Every Kid Needs A Tractor.

 There is a certain meditative solstice that accompanies mowing of a nice lawn.  The tractor makes a humming that can put the mind in an altered state of consciousness.  When hearing protection is applied the engine sound becomes a quieter roar.  This roar brings the operator into a meditative mind which gives the meditator calmness and answers to mysterious questions.  Questions of the like, "What kind of pattern should I drive into the lawn today?  Important subjects like that.

While riding the tractor around the yard my ear buds are entertaining me and educating me with the wisdom of Sadhguru, an Indian mystic and yogi who's teachings and books have been read and absorbed world wide by millions of readers and listeners.  He is both entertaining and humorous.  His light whited take on the world can amuse as well as enlighten.  He matches well with the droning of the lawn tractor engine.  

Having the ability to attain an altered state within a breath or two is a plus while mowing the lawn and listening to Sadhguru.  The patterns of the lawn become the simple man's mandala.  Tracing and retracing the patterns in a rhythmic course puts the mind, that is not my mind, in connection with the celestial everything.  Connection with nature brings us closer to who we are.  Even if it's just my yard.

Every kid, me included, should have a tractor to drive around a yard.  A good set of earplugs is a must to protect from excess noise as well as entertain, and bringing the creative juices to bear in the mowed patterns of intellect can bring the kid in us all closer to the adult that we are.  Balance is achieved, and the lawn looks good to...

Peace and Balance,

John

    

Silence

 Sitting still and remaining silent can open paths to your personal magic.  Learning how to listen without speaking is the beginning of gaining a certain amount of enlightenment.  Enlightenment comes in degrees, we can also call it, "Learning something new."  New things come to those who wait.  Waiting properly includes an amount of supreme silence.  That is Silence with the big S.  

Silence is a learned skill.  You don't just start being silent.  You must first learn how to quiet yourself.  Quietness is a by product of understanding the noise in your mind.  You can not quiet your mind totally.  Trying to can, if you let it, create madness.  Instead in your mind look at all the noise and remain quiet within your own alliterations about what your experiencing and thinking.  After you have learned to just, "Gaze" at your thoughts without judgment you will have started the process of being able to just sit and be Silent in an environment full of stimuli.  Let it flow over and wash you.  Remain silent and learn.

Practice, close your eyes and slightly gaze at the third eye, don't worry about wandering focus, and breath.  Breath in the nose, and out the mouth in a comfortable rhythmic pattern.  A little longer on the out breath than on the intake with a short stop at the top.   Just watch, feel, hear, and breath.  The Silence will come.

There is no judgement in this space, no other, just you.  Breath and be Silent.

And Learn.

Peace and Balance,

John  

From Out Of The Mouths Of Babes.

 Wisdom was once the product of age and experience.  People worked to gain experience and grew older telling each other stories of that work.  These stories get changed to fit the circumstances, and we call this wisdom.  

As we get a little older than just old, we might have a grandchild with us doing some task or job, that needs to be tended to.  During the progress of this experience you might make up a life story built around a work ethic and tell it to your grandchild.  This to is called wisdom.  Some of us get really good at the making up of stories thing and our stories get retold from generation to generation.  These generational stories eventually become the fables that are passed from one time to the next.   These fables become the foundations of our societies, these are our cultural heritage. 

Today wisdom pops up in the most unusual places.  A child might look into the eyes of a parent and say something randomly that sounds very much like the voice of a grandparent a generation before the birth of that child.  This type of wisdom after the amazement wears off, is titled as genetic wisdom.  We look at the child and call it genetic wisdom because we are having a hard time understanding the origin of the message.  Our children are being born with the stories of our grandparents preprogramed into their DNA. 

I read in a large important cultural book something that looked like this a long time ago, "From out of the mouths of babes shall come the wisdom of the ages."  Of course I am paraphrasing, but William Shakespeare may approve?  

When I speak to my own grandchildren I look them right in the eye, I smile at every word they speak, and I make sure that I am listening, really listening.  Because that big book, the one that guides cultures, gives it's own ageless wisdom.  "From out of the mouths of Babes."  Are we going to learn something, or are we going to ignore what should have been learned?

Peace and Balance,

John