You Can Relax Now

Exploring songs I loved a long time ago. This one is among my favorites. ~Americ

Multiplicity Is Only Apparent

Oneness of All Things

Coffee House Mediation

Practice meditation for eleven minutes in a coffee house. Put on a timer. Focus on being present to your body, breath, and ambient sounds. Letting go of fleeting thoughts as they arise. Be here: on the spot. Sometimes it's helpful to gaze at your hands on the table holding a book. You want to look normal within a social environment - not calling attention to what you're really doing. Notice when you slip away into "elsewhere". Return. Do this practice until the eleven minutes are up. You'll find this practice carries over into your everyday life. You become more present to your life moment to moment.

Love runs the universe

Love runs the universe. That's all you need to know. One day you wake up "in love" not with someone but Life itself. You are free; it gets easier to walk the streets and situations in love with Life itself; beyond pleasure and pain, joy and grief. Presence itself becomes enough, even more than enough.

Collaborative Intelligence

The "Collaborative Intelligence Laboratory" emerged while teaching 500 students "Introduction to Computers on behalf the the School of Engineering at UC Berkeley.  Students and myself engaged in on-line dialogue using a web-based discussion system. These where the web's early days. The Internet amplified the ability of groups to dialogue, plan, and share information. A world of viewpoints beyond political and geographic boundaries suddenly opened up. Along the way, the idea of a "Collaborative Intelligence Quotient (C-IQ)" emerged. Every group has a certain C-IQ.

Eventually, I let all these ideas pass when offered a position within the Peace and Conflict Studies department; thus dropping the "C-IQ" focus to deal with something far more difficult - the study of war and peace. Still, C-IQ may be what "saves the world". We now live connected to a "net" that includes almost all the world. Time will tell.   

http://collaborative-intelligence.org/images/ciq-compass3.gif

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Explore Collaborative intelligence resources on the Web.

Chaos Within You

"You must have chaos within you,

to give birth to a star."

~ Friedrick Nietzsche

Live Today

Live today

as if it's

the only day.

Live with 

deep full

presence 

here & now

moment 

to

moment

Governor Andrew Cuomo Calls on New Yorkers to Unite in the Fight for Tolerance and Justice

Time, Money, and Love - Magic Trio

"Time, money and love" is a magic trio. Several combinations of "time, money and love" are possible:

• Time on your hands but little or no money.
• Large sums of money but no free time.
• Lots of love but not enough time and money.

Other combinations are possible. Extreme variations throw societies out of balance. Extreme differences between rich and poor are harmful to a society. People stop seeing each other as human beings and start identifying with their particular social class or status. Harm comes upon our relationships when the time, money, and love ratios are extreme. 

Older & Wiser

Invisible Man

Here Now

Live 

here now

no

other place

or 

other time

is

really real

The Paradox of Our Age

listen

just the sound

of the rain

is enough

.

.

.

Things and People

Stopping Time - Alan Watts

https://youtu.be/Bw-_DO-KUQk

Connectivity Dependency

The Internet is our collective global nervous system; thereby creating a serious dependency on connectivity.  Stores often don't sell food unless their cash registers are on the network. Alternative backup systems need to be in place and occasionally tested. 

Here & Now

Can't be anywhere else.

photo by americ azevedo 

Empty Your Cup

Returning

Rainy Day

Wings

Retrospect

Underneath

Neil Hilborn

Hits me in the heart every time. 

Getting Older Wisely

Getting older wisely certainly has to do with accepting the death of one's own body as natural. Not so easy when I was young. Older people who don't accept physical death as natural are sad sights.

8/30/16

Persistence

From early childhood we are taught the virtues of dogged persistence. But sometimes the better wisdom is to "give up". This is giving up when you start to realize that your losses are greater with completing the project at had hand than just walking away.  

There There

There's no 

there there

only

here here

~ americ

The Force

The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us. It penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.

Being Natural While Being Recorded

Pinwheel

There are times when we just don't have time to meditate and it has a negative effect on the mind due to the chaos and noise that surrounds us. Our mind becomes like a pinwheel; every thought becomes like a gust of wind spinning it faster and faster until we become overwhelmed by its constant motion. Yet, there is a simple way to connect to peace and it only takes a moment. When you are alone or in a safe place make the sound 'aum.' Aum is said to have four sounds: 

“A” emerges from the throat, originating in the region of the navel 

“U” rolls over the tongue

“M” ends on the lips. 

The last sound is silence.

It is in this silence we can rest and let the pinwheel stop for just a moment before returning to our day. Feel the vibration which surrounds you as you are able to rest in peace.

Cellophane

Pure light is right behind this cellophane wrap. I can see it. I could touch it even...only if I made the choice to finally tear it away. But it’s that choice which is the hardest. To shed everything and step towards it. Be one; truly luminous. I can see the cellophane. But I don't want to walk through. I'd rather compromise and continue to watch the pretty light...

Trust

Perhaps, our greatest asset in life is to be trusted. When young, I had a retail job where I had the responsibility of opening up the store. Remarkably, the owner entrusted me with the keys to his store. Amazing that he entrusted me with so much responsibility for all his goods. I responded by making sure that I did everything right. Holding on to those keys, making sure that no unknown customer would take them and use them. To be entrusted with the store keys made me more trustworthy. 

------

Take a look at this collection of images on the "trust". Much can be learned. Enjoy. Here's an example:

Time and Eternity

Original image: http://cdn.quotationof.com/images/eternity-quotes-8.jpg

Let's open our minds 
to fields of all possibilities,
and look for truth.

Edge.org

I strongly recommend paying a visit to an exciting intellectual movement and website: Edge.org 
Here's the short description top of their website:

To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, 

seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, 

put them in a room together, 

and have them ask each other 

the questions they are asking themselves.

Uncertainty

Economist August 1st Cover

http://www.economist.com/printedition/covers/2016-07-28/e-eu-la-me-na-uk

Buckminster Fuller on "Making a Living"

"We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living." 

                                                                                    Buckminster Fuller

Road to Nowhere - A Lakota Teaching

1972, the following are the words of Lakota prophet John Fire Lame Deer published in the book Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions.

"Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist. They don't use their brains, and they have forgotten the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, or their dreams. They don't use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they are not even aware of this, and so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere -- a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make smooth so that they can get faster to the big empty hole which they'll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up. It's a quick, comfortable superhighway, but I know where it leads to. I've seen it. I've been there in my vision, and it makes me shudder to think about it."

(Quote contributed by Marianne Henry.)

Understanding the Possibility

More than this, I cannot say today! :)

from Ram Dass

Wisdom & Healing

Sense of Wonder

There's a sense of wonder within us. When we're children the world is full of wonder – everything looks new – permeated with deep feelings of wonder and awe. The sense of pure existence is all pervasive and natural; but, we age and get focused on “things” forgetting being. Our work is to recover that. 

Here We Are

From Baba Ram Dass's now classic book: BE HERE NOW.

Today is Wednesday

Politics

My To-do List

Closeness of God

The word "God" is loaded with all kinds of meanings. We can speak of God in many ways - and all of them would be right and also wrong from one perspective or another. To me, God is a word for Ultimate Reality - a cosmic sense of Presence within and all around. On a small 3x5 card a few months ago, I wrote the following: 

God gets

as close

as we

allow Him

It's that simple. And, that difficult! I urge people to surrender to the mystical and the unknown. We can't ever get to the "bottom" of reality. It's awesome, is it not? 

My religion is love

My grandson asked, "Grandpa, what is your religion?" Thinking deeply, deciding to be honest, I said, "My religion is love.”

My grandson asked, "Grandpa, what is your religion?" Thinking deeply, deciding to be honest, I said, "My religion is love; which is what great religions teach -- love." Then he said, "So which one is your religion?". Out of my mouth (and heart) came, "All of them, if they are about love." I also wanted to say that the great sages are humbled by the encounter with the mystery, the truth of that which cannot be spoken, of that union with the spirit known directly, while indescribable. That was too much to say; it says nothing anyway! Grandson wanted me to pick one religion, just like buying a car or computer; but, that’s not my way. For thirty years, I studied, digested, and internalized many religions; finding all leading to the same place inside myself. That is my particular spiritual non-religious perspective on religion. Spirituality is very inner, very personal -- but as we share our spiritual lives we build common languages with terms, texts, rituals, and symbols which become religions. Religions naturally happen everywhere; they are spiritual support groups.

The seeds of great religions are the cosmic-divine insights of great souls in all places and circumstances. These insights are life changing. Someone asks, "Master, what did you learn? How did you become like this?" Teachings are passed by words and deeds which are recorded in many ways. Spiritual insights become religions over time.

[bdhg]

Being Real

Time to write something off the top of my head in this Philosopher-at-Large Blog. Good to be "more real". So much of what we "express" is highly edited. There's a place for the spontaneous. Be more here-now, not so "self correcting". No longer in school with teachers grading us.  It's more vitalizing. Being real to our true self.

P.S. Okay, I did edit. Just a little. 

Next Evolution

no wonder

I Am feeling Love for the first time in my life

i feel i can barely handle it

I think no wonder i was addicted to depression

no wonder i was obsessed with the suffering

my heart

it aches

it longed for this

the mind was confused

self alignment

HERE IT IS

here it always has been

only i have awoken to it

I am awake

my heart

it breaks.

Call to Earth - A Message from the World's Astronauts to COP21

For a better view, go to HERE.

Crust in Peace

"A crust eaten in peace is

better than a banquet partaken

in anxiety."

~ Acsop

Found at Cheese Board Pizzeria, Berkeley, California.

Time, Money, Love, and Good Society - Dialogue Proposal

Eternity Eternity Eternity

                                                                           ~ Sikha

Moment of Creation

Sit quietly in a chair. Imagine the Big Bang at the moment of our universe's creation, based on current cosmological understanding. You are sitting, now, in the space-time continuum. What could that be? Never mind. Our theories continue to change as we learn more. It's a poetic journey into true reality. Right now, you are taping into a fragment of the total energy of creation. Every time you develop a new idea, such as writing a poem, or planning activities for today; you are creating. Remember who we really are! 

Psychological shortfalls stop us from seeing deep enough to feel the glory and power of Being. Individual ego must die, but the real Self (Atman) is eternal, never born. How do I know this? By a lifetime of exploring the inner self and following intuition; it began when I was young and in grade school. The suffering of my first school years: not knowing English, kids making fun at me, the emotional distress and uncertainty of immigrant parents - all factors forcing me inward to protect my sanity. Somewhere deep within I saw the Truth of Life. I held my space and place firmly and softly: without violence. Later in life, while reading about Gandhi it became clear that "truth force" (satyagraha) is a power seeking to to actualize. Afterwards, I learned to actualize one dream after another.

Live fully this present moment. That is living at 100%.

Eternal Life

A look at the real meaning of "eternal life".

Roadblocks

Sometimes nothing works. Stuck in roadblocks and fields of mud. What to do? Sometimes doing nothing is better. Develop patience and true power grows. So wait and wait. True freedom naturally unfolds. 

Aloneness & Oneness

Enter fully into

your aloneness

for a moment,

then you experience

the oneness of all things.

~ Adyashanti ~

Tree of Life

Found this image and quote while scanning the Internet for 

  "tree of life". Attributed to Albert Einstein. Feels true. 

Image within www.treeoflifeintuitive.com/

Resting

Resting in a place most high,
a man or woman may last a thousand years.
Mysterious yet simple.
Breathe, let go.
Allow moments of free falling where we are.
Those moments feed our days with rest.

The Real Work

Walking around, found a 

poem by Wendell Berry 

on a neighborhood bulletin board 

near the sidewalk. 

You see what you focus on

I keep getting this recurring theme showing up in random places. (Reminds me of how people say when they first meet me, they start seeing '11' everywhere.) 

It is a reminder: Whatever YOU are looking for, YOU will find. If you look for misery and suffering, you will find it in abundance. If you focus on beauty and love, you will see it, your heart will finally be still with JOY.

What I am being pointed to now, over and over again (which I've been ignoring for years out of a combination of my own ignorance and stubbornness) is that thinking the same behavior I have been exhibiting will get me a different result. This is just a bad waste of good energy. (Similar to the famous Einstein quote defining insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.)

If you are suffering, you are a victim of something. We are here to figure out what our story is, then write it ourselves, making the discovery that we have been the author of our stories all along. Whatever was done to us (WHICH MAY HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE, UNFORGIVABLE, PAINFUL BEYOND MEASURE) is over, and if it's not over, most likely YOU are the only one who is perpetuating the suffering. That is it my dear friend. (I speak in regards to the physical and the emotional, because ALL ONE.)

A promise I have made to MYSELF, is to never sink so low again. The underworlds exist, they are dark, you can explore them all you wish (probably not in a safe manner.) Most humans do not allow themselves to feel such extremes, we are fearful. I didn't want to be afraid of the darkness, so I explored it, I sat with it, I worked with it.... but you must know when the time is done. You must realize your own STORY, then put an end to the story of the people or thing(s) that perpetuated your suffering. Past tense.

And in order to fully LET GO, you must realize that there is an end, there CAN be an end to this perspective that you have grown so comfortable in... do you even know you are covered in SHIT?! You must see the end to the darkness you are creating, the all-encompassing SPACE that seems so dark, but once you let go and you are lighter, you can rise to the stars! You SEE the little lights surrounding you in the darkness. Friends who have wanted to love you for years, LOVE that you were not able to ACCEPT let alone even feel even an inch of until NOW.

Start to feel yourSELF. In your BODY. Feeling LOVE, feeling LIGHT. Is it painful? Are you in IT? Are you feeling? Be grateful to be ALIVE. Does it hurt you? The love will hurt at first, the LIGHT will hurt after living in the darkness for many years, or perhaps your whole life. Like Plato's Cave, the Light may blind you... but keep letting go, keep getting LIGHTER, LIGHTER and you will become one. 

REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

Today

A semi-poetic spoken teaching on the nature of "today".

Check List

I forgot who i was. I dont know how to find myself again. Dont get depressed. Keep going. Learn how to live. Dont stop. Hold onto something. Jump into the tide. Read. Meditate. Learn. You cant go on being someone else. You really cant. Stop pretending and move on. Let them move on too. Let it be. Let them be. Time to be. Be on time. Learn both. Begin again.