76: Real choices, all the time

If reality is “enough” then what?

Today is like this: thinking and feeling and experiencing everything as two possibilities.

One, the possibility of “this sucks.” I.e. you don’t “like” the reality. So we’re at question three in the Katie work: How do you react when you attach to the thought…that in some way Reality should be different.

Two, the possibility in question four: Who or what would you be without the story/ thought/ belief that this little chunk of reality should be different. The possibility of “loving what is.”

And that doesn’t mean you can’t go get a pair of socks if your feet are cold, it’s just the you won’t take it personally that your feet are cold. That’s what is now, and doing something about it is one of the main games and joys of life.

So we put on socks and put on smiles and write letters, and go to work and get stuck in traffic.

Some things we can change, our socks. Some things we might not be able to change, the traffic.

And everything is fair game to try out: demanding that reality be the way we want it, and “letting” reality be what it is. As if we had a choice.

See how much you can smile today as reality keeps on being “what it is” without any push or pull from us.

And if you don’t feel like smiling, see what that is about.



And how does today play out if you play with seeing and hearing and sensing reality as something you can complain about and as something you can experience and love.


Enjoy.

67: To heaven, one breath remembered/ sensed/felt/ enjoyed at a time

One breath and awakening at a time

We breathe in. The first sentence of the book was something to that effect. Maybe the last will be a breathing sentence also.

This is our sentence in life: you want to live, breathe. It’s the law of motion, the law of life. No breathing, no fire inside (metaphorical, and the real deal: oxygen combining with our food to combine real heat in our real bodies), no fire inside no energy, no energy, no motion, no motion, no life.

So be it.

And most life doesn’t require and/ or have the gift that we humans have, the gift of awareness.

We can be aware that we are breathing.

Right now, we can be aware that we are breathing.

And right now, too.


This is so cool. You don’t have to wait until the “time is right” to be aware of your breathing. You can be healthy or not so. You can be beautiful, or not so. Young or old, rich or poor, blah or blah, you get the point and even while reading these little ink spots on the page, or pixels on the computer, or hearing these vibrations in the air, you are either: breathing in, at a pause between breathing in and breathing out, breathing out, or at a pause between breathing out and breathing in.

Holding the breath you have to be in one of those pauses, and whatever we start up doing once the holding is done gives us a clue where the pause was.

And that doesn’t matter.

Doesn’t even matter that we are breathing in or out.

Just the game matters, and only to you if you want it to. What fun can you have today seeing sensing noticing feeling enjoying exploring just where you are in the breathing game?

That’s it.

Heaven is this moment with nothing more required. Following or sensing our breathing is one way to come to the moment. Keep returning and returning. Enjoy. Enjoy.

Twenty One: First time through: Awake while talking

DAY TWENTY ONE
Sensing ourselves, arms and legs, even when talking

We are programmed over and over and over to put our attention “out there” when we are talking. And that attention has a huge amount to do with spending a lot of time “up here” in our heads, preparing our next batch of words.

Usually we are preparing our next batch of words while the other person is still talking.

Usually we listen to but the first sentence, or maybe even less of what another person says before we go “up here” into our heads, to find the right tape loop, the right prerecorded offering that we will send out as our next bit of talking.

And even when we don’t do that, the words, as we speak them represent ideas we are so attached to, or feelings we are so attached to, or phrases we’ve said over and over and aren’t really attached to at all, we just spill / recite / spew / unwind them out.

This may seem a harsh view of human communication.

Oh, well. Sense your arms and legs as you “think” in your minds, what’s wrong with this.

And speak out loud to this page, to this book, speak out loud your objections in at least two different ways.

One just speak them out.

Two, as you speak, sense your arms and legs.

Three, see if you can think of something else to awaken your awaring to while you speak these words aloud.


And then, as game, as play, as practice, see if you can sense your arms and legs while talking to other people and while listening to other people talk to you.

See if you can catch your preparing your spiel halfway through their talking, and see if you can drop that talking inside and sense yourself and “just listen.”

“Just listening” is huge. Give it a try, “just listen” as you sense your arms and legs and hear their words. Then sense your arms and legs as you talk.

This is my life, 1

River near the house I'm staying in Gunnison, CO


DAY SEVEN: THIS IS MY LIFE, 1
This is my life in gravity, this is my life in…

This is my life right now.

This is today’s game/ exercise/ meditation/ activity. Throughout the day, say to yourself, aloud or not aloud, “This is my life.”

This moment, while you read or hear these words: This is your life. The moments on the toilet, in the shower, getting into your car, getting out of your car, “thinking” about what you are going to or “have to” do, this is your life.

The time spend worrying or arguing or regretting or planning or gossiping or talking mindlessly, or mindfully, on the phone or in the grocery store: this is your life.

At work, you are looking at a computer, talking to someone, pounding in a nail, lifting a rock, soothing a child: this is your life.

And let’s make it bigger and more concrete: as you say, over and over, “This is my life,” sense your skeleton, especially arms and legs and spine, in gravity. And sense your breathing in air. And notice sounds coming in your ears. And light coming in your eyes.

This is our life.

Now.

What is the tone of it, as we say this each time? Shock? Delight? Horror? Gratitude? Fear? Anger?

Those feelings are an indication of something, of a lot.

Don’t analyze them during the day but you might want to journal a bit about your discoveries as you go through the day saying, “This is my life.”

Good.

Thanksgiving One

why just one day of thanks

let me start now:

the blue sky

the rains

the green growing Earth

my breathing

the sweet sound of my friend's voice

the wind in the leaves, golden turning

the ability to know
now
that
I am alive

and the amazing peace
in silence of observing
Self, Life, Earth
from a no word, silent
place

Peace



hmmm
that's a good start