Response Vs. Reaction

When I was 19 and 20, part of what drove my urge to awaken was that we were still in the midst of the Cold War, and it looked as though we might imminently drop bombs on each other. I saw the insanity and violence, and it occurred to me that we were all waiting for someone to solve this problem for us -- waiting for our politics to change, for our leaders to change, for some grand leader to inspire us. And somehow I just intuitively sensed that there must be a change of perspective, something much more radical inside. This mantra came to my mind, and it fed my awakening: "If not me, then who? If not now, then when?" And this brought all of the energy back to me.

I started to see, from the standpoint of oneness, that when we look at the world around us and our leaders, it’s important to see them as our own self. And that can be shocking. If it’s all one, then the leaders we don’t like are our own self, our shadow side, which society is denying. Instead of owning these forces of division and violence within ourselves, we project them onto somebody else. We get angry. It’s sort of a noble anger, a noble hatred, a noble division, and it’s easy to justify. “I am right because I’m a peace activist or an environmental activist.” We miss that this anger, no matter how justified, is still inside the movement of division—and it’s only contributing to division. If the cause is wholeness or the cause is peace, then the cause is good—but the ends do not justify the means. Hate is hate; it doesn’t matter why we hate. Anger is anger; it doesn’t really matter why you’re dividing yourself against somebody. In the universe, it registers as division.

When we start to see that, we can see that we are not justified in our divisions. If we are harboring division, we are violent, and that violence will manifest sooner or later. It’s sobering to see this, but when you do, it takes away the justification for being divided.

That’s what I started to see at a young age. My concern drove me to a deeper place, this place that we’re called to when we speak of spiritual awakening. Now from that place, we can have a very active response to the world rather than a reaction against it. A response is inherently positive; a reaction is inherently negative and divisive. A great thing about coming to our own wholeness is that it’s not as though we just sit on our couch and see that everything is perfect. We do see that everything is perfect—but from that sense of perfection arise great love, great compassion, and a great response to the life around us. It’s a response that is undivided. As a whole, as a world culture, if there is going to be a salvation, it’s going to have to come from the human heart being undivided. And to get there, we all have to wake up.

-Adyashanti, in Quiet Revolution

Short Form from Monday's Class. Happy Holidays see you all in the Autumn.

There is ( in my opinion ) no end to the benefits of relaxation. By relaxation I don't just mean consciously relaxing each part of the body through various awareness exercises although this is important .
 The relaxation I'm referring to here assumes that you can already consciously relax. Once you are aware of the feeling of relaxation in the body then just keep relaxing through out the day , relax into each task as if there is nothing else to do in life except this task.
As you practice this, life will get simpler and easier you will begin to trust the relaxation more. The more you trust the relaxation the easier it will be to let go of worrying and trust life.
Join me in this practice and we shall lighten and relax our minds and the world around us.

Find a place inside where there is joy and the joy will burn out the pain.
                                                                          Joseph Cambell

Let your capitol be simplicity and contentment .

                                          - Thoreau

Just take a few minutes to relax and breathe.

 Feel the cool air as it moves in through your nostrils.

And feel the warm air as you breathe out through your nostrils.

Just give Yourself a few minutes of Your time to just breathe and realize

how simple it is to relax and BE.

Rollback Press and Push for Saturday's Class

 New Atoms Doing the Same Dance

 I stand at the seashore, alone, and start to think. There are the
 rushing waves ... mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding its own
 business ... trillions apart ... yet forming white surf in unison.
 Ages on ages ... before any eyes could see ... year after year ...
 thunderously pounding the shore as now. For whom, for what?
 ... on a dead planet, with no life to entertain. 
 Never at rest ... tortured by energy ... wasted
 prodigiously by the sun ... poured into space. A mite makes the sea roar. 
 Deep in the sea, all molecules repeat the patterns of one another till
 complex new ones are formed. 
 They make others like themselves ... and a new dance starts.

 Growing in size and complexity ... living things, masses of atoms, DNA,
 protein ... dancing a pattern ever more intricate.  Out of the cradle
 onto the dry land ... here it is standing ... atoms with
 consciousness ... matter with curiosity. Stands at the sea ...
 wonders at wondering ... I ... a universe of atoms ... 
 an atom in the universe.
 The same thrill, the same awe and mystery, come again and again when we
 look at any problem deeply enough. With more knowledge comes deeper,
 more wonderful mystery, luring one on to penetrate deeper still. 
 Never concerned that the answer may prove disappointing, but with 
 pleasure and confidence we turn over each new stone to find unimagined
 strangeness leading on to more wonderful questions and mysteries --
 certainly a grand adventure! [...] 

 This is what it means when one discovers how long it takes for the atoms
 of the brain to be replaced by other atoms, to note that the thing which
 I call my individuality is only a pattern or dance. The atoms come into
 my brain, dance a dance, then go out; always new atoms but always doing
 the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday. [...] 

 What, then, is the meaning of it all? What can we say to dispel the 
  mystery  of experience? If we take everything into account,

 not only what the ancients knew, but all of what we know today

 that they didn't know, then I think that we must frankly

 admit that we do not know. But in admitting this, we have
 probably found the open channel. 

--Richard Feynman, in Value of Science

T'ai Chi Workshop in Blackrock Community Centre this Saturday Long Form 10.30 -11.30 Short Form and Partner Work 11.30 - 1.30 Beginners Lesson 1-2.30

        
              What hurts you, blesses you.

              Darkness is your candle.

              Your boundaries are your quest.

                               - Rumi