Huh? You do all what? Breathe, bake brownies, and sit at your keyboard wondering aloud about Klaus?

EXTRA CREDIT

In the expression topsy-turvy, what exactly is meant by turvy?

Are you sure that is all?

You tell me.

I’m not the one doing the ‘thinking’ here for others. That would be G, or gyanama, or a whole host of other screen name’s occupation. If you hang around long enough, you’ll meet her in one of her many incarnations on the board.

As for what you should do next? Breathe? Bake brownies? Give your love to Klaus?

make a list. 🙂

As “luck” would have it, after reading your posts earlier this morning I went to another site I frequent and found this post by a participant named- zendancer. He writes from a balanced perspective, always with an eye on the larger canvas of life, and I felt you might be interested. Or not. I found the synchronicity of this post, when contrasted with your recent offerings, poignant. You can find other posts of his at http://www.spiritualteachers.proboards.com

As for the tricky ego, Chogyam Trumpa Rinpoche many years ago wrote a delightful little book about this subject titled “Spiritual Materialism” detailing all the tricky ways that ego tries to hide from itself while pursuing spirituality. The hiding becomes more and more subtle as one “progresses.” The person who gives up the material world in search of truth frequently becomes spiritually materialistic and thinks he/she has attained something superior. This is the “holier than thou” syndrome exhibited by many ‘true believers.’ Alan Watts used to make fun of missionary behavior that he summarized as COS (cringe or starve), in which “the heathen” had to act correctly in order to be rewarded by the spiritually superior missionaries. Behind all missionary work lies the unspoken words, “I own the truth, and I am here to save you.” The sage, by contrast, doesn’t try to save anyone.

How is the sneaky ego defeated? It isn’t. It simply dies on the vine as attention is re-directed to the actual.

Peace…

The westward expansion of this country was accomplished on the backs of exploited Chinese immigrant labor who built the railroads. Hispanics were allowed into this country to toil for little or no money to work as migrant farm workers. Blacks were shanghai’d and transported from their homes and families, sold, and allowed to work as slaves, and after abolition, in jobs which paid nothing and deteriorated their health. Which in and of itself is another form of slavery. It’s still true to this day. On a worldwide scale, the truths just expressed are the microcosm of the macrocosm. But God is on the side of the righteous two-percent of the world’s population who have fashioned a nightmare scenario for the peoples of this earth. It all began with the alteration of an image, and a complete makeover of a body of work which a lot of, not all, white people appear to be in denial about. Take a good look around the world, and then take a good look in the mirror. Uranium tipped weaponry, with scriptural injunctions below the sighting mechanism? Indeed.

God’s plan? Deepak is misinformed? I hardly think so.

It’s amazing the avenues which can be traveled, and justified, through the manipulation of truth.

Were I you, I’d re-‘think’ the deer incident.

Well a few of us here have agreed that this site is not going anywhere good…So keep with your bat man stories Deepak and son….

The travel alarm went off around 9pm, so I quickly showered, then grabbed a bite to eat. It was now approaching ten o’clock as I pulled into the fueling area to top off the tanks. I recall thinking to myself about the route I was going to take while fueling, and checking the tires on all 18 wheels, hoping my math was correct with regard to the estimated time of arrival. Driving at night is always easier for truckers. The roads haven’t that much traffic on them after midnight, and as a result the law enforcement guys have a tendency to look the other way with regard to enforcing the speed limit. The automatic fuel shut off on the pump loudly shut off in that moment, and as I tightened the fuel caps I determined the route chosen would get the load there on time. I then climbed up on the tractor to clean off my “office window,” and upon finishing, keyed the ignition to start out on the trek to, Dayton.

It was a cloudy, moonless mid-November evening as I headed down U.S. 23, and the trusty Timex Indiglo was now showing 10:45pm. I gave the accelerator pedal a rather firm push until the speedometer reached 60mph, set the cruise control with a flick of the switch, and began settling into a more comfortable position to drive. The rig felt light that evening because, well, it was. An 18 wheeler with a sleeper weighs about 32,000 lbs, and I was carrying maybe 3,000 lbs. of styrofoam framed in 2×4 lumber. Fully loaded, as I was the night before coming out of Ohio, a tractor-trailer will weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 to 80,000 lbs.. In that moment I saw a vehicle in the driver-side mirror with headlights blazing, and five amber lights on its roof, and the cb radio startled cracklin’. “Good evenin’ thar good buddy. Whar ya’ headed?” I responded with a “How do, big truck? We’re off to, Dayton, how ’bout you?..” The radio crackled again with a response of, “Tipp City, O-HI-O. I got your backdoor, big truck.” I now had a runnin’ partner for the rest of the night, and down the road we went justa jabberin’. 🙂

We both navigated the highway around Ann Arbor fairly easily. The traffic was light, and soon the lights of the city could be seen twinkling in the mirrors behind us, then disappearing, and I noticed the highway ahead about a half mile ahead had a big, winding curve in it. Plenty of yellow warning signs with arrows were indicating this was so, and I geared down accordingly to help keep the rig under control. Halfway through it I was doing 45mph, and flicked on the brights as the curve continued to unfold. It was in this moment that I saw them. Three deer standing in my lane, just beyond the approaching overpass. I started braking and downshifting, which is rather loud with an engine brake, and these deer were still just standing around ahead of me. Before I could get down to 8th gear, all the while braking, I was maybe 25 yards from them. All I could do at that point was hang on to the steering wheel and prepare for the impact. It never came. I looked in both side views and there were no deer on the road behind me. The cb startled cracklin’ again , and my escort started shouting, “Damn! Did you just see those deer go tearin’ ass in front of us?” I said, “Yes, and I don’t know how I missed them…”

I didn’t, either. It took a few miles before my heart stopped racing. Truck-deer accidents are pretty common. I remember feeling grateful, and silently speaking a prayer that the rest of the trip would not have any more intense moments like that one. We soon after crossed the Michigan/Ohio border, but it wouldn’t be until just north of Bowling Green that I set the cruise control, after much cajoling from the trucker on the radio, at 70mph to continue our trip south. We stopped at a truck stop in Findlay for a cup of coffee around 2:30-3am. I asked the other trucker if he wanted to take the lead as we headed out, and he said he would. I just needed a change of scenery through the windshield. tailights would do. I’m happy to say the rest of the trip went well from there, we enjoyed a great conversation before he turned off the Interstate just north of Dayton, and I was able to make my delivery time as a result, pulling into their loading docks at 6:45 am. I don’t believe I have ever seen so many fellas as happy as they were to see my truck arrive. They were all coming up to me and saying, “Thank you,” and, Glad to see you this morning,! and other greetings. As it turned out, I learned dock foreman that had I not arrived at the appointed time these people would have been layed-off until after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. There was another round of handshakes, smiles, thank-you’s, and holiday wishes after the truck was quickly unloaded. I again keyed the ignition, put the truck in gear, and the truck trundled off through the loading/unloading yard. I had to make a phone call to go find my next load, meditate, and get some sleep. I pretty much understood, as I glanced one final time at the driver’s side view mirror at the guys on the dock, how I had missed those three deer on a sweeping curve just south of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

No need to analyze it, or validate it, or put an entirely different spin on it in any sort of grandiose way. I’ve since learned that’s G’s calling, Thank God!!

Your writing is so garbled in your last two posts that I cannot make heads or tails of it.

Are you in a dither about something?

God is the only substance and good is my conditioning and I will keep it that way forever…

And being earthy is not what I consider being angry or swearing to other individuals. Your opinions you are entitled to K, but they aren’t one’s I am much interested in when they get vulgar….It just that simple, I prefer my poof cloud to your earthiness and that is just the way it is…

God is All…And All is Good….and that is just the way it is…..

My Universe of of a different kind: the female which is Universal whether black or white!!

To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else. I believe these words were spoken by the Dalai Lama. So relax. It’s not the end of the world. Much to be learned on this journey. Time is the movement of thought, and you’ve made your thoughts more than clear. Hopefully you’ve been paying attention.

Yes there is much to understand, and as we understand, nothing is asked of us, nothing ever was asked of us…Who is us?

God is being God….

PS..and if you think God is a person, do you think also that God is enamored with your swearing? Do you think because God is nothing that entitles anyone to be unkind? Think again my friend….take responsibility K for your individuality, and don’t blame God because you understand God yet…

Why stand aghast at nothing and be in awe of God?

I really don’t see a need for this response based on what I shared.

I’m sure God isn’t all that enamored with the repetitive references to what It is, and etc. I say that because I hardly feel that God has a needy, narcissistic inclination based on repetitiveness as the measuring device to determine the worth of one’s understanding and adoration. There is simply so much more for us all to understand about Life, and what is being asked of us.

“In the beginning there was nothing and God said “Let there be light,” and there was still nothing but everybody thought for sure that they could see and feel something.” -anonymous mystic

You can’t steal an identity, because there is only one identity…

Whatever we imagine, it is not we who imagine it….The only image is God’s image…

I have also imagined one while sitting in a chair and reading a book, and a deer has been introduced into the story. Does this mean that once the storybook deer has been introduced and accepted as part of said story, that I will become somehow entangled with it by setting the book down, walking outdoors, and seeing a deer in the yard? Of course not. Does the possibility exist within the amplitude of a probability? Does it matter?

I even slow down in the daylight hours during the late waning, and early waxing phases of the moon. Maybe I’ll even quietly speak a little prayer in the spirit of St. Francis while turning the key in the ignition. Deer rarely travel alone. Fencepost wisdom

Another one talked dogs – meant only dogs…

And his or her ego was so important that it needed to make up a big theatrical performance about that little story and to attach itself as part of it and create a whole new reality.

Who really needs all that? You? I? Do not believe so.

The next morning we wake up – and there is nothing. There was nothing. Never was.

Or we may wake up a week later to find out it was all our imagination and projections. We lived for a week in a reality that was totally our own creation and no one else saw things the same way.

Reality check works wonders.

Or this- “So why did this deer run into me? Gentleness and harmlessness was hunting me…… Right after this happened I found myself un- emotional and just seemed to have no opinion about it anymore.” Emotion must have played a part to arrive at un- emotion.

You know what? Maybe it was just something as simple as- a deer ran out in front of you. They have a tendency to move about a whole lot more near the end of a waning moon cycle, and the beginning of a new moon cycle. It’s a rhythms of nature thing. The bad news is there are dead animals, of all kinds, littering the roadsides because humans aren’t as aware of these rhythms as they could be. There are options which can be employed during the “no moon” cycle….

I read your story. Kind of an interesting conclusion you came up with. What if you completely missed the point? What if the point of the exercise was more about locating where the feeling was in the body, and not getting involved in “what” the feeling was saying? It’s quite possible that witnessing the feeling’s location in the body bypasses the inner mental chatter that keeps such feelings alive.

Rationalizing is a story, too.

Dylan being a born-again is old news. He’s never gone out of his way to offend anyone with it, and he certainly does not proselytize about it. I guarantee he does not invest in Haliburton, nor Raytheon, Royal Dutch Shell, or BP.

Seriously. Out of all the lyrics in the song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” that one verse was the only one which held any kind of meaning for you?

Are you even aware that Dylan wanted to join Little Richard’s band out of high school? Analyze that.

WHY?

I can see you have no problem typing with a foot in your mouth.

I knew a guy who was with a German woman for a while and thought that Germans are the most superior nation in the world. Then he switched to a Russian lady and believed that Leo Tolstoy is his spiritual teacher. Later he switched to East Indian woman and the whole world had the flavor of Indian chuttney and there was a statue of Shiva in his house. I have lost track of him. I do not know what happened to him. I am sure you are not like him. No spine. No direction to call home.

You know. Home is in the heart. No where else. No wars and no divisions are known there.

Recurring theme?

The woman I am with has indigenous American blood coursing through her veins. She also speaks quite a different set of insights than you.

The driving force behind any war is ignorance of one’s own self. Any human being could justify any act under that spell.

By the way, are you indigenous?

As “luck” would have it, I live in a very Christian-conservative area. I can assure everyone reading this that these people are out of their gourds.

As for the white part of my life, yes, I fully acknowledge that we make up 2% of the planet’s population- which uses 40% of its resources. And those resources are dwindling fast. Now, the Christian conservatives will justify it by saying that we are a “right-of-center” nation, which is some kind of code for saying- stay the course.

To me it means- Same shit, different day.

I’ll be passing this piece of writing on to people I know, for sure. It’s a truthful mirror to look into, for a change.

No deep wisdom there either…

JUST BEING

Mick, Deepak was addressing specifics. I think there is a place for specifics as well as for the more general principles you mentioned. Sometimes bringing attention to specifics is needed.

Rumi and Lawrence, thanks for the beautiful poems.

Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them.

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.