Perfect dialogue ends in silence

I begin, continue and end my classes with dialogue on many levels. Each class is always different from a previous class. The content of the class changes because different students show up and because I'm different too. The idea of a locked in syllabus, a fixed program of studies is good because people need structure – yet, they also need to explore and make the subject their own. That's where dialogue comes in quite well. 

True dialogue brings meaning to life. It expresses profound love. We are born to sing, gesture, and talk with each other. Our group survival depends on that. To love one another and love the whole of creation is our destiny, purpose, or dharma. Opening up to “fields of new possibilities”, becoming wildly creative, like children, and joining the play of creation.

Each of us knows so little; others may help us gain a greater view. Adjust worldviews - incorporating greater information, knowledge, and wisdom.

The perfect dialogue ends in silence; a silence that feels complete in itself. A sense of unity with all-that-is pervades; along with a feeling of completeness.

Time is not real

"Time is not real - only Love is real". 
At first this seems crazy to say, 
but if we look deeply into it
the truth is apparent.

Knowing When to Quit

It's okay not to succeed. By acknowledging the value of failure we can open the door to true success. We can be kinder, more loving. Knowing when to quit is as important as knowing when to start. Dogged persistence is often encouraged, at the expense of community. It takes time and persistence to accomplish noble projects in life - such as raising a sane healthy child. Knowing when to quit is wise. Keep things from getting too complex. You may start a project and quickly realize that it's a waste of time. The best action may be to turn around and walk away.

Being Right is Not Truth

Truth is not “being right” in discussions, dialogues, and debates. Being right is merely feeling like the winner of an argument; or, “knowing” that “they” are wrong. There's that “us” verses “them” feeling. Those who play for money, power, and victory easily forget truth in their rush to win, be on top, or in control. Unfortunately – it pulls societies away from justice.  

Tablets

Isn't it funny, how the things that I think,

  feel like they're written in permanent ink.

But a lie is a lie, is a lie, is a lie,

  and the truth is unbounded like the wide open sky.

The past, it is gone and the future's unknown.

  I'll switch to a pencil and stop chiseling stone.

-Brian Sweeny

Happiness

Happiness is all around you. 
You just have to let it in. 
                --Chinese Fortune Cookie 

To the Anonymous Commenter

http://philosopher-at-large.blogspot.com/2012/08/time-goes.html

“What happens when you feel so far from the light? I read about stillness and peace here but they are just concepts to me. I want to be one with everything too. I want to be happy like you.”

I've been meditating on this all day and I have got to say that it’s incredibly difficult to respond to this. I want to say that you are always one. That you are not far from the light because you are a part of that light. Peace and stillness are always there whether we experience them consciously or not because they don’t need to be conceptualized.

These statements, I believe, are all true.

But I feel it wouldn't help. They would just become more concepts, especially when you feel like this. I know because I was here yesterday. I wanted to say to everyone, “I want to be happy like you!” Yet, unlike you, I didn't. I didn't have the courage.

I wrote a post entitled ‘Bad Day’ but decided not to publish it because I felt it was too out of place. The post was about separation; a choice to see separation and do nothing about it. I couldn't post that. No way. It wasn't peaceful, spiritual or helpful at all. But you had the courage to do something which I did not. You confronted your feelings of separation to reach out and express how you felt. 

I can't tell you how to feel peaceful or still or even happy. All I can say is that in our feeling of separation, you and I are one. You can't be far from the light, my friend, if it is your light which gives me the courage to post on a bad day.

"Bad Day"

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...

Little Boxes on the Hillside

Hey!

I have your attention.

What do you hear around you?

The whir of the laptop. Cars passing. Crickets?

What's just beyond this screen?

Look around you.

Now, Google Earth in your mind.

Go out and out and out...

There is plenty which you haven't seen 

Or didn't even know

Was there.

Listen and see.

Play with that.

And if you notice you cant hear the background noise

Or see the color of the car ahead of you

All you have to do is say...

Hey!

Now you have your attention. 

FRIENDSHIP

I have been friends with Americ for over 30 years. We have shared many adventures together, and oftentimes it seemed almost coincidence that he was there at the start of a new direction in my life.

I would like to share one such story that happened  many years ago when I first started in audio. I was sitting underneath a huge cypress tree at Lake Merritt in Oakland. It was a beautiful spring day, and I was resting my head on a laptop, my wife sitting serenely beside me, as my three young children romped in the park, running and jumping like little kids do. I had my eyes closed, when suddenly the thought of AUDIO came into my mind. It literally was a spark in the mind's eye. Yes, I said to myself, I would try audio and do voice over to see if conveying ideas through sound would help people understand this world a little better. I opened my eyes and Americ was standing over me looking down at me. I told him my idea and we shared the moment of inspiration together. I went on to do audio and voice, and  they became an integral part of my business effort in Internet Communications and Broadcasting.


If I could tell people how many times in my life that has happened with Americ, that is, being there at the exact moment of creation, they would laugh and say that such occurrences were not probable. Yes, they are improbable, but they are also possible, because they, in fact, happened to me. 


As a result, I was thinking about friendship and what it means, when I came across this short poem in my readings that I would like to share with you.

The young mendicant had been meditating deeply. Suddenly he awoke with a profound thought. He turned to the Buddha and exclaimed: 

"Lord, I've been thinking- spiritual friendship is at least half of the spiritual life!"

The Buddha replied, “This is not so, young priest. Spiritual friendship is the whole of spiritual life!" 

A Democracy of Geometry

Always falling. Earth is falling through space. Sun is falling. Galaxies are falling. No ground. Only centers. You are a center. It's all turning around you. It's also, all turning around your friends, acquaintances, and the President. How can this be? Look deeper - you will see and know. The truth is that every point can be seen as, and be, center. You are free. A democracy of geometry.