  You try to behave in a manner and style which imitates the behaviors of the current culture of the immediate group, even though your imitative behavior may be in direct opposition to your true character.  If you are not practiced at this kind of masquerade, you would probably stumble, stammer,  and generally act foolish, because would have substituted false sets of behaviors for those that are characteristic of you.  Simply, you would be "acting-out" behaviors based on ideas about which were determined by others.  In his poem, from an "Essay On Man," Alexander Pope, illuminates the cultural authority created by man, and suggests a view point upon which to discover man's true self worth.

        "Honor and shame from no condition rise
         Act well your part, there all honor lies.
         Fortune in men has some small difference made,
         One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade,
         The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned.
         "What differ more (you cry) than crown or cowl!"
         I'll tell you friend! a wise man and a fool,
         You'll find, if the monarch act the monk,
         
         Or, cobber-like, the parson will be drunk.
         Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow:
         The rest is all but leather or prunella."

The worth which Pope suggest that makes all the difference is self worth: an unbending motivation that only allows your unique human characteristics to be clearly and sincerely expressed.  This kind of expression integrates you with your contacted environment.  It creats a quality of expression that harmoniously resonates with all that is experienced.  It forms an integration and a truth, and when this kind of expression focuses on noble ideas, it results in complete joy.

Such a high degree of character and integrity is not an easy achievement  Usually, trouble occurs, when "cobber-like the parson will be drunk."   For instance, the young adult who is characteristically interested in helping others, but through some self induced delusion discounts his "soul character" as a weakness or flaw, and focuses his life on the accumulation of wealth and power over others.  Trouble can also occur under the influence of assumptions made by others.  For instance, the child who shows "soul=character" in drawing, and is influenced to focus his life on something more solid and materially beneficial, like accounting.  In both of these cases, the misdirected journey of these souls is in direct opposition to their soul character.  This is like the old story about the two ends of a worm fighting over which is the true head.  The two ends of the worm struggle so hard that they pull themselves apart.  Such is the way with human beings, when their lower part is allowed to vie for control  over their higher apart, they begin to fight and consequently pull themselves apart.

Keep this in mind, find your authentic interests, those that truly involve your whole being, and that can evolve you to ever higher levels of development; keep a vigilant eye, lest you be carried away, and at all costs, keep yourself whole.           

.
               
 

we are made of star stuff

    "We are made of star stuff" was a sentence made popular by Carl Sagan, a cosmologist, plus other scientific titles, who quoted it often during his discussions on T.V.  Carl's use of "star stuff" and its content meaning is not original.  Some where in my readings, I remember reading about a philosopher, I can  not recall his name, but was prior to Plato, who used the phrase "made of star stuff."  This reminds me of another saying, "There is nothing new under the sun," (Ecclesiastes 1;4-11), only revisions and variations of that which has already been said and done.  What keeps us from not seeing the relative united extension of all things in their variations is our fixation on singular objects as the only real truth. If we can touch, smell, see, hear, or taste it, it must be real.  However, even though our senses receive input on a multi-dimensional field, we consciously interpret only a fractional part.   For example, physics tells that the total known range of light waves is from far infrared at 3 millimeters, to vacuum ultraviolet, at .3 nanometers.  The average range of light waves visible to our vision, is from 400 to 700.  We therefore see only the smallest fraction of what is going on.  Yet, for most of us it is this closed-end type of perception that is used as a conceptual basis for establishing the parameters of our reality.  Our material perceptions are so dominant that we even squeeze into them elements considerably less materially substantial, such as gases and air.  For us the material plane is the most dominant and influential field of our conscious involvement.  All other more ethereal modes of perception are under minded because of our preoccupation with the material world.

Given the material, evolutionary period in which we now live and its conceptual limitations, using an exclusive material measuring stick for our world understanding will fall extremely short with regard to an overall, comprehensive understanding of the physical and metaphysical truth. Our world consists of realities superimposed upon realities, from the invisible to the visible.  In effect our world is a creative synthesis of these multiple realities, mosaically wrapped and networked, speck and star united within a system and process so vast, so subtle, and so intricate, as to defy definition. 

The poet William Wordsworth, in his poem, "The World Is Too Much With Us," admonishes us:
          
              The world is too much with us: late and soon,
              Getting and spending, we lay waist our power:
              Little we see in nature that is ours, ...
"Little we see in nature that is ours," and there my friends is our massive blind-spot.  We believe we know Nature, because we see, hear, smell, touch, and in ways taste it every day, so q.e.d.(it has been demonstrated), it is reality, period.  Our sense measuring stick is however, drastically misleading.  We are engineered, as well as is every manifest thing, animate or inanimate, by Universal Nature.  Our fault dear Brutus is not in our stars for understanding our higher self, but in our narrow quality of consciousness.  We are Nature, and  Nature.is us; no separation.  The same principles and elements that make us, also make the universe, the only distinction is it expresses itself in a hierarchical form.  There is an ancient Egyptian axiom that may help to explain what I am getting at, "as above so below, as below so above."  To further explain, lets use an analogy of a painter who has chosen a subject to paint, and has mentally developed a concept to model it after.  His mental conceptual subject is created on a higher, more ethereal plane, and his representation on a lower plane will lack a higher quality of representation because the painter must work with lower, energetic materials or dampened down, energetic materials.  So his painting, will not and cannot match his primary mental conception. 

You may be questioning, 'If I am made only of physical stuff with a dampened down consciousness, then who am I'?  This is a huge question impregnated with opportunities to evolve your consciousness.  Here is an example from my daughter, Nikki.  She is a writer also, and writes a blog, called thesoulreporter.wordpress.com, if you would be interested, and that she tells me that lately every thing she writes, recently seems like bull shit.  I told my daughter that she had a shift into a deeper, wider consciousness, which made everything she wrote previously seem shallow and confused.  Now, with our attention placed on the evolution of consciousness we are entering into the realm of spirituality.  We have left the material side of our life, the body and our mind, which primarily are concerned with our physical survival, and have entered into the metaphysical realm of life.  However, our motive is not to keep separate these two aspects of life, but to unify them.

Here in this metaphysical realm we originated from star stuff.  We are cosmic beings.  Pythagoras, (500 B.C.E.) called the vehicle seed which grew our physical bodies and minds, a "monad."  He explained the evolutionary growth of all material entities and beings by a model called,"tetraktys." Tetraktys are a symbol describing the cosmic elements and principles used to evolve all manifestation.  They are ten separates points placed in the form of an equilateral triangle, with the first point at the apex. and the two points underneath the one point, three points underneath the two, and four points underneath the  three.  Each point's position is a representation of cosmic elements and principles evolving the three dimensional material realm.  The highest principle producing the elementary, lower, chained principles, and so on and so forth down the chain of production for all manifest things.

In Plato's Dialogues, Symposium, Aristophanes, relates a story, which could be millions of years old, (I know that stretches my creditability, but just consider it),  concerning the form and characteristics of the beings that lived back then.  "Formerly the natural state of man was not what it is now, but quite different.  For at first there were three sexes, not two as at present, male and female, but also a third having both together; the name remains with us, but the thing is gone.  There was then a male and female sex and a name to match, sharing both male and female, and now there is nothing left but the title used in reproach,  (hermaphrodite).  Next, the shape of man was quote round, back and ribs passing about it in a circle; and he had four arms and an equal number of legs, and two faces on a round neck, exactly alike; there was one head with these two opposite faces, and four ears, and two privy members, and the rest as you might imagine from this.  They walked upright as now, in which ever direction they liked; and when they wanted to run fast, they rolled over and over on the ends of their eight limbs they had in those days, as our tumblers tumble now with their legs straight out.  And why there were three sexes, and shaped like this, was because the male was at first born of the sun, and the female of the earth and the common sex had something of the moon, which combines both male and female; their shape was round and they were round because they were like their parents.  They had terrible strength and force, and great were their ambitions; they attacked the gods, and what Homer said of Otos and Ephialtes is said of them, that they tried to climb into heaven intending to make war against the gods."

Our whole being is made of star stuff.  Our whole being, atom for atom, is intimately tangent and networked throughout the breath of the cosmos.  We are the same "stuff" molded from a cosmic matrix into one of the many possible forms.  In other words, we are the embodiment of the cosmos, and the same quality and the same conditions as those required to uphold the cosmos are essential to each of us.  Giordano Bruno, (who was put to death because of his views by the Catholic Church), a fifteenth century natural philosopher, explains our cosmic connection and relationship in the following:  "All things are in the Universe, and the Universe is in all things; we in it and it in us; and therefore, all things concur in perfect harmony."   He continued,  "All the differences that we see in bodies is in regard to their form, complexion, constitution, and other properties and relationships, which is nothing more than a different mode of the same substance, the unchangeable and eternal essence in which are all forms, constitutions and members, unmanifest and homogenous."  So in the whole Universe there is a certain relativity of its parts, irrespective of the exact measurement of any one of its forms.

We are as musical tones resonating in certain proportional vibrations to one another.  If we keep within the proportion we create benefit for all others and for ourselves.  If we violate this harmony in any manner, we bring injury to all others and to ourselves. 

parent child rerlationship

The birth of a child proceeds from a divine source.  When a child springs into life it has all Nature behind it, and the whole glory of the living Universe.  It begins its life not as a new creation, but as an old soul coming into this world out of the past having lived time and time and time again.  Thus there are endless possibilities in this new life; wisdom gained in ancient lives which may manifest itself at anytime during its new life-time. Yet at the same time, the newly reincarnated soul is closed in on all sides, held in by the physical and psychological influences of the age born into, and of the experiences and belief system of the parents. 

Parents are relatively inadequate when it comes to dealing with growing children.  If there are any spiritual problems affecting children at any time, it is likely the fault of the parents.  The parents do not err from lack of love, but from not viewing their children as souls.  Kahil Gibran, in his book, "The Prophet" reminds us:
                 ...Your children are not your children.
                    They are the sons and daughters of life's longing
                       for itself.
                    They come through you but not from you,
                    And though they are with you, yet they belong
                       not to you.

Nature never leaps in Her unfolding Drama of Evolution. She moves ever so gradually, building upon that which was previously built.  Human character follows this deliberate course of Nature, and does not change over night.  Consequently, even contrary to popular belief, children are no worse and no better then where their parents, and the same fundamental problems of human character that face their parents face them.  For instance, a child's mind is very susceptible to suggestion, and it is within this universal aspect of a child's character that all manner of problems can be spawned.  For example, a mother will often unconsciously fan the vanity of her small daughter by too much concentration on her outward appearance; flattering the outer self and personal pride, while stunting the impersonal dignity, which is the soul side.  These seeds sown in childhood, selfishness, vanity and false pride, blossom when the child becomes a young woman and leaves the protection of her home.  Though the outward beauty and charm may remain, the better part of the young woman's nature has receded because it found no place in her mind to work and grow.  The foes of her own household had conquered and occupied all her mentality, and she moves into danger.  The mother and daughter blame everyone but themselves because neither had been taught anything about her real nature or how to recognize and oppose the enemy within. 

Besides being susceptible to suggestion, a child loves the ideal, the beautiful, what strikes it as strong and grand.  This universal characteristic easily leads a child into hero-worship.  How many parents have witnessed the ease and accuracy of their child imitating the attitude and behavior of a person whom the child views, in some way, as a hero?  There isn't anything that fascinates the mind of a child so much as a striking example.

These insights into a child's fundamental character most probably, do not surprise anyone, for they are familiar characteristics and easily recognizable.  Given these widely recognized and understood characteristics of children, common sense says that the best practice in bringing up growing children is to set good examples. A striking example seen daily before a child's eye is worth years of talking, preaching, training, and years and years of reading books that are stuck under their nose.

Thus the best practice that parents can follow in bring up their children is to set good, sound examples of how to live. Usually parent's try the practice of preaching at their children, giving them brain-mind schemes to do this, and schemes to do that, all of which the child sees as, 'Do as I say, not as I do."  This kind of practice will only result in developing the same ethical inconsistences of the parents into the child.

Where should a parent set the good example?  It should be set in the home.  What examples should the parents set;? examples of courtesy and kindness.  Let the child see daily examples of unremitting kindness and courtesy at home.  What does that involve?  In involves self-control, and actual desire to be kindly and courteous to others.  This is a wonderful discipline which a child understands and admires, and these things are not forgotten.  In a home where there are lackadaisical conditions, small acts of selfishness, i.e. taking the easiest chair, better light, larger portions, a child becomes lackadaisical, unambitious to improve, discourteous to others because too lazy to be courteous.  Besides setting examples of kindness and courteous, parents should talk to their children as reasoning beings, and not as none-reasoning beings.  Bribing a child is an act which degrades its responsibility.  The child despises in its heart those actions that their parents do in order to win acquiescence.  What kind of love is the parent fostering by such actions?

Parents make your homes centers of kindness and courtesy, and your children will sense it, see it, and copy it, and they will learn as they copy, that it takes self-control to do it, to give up what I want in order to do a courteous act to others.  They will begin to see and feel that others have got the same feeling that they have, that others too admire kindness and courtesy, promoting the feeling of fellowship.  Than the old idea of children honoring their parents well become instinctive, born in the hearts and minds of your children, and not some obligation, duty or commend, because they have seen their parents honor, honor, respect, respect, and revere, reverence.   




 
    

cosmic urge

Years ago I had written a poem called, "Cosmic Urge."  Recently I have been contemplating this idea of cosmic urge.  I want to share with you the poem, and next revel the results of my current contemplation. 

              I am perpetually seeking for something that no amount of passion, food,
              wealth or power can satisfy. Does this urge of seeking satisfaction confirm my
              unexplained hunger? What is this thrust I feel that knows not quenching?
              Its seems that every attempt at satisfaction is inferior, and yet there is
             some little, unconscious glimmer of hope that there is an ultimate satisfaction. 
            
             Its that omnipresent urge that presses for satisfaction.  It seems an eternal cosmic
             force.  Maybe, satisfaction is reveled by surrendering to the urge and following
             its lead, like a wondering pilgrim moving towards the beckoning star, promising
             salvation, promising final liberation.

I believe that all of us have felt the force of this urge,  It shows its affect when we are inspired to do better, to win an Olympic Gold Medal, going from a 2.0 grade point  to a 3.0, moving from a business associate level, to a senior level, some of us are urged to clime Mount Everest.  What ever the urge towards our goal my be, we strive for fulfillment, and even failure may not stop our striving, so we pursue it over and over.  Once we reach the fulfillment of our urge we reap our reward, satisfaction, but we learn quickly that our satisfaction is only temporary.  We become disappointed, but we notice too that the urge remains with us.  We are compelled to keep on striving, seeking satisfaction.  It has not awakened within us, as yet, the understanding that this urge is a cosmic urge, a spiritual urge.  All the urges that emanate from our physical body are limited, meaning that what ever the satisfaction received it is only temporary, truly an unfulfilling and a disappointing life experience.  However, when the urge is directed towards the dimension of spirituality every striving is uplifted.  The whole dimension of spirituality is to grow beyond the physical, to taste something beyond the physical.

From where does this cosmic urge originate?  In my blog, "Infinite God" I wrote that within the composite that makes up our physical body there is a "god-spark" put there by the Supreme Spirit, although hidden by the physical limitations of the human body.  It is this "god-spark" that is the source of the cosmic urge.  It is the Supreme Spirit that calls us forth, urges us, to seek ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment, by acknowledging our heritage and inserting our self with our Source.