The Seer

Most will agree, this haunting song by John Lennon has many levels of symbolic meaning — spiritual and otherwise. For your enjoyment and inspiration, here’s a video of street singers from around the world being recorded, overlayed and mixed with one another while singing the song “Stand By Me”. It’s a marvel to listen to and watch. They all deserve to be heard. The finished product is tremendous! So turn up the speaker volume and >>>Click Here.

~ Sent in by Linley Anderson – thanks Linley.

I’ve only just encountered the ‘Headless Way’ — a way of seeing Who or What you really are, pioneered by D E Harding and currently taught by Richard Lang … it’s an amazing thing to have discovered, especially given my past experiences of encountering the boundless space, and the changes in view I’m just going through.

I’ve had a very slow internet connection over the last few days; so slow that web pages sometimes take a couple of minutes to load. The www.headless.org site has been no exception. Interestingly, as the page loads, instead of the top tabs reading “Home”, “Douglas Harding”, Experiments” etc., in the brief moments before loading properly, they all read “home”. And that’s how I feel just right now. I have found “home”. All my remembered life, I have had glimpses of the eternal boundless space, but, paraphrasing Eliot, “I had the experience but missed the meaning”

Climbing in the Welsh mountains, poised on a rock face, my boundaries dissolve and I am one with the universe. Every small plant, the sky, the rocks, are glorious and detailed, glowing with light and I am not separate from the sky, from the mountain goat who springs through the mist, from the misty valley below Walking up a valley in the Wiltshire downs one spring morning, suddenly it’s as if someone has switched on a glorious light I have never seen before. I am nowhere but everywhere. The spring flowers glow, the sky is a heavenly azure blue, bird song is the most delightful sound I have ever heard. I am not separate. I am the world, the universe.

In church on Easter morning at dawn, under flickering candles. Instead of reading a sermon, Robert decides to fling open the doors and we sit in silence listening to the sound of a solitary blackbird. I am no longer “me”, the identified me which is within this parcel of flesh and bone and skin. I am everywhere. I am unbounded space. The sounds of the bird arise from within the space and fade and rise again in a glorious ripple of notes and silences. In a retreat centre in Bleddfa, doing the washing of the feet meditation. I am transported. I am not me, I am Mary washing the feet of Jesus and knowing I am going to lose him. I am in that eternal boundless space but full of the grief of the world.

In literature, certain things have moved me and stayed with me for reasons I have never been sure of. At school, I particularly loved Edward Thomas’ poem :”Adlestrop”, with its simple and elegant description of those timeless moments. Similarly, Eliot’s Four Quartets (for reasons which seem obvious now) and that glorious line in Kahlil Gibran’s “the Prophet” which reduced me to tears when first encountered: “For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.”

At one stage in my life I even longed for death. When confronted with cancer, I spent quite some time contemplating what death would be like, and far from finding it terrifying, eventually came to the point where death to me would be a reunion with the glorious boundless space. In my meditation as I “died” I felt myself distributed in particles of golden light back to join with the infinite, deep and tranquil unbounded space. Like a cosmic orgasm. On “return”, back to my body, I felt immensely sad and full of longing. Why did I have to spend more time away from this space? Why spend more years in my earthly body, when I could be part of the unbounded eternal space?

All these experiences which came unbidden have been transitory. I have revelled in the feeling of boundlessness, but know it will fade and I will be left lumpen in my solid and all too fleshy body, sad and full of longing for these glorious experiences. And as I think about them now, they have also all been experiences of losing myself completely in the boundless space… I no longer am “me”, but the boundless space (but if so, who is recognizing the experiences?).

I have, for the most part, conceptualized it as an either/or. Either I am “me” in my body, or I am the boundless space. The only real experience of anything other than this has been in Tantra practice, when I have had the experience of being both the boundless and infinite glorious universe surrounding me, and also at the same time, me. Shakti and Shiva, the giver and receiver, both at the same time… being in my body, and being the infinite space surrounding my body. Quite a glorious, but again relatively transitory experience.

Last week, by complete accident (or is anything ever a complete accident?) I found a link to the Headless Way website. It sounded quite whacky… but being a fairly experiential person, when I read the word “experiments”, and knowing I had some idle moments I decided to give them a go.

Exercise 1 — the pointing exercise. I point at the walls of my boat, at the table, at my knee, at my hand. I take in the shape and form, the edges and boundaries and the space between. I really look. And then I turn my pointing finger towards myself, towards my eyes. I feel my eyes going cross-eyed, trying to turn my eyeballs backwards to look at myself.

Then.. WHAM.. I’m looking into unbounded space. I am unbounded space (and apparently, everythng arising in it) — at this moment … and always!

~ by Carol Dent

“When you step out of the story you are free from suffering in separateness. But when you see that you are one with all, you find yourself in love with all. So you feel compelled to rescue others who are suffering in separateness…. When you know you are the Author, you want to creatively engage with the story, because you love the story. And you want to share your love of the story with the other characters, so that they can also come to love the story and all the characters in it…. Initially you have to step out of the story to recognize you are the Author. But when you recognize your true identity as Spirit, you must step back into the story and play your role in the great adventure of creating Heaven on Earth.”

~ From, The Gospel of the Second Coming by Timothy Freke p.172

Your spiritual awakening is not only for yourself, it is a gift you give to humanity. For the first time ever in our history, humanity needs desperately to awaken. If this does not happen, we are at risk of losing the life we know, of becoming a race extinct.

The Earth is faced with a radical crisis of yet unknown proportions. Never before have we had the capacity to pollute our air, food and water. Never before have we been so heavily armed and angry that a single incident (of ego reactivity) can spawn an all-out decimation of our population, the human race and the great animal kingdom we share this planet with.

As with any radical crisis, we are faced with a monumental choice: we continue to live and behave along the old patterns — the very patterns that brought us to this point of crisis – or we recognize that we have outgrown the old ways and we must rise above the familiar and evolve. In the crisis we face in the world today, both individually and collectively, the bottom line truth is this: we must evolve or die. It is that simple.

The true culprit for the many difficult and life-threatening problems we face in the world and in our lives is the dysfunction of the egoic mind that is unique to human beings. We may be more evolved than the animals with whom we share this planet, but our use of our higher brain function is not keeping pace. We are growing technologically much more quickly than we are spiritually. This presents a dangerous situation. This situation has been cooking for about a hundred years and is now a pressure cooker that can blow at any time.

Don’t be fooled by the New Age and New Thought promises that we can visualize our way out of the crisis and create a new world with our thought and vision. Evolution is not this easy. The evolution that will save humanity is not about a new belief system, a new religion, a new mythology, nor in creative, ways of using the mind and its thought. The evolution that will save humanity will be the transcendence of thought altogether.

The transcendence of thought is nothing more than discovering and realizing a dimension within yourself that is beyond thought. It is the source of thought itself. It is the true higher mind. And we know this mind, we recognize and connect to it, by the simple act of Presence, Being, and settling into a heart-based consciousness.

Our evolution is a shift from identification with form and ideas (ego consciousness) to the increasing awareness of our own existential Being. This is the flowering of human consciousness, and it is happening now, for the first time in such large numbers of people. It is happening now because it is imperative.

Awakening is the most urgent need of humanity and it is the primary purpose in your life.

~ by Eckhart Tolle

Q: Doctor Wong, I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?

A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that it … don’t waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take Nap!

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?

A: You must grasp logistical efficiency. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So steak is nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?

A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?

A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?

A: Can’t think of single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain … good!

Q: Aren’t fried foods bad for you?

A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food are fried these day in vegetable oil. In fact, they permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?

A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?

A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean — another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?

A: If swimming good for your figure, explain whale to me.

Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?

A: Hey! ‘Round’ a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways — Chardonnay in one hand — chocolate in the other — body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO-HOO, what a ride!!”

AND …

For those of you who watch what you eat, here’s the final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat … and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat … and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine … and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine … and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats … and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

~ Sent in by Theresa-Ann Harvey — Thanks Theresa-Ann

The Matrix is one of the most talked about movies of recent time. The first episode was released in March of 1999, quickly followed by several sequels, animated cartoons, comic books, and video games. One of the reasons for the film’s popularity is it surreal action, but even more important is the story line, which many viewers perceive as a metaphor of real life.

The film portrays a future in which the world has been taken over by computers and machines that cultivate human bodies to plug their brains into a global network where they serve as computing assets. They are unaware of their true state because they are programmed to experience a virtual reality in which they believe they are living a pleasant and normal life while, in truth, they are immersed in liquid pods wired up to the Matrix. Their pleasant experiences are just in their minds.

The story centers on a small band of humans who have avoided the Matrix and who are attempting to help others break free. The first step is to get them unplugged, which is no easy task, but the second step is even more difficult. It is to convince them to stay unplugged.

The problem is that reality is harsh and dangerous, whereas the Matrix offers a sense of serenity and comfort.

Once they are unplugged, humans must choose between reality and fantasy, and to do so they are offered two pills. The red pill will bring them all the way into reality. Once it is taken, they can never return to the comfort of delusion. The blue pill will put them back to sleep where they can be reconnected to the Matrix. Many choose the blue pill.

The parallels to modern life are obvious. We are conditioned all our formative years to see only the outward appearance of things and to believe that we are each entirely separate from all others. From time to time, however, most of us get a glimpse of a deeper dimension and feel, if ever so briefly, a certain connectedness with all of life. This is usually dismissed and quickly forgotten, but a few wonder if their experience points to an underlying truth that is profoundly important.

Some of these are led mysteriously to those who have escaped from the Matrix-like illusion, and with their guidance, most earnest inquirers come to recognize the awesome truth of What they really are. Thereafer, these ‘awakened’ ones, or seers as they are sometimes called, live with extraordinary freedom, lightness, joy, peace and compassion — especially for those still in the grip of the ‘Matrix’ system. They are in the world, but no longer of it.

~ Sent in by Remco van Santen – Thanks Rem.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S.

Tim has spoken in 48 states, on over 400 college campuses, and to community groups around the nation.

Tim has provided anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and has trained physicians and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in health care.

His latest book is called Between Barack and a Hard Place.

Hear Tim speak at Sonoma State Uni. and read his brillian piece: Imagine If The Tea Party Were Black.

You’ll love it … or hate it along with a lot of other things.

It’s wonderful how, all ovr the world, the English language is now bridging the gap between people of widely differing cultures. The following exchange by phone between a hotel guest and room-service illustrates what I mean …

Room Service : “Morrin. Roon sirbees.”

Guest : “Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service.”

RS: ” Rye . Roon sirbees…morrin! Joowish to oddor sunteen???”

Guest: “Uh….. Yes, I’d like to order bacon and eggs.”

RS: “Ow ulai den?”

Guest: “…..What??”

RS: “Ow ulai den?!?… Pryed, boyud , pochd?”

Guest: “Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry..Scrambled, please.”

RS: “Ow ulai dee bayken? Creepse?”

Guest: “Crisp will be fine.”

RS: “Hokay. Ansahn toes?”

Guest: “What?”

RS: “An toes. ulaisahn toes?”

Guest: “I…. Don’t think so..”

RS: “No? Udo wan sahn toes???”

Guest: “I feel really bad about this, but I don’t know what ‘udo wan sahn toes’ means.”

RS: “Toes! Toes!…Why Uoo donwan toes? Ow bow Anglish moppin we botter?”

Guest: “Oh, English muffin! !! I’ve got it! You were saying ‘toast’… Fine…Yes, an English muffin will be fine.”

RS: “We botter?”

Guest: “No, just put the botter on the side.”

RS: “Wad?!?”

Guest: “I mean butter… Just put the butter on the side.”

RS: “Copy?”

Guest: “Excuse me?”

RS: “Copy…tea.. meel?”

Guest: “Yes. Coffee, please… And that’s everything.”

RS: “One Minnie. Scramah egg, creepse bayken, Anglish moppin, we botter on sigh and copy … Rye ??”

Guest: “Whatever you say.”

RS: “Tanjooberrymutts.”

Guest: “You’re welcome”

~ Sent in by Marg & Phil of Broome, WA. Thanks guys.

You gotta’ smile over this one … Sometimes there is justice. A musician named Dave Carroll not long ago had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar.

During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for youtube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded : “Good luck with that one, pal”. So he posted a retaliatory video on youtube. The video has since received over 7.5 million hits!

United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was: “Good luck with that one, pal”. And BTW, Taylor Guitars sent the musician two new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders. Here’s >>>the video.

Sent in by Lumari Mcguinness. Thanks Lumari.

At the end of the religious revival meetings held in a public hall, three church leaders were discussing the results with one another.

The Methodist minister said, “The revival worked out great for us! We gained four new members.”

The Baptist preacher said, “We did better than that! We gained six new members.”

The Presbyterian pastor said, “Well, we did even better than that! We got rid of our ten biggest trouble makers!”