Do What You Ought To Do Today

    It is getting late.  Time is moving faster with each day.  It is easy to feel the insecurity of age and the passing of opportunity.  All you have to do is ring the bell;  step right up.  This is the time;  the time of your life.  Keep on moving.  Do what you ought to do today.

    It only takes this day.  If you act with conviction today, tomorrow will take care of itself.  It is about making the commitment to act today with the full faith that is part of the flow.  It is not the future challenge that is keeping you from your greatness;  it is the lack of movement today.  Today you find the Gordian Knot;  strike true.

    Pay attention today.  Feel the flow.  Find the subtle.  In doing so you will discover what you need to do.  You know what it is.  Follow, do not resist your path.  Live to serve your life, not to be served by it.


    It is getting late.  Time is instantaneous, and this is the moment of truth.  Ring the bell.  Be who you were born to be.  Do what you ought to do today.

Do What Thy Will

It is challenging to have a vision, but even more so not to work to bring it into fruition.  You will be consistently told that what moves you is not practical.  It may not be, but if you do not follow the “path that has a heart” you will feel the very life being sucked from your essence.  You will still live, but as pale version of yourself.  You may also find yourself discouraging another in what moves them.  
    
     Skellegense is a warrior practice.  It requires a warrior to brave the disapproving glances of others.  It is said that a warrior has contempt for death.  We live in fear of the dark path, and it represents all that we fear.  However the dark path is also the path of creation.   To be judged by others is to experience a death of a sort.  At least this is how our mind perceives it.  

     We meet death alone.  It comes to us all.  There is no need to fear it, it is our own, more than the closest loved one.  As death represents all that we do not want to happen, by learning to embrace our death we step into courage, we meet our deepest fears, and finally we have the courage to meet ourselves.  We find that our deepest fear is of who we might be.


     This life requires courage.  It is the only choice.  In courage we can find compassion and eventually kindness.  Do you choose courage or fear?  Be bold.  Live your dream.  Do not fear the nightmare.

The Truth of This Very Moment

    There is the moment.  The moment you are in.  It is perfect in itself.  It may not be what you want it to be,  but you are of this moment  so even your dissatisfaction serves the moment perfectly.  However,  even while identified in dissatisfaction there is a deeper self, one beyond the drama of the moment.  It exists at the level of the breath.  The one true breath.
     We exist for the creative, not realizing that whatever happens, creativity is served.  We must recognize our purpose, and live it with courage.  The courage that knows the fear of failure, but acts anyway.  We may act with trembling knees, but when we find the truth of the breath,  the truth of intention, we find our strength.  
    Live out this moment;   draw from the wellspring you have served in the lucid moments of your life.  Have faith.  You are here for a great purpose.

Changing the World

    It is easy to be overwhelmed and disheartened by the world in which we live. How do you not feel that the world is lost, how do you not fear that we are at the point of some sort of Armageddon?  The senseless violence and hatred combined with the personal stresses of family and attempts to meet our financial responsibilities can bring one to the brink of personal destruction if not even suicide.  What can you do?

    First, it is important to frame the situation in terms that you can succeed.  Remember, you have great power, and in many ways that power begins in your framing of the challenge.  You are a mystical being that exists at the nexus.  There is an infinite universe both outside and inside of you.  Apparently external events such as world conflict and disrespect.  Internal ones such as health issues and out of control thoughts and emotions.  This can be altered by learning to control the lens of your focus.  

     A person who has bias of any kind can and will see proof of their view every day everywhere they look.  They will see Islamic or people of color commit evil acts, or Americans or Jews, or women or men.  Whatever the passionately held belief is, there will be the proof before their eyes;  and they will be right in their assessment.  There really will be these elements.  We create our own world.

We must train ourselves to see the positive.  We must train ourselves to see people from these various groups doing what we know to be right and good.  These things are also happening, but we cannot see it.  The brain finds answers for the questions we ask it, and if you ask what is wrong with the world, the brain will seek to please us by defining answers we would choose to see.

Second and more importantly, when we deal with another or group of people who are charged in their sense of ego, we must resist the temptation to take up the word of judgement.  Ego is the sense of being separate from the world.  We frame the limits of our existence by feels different.  When faced with someone charged with their sense of separateness it charges our own sense of ego, or separateness.  We are not separate.  We are truly one.  If you define yourself by a falsehood of any kind you will eventually get yourself in trouble.  False definitions create false conclusions.

    We must bring a level of commitment to see this unity equal or stronger than the person who has a commitment to separateness.  This does not mean we will not defend or take precautions.  However the intent will not be to prove separateness.  If a person strikes out in a fever we may restrain them without seeing them as evil.  This also true when dealing with violence.  We also do not deal with the delusional by simply saying we think they are crazy.  We find compassion by learning to feel another's pain as our own.  We find kindness by seeing that the other as our own, of being of like kind.  We are the same.  

     Finally it is most important to realize that subtlety is more powerful than intensity.  Softness is more powerful that hardness, and water is more powerful than rock.  Do not be fooled my friend.  Learn to be soft, to be subtle and you will find the power to change the world.

Hold To The Center

    The world of extremes is always beckoning.  We are designed to give what ever has the greatest degree of intensity the greatest level of focus.  If we find truth, we hold it desperately, and judge whatever opposes it as evil.  
    This is certainly true of the recent political season.  Each side vilifies the other.  However, what if finding the truth was not the most important issue?  Perhaps the ability to see all sides is equally important to what is true.  
    Our sense of truth is obviously affected, and in the end shaped by our perception.  We may even be right, and find ourselves wrong at the same time.  How do you inoculate yourself from the arrogance of self-righteousness?  By striving to always see everything.  By being aware of the whole with as little judgement as possible.
    This is even true on the personal level.  We each are driven by elements of fear and shame.  We hide both of these elements from ourselves.  These emotions begin to act as the elephant in the room.  We are acting from them, driving toward a perceived perfection, when in reality often we are simply compensating for the fear of failure, of death, of the shame we live with.  
    This is never more true than for those of us with hidden shame.  The hidden affair, or discomfort with sexual orientation, the hidden alcoholism or drug addiction.  
      We must hold to the center.  We must resist the temptation to focus on that which titillates.  Remember there is a difference between desire and lust.  Greed in the end becomes an out growth of shame.  The hidden obsession eventually gets loose and wrecks havoc.  We find ourselves thinking of it all of the time, but hiding.  The more we do this the more power we give the object of fascination.  The more we hide the true object of our desire, the greater the intensity builds, until finally it does damage.
    See everything.  Keep your awareness broad and pay attention.  Notice the leaves equally as the political drama.  Pay attention to acts of kindness as much as those of disrespect.  See the validity of how others perceive the world.  Do not allow your identity to become a prison.

Death as an Advisor

Carlos Castaneda often spoke of using death as an advisor, and I think it is worthwile, but how?   First, it is important to remember that many of the ancients suggested this same course, with teachers from every mystic tradition saying much the same.  Death tells us to go for our passion, and to do do it now.
 
We have two basic options in facing death:  to be inspired, or to be terrified. There may appear options, but we find in reality only two.  Even those who appear to have an indifference to dying really experience life hiding and not really facing death.  We may go many years living as as though there is no end to this experience.  However reality is instantaneous, and one morning life has melted away and we find ourselves in bed with mortality, an embrace far closer than any lover.

It has been said that that a dying person needs death the way a tired person needs sleep, and certainly this is true.  Death is the central subject of our lives. Every action is really a masked statement about it’s presence.  The Hagakure remarks that the warrior has contempt for death.  We focus not on the fear of what might happen, but in the power of our own actions.  We as warriors act and are reacted to.   

A good relationship with death prepares us for the disappointment that is part of every situation.  To lose the fear of that disappointment is to come to peace with the contradiction of human life.  It is be at peace.  It is to be.
    

The Three Pillars

In living the life of practice I feel that there are three basic necessities, often referred to in Zen practice as "The Three Pillars." They, in my perception include study, the Sangha,or community and practice itself.

The first of these, study, includes the consistent habit of reading materials that are focused in meditation, stress reduction, or inspiration. It can also include at times biographies or anything that inspires you. It is important to occasionally return to elements that focus on mediation and stress reduction technique, but do not discount the power of that which inspires. My experience has indicated that it is far more likely to go from an inspired mind to a calm one. A little consistently is more important than a lot occasionally. Even a sentence a day can make a great difference.

The Sangha, or spiritual community is also of prime importance. By this I mean a group or even an individual you meet with on a weekly or biweekly basis. Combining with others and doing practice as well as discussing its effects is crucial. Even if this occurs at a distance it is very impactful. Your companions on this path will help to keep you connected, and you will help them. The combined energy of this group is more powerful than the sum of the individuals.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly is the life of practice itself. There is no substitute for putting the time in. Again, this does not have to be a great investment of time. Like study, a little consistently is more important than gorging yourself with practice once in a while. Even taking two minutes a day to pay attention to all that you can will change your life.

Activate the three pillars, and step into the magic of your life!