OLDER IN DARK DIMENSION I

On getting old----er, what was that word?

At the end of my day, I take inventory.
Of my character defects? Awww!
Well, maybe, but I meant of 'things'.
Do I still have a scooter, violin, computer?
How about Kindle and DROID...all toys!

On what do I REALLY base
My level of acuity? TWO questions:
How many things did I misplace (lose) today?
How many of those did I eventually locate?

Happy to say, today--of those, this one rare,
I found all which had been 'lost for good'.
Before dark set in, replacing the glare, and
As God's Mural faded, I understood:

Sweet Dark, I love you! Better see, think, and feel.
With help of wonder drug--caffeine--better perform.
No! I'm NOT in bed...OKAAAY?

Darkness is more than a place to hide
More than a time to sleep
Without 'dark', where would be Mars?
Where Universes, to be discovered soon?
And tell me O Muse--about  twinkling stars, and
Oh! Oh! How would I see my sweetest moon?

"Darkness calms the light.

Darkness feeds the soul.

Darkness helps us see."
  --Audrey, in a blog comment

"Oh darkness! I love darkness. Do you know you can

see best when your eyes are closed? When everything

is dark, your vision becomes acute."  
         --Artist, Master of proses, Blogger, Ces

"Who comes from light into darkness

may be first blinded, for only brief moments."
                    --Steve E

Darkness is God's canvas
Without darkness, there would be nothing
on which to paint the morning 'skye'...

So when I stay up half the night, and
Good-intentioned People ask me why,
I say "I'll tell you--Listen, it is simple!"

(Miles afar we hear a dog bark.)

"I just happen to love the dark!"

Image: Darkness_by_kororowoxDD2 in Deviant Art

ONE-PLUS-ONE: A DIMENSION

A MONDAY HAPPENING


I would not post this day's happening, if it did not almost bring me to anger-- I am guilty of everything else...but not anger!


This happened Monday March 7, 2011.

It is 7 AM Monday. 80-100 people are standing out in the morning's coolness, laughing, telling stories, friendly shouts all about. Small groups of recovering alcoholics sound as if they were leaving the Do-Drop-Inn at 3  AM. Normal sounds, as I happily (really!) ride up on my scooter. After parking--I call it 'docking'--I look around the 24-Hour Club to greet any special friends. And the following happens just too often:

I spotted a new guy about age 50, ultra thin--like the cigarettes he chain smokes. He is shaking, a bit unkempt (OK...a LOT unkempt!), scared, alone. As I shook his hand (sticky!), our conversation very nearly went like this......

ME:  "I'm Steve, I'm an alcoholic! Are you new at this meeting?"

HE:  "I'm Joe, I'm an alcoholic, too. This is my first AA meeting ever."

How long you been standing here?

'Bout 15 minutes.

Has anybody said anything to you?

Nope. Only you.

Let's talk.

OK. First, where's the bathroom?
Follow me, Joe...when you come out, I'll be waiting here.

(Note: nearly 100 people drinking coffee, eating pastry,
milling about, while Joe stood there among them, shaking, trembling, obviously ill. Nobody even said "Hello!" Yet, the Primary Purpose of an AA group is to help the alcoholic who is still suffering.

This would have pissed me, except that I felt my heart soften for this man. I decided to concentrate on him.)

Back to story:
 

Joe walked right behind me like would a sick puppy dog.
We took a couple chairs in the beginners' meeting. Joe, about age 50, could hardly walk. 

 

When one of us says "I'm Steve, I'm an alcoholic", and the other reveals himself, instant friendship arises. There occurs a certain trust and understanding between any two Peeps with a like illness--cancer, back injury, etc.

Neither of us would go to hell. We'd already been there.

During the meeting--these words from my new pigeon:
 

"My name is Joe, I'm a alcoholic. I been tryin' for years
to get sober, but I keep fallin' into that same rut--that pit.

I'll just go into the bar for one or two. Next thing I barely know, it is one or two in the morning, I'm so drunk I can't walk.

Joe continued: "I know now I can't do this by myself.
I've got to have help. I'm asking for help, please."
Joe has called me twice so far today, and we will meet in the morning before the 7 AM meeting. And, HEY, people! I did not become angry. I suddenly realized that God was doing for me what I could not do for myself. He sent me a drunk to help...on a day I really, REALLY needed one. Thank You, God!

TRIBUTE TO A TRUE FRIEND

DULCE

a tribute

SWEET

There is one among the many in every crowd, group, settlement, village, city, population, country, world, Universe. One is always that 'different' one, that 'sufferer', that 'teacher', that 'friend', that "healer", that one with which friendship happens (outside of close family) often in spontaneous fashion, seemingly as if 'meant'. (Not to confuse with "Meant for each other, etc."--grin!)

The longer I live, I find less chance in 'chance meeting'. There is a hidden design to the formation of lasting friendships. I believe everything which happens in God's world has a reason. Which reason now is time to introduce Dulce, the Peep I know.

SWEETER

Is she perfect? Or not

Is she sad...or glad?

Is Dulce good, or bad

Is she at least, at last

At PEACE!?

Hey Peeps! I don't know! This poet, Philosopher, Web Page Designer, English Teacher, Mother, Daughter, is who she IS. I am (sorry to say) much more judgmental regarding a wife, than a friend.

SWEETEST

Dulce (last name withheld because I do not know it--grin!) has been to me a support I have found nowhere else. Her wise counsel has enabled me to climb out and away from demons which held me hostage for the past four years. This girl, 33 years less than my 78, has shown me light in places where only darkness held sway. My "life has taken on new meaning."

Unknown to most readers, Dulce designed my last four blogs. She has become a reader of certain books which I suggested, and a participant in the discussions of those--not to be named here. Her poetry flows endlessly and well, mixing English idiom with Spanish syntax. So meaningfully does Dulce write, that Peeps rave enthusiastically about her thought processes, and unsurpassed ability to communicate them. She is fair, honest, sensitive, and loving to her followers.

Favorite topics--as with many poets--are love, family, nature, philosophy, sadness, happiness, tributes to those she loves, and life.

The majority of her pieces are gems, book-worthy. Her two English blogs are "My Duality" and "Sweeter Poetry" (this 2nd one is "in remission"--on hold for awhile). 

I have met Peeps and made friends from around the world through Dulce's blogs. She has been my inspiration to write in verse. These nearly two years of our friendship has meant SO much to me. I can only pray she feels some of the same.

Thank you, Dulce for being my  special friend, 

for being YOU...

and for being HERE!

Love! And PEACE!  


......................duaLITY

                                                            

MY FOURTH DIMENSION #2

WHERE SHE STOPS--nobody knows

VERTIGO

See there?
A spider-like creature
It is crawling ever-so-slowly
Across my ceiling
Above my bed
Over my head.

Where is this journey
Taking him...(name Harry)?
Taking his time...Harry.
Moving--if time had stopped
Why is he going nowhere
Fast?
At last
I discovered he has not
Been one to tarry.

Harry is heading for the ceiling fan, (not turned on)
Slowly also moving around--Oh man!
Feeling again dizzy
So much to do
I should be really busy

Whole room is moving
Or is it only I?

Where fan, bug, whole world--
My Universe...seem spinning
It is the beginning of 'crazy'
My own non-sweet maze
Whirling, twirling, swirling.
It is ME going round and round
S L O W L Y...on
My own Carousel

I AM the Carousel

Yet simply a man, you know
Who still,after two long days
Lies dizzily in bed with Vertigo

Note 1.
This Vertigo is driving me to newer, sweeter insanity
With all childlike symptoms of Ring-Around-the-Rosie
Where all fell DOWN!--grin!

Note 2.
 'Spider'--a shadow of indentation in ceiling,
which keeps crawling, eventually to reach
absolutely nowhere.

Hope to be back commenting..SOON, SOON!

Top image: 

vertigo_by_Uomo_nella_Pioggia
Deviant Art

 

DIMENSION OF GOOD AND EVIL

 

A BUDDHA MEDITATION

Mind is the forerunner of all (evil) conditions.
Mind is their chief, and they are mind-made.
If, with an impure mind, one speaks or acts,
Then suffering follows one, 

Even as the cart wheel follows the hoof of the ox.
 

 Mind is the forerunner of all (good) conditions.
Mind is their chief, and they are mind-made.
If, with a pure mind, one speaks or acts,
Then happiness follows one
Like a never-departing shadow.

 

--These words, which are the opening lines of the Dhammapada, were spoken by Gotama Buddha 2500 years ago. They illustrate the central theme of Buddhist teaching, the human mind.

Image: Good_vs_Evil_by_Saibel

at Deviant Art

TIME TO SLEEP and TIME TO WAKE

At midnight I am usually outside doing my 'thing'. Put it this way:  Nobody says to me "GOOD dog, BIG boy! You waited until we let you outside!"  As they would pat me on the back, shoulders, and then feed me. You gotta own four legs to get that kind of treatment.

Also I speak with the growing things, tell them "Good Night!" etc. I used to talk with grass while walking on it. I'd apologize to the blades of the glades, as if by walking on them I was hurting them. I believe still today that some sort of feeling is involved, maybe pain.. No guys! I am NOT 'doing' acid...

LAST NIGHT MIDNIGHT

So last night I shot one of the plants as they were going to sleep--or whatever flowered plants DO at night. Hmmmmm!--grin! This morning as the sun began drying those droplets of fogginess, I got another picture of those bright, shining faces all in their places.

SEVEN HOURS LATER...WAKE-UP CALL!

 It is these ongoing, constant miracle-mysteries which intrigue me. Sure, these little buds neither toil nor spin--whatever the hell that means--but they DO go to sleep when it's dark, and wake with the sun, as most of the world. Like me. Like you.

Microfiction Monday #72

CINDY-RELLA

That BIG Prince 
is on the way, 
Fairy Godmother. 
And these shoes 
are supposed to be 
too tight! 
DO something!!! 
NO, I DO NOT WANT  
bigger feet!


Many Thanks to the Susan the fairy of Microfiction Monday. she waves her hand and things happen in 140 characters.

ANOTHER ALCOHOLIC DIMENSION

Mary--
 
At the time, I didn't even know her name. She could see I was drifting. Sober three months.  Living in AA limbo. She saw my fear, my hopelessness, my despair. 

In June 1974 she simply handed me a brand new 24-Hours-A-Day-Book. She did not bark at me to "Get a sponsor" or "Work the Steps" or "You're gonna get drunk again" or "You'll never make it"... She said only, "Here--read this book". That was thirty-seven years ago (March 18, 2011).

And I'm still sober. 
And I still read it. 
Mary didn't stay sober.
I did!
She died drunk--way too young--several years later.
God bless Mary!

Her death was my first internalization of the power of alcohol, the life-and-death seriousness of our disease--alcoholism.

Lagniappe:

One more thing:
Funny. Mary had said to me, simply--"read this book"...and I did. EVERY day!

Years later I experienced another one of those AA flashes of light (insights) when a friend said to me, "All one needs to do to begin recovery is contained in the first three words at top of page 112 in the book Alcoholics Anonymous."  

Well I looked it up.  The first three words (a continuation of a sentence from page 111) are ".... .... ...."!  How simple, how complete, how true!  Each of these words are in my list of "AA FOUR-LETTER WORDS".... 

Note 1.  
You'll have to look it up to find out those three words, page 112!
 
Note 2. 
"Twenty-Four Hours A Day" book is published by Hazeldon, Center City, MN

DIMENSION SO DEEP

THIS may be a re-post: not certain. 

What I AM certain is that this may be 

THE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT 

OF MY LIFE

Actually, this should be a category, with separate files spanning years, because I have experienced so MANY extraordinarily embarrassing events .  This following comes to mind tonight.  


During the years 1991-1995 I drove a van for Transportation Disadvantaged in Naples, Florida.  The company was called Community Transportation, or "CT".  

In my pocket I kept with me at all times a compact digital voice recorder for keeping notes to myself since I had so many "great"--Ha! thoughts during a work day, thoughts which would all but evaporate by the time I got home.  I had no time to stop and write notes to myself.

During one trip my load of passengers were retarded people coming home from work.  We had every day such a wonderful time of it, joking, laughing, and making fun of each other, how we talk, behave, etc. They loved it and I did also

I was so spiritually overcome with the happenings of the hour, I grabbed my handheld to record memories of the moment, and said some of--for me--the most beautiful expressions of faith and love.  

I spoke to relatives who had long been buried, I spoke to saints, to Mary, the Mother of God...and to Jesus.  I told them all of my gratitude, for the many gifts, in my life, especially that gift of sobriety.  I asked God to bless my handicapped passengers, my family, my fellow drivers, and my superiors at work.  And I praised our Lord for the peace, serenity and SOBRIETY He gave me, so that I might help those who still suffer from whatever illnesses.  And I made a promise to do better, to seek His will in all matters,  and asked for His help to carry out His work.  

As I reached to place the digital recorder back into my pocket, I felt 'IT'.  The recorder had been in my pocket the whole time. (Well, what am I holding in my hand, into WHAT had I been talking?)...N E X T : 

Earlier, I had inadvertently grabbed the company two-way radio microphone, and had been sending my ultra private thoughts out over the air!  EVERYTHING I'd said had been broadcast to the base office, overheard by the dispatcher, by my boss and all the office staff, and by ALL the drivers and ALL the passengers on ALL the buses that afternoon.

At the end of my shift, no one said a word about the incident.  Everyone behaved normally toward me, so that I got to thinking, well, maybe I had not pressed the transmitting button.  Maybe nobody heard a thing of my secret,  but verbal, soul-thinking.  Several days went by, and, you know, I was allowing myself to forget the whole episode.  

Then, one early morning drivers were doing our pre-trip inspections, and collecting our manifests for the day. One driver--one of the few who had always been friendly towards me--approached and said, "What the hell was that all about, the other day?  You were talking on the radio for a *long, long* time, and made no sense whatever. At least 50 employees, bosses, and the passengers of 14 buses all over town, were trying to catch every word."

Everyone has been wondering "...did the Oh!--SO-sober A.A. guy finally start drinking ? Were you hallucinating? On drugs--or WHAT?"
 
To this day I can bring up those spiritual minutes, then immediately re-feel the horrible discovery and shock of terror.

Guess I'll finish this off with...AMEN!


NOTE: Yesterday, 16 years after, a driver 'pushing' a concrete mixer asked me, "Do you remember that time...." So it became today's post in Fourth Dimension!

DIMENSIONS 11X16

What pleasure!

What treasure!

A special blog-friend who lives in the Napa Valley paints and keeps on painting, though burdened with pain. LINDA, Linda, Linda. Click on her name, you'll find the same liveliness, loveliness and sweetness which I discovered there.

The colorful print--above--Linda sent me a week ago. It is the header of her blog which I have admired for a couple years now, have watched it grow in population, layers, and color.

I've been given also an appreciation of the many different 'seasons' in Sonoma County, from one hill/mountain to the next, different soil, different climate, different grape, different wine. All blest by the Divine.

When you visit LINDA please do a favor for yourself and view her PAINTINGS. Probably for sale, as the grape-growing business has hit hard times, along with all the other parts of our economy...

If Linda allows, I will be posting a piece of her work from time to time. Linda has struggled through much more than "hard times"...as you might read in her profile.

Love and PEACE!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

A DIMENSION OF DELUSION

The following story is true, as of last night
Only the name has been changed, and June
With a phone list of recovering women
Found herself at a turning point in her life.

JUNE.
SEE JUNE.
SEE JUNE RUN.
RUN JUNE RUN!

This is June. Her real name is...June!
It is her first visit to a meeting of
Alcoholics Anonymous.

She and I have  been  

Friends nearly five years.
June is a musician.
She is not an alcoholic.
That's what she says

Only drinks a few beers in late morning
Maybe a couple before bed
Wine only at 'lunch' and 'dinner'
Every day
(Just wants to "see what AA is like"!)
June "has a friend with a drinking problem"

Yeah! Right!

There are many who want to
Go to an AA meeting, saying
"Hi! I'm June. I'm just here to audit
Find out what it's like"

The corners of 154 pair of AA lips
Slightly curl at the tips
Each brain cell ringing that bell
Understood all too well...

"See what it's like?"
Hmmmmm!

I have observed hundreds of them,
Men and women
Who are today sober
By the Grace of God 
(as each understands Him)
The same God
Who brought them here

To "See what is it like."

Some
Who came to "analyze"
Finally came to realize
One lonely, difficult day
That they came
To stay.

SPEAKER IN THE 4TH DIMENSION

APOLOGY: This post is not the one 

promised (Men and Machines II) but 

the following was on my mind tonight:

Someone who barely knows me, asked if I would speak Thursday morning 8:30 AM at 24-Hour Club in Naples. Of course I will. In all these years I have never heard a real alcoholic who is serious about recovery, say "No!" to any request to serve the fellowship which saved my life.

Several years ago I spoke, and just prior had read an article in which I learned that one can lose immediately 2 inches (5 cm) around the waist line if they but stand up straight. I tried it. It worked! There I stood before 150 people, to 'humbly' share my singular spirituality, my great strength and hope, my awesome love of all things, my total sobriety, and how all this happened. Well, I stood up, nice and tall. Yes, I immediately lost 2 inches off my waist. Also I immediately lost my pants!
Instantly I transformed into "Mr Humility" Or is that called Mr Humiliated? All the Ego stuff I had planned--what a wonderful recovering alcoholic I had become-grin!--flew right out the window. Honesty took over. Somehow it just seemed appropriate.

Thursday I will tell them what it was like as best I can recall--when I was drinking; what finally happened, what changes took place, and what my life is like now. I must be honest--for this, my program of Alcoholics Anonymous is how I stay sober, happy, and live without my crutch alcohol.

Oh! What an ugly story--my alcoholic progression--from earliest memory.

To tell what my life is like now will be a challenge, because sharing the singular lurid details is not required. But how do I sift them, cull them from the flock of my activities? Some people's stories are based on "The good I have done, since being sober!...ETC!"

I have never awakened thinking, "Well, I'm going out and 'do some good' today!" I wake up happy EVERY day, no matter what. I don't know why--it is a gift which I appreciate, accept, and use. I look in my book to see where I must be and when, and then put one foot in front of the other...that is, after attending to my one last(ing) obsession, blogging.

I know that God is working when (Example):  in a long line at the market, one lady in front of me is vocally unhappy about everything, so full of negativity. I 'mentally pounce' on her, full of smiles, and smiling remarks. By the time she leaves, she smilingly thanks me for helping brighten her day, or some such. And I KNOW God purposefully brought us together for those minutes. These happenings really, really occur. Frequently. Daily.

Not to give an impression that mine is a 'perfect' life...far from that. But I DO enjoy life as it unfolds, or as I unfold it. And I see humor in places where laughter is absent.
Inappropriate here is mention of the good, bad, and the ugly of me. But I will disclose these attributes at my talk on Thursday. Also I will ask God to allow me to say one thing--in any event--which will have meaning and consequence in the mind and heart of at least one person maybe just off the street, or one old-timer still suffering in some way.

And this to you I swear: I WILL keep my pants on!

image from Internet, no info...

OF MEN and MACHINES

Hey, my HEAD is stuck in here--Heloooo? HELLLLP!

Several mornings while I go out to begin my day--riding Suzuki, of course!--I see a man who lives in the front, the main part of this house in which I inhabit a small room in rear. He is working on his car every morning, noon and evening, sometimes with a flashlight (lantern? Torch?) at night. Oh, so many tools and calibration instruments lying all over the driveway!

This morning I questioned him with "Wuz up, Dude?" (I try to be 'with the times' and find I am 25 years behind, no matter what--grin!) So...I asked  again:

"Wuz up, Dude?", and he responded.

Well my car won't start.
 
Will the engine run, though?

Dummy, if it won't start, HOW can it 'GO'?"
 
Why will it not start? (I'm asking this as if I should be able to help--ME, a volin player. HA!)

I blew a head gasket.

Get a new gasket...

It cost $2000.
 
Oh! And the truck only worth about $500?

Right!
 
How did head blow? Did your engine ever run 'hot'?

Yeah, it overheated many times
 
Me, thinking: (So now I know who is the 'dummy', and it ain't ME!)
So why are you working feverishly (foolishly, ha!) on this piece of junk?

I'm just tinkering--it needs a new engine. I am going to 'junk' it, give it to whoever will haul it away.
 
I still ask you--why do you keep working on a dead corpse? Thinking it will come alive?

NO! And that's a good question!

And so I got on my Burgman Scooter--which never fails me, because I do not let it overheat!!!--
and rode happily away. While riding, thinking, about the foibles of us men.
 
Our behavior is like little boys...yes.
Is THAT one of those 'other' things girls 'see' in us, what they LOVE about us?

Listen now to me...I'm sounding like a little boy. And I am a SOBER little boy! In the body of a man who is young no more, except in his head--grin!
 
And yet...there is still time for everything, EVERYTHING!
 
THIS JUST IN:
Monday will be a conclusion to this post--a "Part II" which I did not foresee while writing this. Thanks for reading, and PEACE, Peeps!
 
(I hope you all realize that "Peeps" means very VERY special people to me.)

"Mechanic Swallowed" by peirrin

Find this in Deviant Art

LISTEN CAREFULLY TO LEARN

When speaking with another I sometimes put 

my own meaning into the others words. 

And sometimes it turns out other than intended, 

maybe intruding into a Fourth Dimension:

A reporter was interviewing a woman on her hundredth birthday. She seemed an extraordinarily vivacious sort of person who delighted in recalling her past. She had lived from the age of the covered wagon to the age of the supersonic jet, and she seemed eager to describe it all.

When the interview was over she still seemed eager to talk, so the reporter tried to think up some question that would keep the conversation going. “Have you ever been bedridden?” he asked.

“Oh dear, yes,” she said with a slight blush, “dozens of times. And twice in a haystack.”

old_lady_by_k0dy
(in Deviant Art)

Yesss, another De Mello, 

"The Heart of the Enlightened" 

page 118

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ABOUT POLITICS?

MLK and GANDHI

 

 

 

 

"I thought that spirituality has nothing to do with politics", said a somewhat shocked disciple when she first became acquainted with the Master's political activities.

"That's because you have no idea what spirituality is all about", the Master said.

Several days after, observing that she espoused an opposition party he called out to her and said, "You have no idea what politics is all about either."

Pieced together from Anthony De Mello: "Awakening"

BEACH-OF-A-MORNING

Can we stay daddy? Can we? Huh?

Tourists splashing by the sea
They are here from Germany
Blanketing fog rolling in
Hiding them away from me.

"In this fog, please put on your togs
Else your skin burn like fiery logs
Red hot, you will run from our sea
Back to old country Germany."

(I was telling this falsehood on just a whim
That to see
If they'd flee
Or sensing fully my ruse, stay to swim

There in that quiet, foggy place
All of us standing, face-to-face
And laughing, one saying to me,
"You funny bloke, on
You is this joke!"

There on that beach all fogged
The Germans playing, un-togged
Dashing to the sea and splashing
No shirts, no pants, no nothing!

(The joke was on me--
But so were my clothes!)

ONE-DIMENSIONAL SHOT

 

"...and that burning flame is LOVE!

--Kahlil Gibran

My heart first pumps away day after day...
Inside, the heart-within-this-heart of mine--
Is yours.
Yours alone.

My heart organ one day will die
But not until long before I
Know that my Love for you
Will continue right on through
After all else of me is just
Nothing--no more nor less than dust.

This heart-within-heart will live
Will continue forever to give
Itself unending
Unbending
To you, who forgive me
You, who outlive me

My inner heart, my soul, will
Live forever, always, until
We are once again entwined
One soul, one will, one mind
And those who with us living above
Shall have named our single spirit
....LOVE!

--Steve E.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

FLASH 55 DIMENSION--GOURMET

 

To boil a frog,
Grab him off the log and
Drop him into a pot of
Bubbling, boiling water! Right?

WRONG! He would only jump out.
Set him into a pot of warm water though,
And very slowly turn up the heat...
Voila! Delicious boiled frog meat.

Isn't this also the way we humans react?

Write a Flash "55" then go tell G-Man

Frogs_by_sefkobayashi
in Deviant Art

BUDDHA--A DIMENSION

"Monkey Talk" is the hundreds of thoughts 

my mind keeps chattering to me.
It keeps me from what is real

-or even what is not real.

YOUNG BUDDHA IN

MEDITATION

One of the most exciting adventures I have undertaken (and yes, there have been a few--grin!) began Monday January 31, 2011. Occasion was the first of a five-Monday series of two-hour sessions (classes) presenting an introduction to Buddhism. Presenter expected 18-20 people might show up. Two hundred got in line to register that first early Monday morning. Fortunately--hate standing in line--I had pre registered. At the end of class time, I am ready for two more hours.

CAVEAT

For the few who might happen by here and read this, some will no doubt say, "Steve does not know what he's talking about". And that is entirely correct. I do not fancy myself a teacher--unless you wish to learn the art of violin playing--grin! But my enthusiasm cannot be denied its voice about a topic I am loving. Buddha. I am embarking on a new voyage, same ship, new trip!

GET ON WITH IT

After two meetings I'm hooked, there is no more accurate word. From the start I sensed focusing would be my problem. According to what I've learned so far (in order to meditate) focus is 'out', an empty mind is 'in'. While practicing to meditate, I need a mantra, a word to repeat. A word which means absolutely nothing will be perfect...so if anyone has a suggestion, tell me please. You'd think I--of all Peeps--could easily conjure a "nothing" word, right?--grin! (Go on, think about it!)

A mantra is helpful to relieve my mind of everything, every thought, desire, sense, every constriction of place, time, and accouterments.

OM   MA   NI   PAD   ME   HUM   is a mantra I learned, pronunciation:
ohm mah nee pahd  may hoomng

Again..."Monkey Talk" refers to all those committees in the mind which go in a thousand directions, which must be hushed, for meditation needs a clear mind--more aptly, an 'empty' mind

There is so much more, but I must write what really amazed me thus far. Class #3, Monday, we will be introduced to Quantum Physics (simple form!), in order to better understand Buddha. 

IMAGINE! Two thousand-five-hundred years BC, there was no scientific knowledge as we claim today, yet the great thinkers--who did not know of protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, etc., really DID know, in their special way of knowing--the enlightenment. 

They knew that everything--EVERYTHING--is connected, that our known 'world' (neighborhood?) is but a part of all else, unknown. How about that?

I have not blogged for several days, just cannot get away from this computer. I'm following every thread, every link concerning Buddha. From time to time I'll keep you posted, if anyone is interested in a 'beginner's' thoughts on this topic.

Our presenter claims he is not a teacher--but he IS--grin!  At one point he was describing what we will learn as we progress further than his 'classes', and I said to myself--even wrote in my notes--"Why, THIS is about my Alcoholics Anonymous Steps, six, seven, eight, nine and ten! How about THAT?"

Goodbye,
Good love,
Good PEACE!

LIVE, DIE, IN THE SEA OF DIMENSIONS

Let MONKEY MAN know that you wrote a 

Flash Fiction using exactly 160 characters 

for the popular SUNDAY 160

 

By the sea, the calm sea
Nowhere I'd rather be
Want to say now
Wish to stay now
Here one more day
To love none but Thee.

At sea you'll bury
Say goodbye to me

Landscape_Sea_by_MakbethStudio
in Deviant Art