living in the presence of high sensations = alive, alive, alive

we came from the jungle
ADD, the jumping of attention from one thing to another
would seem useful in a wild environment, when any direction
including up and down, could yield danger,
could yield food

life was intense
awareness was high
or
you died

and then life
got safer
and safer
and safer

and so when someone says:
what was the flavor of your last kiss?
we finally feel something,
the lights go on,
the charge comes back
the jungle

walk barefoot on uneven ground,
find a place where you have to look up and down,
spin daily, or more,
touch the ground and keep your eyes up
high,
touch the sky and let your eyes watch the ground

play around

with the habits
with the right way to do things,
where "right" means "comfortable" means "rocking no one's boat"
means
low sensation

so, what's the cure?
do something not right today.

but kindly
other people count too

fucking with people is not the game
not really
though it might,
in small doses,
be a stage

but we've got to get more uncomfortable,
which means saying what we really really want to
say
which is different than using our umpf to blast
other people because they dare be different than we want
them
to
behave

give up control
talk about uncomfortable
talk about not knowing what going to happen next
talk about living in freedom
which can be defined as
"I don't know."

this is a ridiculous little ramble
and what's the point?

Don't be too careful
don't be too good
make yourself uncomfortable
hang in there with the sensation

it's just you in the present moment
which is
just
life

which is just
everything

Good

Carlos Casteneda after 30 years, whoopie

Back in the days,
if you read Carlos Casteneda
you got hooked

magic
mystery
deserts
Indians
sorcerers

whoopie

in was like Harry Potter and
it was supposed to be real

and who knows
some probably was

he's got some great stuff,
reading through Journey to Ixtlan
about treating the world as a mystery
as an unknown

that we don't need to buy into everyone
else's description of Reality

and you read the first part of Awareness through Movement
and basically, Moshe is saying:
the society wants you to be a cog,
that's it's purpose

and hey, person: what's your purpose

and what's the best tool to escape the mold,
the mask as he calls it,
and discover the life you really want for
yourself?

awareness.

and what's the best step to awareness?
movement that creates new patterns
and increases complexity
and demands
and rewards attetention

and will attention lead to awareness?

well, it is awareness while being used,
and it can turn on our "awaring" ability
as at first a gift
and then later a necessity:

life is so dull and same same same
without awareness

and even my fingers
now
on the keyboard

I can get the job
or sense the tips touching and my spine holding
up my head
and my eyes looking at the black shapes
appearing on the screen

needless to say,
awareness like that can contribute to
wanting to leave the restricted world
of the computer,
but awareness like that sharpens me
wakens me
back into life

and so all Carlos' adventures
real
or not,
was I following my breathing while
reading them

was I real
as i thrilled to his learning to be more real

sometimes

it's a great day
to live in reality

have a great time

here's the book again.

I have so far made 10cents from people buying Amazon books
off the blogs,
so it's obviously a flourishing source of income

Awareness Through Movement














PS my book for sale to the right,
if you click to the demo chapters you'll see choices
of four prices
the bottom price is just for another week

great day
play in the fields of awareness
do things wrong
see who you are
if you forget who you are

be your own sorcerer

good

1006: One Day Late, Doing the Turn Around 3 times three

In the work of Byron Katie,
you know the drill:

Judge your neighbor
Write it Down
Ask 4 Questions
Turn it Around

The turn around, I discovered last night,
has been clarified, and not left to chance.

Do it three ways:

To yourself
To the other
The complete turn around

So last night, a man tortured by his son's "disrespect,"
did the turn around three times three.

First he search for
and found
Ways that he did not respect himself

He gave three examples of that


Then he found how he didn't respect his son

And found three examples of that


And then he did the total turn around
of "My son doesn't respect me"

to "My son does respect me"
and found amazingly poignant examples,
considering how much anger and disappointment he
started doing the work with.

And the turn around didn't
come until the four questions:

True
Absolutely true
How does that do me in my life, how do I react
Who am I without the thought


Good,
try it if you'd like freedom
and
joy

The self is not the name, nor the labels "they" put on us

The death of me

By “me” July 13, 2010

Once upon a time

Someone told me I was

Chris

Christopher

Christopher Michael Elms

And they told me I was

Good or

Bad or

Smart or

Dumb

Or

Worst of all, it seemed,

Disrespectful

And damned if I’m still not

All

Of those

Things

And none of that

Has

Anything to do with

Who

I

Am

Oh, Well

Next question:

Who am I?

=

Same answer :

Who are you?

Ah, now we’re getting

Nowhere

Which is closer to

Where

We

Really want

To

Be

Thinking and Walking: Words, Gibberish, Silence

Don’t worry, be happy

In the Bible, Jesus urges people to think of the lilies of the field, urges people not to worry, counsels: Who by worrying has added an hour to their life.

And Mehr Baba said the famous: don’t worry, be happy.


And, easier said than done, though I’d venture that a vast percentage of drug and alcohol and over eating is based on trying to get the worrying to go away. Which means: it’s not easy.

Good. Something to learn.

Here’s the ticket: take a walk today, three times. That will spring you from the rushed schedule you think you have to maintain.

And on that walk, look at what is present, and listen to what is present and feel your feet on the Earth.

And notice: when does thinking as worrying creep in. When it does:

One: say hello.

Two: shift the words to a sort of gibberish that conveys the tone but not the particulars.

Three: See if a no thinking/ no word option is briefly available.

Four: one all three walks compare: empty, worded, gibberish. Enjoy.

Day 39: The Pause that can Change Everything, or Just some little thing

Daughter and now dead Dog. Life moves on. All loving is its own reward.


In between the thought and the action is a space where you can realize: this action could be hard, soft, fast, habitual, new, tight, soft, “right,” “wrong,” and so on.

We often lunge from one thing to the next, forgetting that pause, that place where we can go forward, can progress, but don’t have to.

Don’t have to.

This is the present of being present and unhurried at moments of transition, and a good martial artist learns to be present and awake and unhurried even in moments of “hurry.”

What does that mean?

Ponder a bit, and let it be something you experiment with today: to be unhurried, even in your hurry, and if you don’t “need” to hurry, be unhurried in you unhurry.

And this is our game today: to watch the pausing points, the points when we are tempted to lunge// rush/ fall / clunk forward into the next event and be pulled along in our lives as if we have no say.

So watch for the pausing points.

Find the pausing points, or some of them.

Pause at them in some experimental way. Sometimes a little longer than usual. Sometimes a lot longer. Sometimes actually taking a break of the walk, sit and meditate, little nap sort. Watch your fears that if you don’t keep your nose to the grindstone you won’t “get anything done.”

And if you let little breaks take over your day and it ends of true that you “don’t get anything done,” take pauses and breaks inside the diverting activity and see if they can give you a chance to divert back to your original path. So go slow, find the pausing points. Use them to open to ?????

Day Thirty-Two: Going for Real Emotional Peace and Freedom

We have had various experiences, and usually have ourselves locked into a narrow box, our interpretation of that experience. What if we began to uses our imaginations to stretch our heart and feeling and understanding of these events? Could that lead to an amazing inner peace?

Take some event in your life that was a “little bit” on the “bad” side. Not a major trouble area, but something that you have in the category of Not So Great. Or maybe Sort of Awful.

For that event write a very, very short 3 to 5 sentence rundown of what happened in this Not So Great event.

Then look at your sentences and feel what you usually feel. Write down your overall impression of that event.

Now, look at these sentences and give yourself another way of perceiving this than what you have sentenced yourself to all along.

Look at this event as interesting. Look at it as tragic. Look at it as amusing. Look at it as wonderful. Look at it as awful. Look at it is funny. Look at it as a big mistake. Look at it as a Gift. Look at it as a setback. Look at it as a great stimulus.

Obviously, different viewpoints will be a hard fit, and so what, this is to stretch us. Change means change means change.

If we always perceive things as we always perceived this, we are stuck. High functioning robot. Low functioning robot. Somewhere in between. But not free. Not awake. Not fully alive.

Anyway, look at the “sort of bad” event in many ways, and then come back to your body and your breathing and sensing yourself, and try to, play with this: look at the event just as What Is. Or What Was. Just as an event, without any up down or sideways take on it. Just pure experience.

And then take a little rest. Walk. Breathe. Smile. Drink some water.

Okay, now take an event that was “Sort of Good.” And run it through all the possibilities.

Then look at this event without any interpretation.

Rest between sections. Maybe walk. Maybe re-do one of the awareness and movement games we’ve done so far in this book.

Next: take a “Medium Bad” episode and run it through the options. Be sure to include, this was a Curse. And this was a Blessing. Then look at this event without any interpretation.


Rest, walk, move, draw, garden.

Back: Take a “Medium Good” time, and see it as Grand, as Awful, as Liberating, as Stifling, and as all the above possibilities and more you can think of. Then look at this event without any interpretation.

Rest. And if you are ready, take a “Really Bad” event, and let it go through your mind as Awful, and a Curse, and Wonderful and a Blessing. As the Worst thing that ever happened to you. And as the Best thing that ever happened to you. As tragedy. As comedy. As crippling. As liberating. As punishment. As gift.

Then look at this event without any interpretation. Make breathing and knowing your are breathing and sensing and being present the highest priority, from which you can scan back as see this event as just pure “happening.”


And now, after another rest, go about your day looking at everything as either something you can interpret one two three or more ways, and as something you can just experience without interpretation.

Judge not that ye not be judged. Somehow this fits in here. See if you can grasp this in a deep and nonverbal way.

Good.

Day Eighteen: Is this thought Absolutely True?

The Second Question of the Work of Byron Katie:
Can I absolutely know that this thought/ belief/ opinion/ idea/ concept is true?

This is the second question in the suggested sequence of the Work (Judge Your Neighbor, Write it Down, Ask 4 Questions, Turn it Around).

As in yesterday’s exercise, you will be taking “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” about other people and subjecting them now to questioning, but today, two questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Can I absolutely know it’s true?

This second question comes in handy with a belief/ thought/ idea of ours that we know intellectually isn’t “true” the way gravity is true, but just can’t get ourselves to say, “No” to the first question. (And we don’t have to say any particular answer to any question. This is our work, our search, our truth.)

This question helps us push our minds into a more clear situation: Is it absolutely true, this thought I’m having?


Another person might have done something that our feeling bad selves and lots of our “friends” agree that they “shouldn’t” have done. BUT: can we absolutely know that for their highest good and our highest good, they should have been different and better people? (As if we “really” know what better people is?)

So, for today, hang out with some “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” about other people that you aren’t so sure are not true? Ask this second question often. Think and feel and be quiet for the answer and see what you come to. You don’t have to answer, “No,” but see what happens when you deeply ask.

Day Four: Open the Door. To What? Whom? How? Wow!

Opening a door to possibility: What if there is a God?

What if there is a God? What would She, He or It be like?

If you have a god, or God in your life, spend today connecting with God as much as you can.

Explore how being present to breathing, or to sensing your legs and arms and being aware of the difference this “sensing” makes, how that might calm you and bring you to a place where you are more free to turn toward God


If you are not a God person, imagine something “like” God, and look for that throughout your day.

Don’t get fancy.

Just what could be “like” God in your life, whether that might be nature, or the smiles on other people’s faces, or happiness, or artistic or musical beauty, or a good cup of soup.

Your search, your game, your learning, dis-covery.

Good.

day 103 , emotions as actions, so let's move toward free

this picture is New Year's Day, a bunch of us nuts went in the lake for about 20 seconds

Emotional freedom

Let’s play with options.

Let’s play with feelings.

Take someone you still aren’t that crazy about. Find some things “wrong” with them.

Imagine doing the Work, the four questions, the turn around. Maybe even do the Work.

But here’s the deal: play with your feelings toward them.

Try out anger, and fear, and amusement, and enjoyment, and curiosity, and love, and distain, and admiration, and respect, and scorn, and loathing, and being charmed by them.

Give yourself emotional elbow room.

You aren’t a robot, but people often have such stuck reactions to people.

Be free.

Be complicated.

Enjoy your options of feelings for lots of people today.

94: Question 3 again: How do I make Hell for Me?

The Work of Byron Katie, Question Three, again: the consequences. How do I react and how do I live when I attach to the thought/ belief/ story that…?

Take some person who has been bugging you. Write a couple of shoulds or shouldn’ts about them. Then ask questions one (Is it true?) and two (Can I absolutely know that it is true?), and then add question three. How do you react and live when you attach to the thought?

You’ve done this before.

And many a wise or semi-wise person has said something to the effect of: “It’s not the thing that happens, it’s your reaction to the thing that matters in your life and your emotional well being.”

So once more, pen or pencil in hand, write down this question #3 laundry list of what happens to you when you believe in, when you indulge in, when you take as truth and reality the thought.

Write the list down. Writing slows. Writing helps us see it rather than just “feel” it. Writing clues us into the how the piling up of one bad feeling and attitude and behavior can come from the attachment to the simplest of thoughts.

The list is a big set of possible ways of being bummed out by our reaction to life.

It will include feelings.

It will include physical states.

It will include behavior patterns.

It will include how you do or want to treat the other.


Let’s take an example: So and so shouldn’t be so critical.

You imagine them being critical and write what happens: maybe like this: I get scared. I get angry. I want to run away. I want to attack. I bad mouth them to others. I feel small. I feel like a child again. I lecture them. I am critical of their criticalness. I feel tight and hard to breathe inside. I give them “the look” when they come near me. I cringe when someone mentions their name. I avoid events that I know they will be at. I wonder what I “did wrong.” I obsess about what they are “doing wrong.”

And so on.

Let the list get so long and top heavy that it begin, almost, to crumble, of its own accord.

Good.

92: But I don't want to forgive. Ah, to be human and stuck, welcome to the LIfe on Earth show

But I don’t want to forgive

Don’t. Until it happens not by decision but by ease.

You have someone bothering you. Oh, well.

Keep playing with question #3 and question #4 (of the Byron Katie work): Who are you and how do you react and how do you feel when you believe and attach to the thought?

(Can almost all the inner agony thoughts be boiled down to a “should” or “shouldn’t” thought? Yes.)

Compare and distinguish who you are and how you feel when you don’t believe the thought, don’t attach to it, don’t “buy into” the “should” or the “shouldn’t” about the other person.

Just go back and forth and realize the choice is yours.

It’s not about “forgiving.”

It’s about choosing where to put our attention: on the “should” or “shouldn’t” we attach to another person, or on the present where we can experience our experience right now.

Without words.

Even if the “bad” other person is right in the room, snarling at us. We can just look. No “they shouldn’t snarl” words.

They can be yelling at us. We can step farther away, so as not to hurt our ears, and watch them go through whatever they are going through.

Obviously something is bothering them.

Maybe we hurt their feelings. Maybe they don’t feel loved. Maybe they have old issues they are acting out.

Doesn’t matter. Just watch, and if it looks like they need a hug, ask if they’d like one. If it looks like they need an enemy, and you don’t feel like being yelled at anymore, bow and walk out and go do something else.

They are who they are.

It’s not forgiveness that matters. It’s the freedom to follow our breathing, and sense ourselves and look at them without demands or complaints, the freedom to be a real human being. This is what matters. Keep up living this way, today.

77: Other people are what they are, big surprise

Other people are what they are

This is a world full of people, perhaps too full, but that is a statement that could be put to the, “Is it true?” test.

So there are either too many people, or not enough people, or just the right amount of people, and this is life, there are other people around us.

And, the world being what it is, if we have any spunk and vitality and individuality, sooner or later this is going to “rub someone else the wrong way.” Meaning, they don’t like how we act, or think, or talk, or dress, or….

The list goes on and on,

Often what people get upset about is ---surprise, surprise—what we get upset about: they don’t think we listened, or respected, or appreciated, or help, or like them enough.

We’ve had these feelings about others.

Others have these feelings about us.

This is how life is.

Good.

So, we are playing the letting other people be what they are and loving it game today.

Look at it like this: they are pretty much fully going to keep doing what they always do. Maybe a little suggestion can get through to them. Usually not.

For now, try this today: just as much as possible love whatever their point of view, their wishes, their set up in life. What are they all about? How does their world work? What is “good” for them? What is “bad?” What is going well for them? What is not going so well?

Maybe you can be of use or service, maybe not, but leave yourself out of it, except to be happily and playfully present to the other people in your life today.

See what this feels like.

See what the present can bring for you and for them.

It could be quite amazing. Enjoy finding out.

Day 54: Nice vs. Kind

Real vs. “nice”, or something like that

To be nice. Ah, we all like “nice” people, and tons of “being nice” has to do with pleasing other people, which has a lot of do with socially arranged parameters of what other people “require” to keep their comfortable “sleep” going.

All this is conceptual frame-working on my part. Search around and see if there’s any truth in there for you.


For starters, though, let’s try some distinctions: Nice vs. Kind. Kind means of “kin,” which means treating people like family, assuming the family is a good one. Sometimes being “kind” can seem “un-nice,” as by saying, “I love you and no.” No, you can’t borrow the car. No, you can’t have the money. No, you can’t keep trashing the living room.


Let’s try another. “Nice” vs. being present. In the present we might notice someone isn’t feeling well, and try to make their day better. That could be “nice.” We might also notice that they are trying to manipulate us and work to be both kind and not manipulated.

We might notice, “This person is really acting weird,” and ask, “What’s going on? Something seems to be really bothering you?”

Being “nice,” might mean hiding this. Being kind might mean trying to find what’s bothering them.

And being present might be just being curious: what’s going on here? Is my guess correct about outer reality?

Being present might be looking at the person and seeing an unhappiness.

Being present might be realizing that when we are present, we are relatively happy. We don’t have to drown, or to feel like drowning, or to even “feel bad” about another person drowning, to save them, to be of use.

Play with these ideas today. See what present centered kindness is like for you. Be kind to yourself all day, too!

Day 41: It's done: the turn around

The “turn around,” As in: Judge your neighbor; Write it down; Ask four questions; “Turn it Around”

Take any two shoulds or shouldn’t that you have worked on in “doing the work” on someone.

Experiment with the “turn around.” In this you put the onus of change and learning and correction on yourself.

Like this:

“So and so should be nicer to me.

Turn around one:

“I should/ could be nicer to so and so.”

Or, “So and so should accept me just as I am.”

Turns to: “I should accept so and so just as they are (including when they are being the one who doesn’t accept me.)”

Or, “So and so shouldn’t be angry at me.”
Turns around to: “I shouldn’t be angry at so and so (again, including being angry at them when they are angry at me).”


That’s one form of “Turn around,” reversing the air of who has to/ gets to change.

The other form is to go completely inside, like this:

“So and so should be kinder to me.”
Turns inwardly to “I should be kinder to me.”


And: “So and so should accept me just as I am.”
Turns to: “I should accept me just as I am.”


“That person shouldn’t be so angry with me.”
Going back to ourselves: “I shouldn’t be so angry with me.”

So today, look for judgments. Do the four questions if you have time, and either way: do the two forms of turn around.

A bunch of times. Great healing for our sense of humility.

Day Twenty-five, What if we didn't "Have to..."

DAY TWENTY-FIVE
What if we didn’t “have to”?

We sometimes go through our days, one event / job/ tasks to the next, all propelled forward by what we “have to” do next. It sometimes seems that half the time at least, we are lost from the present in what we are doing because as we near the end of one “have to” activity, we focus inside on “getting to” and then “how are we going to do it” about the next “have to” activity.

This is pretty easily seen for the missing out on the present it is, but in today’s aim, I’d like us to focus also on the burden of the “have to” that is lurking in our feelings all day.

What would we be like if we “just” did thing, or didn’t do things, without the nagging, or reminding, or persistent voice of this is what we “have to” do.

This writing now. I’m setting out to do so much today. I could be doing it to get rid of the “have to” voice that was coming up earlier. Then I realized that I could just write and let that voice be silent. Maybe I “had to” do this writing to fulfill a goal I’d set for myself. Maybe I didn’t.

All that seemed like a waste of energy as I was getting in a car to drive in the rain. I could leave the voice behind and just get into the car, sense myself on the seat, follow my breathing.

And now I’m writing.

Feels such and such in my arms and legs and spine.

Maybe I have to do it, maybe I don’t. The Universe will get along just fine if I don’t, and I’m enjoying do it, and what can you feel in yourself right now.

And what if, after you’ve read this chapter and imagined a day without the “have to “ voice inside, you took a little “rest” after reading this chapter. A little pause where you “did nothing” and didn’t think about what you “have to” do next, or “have to” do today. You just sat, or stood, or walked, or lay down, or lay down and moved around. Then you got up and discovered yourself doing what you did next. Have that day.

the end of suffering

DAY TWENTY-THREE: THE END OF SUFFERING
The beginning of wisdom

In the fourth question of the Byron Katie work, we are asked to ask ourselves what life would be like, what we would be like, if we didn’t believe the big bad story. Or, we didn’t attach to the thought. Or, we didn’t hold onto our opinion. Or, we just looked at Reality without the requirements that our judgment/ story/ thought/ belief/ concept puts on it.

And this looking at the world without the story is not a requirement, as in, “Just let go,” or “Just drop it,” or “Just move on.” (That amazing little “just” again.)

No, this question is to give our minds something to do besides grind over and over with our conviction of being right.

Recall question #3: How do you react when you attach to the thought?

And add on question #4: Who or what are you when you don’t attach to the thought?

You and I and any of us always have this choice: to look at the world thought the lens of “should” and “shouldn’t”, which is pretty much what every judgment boils down to.

Or to look at the world as It Is.


So, for today and tomorrow, play with this. Feel the troubled statements and thoughts and feelings and opinions come up in you and do the contrast game: Who am I, and how do I feel, live and react when I believe the thought/ idea/ concept/ story/ belief/ opinion.

And who am I and how to I feel, live and react if the outer world were just the same (“just!”), and we had no demand that it be different with our thinking/ believing/ demanding/ opinioning/ story making.

The trick then is to find the thought, the should or shouldn’t behind any feeling of unhappiness, stress or unease.

And then to write down the sentence. Make it short. “So and so should like me more.” “X should be more interested in me.” “Y should treat other people better.” And so on. Then, if you want to do the first two questions first, the Is it true question and the Can I absolutely believe it’s true question, fine.

Otherwise hang out with the comparing game: this is my mind and life and state of being when I believe the statement.

And this is me and my mind and heart and life without believing the thought.

Have fun.

Don’t be good. You don’t have to drop the belief. Just keep noticing the difference, and as Katie says, the belief just might drop you.
(“Just”!)

Be angry but do not sin

THREE: EMOTIONAL WAKING UP
Be angry but do not sin.

This is from the Bible, which I don’t read, except sporadically, but when I’m visiting Gunnison, Colorado, I go to the church of my host, my old high school buddy, Mark Ritter. And in one of the reading today, from Ephesians 2:26, was this bit of pleasant and useful wisdom:

BE ANGRY, BUT DO NOT SIN. DO NOT LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOUR ANGER.


What does this mean?

Somehow this invites us to be real, since human beings all get angry, and to distinguish between having and feeling and even being a little or a lot shaken up by our anger and acting it out.

Distinctions.

That’s the basis of upgrading ourselves, via learning, via the brain, via making real connections: learning differences that make a difference.

Be angry: feel it.

Do not sin: don’t punch another, swear at another, use the “tone” on another. Don’t even gossip behind the other’s back.

Just be angry, and if you want, find our where that really came from. And guess what: not expressing it and acting it out, keeping it inside ourselves gives a hugely better chance that we’ll wise up and discover what is really bothering us


Later the Work of Byron Katie will be offered as part of our 108 days feast of opening to an aware and happy and useful life.

For now though, today’s work, part one, is the feel our anger and annoyance, and not act it out. Even in our heads, even the going over and over and over about how wrong/ bad/ stupid/ inconsiderate/ etc. the other was.

Just feel the burning.


BE ANGRY BUT DO NOT SIN.
It could mean being curious about what is bothering that other person.

It could mean simply (simply!) coming back to the present of sensing arms and legs and spine and breathing and feeling / sensing what the anger “does” to us physically. (The quotes are to imply, we could more honest say: “What we do to ourselves by believing the thoughts that make us angry.” More on thoughts and anger/ upset/ emotional pain when we come to the work of Byron Katie).

For now: don’t be too good. Admit, feel, taste our own anger.

Be wise and don’t act on the anger.


And the second part of today’s awareness and waking and transformation project:

DO NOT LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOUR ANGER.

If you live with someone, before you go to sleep, get clear with them so you don’t even have the anger any more.

How to do that?

Lots of ways. We’ll start with this: ask, without demanding, for what you want. “I wish you’d talk in a nicer tone of voice to me.” “I wish you’d spend more time with me.”

No complaining.


No attacking.
No demanding. (The difference between request and demand is huge in a relationship and will be the game/ exercise all on it’s own some day down the line.)

Just ask.

Think about this, and practice ending your day clear and no longer angry today.


This is a big lesson: first, to distinguish between anger and not acting on it, and two: to let the angry rest before you get into bed and sleep. There are certain religious communities that set out to be truly Christian, not just word Christian, and this is one of their main practices: to clear up all anger toward anyone else in the community before they go to sleep at night.

What's love got to do with it?

in any life
there are disappointments

well, in any life that
the mind carries expectations,
there are disappointments

there are several ways
of responding:

sorrow

anger

feeling cheated

these are all "normal"
and
with intelligence
and self love
can be seen to lead only to more suffering


so,
what are we to do?

the work of byron katie,
perhaps

or,
to realize
that right now
we can be
present
to something
real
and that that
something real
is the core
of our life
right now


if this doesn't
make
sense

be curious
if you have time
to read
it
again

Jesus and Katie

sunrise cactus on the desert, TUCSON



fun book
i just fell
into:

The Shack


a big deal Christian
Novel

but with brain and

heart:


close to Katie:

notice the judgment
and the judging keeps
us stuck

Katie has a way out

the book let's the main character
discover the hell
of his judging


also:

the book is
about Loving

and letting go of the good/bad
world

tricky

and
the old saying:

you can be right
or
you can be happy

isn't as easy
to live

and when
lived:

sweetness,
freedom,
clarity

openess to whatever is next

no: openess to now
turning into whatever
is next


good