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Our “Do Not Disturb” Signs
Many of us hang “Do Not Disturb” signs around our minds and hearts. We close ourselves off to impressions that may shake us and help us think and feel and sense in new, more honest and vital ways. For those of us who wish to discover who or what we really are, it’s important to remove the sign for several minutes each day and open ourselves as fully as possible to impressions of truth, especially those impressions of which we are most fearful.
Copyright 2013 by Dennis Lewis. First published on my Facebook Fan Page on April 4, 2013.
The Three-Fold Impetus of Being
Ah, nostalgia. All through history people have looked back to the good old days. I myself spent my teenage days and nights on a lake surrounded by woods and wandered freely with my dog, a boxer. I hunted, fished, swam, played ice hockey, put my tent up in the woods, and used to climb a beautiful old tree across the street from our lake house and hang out there for hours on end sometimes reading and listening to music. Computers and smart phones had no place in my life, not even in my imagination.
Life changes, though, and technological innovation has been occurring at an ever-accelerating rate since those days. The enormous IBM 360/370 computers that I used to program using punch cards have given way to tiny, powerful computers that fit in our pockets and purses and allow us to communicate worldwide through the Internet. It won’t be long before we no longer carry computers and phones outside our bodies but rather within our very flesh, including our brains. Eventually these computers will be as small as our red blood cells and transmitting over whatever kind of invisible network we have then. We will be able, perhaps, to converse with people around the world, without speaking out loud or touching virtual keys, just through our intention and attention.
It’s not a matter of whether we want that future or not. Short of a great disaster, it, or something like it, is no doubt on its way. Those who are alive then will, of course, still be faced with the sacred work of searching, accepting, and welcoming, the work of awakening to the truth of who and what we are. And a tiny aspect of truth is that our technologies are a natural extension and development of our brains. The great chess champions can no longer beat the most powerful computers at chess, and computers are becoming exponentially smarter every year. You can be sure that their integration into our lives and the affairs of the world will become even more ubiquitous and intimate.
We humans are wondrous creatures, capable of great intelligence and great ignorance. How we engage our brain power and awareness does and will depend in large part, of course, on what’s in our hearts, but it will also depend on our level of ‘being,’ a word not referenced much in today’s world. Yet how important the reality that this tiny word evokes is and will continue to be to our integrity and potential!
Karlfried Graf Durckheim wrote, “Being is the animating force in everything that lives, and it provides a three-fold impetus; every living thing seeks to live; every living thing seeks not merely to live, but to become fully and uniquely itself; and every living thing seeks to fulfill itself in transcendent totality.” The question we must ask here, though, is whether we will indeed remember the great potential of our being and do what’s necessary to create healthy conditions for its “three-fold impetus.”
A Glorious Morning in the Desert
March 12, 2013
Glorious morning here in the desert! Just slightly cool fresh air under an immense blue sky filled with blazing light. After we (my wife, our dog, and I) returned from our walk, I fed the birds and gave them fresh water, spreading the seed over a wide space–the space of my attention. I really enjoy this process of holding the container, jiggling it to let just enough seed fall to the earth, and making sure that there is some seed everywhere in the ‘bird cafe’ so the birds don’t have to fight to eat–and they usually don’t. Plenty of seed and space for them all (about 100-200 or so birds of many kinds). Even without the beautiful birdsong with which they fill the air, I would feed them, though it does feel like a beautiful exchange. Feeding the birds is part of my morning ritual, though sometimes my wife takes care of it.
We really feel connected with nature here. Of course there are also rabbits and hares around; they love to eat the desert grass. We first see the rabbits’ white tails and the hares’ long ears. The hares are really large–and fast. One of our good friends (a great lover of nature who drives up from Arivaca both to visit and to take part in some of our group activities) sometimes refers to the rabbits as “nature’s snack food,” since, of course, they are fast food for many larger creatures, including coyotes. Soon the snakes will be waking up from their hibernation and we will need to pay even more attention to where we walk, which means, of course, that we cannot be lost in dreams. I do indeed love the desert! It evokes natural meditation–meditation in action–always fresh and alive.
The Way of Life
Sometimes you have to step back to leap forward. Sometimes you have to give up to succeed. The way of life is the way of paradox.
Copyright 2013 by Dennis Lewis. First posted on my Facebook Fan Page
Returning Home to Stillness
What are you anxious about? Whatever it is, sense your feet on the ground, follow the movements of your breath, feel the inherent loving energy of your heart (it may take some time with all the fear-mongering and anger and name-calling that permeates our culture), and open inwardly to the spacious stillness that is without judgement and hatred and jealousy and vengeance and impatience. Return home!”
Copyright 2013 by Dennis Lewis. First published on my Facebook Fan Page
Spiritual Suggestibility
The word “spiritual,” imbued with so much potential meaning and promise, is one of those words behind which many people hide and about which there is much confusion and obfuscation. On the social media, people readily bandy this word about. An entire industry has been created to take advantage of our “spiritual suggestibility.” And, yes, we are all suggestible.
One of the most honest ways to explore our spirituality is to explore what it means to be “fully human” in the face of the great mystery and miracle of our lives. So few people, including many of those who call themselves spiritual, seem to experience this mystery and miracle in the midst of their daily lives, to remain open to the unknown and to the uncertainty of living. Many entrench themselves instead in the protective layers of their own particular spiritual concepts and beliefs, which enable them to move through their lives without awareness of themselves as they actually are. Using these beliefs, many people try to bypass, even to deny, their own difficulties, confusion, fragmentation, disharmony, and suffering, and, in so doing, become lost in a fog of self-deception, creating myriad problems for themselves and others. Surely, true spirituality must include and embrace all levels of our humanity.
Copyright February 11, 2013 by Dennis Lewis
Open to the Miraculous
As often as you can, pause inwardly for a moment and realize how miraculous it is to be embodied here on this earth.
- Think ‘I am here; I am alive!’.
- Feel the unfathomable mystery of this aliveness.
- Sense breath and blood pulsing through your body, as well as all the impressions of Now entering you.
Whatever your circumstances, even if you’re in pain or you’re suffering, you’ve been given a wondrous opportunity. Just pause inwardly; open to the miraculous!
Copyright 2012-13 by Dennis Lewis
Listening
Harmonious Awakening 