SUIWO AND THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING
Suiwo, the disciple of Hakuin, was a good teacher. On a certain day a certain pupil came to him, and Suiwo gave him the problem, “Hear the sound of one hand.”

The pupil remained three years, but could not pass the test. One night he came to Suiwo in tears. “I must return to my home in shame,” he said, “for I cannot solve the problem.”

“Wait another week,” said Suiwo. “Meditate constantly.” Still no enlightenment came to the pupil. “Try for another week,” said Suiwo. The pupil obeyed, but to no avail.

“Still another week,” requested Suiwo, but in vain. In despair the pupil begged to be released, but Suiwo asked for one more meditation of five days. They too were without result. Then Suiwo said: “Mediate for three days longer. If you still fail to attain enlightenment, you had better kill yourself.”

On the second day the pupil was enlightened.

Suiwo

read comments (16)

I believe that if “as above, so below” is true, than the reverse is also true: “so below, as above.”

So, that means if I move my big toe here…

read comments (5)

Christmas - celebrating the birth of the Christ point inside of each of us. Merry Christmas!

read comments (6)

Here is someone who had overcome procrastination.

Morihei Ueshiba (founder of Aikido, 1883-1969) not only became aware of his purpose, but he embraced it, living to live it and express it 24/7 for the rest of his life. In my opinion, this defines a realized being; not simply because they understand their purpose, but because they are consistently and effectively integrating it into their life via their actions. Purpose becomes realized because of consistent purpose-filled action.

What higher purpose feels like
When I stood before Ueshiba Sensei, all I could see was his mesmerizing eyes, they seemed to engulf me completely. All of my energy was taken away and I felt powerless. When I tried to strike him, he would counter-strike. While his blow never touched my body, it completely neutralized my attack, dispersed all my power, and broke my concentration so all I could do was crumble. If he threw me, I felt as if I was floating on a cloud, totally swallowed up in his presence. When he pinned you, on the other hand, it was like receiving an electric shock that paralyzed your entire body. (Rinjiro Shirata, 1912-1993)

Other students spoke of feeling as if they were being swept up in a windstorm or blinded by a ball of fire when thrown by Morihei, some had the sensation of entering a different dimension, and a few even saw stars when they hit the mat, but then felt remarkably energized. Grabbing Morihei’s arm “was like trying to hold on to the trunk of a pine tree,” one student said. Another student said that when the master squeezed his wrist, “it was like having a red-hot wire applied to your arm.” A student who once did sword-work with Morihei remarked, “His sword was pressed lightly against my thumb, causing only a slightly painful sensation, but he held me completely immobile.” Morihei’s kiai, “spirited shout,” rather than an ear-piercing noise, it was more of an overwhelming vibration that shook an opponent to his core. All Challengers reported that there was no sense of resistance or struggle against their attacks – there was literally nothing to grasp or hit.

My take on this
Well, it is pretty simple. I am a believer, 100%. Not out of faith, but out of experience. I have experienced every single thing described above, and a whole lot more. Not from Ueshiba Sensei, of course, but from my own teacher.

To me, the most valuable way to become aware of higher awareness is to personally experience it firsthand, to feel it. That is essential - to feel it. Intellectualizing only carried me so far, and the place it carried me to was still in the wastelands. I still have a long way to go, but feeling it changed my life.

Ueshiba, Morihei; Translated and Edited by John Stevens. The Art of Peace. Shambhala: Boston. 2002. (12, 13)

read comments (5)

RE: recent post on procrastination

I am fortunate to be visited by some very smart people, who have a lot of great insight and honesty. When I posted about my procrastination, some comments came in. I’d like to share two of them.

Be Now said, “There is no higher priority or truth than being in the moment, and when we worry we are not in the moment. Let your anxiety drive you into the moment for shelter.”

aka_lol said, “Wouldn’t you say we put off life and that we do it by habit? We have become accustomed to living but not enjoying. The longer we put things off the harder they become until, one day, it becomes, or seems, almost impossible.”

I am definitely a habitual creature, often finding myself serving my habits. “Serving” my habits… that’s an interesting phrase. “Hi, my name is Mark. I am your waiter today. Today we are serving my habits. What disgusting morsel may I serve you for your dining pleasure?”

I agree: The habits of living can drive us to a place where procrastination is the easier choice. I dwell in those regions too often.

But I have to share something with you that I’ve learned through my martial arts training. I used to wholly subscribe to the persepective that I could not change certain things about me, because I had put things off for so long.

For example, if I lied (especially to myself), than the trail back to the truth eventually became too long and hopeless to consider. What my Jiu Jitsu training helped me realize is that the road back to the truth does not need to be exhausting and overwhelming. Jiu Jitsu has taught me how to enter into a problem - instantly. (I am not suggesting that everyone needs to take JJ to learn this.)

While it is certainly appropriate to turn and run at times, in my opinion Jiu Jitsu’s greatest inner secrets lay in the direction of understanding how to enter into a problem, or more specifically how to center inside of it. From my limited perspective, it seems that the act of doing that is the same as ‘mushin’, or ‘empty mind’, the act of living in the moment. For me, that change and realization happens instantly once the truth is embraced, and is sustained by continuing to embrace that attitude in the moment. (I struggle with the ‘continuing’ part.)

However, whenever I am successful at doing that, I experience an instant centering. I find myself in a surprising place, a hyperspace bypass around the long, discouraging trudge back down the path of denial.

I am grateful that I have been taught how to do this. It has helped me realize what I term ‘an essential truth’, i.e., that my problems are only a single attitude adjustment, a single moment away from being resolved in a better direction.

Here is an insight into ’serving’, called ‘serving the ideal‘.

read comments (11)

Wow. I was just taken to a wonderful place, the moment I landed in the newly designed world of Bamboo Shades.

Some bloggers are masters. Kathy is one of them. Go check out her new blog design at Bamboo Shades. Stunning.

Kathy says she received help from Iona from Circles and Squares. Iona lives in Holland. To both of you, a bow of respect. And look at Kathy’s post here, in particular at the way the pic is seamlessly integrated into the post. Oh, and Iona’s photography is beautiful. Scroll down and look how she treats light in “Postcards from the Edge”. And the small boats are great. Very reflective.

I am now inspired to change the look of my blog. Here is a cool look. Check these out: a calming tropical look, a green (never accuse me of being down on the environment) look, and a distinctive favorite. Hmmm, what should I go for?

I don’t think I’m the kitchen type. What about a 3 column? Maybe a cool darker look? Here’s something clean but striking. I’ve seen this next one before, but I’m not a coffee drinker.

BTW, I really have to do something about my sidebar… it’s way too long. Maybe I should go for a look like Anulios’s stark and bold contrasting styles. I also like Whimiscal Magic’s use of color and large, striking pictures. That’s pretty cool.

Well, it’s a lot to think about. A new and fresh look kinda inspires me. It’s a big job though; gotta put some thought into this.

Have any favorite beautiful blogs you’d like to share?

read comments (9)

Two Souls. We share the same Divine Light, still waiting to be filled to the brim with that same Divine Love.

In response to the previous post, Sadiq said, “Here is a picture that I posted on Flickr. It’s on a relevant theme as well. Hope you and other visitors will enjoy it.”

(Picture and caption credit to Sadiq)

read comments (2)

Some people have a longing, even a certainty, regarding their soulmate. What is a soulmate? Personally, I think it is a longing for a very good friend, and agree with the conclusion of the end of this article, found on Edgar Cayce’s website. Here is the beginning of the article.

Almost every person feels a longing for companionship. At times we may understand this desire as a directive toward union with God, and at other times, as a desire for union with another person.

Two ideas come together in the material from the Edgar Cayce readings concerning the choice of a companion-particularly a life partner. First is the principle that we are here in the earth for the purpose of growth and development in consciousness. What is more, associations with some individuals are more conducive to growth than associations with others; therefore, it is prudent to choose carefully our companions. This principle is probably easy for us to accept if we merely reflect on the types of influence various friends and acquaintances have had on us in the past. The impact is most powerful in a marriage relationship, and a good union should be founded upon a shared purpose in life and the capacity to help each other to grow.

The second principle relates to reincarnation: We as spiritual beings (or souls) experience our growth in consciousness through a series of lifetimes in physical human form. In other words, we have been in the earth many times before, and more specifically have had close personal relationships with particular souls. Attraction to another person and thoughts of marriage could very likely be related to memory patterns (even subconscious memories!) of having been with that soul in the distant past. In the readings, Cayce suggested that, often, we are attracted to a particular person for marriage in this lifetime because of such a relationship at least once before.

But if reincarnation is a fact, we might expect that we have been married to many souls in the course of other incarnations. Which one of these partnerships is the best one to build upon now, in this life? Does each person have exactly one other special soul that it is meant to be with whenever possible?

Many sources of psychic information and other metaphysical teachings have proposed concepts such as “soul mate” and “twin soul.” The Cayce readings, although simultaneously raising some provocative questions, do shed some light on this topic.

Read the conclusion of the article here.

read comments (12)

When I deny, I get fearful. My fearfulness produces hestiation. Soon, I become tense. I start to feel anxiousness, because a part of me recognizes that I am refusing to deal with or embrace the truth. In my tension I find a familiar place called procrastination. My procrastination then becomes becomes a setpoint, a norm. Because it is such a familiar place, denying the truth becomes normal, okay. And hardly anyone calls me out on it, because they don’t want to deal with it either. Unless it is in criticizing someone else.

This is a path that I know well, one that I am intimately familiar with.

read comments (9)

Even small bridges in consciousness can make a huge difference. This following problem would be a real good one to solve.

A recent question in a post called inner truth is deceptive teaching, focused on some comments a Pharisee made about the teachings of Jesus, and discussed the perception that the Pharisee had that Jesus’ teachings were deceptive and harmful. During the comments, we came down to a question that was a little different then the final question posed by the post. The comments to this new question are thoughtful and honest, and I hope you find them as helpful and insightful as I have.

Q. How can we overcome this natural defensiveness (to deeper teachings) in a way that doesn’t cause people to become defensive or feel like their faith needs defending or that they are being challenged?

Meredith said,

Oh Mark, you ask such great questions. I have been deeply considering this question all weekend. Surely I don’t have the perfect answer to this, but I’m going to give it a try.

Let’s return to love: When I want to overcome defensiveness, when I want to let people know I’m not here to challenge their faith, first I try to listen. I listen with ears attuned and open to what is going on beneath the surface for the other. Usually what I notice is fear and/or woundedness. I want to listen respectfully for this, and treat this tenderly. I want to look deeply into the other, past their outer shells, past personalities and idiosyncrasies, past differences to that which is pure and holy within them. I try to imagine this person in front of me as a holy one, as pure and perfect under their veil. I imagine loving them with the purity of the way their parent may have loved them. I let my eyes go soft and most importantly, let my heart soften as well. I imagine the warmth and openness of my own heart, and I extend this warmth toward the other. This is all other than intellect. It is not about my ego, or who I am, but rather hearing and seeing with the purest of intentions.

Ethan said,

Mark,

That’s a heck of a question to pose. Looking back on myself, I have come to realize that it took a long time and lots of different events before I even got close to recognizing my defensiveness, let alone trying to do something about it. And nobody I encountered was actively trying to break down my defensive walls. Rather I think that it was enough of an atmosphere of acceptance that invited me to step beyond my comfort zone and enter into the horribly terrifying unknown. Once beyond my walls, I started to see them, and now I am on the look out for the ones that still exist and trying to find ways to get past them. It seems like most of my walls have come down when I am in an atmosphere of acceptance. So, I think that by creating an atmosphere of acceptance, one can do their own small part to help other people start breaking down their own defenses. It isn’t very likely that one can see the effects of what they are doing, but if I can positively affect a few people around me and they can pass that on to a few others, well, small moments can build large momentum.

I think that it is also important to accept yourself. I need to accept my past, my prejudices, my fears. I have to continually challenge myself. I have to recognize the way I see things, and try to understand why I see things that way. One last note, in my experience it seems that people who have a higher degree of awareness are those who have been hurt in one way or another. The pain helped them see themselves better, helped them see reality better.

A Pharisee with a high position is no where near reality. They are well separated from any pain. Perhaps this is why Jesus spent a lot of time with those on the edge of society. They were closer to reality and a lot more open to having their view expanded. Let me just repeat that this is a heck of a question Mark. I hope you get lots of responses to it and that it generates a lot of thought.

Jon said,

Mark, I think it’s that we can’t change another. Certainly, the other has to come to a tipping point, where openness finally outweighs grasping.

Many things might lead to that tipping point–hitting bottom, gradual trust, jolting life transition–but we are not in control of another’s opening, but only in doing what we can to assist.

In the case of the young man in the accident, obviously a rational appeal that he needed to stop struggling didn’t work. Maybe being held lovingly for a few seconds would’ve. Or maybe nothing would’ve done it short of using physical restraints to tie him down which apparently weren’t available that night.

How I would like to change so many others! But I can’t–my mission is to change myself.

To answer Ethan’s challenge to think and respond to this, I’ll contribute a comment.

What’s a specific thing I can do, relative to this question, that is less selfish and more giving? I’d like it to be something that could have a significant impact in this area after I am dead.

I hope you have better ideas than I do regarding how to solve this.

read comments (14)