“Don’t Be Fuzzy…”

New York (Photo credit: Elliotphotos)

All things come to those who wait. Everyone has probably heard some variant of that statement before. I would say that it is, for the most part, true – but there is a caveat. There are a couple of conditions. Woodrow Wilson said:

“All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for.”

That’s one of the conditions; knowing what you are waiting for. I’ll come back to that one. The second “condition,” relates to the quality of your waiting. Is there such a thing as quality waiting? You better believe it!

There are two kinds of waiting that a person can do. The first is to sit around hoping that something is going to change.

Now, hope is a good thing to be sure, but it is not waiting with quality. Waiting in hope is sort of an anxious, wistful sort of thing, and when you are waiting in this manner nothing usually manifests for you. It’s not proactive – it leaves the driving to someone else, so to speak.

“Quality waiting,” on the other hand, can best be described as patient faith. You are not simply hoping that something will come, you know that it is coming because you have applied your faith and taken the appropriate actions to yield a specific result. Notice that I used the word “specific.” That is part two of the formula – “knowing what you are waiting for.”

Let’s suppose that you wish to go to Times Square in New York. And let’s suppose that Times Square just happens to be east of your current location, and you must take a cab. So, what do you tell the cab driver once you are settled in the back seat – to head east, or that you want to go to Times Square in New York?

Well, the answer is obvious: you would say, “take me to Times Square in New York.” If you just said “head east,” you wouldn’t be doing any quality waiting; you would be anxiously hoping that you somehow ended up at Times Square. Good luck. No, you have to be specific with cab drivers, and you have to be specific with the universe, too.

When you want change in your life, both you and the Infinite Source must know – specifically – what condition or change you wish to experience . . . that is, “what you’re [quality] waiting for.” If you are without a specific vision for your future, then you don’t know what you’re waiting for, and with that sort of vagueness of energy, who knows what you’ll get? The idea of a positive change sounds fine, but offers nothing concrete and specific from which the universe can build. The lesson here? Know EXACTLY what “good thing” you wish to come into your life, apply some patient, quality waiting, and then you will have a real good shot at getting it.

So, no more hopeful waiting in vain for some fuzzy, non-specific outcome. Make a plan, paint a detailed picture in your mind and write it down. That’s where one begins when one is serious about experiencing a desired change.

Many Blessings To All…

Rising Hawk

“I Hid It In There…”

Did you catch it? It was in my last post, “I Tripped On A Rock And Fell Right Off.”

In it, I wrote:

“Anyway, there I am, falling through space, or the void, or whatever, when I realize that I’m not; not falling, that is, ’cause there is no up or down in space. Direction is pointless, frankly absurd, in infinite space. And my body is gone, too – all that I have is a memory . . . an idea . . . that I was one. Now, me and space – well, I can’t tell where “I” end and “it” begins – so, I have to assume that I am space since I can’t tell the two apart. Just floating along, one with whatever this emptiness might be. Perfect! I’ll probably run into “God” out here. After all, where else would he be but “out here?”

Well, no sign of the Big Guy. But I do realize that there is crazy energy crackling everywhere – I can feel it. I don’t know if it is “intelligent,” or “sentient,” or “loving,” or otherwise gives a steaming crap in a paper bag about what I think is my “existence,” I just know that it is there . . .

If you re-read that, particularly the highlighted portions, and give it some thought, it includes a powerful realization.

I wrote that I had ”merged” with a formless void, “the energy,” and that I couldn’t tell where I ended and it began since I no longer had my body. And then you see that I wrote that I didn’t know if this “energy” was intelligent, or sentient, or loving, etc. Hmmmm . . . there is a deep meditation hiding in there.

If I am “one” with the energy, and I am aware of love, and I am sentient, and I am aware – well, then it must be, too – because there is no separation between us.

I can’t tell you where this meditation will lead you, but I am certain it will be very liberating in some way. Chew on it for a while.

Many Blessings To All…

Rising hawk

“A Great Privilege…”

Visualization of a DTI measurement of a human brain. Depicted are reconstructed fiber tracts that run through the mid-sagittal plane. Especially prominent are the U-shaped fibers that connect the two hemispheres through the corpus callosum (the fibers come out of the image plane and consequently bend towards the top) and the fiber tracts that descend toward the spine (blue, within the image plane) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is impossible to know with certainty – absolutely IMPOSSIBLE.

Coming from me, on a blog that is titled “The Fortress of Potential,” in a place where I have consistently and steadfastly held up the idea that EVERYTHING is possible . . . well, that is a pretty heavy statement. What is it that is “impossible” to know?

It is impossible to know if “God,” by any conception under which we operate, exists. The important part here is how you interpret the idea of “knowing.” In this case, when I write “know,” I am referring to objective, quantitative, logical proofs. “God” CANNOT be proven – period. This sounds bad, but I don’t see it that way at all.

God, the energy of the Divine, the essence of that which is Supreme, is an experience. And an experience will always be subjective, unique to the individual who is having it. To me, there is no more exquisite example of grace, of the Source, than the fact that we are all given the privilege of coming to know that which is greater in a personal way. This is a theme that is now carrying into a third post. If you look at the two posts that have preceded this one, you’ll see the pattern.

Science, of course, spends time and money trying to prove or disprove “God.” I’m not sure what would be gained if they could. Nevertheless, science believes that it is much closer to DISPROVING God. They have poked around in the human brain, and figured out that a mild electrical charge here, or a poke there, can cause people to have “visions,” or to feel the presence of beings  that are perceived to be from some other plane of existence. So they are moving toward a theory that all of this stuff is hard-wired in various centers of the brain [i.e., WE create God. Hmmm...that would make us the "Creator." That's food for another time] What they can’t determine is what “vision” a person will have, or why/how these centers are stimulated when they aren’t doing the stimulating, or how it is that many times these prophetic sort of touches with God turn out to be true.

Taking it one step further, not only can God not be proven on a larger scale, YOU cannot prove YOUR God, either. Sure, you can preach it, try to convince others that your personal experience is an objective truth that applies to all, and be as stubborn and unyielding as you want about it, but that doesn’t change anything. Religions have been doing this for ages, and God’s name has been changed a million times. But, still, you can’t prove it objectively.

I’ll still be writing about what I have experienced, and I will still be encouraging readers to test what I have said for themselves – because that is what matters; discovering if an experience that someone else had can be duplicated and applied in your life. If you can’t, no harm, no foul. Keep walking and testing – your experience is waiting, and it will come.

There is only one thing that I believe applies to all: God cannot be proven, only experienced. And your experience can be completely different from someone else’s, and your experience can change – because the Source has every conceivable device in the universe to get your attention, and what is necessary for your evolution today may not be the same tomorrow. The supreme Guide KNOWS, so all that is left is for you is to come to know the guide.

When you touch that power – really connect – then your experience is your proof. At that point, religious debate ceases, doctrine falls away, and what science says about God doesn’t matter a whit. In the end, God is a lifeless, dead subject without the experience – the whole idea is just words on a page, like a dry textbook, if you haven’t experienced the subject first-hand.

Something to consider and to meditate on.

Many Blessings To All…

Rising Hawk

“We Found It!…”

Standard Model From Fermi Lab (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We found it! We found the “key!”

That might be what some entity would say if they were dismantling a car engine, piece-by-piece, in an attempt to discover, once and for all, why it works – and finally, (using a science of reduction), track their way all the way back to the ignition system, and all the way down even further to the KEY. Aha! There it is! This magnificent machine is controlled – it turns on and off, runs or stops running – as a result of this single key. Brilliant!

And since this key is the cornerstone, the initiating device of the engine, someone decides to call it “The God Particle.” Welcome to Higgs-Boson.

No one has come a bit closer to grasping the essence of why the universe is the way it is through the discovery of this mysterious particle. Yes, perhaps they have found the key to how matter exists. But everyone seems to forget that, just like a car motor, something has to have turned that key at some point if it is running; and that something cannot be found through a linear process of reduction. I have said this before, and I guess I just felt like saying it again after all the noise that is being made today over the announcement of the finding of the Higgs-Boson particle.

Yes, it is fascinating and amazing science, and it IS a “God particle” I suppose, because everything that is seen and unseen is some aspect of “God,” (however you choose to define that power). It isn’t, however, the Source of Creation. What we have done is to come very close to reaching the very end of our “string” . . . but the power that created our string is not on our string. He/She/It is not a single, identifiable, tangible particle that we can drill down to and say, “look, there it is.”

As long as we think we are the string, and that the answer to life is on the string, and keep searching the string, the best that we are ever going to be able to do is come with up with is smaller and smaller string fibers to pore over – or “particles” if you prefer. I can recall the eminent scientist Stephen Hawking saying, not long ago, something to the effect that the existence of gravity was enough to establish that matter, the universe, could “create” itself. Fine. But where did what we call “gravity” come from? What set that principle into motion?

One must leave the string by turning inward to touch the spirit if one wishes to know the Source. Everything else is just wallowing in the intricacies of how the machine works, which has nothing to do with the power that set the machine into motion.

That’s my unsolicited two-cents. Scientific discoveries of this nature, though interesting and exciting on the physical level, do not mean a great deal to one who has, in some manner, even if only for a moment, actually experienced the mystery that isn’t “on our string.” Higgs-Boson is not a “God particle,” it is just another “particle of God.”

Many Blessings To All…

“File Under ‘Incredible’…”

Well, you can choose to believe this or not.

I was hesitant to write of it but, in the spirit of showing what can happen, and how you can be led if you open yourself, I am going ahead.

I shared these words within a few hours after I received them with a very close friend, and wrote a wrong word in the first line – and it is significant – so I hope he reads this, (he usually does). This has to do with the mantra, which I last expounded upon here:

http://risinghawk.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/my-continuing-mantra-adventure/

First, a few facts. One, when I received this mantra, it was after about a five-week drought of waiting, and the sounds that I formed came from a deep place. I wrote long ago that the mantra had a Polynesian feel to it, not Sanskrit, which was unusual given that I have been studying, practicing and teaching Sanskrit mantras for years.

Today, I reached 30,000 repetitions of the new mantra and, on a whim, (not really a whim, I am certain I was led to do it by a higher energy), I decided to see if these sounds had any translatable equivalent in Polynesian tongues. I do not know any Polynesian words, (except “aloha”), and haven’t been to any part of that world. So, I used a translation engine online, which I cross-referenced with other translations to ensure accuracy.

Now, you can go back and read everything that I “felt” that these sounds meant, and the effects that it has had so far. All of that was prior to discovering this – today. The sounds that form the words of the mantra do, in fact, have Polynesian translations, and you won’t believe it when you read what they mean. I took the three stanzas, plugged in the definitions, and fleshed out the lines with a few words to make them read as sentences, (nothing that changed or altered the meanings or the order was added). So here goes . . . one of the most amazing prayers I have ever read. In English:

I touch the breath that is life.

O, Grandmother Earth, the space between objects that blows as the wind, sounds as an echo, and shines as the Sun and Moon.

The Ancient Power, God, is present – to which power I surrender and send forth.

That’s it. I have been, by a strict definition, been “speaking in tongues,” as I was speaking a language that was unknown to me. Or, you can just file this under “Incredible.”

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“If You Really Want To See…”

Himalayas (Photo credit: little byte of luck)

They termed him a “Confrontational Evangelist” in the documentary in which I saw him.

Men and women who bear this title will stand on a street corner, or a college campus, and loudly preach hell-fire and brimstone, waving the only true book, and taking on all challengers who question his or her’s assertions, like a prize-fighter in the ring. This person is passionate, and driven and, in their own heart and mind absolutely, infallibly right.

When their day is over, they go home to their husband or wife, have a bite to eat, then kick off their shoes . . . weary. Doing the work of their Lord is not easy, but they say their prayers with a peaceful heart, secure that the efforts will be pleasing to God, and may save some from eternal damnation.

Far away, in a remote cave in the Himalayas, a dirty and unkempt seeker will spend his or her life alone, in total silence, or perhaps in the practice of mantras from an ancient and sacred language. Eating and drinking barely enough to sustain the body, this person, too, is doing the work of God.

And in another part of the world, men and women will stop whatever they are doing several times a day, roll out a prayer mat, face east toward Mecca, and with their hands and knees upon the earth, will touch their foreheads to the ground in devotion to the one, true God.

Maybe at the same time, somewhere in a remote area of the American West, a man or woman that is what we call a Native American will look up at the starry, night sky in wonder, and sing his heart to the Great Mystery.

Yet another shall channel beings from other planets, or those who have passed on from our material plane, with messages of hope or warning. It is truth to the one who is speaking.

Shall I go on?

Some of these people will be labeled as fanatics, or crazy, or terrorists, or ignorant fools, and most of the labeling will come from those who risk little in the pursuit of God, and know very little that is factual about those beliefs that do not mirror their own.

If you really want to see, you have to stand very close to the edge of the precipice.

Each of the people I have written about will experience the touch of the Infinite power that underlies all that is, and holds the fabric of our existence together.

You tell me? If each one has love in their heart, and attempts to live with compassion, and endeavors to hurt no one – well, which one is “right?”

You do not know the answer to that question any more than I do, (assuming that it can be answered at all).

So, believe fervently in your own path if it is working for you, and walk in it with gratitude and grace – and allow others to walk in peace, too. To do more than this is to proclaim yourself to be the ultimate judge, and that is a dangerous tight-rope to walk.

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

“Return To Us…”

Off the coast of Pusan, South Korea: An F/A-18 Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron One Five One (VFA-151) breaks the sound barrier in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. VFA-151 is deployed aboard USS Constellation (CVN 64). This is an edited version (reduced grain). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have written numerous times that “God is Sound.” Here:

http://risinghawk.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/god-is-sound/

http://risinghawk.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/god-is-sound-part-ii/

http://risinghawk.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/god-is-sound-part-iii/

Now I am going to, sort of, refute what I have written.

The power we know as “God” is, in effect, SILENCE. “God” is only sound when that power is manifested in such a way that we can experience It with the five senses – touching, hearing, smelling, tasting, seeing – which also includes thoughts and feelings, (which are sound, in the class of inaudible vibrations).

Therefore, the vibrations of a mantra are solely for the manifestation of a particular “form,” or to create a specific set of circumstances or conditions. In this respect, “God as sound” is, for lack of a better term, a secondary realization of the Infinite.

You could say, esoterically speaking, that sound is a more “base” experience of Creation, (though still incredibly powerful).

You see, “God” is EVERYTHING, suspended in SILENCE.

SOUND is the tool given to us by Creation to use as a means to bring that which already exists as formless potential into a useable form. So, you could say that sound is the creative power of God, but that which we call “God” is Supreme silence.

As with many of the things that I write, this is a difficult concept.

Imagine a sound engineer, sitting at his mixing board. All of the parts of the song are complete, each on its own, individual track. One-by-one, the engineer turns off the volume of the song’s component parts: first the drums, then the bass, then the guitars, then the vocals, until all that is left is silence. The song is still playing, but you can’t hear it.

When all sound ceases, what remains? Silence . . . GOD.

REMOVE ALL THE NOISE, AND WHAT REMAINS IS THE INFINITE . . . GOD.

At this point, everything is still going on, but you are living in the space in-between – the silence – which is within us and holds EVERYTHING . . . every potential. When you need or desire something, all you do is turn up the volume of the appropriate vibration/sound, and stay with it until it comes to pass in your life.

The aspect of God that creates, the active power is, indeed, sound.  But the Supreme, the Infinite that holds all and experiences no lack, is SILENCE.

One could, I presume, reach a point where one existed solely in the sublime silence, the empty void that holds all, desiring nothing and fully one with the Infinite. But, essentially, such a person will have, in effect, “checked out,” and would no longer be a compassionate force to aid the beings on THIS plane, in these bodies within which we find ourselves constrained.

I encourage everyone to avail themselves of the sweet nectar of the silence that is God; to refresh and rejuvenate the body and mind. I encourage everyone to sit in silence until they can touch that place that is within them. Go there when you need to . . . but don’t stay there.

Take your refreshment, your “re-empowerment,” and then return to us with what you have learned, and with all of the love and compassion that you can muster. We need you.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD

“The Cosmic Mirror…”

: A mirror, reflecting a vase. Español: : Un espejo, reflejando un vasija. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a big question. It would have to be, considering the size of the subject – the Universe.

The energy that is supporting your existence and holding everything in the cosmos together is, in many ways, a giant, magnifying mirror – and the totality of all that can be known or experienced, and all that exists in any realm, manifest or unmanifest, is held within it.

The late, great Hindu Saint and Mystic, Sage Yogaswami, had this to say:

“If we put into practice what little we know, that is enough. We will come to know everything in that way.”

That is such a profound and powerful statement, and it is the heart of the idea of the “mirror” of which I have been writing. It is, in essence, the code for unlocking the immense power of the universe in your life.

Take the “little you know” and put it into practice [and this applies to both spiritual and non-spiritual affairs]. Do this in faith, and the cosmic mirror will add to what you have and bounce it back to you. Then, you put this greater knowledge and ability into practice, and an even larger reflection comes your way to continue the cycle until, as Sage Yogaswami stated, you “come to know everything.” Following this piece of wisdom will take you as far as you wish to go, spiritually and/or materially, or both. It does come with one VERY important caveat, though.

The universe magnifies and reflects FAITH. Normally, we automatically associate faith with “good” things, but that is a little misleading.

“Faith” describes a firm belief that what you are thinking about, but do not yet see physically, is a done deal. But this can cut both ways. You can be certain of an undesirable result, (which is faith that we have chosen to call fear), or you can be certain that all is well. Both are faith.

So, since there is NEVER a time when you are NOT in front of the big, cosmic mirror, and there is NEVER a time when you are not putting forth thought-energy, it is extremely important to stay on top of where your head is at – the mirror is totally impartial, it will just magnify and return.

Once you have meditated on and realized this truth, the idea of failure can be seen for what it is; the mist and vapor of falsehood. Why? Because every answer and every circumstance that you need is available and waiting.

It has been said that if you want to ensure that nothing gets done, all you have to do is wait until the conditions are “perfect” before you start. Don’t be that person. Trust the universe and practice what you know in faith, and the Infinite will make up the difference.

Many Blessings To All…

Rising Hawk

“I Didn’t Say It Wasn’t TRUE…”

Divinity (Photo credit: Dimitri N.)

The story is alive and well.

What story?

It doesn’t really matter . . . just pick one. I am referring to religions and spiritual paths.

ALL of the major religions, (and most of the lesser one’s, too), had their beginnings in stories that were written long before you and I ever took form in our current body. For all intents and purposes, all of it is nothing more than mythology.

Now, don’t get mad or indignant . . . I’m just pointing out that your God did not sit down and write the story through which you came to know Him/Her/It. The power of the God you know was a bright, shining seed of truth that came along, and then volumes of written material was built around this seed after the power was no longer walking and teaching among us; that doesn’t necessarily make it untrue. Mythology, invariably, has some basis in truth, even if only vaguely, through the expression of larger archetypes that influence our experience of life.

Did Jesus exist? I believe that He did. But know this; He didn’t write a single, solitary word about His life or what He thought. All that we know of Him was recorded, years after His death, by others. I don’t know where you come from, or who you know, but it is a fact that humans sometimes “spin” things in ways that suit their agenda. Again, I AM NOT saying that this occurred in your religion – there is no way that I could know that – but one would be wise to keep this in mind. The exclusion of the role of women in many male-dominated scriptures ought to be a red-flag for any thinking person.

The same is true of the Buddha. He never wrote a single word of his philosophy for anyone to follow; others wrote down what they recalled him saying – and there is a lot of writing that conflicts with other writings, just as in the Bible. I’m only scratching the surface, here.

What about the Druids? They were an oral culture – they made a point of not recording their beliefs and rituals in writing – it had to be memorized. We have no writings from ancient Druids regarding their truths – most of what we know about them comes from the writings of Julius Caesar. And frankly, he was more than a bit of a villain himself, so I would be hesitant to take his word as unbiased and true. After all, he was perfectly OK with feeding Christians and slaves by the thousands to lions in the Coliseum for sport, and he somehow found the ritual sacrifice of a human as abhorrent; an odd dichotomy of morals and ideals to say the least.

And what of shamans and “medicine men” of myriad and diverse, indigenous cultures, effectively wielding power from visions and oral transmissions from those that preceded them in the role.

Throughout the history of mankind, “Gods” and “Goddesses” have been added and subtracted, denigrated and revered, yet the power has NEVER changed. All of these myths are based around some kernel of truth – some gem of eternal wisdom – one that many spend their lives trying to get to; reaching for that singular truth.

Drum roll please . . . this is the part where you might expect me to reveal what I believe to be that “kernel of truth.” Well, that isn’t going to happen, because I don’t know.

What I DO know is this: there is a great power, available to you and me, whatever “myth” we have chosen as our personal touchstone for knowing Divinity. Miracles happen, people are healed in ceremonies, things happen every day that can only be attributed to something greater than all of us.

But there is one, common denominator for those who live in and experience this power, (via whatever story to which they have chosen to hitch their wagon), or were brought up to believe, and that is FAITH.

No matter the house that you choose to play in . . . whatever or Whoever you envision Divinity to be, He/She/It appears to respond to that, ONE thing – FAITH.

I could write for hours about this if I wasn’t so tired – and so inadequate, at times, to express the “cathedral-sized” concepts that the unseen power that we know as God places in my head.

As I always do, I will ask you to do one thing – meditate upon what I have said, and see what is given unto you.

Many Blessings To All…

LOTD