EXERCISE

Guru Monty has decided to join me for morning exercise.
He woke up early and grumpy. He wanted to be held as he is only 2 years old and likes the security.
Don't we all? Nothing wrong with having security, it is the wanting it that causes the suffering.
The problem was I wanted to exercise. So I did both. I held Monty and tailored my routine to incorporate a giggling bundle of glee.
We had a lot of fun. Bouncing up and down, running on the spot, stretching, swinging, ducking, diving.
He has joined me three mornings in a row now.
Now the problem comes now when I try to leave for work. He wants to come. Tears and clinging, pleading to go with me. I hand him back to mum.
And leave.
That is the hard bit.
I ask mum how long he cries for after I leave.
About 2 seconds and then he is off playing music or starts colouring.
Life goes on.

'Daily training in the Art of Peace allows you inner divinity to shine brighter and brighter. Do not concern yourself with the right and wrong of others. Do not be calculating or act unnaturally. Keep your mind set on the Art of Peace, and do not criticize other teachers or traditions. The Art of Peace never restrains, restricts, or shackles anything. It embraces all and purifies everything. ' - Morihei Ueshiba

BRUSSEL SPROUTS

When I was 14 I worked in a fruit and veg shop 3 evenings after school for 2 hours, and all day Saturday.
Guru Nana used to bring me 1/2lb of Jelly Babies every Saturday afternoon.
She would stand outside the shop not wanting to disturb the bustle.
In the evenings I would visit her and she would bath my feet in a Radox salt bath and feed me Angel Cake and copious cups of tea. Guru Grandad would talk about space, time, infinity and crosswords.
Wonderful.
One Saturday afternoon when it was quiet in the shop I was out the back sorting the 'snotty' Brussel Sprouts from the good ones.
Not an interesting or pleasant task. So I started thinking about a question Grandad had asked me:
'Can you imagine infinity?'
I gave it a go.
The next thing I knew I was being shaken by the shop owner, asking me if I was OK. Apparently I had been staring into space for the last 45 minutes, snotty sprout in hand. They had decided to leave me at first because I looked funny, but after a while they grew concerned.
I was fine. Very fine.
I could remember nothing about the experience. Just the decision to let go and think of infinity. I was trying to reach the end of the universe. I didn't get there.
I explained all this to the people in the shop looking concerned. They started to look even more concerned, so I decided to keep quiet and never try it again.
It was a lovely experience but tainted by wanting the approval of the people present.
I'm going to give it another go tonight, brussel sprouts are in season.

“We kids feared many things in those days - werewolves, dentists, North Koreans, Sunday School - but they all paled in comparison with Brussels sprouts.” Dave Barry, Miami Herald Columnist

SPACE

I was musing with Guru Basil about space. Science has proven that the human body is almost entirely made up of space. This is due to the incredibly small size of the molecules/atoms and the vast distances between them. Intriguing thought.
Guru Basil helped me out
'It makes sense Dad. We are part of the Earth, the earth is part of the solar system, the sun the stars, which are all part of the galaxies, which are all part of space. It is all connected.'
He instantly saw it and took it to another level. Einstein would be proud. And Eddington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington
Eddington did the measurements that put Einstein and his theories on the world map.
Eddington had a strong belief in God.
My guess is that science an religion will eventually realise they are seeing the same thing.

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein.
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein.

SERVICE

It is extremely rare for an individual to give up identifying with the body and be of service to everyone. Mother Teresa and Ghandi are two names that spring to mind. Oh yeah and Bono.
Another name for service is love. Not the claustrophobic you are mine to the exclusion of all others human love, but all encompassing Devine love.
Whenever I have done something to help another with out expecting anything in return it has been an almost absent minded service, no thought involved, just a compunction to be there for that person. I have always been amazed what an incredible feeling of happiness I derive from it. The benefit to me has always out weighed the potential hardship of being there.
Why don't I do this continually? Like Teresa and Ghandi.
I don't believe I'm good enough. I don't believe in myself.
How can I make your life better today? That is how I should greet everybody.
Best make a start, I've wasted a lot of time.

'The Art of Peace does not rely on weapons or brute force to succeed; instead we put ourselves in tune with the universe, maintain peace in our own realms, nurture life, and prevent death and destruction. The true meaning of the term samurai is one who serves and adheres to the power of love. ' - Morihei Ueshiba

THE WORLD IS NOT AN ILLUSION

The only thing that is constant in this World is change. Everything changes.
Perfect Truth would never change. So everything that changes is a lie an illusion?
The World is not an illusion. This is a concept. The World is an illusion. This is another concept. What would absolute reality have to do with concepts?
Nothing.
The Truth is already there, why would it need a general incomplete idea about itself?
It doesn't.
So both concepts must be wrong. Illusions if you like.
Keith is complaining. Clever incomplete argument. It's not even clever, just confusing and not at all helpful. Taking things to the limit is not satisfying.
Tell that to Newton, Einstein, Feynman, all of them loved there calculus and taking things to the limit.
And Keith again is right.
My argument is wrong. In fact in absolute reality it doesn't exist. How can it? The world can not exist, I can't exist, so how can my musings exist.
They can't.
So why bother writing a blog of nonsense?
To prove to myself that collating facts, reading books, learning, debating, musing is not the way to find the answer. It points the way. But there comes a time when you have to forget. Learn and forget.
And the way is beyond thought. Have you tried to stop thinking?
It is lovely.

'Move like a beam of light:
Fly like lightning,
Strike like thunder,
Whirl in circles around
A stable center.'
-Morihei Ueshiba

REINCARNATION

I had a dream. In this dream I was a hermit meditating all day long.
A great sage came by my spot. He was off to see God. So I asked him to ask God how long I would have to sit there until I was enlightened.
When he returned he told me to look at the big, leafy tree I was sitting under and to count the leaves. That was how many life times I would have to reincarnate before I became enlightened.
I grew angry. I had been meditating all my life. I thought sod that! I don't even believe in reincarnation, I didn't the first time I was here. So I got up and went into town to get drunk and chase some skirt.
The next moment I was under the tree again meditating and the great sage walked by, off to see God. I asked him to ask God how long it would be until I was enlightened.
When he returned he told me to count the leaves on the tree again, and that was how many life times I would have to reincarnate before I became enlightened.
This time I jumped up and down with joy and shouted,
'Thank you God, just one tree!'
I woke up laughing.

'The techniques of the Art of Peace are neither fast nor slow, nor are they inside or outside. They transcend time and space.' - Morihei Ueshiba

NOTHING IS GOING ON

I was introduced to a marvellous concept the other day, that nothing is happening, nothing is going on.
Time, the world, the planets, the universe is all illusion, a dream and your experiences, emotions and energy are all an hallucination.
When you dream it seems so real. Years can pass in a dream. You can go grow old, fly, breathe underwater, become young again, fantastic feats and it all seems so reasonable.
You can also have horrors, incredible fears and vile monsters.
When you wake up you realise the deception.
The idea is that there are many layers of this deception.
The Truth is nothing is going on.
It is a lovely concept, just thinking deeply on it makes you feel happy. Try it.
Keith says it makes him scared. You have to do something, you have to be someone, you must survive.
Keith is getting a lot more quiet nowadays but this idea woke him up.
So all the meditation, reading of scriptures, going to church, raves, all the things you do to get high is a waste of time. Any peak experience has not actually happened.
Any gain, any loss. Nothing has happened.
Just peace. Bliss beyond imagination.
And so to the random quote generator to sum up the above:

'I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.' - Arthur Hays Sulzberger

HIVE MIND

Most people bulk at the idea that humans have a hive mind.
It is a deep fear of losing their identity. They want to be an individual. They want separation.
They want an ego.
A type of hive mind is conformity.
Attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are influenced by other people. It may occur as the result of subtle influences, or by direct and overt social pressure.
Conformity may also occur by the "implied presence" of others, when other people are not actually present.
Religions are good at instilling this implied presence.
This want of separation causes a lot of unhappiness.
It is a very good exercise to look at a stranger in the street and say to yourself 'You are me.'
Do it and see what happens.
What is wrong with admitting we all have the same needs, desires, worries, fears, and thoughts.
Nothing.

Brian Cohen of Nazareth: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't need to follow me, You don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for your selves! You're all individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian Cohen of Nazareth: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we are all different!
Man in crowd(George Harrison): I'm not...
The Crowd: Sch!

IGNIS FATUUS

I read this very long article about Wall Street today.
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom?tid=true
Michael Lewis is a good, persausive writer and he managed to draw me into his maya illusion. I felt quite sick after reading about the excesses of capitalism.
Then I started to discriminate. So a few swearing nerds made a lot of money from the collapse of the global financial system, and a large man with big hands lost a job that was well paid because of some words that were written about him and the empire he created.
What does that mean?
If you take it from the view point of leaving the world alone, of realising the illusion then it means nothing.
Absolutely meaningless.
My granny wouldn't have a frame of reference to understand that article, it would take some time to explain it to her, to get her to appreciate the complexity of the illusion. In fact I'm not sure you could explain that one to my Gran, she'd probably look blankly and say 'That´s nice dear'.
Get her talking about homosexuality, or black presidents and that would be a different matter.
Nothing matters. No thing matters. What is beyond matter is what matters.
Things, stuff, illusion, complexity, trash it is all worthless. Foolish fire, Ignis Fatuus.
If you have nothing and everyone around you loses their stuff, are you in a better situation?
If you have nothing then you are in the best position of all, and you would rejoice at everyone else having nothing. But of course this is hard to understand as most people are involved in this Ignis Fatuus that is the world.

'Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything. ' - Morihei Ueshiba

INSTRUCTORS

I like to click on this grid http://omlc.ogi.edu/aikido/talk/osensei/artofpeace/index.html
for inspiration once a day. Today I clicked on:

'Instructors can impart only a fraction of the teaching. It is through your own devoted practice that the mysteries of the Art of Peace are brought to life. '

This is something I keep coming back to recently.
You can read up on a subject until you are a walking encyclopedia, you can have all the head knowledge in the world, but eventually you have to apply it, you have to experience the subject.
This is the problem of the world, so many people reading and talking about it, few actually doing something about it. This has always been the worlds problem.
What did I do today to get myself to realise the Truth?
Did I sit and moan about something that happened 30 years ago?
Did I read a newspaper and tut at man´s inhumanity to man?
Did I sit and 'relax' in the evening by watching someone else's problems on a soap opera?
Did I go to the pub and get slightly high on European fighting lager?
Or did I sit and use the mind to conquer the mind?
Did I ask the awkward questions?
Who am I? What is this world?To whom do these thoughts come? What am I? What is my relation to the world?
Did I let the answers come to me? Did I try to control the answers, so that they conformed to the answers that I had read about?
Or did I sit and wait?
Ask the questions and sit in the silence.
I´ve decided to give myself a treat and to see if Guru Ueshiba has any advice on what I have just written, so I clicked on the grid once more:

´It is necessary to develop a strategy that utilizes all the physical conditions and elements that are directly at hand. The best strategy relies upon an unlimited set of responses. '

Spot on again! I am now going to post a random quote from the interweb, this one from random-quotes.com:

"I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.There's a knob called `brightness', but it doesn't work." -- Gallagher --

PARADISE

The Bureau of Meteorology in Australia runs a photographic competition each year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/earth/3391311/2009-Australian-Weather-Calendar.html

This world maybe in an illusion but it can be a very beautiful one. Can be an absolute shocker too. Keith doesn't fancy getting caught in the lightening strike in Darwin. He can moan about every single picture on that calender; that sea looks cold, imagine spending the night there, fire!

It is so easy to get caught up in the world. So many distractions. Beautiful and bad.

If you were living a fairly comfortable life in a village experiencing the usual ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments, joy of birth the sadness of death, good health and crippling disease and you knew that just outside that village across the Swamp of Doom lay Paradise where there was nothing but bliss would you make the journey?

Depends what is in the Swamp of Doom.

But if you knew you could not die you wouldn't care what was in the swamp. And you'd walk into Paradise.

That pesky fear of dying again.

So that's the key; 1) Know that you never die and 2) be prepared to put up with a bit of unpleasantness for a while.

I'm having trouble with the first bit.

And the second if I'm honest.

But my rational brain is saying that I am conditioning myself with mumbo jumbo. It concedes that I have never been happier and lighter in my life despite what is going on around me. It also concedes that fundamentally I haven't changed and it is beginning to realise that my substratum is in fact happiness.

I have a choice;

1) Get involved in the world and try to conquer and bend everything to my will

or

2) Keep going, practicing my releasing, meditation, self enquiry, developing love, compassion and humility and getting happier and lighter.

I choose Paradise.

"When Alexander of Macedonia was 33 he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer - Bristow is only 27" - Sid Waddell.

FREEDOM

'When I had my awakening, I was fourteen years old. This body was sitting in a classroom taking a math test. And all of a sudden I felt myself expanding. I never left my body, which proves that the body never existed to begin with. I felt the body expanding, and a brilliant light began to come out of my heart. I happened to see the light in all directions. I had peripheral vision, and this light was really my Self. It was not my body and the light. There were not two. There was this light that became brighter and brighter and brighter, the light of a thousand suns. I thought I would be burnt to a crisp, but alas, I wasn't.
But this brilliant light, of which I was the center and also the circumference, expanded throughout the universe, and I was able to feel the planets, the stars, the galaxies, as myself. And this light shone so bright, yet it was beautiful, it was bliss, it was ineffable, indescribable.
After a while the light began to fade away, and there was no darkness. There was just a place between light and darkness, the place beyond the light. You can call it the void, but it wasn't just a void. It was this Pure Awareness I always talk about. I was aware that I Am That I Am. I was aware of the whole universe at the same time. There was no time, there was no space, there was just the I Am.
Then everything began to return to normal, so to speak. I was able to feel and understand that all of the planets, the galaxies, the people, the trees, the flowers on this earth, everything, were myriads of energy, and I was in everything. I was the flower. I was the sky. I was the people. The I was everything. Everything was the I. The word 'I' encompassed the whole universe.' - Robert Adams.

'Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun. Shine on you crazy diamond.' - Roger Waters.

TIME

Time is an illusion. All the clues are there. Even scientists are starting to realise. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg19726391.500-is-time-an-illusion.html
You've got to love scientists; solve one problem by coming up with ten more. Busy busy busy.
The best bit in that article is from the lead scientist, Carlo Rovelli -
"It is not reality that has a time flow, it is our very approximate knowledge of reality that has a time flow," says Rovelli. "Time is the effect of our ignorance."
Beautiful.
Buddha could not have said it better.
Reinventing the wheel though. It has all been done before. Or as time does not exist, it has all been thought, done, improved upon instantaneously. And then redone, rethought, re-improved ad infinitum.
But even that statement implies time.
But leads closer to the truth.
The concept of time is a limitation. Once you get rid of that limitation amazing things should begin to happen. Teleportation, prescience, omnipresence, you will never die and you can never be born.
Keith says that was a step too far, 'Where's the proof in the literature, at least the scientists are trying to put it in concrete terms. They are trying to understand it, you are spouting nonsense.'
I say if you get rid of another limitation, thinking, than you will be there.
Stop thinking and start experiencing.
We've all done it. Waiting for Christmas as a child. The conversations my mum had with her friends on the way to the shops, would they ever stop? Kissing my wife for the first time, seems like yesterday.
But that is not it either, those moments are again just pointers to the Truth.
Be still. Breath in and say to yourself 'I', breathe out and say 'Am'. Do this for a day.
I'll do it myself when I get the time.
Over to Guru Adams again:

'Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.' - Douglas Adams

'There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.' - Douglas Adams.

STORIES

It is important to take yourself off automatic. Break up a routine and think for yourself. Don't always follow the herd.
Everything can be considered a cult. A form of programming. Not just the more colourful creeds but all religions, western society, communism, capitalism, any regime of thought.
Guru Taleb suggested I gave up reading newspapers or listening to the news on television. Any important bit of news will come to you. For the last 3 years it has been very good advice. My life has become less cluttered.
I notice the 'free' newspapers being given out on the London streets. All those people receiving a limited point of view.
I hope they can discriminate.
What if every idea has been thought before? What if it has all been done before?
Hindu scriptures talked about the big bang and relativity 7000 years before Einstein.
It just might have all been done before.
It is a simple premise, The Truth never changes.
Ergo everything that changes is a lie. This world is a lie, the body is a lie, the mind is a lie. Einstein theories are a lie. Any thought regime is a lie.
I've always been seeking some deeper meaning. It has always been there in the background. Gently encouraging me to look.
My family was non-religious but I used to attend Sunday School by choice at the age of 7.
I enjoyed the stories and the simple messages but quickly realised the futility of man controlling man.
I trained as a scientist, a magician, a stand up comedian, I studied the occult. I became an atheist, until Richard Dawkins persuaded me not to be an atheist with his excellent book The God Delusion.
I am turning more spiritual now, but still non-religious.
It has been a very interesting journey. A journey that has been done before. Many times before.

"Basically ... out of all the ridiculous religion stories—which are greatly, wonderfully ridiculous—the silliest one I've ever heard is, "Yeah ... there's this big giant universe and it's expanding, it's all gonna collapse on itself and we're all just here just 'cause ... just cause. That, to me, is the most ridiculous explanation ever." - Trey Parker.

FEAR OF DYING

All problems stem from the fear of dying. Not just the terrifying fear of your own death but also of the people around you.
If we could be guaranteed we do not die, that we've never been born, and we just exist in love, peace and bliss forever - would we be worried about anything? Would we have any problems?
Probably.
Keith could find many ways. He does pretty well already. Despite all the evidence he still insists that we die.
Guru Adams once said to me that it was a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
Doug was right. So whenever I have a problem I always ask if I can solve it with just potatoes. If I can't then I know I've got a major problem.
It also helps me get things in to perspective. That one moment of ridiculousness helps me see the reality.
There are no problems.
Everything is perfect. Exactly how they should be.
I didn't think it was perfect when my father died. And I don't think that now. And I'm not sure I can ever think that my father dying was in any way perfect.
But if we never die, we are never born, and we exist in love, peace and bliss. Eternal.
And if the only reason we don't see this is because we are looking at a mud caked window, then I am willing to try and open that window and see my father looking back.
I bet he's holding a potato and wants to use that mud to make it grow. Marvellous sense of humour.

'Do not look upon this world with fear and loathing. Bravely face whatever the gods offer. ' - Morihei Ueshiba.