Sharing the Dream … that always comes true

May 18, 2011May 18, 2011Leave a comment

When I was little I would often dream of flying. I remember the sensation vividly: as if my life depended on it I would energetically flap my outstretched arms like they were feathered wings. Yet somehow I was able to always remain aloft, just enough! just barely! sometimes only a few inches, but enough to escape the maddened crowd of people that pursued me from down below, angry because I could escape whatever they couldn’t.

This childhood dream came to me often. So often that I grew accustomed to the sensation of flying. It didn’t seem weird, or so very out of reach, to be able to keep aloft of the trials and tribulations of the anger, fear-riddled crowd so desperately wanting to pull me down to them. What they would have done to me, I never discovered. My only concern was to work as hard as I could, flap my non-winged arms, sweat buckets, and make sure I kept out of reach from their eager, unfriendly hands. That was my only mission in those flying dreams.

These dreams were a precursor for what my adult life would be. Often I find myself working really hard to stay in that state of interconnectedness I’ve found, and fostered, throughout the years. How did I find this inner state? By first discovering it (in a book: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran), and then pursuing various methods and numerous teachers, until I finally found how I could sustain that inner state of being-in-tune with the magical-flow-of-life. I was fortunate because my journey inevitably brought me to the teacher that was perfect for me, at the exact same time I was ready—really ready—to give up the other, dumber choices I was actively investigating: thoughtless action, mindless serendipity, leaf-in-the-wind decision-making, heavy-duty partying, All that got me nowhere. But when the right teacher came into my radar screen, I recognized what she brought: Truth.

Have you discovered your teacher yet?

in Love and Light, lorflea

Seek the teacher and s/he will find you

Staring at my feet

November 24, 2008November 24, 2008Leave a comment

Friends,

the importance of what i spend my time doing the most of has been central in my thinking of late. y’know: you are what you eat, and you certainly become what you think. that’s why i haven’t been bloggin’ as of late. wanted to keep centered in my heart, and not just spew, at least for the sake of spewing.

i do this occasionally. withdraw and feel life living me, instead of trying to be so active, so concerned, so consumed with “other” that i forget this experience of life itself. here’s another way of looking at it:

the interconnectedness of All

all i have is my self, and my Self–the little me that squirms with responsibilities and worries, and the big Me that knows there is more to this life than i’ll ever know…and to feel the majesty, the magic, the wonder of it all is more than enough for me to be concerned about. certainly enough upon which to base my creative energies’ pursuits–my arting, as i call it, whether i paint, draw, make a garden, a cake, or sew a sail, write a book–or blog.

this feeling of being connected to all came to me as a child. then i lost it. then i rediscovered it later, mostly through working on getting rid of the garbage that my mind collected over the years. now i have trained myself to stay as much as possible in that simple place, that inner place, where the breath connects with even the movement of faraway galaxies, and the knowledge, the Truth of feeling connected is real–this is my daily experience.

the drawing i use as an example shows us all in our “Higher Self”… our so-called “angelic” bodies…that part of our nature that is connected to the Highest good for all. yes–we all have that in our nature, whether you are aware of it or not, whether you exercise that birthright, that ownership of your highest nature, or not.

living in the moment; accepting our sacredness, our divine nature–our Higher Self: this is the way of living i want to share with you, not because of any other reason but my humble offering to help make the world a better place to live in.

we are not all just scrambling around trying to get something to eat, or make happen, or elect, or conquer, or succeed, or even be good at. but yes, we all exisit as individual cells within the larger “thing” that makes up this known reality…what is called the Universe (and some call, simply, “God”).

we are all One, breathe, and feel: Truth

many other things have passed my mind, and of course i’ve been doing many (many!) other things since my last entry here. don’t worry. some of you who read my blog might think i’m just a holy-roller who only sits around contemplating my navel. but no—-i have a family, a job, lots of social duties, and creatively i’m consumed by writing a nonfiction narrative, illustrated, naturally, which i am debating about uploading here, so i can let you, friends on my web, read as i write, day by day. but…i haven’t decided to or not. ha ha! all i can say for now is…writing this book is certainly my immediate, and main creative focus, not this blog.

my garden has been covered with an entire truckload of mulch, delivered free by a tree-man who took down a big One over at my mother’s place. Carter and i’ve been doing lots of HOT HOT yoga, in our little yoga shed, which i call the santosa shack (santosa being contentment in Sanskrit). we chant, we meditate, we even attend his church, ahhweeee, diversity in God-liness! lots of cooking (made dosas twice this past couple weeks…a lentil and rice fermented east Indian flat bread, terribly exotic tasting, and terribly nutritious because of the legume and grain mixture). what else? oh so much biking, hiking, rehabing my knee, still injured from dancing too fiercely at daughter’s wedding way back in June. injuries take energy. life takes care. time is precious. do i use it wisely? i try to. when i lay my head down on my pillow, i feel rewarded by deep, comforting, beautiful sleep. what a gift, life is.

i will do a page next, i promise, on a subject i’ve been thinking a lot about: what to say to someone who is really, truly, either physically, spiritually, or mentally suffering. because recently i ran into an old acquaintance, who has all the world at her feet: she’s rich, successful, socially powerful and consciously humanitarian beyond measure—but—she’s absolutely miserable. the only outer proof, however, is that of her uncontrollable, mind-numbing, self-pitying drinking. of course she’s in denial about having a drinking problem. and i simply can’t share with her my own experience in that matter (being in alcohol and drug addiction recovery now for my third decade)…but i can post a page here. perhaps one day a chink will open in her tightly-bricked-up facade, and what a person formerly-miserable (me) has to share with another who still is (her), will make a difference.

a little light in the well of darkness, that’s all i attempt to do…with my art, with my words, and now with this public web-spew.

so look on the right hand side in a day or say and you’ll see a new page. those pages stay up, where this post side changes when i enter a new one.

whew! i finally figured that out! now, if only i can find my beautiful color paintings. let me see, let me try again. a treat for you, perhaps?

plants, animals, mineral--we are all One

i love each and every one of you, truly! lord flea

we’re more similar than dissimilar

September 25, 2008September 25, 2008Leave a comment

hi world,

do you recognize yet how much more similar all we humans are than dissimilar?

we are One

these days i’m thinking about the warm inside feeling i get when i think about behind human, particularly at this auspicious time in human history. things are in such flux, aren’t they? the world is quickly changing. people are becoming awakened in record numbers than any other time, and ancient prophecies of “the time of reckoning” is quickly approaching (2012, I believe has been mentioned by many sources, as being pivotal to earthly existence). things will never be the same again after 9.11, i knew that the day it occured. that heart-stopping black tuesday. i was not there, but it felt like i was. i had visions of the event in my meditations that have greatly influenced my thinking, and the purpose of my life.

and now, less than 40 days before the november election, everyone here in America is all heated up with the passions of choices and preferences! yes yes yes, now is the time to be heated! yes yes yes. get out there and do whatever you can to ensure your choice gets elected … speak, shout, argue, implore, poll, canvas–do whatever it takes.

but–and this is the difference between spiritualized peole and non-spiritualized–when the tally has been counted and the new president has been elected, please commit to supporting whomever is elected. whichever party ends up in power (it is a party thing, not an personality contest, right?), it is the Spiritually Correct (SC instead of PC, ha ha!), the humanly right thing to do, to support an elected official that has been chosen by the democratic process we honor in the U.S.A.

after 9.11 a lot of people started to bad mouth our current president, George W. Bush. to tell you the truth, i wasn’t any happier than the next guy about what was going on, but i nonetheless felt it was my spiritual duty to support him. why? because things are never what they appear to be. i feel very strongly that i, as a private citizen (even though pretty well informed, compared to some) can never know what the insiders, the diplomats, the elected representatives of the citizenry knows. how could a private person possibly think they can know what the politicians, the military, the professionals in charge of information-gathering and decision making know. it’s simply not possible.

we don’t know how to perform brain surgery, most of us, but we do allow a surgeon to do his job without interfering in his methods. similarly, i have determined it’s the spiritually correct thing to do to support our leaders, once they’ve been democratically elected, which mr. Bush, for better or for worse, was. the time for dissention is over, in my SC committed existence, once the election is over. and with bush, the time to bitch was over late in Nov. ’00, then then again in ’04.

so…be it wrong or right…i have learned to make a decision based on my spiritual “correctness” gauge (what would my teacher do…in any particular case? i ask myself) and have since the beginning of his term, decided to give Bush the benefit of the doubt, and not voice dissent, even though in my heart i was no more certain of his methodology than the next guy (hey! does that brain surgeon have to use that scapel, need to take that tissue sample? right then? over there?). deciding to support our legally-elected leader doesn’t mean my confusion was cleared away by my decision to do the spiritually correct thing. no, it simply means that i remain silent when others gather to discuss and usually end by dissing the current administration, for daring to do what they did. i’m quite sick of the ugly dissention and hope this upcoming election will end it. it probably won’t. it seems human nature is for people to bitch. that’s why political ads, just as toothpaste ads, love to put down their competitors. it’s base, ugly, non-spiritualized human nature, and unfortunately, that kind of half-asleep-ness is still the majority of the population throughout the world.

YET…the consciousness of all is awakening. the time for awareness–the real CHANGE–is happening.

is it wrong or right to support an unpopular leader of a nation that elected him, when so many others seem to delight in dumping on g.w.? even though many feel he stole the election from gore? who am i, to be so presumptuous, to think i know more than the tens-of-thousands of people involved in the presidential decision, to think what he’s done is wrong? how insanely presumptuous that thought is, to me.

but for the answer to my inner questions, i have to go within.

going within in times of turmoil

when in doubt, i always find my true answers within. not by listening to the conflicting opinions of intellectuals, fast-talking political pundits, or even the opinion of my friends, associates and the vastly popular, majority opinion. i go within to discover what my heart-mind says is true–for me–and i listen to no one when i go within. i listen to the Source of All.

going within, resting in the heart-mind

this is the process i call “awareness, acceptance, action.” i use this three-part process for each and every tiny or large step i’ve taken, in my journey to undo my childhood hang-ups, neurosis, mental tendencies and obstructions, or any other challenges that have blocked my ability to live a happy peaceful productive life. whether it’s political, personal, or universal concepts i need to figure out, i do so with “awareness, acceptance, action” and have thus learned to function at an amazingly high happy level of inner peace…most of the time.

like the Dalai Lama said in a book i read by him recently, “i’m not perfect. i just keep trying. i recongize my mistakes, and try to do better the next time.”

the above painted screen is my way of trying to render in imagery, and humbly duplicate the extremely calmly experience of becoming aware…and once aware, simply sitting in the feeling of that new awesome state, so expansive, so honey-rich with wellness, blissfully full.

this screen (two-sided) is my weird way of trying to say “the acceptance of awareness” feels awfully damn great!! beautiful enough to create fine art about.

when i’ve accepted something (like higher consciousness), i no longer have any inner (or outer) dialogue of dissention. it simply is.

how to connect with the state of awareness: take long, deep breathes somewhere quiet, alone, serene, clean. put any issue, situation, person, etc. into that center of quietness, once you have reached the place (through continued deep breathing) where disturbing thoughts no longer pierce the emptiness of pure awareness (within us all). then… just listen. listen to the Truth that emanates from the heart-mind (of all). serenity fills (all). Truth is pure love (in all). Truth is pure awareness (for all). Truth is “seeing” things that you cannot discern in “ordinary” states of consciousness (awake, sleeping, thinking, analysing, etc.). Truth is also God speaking, but one must be very quiet in order to hear this, and have already gone through the stages of purification (no addiction, no neurosis leftovers, no inner chatter dissention) in order to “hear” this pure voice of the Divine that awaits us all … in emptiness.

often i receive answers to the questions i put out to the Universe. sometimes they’re as clear and as loud as inner “billboards.” sometimes i just receive a “feeling” — something like being allowed to bathe my aching hurt (mental, physical, or spiritual) in pure soothing Love. surrounded by the sea of Truth, the ocean of Love, the atmosphere of pure Bliss, the solution to problems becomes quite clear, quite simple, quite obvious. quite Right. learning to do this kind of discerning is called viveka, “spiritual discrimination,” in yogic scriptures. Truth is here all the time, if we can all learn to quiet our “monkey mind” as the buddhists call our inner chatter (also known as the “freight-train” mind in other circles), and learn to go within to tap this incredibe Source of wisdom.

once i realize my Truth i can take action.

inner wisdom as inspiration for worldly action!

and thus…the process of

awareness
acceptance
action

can easily take place within us all. but we must go within to do it. most of us are too lazy to go within, but–i’ve learned it’s so delicious that i actually look forward to the time when i can meditate, go within, and relax in my inner Self.

being human is about having choices. we all can go within and listen to our inner “guide,” that wisdom within, the Source that is innate, pure consciousness that’s available to all of us, which represents Truth. this inner Truth is more reliable than any politician’s campaign promise, or presidential decision. the inner Truth is, in fact, subliminally influencing our ever expanding grasp on evolutionary possibilities, more than any organized group or culture, be they religious, political, scientific, social, or philosophical.

i know that you are just like me: that we are One, that we all are connected by our inner consciousness. that is the Truth i have discovered in my quest for knowledge of what this life is all about.

the connectedness of all

truthfully, i trust no politician. democrat or republican. but i am voting, and my vote will be the best i can do. but whomever wins i will support wholeheartedly. i hope each and every one of my fellow americans will also support our newly elected leader. my wish is that we can leave this time of dissention behind us, and enter a phase of healing and growth that will help the entire world to come together as One.

in the Light, lord flea … sending gleaming banners of joyous, energizing white Light around the democratic process of election