The Living Room

One with all

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Michaela

Identification with your mind creates an opaque screen of concepts, labels, images, words, judgments, and definitions that blocks all true relationship. It comes between you and yourself, between you and your fellow man and woman, between you and nature, between you and God. It is this screen of thought that creates the illusion of separateness, the illusion that there is you and a totally separate “other.” You then forget the essential fact that, underneath the level of physical appearances and separate forms, you are one with all that is. (Eckhart Tolle)

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LoL

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Michaela

What are you thinking…

Posted in What's the craic ? | Tagged self esteem | Leave a comment

change is come…

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Michaela

Puscifer – Momma Sed

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Don’t go back to sleep

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Michaela

Lotus Flower (photo by Solveig)

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep
You must ask for what you really want
Don’t go back to sleep
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep

From Rumi: The big red book
Translated by Coleman Barks

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My Cushion

Posted on December 4, 2010 by dreamfable

One o’clock in the night.
Turning and turning. Cannot sleep.
Out of bed, to my cushion.
Blanket around me.
Sitting in the dark.

I feel tensed.
I smile at my painbody.
“You like keeping awake don’t ya”, I ask.
I feel it jumping inside me.
Yes, yes, yes…
I smile at my funny painbody.

One conscious breath.
Hhhuuuuu…
It’s like that first cup of coffee.
Like the first moments under the shower.
Letting go
Turning inside.

Suddenly I see a bird.
A tomtit.
Looking all happy.
hopping from one side to another.
I wonder what it’s doing here.
In my mind.

Back in my head again.
Funbody?
Painbody?
They are the same.
One concept, many words.
There I go again. Thinking.
One conscious breath.
Hhhuuuuuu

I feel a cramp in my leg.
Zen likes pain.
I do not.
I stretch.
Change my position a little.
Still cramp.
I know nothing will help.
Back to bed.
To sleep

Salem, Raoef

Posted in Original Poetry, The Armchair | 1 Comment

The servant

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Michaela

An elf of considerable power

I love this figure from “Harry Potter”. Dobby the house elf. What a nagger and what an affectionate characterisation of the servant archetype. The story is beautiful. At first we see the little house-elf completely identified with his role as a powerless being. Then Harry empowers him by enabling a ritual, an initiation, and indeed, Dobby is living up to it by taking responsibility for his own choices. Note that in this moment he easily could have chosen differently – but he stayed true to himself. The interesting fact is that Dobby always had considerable powers at his finger tip , he just did not have the confidence to put it to work to serve his own truth, as opposed to what he was told to do by his master. Funny to see the rebel streak in the little elf too…

So I think we all need to find Dobby the house elf in ourselves.

‘We all serve someone or something. Because the spiritual path is essentially one of service to others, anyone can relate to this archetype. The Servant engages aspects of our psyche that call us to make ourselves available to others for the benefit and enhancement of their lives. This task can only be done in a healthy manner if the Servant is able to simultaneously be of service to the self. Without the strength to maintain your own well-being, the Servant becomes consumed by the needs of those around you and loses all focus of the value of your own life.

From a mundane perspective, the Servant is associated with money because servants are hired help. This aspect is witnessed within the psyche of the Indentured Servant, a person who sees himself bound by conditions of service that are not of his choosing or preference because of an inability to “buy his freedom,” or symbolically coming into your own power. Therefore, the core challenge with this particular archetype is making choices that serve your highest potential. If this describes a substantial personal issue for you, then consider this archetype as a possibility for your own chart. (From C Myss)

Dobby the house elf

Dobby is free

Posted in Seeing myself in you | 2 Comments

Enlightenment

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Michaela

The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.

Eckhart Tolle

Posted in Eckhart speaks | 3 Comments

Transparency

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Michaela

Julian Assange

Fascinating article on Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency ( Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks)

No Secrets

Posted in Room to Read | Tagged Julian Assange, Transparency, WikiLeak | 1 Comment

Teaching Rainbow Dance

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Martina

by Martina

Inspired Movements (photo by Martina)

I’ve been learning Tai Chi & Qigong for eight years now, so still a beginner in many ways. Two years ago our teacher invited members of the class to become instructors. It was widely understood that part of our learning was to pass on the Tai Chi form as “barefoot” teachers in the Chinese tradition. I’m now graded to instruct beginners.

The “form” we practise is a therapeutic version of the Yang style hand form or Yang style short form, originally taught to my teacher by Master Sam Lee, who was for many years a student of Chen Man Chi’ng. Momentum from one movement initiates the next in a moving meditation.

Body follows breath, & energy or Chi is directed to parts of the body, in relation to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), sensing the “energy body”. Awareness of the in & outbreath is vital to the practise. Movement in Tai Chi originates at the Lower Dantien, (Qihai) which corresponds to the Sacral Chakra. The Middle Dantien (Shangzhong) is at heart level. The Upper Dantien is located between the eyebrows (Yintang). The Central Meridian extends above the head & below the feet, linking Heaven & Earth.

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