“Like A Prayer…”

Divine lights (Photo credit: | kenneth | mostly away from flickr)

No, I am not referring to the song, Like A Prayer, but the mantra that has been revealed to me that I wrote of here:

http://risinghawk.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/you-should-try-this/

For those who may have an interest, I am continuing to chronicle just what occurs with this new mantra – my intuitions, feelings, etc. My experiences in using it today, (the first day that I have used it extensively), it feels to be more of a prayer than a typical Sanskrit mantra. It is not Sanskrit, or any other language of which I am familiar. If I had to categorize it, it has a sort of Polynesian flow to it.

It is some form of acknowledgment of a great power . . . I cannot tell if this is an acknowledgment of some power that is going to be made manifest through me, or an acknowledgment of the Divine in general. I only know that it demands a certain approach.

I have discovered that the words cannot be rushed, and it does not feel responsive to a sing-song form of chanting. The power it holds, as yet not fully developed in my knowledge, is only apparent when the words are spoken deliberately, using a lower, quieter voice. Performed in this way, it is magnificently expansive, with a feeling that it holds all wisdom and peace. I have also felt that “breathing space” seems to be demanded between each four-syllable stanza. Just like the mala that resisted every mantra that I knew, this mantra that pairs with it defies any effort to “push” it.

I am paying attention, and this is an exciting learning experience. It is unlike any other mantra that I have practiced, and I have practiced quite a few, intensely, over the years. This mantra is calling the shots . . . I cannot breeze through it. It has a gravity to it that is difficult to explain, but quite peaceful and powerful in feeling when practiced “as it demands.”

I shall continue to write about what I learn from it as it is given to me. I DO know this: it is the real deal, and lifts me to very high places when I follow the way that it leads me to practice it.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“You Should Try This…”

mantra (Photo credit: debaird™)

Finally!

After over a month of no mantra practice, (due to a mala that resisted any and all mantras that I tried), I have the mantra. I must admit that a couple of times over the last few weeks I despaired of ever receiving it – dove into depression a few times, too, (though the lack of mantra was only part of the reasons behind those episodes).

Anyway, it is three stanzas of four-syllables each, and can be chanted aloud in a song-like fashion, or spoken silently just as effectively. I have no idea what it means. Somehow, it is a related to the “wind” of spirit. My intuition, which is all that I used to arrive at this mantra – finally – says that:

- The first line is the name of the Supreme, as personified in the body of the hawk, riding the wind.

- The second line in some way relates to the flutter of wings, or the babble of water over rock.

- The third line has something to do with a “Spirit Guide,” as well as a release of the energy of the mantra . . . it’s “putting forth,” so to speak.

Now that you know all of that, you are probably expecting to learn the mantra. Sorry, but it a very sacred and very specific mantra that is for my path only, (as far as I know right now, anyway). The, “You Should Try This” that I wrote about in the headline, was making the attempt to Intuit a language.

Man, my hat is off to the creators of languages! Try it.

Without references to any language, take a feeling, and attempt to Intuit what that feeling sounds like, and then make that sound into some approximation of a useable word. It might just have been the most difficult, gut and heart opening experience that I have ever had.

Is what you are feeling, or desire to create, a “harsh” or “soft” sound? What is the rhythm, or meter, of the phrase, and where do the accents go – at the front, middle, or end of the word? Or are there any accents? Is the energy right?You have only your intuition and your desired end to draw from.

In essence, I have written a new, foreign language – five words and twelve syllables of one anyway. Only time and use will refine and teach me the precise effects and definitions. This definitely ranks as one of the most enlightening and powerful sacred exercises I have ever attempted. Give it a try! Oh yeah, and like the sign says – “Don’t Forget to Breathe.”

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“The Invisible Wound…”

Panic Attack (Photo credit: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker)

It’s almost Memorial Day. A day that is set aside for those who lost their lives in combat while representing this country. Notice that I didn’t say that they “gave” their lives for this country, because they didn’t plan on dying. Yes, they gave their time, their effort, and took the risks – but most didn’t plan on dying; they had no intention of giving that away. Remember them . . . always.

Nightmares; avoidance; dissociative behavior; unceasing anxiety; hyper-vigilance; nausea; panic attacks; extreme irritability;, rage; homicidal ideations; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; GERD; suicidal ideations; irrational, over-the-top responses to little things; sleeplessness; rage; anger; isolation; depression; confusion; short and long-term memory loss; surrounded by people who have no idea what you are going through, and many more that just don’t really care to know; the truth can be as scary to your loved ones as it is to you.

This is post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes all of the symptoms at once, sometimes, some one day, and others on other days. The body came home or, if you are not a combat veteran but have PTSD, I’ll say the body remains alive, but there has been a death of some variety, nonetheless.

We’re the walking wounded – sometimes more like the walking dead.. We look just fine, but the inside is a train-wreck of monumental proportions.

There is an extremely important part of the brain, called the hypothalamus, that has been proven scientifically, in some cases, to be physically transformed due to trauma. It begins to atrophy and, to this day, there is no way to fix it. If it continues to atrophy, the ability to rationally reason erodes, and there is no known way to get it back.

This post is a “heads-up.”

Be on the look-out for these types of symptoms if you know people returning from combat, or have suffered some severe trauma. Most soldiers will not acknowledge their difficulties, because they have been led to believe that is somehow “weak.” That’s BS of the highest order. PLEASE stand beside them, and encourage them to get help . . . as soon as possible. The longer one waits, the more entrenched and severe the conditions become. It was over 20 years before I went for help, and during that time my brain has physically changed – because there was no other outlet.

In the end, it is compassion. Reach out to them. Try to understand that you cannot understand but that it is nevertheless very real, and happening, and needs to be taken every bit as seriously as the loss of a limb. Be there.

This is an invisible wound, but the gash can be as severe as any gunshot, and the effects can last a lot longer. There is no prosthetic for the damage that trauma can inflict on a mind.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

Your Prescription Is Ready..."

Reblogged from The Fortress Of Potential:

"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; love more, and all good things will be yours." - Swedish proverb

What a magnificent prescription for life! Five little "pills" that will alter your life in dramatic and positive ways.

Fear less, hope more.

Fear is a perverted form of faith. It is a steadfast belief in a negative outcome, without any physical proof.

Read more… 310 more words

Hey Rick! I found it on my first click into the archives. I asked the universe, "OK, show where that one is," and just followed my intuition. Amazing! Blessings...

“Death Is Not An Event…”

The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Liber chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It isn’t.

Death is not an event. The idea that it is, and one to be feared, is not true. It is unavoidable, but totally physical – it doesn’t affect that power of which you are made.

You are walking from your front door to the mailbox; maybe not right now, but you’ve done it before. The steps that you took were not “events;” in fact, I doubt that you thought much about them. You were walking – it was natural. So is death.

Death is just a step.

Imagine that it was winter when you were going to the mailbox. On the way, you took off your coat and tossed it on the ground, and kept walking. Such is death.

The moment doesn’t hurt – the only thing that changed is that you became free of the limitations that your form imposed, and those that remain in a human form grieve. That’s it. The moment of death is painless – no fear, no change.

But, understand this: if YOU take your own life, you have usurped the plan, and there are potentially very unpleasant consequences in making decisions that you are not qualified to make. And you are NOT qualified to make that decision, because all you have to work with is your brain – a mushy mass that most of us are privileged if we can even harness 15% of its capacity.

No, death is not an event. Quit worrying about it.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

 

“The Stones Will Cry Out…”

Mount Jerusalem (Photo credit: Brendio)

Here is an intriguing little quote from the Christian Bible, (NIV version). This quote, attributed to Jesus, follows immediately after He was admonished by Pharisees because He allowed his disciples to loudly praise Him during what is generally referred to as His “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem, (Luke, 19:40). Jesus says this in response to their objections:

“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

As nearly as I can recall from my many years of New Testament study, Jesus never made anyone do anything. Yes, He told people and spirits what to do but, just as with the salvation that he preached, whatever anyone did or didn’t do was their own decision. They lived in the consequences of their decisions. So, this quote is really quite amazing if you think about it. If He remained true to His character, (and He would, because He could not do otherwise), He would not have forced the stones through some “magic” to “cry out;” they would have done so of their own accord.

From the perspective of the majority of people, stones don’t have mouths or ears, and don’t speak or hear anything. But Jesus, a fully realized consciousness, the essence of the “God force” in human form, seems to have been aware that they could, in fact, speak. Not only that, within the context of this scenario, they would “cry out” if the disciples didn’t, which implies that they could hear, as well.

Does that sound crazy to you? Probably.

Most Christians would likely conclude that I had taken the words out of context, and that Jesus was simply making the point that stopping the disciples voices could not prevent Him from being praised. But I don’t believe that was the case – I believe that He meant what He said in a literal sense.

I say this because of the thousands of years of history of indigenous cultures that used stones in rituals, to heal, to find things, etc. They even referred to rocks in many instances as the “stone people.” These people were “ignorant” by European reasoning, and no doubt they were when it came to the sciences that drove, (and still drives), the logic of the white man. But indigenous people tend to be very much in tune to nature and the environment; a lot more spiritual and a lot less “religious,” as was Jesus.

Jesus understood that all was “God.” He understood fully that all shared a piece of the cosmic cloth – everything had a form of consciousness, granted them by God. Maybe an object or being had a very slow vibration, or maybe very high, but everything was a vibration/manifestation of some aspect of “God.” So, to one such as Jesus, who was fully cognizant of the all-pervasiveness of Divinity, the stones “crying out” would come as no surprise whatsoever.

At this point, the question that comes to my mind is: who would hear it if they did? My guess is that only Jesus would hear it . . . possibly Peter, or one of the other disciples who had reached that state of understanding the Oneness.

There is a phrase that is attributed to Jesus that he often said, usually after a parable. It was “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Well, everyone gathered around him had ears, and heard what he said, but that clearly was not what he meant. There was something deeper . . . subtle . . . an understanding that came from more than simply hearing the words.

Are stones “alive?” Can they hear and speak? And if they DO speak, do you have “ears to hear?”

I am merely posing the question to you. I have said what I think, more or less. The biggest point of this post is to get you to OPEN – to get out of the mental strait-jacket that prevents you from engaging in the vastness of the Source. Who knows what you may discover?

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“Magnificent, Ponderous Questions…”

This map shows the pattern of thermohaline circulation also known as “meridional overturning circulation”. This collection of currents is responsible for the large-scale exchange of water masses in the ocean, including providing oxygen to the deep ocean. The entire circulation pattern takes ~2000 years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

O Faithless One.

You know who you are, (and this “you” is a multitude).

You went seeking, and now you cannot breathe. I can see you there, thrashing and gasping for air on the sand beside the ocean of life; the ocean from which you leaped to find the truth. You left life to find life, and now there is nothing to sustain you.

I would gladly return you to the ocean of life, but I, too, made the leap, and am stranded with you.

We made up questions: Magnificent, ponderous questions, and determined that only by answering them would life have meaning. With our towering intellects we created an existential crisis when all we had to do was keep swimming.

But do not fear. By grace, the tide shall rise and the ocean shall retrieve us. Of course, we will jump out again and again until we learn that to swim with the current is the answer to any and every question that our minds can conjure. I may be farther along on the current than you, or you farther along than me – but we both ride it.

How constricting, to be stuck in a current! That is what the mind may presume. But EVERYTHING is within the flow of the current. Maybe it is to the left, or to the right, or squarely in the middle, but whatever you desire is in the flow – you don’t have to leave it. Just ease your way around to and fro within it, and pick up what you need.

Be not faithless, but place your faith in the flow of the universe. Trust it, ride it, explore it, enjoy it, accept it.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“Hello South Africa!…”

Topographical map of South Africa, continent version (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How is it with you, my ancient relations?

I know you are reading my blogs, but I am truly mystified, (and honored), at the frequency!

You see, this blog host, WordPress, gives me views by country on its stats, which is really cool. And South Africa, by a stupendous margin, has far exceeded any other country over the past few weeks. For some reason, across the miles, we seem to be connecting. That, to me, is an amazing and inexplicable statistic, and I would love to hear from you!

Next time you stop by to have a look, please leave me a note . . . maybe tell me your name, and where you are in South Africa. I would love that.

In any event, thanks for reading!

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“Why…”

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photo credit: Ben C.K. (Benck’s))

Why?

If you are bothering to take the time to read this, the least that you could do, for YOURSELF, is answer that question.

Why?

Why do you think the way that you think? Is it your thoughts, or the thoughts of others that you have heard since your youth? That answer could change your life.

Why?

Why do you imagine that you know the “truth,” knowing full well that “truth” is, and always has been, subjective; purely defined by an individual’s perspective. And yet you judge.

Why?

Speak not until you can honestly answer the “why?” And when honest evaluation comes, you will realize that we are ALL offending specks in the eyes of Creation. What you and I know would not fill a piss cup at the doctor’s office.

Open your heart, and the eyes of the greater awareness of which you are a part. Then you will see; and so much of what you deem as offensive, wrong, immoral, and destructive to humanity will no longer have substance. You will live in freedom and peace.

Just think about it.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

 

“Dispelling Every Shadow…”

Sign warning about the presence of Sharks at beach (South Africa). The sign’s text is below. Français : Panneau indiquant la presence de requins au plage de Salt Rock (Afrique du Sud). Le texte du panneau est en bas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All life is sacred. This I believe – but I didn’t always believe that. There was a time in my life when no life was sacred.

I killed, without remorse, up close and personal; and it was all “OK,” because my handlers, my leaders, my government, said that it was. And I believed them.

It is interesting to have to live with that. One’s perspective changes, as mine has; yet the old perspective is still with me. It doesn’t just cease to exist, it just goes to a different place. It is there, just no longer on the surface. It is like a shark that has mercilessly fed then returned to the depths. So, it is still with me.

Blood in the water; that will draw the sharks. I use the term “blood” as a metaphor. In this context, blood is nothing more than a psychological ” trigger” – a smell, an event, a circumstance, a word, a feeling, tropical heat – that draws the shark back to the surface. It’s all a part of post-traumatic stress disorder, which is my diagnosis.

This has officially rendered me “unemployable,” and permanently disabled, according to the rigorous evaluation of the Veteran’s Administration. They know what they had me do, and they know what they trained me to do, and they don’t want to talk about it, or be responsible for me reverting to that while I’m, say, bagging groceries.

What I did – when, where, how – is not the importance of what I am writing tonight. Even if I could recall it all, I would not share it – that was the agreement. What IS significant to note is that the darkness and the light CAN co-exist.

It doesn’t matter how dark your darkness may be. It doesn’t matter how deep the pit was – a single candle will dispel every shadow. Whatever may have happened in your past, no matter how dark, will fall to the light – and you ARE that light.

It is the mind that creates the illusion of darkness; the soul and Spirit are light. Brighter than the sun they are, and you can surrender to THAT when the darkness threatens, and the darkness will cease to be.

Surrender yourself to the light. Follow it, put your faith in it, and you will arise from the pit whole and unscathed.

The old maps had a legend – “Here There Be Dragons.” Fear and ignorance wrote those words. No thanks, I’ll write my own “legend.” “Here there be freedom and hope.” That’s where my map is leading.

Many Blessings To All…