One Mystical Monkey

This Monkey has not been terribly Mystical lately, and has been living and being distracted by the physical life - overwhelmed by our (U.S.) political situation and been utterly astounded to see the rearing and roaring head of Socialism in what is… was… is supposed to be the seat of Freedom and Independence. Yes, politics has taken the Mystical Monkey away from this blog, for what role does politics play in the sharing of the Light and ultimate evolution of humanity? Well, not much. Or does it?

I have been contemplating that question a lot the last several months,
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I’ve not been writing much lately for a variety of reasons - mostly, that my time to do so has been required for other things, but also that I’ve been experiencing what can only be described as a change in focus. This isn’t a change from the inner/metaphysical, but rather a change that includes a larger scale than dealing only with my personal inner demons. Yes, I’m talking about the state of the World and the current political/economic situation.

Yes, according to Buddha, the ultimate goal is to live In the world and not Of it, and although this is idealistically true, with a certain awareness also comes a certain responsibility. Read the rest of this entry »

LOL. Sing with me here… ready?
(To the tune of “Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone” by Lauterbach)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Where O’ Where has the Monkey gone
Oh Where oh where can OMM be?
Battling shades within her-self
striving to be ego-free.

Battered by the woes of the world,
Looking for balance there.
Finding changes in the air
Wonder’g when they’ll mature.

Seeing mankind’s ruthless acts
Creating sadness, not Love.
Heart a-breaking with dismay
at the maneuvers of man.

Ego and greed, they fill the Earth
Destroying all in their path.
The way of Spirit this is not.
A Return to Truth we must have.

Each one of us, we fill a spot
Guiding as we can
‘Tis up to us to make amends
Uniting us all once again.

Healer, Mother, Daughter and Friend
Many things can we be
but Light and Love surround us all
whether or not that we see.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
So where have I been hiding for the last month or so? Well, not hiding really (although there has been a bit of that too) - more like “processing”. I have been a bit overwhelmed by a new layer of events and circumstances and mankinds’ maneuverings recently laid bare to eyes that have always known and shunned the reality of the situation for the pain and limitations it puts upon our planet and species. My optimism has been revealed for the shallow perspective that it was and it’s taken a while to sort through those revelations and to ride through the cycle, eventually regaining a sense of equilibrium once more.

Specifically, I’ve been thinking of politics and banking and environmentalism, of Capitalism and Fascism, of marketing, independence, global illusion, manipulations and controls, and much more… and the real day-to-day effects on life “as we know it” or choose to believe it to be. I have not wanted to post rants and irrationalities here as those deeper, emotional, basic and instinctual levels felt the brunt of such processings, nor have I wanted to encourage the manifestation of these unsavory things by encouraging similar responses in others, charged off my energy, reading the blog posts on those topics. The timing was off. The right thing to do was to withdraw and process - and so, that is where OMM has been lately… processing.

Namaste, my friends…
In Lak’ech Ala K’in
-OMM

Certain aspects of my reality have recently had their illusions shattered. A couple things that have somehow retained a level of vestigial personal belief during the walking of the path so far have been shown for the illusion they are. The rug has been pulled, so to speak and it’s a bit disorienting to suddenly and unceremoniously find yourself sprawled on your rear when you weren’t even thinking about standing on the rug at all! (Evidently, some work needs to be done to improve my mindfulness practice too!) The experience has been humbling in the truest sense of the word. Vacillating between stunned awareness / acceptance and a very human/ego disbelief, I have found myself suddenly looking for something concrete to hold on to. Suddenly and atypically, I’m looking for definitions and labels and associations and … something to define myself with… something to feel part of the consensus reality again. Apparently ego’s “I meant to do that” tactic just isn’t working!

The labels and associations of this egotistical reaction, the ‘fitting in’ to (or believing in) consensus reality, just don’t matter though and I’ve consciously gone against discovering or using them. They serve no purpose other than to comfort ego and to confuse one’s perception of reality. To fully accept this change in perception -in reference point- takes acceptance, and a bit of faith… and determination, to be honest. Ego is determined to reassert itself and to latch on to some thing it has believed in or, in the absence of that, to adhere itself to something else to fill that void of belief instead.

And in typical “reminder style” from realms spiritual, I find the following words when the current chapter of an on-and-off-read book Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior byt Chogyam Trungpa is opened:

“The [spiritual] warrior, fundamentally, is someone who is not afraid of space. The coward lives in constant terror of space. … Cowardice is turning the unconditional into a situation of fear by inventing reference points, or conditions, of all kinds. But for the warrior, unconditionality does not have to be conditioned or limited. It does not have to be qualified as either positive or negative, but it can be just neutral - as it is.”

And so, I am encouraged further to simply BE, as best as I can be, occasionally swatting ego away as it attempts to latch on to some new illusion or remnants of the old. For it is truly that through letting go of our illusions -all of them - that we become aware of our true nature.

“Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life.”
- Katharine Fullerton Gerould

… and such is the reminder that perhaps I’ve been complicating things and allowing “life” to distract from Living and from the Wisdom of what IS.

Namaste.
Peace, Love and Light … even in those complicated moments.

It seems the universe has been conspiring again! Several years ago it saw it necessary to relocate me halfway across the country to an area very close where there is located a metaphysical college. So what is somebody on the Path going to do, after a couple good nudges in the direction of the college? Take a course, of course!

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I’ve been tagged… with a wonderful Meme by Trish at Breathing. She challenged me, and everyone, to write a list of 5 things for which we are grateful. She suggests that if you blog to post your 5 things on the blog, and if you are not a blogger then to write your five things in a notebook. Trish also suggests that the bigger challenge is to keep writing down 5 things every day.

To begin, I am grateful to Trish for the reminder and opportunity to identify some of those things for which I am grateful, encouraging others to appreciate aspects of their lives they may not otherwise, and for starting this meme… And with that said,

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It’s easy to take the low Path - it’s all downhill (or at least it’s flat and easy to walk)! But what of the Path that climbs and reaches for the mountain’s summit? Requiring dedication and stamina and perseverance, it’s not always the easiest route to take. It often taxes body, soul, and mind, proving to be strenuous in ways we had never considered and are difficult to define. There are those among us however, who are driven to seek the rewards of the climb - driven to see beyond the clouds, to seek the eagle-eye view of the world, unsatisfied with the physicality of the Earthly realm. And the rewards are great - to live life instead of watching it pass by, to treasure the moments that we exist on this plane, honestly connecting to each other the way we were meant to…

But even those of us with the most discipline and stamina require little rests along the way… not just to catch our proverbial breath and to re-energize, but to take an opportunity to reflect upon the trail we’ve traveled so far. Sometimes as we climb, the perception of distances and the relationships between things can be misleading and even a bit disorienting. Yes, it can be tempting to stay on the ledge for a while, enjoying a certain shelter from the metaphysical elements, but sooner or later, our muscles tire of being unused and we long to climb again. And by looking out over the edge of the plateau on which we stand, we often discover new perspective on the World and an appreciation for the Path behind and the Path ahead, and with this we find the encouragement to continue the climb once more.

Ultimately it is the climb -the Path itself- which helps us become who (and what) we are meant to become. And should we reach the summit of our particular mountain, the metaphysical muscles we’ve developed from our climb allow our wings to unfurl so we can soar to the next mountain…

Namaste.

About a week ago, I consciously chose the challenge of becoming a ‘Lab Rat’ in the world of the physical once more. This intentional break from the metaphysical has proven to be more of a learning experience than I had ever anticipated, for with that break several things were confirmed:

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Hello again! Yes, I’m still here. And yes, I kinda took a break over the last few days. On what was pretty much a whim, I decided to hang a “do not disturb” sign on my metaphysical self (at least to the degree any of us really can) and consciously chose to be more physical for a couple days. Doing so has confirmed to every ounce of my being that I’m “over it” - that there is more to life than hanging around in the physical, being frivolous on the computer, watching television and doing those things I generally don’t do much of. It doesn’t feel right. It is shallow and self-centered and … pointless, really. Well, pointless except in the “last lesson of this nature” kind of way.

The ironic thing is that by taking this kind of a break, I’ve actually been able to “connect a couple more dots” of the big connect-the-dot puzzle of this incarnation -making associations between things that I hadn’t realized were connected before now… bits of my background, beliefs and experiences that had been haunting me, but to which the solution had been elusive. But I’m on to them now - so those one or two old habits and deep-set structures will soon be going “bye bye” once and for all - and won’t that be nice? The full picture is becoming more clear every day, with every experiment I conduct on myself. Yes, I feel like a lab rat. But isn’t that what life is about, when you get right down to it? Experimenting, experiencing, questioning and determining what your reality is… and evolving it and yourself along the Way?

Namaste.