Remembering Ingrid

How You Know When You Are Free

A conversation with Jim Dreaver – a Kiwi living in California.

I gave a lecture once at a conference, and afterward, a woman came up to me and asked: “How do you know when you’re free?”

“You just don’t take yourself to be anybody anymore,” I replied. “You no longer hold onto any concept or image of who you are. Therefore, when you look inside yourself there’s no conflict, no darkness, no edges, no more tension, no fear. There’s just this ever-fresh, ever-new experience of clarity, spaciousness, ease.”

“And you always feel like this?” she asked

“Essentially, yes. When realization happens, you know the truth of who and what you are, beyond all the beliefs and stories that previously gave you your identity. And, once you know, you know. Like knowing your name, or where you live, you don’t forget. Even when your body is tired, hurting, or sick, you always feel good inside. In the core of your being, your fundamental peace and well-being remain untouched. And this is true whether you’re waking, sleeping, or dreaming.”

“You’re always happy, then?”

“Not necessarily. If you just suffered a substantial loss—maybe someone you love just died, or maybe you just lost your life savings in a stock market crash, or an investment gone bad—you are not going to be happy. But you will always be at peace. Nothing, not even a great loss, has the power any more to disturb your inner peace and equanimity.”

Her eyes widened. and her face took on a dreamy, faraway look. “It sounds truly wonderful,” she said.

“It’s just being very present,” I said, as I reached out and touched her hand, bringing her back to the now. “It’s not about wonderful states in another dimension. It’s not about being somewhere else. You know you’re free when you realize that there is only the present, this moment now, and you’re always one with it. You’re always at peace with this moment now. You, as an expression of consciousness, are juiced, turned on, by the unfolding of creation in this moment now.”

She breathed deeply, started to relax. But then she frowned. “What about ambition, hopes, dreams, the desire to do something with your life?” Suddenly, her voice rose again. “What happens to all of that?”

“Desire is still there, you’re just no longer attached to it. You still have likes and dislikes, preferences, but they don’t run you anymore. If a desire arises, to make love to your partner, for example, and then it doesn’t happen because he or she says no, there’s no sense of frustration or disappointment. Or if there is, momentarily, you just let it go. It falls away naturally. You’re always in the moment, and there’s always something new and interesting happening in every moment.”

“What about ambition, having a sense of mission or purpose in life?”

“Ambition is there too, it’s just no longer so personal, it no longer comes from the ego. You realize that this body/mind that you, as pure consciousness, are inhabiting, or expressing through, is here to do something. Once you find the freedom that is your true nature, what you are here to do—your personal mission, or destiny—becomes very clear. Startlingly so. Then you set about doing it. The beauty is that you’re no longer worried about success or failure. The joy truly is in the journey.”

Vernon Howard

I really like Vernon Howard. He had a talent for straight-talk.

In 1983 Michael Benner of station KLOS in Los Angeles, California said, “Vernon Howard is one of the most powerful speakers I have ever interviewed. He has an uncanny ability to cut through the fluff and puff and jolt people into seeing who they really are. At times humorous and gentle, at other times demanding and forceful, Vernon Howard holds the record for generating responses to our KLOS talk shows. Not everyone likes his message, but I can’t imagine anyone turning him off.”

Here are some quotes from him:

* You have nothing to do. You have everything to be. People are so confused about what to do with their family affairs, love life, finances, health. And no matter what they do, nothing helps very much. Of course it doesn’t. Nothing can be truly different until the individual is different, really different internally. Doing without being is a dreadful way to spend the day, as millions know. But you can be different.

* Millions love the voice which blames others for their griefs, which is why millions continue to suffer.

* A child was told by several adults to be good. Observing the behavior of the adults, he concluded that goodness consisted of envy, sarcasm, and trickery. Years later, as an adult himself, he was resentful and greatly perplexed. He wondered why a person as good as himself should attract so much unhappiness.

* Anyone can conceal anger, but the spiritual hero is one who ends its cause, which is unconscious egotism.

* A clear understanding of negative emotions dismisses them.

* A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.

* All forms of self-defeating behavior are unseen and unconscious, which is why their existence is denied.

* Beauty is only skin deep, but it’s a valuable asset if you’re poor or haven’t any sense.

* Freedom begins as we become conscious of it.

* It is a true miracle when a man finally sees himself as his only opposition.

* Learn to see things as they really are, not as we imagine they are.

* Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.

* Quit thinking that you must halt before the barrier of inner negativity. You need not. You can crash through… whatever we see a negative state, that is where we can destroy it.

* Remember above all that mental stability comes by examining the contents of the mind, not by avoidance.

* Truth is not a matter of personal viewpoint.

* You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.

Quotes from Chuang Tsu

“The birth of a man is the birth of his sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives for what is always out of reach! His thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.”

Chuang Tsu also said, “All theories are false.” This statement is about theories relating to life. It is such a clever summary of Jnana Yoga. The intellect is a mechanism that operates with fragments and parts and points of view and thus cannot see the whole. The whole cannot be found by analysing parts, except to discard them. Wholeness is found prior to the arising of the intellect, as Being, the silent consciousness that observes the functioning of the mind and its contents.

Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal.

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media.

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

….Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

….He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls “The Californian Republic,” and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

I called the cops, again.

Today I called the cops, again. This is the third time this year. The first time I was driving behind an elderly lady who was swerving all over the road. Clearly, she was drunk. I called the cops and they sent out a patrol car to investigate. My mistake was not following the car to make it easy for the police to find.

The second time I called the cops some teenagers had lit a fire at the top of my driveway and then run off when I disturbed them.

The third incident happened today. I was driving along Tamaki Drive when I saw some guy wandering on the road trying to stop cars. He looked totally stoned. I drove past, turned around, and watched him continue his dangerous behaviour. I called the police and they arrived a few minutes later and apprehended the man.

Wall Street Jokes

Did you hear the one about the stockbroker who’s been sleeping like a baby? Every hour, he wakes up and cries.

That was before he read that Somali pirates were issuing a new ransom-backed security to buy Citigroup. Moody’s rated it AAA, Henry M. Paulson Jr. deemed the pirates “fundamentally sound,” and Bernard L. Madoff will safeguard the returns.

Churches Duel Over Dog Souls

These churches are across from each other on a busy street. This is hilarious!

Lord Ram and His Wife Sita