Enlightenment

I have accumulated an exhaustive collection of websites dedicated to various spiritual philosophies during the twelve years I have been using the internet. I found this wonderful essay on enlightenment on Spirituality for Living ~science,mysticism,spirituality~. This is a great reference resource on spirituality that everyone will find interesting and very useful. This particular article caught my attention because it explains the moment of "puzzle-completion" or epiphanies that I wrote about in my previous post. Some would call this good luck but I know these things happen for a reason. You can explore this website further by clicking on the link above if you so desire. Enjoy!

Namaste'



Enlightenment


There are stories where the Zen master says something, and the student is said to be 'enlightened'. In that moment the words didn't matter as much as the students thinking, and what will do that for any student differs. This is why you see the symbol of the dorje or lighting bolt in Buddhism, because in fact the Buddha was said to have achieved that understanding on his own and of an instant. Zen follows the idea that we can do the same. So if I were to discuss your world view with you, when you are seeing the superficiality of it and if you were truly aware in that moment, then you can realize that you were never entrapped. This is why the realization seems like a lightning bolt. Not only are you freed, but you were never any other way. Sudden enlightenment.

There can be many 'little' enlightenments* in this path. Zen speaks of that. You can be for a moment in satori and yet fall back into your conditioning, but after the first even your conditioning is not as strong as it was before. So even though you lose satori you don't. It makes Zen seem impossible to some who are very emotionally invested in what they see as their nature. As a matter of fact, Buddhism teaches that the origin of suffering is attachment and some think it means that Buddhism is anti-emotional. In fact that's very far from the truth. What they speak of is not your experience of emotion, but your attachment to it. The idea that anger is bad which in fact warps the anger, changing it from something natural into a psychosis that in some beliefs is called sin. Same with any other emotion. We escalate it with our conditioning and twist it, when in fact it's just an experience and you can make choices from insight not from reactionary conditioning.

Some religion's idea that lust is bad warps it into a sort of psychosis as well. When in fact it's a very natural reaction that makes us seek to pair bond as we need to do to perpetuate the species. It's not the only element and lust is only obsessive in its taboo form. Much of what we call real life is very far from real.

Many get their ideas about Zen from the Alan Watts lectures. Some people think his version of Zen is watered down for western audiences. But if you are truly a student of Zen then you know that is not possible. Zen isn't a doctrine that can be watered down, and no words can replace experience.

So Zen isn't something you can believe. It's connected to a belief. Buddhism. Which in many schools is still not something you take on faith. Not a faith, it is a body of insights. Zen is questions and understanding that you question. How you question and that your questions are questions.

~ Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive ~ science, mysticism, spirituality


*My puzzle analogy from my previous post.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Find Islands of Ease in the Chaos of Life (cheerfulliving.com)
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A Most Unlikely Blessing

I started writing this several days ago and it has taken me on quite a journey. As I was writing the first part, I had to stop a few times because emotions from years past came forth and overwhelmed me. For obvious reasons, I have only touched upon the extent of my injuries but this partial synopsis covers the ones pertinent to this topic. The details would fill volumes and it is not my point to delve into the initial event anyway. This blog, though, has been screaming to be written for quite some time and it has proven to be therapeutic in a beneficial way. My life has definitely been one great adventure filled with the highest of highs and the absolute lowest of lows but it has been a life that I would not trade for anything in the universe. I know that everything happens for a reason and truly believe that I could not have gained this wisdom about our True Nature any other way. It was meant to be. I would not wish my challenges on my worst enemy, if there is such a thing, but I would not give up what I have gained from them for anything either. I have shared this gestalt with no one until now but this is probably the most important wisdom I have gained to date and is a crucial part of my Path with Heart. I hope that it helps my friends and family to know and understand me better and to also give others some insight into the positive side of life's many challenges. My Path with Heart is ongoing and I shall savor it one moment at a time.



Part I

As I said in my previous entry, "Blessings, Blessings, Everywhere", our Source is constantly supplying us with blessings. Most of the time we are too involved in Ego-driven activities to even notice. This is why it is so important for us to get away from our Egos as much as possible by relaxing and letting our chattering minds settle into silence. It is only in this state that our awareness comes alive and the many blessings come pouring in. This is nothing new. This is obvious by the old cliche, "stop and smell the roses". There are, however, much greater blessings that one may never come to realize. Such is this incredible and most unlikely blessing that took me many years to understand.

Back in the 1970's, I was a tremendous athlete and in far better physical shape than most people can even imagine. This was when I was a martial arts instructor in the Chinese art of Kenpo (originally spelled Kempo). I worked a 9 hour a day physically demanding job and then trained in and taught Kenpo for 4 hours every night. We also had an Instructors Tech class for 2 hours every Saturday afternoon. I lived and breathed this art and considered everything I did to be a part of the training. I could do amazing things and felt like Superman so you can imagine (or try to) how I felt when I woke up from a coma completely paralyzed and missing a leg. I was flat on my back lying on a "Stryker frame", had Crutchfield Tongs screwed into my skull, and a cable attached to them with 15 lbs. of weight holding my broken neck in traction. I had been in a coma for about 2 weeks and was under very close observation in ICU. At the moment I came to, I looked up through the small openings on my extremely bruised and swollen eyes and could see IV bottles with tubes coming toward me and the white acoustical ceiling panels with all of the holes in each one. I knew I was hurt bad because I could not move any part of me but my eyes. My training kicked in and I immediately sank into a mental state of perfect calmness and silence as I muttered the word, " nurse". She must have been right next to me because she was instantly looking down at me. I looked at her and very calmly said, " Ok, I know I'm in a hospital and I'm hurt bad. I want you to tell me everything that is wrong with me". She said, " You have a head injury, a broken neck causing complete paralysis, you lost your right leg just below the knee, you have a compound fracture of your right femur, a fractured left femur, a broken right clavicle, a.........................!!!

I lost my Center and must have freaked out! Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was coming out of sedation and this kind-faced man was looking down at me with great compassion. He was my Orthopedic Surgeon, the one who had pieced me back together during a 6 hour emergency surgery, and was now going to help me get my shit together. He told me that the nurse should not have told me like she did and he started explaining everything to me. My training had kicked back in so I was calm and listened intently as he explained the details to me. He told where I was, how I became injured, and what they were planning to do. Just being alive was a miracle, he said, because my injuries should have killed me. I knew that was a compliment somehow but as he went on, I realized that I only had two choices and now was the time to choose. I could choose to just lie there, have my pain controlled, and soon die or I could focus my energy, my entire being, and do everything humanly possible to pick myself up again - at least what was left of me. I, like my angel of a Mom, am just too damn stubborn to die so there was never really any choice to be made!

I immediately and purposely adopted a positive outlook and just swallowed the pain and suffering while I crossed each bridge, each moment, one at a time. I was not supposed to live through the neck and spinal surgery, a Compression-fusion Laminectomy, but I did. My Neurosurgeon said that if I lived through that surgery, I would never walk again and would need to have 24 hour care in a nursing home. Well, he did not know who he was dealing with. I left this critical care hospital still flat on my back after a few months and was flown by air-ambulance to TIRR ( Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research) in the Houston, Texas medical complex. It changed names over 20 years ago to The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research - a most deserving name indeed! It was there that a team of the world's finest doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, and others worked endlessly over the next 2 years providing further tests, treatments, surgeries, various types of therapy, and skillfully guiding me back to my independence. So what does this unimaginable and devastating life event have to do with a blessing?? Well......................





Part II

My head doctor at TIRR, Robert Meir III, M.D. (a world-renowned Doctor of Physical Medicine and Professor at Baylor College of Medicine) told me my broken neck was the worst he had ever seen. He was head of The Spinal Cord Injury Center for the Southwest so he had seen many broken necks to compare to mine. My injury destroyed my C-5 vertebra and severely damaged both C-4 and C-6. My spinal cord had been cut about halfway through on the left side causing permanent damage and left me as a rare type of quadriplegic. It is called Brown - Sequard Syndrome*, named after Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817-1896) who was the first to describe the condition. All extremities are effected from the neck down with my left side having the greatest loss of motor function and my right side having the most loss of sensation. Now, add in the loss of my right leg just below the knee and my situation became an unbelievable challenge. The loss of my leg, though, paled in comparison to the devastating effects I experienced from the spinal cord injury. I went from a normally very relaxed feeling to one where every muscle in my body was "on" at the same time with opposing muscles constantly fighting each other. It was like there was someone else trying to use my body all of the time and interfering with everything I tried to do. The worst part was never being able to just relax and not feel my body for a while. I was in quite a predicament and somehow I was going to have to live the rest of my life like this! Even with the best medications to stop the muscle spasms and relax the muscles, every one of them was still "on" without a moments rest - a most disturbing and alien feeling. It all had to do with the wires used by my brain to communicate with the rest of me shorting out and/or having reattached all wrong because of scarring at the cut in my spinal cord. It was like putting the left turn signal on in your car and having the horn honk. I had to somehow figure out a way to get the right signal in my brain to the right muscle or whatever I needed to use. Over time, I managed to become literally aware of everything going on in me at the time and could kind of "will" my intention to the right place. This was extremely difficult! It was an entirely new way of communicating within my body. Now, I had to do all of this at the same time I was negotiating around in the outside world. Learning to communicate with my body this way was a slow and frustrating process but I eventually got fairly good at it. After awhile I got strong enough to get up on a prosthesis and started to relearn how to walk. So here I was having to be aware of everything going on inside of me, having to watch where my feet were stepping because I could not feel where they were very well, and also be very aware of my surroundings at the same time! I was literally an accident ready to happen any second. Needless to say, the ground and I became very close acquaintances. My training in how to fall properly sure came in handy! Over the years I have continually worked to better myself and have managed to live without assistance. I had to learn to live in the moment because my very life depended upon my being constantly aware of myself and my relationship to my environment. To this day, every moment that I am up and about is a challenge. However, it is also an extraordinary opportunity!

This is where the blessing presents itself. I did not realize until fairly recently that this enormous mountain I have been climbing all of these years was actually an amazing blessing in disguise. All of these years, all of these moments for all of these years, I have been slowing integrating my mind, body, and environment with an awareness far greater than I had realized. All of these years I have been in training one moment at a time without knowing it. I have spatially mapped my existence and expanded my awareness of my place in this infinite puzzle of life. In moments of clarity, meditation for example, I have learned to "feel" where I am and to "know" the Reality of the Present. This is using the Second Attention*. It is in these moments that pieces to puzzles of life join together to form a Truth, an epiphany. This has been going on for a long time but I had previously just made note of these completed "puzzles" and continued on with my life. It was when these epiphanies started happening more often that these smaller puzzles I had "solved" over the years now became pieces themselves of yet larger puzzles and these pieces also joined together to form larger Truths that exponentially expanded each gestalt. Each newly completed puzzle came, and still comes, as a new epiphany that furthers my understanding of our True Nature. I have no doubt now that this crazy yet brilliant system continues on for infinity. Pieces forming puzzles that then become larger pieces that form larger puzzles that then become even larger pieces that....... ad infinitum! This is the Way of Wisdom. This long, long, painful, and difficult journey had finally reached that point beyond the fog, above the clouds, and into the light where goodness overtakes the bad - the silver lining, the pot of gold...

I have said for many years to my family and friends that I would not wish my injuries on my worst enemy yet I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. I have believed this way for as long as I can remember but I never really understood why I felt this way. I just knew this all meant something - that there was some reason for it. Now, after so many years of believing in this purpose, I finally understand. A most unlikely blessing, indeed!!

* Brown-Séquard syndrome is an incomplete spinal cord lesion characterized by clinical presentation reflecting hemisection of the spinal cord (cutting the spinal cord in half on one or the other side). It is diagnosed by finding motor (muscle) paralysis on the same side as the lesion and deficits in pain and temperature sensation on the opposite side on physical exam. This is called ipsilateral (on the same side as the spinal cord lesion) hemiplegia and contralateral (on the opposite side) pain and temperature sensation deficits. The loss of sensation on the opposite side of the lesion is because these nerve fibers of the spinothalamic tract cross the spinal cord. In its pure form, it is rarely seen. Incomplete forms are also observed.

* See my blog entry, The Second Attention, dated Monday, March 16, 2009

"It is only the artificial ego that suffers. The man who has transcended his false 'me' no longer identifies with his suffering."
~ Unknown


"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true."
- Buddha


Men are four:
He who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool - shun him;
He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple - teach him;
He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep - wake him;
He who knows and knows he knows, he is wise - follow him.
- Lady Burton
"He who gains victory over other men is strong, but he who gains victory over himself is powerful."
- Lao-Tse

Blessings

I came across this beautiful short story about blessings. I found it while doing some research for my next entry. Since I am only about half way finished with my new entry, a rather long but very personal and important one, I decided to share this for now. It actually fits perfectly between my last entry and the one I am currently writing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and benefit from the wisdom about the blessings all around us.

Blessings

By James Miller From The Thoughtful Caregiver Website http://thoughtful-caregiver.com

This is not exactly
a caregiver story.
But it's worth telling anyway,
for several reasons.
My wife Bernie and I
were sitting on the back porch
evening before last,
enjoying the fading day.
In a quiet voice she said to me,
"Right now I am relishing hearing
the cicada sounds around us.
I'm loving this gentle breeze,
this perfect temperature,
this evening light.
I'm loving being here with you."
I was touched by her sentiments.
I told her I felt similar lovings.
We sat in silence for a few moments.
Then I said, about as softly,
"It's within reason, you know,
that our mood could have been
quite different this evening,
and right now I'm aware of that too."
Bernie has had a few troubling symptoms—
symptoms that cannot help but remind us
of her experience with cancer sixteen years ago.
We've both been worried, each of us more
than we wanted the other to know.
An appointment with a specialist four days ago, however,
eased our fears considerably.
More tests are upcoming, but the doctor says
the likelihood of this being cancer is very low.
What I meant to say in that evening air,
without saying the exact words, was
"We could have been sitting here
facing some scary times—
times like we've known before."
That's what Bernie also heard,
without hearing the exact words.
After another moment of quietness,
Bernie looked at me and said,
"Even if that's what we were facing this evening,
we would still have these cicada sounds.
We would still have this wonderful breeze,
this lovely light,
this perfect evening.
We would still have each other."

Bernie's truth is also ultimate truth.
Whatever is happening right now—
to any of us, to all of us—
we still have quiet graces
that are around us somewhere.
We still have moments that can bring us peace
and glimpses that can give us joy.
We still have someone we love
and someone who loves us.
We still have these gifted seconds, minutes, hours—
right here, right now—
that cannot be taken from us.
Yes, blessings abound.

A Most Unlikely Blessing

I started writing this several days ago and it has taken me on quite a journey. As I was writing the first part, I had to stop a few times because emotions from years past came forth and overwhelmed me. Obviously, I have only touched upon certain items in Part I just to give you a very partial overview. The details would fill volumes and it is not my point to delve into the initial event anyway. This blog, though, has been screaming to be written for quite some time and it has proven to be therapeutic in a beneficial way. My life has been one great adventure filled with the highest of highs and the absolute lowest of lows but it has been a life that I would not trade for anything in the universe. I know that everything happens for a reason and truly believe that I could not have gained the wisdom about life I have gained any other way. It was meant to be. I would not wish my challenges on my worst enemy, if there is such a thing, but I would not give up what I have gained from them for anything either. I have shared this perspective with no one until now. I hope that it helps my friends and family to know and understand me better and also give others some insight into the positive side of life's many challenges. My Path with Heart is ongoing and I shall savor it one moment at a time.



Part I

As I said in my previous entry, "Blessings, Blessings, Everywhere", our Source is constantly supplying us with blessings. Most of the time we are too involved in Ego-driven activities to even notice. This is why it is so important for us to get away from our Egos as much as possible by relaxing and letting our chattering minds settle into silence. It is only in this state that our awareness comes alive and the many blessings come pouring in. This is nothing new. This is obvious by the old cliche, "stop and smell the roses". There are, however, much greater blessings that one may never come to realize. Such is this incredible and most unlikely blessing that took me many years to understand.



Back in the 1970's, I was a tremendous athlete and in far better physical shape than most people can even imagine. This was when I was a martial arts instructor in the Chinese art of Kenpo (originally spelled Kempo). I worked a 9 hour a day physically demanding job and then trained in and taught Kenpo for 4 hours every night. We also had an Instructors Tech class for 2 hours every Saturday afternoon. I lived and breathed this art and considered everything I did to be a part of the training. I could do amazing things and felt like Superman so you can imagine (or try to) how I felt when I woke up from a coma completely paralyzed and missing a leg. I was flat on my back lying on a "Stryker frame", had Crutchfield Tongs screwed into my skull, and a cable attached to them with 15 lbs. of weight holding my broken neck in traction. I had been in a coma for about 2 weeks and was under very close observation in ICU. At the moment I came to, I could see lots of IV bottles with tubes and the white acoustic ceiling with all of the holes in each panel. I knew I was hurt bad because I could not move any part of me but my eyes. My training kicked in and I immediately sank into a mental state of perfect calmness and silence as I muttered the word, " nurse". She must have been right next to me because she was instantly looking down at me. I looked at her and very calmly said, " Ok, I know I'm in a hospital and I'm hurt bad. I want you to tell me everything that is wrong with me". She said, " You have a head injury, a broken neck causing complete paralysis, you lost your right leg just below the knee, you have a compound fracture of your right femur, a fractured left femur, a broken right clavicle, a.........................!!!



I lost my centeredness and must have freaked out! Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was coming out of sedation and this kind-faced man was looking at me with great compassion. He was my Orthopedic Surgeon, the one who had pieced me back together during a 6 hour emergency surgery, and was now going to help me get my shit together. He told me that the nurse should not have told me like she did and he started explaining everything to me. My training had kicked back in so I appreciated hearing or just knowing the details. Just being alive was a miracle, he said, because my injuries should have killed me. I knew that was a compliment somehow but as he went on, I knew I only had 2 choices - if I survived the upcoming neck surgery. I could choose to just lie there, have my pain controlled, and soon die or I could focus my energy, my entire being, and do everything humanly possible to pick myself up again - at least what was left of me. I, like my angel of a Mom, am just too stubborn to die!



I immediately and purposely adopted a positive outlook and just swallowed the pain and suffering while I crossed each bridge, each moment, one at a time. I was not supposed to live through the neck and spinal surgery, a Compression-fusion Laminectomy, but I did. My Neurosurgeon said that if I lived through that surgery, I would never walk again and would need to have 24 hour care in a nursing home. Well, he did not know who he was dealing with. I left this critical care hospital after a few months, was flown by air-ambulance to TIRR ( Texas Instutute for Rehabilitation and Research) in the Houston, Texas medical complex. It changed names over 20 years ago to The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research - a most deserving name indeed! It was here that a team of the world's finest doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, and others worked endlessly over the next 2 years providing further tests, treatments, surgeries, various types of therapy, and hopefully guiding me back to my independence. So what does this unimaginable and devastating life event have to do with a blessing?? Well......................











Part II



My head doctor at TIRR (a world-renowned Doctor of Physical Medicine and Professor at Baylor College of Medicine right across the street) told me my broken neck was the worst he had seen. He was head of The Spinal Cord Injury Center for the Southwest so he had seen many broken necks. My injury destroyed my C-5 vertebra and severely damaged both C-4 and C-6. The injury to my spinal cord was permanent and left me as a rare type of quadriplegic. It is called Brown - Sequard Syndrome*, named after Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817-1896) who was the first to describe the condition. All extremities are effected with my left side having the greatest loss of motor function and my right side having the most loss of sensation. Now, add in the loss of my right leg just below the knee and my situation became an unbelievable challenge. The loss of the leg paled in comparison to the permanent effects I experienced from the spinal cord injury. I went from a normally very relaxed feeling to one where every muscle in my body was on at the same time with opposing muscles constantly fighting each other. It was like there was someone else trying to use my body all of the time and interfering with everything I tried to do. The worst part was never being able to just relax and not feel my body for a while. I was in quite a predicament and somehow I was going to have to live the rest of my life like this! Even with the best medications to stop the muscle spasms and relax the muscles, every one of them was still "on" - a most distrurbing and alien feeling. It all had to do with the wires used by my brain to communicate with the rest of me shorting out and/or having reattached all wrong because of scarring at the cut in my spinal cord. It was like putting the left turn signal on in your car and the horn honking. I had to somehow figure out a way to get the right signal in my brain to the right muscle or whatever that I needed to use. Over time, I managed to become aware of everything going on in me at the time and kind of "willed" my intention to the right place. This was extremely difficult! It was an entirely new way of communicating within my body. Now, I had to do all of this at the same time I was negotiating around in this outside world. I eventually got fairly good at this and got strong enough to get up on a prosthesis and relearn how to walk. So here I am having to be aware of everything going on inside me, having to watch where my feet are stepping because my eye-foot coordination sucked, and also be very aware of my surroundings at the same time! I was literally an accident ready to happen any second. Needless to say, the ground and I became very close aquaintances. My training in how to fall sure came in handy! Over the years I have continually worked to better myself and have managed to live without assistance. I had to learn to live in the moment because my very life depended upon my being constantly aware of myself and my relationship to my environment. To this day, every moment that I am up and about is a challenge. But, it is also an extraordinary opportunity!

This is where the blessing presents itself. I did not realize until fairly recently that this enormous mountain I have been climbing all of these years was actually an amazing blessing in disquise. All of these years, all of these moments for all of these years, I have been slowing integrating my mind and body with an awareness far greater than I had realized. All of these years I have been in training one moment at a time without knowing it. I have spatially mapped my existence and expanded my awareness of my place in this infinite puzzle of life. In moments of clarity, meditation for example, I have learned to "feel" where I am and to "know" the Reality of the Present. It is in these moments that pieces to puzzles of life join together to form a Truth, an epiphany. This has been going on for a long time but I had previously just made note of these completed "puzzles" and continued on with my life. It was when these epiphanies started happening more often that these smaller puzzles I had "solved" over the years now became pieces themselves of yet larger puzzles and these pieces also joined together to form larger Truths. I have no doubt now that this crazy yet brilliant system continues on for infinity. Pieces forming puzzles that then become larger pieces that form larger puzzles that then become even larger pieces ad infinitum! This is the Way of Wisdom. This long, long, painful, and difficult journey had finally reached that point beyond the fog, above the clouds, and into the light where goodness overtakes the bad - the silver lining, the pot of gold...

I have said for many years to my family and friends that I would not wish my injuries on my worst enemy yet I would not trade this experience for anything in the world. I have believed this way for as long as I can remember but I never really understood why I felt this way. I just knew this all meant something - that there was some reason for it. Now, after so many years of believing, I understand. A most unlikely blessing, indeed!!



* Brown-Séquard syndrome is an incomplete spinal cord lesion characterized by clinical presentation reflecting hemisection of the spinal cord (cutting the spinal cord in half on one or the other side). It is diagnosed by finding motor (muscle) paralysis on the same side as the lesion and deficits in pain and temperature sensation on the opposite side on physical exam. This is called ipsilateral (on the same side as the spinal cord lesion) hemiplegia and contralateral (on the opposite side) pain and temperature sensation deficits. The loss of sensation on the opposite side of the lesion is because these nerve fibers of the spinothalamic tract cross the spinal cord. In its pure form, it is rarely seen. Incomplete forms are also observed.





"It is only the artificial ego that suffers. The man who has transcended his false 'me' no longer identifies with his suffering."
~ Unknown


"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true."
- Buddha


Men are four:
He who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool - shun him;
He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple - teach him;
He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep - wake him;
He who knows and knows he knows, he is wise - follow him.
- Lady Burton

He who gains victory over other men is strong, but he who gains victory over himself is powerful.
- Lao-Tse

Blessings, Blessings, Everywhere

We are blessed with gifts from our Source throughout our day and most probably, every moment of our day. We usually do not even notice these small wonders. We just walk right past them, or fail to see the significance of them. I have become more aware over time and this has opened my eyes to some these special events. I decided to write this earlier today after one of these small gifts appeared. I had my truck loaded up for a trip to town and was in kind of a hurry. As I opened the driver's-side door, a beautiful butterfly landed on my hand. To most people, this would mean nothing and some might even brush it away as if it was a bother. To me, though, this was something special! We watched each other for a while and I even found myself talking to this beautiful creature. I do these kinds of things so call me crazy, if you like...lol. Anyway, while in this moment of communion, a vivid memory of a similar but far more incredible experience came to mind. I was sitting on the steps of my deck in the afternoon during the later part of Spring several years ago. I was visiting with a friend who was sitting off to my right when a once-in-a-lifetime blessing, gift, whatever you want to call it, occurred. I was holding up my injured left hand and just pondering it with a completely clear mind when this beautiful, small, blue, dragonfly landed on my little finger. He/she was very beautiful so I was marveling at it's amazing details when a second one landed on my ring finger. Now this was really cool! It definitely got my friend's attention too because I looked over at him to see if he was watching. Indeed, he was. Then a third dragonfly landed on my middle finger! There were now three of them sitting comfortably side-by-side. I was feeling this incredible feeling of blissful energy or something very pleasant eminating from my core, my center, my Dan Tiem. As I was really living this incredible event, here came number four! Then, number five!! There was a beautiful, blue dragonfly resting peacefully on each of my fingers and my thumb!!! The feeling, the Oneness, the exstasy, was almost overwhelming - in a calm sort of excitement that was really beyond description. I was pulled away for a second though when I heard my friend say, "how do you do that?!!". It was then that my thinking Ego got invloved and they flew away.

My friend, someone not usually aware or interested in such things, was truly amazed and very moved by this event. He certainly was not alone in that feeling! This happened in a moment of perfect calmness within, a moment when I was completely in the Present. These are the only moments when we are fully alive and living as we are meant to live. It is also only in these moments that we are aware of the constant love that our Source is bathing us in - like a Mother does her child. It is only in these moments that we can "see" the infinite blessings all around us, all of the time. This is true wealth, and, we are all very wealthy indeed if we just take the time to live in the Present. Take the time!

Namaste'

Thinking With Your Magnanimus Mind

This is a wonderful description of why meditation is so important for everyone to practice daily. The author is extremely well-credentialed as: Humanistic Psychologist, a counselor in Applied Meditation Therapy®, a Buddhist Priest, a Soto Zen meditation master, and a mentor of Faith Body. He is also an internationally published author and teacher, a Japanese brushwork calligrapher, a webmaster, a Zen gardener, and a Zen Temple home maker. He holds memberships in the American Psychological Association, the International Association for Humanistic Psychology, and the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. I have linked this blog to his Meditation & Spiritual Life Practice Community, a social website where I am now a member. I suggest that anyone interested in learning more about Dr. Bonnici, his teachings and counseling, and his community, to click on this link. I am honored to present some of his writing here and hope that everyone else appreciates it as well.

Namaste'




THINKING WITH YOUR MAGNANIMOUS MIND
Magnanimous is courageously noble and open in heart, mind and spirit



An important part of our meditation life practice is to nourish an intimate, honest, and wondrous Way of observing things as they are. Then we are completely free to think about things with a curious, spacious and magnanimous mind.

Our Way is to observe and think about things without reinforcing prejudice, stagnation or rigidity. This means that we practice having a magnanimous mind that is soft and always open enough to see things as they are and to understand things as IT is.

When our mind is magnanimous, soft, and open it can also be called immovable mind because it does not stick to any thing that arises or close off to any use of language or any given direction of understanding through thinking or non-thinking. The embodied practice of this kind of magnanimous and immovable mind liberates us to think with sincerity, clarity, flexibility, integrity and creativity.

In our Way of meditation life practice, we say that our faculty of magnanimous mind and our spacious way of not-knowing are both stable and grounded. They are stable and grounded because they are soft and responsive to all things as they arise while being passionately curious and open to all directions of experiencing, languaging, thinking and non-thinking.

Just to see and to be ready to see things with a magnanimous mind is our practice of living meditation. If we are prepared to see and understand with magnanimity, there is no need to make any extra effort in directing our thinking.

Extra effort means to manipulate or direct our thinking in order to validate a one-sided position, a prejudice or prejudgment, a biased perception, a rationalization or an exclusive belief. When our ego-self attaches to an exclusive belief, our way of thinking becomes bound or restricted by that belief. This means that our thinking is directed more by the belief rather than our open and free magnanimous mind.

We must remember that it is the openness and readiness of our magnanimous mind that is bright wisdoming itself. This openness and readiness becomes the process of wisdoming in our thinking. By wisdoming, I do not mean our usual ego-self thinking, accumulated knowledge or something learned by reading and studying. Wisdoming is the effortless and grace-full thinking that naturally arises from our practice of resting in non-thinking, arousing bright wakefulness and alertness, and nourishing our passionate readiness to see beings and things with a spacious and magnanimous mind.

Our Way of witnessing, observing, and thinking with a magnanimous mind is grounded in our daily practice of being in the Core of our Only Moment Body. The point of our daily practice in relationship to our thinking faculty is to rest in our Moment Body Core, to be ready to intimately observe or witness things as they arise, and to freely and openly think about things with a magnanimous and spacious Way of Mind. This can be called thinking with our Big Mind or thinking with the Innate Wisdom of our Only Moment Body.

~ with blessings and encouragement, Dr. Bonnici
Andrew Shugyo Daijo Bonnici, Ph.D.

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