Seasons of the Soul

Reconciliation of the Universe

In the book,  Deconstruction of the Universe, by Gary Renard, a position is taken that demonstrates the entire process of life as a field of play to bring about  realization that there is only One Self – the God that is a unified force field, and that each of us is part of an original error thought that has split into fragments and continues to play out an illusion of reality through duality.

“Let Thine Eye Be single”, “In the twinkling of an Eye” - and all biblical passages  referring to the unifying principle of oneness  -  are points of recognition within each fragment that it is truly part of a whole. When we overcome the individuated “i” that runs on free will choice and clarify our position and our true source, we become the single “I”, and that recognition can occur in a twinkling, so that we realize we are not separate, not apart from – but that we are the one “I” in which all things live and dwell and have their being. This becomes the basis of Self Realization.

There is nothing other than that, save for the projection of error consciousness playing out in the realm of Earth.

When we look at scenarios that individuals play out we can see the truth in these concepts. Each person has a different vantage point and a different story based on their own perception. Ten people can view the same incident and report it differently – based on their own perception and bias.

We look from a larger view at the squabbles of people over the “differences” in religion, race, ethnic background – the wars fought amongst the so-called righteous to promote their “one true truth”. Yet, even by biblical standards, we are all derived from one coupling – the Adam and Eve heritage. If this be so, how can we claim that any of us are superior to another? If this be so, how can we say that any other is sub-human or inferior or wrong? We being derived from One must return to One – and in the process the ego (I go) must come home.

We can see the magnetic repelling or connecting when we take two force fields and hold them in different ways. As a child, many of us who are older used to play with the magnetic Scotty dogs – one black, one white. If they were held a certain way, they would lock together as one. When they were held differently, they could not be attached because the force fields  energetically repelled the other. So with us. We are locked in a perceptual force field of repulsion, unable to come together until we turn energetically to a different field of perception and knowing. Once this occurs – we are able to re-unify, and those who were sent out as one who became two and then millions can be reabsorbed as the out-breath becomes the in-breath. From the millions to the two to the One…separate no more.

KJ

Change Is the Only Permanence

I love autumn, and we’ve had glorious days when the light is just right and makes everything look magical to my eyes—like a veil parting between worlds. It’s the transforming time of harvest and leaves falling, preparing for the next stage to come.

I was raking leaves the other day, tidying the front of my house, and was aware of the futile exercise it appears to be. One good wind and there are that many more leaves to sweep, but for the moment after I’ve finished, everything looks “just right.” It dawned on me that those “just right” moments are ephemeral. They cannot be grasped or clutched, because within a few moments they are gone. Change is the only permanence—paradoxical in definition—but true.

I was reminded of the Zen teacher whose early training showed her this example in action. She was a fine crafts person and wanted to build a beautiful altar for the monastery where she studied, as they had none. Her teacher told her it was not necessary, but she insisted. Smiling, the head monk consented to her plan, and so she built a stunning altar with love and care. On the day of presentation when she gave her gift to the monastery, all smiled, bowed, and thanked her. Then the head monk tapped her on the shoulder and told her to tear it down. She was shocked, but he smiled again. “Everything is impermanence”. She had insisted on doing what was not necessary, and in the act of doing, she derived joy. When done, it was time to let go of her offering. It had been viewed, appreciated, and released because an altar was not needed.

The monks of Tibet create beautiful Mandalas from colored sand. They are intricate and wondrous to view. Years ago, they came to San Francisco and created one over a series of weeks at the local museum. One day a woman who was mentally imbalanced jumped on the mandala and ruined it. People gasped in horror as she did this, but the monks merely smiled as she proved once again that nothing is permanent.

We cannot do for the sake of permanence, but rather through our joy in creating or delight in an activity.

I cannot rake leaves with an expectation that once done, always done. It is a process that I engage in over and over again. My delight is in the raking and sweeping and in the momentary illusion of neatness. Then the winds come, the leaves fall, and my garden is once again changed. Chaos and order. From one the other follows, just as the seasons go round and round.

Change is the only permanence.

KJ

A Very Special Book - The Presence of Angels

For anyone who is interested in healing, the book Presence of Angels: A Healer's Life, by J.C. Hugh MacKimmie, is a fabulous read. It is full of wit and wisdom, and true stories that will astound you. More than that, there is a powerful energy of healing that comes through the book and has touched different people in different ways, including being a conduit of healing. I have already ordered 3 additional copies after reading it, and feel it is an important contribution to anyone wanting to experience a first hand healing journey.

I was privileged years ago to have gone to him for healing treatment when he lived in the S.F. Bay Area , and many of the things I learned about healing and health came from this very special man. It is an honor to recommend this very special book. This is the real deal!

The book is only available through the following distribution company in Montana, and I'm forwarding the e-mail site in case you would like to look at the cover and see an excerpt from his story.

Knowing Heart Publishing or http://www.knowingheart.com/

The Beauty of Age

As I looked into the mirror, the unmistakable signs of aging were evident. Turning 60 was a reminder. The clock is ticking, and the direction is toward old age. As I thought of the many extreme makeover shows now so popular on television, it dawned on me that as much as my skin is sagging, my spirit is soaring. On the outside I am showing signs of wear and tear, but it is an indicator of a life lived. And I thought of our throw away culture. Women over 40 have few roles available in the movies. Most are banished from television when they are no longer cute to look at. In the Bay Area, we have one station that allows the older newscasters to have a show in the morning on weekends – when most people aren’t watching.

What is so interesting about this dichotomy of youth/age is that in our early years we are filled with curiosity about the world around us and about ourselves. We are discovering things all the time as we grow and develop. We go through the awkward stage of adolescence and then pass into the phase of nest and career building. Our efforts are directed outward and to procreating our species. It is only after the headlong rush into life that we take time as older age approaches to ask the relevant questions about life that are deepening and soul enhancing. We have to come to the point of having enough experience to strip away our own veneer – to be willing to see ourselves from a lifelong perspective.

Our American preoccupation with facelifts and body makeovers and flaunting a tinsel image of sexuality is actually laughable. It is adolescence on a rampage. We are besieged by shows filled with violence and disrespect….an homage to testosterone.

This past week I have been baby sitting my daughter’s kitten. She and her husband went to New York for five days, and we took care of her “baby”. As the week progressed, the bond between my grand-kitty and I increased. She was adorable and in to everything. I had to watch constantly to make sure no one would open a door to the outdoors without making sure she did not get out. Scooting here and there, she was inquisitive and investigative. Her moments of calm and loving were slim. Everything was action oriented. The kids came home yesterday and took their precious treasure away. It was quieter without the kitty, and we missed her amusing antics. However, in thinking about her, I was reminded of another cat years ago who came to visit the bookstore I loved in Palo Alto.

Minerva Books was located in an old house next to a residential section, and the visiting kitty was an elder who was close to the end of its life. This very old orange cat would come to visit and sit on our porch where she could bask in the full glory of sun without the noise of cars or the rush of wind bothering her slumber. We used to look at her as she sat, seemingly so grateful for the rays of sunshine beaming down on her frail body. And there was a certain repose in her countenance – a dignity of age. This memory juxtaposed with the rampaging curiosity of the kitten brought home again the specialness of each age: None better or worse – each having its own gift. The young cat wanted to play. The old cat was grateful for a pat or a comment. The little one had no time to be still, and the old cat had all the time in the world. She was moving into the twilight of her life, filled with memories that sustained her, while the little kitten was busy making them.

And this brings me back to us. We are precious and wonderful and filled with possibility at every stage of life. To make one stage desirable and the rest dismissed is to deny the fullness of life. When we only look at surface images to determine what is acceptable and what is not, we miss the opportunity to enlarge our sphere of influence and depth because we see anything not conforming to the “image” as meaningless. Yet, in creation, there is nothing that is meaningless.

In the interweaving of life, every element is dependent and supportive of every other element. We are mistaken when we think we can interfere with one aspect of life and there will be no consequences to the rest of life – because we are intricately linked to one another. So too, with age. No age is dismissive.

KJ

Impermanence

It isn't good to know too much. It is deflating to the idealist in us who seeks to do good and believes that good will prevail. Yet, after years of observation - and indeed with the reality of life - everything takes much longer to change and often reverts again and again to the lowest common denominator - and in truth, everything dies.

Our good deeds appear to die, our noble inquiries fill us for the moment and help us move through the seeming travesty of life - we make a heady contribution, and then we watch the purveyors of whatever pull it apart or twist it to their own intention. Yet, in spite of it all, we proceed.

I think it boils down to doing what we do because it is innate and instinctive and that is what we do - not because of any outcome. Outcomes dissolve. There is always a new scheme, a new disease - and this seems to be the way of Earth. Impermanence, impermanence, impermanence. So the Buddhists say. Don't be disappointed in the truth. Don't be swayed by events. Just be the presence you want to be.

I have a great-aunt who is 98 3/4 - she points that out very proudly (the 3/4 part), and she has a wonderful attitude of enthusiasm and childlike excitement about things. She looks forward to family gatherings and her one great delight is going to play slot machines once or twice a year. She plays all of $20 in nickels and quarters, but the delight she exudes has the whole family looking forward to these adventures with her.

We are drawn in by her fun loving spirit and thrill at being there. When she is gone, none of us will ever go again. It wouldn't be the same. We'd bring our ho hum minds with us. But for that brief few hours where we indulge her in the joy of pulling slot machine handles and watch the little symbols jump around until they land in one or another position - we are transported out of our knowing and brought into her childlike sense of joy and wonder. And for a few hours the world is gentle, kind and simple. There is something completely innocent and fun about the way she views life.

We hope my great aunt will be with us in this exuberant form for more years. She is our antidote to too much news, too much greed, too much power, too little grace.

It isn't good to know too much. It jades us. Truth is, we will all pass out of this "illusion" into another form or space, and all we will have (perhaps) is the soul qualities we've gathered and expressed while here.

There may be no other grand assignments, but we certainly can take this vital energy that is still ours and put it into things that bring meaning and comfort to us - and perhaps inspire others in the process. Once I realize I'm not going to change the world, I don't have such a burden of assignment. However, I can choose which lens to use in viewing life and pick the one that unifies me.

KJ

It's Absolutely Perfect

Recently I had some health challenges, and noticed that I often berate myself for what I perceive I’m doing wrong. In the midst of my latest self-critique, it dawned on me that my life is absolutely perfect EXACTLY as it is, and that the fault does not lie in circumstances, but with my perception of them. As I shifted my attitude and saw my body as a most incredible intelligent self-correcting universe, I felt love for everything I'm experiencing health wise, rather than anger. Some of the issues seemed to dissolve with this newfound awareness.

As I look outside of myself and am discontent with current circumstances, I turn resentment into a strand of yarn that leads back into the core of my being. What am I really upset about? What do I really resent about myself or fear I won’t have? Where am I not giving myself enough love, respect, compassion? And beyond that, seeing that my own "failings" are also part of the perfection of this life script. Each thing I do and don't do has a purpose. Instead of berating myself for what I'm "not" doing, I begin to see the opportunity in the "not doing," and realize that I don't have to hold fear or control or need to fix things for everyone else. I see life events as being in divine perfection because something is working at soul level to grist the mill, wringing out limitation, and replacing it with a clear view. It's like squeezing a precious drop of oil from something that takes a long time to relinquish its fragrance, but once released, it remains forever.

Universal timing and our timing are often at odds. But the universe is not and cannot be wrong. Everything we see is the projection of millions of particularized viewpoints, and as each of us clears ourselves, the collective will begin to reflect what we all say we are looking for – peace, love, and harmony. When we create that internally by accepting who we are and stopping the war we perpetrate against ourselves, or berating the situation we find ourselves in at the moment, we can create heaven on earth.

We will return to the garden. But in the meantime, the wilderness experience has its purpose. And “in the meantime” is the real time we are given right now -  our daily opportunity to express gratitude for what we do and don't have, knowing it is absolutely perfect just as it is.

When the time for change is ripe, it will occur. As I practice loving instead of fearing, gratitude instead of resentment, life takes on a whole different flavor. Fear has an odor. Love has a fragrance. I prefer the latter.♥

KJ

The Road to Peace

When I was the Acting Director of a foundation in California during the 1980s, we did a study of the root causes of war and peace within an individual as well as society. We determined that peace is not a static love and light state, but a dynamic process that involves conflict. We found that there is a point in the process where conflict either leads to a greater degree of understanding and tangible peace or deteriorates into further misunderstanding and in its extreme, war.

We were looking for the root causes of the state of peace and war within an individual as well as a society and world. One of the people I interviewed in our process was a negotiator who mentioned that you always have to go to a point upon which you can agree. Sometimes it is the most basic and primal point such as an agreement that I am human and you are human. Hard as it seems, that is at times the only point upon which agreement is found. Yet it is an opening. That piece of information has always stayed with me and reminded me to keep going to the place where I can find agreement within myself or with another. 

And within ourselves when we are in a conflicted state, it is equally important to find a place that we can use as a point of agreement between the warring part of ourselves and the part that longs for peace. In the study we did, it was found that peace is certainly not the absence of war. It is the dynamic process of growing and questioning, and the willingness to confront the hard issues...not a love and light statement that often masks underlying tension and resentment we really feel.

When we pick up the gauntlet of tension and work with it, not against or in denial, we find some powerful possibilities in that raw honesty. Just as we find in successful relationships,  peace is not based on passive reaction or giving in to keep the peace.

Real peace is achieved through dynamic interchange and willingness to honor differences, to air them, and the strength and bonding that comes when we surmount the bumps in the road together.♥

KJ

Nothing Is Wasted

Recently a friend told me about going to thrift shops and asking if there were any old bags of clothes that they couldn’t sell, because she wanted to gather the usable fabric and make patchwork designs for pillows, quilts, wall coverings and window treatments. I thought that was quite a novel idea. She said there were tons of clothes that the thrift shops throw away because they aren’t saleable, and they told her to help herself.

As I read the article by Barbara Sher about our needing to do what we loved, I thought of those remnants of material that most people would see as throwaways, but this friend saw as pieces that would create works of art.

Everything we do in our life has purpose. Nothing within our realm of experience has been wasted, and when we recognize that it isn’t always for the obvious reasons that we’ve done many of the things we’ve done, and look at our journey a little differently, we can craft of those scraps of experience new forms and possibilities. Only when we are stuck in limited thinking are we bound by the obvious. When we look to the subtleties within our lives, nothing is wasted. Things only need to be re-worked into different patterns to become a treasure!

KJ 

Become A Lake

An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the master asked.

"Bitter," spit the apprentice. The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake." As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the master asked, "How does it taste?" "Fresh," remarked the apprentice." Do you taste the salt?" asked the master. "No," said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same-exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things...Stop being a glass. Become a lake."v

This is Simple???????????

Trying to figure out the right configurations for setting up the blog site and posting is like working a Chinese puzzle. Looping to the same old same old feels like a salmon swimming upstream to lay its eggs. All I want to do is design the blog.....GEEEZ. What a bear!