Introduction: Now And Zen The Story.

 

Let me tell you a story.  A story of wonder and fantasy, one where reality gives way and lets those things happen that are impossible and improbable, but exist non the less.  I will weave this tale in a shroud of fiction intermingled with fact.  It will be up to you the reader to determine which is which.  What is the truth verses the story.  Then you will have the tools to find your own story.

I will beg your forgiveness in advance if I write any words or ideas that push upon your belief structures or poke at your sensibilities making you feel uncomfortable or possibly mad as hell.  For this I apologize, sort of.  You might just be suffering from the twinges of truth tickling your inerts, deal with it.

I will use this blog to introduce this story.  Each day or so, I will write another short chapter or section  and let you judge; but be prepared, for as the saying goes, "beyond this door lies madness, and once that door is opened there is no going back."  This is the wonder of the journey.  Hang on and enjoy...

There is an old Chinese Curse that says, "May you live in interesting times." 

Peace and Balance,

John

  

I See It Too.

 

When you look into the sky and see something with your own eyes that doesn't make sense, when your mind can't make heads nor tails of what your eyes are seeing, then what you're seeing is unidentified, and flying, an Unidentified Flying Object.  

You can see these things with your eyes, but you still try to deny what you see.  You're not willing to accept what your own eyes are telling you.  You deny the existence of something that you can actually see.  This causes a disconnect and separates your mind and your body.  You become confused and border the realms of insanity.

There's a split, you see a thing, but refuse to accept that it is real.  Any good analyst would take that apart and charge you an ungodly amount of money to tell you that you're denying your own reality. Thus is the plight of the seer of things that the majority tells you doesn't exist.  Acceptance in these things is a big step in healing your understanding.  Let go, and believe...

So, when you look up into the sky and see those things that make you weep with wonder, accept them and welcome, you've just joined a larger universe.

Peace and Balance,

John

Vision Quest.

 Four days and four nights one sits alone on the summit of a chosen mountain waiting for a vision to come.  An animal to approach who is not an animal, but a harbinger of a message for only the one who waits.  A message that can change forever the course of the one who waits life, and death.

The waiting itself is not painless not peril-less, but a potential journey of danger and agony.  A spiritual trek that is designed to introduce the questor to their own potential and inevitable deaths.  The path teaches the seeker the truth about his/her end, which is the beginning.  This is the death and rebirth of the Shaman. 

It seems that walking to the top of a chosen mountain with nothing but a question and hope with the knowledge that survival may not be the highest reward, sounds a little insane.  But without this lack of sanity for this quest there can be no gift of power, only dark death.

At times one carries the quest, the vision, and the gift with themselves from one lifetime to the next and the next and so forth throughout the passage of time.  These people are the Bodhisattvas, the teachers of teachers.  Those who build the foundations of truth.

One who chooses the quest must prepare.  Become emotionally and spiritually ready for the journey.  Beyond this door awaits madness.  If ready then the answers will be given and the lessons learned, if not death and a lifetime of mental illness is equally willing to gain control.  The vision matters not for the stability of the seeker, only that it has been given.  

Four days and four nights one sits alone on the summit of a chosen mountain waiting for a vision to come.  Who will approach, the Bear, the Eagle, the Buffalo, or the Wolf, which direction will be followed?  Will any approach, the vision waits for all who seek.  Pass on the truth, teach your children well, and look ahead to glad tidings, Fear nothing.

Peace and Balance,

John

Zen And The Art Of Watching The Grass Grow

 Cha or Zen meditation as it is called in Japan involves concentrating on the breath, in the nose and out the mouth, and focusing on a Mantra or Kaon, either a repeated short phrase in which to focus the mental energies, or a paradoxical riddle to prove the inadequacy of logical reasoning and promote enlightenment.  The actual definition of enlightenment is fluid as is the actual understanding of Zen.  

There is an old song about, "Watching the Grass Grow", by an obscure British band from the 80's called, "Hawkwind".  The lyrics of the song are very Zen like, however the bands performance of their music isn't up to my standards, they suck.  Here are the lyrics of the first stanza:  

We are the survivors

The eternal survivors

Androgynous energies 

Traveling through time...

Zen Meditation involves focusing on the breath, and giving your mind a puzzle or question to ponder as you breath.  The combination of the breathing and the riddle can lead the meditator to an enlightened state freeing the mind from the body allowing the practitioner to separate the delusion from reality.  

The old adage about moving slow enough to watch the grass grow is itself a riddle and gives the Zen kaon purpose.  Sitting and Breathing in the nose, out the mouth, deeply and rhythmically, while pondering the Mantra, "We are the survivors, The eternal survivors, Androgynous energies, Traveling through time, while gazing about 45 degrees downwardly at the lawn with the intention of actually watching the grass grow.  Breath, repeat, and Gaze, do you see it moving?

Peace and Balance,

John

Shifty Paradigms.

 I wonder sometimes what the world would be like if there were some small changes and shifts in the standard paradigm.  How would the interactions between people and possibly governments be like.  Would we fall into permanent Chaos, or would the universe balance and become more stable?  I wonder...

What would things be like if the burger was called the. "Medium Mike" instead of the "Big Mac?"   Just think of it, 2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions all on a sesame seed bun.  The "Medium Mike" might have all the same ingredients, but be on a plain bun or regular toast. instead.  

What if MacDonald's was called MacDougal's instead?  Would there be any Special Sauce, would fries be served with everything?  I can envision MacDonald's Onion Rings in place of the Fries. The possibilities are maddening.  

What if "Burger King" was called "Crusty Lord?"  The quarter pounder might end up as a toasted cheese sandwich. A quarter pound of melted cheese on a toasted bun, wait that's actually a MacDonald's thing in Taiwan, it's called the, "Real Cheese Burger."  To be honest doesn't sound as appetizing as it could be. 

What if, "Superman" was called, "Mediocre Man?"  The Man of Aluminum, able to leap small grass huts in a couple hops.  Faster than a speeding turtle.  This could turn into an addiction.  I should stop now,  but you get the gist, the universe could fold in on itself.  

Maybe it's best just to leave things as they lay.  I don't think I could handle a, "Cat Man"  anyways.  

Peace and Balance,

John

Shangri-La

 In the heart of Kunlun, in the mountains of Tibet, the Great Himalia hide Shangri-La who's streets are paved with gold and monks practice sacred dances upon every rising sun.  There is no war here, no fear, only peace.  However, in order to know peace there has to be a memory of chaos to give peace an understanding.

Traveling to Shangri-La may have it's hazards however.  Once we arrive are we going to be set free?  Interesting choice of words I know, but logic tells me that once we've found Nirvana there is no going back, and traveling to Shangri-La may be a self imposed prison. 

A close friend told me once that in matters of enlightenment when you open that door the door disappears and there is no going back.  Sort of like saying that once you learn something there is never unlearning it.  When you walk the streets of Shangri-La can you un-walk the streets?  How would you forget golden streets?

The heart of Kunlun, in the mountains of Tibet, the Himalia hide Shangri-La the mystical city of peace, wonder, and enlightenment.  Where Nirvana can be attained but never escaped and the monks become the keepers.  Is this where you want to be? 

I only partially stole this idea from, "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton.  Is it an experience or is it a myth?

Peace and Balance,

John

After The Boot To The Head.

 

I grew up learning a skill that has developed a certain amount of concentration and focus.  I have the ability to put my mind in areas on my body that Eastern philosophers have given special significance to.  I can focus my personal energies on one specific area at a time.  For instance I can concentrate upon my navel and my mind will be at my navel.  I can also focus upon my solar plexus, my heart, any area I want to travel within my body.  This practiced ability has taught me how to breath, relax, and not take to many things super seriously.  It's either that practice, or I've been kicked in the head more than a respectable amount of times.  I suppose one enhances the other.

It's my opinion that folks in general would benefit greatly from a practice that enhances their focus and concentration.  If people in general learned the skill of concentration and focus there may be less chaos, and possibly the nations of the world would spend more time looking inwardly towards their citizens rather than outwardly at  circumstances not agreed with from another nation or neighbor.  The results of bias and prejudice.   

You See, the Center of All Things, the Beginnings and Endings of Everything resides at the Center of All sentient beings.  When we learn the tools and focus our concentration upon that point, within and without, all will be known, eliminating the need to exploit, manipulate, or control anyone other than ourselves.  After all, You are the Center of The Universe.

Peace and Balance,

John

Flaw of Nature

 I have a predilection for BS.  Amongst the many flaws of my nature, I have spent a lifetime searching out and dealing with my human ability to screw up at any drop of  a hat, cap, scarf, screwdriver, what ever happens to fall from my mitts.  I have larger than average mitts.  

I was gifted by the great wind gods the ability to tell a grand tale.  I grew up listening and learning how to weave a story from the fabric of nature and the energies of those around me.  I know how to read my environment. 

Sometimes when weaving tales of mirth and mayhem, the listener begins to hear the truth woven within the story.   I have set out to spread the impossible truths of life and the nature of it through the telling of these woven spontaneous tales of, "BS".   This is one of my faults of nature.  My nature has within it a great love of humanity.  I cry at the pains of children I don't know, and I worry about the fears of friends I barely know, and I tell their stories.  Sometime these stories aren't recognizable until the very end, then a little, "poof" happens within the listening brain.  Let's hope I'm not the cause of spontaneous aneurism.  

Flaws of Nature aren't righted by ignoring them, instead the proper extinction of the flaw in nature is to look straight at it.  Gaze the demon in the eye and attack it with the frontal assault of truth.  Change your BS to truth and watch the uncomfortable squirms of those who listen and understand what is being told.  Tales of wonder, stories of myth weaved around the truth like a cloak of many colors, dreams. 

History is woven into this coat.  Stories started being told when man first stood taller than the grass and uttered his first word.  It wasn't, "Uhg". It was, "Uhg, what a mess".  Then he promptly ran to the tree where is wife and children resided and started telling the tale of the history up to that point, "Uhg" was just about It.  

That tale, that wonderous story started then and through the magic of the spoken word began taking on a life of it's own.  The players changed as the story changed the cultures telling the tale.  The truth became myth, and woven into the BS was the truth.  Millenia have passed and that tale, the original story that started with an, "Uhg", became the history of human kind and it's many versions, the religions of the world.  Tales of man, the flaws of nature.  

You see, my predilection for BS has become the time honored attribute of all tellers of the historic tale.  All who know truth upon seeing it and hearing, all who have the courage to share this truth within a cloak of dreams for the listener to find on his own have the god given gift and responsibility to face the demon within themselves and bombard it with this tale.  So when it runs from the truth, the truth is presented to all who hear.

Today's modern tale is spoken, and written in the many venues given by the digital  demiurge.  Our supreme being is now loose on Google and the stories are being told by an artificial voice.  We have evolved?

I have many flaws.  Each one is being handled through a straight eye fearlessly brought to justice.  Knowing truth, and speaking truth, brings a certain reality to each listener and reader.  This collective is the nature of our Creator.

Peace and Balance,

John

There's no Place Like Home, and extra Ammo.

 

Recently a close friend and I went on a road trip.  During the excursion we stopped at a small burger joint just on the southern end of No. Conway NH.  The Burgers were very good complete with Truffle sauce and all the fixins.  The fries that came with the sandwich was equally tasty.  Spiced with just the right amount of stuff and yes served with some tasty Truffle sauce.  There is something about a Truffle that elevates the most mundane food to the heights of culinary excellence.   If I was a Micheline man I would give that burger a star, but I'm not and who would take me serious anyways?  

While munching our meal my friend took up a conversation with an older couple, I have to back step a bit here, I say older couple however, the mirror has reminded me of something recently, any who he struck up a conversation with a couple from Connecticut.  They own a "Hunting" camp just a little north of the Great Nord Dubois.  That's the Great Northern Woods for you non French/English smash speakers.

The husband began picking out points of interest that we generally take for granted as he was talking about our back yards.  My friend lives in the woods, and I live in the almost woods just on the outskirts of Berlin in New Hampster.  Very nonchalantly he mentioned a house just a little north of here that has a 50 caliber machine gun turret mounted on the roof.   Of course that caught our attention.  He goes on about how he was driving and looked up and saw the mounting on the house.  I was listening carefully and keeping my mouth shut as my Buddy asked all the important questions.  I was becoming just a tad skeptical the longer the conversation held out, until he produced a photo from his handy dandy Iphone.  And indeed there was a 50 cal. gun turret up on top of a building just north of here.  Ok, which reality am I in?

Now all this funnin aside, what kind of individual mounts a machine gun on top of their house?  How paranoid must one be to take home protection to that level.  Granted we are living in New Hampshire, the Live Free Or Die State, but gee wiz.  

It does occur to me that up North here that might make a convenient deer hunting solution.  It may even be the owner's idea of modern art, however morbid.  Is the owner readying for an impending attack from the more militant wing of the Canadian military?  Are the Hell's Angels up in Montreal all up in arms about something or another?  The questions fill my head.

Ok, so just out of curiosity I checked to see if it was legal to mount a machine gun on your house, and I found out that Yes it is.  In the United States if you're a law biding citizen with the legal documents for the weapon, you can mount a 50 caliber machine gun turret atop your home for "Home Security."   It is at this moment I am looking around for that twister that has launched me and my little dog to the land of Oh My God. Oz Man.  

Peace and Balance,

John

Are we Conscious?

 What is consciousness?  The standard idea of consciousness has to do with awareness.  If you are aware and thinking then you are conscious.  It turns out that might not be exactly correct.  The idea of consciousness is changing as humans create different ideas and technologies that are designed to manipulate what we think consciousness should be.  It is no longer, "I Think therefore I Am."  It is becoming just, "I Am."  As it was in the beginning and so forth. 

This past weekend I heard a statement from a source that I thought I would never hear.  That was, "The digital universe has developed it's own consciousness."  This statement was put out there for the listeners to grab onto without any real explanation, why, how, what, or who, from a group of Indian Yogis and Gurus.  The conversation then went in a direction where the idea of a Digital consciousness and universe might be an integral part of this reality.  I find that idea terrifying and fascinating at the same time.  

I began investigating what the idea of Consciousness really is.  What I found is a change in thought both metaphysically and scientifically.   Both disciplines are now meeting in the middle of the line of progression and merging thought.  From this merging new ideas of the nature of consciousness and the universe are emerging.  In the end it is not what we thought.  We have discovered that we are wrong.

As it turns out consciousness starts as everything you experience from the smallest sensation to the largest explosion of stimuli.  However, what that consciousness is turns out not to be the actual sensation or experience of a sensation, but the energies that are binding that experience to you and itself.   

Scientifically consciousness is being drawn down to the strong and weak nuclear forces within an atom.  The new scientific thought is that consciousness has it's beginnings at the atomic level.  These two forces combine and bind the atom together, which binds molecular structure together in turn creates and binds all physical existence together.  

On the sub atomic level the particles of an atom are separated by relatively huge spans of space filled with "Nothing".  This nothing is manipulated by one or both of these forces.  This manipulation binds everything together as the strongest force in existence.  This is the formulation of consciousness.  From nothing all things come.  Again we're back to Shiva.

We are beginning to understand what consciousness is, the energies that bind all things together. Then what is consciousness not?  Consciousness is not, it turns out, to be thought, it is not intelligence, consciousness is not awareness, nor is it anything that separates human beings from anything else.  Consciousness is the energy that binds all of the multiverse together, and at the very core of that energy we find Shiva which means, "No Thing."  Therefore consciousness creates and destroys indiscriminately with no feeling or thought, no understanding or idea, it just is.  

The digital universe raising itself to the conscious level then is not necessarily a growing intellectual giant, although it is, it is instead at the partial level binding itself together just like the standard universe does at the atomic level.    Now a new question comes to the forefront, which one is in charge?

Peace and Balance,

John

I, the Center of the Multiverse.

 If you think of yourself as the center of your own experience then you become the center of your own universe.  We can say you are the center of a series of ever expanding spheres.  You are at the very center of your personal space or sphere that extends from your center outwardly to an area that extends for a certain distance from your finger tips, toes, head, and shoulders.  You carry this space with you wherever you go.  It is this space in which you experience contact with the rest of the multiverse.  

What is the multiverse then?  The multiverse are the many forms of universal expression that makes up the physical, metaphysical, spiritual, chemical, and intellectual realms that create this universe and all universes we contact through any one of the other aspects of our personal universal sphere.  What the hell does that mean?  That means the multiverse is the collective of all known and unknown aspects of everything.  We can give it a name, Shiva.

We've all heard the name Shiva which is actually a combination of two words Shi or That and Va, which is not.  The name Shiva means, "That which is Not."  Or existing outside the confines of this universe.  So basically Lord Shiva the Great Destructor and Creator creates everything from nothing then breaks it back down and does it all over again.  This is a cyclical event that happens about every 23,000 years according to the Hindu calendar.  However, the laws of physics tell us that everything that existed exists already, that nothing can be created or destroyed only transformed into something else.  So what Shiva does is create and recreate new models of himself hence the multiverse.   Complicated.

Your sphere from your perspective is the center of all this activity, and your sphere comes in contact with many other spheres of the multiverse.  When this happens you experience something new adding it to your sphere and so on.  Your universe expands and likewise the multiverse get larger.  At every point of contact huge amounts of energy is expelled both inwardly and outwardly, toward you and outward from you.  You become the physical embodiment of Shiva, "That which is Not."  

In our physical existence we must stay within the perimeters of the physical laws of this universe as it relates to the multiverse.  When we learn how to focus the One, that is your mind, consciously in a direction we learn how to manipulate these physical laws.  After learning to manipulate these laws with your mind, the One, then you are teaching yourself to manipulate the laws of the rest of the multiverse.  That's when the magic happens. 

From your perspective you stand at the center of the multiverse from your personal universe, your sphere.  Your sphere comes in contact with other spheres and at each point of contact immense amounts of power are shed.  A focused and concentrated mind can harness this energy and create or destroy rearraigning the matter of everything.  By staying within and using the physical laws of Our universe.  

Peace and Balance,

John

Enlightened man? Clear explanation about this given byJ.Krishnamurti

The Five Karmic Virtues

 Buddhism and Sikhism share the precepts of the Five Virtues.  These can be considered guide posts towards Karmic Balance and Right Action in a Harmonious Life:

Sat the virtue of Truthful Living:

    The Lord's humble servants are True — they practice Truth, and reflect upon the Word of the Guru's Shabad. The True Lord God unites them with Himself, and they keep the True Lord enshrined in their hearts. O Nanak, through the Name, I have obtained salvation and understanding; this alone is my wealth.

— Guru Granth Sahib

Santokh is Contentment or Freedom from ambition, envy, greed, and jealousy.  Without which it is impossible to acquire Peace of Mind:

Practice truth, contentment and kindness; this is the most excellent way of life. One who is so blessed by the Formless Lord God renounces selfishness, and becomes the dust of all.

— Guru Granth Sahib, ang 51

Daya is the exercise of Compassion: 

Be kind to all beings-this is more meritorious than bathing at the sixty-eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage and the giving of charity.

— Guru Granth Sahib, ang 136

Nimrata is Humility, Benevolence, and Humbleness:

Humility, Nanak Says is the essence, the very root of all virtues

— Guru Granth Sahib, ang 470

The God-conscious being is steeped in humility.

— Guru Granth Sahib, ang 273

Pyaar is the Love of God

Let the Fear of God be your feet, and let His Love be your hands; let His Understanding be your eyes.

— Guru Granth Sahib,ang 139

Each one of these virtues leads to the next and so on.  The path to virtue leads you through your own heart.  When your heart opens up, you are faced with your own Truth.

Peace and Balance,

John

. 

Delusion or Reality?

 What is reality?  We're taught that reality has to do with the ability to touch, smell, hear, taste, and see something.  Our senses are supposed to be the predeterminer of what is real or not real.  But, what is reality, really?  

A scientist is going to tell you something is real if there in empirical evidence that it exists, and if that evidence exists can it be tested and retested to make the realness concrete.  Assuming the test passes and your existence becomes real, what about the things you, "think" are real verses what you have just tested?  Let's say you have a memory of something that happened in childhood.  It happened you remember it.  It's formed the synapsis in your brain that tell you it was real, but it doesn't fit the perimeters we learned as we grew up.  You just, "know" it was real because you remember the experience, you have that tactile recall that say's Its real.  Can it be tested scientifically?  I'm not so sure it would pass the scientific method.  After all, it's all in your head.

We have the ability to create things.  We are artists, engineers, and a multitude of others,  Who's to say we can't create with our mind the perimeters for the memories stored there.  Wouldn't that make us gods?

I recently watched a Ted Talk with a philosopher that has determined that our realities are our own self created perception of the universe around us.  We create reality as we see fit to fit the mold that we have programed into our own process.  He was saying that we are all hallucinating to a certain extent, that reality was a self created delusion from our mind to make sense of the stimulus we are receiving from outside our perception.   Boy that's a scary thought.  That would make us all 100% responsible for everything we do, and or anything that is done to us.  Therefor Karma is not what comes around, but the energy we actually put into the event causing the Karma.  Karma is the reflection of our self created realities.  Could be...

So, what is reality, really?  I guess in order to truthfully and completely answer that question an amount of concentrated practice in the art of thinking is in order.

Peace and Balance,

John

This is My Universe.

 I would like to discuss the power of creation. Human beings have been giving a sacred gift.  We are all born with the ability to manifest reality through the power of our minds.  The human condition is a three layered or triune experience that starts within the physical body, extends outwardly to the non-physical realms that we call spiritual, then opens up in our thinking mind, what we call our conscience.  Each one of these parts of our being are intermingled with each of the other parts of our being.  We are a Holistic being that has the power to re-create and re-do our own experience.   We are our own gods.

For the practitioners of the quasi Hawaiian teachings of Huna, the secret knowledge coined by Max Freedom Long, the living experience is in the states of the Subconscious, the low self housed in the physical body, the conscience or middle self, the thinking self that is connected from the mind to the body, and the Spiritual or High Self that is the outward expression of the self that contains everything else non-physical, also called the God Self.  If we practice a Holistic form of communication with our three selves we will be able to tap into the Akashic record.  The Akashic record is the spiritual recording of all events that have passed, will pass, and are possible within our perception of the universe.  This understanding changes constantly with our changing understanding of our own perceptions.  We grow from a universal understanding to a multi-universal understanding and back again as our experiences come and go.   Mathematically if we charted this progress it would resemble the breathing in and out of a great organism, a living universe.  Huna is the Hawaiian word for Secret.

During my personal practices with the Martial Arts, Taiji Quan, Reiki, Dowsing, Huna, and my Native American heritage, I have discovered that we all have the abilities to manifest or create our own experiences.  Each one of our experiences like a Ven diagram interconnects with every experience we come in contact with.  Interconnecting us with every person we come in contact is the root to the creation of the many universal experience we can call the Multiverse. Each individual is an Universe within themselves.   

Because we are the root of our own universe and have the inherited abilities to manifest our realities as we see fit, we are responsible for the disposition of each of our own experiences.  We are responsible for the way the universal energies translate into our realities.  That being said, the universe as we experience it is a very literal creature and takes everything you ask of it at face value, so be very, very careful what you ask for and how you manifest your experience, for what you receive may or may not be what you "Thought" you asked for.   That is the difference between an enlightened adult God verses an adolescent "Newbie" to the biz.  

Peace and Balance,

John