PRAYER & STILLNESS

(I AM is not a thought)

The following is in response to a question raised in Western Religion Philosophy Class at College of the Siskiyous.  Weed, CA.

Prayer

“Prayer has been an essential part of Christianity since its earliest days. Prayer is an integral element of the Christian faith and permeates all forms of Christian worship. Prayer in Christianity is the tradition of communicating with God, either in God's fullness or as one of the persons of the Trinity.”  (Wikipedia, 2013.)

Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with Prayer, though at it’s premise in the way most seem to use it, perpetuates two lies; one that there is something that the one praying is separate from and two, that things can be some other way than how they are.  They are both actually the same thing.

Prayer is actually saying that the one that is being prayed to … isn’t doing a good enough job and could do better.  It would be just as wise to begin to accept things how they are and the possibility (the very real possibility) that you don’t know how things are supposed to be.  Then you begin to grow out Faith (which does not require any prayer) that everything is perfect and unfolding perfectly and always has, even though you may not understand why or how it is unfolding.  If you still require “prayer” then possibly one might pray to begin to know this … to begin to have Faith that this is so.

Things cannot be any other way than how they are, if they could they would be.  That seems pretty easy to see (as long as you are willing to stop telling a story of how things should be and just begin to experience them exactly as they are).  If something is going to be some other way, just watch … it will … things are constantly shifting and changing and if one begins to stop listening to the thoughts about how things should be and begins to pay attention to how they are … the mind begins to become quieter and quieter.

“Vygotsky theorized that very young children don’t think silently to themselves the way adults do — at first they only “think” by speaking out loud to their parents, siblings, or caregivers. Later, this develops into “self-talk” (if you’ve ever been around young children you may have noticed them mumbling to themselves when they’re alone in their rooms). Later still, self-talk internalizes, and becomes inner speech (what adults experience as thinking — or at least one type of thinking).” (Moyer. 2013)

This is what is being pointed to.  You weren’t born thinking.  You were born in Stillness and came into a world of noise “thinking.”  You “learned” to “think” prior to thinking/thoughts there was only the natural state of simply “Being” Aware of everything in Stillness.  This is how it is right now, begin to stop paying attention to the thoughts and begin paying attention to the Stillness.

On Stillness

“The Jesus Prayer or “The Prayer” has been widely taught and discussed throughout the history of the Eastern Churches. It is often repeated continually as a part of personal ascetic practice, its use being an integral part of the eremitic tradition of prayer known as Hesychasm meaning "to keep stillness"). (Wikipedia. 2013.)

Not surprisingly, this Prayer is popular in the East, but not in the West.  The East has been immersed for thousands of years in the practice of placing the attention on Stillness, not the thoughts.  Thoughts are given a great deal of importance in the West, because it is what most identify with as “who they are” as part of or sometimes the entire identity/personality, however, if this is really honestly looked at.  How can one “be” a thought? 

When one becomes ready to let go of the thought “I” … Stillness (in a sense, rushes in and fills all of everything) then there is no room for the thought “I” there is only Stillness … just like when you were a child and you didn’t “think” to exist … you just existed in Stillness.  That is where one returns (though has not ever left), they release the thought “I” back into the Stillness from which it appeared.  No “I,” no problems (who would have them), no prayer needed in Stillness, one would not be still to pray for something.

This does not mean that the world stops, you just begin to experience it from a place of Eternal Stillness.  The mouth will still move (for some) the body will as well, there will look like there are problems but there will not be anyone there for the problem, there will just be a watching of all of the movie playing out, which also includes people praying for things in the movie. 

Another way of seeing this is like going to a movie, you sit there in Silence (which is not Stillness but it is a close in the world pointer).  Sometimes you have a “thought” that you would like the movie to go some other way than how it is going.  However, you cannot change the movie just because you *think* it should be some other way.  Most people should be able to see this analogy.  This is how it is with life and prayer … life/the movie is playing out for your entertainment (feel free to ask “who’s”) and “prayer” is like the “thought” in the movie theater … it doesn’t hurt anything to have it but it doesn’t change a dang thing either.  :o)

Cited

Wikipedia, (2013). Prayer.  Retrieved from:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer,_meditation_and_contemplation_in_Christianity

Wikipedia, (2013). The Jesus Prayer.  Retrieved from: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Prayer

Moyer, J.D. (2011) Sytems for Living Well. “Why I Pray as an Atheist.”  Retrieved from:

http://jdmoyer.com/2011/07/25/why-as-an-atheist-i-pray/

HISTORY, WAR & SEX . . .

(Writing is in response to a conversation in Music class on Sexism)

The following is not necessarily about changing your mind it's about opening to all possibilities.  There are things to be seen about written “History” because people take things so literally and if we first begin to look at “words” themselves then we might be able to see something about history so that it doesn’t write itself on our minds so deeply and so engrained that it eliminates all other possibilities. 

Wrote a Newsletter about “WORDS” and used a lot of words to attempt to reveal to the reader that words really only have the meaning we give to them … yet ultimately are not “real” in themselves.  Words are just letters that we use to “attempt” to communicate with one another but true communication comes from the energy the words ride on.  


Spent a great many many years looking at words because at a young age it was revealed that they are not real … they are made up by humans but you do not need them to be human … even human … is just a word.  


You might like to take a look at the newsletter for a bit more back ground on this … it is the same with math and time and maps, this is not to say there is nothing wrong with them ... they are great tools to use in this world … however, we are trained from when we are very little children to believe in man-made things but not what man itSelf is made of (first things first :o).  


Was over 30 years old when it was pointed out that there is no such thing as California or New Jersey or America … they are all concepts … they are lines drawn on land and in Truth they mean nothing … and Native Americans (some not all) knew this Chief Sealth (that is a link to a very good sharing by him) spoke of it to the President, but things take a long time to change and be seen sometimes but just because you draw a line on a map and everyone agrees about the line…doesn’t make the line real…it is still just drawn in the sand (literally) and will eventually be washed away by life, ultimately.

Back to History (which has been called “His Story” because it is told by the ones invested in telling it), history is sort of like a make believe and is only valid by the ones that believe it and usually is used to serve some kind of point that one wants to make.  Unless you were there you will not ever really know what went on and even if you are there you only see it from your point of view with the foundation of your own opinions ideas and life experiences written upon what you see … no one really has a clear view of something happening because their life is written on it.  You would actually have to be clear and free from who you “think” you are to write History accurately and even then you would have to be above the situation and seeing it from a broader view or you are not writing it from the standpoint of everyone but only from a select few/view.  So History really is lies … not bad lies…just made up … usually to the best of that one’s ability….people don’t try to lie they just don’t know they are. 

Sex is what makes the world go round … we would not be here (seemingly) without it.  There is an intense energy to procreate to keep the species of “human” going.  No Sex … no body to be in.  This is probably one of the fears humans have of same sex stuff cause if everyone only wanted the same sex then we wouldn’t be here or we would have to change the way we are here … like the body would have to find another way to procreate … the one thing you will find about life is that it is very adaptable.  


That may be the fear around "same-sex" sex that comes for some - that there is no way to compete with the same sex so it might also scare people that they may not be able to get any sex if everyone starts wanting the same sex and they don’t. :o)  

More food for thought about fear and same sex stuff.  

Nothing can hold you down ... it doesn’t matter what your color, your gender, your sex preference is … you will break through just like those before you have if that is what is meant to happen ... doesn’t mean that everyone gets too … if everyone was meant to ... then it wouldn’t be the miracle that it is.  However, everyone shines some how and in some way and you don’t have to find how you shine … you let it be revealed to you.

The women’s movement is a war … there are all kinds of wars in the world and if you want something to fight about you can pick from a million different things.  Because in this world we are not equal … we are not supposed to be equal … our differences and limitations are the Gift that we get to experience ourSelf as different … however at the CORE of us is the SAME.  

Back to war … one of the wars in this world is is the women’s movement.  This is not to say there is anything wrong with it … war is a way of one person gathering many to fight for something they want ... something they think they don’t have.  When you want something in this world … usually you have to fight for it.  

Wanting and fighting are in the same domain.  

Wanting is saying “I don’t have” and fighting is saying “give it to me ... you have what I want.” 

If you want something bad enough you will go to war for it.  So do you want to feel held down … and have a fight to get up … if you are in a female body you can say that being a woman holds you back and you can go out and attempt to prove it and find all kinds of validation for your war.  

What you seek you find.  

However, you are being offered a different way of being in the world, that if you stop coming from being a man or a woman and coming from the Place/Space of not even being human (because you can see how even using “being human” has made us at war with the other animals of the planet, look who thinks they are at the top of the food chain), you can begin to discover what woman, man, human, animal appear IN. 

If you begin to discover who you really Are, then there can be no discrimination of any kind about you.  You can stand in yourself in any situation and know that nothing can be said about you … to describe you.  You can hear any word called at you and yet none of them are you so they don’t stick.  

It doesn’t mean that words will no longer hurt or that people will stop treating people poorly, but you will see the lie of what they do and say.  You will begin to read history and appreciate the trials of others but you will not take it as a literal truth, you will know that you cannot know everything, but that what animates you does and whatever you need to know will be revealed to you.

Ultimately, Everything Serves. 

We have been so used to being spoon fed everything that we don’t stop and take the time to look for ourselves.  You can read until you are about to blow up from information, but do you check to yourself for things.  


Do you ask yourself in quiet moments what is it all for?  

Who am I?  

How did I get here? 

Am I here?  :o)))))

Do you have the kind of personality that is willing to “not” know everything?


So many want to solve the Mystery, instead of just being in it and yet it is the being in IT, that brings the greatest JOY. :o)


Have just used a bunch of “words” (lies) to point you to what cannot be said. :o)  


Maybe you will get glimpses of it … imagine you already have ... that you have had glimpses of what cannot be worded or named or made a concept of … but That which is always and forever Present.

You get the gift right now of being in a body and you get to experience all the things it is capable of experiencing … enjoy it … if you want to feel like you are held back because of it … enjoy that too.  Or you can begin to reveal to yourself and others that it is like a really cool car that you have been Gifted with and get to drive around in and check out what this planet is like.   Then you are a bubble of light for others (which you already are) and you help others to not to take things so seriously and enjoy the fruits of those that have taken it very seriously for us … so that we can help make it Lighter for others.

Thanks for sparking this writing.

One leaves the battleground once they discover they are already in everything one could ever want.  :o)
 
Links that maybe anyone that is interested might feel like writing some history of their own or if you know a Veteran that might be willing to share.

Reporting WWII.

Veteran's History Project.

TIME AND THE "I" THOUGHT

This morning the thought appeared "there is no you."  Took a look and was like wow … yes there is emptiness here and was able to see something that is being pointed too.  As a kid two things seemed very strange to me that everyone else agreed was absolutely real.  One is "time" and the other are "words." With a child's mind everything is much more simple and the simplicity pointed to the obviousness that both "time" and "words" were man-made.  From that realization it has formed to what can now be shared (seemingly) many, many years later with a more educated way of saying it (though not much more,  heh).

So, what was seen is that if one said the word "car" (was in one at the time) over an over again … it begins to lose it's meaning.  Without knowing it's meaning it could have meant anything …  as long as someone else agreed that whatever it was named it is what it is … however … and … just because something is "named" doesn't make it what the name is  (like humans).  That was what was revealed about words … the seeing that they are only "real" because we agree with others that certain sounds represent what we see with our eyes.

Then there was time … this took more time (heh) to grasp.  It was actually more of a wondering of "how could time be real?"   This image appeared of just space (not even that really) but just this vast Emptiness and then a grid is laid upon that Emptiness and it is called "time" but there really is no "time" or another way of saying it is … it is only and forever  Now.  


Time (the grid) is just another man-made thing that we all have agreed upon.  So "time"  is the grid that is laid on Emptiness/Space ... that drove the investigation even deeper.  A question arose "what is the universe laid on? ... what is behind the universe?"  Well the Gift was/is received and there is no word for what was/is Revealed ... could call it … Light or Energy, Brightness,  Emptiness, Space, Stillness (see picture above for vague concept the yellow is the backdrop or the screen that all appears on)...but it's not really that … what is before time and before words and before bodies and before the Universe and is right Now forever Now … it is Everything and everything is in IT … it animates everything and yet is not an IT (obsoletely indescribable).

So that created a bit of a freak out for a good 10 years … with bouts of paranoia that still arise (don't underestimate the power of beliefs).  However, the Universe and Time (don't say this to a scientist that hasn't dug all the way through) do not actually exist.  Which brings us back to the original thought that appeared this morning "there is no you."

Thoughts are just like the grid above and like words, they aren't actually there … go ahead and look for a thought … see if you can make one appear ... perhaps they are just echoes in "time."  (Cosmic Joke.)

Most things that are written here on this site/blog you will have to investigate for yourself.  All these hands can do is type and point ... but no one could have looked for me (well actually there was no one that actually looked) ... but that is a bit advanced in unlearning … until you begin to see that you have believed in something that isn't ... just like Santa Claus.

Most people would not find any of this helpful … but one will.   ;o)