Boston Legal on Addictions

I think the defense they made for the addictive

interactive video games was very interesting as

follows:. if they are truly addictive, don't you think

every heroin addict would love to get off their

heroin addiction by switching to video games?.

a minor problem on the path

There is the "groupee" problem when giving up the

individualized will....(.re: Aldous Huxley quote below)

That is, there are groupees that want your will to be

subject to the group's will....always found in formal

religious groups...it doesn't serve your journey but it

protects from the pain somewhat, and tends to keep

you from union with the devine ground.  Then there are

the domineering egos that see your surrender of will as

an opportunity to seize the moment. So find other great

spirits on the path like one friend of mine who is so

humble, my ego can't operate around him.

 

Coming next will be a study of how the ego operates so

we can witness.  

The Path

Adoration is an activity of the loving, but still separate, individuality.

Contemplation is the state of union with the divine Ground of all being.

The highest prayer is the most passive. Inevitably; for the less there is

of self, the more there is of God.  that is why the path to passive, or infused

contemplation is so hard and, for many, so painful--a passage through

successive or simultaneous Dark Nights, in which the pilgrim must die to

the life of sense as an end in itself, die to the life of private and even of

traditionally hallowed thinking and believing, and finally die to the deep source

of all ignorance and evil, the life of the separate, individualized will.

                                             Aldous Huxley  The Perennial Philosophy

Acceptance

I struggle with acceptance. Something inside of me is always wanting

to control the changes. Change is the one constant in life and I have learned to

live with that and yet staying in the flow and moving with the changes gently

in surrender is not what my mind wants. Away mind!

Attached to your pain?

To suddenly see that you are or have been attached to your pain

can be quite a shocking realization. The moment you realize this, you

have broken the attachment.  The pain-body is an energy field, almost

like an entity, that has become temporarily lodged in your inner space.

It is life energy that has become trapped, energy that is  no longer

flowing.  Of course , the pain-body is there because of certain things

that happenned in the past.  It is the living past in you, and if you identify

with it , you identify with the past. A victim identity is the belief that the

past is more powerul than the present, which is the opposite of the truth.

It is the belief that other people and what they did to you are responsible

for who you are now, for your emotional pain or your inability to be your

true self.  The truth is that the only power there is, is contained within this

moment:  It is the power of your presence....and the past cannot prevail

against the power of the now.

                                                Eckhart Tolle  The Power of Now

                                   

Sacraments...Another Take

"What is a sacrament? A sacrament is anything you believe to be
holy. Whatever for you is set apart, solemn, breathtakingly special--
that is a sacrament.
Sacraments are old and new. They occur inside churches and out.
Weddings and their joys are not confined to a place, nor is a funeral
and its grief. We christen ( name, welcome, dedicate) a baby in
ceremony, but in less formal ways, too---in our laughter, in touching
our palms over a quickening life within, in our prayers, in kissing the
newborn. These moments also are consecrating, dedicatory,
celebrative. Sacramental.

A sacrament can be walking the bridge at Golden Gate, walking at
Gettysburg, viewing earth from the Canadian Rockies, strolling near
crashing waves on sunlit coasts, or in the silence of great trees;
wading the brook in Minnesota where the Father of Waters begins
its journey to the Gulf. A sacrament is reading the Second Inaugural
at the Lincoln Memorial or listening there to Martin Luther King, or
working a garden, or praying in our Gethsemanes.

Sacraments hover around the essentials of life, in such things as
sexual intercourse and other deep reunions of flesh and spirit, in
meals together, a last supper, at an alter rail with bread and wine
or a picnic with strawberries and milk. Sacraments occur when the
depth of life is disclosed.

Sometimes all life becomes sacramental. We walk on holy ground,
the devine is present, interfused. We celebrate it, call it Thou.
These moments of sacred recognition flee and the world retreats
to dreariness, as do we. But men and women and artists remember--
to give liturgical shape, ceremonial form, some permanent halllowing
to the sacredness we do meet in life. We recall, reclaim and transmit
our times of sacred memory, the holy events and places of our lives,
history and traditions."

author unknown. I do know someone who makes sacredness
or holy events of seemingly ordinary events. See Kyle Kimberlin's
blog called
Metaphor (under links).

Cravings

Out of context , 'If you cannot handle the cravings, you will use"

is a broader statement when applied to things like cravings for

beauty, affection, fresh air, spirituality, peace, love, education.

 

 

If we can give up all desire, what do we become? can we keep our

heart open? I have known very spiritual nuns and monks who are

addicted to, "being the one who knows"....sort of like teenagers. 

 

I like the idea of upgrading our cravings to preferences as a first

step in freeing ourselves from instant gratification.

 

I also like the idea of watching the cravings flit by in our mind

without having to act on them. Oh, here a craving, there a craving,

but not a doing....getting that separation between thought and

action.

 

But when fear takes over, and our thoughts tell us that using or

doing is the only way out of fear, what a mess.

Dubai Ports deal

I understand the deal was stopped. Anybody know how

that happenned?

Cravings

If you can't handle the cravings, you will use.

Oxygen

Learned at a seminar a while back with Dr. Chapelle:

100 years ago, the air we breath was 38-40% Oxygen

In 1996 , the air we breath was 18-20% Oxygen

As you can see, that's about 50% less oxygen in the air.

Now Oxygen is considered a 'drug' . You can only buy it by prescription.

The cells of our body and especially our brain NEEDS Oxygen to function.

Perhaps the dumbing down is connected to this.

Sacraments

Particular sacraments are meant to teach us that all

life is sacramental.  Every deliberate act should be, in

a sense, the outward sign of inward grace.  A sacrament

is more then a symbol.  A symbol leads us from the lower

to the higher.  A sacrament brings us back again to earth

and infuses a heavely meaning and devine potence into

common things and actions.

                                               Inge

Where is democracy?

Let's see, we already ruled out that there's no democracy

in corporations, nor the military, or the industrial complex.

So, in everyday life, do we find it in churches and temples?

They seem to be strongholds of authoritarianism. I would

say no, again. Do we find it in families? Perhaps a few

partnerships, but not for children.More often the parents

are bosses...."I say, you do" or "I say, you believe".

 

If we can't find it in everyday life, how does anyone learn

to be a citizen of democracy?

 

I'm trying to think of work or professions that do live

in a democracy. Any help?

 

Recommended: The Authoritarian Personality

Boston Legal on same wave length?

One of the topics on Boston Legal was the same

general idea in my post on Democracies and

Corporations and how companies and employers

do not operate with democracy principals, but

are authoritarian...people are hired and fired

"at will".