A Knock on the Duir

When was the last time you received . . .

A Knock on the Duir

Belief and Elements

Why is it that we either fully believe in things that are flawed -- such as sets of religious dogmas -- or we believe in nothing at all?

We speak of elements of truth.

Let us assume for a moment that truth is indeed a natural element from the periodic table -- it can be found in minute or large quantities in various substances.

If so, then let us look for -- and expect to find -- elements of truth in all things instead of expecting solid chunks of pure unadulterated truth in specific things.

The One You Love: Meditation Puzzle

Think of the one you love.

If, upon first consideration, you don’t have such a person, you are not thinking hard enough, or you are unsure of the definition of love.

Think of the one you love.

Change and Hope

Hope exists as long as change exists.

Equality

Equality is seeing oneself in the other person. Now, what you see is another matter.

It depends entirely on what you see in yourself.

Elusive Treasure

A sense of wonder is such an elusive treasure. With the passing of time its perception seems to require more and more props and a greater intricacy of effects.

I look on with a fond yearning to the past when all it required was a dance of shadows against a wall for me to see epic tales.

Death and Life

Life is vision.

Death is the blinking of an eye.

Relinquish Reciprocity

Here is a tough call:

Give up all hopes of acknowledgment of your good deeds, your affections, your aspirations, your opinions, and ultimately your love.

Give up all expectations.

And now, assuming that you are surrounded by such an extremely indifferent universal vacuum, proceed to live your live filled with the fierce joy of knowing that you can still do all these things, still burn with the fire of the self, and that the reactions of others -- or lack of such -- matter less than the light breath of wind upon a great flaming furnace.

Remain aflame, because you must.

And because the above scenario is false.

Epoch Epic

Every epoch needs an epic -- a grand story of heroic deeds and larger-than-life individuals of the time. Epics are the only reliable and immortal time markers for the chronology of the human world.

When you find yourself looking back so far and finding nothing, and then relying on the ancients for a great story of their time -- and yours -- it is time to create a new epic for this age, for the here and now.

If you understand the importance of this, then proceed. Else your age will remain a blank unmarked spot in the future chronology. . . .

As though it did not exist.

Inexcusable! Something must be done about it, by someone.

Maybe, you?

The View

Life's a room with a view.

It is always your choice to look or not look outside the window at the world of possibilities.

Just don’t complain of boredom when you don’t. And remember that sometimes glasses and telescopes are necessary.

The Power of Blank Slates

Have you ever wondered why meditative techniques such as Zen and other "blank slate" inducers work to focus the mind?

Very simple — when you focus on nothing, the only thing you have is what's already with you -- inside you, bothering you, burdening you, irritating and hurting you.

The blank slate tempts it forth, according to the laws of the physical world. It has been observed that matter tends to fill up and occupy empty space, and there is a perpetual resistance to vacuum.

So, the internal thought-matter comes out, slithers out, crawls out, to fill the vacuum of the blank slate imposed like a drainage catheter upon your busy mind, to fill the surface consciousness.

Use it to its full capacity.

Pieces of Imagination

Imagination is nothing more than the raw matter of all life experience mixed up into separate elements in your mind.

Some people have trouble mixing up the pieces in meaningful new ways. Those are said to lack imagination. Why? Complacence or cowardice? More likely it is ordinary distraction -- a preoccupation with the concrete pre-assembled world already before them.

Others rejoice in the opportunity to create purple elephants with golden hair and flying cities, the ability to time travel and talking porcupines with doctoral degrees.

Imagination is the mind's joyful sandbox, a spread-out game board.

Go, play!

Movement of Light

A sparkle of tiny iridescent elements upon crisp fallen snow, illuminated by streetlamps. The pristine spherical glitter of raindrops. The fierce undulation of liquid fire upon a sunlit ocean. The curves of shadow and brightness upon human skin. A homogeneous white glow of gathering mist. The sharp-to-soft fadeout and sudden contrast of pallor and depth in the petals of a rose.

All beauty comes down to a simple movement of light.

Lost

A thought lost is worse than a heart lost.

A home lost is worse than innocence lost.

A soul lost is impossible -- it has merely been misplaced or buried deep beneath the debris of experience, chaos, pain, and time.

When the rushing flood waters grow calm and still once more, you must wait and watch for it to re-emerge, floating gently to the mirror surface. . .

Living and immortal.

Don't be surprised -- your own soul called it forth, calling like to like.

It's the secret reason why souls never die.

The Secret of Intuition

What is intuition?

It is not a thing of esoteric forces; no magic is involved; nothing supernatural; no elusive mystery of extra senses. Neither is it a bag of parlor trick illusions or smoke and mirrors.

Intuition is nothing more than the ability to see smaller things and draw finer connections from the raw matter of the world around you.

Indeed, intuition is micro-logic -- the kind of logic that is so fine-tuned in its pathways of semantic connections that it seems to escape the rest of your own much cruder macro-senses, and is thus mislabeled as irrelevant. Its basis is so refined that it appears invisible.

Logical subtlety is at the root of intuition -- subtlety armed with finely honed senses that you already possess.

It is an acquired skill. As such, it is a force to be reckoned with.

For intuition is a razor-sharp surgical tool for gauging truth.

Inspiration Around You

Inspiration is always nearby, everywhere around you.

It is you who must become a conductive rod, receptive to its lightning.

Evolving Love

With years, my need for love has changed.

I no longer yearn for the lover but for the saint. I am not drawn to beauty, but to kindness. I desire not sensuality but warmth.

My passion has become a passion for wisdom.

It Matters

It may seem as though whatever you do in your life does not matter on the great universal scale.

But in truth, you and I, we don’t live on a universal scale -- gods do.

And because we live and create on a small relative human scale, surrounded by things that are tiny and yet profound to us, they, the tiny things, do matter -- to us.

As they should.

All we are expected to do is try to achieve the greatest thing to which we can aspire on our own relatively tiny scale. We may exist in a fishbowl, but if we can imbue our small fishbowl with glory and wonder until it is full to the brim, then we have not lived in vain, since it takes an infinite number of the fishbowls to build up the universe.

It is good indeed that all things are relative, because this way we can strive at the level of our own kind, not more not less. It is only when we consider beyond our fishbowl that we may be thrown off kilter and begin to doubt ourselves and our purpose.

When such a thing happens, we must stop, take a deep breath, and again find our own true place, and ignore the grandness, the infinity of the universal scale all around us that may seem a mockery of our tiny selves. It is not -- it only seems that way to us because we are looking in a manner in which we should not be.

And as we take the grounding breath and resume our pursuits, we return to live to the utmost on our own scale.

An ant is not expected to move a mountain; an ant has no concept of a mountain, and no need to consider a mountain as a whole. And yet, an ant, which does not intend to move a mountain -- by moving tiny individual grains -- does.

Connected

If you believe that everything in the universe is connected, that there is a unifying grand design, and that the world is a tapestry of intertwined elements of one organic whole, then you must concede that your right to life, death, and the pursuit of happiness is not always strictly your own.

Have mercy on the ones you love and the ones who love you.

Be flexible.

Do not lose track of your self . . . and yet, know when to concede self to others.

The Heaviest Weight

The heaviest weight settles upon you when it is time to start something important. It's as if gravity has doubled suddenly, and you find yourself unable to move from the spot. You are transfixed by a combination of laziness, fear, procrastination, and just plain entropy.

This is none other than the weight of doubt -- the subtle evil thing that's making you question the worthiness, value, implications, and meaning of the act before you.

You know on some rational level this sensation of weight is only an illusion. And yet you tarry. . . .

It is for this reason that there is only one solution.

Before there's time to take another breath, quickly. . . just do it.

Personal Justice

You cannot be fair to others without first being fair to yourself.

Know that a well-honed sense of justice is a measure of personal experience, and all experience is a measure of self.

Know that the highest expression of justice is mercy.

Thus, as the supreme judge in your own court, you must have compassion for yourself.

Otherwise, cede your gavel.

Cycle of Joy and Pain

When there is only joy, you overload, and the emotion becomes meaningless.

When there is only pain, you become numb and once again, emotion recedes into meaninglessness.

When joy and pain randomly succeed each other in an unpredictable random progression, the result is true personal involvement — real life.

Irritation, Yours or Theirs

Irritation means one of two things -- you are unable to get though to the other person, or you are no longer willing to try.

Maybe you are tired of beating your head against the wall, or find your fount of emotional strength exhausted, or your words fail you. It is also possible that you already tried your eloquent best and the other person simply cannot or will not listen.

Recognize which it is, and then either renew your effort to communicate with better clarity or do what you can to get away from the source of irritation.

Don’t waste another minute.

Because perpetuating anyone's state of irritation -- including your own -- is as bad as letting a faucet perpetually run water.

Faith

Faith is so overrated.

It is also only a small part of the equation.

What good does it do if you and I believe in something when we don’t take advantage of the knowledge and understanding that this faith gives us in order to act for the greater good?

An example of misused faith, taken from the Judeo-Christian traditions -- Satan has great faith and believes in God.

Maybe it is better to love than to believe.

Act of Love

One who truly loves, takes responsibility for others, regardless of ability, cause, guilt, fault, or preference.

If you are not anyone's brother-keeper, then find someone closest to you who is in need and become one. You will not need to look far, since we all can use a helping heart -- for a hand alone will not do -- whether we admit it or not. So, go ahead, choose any one of us and then lighten our burden with subtlety.

See through us.

As the Rain

Rain beats against the world outside in torrential streams of sky water.

It washes away everything.

May our forgiveness do the same.

New Beginnings

The New Year is a reusable blank slate. No reservations or regrets. Every moment you can begin anew with passion.

Use the bouquet of moments well.