The Waters that Surface

A disturbance in the soil
Waters rise to the surface
A path previously unseen

To Grow

We are both able and limited
To grow is to explore, expand, and clarify those edges...

Integration and Self-Assuredness

It is my belief that when some kind of inner tension, usually related to fear, when it is finally resolved, there is a kind of Self-Assuredness where we no longer have to think about the thing. Our strong focus and want of something we believe will relieve our discomfort, it drops into the background of focused consciousness. The focus on prior ideas is replaced by a kind of faith that everything will be fine one way or another.

The concepts we hold onto can fall away. "Good", "Bad", "Positive", "Authentic", "Intelligent", "Empathetic", "Strong", "Worthy", "Deserving", "Right", "Correct", etc... The concepts that exist with attempts to build Self-Concept for the purpose of underlying survival desires... Concepts such as "Freedom", "Security", "Stability", "Pride", "Status", "Group", "Affiliation", "Association", etc... Our hyperfocus will soften as our grasp onto life relaxes a bit. We can live out a belief, a concept, while letting go of the apple in the jar.

Strings of Fear

Strings of Fear pulled ever so slightly
To reveal threads buried much much deeper

An unseen collective threat
Potentially feeding a voracious and vicious cycle

Consumed or Not Consumed
It is difficult to tell...

My Personal Wishes

One of my main personal wishes is to be more skillful in honoring where people are and trying to work with that knowledge to find ways of connecting. I also wish to acknowledge where I am, and acknowledge my own edge and limitations for doing some of those things I hope for or want, and finding ways to work within known edges.

Making Space for Learning Complex Coordinated Movements

For myself, I find the best approach for learning complex coordinated movements (like playing a musical instrument or playing a sport) involves making space for learning by being both a participant and an observer, instead of having the frame of mind of taskmaster and slave. The learning happens when I Let It Happen instead of when I try to Make It Happen. If I can trust in the body's innate ability and wisdom to learn, without holding on too tightly, while still remaining attentive, then learning seems to go more smoothly and on its own mysteriously. It is as if there is a linking of conscious attention with an underlying unconscious process of learning the complex movements. There is intent by the mind, but it is held onto lightly with space for the sake of trusting in the process of learning.

Connecting To The Inside: The Underlying Goal

Continually seeking and finding the wellspring
The deep inner expansiveness that exists within
To touch what feels like The More

The Psychic Ecosystem

Each mind seems to attempt to cultivate, maintain, promote, and continue some Specialized Facet of Life and Living through the development of beliefs, mindsets, or frames of mind. Each way of being and thinking continually interacts with other ways of being and thinking in a Dynamic Psychic Ecosystem. There seems to exists varied interaction strategies including both cooperation and competition, with attempts at both coexistence and psychological hegemony, influence, and dominance. Within the psychic ecosystem, each mind will attempt to live on in some form or another, believing in the Truth of its own way.

The Tree of Consciousness: Each Fruit Also Comes Packed with Inner Craziness

Along with Gifts of Specialized Consciousness, the tree's fruits are packed with Inner Craziness. The process of distillation is potent and seems to teeter on the edge of Giving Life and Taking Life.

The Universal Journey: Our Encounter with Fear

As humans, our Strong Desire for Life is often most reflected through the experience of Fear. How we encounter or deal with our fears creates numerous potentialities. Each time we encounter fear, we encounter our desire to preserve our own life. We are given numerous opportunities, numerous options and paths for how we deal with our innate desire.

Each step we take along this universal journey stokes the most creative and destructive latent potentials that exists within all of us. Each step, a planted thought, a planted seed that can manifest and spread throughout our own being, and the beings around us. As human beings, our super power is our ability to take what exists within our mind, our mental landscapes, and create something that exists in physical reality. A lot of our environment is a result of what we manifest through our minds.

What exists within our own minds we will keep encountering over and over again. Our encounter with fear is probably the most important journey of all when it comes outcomes related to Life and Living itself.

A Frame of Mind that Links to Our Underlying Instincts: The Greatest Potential for Creation and Destruction

As humans we are uniquely Plastic in our thinking and our behaviors. We can greatly shape our thoughts and behaviors, thus the importance of education and the environments and systems we are immersed in. When a frame of mind is able to strongly tap into and align with some of our most powerful instincts, our greatest potential for creation and destruction manifest.

Our survival instincts related to emotions of love and fear, when distilled, can create mental changes that can affect our physical world. We can be moved to strong action. We can adapt in such a way that we create something completely new. When we link our old underlying instinctual foundations with our ability to adapt we can be at our most potent... A raging beast scratching and clawing for its own survival... A conscious being aware of the experience of consciousness itself, aware of the varied and collective desires that exist within all that lives...

Art, Religion, Culture, Science... To Innovate while trying To Preserve. The blazing fires can make malleable or can engulf and destroy.

Music and Emotionally Charged Events

In U.S. culture, music plays such a vital part during emotionally charged events. During celebrations of elation like weddings or parties... During mourning like at funerals... And during huge social events where people are in need of keeping their spirits lifted.

It is strange that something like playing music is both seen as vital, yet at the same time also seen as a frivolous activity.

The Desire to Hold Onto a Perception of Goodness and Self-Worth

The desire to hold onto a one's perception of one's own goodness and self-worth is often a cause for havoc that exists in our world. At great cost, we hold onto perceived notions. We wish to hold onto status and ideas that we are worthy and good people. We are even willing to harm others who we believe to stand in the way of the images we cling tightly to. We sometimes spin tales in order to create a "truth" we find palatable. "If I am good, then others out there must be bad."