I just wanted to give readers a brief update on what’s going on here, and why there haven’t bee any new articles lately (other than the Papaji quote page). There are many projects in the works, including a book, and an article on love. So below I will give a brief sketch about those and talk about life in general.

The title of this post reflects the fact that the future only exists in the mind, but has no substantial existence. The past has no existence other than as a thought, a memory. Have you ever been to the future, or to the past, except in your mind? Has anyone? No. And yet there is this activity of the mind, for most humans, to be thinking and planning or fearing and worrying about something that is supposedly in the future. What an odd habit. How much if it is actually useful? This is worth looking at, if the goal is to be happy as much as the time as possible. How much of the busyness of what we call “mind” is this going to the future or past? How much of life are we missing out on in this strange preoccupation with imagination? We are often hypnotized by these “theories” about what is going to happen, what has happened, what things mean, where they are going, who they are and we are … and almost all of it is nonsense. It is based on images, assumptions, beliefs and feelings. It generates more nonsense thinking and unpleasant and useless psychological thinking: impractical and unhappy. The “unexamined life is not worth living” as some wise person quipped (“hardly” worth living I would add, and “unexamined” regarding what is real and true and happy)… thus self-enquiry, the life-as-a-body experiment. What am I doing here? …

“My” Life: Who Cares?

A wise friend said to me once, when I was in deep shit (mentally speaking): “No one cares about your problems so why do you?” This is both very funny and very true. Everyone is absorbed in the “me” bubble of living—even if it’s ostensibly about “others” like family—and most importantly, I am absorbed in the me (or was). Yet it’s just a bubble in time, a bubble so small, being composed of a thought, that to identify with it is something like a cosmic joke: we must be very powerful to be able to identify with something that is not real! In our preoccupation with “other’s business”, we are losing out on what is most important: the realness, vitality and newness of truth, love and beauty in the moment. The fresh unknown.

So, the Synopsis about “Me” (as if you cared… 😉 )

In general life simply going more in the “direction” I was already living: paying attention as best I could, to what is real, in knowing that what appears to be real on the surface of life—the noise, the chaos, the people, the fears and desires and passing phenomena—was a kind of illusion, a show, and that peace, love and truth sensed “inside” and known to be all and everywhere, were what, or are what, is real. I continue to be living my own life according to how I sense rightness, moment to moment, allowing the inner harmoniousness to emerge or “manifest” (I hesitate to use that word as I am not any any shape or form a believer in New Age concepts, such as manifesting).

On the surface there are changes: old relationships fading, new friends coming in, many projects, a greater joy to living, an OKness with living in the Unknown, more beauty and fun emerging…

Please see the quote I recently posted from Papaji, regarding this direction of going against the flow of ignorance of the human species: The Cry of Freedom.
 

LOVE HAS NO OPPOSITE

What Is Is Loving What Is

I wrote “LOVE HAS NO OPPOSITE” at the front of one of my journals about 30 years ago. It came to me intuitively. It has taken until now to see more clearly what it means. In other words, while I had a sense it was true, I didn’t see how it was true in the world, (and/or) in my experience.

If one takes “the world” to be separate, that is, having an independent existence from one’s experience, the “one’s experience” and “the world” are two different things.

And, we must be careful or more precise when we say what we mean by “experience”.

I do not mean my experience and the world are the same in the sense of solipsism, where the world exists in my mind only. Rather it is meant in the sense that there is no “my”, absolutely.

Yes, the world, the universe, the seeming external world exists in mind only, but by the same token there is no “my mind” in reality. If there is an appearance of what we call “mind”, it, like everything, is not personal, other than as a seeming-to-be, a mirage if you will. By a inter-subjective agreement of apparent minds and bodies, a world of objects exists for us as a coherent and stable (relatively) thing. But the coherence, unity and realness of it are not inherent in the thing, but in the consciousness behind it. There is only one real Being, but infinite forms it can play as. What is called multiplicity in unity, the dance of Shiva (the masculine principle, the universe) and Shakti (female principle of divine energy): the form and the formless.

The LOVE article – An Exploration Into True Love

One of the projects on the burner is to write about LOVE. This is a big topic, or a core one, that seems to strike a nerve (especially in regards to love between humans) and while I thought I could dash off an article, it deserves time and attention to untangle the various threads. There is so much confusion in the culture and individuals, and the tangle has to do with personal versus impersonal love, romantic relationships, all the various seeming kinds of “love”, the connection with who we are, really, who we think we are, what we want, the feeling of wanting, and feelings in general, and the body, the reality of the body, or connection with each other, the intuitive, the bonds, the phenomenon of attachment, pain and suffering as beings, as feeling or believing to be separate, the phenomenon of “breakups”, heartbreaks, disappointments, frustrations, love and anger, expectations, wanting, wanting wanting… objects, not to mention all the FEARS and DESIRES in the way of Being and happiness in the Now!

Can you see why it’s not jut a quick one-shot article to dash off in the morning? Love. True Love. Where is it to be found? We know it’s within, as we keep searching or hoping or waiting or assuming or expecting … for love in the other—love according to a preconception—for love in the object, love in the bedroom, in sex, in physical intimacy – seeking the object, the outcome, the goal of orgasm, or security in a situation or seeming control of something, approval, meaning of a thing, a sound, or “family” (mistakenly thinking even an unhappy one beneath all the clamor on the surface, the appearances, is better than nothing…), survival for the body object in mind, a future, or simple companionship, or freedom from fear, using the other, a temporary cessation of desire drives humanity, not knowing it’s inherent to our being, a release into peace and happiness—yet it was there just covered up, as we use a love-object in the location, the form of a person, an image on the screen of consciousness, or in the activity, substance, or relationship as a vain and desperate substitute for reality… for happiness eternal. No one wants to be alone and feeling separate. So we make great efforts, and settle for the false trading we mistake for relationships—an impossible duality—the grasping for security and comfort is “love”… but where is the Shared Presence, the peaceful happy Now, the true connection, the boundless light of Presence? Where’s the laughter?

One may be aware of all the theory in the world about love, non-duality, reality, what’s going on, but the body and mind still do their own thing, and say “hey, I need to be loved, welcomed, not rejected and ignored or judged or pretend I don’t exist”. Feelings and thoughts well up. Like a pet that keeps meowing or whining and scratching at the door despite much you think you are a good pet owner. Did you really ever “own” them (or your kid or your boyfriend/girlfriend, or your own bodymind…)? Love knows better than you what love is.

Love is everywhere but we don’t feel it.

What a strange planet. What an exotic species. Very beautiful though…

VERY HUMBLING

Solve the problem in the heart, and in the home, in the family, and the planet with take care of itself. The universe, or “God” if you will, is doing quite fine with out “you”, thank you very much. Harmony, peace and ultimate silence and power reign effortless as the planets and stars and solar systems and galaxy spin and hurtle at light speed in fearless absolute quiet through space. In mind-blowing beauty and perfection down to the subatomic vibrations in your cells, made of nothing but space and energy patterns in motion: nothing solid. Even scientifically seen, we are nothing. Just dancing. What an insult to the ego! We aren’t needed and don’t exist. Yet here we are. What a paradox! Beyond the mind…

And don’t forget to laugh, please.

A brief update on what’s going on here on the local level, the bodymind of the author

I’ve taken a reader or two’s request to heart and started compiling notes for a book. This process consists of going through the articles on this site (170 of them), editing and printing them out one by one. So far the rate has been less than one per day, so it’s taking a long time (but is slowly resulting in an improvement in quality of the writing). After they are printed, I will go through them and see what’s there, what the coherences are, and know what to do.

One of the most enjoyable things I’ve been participating in is daily dialogues with “truth lovers” (those who have had a glimpse that awareness of objects is not all there is to Life; that awareness or what we are is distinct from objects of consciousness…), on topics such as relationships, love, the nature of feelings and the body, being happy, how to be healthy in the apparent body, and so forth. I also sometimes answer questions about nonduality or just enjoy a connection and a laugh. Internet technology allows one to have friendships from halfway around the world (I have two friends in New Delhi, India for example… and one in New Zealand, Britain, Amsterdam, Andorra…).

There is a general movement here from living in theory, to living “embodied” truth and love (my American/Western version of the Sanskrit Indian tradition: BLT – the ‘ol Beauty Love Truth sandwich of life, lived in the happy BMW – Body Mind World haha).

I’ve been spending a great deal of time on vegetable gardening. This is a passion I’ve had since I was about 9 or 10 years old. Although I was deeply involved in the San Diego Community Garden when I lived in an apartment in that city, it’s only been recently that I’ve felt free enough in terms of time and the arrangements with neighbors downstairs while living in Vista, California, to start another garden. It has been fun but is extremely time consuming. I build beds or planters, and start things from seed, transplant, water, manage, build… it can take all my time – joyous and fun, but tiring – if I let it.

Meantime I am running a business and doing all the things one does to maintain a body and a house. I live alone so it’s just this one bodymind doing everything.

I’m also having fun learning how to cook things I like, such as Thai curry (vegetarian of course), or Kale Apple Salad. I also invested in a fancy blender for making smoothies. So, I am no longer subsisting on “bachelor food” of burritos or peanut butter sandwiches. I have help in these creative projects remotely, texting with truth lover friends who are big on health and preparing healthy delicious food.

I also started bike riding again.
I bought a canvas to start painting again.
I made some progress on some electronics projects and inventions I’d been wanting to do.
Etc.

More Good Stuff

Just completed posting the Tao Te Ching on this site. Please enjoy this, as it is the best translation I know of (Gia Fu Feng & Jane English) in terms of being poetic, beautiful and clear. It is wisdom in linguistic form, ancient yet refreshing, an expression of the eternal. My paper copy is tattered and falling apart since I’ve been reading it for decades.