LESS EGO / MORE SOUL

I will not pretend to know something I have not experienced.
Nor will I try to increase our comfort with each other by feigning confusion where I have knowledge.

– The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon…
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

– Oriah Mountain Dreaming,
from the book The Invitation

Awareness is everything. Not just part of it.

Not just some aspect of it. Awareness is everything.

Look, to your awareness, not to your thoughts.

Your thoughts about things can betray you — and often do — because they can be colored by emotions.

Your awareness is not.

Just observe what is so. Then observe what you think about what is so.

Then ask yourself,

“Why am I thinkingthat?”

And, more importantly,

“What would happen if I thought something else?”

-  Neal Donald Walsh

Had an interesting conversation with some friends over the weekend…

We explored my philosophy that one never has to “be” or “do” anything.

They posed the question “do we not all have a responsibility to Gaea and all her earthlings to live sustainably and do the right thing?”

It was a very interesting point to make, and it’s been on my mind since. This is the present conclusion I have come to – keeping in mind that I’m still growing and learning myself…

Yes, we do have a responsibility to Gaea – to respect the earth and live sustainably – but I notice that we also have the freedom to choose not to.

Thus “we don’t have to be or do anything”.

And those who choose not to, provide the contrast in our lives which allow us to appreciate our favourite experiences all the more.

For this reason, I don’t believe in “right” or “wrong” – our morals are subjective and shaped by our own filter of personal experiences.

People act based on what they think is “right”, the “wrong” is just a disagreement with another’s morals. Besides, while our goals may draw some similarities, you can not judge another, for you have no way of understanding what it is they are trying to accomplish.

However, back to this whole question of responsibility: I think the hallmark of a highly evolved being is their ability to recognize the consequences of cause and effect and act in a way that is mindful of the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is that we are all interconnected and essentially one living system. In light of this a ‘highly evolved being’ realizes that mistreating the earth, or their fellow (wo)man will not serve well for them. And so they live reflecting this choice, mindful of their role in it all, choosing their path and walking forward with the awareness that each step has meaning.

Needless to say it was an interesting talk – certainly something I had not pondered much before…

And so, I’ll finish up with this favourite quote:

Choose something and then be it.

What I am focusing on this week:
Saying “Yes I’ll do it”, when asked to do something.

Not trying to excuse myself by justifying “but I don’t have enough time”. That’s my ego speaking and it’s not doing me any favors.

As the Huna proverb reminds me: energy flows where attention goes, so emphasising how I might be pushed for time is only going to reinforce a time-poor reality.

We all like to think we are time-poor, but nevertheless, some things – like washing the dishes – need to be done.

When I protest, my ego is trying to make out that my time is more important than others. It is not. Anyway, life always seems to work itself out in the end…There is enough time.

I think too,  I’ve been conditioned to “hate” doing certain tasks (like washing the dishes, doing laundry, cleaning etc.) because growing up I’ve seen the people around me avoiding doing these tasks.

I realized, that I don’t actually hate doing these tasks. Rather, when I am doing them I find my self surrendering pretty easily to the moment. It’s a mediation in that sense. Peace.

SO this week I’m experimenting with this idea.  I figure that if I were to accept doing such chores more often and openly, perhaps I’ll find a higher sense of peace and stability in amongst the rushing river of life.

+++

But when i do the dishes
I run the water very very very hot
And then i fill the sink to the top with bubbles of soap
And then i set all the bottle caps i own afloat
And it’s the greatest voyage in the history of plastic
And then i slip my hands in and start to make waves
And then i dip my tongue in a take a taste
It tastes like soap but it doesn’t realy taste like soap
And then i lower in my whole mouth and take a gulp
…and start to feel mortality sorround me

– Music Box, Regina Spektor

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,
To weep is to risk being called sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self.
To place your ideas and your dreams before the crowd is to risk being called naive.
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitude, he is a slave; he has forfeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free

– Janet Rand

There’s this short story I read…ages ago…yet it’s still stuck on my mind…I’m trying to hunt it down…with no such luck…so here’s my rendition:

It’s a parable about a stray calf running though a forest – the forest between two neighboring towns.

It runs a wild, irradicate path,bushbashing its way by bushes and branches.

The following day two men on horses ride through the forest. They follow the calf’s path because it’s easier than forging their own path.

They don’t realise a rogue calf forged the path.
They think it was forged with reason, purpose and intent.

One week later a traveling salesman follows the path with his horse and wagon. He follows the iradicate path of the calf without question. Little does he know it leads him the long way round, adding 45 minutes to his journey.

Soon enough the path becomes the main road to the next village – for the path was well worn by that stage. And no one ever though to stray from the path.

Despite all its twists and turns.

It became a case of tradition over functionality, fuelled by the fear of forging one’s own path.

The Zahir – Paulo Coelho

“We may have been treated in childhood or in a relationship as if we were strange, different, or unacceptable. We may have been told that something was wrong with us. We can reframe that now as we work on clearing those atavistic critical messages: “I always had a unique path, I was always different because there is a special creativity in me that was clamoring to be activated in a hard-of-bearing world. The fact that I still feel like an outsider may be how this creative urge has remained alive in me. I am thankful for it and want to open myself to it now. And since I know how it feels to be excluded, may i not exclude others. Let my painful path be one that leads me to care about others.” The final two sentences are how the loving-kindness practice figures in.

Myths from which we cannot be redeemed can make childhood family gatherings unappealing. Do we stay away altogether? Our adult challenge is to maintain the connection but not become caught in a dependency. Our adult challenge is to be respectful but not obligated. How do we accomplish this? How do we let go of codependency with respect to our families of origin?”

When the Past is Present by David Racho

Did you know?

Hemp just so happens to be one of the most useful, stongest, toughest, longest-lasting materials on earth.

“You cannot produce a a better fiber for clothes, a stronger substance for ropes, and easier-to-grow-and-harvest source for pulp.

“We cut down hundreds of thousands of trees per year to give ourselves Sunday papers, so that we can read about the decimation of the world’s forests. Hemp could provide us with millions of Sunday papers without cutting down one tree. Indeed it could substitute for so many resource materials, at one-tenth of the cost! And that is the catch. Somebody loses money if this miraculous plant – which also has extraordinary medicinal properties, incidentally – is allowed to be grown. That is why marijuana is illegal…” (Neal Donald Walsch)

1 acre of corn = 1000 barrels of bio-diesel. Whereas,1 acre of hemp = 30,000 barrels of bio-diesel. FACT.

1 acre of hemp = 5 acres of wooded forest to make paper. FACT.

Some more facts about hemp:

• “Back in the early days Levis made their jeans from hemp, and when you couldn’t patch up your jeans or clothes any more they would recycle it into paper.”
• “If you get hemp paper and you rip it – get it wet and it bonds back together like it was never wet!”
• Benjamin Franklin who created the first newspaper printed it on hemp paper.
• The last 3 presidents elected in America admitted to smoking pot. Obama, Bush and Clinton.
• Canada and14 states in the USA have legalized marijuana.
• For vegetarians in particular, hemp is an amazing source of protein, essential fatty acids and amino acids. Yet, it is not yet made legally available for purchase in Australia. In America, you can buy hemp seeds (to sprinkle on salads for  a protein boost), hemp oil (for cooking) and hemp milk (a very nutritious dairy alternative). It can also be used in baking and to make a special tea and leaves can be eaten fresh in salads. “It’s single healthiest thing we can eat and yet, it’s illegal to grow”.
• All jokes aside, marijuana also has some amazing medicinal properties.
• Hemp oil can also be used to relieve eczema with its anti-inflammatory properties.
• “Thomas Jefferson the fourth US president on the $20 bill risked his life and the life of his service men smuggling hemp seeds from China. He wrote in his diaries that some of his fondest memories were smoking hemp on his veranda starring out to the sunset.”

Though the government tries it’s best to keep these truths under wraps, if you’re interested seek & ye shall find.

And it’s not all about the threat of substance abuse – the difference between Marijuana and Hemp is in the way it’s cultivated. It all depends on THC levels.

Some quick links continuing this discussion:

The Earth Diet – Day148
The Earth Diet – Day 114
The Difference Between Hemp and Marijuana
Wikipedia – Canabis
Wikipedia – Marijuana
Wikipedia – Hashish
Wikipedia – Hemp
Hemp For Victory
IMDB
The Economic Expert