Wisdom & Enlightenment / Americ Azevedo + Josh

A soundscape for the mind, heart, and soul.

Flowers and Stones

The Whole Thing

Each of the sentences I write is trying to say the whole thing, i.e., the same thing over and over again; it is as though they were all simply views of one object seen from different angles.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
Culture and Value
Translated by Peter Winch

Always a Beginner

I began a long time ago believing in magic, but did not know real magic. I thought magic was a set of powers that could transform the world. You think of something and it happens. That would be magic. As I got older I believed that “you would think of something and nothing would happen”. To think this way was my first and most dangerous mistake. For most of my life, afterwards, I was too worried about what people thought I could do and not-do. A deadly mistake. This is the mistake that rules the world - that causes us to surrender our inner wisdom to others.

Thinking is not doing. To think that way is already lethal to aliveness. We are alive to the extent that we feel where we are, where we have been, and where we are going. That is the nature of sentient being-hood. We are all creators of ourselves and each other. None of us is along. We are all teachers and guides for each other.  

So, I say to myself and feel to myself that I am “always a beginner”. That means: I am allowed to make “mistakes” and that you are allowed to make mistakes. Beginners must make mistakes. There are no mistakes - only exploration. We must fumble around to figure to map the territory. “The sun is new each day”, as Heraclitus, the great Greek pre-socratic, may have said. So today, we are new again. Let this new day be a new you!

Go Deeper

Today, go deeper into your meditation. 

Look for the quiet zones between your thoughts. Expand these moments of quiet.

Meditation installment plan

When I first practiced meditation long ago, it was highly recommended that we practice two times daily - twenty minutes each time for a total of forty minutes a day. These days most college students find it almost impossible to carve out two twenty minute blocks without creating more stress in the rest of their lives. For these people, I recommend a "meditation installment plan". 

For example, attempt eight minute meditations, five times a day. It's an installment program! One could try eight minutes in (1) early morning, (2) late morning, (3) early afternoon, (4) sunset time, and (5) in the evening. 
Don't be dogmatic - be flexible. Find forty minutes total on a given day. Could be two, three or four somewhat longer installments.

Invite a friend in person, via text, or on the phone to meditate. A designated time keeper helps. Simply contact them, set up a time together, do the meditation, and do a follow up check-in. 

There you have it, a meditation installment program for our busy times!  

Which Will It Be?

Only one body
   but many places
         to be

Only one life
         so many
    possibilities

this or that
which will it
         be?

nothing to do

Nothing to do, no place to go
Time passing without limit
Dropping back into the ocean of Being
   here and now
“I want to say or do something profound!”
Instead, know the truth:

   It does not matter what I do now
   except to allow doing-not-doing
   to take over

Let the breaths in and out,
come and go. That is enough
Relax now
I’ve waited all my life
for this moment
Why pass it up? 

Growth God (unreleased)

Economics is deeply embedded with "more is better". Growth output is a god. Everything feels better when there is economic growth. It's easier to get work or grow a business. Everyone loves getting more money. Most find it impossible to imagine being happy in a world of declining income and resources. Sameness is not "enough", it's growth we want. More technology, more services, more energy, more wealth - forget expenses against mother earth. free time, community, and connection to earth and cosmos. 

The Growth God is not based in capitalism but in the seeds of unlimited desire within us. A spiritual distress that is epidemic to humans with their always creating more possibilities monkey mind. 

Unknowns