Day Fifteen: “It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“It is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

This phrase, from Jesus, comes in the Bible shortly after ar rich man who “wants it all” is told by Jesus: okay, you’ve been good, that’s great, now give away everything to the poor and follow me.

What would “giving away all our possessions?” mean in this esoteric Christianity of love and being present that I am exploring as part of this book?

Like this: what are our “possessions?” Wow, everything we put “my” in front of. My home, my ideas, my country, my family, my beliefs, my books, my concepts, my name.

All the stuff that comes up, “No,” when we get present and dwell in the moment and ask, from that place: “Who am I really?”

I am “So and so,” (our name). “No.”

I am a man/ woman. Well, biologically, yes indeed, but is this correct to who we Really are, as we sense and aware in the moment? Try it out: sense and aware right now and see, outside of concepts and social behaviors and patterns of actions, is man/ woman who we really are?

You decide.

Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, TV watcher, book reader, ecologist, not caring: these again, fit us into various crowds we “like” or “don’t like,” but are they who we really are?


Play with this today: if you were to die to your possessions of all the “my” this and “my” that, would nothing be left, or would something that is the essential you?

And see if unhappiness today, as it comes and goes, has anything to do with so called “identification” (or clinging) to these various conceptual and material possessions in our life.

This is game. This is an exploration. This is huge. Enjoy.

Day 52: What to do? Wake up to who we really are.

Without the story, and the froth: who am I?

We are all real and amazing at our core.

And: those are just words: “real and amazing” But who are you are your core? Can you sense yourself in the present and add on being aware of what you are hearing in this instant, and add on light coming into your eyes, and from the fullness and stillness of that, discover/ sense/ feel/ understand/ experience who you are?


This is today’s assignment. Discover yourself when you are being who you really are, and when you aren’t.

And this is tricky ( and fun). As soon as you concoct a set of words about “Who am I?” you might want to ask if the experience of yourself in that moment has anything to do with the words that you use to paint the picture/ explanation of “Who am I?”


Tricky, tricky.

Fun, fun.


And somewhere in there, if you are in the mood, you can let the work of Byron Katie help you, if you come up with thoughts like, “I should be able to do a better job of saying, or knowing, ‘Who I really am?’”

And if you start to think, “I am a mother, I am a farmer,” go a little deeper, ask what else you are, or what’s beneath the “doing” roles we have.

Who are you?

What are you?

Who are you really?


Be calm, and easy, and persistent and playful and open and keep asking and listening and experiencing: Who are you?

Eating, walking, working, talking, quiet, keep asking: Who am I?

Day 4: What if God were around?

two versions of God: William, and raw chocolate pie



DAY FOUR
Open the Door:


What if there is a God? What would that or it or Her or Him 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 sensing 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. Doesn’t matter. Keep your awareness open for moments of that and see what difference this makes in your day.


What if God is too big or amazing for words?

Then what would the wordless big experience of God be like?

What if your God, is a “something really great and good” in the Universe kind of God. What would experiencing that for a day be like?

“By God,” as the saying goes, what would that be like?

Us vs. Them

Us vs. Them

When we give someone we love one of our few last strawberries, or say even the last strawberry, we are happy. Their pleasure in the strawberry is our pleasure.

But if someone we “don’t like,” or even someone we profess to “love,” but have a kind of competitive/ I’m not getting enough attitude with, “takes” one of our last strawberries, we feel deprived.

Think about how this operates.

Think about what is the difference, really, between “us” and “them.”

Why do we Love?

why do we love???
??
??

Because it's fun

because it's who we are

because we've gotten a bit
of wisdom
and have discovered
that anything else
hurts

because
it keeps us alive
and vital
and learning something new
from others and ourselves
and
the Earth

be cause

be calm

be now

if you can

otherwise
love

wherever
you are

and that
will bring
you back

home

Ramadan

One theory
of the angry Muslims

is favored by a professor
of something of other,
named,
I believe
Bernard Lewis:

his theory:
arabs at forefront of world
knowledge
back in 800's and
so on,
even up to 1300's

then they are in backwater
of discovery
and science
and industrialization
and stuff

and so
they resent
the European / North American
world for getting ahead
of them

and so,
they need to act
out
lash out
and so on

fine
fine
theories
can explain anything

but,
i'd say
to Bernard,
try Ramadan,
for a month,
don't eat until after sundown

or
do the modified
Ramadan i'm trying:
just eat for a few hours
in mid day

and see:
what it feels like
to have a different
connection to food
and hunger
and self control
and waiting
and inner purpose
than most of the rest
of the world

or different
than ourselves at other times

maybe inferiority
is part of it

maybe superiority
to fast most of the day
is to do something
many cannot

to focus on something
higher than the belly
is to make religion
not just words,
but a daily
deep inposition

a deep stance
as it were

and to say nothing
of the irritability
hunger can bring
at first
and then
a learning
that we can change
and that these habits
don't need to rule us

what has this got
to do with Bernard Lewis:
well,
try a week of eating essential one meal a
day
and see
if you feel different
that the rest of
the world

and different
than how you usually feel

my recommendation:
eat earlier in the day
rather than later

interesting note:
two of the five obligations
to all Muslims:
fasting in the month of Ramadan
and hospitality to anyone in need

you can see how they'd go together,

Coming Soon: DNA Yoga

Well,
just what the world needs, right,
a new form of yoga?

And then,
again,
in a way,
this is a return to the ancient form of yoga,
and perhaps it is exactly what the world needs.

And what is the ancient form?
A search for inner stillness
and inner peace
and inner connection
to Something Higher,
either in ourselves
or in the Universe.

Ananda (the A in DNA) Yoga,
is all about connecting to this Higher.
The intension is the concentrate on
sending energy up the spine
to the area of the front brain
called the third eye.

To help this along
every pose
has an affirmation attached:
With calm Faith I open to Thy Light.
I am calm and poised.
I joyfully manifest the power of God (my Higher Self)

and so on.

DNA

Discovery.
As in taking advantage of how Moshe Feldenkrais
re-explored how children learn,
by "mistakes:"
and variations
and experimenting
and being in the process.
Yoga is often so dreary with its
emphasis on
This is the Right Way.

The Right Way
may indeed be a fine way,
but if the human being
can't discover and know that
for herself or himself,
it's just one more Rule
that is pushing us around.

So, DNA yoga will be about discovery.

And N,
Nature.
As much as possible,
classes will be outside,
bare feet on grass, for
the standing poses.

As much as possible
the class will be about not
Doing it Right,
but discovering
what it is to be a human being,
a breathing
and living in gravity
and having awareness
human being on this planet earth.

A
for Ananda Yoga.

A for
Awareness.

a delight.
a way out of our misery
a way back to ourselves.
a way to wake up
to the glory of life.

Call me
if you have a time
you'd like this
DNA yoga to be taught.

707-996-1437

'
Also:
weekend workshops'
will be set up
to combine DNA yoga,
Feldenkrais
and the Work of Byron Katie

Talk about transformative possibilities.

Wow.

If we want to be happy

We can do a couple of really great things.

One,
we can decide that this is our right
and our duty to be joyous
into the world.
Joyous as an affirmation
of why we are here,
in the midst of this miracle of life.

Two,
we can pull the plug on our unhappiness.
Easiest and most thorough
to do this,
is one vriti at a time.
Here the good old Work of Byron Katie
helps wash away our suffering
and makes it very clear how to
deal with other people.

three,
get clear,
as Byron Katie says,
that what other people do, say and feel and think
is their business.
If we let it get to us,
that's something we
did to us,
and we can do the work on.

If we wish to be free.

Four,
wish to be free.

Five,
live in the present
where there are no
words to make ourselves
miserable with
by discribing any story
about how what is
should be different.

No words,
no comparisons that lead to suffering.

Good comparison:
which is warmer right now,
your right or your left hand.
Which feels longer: your spine
or your left leg.

Six,
find real things to pay attention to.

SEven,
have some awareness and gratitude
reserved for the miracles,
the miracle of having awareness,
and life,
and being in this great game.

Ciao,
Chris

What are the sweetnesses in our life?

The smile of ones we love,
the song of a bird,
the flight of the hummingbird,
the smell of sweet food,
the taste of cool water,
the richness of the Earth,

a song
a chant
a walk
a dream
a pathway
an ocean
a cloud
a happy child
a happy us

and on
and on

where does the sweetness in life
come from
does it have a source?
what would a life lived in the sweetness
more often be like?
who are we really?
where does the sweetness come from?
where do we go when we forget it?

Who am I? Who are we all?

Who am I? Who are you? The busier I am inside the words in my head, the bigger the false picture I can create of who I am, and how I am different than you. If I hold Marlie’s hands and close my eyes and follow my breathing, I become a calmness, I become breathing, I become Life aware of Itself. Then when I open my eyes, and look at my sweet friend, I am her. The me, me, me has dissolved, and I am just the one in my awareness.

Another name for this is love.

Another name for this is peace.

Enough of that, for now: this is, for now, a website devoted to the ideas behind my campaign for city council, and the ideas behind the philosophy of life that I have been discovering and evolving. The aim of the philosophy is to make sense of life.

So far, life makes this sense: we are here to wake up to the present, to be happy, to love life, to help others love life and themselves, to live in harmony with the Earth and take care of the Earth, to take care of those less fortunate than ourselves in a way that allows us to remain present, peaceful and happy. Happiness is not running around accumulating things. It is being present with a friend, a lover, a child, a rose, a pet, a forest, an ocean, a job you are doing and loving. Being present in your ordinary life.

This is good.

This is what the campaign is about: quality of life as everyday happiness, not some vague phrase.