KANDO

"Kando"
November 29, 2013

"There is nothing you
Kando
about the way things are
but sit back and 
wait and see 
how you will be
a part 
of the unfoldment
of the things
that you will want to see
when you stop
trying what you kando
and just simply …
Be."

FINDING A PIECE OF TRUTH

"Finding a Piece of Truth"
March 10, 2013

Q&A from a Philosophy Class at College of the Siskiyous, Weed, CA.

One day Mara, the Evil One, was travelling through the villages of India with his attendants. He saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up on wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara’s attendant asked what that was and Mara replied, “A piece of truth.”

“Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of truth, O Evil One?” his attendant asked. “No,” Mara replied. “Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it.”

This has been a funny scenario for me and even saying that is similarly funny, because there is no “me.”  But since there has been a learning, since apparent birth that there is a “me,” then it can be quite challenging at times to see that there is not.  It is truly all a matter of what the attention is on, whether it is a presumed “me,” or on the Stillness that one is In.

How does that relate to the above Zen Teaching, because “me” is the belief and even saying “no me” creates a belief.  So one’s hands are tied in a sense to being able to share anything about truth.  However, one can continually point and this is Known to work because “I” have been continually pointed and one might say “well who has been continually pointed?” and you might smile or you might frown … it depends on whether you are going to try and figure it out or whether you will direct the attention towards who you Are.

Words are like a balloon around air and you can use the example of Air being Truth … without the balloon/words … there would only be Truth/Air that includes all thoughts/balloons.

One of the funny things that have come to “me” to do (in a sense but not really) is to find ways to point … just like the Zen Teachers … all pointing must be away from understanding and yet it is understand that leads the Student to the Teaching … so eventually the Student must begin to see that although their understanding led them to the Teacher/Pointer, their understanding is now the block to the Teaching.

This is what surrender is … that the Teacher knows you because the Teacher knows theirSelf and all things that come from the Teacher (no matter how you interpret to understand them) are for the Self, to steer you (in a sense) away from who you thought you were, to the Awareness of who you Are.

So the Zen Teaching above is perfect in that the minute you think “ah ha I got it” is the instant it is gone.  Who would get it?  “Who?” is the wind blowing through your ears and the answer to all questions.  Who?  :o)

WHO IS REBORN?

"Who Is Reborn?"
March 7, 2013

From a Humanities Class at College of the Siskiyous, Weed, CA.

Student writes:

The module describes the bodhisattva as “one who has renounced nirvana for himself and takes a vow to postpone his own entering into nirvana in order to help all other sentient beings to reach it first.  For their sakes, he consented to be born again and again into the Round of Samsara, until, in the course of innumerable ages, even the grass and the dust has attained Buddhahood.”

Responded:

What stands out in your quote above, is the overlooking of something quite simple and yet quite major.

                                              "Who is reborn?"

One might be quick to say "the Buddha" and that is what the mind/thoughts will attempt to make you focus on because that is something that can be known.

The mind/thoughts "believe" that it is a "man" named "buddha" but it keeps one from overlooking …

                                             "Who is reborn?"

It is not a man ... it is you ... the TRUE YOU ... you are BUDDHA nature but the mind/thoughts will not want you to see this because if you do, you will have nothing to search for and then the mind loses it's power and becomes the Servant to the HEART/BUDDHA/INDESCRIBABLE TRUE NATURE\EMPTINESS.

                                   All sentient beings are in BUDDHA.

This is the simplicity that is too simple for the mind, which thrives and stays alive on complexity.  However, as one begins to stop using the mind/thoughts to understand ... TRUE NATURE appears.  The mind finally sits back in a recliner with its feet up after a long exhausting journey. The mind (who you think you are) must begin to relax back into the recliner to begin to SEE who you TRULY ARE.  All the talking about it will only lead you away from what you are IN.

Once you have discovered what you are In ... then Speak from that Space ... that Emptiness.

BE WELL . . .

The other day while taking a run … there was a viewing going on of some comments that had been made by a Friend that is currently in prison.  He was talking about how he sees all his mistakes and is going to do better now … see’s that he fuct up and is going to fix everything, become a better this and do a better that.  And a vision of all the cards people send out when one gets sick went by saying “Get Well” or “Get Well Soon.”  And what appeared in response was … don’t “get well” … “Be Well.”

Such a simple twist of words however something was so clearly seen and maybe it can be relayed here.  If one is “getting well” it means they aren’t currently “Well” now.  But right now is all there actually is … so just “Be Well” in it.  Stop trying to “become” better and just “Be” Great right now.

This is where one is pointed to being a “Clean Slate.”  If there is a sense that you have done something that you must fix then do whatever it is to fix it.  However, it is much simpler and easier to just have a Clean Slate and then send out the word (from the Inside) that anything unresolved is welcome to come to you and when it comes polish it up … wipe it clean and begin where you are … right now.

Nothing can be done about the past except in the moment you are in.  So “Be Well” right now … not tomorrow … right now … stop seeing yourself as “not well.”  And just simply “Be Well” in each moment that arises.  Don’t “Be Well” for anyone else … “Be Well” for you and then everyone else benefits and begins to “Be Well” through their interaction with you.  Maybe start making new cards that say “Be Well Now” instead of “Get Well Soon.”  Heh!

This isn’t like how you usually learn things in the world … usually you must practice like with football, basketball, skateboarding or learning an instrument you have to keep doing it over and over until it is learned.  “Be Well” … is instantaneous.  This is seeing there is Nothing To Learn … it takes no practice to “Be Well” you just Are It and that is seen when one is honest and not making excuses and is reporting from the moment they are In.  Even if you are physically sick (which is the body … not you and this is not about the body), you have the ability to “Be Well” to recognize beyond/before the body … that you Are Well.

“Be Well.”

ON MUSIC AND THE HEART...

Response to a question posed in Music Class...

Why would Europeans feel that Native American Music is Primitive?

Maybe they thought it was primitive because they use the intellect over feeling or inner-knowledge which cannot be learned but can be known and this leads one when they don't understand something to just categorize and stamp a label on it and call it "primitive" but if life is a timeless experience (which it actually is) "primitive" is a lie.  Yes music has become "fuller" but the energy is still the same.  What song and music comes out of ... does not change.  So it is always the same energy pushing forth what comes through, it may seem more advanced because it is more complex in technique, but it is still the same simple energy it has always been.  However, Thomas Edison was able to see and capture what others were attempt to change.  If it were primitive we wouldn't still desire to hear it ... it would be extinct like the dinosaurs.  However, since there is still a message to hear in it...it is still here.  What we don't understand we attempt to change or destroy.

I worked on a reservation in Arizona for 3 years for a telecommunications company that was separated into two companies, one that was run by the Tribe (Salt River Pima) and they owned the switch for the phone and internet to run off of and offered it to those that lived on the reservation and the other company was run by a group of men and women that built out the switch maintained it and sold it off the reservation (on U.S. soil ... which was always funny that I would leave the country ever day but still be in the Country :o).  

Sometimes it was challenging to get the two companies that were in the same building to function, the Reservation had their way of doing things and the other company had theirs.  The people from the Reservation tended to work much more slowly and took longer to learn things, but they did eventually, but it could be frustrating for the employees of the other company that were looking to progress and sell so they would have to slow down and pace themselves.  What I watched and learned while I was there (and I got frustrated sometimes too and I have Native blood but was not raised in it), I got to see that the people on the Reservation weren't trying to "get" anywhere.  There was no ultimate goal except to do what they were doing.  I really really appreciated this coming from a society where you were always trying to get to the next best thing.  

I also saw how the people on the reservation did start to learn and do things more rapidly and efficiently and had higher self-esteem from their workings with our company.  Everything Serves.  So there was a lot that went on in that company that wasn't so quickly seen, but in a way it was a small microcosm of Pilgrims coming to Native Land and the merging of the two.

I wrote the following journal entry yesterday and it seems related to what is being spoken about.  And although it may seem a bit far fetched (maybe not) at some other time it may not.  It is not edited so please excuse the typos and formatting and run on chatter :o)

2013 06.10 10:42am – So I am having flashbacks (which haven’t happened in a long time) while reading “An Introduction to America’s Music” for MUSIC class and it is speaking about “Fools Crow” who is a main character of Indian decent that is summoned by a realm to take a religious journey which flashes me to 1997, when I had the dream that said “YOU ARE GOING TO SCOTTSDALE ARIZONA” and I didn’t even know where that was and within 6 months was living in Arizona and within a year working in Scottsdale.  I have not ever thought of it as a religious (don’t like that word) journey.  I just thought I was a weirdo that had a dream that there was not option in listening to because I was told to.  It wasn’t an option … it was like an Earth Shattering event. 

So the book goes on to speak about this Indian who had visions of the future to come…which again flashed me to 1998, when I had the visions of the Earth Changes, and how everyone I love would die because New York would be underwater.  And how I wrote to Mom and was telling her to let people know and the only one that really took me with any seriousness about it was Pete, who moved to Colorado or at least I thought he heard me and Mom also.  That is when I found Gordon Michael Scallion (ha! I haven’t looked him up in 1000 years but his website is now called the Matrix Institute of all things my favorite movie  :o) 

I have not ever felt the need since then to spread the news, but I did have a very strong pull to leave AZ after a while as there was always an image that it would be ocean front property but that there wouldn’t be much water to drink for a long time and there would be flooding. 

Fool’s Crow goes on to teach people to make peace within themselves…sounds familiar on this experience I am having…since the only thing I am drawn to is Pointing to That.

Fool’s Crow goes on to say many things about being virtuous and next life stuff that I don’t have much interest in (ha that sounds badly too) but what does interest me is that he mentions that generations to come will know the way it was (which comes also to me in flash and in this music class and in all the Native people I keep coming across including Wayneji).  He speaks of the Below Ones, The Underwater People and the Above Ones and I have had flashes of all of them also and can almost recall living underwater and also eliminating the fear of Aliens in understand … the only ones I have not been in tune with is the Below Ones…I have read about the Lemurians at Mt. Shasta but have not felt a connection with it and have not ever wanted to go underground…don’t care for caves even though I love cave time.  Don’t mind the fear of drowning (though I don’t like it) but I really don’t like being buried alive and the pressure on the body and the lungs and the intensity of feeling cemented in which has come up a few times on Psychedelics.  Water I can handle and it is quick usually but earth is not as kind.

They say Indians were headed for extinction, but from what I can tell in myself you cannot extinct the DNA cause it flows in this blood and it is like having memory bank storage that reveals itself in perfect timing and all the culture is still there, it just isn’t tapped into until the moment arrives that it is … nothing can be lost.  All is recorded. 

When the History of All Time opened up on the back porch of MU in one instant … less than a millisecond (whatever that is) everything was seen and Known about life on Earth…it was so fast and instantaneous that the mind could do nothing…it was helpless to the information and it took a great deal of time (not really but in Earth years it was) to process. 

It is not that I can remember everything that has happened but I know the information is there and available for accessing.  Like I know I could fly a plane if I had to because the information is there.  Do I know how to tap into it…no.  But I don’t need to know… if I am supposed to know…then I will and that is the gift that was given in the History of All Time moment.  Doesn’t mean it will make me better at Math because if I am supposed to suck at it that is how it goes… but I do know that I already Know every bit of Math that could ever be thought up, because there is no such thing as time and so all of everything has already happened and simultaneously nothing ever has.

I am beginning to wonder if my Indian both American and India run much deeper than I can intellectually understand and why I have so many challenges with white men and an underlying anger.  Reminded again of last year when Wayneji said to look into this.  I had thought it was because of my father, but I am seeing now that it was not…it was a deeper line in history of White men doing things that at the time seemed cold and destructive.  I also am aware of the White in me…that on my mother’s side there is a long White line and they were not bad people, but had been immersed in many things that they may have had to turn their head away from or had done themselves for their own survival.  This would be the attraction of my mother to my Father who he seems to have much more of a lineage of Black, Indian both kinds and German keeps coming up (which would account for his background in Science and becoming a Scientist … which I only assume he was from stories he told of working at Bell Labs and seeing the video telephone back in the 70s that we couldn’t even imagine having in our homes and yet I spent the last 10 years video conferencing for QT with my Family all over the world.)

Also no wonder I am drawn to transcription, which is also in the Native and White, blood … Thomas Edison Invented it and used it in recording the Natives both with audio and video.  I imagine Thomas Edison was a user of psychedelics probably mushrooms and peyote.  Don’t take these substances lightly … they are not a party drug though they can be introduced that way…best to revere them as scared so that they can reveal to you the Gift that they are.  A white man like Thomas Edison would be necessary for the information to come through because his brain would have been prepared to formulate and use the information through his education…not just his but the education of his DNA.   That information could not be used on a Native American because they didn’t readily have that part of the brain activated to receive it.  It’s not a level of higher or lower…just information and the ability to access it.  Like you can some “apps” on an Android phone but not on an Iphone and visa versa.  This is what I got to see early on in the business world.  People didn’t get more money because of anything other than that they had information and Dave Chappelle said as you move along in the world you see that life is made up of only two things “Soup” and “Information” and that the more you move up the better the soup and information gets.  Yummers Dave Chappelle, Yummers!

So I would say they saw it as primitive because they did not understand it and maybe it has seemingly taken a long time for it to finally come around to be appreciated and seen for what it is ... a true Gift.

GOD AND AIR...

In Meditation, there became the obviousness of complete dependency on That and then it was revealed that the dependency is like being dependent on air.  You need air to breath, yet you do not need to think about it to know that you are dependent on it and that it is there even though you cannot see it.  That is how all are dependent on That.  It has everyone whether they are aware of it or not.  Usually one is not aware of air yet would be if there wasn't any.  So it was shared to continue to hold on … in a sense to that, as if you are holding on to Air.  You cannot touch it, or grasp it, or do anything to make it come to you or go away from you, but you can rest in that it is there, it is giving you life, and animates you with every breath.

Also similar with Air and God, you can’t put a number on it, or a description … like people will say there is only One and yet you don’t think that about that with Air … one just says Air.  That is how it is with God … it is Supreme Universal Intelligence and yet cannot be explained with the mind … can you really explain Air? 

Everyone is cared for by it (and it is not an it), you don’t earn it, you don't lose it, you can't do anything to stop it, you don’t get to use it; because it is using you :o)  That is why it is said that there is only One (less than One).  The “less than” keeps you from being misled into believing you can know what God is and yet you can Know God/That.  It is a catch 22 and a beautiful mystery that continuously reveals itSelf.  If one takes the time to pay attention to the Air you breath, then it may lead you to become more Aware of That, which you are in.

So that was a very, very welcoming Meditation.

HOLDING ONTO THE PAST...

(Click photo for Steven Walters' Music or 

here for the song "Nothing Less Than Everything.")

If you are holding onto things from the past that have hurt you or scared you or left you not liking someone or even hating someone, you are carrying that energy with you everywhere you go and you hold it against that other and they have it weighing on them wherever they are.  It has been said "Better to clean out your spiritual Home than to clean your physical one."  ~The Mother  What she is sharing is that as we become Clear and Clean on the inside, the outside of our life begins to reflect this clarity also.

One of the ways to begin to clean your spiritual home is to let go of the past.  That you look at the people and things and experiences that you have been carrying ... just close your eyes and look and see ... is there someone I still don't like, that I want to hold something against, and not just someone but something or some action or some experience that you keep replaying in your mind that is unresolved, be willing to begin to see and hold it more lightly.  

Sometimes it helps to see a person that you are angry with, as a child, if you have a child picture that person as if they are your child and see if you still wish to carry that anger.  It doesn't matter who it is or how old they are, just allow them to be a child and whatever action you are angry about that they did, see if you can seem them this little child and whether you would still hold it against them like you have been doing.  This isn't just healing for you, it is healing for them, we are all connected and what you give to another you give to yourself and visa-versa.

This does not mean that you do not remember the past, because when the past comes up, it is actually in your present so it is not the past, but it is there for you to look at or it wouldn't be coming up.  Look at it, see what it is asking of you and see if you are willing to give it.  Then let go, or it will just go, you will see.  Your life and the lives around you will become Lighter because of your willingness to heal.  To Clear and Clean your True Home, first.

Namaste (That which is in me, bows to That which is in you).

WISDOM HAS NO PATH...

The following is a written Essay for Philosophy where we were asked to share what came up for us while reading the Bhagavad Gita and this is the in response to Chapter Four on Wisdom.

The Bhagavad Gita is written on two levels, one that speaks to the mind and one that speaks to the Heart.  Although, ultimately, there are not two separate things, for the purpose of this writing, we will imagine that there are.  One cannot know why some are “touched” by the Truth, while others seemingly are not.  It does not make one better than the other; only more Aware. 

When one is touched by Truth, the mind begins to be pushed to the backburner.  This is not always a simple process, and depends on how deeply one relies on the mind as its tool to receive information.  If one uses the mind only to process (or release what comes through), then the transition is much smoother because the jump from mind to Heart is not as far.   If one relies on the mind to understand the process, then one begins to go in circles, because the mind cannot understand what it is IN, and all attempts to understand creates a kind of insanity (which then creates fear, and fear; breeds fear). However, it will only go on for as long as one resists and continues the attempt to bring Heart to mind, instead of relaxing mind into Heart.  Sounds simple, and ultimately it is, however, one is wise not to underestimate the power of mind to remain in control (the mind thrives on complexity; and the Heart Reveals itSelf in Simplicity).  The good news is that there are not two separate things (Heart and mind) because the mind is IN the Heart.  One does not have to fear insanity or anything at all; because no matter what, you are always in yourSelf.  However, the cycle of attempting to understand can get out of hand for a while, again depending on whether one begins to accept that they will not ever understand.  If that is the case then one naturally relaxes and lets go of understanding, and begins to Know.  What is the difference between understanding and Knowing (with a capital “K”)?  The difference is that understanding comes from the mind and is something that can be explained and understood by the mind (it is proof of something).  “Knowing” comes from what the mind is IN and is Revealed.  When you “Know” something you do not require proof (you don’t need proof of air to breath and you don’t need proof of knowing; to Know).  Words will not ever explain this, but if you Know or are at least willing to know where you are being pointed, then you will need no words. 

There can be no other way, direction than towards Truth.  Action and in-action are both in Truth. When the Self falls asleep too deeply … it Awakens out of the call through the mind from the Heart.  The dream that one is in is meant to “feel” real.  That is the Gift for Self to experience itself as something “appearing” as other than what it is.  However, when it gets too dark, too serious, a call is sent out to Self, which Awakens itself, and brings the Light unto the world. 

Self is not a person, it does not think, yet all thinking is in it.  It understands everything without understanding, its intelligence is so great that there is no way to comprehend or describe what intelligence even is.  Self is before your own breath, it is beyond anything that can be imagined, because imagining is in Self.  It cannot be used, but it uses everything to reveal itSelf to itself.  It is the only thing that lasts and it is not a thing.  All paradoxes point to it, but will not ever help you to understand it (and IT is not an it).

One does not need to be smart to be wise.  Wisdom is not learned in books or in schooling; it is not something that is taught.  You are born Wise and then it is covered over by ignorance and learning.  Wisdom is available to all who seek it, however it cannot be sought in the world.  The world will lead one away from wisdom, because wisdom is not in the world.  However as one becomes Realized in Wisdom the world then begins to point one back into itSelf.  Prior to that, the world teaches separation and that everyone is an individual.  Wisdom is the discovery that “we” are all ONE (less than One) and the Same and that it is only “in the world” that we appear to be different.  (Talks With Ramana Maharshi, Video.)  

Behind the face, behind the thoughts about who one is, is the Still Wisdom of who you are.  No one can give it to you, however you can use these words as a reminder to begin to look.  To become Wise, you must begin to question everything you believe in, everything that you hold dear, and nothing is held onto more tightly than the thought “I.”  (Austin 31.)

When you are truly ready for Wisdom and Knowledge, you will begin to question who you are.  One does this by asking one simple question and it is the only question one ever need ask, in any situation, it is first person singular, the question; “Who am I?”  Ask it with all sincerity and accept no answer that comes.  Dig and dig and when you tire of digging, dig some more.

Wisdom has no path.  However self-interrogation leads one Home.

Works Cited

 Austin, Wayne, Dialogues with a Master, The Spider, Create Space, Print.

(or http://www.endofthesearch.com/the-spider--who-am-i-really.html)

            Austin, Wayne, First There is a Mountain, Who Am I? Really, Create Space, Print.

(or http://www.ftiam.org/57-who-am-i-really.html)

Cinefx Productions, “Talks With Ramana Maharishi,” Talk 146, Internet Video.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXKuURMgMs&feature=youtu.be)

"Who Am I?" A Strategy For Self-Realization." Hinduism Today 30.2 (2008): 52-53. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013.