Falling slowly

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Michaela

I don’t know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can’t react
And games that never amount
To more than they’re meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You’ll make it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can’t go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I’m painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It’s time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We’ve still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice

You’ve made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I’ll sing it loud

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova – Falling Slowly

 

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What An Itch Revealed About The Eternal

Posted on January 27, 2011 by aralannow

The other night I experienced the itchiest of itches.  At first, I got up to get something to scratch it with but then I decided that it would be fun to simply sit with the itch.  I noticed that what I was calling “an itch” was actually something a lot more fluid.  At first the sensation of a kind of prickliness dwelled in one place on the surface, then it moved deeper.  At one point it became  a kind of pulsing and at another  it disappeared altogether, only to reappear  a little while later.  Was it really all the same thing?  As I brought my attention, awareness and curiosity to my itch, I recognized that it offered a wonderful opportunity to explore the meaning of impermanence, space, awareness and conditioning.

We are conditioned to chase pleasurable experiences and avoid discomfort  and unpleasantness.  Without being a biologist, I’m guessing that it’s hardwired into us and has been incredibly adaptive for surviving.   When faced with discomfort or pain we often seek relief immediately.   Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with seeking relief from pain or discomfort.  It is not masochism that we’re after.   But what if our discomfort or pain had something to teach us about who we really are?  What if instead of reflexively  seeking relief from one’s discomfort, one became curious about it? What exactly is pain or discomfort anyway?   Sometimes we do not have the luxury of being able to relieve our discomfort or pain.  What happens then?  I decided to look into what this simple discomfort could show me.  For me, the itch became the opportunity to look deeply into reality.   It was perfect because it was not so difficult as I imagine chronic or serious pain could be and I knew that I could stay with it and glean valuable lessons about fluidity and the changing nature of phenomena. Something as seemingly insignificant yet “stable” and consistent as an itch was a doorway for insight.

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Letting go of taking things personally (1)

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Michaela


A practical course in 5 parts

This is an experiment based on an idea from Eileen. Taking things personally is something that we all do and at times it really clouds our sense of peace, our relations to others and everyone’s quality of life. This is a practical course in 5 parts, looking at the most important elements of taking things personally, with some exercise to practice.

Yes,inevitably we  take things personally.  Sometimes it’s a careless phrase, an unmindful word or even a look or a gesture that set things off and we go into the dreaded state of being annoyed, unsure about ourself, doubtful or even angry. Our ego rattled, our self-esteem shattered….so why do we take things personally to begin with ?

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Shame and Guilt

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Michaela

F. Goya: For being born elsewhere

I am not a psychologist and know little about the theories of emotions. But I encounter them on a regular basis and I know what they can do to a person’s sense of self-esteem, confidence and ultimately health. This is the reason for me to enquire into the nature of emotions which I do sense in myself and others, in particular when they are highly organised secondary or tertiary constructs. They live deep inside and are a tightly entangled brood, like a nest of vermin that prevents a person from dropping their defenses in terms of seeing truth and living a life free from the shackles of personal beliefs. Guilt and shame seem to be a very common experiences within the range of human emotional conditioning and they deserve a closer look.

Guilt and shame are both more than simple emotions. While everyone is born with the  capability of perceiving strong primary emotions necessary for survival, like anger and fear, nobody is coming to this earth with emotions like guilt or shame. These we have to develop, integrate and grow.

Energetically emotions are a certain vibrations that color the image of our current state of being. We can literally feel the emotional state – or mood – of another person and consciously or not, we respond to it and this is how we create our world and our experiences. So this is why it is so important to understand what lives in us, because the symptoms and feelings associated with an emotional reaction may not be so obvious and we may have developed many different defences. In many ways, higher organised emotions – as guilt and shame – originate in defense mechanisms the egoic mind has put in place, to keep us away from anything it judges to be insecure.

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Old world or new earth ?

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Michaela

What do you think about this ad ?

Posted in Seeing myself in you, The world we live in Now | 2 Comments

Laudate dominum

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Michaela

The laudate dominum is the opening verse of psalm 11.

Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
Laudate eum, omnes populi
Quoniam confirmata est
Super nos misericordia eius,
Et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum.
Amen

Praise the Lord, all nations;
Praise Him, all people.
For He has bestowed
His mercy upon us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever,
and for generations of generations.
Amen.

Soprano: Kathleen Battle
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Work: Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (KV 339/3)
Album: Kathleen Battle – Grace
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The dark night

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Michaela

Stanzas of the Soul

1. One dark night,
fired with love’s urgent longings
– ah, the sheer grace! –
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
– ah, the sheer grace! –
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.

3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
– him I knew so well –
there in a place where no one appeared.

5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.

6. Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.

7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.

8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.

Beginning of the explanation of the stanzas that deal with the way a soul must conduct itself along the road leading to union with God through love, by Padre  John of the Cross, ( b 24 June 1542, d 14 December 1591)

Posted in Books & Poetry | 3 Comments

Democratic movement

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Michaela

An interesting  commentary on the revolution in Tunisia, Wikileaks and the involvement of US diplomacy and politics.

Democratic movement

Posted in Room to Read, The world we live in Now | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Revolution

Posted on January 25, 2011 by dreamfable

I do not remember if I had any dreams about the future when I was younger. Surely I never guessed that my life developed the way it did. I never dreamed about owning my own house(s) in an Arab country. And not in my wildest dreams I saw myself as a Moslim. On top of this, I never, never believed that I would find myself stuck in the midst of a revolution. In the middle of an uprising of people against a dictatorship.

Back in the Netherlands it all seems as if it was a movie. Tunisia has become like a second country to me. A quite, liberal and prosperous country with just one restriction; never talk about politics or the president and his criminal family.

Then suddenly, almost out of nowhere, everything changed. Shooting outside our apartment, people with sticks and bats on the streets and frighting warnings about looters trying to profit from this time of lawlessness. Being alone with my wife, daughter-in-law and her two months old child, I did not feel at ease… To put it mildly… So we decided to flee our apartment and stayed with family in an area where it was not less dangerous but at least we were more protected by family and neighbors.

I am not sure in what way my consciousness of the now helped me during these few days. I am used to stay calm during hectic and frightful moments but that is more out of experience. The challenge for me lays afterwards when I look back at the things that happened. Then I see how these policemen pointed their armed guns directly at us and I start wondering… What if?

At these moments I do profit from the lessons learned by ET and meditation. It still took a lot of energy to keep it all together, however. I am still recovering of the fear and uncertainty. Both my wife and I are very tired. Exhausted even. If these few days can make such an impression on us I can not help but wondering how people can survive in area’s where war has become like a normal part of life. I can now understand how this could damage a person for ever.

Raoef

Posted in The Armchair | 4 Comments

I am a Rock, I am an Island

Posted on January 25, 2011 by dreamfable

“I am a Rock, I am an Island”
Paul Simon

My father died when I was 13 years old. He was a very strong man, with firm principles and a high standard of integrity. He thought me to live by the principle that if something has to be done, it has to be done, and you better do it yourself. (Cause no one else will do it for you)

For me was indeed like a rock.

I am not sure but I guess that I am not the only man who would take his father as a example or role model in life. Either as an example on how to live or as an example how not to live.

So for many, many years I wanted to be like him and I guess in many ways I did… I became like a rock and an Island. It felt never good enough though. I always felt less then my father.

I do not know when or how but at one point I realized two things. First; That my father was probably not how I pictured him. And second; A man is no rock and he is no Island.

But after so many years as a rock I just need to remind myself that I am not. And this little quote, from a song by Paul Simon, reminds me of that.

Listen to the song…

Posted in The Armchair | 7 Comments