Preface

IAWIA, the acronym for “I am what I am.” Pronounced: “I why?”

IIWIIWII, the acronym for “It is what it is whatever it is.” Pronounced: “I why why?”

Why do I exist? Why am I here? Ultimately, what am I?

There is only I and there is no why.

I am who I am and it is what it is whatever it is.

Whoever knows eye and I are one does not suffer death.

The universe is a glass of sparkling water.

Each of us a bubble that seems to come out of nowhere,

takes a unique journey to the top of the glass

and then seems to disappear.

We don’t disappear.

We become one with everything

as we are before we appear as bubbles.

“If the thoughts herein echo Zen Buddhism, Taoism, the Abrahamic faiths, or any philosophical school, consider this a familiar path explored from a new vantage point. If this is entirely uncharted territory, welcome to the journey. Ultimately, this book posits that our reality is a complex tapestry woven from interdependence. Our perceptions, shaped by memory and context, are illusions of separation in a fundamentally interconnected universe. You are this universe experiencing itself, and in this realization lies both profound freedom and profound mystery. Or perhaps, you already knew this. In that case, enjoy the contemplation.”

My name is Victor Teicher and this is a book about the nature of consciousness.

Many of the observations herein are based on Kotodama; the interconnectedness of language, spiritual matters and the material world; wherein, broadly, the sounds, meanings and etymologies of words hold mystical revelations and affect the material world. For example:

Teicher is a German name. In German, “teich” means pond; Teicher, someone who ponders. That’s what I do; ponder reflections from the universal mind which is a reflecting  pond.

In English, a digraph (two letters together that are pronounced as only one of the letters) made of two vowels is pronounced as the first vowel with the second vowel silent. Thus, Teicher would be pronounced as “teacher.” Teaching, sharing these reflections, is the purpose of this blook.

In Japanese, the second vowel of the digraph is pronounced; hence, “Teicher” is pronounced “taisha.” In Japan, Taisha is the ancient shrine where all the gods meet annually. I am, through this book, a forum for the gods.

Finally, the etymology of  “Victor” is “conqueror.” The purpose of this blog is to conquer the self (our personal identity) which imprisons the soul, precluding us from experiencing the world through the universal mind (the mind of the soul). The soul is every-thing is before and after it is what it is whatever it is and before time begins.

Moreover, synchronicity has it that in numerology the name “Victor Teicher” is “11” which is a master number. Those whose name is a master number (estimated to be around 1% of the population) are thought to represent spiritual enlightenment, heightened intuition, and a strong connection to the universe or higher power. They are idealistic and have a special spiritual mission or purpose in life to make a difference in this world. This book is the realization of my mission.

Yet, I claim no ownership of the chains of the thoughts in this book as I am merely a conduit for the author who is us. Ultimately, hopefully, this book reveals there is nothing new under the sun; all ways always bring us to the here and now which is forever-new and never-changing, eternal.

Introduction

Before and after the now, the sole thing that is is the soul, the everything. In the now, every thing is the everything.

Upon our manifestation in bodily form, we assume a temporary self which disappears when our body is no longer.

As every thing is a manifestation of the soul, the soul is what connects every thing as one thing, the everything. This connection is called love.

Unlike the soul, the self views itself as apart and separate from every thing that it perceives as not its self. The self connects with every thing with ever-changing emotions like joy, hate, love, anger, indifference, envy, etc.

Our experience of life is a function of how we connect, through the soul or our self.

In a world inherently hostile to the self-sustainment of our bodily form, we need the self to survive. When we do so, we experience life with the emotions of our self. However, when we are not oblivious we are eternally the soul, we can return from the emotional rollercoaster of our self to the eternal love that is the soul; where there is peace beyond words and every thing is absolutely beautiful. That is the purpose of this blook, to guide us to the realization we are the soul.

Happy Birthday

Every night at sleep-time we die. Every morning upon awakening we are born. Each day is not a day in a life, it is a life in a day. Thus, we’ve lived thousands of lives before our reincarnation today upon awakening.

Before sleep-death, we acknowledge each other with “good evening;” that is, “good even-ing” for in sleep-death everyone (the smart, the stupid, the rich, the poor) is even, equal.

In sleep-death, our soul leaves our body and merges with the universal soul, which in some traditions is called God. When the soul returns to our body, we are born.

Upon awakening, we greet each other and ourselves with “good morning;” that is, “good mourning,” have a good time mourning the people you were in past lifetimes (yesterday and all days now passed) by remembering them in the light of wisdom and compassion; but, don’t identify their life experiences as your own.

Upon awakening and before we assume the roles and circumstances of the person we were yesterday,  we recite out loud the Mourning Prayer. The Mourning Prayer acknowledges God’s creation, the universe, and expresses our gratitude for the life and consciousness we have been given which allows us to be one with God. Moreover, we declare that we are free from karma (our intentions, actions and consequences in past lifetimes (days of our life)) and look forward to realizing our purpose in life: to have a wonderful experience, realize our potential of divine consciousness and help others likewise.

Mourning Prayer

Oh eternal universe

Oh endless universe

Oh ever-changing universe

Oh timeless universe

Oh universe of infinite finite things.

Thank you for granting me today a role in the play of life.

The people I’ve been and the roles I’ve played in days passed,

my prior lives,

are illusions in the seemingly real form of memories.

Now, I am who I am

and every thing is what it is whatever it is.

Regardless of circumstances,

I am grateful for however my life unfolds today,

hopeful to realize divine consciousness before I’m scripted out of the play,

happy helping others awaken to their good fortune

and laughing at my efforts to realize that which is always here.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

We recite the mourning prayer aloud, again and again and again, until we feel it and truly awaken. Then, hopefully, we won’t forget who we are as we make our way through this day of life with the peace that comes from not taking our self too seriously; as we know that our self, which will die in the even-ing when our soul departs, is not who we are.

At day’s end, it is time for the Even-ing Prayer before our sleep-death.

Even-ing Prayer

Oh eternal universe

oh ever-changing universe

oh timeless universe

oh endless universe.

Thank God for my  role in the universe

and for now,

sleep-death,

when my soul joins God

which is what every-thing is before it is the universe.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

As few remember that every day is our birthday, we should remind whomever we meet with the greeting: “Happy birthday.” Whether they recognize today as their birthday or not, they will undoubtedly have a laugh. What better gift can we give someone on their birthday?

The Purpose of Life

The purpose of life is to have a wonderful and happy life, realize our divine potential and help others do likewise.

HAPPINESS

Happiness is a function of gratitude, optimism and freedom from the karmic prison of our past lives, the days of our life now passed.

Gratitude

Gratitude is the realization that even the seemingly worst days could always be worse. Thus, we are always grateful. When grateful, we are “great-full;” full with feeling great, happy.

The etymology of  happy is “hap” which means luck. When we realize how lucky we are relative to most who are here now or who once were and are no longer, we are grateful and happy.

In the absence of gratitude, complaining thrives. Complaining is selfish. While complaining feels good temporarily, it precludes happiness. Complaining is selfish as in doing so we are oblivious of others who are truly suffering, those who would be very happy in our circumstances. When we view our lives from the perspective of those who are suffering, we have much about which to be grateful. Thus, one of the most significant choices in life is selfishness or happiness.

Nothing is perfect but the universe which God has created. As everything but the universe is imperfect, when we are oblivious to God’s perfect creation it is easy to find some aspect of “every thing” about which to complain. As God gives us bodily form to enjoy ourselves and have happy lives, by complaining we risk that God hears us complaining and self-entertains by putting us in harm’s way; giving us something about which to truly complain.

Optimism

A fundamental truth is that all things, including our circumstances, are temporary, ever-changing. As what is now will soon be no longer, when we are in difficult circumstances we can be calm and happy as we know that our circumstances will change for better or worse but sooner or later for the better.

Freedom From Karmic Prisons

Karma is the intentions, actions and consequences in our prior lives (days now passed as each day is a lifetime) that we weave into stories, generalizations and meanings which frame our experience of the present. Our stories imprison us, keeping us from experiencing the ever-changing and unique present as it is. Experiencing the present in the context of the past is living in the past.

To free ourselves from our karmic prisons, we need to realize that our past and all our stories are an illusion that is made seemingly real by our mind. (The etymology of “mind” is “memory.”) This can be done through mindless meditation and otherwise not taking ourselves seriously.

REALIZING OUR DIVINE POTENTIAL

Humans are a transitional species, part animal and part divine consciousness. We are born as animals and are socialized as animals. As animals we view ourselves as apart and separate from that which is not ourselves. In that context, we effort to fulfill our needs for food, shelter, security, health and companionship with little regard for that which is not ourselves. Simply, we are selfish.

The ultimate human potential is the realization of divine consciousness; the realization that we and the universe are one. This is enlightenment, being one with the light and one with everything as everything is light. As enlightened beings, we treat others as we treat ourselves (compassion) and embrace multiple perspectives (wisdom), not solely the perspective from our finite selves. Enlightened, we live happily, finding most people funny as they take their singular perspectives seriously, thinking they know that of which they have only a limited understanding.

The road to enlightenment is difficult, yet easy. It requires accepting our complete ignorance of everything, not taking ourselves seriously and mindless meditation.

AWAKENING OTHERS

To awaken others is like the process of awakening ourselves. We arouse their curiosity by questioning them as to who we are, why are we are here in life, why is he universe here. Answering these questions is difficult and frustrating work as the answers require us to see beyond ourselves. Yet the work is simple; reflecting on the nature of mind and the universe. The work can lead to near exhaustion like a dog endlessly chasing its tail. Then, suddenly, we stop and fall down laughing at the absurdity of our chasing our tail, as we realize we were enlightened from the very beginning.

IAWIA

“I am what I am.” — God, Exodus 3:14, The Bible

According to the Bible, one day Moses was grazing his flock of sheep and encountered a “burning bush” whose flames were not devouring its branches.

The burning bush was the manifestation of God: apparently everchanging and yet eternal.

Moses asked God: “What is your name?”

God said (depending on translation): “I am who I am” or “I will be what I will be”.

In the now, God manifests as a “who”; infinite everchanging selves (the flames of the Burning Bush). In the time after the now, God is undifferentiated potential, a “what”.

Encompassing the now (“I am…”) and after the now (“I will be what…”), we can paraphrase God: “I am what I am”.

God appears as ever-changing in the now, but is eternal and unchanged.

God simply identifies as “I am”; implying being, not a being; flowing, not that which is flowing.

God is the Everything flowing.

“I am what I am” as an acronym (IAWIA) can be pronounced two ways:

“I WHY” (first vowel pronounced, second vowel silent).

“A-WAY” (first vowel silent, second vowel pronounced).

I WHY

Why do I exist?

There are no reasons or explanations.

Simply, I am because I am God.

A WAY

In the Bible, the written word for God is YHWH.

With no consensus as to its pronunciation, YHWH may have been pronounced as “A WAY”.

God (“A WAY”) is like the Tao (“The Way”).

The Way is the ineffable and eternal energy that flows through all things; bringing all things into harmony, as all the pieces of the universe come together as one peace.

II-WII-WII

IT IS WHAT IT IS WHATEVER IT IS

II-WII-WII

Acronym: I Y Y.

Mantra: I why why! I why why?

Koan: I why (who am I)?

The Universe is the uni-verse (one verse): IT IS WHAT IT IS WHATEVER IT IS.

“It is what it is” means acceptance. “whatever it is” means no judgement.

“W” is “double U.” II-WII-WII = II-UU-II-UU-II.

Double Helix of the Universe: II-UU-II-UU-II. I am I, U are U, I and U are one.

II-UU.

The initial “I” is I as a finite and temporary being, finite in time (birth to death) and space (body); temporary, as I am not now who I was before now. The finite “I” is our self-identity; a duality, “I” and all that is not “I.” It is our finite consciousness as created by our senses and defined by descriptions and stories our mind creates. The second “I” is the infinite “I” that has no birth and no death; eternal, before the beginning of time. The “I” that is the Universe and its infinite unique and ever-changing manifestations of itself. I am who I am, both the finite and the infinite “I.” The “U” is “U” as in “Universe.” The initial “U” is the finite, temporary and that which is not “I.”  The second “U” is the Universe and its infinite unique and ever-changing manifestations. The finite “I” and finite “U” are discrete manifestations of the one infinite “I” which is also the infinite “U.” The finite and infinite are interdependent as one cannot exist without the other.

The Universe is a timeless void and it’s manifestations ever-changing in time. Finite consciousness experiences time as a duality, the present and the past. However, what we experience as the present is an illusion; that which is happening now is actually the present-passed. The present-passed is not different from the past. The true-present is the pre-sent, the universe before it is sent out as expressions of itself that we experience as now. The true-present is nothingness, empty and timeless. It is the time before time begins. Presence is the Universe’s present to us: divine consciousness, the experience of the true-present. Presence is awakening to the realization that we are both finite and infinite; one with the Universe before the Universe expresses itself as finite manifestations of which we are one. It is a calm and peaceful space, like the empty space between when we exhale and inhale. It cannot be compared to anything or described, for IT IS WHAT IT IS WHATEVER IT IS.

Consciousness

Consciousness is a double helix, a ladder that takes us from finite-lived sentient beings on Earth to eternal being in the heavens.

The first rung on the ladder is animal consciousness, awareness of oneself as an entity apart and separate from that which is not oneself. This duality has the self as its center and all else relatively close or far from the center, but separate from the center. It is sustained when one identifies with affinity groups, as groups also see themselves as separate from other non-group members.

The second rung is self-consciousness, awareness of one’s awareness; awareness that one’s perceptions are not necessarily reality, but solely our mind’s perceptions. Self-consciousness is unsettling as we feel uncertain about our perceptions in light of the perceptions of others, especially group perceptions for which we are ridiculed if we question.

Above self-consciousness, the third rung, is awakening consciousness, the realization that the generalizations, meanings and stories our mind and others have created are empty illusions that frame and limit how we experience the now. Upon awakening, we are freed from the prison of these illusions which have us experience things not as they are but as our self and the selves of others are.

On the forth rung, having dispensed with illusions, one synthesizes a rainbow of views into white light that reveals the nature of things. This is wisdom consciousness.

With the clarity of white light, we realize that what we see everywhere is who we are. Thus, we treat all that heretofore we saw as other than ourselves as we treat ourselves, presumably with kindness and compassion. This is compassion consciousness, the fifth rung.

On the sixth rung of consciousness we enter the clouds, mystical consciousness. Here we realize that every-thing is nothing before it is what it is whatever it is and that the nothing is eternal, endless, timeless and forever changing in its manifestations as things. The nothing cannot be named; for if it is this, it is not that; what it is is what is beneath the surface of everything. The nothing is the now-thing; experiencing the now which is temporary manifestations of the nothing. However, we know we are conscious of the now-thing only after it is no longer; our experience of the now-thing is just memories; thinking otherwise is also an illusion. Those who speak of the nothing do not know it because by its nature it cannot be named or described; those who know do not speak. (Lao Tzu, paraphrased)

The seventh rung brings us to the heavens, above the clouds; ultimate consciousness, enlightenment. Now, all there is, including us, is light. Our consciousness is awareness that we are is one of infinite temporary manifestations of the nothing that cannot be named, one with all its manifestations and, essentially, one with the nothing; eternal.

“Terrific”

“Terrific.”

The play of life in three Acts

The word “terrific” in the 19th century meant terrible and has since transitioned into meaning wonderful. Likewise, the play “Terrific” begins as a tragedy and ends as a farce.

In Act 1, we are children, unadulterated by memories. We experience the present as it unfolds without preconceived notions; everything is new and unique. In Act 2, as adults, we no longer experience things as they are; but as we are. Our memories frame our experiences; comparing them to others that not real, as they exit only in our mind. In Act 3, we return to our unadulterated, childlike mind.

Act 1

Emergence of Self

Act 1 begins at birth; a happy time, a sad time. While the most joyous moment in a parent’s life, birth starts a tragedy for newborns as they enter the stage crying. Newborns feel the tragedy of it all; that before birth they were one with everything and upon their birth they they are finite in space; from oneness with everything to duality, the finite self and everything which is not the self. This is animal consciousness which is the basis for much of the conflict in the play of life.

After birth, we learn the ways of human life on Earth. We are socialized to perceive, think and behave in the ways of the socialization circles (family, religion, nationality, education, special interests, etc.) in which we are members. Thus ends Act 1, the transition from otherworldly, the time before birth and after death, to the human experience.

Act 2

Life Experience

In Act 2, each of us assumes various roles in the play. Roles include career, family, religion, personal relationships, social group identities, passtime interests, etc. Most of us take these roles seriously, take ourselves seriously and forget that these roles are simply roles in a play and not who we truly are. We are oblivious of who we are before birth and after death: one with the nameless infinite, God.

As we make our way in the play, our mind creates memories and stories that are the foundation of our identities and roles. The stories frame our experiences. We don’t experience things as they are but as our mind has defined them. This is karma. Karma often leads to live unhappy lives and precludes us from realizing our potential, divine consciousness.

While our lives are often difficult dramas, they are an entertaining farce to those in the audience viewing the play. The audience are the gods like those from Mount Olympus who Homer tells us in the “Odyssey” effuse the air with a deafening sound of laughter.

Act 3

The Transition

In Act 3, each actor is written out of the play’s script with their bodily death. However, Act 3 is the transition of our essential self, God, to a seat among the gods in the audience where we can enjoy the farce, the play “Terrific.”

The transition is the realization that life is a play; that we are not finite but one with everything; temporary, ever-changing and interdependent expressions of God. As we let go of our finite bodily form, we embody wisdom and compassion and realize life is terrific.

Epilogue

Most of us never come to realize during the play of life that we are just actors. We take ourselves and our roles seriously. We are oblivious as to whom we were before birth, one with everything, and that we will again be one with everything after bodily death. This makes our lives great dramas, but at the cost of much suffering.

Those of us who are enlightened actors know that life is a play and that we are gods with temporary human roles. For these enlightened actors, regardless of their various roles, life is terrific as they have a good laugh making their way through the play of life.

As to the audience of the gods, the actors on stage cannot see them in the dark theatre. The dark space is nothingness. But as from the audience come forth gods to act on the stage, it is from nothingness that everything springs.

When we see the world metaphorically, as above, that is the world we live in; as Gods.

Karma

Every day is a life in a day, not a day in a life. Each night we die and are reincarnated in the morning.

Each morning we choose to assume the identities of the person we were last lifetime (yesterday) and embrace the stories we’ve made up of who we were in past lifetimes (days passed). The identities, an amalgam of role-playing and habits, feel familiar and safe.  Others around us reinforce our self-perceptions. This is the foundation of karma.

Karma is the thoughts we associate with the intentions, actions and the consequences of our actions in our past lifetimes. Karma, living in the context of previous lives, has us living in a karmic prison. Karma frames our experiences in our reincarnated life. Our karmic prison precludes us from experiencing the present as it unfolds.

As life is otherwise overwhelming, our mind (which is a mnemonic device) categorizes our passed experiences and creates memories and related stories. Thus, we do not experience the present as it unfolds, we experience the categories into which our mind places present experiences.  The categories, their meanings and the stories we ascribe to them are artificial and illusionary.  However, we believe our stories are true and as such we make them real by experiencing the present in the context of our stories. Only when we are freed from our karmic prisons, we can experience the present.

Good karma, bad karma

Bad karma is living in a karmic prison of preconceived notions. Bad karma doesn’t allow us to experience the present as it is, unadulterated by reference to the past. Good karma is learning from our past successes and failures which helps us navigate our way in the now and what’s next.

Bad karma creates a road on which we travel forward. It feels safe, secure, comfortable. Good karma is a light that helps us see our way forward through an ever-changing landscape of undefined roads.

Bad karma leads us to living habitually, oblivious of the world about us. Good karma helps us navigate in a world in which everything is unique, engaging and has us feeling alive.

Bad karma has us feeling we understand what we’re doing. Good karma is knowing we know nothing.

Bad karma is intelligence, the ability to analyze and make sense of the past in evermore complicated ways. Good karma is wisdom, knowing that everything can be viewed from different perspectives.

Bad karma is why. Good karma is how.

Bad karma is when the past overshadows the present. Good karma is the light that helps us negotiate the present as it emerges from nothingness.

The popular view of bad karma is that when you treat others poorly you’ll get your just deserts sometime later. When that happens, people say: “karma sucks.” Likewise, good karma is the concept that when we do right by others good fortune will come our way. There is truth in these views.

Karma is living in the context of the stories our mind has created.  These stories are like a storyline of a play. As the present unfolds, we view it in the context of the storyline and incorporate it into the storyline. There are several roles in the play. Our personal role is the central actor and to some extent the writer of the play. However, at times there are role-reversals and our role is that of other actors. When in our storyline we treat another actor abusively, we may find ourselves playing the role of the abused actor during role-reversal. This is retribution via bad karma. Likewise, good karma is when the storyline has us treating others well. Then, role-reversals work out well for us as, so to speak, “good things happen to good people.”

We have great liberty in creating our stories. Our storylines can bend to tragedy or comedy. As a tragedy we risk finding ourselves in role-reversals that are not those for which we would wish ourselves. As a comedy we are likely to be happy regardless of the role in which we find ourselves in the play. That’s the enlightened view; to view the past in comic relief and come what may.

Enlightenment is liberation from our karmic prison; liberation that reveals our karma was just an illusion.

The Now

The now is eternal.

The now is ever-changing.

The now is all there is.

As every-thing is everything,

the now is one thing, the now.

As every-thing in the now is unique,

ever-changing forms and colors,

the now is overwhelming.

The now does not know the past

as the past does not exist.

Memories of the past are an illusion.

Yet, the past informs and defines the now,

allowing us to survive in the overwhelming now.

The past anchors us in the sea of the now.

Letting go the anchor,

the past is passed,

leaving us adrift at sea.

Our only refuge is the present, the pre-sent,

where every-thing is before it is in the now,

before time exists.

In the calmness of the pre-sent

the now no longer overwhelms

as we and the now are one.

The Path To Liberation

The Buddhist path to liberation refers to enlightenment. Liberation is liberation from the personal mind.

There is only one mind, the universal mind, the mind of God. The universe is the manifestation of the universal mind in the now. Dwelling in our finite body (which seems apart and separate from the universe) is a personal mind that is connected to the universal mind. However, we identify with our personal mind and are mostly oblivious to the universal mind. The path of liberation is realising our connection to the universal mind.

The personal mind buffers us from directly experiencing the now. In other words, we experience the now not as it truly is but as a function of our personal mind. The personal mind defines, describes and compares; transforming the now, which is a flow, into a static experience. The now we experience with our personal mind is illusionary, empty of reality. However, we embrace our personal mind for we fear losing our identities and in turn being alone, not knowing who we are and where we are.

The personal mind is grounded in memories. The memories are stories we create based on our intentions, actions and their consequences in previous lives. (Previous lives are previous days of our life.) These illusionary stories frame, define and describe the now. These stories are our karma.

By not allowing us to experience the now directly, our karma essentially holds us in a karmic prison. Liberation is liberation from our karmic prison.

Once liberated, we can experience the now as it is and in so doing we become one with the now, one with everything, eternal. There are no words to describe or compare this experience. All that can be said is that it is what it is whatever it is.

The path to liberation is how we escape the karmic prison of our mind.

Our escape is difficult, blocked by fears created by our personal mind. To escape, we need to quiet our mind until it falls asleep. Then, we can sneak passed it to liberation. Meditation puts our mind to sleep. When our mind is asleep via meditation, we transition from our personal mindlessness to universal mindfulness as our personal mind merges with the universal mind.

Beyond meditation, we can renounce our personal mind. This is done by surrendering to the reality that we know nothing and that every-thing our personal mind tells us is not real, just illusions. Then, our curiosity is aroused; what am I, who am I, why am I? To answer these questions, we observe the universe with our eyes; not with our personal mind. We know we are experiencing the universe with our eyes when every-thing is unique, an experience like no other; nothing can be described, nothing can be compared. All we can say is WOW, as we feel connected to and love every-thing and everything. (Mouthing the word “wow” is like mouthing a kiss.) With our eyes open, we can see the light and come to know that we and the light are one. Now the path is clear. We are the path, the way of way (WOW).

This is the path of the Buddha. A path guided by the light, not by a guru who at best can only reflect the light.

Two Ways To Happiness

There are two paths to happiness, the long and the short way.

The long way is gratitude, optimism and freeing ourselves from our karmic prisons. Gratitude is being thankful for the circumstances in which we find ourselves, regardless of how dire, as we know that things could always be worse. However, it is often difficult to be grateful because our mind easily distracts us to selfishly focusing our attention on our plight and not the more overwhelming suffering of others. Optimism, especially during relatively difficult times, is a natural negative feedback loop as all things tend to regress to the mean; better times follow difficult times, sooner or later. Unfortunately, it is often difficult for us to be optimistic as many of us are prone to thinking in positive feedback loops, that difficult times will lead to even greater difficulties which makes us see the light at the end of the tunnel  as a train coming at us. Karma is thoughts we associate with the intentions, actions and the consequences of our actions in our past lifetimes. (Past lifetimes are the past days of our life as each day is a lifetime, not a day in a life.) Karma is seeing through the filter of our mind, not with our eyes. Thus, karma imprisons us from experiencing the present as it is. Fear of experiencing the present as it is, without the delusional comfort of collective and personal meanings karma assigns to things, makes escaping from our individual karmic prisons very difficult. Many years of meditation, a long process, can help us to happiness.

The short way to happiness is simple: love all others as we love ourselves, the Golden Rule. When we truly love all others as ourselves, we in turn feel everyone loves us; we feel one with everything; a calm, peaceful, joyful state of mind. We are grateful happy.

It might seem difficult to unconditionally love all others as at times some people treat us with loathe, not love. However, we still love them because we accept them, not judge them. Moreover, we are optimistic that if they don’t love us now, they’ll love us later. We feel badly for them because they simply don’t get it. They’re locked in their karmic prison. Or they might suffer from a mental disorder that precludes them from loving others. Or, simply, they are animals locked and have not yet realized their potential of divine consciousness. Hopefully, sooner or later, they will.

Mindlessness Meditation

Meditation is a practice that puts us at twilight, the space between the states sleep and awake. It’s purpose is to bring us to a calm and restful place by disengaging us from the stimulation which our sensory organs and mind use to claim our attention. In this space we simply exist. Sometimes called “mindfulness meditation,” it is perhaps better termed “mindlessness meditation” as we are now free of identities and attachments of our mind’s construction.

While there are countless meditation techniques, one approach is three short daily meditations. In these meditations we sit still in a quiet place with our eyes closed, uninterrupted by our senses. We focus on our breathing for maybe 20 breaths without our mind disrupting us with thoughts. If interrupted, we start again until we reach 20. Breathing-in is energizing. Breathing-out is relaxing. The space between exhaling and inhaling is completely dark and silent, a void that our mind would prefer we avoid. This is the present.

The present is the “pre-sent,” the space before the universe expresses itself as manifestations that are sent out and received by our senses. In the present there is nothing and we are now one with nothing. Moreover, we realize that all our life experiences are not in the present but in the now. The now is when we initially experience the manifestations of an inherently nothingless universe. Hence, the now is not the present but the past as it is initially. As the past has no independent existence outside our mind, the past is an illusion. Hence, our life experiences as we know them are an illusion.

While meditating, as we are calm and restful, we can easily drift off to sleep. But to complete the meditation we need open our eyes and awaken. We are now reborn. Everything is new to us, as we’ve never seen it before (which we hadn’t as everything is unique from one moment to the next). Now, everything is unadulterated by our mind’s meanings, categories and generalizations and fresh to our senses which heretofore had been numbed by memories of past stimulations. In our rebirth, we slowly and gently separate from being one with nothingness (which is ultimately one with everything) and assume our finite bodily being. Soon after we engage with the new yet familiar world in which we find ourselves until our next meditation which is like all others and unique.

It is through mindlessness meditations we come to realize the universe has no beginning and no end; that it has infinite manifestations; that it is ever-changing, in constant transitions; that it cannot be described beyond that it is what it is whatever it is. Upon knowing this, we know we are the universe and as such we never die as death, like all else we experience, is an illusion.

Present-passed and True-present

The past is the past and what we perceive as the present is also the past. We consciously experience the present as “present-passed,” not  the “true-present.” The true-present is the universe, waves of seemingly chaotic energy in an otherwise empty space. The true-present is the pre-sent, the universe before we consciously experience it. The conscious experience of the past (the past and present-passed) is our perception of the universe as reflections from our mind.

The mind is a mnemonic device (etymology of mind: memory). Memories are illusions, stories we’ve created.

The two constants in the universe are change and interdependence. Thus, the true-present cannot be described beyond saying that it is what it is whatever it is. Like God’s response when Moses asks who God is: “I am who I am.” Like the Tao, it is nameless.

We experience the true-present when we are in the gap between true-present and present-passed. This is the space of nothingness. It is like breathing. After we exhale we pause before inhaling. That pause is the space of nothingness. When in that space, we are set to experience the true-present as it unfolds.

The true-present unfolds as waves of light and sound energy; visually, like a kaleidoscope. It is overwhelming, like trying to drink water coming off a fire-hose.

The purpose of the mind is to organize the true-present so that it’s drinkable, not overwhelming.

Experiencing the true-present is akin to hallucinating. The etymology of the word hallucinate is to wander in the mind. In our everyday life, we experience the world as reflections from a point along the perimeter of the pond-mind. As is our habit, every day we go to the same point on the perimeter which results in us having a consistent perspective of the world. However, the mind often is turbulent (a function of our lacking integrity and other distractions) and its reflections distorted. When we calm the mind (through practices like meditation), we can leave its perimeter and wade into the pond, wander in the mind. It is here we can experience the true-present.

In experiencing the true-present, we realize that the reality we’ve heretofore experienced was not reality; just reflections, illusions. The true-present is curvilinear and rectilinear cosmic waves of images and sounds that overwhelming come upon us until we drown. Our drowning however results not in our personal demise; it’s the demise of the various identities we’ve created that define us, the various stories we’ve made up about who we are. It is here when we realize that the past was just an illusion; that we are truly one of the waves, one with everything; as we’ve always been from before our beginning.

Then, we fall down laughing as we realize the play of life and our roles in it are based on illusions. The play starts as a tragedy and ends as a farce when the true-present is revealed.

Albert Einstein

“A human being is a spatially and temporally limited piece of the whole, what we call the “Universe.” He experiences himself and his feelings as separate from the rest, an optical illusion of his consciousness. The quest for liberation [enlightenment] from this bondage [illusion] is the only object of true religion. Not nurturing the illusion but only overcoming it gives us the attainable measure of inner peace.”

“It seems to me as though our ideas of ourselves, including “space and time” (known more modernly as a single entity space-time, which Einstein was a pioneer in discovering), are entirely psychological constructs, “limitations” of our common state of “consciousness,” and these thoughts and ideas in our common state of consciousness is what generally creates the “illusion” of “separateness.” We can only perceive separateness if there is a space in which there is something here and another thing there, in space.

Our experience of being separate is an illusion of consciousness, just as much as space-time is an illusion of consciousness. But our consciousness itself is ultimately an inseparable “part of the whole” that we call the “Universe,” the One, the Absolute, Reality, Nature, or what many refer to as God. Our brains and bodies, and consequently our minds and consciousness, emerge from out of Nature, from the Universe, while still being absolutely a part of that Nature and Universe. We are not separate from Nature looking out onto Nature, but we are Nature looking at itself.

Our minds construct the perception of reality such that we appear separate from all that is around us, independent, isolated, as siloed islands in the ocean of the world. We have an incredibly strong subject-object duality in the everyday nature of our perceptions, such that “I” am perceived as here, and everything “else” is out there separate from me. This often makes us feel alone, weak, fragile, broken, temporary, mortal, and thus in “bondage.” We are prisoners of our own perceptions, of these “illusions,” of our own typical state of consciousness which perceives the world in this way.

Through “liberation,” which religions call by many different names, we free ourselves from this limited nature of our perceptions, of our consciousness, to see the greater whole directly. The inquisitive, thinking, intellectual, rational, thoughtful, conceptual, inner chatterbox, monkey mind, of our brains can become quiet in certain times of spiritual reflection, contemplation, meditation, walks in nature, extreme activities, near death experiences, etc. Our consciousness actually shifts to a different mode of perception, like in sleep or in dreams, where the “I” falls away, the ego is dislodged, the psychological self seems to dissolve, and we perceive reality much differently. It can seem like a kind of death (death of ego-self), but it is also a liberating realization that we are not fundamentally this ego construction, and all that goes along with it.

It seems to be a much more direct, intimate, personal, immediate, primary perception, devoid of thoughts, concepts, ideas, and even images that typically pervade our conscious mind. It is a direct knowing of awareness itself, which has no center, no distinct sense of “I,” but rather sees the wholeness and interconnected nature of reality, and this essentially and fundamentally includes one’s own awareness and consciousness. We are freed from the bondage of our egoic thoughts, of our typical selfish nature or “natural man,” and we can perceive the One indivisible nature of reality more directly. We have “overcome” our ego-self, our ego mind, our “separate” perception.

And we realize we are that One, we are a manifestation of This, an emanation of This, and we have never been separate from This, we only thought we were, in our mind. Our mind often makes it seem like we are separate from it (which is the illusion), but how could we be? We are fundamentally the One, but in order to perceive the One we must become separate from it, to divide ourselves from it, so that we can turn around and witness it. An eye cannot see itself, but must use a mirror. Similarly, the One cannot perceive its Self, except by dividing its Self, so that its parts can see the other parts. But the error comes in thinking that we are witnessing something separate, apart, and isolated. We are not, but we are witnessing our own Self, our own true Nature, the Source from which we’ve come, of which we are, and which we will always be. When we look out onto Nature, we are looking in a mirror. We are looking at our Self. We are looking at the One which we are.

The “overcoming” of our typical state of consciousness to perceive the One Great Whole of the universe in this way is the objective of perennial ancient wisdom found at the core and origin of the world’s major religions, and it is that core that is “true religion.” It is what gives us “inner peace,” to know we are not separate, “limited,” apart from this Universe, but eternally at-One with it, in It, as It. This is “liberation,” enlightenment, salvation, redemption, transcendence, freedom, resurrection, rebirth, peace, and rest. Christians seeking salvation, seeking to end the separation of the Fall and reunite again with God, through realizing at-one-ment in Christ, even realizing Christ in themselves as at-one in the Father, are seeking the same thing as Buddhists in the awakening or enlightenment of their consciousness to their eternal Buddha-nature or true essence or original nature, or as Hindus in the moksha or liberation/freedom of knowing their soul or Atman is One and the same in Brahman, the Ultimate Reality of the universe.

These are all just a diverse array of different symbols pointing at the same One Great Whole of Reality, and how we may experience This. Every religion and spiritual tradition on Earth has their own set of symbols, and this includes science. We can appreciate the wide diversity and beautiful uniqueness of each point of view, while also recognizing that underneath their apparent differences they are ultimately pointing at the same Ultimate Reality, Nature, the One, the Absolute, the Universe, the Transcendent, the Eternal, the Source, what theists call “God.” Just as we can love all the diverse and different and apparently separate and beautiful individuals, beings, life forms, and infinite array of creation all around us, while realizing that there is a much deeper and more fundamental unity, oneness, nonduality, and infinite indivisible eternal Love that keeps it all together, interconnected, interexchange, united, and as One, forever and always.

For all those apparent separate things out there are not separate from you at all, but they are You! Coming to this profound realization directly, in our own consciousness, is a very much “attainable” Peace and Rest in our lives.” — Bryce Haymond

While Einstein is considered genius incarnate for his discoveries related to the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, much of his later work on the unified field theory or the Theory of Everything was never successfully proven. However, Einstein transitioned from physics to metaphysics; realizing the nature of consciousness and enlightenment, matters that cannot be subject to proof as they are an experience.

Ten Commandments

First Commandment

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

The First Commandment tells us that we were once slaves who were freed through the workings of God. Knowing God is our savior, we are well-commanded not to follow the ways of other gods who presumably cannot provide us the way to freedom.

Before birth, we are one with everything and at peace. Upon birth, we perceive ourselves as apart and separate from everything that is not us, an overwhelming and often hostile world. Our mind serves us by protecting us from this world; making sense of it and integrating us into it. However, as we become dependent on our mind’s protection, our mind is no longer our servant but our master. Fear of the world is supplanted by fear of experiencing the world without our mind’s framework. It is then that we are prisoners of our mind. God, however, can free us from the prison of our mind.

Our mind is an mnemonic device. It organizes the world through memories of our intentions, actions and consequences of previous lives and through our socialization. (Our previous lives are not lives before the time of our birth but the days of our life before now, as each day is not a day in a life but a life in a day. That is, our lives end when we go to sleep and begin anew when we awaken.) This is called karma, the categorizations, meanings and stories our mind creates based on our past experiences that frame how we experience the world now. Karma is effectively a karmic prison as it limits and defines our experience, not allowing us to experience the world as it is.

Unlike the other Commandments, the First Commandment refers to the past, the time when we were slaves. Slavery represents our karma prison. When we unite with God, we can be freed from our karmic prison.

God is everything before it is what it is whatever it is. God is revealed as infinite and ever-changing manifestations. This realization unites us as one with God. As such, we realize that our mind through the illusionary karmic prison it created is what separated us from God. In union with God, we are free of the fear that kept us in our karmic prison. Upon our liberation, we experience the universe as it is; one thing, the present. The present is what it is whatever it is, beyond words and descriptions. The past is now passed and our mind has no past through which it can imprison us. Now we are free, at peace as we were before we were born.

Unlike God which is essentially everything and through whom we can be free, one with everything, other gods cannot free us from our karmic prison. Other gods are gods of things like the sun, water, earth, etc. They are illusionary gods as they are the gods of temporary manifestations of God.

Second Commandment

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;…”

The Second Commandment prohibits the making of artwork that is also worshiped; that is, idols.

Idol worship is holding sacred a tangible object and worshipping it as an incarnation of God. This is the antithesis of worshiping God as it negates the sacredness of all else. As everything is a manifestation of God, everything is sacred.

Idols are not solely objects worshiped as deities. Idols are things we hold sacred like prized possessions and celebrities who are “idolized.” More generally, idols are things we perceive as having an independent existence. For example, getting angry with a car that’s stalled is akin to idol worship as it presumes the car has an independent existence. Thus, idols give rise to an artificial duality, that which is an idol and all else that is not. As such, dualities repudiate God since God is one, everything. Hence, idol worship precludes us from being one with God.

Moreover, idols are a personal and/or collective designation. Thus, idols are a reflection of ourselves; that is, an idol is an I-doll. Ultimately, the prohibition against idol worship is a prohibition against taking ourselves too seriously.

Third Commandment

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God,…”

When Moses met God in the desert, Moses asked God what is God’s name. God responded: “I am who I am.” God effectively self-describes as one who cannot be described. Any name or description of God would be a misuse as God is everything, not one finite thing that is unlike other things. God is what it is whatever it is.

Fourth Commandment

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

After creating the universe in six days, God rested on the seventh day. Undistracted by work, God sat and observed the beauty and wonder of creation as it unfolds in the play of life. God commands us to do likewise. In so doing, we and God are one.

Work is essentially what we do that we would otherwise not do but for the rewards we receive. Thus, work is a means to an ends. When we are at rest, the means and the ends are one. At rest, we are at peace, present and having no desire to be elsewhere or to do otherwise.

Disengaging ourselves from our everyday work is akin to meditation. In meditation, we commune with God in the present and realize the universe is what it is whatever it is, not as we’ve created it in our mind. This leads us to realize that we and the universe, the manifestation of God, are one.

Fifth Commandment

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Like Commandments Sixth through Ninth, the Fifth Commandment can be generalized as the Golden Rule, treat others as we wish to be treated. The Golden Rule is a common concept in all the major religions.

However, unlike Commandments Sixth through Ninth, the Fifth Commandment is less of a Commandment and more of a contract God offers us: honor your parents and you will be rewarded with a long life. The reward is generally assured as it’s founded on behavior modification. We honor our parents by respectively including them in our lives and providing for them in their time of need, as they age or can no longer work. Our care allows them to live longer than they would otherwise. Seeing how we treat our parents, our children are “imprinted” to treat us likewise which increases the likelihood we will live longer than otherwise.

Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Commandments

Sixth Commandment: “You shall not murder.”

Seventh Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery.”

Eighth Commandment: “You shall not steal.”

Ninth Commandment: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”

The Sixth – Ninth Commandments are straightforward: we are commanded not to murder, engage sexually with someone who is married, steal or lie. These Commandments can be generally described as the Golden Rule: treat others as we wish to be treated.

The purpose of the Golden Rule Commandments is to foster peaceful interpersonal and community relationships. Moreover, living by the Golden Rule is a testament to our realization of divine consciousness.

Divine consciousness is the realization that every thing is not a thing unto itself but one of infinite temporary manifestations of God; ever-changing, interdependent (hence, essentially one thing); with no beginning or end. As we are not solely our personal finite self but part and one with one thing, God, we treat every thing as we wish to be treated as every thing is us.

The Ninth Commandment, the prohibition of lying, also reveals a certain truth: we cannot be one with God if we are not one with ourselves; that is, if we have no integrity. Lying precludes integrity as when we lie we are two people, one who lies and another who knows the truth.

Tenth Commandment

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

The Tenth Commandment is that we not desire what we don’t have.

Generally, our needs (food, shelter, security and health) can be simply satisfied but our desires not; as the more we feed our desires the hungrier they get. When we’re distracted by our desires, we are not grateful for what we have. However, when we are grateful we are great-full; that is, we are full of the great feeling that God has blessed us. Gratitude is integral to realizing our purpose in life: to have a wonderful and happy life, realize our potential and help others likewise. When we are grateful for all God has provided us, our gratitude is an acknowledgement of God who is appreciative and treats us accordingly.

Epilogue 

The First Commandment is that through our union with God we can be free from the prison of our mind.

The Second Commandment is that we don’t take material things or ourselves too seriously.

The Third Commandment is that we realize everything, including us, is God; that God is unknowable and beyond description.

The Fourth Commandment is that we enjoy the beauty and wonder of creation as God.

The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Commandments are that we treat others as we treat ourselves because we and others are one.

The Tenth Commandment is that we are grateful to God for the wonderful life we’ve been given.

The Ten Commandments were given by God to the “chosen people.” The “chosen” are those who journey through life on the way of the light. They are lighthearted, have interesting insights into the nature of mind and ultimately are one with the light: enlightened.

The Mystic

In life there are always more variables than equations. Hence, there are forever unknowns and a rational approach to solve all of life’s mysteries is a fool’s errand. Only through the realm of the divine can we truly know the unknowable. This is the role of the mystic.

The etymology of the word mystic is via Latin from Greek mustikos from mustēs ‘initiated person,’ from muein ‘close the eyes or lips.’

An initiate is someone who has been, often via rituals, admitted into a secret or obscure society or group. Closing the eyes means dispensing with conventional views. Closing the lips means not telling others of your secret society membership as in so doing you might be perceived as mad; as only those who can imagine the mystical experience can see it.

By definition, a mystic is one who by contemplation and self-surrender seeks to obtain unity with God or who believes in the spiritual understanding of truths that are otherwise beyond the rational.

In the play of life the role of the mystic is unlikely to win an Academy Award as it’s generally a supporting role with few lines. However, otherwise it’s good to be cast as a mystic as it makes for a fascinating experience. While I am who I am, professionally as an actor in the play of life I’m an eccentric mystic or at least I hope so as otherwise I must be mad. In any event, it’s much fun.

Animal and Divine Consciousness

Humans are a transitional species. We are born and socialized with animal consciousness and with the potential of realizing divine consciousness.

Animal consciousness is viewing ourselves as finite in time (birth to death) and space (bodily form). It is essentially dualistic as we perceive ourselves as apart and separate from all that is not ourselves. Implicitly, it is Darwinian, stressful, as each of us competes within our environment for our survival.

Divine consciousness is the realization that everything is one of infinite temporary manifestations of the universe; ever-changing, interdependent (hence, essentially one thing) and with no beginning or end. Divine consciousness is the realization of our harmonious connection to all there is.

Animal consciousness perceives life as imperfect with relative flaws in one thing or another. Divine consciousness realizes the universe is perfect and as we are one with the universe we realize our perfection and having nothing about which to complain. This is an essential element of happiness.

The Golden Rule applies to both animal and divine consciousness. In animal consciousness, those with the gold rule. In divine consciousness, we do unto others as we would have others do unto us.

In animal consciousness we experience our world with descriptions and stories, making “every thing” seem different from every other thing. The experience of divine consciousness is beyond words; it is what it is whatever it is.

With animal consciousness we view ourselves as the center of the universe. With divine consciousness light is the center which in effect means the center is everywhere. Divine consciousness is enlightenment.

Animal consciousness is about living, divine consciousness is about loving. The difference between living and loving is the difference between “I” and “O.” “I” is the self. The letter’s form implies hierarchy. With each of us a point on a vertical line, we perceive others as above or below us (the Great Chain of Being). It implies duality and competition. “O” is continuous, each of us a point connected together to form a circle. This is love, the connecting of independent points creating a whole; a circle with no beginning and no end. Though the circle may appear as a duality with spaces within and without, the duality is an illusion as the spaces are not in conflict; they are mutually dependent, one cannot exist without the other. That is, love is the realization that what seems like a duality is just an illusion.

Beyond happiness, realizing our individual divine consciousness is the penultimate, second to last,  purpose of life. Life’s ultimate purpose is the collective realization of divine consciousness.

Duality

the within needs integrity to have integrity with the without.

They seem different but are the same as they are interdependent, like two side of the same coin.

The soul understands this, as the soul sees the soul in every thing; the oneness of all things.

The self sees itself as separate from all that is not it’s self. The self is the foundation of duality.

The soul is like peripheral vision.

The self is foveal vision; what it sees is distinguished from every thing else.

Duality within and duality without.

within is a about integrity.

without is about separation from that which is not within.

Duality, duality; within and without.

Duality within is when we have conflicting minds. For example, one mind tells us to go out and have fun, while another mind tells us to do homework. This happens when we don’t have integrity.

Duality without is when we perceive our self as apart from all that is not our self.

Dualities within and without are the cause of much of the stresses and conflicts in our lives.

Duality without begins at birth and ends when the our mind’s self-perception of separateness is vanquished; when our self is confined to its purpose of providing us and those for whom we are responsible with food, shelter, security and health.

At birth, we are separated from having been eternally one with everything in the womb to being temporary; finite in time (birth to death) and space (our physical form). Being one with everything before our birth must be idyllic as no one has ever complained about it. However, upon birth,  rudimentary complaining begins: crying. Upon our birth, we are no longer one with everything and now begin to suffer the stresses and conflicts between us and that which is not us. Moreover, duality distracts us from our purpose in life: to have a wonderful go of it, realize divine consciousness and help others likewise.

To dispel duality without, we need to know who we are.

We have two principle identities, the role and the soul. The role is whichever role we play in the now, the world as it unfolds. We play many roles; family member, professional, personal interests, etc.. The roles are temporary, ever-changing. The roles presume the existence of duality, our role at the moment vis-à-vis the roles of others who are not us. When our identity is our roles, we are forever imprisoned by duality.

Unlike the role of which there are many, the soul is the but one; sole. It is the present, the pre-sent; what everything is before it is; before time begins, before the now. The soul is eternal, forever unchanging. The now is the manifestation of the soul. As the soul is one, when our identity is the soul we are one with everything and dispense with duality without. We are at peace.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is simply being one with light. Light, the visual form of energy, is the essence of everything. Enlightenment is being one with everything. To the enlightened, this realization is  manifested in the many faces of enlightenment.

As E=M*C*C (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared) is M=E/C*C (mass (all that there is) is energy divided (slowed down) dramatically by the speed of light squared), all things are essentially infinite manifestations of light.

As energy is all there is, all things (however seemingly real and independent of energy) are just an illusion disguising energy. As energy is all there is, the Big Bang is all there is. The Big Bang happens at one time. Hence, there is no such thing as time. The appearance of things sequentially is an illusion that creates the illusion of time as well.

Faces of Enlightenment

Enlightenment is being one with the light. Light/energy is the essence of everything (E=M*C*C). When we realize we are one with the light, we are one with everything. As one with everything, there is no duality, no friction; just peace beyond our understanding.

The word “enlightenment” is the Western translation of the Buddhist term “bodhi.”  The verbal root budh- means “to awaken,” and its literal meaning is closer to awakening. Presumably, prior to awakening, we are asleep. Asleep, we see the world through our mind, not our eyes. Our mind shows us a world based on the memories and stories our mind creates. Our eyes reveal the universe as it is.

Human beings are a transitional species, part animal and part divine consciousness. As animals, we are finite in space (our physical being) and time (birth to death). As divine, we are one with the light and its manifestations, the universe; infinite in space and time; eternal. This realization is enlightenment.

We are born as animal consciousness and as we develop we can access divine consciousness; sometimes for short moments, sometimes for much of the time. However, we cannot be fully liberated from animal consciousness as it is the cost being in bodily form; so we all toggle back and forth. As such, even those who are enlightened much of the time are still animals some of the time. As animals, they may act in ways we don’t associate with enlightened beings. They may get intoxicated, lie, cheat or be abusive to others. Such behavior has resulted in the shaming and dismissal from leadership roles of many presumably spiritual/enlightened masters.

That said, the faces or characteristics of enlightened beings are:

Gratitude. They are grateful for their circumstances, however dire, as they know that their circumstances could always be worse.

Optimism. They know that in time their circumstances will improve as the present will always be better than what’s passed.

Forgiveness. They forgive all who have not done right by them as what’s past is passed. They don’t seek retribution. They may however feel that whoever has not done right by them might not do right by them again and avoid that person.

Laughter. They find much of how others think and act as funny; funny as odd; funny as laughable. What’s funny is others taking their illusionary selves seriously.

Childlike. They are childlike as they experience the present as unique, unlike anything they experienced that’s now past;

Humility. They don’t perceive themselves as better than others regardless of their talents or whatever good fortune has brought their way.

Non-judgmental. They accept others as they are, not grading them, holding them up to certain standards.

Acceptance. They make the best of what comes their way without distractions of what could or should have been.

Empirical. They learn through observing.

Insightful. They have interesting insights into the nature of consciousness. The enlightened are enlightening. Those who are highly enlightened have the greatest insights.

Wisdom. As they identify with the infinite manifestations of the universe, they have many perspectives. The synthesis of perspectives is wisdom.

Compassion. As they don’t differentiate between themselves and others, they treat others as they wish to be treated.

Karmic liberation. Karma, the stories our mind has created about the past, frame our experience of the present. The enlightened experience the present free from the prison of the past.

Calmness. As they meditate regularly, they are calm and clear and have little internal conflicts in making choices. Moreover, as they identify as one with everything, their lives tend to be less volatile as the universe is less volatile than any of its finite manifestations.

Integrity. They do not have internal “self” conflicts where, for example, one self inside their mind tells them to have a cookie because they’ll enjoy it while another tells them not to because it’s not good for them.

Confidence. Clear in making choices, come what may.

Divine. As one with the light, the enlightened are one with God. They realize the true nature of the universe: the universe is one, a manifestation of God; it is what it is whatever it is; no beginning, no end; eternal. This is the ultimate purpose of enlightenment, to not suffer in life or death as everything is one forever.

Enlightenment is Overrated

Enlightenment is overrated except by those who are enlightened.

That’s the essence of enlightenment: non-judgmental, acceptance, humility and joy.

The enlightened are non-judgmental. To them, the world is flat, not vertical, as they don’t rate their enlightened state as higher than other states of mind.

They accept each state of mind as it is what it is whatever it is, to be appreciated as it can be appreciated.

They are humble and as such they don’t confirm the status bequeathed them by others who desire to be enlightened as they view everyone as enlightened, some more some less. Asked if they are enlightened, the enlightened would respond: I am who I am. That is, categories, descriptions and identities deny the uniqueness of everything; the enlightened know that everything is unique; hence, self-descriptions are not an enlightened view.

The enlightened don’t overrate enlightenment as they know the joy that springs from wisdom and compassion can never be overrated.

The Way Of The Way, Heaven And Hell

Heaven is above and hell is below.

Our lives are a journey in hell or heaven; depending on who we are, the temporary self or the eternal soul.

Our self engages us with never-ending needs (food, shelter, security and health) and desires (that which we think we need but otherwise don’t) for which we can realize but temporary satisfactions and happiness. This is the endless cycle of hell; where happiness is but temporary, leading us to search for more temporary happiness. We search here, there and everywhere. The more we look, the less we see. Eventually, we come upon a rabbit hole into which we and and others like us descend. It is a lightless place where our eyes cannot see. What we think we see are individual and collective illusions of our self’s creation; stories, descriptions and generalizations to which we react as if they are real. As the illusions are not real, we keep searching; searching for the duration of our lives. This is the journey in hell.

Those of us who have no needs or desires are grateful. Gratitude brings us sustained happiness; a calm state devoid of the self’s distractions and illusions. We are in the pre-sent, the time before time begins and before everything is what it is whatever it is in the now. Happy, we don’t search the Earth for temporary satisfactions. Then, we can look up and see the sun revealing our world and trillions of stars revealing trillions upon trillions of other worlds; the endless, infinite universe. We realize how infinitesimally small, meaningless and insignificant we are in the scheme of things; that taking our illusions, our selves, seriously is silly and laughable. We realize we are not independent entities in the universe; we are the soul, the universe before it expresses itself. As the light of the sun and stars enter our eyes, we realize we are the light; that what we see is who we are; that I am who I am and the universe is what it is whatever it is. This is enlightenment. This is the journey in heaven.

Koan 3

“A man of wisdom delights at water” — Confucius

What are the possibilities?

Water, the possibilities!

Water is like the universe: one thing, yet many things.

Water manifests in different shapes (clouds, rivers, oceans) and forms (vapor, liquid, and ice).

Still water seems not to change, but is constantly transitioning through evaporation.

Water is interdependent, as a wave cannot be a wave without the sea.

Water is interconnected, from cloud to rain to river to sea.

As drops of water, we fear not rain over us. Water amassed as a flood reigns over us.

On water we can calmly float or panic and sink.

While essential to life, water also brings drowning and death.

Sound travels four times faster and further in water than air, though we can’t hear underwater what someone next to us is saying.

Water is odorless and tasteless, yet present in everything that smells and tastes.

Though colorless in a glass, water has a bluish hue in large bodies like the ocean.

Water in oceans seems impassable, but it’s easy to travel from land to land by boat.

Still water is dead-silent. Moving water is alive with noise.

In a pond, still water is translucent and turbulent water opaque.

When seeing ourselves in a reflecting pond, we don’t notice the water.

Water is impossible to grasp, but easily captured in cupped hands.

Water is practical, finding the easiest way to flow from place to place.

Water is weak, flowing to places of least resistance; unlike fire which destroys all in its way. Yet, water easily extinguishes fire.

While water is weak relative to stone, high-pressure water cuts stone like butter.

In general, we know all substances contract when they transition from liquid to solid. Water dispenses with this generalization, as it expands when it freezes. Counterintuitively, a quart of ice floats because it weighs less than a quart of water. 

Water symbolizes the cycle of life; born as drops of rain, living together in rivers and seas and disappearing as vapor to form clouds for its rebirth.

Reflections from slowly stirring water in a pond are like an abstract painting. The images we identify are illusions we create.

Water is what it is whatever it is. How we see water is a reflection of who we are. A man of wisdom sees water variously. That’s the essence of wisdom.

Way Of Way 250

“The Great Way” begins with “no know” and ends with “know no.”

“The Great Way” (or Tao), a central concept in Taoism, is the natural flow of the universe and the path to harmony. It is the path to liberation from our temporary individual self to realizing our eternal oneness with the Everything.

The Everything is the soul and its manifestation in the now.

The soul is what every thing is before and after it is what it is whatever it is in the now. The soul is “no-thing,” just energy.

The now is an infinite number of seemingly separate things. Separateness is an illusion, as all things in the now are one thing: interdependent manifestations of the soul. interdependent. Ultimately, all things in the now are one thing: interdependent manifestations (expressions) of the soul.

The self is who we are in the now.

The self conceives the now as a duality: the self and that which is not the self. Upon this foundational duality, we perceive separateness between all things in the now.

The self’s perception of separateness is based on illusions (memories, stories and identities) that define who we are, not what we are (the Everything).

The path to liberation begins when we realize we “no know”: we don’t know what we are. We then dispense with basing reality on the self and its illusions.

Dispensing with the illusion of separateness, we come to “know no”; to know the “no-thing” (the soul).

Knowing the soul, we experience the expressions of the soul (the now) as an interconnectedness of all things.

From the soul to the soul’s expressions and then reverting to the soul is the natural flow of the universe. Realizing this is what we are, the Everything, we are in harmony with the flow of the universe.

Meditation is a central practice of “The Great Way.” Through meditation, we can let go of the self which liberates us from the self.

Holding onto the self makes the hand a fist, an aggressive gesture suggestive of duality. Letting go the self, the hand opens like a handshake to connect with all things. The connection is love.

In meditation, we focus on breathing and the space between breaths. The breaths are the now and the space between breaths is the “no-thing” (the soul).

In the space of the “no-thing,” we can observe the now and come to realize we are the consciousness that creates it.

With the wisdom of knowing we are the Everything, we realize our self’s sense of separateness and the self itself are illusions. This wisdom leads us to compassion, to love all things in the now.

The sounds of “no know” and “know no” are the same, but their meanings distinct. The same energy vibrations (sound) from the soul is manifested as different words in the now.

Liberation is reverting from words to their sounds; from distinct to harmonious. The path back is the Tao. The Tao reveals that “no know” and “know no” are one; that we and the energy are one.

Exit-Essentialism

Exit-essentialism is a philosophy or attitude to life and death that focuses on exit strategies.

The universe has two constants. It is forever-changing and forever. Exit-essentialism in life is a micro/personal approach to the forever-changing. Exit-essentialism in death is a macro/philosophical view of our individual transition from bodily form to forever.

The difference between exit-essentialism in life and death is like the difference between micro and macro economics. Our lives are micro. Our death is macro. As in microeconomics, micro exit-essentialism in life is an approach to individual choices and changes that come our way. As in macroeconomics, macro exit-essentialism is a big picture approach, a top-down philosophy, that is the guiding light on our way through life. While seemingly different, the micro and macro are interdependent and complimentary.

In life, as Heraclitus informed us 2500 years ago, everything is forever-changing. Most changes we find imperceptible but some changes are significant; beneficial or detrimental. Awareness of the ever-changing nature of life allows us to experience the newness of everything. It is energizing.

As we make our way in life, micro exit-essentialism is the awareness that our choices and unexpected detrimental changes that put us in harm’s way. Exit-essentialism is imagining detrimental changes to our situations and ways to most safely exit these situations. As detrimental changes generally happen slowly and then seemingly suddenly, by imagining detrimental changes we can see them before they fully realize and make choices that keep us from the full brunt of harm’s way. As such, best to avoid situations where we cannot envision detrimental changes and exits to limit our losses.

Macro exit-essentialism is knowing our exit out of this bodily life. The exit is to the place from where we, our soul, came before we were born. A place about which no one has ever complained. The place where everything that is and will ever be is, the true-present. It is God, divine consciousness. It cannot be described other than by saying it is what it is whatever it is. When we go there, we are one with everything. Moreover, in knowing where we go when we no longer in bodily form, we know we are a temporary expression of everything as is everything else. We are always (before, during and after life) in this place but are distracted when we assume a seemingly independent bodily form and have animal consciousness.

Having the knowledge of macro exit-essentialism provides us a certain perspective on life. We are less distracted by everyday situations and experiences, taking them less seriously. We accept changes as they are a constant in the universe. We experience the newness of everything. We are energized. We find it hilarious that other people don’t know exit-essentialism and make fools of themselves when they take themselves too seriously. Our experience in life is less stressful and more wonderful. Macro exit-essentialism makes for a terrific life.

When we know and embrace micro and macro exit-essentialism, our lives are wonderful and we are comfortable taking risks that reward us in life.

Spirit and Soul

Each of us is a unique spirit with a common soul.

God is all there is. The universe is the manifestation of God.

In the Bible, the Burning Bush is the image of God that appears to Moses at Mount Sinai. The flames are ever-changing and the bush is not devoured by the flames as they are light, not fire. The flames represent the spirit, the bush the soul.

The words spirit and soul are often used interchangeably. However, spirit and soul are different. Spirit is the animated, vibrating life force. Soul is the sole essence of everything alive or not. All that’s alive has a unique ever-changing spirit and everything alive or not has the same soul.

We show up in life as spirits; some with high energy, some low; some big flames, some hardly visible; some volatile, some steady; each unique. When we go to sleep, we go to our death(1), our spirit is extinguished and our soul joins all other souls in the well of souls. As soul is the essence of everything, we are then one with everything. When we awaken our spirits arise. Soul is then only visible to those who know it exists and our attention focuses on our spirit and the spirits of others.  When aware of our soul, we can celebrate our common essence instead of finding ourselves distracted by spirits.

(1) Each night we die, each morning reborn some resemblance to the person we were yesterday who is now no longer.  Each day is not a day in a life but a life in a day.

The Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil and Life

In the Bible, God creates man in his own image and hosts him in the Garden of Eden with plants and fruit trees for his sustenance. Among the fruit trees are the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. However, God forbids man to eat the fruit of these trees.

Man nonetheless eats the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Upon realizing man has eaten the forbidden fruit, God declares that man is now “like one of us [gods], knowing Good and Evil.” God then banishes man from the Garden for fear man will eat the fruit of the Tree of Life which would grant man eternal life; thus, truly becoming one of the gods.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents wisdom, the ability to see not solely from our individual perspective but through infinite perspectives as do the gods. We, the decedents of God’s  creation, man, are born with the potential of unlimited wisdom.

As man was banished from the Garden of Eden before having eaten the fruit from the Tree of Life, man is not born to eternal life. However, there is a way to the Garden of Eden where man can find the Tree of Life, eat its fruit and live forever. It is the righteous way, the way of God: compassion. Compassion is treating others as we treat ourselves. We can only truly have compassion when we realize that we and all others are one. This realization allows us into the Garden of Eden which is everywhere. Here we can now enjoy the fruit of the Tree of Life and be one with the universe which is eternal. Now, created in the image of God and with wisdom and compassion, we are forever; one of the gods and one with God.

This is the purpose of life.

Awakening

Most of our lives are spent in a dream-state; a dream of stories based on memories and imaginations that seem very real. Awakening is the realization that our memories, imaginations and past have little to do with us beyond finding ourselves in certain physical circumstances (our body and the immediate world about us) and with certain network connections (social roles with family, work, friends); that everything otherwise is new, always and all ways new; new from one moment to the next. The newness of everything is engaging, energizing and arouses our curiosity which further engages and energizes us. We then realize that everything is new as everything is temporary, ever-changing. We realize that we are not solely ourselves as defined by our physical circumstances and network connections but are one with everything and temporarily separate from everything.

The dream is like a movie which our mind makes real, giving it three dimensions. When the theater lights turn on, the screen images fade and we recognize it was only an illusion.

“Sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past.” (Dan Brown). Best to do so before the movie ends.

Why Buddha doesn’t need a guru

The Buddha’s path to enlightenment is without a guide or guru. On the path he observes the world around him, questions his observations, realizes he knows nothing and that ultimately there is nothing to know. He knows that of the universe can only be said that it is what it is whatever it is. Any other descriptions are illusory. He realizes he is temporarily part and eternally one with the universe and whatever happens to him in this life is of little matter in the scheme of things. As he is one with everything he treats others as he would wish to be treated. This is compassion. As one with everything he can experience whatever happens to him from the infinite perspectives of others. This is wisdom. Wisdom mitigates the affect his personal perspectives have on him. In other words, when we are one with the universe we significantly hedge the idiosyncratic risks in our lives. (1) This has a calming effect and provides us a good laugh seeing others take their personal perspectives seriously. That is why in classic images of Buddha he is laughing. All other truths Buddha realizes stem from the foregoing.

While gurus can be helpful as guides, they are no substitute for independent thinking. Few who follow gurus ever awaken to the truths of the Buddha. Most simply play the role of follower in the play of life. They will likely learn much but know little. That’s their life.

(1) Idiosyncratic risks are those that are personal to an individual, like an accidental fire in our house. Experiencing the related losses is difficult but less so when we also experience it from the perspectives of our neighbors and others.

Micro and Macro Love

Love is having peak experiences as we connect with others and/or the universe.

Micro or personal love is connecting with specific individuals or experiences.  It is physically pleasurable; intense; dramatic; joyful; sometimes painful. When in micro love we take ourselves seriously as it feels very real as it energizes us. It is an experience of heart and loins. It is finite as it is specific to the individuals or experiences that engender it.

Macro love is love of everything. It is a sense of being one with everything; a calm, joyous state. It is an experience of the soul feeling the soul in everything. It is experiencing the eternal, God.

While micro and macro love are mutually exclusive, we can experience both. However, those who haven’t experienced macro love only know micro love. Those who have macro love experiences can also experience micro love. Those solely experiencing micro love view those experiencing macro love as having an experience of the head not the heart, as not having truly experienced love. Those who experience macro love pity those whose only experience is micro.

Kanako Iiyama Awakens

Recounting the train accident in Japan on April 25, 2005: “I had a sense something will happen…and went back to the train. I saw the tragedy of the train snapping in two and the people underneath it. The ambulance didn’t make it in time, so I dragged out the people around me who were breathing. Yes, it has changed the way I live my life a bit. I began to take a narrow, short path. It’s not like before. The scenery around me were all clear and the nature was near there, making for a very beautiful way.”

A moment of awakening. There is a small gap between when something happens and when we realize it has happened. Before the accident became real, Kanako was in that gap and knew something was happening which called her to the train. When the accident became real she did what she could to help, stepped out of her role as a pedestrian and acted as an ambulance person in triage. (When we awaken we realize any role in the play of life is ours to assume.) At this moment of awakening she realized that right then right there was different than all that came before in her life (“It’s not like before.”).  Moreover, she knew that as life can end in an instant, best to awaken as soon as possible; best “to take the narrow, short path” to self-realization*. Then she awoke to the beauty of everything around her and her path forward as the accident and its ramifications were now long past.

*The narrow and short path to self-realization is the meditation of death. It is setting our mind on the thought that we will die moments from now. Soon, the overwhelming energy of everything is revealed; that we and the energy are one. However, it is a narrow path and if we slip along the way we may very well not make it through. The wide and long path to self-realization is working with an enlightened master, formally receiving his teachings and engaging in meditative/contemplative practices. It is a long path as it involves many years of work until we get it. It is a wide forgiving path as it is walked with the support of the master and other students.

Stories We Tell Ourselves

From earliest days in memory until early teens, my father who had a temper would often yell and hit me for things I thought were inconsequential. One time he even screamed “I wish you were never born.” I didn’t take this personally; thought that’s just the way he was, nervous and easily agitated. He died at 60 of the flu. My mother lived another 28 years. I would often ask her how daddy really felt about me. Her response was always the same: “He couldn’t stand you.” To which I just laughed. What was funny was that he was irritated by meaningless things he took seriously which made them real. For example, if I got home a couple of hours passed my curfew, he would go into a rage; seemed odd to me because at that point I was home.

My mother loved me unconditionally. Always gave me preferential  treatment; she cleaned my room first, spared no expense in serving only me the best foodstuffs, even when we couldn’t afford much.  However, 20 years before she died she announced her entire estate would be bequeathed to my sister. While my sister was not indigent and likely to die with more money than she’d inherit from my mother, my mother felt that my sister needed it more than me. I shared mother’s news with my children, including my 5 year old son, who from then on would always greet her: “Hi grandma, how about 50/50?” However, she never changed her will. How did I feel? Just laughed. It was funny because others with whom I shared my story were taken aback, vicariously felt hurt. That seemed silly. There was nothing personal to me about this experience. My mother did what my mother did; seemed the right thing to do in her mind.  I was happy for her. (Of course, had she been worth say $10M or more, maybe I would have felt differently.) At her deathbed, I was with her and my sister. I asked her whom she loved more, me or my sister. She said she loved me more. That seemed like a good deal. I got the blessing and my sister got the goats.

The point of my story is that many of us in situations like mine with my father and mother would have told themselves stories like mommy or daddy didn’t love me, I’m worthless, etc. They might feel wounded, traumatized perhaps. But that’s not really what happened in times past. That’s just a story they chose to tell themselves. Perhaps they might feel better if they change their stories.

Sequential and Synchronous Time

Now is a time, now is the time.

Now is a time as a point in time, a way to differentiate between past and future. This is sequential time. Now is the time as the only time that exists is now; past, present and future are all woven into now. This is synchronous time.

Those experiencing time sequentially have a logical perspective, a narrow focus, start one task after another is finished, are conscientious, organized, punctual, view activities as finite, value time and are careful in how it’s spent and view the past, present and future as distinctly different. They view the future as something that can be organized based on the present and recent past. They tend to often glance at their watch to tell time as time is telling them what’s next. They work at jobs. They fish with a rod and reel.

Those whose experience of time is synchronous are flexible, multitask and move seamlessly between activities, focus on a project and not on the time it takes to complete it, are more concerned with quality than quantity, develop long-term working relationships, perceive the world as continuous and view the past, present and future as continuous, not segmented. They feel that everyone dead or alive today is present; feel connected to them all, wherever they may be, and have their perspectives. They have careers. They fish with a net.

Experiencing time synchronously allows us a broad and deep  understanding of our circumstances and opens us up to the many possibilities as the future unfolds.   A sequential view of time frames our expectations within our most recent experiences.  For example, in Germany in the 1930’s Jews with a sequential view of time had no reason to suspect the holocaust was coming. In 1871 Germany adapted a constitution that granted Jews social and political freedoms equal to all German citizens.  However, those with a synchronous sense of time knew of Jews burned in masses in barns in Germany during the Black Plague 600 years back. As such, they could envision a similar outcome with the rise of the Nazis and plan an escape before none was to be had.

Time is time, whatever that is. We can artificially divide it and use it as a measuring tool or we can accept its ever-presence like a body of water where a school of fish swim.

God’s Role

In the play of life I am who I am. I am god and so is everyone else. The only difference between us is that some realize we are god and others are oblivious to who we are before birth and after death and all times in between. It’s the difference between being one with everything (eternally transitioning manifestations of God) and viewing oneself as finite in space and time (birth to death). It’s the difference between realizing we are actors in a play for our own entertainment and taking our roles in the play seriously. In cannabis speak, it’s the difference between being high and feeling stoned.

Everything is a manifestation of God. As long as we perceive God as something different than ourselves, we can never be one with God, one with everything.

Integrity

The etymology of “integrity” is wholeness. When we have integrity we are of one mind. We can hold disparate perspectives but those perspectives, while they may be diametrically opposite, don’t give rise to internal conflicts. We are free to make clear choices without ambivalence.

However, many of us lack integrity. While we appear as one person, within us are many people arguing, each telling us what to do. For example, one person in our head tells us to have a cigarette, we’ll enjoy it. Another person says don’t smoke, it’s not good for us. Likewise, externally we may lie to others so that they view us in a way unlike who we truly are, giving rise to two different people, who we are and who we project ourselves to be; again, lacking integrity. That these various people within and without us exist begs the question: who are we?

Each of us is like a ship with a captain, first mate, navigator and oarsmen. The shipmates often fight over control of the ship’s steering wheel, forcing the ship to change its course.  The captain can assert control through discipline, get each shipmate to perform their respective function and steer the ship’s course. But at some point the captain needs to sleep, the mates leave their stations, enter the captain’s cabin and again start fighting over the wheel to change the ship’s course. As such, discipline is often an ineffective way to develop integrity.

Love and meditation are an effective way to making us whole, to promote integrity. Love is connecting with others harmoniously, accepting them and their perspectives. Love connects all the shipmates within us and accepts their views and needs. With love, the shipmates work together for the benefit of each other and the whole.

Meditation is a process for calming the mind. The mind is like a pond. We view the world as reflections off the surface of the mind. When the surface of the mind is disturbed by our different selves fighting within us, the images reflected are distorted and we don’t see the world clearly. Through meditation we calm the mind and its reflections give us a clear view of our world, allowing us to make choices not skewed by conflict. We have courage, resolve and strength of character; grit, the root of integrity.

Ultimately, when the various people inside our mind compete and integrity prevails; it can be said that integrity, one, won.

Mindlessness

The mind is like a pond reflecting reality. We experience reality not as it is but as reflections. The reflections most accurately represent reality when the mind is calm, undisturbed by motion beneath the water and activity above. Motion beneath the pond is a function of us not having integrity and our reacting to stories of our past we’ve created.  Activity above the pond is a function of multitasking and distractions like desiring that which we don’t need.

Mindlessness is the purpose of meditation. Meditation is a tool to calm the mind by focusing on, say, solely our breathing. This is mindfulness meditation. Beyond mindfulness, we can advance to mindlessness meditation wherein we focus on the space of nothingness between breaths; that is, the space between when we exhale and before we inhale again. In the space of nothingness we are free from distractions and are ready to experience reality (the present) before it becomes just a reflection from mind.

In the space of nothingness we experience the present and the nature of mind is revealed. Once revealed, we realize the mind’s reflections are not reality but a derivative based on reality that’s distorted by a disturbed state of mind. This realization transforms our relationship with mind from the mind being our master to our servant. The is the foundation of enlightenment.

So remember, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. If we forget this, enlightenment will be the least of our problems.

Keys to Health

The key to health is reminding young. Most diseases are a function of old age. Smoking, drinking and cardiovascular problems are not much of a disease when we are young.

The basic keys to staying young are food, sleep, laughter, aerobic exercise and energy.

Food.

Only eat things that look as you’re eating them as they did when they were alive. Fruits, vegetables, small fish and birds look the same. Large fish, land animals don’t. Neither does bread or pasta as they don’t grow on trees. In other words, avoid eating refined foods and foods high up on the food chain which tend to accumulate toxic waste. Your body is built to eat naturally occurring foods, not man-made refined foods.

Moreover, be careful to not get into eating accidents. These accidents are caused by overeating and often make us overweight. These accidents happen when we’re not paying attention as we’re eating. For example, there is a 90% reduction in fatal collisions in roundabout traffic circles where stop signs or light signals were previously used for traffic control. That’s because when one approaches a stop sign or light signal one may be on their phone, talking or listening to the radio; but, when approaching a roundabout, one dispenses with multitasking distractions and concentrates on the road ahead. Focusing our attention lessens the chances of an accident. Likewise, when eating, best to focus on what we’re eating. Best not to watch TV, listen to music, talk with someone or read.  If you’re hungry, eat as much as you wish but you’ll notice your stomach is rarely hungry after a few bites. If the food is delicious, each as much as you wish but you’ll find the law of diminishing returns results in each bite less pleasing then the bite before. Moreover, when you’ve got food in your mouth, close your eyes and enjoy the intense and subtle pleasure of the food,  undistracted by your other senses. This is meditative eating.

Sleep.

Sleep a couple of times a day, a long sleep of several hours at night and one or two short naps during the day. Sleep is akin to dying of old age and awakening after is rebirth. Sleep allows us to recover from simply being worn out.

Laughter.

Laughing is the great elixir for pain and stress. As there is something funny about almost everything, one can find the funniness of a situation to relieve pain or stress. For example, I recently accidentally closed a car door on my finger; then immediately started laughing at how foolish I was not paying attention to closing the car door as I was talking at the moment to a friend. This otherwise painful experience was not painful.

Aerobic exercise.

That which is so to speak dead is inanimate, not moving. To be alive, move around vigorously as something that’s alive to the point of getting your heart rate up. No need to go anywhere or use any equipment as you can dance or (if constrained by time or space) engage in sex.

Energy

Energy keeps us alive and protects us from malevolent forces like illness. Some people or situations are energizing and some are energy draining. Best to think about what brings us energy and what takes it away and embrace the energizing and avoid the draining.

Corona Virus

The corona virus pandemic is a terrific individual and collective existential moment. (Terrific once meant horrible/terrible and now of course means wonderful.) Like everything else in life the virus can be viewed in multiple ways; however, not viewing it at least in part as terrific implies we take our personal views too seriously and as such have a limited understanding of it’s nature and ramifications.

It is an existential moment as we are awakened by the immediacy of death as many we know or hear about die unexpectedly and as death rings everywhere with highly publicized daily death tallies. While we know that no one is getting out of here alive, the virus is a constant reminder of that reality. This reminder arouses us to consider our own death which leads us to question why we are here in life and how should we use the time remaining before we die. Is there any value to us continuing from now until our death the same life routines we’ve embraced for years or should we do something more meaningful or of greater value to others? Contemplating this can lead us to a life-changing state of mind and life changes. Helping us make a life change is the quarantine which prohibits us from continuing our habits of socializing, shopping and other routines that devour much of our time. Having a break from these habits makes them easier to break which in turn gives us time for other matters that might result in a life change. This change is likely to be terrific.

Collectively, it is also terrific. As now in quarantine we consume only what we need. The quarantine shows us that much of our consumption has been of goods and services that we want but don’t need. This suggests that maybe it’s better to have a life based on less expensive experiences than chasing things we don’t need. Moreover, the common threat of the virus solidifies nations and people everywhere which leads to peaceful coexistence. Thus, the virus is terrific as it may re-shift collective priorities to the benefit of all.

Most of us will receive a reprieve from the virus. This will be a watershed moment for us; a point of reference from which we will judge whether our time from now until the end was well-served or we just killed time until time killed us.

Way Of Way 11

When good times lead to worse times and bad times lead to better times, that’s called “regression to the mean”.

When good times lead to better times and bad times lead to worse times, that’s called “momentum”.

The Way depends on identifying and balancing these countervailing forces.

Meditation of Death

There are times we are overwhelmed by stress, pain, multitasking, internal strife (mixed feelings about choices we need to make), depression, anxiety, etc. Overwhelmed means drowning. Drowning leads to  death as without freedom from that which overwhelms us, we are living in hell. Fortunately, there is a life vest to save us from hell: the meditation of death.

The meditation of death is setting our minds to imagine we will die in the next 5 minutes. With death imminent, everything transitions from like wallpaper that’s been up for years (flat and unnoticeable)  to three dimensional objects of intense beauty. Ugly, unfashionable Formica kitchen counters become beautiful abstract art. As we are energized by the beauty of everything, a calmness settles inside us and we are free from that which was overwhelming.

As we continue with the meditation of death, we realize that death is a transition to becoming one with everything as we were before we were born. As one with everything, we view the universe from infinite perspectives (the essence of wisdom) and treat everything no differently than we treat ourselves (compassion). This is living in heaven, as before birth and after death.  From the perspective of heaven,  all that happens on Earth is absurdly funny. Thus, that which was once overwhelming now seems trivial, selfish and funny.

To avail ourselves of the life vest, the meditation of death, we need never forget it is always near. But as we tend to be forgetful when we’re overwhelmed, best to keep us from oblivion are short periodic prayers (meditations) several times a day wherein we are thankful for our circumstances as we acknowledge that there are many in the world who would love to be in our shoes (especially if they have no shoes).

Things to Come

Each of us has a somewhat different perception of reality, i.e. the nature of something. Arguments can erupt between people having different perceptions. Logic and pervasiveness are tools we use to convince others that our perception is more correct and another wrong but those who win these arguments don’t necessarily have them most accurate perception. A better way to judge individual perceptions of reality is by their accuracy in forecasting how reality will unfold, as understanding the nature of something likely allows us the best guess of how it will be over time. Studies of “super forecasters” (people who are much better than most at forecasting upcoming events) have identified the following characteristics these people share:

Probabilistic thinking. Nothing is certain. There is no right answer, just likely outcomes. Ability to put mathematical weights to possible outcomes.

No righteousness. What happens isn’t preordained, isn’t necessarily a logical or moral outcome.

Metaphorical thinking. Able to see unrelated situations as shedding light on the subject at hand.

Curious. Engaged by thinking about how something works and driven to understand it.

Open-minded. Realizing that possible outcomes are only limited by one’s imagination.

Economic. Good at productively allocating time and resources to information gathering.

Detached/dispassionate. Able to view things from the outside in, without personal prejudices.

Wise. Able to view things from many perspectives.

Flexible. Openness to changing one’s point of view as conditions or one’s perception changes.

Humble. Knowing that one will never really understand something. Accepting that other forecasts are likely more accurate.

Integrity/confidence. Able to ultimately chose what one believes is the likely outcome.

While few people exhibit all of the above characteristics, those lacking many of them should be cautious in taking their perceptions of reality too seriously.

From Pity to Compassion

We connect with those we perceive as suffering via pity, sympathy, empathy and compassion. Pity is a detached (intellectual) feeling one has for others who are suffering as one imagines themselves suffering if in similar circumstances. Sympathy is when one is emotionally moved by the suffering of others. Empathy is feeling the suffering of another, comforting them and sharing their pain which helps alleviate their pain. Compassion is helping others as we would want others to help us make the best of our circumstances and move forward to ultimately realize our potential.

Pity and sympathy are self-serving (feeling good about ourselves having these feelings) and require nothing of us. Empathy can also be self-serving and is often potentially harmful to the empath in terms of emotional stress and time consumption. However, unlike pity and sympathy, empathy provides real relief to those suffering. Compassion is relatively easy but requires the willingness of the sufferer to move forward.

Acute suffering is an immediate reaction to unfortunate circumstances that may come our way. Chronic suffering is selfish in that the chronic sufferer is oblivious to all for which they have to be grateful and their otherwise good fortune relative to others who are far less fortunate they are.

Empathy is what selfish sufferers want. Empaths are ultimately selfish as well. Compassion is an expression of happiness and the wisdom and love of God.

Eccentrics

The etymology of “eccentric” is out of center. Likewise, eccentric people are off center in terms of their beliefs, views and behavior relative to conventional thinking or the views of affinity groups generally. Their views tend to be unique and insightful. Yet, like Cassandra in Greek mythology, few believe in the prophecies of eccentrics that have a good track record of seeing the future.

According to Dr. David Weeks who has studied eccentrics, the characteristics of eccentrics are:

Enduring non-conformity.

Creativity.

Curiosity.

An enduring and distinct feeling of being different from others.

Idealism, unrealistically hoping to improve the lot of others by having others think like them.

Happily obsessed with a number of long-lasting preoccupations.

Intelligent, in the upper 15% of the population.

Opinionated and outspoken.

Non-competitive, not needing tangible recognition of success.

Unusual eating habits and living arrangements.

Not particularly interested in the opinions of others.

Possessed of a mischievous sense of humor, charm, whimsy and wit.

More frequently an eldest child.

Having an eccentric family member.

Focused on thoughts, not feelings.

Feelings of invisibility as they feel others don’t take them seriously.

Feeling that others can take them only in small doses.

Dislike small talk or other inconsequential conversation.

A degree of social awkwardness.

More likely to be single, separated or divorced.

A poor speller in relationship to their intellectual capacity.

Intelligence and Wisdom

Intelligence is having strong cognitive abilities. Wisdom is good judgement.

Those who are intelligent do well at analyzing complex data. Data by its nature is historical. The intelligent are good at explaining the past. The wise are good at assessing current situations and determining the likelihood of future outcomes.

From early childhood our intelligence is measured by tests and school grades. This is a easy measurement as it’s ex-post. Those perceived as highly intelligent are put on fast tracks and given many opportunities to excel to the top of their classes or organizations. They excel at many technical skills like  math and verbal communication. Their minds can be microscopic and/or telescopic, able to view that about which people of average intelligence seem clueless.  They can make sense of an otherwise ambiguous past which gives them and their audience confidence in their ability to predict how things will transition in the future. However, there is little relationship between those who most convincingly understand the past and those who are best at predicting the future. As everything is forever transitioning and everything is unique, using the past as a basis to predict the future puts limits on one’s imagination. This is significant as we can’t see what we can’t imagine.

The wise are best at assessing current situations and predicting how they will transition over time.  Their wisdom is generally more valuable than the perspectives of those considered intelligent. However, it is difficult to measure and identify those who are wise. To do so would require measuring ex-ante outcomes which would take time for forecasts to be realized (or not) and require many forecasts.  Moreover, excellent forecasters give different scenarios percentage probabilities which is not what an interested audience generally wants as percentages don’t give their audience as much confidence about going forward as do definitive forecasts. Thus, because of the difficulties of measurement and little demand by the general public, identifying those who are wise is not done systematically. However, those in the interested audience who are self-confident want forecasts from those who are wise, not those who are intelligent.

The difference between the intelligent and the wise is clear as academics are intelligent and successful business people tend to be wise (and/or lucky). Academics are great at explaining the past and confidently predicting the future. But if the value of an individual’s contribution to society is simply measured by the amount of money they earn, academics aren’t highly valued as predictors. Successful business people are paid considerably more for their predictive abilities as they are able to profit from correctly predicting future markets and cost-effectively providing what those market want. They are wise.

A good metaphor is the hedgehog and the fox. Hedgehogs are best at digging through a hedge. But that’s all they can do well, like an idiot savant who is narrowly intelligent. The fox doesn’t do anything particularly well but can consider many approaches to obtaining what he wants. Ultimately, always bet on the fox rather than the hedgehog to survive.

Modern society (more so than primitive tribal societies where wise elders are often consulted) are led by those considered intelligent. This often results in relatively poor choices.

As our social system doesn’t measure and identify those who are wise, how do we personally identify them? The fox would say to not listen to those most intelligent and best at explaining the past as they are unlikely to be good predictors of the future; best to take advice from those who know the past as a multifaceted amalgam of not necessarily related events and can speak of the future in probabilistic terms.

Trust

Trusting others may lead us at times to costly losses and disappointments that might have otherwise been avoided had we been more cautious and defensive. But the value of the tranquility that comes from trusting overwhelms the costs.

Unless experience or knowledge informs us otherwise, we naturally trust others when we feel connected with them.  As such, we try to do well by them and assume they will try to do well by us. This sense of connection is very powerful. It is identifying with the whole of the universe, not solely with our finite selves. As the universe has been and will be here forever, identifying with the whole infuses us with a sense of confidence and optimism that everything will ultimately work out well and there’s nothing to worry about as our personal lives need not be taken too seriously. This instills tranquility, a stressless state of mind.

Those who don’t feel so connected have stressful lives as they are on the watch for others who might do them wrong. While in their over-cautious approach to life they might avoid some undesirable situations, the ongoing stress in their role as a watchdog may be more harmful to them than would have been the situations they were lucky to avoid. In fact, prison guards have significantly shorter lifespans than prisoners.

Trust however need not be open-ended. Best to trust others while limiting potential risks if things unfold with negative consequences. In other words, if we lend someone $100 and they don’t pay us back, the situation is manageable; less so if we lend them our credit cards.

My Awakening

When I was 16, living in Brooklyn with my parents, one summer night I drove to Brighton Beach and sat on the rocks along the shore. Reflections from the moon danced on the water, the ocean breathed in the surf and breathed out a roar. The night sky was a black blanket with pinholes to unknowable worlds on its other side. Lights and sounds vibrating the air, every-thing teeming with aliveness; unique, unlike anything experienced before.

I wondered why the ocean, expressing itself with motion and sound, was not considered as alive as are plants and animals. What did it mean to be alive? The “alive” classification made little sense. Classifications, descriptions and thoughts generally felt artificial, man-made; helpful for organizing and communicating, but otherwise empty of aliveness.

Who am I in all this?

The sounds, the lights, the ever-changing shapes unfolding from nothing, the ocean smells; overwhelmingly beautiful, yet eerie as in the presence of a great spirit. Then, the infinite number of finite things were no longer finite, but manifestations of one infinite thing. I was infinitesimal before the infinite, until I realized I was the infinite.

This was a religious experience, but not connected to an organized religion. It was initially animism and then pantheism. This was my awakening and realization of our immortality.

Be Careful For What You Wish

All our wishes come true but not in the forms we imagine.

In 1973 I graduated from college and planned to start working, have a family and take a year at a Zen monastery when I reached 40, like Philip Kapleau who wrote The Three Pillars of Zen. At 40, my family and business partners would not have been encouraging had I taken a year-long sabbatical. However, at 43 my family and 140 friends threw a farewell party for me at the Harvard Club before I left for a 13 month stay at a Federal prison.

What landed me in prison was my involvement in an “insider trading” case. I personally profited $50K. Legal fees cost me roughly $2M and fines and penalties another $1.8M. Moreover, I was no longer allowed to manage other people’s money, though all of my investors stayed with me until I was prohibited from working. As a result of my not being allow to work, my net worth today is not even a tiny fraction of what it would have been otherwise.

I didn’t think that my trading was criminal. But others obviously did. In any event, the cost of going to trial, fines, penalties and the sanctions placed upon me undoubtedly were punitive to an extreme.  How do I feel? Pretty good as I play squash 4 – 5 times a week and I play with the prosecutor in my case. Why? Because I was born with the gene of happiness and the prosecutor is a wonderful guy, good squash player.

I did learn something from this ordeal: best be careful what we wish for as every wish will come true but not in the form we imagine. While I didn’t go to a traditional Zen monastery, prison was a Zen monastery of sorts. It did provide an awakening moment.

During my stay, my interactions with the other prisoners was for the most part fun. As well, I generously paid some to make my bed, clean the shower before I used it and make me foods like hand-cut French fries. The night before I left the prison, I asked a group of inmates whether they would miss me as we had a good time together. Seemingly in unison, they said no, because they hated me. I was a bit shocked. They said they hated me because I had such a good time. Maybe they needed a Zen monastery more than I did.

Across the Universe

Words are flowing out
Like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy
Are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me

Jai Guru Deva, Om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world

Images of broken light
Which dance before me like a million eyes
They call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe

Jai Guru Deva, Om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world

Sounds of laughter, shades of life
Are ringing through my open ears
Inciting and inviting me
Limitless, undying love
Which shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe

Jai Guru Deva, Om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world

Jai Guru Deva
Jai Guru Deva
Jai Guru Deva
Jai Guru Deva
Jai Guru Deva
Jai Guru Deva

The Beatles, 1968

“Jai Guru Deva, Om” is a mantra-like refrain which in Sanskrit literally means “glory to the shining remover of darkness.”

However, the lyrics seem more reflective of a psychedelic journey than a meditation. Interesting is the refrain “Nothing’s gonna change my world.” Does that mean that my world will never change or that from nothing will come the light that will change my world (the shining remover of darkness)? The ambiguity of the refrain suggests that one’s person experience (“my world”) is as it is (eternal) and yet bizarrely changing with revelations when traveling across the universe.

Is marble colder than wood?

In a room, marble and wood have the same temperature, room temperature. However, unlike wood, marble is cold to the touch. This is an anomaly as it doesn’t comport with our expectations. (Marble feels colder because it’s a relatively good conductor of heat and as such it drains heat from our skin, making our skin feel cold.)

What makes the foregoing interesting is that while it’s common knowledge that marble feels colder than wood, very few of us are curious enough to find out why; probably because our curiosity is not aroused by anomalies, though maybe it should be.

Anomalies are funny. Funny as in odd as they don’t conform to expectations, preconceived notions.  Preconceived notions are categories in our mind that organize past experiences. These categories have descriptions and associations. We experience not our experiences as they happen but the descriptions and associations we have with the experiences. Thus, also funny, as in laughingly funny, is when we realize we mistakenly placed an experience into a category into which it doesn’t belong. We laugh at our stupidity. If not, then we are truly stupid.

Anomalies nudge us to awaken from having mechanical/category based experiences.  While everything is unique, not like or unlike anything else, we fail to experience its uniqueness when we mechanically classify our experiences. When our curiosity is aroused by the uniqueness of an anomaly, we seek to understand the anomaly and in doing so we start on a journey that makes us realize everything is unique; unless we ignore the anomalies.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

Rock-paper-scissors is a game dating to antiquity. It is also a metaphor for the dynamic interrelationship between nature, civilization and technology.

In the game, each of two players declares themselves as either rock, paper or scissors by a show of a fist (rock), an open hand (paper) or the index and middle fingers apart (scissors). Paper wins vs rock (as paper can envelop rock); scissors wins vs paper (as scissors can cut paper); and rock wins vs scissors (as rock can destroy scissors).

Rocks are nature in rudimentary form. Paper, as it’s organic and manmade, represents civilization. Scissors are a simple form of technology.

A fist is a symbol of oneness, the fundamental nature of the universe. An open hand, like a handshake, represents openness and cooperation; essential in development of civilization. Fingers apart are fork-like, a useful tool that is also potentially a weapon.

Civilization, as in the advent of farming, dominates nature. Technology is often a force used in the destruction of civilization. Nature, as an asteroid or sun storm flare hitting Earth (see Carrington Event of 1859), can destroy technology (electric grid, GPS systems, etc.).

In an informal survey, I’ve found that those who pick rock, paper or scissors identify themselves as a knife, spoon and fork (see knife-fork-spoon) respectively.

God Plays Hide and Seek

Alan Watts in The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are:

“God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that’s the whole fun of it—just what he wanted to do.

He doesn’t want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.

Of course, you must remember that God isn’t shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn’t any outside to him.

The inside and the outside of God are the same. And though I have been talking about God as ‘he’ and not ‘she,’ God isn’t a man or a woman. I didn’t say ‘it’ because we usually say ‘it’ for things that aren’t alive. “God is the Self of the world, but you can’t see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can’t see your own eyes, and you certainly can’t bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.

You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn’t really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It’s the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.”

Koan 1

How old is Buddha?

Which Buddha are you asking about?

How (in what way) is Buddha old?

How old is Buddha at which point in Buddha’s life?

How old is Buddha now or at another time?

Isn’t Buddha now one day older than Buddha was yesterday?

How old is Buddha where; on Earth or some place light years away?

How can Buddha be different in age than the Everything of which the Buddha is just a facet?

How can we know how old is Buddha as all things are forever changing, including the Buddha’s age as we speak?

Buddha is as old as Buddha is, whatever that is.

My Mother’s Transition 1

In 2014 my mother collapsed in her apartment in Brooklyn. Simply, her legs gave out. An ambulance took her to Maimonides Hospital to diagnose the problem. Initially she was diagnosed with having had mini-strokes. As she had been to hospital over the years for one problem or another, I wasn’t concerned but felt best to visit her; overruling her objections to do so.

At hospital I was told she was in Room 520. I went to Room 522 where there was an old man in a wheelchair sitting outside the room. I approached him and said: ” Mother, how you doing?” He looked a bit confused, so I said: “Mother, it’s me, Victor. You ok? Don’t you recognize me?” Then quickly, “This is room 522? You’re not my mom. Have a good day.” He laughed.

I then went next door to Room 520. My mother was there, in bed, alert and smiling. As well, her doctor and a nurse were there. After greeting my mother, I turned to the doctor and asked how my mother was doing, whether I needed to make funeral arrangements. Everyone was a bit shocked but for my mother who knew me too well. But I then added: “No, I understand, this is a serious matter. But before we get into it, I want to be sure I understand the relationships here. You are the doctor, she is my mother and I am her son. You’re not the patient, she’s not my son and I’m not my mother?” From there we got onto business. The doctor said that he initially thought my mother suffered from mini-strokes but as her neurological motor system was deteriorating further, she might actually have Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

Guillain-Barre is an autoimmune disease wherein the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nerves and damages their myelin insulation, rendering the patient paralyzed to a greater or lesser extent. Within a year, 90-100% recovery is possible.

After extensive and painful testing, including a spinal tap, the doctor determined she in fact had Guillain-Barre. In the ensuing days, as her condition worsened, she was put into hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. I hired additional nurses to be by her bedside 24/7. In the ICU she was put on a ventilator and a feeding tube was inserted into her stomach which made her two favorite activities, eating and talking, not possible.

A couple of days later I visited my mother. I asked her nurse how my mother was doing. The nurse said I need to ask the doctor making rounds. I went out the room looking for the doctor. I approached a man in uniform and asked him how my mother was doing. Another nurse volunteered that the man I was talking with was not a doctor but an HVAC man. That didn’t matter as for me every opinion counts. I took the HVAC man to my mother. I told my mother that he was from Harvard Medical School and a specialist in Guillain-Barre. Then I said: “Doctor, what do you think?” Well, he was a religious guy from Jamaica and said best we consult scripture. My mother laughed.

Some days later, as her condition stabilized, my mother was moved out of the ICU into a less intensive care patient’s room. By then my mother had been on the ventilator for 10 days. Medical protocol called for her to be taken off the ventilator and to be intubated as continuing with the ventilator increases the risk of infection. Alternatively, she could be taken off the ventilator and effort to breathe unaided. If she was unsuccessful breathing, she would suffocate and die.

I told my mother that the next step was intubation and that over time she might get better and lead a normal life. However, as she was 86, she might never recover and be with feeding tube and intubation until the end of her days. I asked her what she wanted to do, try to breathe on her own now at the risk of dying or go with the intubation. She couldn’t speak but pointed to me. I asked her if she wanted me to make this decision. she shook her head indicating “yes.” I then said: “OK, this is what are going to do. You’re going to hold my hand as tight as you can, close your eyes, concentrate on breathing and the nurse will take out the ventilator. If you can’t breathe, you will transition. So before we get started, I want to tell you I love you, it’s been a wonderful trip, thank you for everything and God bless you.” The ventilator came out and my mother lived.

My mother never fully recovered and was wheelchair bound until she passed a couple of years later from congestive heart failure.

My mother didn’t have a lot of marbles but whatever marbles she had she retained until she passed. In my mother’s last days she said she had but one wish. She wanted to pass in the daytime, not at night. I asked her why the daytime and she said she would likely be sleeping at night and not during the day and she wanted to see what it was like to die. She died a couple of days later, after the sun turn from up high, in the early afternoon. I guess she then knew its journey from there.

That was my mother. No wonder I am who I am.

Defusing Anxiety

In the winter of 2017 I awoke one morning with pain in my right thigh. The pain felt like a serious bruise; maybe a torn muscle as my range of motion was limited; but there was no related black and blue skin marks to corroborate that diagnosis.  Moreover, I didn’t recall banging my thigh to cause injury. Yet the pain and the limited range of motion made me think that it would take a couple of weeks before I could get back to playing squash. Sort of a long time as I had had a meniscus and a couple of hernia operations in the past and was able to get to the squash courts in a week’s time.

Ten days later with the symptoms unabated, I went to my personal doctor for a diagnosis. She had me take an MRI. The next day, a Friday, she informed me that it looked like I had a tumor which most likely was cancerous. She set me up for Monday and Tuesday consultations at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and at Yale University Hospital.

She also sent me the MRI report which I immediately emailed everyone on my contact list with a note: “Just got notice from my doctor that it looks like I have a cancerous tumor in my leg; further examinations to follow. Wish me luck it’s not the big “C. Will keep you posted.”

I received many responses to the email, wishing me well. Some friends were shocked as I’m generally perceived as very healthy. Some doctor friends opined that in fact the MRI indicated a cancerous tumor more than anything else. Others offered encouraging words.

In the ensuing days, my wife was a wreck as we discussed the real possibility of having a leg amputated. I was good with the situation, figuring come what may. I also shared the particulars of my circumstances with everyone; from my doormen to strangers I’d meet on the grocery checkout line.

Monday I went with my dutiful son, Alex, to Sloan Kettering. Alex joined me so that we would have a clear understanding of the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment protocol. At Sloan I met with Dr. Patrick Boland, a “top doctor” specializing in orthopedic cancers. As I understood his examination would involve a surgical biopsy, before he started I told him that “I know there is a small but real chance the best way to proceed is to amputate the leg. If you think during the biopsy operation that’s the way to go, I’m good with that. However, if that’s what you think, don’t do anything. Just leave the leg as it is. Let me enjoy it for another couple of weeks and I’ll come back to have it removed.” Dr. Boland laughed, more than a bit surprised by my marching orders.

Dr. Boland and his assistant first examined my leg, pushing and tugging it forcefully. After not saying much beyond sounds like “hmm” and “ahah,” Dr. Boland said he had seen many tumor and cancer patients but I was different, “none look like you.” I thought my upbeat attitude was not what he commonly encounters. Dr. Boland then recommended more tests, an X-Ray and a sonogram. Hours later, with test results in hand, I met with Dr. Boland again. The good doctor advised me that the apparent cancerous tumor was just old dried blood from a long ago bruise that had leached spider-like to appear as a cancerous tumor on the MRI; that unbeknownst to me I must have banged my leg recently to cause my thigh muscle strain.

As I had an appointment the next day at Yale and the weather looked good for a drive up north from the city, I went to the meet the doctors at Yale. They confirmed Dr. Boland’s diagnosis.

Driving back to the city, I noticed that the pain in my thigh was no longer. Two hours later, I was playing squash.

Upon arriving home, I wrote to my email list that the cancer scare was a cancer scare, nothing more; that in fact I was back on the squash courts. Lots of congratulatory emails came back, though some a bit cynical. On Wall Street friend called my experience “the tumor rumor.” Another friend, a Catholic, said mine was a divine recovery; the Friday email sounded like I was in hospice and five days later a miraculous complete recovery; from hospice to squash court; Jesus must have played a role.

How did I feel about this rollercoaster ride? Terrific, from beginning to end. Terrific I had an early diagnosis, terrific that I could avail myself of modern medicine, terrific that I was not ill, terrific that I was able to play squash, terrific to have had an entertaining experience; or that’s how I chose to remember it.

Before the good news that there was nothing wrong, I wasn’t particularly stressed out by the dire possibilities. That might be a function of my general attitude and sharing my diagnosis with anyone who would listen. The sharing in effect had many others share my burden of an ominous ordeal which made moving forward, whichever the direction, relatively easy. When we have a problem and tell everyone about it, we ameliorate our anxiety and are better able to enjoy the moment.

The woman from Tibet

In the cold of winter, February 1992, I drove with a guide from Lhasa Tibet to Kathmandu. During the four day trip we picked up a couple of hitchhikers. One was a 40 year old woman who looked deep into her 60s. Her skin was very dark for a Tibetan but that was apparently dirt from not having recently bathed. She was friendly and open about her life. She said she rarely bathed since her village home had no running water; had last bathed in a river in the summer; never in her life had a shower.

Every morning as I shower I think about that woman, imagine how she would feel in the shower with its temperature controls, great water volume and soothing soap melting accumulated dirt, yak candle smoke and caked perspiration. Feeling it’s the first shower of my life, my awareness of everything is heightened, I glow with gratitude; an unforgettable experience.

When involved in the mundane, it’s easy to fall into automatic pilot mode and oblivion. Imagining ourselves as someone who has never experienced these activities allows us to experience them as for first time which in fact it is as each time is never as any time before.

Two Monks and a Girl

There is a classic Zen story of two monks and a girl:

An old monk and a young monk were walking together to their monastery and came to a river with a strong current. As the monks started to cross the river, a young and beautiful girl called out to them asking for help to cross the river as she feared its current. While the monks had taken vows never to look or touch a woman, the older monk picked the girl up on his shoulders and carried her across. Then the girl went her way and the monks continued their walk to the monastery.

The young monk was shocked by what had just happened but spoke not a word. After a couple of hours the young monk could not contain himself and said: “As monks we have vowed not to look or touch a woman, how could you carry that girl on your shoulders?” The older monk looked at the younger monk and replied: “Brother, I set her down on the river bank a couple of hours ago, why are you still carrying her?”

This is a story about living in the present, not living preoccupied by events now passed. The purpose of meditation and vows is to unshackle oneself from the prison of the past which the old monk has but the young monk hasn’t. The story is about the role of vows, meditations, diets and other disciplinary tools deployed by those on the path to enlightenment. These tools are tools. However, often these tools are held sacred as the means and the end of righteous practice, which explains the reaction of the young monk. The older monk is enlightened. He hears a voice crying for help and does what he can to help. The vows are artificial constructs which ultimately mean nothing to him. The girl too is an artificial construct, not a girl but only a voice crying for help.

Another, more graphic version of this story describes two monks who were making their way from one monastery to another. They had been practicing meditation together for many years and were very good friends. In fact, not only were they close friends, but there was also a teacher-student relationship in place – one of the monks was much older and had been a monk since long before the other monk was born. Their journey involved many days traveling on foot. As the two monks walked through the forests and countryside, they spent a great deal of time discussing various aspects of the Buddhism.

At a certain point in their journey, the monks heard the screams of a woman coming from a nearby river. They rushed to see what was happening and in the middle of the river they saw a naked woman who was drowning. The older monk swiftly threw off his robes, dove into the water and rescued the woman. He then brought her to the riverbank and proceeded to cover her with his spare robes. After assuring himself that she was safe and well, the two monks continued on their journey.

The rest of their journey was quite different. The river incident had quite an effect on the younger monk who for the rest of the journey was surly and refused to even speak to the older monk.

A few days later, the monks arrived at their destination – a monastery they were going to stay for the next few months. At this point, the young monk started to ostracize the older monk and refused to even acknowledge his presence. The older monk was rather dismayed and worried about the comportment of his friend, so he confronted the younger monk: “Please, young sir, why have you changed? What have I done to warrant being treated in this manner? If I have said or done something that has hurt you then I am truly sorry and I must have done it mindlessly and certainly without intention”. The young monk replied: “You are not a true monk – you have broken the vows we’ve taken and as such, I no longer wish to be associated with you”. The older monk was rather shocked to hear this and asked what rules had been broken. The younger monk replied: “Not only did you touch a woman but you touched a naked woman and gave her the robes of a monk”. “How very true” replied the elder, “I saved the woman and carried her to the banks of the river, I made sure that she was warm and well and then I left her. However, it would appear that you are still carrying her around on your shoulders! In all these years of so-called practice of the Buddhist path, you have learned absolutely nothing. You cannot live without your rules and regulations – what a small and wasted life!”

The graphic version of the story provides further insights into Zen. (1) One purpose of life is to make this world a bit better than it would be otherwise; take every opportunity to do so, which is what the older monk did in helping the girl from drowning. (2) Treat others as you wish to be treated which is why the older monk provided the girl his comfortable robes and made sure she was safe and well. (3) Don’t take your view of a situation too seriously as by doing so you will fail to learn from the situation (as the young monk failed), make a fool of yourself or cause the demise of your relationships with others. (4) Don’t be judgmental of others as by doing so you may cause yourself to be indicted. (5) An enlightened monk is one with everything, not conflicted by duality. As such, even though both the monk and the girl were naked, the monk was not sexually attracted or repulsed by her.

Ten Men And The Elephant

The ten men and the elephant is a parable in many variations from the Indian subcontinent, dating back more than 2,500 years.

In a small village in India there were ten men who had heard of but had never seen the greatest animal in the jungle, the elephant. Determined to see an elephant, they hired a guide to lead them to one. After several days of trekking in the jungle, the guide saw an elephant and called forth the ten men. The men approached the elephant and in their excitement each touched a different part of the it. The man who touched its tail said the elephant was like a snake. The man who touched the elephant’s leg said the elephant was like a tree trunk. The man who touched the elephant’s tusk said it was like a seashell. Each of the ten men described the elephant very differently. Soon the ten men, each insisting that their view of the elephant was right, started to argue and eventually came to blows.

Clearly, the ten men were blind and didn’t know it. As to the elephant, clearly it is big; bigger than one blind man can imagine it in the context of his pervious experiences. Moreover, the elephant is like the universe itself; having so many facets, it is beyond description; it is what it is whatever it is.

The moral of this parable is that (1) as our individual perspectives are limited, we cannot come to know the nature of things. (2) When we are certain of the infallibility of our perceptions, we are blind and don’t know it. (3) Things appear quite different up close (as when we are within) than from a distance (when we are without). (4) Our understanding of things is limited when we understand things in the context of our memories of other things. (5) Taking our perceptions too seriously, we make fools of ourselves and at times come to strife. (6) Yet, the audience for this story, the Gods in the form of children, find it funny.

Hassidic perspective of our good fortune

A man once visited the holy Rebbe Dov Ber ben Avraham of Mezeritch and said he had great difficulties applying the Talmudic saying that “A person is supposed to bless God for the bad just as he blesses Him for the good”. The Maggid told him to find the Maggid’s disciple Reb Zusha of Hanipoli and ask him. The man went and found Rabbi Zusha, who received him friendly and invited him to his home. When the guest came in, he saw how poor the family was, there was almost nothing to eat, they were beset with afflictions and illnesses. Nevertheless, Rabbi Zusha was always happy and cheerful. The guest was astonished at this picture. He said: “I went to the Holy Maggid to ask him how is it possible to bless God for the bad He sends us the same way as we bless Him for the good, and The Maggid told me only you can help me in this matter.” Rabbi Zusha said: “This is indeed a very interesting question. But why did our holy Rebbe send you to me? How would I know? He should have sent you to someone who has experienced suffering.”

The essence of happiness is gratitude, the realization that however dour our circumstances they could always be worse. We are truly blessed when we recognize and serve God, the ever-changing and eternal whole, as we in turn become one with God; thereby realizing our self-perceived relative good or bad fortune is perception, not reality.

The Enlightened Cells

We are all individual cells in one human body; nerve cells, heart cells, fat cells, skin cells, blood cells, etc. Each type of cell lives in a cluster of identical cells that function, behave and think alike.

The most unusual cells are the blood cells. Red blood cells don’t have a nucleus, can’t reproduce and have the flexibility to easily change their shape. Without a nucleus or mind, they are essentially selfless and embody compassion; their sole purpose is to serve other cells. They travel through the body, visiting all types of cells, bringing cells oxygen for sustenance and removing carbon dioxide which would otherwise kill them.

Through their travels, red blood cells recognize that there are many different types of cells, each having a different perspective of the body. While the nerve cells might be the smartest, the white blood cells the most combative, the stomach cells the toughest, the bone cells the hardest, etc.; the red blood cells, having the perspectives of other cells, are the wisest.

With wisdom and compassion, red blood cells are the enlightened cells. Maybe that’s what makes them the most colorful.

The Little Girl and the Atheist

From Reddit:

“An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, “What would you want to talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said the atheist. “How about why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?” as he smiled smugly.

“Okay,” she said. “Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?”

The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, “Hmm, I have no idea.” To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss God, Heaven and Hell, or life after death, when you don’t know shit?”

And then she went back to reading her book.”

What makes this story funny is that it reveals certain truths and there’s nothing more funny than the truth.

The little girl is curious as she observes an odd transition in life (as that of the grass). She is reading a book as she has an interest in learning. She values her time and doesn’t simply want to kill it as the atheist suggests they do. As a little girl she may not know much but does know that as the atheist doesn’t know much about what human nature finds repulsive (he doesn’t know shit), he unlikely knows much about spiritual matters. As well, as he thinks he’s intelligent (as he deems himself a good judge of her intelligence) and is adamant about his views, he is not open to other possibilities, lacks wisdom and not worth talking with.

A Rosy Marriage

Some years back I attended a wedding in the English countryside. The bride was pretty and ebullient. I congratulated her and wished her the best of luck; adding that she was wise going with an arranged marriage as those tend to be more successful than “love marriages.”  She was a bit taken aback, claiming her marriage was a love marriage, not arranged; her parents had nothing to do with her choice of groom.

I explained that in times past children married at a young age and didn’t know much about choosing a mate. Moreover, as marriages were a merger of families, parents arranged the marriages of their children. Today, however, children are no longer young and living with their parents when they marry; post marriage family get-togethers are mostly on ceremonial occasions; and there are often great socioeconomic differences between parents and children; thus, children arrange their own marriages and pay lip service to their families’ input.

The bride and groom were both good-looking, graduates of a top university, Jewish, bourgeoisie, in professional jobs at highly acclaimed organizations and had common life goals. That seemed like an arranged marriage on good footing. Had the bride chosen to marry an ugly uneducated elderly drunken bum with no means of support, that would have been a “love marriage.” When we make choices based on emotional feelings without practical considerations, it must be out of love. However, emotional states of mind are like the weather, they can change unpredictably. Likewise, emotional love relationships often don’t sustain themselves and have a higher failure rate than arranged marriages.

My view was that the bride was in love with the particulars of the marriage she had arranged, not with the groom. However, I was proven wrong. It was a love marriage. The marriage lasted less than two years and ended with great acrimony.

Koan 8

What is it now?

One day, a Zen master with a clay pot on a wooden table before him asked several students: “What is this?”

Some said it was a clay pot. Another said that it was an artifact. Another said it was an assemblage of clay and wood. Soon there were other perspectives as well. A lively debate ensued, while the Zen master shook his head and laughed.

One student approached the table and threw the pot to the ground, shattering it into many pieces. An audible silence enveloped the room, until the student asked: “What is it now?”

Silence again filled the room. Some students were shocked and others embarrassed by the aggressive arrogance of the student who shattered their master’s clay pot. Then the silence was shattered by laughter from the Zen master and the student.

The Zen master and student laughed as they recognized the other students were like the blind men in the “Ten Men and the Elephant” parable. Each is certain of their personal perspective of the pot and the collective view that breaking the pot was disrespectful.

A pot is a pot, temporarily. All things are ever-changing. The pot cannot be described, as it is different now when it was described; so what is it now? It is what it is whatever it is.

Koan 11

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

The Pope: “It depends on the size of the pin.”

The Zen master: “What’s a pin?”

Beginner’s Luck to Bad Luck

Beginner’s luck is an often heard lament by seasoned players in some game or business explaining the success of a novice. Beginner’s luck can partly be explained by the beginner performing better than the low expectations seasoned players have of his performance. Another explanation is that the beginner is less aware than seasoned players of the subtle risks he is assuming, hence he is more aggressive and can reap higher rewards from taking greater risks. Similarly, the beginner is more focused on one or two key variables that most of the time affect outcomes while seasoned players’ attention is more widely focused, distracted. As well, the imagination of beginners is not limited by their past experiences, as is seasoned players, in their views of possible outcomes; hence they can envision as likely, what seasoned players perceive as highly unlikely, extremely positive outcomes from the choices they make and position themselves accordingly. Finally, in a competitive game, the beginners (who are typically a minority of the number of players) have the advantage of low costs for the choices they make as there are few players competing for those choices.

At some point beginner’s luck runs out as the beginner is no longer a beginner and becomes a seasoned player. However, before that happens, beginner’s luck can easily turn into bad luck as the beginner becomes overconfident and makes unwise choices.

Ultimately, seasoned players and beginners might both have greater luck if they made choices not solely  based on their individual perspective but the perspective of the other as well.

Anecdotes

Discrimination Is Funny

Early in my Wall Street career, I was rejected for a trading job at a premier money management firm because I was apparently Jewish.

The firm’s managing partner, Carl, was a reasonably smart and affable salesman. We met many times for interviews, got along very well, and I was clearly the best candidate for the job (the person ultimately hired was not particularly talented and didn’t last long).

However, Carl’s discomfort with Jews kept him from hiring me.

His prejudice was rooted in family lore (someone generations back had been financially screwed by a Jew) and evident in his social circles: exclusive country clubs without Jews, a co-op with no Jewish residents, and no one on staff at his firm had a Jewish background.

His prejudice was further underscored by his previously being the sole board member of a Wall Street brokerage firm to oppose its merger with a Jewish-owned commodity trading firm. The merger went through, resulting in the commodity firm becoming the largest stockholder of the brokerage firm; meaning, Carl would henceforth be working for Jews.

Being denied a plum job on the grounds of my religious heritage might have angered others likewise situated; but, I found it funny.

I viewed Carl as struggling with a mental handicap that limited his ability to make choices in his best self-interest. His handicap was “labeling,” or categorizing, a generic form of distinguishing between people that shadows who they are as individuals.

Labeling, like broad generalizations, is a way to try to make sense of complexity, but it ultimately prevents us from truly understanding what we label.

It’s funny, when someone knows little; yet firmly believes otherwise.

In this specific situation, Carl’s ignorance was my bliss.

Ultimately, the entertainment value of the story of this experience is greater than the rewards that might have been had I gotten the job.

When I recounted this experience to others, a few asked if I had confronted Carl to express my assumed anger. I never said anything to him. How could I speak when I was laughing?

Ironically, those upset by discrimination are also funny, for they are also engaging in categorization.

Life Review

At the end of days, as we are transitioning from the now into the Soul — what’s before and after the now — we have a life review.

The review allows us to be in the space before and after the now, with all of creation; a timeless space, where every thing that ever was, is and will be exists simultaneously.

We can see the entirety of our life happening simultaneously. This is our life review.

If what we see makes us happy, we are in heaven; otherwise, we are in hell.

A Sophisticated Art Collector

Years back, I knew a highly regarded tribal art collector who at the end of his years sold his best objects and bought fakes.

Confounded, I asked him why was he doing this: “have you lost your discerning eye or have your finances changed?”

He said: “When I started collecting, I wanted to be a sophisticated collector and as a self-confident customer I was so regarded by dealers and collectors. But then I came upon the etymology of ‘sophisticated’ and that’s not what I wanted to be. Now I collect things based on whether they continue to engage my eyes, not how they look through my ears; not how they compare in my mind to other objects or what pricing suggests about their importance.”

Psychedelic Journeys, Remembered

In college, I had three psychedelic journeys.

Now, in hindsight, I understand their revelations.

In the first journey, I wanted to eat my brain. I felt that my mind (the consciousness of the soul) and body (the self) were a duality. By eating my brain, my self and the consciousness of the soul would merge into oneness with everything.

In the second, I was looking at a painting and seeing its colors dripping beyond its frame and onto the floor. This was a revelation that all things are interconnected, like in peripheral vision; yet, our mind, through foveal vision, creates independent things.

In the third, I was wallowing naked in mud in the backyard of my parents’ attached house in Brooklyn. I was holding onto Earth for dear life as Earth was spinning incredibly fast and I was afraid I would otherwise fall away from Earth and into endless space. This suggested that if we let go our self-identity (as Earthlings), we will be one with the universe.

While these journeys might sound somewhat harrowing, I remember them as wonderful—psychedelic, soul-revealing. Each vision, in its own way, was a lesson in dissolving boundaries: between mind and body, between things, between self and cosmos. Perhaps, in the end, all journeys—psychedelic or otherwise—are invitations to remember our oneness with everything.

“Maybe They Don’t Mind”

Years back, on a frigid winter evening, my son, Max, 8, and I walked passed some homeless men setting up their cardboard sleeping surfaces under an overhang at the foot of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church on 5th Avenue and 55th Street in New York City.

Seeing them with few liberties for food and shelter, I commented: “When you grow up, if you’re not successful, this is a kind of prison where you might find yourself.”

Max replied: “Maybe they don’t mind.”

“Wow! Role reversal. The homeless are free and I’m a prisoner of a bourgeois mindset,” I said; followed by a good laugh that warmed the evening.

My Grandson Recognizes I Am God

At a recent family birthday party with twenty or so people, I asked my 10 year old grandson, Penn: “What I am?”

“You’re grandfather,” Penn said.

“Grandfather is who I am to you. But, what am I?” I replied.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“I am God,” I said. “Anyone who doesn’t recognize I am God doesn’t recognize they too are God.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Penn said. “No one thinks you’re God. If you are God, you could help me do anything which you can’t.”

“Those who see my essence, recognize I’m God,” I replied. “If I take off my clothes right here right now, many here will say: “Oh my God.”

We then both burst out laughing.

“We’re both God,” I said. “As God, we can help people who don’t take their self too seriously; otherwise, we can’t do much but laugh.”

You here, long time?

More than 40 years back, I found myself in a NYC taxi. Though the driver didn’t greet me, he didn’t seem unfriendly.

As he was dressed in clothes from the Indian subcontinent, I assumed he had recently arrived in the States.

To know his story, I asked him in mock pidgin English: “You here, long time?”

He responded in the King’s English: “I have been here 10 years, but I don’t know if that is long or short.”

We laughed.

There is nothing to know.

Frank Zappa

Sometime in 1967, I went to the Garrick Theatre in New York City to see Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention perform a sparsely attended show.

It was a rainy day and Frank wore a rain hat which brought a few streams of sweat rolling down his face.

After the show, I went backstage to meet Frank. My sole question was: “What do you look like without that prophylactic hat?” To which Frank responded: “Like a real man.”

Frank was a real piece of work; not one of infinite copies or an overpriced fake.

 

The following year, Frank produced a song, some of whose lyrics have ever since resonated with me as funny and profound:

 

“What is the ugliest part of your body?

Some say your nose

Some say your toes

But I think it’s your mind.”

 

Nothing to the eye is inherently ugly or beautiful. However, the mind, by comparing things, deems some things uglier or prettier than other things. The mind is the ugliest part of the body, for it’s the only part that makes things ugly.

My Mother’s Transition 2

In the last year of my mother’s life, she was mentally clear but otherwise incapacitated.

Living in a nursing facility, she couldn’t do much but be carted around to group entertainment activities like movie watching. Her days must have been intolerably long, as she had little to do to kill time until time killed her.

Yet, her perspective was otherwise.

I once asked her if she was often bored, to which she replied, “Oh, I am busy all day; barely have time to do anything.” What was she busy with? “Thinking about my life.”

My mother traveled to the land of her memories. Her memories must have been happy as she never complained and had no regrets.

That’s how my mother transitioned, living in her memories until she became a memory. For me, only a happy memory.

Messiah Is Here

In January, 1990 I went to trial in U.S. Federal Court for “insider trading.”

Prior to trial, I went to Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the spiritual leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic Judaism dynasty, to ask for a blessing. The “Rebbe” as he was commonly referred to was renowned for his wisdom, compassion and connection the the Almighty. As there is a good deal of randomness determining the outcome of a trial, I had hoped the Rebbe would put in a good word for me and bring me some luck.

Some days after my visit, the Rebbe sent me a message: “Hopefully, the Messiah will arrive before the trial ends.”

I took this message to mean I would lose the trial which three months later I did.

However, as I considered my good fortune in terms of healthy, family and future opportunities, I gracefully accepted the loss and the resultant financial penalties and time in prison.

 

Now, 34 years hence, the Rebbe’s message still resonates with me.

Life is a trial.

Everyone is executed at trial’s end.

Yet, there is hope for reprieve before execution.

The Messiah will bring reprieve.

In the “Messianic Era” there will be peace, harmony, abundance and prosperity. God will be universally recognized and communicated with and evil will cease to exist. Moreover, the dead will be resurrected; that is, we will realize no one dies. Essentially, all will be enlightened.

Looking around the world today, it seems a far cry from the Messianic Era.

Yet, Messiah is here for those who open their eyes, for they will be enlightened.

Enlightened, they realize that however difficult their circumstances, they are lucky their circumstances are not worse. They realize that when circumstances are difficult, things will likely get better.

The Rebbe’s message did bring me luck. The luck to realize the Messiah is here. “Hap” means luck. Hap is the root of happiness.

Lester Wunderman

Lester Wunderman was a successful advertising executive, renowned as the father of direct marketing which he created in the late 1950s. Lester was also an avid collector of Dogon African art, having amassed a “world class” collection which now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Musee Du Quai Branly in Paris.

I knew Lester as an investor in my hedge fund in the late 1980s. However, as we both had an interest in tribal art, we spoke more about art than investing.

Lester started collecting Dogon art from Mali in a chance view of a figurative object at a gallery in LA. He didn’t quite know why this artwork stirred a passion, but “it spoke to me.” After much time and money spent on amassing his collection, Lester visited the Dogon people who lived at desert’s edge and for whom sourcing water was often a preoccupation. Warmly received and aware of the water issues facing the Dogon, upon his return to NY, Lester contracted geologists and engineers to drill several drinking wells for the Dogon. He later returned to visit the Dogon and was initiated as a shaman, with a animist festival highlighted by singing and dancing at a village where he had connected the Dogon to a water source.

The singing and dancing resonated within him. It was then he realized the artworks in his collection were essentially empty; for what he was seeking was not artworks, but the singing and dancing connecting him and all in the community as one. Soon after, Lester distributed his collection to museums for those less fortunate than himself to experience the life of the Dogon vicariously.

Merton Simpson

Merton Simpson was a black man born in 1928 in racially segregated South Carolina. Merton was a musician, painter and, after settling in New York, a world-renowned tribal art dealer.

As a collector of tribal art, I met Merton in 1991 and over the years purchased a few objects he had on offer. More significantly, we became friends; that is, we were completely open in our talks; taking vicarious joy in each other’s tales and perspectives, without judgement.

I did much of the talking as Merton was not a man of many words or paragraphs. Yet, Merton conveyed his feelings by laughing which is what he did much of our time together.

Merton loved the physical experience of being alive. He loved looking at art, listening to music, eating and fucking. I could appreciate that.

While in his day Merton was considered a top tribal art dealer, in his later years there was much talk about some of the objects he had on offer being of dubious authenticity. (Authenticity is the foundation of the collectible art market, without which art prices could not rise to as high as the sky. For if art was simply a visual experience, high quality “fakes” would be as valuable as authentic artworks.)

Some in the field of tribal art collecting suggested that Merton’s “fakes” were not offered with malintent, but perhaps Merton with age lost his critical “eye” for identifying artworks that were “real” or “fake.” However, I suspect Merton evolved beyond these artificial categorizations. Merton came to simply enjoy and appreciate art things, as well as things generally, as there were, not as a function of how they were categorized or relative to other objects. He saw things not as this, that or another, but as is.

In one of our many get-togethers, we looked at an African Nkisi figure, commonly called a “nail fetish,” to consider whether it was “real” or a “fake.” After some minutes, I asked Merton what he thought, to which he responded: “It is what it is.”

That’s as God self-identified to Moses: “I am what I am.” Simply, Merton delighted at the light from the “Burning Bush.”

 

Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Sometime in late 1988, I found myself on a hundreds long line of people awaiting to ask for a blessing from Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Chabad-Lubavitch spiritual leader.

As customary, the Rebbe gifted everyone on line a crisp, new US dollar bill. The gift was a sign of humility; the great Rebbe expressing gratitude to those who ventured to his house. As well, it suggested the bill recipient treat others likewise; that is, on every occasion, treat others with kindness.

I imagine all those dollar bills are still around, in wallets and places of safekeeping. They are sacred mementos. My dollar I’ve kept in my wallet. Now, 36 years later, it has virtually disintegrated. What a loss! It would have been more valuable had I given it to someone soon after receiving it; more valuable to both me and the recipient.

The Quarantine

In January, 2022, during the waning days of the quarantine pandemic (yes, a pandemic of quarantines), I travelled to Japan where strict quarantine protocols were still in effect; upon entering Japan I would be sequestered for three days in a government managed hotel. While I could have delayed the trip until the quarantine was lifted, it seemed fun to experience a quarantine.

Given a choice between three days of quarantine and three days of leisure, clearly I’d choose leisure. However, the quarantine didn’t seem it would be much of a problem and as 90% of any experience is experiencing oneself, the quarantine like most things would be fun for me. Moreover, the stories my memory could weave out of the quarantine experience would make it fun regardless of what it was at the time.

After a 14 hour flight from New York City to Tokyo, I was among a thousand or so people held at Tokyo airport for processing. We were held captive for 15 hours by dozens of police officers and people running around in hazmat suits. Everyone was in operating room mode, all masked up. It felt otherworldly, even in Japan which is already otherworldly. Food rations were limited to the inedible that no dietician would ever recommend; hot dogs, bread, sugary fruit juices. As we were closely packed together, people slept on chairs and floor, a veritable petri dish where a single Covid infected individual could easily spread the virus. At some point, people’s street clothes looked like pajamas needing a wash; people became restive. Finally, after extensive testing of secretions from nose to spit and waiting on innumerable lines with paperwork in hand, we were taken to a government hotel and placed in solitary confinement. My room was luxurious from the perspective of anyone living before 1850 or currently in a refugee camp, but otherwise basic. Fortunately, there was a big clock in the room, allowing me to identify breakfast, lunch and dinner as each meal was essentially the same thing, whatever the thing was. I did have the freedom to smoke cigars in the room; though the hotel stopped offering coffee three years back and what’s a cigar without a coffee! Entertainment was via cell phone and emails; fun connecting with others who pitied my plight which truly wasn’t bad. Ultimately, I’d recommend a quarantine as a good remedy for jetlag.

After the quarantine, I returned to the everyday world and typical high points of a trip to Japan; restaurants, onsens, meetings with colorful people, viewing gardens and landscapes and visiting shrines. Today, I hold little memory of those moments, but the odd and peaceful time in quarantine is with me forever. If we can’t enjoy a quarantine in a civilized country, how can we enjoy most things.

Mike McCarthy

“We clearly picked the wrong day to have a bad day.” — Mike McCarthy, head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, after his football team lost their playoff game in a major upset.

We’re blamed or credited for the consequences of our actions, though the consequences are often a function of luck.

Happy New Year 2024, Hopefully

2024, the year of consequential choices; harmony or death.

In 2024, all roads lead to 4; 2 + 2 = 4, as does 2 x 2.

The number 2 is associated with duality, representing two complementary or opposing forces; light and dark, good and evil, male and female, or yin and yang.

Likewise, 2 + 2 is additive, complementary; while 2 x 2  (like measures of length and width) suggests intersection, conflict.

In the West, 4 represents stability, balance and harmony; the complementary. However, in China, Korea and Japan, 4 is associated with death (often what results from conflict), as the word for “4” in their respective languages is pronounced identically like their word for death.

So here we have it, 2024, the year of harmony or death; hopefully we make the better choice.

 

An Experience Is Whatever You Want It To Be

“Some squirrels in south Georgia, they’ll taste a little bit more nutty. Up here [Baltimore], our acorns and stuff aren’t really as strong as the ones down south. Most of them up here, it just tastes like squirrel. If you put enough seasoning on it, you can make it taste like anything you want it to taste like.” — Ben Cleveland

Cleveland is a football player for the Baltimore Ravens. He comes from Georgia where he ate squirrel meat when there wasn’t much else to eat.

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High School Graduation Yearbook

In the U.S., it’s customary for the High School graduating class to have a Yearbook with individual photos that people sign with some parting well-wishes.

Susan, a girl I found attractive at the time, signed my Yearbook with the following inscription:

“Someday people will understand what you are talking about and I’m sure this world will be a better place for it, but sure as hell I’ll never understand.”

Those who are “sure as hell” don’t know heaven, for heaven is all there is.

Needless to say, I couldn’t convince Susan to spend a couple of hours with me in heaven.

 

Being Eccentric Is Fun

Since I was a young boy, many people thought me funny; a bit odd and laughable in terms of my thinking and lifestyle.

I’ve occasionally been asked : “Which planet do you come from?” I laughed, as it was true; I must have come from someplace else as I didn’t think the way they did.

However, as I was always happy regardless of circumstances, it should have been clear I didn’t come from a another planet. I came from heaven.

They too came from heaven, but forgot they did.

No Yacht For Mrs. Khrushchev

The British-American author and journalist Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949–2011)…once recounted a story about Chou En-lai, who served as the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China from 1954 until his death in 1976. According to Hitchens, Chou had been invited to speculate on how the course of history would have been altered if, say, Nikita Khrushchev had been assassinated instead of John F. Kennedy. Chou’s austere version of Marxism made him dubious about the importance of things like sheer accident and mere individuals. But in this instance, he was prepared to allow that things might have been different. How different? “Well,” said Chou with complete gravity, “I hardly think that Aristotle Onassis would have married Mrs. Khrushchev.”

My Awakening

When I was 16, living in Brooklyn with my parents, one summer night I drove to Brighton Beach and sat on the rocks along the shore. Reflections from the moon danced on the water, the ocean breathed in the surf and breathed out a roar. The night sky was a black blanket with pinholes to unknowable worlds on its other side. Lights and sounds vibrating the air, every-thing teeming with aliveness; unique, unlike anything experienced before.

I wondered why the ocean, expressing itself with motion and sound, was not considered as alive as are plants and animals. What did it mean to be alive? The “alive” classification made little sense. Classifications, descriptions and thoughts generally felt artificial, man-made; helpful for organizing and communicating, but otherwise empty of aliveness.

Who am I in all this?

The sounds, the lights, the ever-changing shapes unfolding from nothing, the ocean smells; overwhelmingly beautiful, yet eerie as in the presence of a great spirit. Then, the infinite number of finite things were no longer finite, but manifestations of one infinite thing. I was infinitesimal before the infinite, until I realized I was the infinite.

This was a religious experience, but not connected to an organized religion. It was initially animism and then pantheism. This was my awakening and realization of our immortality.

The Spiritual Master And The Way

A couple of years back, I was introduced with a renowned “spiritual master.” We spoke at length and when it was clear that I was comfortably retired, he suggested: “As I know the workings of God and you’ve got the money and time to do as you wish, let’s spend a year together studying spiritual matters.” I then asked him what would we do following year, to which he replied: “Then I’ll have the money and time to do as I wish and you’ll know the workings of God.”

The Daughter Of A Different Color

“When the time comes our adopted daughter asks how she is different than her brother and sister whom we had naturally, I’ll tell her that her brother and sister came from mommy’s stomach and she came from mommy’s heart.” — S.S.P.

S.S.P. is a dear friend who adopted a four year old from an orphanage in India.

My Birth

I was born a bit after my mother’s due date.

It was a difficult birth as the delivering doctor struggled to pull me out from my mother’s womb; ultimately needing forceps to do so.

As it was a long and fraught procedure, out of curiosity my mother asked the doctor if such a difficult birth signaled anything about me. The doctor looked at my mother, who didn’t come across as having lots of shiny marbles in her head, and said: “Your son may not be particularly smart, but is very wise. He delayed coming out as long as he could, knowing he came from heaven and life on Earth is anything but that.”

Covid

The Covid pandemic was a once in a generation psychological test that revealed the nature of each mind; a reality check. Though the pandemic panic has subsided, many people still refuse to give up on the vaccines, masks, social distancing, etc. They are held captive by their traumatic memories, prisoners of their mind. They cannot experience the now as it unfolds, only as it is framed by their mind in the context of Covid. Those who are free of the past, look back and laugh at the Covid fiasco.

As to the pandemic itself, it was beautiful. An experience shared worldwide as it was the focus of everyone’s attention. One felt connected to all sentient beings as sentient beings, oblivious to their identity group memberships. It was like the end of days, the apocalypse; the lifting of the veil of artificial constructs like race, nationality, religion and economic status to reveal all as simply sentient beings; all as one. A brief and powerful peak moment in the making of collective history that quickly descended into a Tower of Babel.

Moreover, Covid was a healthy systemic process. Like a hurricane, Covid cleansed the human tree of life of weak limbs that were otherwise dying slowly. This was good for the environment as it resulted in less adult diapers to dispose of.

Bactrian Silver Trumpet, Late 3rd – Early 2nd Millennium BC

At first sight, this object engaged my attention; great presence (which has not diminished with time), surreal, and enigmatic as it seemed to have an ambiguous utility function. Initially, I thought it was a hearing aid; the top inserted in the ear and the bottom the mouthpiece. Others have guessed it a spout for pouring wine or an implement used for snuffing out a candle. However, notwithstanding other creative uses, it’s a mini trumpet a shepherd would use to get the attention of another shepherd in the distance.

Now, I see this mini-trumpet as a mouthpiece through which the breath of God enters a human head which processes the breath into sounds. The sounds are music. The sounds are signals, like words. An apt metaphor of this book, as its purpose is to convert the breath of God into words for all to hear.

Smart Guys, Wise Guys

Educational institutions identify smart guys who society ushers into jobs that make laws and rules. The smart guys painstakingly work at rule-making, take themselves very seriously and get quite upset when people break or find ways around their rules.

Wise guys figure ways around laws and rules and invariably laugh, for relatively less effort they are better remunerated than smart guys.

When wise guys figure ways around rules, smart guys eventually take notice and write more rules to thwart the wise guys. Of course, the wise guys figure ways around the new rules. This minor cycle continues until at some point the rules cause the wise guys to work relatively longer and for less renumeration than the smart guys.

Then, the wise guys move on to other venues for better opportunities. Soon after, price goes up and quality goes down for the goods or services subject to the rule-making.

Ultimately, it’s clear that the smart guys weren’t so smart. They’re fired from the organization at which they worked and their rules are abolished. A new system emerges with limited rules, causing prices to go down and quality to rise. However, soon after, smart guys are hired again to make rules. A new grand cycle then begins.

Buddha Or Psychopath

There is a Buddha parable that goes like this:

One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. “You have no right teaching others,” he shouted. “You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake.”

Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man “Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?”

The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “It would belong to me, because I bought the gift.”

The Buddha smiled and said, “That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger is yours to deal with.”

At that moment, the angry young man awoke and became a lifelong disciple of Buddha.

 

This story is reminiscent of my relationship with my father. From the time I was 13 until I went to college, my father was often angry with me; frustrated that I questioned his authority and mocked his core social and political beliefs. He screamed at me and on occasion hit me (not to hurt me but to vent his frustration). One time he said: “I wish you were never born.” To which I replied: “That’s your problem.”

Was my reply reflective of a Buddha nature or a psychopathic mental disorder? My father would likely say the latter (he at times called me a “sadist”) as my reply didn’t bring him to see the light; it just made him more angry.

After my father’s untimely transition from life at 60 years old, I was once overwhelmed by sadness and tears; reflecting on not having awakened father to experience life as it is and not solely as he was.

Lying To The Public

Lying to a government official is a criminal matter. Yet, when governments lie to the public, that is not a crime; though it often leads to disastrous results like wars, wide scale prosecutions and poor health outcomes (drug laws) and political repression.

If lies promulgated by governments were a crime, governments would dramatically shrink in size as many government workers and politicians would be imprisoned; especially the most dangerous ones, those who are truly sincere, the ones lying to themselves.

Empathy Is Harmful, Compassion Is Helpful

In the early 1980s, I worked at Oppenheimer & Co, a medium-size stock brokerage firm in New York City.

At year-end, employees were evaluated and given bonuses. However, for some, the news was otherwise; they were fired.

John, with whom I was friends, was fired.

This came quite unexpectedly to John who had envisioned a lifelong career at the firm.

John, distraught, took to tears.

John’s empathetic friends were quick to console him. I didn’t.

I saw him as selfish, focusing on a small disappointment instead of being grateful for his good fortune relative to 99% of others living on this planet.

I eventually came by and congratulated John at now having all sorts of opportunities he hadn’t considered before his firing. As well, I thought we could figure a way John might wrangle some termination payments from Oppenheimer.

But John would have none of this talk of making the best out of current circumstances. He wanted to continue wallowing in self-pity. He wanted empathy, not compassion.

From my perspective, John was not in any immediate financial difficulties. He was a talented guy who could easily find another Wall Street job.

As he didn’t have a cancer protruding out of his ass, he had much about which to be grateful and happy.

His sadness was about being fired, an event that seemed real as the self is obsessed with the past; not letting John accept it as passed.

John was a prisoner of his self. That was sad.

 

Empathy is harmful, compassion is helpful.

When someone is distraught, it is their self that has upset them.

Empathy acknowledges the self’s thoughts and feelings which encourages us to take the self seriously, allowing the self to continue wreaking havoc upon us.

Alternatively, compassion comes from the Soul.

Compassion dismisses the self and efforts to helping others make the best of their circumstances.

Simply, empathy is consoling someone who’s upset about having lost their job which keeps them from finding a new job and compassion is helping them find a new job.

Trip To Tibet

Robert Thurman is a scholar, author and academic who founded Tibet House and was in 1965 the first American Tibetan Buddhist ordained by the Dalai Lama.

For many years, Thurman biannually lead groups on tours of holy sites in Tibet. In the late 1990s, I sought to join Thurman on such a tour.

Geographic Expeditions (GE) is a tour operator out of San Francisco that organized Thurman’s tours.

Two years before his next trip, I contacted GE and was placed first on the list of those going.

Periodically I called GE for an update on the timing and particulars of the trip.

Finally, some months before the trip, I was told that as they were overwhelmed with interest from people than available slots for the trip, 15, everyone was required to write an essay as to why they wanted to go.

My essay spoke about my collection of ancient Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhist art and that I had read a couple of Thurman’s books on the subject.

As the tour was coming together in final form, GE contacted me to say that Thurman was allowing only “serious Buddhists” and the trip. He deemed I was not; so my application was rejected.

Upon further inquiry, I was told the number of essay applications was 16. I was the only application rejected.

I was surprised and not surprised by this turn of events.

Ultimately, I found it funny.

“Serious Buddhists” sounded like an oxymoron.

Yet, what’s truly funny is that some people would have been upset or even angry had they been rejected after waiting two years and never doubting they would go as they were first on the list of reservations.

It’s hysterically funny when people get upset by essentially meaningless things in the scheme of things.

Beyond a good laugh and story I can share with others which in turn will laugh, I felt good that now I had extra time and money to spend elsewhere.

In hindsight, had I gone on the trip, some other attendees might have enjoyed by presence. But as only “serious Buddhists”, maybe having a good laugh is not their interest.

 

 

Supervised Freedom

“I used to get a laugh from students by quoting a Soviet citizen I talked to once. He said to me, ‘Of course we have freedom of speech. We just don’t allow people to lie.’ That used to get a laugh! They don’t laugh anymore.”

— Gary Saul Morson

Myopia

When I was 13 I didn’t need glasses but marveled at the experience of those who did. I thought people with myopia could see things two ways, with and without glasses. Poor eyesight seemed like a blessing that could lead to interesting insights.

This might be the case.

With myopia, one realizes they don’t know what they are looking at. This arouses curiosity which exercises the mind.

A well-exercised mind is fitter.

Statistically, people who are myopic have a higher IQ than those who are not.

 

The Nature Of Cats

CAT is an acronym for a sheriff’s Criminal Apprehension Team which tracks and arrests offenders wanted for serious felony crimes.  Cats don’t scratch when they purr. Cats don’t like any sort of water.

Some years back, I lived in Westport, CT. One day, as I was driving to play squash, I was on a business phone call and startled by red lights in the rearview mirror. Soon enough, I was parked on the side of the road with a police car behind me. An overweight officer came out of his vehicle. He was livid, screaming: “You were on our cell phone.” I said: “Officer, I know I was on the phone, I shouldn’t have been, poor judgement on my part. But I’m a bit late for a squash game. How about I give you my license and registration and meet you back at the station house after the game and we’ll sort it all out?” He then got even angier and screamed: “You can’t do that.” As our temperatures were rising, I said: “Officer, I see you are upset. I think you are upset with me. I feel terrible. We are here to take care of each other and I’m not doing a good job of it. Please, tell me, what can I do to make you feel better?” At that point, our minds calmed and he said: “Let’s forget about it.” A cat doesn’t scratch when it’s purring.

I told this story to a lawyer friend from Spain. He said that he often gets stopped for traffic infractions but never gets ticketed. Simply, when stopped, as the police officer comes asking for his driver’s license, my friend puts his right hand finger, which is out of the officer’s view, to his nose. From his left side, it appears his finger is sloshing around in his nose. He then takes out his driver’s license with his right hand and offers it to the officer who invariably refuses it and tells him to be considerate (perhaps prophylactically) of others. Cats don’t like all sorts of water.

Discriminating Mutts

By definition, a mutt is a dog of uncertain pedigree. A mutt is also a person who is stupid or incompetent. Those who don’t allow a mutt to compete at a dog show are also mutts.

Imagine an extraordinarily beautiful, athletic and intelligent rescue mutt; so smart, the mutt masters every trick in the book and even learns to play checkers competitively with a 10-year old. Surely, the mutt would win first prize at any accredited dog show, become instantly popular with the general public and be in great demand for breeding which would improve the genetic pool of dogs generally, be financially rewarding for its owner and allow the dog to have fun.

Unfortunately, without a pedigree, the mutts who run dog shows wouldn’t allow the mutt to compete, fearing the mutt would outshine them as it would do more to promote general interest in dogs than could they or any pedigree dog.

 

The Night My Parents Married

The mind can make the most pleasurable things unpleasurable.

I was recently informed by my sister that my father, an orthodox Jew, was angry the night he consummated his marriage to my mother. Their lovemaking turned from pleasure to anger when he realized my mother was not a virgin as she had claimed.

I thought it funny that his mind distracted him from the pleasure at hand; that she had bed others before him and mislead him seemed besides the point.

I don’t know whether my father was upset because he felt my mother’s deception compromised the foundational trust upon which a solid relationship is built upon or perhaps my father felt that marriage was a significant financial commitment on his part for which he expected to have first dibs on certain bedroom benefits; yet, apparently, others received the benefits for free.

Seeing With Our Eyes

In October, 1992 I started collecting tribal art. While initially I didn’t imagine tribal art would be expensive, I was soon amazed at how expensive some objects were; some fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars. What made these objects so expensive is that there is a limited supply of “authentic” objects. (Authentic objects are those made by a tribal people for their own use and used accordingly. That’s unlike “tourist” objects made for others and “fakes” made to appear like authentic objects.) Authenticity is essentially the sine quo nom of the collectibles markets generally. Without a limited supply of art objects qualifying as authentic, the art market would collapse. If objects were judged simply by their aesthetic appeal alone, facsimiles that were indistinguishable from authentic objects would flood the market, making authentic objects not worth more than the cost of making a facsimile. Without high-priced collectibles, there would be no collectors spending huge sums to support art museums, auction houses and well-heeled dealers.

Art, as well as everything else, is viewed by our eyes and our mind. Our eyes see things as they see things. As our eyes have no memory, our eyes cannot compare one thing with another. However, while some things engage and appeal to us and some less so, just about everything has a unique beauty to it from some perspective. Our mind cannot see, it can only hear. When we look at an art object in terms of its authenticity, provenance, description and in comparison to other art objects, we are “seeing” through our mind, not our eyes. The art market depends on collectors seeing through their mind, not their eyes.

As a collector I’ve met many dealers. One thing that several said in passing particularly struck me: there have been many well-considered collectors that as they got on in years often sold many of their “top” objects and purchased others that were clearly fakes or of lower quality. Dealers speculated that these old collectors simply lost their “eye;” that is, they could no longer distinguish a fake from an authentic object or they lost their sense of taste and as such were satisfied with lower quality objects. Perhaps or maybe these old collectors finally saw art objects with their eyes, not their mind.

Now, I too am an old collector and appreciate the mindset of the old collectors who were pooh-poohed by dealers and museum people. Someone truly engaged with the art itself (not with art as an investment or status symbol) solely focuses on the aesthetic and engaging aspects of an art object. Whether it’s fake or real is immaterial. Each object is what it is whatever it is; to be appreciated as it is, absolutely, not relative to something else or because it’s dressed in superlatively flattering adjectives. Collectors who’ve come to this realization tend to be older, having spent many lifetimes and considerable sums building their collections. They truly have a great “eye” as they see objects with their eyes, not with their mind.

More generally, beyond art, these older individuals tend to be in Act 3 in the play of life; the transition from their finite material selves to who they were before their birth, the Soul. In the transition, we see beauty everywhere. As to the art market, they shake their heads and laugh at the foolish collectors they once were.

The Transition

Bodily death is when we transition from being a piece of the universe to being at peace with the universe.

The transition begins with a peaceful death, not unlike going to sleep after an energy-draining day.

The one transitioning is laid in a comfortable bed in a dome-shaped room, like the egg from which they came.

The ceiling of the room depicts the night sky in motion, with occasional clouds and shooting stars.

Waves of sound in the form of transcendental music fill the air.

The stars and sounds quiet the mind.

We hold the hand of the one transitioning and periodically say: “I love you, always have, always will, always and all ways. Thank you for being you. Thank you for having me.”

Soon the waves of light and sound become One, as does the one transitioning into the One.

Looking For Nothing

Some 25 years back, in the “old city” section of Jerusalem, I stepped into a shop selling antiquities.

As I looked at various objects in glass cases, the owner of the shop introduced himself and said he’d been an antiquities dealer for more than fifty years, dealt in very fine and desirable objects and was sure he had something I’d like.

I told him I’d been collecting antiquities for some time and wanted to look around.

He then asked: “What are you looking for.”

I replied: “I don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it.”

To which he said: “In that case, you’re looking for nothing.”

While not apparent to me at the time, ultimately he was right.

Now, no longer an art collector, I seek to collect the answers from our ancestors to the nature of consciousness.

I seek oneness with the nothing which is the essence of everything.

Lucky To Be Alive

I told my six year old grandson, Penn, that a friend of mine is expecting to die of terminal illness in the spring.

Penn said: “Your friend is lucky.”

I asked: “Why lucky?”

Penn said: “They are not dying now.”

Heaven And Hell

Once upon a time there were twin sisters.

They came from a good family, married well, had good children and lived happily ever after.

Their lives were nearly identical but for one thing. One sister, Mary, was promiscuous and the other sister, Judith, was religious, adhering to a strict moral code.

Everyone in their town knew Mary as “Mattress Mary” as it seemed she slept with everyone.

Often, on hot evenings when people kept their windows open to let in the cool air, you knew in whose flat Mary was as she wailed “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

While Mary was howling, Judith was in anguish, quietly praying to God to forgive her sister.

When they were done living happily ever after, it was their time to go to the hereafter, where God determined which sister would go to heaven and which to hell.

I don’t know the mind of God and whom he sent where, but I know that Mary came from heaven and Judith came from hell.

 

The Kotzker Rebbe famously taught that God is not merely “everywhere”, but is found specifically “in the place where He is given entry”.

This means that external appearances, reputations, or even strict adherence to religious codes do not guarantee closeness to the divine.

Instead, God is present where the heart is open-where there is vulnerability, authenticity, and genuine invitation.

Complaint Department

Marriage is like a corporate partnership where each spouse assumes different department roles: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Director of Human Resources, etc.

Of course, conflicts sometimes arise when there’s confusion about who’s in charge of which department.

Take, for example, a familiar scenario: A wife voices her dissatisfaction about something her husband said or did. The husband, caught off guard, may wonder why he’s being confronted; after all, he sees himself as head of the Rewards Department, not the Complaints Department.

His solution? Assign his wife as the head of the Complaints Department; after all, she’s got the most experience in that area.

Alternatively, when complaints arise, the wisest course may be to simply listen and agree (“Yes, you’re right”), allowing her to vent until she feels better.

A common mistake is to try to address her concerns rationally, or to help her see things from a different perspective. This usually backfires, leading to the classic: “You don’t understand me.” And she’s right; if you truly understood her, you might not have married her in the first place.

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The Key To Life

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

— John Lennon

Grandson’s Wisdom

On my grandson’s 7th birthday, I told him  that I loved him.

I then asked him whom he loved most.

He said he loved 99% of all the people he knows.

Thinking I was unclear, I said, “maybe you didn’t understand love?”

Before he could reply, his 5 year old brother chimed in, “Maybe you don’t understand love.”

Norman Mailer

In 1977 on a flight from NYC to Dallas, I sat next to a gentleman busy scribbling on his paperwork. Asked him what he was doing, he replied, “working out which bets I want to make” on some football games and horse races. We continued talking and he said he was a magazine writer but didn’t mention his name as he felt I undoubtedly never heard of him. A couple of hours later, I asked him if anyone ever said he looked like Norman Mailer. He said, “Congratulations, it took you a while.” I replied: “Someone has to be Norman Mailer and you’re it. How’s it being Norman Mailer, do you enjoy the role?” He replied: “Terrific role, really enjoying it.”

Mailer was a novelist, journalist, politician, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor and painter; married six times; had nine children; numerous affairs; stabbed his wife; wrote 11 best-sellers; and cavorted with the glitterati.

Yet, the man sitting next to me didn’t seem to take himself too seriously. Maybe that’s why he was good at being Norman Mailer.

No Lives Matter

“No lives matter.”

— Ice-T

“Black lives matter” is a moral indictment of society, claiming “black people” are poorly treated relative to “whites”.

“All lives matter” is a self-righteous, dismissive  response; implying all people matter, regardless of their racial identities.

“No lives matter” is social realism. The incarceration rate, domestic murder rate, “cancel culture” and brutalities in overseas military adventures demonstrate society doesn’t value people generally.

Fancy funerals and memorials suggest respect for the dead but not the living.

Externalities vs Potentialities

When I was 12 years old in school in Brooklyn, New York, one day in geography class, the teacher explained that many countries with a low standard of living are today referred to as “underdeveloped”, but years ago were referred to as “backward” which is pejorative.

This distinction seemed to confuse one of the girls in class who blurted out: “Those countries are strange, I’d rather be called backward than underdeveloped.”

To some, externalities are more important than potentialities.

A Durable Soul

Some years back I viewed a documentary movie about the brutalities of the “Dirty War” in Argentina (1976 – 83) when thousands of people disappeared through state sponsored terrorism.

One woman interviewed was a rare survivor.

She was asked how she felt about the perpetrators, “you must hate them” suggested the interviewer.

“No” she said, “I don’t hate them, I fear them.”

She nearly lost her self, but never lost her soul.

Be Careful For What You Wish

All our wishes come true but not in the forms we imagine.

In 1973 I graduated from college and planned to start working, have a family and take a year at a Zen monastery when I reached 40, like Philip Kapleau who wrote The Three Pillars of Zen. At 40, my family and business partners would not have been encouraging had I taken a year-long sabbatical. However, at 43 my family and 140 friends threw a farewell party for me at the Harvard Club before I left for a 13 month stay at a Federal prison.

What landed me in prison was my involvement in an “insider trading” case. I personally profited $50K. Legal fees cost me roughly $2M and fines and penalties another $1.8M. Moreover, I was no longer allowed to manage other people’s money, though all of my investors stayed with me until I was prohibited from working. As a result of my not being allow to work, my net worth today is not even a tiny fraction of what it would have been otherwise.

I didn’t think that my trading was criminal. But others obviously did. In any event, the cost of going to trial, fines, penalties and the sanctions placed upon me undoubtedly were punitive to an extreme.  How do I feel? Pretty good as I play squash 4 – 5 times a week and I play with the prosecutor in my case. Why? Because I was born with the gene of happiness and the prosecutor is a wonderful guy, good squash player.

I did learn something from this ordeal: best be careful what we wish for as every wish will come true but not in the form we imagine. While I didn’t go to a traditional Zen monastery, prison was a Zen monastery of sorts. It did provide an awakening moment.

During my stay, my interactions with the other prisoners was for the most part fun. As well, I generously paid some to make my bed, clean the shower before I used it and make me foods like hand-cut French fries. The night before I left the prison, I asked a group of inmates whether they would miss me as we had a good time together. Seemingly in unison, they said no, because they hated me. I was a bit shocked. They said they hated me because I had such a good time. Maybe they needed a Zen monastery more than I did.

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Kotodama

Kotodama is a Japanese concept rooted in Shinto, the animist tradition of Japan.

The term translates loosely to “the soul of words,” reflecting the belief that language and sound possess a mystical power capable of shaping both the physical and spiritual worlds.

Kotodama also offers glimpses into the nature of consciousness and the Soul it reveals.

Words and sounds are the DNA of communication; like love, connecting us.

Through the study of homophones, homographs, homonyms, heteronyms, definitions, and etymologies, we uncover truths about ultimate reality, the Soul.

Puns are more insightful than pundits.

Kotodama 121

We’re were: we are what we were.

Kotodama 119

Growing old is wonderful as long as you are growing.

Kotodama 120

The word with the greatest number of definitions is “set”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

The definitions and of “set” number more than 60,000 words. The vastness of “set” includes meanings ranging from mathematical collections, television equipment, athletic readiness (“ready, set, go!”) hardening concrete, breasts, predetermined arrangements, the act of placing something down, etc., etc., etc.

As what “set” means depends on context and relationship, “set” is virtually always simply understood; though not in all ways.

Yet, a complete understanding of “set” would be overwhelming, as “set” mirrors the complexity of completeness itself.

Kotodama 118

Life is always, but not all ways, wonderful.

Kotodama 117

The hierarchy of males in a family:

The one below you is a boy.

Your equal is a bro.

Your superior is a motherfucker.

When a boy is treated like a boy, that’s a test.

If he accepts poor treatment, he can best aspire to be a bro.

If he fights back against the taunts, he’s showing signs he can be a motherfucker.

After enough fights, he has proven his genes, easily attracting girls. He’s the motherfucker.

Kotodama 116

Life is a simple labyrinth, leading to where we came from.

Thinking it’s a maze, it’s amazing.

Kotodama 113

The Everything is the ever-thing.

The invisible Soul is the ever, eternal.

The tangible now is the thing, temporary.

 

The Soul is before and after the now.

As before and after are indistinguishable, they are sole: one.

The Soul sees the now as one thing, the manifestation of the Soul.

Yet, within the now are an infinite number of everchanging things.

 

The Soul is the inside of a circle.

The now is the outside.

While seemingly mutually exclusive, they are mutually dependent as one cannot exist without the other.

Together, they are the ever-thing.

 

The Everything is also the ever-y-thing, or ever-why-thing.

The eternal question is “why does the now thing exist?”

There is no why, as all there is is the ever-thing.

Kotodama 115

Manners, not manors, define wealth.

Kotodama 110

Before and after the now, I am what I am.

In the now, I am who I am.

What is the unmanifested, potentially every thing.

Who is the What manifested by the breath of life.

In the circle of life, I am eternally What and temporarily Who.

The sound of Who is made by shaping our mouth into a small circle and thrusting the air from our lungs to fill the now with our presence.

Kotodama 111

The hole reveals the whole.

The now is a tiny hole revealing the Soul.

Kotodama 106

What are the possibilities?

Water, the possibilities!

Infinite forms, one essence.

Kotodama 104

Each of us is but a circle.

The soul is the peace within and the self is the piece without.

While peace is never without, the piece is always without.

Kotodama 7

The present is the pre-sent — the space where everything is before it is revealed in the now.

When we are present, every thing is absent.

In this emptiness, we can observe the now and come to realize we are the now.

Kotodama 83

He who needs to be important is impotent.

Kotodama 76

Overwhelmed, as the mass-age of information becomes the mess-age, we seek a message to massage us back in-formation.

Kotodama 79

The role affects the roll and the roll affects the role.

Kotodama 100

Life is a trail that ends where you started.

The trail is also a trial.

At the end, you’ve lost and one.

You’ve lost your self and are one with the soul.

Kotodama 75

Knowing is being; when you know the content you can be content.

Kotodama 93

As every thing is essentially energy, matter only matters when there is something the matter with us.

Kotodama 107

I am this.

I am that.

I am many I’s.

I is.

Kotodama 108

With inflation, every thing is a good buy; a goodbye to money as it become worth less.

Kotodama 62

Business is work; sometimes busy, sometimes not.

Jobs are busyness. While some jobs are hard work, all jobs require one to be busy trying to appear busy.

Kotodama 92

“M” is a vessel with one bucket,

“W” a vessel with two buckets.

We can carry more than Me.

Kotodama 99

Bodily death is the transition from being a piece of the universe to being at peace with the universe.

It is then we remember we are always part of the universe, only dreaming we were apart.

Knowing this piece of information about death brings peace to life.

Kotodama 49

“Piece” and “peace” are antonyms.

A piece is something separate from a whole.

Peace is when all pieces come together as a whole.

Kotodama 21

Man comes from heaven, is born as a dog, dies as a dog and returns to heaven as god.

 

A dog’s life begins with “d”. The letter “d” points to heaven, signaling its divine origin.

A dog’s life ends with “g”. The letter “g” sinks below the line, like a body buried in a grave.

As god, the journey reverses. We start with our resurrection from the grave, symbolized by “g”, and ascend to heaven — rising there from the upward pointing “d”.

The “o” in “dog” is a hole, emptiness. As animals, we endlessly seek, but are never fulfilled.

The “o” in “god” represents wholeness. The inside and outside of the “o” are mutually dependent, as one cannot exist without the other.

Realizing all things are one is the way to heaven.

 

In life, man’s best friend is said to be a dog, essentially his self.

But to transition to the afterlife, heaven, god is our guide.

 

Transitioning from dog to god is simple when we recognize we are an anadrome; both dog and god depending on which way we spell the word.

Kotodama 10

When i-luminate our lumin-essence, we are lumin-us.

Kotodama 2

It takes a prophet to make an extraordinary profit.

Kotodama 89

A way takes us away.

The Way brings us here and now.

Kotodama 27

Every thing is the progeny of light, yet light makes light of every thing.

Kotodama 91

The Ultimate Self (US) is all there is before, in and after the now.

While invisible before and after, in the now the Ultimate Self is manifested as the Individual Self (IS).

In the now, US IS.

Kotodama 98

When all things are holy, the universe is wholly.

Kotodama 97

Without the need to seek from without another piece,

we find within eternal peace.

Kotodama 96

When you recognize the soul,

two are too

two is one:

“an other” is “another”

“every thing” is “everything”

“in sight” is “insight”

“every where” is “everywhere”

“all ways” are “always”

“no thing” is “nothing”.

Kotodama 95

When the now is moving too fast, a fast turns fast into slow.

Kolodama 94

Every thing, a finite “I” to itself.

The universe is infinite I’s.

Letting go the possessive, the “I’s” are “is”; not things, a flow.

Kotodama 81

Nose knows no’s.

Intuition smells dangers.

Kotodama 19

With music, I hear but am not here.

Kotodama 42

U are who U are, a self in various roles in the play of life.

As the self is inevitably scripted out of the play, the play is a tragedy.

As the play unfolds in the everchanging now, your thoughts are nothing (O) but memories of the now.

 

U are what U are, the soul in the audience.

As the soul is always laughing at the self taking its memories seriously, the play is a comedy.

 

U are double U (W), soul and self, and nothing (O).

U are the soul before entering the play of life. Then, U are a self having an illusionary experience. In the final moments before U are scripted out of the play, U are the self viewing the play from a distance. Then, U are the soul again.

Knowing who and what U are, the play of life is WOW.

Kotodama 90

Me two or me too;

duality or unity,

self or soul.

Kotodama 88

The void is devoid; not empty, just nothing of which we are conscious.

The void is what’s before and after the now, waiting to appear in the now.

Kotodama 16

Each language has different sounds (words) that identify the same thing.

However, there are certain sounds that carry the same meaning across many unrelated languages.

This is called sound symbolism, or phono-semantics.

These sounds are a primordial reaction rooted in collective human consciousness.

For example, the sound made upon coming to an obvious realization (“ah”) and the sound of laughing (“ha”) at ourselves for not realizing it earlier.

“Ah” and “ha” are anadromes (words that spell different words when read backward). Simply looking at the same thing from opposite perspectives is the essence of wisdom.

Another example of sound symbolism is “wow”, a palindrome (a word read the same forwards or backward). “Wow” is a sound we make when something engages us, a love connection. The sound of “wow” is made by puckering our lips as when making a kiss.

“Wow” suggests love is a palindrome; what we express is expressed back.

Sounds reflecting wisdom and love are as primordial as wisdom and love.

Kotodama 87

Simple mantras:

I B I

I C U

Y R U

I R U

U B I

I am me.

I see you.

Why are you?

I am you.

You are me.

Kotodama 71

Without love, what looks like a loving marriage the French would call a mirage.

Kotodama 85

The words “new” and “now” look similar, for they describe the same thing.

New is unlike anything in the past. That’s being in the now.

Kotodama 84

Experiences light the way.

Perspectives make light of the way.

Kotodama 67

When past is passed, it is absent and we are present.

Kotodama 56

The historical is hysterical.

Self-serving stories are funny.

Kotodama 37

The personal self has many subsidiary selves, each with a different emotion.

The sole self — the soul — has only one emotion: love.

Kotodama 34

The mystical experience is seeing every thing shrouded in mist and realizing we are the light beyond the mist.

Kotodama 45

Sole, soul, sol.

One transcendent light.

The light reveals the soul.

Kotodama 57

“No know” is the way to “know no”.

When we realize that we know no thing, we can come to know nothing; the essence of every thing.

All that is in the now is nothing before and after the now.

Kotodama 13

As the mind does not sense, the sense it makes of our senses is nonsense.

Kotodama 20

The etymology of “universe” is “turned into one.”

The universe is not an infinite number of unique things. It is all things turned into one.

Thinking of the universe as separate and independent things is an illusion.

We dispense with illusions by undifferentiating them; describing each with one (uni) verse: it is what it is whatever it is.

When things are not differentiated, they are one thing: the universe.

Kotodama 59

“Soooo” is the sound of inhaling.

“Hmmmm” is the sound of exhaling.

Together, the cycle of breathing is “Soham”, a word in Sanskrit meaning “I am”.

Soham is a Hindu meditative mantra implying pure being; not a being (self), but ultimate reality (the Soul).

Soham: I am the Soul creating the self with my breath.

Kotodama 70

In contemporary society, traditional gender titles of Mr., Mrs., and Ms. are seen as self-limiting; as people view themselves in more granulated identities.

As words used to identify sexual identities often change, perhaps punctuations should be used for identities:

 

Female appearance:  (:)

Male appearance:  (;)

Straight:  (|)

Gay:  (\)

Bisexual:  (<>)

Trans  (\/)

Dominant Female:  (‘:)

Submissive Female:  (:’)

Dominant Male:  (‘;)

Submissive Male:  (;’)

Weird Female in public:  (“:)

Weird Male in public:  (“;)

Weird Female in private:  (:”)

Weird Male in private:  (;”)

Weird Female every which way:  (“:”)

Weird Male every which way: (“;”)

Undecided Person:  (?)

Materialistic:  ($)

Into group sex:  (#)

Sexually loyal:  (&)

Mental connection priority:  (i)

Physical connection priority:  (!)

Wants children:  (+)

Doesn’t want children:  (-)

Self-conscious:  (%)

Dreamer:  (*)

Religious:  (^)

Homebody:  (@)

 

For example, a person describing themselves as:

(“$^&’:@+) is a publicly weird materialistic religious loyal dominant female homebody interested in having children.

(‘;!<>#*”-) is a dominant male physically focused bisexual into group sex fantasies privately weird stuff and not interested in having children.

 

However helpful these categorizations may be, they are disconnected from the truth: every one is unique, yet shares a fundamental oneness.

We are not selfish identities.

We are God; yet, the devil is in the details which separate us from our essential unity as God.

 

Recognizing our unity, everyone could simply be referred to as “it”, an undifferentiating description.

This is how common people think of each other; witnessed the common greeting: “How’s it going?”

Kotodama 80

When you have presence you don’t need presents.

Kotodama 82

A shaman is a showman.

When your attention is focused outside your self, you are free from your self and its ills.

Kotodama 78

I am eye.

What eye see is what I am.

Kotodama 74

“Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.”

— Galileo Galilei

 

Man creates words to understand the universe.

The etymology of the word “number” is “to divide.”

 

Mathematics connects every thing.

Words divide everything.

God unifies, man divides.

Kotodama 73

Upon awakening

“i” becomes “!”

Kotodama 72

I + Word = World

My word creates the world.

Kotodama 30

Who U are the self.

What U are the soul.

Together, the two U’s are W.

With the U’s, a hole is a whole.

Kotodama 47

Your is you’re.

All you have is that you are.

Kotodama 69

As U are U to me and I am U to U, all are Us.

Kotodama 68

Clothes close what’s otherwise open.

Kotodama 38

I + dolls = Idols

Kotodama 65

“I”, “is”, and “time” are the most frequently used pronoun, verb and noun.

While these words never appear together as a sentence, “I is time” reveals what we are.

 

“I” implies a personal self that’s separate from all that is not the self.

“Is” (unlike the customary “am”) suggests being, not a being; a universal identity beyond the personal self.

Our universal identity is the Soul.

The Soul is what’s before and after the now.

In the now, the Soul is revealed.

“Time” is a concept that frames how the self perceives the now, as everchanging independent things; not as it is: timeless and interdependent.*

“I is time”: I, the self, am the Soul having a human experience.

 

I Is Time

Acronym: “I IT”

 

“I” am the now, an ever-moving light that passes over and reveals the Soul. The Soul is “IT”, a general noun for undifferentiated reality, ultimate reality.

“I IT”: I am the Soul.

 

“I IT”: Eye It

What I see is what I am.

Kotodama 48

A nation that gets into pissing contests and pisses off the world is a urine-nation.

Kotodama 64

As every thing we see is not a thing but a reflection of light, take things lightly.

Kotodama 63

Effects affect affects.

Kotodama 44

It Is What It Is Whatever It Is.

Acronym: II-WII-WII (I why why?)

Why do I exist? Why is the universe?

There is no why; there are no things, no I, no universe.

All there is is is.

Is is what is is whatever is is.

Kotodama 41

The now is always the same and all ways different.

Kotodama 77

Heaven is “have-even”.

Heaven is before and after the now; where all things are even, as all are the undifferentiated Soul.

Kotodama 54

I am being, not a being.

Kotodama 66

The eyes see the sea, what’s there.

The ears hear what’s here.

The nose knows.

Kotodama 53

When every day is holy, every day is a holiday.

Kotodama 52

Those who can explain “what it?” have wit.

Those who know “what is?” are wise.

Kotodama 40

Idol worshipers are idle.

They are not moving on the Way to oneness with the Everything, as they see some things sacred and others not.

Kotodama 51

Before time began, there was only God.

Time began when God had a son named Sun.

Sun’s progeny is light, the essence of everything.

When the light slows down by the speed of light squared, it transitions into matter.

Matter seems real, but is an illusion; as it’s essentially light.

The Timeless One knows this.

Kotodama 29

Only hours are ours.

Kotodama 50

The tail wagging the dog is like a tale wagging a man.

Kotodama 36

Accepting is unity.

Excepting is duality.

Kotodama 43

We chase our tales like dogs chase their tails.

Kotodama 46

We on Earth are wee in the universe.

Kotodama 33

The inside of a circle: a hole.

The inside and outside: a whole.

Kotodama 25

All Ways lead to always.

Kotodama 4

You feel great when you are grateful because you are great-full.

Kotodama 5

The definition of passion is:

Emotion.

An intense or overwhelming feeling.

An outbreak of anger.

A strong desire for some activity, object, or concept.

Sexual desire.

 

The etymology of passion is suffering.

Kotodama 28

“Hap” (luck) is the root of happiness.

Happiness is realizing — however difficult our circumstances — we are lucky things aren’t worse.

We are also lucky as our circumstances are likely to get better with reversion to the mean.

Kotodama 26

Good evening.

Have a good transition to sleep-death, where all beings are even — equal.

 

Good morning.

Have a good time mourning the person you were yesterday, who is now no longer.

Dismissing memories of past lifetimes as only the dreams of someone who is not us, we are free to experience the now as it is.

 

Each day is not a day in a life, but a life in a day.

As we are lucky to be born anew every day, every day is a happy birthday.

Kotodama 15

We are kind to what’s our kind.

Kotodama 58

Like the sole of a foot is the soul of a man, a rarely seen foundation.

Kotodama 60

Before time begins, all is the NON.

Upon birth, the I of the self and the NON become the NOW.

With the I of the soul, the NOW is a WOW.

 

The I of the self is red, symbolizing emotions. We experience the now through a myriad of selfish emotions.

The I of the soul is yellow; light, the essence of everything.

The experience of the NON, with the I of self and the I of the soul, is a WOW.

Kotodama 17

“i” is duality of body and mind.

“I” is integrity.

Kotodama 12

Asking whys makes wise.

Kotodama 32

Children are, unlike adults, unadulterated.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

— Pablo Picasso

Kotodama 8

Upon awakening, every day is no longer everyday.

Kotodama 6

The Everything is no-thing and now-thing.

No-thing before and after the now-thing.

Kotodama 18

The Hebrew word for “life” is composed by two letter with numerical values of 8 and 10, based on their sequential order in the alphabet. Together, they sum to 18.

For Jews, the number 18 is symbolic of life.

Monetary gifts between Jews to celebrate various rites of passage (birthdays, weddings, holidays, etc.) are traditionally given in multiples of 18 ($18, $54, $180, etc.).

 

The number 18 reveals that life is both finite and eternal.

1 is finite as it’s drawn from top to bottom, from heaven to Earth, from birth to death.

8 is eternal as it’s continuous, with no beginning and no end.

In life, the eternal Soul is expressed as a finite self.

1 also implies that every thing is essentially one thing: the expression of the Soul. 8  implies every thing is interconnected.

 

Upon realizing all things are one interconnected kind of thing, we treat every thing as we want to be treated: with kindness. That’s compassion.

Our oneness with every thing allows us to view the world from infinite perspectives. That’s wisdom.

Wisdom and compassion are essential to celebrating life.

Kotodama 3

Life is a present received when we are present.

Kotodama 24

Hear here.

Sound is the presence of the now.

Kotodama 112

When stock market prices rise dramatically and unjustifiably based on the earnings prospects of companies, it’s called a bull market.

When prices precipitously fall, it’s called a bear market.

According to Investopedia: “The terms ‘bear’ and ‘bull’ are thought to derive from the way in which each animal attacks its opponents. That is, a bull will thrust its horns up into the air, while a bear will swipe down. These actions were then related metaphorically to the movement of a market. If the trend was up, it was considered a bull market. If the trend was down, it was a bear market.”

Alternatively, a bull market is like a bull charging at a matador’s red cape. The bull is charging ahead at something that seems real (like stocks with absurdly optimistic earnings prospects), but which ultimately is a mirage.

Likewise, a bear market is like a hibernating bear. The bear has no interest in eating delicacies — like stocks that are cheaply priced — because it is sleeping.

Kotodama 114

“I loved money and I loved children but couldn’t afford to have both. I chose to have children because they could love me back.”

— Sol Lieberman

 

This assumes something about our bond with our children: the children will pay us more interest than a Treasury Bond.

Kotodama 1

When the many become one, the pieces become peace.

Kotodama 23

The adage, time heals all wounds, suggests patients need patience.

Kotodama 39

When you are the pick of the litter yet pick the litter, you are not the pick of the litter.

Kotodama 14

According the Guinness Book of World Records, “drunk” holds the world’s record for the word with the most synonyms; as many as 2,241 and counting.

Apparently, when we’re drunk, we’re comfortable expressing ourselves with linguistic creativity.

When we’re not drunk, our descriptions are more limited and conventional; often failing to capture the nuances of how we feel.

Frustrated by our inability to creatively express ourselves when we’re sober is maybe why we get drunk.

Kotodama 9

Joy is when we are beckoned by the Soul and rejoice our oneness with the whole.

 

J is a finger calling us to come closer.

O is a hole — the now — that reveals the whole: the Soul.

Y is two paths — the way of the self and the way of the Soul — becoming one.

 

J is the masculine, looking like a penis.

O is the feminine, looking like the vaginal hole.

Joy is the moment when the two become one, as separation dissolves into unity.

Kotodama 11

Awakening

Ah…Aha…Haha…Hahahaha

Ah — joy.

Aha — realizing joy is the purpose of life.

Haha — laughing at the simplicity of this realization.

Hahahaha — laughing at how silly we were for not realizing this earlier.

Kotodama 55

We’ve read the word backward.

Man’s best friend is not the material (dog), but the transcendental (god).

Kotodama 31

Puns offer insights; pundits offer opinions.

Kotodama 35

“Real eyes realize real lies.”

— Tupac Shakur

Unlike our eyes, our mind can be fooled.

Haiku

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry characterized by its simplicity, elegance, and focus on capturing moments of beauty and inspiration in nature, inviting readers to contemplate the essence of existence and appreciate the transient beauty of the natural world.

Haiku 105

Wisdom and compassion are light.

Wisdom is the light reflecting off an infinite number of things.

Compassion is the warmth emanated onto every thing.

Haiku 104

The mind is like a muddy pond, its grains of sand, the selves, chaotically swirling.

In the quietude of meditation, the selves settle at the bottom as one.

Mindfulness: the opaque becomes translucent.

Mindlessness: the universe revealed on the reflecting pond.

Haiku 101

The mystical experience:

A rivulet flows into the river.

Now, all there is is water.

Haiku 100

The glutton devoured gluten

until gluten devoured the glutton.

Then the flour that rose in his bread

became the flower rising above his head

in the grave where he laid dead.

Haiku 15

A picture is nothing but a field of countless dots.

Those with the sharpest eyes see the dots,

but lose sight of the picture.

Haiku 101

The self hears the sound and sees the waves crashing on the shore,

yet overlooks the soul, the silent ocean beneath the waves, without which it would be no more.

Haiku 99

The soul floats on sounds.

The self drowns in words.

Haiku 98

Conscious, I am one among infinite ones.

As consciousness, I am oneness.

Haiku 97

What you hold dear holds you dearly.

Let it go and you can go.

With no thing holding you, nothing holds you.

Haiku 10

Waves of sound and light come down.

So many waves, we can easily drown.

Oceans of memories is what we hear and see.

All just stories, even me.

Haiku 74

The soul is the ocean.

The ocean expresses itself as waves riding the electromagnetic spectrum,

visible only when passing through as light.

The ever-changing waves are the face of the eternal ocean.

Seeing distinct faces in the waves, we’re oblivious of the ocean

until the faces return to the ocean, which is what we are.

Haiku 96

Life is a balance sheet of left and right.

the left is day and the right is night,

where what is real is out of sight,

not what is but what just might.

Haiku 94

Divine are the waves.

God is the ocean.

Divine are sunset and sunrise.

God is the sun.

The everchanging is divine.

The essence is God.

When we see the divine in every thing, we are divine.

When we see God in every thing, we are God.

Haiku 94

Words are stars, pure light,

allowing us to see at night.

Sentences are constellations,

only real in our imaginations.

Haiku 93

The soul is the ocean.

We are its waves.

While we are often oblivious of the ever-present ocean,

the ocean loves its waves.

 

Haiku 92

Under the sun,

an infinite number of temporary things.

In the night sky,

one infinite eternal thing.

Haiku 91

On the night sky we draw lines with our imagination

creating a story in the form of a constellation

which tells time and guides our navigation.

Haiku 89

Some see themselves in everyone.

Others see others as different from themselves.

That’s what makes them different.

Haiku 90

He who loves everyone is often seen as loving solely his self.

He loves the sole self, the soul.

Everyone is a manifestation of the soul.

Haiku 88

There are more stars above than grains of sand below.

I look so much larger than a star,

but am I smaller than a grain of sand?

Haiku 87

Love from a self draws us into a black hole

Love from the soul makes every thing whole.

Haiku 86

The tangible things we see as whole

are just a surface surrounding a hole.

All there is comes from a hole,

the eye’s center, creating the whole.

Haiku 85

An ice cube alone quickly melts and evaporates.

Many ice cubes together, slowly.

Haiku 4

Every thing unique, every thing everchanging.

Can’t know every thing, but can know nothing.

The essence of the Everything.

Haiku 18

Some things high, some things low.

We live in a vertical world.

In sleep and at death, all is horizontal.

The universe knows no such measures.

 

Haiku 23

Stars seem motionless, with no sense of time.

Randomly dispersed, without rhythm or rhyme.

Constellations tell time far and near.

Hour of night, month of year.

Haiku 21

Once I have passed,

many will think of me as past.

Those who know of timeless love,

that which emanates from above,

will smile with joy and not shed a tear.

While my body is gone, I am forever here.

Haiku 68

Earth breathes the air, fire eats the Earth,

water drowns fire, air evaporates water.

Different things, same thing.

Haiku 47

I first see you as other than me.

Then I see you are another me.

There is no other, just we.

Haiku 95

With one eye, we can see.

With two eyes, we have depth perception.

With one mind, we have a view.

With many minds, we have a wide perspective.

Haiku 25

Those who are loving are the sun.

Those who want to be loved are black holes.

Haiku 27

Every thing seems a duality,

a light side and a dark side.

The sun makes things shine.

Things make shadows.

Haiku 28

Birth and death are illusions, like the sun rising and setting.

The soul is forever here, like the sol shining.

Haiku 29

Sun crashes pond’s surface.

Water only ripples.

Sun not wet.

Haiku 16

It is what it is whatever it is.

What it is is of no matter.

What matters is that it is.

Haiku 34

Successful students reflect their teacher’s light.

Brilliant students reflect the sun’s light.

Enlightening students emit light.

Haiku 35

Light reveals infinite ways

we can travel through the end of days.

Which way to take is not clear

until in noise music we hear.

Then we don’t need the ways revealed by the sun

as music makes us dance as one.

Haiku 30

What’s good for you is good for me

as I can choose who to be,

you, me, or we.

Haiku 36

Everything revealed by light is beautiful,

unlike sounds which are noisy.

Yet, hidden in noisy sounds is music,

the most beautiful thing of all.

Haiku 31

We begin life as a tiny circle, looking like a dot.

As we grow, we have an inside and outside.

Until there is no more circle, just space.

Haiku 33

Water downstream is water past.

Water upstream is water future.

Water here is water present.

Water flows like time, but is timeless.

Haiku 32

When off the common path we wander,

we see the world with wonder.

Haiku 37

Those who absorb light are dull.

Those who reflect light are shiny.

Those who emit light are brilliant.

Haiku 39

Living the life of water is the best thing.

As snow, it’s the most reflective thing.

As it flows, it’s more practical than anything.

When it evaporates, it becomes one with the Everything.

Haiku 38

If you are shy

look to the night sky.

Standing tall

in the vastness of it all,

there’s nothing to fear

from the small people here.

Haiku 44

Those who are bored

see life as a game board,

but a board it can’t be

as every thing is 3-D.

Haiku 45

What I see

is outside of me.

What I smell, taste and hear

draws everything near.

Haiku 42

Using constellations to navigate our way,

we don’t see the stars which are the Way.

Haiku 55

Light shines brightly

on both “dark” and “light” sides of the moon.

Those who think there’s a “dark” side are in the dark.

Haiku 50

Enlightenment cannot be described to real effect;

other than by pinholes of insights,

like stars in the night sky.

Haiku 57

A grain of sand is no smaller than a star,

one is near, the other far.

Size depends on where you are.

Haiku 76

We enter and leave on a path of white light.

Once here, we are red, yellow or blue.

The white light is the world as it is, not as we are.

Haiku 77

Under the sun, the world of the self.

In the night sky, only the soul.

Haiku 78

In the white light

we see things right.

Yet our mind is a prism

that puts us in prison.

We see things as red, yellow or blue

but that’s simply not true.

Haiku 83

$38 can of paint

brushed on a canvass: priceless

spilled on the floor: worthless.

Haiku 84

The road ahead is very clear,

as the light reveals all that’s near.

Shadows form from light that’s passed,

as what is now doesn’t last.

Haiku 43

I see the sea,

not the ocean beyond me.

Haiku 67

Verbs are fluid, time passing.

Nouns are imaginary, moments frozen in time.

Verbs are the happening, nouns are the happened.

Haiku 63

Good or bad.

Wrong or right.

What’s black or white is colorless.

Haiku 61

A bell ringing in the empty sky.

Sound here, after it’s not.

Much ringing from times passed.

Can’t see the sun on a noisy day.

Haiku 79

As the self

I am the world.

As the soul

I is the universe.

 

Haiku 49

Every eye is unique.

Yet, the reflection of my face

the same in every pupil.

Haiku 48

The universal mind is a reflecting pond.

We sit around its perimeter.

One thing, many perspectives.

Haiku 62

When we forget from where we come,

we know not where we are going.

Not knowing what we are,

we go the way of others.

Haiku 3

The mind is a reflecting pond,

but do I see my true face

as backward letters hard to read?

Haiku 6

So much depends upon

five baby rubber ducks

walking behind a red rooster.

Ode To Wood

Knotted wood with odd streaks of brown hue,

useful for many a thing to do.

Building a desk, feeding a fire;

so many possibilities, one can never tire.

 

While its static form seems not to change,

what happens below its surface is beyond imagination’s range:

The atoms are dancing to the music of electrons

as compounds are mating as they have for eons.

 

The wood is never in a state of pause,

it’s a marvel beyond words and without flaws.

Haiku 64

There is no fountainhead, river or sea

just something flowing freely, whatever it be.

Haiku 71

Under the sun and without the self

we would surely starve to death.

Those who forget we are the soul

cannot survive death, the black hole.

Haiku 15

All there is is is

Is is ever-changing and always the same

Is is finite and infinite

Is is temporary and eternal

Is cannot be compared to anything

Is is not part of anything

Is is not missing anything

Is is whatever you think it is

Is is nothing you think it is

Is cannot be described

Is is what it is whatever it is

Is is who you are

Is is perfect

Is is nothing

Is is the everything

Is is the is.

Haiku 60

From the flow we grow

into a temporary island

eroding back into the stream of consciousness.

Haiku 59

Gently rafting down river.

Calm as the pulse in my veins.

Pulse quickens, rapids approach.

Haiku 58

With the eye of the sun,

we see things as they are.

With our eyes, only illusions.

Haiku 56

Many see what looks to be

the distant river flowing into the sea.

All I see is me.

Haiku 14

Knowledge is sexual,

double helix perpetual.

As we climb this ladder to the heavens from where we came,

soon enough nothing is ever the same.

Twisting and turning, what’s right becomes left and left becomes right.

Upward and onward, until Earth is completely out of sight.

Haiku 69

I am eye,

a pupil studying the world

filtered by colors and patterns of my iris.

Haiku 13

Going back or forward in time is a race,

a journey to Earth’s center or outer space.

Death by implosion/explosion, by fire or ice.

Best stay where I am, everything here, everything nice.

Fountainheads Of Love

Love from the self and love from the soul.

Each love in life plays a role.

Love from the soul connects us to all.

Love from the self helps us grow tall.

Love is love, it all feels the same

both from places that sound alike in name.

Love from the soul comes from the whole

Love from the self comes from the hole.

Haiku 11

I don’t know who it is in the mirror I see

but everywhere else I only see me.

Haiku 24

The clarinet is the self,

the wind is the soul.

When the sound is music

it makes them whole.

The Palestinian/Israeli War

The war in Gaza is a never-ending fight.

Each side has a story, told in a different light.

Each difficult to understand as they fuel the blight.

I long to see the truth, as the fires rage bright.

In the heat from emotions, I await the cool night

where distant stars guide the way, with no wrong nor right.

Haiku 8

Better to be unique than perfect.

We are naturally unique, but it takes great effort to be perfect.

Uniqueness is forever, but perfection temporary.

Being unique is perfect.

Haiku 54

After the purple crayon didn’t taste like a grape,

no grape tasted like a grape.

Haiku 53

Our pupils are like stars and black holes.

Like the sun, they illuminate everything around us.

Yet, whatever light enters them is never seen again.

Haiku 51

The sun is the eye of the soul,

revealing all through our pupil, a black hole.

As our iris filters the light of the sun,

we each see differently which makes life fun.

Haiku 46

The big Buddha statue sits in silent meditation,

tears of bird droppings encrusted on his cheeks.

Some sit at his feet with offerings and prayers,

while a child Buddha laughs, swimming in a reflecting pond.

Haiku 70

Each of us is a self that covers the soul.

Like a shoe, the self is the visible surface atop the sole.

However shiny and polished, a shoe is useless without a sole.

Post Card, 1910

“Don’t worry about the future,

the present is all thou hast;

the future will soon be present,

and the present will soon be past.”

Family post card sent from Kansas to Tennessee, 1910. Courtesy of Kate Bowers.

Homespun advice from the farm belt; reminiscent of Buddhist teachings, long before they were popularized in America.

Haiku 75

I thought an ant small and meaningless,

until I saw the night sky and realized I was.

Haiku 2

Bell ringing in the empty sky

bouncing sound

awakens me to time passing.

Haiku 73

The mind of God creates the universe.

Our mind creates our world.

When our mind merges with the mind of God,

we are the universe.

Haiku 41

Holding something tight,

our hand forms a fist.

Letting go, it’s a handshake.

Haiku 40

A coin is integrity,

its different sides duality.

A coin is worth something,

its sides worth nothing.

Haiku 26

Guru and I shared stories.

His stories: histories.

My stories: mysteries.

So quickly, roles reverse.

Haiku 66

“I love you” is the self expressing love.

“I love us” is love beyond the self.

“I love it all” is divine love.

Haiku 20

The sun is rising and setting

simultaneously and continuously.

Day and night is about space, not time.

Haiku 19

Birth is fission.

Love is fusion.

Fusion has greater energy than fission.

Haiku 17

We come from a black hole

arrive with a big bang

make fireworks

then turn into confetti.

Haiku 22

Stars are events from the past.

Imaginary lines between stars create constellations.

Each constellation is a story we think is real.

Haiku 126

Every day is not everyday.

Every night we die and every morning we are born anew.

Every day is our birthday.

Every day is our first and last.

As our first, every thing is new.

As our last, we appreciate every thing.

Haiku 124

Time is an imaginary measure of the space between events.

It only exists because we are its parents.

Time is a river from fountainhead to sea.

It’s just water, if it wasn’t for me.

The river is the river, even when its part of the sea

But that is something I cannot see.

Haiku 123

Time is invisible, like the wind.

Only seen in its affects on everything

On the back of the wind clouds take a ride

Until over the horizon they hide.

Soon they return from I don’t know where

But I enjoy them now and do not care.

Haiku 72

When past is passed

it is over and under, finished and buried.

When past is past

it is over and over, lingering over the present.

Haiku 101

Entangled in the now

we’re oblivious to its beauty

which is clear from before and after the now.

Haiku 103

Since my house burned down

I now own a better view

of the rising moon.

— Mizuta Masahide

Haiku 9

I am a vertical thread.

You are a horizontal thread.

We weave in and out, until we disappear

and now a fabric is here.

Haiku 82

In the darkest moments

and beyond the clouds,

stars put things into perspective.

John Carter

In The Light

 

Take a memory

What is it really

A movie that plays in the mind

What’s it like

What’s it made of

Can you touch it

Hold it

Is it always there

Is it the same every time

Does it shape itself around how you’re feeling

Is it reliable

Look at it

Watch it

As it changes from one day to the next, one year to the next

Fading

Until what was vivid, becomes thin, vapid, and dissolves

Like an old movie reel

Fading

And forgotten

 

What of the future

What is it made of

Without memories

Without the scaffolding of the past

How can it stand

Is it not made of a better version of the past

Without something to revise

What would it be

 

And there’s now

What is this

The light

Only the light

Everything

All light

Scour the past

Hope for the future

For the holy light

The blessed light

The heavenly light

The light of God

Yet it can only be found here

Stripped of adjectives

Reduced of rank

Beyond comparison

 

To see the light

Is merely to look

It is inescapable

We are

As is everything

Only the light

The past and future

Swallowed and digested in the light of now

Then this

Spreads in all directions

Forward

Back

Locked in

In eternity

In the light

All is lost

Nothing revealed

Haiku 81

When I am me and you are you

and I am you and you are me,

we are the Everything.

Haiku 80

In the box, the puzzle is complete and whole.

Outside, scattered pieces, each alone.

Then each piece begins its quest

to find others that fits best.

When the puzzle returns to its previous state

each piece disappears into a peace more great.

Haiku 7

In the night sky,

looking for constellations

we notice few stars.

Haiku 103

When you recognize God in a man,

He’s not black

He’s not white.

He’s not Christian

He’s not Muslim.

He’s not smart.

He’s not stupid.

He’s not one thing or another.

He’s simply welcome.

 

Haiku 100

Between the beats of my pulse,

between the exhale and the inhale

there is an empty space where all is still.

In my youth, I anxiously waited in the empty space

for the next beat or breath to engage my attention.

Now, I rest in the space where nothingness reigns.

From here, I can appreciate the wonder of creation.

Haiku 65

In the zoo, beautiful tigers and playful elephants.

Strolling in their cages, we see their nature and ours.

Haiku 1

As the thirsty child

drinks from the inkwell,

his parents turn white.

Haiku 12

Fertilizer makes roses smell sweet and bloom.

With too much: stink and doom.

Wow

WOW is the acronym for “Ways Of Way”, observations on the nature of way (NOW): what consciousness reveals in the now.

Synonymous, NOW is WOW.

Ways Of Way 354

When you truly love someone, they are free and they give it to you for free.

Ways Of Way 251

People are funny, when they take their self seriously.

As most people do, you can laugh your way through life.

If people wouldn’t take their self so seriously, life wouldn’t be funny.

It would be blissful.

Ways Of Way 355

The Soul is revealed through a pinhole of light, a star.

The sun is our pinhole.

Yet, each of us is also a star, illuminating the Soul from our position in space.

Ways Of Way 356

In the day, what reflects the greatest light is brilliant.

At night, only those who emanate light are brilliant.

Ways Of Way 349

Before the play of life begins, the theater is dark with tiny lights, like stars, keeping it from complete darkness.

The curtains rise when one star becomes the sun.

The play begins.

We are the actors in the play.

The audience is the souls who were actors, until they were scripted out of the play.

Regardless of their role, the play is a tragedy for the actors as everyone eventually dies.

For the audience, the play is a comedy; seeing the actors take themselves seriously.

Yet, the play is wonderful for the actors who know they are in a cosmic theater and the play is just a play.

Ways Of Way 350

Most difficult times are high class problems.

In such moments, think of how many people are in truly difficult situations and would be grateful to be in your shoes.

When you are grateful, regardless how difficult your circumstances, you are great-full.

Difficult times are not difficult when you feel great.

Appreciating your good luck (hap), you are happy.

As well, think of the souls in the audience watching you in the play of life. Seeing you upset makes them laugh at you taking your self seriously.

Ways Of Way 341

Most marriages fail because the husband thinks his wife will not change after marriage and the wife expects her husband to change.

Most wives change and husbands don’t.

Ways Of Way 331

Life is a circle. The space within is imprecise.

The mind is a square. The space within is precise.

To know life is to know the exact space within the circle.

While the precise space can never be know, the largest square — the biggest mind — that fits in a circle is a better approximation of the space in a circle than a smaller square.

Yet, the maximum number of small squares that fit in a circle is a better approximation of the space than the largest square.

That’s the wisdom of the crowd.

Ways Of Way 340

From the Soul come infinite manifestations, each a god, in the now.

The gods are everchanging within the now, but the now is eternally unchanged.

Realizing all the gods are but one God, we are one with the Soul.

Way Of Way 334

Art produces the greatest illusions.

It’s not the art, it’s the art market.

Artist, authenticity, provenance and price history are more the focus than art as an experience.

The great illusion: business disguised as art.

Way Of Way 319

Inside the now, we experience the now as infinite and everchanging things.

Outside the now, the now one unchanged thing: the universe.

Inside, the now is chaotic.

Outside, the now is harmoniously peaceful.

To experience the now from the outside, we need to see through the illusion of time.

Ways Of Way 327

We cannot remember who we were before we were born because we were the Soul and the Soul has no memories, as everything happens simultaneously.

Ways Of Way 330

I’ve met many brilliant people; yet, even people who are dull are brilliant as they shine a light on possibilities in life that I would not imagine.

Ways Of Way 229

Everyone agrees on what time it is, yet not the year.

It’s difficult to understand what someone next to you is saying when you each live in significantly different years.

When I ask someone where they live, I mean in which year are they living; not in which city.

Way Of Way 323

In the now is an infinite number of everchanging things; simply, overwhelming.

Categorizing things makes the infinite finite, manageable.

Yet, categorizing has us experience things not as they are but as illusions we’ve created to experience them.

Recognizing all things as one thing, a manifestation of the Soul, is the experience of the Soul experiencing itself.

The experience is not overwhelming or illusionary. It is love.

 

Way Of Way 316

All there is is the Everything.

The Everything is in two forms, the seen and the unseen.

The seen is the now and the unseen is before and after the now.

The seen is God and the unseen is the Soul.

God is the seemingly everchanging and the Soul is the eternal and unchanged.

 

When we are in the now, we are a god.

We know we are god when we recognize everything else as gods.

Yet, when we observe the now from outside the now, there are no gods; but one God: the universe.

We can observe God only when we are the Soul.

Way Of Way 320

This 5500 year old female figure comes from Tell Brak, the Levant.

The figure is depicted with eyes, nose, breasts and a vagina; but no mouth.

Many related figures have been collected. They are referred to as “eye idols”, as many of them — unlike this example — only depict a figure’s eyes.

The meaning of this form we can only conjecture.

Perhaps, as it is an idol, it suggests that god can see all but cannot speak. This is the perspective of Lao Tzu who observed 3000 years later: “He who speaks does not know, he who knows does not speak.”

Alternatively, this figure suggests men haven’t much changed since antiquity, as — even today — many desire women who don’t speak.

 

Way Of Way 321

As life is a dream, enjoy it as a dream; otherwise, it may turn into a nightmare.

Way Of Way 322

Philosophers and economists can explain much, but no nothing.

Philosophers can’t tell us where we are and economists can’t tell us where we are going.

Way Of Way 315

Self-awareness is knowing one is experiencing things not as they are but as the self perceives them.

When we experience things without the self, there are no things but the universe.

Way Of Way 313

Consciousness is awareness.

Our consciousness is what light reveals through a pinhole viewing the timeless Soul.

We are the light — each of us a star gazing at the dark sky.

Way Of Way 303

The Truth is beautiful and attractive, but not when it’s dressed.

Then, it’s always funny and sometimes repulsive, unless you’re a pervert or a fool.

The Truth is the Soul.

The dress is the self.

The Truth needs no tailoring, makeup or alternations; just revelation.

Way Of Way 310

What enlightens is enlightened.

When every thing enlightens you, you must be enlightened; for how can you be the only thing in the universe unlike everything.

Way Of Way 257

“Sat Sri Akal” is a common greeting in the Sikh community.

Sat Sri Akal: “Truth is the Timeless One.”

 

As the Soul is unchanging, the Soul is the Timeless One; what’s before and after the now.

The things we see in the now are everchanging. They seem real; but are not the Truth, as the Truth is always true — unchanging.

Yet, these things are the unchanging Truth when we recognize all things are not separate, but are one thing: God.

 

Sat Sri Akal: Greetings, I love and respect you, for you are the manifestation of God.

Way Of Way 302

The duality of who we are and who we are not is obvious.

Realizing we are the soul, the self’s dualities are superfluous.

EVERYTHING

When every thing is just everything; every thing is beyond description, other than it is what it is whatever it is.

When every thing is everything, there is only everything and nothing.

Everything and nothing are eternal but temporary, each the potential to be the other.

Everything and nothing are not separate things.

They are one interdependent thing: the EVERYTHING.

Everything is now and nothing is before and after the now.

Everything is God and nothing is the Soul.

As God is constantly changing, God is timely.

The Soul is timeless.

God is what’s seen through the pinhole of light, the now, that traverses the Soul — before and after the now.

We are the light.

 

In the Bible, the Burning Bush is a symbol of God; everchanging flames from an eternal bush, as the flames do not devour the bush.

The Burning Bush is not God.

The Burning Bush is the EVERYTHING.

The flames are God and the bush is the Soul.

The flames are not flames. They are light.

The bush is not a bush, but the absence of light.

Way Of Way 52

Happy moments are created when we work on creating happy memories.

Happy memories last longer than happy moments.

Way Of Way 311

Descriptions are illusions, as what’s described is not as it is at the end of the description as it was at the beginning.

Way Of Way 303

All there is before and after the now is the timeless, endless and unchanging soul.

The now is a pinhole of light traversing the soul, revealing the soul.

We are the light.

We come from the soul, manifest as a self in the now and return to the soul.

Yet, if we forget we’re the light, we lose our way and are a lost soul.

Way Of Way 306

The Everything is a theater and the now is the stage, where all the selves act various roles in the play of life.

The soul is the unseeable audience in the dark.

The audience is never heard from, but for their laughing.

Way Of Way 305

In groups, societies, etc., those on the inside take most things seriously.

Those on the outside, find those on the inside funny.

Those on the outside are enlightened.

Way Of Way 301

“When one door closes, another opens.”

— Japanese proverb

I always delight when someone cancels a meeting, as then I’m free; just limited by my imagination.

Way Of Way 299

In the quietude of meditation, separated from the now, we are the source of the now.

 

“Returning to the source is stillness.” — Lao Tzu

“Nothing in all of creation is so like God as stillness.” — Meister Eckhart

“In the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am: unbound.” —  Nisargadatta Maharaja

“Let silence take you to the core of life.” — Rumi

Way Of Way 282

When you think you’re stupid, you’re not stupid; when you don’t think you’re stupid, you’re not thinking.

Way Of Way 286

Once you know that you, the self, are the soul having a human experience, you appreciate every thing and everything.

Way Of Way 300

Life is so mind- blowing complicated, no one but you could have made it up.

Way Of Way 283

It’s a fool’s errand to seek enlightenment, for doing so presumes there is enlightenment and non-enlightenment; a duality, the antithesis of enlightenment.

Way Of Way 289

The now is what we see through a pinhole of light illuminating what’s before and after the now.

We are the source of the light.

Way Of Way 288

Pity the boy who inherited wealth, for he has few opportunities to become a man who made his wealth.

Way Of Way 304

Orgasm is the Big Bang.

The instant the soul is revealed in the now as the infinite faces of God.

A divine experience during which many a girl fills the air with the words: “Oh my God.”

Way Of Way 287

“Know thyself and thou shalt know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe.”

— Inscription on the Greek temple at Delphi

You are the gods and the universe.

Way Of Way 281

After bodily death, we all go to heaven.

Where we go is like from where we came from before we were born.

As no one has ever complained about the place from where they came, it must be heaven.

Way Of Way 284

Fools think about who they want to become when they grow up.

The wise aim to discover what they are before they grow old.

Way Of Way 291

As you are infinitesimal relative to the universe, it’s a cosmic comedy that your self thinks it’s different from all that is not your self.

Way Of Way 269

In the now, we are a self; engaged, but apart from the now.

Outside the now, we observe the now as the soul that created the now.

As a self, the now is a serious matter.

As the soul, the selves are a laughing matter.

Way Of Way 314

The telescope is a time machine, revealing what happened long ago and what will be seen elsewhere long from now.

To see what’s happening now, look through a microscope; nothing will look like anything you otherwise know.

Way Of Way 243

If we saw the universe as it is, we would no longer see anything; as we would likely die, go blind or fall into madness.

 

We see the universe through a pinhole; Visible Light which is 0.0035% of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.

Invisible to the eye are the other segments of the Spectrum: Radio Waves, Microwaves, Infrared Radiation, Ultraviolet Radiation, X-rays, and Gamma Rays.

“Ultimately, if you could see all wavelengths simultaneously, there would be so much light bouncing about that you wouldn’t see anything. Or rather, you would see everything and nothing simultaneously. The excess of light would just leave everything in a senseless glow. Chances are…you would go into shock and die. Your brain simply wouldn’t be able to interpret the information it was receiving. If you were lucky, you would instantly go blind.”

— Jolene Creighton.

Way Of Way 297

In life, we are a self experiencing countless circumstances, emotions, and thoughts; some pleasing, some not.

Yet, from the soul’s perspective, the self is always funny as it takes its experiences seriously.

When our self’s experience is not wonderful, we can transition to our soul identity and simply laugh it off.

Way Of Way 278

Mysticism refers to the pursuit of communion, identity with, or conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight. It’s often characterized as a profound spiritual experience that transcends ordinary understanding.

Mysticism is the foundation upon which most religions are based.

On this foundation, early adherents stand together; united by a shared spiritual experience.

As more people join a religion, structures are built upon its foundation to house them.

The structures have many stories, stories upon stories; each supporting the story above it.

The most desirable living spaces in these buildings are those with the best views; those on the highest stories, closest to the heavens.

In the high stories live religious leaders and their wealthy supporters.

As for the foundation, it’s deep underground; making mysticism hard to find.

All that’s visible are the stories: the doctrines, rituals, and traditions that sustain the religion.

This is the way religions transition from a mystical experience into a community sharing inherited stories.

At the end of days a fire erupts in the building, allowing only two ways to escape to eternal life: through the basement at the foundation with the aid of a mystic or jumping out of the stories.

Many will die in the fire, as they are afraid to jump out a high story; for they think they would surely die.

Those willing to abandon their comfortable stories above the foundation, descend to the foundation, and ask for guidance will find rescue in the hands of the mystics.

Way Of Way 289

Rich are those who appreciate all things.

Poor are those who can only appreciate things in comparison to other things.

Way Of Way 292

The intelligent excel at certain things, for they have the ability to see clearly through a microscope.

But they look foolish at most things, as they believe they can glimpse the future by looking at the dark sky with a microscope.

Way Of Way 294

The cure for suffering is gratitude.

Way Of Way 288

“Unfortunately, most people don’t get it. They will, but they’ll have to die first before they understand that they don’t.”

— William Wisher

Way Of Way 285

“The exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.”

— Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was identified as having “impostor syndrome”, having doubts about his significant accomplishments and talents and fear that others would ultimately realize he was a fraud, not the extraordinary genius they held him to be. Impostor syndrome is not a mental illness, rather a psychological behavior pattern. Other luminaries with impostor syndrome include Tom Hanks, Sheryl Sandberg, David Bowie and Serena Williams.

Einstein didn’t suffer from impostor syndrome.

In describing himself as a willing swindler, he realized that he was simply another physics researcher among thousands in the world; that he was now not the same person who long ago made the great discoveries associated with him.

This realization is the genius of an awakened one.

Way Of Way 284

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

— Albert Einstein.

We navigate the now with knowledge.

Imagination takes us to the invisible place before and after the now, from where we can discover knowledge we can bring into the now.

Way Of Way 277

Awakening is the realization that every thing heretofore is a dream.

The dream is like a movie. All the characters and events seem real; yet, it’s just light projecting through film onto a screen.

Awakening is realizing we are the light and the movie is our creation.

When we’ve awakened and see those who take their movie seriously, our movie is a comedy.

Way Of Way 269

Life is a play.

Our purpose is to play.

Otherwise, we’re just acting; which is rarely fun.

Way Of Way 270

Upon awakening, no thing is like anything heretofore.

Arousing our curiosity, every thing is enlightening.

Filled with light, we emanate light; enlightening everything.

No thing remains, but infinite forms of light.

Way Of Way 278

Tangible things and thoughts reflect light, enlightening us.

The soul, emanating light, enlightens the universe.

Way Of Way 268

When you  love what you are, you can only be amused when someone doesn’t love you; though it might be that they love what you are, but their self doesn’t like your self.

Way Of Way 263

Consciousness is the manifestation of the soul in the now; infinite realities.

The self creates its reality from the soul’s consciousness; like foveal vision painting a picture from peripheral vision.

Yet, each self’s reality is just a dot of paint in a painting of infinite dots.

When dots come together, many paintings emerge.

Merging the paintings into one is abstract expressionism; a painting that allows the self to transition into the soul seeing itself.

Way Of Way 261

Who I am is many things, to others and myself; each conditional and temporary.

What I am is beyond description; unconditional, timeless.

Way Of Way 258

The universe is composed of stuff (tangible things like stars, planets, asteroids, dust and gas) and the space between stuff.

The everchanging stuff is the now.

Before and after the now is the timeless space between the stuff.

Approximately 99.9999999999999% of the universe is space.

Meditation takes us from the now and into space.

Way Of Way 162

Unconditional love can only be love of the whole universe, as loving some parts or people and not others is conditional love.

Way Of Way 254

Enlightenment is not being one with everything or being in the now; but being oneness and timeless before, in and after the now (whatever that means).

Way Of Way 256

Fast food, slow death.

Way Of Way 255

Consciousness is what I create when Eye focus and separate things from the oneness of the peripheral.

Way Of Way 252

Welcome the moments when the self is upset,

for they call for our soul identity.

The soul does nothing but laugh at the self.

Way Of Way 251

It’s a fool’s errand to try to know the universe by focusing on the infinite things it contains.

Instead, focus on the space between your self and the things.

When you no longer see the space, the self disappears and you are the universe.

Way Of Way 229

The soul is the invisible key that unlocks invisible doors.

A lost key is a lost soul; imprisoned by the invisible self.

Way Of Way 249

The mystical experience is when your reference point shifts from self consciousness to soul consciousness.

Self consciousness is perceiving the universe through your individual experience.

Soul consciousness is experiencing the universe as the observer and the observed.

What you observe is that all that your self had previously thought was just thoughts. Things are not as you had always imagined them to be.

As you see colors dropping from a painting, over the frame, onto the wall and floor; you realize everything is interconnected. Nothing is as discrete as seems.

What you see is what you are.

I am eye.

You love every thing as it is not a thing but a temporary manifestation of the universe; a flowing expression of the soul.

We are love.

We are the soul.

Way Of Way 26

The self loves some things and not others.

The soul loves only one thing: the universe.

The universe is “all things turned into one”.

The soul loves all things as they are (whatever they are in the now), as all things are otherwise the universe.

 

I’ve often met strangers and declared that I love them no less than I love my children. That’s because I love all things.

One such stranger responded: “Well, if you love everyone, you love no one.” That is the perspective of the self.

Way Of Way 248

Those who are present don’t agonize over what’s lost or get emotional about what’s next.

Unless we are celebrating the present, we are not present.

Way Of Way 241

The universe is a flow that consciousness divides with time, space, and words.

A moment in time is a photo of the flow in our mind.

Foveal vision creates things from undifferentiable peripheral vision.

Words are allusions creating illusions from nothing.

Way Of Way 219

Mysticism is the experience of gazing at the dark sky until we merge with it (whatever it is).

Mystics use koans, kotodama and poetry as stars; points to bring the dark sky to our attention.

Way Of Way 48

In the now, everyone is an Individual Self and the Ultimate Self.

True to its acronym (“IS”), the Individual Self is being, as being is the now.

The Individual Self has many emotions.

Each emotion is a separate self.

Emotions make the Individual Self multi-selves.

 

Unlike an Individual Self, the Ultimate Self is invisible and indivisible.

The Ultimate Self is the sole-self, the soul.

The soul is what every thing is before and after the now.

The now is the manifestation of the soul.

True to its acronym, the Ultimate Self is “US”; the unity of every thing in the now and the soul.

As US, the soul has only one emotion: love.

Love connects the Everything as one.

 

In the now, we are often oblivious of the invisible soul, as the emotions of the multi-selves continually captivate our attention.

To realize the Ultimate Self, we need to separate from and observe the now.

This happens when we are in the space before and after the now, where only the Ultimate Self resides.

 

To escape from the emotional clutches of the multi-selves that imprison us in the now, we need to calm the multi-selves.

When calm, the multi-selves disappear as they integrate and all that remains is the Individual Self.

 

The mind is the Individual Self’s interface with the universe.

In the now, the mind is like a pond muddied by the frantic motion of emotion of the multi-selves.

When calm, the multi-selves settle to the bottom of the pond and the mind clears.

A clear mind allows us to see the now as reflections on the surface of the pond.

We then realize we are the eternal Ultimate Self.

 

Meditation is a practice that allows us to calm the mind.

In meditation, breathing is the now and the space between exhaling and inhaling is what’s before and after the now: the Ultimate Self.

Way Of Way 247

Everyone is going to heaven.

When the pure light beckons us to heaven, we alight Earth and join it.

As we become one with the pure light, our self disappears.

Then we are in heaven.

 

Heaven has an infinite number of gates.

Statues of Jesus, Moses, Mohammad, Buddha, Lao Tzu and others greet us at the gates.

At each gate are barkers distributing various religious books.

The books are free, but freedom is the price of admission.

 

Once we enter one of heaven’s gates, we will spend eternity there.

While the heaven behind each gate sounds attractive, we need to choose between them.

To choose wisely, look for the souls living lightly on Earth as if they are already in heaven.

Way Of Way 239

Every thing is beautiful in its own way.

Things can only be ugly from our way.

Way Of Way 236

Religions are communities living in tall edifices pointing to the sky.

Mysticism is the foundation and the space within and without the edifice, the unseen and the indescribable scene framing the seen.

Way Of Way 246

The self is who we are in life, not what we are eternally.

As all we know is our life, we identity with the self and its various emotions.

Yet the self separates us from what we and every thing in the universe is: manifestations of the soul.

Enlightenment is self-realization: realizing the self is an illusion.

Enlightenment frees us to see the universe as it is, not as our self sees it.

Upon enlightenment, every thing is enlightening as all things are expressions of undifferentiated pure light (the initial manifestation of the soul).

As what you see is what you are, the enlightened are the pure light.

The pure light makes the enlightened lighthearted. They find funny those who are slaves to the self.

Their pure light also allows they to enlighten others.

They enlighten with words but not sentences; as words emanate light while sentences reflect light and cast shadows.*

 

*For example, the Zen student asks his teacher: “Does a rock have consciousness?” The teacher responds: “Mu”, a word meaning “nothing”. As a rock is constantly changing (though imperceptibly so) and is nothing before and after whatever it is in the now, it doesn’t have an enduring reality that can be described (as conscious or otherwise). It is a manifestation of nothing.

Alternatively, the teacher responds: “Who asks?” That is, a rock and consciousness are understandable when you know what you are.

Or, famously: “Five pounds of flax.” Rocks and pounds of flax, however seemingly unrelated, are temporary manifestations of one thing: the soul. Focusing on philosophical concepts like the consciousness of a rock strays us from coming to know the soul by observing the now.

Otherwise, communicating in sentences, many sentences gives agency or reality to a thing (rock) that is everchanging and a concept (consciousness) that is debatable in light of its context.

Way Of Way 245

Words are stars illuminating the darkness.

Sentences are constellations, reflecting light and casting shadows.

Way Of Way 244

No thing in the universe is perfect, but the universe is perfect.

No thing is perfect and nothing is perfect.

Way Of Way 242

The universe is made of an infinite number of interdependent things.

Yet, things seem independent when we see our self as independent of the universe.

Way Of Way 238

“What if the solution to every problem is just to chill the fuck out?”
— Maddy Albright

Our emotional reactions often obscure solutions to problems.

Problems, identified by the words “oh fuck”, cause emotional distress, a rise in our body temperature and inflammation.

Rising temperature further exacerbates emotional distress.

Stepping back from a problem lowers our body temperature and reduces inflammation.

That’s chilling the fuck out.

Way Of Way 235

“If you don’t mind…”

Most things are not annoying, but to our mind.

Way Of Way 232

We are born as a flash of light in a dark theater.

Soon enough, the light transitions into a movie among many movies playing simultaneously.

Family, friends and others beckon us to play roles in their movies as we invite them to play roles in our movie.

We assume many different roles as actors in various movies.

The roles and our emotional reactions to circumstances define our experience in life.

It all seems very real.

Yet, when the theater lights break the darkness, we realize our lives were just a two-dimensional illusion, a movie.

Knowing we are just watching a movie, we can enjoy it as it is, suffer little regardless of our roles and circumstances and realize we are still alive after the movie is over.

Way Of Way 230

Through the self we see reflections of light from infinite things.

Without the self, there is only light, no things.

Way Of Way 231

When a somebody sees you as a nobody, they will show you who they are.

How that makes you feel shows you who you are.

Way Of Way 341

I often don’t remember what others claim I’ve said, but remember, in great detail, what others have said to me.

Maybe what goes inside my head is mine and what leaves my head is someone else’s.

Way Of Way 223

The true beauty of beautiful things is that they are the gateway to the soul.

In the presence of beautiful things, we are energized, yet calm; present and open. The self is disarmed and we are free to unite with the soul, the essence of all things.

As the soul, we see beauty in every thing.

Ugly things make us recoil, creating a duality. We embrace the self, seeking it to protect us; distancing us from the soul.

 

Every thing we see with our eyes is beautiful.

Things seen by the mind are sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly.

Way Of Way 221

An overwhelming problem is like being trapped in a box. To escape, think outside the box.

The solution to problems comes not by searching for solutions but by simply moving forward.

Way Of Way 217

When what people seriously do to get to heaven is funny, you are in heaven.

Way Of Way 220

Ultimate reality is energy, as it moves in waves (radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, light waves, ultraviolet waves, x-rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays) along the electromagnetic spectrum.

We construct our reality from light waves.

Light inhabits 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The invisible spectrum seems void.

In the light, we see things entering from and exiting to the void; things being born and dying.

Yet nothing is truly born or dies; things simply transition, appearing and disappearing as they move along the spectrum.

Ultimate reality is a dance of energy; endlessly transitioning, yet eternal in essence.

Way Of Way 216

Without sunshine, the mind has many dark places.

Way Of Way 214

“This world is a time of moments that have passed.” Kanako Iiyama

Way Of Way 211

Our memory is the repository of all we know.

Realizing our memory is a dream, an illusion; we realize we know nothing.

Then we can experience reality as never before, as there never was a before.

Way Of Way 210

Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, is often described as animistic and polytheistic.

Shinto has animistic qualities as it recognizes the spirit or god (“kami) in every natural force (e.g., growth and fertility), phenomena, animate and inanimate object, ancestor, and deity; reflecting a deep reverence for the interconnectedness of the seen and unseen universe.

It is polytheistic, as the number of kami is traditionally said to be 8 million.

As the number 8 in Japanese culture symbolizes infinity, the 8 million kami imply every thing is God and the universe is a manifestation of divine energy. This is the essence of pantheism.

Experiencing the entire universe, including ourselves, as a single manifestation of divine energy can feel overwhelming. Shinto practices and rituals are an accessible way to engage with the omnipresent divine.

Describing Shinto as pantheistic or polytheistic depends on perspective. From a distance, it is pantheistic, though in practice it is polytheistic. Ultimately, the perspective is of little matter; either way, Shinto is an expression of awe and gratitude.

Way Of Way 206

A wonderful life is not one full of wonderful memories, but when the most wonderful time is now.

Way Of Way 209

If one can speak their own mind and yet does not feel powerful, they will never be powerful.

Way Of Way 207

Religions provide their adherents a community life and communion with God.

Adherents drawn to community life appear authentic.

Those drawn to God are sincere.

The authentic focus on the material. They are the self.

The sincere seek the transcendental. They are the soul.

The authentic prize beauty which represents the divine.

The sincere prize the truth. In truth, every thing is beautiful.

Way Of Way 20

The wise change their minds proactively as they consider perspectives in perspective.

The intelligent are quick to change their minds reactively in response to changing circumstances.

Way Of Way 204

If one has food, shelter, security and health and yet does not feel wealthy, they will never be wealthy.

Way Of Way 205

Wealth and power comes to those who are self-actualized.

Eternal being comes to those who are self-realized.

Eternal being has no need for wealth or power.

Eternal being has no needs.

Eternal being is the whole of being.

Way Of Way 84

The self sees selves in everyone.

The soul sees one person with many selves.

Way Of Way 77

All things are everchanging.

All things are different from different perspectives.

All things of which we are certain are illusions.

Final Post

After it’s born, a human being will surely die unless it is loved.

At the end of our days, eternal being will elude us unless we love unconditionally.

Being loved enables us to survive in life. Loving enables us to survive eternally.

 

In the now, we are a self.

Before and after the now, we are the soul.

The now never changes, but all forms in the now are ever-changing.

Forms transition until no longer recognized as being what they once were; simply, they die.

When our individual form dies, we are solely the soul.

Unlike a self, the soul is eternal.

As we are the soul, we are eternal.

 

The now is the manifestation of the soul.

The soul loves the now, as the soul loves its manifestations.

When we love the now and all its forms, we are the soul. We are eternal being.

 

Wisdom delivers this realization and compassion delivers its actualization.

 

Way Of Way 50

We experience life in reality and as illusions.

Reality is what it is whatever it is, beyond description.

Describing it precludes us from experiencing it.

Descriptions are allusions to illusions.

Way Of Way 8

The son of God is the sun.

“I” is the name of God’s son.

The sun is God’s eye.

God’s eye creates the everchanging, infinite and timeless universe.

Looking into God’s eye, we can only glimpse the blinding whole of creation.

Not to be overwhelmed, we see the whole through the hole of our eye.

Our world is created by our hole into the whole.

Way Of Way 25

In California, the animist gods of fire, water (floods/droughts), earth (mudslides/earthquakes) and air (inflation) are screaming for people to leave. Yet, sentimental thinking (the self) keeps people from listening.

Way Of Way 23

Fiction is our memory of non-fiction.

Way Of Way 29

We are born of the soul as a self for a short journey in the play of life.

When we are scripted out of the play, we are no longer a self but remain the soul.

The play is a divine comedy for those who remember the way of the ever-present and eternal soul.

The play is a tragedy for those selves who don’t know the way. They are the lost souls.

Way Of Way 30

Political decadence is when decisions are not based on right or wrong by right or left.

Way Of Way 31

When we know the world solely by what we see and hear, we’re out of touch and can’t tell whether something doesn’t smell right.

Way Of Way 58

Nouns are photos. Verbs are movies.

Nouns are an it. Verbs are the is.

Nouns are created by our consciousness. Verbs are the experience of consciousness.

Way Of Way 19

A subscriber to our blog recently mentioned some of the posts repetitive.

This suggests a main point of the blog has been lost on them; for even if two posts are identical, they are not the same.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” — Heraclitus

YHWH

God is everchanging and eternal flow; a way never away.

 

In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH is the name of God.

In Paleo-Hebrew, the written text only included consonants and the reader would supply the vowels during reading. This oral tradition was passed down through generations, but was eventually lost. Today, there is no consensus as to how to pronounce YHWH.

However, the nature of God reveals a possible pronunciation of God’s name.

 

God self-identifies as: “I am who I am” or “I will be what I will be”. God is manifested in the now as a tangible “who” and outside the now as an unspecified “what”. Taken together:  “I am what I am.”

 

Acronym: IAWIA

IAWIA can be pronounced two ways.

IAWIA can be pronounced two ways.

As “I why” by voicing the “I” in each consecutive vowel.

Or as “a way” by voicing the “A” in each consecutive vowel.

 

With both pronunciations, one vowel is voiced and the other silent. God is the manifested and the unmanifested.

“I why” is commonly asked as “why do I exist?” I am why I am. I exist because I exist. Creation creates itself without explanations. All there is is is.

God is “a way“; a journey on a path rather than a static path.

 

“A way” is akin to the Taoist concept of Tao (the Way). The Way is ultimate reality; the seen and unseen; the source of all being; the eternally transitioning; ineffable, beyond human comprehension.

 

“A way” is also a possible pronunciation of YHWH.

“A way” is the sound of breathing (inhale “a”, exhale “way”).

Likewise, “soooo” is the sound of inhaling and “hmmmmm” is the sound of exhaling. Together, they form the word “Soham”, meaning “I am” in Sanskrit.

Every breath of life recalls the name of God, and a self-reminder of how to return to God.

Way of Way 120

Nobody is getting out of here alive, but those who know the way. The way is love.

Love connects who we are in the play of life, an expression of the soul, to what we are before and after the play, the soul.

Way Of Way 127

In light of our inevitable death and countless potential disasters, everyday problems aren’t as significant as our mind makes them.

Way Of Way 259

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

— Bernard M. Baruch

Way Of Way 157

We rarely stress about something we can do something about.

The mind causes stress, not circumstances.

Way Of Way 36

If we are not dancing, we are not listening to the music.

Way Of Way 18

Love your self with your soul, not with your self.

Otherwise, you might go fuck your self.

Way Of Way 38

Stress is a selfish state of mind.

Stress happens when the self takes control of the mind.

The remedy is freeing the mind from the self.

 

The etymology of the word “mind” is “memory”.

Remembering what the universe is can free us from the shackles of stress.

 

The etymology of the word “universe” literally means “turned into one”.

All things are temporarily things in the now, but eternally one thing: the universe.

Who we are is a self. What we are is the universe.

When we only perceive being a self, we suffer selfish states such as stress.

Remembering we are the universe, we have no stress.

 

Feeling great and being stressed are mutually exclusive states of mind. When we feel great, we cannot be stressed.

When we are grateful, we are “great-full” with no space for stress.

We are grateful when we remember we are lucky. However stressful our circumstances, we are lucky they are not worse.

The word “hap” means luck. The root of happiness is remembering we are lucky.

When we are happy, we cannot be stressed.

 

Life is a play.

For the actors in the play, it’s a tragedy; good times, bad times, meaningful relationships here and there, but everyone dies at the end.

For the audience, it’s a comedy; watching actors take their roles seriously, though it’s only a play.

When we identify as the self, we are the actors.

The audience is Gods. When we remember we are Gods, we are also the audience.

As Homer once said, near the home of the Gods, Mount Olympus, there is a deafening sound of the Gods laughing. The Gods are laughing at us.

When we die, we leave the play and join our fellow Gods in the audience.

Remembering we are both the actors and the Gods, we can laugh at our selves.

When laughing, we are not stressed.

 

Much stress is a function of things from the past.

These things are karma: our intentions, actions and consequences of past lives. Karma affects how we experience the now.

Our past lives are not lives we had before this life. Our past lives are passed days of our life. Each day is not a day in a life, but a life in a day.

We accumulate much karma over our passed lives.

The people we were in passed lives are illusions. Our memories of them are just a dream; yet, the self tells us otherwise.

When we don’t believe the self-stories about the past, we remember we are only the person we are right now.

Karma of the past is passed and we cannot be stressed in the now.

 

The self has many faces or emotions, like stress.

The self’s emotions control our mind.

To escape the self we need to calm the self with unconditional love.

Unconditional love comes only from the soul. When we love unconditionally, we are the soul.

The soul is never stressed.

Way Of Way 24

Loving those who dislike you shows them the way to disliking no one.

Way Of Way 53

A meal is judged twice: at the sitting and at the shitting.

Way Of Way 40

Pantheism is a religion without religion.

Organized religions are identity groups typically defined by institutionalized characteristics: belief systems, sacred texts, rituals, moral codes, communal practices, symbols and anecdotes.

As each group perceives itself different from other groups, every religion is inherently dualistic

Pantheism dispels with duality.

Pantheism is the view that while every thing seems unique, all there is is one everchanging thing: God.

Oneness with God is a transcendental experience that dissolves the illusion or separateness.

Oneness is a mystical experience (like Sufism, Kabballah, Tantra, and Zen meditation) that doesn’t require a religious framework.

Oneness transitions us from individual consciousness to divine consciousness. Our view changes from the world being finite things to all there is is the everchanging and eternal Everything, God.

In the mystical state of oneness, one loves every thing; though one may not necessarily like every thing.

Loving every thing feels like every thing loves us.

The reciprocating love is a transcendental peace beyond understanding.

 

Pantheists appreciate organized religions and secular beliefs as different expressions of God; but view them as unnecessary and often funny as they mask the fundamental truth that every thing is sacred.

Non-pantheists often don’t appreciate pantheistic perspective. People taking themselves seriously are unamused and confused by those who laugh at them with unconditional love.

Way Of Way 41

“Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear.” — Lao Tzu

In each body resides a self.

But the self is many selves, as each emotional states is a unique self.

The selves are like the grains of sand in a muddy pond, the mind.

They preclude us from seeing what’s within the pond and reflections without the pond.

To see clearly within and without, the selves need to settle at pond’s bottom.

This allows the many selves to turn into one.

This is the purpose of meditation.

Way Of Way 17

With eyes open, our mind shows us the infinite manifestations of reality.

With eyes closed, we see one thing: nothing, the true nature of reality.

Way Of Way 91

Everyone is brilliant in some way. The brilliance of those who seem dull is to remind us that we can seem dull too.

Way Of Way 10

Those with microscopic or telescopic minds can see what few others can, but often can’t see what’s before their eyes.

Way Of Way 185

If we are not one with the Everything, we are nothing; in life, relatively nothing; after life, absolutely nothing.

Way Of Way 131

Loving some things even more than your self is selfish when you don’t love all things.

Way Of Way 14

As 85% of disease-related deaths are a function of age. To stay healthy, don’t grow up.

Way Of Way 12

When the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world, Alexander the Great, asked Diogenes of Sinope what he can do for him, Diogenes replied: “Yes, stand a little out of my sun.” .

The greatest gift is to escape the self’s shadow and connect with the source of all things.

Way Of Way 182

Those who know the soul experience a peaceful death; for when the self and its home (the body) are no longer, they will be one with the Everything.

Yet, at their passing, their loved ones will grieve and mourn.

Newborns cry as they transition from one with the Everything into finite beings.

Yet, those welcoming newborns rejoice.

Those peacefully departing and those entering the material world know the joy and peace of oneness with the Everything.

Those distracted by daily life are often oblivious of the oneness before and after the material world.

They grieve when others leave and rejoice when others arrive. Misery loves company.

Way Of Way 11

When good times lead to worse times and bad times lead to better times, that’s called “regression to the mean”.

When good times lead to better times and bad times lead to worse times, that’s called “momentum”.

The Way depends on identifying and balancing these countervailing forces.

Way Of Way 49

In the play of life, we play many roles. The most coveted are the elusive roles of the wealthy, powerful and celebrated.

While talent and effort are needed, most actors awarded these roles are simply lucky.

Unfortunately, even for the lucky ones, all roles are temporary. Eventually, everyone is scripted out of the play.

Actors bring their selves into their roles. However, there is a role that’s only available to those who relinquish their self. The role is easily obtainable and survives the play.

Yet, few players know this role is available: the role of God.

As God, we know life is a play. We’ve created the play for our entertainment. We are the actors and the audience.

We recognize every thing is a manifestation of us, God, and we love everything accordingly.

Way Of Way 52

In Judaism, God is nameless.

God is not one thing to the exclusion of other things.

God is the Everything: the now and what is before and after the now.

However, the Everything is not a thing; it’s the only thing.

God is not a static noun.

God self-describes as “I am”.

God is an unspecified verb, the process of the Everything.

Way Of Way 195

We’re surrounded by an infinite number of things.

As we distance away from them, we see them as one thing.

Way Of Way 9

The soul’s love and the self’s love are the same but feel different.

The soul has only one emotion: love.

The self has a multitude of emotions, including love.

The soul loves every thing, as every thing is a manifestation of the soul. Simply, the soul loves itself.

The self’s love is conditional, loving some things sometimes.

The soul’s love is unconditional, loving all things all times.

The self’s love is ecstasy; love sandwiched between other emotions in striking contrast to love. Ecstasy is joyful and energizing.

Love from the soul is peace; a feeling beyond words, as oneness with the Everything is beyond description.

Ecstasy and peace simultaneously is orgasmic.

Way Of Way 54

Cancel culture is a cancer culture.

When a group of like cells in the body prioritize their growth over the welfare of the body whole, the body eventually dies.

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has first destroyed itself from within.” — Will Durant

Way Of Way 51

The ratio of thanking/thinking measures our state of happiness.

Way Of Way 55

The universe is a circle.

The space inside a circle is imprecise.

The logical mind sees things as squares, as having a precise space.

The logical mind cannot see the universe, as the space inside a circle cannot be squared.

 

Way Of Way 37

All things are two things, a reflection of light and a shadow.

The sun creates the light, the thing creates the shadow.

Way Of Way 22

Nothing is perfect, as there is nothing about which to complain.

Before and after the now is nothing.

Before and after the now must be perfect.

Way Of Way 56

“When I was a kid, God often told me that only people create ugliness.” — Kanako Iiyama

 

Through the eye of God, the manifestation of God (the now) radiates beauty.

Through people’s minds, the beauty is often elusive or even made ugly.

The mind cannot see, it can only compare. The mind compares the now that’s now with the now that’s passed and the future now it imagines or desires.

Comparisons shroud the now with words; precluding a direct experience of the radiant now. As well, comparisons can make the absolutely beautiful relatively ugly.

 

The now is perfect; eternally now. Yet, none of the things in the now are perfect as all things are ever-changing; at best, perfect temporarily.

Focusing on things, people often complain about imperfections. Complaining is ugly.

 

Those who know all things in the now are one thing, the manifestation of God, unconditionally love all things as they do themselves.

Those who see things as other than themselves, connect to things with various emotions; many of which are ugly.

Way Of Way 64

Life is a wonderful dream as long as we’re not oblivious we are dreaming.

Way Of Way 57

The “smart dumb” are like hedgehogs. With microscopic or telescopic minds, they do one thing well. Yet, they often fail to see what’s obvious to the naked eye.

The “dumb smart” are like foxes. They don’t do anything especially well but can figure out how to get what they want.

In a changing environment, a hedgehog is less likely to survive than a fox.

Way Of Way 7

The universe is the manifestation of the electromagnetic spectrum.

We see the universe through light waves which are 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum.

If we saw the universe through the entire electromagnetic spectrum, we would wish we were blind; otherwise we would go mad.

Way Of Way 62

Some mindsets are emotional, some practical.

Fire is emotional, water practical.

Fearing its demise, fire hates water.

Fear and anger drive fire to separate water into various small pots to vaporize it easily.

Fire from the political left labels the pots “misogynist”, “racist”, “fascist”, “oppressor”, etc.

Fire from the political right labels the pots “communist”, “anti-Christian”, “immoral”, “un-American”, etc.

Water people don’t like being vaporized, but know ambient temperatures will make them liquid again. Ever-practical, water laughs at fire, knowing fire people will eventually run out of fuel and extinguish themselves.

Way Of Way 208

The etymology of the word “universe” is literally “turned into one.”

The universe is the Everything turned into one thing.

 

The Everything is the now and what is before and after the now.

Sometimes, the Everything is called “God.”

People pray to God for many specific things, but ultimately happiness generally. The workings of the universe reveals the way to eternal happiness, peace.

God is like a shiny coin rapidly flipping and reflecting light.

One side is called “heads” and the other called “tails.” The plural is used to describe each side because each time we see the same side it is different in time and space than it was before and we are not the same person from one minute to the next.

The side we see is the now. The side we don’t see is what is before and after the now.

As the Everything (God) is rapidly turning, the visible side is just reflections of light. However, the mind slows down the turning and creates detailed images from the light. The images and the stories we tell about them are illusions.

The heads and tails seem a duality. However, the duality is also an illusion. All there is are two sides “turning into one,” the universe in the form of a coin.

Rarely noticed is the edge of the coin, the “third side.” The third side interconnects the two seemingly independent sides that are actually interdependent as one cannot exist without the other.

Horizontally from edge to edge is an invisible central axis, or path, around which the coin dances in perfect harmony. The path is the “Tao.”

The Tao is ultimate reality,* the underlying principle or source from which all things arise and to which they return. The Tao is the natural flow and harmony of the universe.

When we simply appreciate the coin fluttering like a butterfly, we are in tune with the Tao. We are not distracted by images and related stories we’ve created. We are in a state of peaceful harmony.

Most of us are oblivious of the Tao, as our attention is on what was now, what is now and what will be now, the visible side of the coin.

We see what is now in the context of what was and we hope to get lucky; that the next visible side, the next now, will bring us happiness.

“Hap” means luck. It is the root of happiness.

We pray to God to bring us luck.

Yet, when we experience the simple beauty of the Tao, we realize eternal peace rather than temporary happiness.

 

*While a coin flipping in the air seems a simple process, it’s actually extremely complicated to explain in terms of physics. It involves classical mechanics, rotational dynamics, angular momentum and precession, fluid dynamics, chaos theory and quantum mechanics. In perspective, the theory of relativity is considered easier to come to know than coin flip dynamics.

Way Of Way 65

The soul is the center from which everything springs.

That which is closest to the center is closest to the soul. That is the heart.

Further away from the soul is the self. That is the head and genitalia.

The heart expresses love from the soul.

The head and genitalia express love from the self.

Way Of Way 68

Love is love, but is different depending on its source.

There is love from the self and love from the soul

The self expresses many emotions, including love.

The soul only expresses love.

Love from the self is temporary, as the self also needs to express other emotions.

Love from the soul is unending.

Love from the self is love of specific things.

Love from the soul is love of every thing.

Love from the self is conditional.

Love from the soul is unconditional.

Love from the self is demonstrative.

Love from the soul is ineffable.

Love from the self is finite like the self.

Love from the soul is eternal like the soul.

Love from the self is empathy.

Love from the soul is compassion.

Love from the self is joyous.

Love from the soul is peace.

Way Of Way 71

Knowing who you are, you can make the best of your roles in life.

Knowing what you are is the best role.

Way Of Way 250

“The Great Way” begins with “no know” and ends with “know no.”

“The Great Way” (or Tao), a central concept in Taoism, is the natural flow of the universe and the path to harmony. It is the path to liberation from our temporary individual self to realizing our eternal oneness with the Everything.

The Everything is the soul and its manifestation in the now.

The soul is what every thing is before and after it is what it is whatever it is in the now. The soul is “no-thing,” just energy.

The now is an infinite number of seemingly separate things. Separateness is an illusion, as all things in the now are one thing: interdependent manifestations of the soul. interdependent. Ultimately, all things in the now are one thing: interdependent manifestations (expressions) of the soul.

The self is who we are in the now.

The self conceives the now as a duality: the self and that which is not the self. Upon this foundational duality, we perceive separateness between all things in the now.

The self’s perception of separateness is based on illusions (memories, stories and identities) that define who we are, not what we are (the Everything).

The path to liberation begins when we realize we “no know”: we don’t know what we are. We then dispense with basing reality on the self and its illusions.

Dispensing with the illusion of separateness, we come to “know no”; to know the “no-thing” (the soul).

Knowing the soul, we experience the expressions of the soul (the now) as an interconnectedness of all things.

From the soul to the soul’s expressions and then reverting to the soul is the natural flow of the universe. Realizing this is what we are, the Everything, we are in harmony with the flow of the universe.

 

Meditation is a central practice of “The Great Way.” Through meditation, we can let go of the self which liberates us from the self.

Holding onto the self makes the hand a fist, an aggressive gesture suggestive of duality. Letting go the self, the hand opens like a handshake to connect with all things. The connection is love.

In meditation, we focus on breathing and the space between breaths. The breaths are the now and the space between breaths is the “no-thing” (the soul).

In the space of the “no-thing,” we can observe the now and come to realize we are the consciousness that creates it.

With the wisdom of knowing we are the Everything, we realize our self’s sense of separateness and the self itself are illusions. This wisdom leads us to compassion, to love all things in the now.

 

The sounds of “no know” and “know no” are the same, but their meanings distinct. The same energy vibrations (sound) from the soul is manifested as different words in the now.

Liberation is reverting from words to their sounds; from distinct to harmonious. The path back is the Tao. The Tao reveals that “no know” and “know no” are one; that we and the energy are one.

Way Of Way 75

“In the beginning…God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” —  Genesis 1:1-3

Every thing subsequently is a derivative, or an illusion.

Way Of Way 76

When we are grateful and love the now that is now, we are poised to be happy with the now that will be later.

Way Of Way 82

The messiah is here, but is hiding; yet, revealed through our acts of kindness to all, treating others as we want to be treated.

Within each of us is the messiah, hiding behind our self.

Way Of Way 4

“The Great Way” to enlightenment is like the infinite paths of light that lead to the sun.

“The Great Way” is the realization that the light that’s here is the light that’s there.

Way Of Way 87

It is not the fittest (most able) or the fattest (wealthiest) who are most likely to survive; it is those who are the finest at identifying changing environments and either adapting to change or changing their environment.

Way Of Way 88

Winners in the game of life receive grand prizes.

But every participant gets a consolation prize: the transition to heaven.

The winners completely engaged with their grand prizes often forget to pick up the consolation prize. They will not transition to heaven.

Way of Way 89

The play of life is a great cosmic joke for those who “get it.” Those who don’t “get it” are the butt of the joke.

Those who “get it” love those who don’t; for without those who don’t, the play wouldn’t be funny.

Moreover, those who “get it” express their gratitude and respect to the ones who don’t; for if those who don’t “get it” abandoned their roles, the ones who “get it” might be recruited for the most difficult roles, the roles of the ones who don’t.

Sometimes, even those who “get it” forget it. This is even funnier when they “get it” again and laugh at themselves.

Way of Way 90

In the play of life, we are both the actors and the audience.

Wonderful entertainment except when we forget we are also the audience.

Way of Way 118

Someone who asks a question wants to learn.

Someone who provides an answer wants to teach.

Someone who asks a question and provides an answer wants to sell you something.

Way of Way 100

Intellectuals are undoubtedly smart, but lack wisdom when they think they are smarter than others.

Way Of Way 6

“He who doesn’t see God everywhere isn’t capable of seeing God anywhere.” — Kotzker Rebbe

Way of Way 111

Desiring what we don’t have distracts us from appreciating what we have.

Way of Way 3

Those who “get it” are eternal. Those who don’t “get it” never lived.

Way Of Way 79

When talking about others, we are talking about our self.  The self creates the others.

Way Of Way 81

As no one has ever complained about the night sky, the universe must be heaven and Earth must be hell.

Way Of Way 47

“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.” — James Mason

Once you’re a copy, you’re already dead.

Way Of Way 78

Soulful love is the joy of feeling how someone emanating love feels.

Selfish love is basking in the love showered upon us by others.

Way Of Way 13

The soul loves the light of the sun.

The self loves the warmth of the sun.

Way Of Way 80

Ignorance is bliss.

Temporary bliss for those who think they know what they don’t.

Eternal bliss for those who are curious.

Way of Way 1

We cannot choose our future, but we can choose how we remember the past which frames how we experience the future.

Way Of Way 74

Enjoy your self, otherwise it might make you miserable.

Way of Way 113

Those who hate the rich but want to be rich hate themselves.

Way Of Way 73

Love makes all things one thing.

Way Of Way 15

Empirical studies suggest eating “junk food” is a precursor for dementia. However, the relationship may be reverse-causation. That is, an early sign of latent dementia is eating “junk food”.

Way of Way 114

The rich think the poor are lazy and the poor think the rich were just lucky.

They are both right.

The key to success is luck. Those who work 40 hours/week get paid accordingly and receive 40 lottery tickets. Those who work 60 hours/week receive 200 lottery tickets. Those who work 75 hours/week receive 400 lottery tickets. As well, the rich are more conscientious in checking their tickets for winning numbers.

Way of Way 115

The soul and the hole makes us whole.

When the love of the soul and the love of the self cross in sexual union, it’s a cosmic orgasm.

Way of Way 116

Love connects us with the everything, while the self separates us from the everything.

Way of Way 119

Unconditional love is loving everything. It is the peace of being one with the Everything.

Conditional love is loving some things sometimes and not others. It is an intense physical and emotional state as it’s preceded and followed by other emotional states.

Way of Way 121

All emotional states, other than love, are a form of selfishness. Love too is selfishness when it connects us with some things but not every thing. Soulful love is love of one thing: the everything.

Way Of Way 122

No one is getting out of here alive, but those who realize they are the Everything.

Way Of Way 123

Many a thank you is heard in the Rewards Department.

Many complaints in the Complaint Department.

God runs the Rewards Department and the Devil runs the Complaint Department.

Way Of Way 45

Before and after the now, we are the eternal soul.

In the now, we are the self; a temporary expression of the soul.

The soul simply is, asking for nothing.

The self is selfish, demanding all our attention.

As the self denies the soul’s existence, we lose touch with the soul.

Ironically, the self will inevitably no longer exist and we will surely die

if we lose our connection to the soul.

Way Of Way 125

Those who rejoice at reflecting the brightest light are often oblivious they cast the darkest shadows.

Way Of Way 200

Praise takes little effort to create, is risk free to distribute and rewards those who dispense it.

Valuing praise at its cost of production, praise is worthless. Yet, most people love being praised and pay handsomely those who praise them, who often appear in the role of salespeople.

Criticism takes thought, effort and is a thankless job; often received as umbrage.

I feel those who criticize me love me and my criticism of others is given out of love. Maybe that’s why I was never much of a salesman.

Way Of Way 21

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Way Of Way 129

Fake artworks are real, but real artworks are often fake.

Fake artworks are forgeries or facsimiles of real artworks.

For most, the experience provided by a fake or real artwork is the same.

As the prices of real artworks often more than 100x the price of fakes, the prices of real artworks are fake.

Way Of Way 201

The now is the everything, yet contains no things.

The now is eternal, yet ever-changing.

The now is real, yet an illusion as what is now is now no longer.

The now is unpredictable.

The now is overwhelming.

We are the now, yet don’t know the now.

All we know is our reactions to the now.

When we observe the now from before and after the now we can we know the now.

Way Of Way 44

With more than a glance at the rearview mirror, we are likely to have an accident.

Way Of Way 134

Awakening dispenses with boredom, as every moment is unlike another.

Way Of Way 43

“Questioning the fabric of reality can led you to either madness or the truth and the funny thing is that you won’t know which is which.” — Lex Fridman

Way Of Way 135

Life is a play; at times a drama, a tragedy, a comedy. Upon realizing it’s a play, the dramas and tragedies are funnier than comedies.

Way Of Way 202

A maze puzzle is a metaphor of our approach to life; focusing on achieving specific goals or a journey to freedom.

The conventional approach to solving a maze puzzle is starting from the edge until we find our way to the middle. This is a goal-oriented approach. Upon realizing our goal, we find ourselves surrounded by the puzzle.

Alternatively, we can start from the middle to find our way out of the maze. Once out, we are “free;” we find ourselves beyond the puzzle, though where we are cannot be described.

Going into the maze puzzle is descending into a rabbit hole. Coming out is arising to the light.

Google Bard describes mindset of those who start at the edge vs those who start at the middle:

Starting from the edge:

• Methodical thinkers: Those who prefer a step-by-step approach and logically navigate through challenges might start from the edge to follow a systematic path.
• Safety-conscious individuals: People who prefer to avoid dead ends and deadlocks might start at the edge to ensure a clear path forward.
• Traditionalists: Those who follow established norms and conventional methods might start from the edge as it’s the most common approach.
• Pragmatists: Individuals who focus on the most efficient solution might start from the edge as it offers a clear path to reach the destination.

Starting from the middle:

• Independent thinkers: People who prefer to forge their own path and explore the unknown might start in the middle to avoid any preconceived notions of direction.
• Risk-takers: Those who enjoy a challenge and are comfortable with uncertainty might find the middle a more exciting starting point.
• Holistic thinkers: People who prefer to see the big picture and analyze all options at once might start in the center to get a sense of the maze’s overall layout.
• Creative problem solvers: Individuals who enjoy unconventional approaches might find the middle a unique way to tackle the puzzle.

Way Of Way 138

The mind can be a dark place, when we don’t open our eyes and see the light.

Way Of Way 141

Some things are less perfect than other things which themselves are not quite perfect. Only the now is perfect, as there is nothing else.

Way Of Way 35

Shit generally trades between $5 – $10/pound. When on a rare occasion it trades at $2/pound, it may be cheap but it’s still shit.

Way Of Way 112

Money is a beautiful thing as it equates the value of all exchangeable things. Yet, money is often ugly in the context of our personal relationship with it.

Way Of Way 142

Unsolicited advice might come from the heart, but often debuts as a bowel movement; a relief to the provider, but a put-off to the recipient.

Way Of Way 143

The work of a man of wisdom is to make happy memories.

Way Of Way 144

God sees God in every thing.

William Wisher

“With modern Western medicine, the upside is you’re alive; but at the cost of being a slave forever.”

The Enlightened: Eternal Being

In the now, every thing is what it is whatever it is.

Every thing, before and after the now, is the soul.

Before our birth and after our death, our sole identity is the soul.

Upon birth, we transition from being one with everything, the soul, to becoming a unique manifestation or expression of the soul; a seemingly independent entity.

To sustain our independent existence, we develop a self; a sense of being apart and separate from every thing that is not our self. The purpose of the self is to provide us with our needs of food, shelter, security and health. However, the self also engenders desires that become indistinguishable from our needs, putting us in an endless cycle; needs/desires to temporary satisfactions to needs/desires. Clearly, the self demands much of our attention.

Alternatively, our soul identity has us living a life of wisdom and compassion; wisdom, as we experience life not solely from the perspective of our self, but through the perspectives of the infinite manifestations of the soul; compassion, as we love and treat all that is not our self as we love and treat our self.

In the transition to life, we initially remember our identity as the soul as we in turn develop our identity as the self. In childhood, our soul identity embraces magical (animist) thinking as we feel every thing has a spirit within it that can be conjured for our benefit through our living harmoniously with its spirit.

However, over time, as we are educated and socialized, our self becomes our primary identity. While we are both self and soul identity in various proportions, many of us become oblivious of our soul identity.

Ultimately, no one is getting out of here alive. Our bodily death coincides with the demise of our self identity. However, before we complete our transition from physical death to our essentialness, the soul; if our soul identity is our primary identity, we realize we are an eternal being.

 

Way Of Way 145

Love expressed by the soul is unconditional, unlike love expressed by the self which is conditional.

Love from soul is gold, while love from the self is fool’s gold. A simple acid test can determine whether love comes from the soul or the self.

The test is how do we feel when someone we love engages sexually with someone else. If our love is from the soul, we are happy for them and for whomever they were intimate, as how can we not be happy with the thought of people enjoying themselves. If our love issues from the self, we are angry, jealous, sad or have other unpleasant states of mind.

Way Of Way 146

Love is love. From where it issues is of little immediate matter as love is love.

However, over time, love that flows from the self is temporary; at times running dry as it transitions into other emotional expressions. Love that flows from the soul is eternal, as the only emotional expression of the soul is love.

Moreover, love from the self is conditional, while love from the soul is unconditional.

Love from the self is proclaimed with “I love you.” Love from the soul is expressed as “We love you.” “We” are the gods. Those who don’t recognize everyone is god cannot love unconditionally.

Way Of Way 147

Religions are like sheep.

Their wool warms and protects us.

Their bodies provide us sustenance.

But, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.

They may make us feel comfortable and safe,

but their only interest is to sustain themselves.

Way Of Way 148

There is a nameless place; before time begins; before we are born; before things become the now; a place of infinite possibilities.

While no one ever speaks badly of this nameless place, we often curse people and things that come from it. By doing so, we are not encouraging that place to send us something we will cherish.

Way Of Way 150

We don’t need to worry about the future as that will be what it will be. However, we need to worry about the past, what we remember and how we remember it, as that will frame how we experience the present.

Way Of Way 151

Those who appreciate life are on the way to happiness. Those who focus on trying to understand life may lose their way.

Way Of Way 152

The luckiest are those who recognize they have been lucky, for they will recognize other lucky opportunities that come their way.

 

Alan Watts

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself.”

When we see God in every thing, we are God.

John Dewey

“Art as Experience.”

We experience art suddenly, through our eyes (“wow, oh, hmmm”); and slowly, with our mind (words, thoughts and comparisons).

It’s a unique experience for each of us and a unique experience from one moment to the next; otherwise, our eyes are closed.

Who Am I?

I am who I am.

I am various emotional selves in various roles in the play of life. Depending on perspective, I am in my play or other people’s plays.

 

I am.

I am a verb, not a noun; I am being, not a being.

 

I am what I am.

In the now, I am a who. Before and after the now, I am what, the essence of every thing.

 

I am the Everything.

I am the soul and its expression in the now.

 

I am eye.

I am what I see, as every thing I see is me.

 

I am 1.

I, like all seemingly independent things, am not an independent thing; just a facet of 1 thing, the Everything.

 

I is time.

The most frequently used pronoun, verb and noun are: I, is, and time.

Taken together, the most frequent sentence would be: “I is time.”

“I is time” is transcendental. I is a flow of events. I is infinite, continuous, eternal.

 

I am God.

God, to entertain itself, has created the play of life. God is the actors and the audience.

For the actors, the play is a tragedy as everyone is eventually scripted out of the play, dies.

For the audience, the play is a comedy, as the actors take their roles and themselves seriously.

 

I am 11

In numerology, “Victor Teicher” is the number 11.

Victor: V = 4 I = 9 C = 3 T = 2 O = 6 R = 9

Add the numbers together: 4 + 9 + 3 + 2 + 6 + 9 = 33

Since 33 is a master number, we do not reduce it any further.

Teicher: T = 2 E = 5 I = 9 C = 3 H = 8 E = 5 R = 9

Add the numbers together: 2 + 5 + 9 + 3 + 8 + 5 + 9 = 41

Since 41 is a two-digit number, we need to reduce it to a single digit by adding the digits together: 4 + 1 = 5.

Now we add the numerology for each name together: 33 + 5 = 38

Since 38 is a two-digit number, we need to reduce it to a single digit by adding the digits together: 3 + 8 = 11.

Therefore, the numerology of the name ‘Victor Teicher’ is 11, which is a master number in numerology. This suggests that the person with this name may have a special spiritual mission or purpose in life.

In numerology, master numbers are the numbers 11, 22, and 33. These numbers are considered to have a higher vibration and are believed to carry a special spiritual or energetic significance.

Master numbers are not reduced to a single digit in numerology, unlike other numbers. They are thought to represent spiritual enlightenment, heightened intuition, and a strong connection to the universe or higher power.

Those who have master numbers in their numerology chart may be seen as spiritual leaders or visionaries, and may have a heightened ability to manifest their desires or tap into their intuition. However, master numbers are also associated with greater challenges and responsibilities, as they require a strong commitment to personal growth and spiritual development.

Overall, master numbers are considered to be very powerful and significant in numerology, and are often seen as a symbol of great potential and spiritual evolution.”

 

I am Victor Teicher.

My role in the play of life is preordained by my name. In German, Teicher is one who ponders. In English, where two vowels together are pronounced as the first vowel with the second vowel silent, Teicher would be pronounced as “teacher.” In Japan, Teicher is pronounced as “taisha,” the ancient shrine where all the gods meet annually. Victor is “conqueror.” Since entering the play of life, I have long pondered the nature of consciousness which led me to where the gods reside. The revelations that have come my way are to teach us how to conquer the self (our personal identity) which imprisons us, precluding us from connecting with the soul and being one with the Everything.

 

Tao Te Ching — Verse 45

True perfection seems imperfect,

yet it is perfectly itself.

True fullness seems empty,

yet it is fully present.

 

True straightness seems crooked.

True wisdom seems foolish.

True art seems artless.

 

The Master allows things to happen.

She shapes events as they come.

She steps out of the way

and lets the Tao speak for itself.

 

“True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself.”

What may not seem perfect in our mind is actually perfect as it is what it is whatever it is, undisturbed by our perception.

“True fullness seems empty, yet it is fully present.”

Even when we have all the possessions we may desire, we are still empty as the more we have the more we want. In the present (the pre-sent, where every thing is one thing before it is what it is whatever it is in the now), we are one with the everything; truly fulfilled and need nothing more.

“True straightness seems crooked.”

The way of a meandering river is the straightest way to the ocean.

“True wisdom seems foolish.”

Wisdom is the synthesis of many perceptions; some seemingly well reasoned, some silly.

“True art seems artless.”

Art is all that is art-ificial, manmade. Yet, wonderful art doesn’t seem artificial, contrived.

“The Master allows things to happen. She shapes events as they come. She steps out of the way and lets the Tao speak for itself.”

Being open, accepting and making the best of what comes our way leads us to harmony with all that’s about us.

Way Of Way 154

The self and the soul have a symmetrical relationship, laughing at each other.

As the self cannot see the soul, the self laughs at those who identify with the soul; thinking they are fools.

As the soul sees people taking seriously the illusions created by the self, the soul laughs.

But, as the self is temporary and the soul eternal, the soul has the last laugh.

Way Of Way 212

The soul has only a sole expression and a sole emotion.

The sole expression is the now.

The sole emotion is love, connecting every thing in the now.

Introduction

Before and after the now, the sole thing that is is the soul, the everything. In the now, every thing is the everything.

Upon our manifestation in bodily form, we assume a temporary self which disappears when our body is no longer.

As every thing is a manifestation of the soul, the soul is what connects every thing as one thing, the everything. This connection is called love.

Unlike the soul, the self views itself as apart and separate from every thing that it perceives as not its self. The self connects with every thing with ever-changing emotions like joy, hate, love, anger, indifference, envy, etc.

Our experience of life is a function of how we connect, through the soul or our self.

In a world inherently hostile to the self-sustainment of our bodily form, we need the self to survive. When we do so, we experience life with the emotions of our self. However, when we are not oblivious we are eternally the soul, we can return from the emotional rollercoaster of our self to the eternal love that is the soul; where there is peace beyond words and every thing is absolutely beautiful. That is the purpose of this blook, to guide us to the realization we are the soul.

Albert Einstein

“People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Everything is all at once. As that is overwhelming, our mind has created time to make it all a seemingly manageable to experience.

Way Of Way 156

Much of what we undoubtedly think we see as reality is just a movie projected from our mind. To see reality we need to close our mind and open our eyes.

Way Of Way 155

In a world in which we can have innumerable pronouns, we’re allowed only one ideology.

“According to the survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, 44 percent of those aged 25-34 think “referring to someone by the wrong gender pronoun (he/him, she/her) should be a criminal offense,” versus just 31 percent who disagree.” — Newsweek

Way Of Way 479

“I’m not a fan of big government or big corporations. But at least corporations can’t put you in jail.”

— William Wisher

Way Of Way 160

The universe is perfect but we see it otherwise when we see ourselves as otherwise.

Alexander Teicher

“I used to think that everyone saw the same thing in a different way, until I realized everyone sees the same thing in the same way but describes it with different stories.”

Way Of Way 161

An extraordinary genius is successful and celebrated by society.

A true genius is happy whether or not successful or celebrated.

Way Of Way 163

Intelligence makes things interesting. Wisdom makes things funny.

Way Of Way 34

“And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness[.]'” — Genesis 1:26

Each of us is a unique face of God.

Way Of Way 308

We can only imagine what God is.

Yet, when we truly open our eyes, we realize every thing we see is God.

Way Of Way 307

There is only one soul, though each of us has a soul.

The soul is like a sun that our self shrouds in darkness.

In the stillness of meditation, we realize our soul is but one of an infinite number of eternal stars and our self is nothing but empty space.

As our center is the soul, the universe has infinite centers.

Richard Feynman

“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”

Way Of Way 165

Having more questions than answers is energizing.

Having more answers than questions is tiring.

Way Of Way 166

Those who claim their success came from luck are able. Those who think their success came from their abilities are bound to be unlucky.

Way Of Way 167

The time before and after we are alive must be a happy time as no one has ever complained about it.

Way Of Way 309

“Hard to wake someone who believes their eyes are already open.”

— David Hamono

Way Of Way 168

Awakening is the realization that all times past are a dream.

Way Of Way 170

Those who want to work want work.

Those who don’t want to work want jobs.

Way Of Way 171

In the world of collectible art, the tail wags the dog: the price of an artwork is more impactful than the artwork.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

“It’s not a failure; it’s steps to success. There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me? It’s a wrong question; there’s no failure in sports. There’s good days, bad days. Some days you’re able to be successful, some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn, some days it’s not your turn. And that’s what sports is about. You don’t always win. Sometimes other people win. And this year somebody else is going to win, simple as that.

This has to be the worst postseason ever. We have a number in [the locker room] and we were stuck on 15 [wins to the NBA Finals] … which is kind of hard to deal with. But at the end of the day, I feel like they were playing to beat us, and we were playing to win a championship.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo is the star player for the Milwaukee Bucs basketball team that was the favorite to win the NBA Championship this year. Above, his reaction yesterday when asked if losing in the first round of the postseason means this year was a “failure.” While an avowed Eastern Orthodox Christian, Antetokounmpo seems to be a Taoist as well.

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Tao

The Yin-Yang symbol reveals the essence of Taoism.

 

Tao, in Chinese, literally means the (right) way. The Tao is the way, the nature, of reality; the way of the universe; and the harmonious way or path through life.

The circle represents the universe. Within the universe are two seemingly independent abstract fish forms, in shades black and white, that are actually interdependent as curled together they form the universe as a whole. The fish represent life, consciousness, which is what makes the universe whole.

Each fish has an eye, black or white, reflecting the shade of the other. Looking eye to eye, each sees its own shade in the other. Likewise, when we look in the eye of others, we see ourselves.

The way through the life, along the interface of the white and black forms, is everchanging; bending left and bending right; requiring us to be conscious of our way, lest get lost in the white or black forms.

Ultimately, the symbol of the Tao implies all things in the universe are interdependent; the path through life is everchanging; however, life is in balance, harmonious, when we consciously move between counterbalancing forms.

Another interpretation is the symbol represents two animals engaged in a sexual position commonly known as “69.” If so, the message there is that a happy way to make it through life is simply enjoy yourself.

As above, the Tao acknowledges there are different ways for different people.

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When we identify someone as of our kind, we treat them with kindness. When we identify with the universe we treat all with kindness.

Mourning Rituals

Each morning

I return from sleep-death

and ever so slowly separate

from being one with everything in a timeless place

to a finite and temporal self.

Before forgetting from whence I came,

I recite the Mourning Prayer:

 

Oh eternal universe

oh ever-changing universe

oh timeless universe

oh endless universe.

Thank God for creating the universe

and granting us consciousness to realize our oneness with everything.

The people I’ve been and the roles I’ve played in days passed,

my prior lives,

are illusions

Now,

I am who I am

and every-thing

is what it is whatever it is.

Regardless of circumstances,

I am grateful for however my life unfolds today,

hopeful to realize divine consciousness,

happy helping others likewise

and laughing at my efforts to realize that which is always here.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

 

Now awakened,

I reposition from horizontal pose, where all are of equal height, to vertical.

Footsteps away is the throne

for the ritual burial of what nourished me last life.

Then, shower calls my name

for washing and massaging the temporary envelope that holds me together

and, without mirror, mind concentrates on shaving the face.

Once dried and dressed for appearance on stage,

fresh-squeezed blood orange juice

seaweed salad

hardboiled quail eggs toped with anchovies,

followed by a Robusto-size cigar and black coffee.

My new life begins,

for which I already have much to be grateful.

With that in mind, it’s a wonderful day.

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To live a life of compassion and wisdom, best to avoid those who lack compassion and their friends who obviously lack wisdom.

 

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Apocalypse is the complete and final destruction of the world as described in the Book of Revelation. While most of us will not be around for the world’s collective apocalypse, each of us will have our own apocalypse/revelation, the end of our days in unitary bodies.

Apocalypse and revelation are used interchangeably, but are different. The etymology of both words is to “uncover, unveil.” However, apocalypse is more about the destruction of the world as we know it and revelation is about what’s revealed by what remains after the destruction.

Apocalypse/revelation is like the lifting of a bride’s veil to reveal her face before the groom kisses her to consummate their marriage. After the kiss, the groom’s unitary existence is over as he is now one with the bride. Likewise, at the end of our days we realize that we are no longer unitary beings; we are one with all that heretofore seemed other than us.

Apocalypse/revelation is when the truth is revealed about consciousness and reality. The veil represents our personal consciousness; the meanings, generalizations and stories we create that mask reality. When the veil is lifted, we see reality as it is: the nothingness that everything is before and after it is what it is whatever it is.

That’s who we are: The nothing that everything is before and after it is, one with everything.

For those who know the veil is illusory, the veil is translucent; allowing them to see reality. Thus, as they know they are one with everything, they treat others as themselves (compassion) and are able to see the world from many perspectives (wisdom). Moreover, when the veil is lifted, apocalypse, it is the time for revelation; to revel with laughter as the illusions are now clearly absurd.

However, for those who think the illusions are real, the veil is opaque. They live as unitary beings and when the veil is lifted the revelation is frightening as hell. Not a surprising outcome as taking our personal consciousness seriously is at times hellish, even before the apocalypse. Unfortunately, it is fear of reality than keeps us from seeing through our personal consciousness which is the foundation of our fear.

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While a lie may initially hide the truth, when the truth is revealed the lie ultimately reveals more than it hides.

Happy Birthday

Every night at sleep-time we die. Every morning upon awakening we are born. Each day is not a day in a life, it is a life in a day. Thus, we’ve lived thousands of lives before our reincarnation today upon awakening.

Before sleep-death, we acknowledge each other with “good evening;” that is, “good even-ing” for in sleep-death everyone (the smart, the stupid, the rich, the poor) is even, equal.

In sleep-death, our soul leaves our body and merges with the universal soul, which in some traditions is called God. When the soul returns to our body, we are born.

Upon awakening, we greet each other and ourselves with “good morning;” that is, “good mourning,” have a good time mourning the people you were in past lifetimes (yesterday and all days now passed) by remembering them in the light of wisdom and compassion; but, don’t identify their life experiences as your own.

Upon awakening and before we assume the roles and circumstances of the person we were yesterday,  we recite out loud the Mourning Prayer. The Mourning Prayer acknowledges God’s creation, the universe, and expresses our gratitude for the life and consciousness we have been given which allows us to be one with God. Moreover, we declare that we are free from karma (our intentions, actions and consequences in past lifetimes (days of our life)) and look forward to realizing our purpose in life: to have a wonderful experience, realize our potential of divine consciousness and help others likewise.

 

Mourning Prayer

Oh eternal universe

Oh endless universe

Oh ever-changing universe

Oh timeless universe

Oh universe of infinite finite things.

Thank you for granting me today a role in the play of life.

The people I’ve been and the roles I’ve played in days passed,

my prior lives,

are illusions in the seemingly real form of memories.

Now, I am who I am

and every thing is what it is whatever it is.

Regardless of circumstances,

I am grateful for however my life unfolds today,

hopeful to realize divine consciousness before I’m scripted out of the play,

happy helping others awaken to their good fortune

and laughing at my efforts to realize that which is always here.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

 

We recite the mourning prayer aloud, again and again and again, until we feel it and truly awaken. Then, hopefully, we won’t forget who we are as we make our way through this day of life with the peace that comes from not taking our self too seriously; as we know that our self, which will die in the even-ing when our soul departs, is not who we are.

At day’s end, it is time for the Even-ing Prayer before our sleep-death.

 

Even-ing Prayer

Oh eternal universe

oh ever-changing universe

oh timeless universe

oh endless universe.

Thank God for my  role in the universe

and for now,

sleep-death,

when my soul joins God

which is what every-thing is before it is the universe.

Shanti Shanti Shanti

 

As few remember that every day is our birthday, we should remind whomever we meet with the greeting: “Happy birthday.” Whether they recognize today as their birthday or not, they will undoubtedly have a laugh. What better gift can we give someone on their birthday?

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Intellectuals are mischievous entertainers. They make fools of those who take them seriously who in turn wreak havoc on everyone who doesn’t.

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Empathy is giving a beggar some money. Compassion is giving a beggar a job.

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Only when we shed our clothes are we ready to make love. Likewise, only when we shed the self that covers our soul are we ready to love everyone.

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“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing. Love is knowing I am everything.”

— Nisargadatta Maharaj

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The navel is axis mundi, the center of our bodies.

Above is the heart and mind, representing compassion and wisdom.

Below is the stomach and sex organ, representing our needs and desires.

The upper organs bring us to heaven and the lower organs can make for a hellish experience.

What comes out of our mouths can be divine.

What comes out of our lower organs is invariably offensive.

While the upper organs connect us to the Soul and the lower organs to the self, they are mutually dependent. They are one blossom from axis mundi.

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Regretting certain choices we’ve made in the past distracts us from making the most of the present which leads us to future regrets.

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“The richest person is not the one who has the most but who needs the least.”

— Unattributed proverb

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A wise man knows he can change the past by changing his perspective. A fool thinks he can affect the future..

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We start in life in front of a rabbit hole on a dark night and are given a map through the maze before us. In the darkness underground the map is useless but some are lucky to find their way through to the light. Those who toss the map and look up at the sky realize they’re not rabbits as what they see is what they are.

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A house described as “charming” you would never buy from a practical point of view.

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Why I loved my father is why he hated me. I thought it was funny when he got angry, but he didn’t get the joke.

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“When you believe in Santa Claus you can get lots of presents because there is always someone who wants to be Santa.”

— Ross Levin

This is called the Law of Attraction or Creative Visualization.

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Empathy is selfish. Compassion is selfless.

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“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”

— Rumi

Sounds can come in and out of our head, but not simultaneously.

 

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“You can’t go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

— C. S. Lewis

(While this quote is misattributed to C. S. Lewis, a British writer and Anglican lay theologian, it is consistent with his general thinking.)

We can’t simultaneously hold onto the past and have a firm grip of the steering wheel.

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When our mood is dark, we absorb light and our body temperature rises.

When we are lighthearted, we reflect light and are calm and cool.

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When you marry someone like your wealthy grandparents, you’re clearly farsighted, not nearsighted.

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I am God and anyone who doesn’t recognize I am God doesn’t recognize they too are God.

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Heaven is real, hell an illusion.

In heaven are those who realize everything is an expression of God. In hell are those whose mind tells them otherwise.

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Raw intelligence is characterized by one’s abilities in matters of conceptual thinking, memory, compiling and analyzing information and creativity. However, the truly intelligent are those who have the ability to learn something from virtually anyone.

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Doing stupid things allows you to learn you are stupid. Those who don’t learn this lesson are stupid.

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“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

— Wayne Dyer

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Politicians are a form of comic entertainment. However, when many people take politicians seriously, we’re forced to take politicians seriously because the politicians often lead people to war when they haven’t done a good job at their other responsibilities.

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Many people audition for seemingly exciting roles in the play of life. Roles of the wealthy, powerful, successful, happy, etc. However, there are more people auditioning that roles available.

One role for which very few audition and which anyone can have is the role of God. To pass the audition, one needs to just give up all other roles which require the self.

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“All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for… reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration.”

— Casey Stengel

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As every-thing is interdependent

every-thing is no-thing

just a facet of everything.

 

No-thing can be described

as descriptions are empty generalizations,

the personal mind’s creation,

making something out of nothing.

 

Every-thing is temporary

and everything is eternal.

Descriptions are the personal mind’s vanity,

vain attempts to eternalize that which is no longer.

 

The universal mind is empty of words.

It is still

and yet busy

eternally manifesting itself as everything.

 

When our personal mind is still

it merges with the universe mind

and we are one with everything.

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“You were born an original. Don’t die a copy.”

— Narges Obaid

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The universe is the manifestation of God. Loving God is loving every thing; even those things we don’t like and seek to avoid.

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All things are reflections.

Initially reflections of light,

then reflections of mind.

In the first instance our eyes see the truth,

in the second our mind starts lying to us.

The truth is revealed in the present,

but disappears when we reflect on what has passed.

Ways Of Way 346

Money is to humans is like fertilizer is to flowers.

It helps to realize their potential but too much of it can make them smell like shit.

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We should always acknowledge and express our gratitude to the God of Luck.

If we think our success comes solely from our abilities and efforts and not from the presence of the God of Luck, the God of Luck will not acknowledge us with his presents.

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Those who blame their misfortunes on others don’t learn from their misfortunes which brings them more misfortunes.

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This Kongo fetish (an inanimate object worshiped for its supposed magical powers or because it is considered to be inhabited by a spirit) depicts a bundle containing juju (magical substances that empower an object) from which a mirror-faced head with feathers atop emerges.

When we look at the mirror-face, we see ourselves, suggesting we are the fetish and the fetish works its magic through us.

The feathers protrude from the head, as the mind of the fetish can take flight and connect to the spirit world.

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Every thing is a probability.

When you are certain you know some thing, you certainly don’t know any thing.

That makes you funny: “Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.” — Voltaire

Every thing has three dimensions.

When you are certain, you only see two.

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Those who see the light embody wisdom.

Those who feel its warmth embody compassion.

Without wisdom and compassion, there is no light.

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Something is wrong with our head if we can’t enjoy the pleasures of sex and recreational drugs. Nothing is wrong when we enjoy these things, unless they get to our head.

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When you look down on others you cannot see the light.

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You can’t push on a string.

Unsolicited monologues get little attention.

However, we have people’s attention when we respond to their questions.

When we question others, they give us their mouth. When they question us, we have their ears.

Ask enough questions and when their mouths tire, they will ask some questions and open their ears.

 

Ways Of Way 353

Love is like light.

It can be emitted or reflected.

The more light that’s emitted, the more shines back at us.

The light we see is what we are.

 

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When we focus on the details, we often fail to see the beauty of the whole.

A beautiful artwork that’s deemed a “fake” becomes less beautiful.

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Whether awake or asleep, we are always dreaming.

Those who are asleep don’t know they are dreaming.

Those who are awake know they are dreaming.

Ways Of Way 332

Richer than those who “have more money than God” are those who realize they are God.

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More praise and love is given to the dead than the living, because the dead can do no wrong.

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Everyone wants something special as long as it tastes like vanilla.

Ways Of Way 328

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”

— Daniel J. Boorstin

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Life is an entertaining journey as long as we don’t forget it’s a temporary holiday from where we permanently reside which is heaven. Even those with the most wonderful lives find themselves in hell when they forget they’re on holiday.

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“A man chases a girl until she catches him.”

— Irving Berlin

He can only escape if he loves the chase more than the girl.

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For crying babies, milk brings peace.

As adults, the Milky Way has the same effect.

Unfortunately, few can access the Milky Way today.

120 years ago everyone lived under the dark-sky and could see the Milky Way. Today, 99% of people live with some degree of light pollution, precluding their eyes from drinking the light of the Milky Way.

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“Common sense is not so common.”

— Voltaire

 

As reality is distorted by emotions and illusions, it’s rare to see things as they are.

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What is within is always the same, the soul.

What is without is ever-changing.

What is within is essential.

What is without we can live without.

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Enlightenment is not a utopia. Enlightenment and unhappiness are not mutually exclusive. One could simultaneously be enlightened and unhappy, momentarily.

The enlightened radiate light. While solid objects cast shadows over them, the shadows are temporary illusions that are quickly dissipated by their light.

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“Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.”

— Voltaire

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The sun shows us every significant thing on earth and the billions upon billions of stars tell us how insignificant it all is.

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When we have no doubts about how we see something, we close our eyes to other possibilities.

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Heaven is peaceful and those in heaven want to keep it that way. They only let into heaven only those who live peaceful lives on Earth who are already in heaven.

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Can we take seriously explanations of the past as no one can predict the future?

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Buddha opened his eyes and was able to see the universe as it is. Had Buddha been studying Buddhism, he would have seen many things through his mind which would have precluded him seeing the universe as it is.

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Babies see the world as it is, always new as it is everchanging, because they don’t remember what they see.

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Every night we die and every morning we are born anew.

Thus, every day is our first and last day of life.

As it’s our first day, everything is fascinating.

As it’s our last day, we appreciate everything.

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If someone doesn’t love or respect us, that’s their problem. We can only feel badly for them because they simply don’t get it. However, we too have a problem if we resent them for it.

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Everyone’s life is unique, fascinating and entertaining. But that’s often not their experience of it.

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“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

— Alice (from Alice in Wonderland)

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The fool thinks he is a god.

The wise man knows he and everything is God.

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To our eyes, underwear costing $20 new is worthless if it’s used and smelly.

To our mind it can be worth $20,000 if it came from Jacqueline Kennedy’s hamper.

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Enlightenment is when the lights go on in a theater featuring a captivating movie.

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One can live without a mind but not without a heart.

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Each of us stars in their own play and plays roles in other people’s plays.

As many plays are not popular, people who star in their own play often spend most of their time in roles in other people’s plays.

To have these people who are in minor roles in the plays of others perform best, we treat them like special guest stars. Maybe one day they will be stars; but, if not, at least they’ll enjoy their roles more than otherwise and that will make our play a better play.

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Unless they are sold things, people buy very little.

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At birth we separate from being one with the universe. At death, we reunite with the universe. Blessed are those united with the universe in life, for they do not suffer death.

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Who we are is revealed by how we describe others. But that’s rarely how we see ourselves.

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“To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.”

— Confucius

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“All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.”

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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Unless they are a threat, it is difficult to take seriously someone who takes themselves seriously.

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“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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Life is a present gift wrapped by the past. To get to the present, we need to remove the past.

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Being eccentric, I sometimes wonder whether I might someday be committed to a mental institution. But as I look at the people around me, I realize I am in a mental institution.

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Since early childhood I always felt stupid. Many people seemed strange as I didn’t know why they did what they did and how they thought about things. I still feel stupid but now realize they are not strange. They are like me. They also don’t know why they do what they do or how they think about things.

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It’s important to think another world war is coming. If it doesn’t come, we’ll feel terrific as we’ll be in a better position than had there been a war. If it does come, we’ll feel terrific as we would be in an otherwise better position to deal with it proactively.

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When we are one with the ever-changing and eternal universe, we love everything and miss nothing.

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When we come upon a serious accident, we reveal who we are. Is our first question “what happened?” or “how can I help?”

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“Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.”

— G.K. Chesterton

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With our eyes we can see the surface and depth of things. With the eyes of others we can see the nature of things.

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Every child has a father but needs to father itself to become an adult.

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Life is a ride on a zip line connecting pre-birth and afterlife. The ride at times feels scary, thrilling and even boring. As the ride nears its end, we feel the calmness of our pre-birth.

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“The man who has no imagination has no wings.”

— Muhammad Ali

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“It is better to share than to give.”

— Kanako Iiyama

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God runs the Rewards Department.

The devil runs the Complaint Department.

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Birth is like nuclear fission, a powerful explosion.

Love is like nuclear fusion, 3-4 times more powerful.

In fission, our soul separates from being one with everything.

In fusion, our soul reunites as one with everything.

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When work is just work and not fun, something is not working.

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Certainty is an illusion that masks fear of uncertainty.

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“No man is as pitiful as one who doesn’t wish others happiness.”

–Kanako Iiyama

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When we experience the seemingly same thing again and again and each time it’s unique, we are present.

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A relationship fostering personal integrity and freedom is based on the paradigm of “take it or leave it”.

A relationship based on “give and take” is a business deal.

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The microscopic or telescopic mind can see things naked eyes cannot.

Yet, two naked eyes are better than one: naked eyes have depth perception.

Many eyes put things in perspective.

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Wisdom comes from embracing many disparate and often contradictory perspectives.

Wisdom is accessible to everyone, except those who have great difficulty letting go their perspective to embrace another.

Yet, living without wisdom is far more difficult.

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Mistakes are valuable learning opportunities, unless they’re squandered by blaming others for them.

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“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist see the opportunity in every difficulty.”

— Winston Churchill

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“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”

— John Maynard Keynes

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Experiences are like food.

Enjoy them, thrive from them, and learn from them.

But, ultimately, let them go.

Otherwise, you’re constipated which will keep you from new experiences.

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Those who are emotionally distant, look close together from a distance.

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The wise are unwise when they identify themselves as wise.

Identifying ourselves as wise is egocentric; limiting our ability to have multi-centric perspectives, the essence of wisdom.

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“There are two types of people in the world: those who love vanilla and those who make fun of those who love vanilla. Vanilla lovers could easily gather and share laughs over the dread they feel whenever they order their favorite flavor amongst a group of friends.

So often, loyal vanilla zealots are labeled as “boring” or “unexciting” by their peers, and it can really start to wear a person down. It’s possible that your desire to choose vanilla has less to do with your taste buds’ preferences, and more to do with you as a person.  As someone who chooses vanilla, you:

1. Are content. When you fall in love with something, you are happy to be tied to it for a long time without the fear that you are missing out on something better. You’re happy with being happy. You do not always feel the need to change things up just in case there’s something better out there.

2. Are confident. You don’t need the approval of others to feel good about your choices. You know what you want and it doesn’t matter than other people have their opinions about it. You don’t care.

3. Like accessories. If you’re a man, you probably sport a hat or watch on most days. If you’re a lady, then scarves are a staple, and necklaces are never forgotten. How so? As a vanilla lover, you have chosen to start with a simple base and leave room for accessories like sprinkles, chocolate chips, fruit or a variety of candy crumbles. You most likely choose to start your outfits with a basic design and then add bits of flair here and there.

4. Have a sense of humor. As mentioned earlier, you endure a lot of mocking whenever you order vanilla. You will be called “boring,” “dull,” “lame” and in extreme cases, a “waste.” If you couldn’t laugh off the criticism of others, then you would have already become a closet vanilla eater. The fact that you continue to order your favorite simple flavor, despite knowing that the mockery will surely ensue, means that you can take a joke. No one can bring you down.

5. Are loyal. Even after being mocked, joked at and tempted by many to “change it up,” you’re still deeply in love with vanilla and feel no need to stray from it. You know that you’ve found a good thing and don’t feel the need to risk a date with your favorite vanilla treat in lieu of something more decadent. You don’t step out on vanilla just like you would never desert a friend or significant other.

6. Enjoy the simple things in life. It’s not going to take a lot to make you happy, and you really know how to value the small things. Vanilla is as simple as it gets, but there’s something about that simplicity that makes it enjoyable every time.  You don’t need grand gestures or constant entertainment to be happy.  Material possessions and flashy gifts are not your main concern.”

— Kaylee Brown

Ironically, vanilla personality characteristics have some overlap to those of eccentrics, people who are anything but vanilla. Maybe people who choose vanilla are not vanilla.

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Our mind sees through the minds of others when we see through our ears and not our eyes.

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Illeism is the act of referring to oneself in the third person. For example, saying: “Victor went to the store” instead of “I went to the store.”

This habit begins early in life. Young children, still learning the complexity of pronouns and self-reference, often speak in the third person. Parents reinforce this by saying things like “Mommy loves you.”

But illeism isn’t only a stage of development, it can also be a path to wisdom.

By referring to ourselves in the third person, we create a distance from our emotions and reactions to our circumstances in the now. This distance allows for greater objectivity, clarity, and thoughtful decision-making; “Solomon’s Paradox”, the observation that we reason more wisely about others’ problems than our own.

In some Eastern spiritual traditions, speaking in the third person reflects detachment from ego. As well, in the Bible, both YHWH and Jesus at times refer to themselves in the third person, implying they are beyond the personal self.

Practicing illeism is a subtle reminder: the person we were yesterday is not who we are today.

Moreover, in observing ourselves from a slight distance, we acknowledge we are not solely actors in the play of life, but also the audience, the gods, watching it unfold.

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Most people want to have something special as long as it tastes like vanilla.

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“Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously.”

— Clint Eastwood

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Fools look at the world through their mind.

The wise see the universe with their eyes and the minds of others.

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Seeing the light clears the mind. It’s called photic sneeze reflex.

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“People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

That’s called idol worshiping.

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Judging a decision by its outcome, which is often affected by randomness, is a bad decision.

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Everything that comes our way is the best when we make the best of it.

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Weddings always make happy memories.

For some couples, it’s the happiest day of their lives as they begin living happily everafter. For others, it’s the happiest day of their married lives as it’s all downhill from there.

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Perhaps the most important choice we make in life is between selfishness and happiness. Though selfishness is a choice and happiness is an outcome.

We cannot choose happiness but happiness is possible when we choose not to be selfish.

Way Of Way 103

Science says we see others by the light they reflect. In reality, we see others by the light we project upon them.

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“Of course I litter the public highway. After all, it’s not the beer cans that are ugly; it’s the highway that is ugly.”

— Edward Abbey

 

Abbey was an environmentalist who focused on preserving land from human sprawl.

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“Those who can make you believe in absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire

Ideologies and identity groups are absurdities that are the foundation of dualities.

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Wealth and social status are imaginary hierarchies. Those atop hierarchies are generally very happy with themselves. When they look at those below them, they are pleased as they see the admiring and respectful faces of those below. However, the laws of gravity disturb this otherwise mutually pleasing relationship. Invariably, those atop need to relieve themselves and their droppings are resented by those below. There is nothing imaginary about that.

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The greatest blessing is realizing we are blessed.

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“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.”

— Frank Zappa

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“People are strange: they are constantly angered by trivial things, but on a major matter like totally wasting their lives, they hardly seem to notice.”

— Charles Bukowski

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The pursuit of happiness is a fool’s errand. Happiness is like a mouse, it comes to those who sit quietly with a piece of cheese by their side.

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The past are the bars our mind creates holding us prisoner in a cell.

We can incessantly shake the bars, trying to free ourselves, but to no avail.

Letting go our grip, the bars fall to the floor and we can walk away from our cell to freedom.

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Love comes from the realization the universe is the manifestation of the infinite faces of the soul.

Love is wisdom, seeing the universe through the all the faces.

Love is compassion; treating all faces as our own, for the faces are the masks of the soul.

Eye Idol, circa 3700 – 3500 B.C., Tell Brak, Levant

Thousands of “Eye Idols” figurines have been found in a building now called the “Eye Temple” in Tell Brak in northeastern Syria.

Without mouths or ears, but always with eyes, these objects suggest a deity that can see but not hear or speak.

The deity sees the world as it is, unaffected by what people say it is.

The deity often is depicted with multiple eye, suggesting it has multiple perspectives; the hallmark of wisdom.

As wisdom cannot be conveyed with words, it has no mouth with which to speak.

Ayami (Shaman figure), Nanai People, East Siberia

This shaman figure, made of bone, is depicted wearing a hat with seven heads representing ancestors, historically important clan members or wise men.

The heads are the shaman’s helper spirits or guides in the world underpinning the world of the living; the world before and after the now.

The spirit helpers provide the shaman with multiple perspectives which is the essence of wisdom, the stock-in-trade of shamans.

The triangular shaped head, pointing down and perfectly balanced on the torso, implies an open mind.

The figure has a disproportionally large head (40% of its body vs 14% of a natural body), implying that the head plays an outsized role in the shaman’s work.

The figure is sexless, implying the shaman’s perspective is nondual.

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Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Those who laugh at the outcomes always win.

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The mind is a prism refracting white light into a spectrum of colors.

Each color a mood.

We choose the color through which we see the world.

Dispensing with the mind, we see the world as it is.

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Those who know they know nothing are childlike. Those who think they know everything are childish.

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We don’t fail when we fail, as failing is a learning experience; as long as we don’t blame others for our failing.

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“Mary Had a Little Lamb…” begins a 19th century nursery rhyme familiar to most American children. A simple rhyme, yet unclear as to it’s meaning without an understanding of context and relationship.

Does Mary had a little lamb mean Mary had a pet lamb; Mary had a small vagina; Mary had sex with a lamb; or Mary ate a little lamb?

A father reciting the rhyme to children at bedtime implies Mary had a pet lamb.

Mary’s boyfriend having a beer and talking about girls with his buddies implies Mary had a small vagina.

Mary’s kinky friends might think Mary had sex with a lamb.

Mary’s dinner partner assumes Mary ate a little lamb.

 

Meaning is a function of context and relationship.

Changing the context or relationship and not changing the meaning can make the mundane hilarious.

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Getting anxious or depressed about the past or future precludes us from the joy of being present.

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If you care about what others think of you, you’ve put yourself in prison.

If you don’t care, they might put you in prison.

But, they might not; then, you’ll be free.

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“The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”

— Albert Einstein

Before  the now is a space of nothingness and infinite possibilities.

When in that space, we can bring from it to the now unique thoughts and things that we have not created but merely ushering into the now.

Koan 281

We must be blind and deaf if we’re not laughing all the time.

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There is only one mind, a reflecting pond.

What we see depends on where we sit along its perimeter.

Many perspectives is the essence of wisdom.

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Unsolicited opinions are like bowel movements. Feels good coming out and smells bad coming in.

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“The truth is what you can get enough people to believe.”

— Terry Lenzner

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“No one lies on their death bed and thinks: I wish I had more money.”

— William Wisher

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The disciples of famous enlightened masters (Jesus, Buddha, Rajneesh, Rebbe Schneerson, etc.) never replace them when the enlightened transition from the now.

The enlightened walk the path of light.

Their disciples are in their shadows, following their footsteps.

When the enlightened disappear into the light, their disciples can see the footsteps but not the light; for the enlightened are the light.

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Life is funny and sad.

Funny when we take ourselves seriously.

Sad when that’s our life.

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There is only the universal mind.

It is a reflecting pond, around which each of us sit.

The reflections we ponder are a function of who we are and where along the perimeter we sit.

As per habit, we daily sit in the same place.

As such, we often can’t understand the perspective of others; especially those diagonally across.

To know the universe, we would need to sit in every place along the perimeter simultaneously.

As that’s not possible, occasionally we should imagine the perspectives of others.

That’s wisdom.

 

 

God Plays Hide and Seek

Alan Watts in The Book On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are:

“God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that’s the whole fun of it—just what he wanted to do.

He doesn’t want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever.

Of course, you must remember that God isn’t shaped like a person. People have skins and there is always something outside our skins. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t know the difference between what is inside and outside our bodies. But God has no skin and no shape because there isn’t any outside to him.

The inside and the outside of God are the same. And though I have been talking about God as ‘he’ and not ‘she,’ God isn’t a man or a woman. I didn’t say ‘it’ because we usually say ‘it’ for things that aren’t alive. “God is the Self of the world, but you can’t see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can’t see your own eyes, and you certainly can’t bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.

You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn’t really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It’s the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.”

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“Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.”

— Mary Engelbreit

When driving, more than a occasional glace at the rear view mirror is an accident in the making.

Way Of Way

“Life is so much simpler when you lose the desire to think.”

— William Wisher

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“Don’t Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness.”

— Eckhart Tolle

Happiness is always here, when you realize how lucky you are right now relate to other possible circumstances.

“Hap” means “luck”, the root of happiness.

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“I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison.”

— T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land

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“History…is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

— James Joyce

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“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play in the one string we have, and this is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…We are in charge of our attitudes.”

— Charles Swindoll

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“There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

— Carl Sagan

 

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“To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth.”

— Mark Twain

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An enlightening journeyman can guide others on their journey. An enlightened master makes the journeys of others into a business.

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“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

— Eric Hoffer