I have read a few portions of Karen Armstrong’s The Bible so far, and found the history of Christian fundamentalism especially interesting.

(Listen to an interview and read the preface at NPR, and read an interview and review in The Guardian.)

One antidote to religious fundamentalism is, obviously, a knowledge of the history of our religion and its scriptures. And another, equally important, is a knowledge of how the faithful have viewed our religion and sacred texts through the times. Both are fluid, always changing, so why assume that the views (and versions of the scriptures) we have today is the final word?

Why, for instance, is this early Bible so different from our contemporary versions? And isn’t it interesting that Christian fundamentalism, as we know it today, is a relatively new invention - from the 1800s?

read on…

tagged: christianity, shadow, universe story   » leave a reply

I keep appreciating the simplicity and beauty of the double turnaround.

Someone says something about someone else. In my mind, I turn the statement around to themselves. And then to myself.

So I get to see that their advice is for themselves, and how perfect it is as advice for themselves. And I also get to find it in myself. I get to see how it is true for me.

The effect of this is a shift into receptivity, clarity and an open heart.

read on…

tagged: projections, shadow, the work   » leave a reply

As I relate to my human self, I relate to the wider world.

Or, I relate to life the same way whether it comes up in my human self or the wider world.

I can meet my own anger by picking up its energy and using it in a constructive way. I can allow and be with the experience of anger. Welcome it and allow it to be seen. Felt. Loved. As it is. For what it is. Even if it would always be here.

And the more familiar I am with this, the more this way of relating to it is available to me when I meet anger in others.

Also, how do I relate to apparently opposing energies or viewpoints? Do I automatically glom on to one and reject the other? Do I defend one? Try to make it appear right and the other wrong? Or can I hold both and see what comes out of it? Relate to them with curiosity and receptivity? Gentle and firm? Find the validity in each, and how they can both be facilitated within the same field?

The more I am familiar with it in myself, the more it is available to me when it comes up in the wider world.

This is just one of the many ways work on myself is - in a direct and immediate way - work in the world.

tagged: practice, projections, world as mirror   » leave a reply

In feeding demons - and similar practices - there is always a range of gifts I can receive.

I can receive information when I dialog with the demon (or the disturber), and this information can be very helpful. The character (subpersonality) often has valuable insights for me, and something it wants to tell me. (This is similar to voice dialog or the Big Mind process.)

I can pick up the energy behind it and bring it into daily life in an exiting and constructive way. This is true especially for the energy it has before it is fed, which is often very much alive. (This can be accessed through movements as well, and is similar to Process Work.)

And after it has been fed, there is a feeling atmosphere I can bring into daily life. Often of being deeply loved. Seen. Felt. Safe. At home. (Happens in a range of other practices, such as tong len.)

tagged: feeding demons, gifts   » leave a reply

It is always fascinating to me to hear what others are facilitated by, and then find it in myself. We went to a potluck tonight, and the topic - for a while - were different doomsday scenarios. Economic collapse. Collapse of the US empire. Ecological collapse. And so on.

How likely is it that disaster will strike at a collective level? What are the ways it may happen? What are the dynamics leading up to it? How may it unfold? How serious may it be? What can we do? How will it impact us? How can we prepare?

The first thing I find when I look at this for myself is that any emotional fascination (draw, attachment) I may have towards doomsday scenarios is proportional to the extent I resist certain emotions in daily life. If I resist experiencing fear, terror, dread, anger and so on in daily life, there is an emotional component to imagining and exploring doomsday scenarios, and also an emotional fascination with it - whether I seek it out or try to avoid it, or do both.

Likewise, if I allow, welcome and am with those emotions, in a kindhearted way, there is a release of the charge around them. They are welcomed, as they are, for what they are, even if they would stay forever. They are seen. Felt. Loved. And as the charge around them is released, the emotional draw and fascination with doomsday scenarios goes out as well.

What is left is more clarity. A choice to explore these scenarios or not, depending on what seems appropriate and useful in the situation. And a very practical approach if I chose to explore them. It boils down to what can I do, and how? And stays at the practical.

read on…

tagged: allowing, being with, emotional attachments, emotions, knots, projections   » leave a reply

I used to wish that Process Work would include the other side of the coin. PW is great for working with what happens on the form side, but leaves out the emptiness/awareness side. They even interpret terms that refer to Big Mind (form + emptiness) as only referring to what happens in form!

(For instance, “nondual” is sometimes used to refer to a whole that embraces a particular polarity within form. It is fine to use the word that way, of course, but it has little to do with how the terms is used in other traditions.)

As always, the advice is for myself. I am the one who needs to include both, and find a good deal of satisfaction in including and exploring both sides of the coin. (They are really the same, but it makes sense to differentiate them somewhat here.)

And I also see the benefits in PW only relating to the form side. It leaves the space open for me to explore the full coin on my own, and what PW means for me in that context. It may make it more accessible for some. After all, if we (temporarily, mistakenly) take ourselves to be an object within form (experience), it is much easier to relate to an apporach that focuses on form. It leaves space for others - now and in the future - to explore PW in the context of the full coin. Finally, it leaves it free to develop outside of that context and free of that context, and valuable things may come out of it that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.

tagged: process work   » leave a reply

Most have one or more recurrent childhood dreams. I had the typical one of flying, and a nightmarish one as well.

I climb up the pull-down ladder to the attic. As my upper body enters the attic, I fall. The ladder and floor disappear, and I fall through darkness. Suddenly, below me I see a large cauldron stirred by a witch. She looks up and grins at me.

The pull-down ladder to the attic was in the house I grew up in, and it was always exiting - and a little scary - to climb up it and into the attic. I would wake up before falling into the cauldron, with the image of the witch grinning up at me etched in my mind.

read on…

tagged: active imagination, dream, dreams, process work, the work   » leave a reply

The disturbing discrepancies between the exit polls and the official results for the last presidential election have been widely publicized and discussed, although never received attention at the level it deserved. See this wikipedia article, as well as this book and article.

As Homer reminds us, it may be a good idea to watch out for the same this time - and push for giving it the attention it deserves.

tagged: politics   » leave a reply

Whenever I take a story as true, I make life much smaller than it is.

I identify as something within content of experience, so lose sight of what I am. (That which experience happens within and as.) I identify as something much smaller than what I am as a human being, so have to resist parts of who I am and live from a smaller pallete. I have an idea that I know how others - and life - should behave. And in all of this, I try to limit God.

So when it comes to growing and waking up, there is no need to assume that my limited experiences says anything about how it will be for me in the future, or how it should be for others.

I may have experiences with facets of what I am - such as emptiness and fullness and how it is lived through this human self. I may be familiar with awareness as a field with no center and no periphery, and how this human self functions in that content. I may have experiences with infinite love and how it is to live within and from it. I may be somewhat familiar with who I am at the soul level, with the alive presence, brilliance, luminous darkness, and so on. I may have practical insights into these things and much more.

Yet all of this comes from a very limited experience and just one path. There is no reason to assume that life is limited to this, and every reason to welcome a far richer terrain - and find a deep apprecation and gratitude for the diversity in how all of this is expressed through many different humans and their always unique paths.

tagged: appreciation, facets, path, richness, soul   » leave a reply

Looking at this aggregate of polls, the overall trend is pretty clear. Anything can of course happen between now and the election, and - as we know - there is a difference between winning the popular vote and getting elected.

The Iowa Electronic Markets agrees, and is typically more reliable than polls.

tagged: politics   » leave a reply

The Work is naturally relationship work. As I inquire into my own beliefs and find what is more true for me, all my relationships change - to life, people, myself and those close to me.

If both are interested, there is also another way to use The Work as relationship work.

1. Write down your judgments about the other. How do you want her/him to change? What do you think about them? How do you criticize them? What do you complain about? Don’t hold back. This is our chance to get all of our internal criticism and judgments out in the open.
2. Read your list of judgments to each other. (This is where it helps if the other person is already familiar with The Work! If not, they can easily take it as more solid and serious than it is.)
3. Select the one judgment (among your own judgments)  that has the most juice, and have the other facilitate you through the four questions and the turnaround. Then, go through the turnarounds for each of the other statements. And switch so you facilitate the other in the same way.

For me, this is a beautiful way to find that (a) what the other person wants for me is - in almost all cases - what I want for myself. (b) What I want for the other person is what I really want for myself. The advice is for myself. And (c) that it is all completely innocent. What may seem serious and solid if resisted and kept under cover, is revealed as a simple - and helpful - advice for myself.

The air is cleared. There is a sense of getting to the substance of what is going on. And I get some good pointers for myself.

tagged: relationships, the work   » leave a reply

Painful.

tagged: politics   » leave a reply

I am taking a body-symptom class with Arny Mindell, and had an interesting shift during our exercise period yesterday.

Here are some of the main points… (If you are not familiar with vector work, that part of it may not make much sense.)

read on…

tagged: currently, luminous blackness, process work   » leave a reply

Not only are there different forms of awakenings, but there are also different facets revealed within each one.

For instance, within an awakening of what we are to itself, there are facets of emptiness and fullness.

When this awakening is lived through human form, love comes in.

At the soul level, there seems to be innumerable facets, including luminosity, alive presence and fertile darkness.

Independent of - or coexisting with - any of these, is the experience of oneness. All form is one. All is God.

And when any of these are lived through our human self, insights can also come in - which is another facet.

There must be many more, but these are the ones I am most familiar with from (very limited) own experience.

I also notice how there seems to be a natural shift among any and all of these. Any one of them is sometimes in the foreground and sometimes in the background. Said another way, the volume of each is sometimes turned way up, sometimes moderate, and sometimes turned way down.

Another aspect of this, which Adyashanti pointed out at his most recent radio broadcast, is that each of these are revealed as complete and omnipresent - because they are.

So it is understandable how some, at least in the very early phases of their awakening, take whatever one is alive for them in the present as all there is. (And sometimes get into slightly comical debates with others around it.)

I must be lucky here. Even in the midst of my initial awakening, it was clear to me that in spite of how amazing and complete it seemed (in that case a mix of Big Mind, Big Heart, alive presence, luminosity), it was only a small aspect of what God is. And whenever there is a shift into any one of these, or one new to me, and even if the volume is turned quite a bit up, it is still clear that it is only a small facet of God.

The lesson in all of this, including for me, is to not limit God.

Whatever experiences and insights I have is always very limited. And whatever story I have about reality or God, God is untouched by it and goes far beyond. If I attach to any of those stories as true, I only create struggle when experience moves on… which it will.

tagged: alive lumonosity, alive presence, big belly, big mind, facets, luminous blackness, oneness, soul   » leave a reply

A few things I find helpful in doing any form of practice…

I set the motivation of doing it for the benefit of all beings. This invites in a shift of receptivity and an open heart, a more stable attention, a wider embrace (including an embrace of all of me), and of living from the effects of practice in daily life.

I clarify my responsibility. I am responsible for how I relate to whatever comes up and how to live from it, and that is it. Whatever else happens is life’s business.

(The good news is that if I have an expected outcome for the practice in mind, the effects are immediate. The practice feel stale, forced and uncomfortable. Feedback is a blessing.)

I remind myself that I really don’t know anything. I don’t know what will happen ahead of time. I don’t know what is really happening as it happens. I don’t even know why I am doing what I am doing. I may - and will - have stories about all of these, but have no clue about what is really going on. This invites in receptivity, interest and curiosity. It is always fresh. New. A mystery.

tagged: pointers, practice   » leave a reply

There are five simple steps to feeding demons, and as I have explored it for myself, I have found a few tweaks that seem to work a little better for me…

When I shift into the role of the demon, I take some time to move and sound like it, to get a better feel for it. How does it feel to live as the demon? (I may just imagine it if I am in a public place!)

I also don’t discriminate in terms of how it should look. If it is a worm or rock or pond, that is fine with me. I can equally well dialog with them as with a being with arms and legs and a mouth.

Before feeding the demon, I find it helpful to ask if it would like to be fed. If it says no, I will just stop there and come back to it later. (Hasn’t happened yet.) It feels more respectful, and takes away the sense of “force feeding” that comes when feeding without asking first. In short, it helps me work with the dynamics of the process instead of against what is happening.

While feeding, I sometimes switch from being the nectar feeding the demon to the role of the demon being feed. It helps me feel it from the inside, the sense of being deeply nurtured to complete satisfaction.

In dialoging with the ally, I use different words. Mainly, I ask how it can help my human self in daily life, and how my human self can access it.

In general, it seems to work best to have the attitude of doing it for the sake of the demon. Here is a demon suffering, and I am in a position to feed it what it needs, so I do it for its sake. More specifically, I take responsibility for how I relate to the demon and how I live from the shift that happens when it is fed, and that is it. What happens otherwise is, luckily, life’s business - not mine. (There isn’t really such a division, but it is helpful to see it that way here.)

And finally, using the word “demon” sometimes seems a little too dramatic. I find it helpful to use the word disturber instead, and work with it the same way. Find where in the body I experience it. How it moves. What sounds it makes. What it looks like. And so on.

tagged: feeding demons, practice   » leave a reply

There are several similarities between the demon feeding practice and other practices…

read on…

tagged: allowing, being with, big heart, big mind process, feeding demons, practice   » leave a reply

The CSS practitioners group starts up again tonight, so it is good to remind myself why I am going…

read on…

tagged: css, practice   » leave a reply

After having done the demon feeding practice for a few days, I notice how the effects tend to manifest. Mainly, there is a shift from taking stories as true (even just slightly) to holding them much more lightly, and from reactive emotions to a sense of relaxation and nurturing fullness. It is a very visceral practice, and the effects tends to be visceral - deeply and fully felt in the body - as well.

read on…

tagged: feeding demons   » leave a reply

I am familiar with sitting meditation from my time at the Zen center, and also before and after that time. I have done quite a bit of moving meditation through tai chi and chi gong, and now Breema. And recently, it has been lying down meditation that has drawn my interest. It seems that each one has its own benefits.

Sitting practice, in my experience, is great for finding a very stable attention, shifting into samadhi, and for very detailed and specific inquiries into the dynamics of what is happening. I also find that it is easy for me to be a little tense sometimes try a little too hard.

Moving meditation is great for shifting into Big Mind and see everything happening as Big Mind itself. The movements of this body and whatever is happening in the wider world happens within and as Big Mind. In some ways, the more this body moves, the easier it is to find myself as that which everything happens within and as, as that which is is free from, allows and manifests as movement.

Moving meditation is also very helpful since it can be done any time in daily life, for instance while walking, making food, showering, typing at the computer or whatever else I am doing.

Lying-down meditation is great for letting go of effort and trying. I can find a deeply relaxed and stable attention. I can do inquiries in a deeply relaxed way. And I can find myself as what I am in a deeply relaxed way. The drawback is, of course, that it is easy to drift off into sleep, but I can notice even that as happening within and as what I am, and pick up where I left when I shift out of sleep again.

read on…

tagged: meditation, practice   » leave a reply

When we talk about liberation (in a Buddhist sense), what is really liberated?

Is there an “I” here liberated from something else?

When I look at it for myself, in own experience, I find that what is liberated is a story. A story is liberated from being taken as true. It is liberated from being identified with, and the drama that comes with that identification. It is liberated to be itself. Just a story. And sometimes with value as a practical tool for our human self to function in the world, but that is about it.

When stories are taken as true, certain (reactive) emotions are fueled. And these too can be liberated. Emotions can be liberated from my stories about them. (They should/shouldn’t be here. They mean that… I need to avoid, resist, seek out, try to keep them.) And emotions can be liberated from the stories that - when taken as true - trigger them. (The world should/shouldn’t… I should/shouldn’t…)

And in the same way, demons can be liberated. They can be liberated from my stories about them being taken as true. And they can be liberated from the stories that - when taken as true - create demons. (Any story, when taken as true, create demons. The truth in their reversals become demons. Anything that threaten the story - and what it appears to refer to (for instance this human self)  - becomes a demon to me.)

When stories are liberated, healing takes place at our human level. We are invited to grow up.

And when stories are liberated, it is easier for us to notice what we are. Identification is released out of content of awareness, so we are invited to notice ourselves as that which all experience happens within and as.

read on…

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Draft…

I notice that when I do inquiry these days, it is more difficult to come up with statements. That is one reason I started doing role playing, imagining beliefs others may have and inquire into them as if they were my own. (Which they are, even if I see them in others more easily.)

That is one reason I enjoy doing the demon feeding practice now. It is much easier to find demons, and as I start working on them - feeding them what they need - it seems that more of them line up. People in a poor neighborhood flocking to a soup kitchen. Demons flocking to be fed.

tagged: feeding demons, the work   » leave a reply

I have read about half of Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione, and am as impressed by the book as I am by the practice. It is beautifully written, simple, insightful and always very practical and helpful.

The five steps of the practice itself is outlined at her Kapala Training website.

tagged: books, buddhism, feeding demons, practice, teachers, teachings, tibetan buddhism   » leave a reply

One view of how the mind/brain works imagines something like a little person inside the head looking at screens and pulling levels, as if in a control room or operating a space ship.

It may sound funny, but when I look at it for myself, I see where the idea comes from. It is a mirror of what is going on right here.

There is content of experience, awareness and then someone being aware of content of experience. There is doing, awareness, and a doer. Thinking, awareness, and a thinker. Choosing, awareness, and a chooser.

Something is happening within and as awareness, and then there is a sense of a middle man mediating between the two.

If I explore this from Big Mind, I see that the middle man - obviously - is part of content of awareness. There is no “I” inherent in the middle man, no more than in anything else.

And if I explore it through the sense fields, I get to see the dynamics of it more in detail. I notice how the middle man - the observer, doer, thinker, chooser - is a mental field creation. It comes from a mental field overlay on top of the other sense fields.

There is a thought arising within and as awareness, and then an imagined thinker placed on top of it. An action of this human self in the world - arising within and as awareness - and then a mental field overlay of a doer. (This mental field creation - for me at least - visual. Taking the form of an outline of this human self, center-periphery, and so on.)

So no wonder the control room analogy came up in our minds. It is a direct representation of what is really going on, here now. It reflects direct experience when this experience is filtered through this mental field overlay - and it is not recognized as just a mental field creation.

It is a discredited theory in science. What happens when I explore it for myself, here now? What happens if I take the middle man as real? What happens if I see it as a mental field creation?

read on…

tagged: homunculus, mental field, middle man, sense fields, sense of I   » leave a reply

A baby Buddha looks to be three or four years old, although he is newly born. His insights - and ability to combine familiar elements in new ways - goes beyond all the many current and past Buddhas. They have prepared the ground for him, as others did for them, and he in turn will do for future Buddhas.

read on…

tagged: dream   » leave a reply

Milarepa went through a process of relating to his demons in different ways, from asking them to leave, going into dharma combat, welcoming them, and finally feeding them. (I have read a few different versions of this so am not sure what it says in his own writings.)

In any case, it is a good illustration of how I find myself relating to my own demons…

I may ignore them, pretend they are not there. Push them aside for a while. But they stay around and continue to do their demon things, so I need to find another way of relating to them. (Milarepa was probably smart enough to pass through this one quickly.)

I ask them to leave. Some may leave. Others may leave and come back. Many don’t leave. This one is also not very effective.

I go into arguments with them. I tell my version of the story. They tell theirs. And it doesn’t work very well.

I welcome them. Wholeheartedly. As they are. Allow them to stay as they are, even forever if that is what happens. (Which it isn’t.) Some go away. Others transform. And again, some stay. Some even continue to bug me.

I may ask (pray) for guidance, inviting in intention and receptivity for a shift in how I relate to them.

I may have a dialog with them. Asking them who they are. What they want. What they need. What I can do for them. What they can teach me. How they can help. This is more productive.

I can shift into their role, find myself as them and what I see in them in myself. Taking time to sink into it.

I may find any beliefs related to the demons, including the ones that make them appear as demons, and inquire into them. Is it true? What happens when I hold onto that belief? Who am I without it? What is the grain of truth in each reversal?

I feed them. I give them what they really need - love, kindness, sense of safety, and so on. I hold them within Big Heart, and allow them to transform in whatever way they want - within Big Heart.

I can notice them - and anything else - as awakeness itself. As the play of awakeness in/as form. This is the other side of the coin from working with it on the form side.

read on…

tagged: beliefs, feeding demons, shadow   » leave a reply

A draft that didn’t go further… (too many points to flesh out!

read on…

tagged: buddhism, practice, projections, shadow   » leave a reply

When I look at freedom through form, I find that it happens in many different ways.

Existence finds freedom to explore itself through taking on various forms. Or more accurately, when I notice what I am (that which content of experience happens within and as), I find that this content of experience is the play of what I am. It is how it explores and experiences itself as and through form. Always new. Fresh. Different. Said yet another way, it is how the infinite can experience itself as finite, or at least an appearance of it which is as good as it gets.

In a growing/waking up context, I also find that there is freedom through form. There is an invitation to grow and wake up within the world of form, a freedom to grow and wake up through the friction of form. For instance, I hold onto a story as true (fixed perspective/role), the rest of the world of form doesn’t agree, there is friction (stress), which in turn invites me to notice and inquire into my belief. Or more immediately, I may notice resistance, allow that resistance and anything else happening, and notice it all as awakeness itself.

In a practice context, there is also freedom through form. I go to retreat, and the form creates a container for practice. I don’t have to think about what to do next, and - again - the friction between the form and my beliefs creates opportunities to grow and wake up. The same is the case for yoga, tai chi, chi gong and other practices that has a set form. There is also a freedom from having the personality run the show here, at least in those few areas. And the form itself may be designed to work on me in specific ways, so I give it that freedom to work on me when I follow the form.

There is also freedom through form in a social context, especially in the forms of roles. For instance, since I am married I don’t have to consider (very seriously) if someone else can be a potential partner. I have the freedom to spend my attention somewhere else.

The first one, the freedom of existence to explore itself as form, just happens. The second, the invitation to grow and wake up through the friction of form, requires some participation. The third and fourth are obviously more optional, and require more of a discernment and conscious decision on our part. Which forms do I chose to follow? What are the practical outcomes of following them?
read on…

tagged: form, form and formless, freedom, who and what we are   » leave a reply

Ken Wilber mentioned this somewhere, and I am sure others do as well: The value of states in an awakening context is that we - eventually - find ourselves as that which these states happen within and as.

Content of awareness comes and goes. Clarity and confusion. Samadhi and scattered attention. Kensho and a sense of a separate I. Bliss and dullness. Allowing experience and getting caught up in the drama of it.

Yet through it all, something does not change. All of this happens within and as what we are, as awakeness itself.

And eventually, after having cycled through all of this often enough, that becomes more and more obvious. Whatever happens is awakeness itself. It is the play of awakeness itself. And it doesn’t matter what the content of that play is, in this context.

read on…

tagged: awakening, currently, cycles, who and what we are   » leave a reply

I have been enjoying the simple prayer of Let Your will be done lately, throughout the day.

(I say it in my native language since that seems closer to my heart. And sometimes, the prayer is a little longer: Kjære Gud, la din vilje skje i Jesu Kristi navn, Amen.)

What is surrender? In this case, it seems to be a surrender of identification with stories.

A surrender of being caught up in stories, and having it appear that there is an “I” here at odds with the rest of the world.

As with so many other practices, that simple prayer - to the extent it is sincere and heartfelt - invites in a sweet surrender to what is. Receptivity. A more fluid view. A more open heart. A nurturing fullness. A sense of being home here now. A shift into allowing experience as it is, including any resistance to it. Noticing all as happening within and as the timeless present.

It is a surrender to noticing what is. To see that all is already God’s will, including whatever is happening to - and within - this human self.

It can be very simple. Sweet. No matter what is going on in this human life. (Such as headaches, congested airways and a construction project at the house gone awry!)

And within this surrender, my human self can function from a little more clarity.

read on…

tagged: surrender   » leave a reply