I've recently come across some disturbing information regarding 9/11. At first I was fairly skeptical of this information, however, as I've done more research and been exposed to more information I am becoming more and more confident that a lot of this information is legitimate and needs to be investigated as well as disseminated so that the government can not continue to cover it up. I highly encourage you to watch the following video from David Ray Griffin on google video titled 9/11 and the American Empire and the response of religious (spiritual) people.  Then, disseminate this information far and wide as there is power in numbers and ask your media outlets why they are not presenting this information. 

Here's a link to a video of Charles Tart discussing a case where he set up an experimental condition to examine a woman's out of body experiences.

http://cbs5.com/specialreports/local_story_050155959.html

When she reported the number she saw on one occassion, she was right.  A friend of mine is currently preparing to do similar research.  If anyone who is a wealthy donor is interested in funding such cutting edge research, let me know as I'm pretty sure he could use some more resources.

Jhanas are very refined meditative states associated with Buddhism and what is usually translated as "concentration meditation" or shamatha.  I've always had a fascination with Buddhism due to the depth of degree in which interior states, particularly meditative states have been explored.  According to Alan Wallace, who is a Buddhist scholar, teacher, and practitioner, just attaining the first jhana of which 8 are typically listed in traditional accounts usually requires approximately a couple of years of continuous retreat practice!  No easy feat and not feasible for many of us living in the modern west.

So how do we make sense of these types of rarefied states of consciousness that require years of solitary retreat and contemporary spiritual movements that conceptualize and speak about awakening in much different terms.  In my mind, the only real solution is to realize that they are talking about different 'things'  that don't easily map onto each other or only  in radically different degrees. 

Contemporary spiritual movements such as Neo-Advaita, the Translucent revolution material, aspects of integral life practice, etc. are focused more on recognizing and investigating the nature of consciousness or awareness or whatever label one would put on it and usually coming to some sort of experiential shift in which that consciousness is seen as having a type of transcendental quality as well as having a sense of that consciousness being closely associated with one's "I"-ness or true identity(although most Buddhists would not term it that way!)

Jhanas on the other hand seem to have to do more with directing consciousness in some way.  Through this directing and maintenance of consciousness on some type of meditation object whether it be the breath, or the mind, etc., the unification and concentration of consciousness on the meditation object begins to increase to extraordinary degrees through extended retreat style practice.

Then, what is awakening in these different contexts?  Well in Buddhism, depending on the tradition, shamatha is just the first step in awakening.  This progresses into a series of other practices depending on the tradition which then progress into different ways of determining and assessing 'awakening'.

In contemporary spiritual movements 'awakening' is a much looser and freely used term that largely refers to this awakening to the nature of consciousness.  Buddhism appears to have a much higher standard and refined gradiant for using such a term.  I think it's important to make such distinctions otherwise we are equating apples with oranges.  It's good to see the differences between apples and oranges and labelling them as such as to be able to discern what is, clearly.

Throughout a good part of my life, I often have had a fascination with what I call "depth".  I feel it particularly strong late at night, as well as at twilight.  The power was out a few nights ago, and I was sitting in the twilight and just felt this type of awareness or energy seemingly permeating everything.  It also had a quality of heart-ache or heart-full-ness, a sense of connection with all life, all being, in a visceral way, as if you can feel other sentient beings from the inside out.  Recently I've noticed a desire to stay up late, as my schedule is not set, with the primary focus of my attention and energy right now being on completing my dissertation.  I think in a way this is a way of how my psyche thirsts for that "depth", where you feel so fully you can't help but have tears in the eyes.

I've been frequenting the II zaadz pod lately on this site.  Although I find some of the intellectaul discussion interesting, often times what I read lacks this "depth" dimension, this whole body and whole being feeling to infinity, as Adi Da used to put it.  It's not an easy thing to access since a lot of times deep unconscious knots and woundings in the psycho-physical body/bodies need to be unraveled to allow such emergence to occur.  This type of path of conscious embodiment entails more of a moving towards and into the darkness and metaphorical "night" of the psyche rather than a subtle or not so subtle running away from the pains and woundings and "darkness" of being a human being.  More of a "waking down" rather than a "waking up."  When that happens, its hard to easily pass judgment on "others" and easy to bleed deep compassion for other sentient beings, as you know, their suffering is non-seperate from your own.

In the process of my dissertation research, which is slowly but surely coming to an end, I engaged in quite a contemplation of the dialectic between words and silence.  We're so dependent on words for communication but many times such excursions tie our minds in knots.  I've been writing words upon words upon words about mindfulness, primarily a non verbal active dimension of existence.  At times, I see the whole thing as futile like describing the taste of chocolate cake, or sex, or seeing a beautiful sunrise, I mean I could describe these experiences with words but the reader of the words wouldn't "get it" like if they were in the midst of the experience, like mindfulness.  We are truly a word dependent culture for better or for worse.  Words paint wonderful inner landscapes of worlds through imagination and yet many times our worlds and existence are trapped by words, their inherent limits and the limits of form.  Existence is both wordfull and wordless simultaneously.  There is a constant wakefulness that persists through the midst of all forms of experience.  What is that wakefulness???

I lead a current events class at my work.  I came across this article in nation that reprinted a speech Keith Olbermann gave about George Bush's speech on 9/11.  I felt it was very moving.


The Nation - Keith Olbermann is without a doubt the best news anchor on television today. Two weeks ago, echoing the spirit of the legendary Edward R. Murrow, Olbermann took Donald Rumsfeld to task for comparing critics of the Iraq war to Nazi appeasers. Tonight, broadcasting live from above a desolate and still demolished Ground Zero, Olbermann delivered a stirring eight minute commentary indicting the Bush Administration's shameful and tragic response to 9/11. The entire speech is worth watching and reading

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060912/cm_thenation/15120539_1

Equidistant between sun and moon

i piece together a reality that sees me.

each star a lost thought

in the mind of god

yet i still can behold it,

its light continues to travel

bouncing off eyeball to brain

i create me and i

and it,

out there.

mind is where?

my perceptual and conceptual worlds

collapse on even space,

apparently sepearate beings

are but condensing and dissipating

rains of mind.

In the cylindrical chamber

I knock on the hallowed walls.

Their echo remind me of home.

It is not a location put a place

Stretched beyond sun-lit sky

and moon-drenched night

i still hear the echoes

of the original bird

who decided to sing.

 

 

Hand heavy

reaching into the deep night

I see your silhouette

yet life still bleeds blood

so bold

these words look for their maker

but there isn't one.

The web which has no weaver

spins truths and illusions with the same thread.

Touch appearances

as if they were your last breath.

Feel feelings

like a desert wanderer

sipping first spring.

There is just so little

and just so much to learn

Our lives are strung together

like an ancient tapestry

hung off an infinite wall

walled in by nothing more

than imagination.

Etched between the lines of yes and no

go sacred winds that speak in ancient tongues

what they say are like lost fire

to wandering mosquito

 

You say hold this moment firm

but I say let it breathe

"Enlightenment is the realization that everything is impermanent

including the experience of enlightenment"

:: Friday Five :: Week 8 :: Inspiration ::
How to participate: 1) Join holy memes and kosmic blog starters and check it out every Friday for a different set of five questions. 2) Copy and paste those questions (and this message!) into your blog. 3) Tag your entry with the words "Friday Five" and post it. 4) Come back to the pod and tell us about your post. 5) Message suzanne with ideas for next week. Let's spread the seeds!

1) Who/what/where inspires you?

Who:  God

What:  Now

Where: Everywhere

2) Why are there moments we feel completely inspired and moments where that inspiration is gone?

I just think that's the nature of our existence and universe, everything conditioned is impermanent and changes including moments of inspiration. I think it's a good thing.  It makes me appreciate inspired moments even more.

3) How do you seek inspiration? How do you (and should you) cope on days where inspiration is lackluster?

I seek inspiration through that which is different, novel, mysterious, new.  I think in those moments there is room for new growth and new pathways of experience, the art of the unexpected

4) Go to your profile and look at the list of your heroes, teachers, books, movies and music. (if you haven't created your list, do it now!) Pick out a few that you wish everyone could know about. Why does these inspire you? What makes them so great?

Hero:  Jeff Ott--he's more of a sentimental hero.  When I was more involved with the punk scene in my earlier years and also going through a lot of spiritual transitions and experiences, his lyrics and the music of Fifteen were like this blazing beacon of hope, of passion, of love, of activism.  I think it had to do more with the time of my life and the music he was creating because I don't know him personally other than chatting with him briefly after a show and giving him a Krishnamurti book.  But that time was so formative for me that he remains a hero...there's a song called Inspiration by his previous band Crimpshrine, check it out if you want to expose yourself to some east bay punk.

Teacher/Hero:  Alan Wallace--why?  'cause he's the man!  He got me into Buddhism, meditation, and the philosophy of science when I was in undergrad at UC Santa Barbara.  I think he is doing wonderful things in the world, a true bodhisattva and just a brilliant person, a very formative person in my development.

5) Go to Zaadz quotes and find at least five quotes that inspire you, and post them here.

i)  A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be. Abraham Maslow 

ii)  A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.  Kahlil Gibran  Source: Wisdom of Gibran

iii)  To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour. William Blake  Source: Auguries of Innocence

iv)   If a thing loves, it is infinite.  William Blake

v)  Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princes who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Rainer Maria Rilke