The past 2 months have both raced and dragged on, simultaneoulsy. How this is so, well, it's rather hard to explain. I suppose you either get it or you don't. Much of this post may give a hint toward the possibilities of reason for this statement, though I cannot think of other words to describe the concept of 'time' during the past 60-odd days since departing from Thailand.
We've been surfing almost everyday in places such as in the Banyaks, a world-class wave called Treasure Island off the uninhabited island of Bangkaru, 3 different reef breaks (well, they've all been reef breaks so far) off the southern end of Tuangku in the "Bay of Plenty," and now we're in the Telos, a group of astonishingly ideal islands south of Nias. All these places, for those of you unfamiliar with this part of the world, reside off the northern half of the biggest island in Indonesia, called Sumatra. These waves are unlike any I've ever surfed before, as far as their size, speed, clarity, consistency, bottom composition, atmosphere, location, etc. It took me a minute to soak it all in, but Sumatra is definitely a dream holiday destination for surfers, which is why I've been exposed to so many Australians lately who've consciously dedicated a chunk of their savings to a week-or-so long surf trip on a charter boat or at one of the local surf camps in the area.
Some of these islands come fully equipped with fresh groundwater streams, breath-taking reefs hosting a full spectrum of in-your-face color, more coconut palms than one would know what to do with, white sandy beaches, washed-up shells bigger than your head, dazzling with color and fully intact, and some even come with super-friendly, milk-chocolate skinned locals who are fans of showing off their pearly whites, in return for the sight of your own. They're very helpful, communal beings, mostly Muslim (although many who speak okay-English are Christian), and lovers of life. How could one not be, in such an environment as this? I can only begin to explain the pureness of joy and happiness that pours like wildfire amongst these people, and for one reason in particular. They don't drink. Alcohol is forbidden in the Muslim religion, and without that as a factor, many of you may think life would be horrific, but there's actually a wholesomely refreshing, shameless kind of fun that can be created in its absence, believe it or not. Bahasa Indonesia (the language spoken in these parts) is simple enough, and I must say I'm catching on pretty quickly. It happens to be much easier than Thai, especially since the letters are our usual Latin-symbols, unlike many Asian languages, so that helps. None of this 46 consonants, 12 vowel sounds, and 5 significantly different tones-stuff to learn as in Thai! We've gotten to know several of the surf charter boats and crew in these islands, along with the owners of several other private yachts. It's amazing how small the world is, no matter where you are or where you're from. :)
Another thing that really gets me is how "intimidating" and "scary" many people make ex-patronizing out to be, like it's some crazy idea that only loons and hippies and explorers in history books do or have done, like life is so different "on the other side" or that making that giant committment to step off the known territory of the nation with which they've become so familiar, would break barriers and shake down everything they've ever know. In a way, I guess, this is true. But in defense of such an action, I must say it's no different.
Life is.
No matter where you are.
The only borderline scary thing about it all may be just how much you learn. It's truly amazing the person you realize you can become in a real environment where you can relax, let go of all the BS that you've somehow managed to get wound up in (which mostly ends up being little vices and kinks you weren't even aware you had in the first place). And I don't mean you can only be this person on a laid back island on the other side of the world, although it does make a decent place to start. heh. You begin to see things more clearly, even if you didn't before think things were actually pretty foggy.
I have taken these past few weeks to ponder some things that have been lingering under my skin and desperately seeking to surface, and finally, I've been able to get them down, along with some other thoughts I've come across. Mostly I've written them down to help myself sort them out, so to speak; however, I reckon they're worth a look, and if they intrigue or inspire you in any way, I'd severely enjoy hashing them out with you! Nick's not much of a philosopher, so most of my ideas and thoughts get shuffled and crammed around inside this cyclone of a head of mine and don't get much feedback or counter-thought. Anywho, cheers to all who are reading, aaaaand I love you. haha...no really. :)
-The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.
-Knowing is a divine state, yet the grandest joy is in being. The evolution is this: knowing, experiencing, being, for you cannot be that which you have not experienced.
-Physicality, or via the senses, is the only way to know experientially what you know conceptually.
-You cannot experience yourself as what you are until you've encountered what you are not (which is one reason why kids are so curious, experimental, and, oftentimes, seemingly rebellious and mischevious). It's 100% in our nature.
-It is by that which you are not that you yourself are defined.
-The truth about you shall ultimately prevail.
-Is it fear that you need in order to be, do, and have what is intrinsically right? Must you be threatened in order to "be good"? And what IS "being good"? Who sets the guidelines, anyway? Who makes the rules?
You are your own rule-maker. YOU set the guidelines. And you decide how well you have done; how well you are doing. For you are the one who has decided Who and What You Really Are--and Who You Want to Be. And you are the only one who can assess how well you're doing. No one else will judge you ever, for why, and how could even God judge God's own creation and call it bad?
-The entire medical profession is trained to keep people alive, rather than keeping people comfortable so that they can die with dignity. To a doctor or nurse, death is failure. To a friend or relative, death is disaster. Only to the soul is death a relief--a release.
-There is no such thing as an incorrect path, for on this journey you cannot "not get" to where you are going. It is a matter of not where, but when you will get there--yet even that is an illusion, for there is no "when," neither is there a "before" or "after." There is only now; an eternal moment of always in which you are experiencing yourself. A stop on one person's path may not be a stop on another's, so follow no one but the direction of your soul.
-The point of life is not to get anywhere--it is to notice that you are, and have always been, already there. You are, always and forever, in the moment of pure creation. The point of life is therefore to create--who and what you are, and then to experience that.
-Events are occurrences in time and space which you produce out of choice--some produced wilfully, and some events you draw to you--more or less unconsciously. Some events, such as natural disasters, are produced by a "collective consciousness", say from thoughts all over the planet. These can be changed by putting these thoughts into action. If enough people everywhere believe something must be done to help the environment, we will save the Earth. However, there has already been so mcuh damage done, that this will require a major attitudinal shift.
-It's all about perspective and outlook. Suffering is not only unnecessary, but also hazardous to your health. It has nothing to do with events, but with one's reaction to them. It is a re-action. What's happening is merely what's happening. How you FEEL about it is another matter. Worry is pointless. It is a wasted mental energy. Hatred is the most severely damaging mental condition. It poisons the body, and its effects are virtually irreversible.
-All illness is first created in the mind.
-You cannot experience your Self as creator unless and until you create; and you cannot create yourself until you uncreate yourself.
-The soul has come to the body, and the body to life, for the purpose of evolution. You are evolving, you are becoming. And you are using your relationhip with EVERYTHING to decide what you are becoming.
-Relationships fail when you see them as life's grandest opportunity to create and produce the experience of your highest conceptualization of another. Let each person in a relationship worry not about the other, but only, only, only about the Self. Your focus upon the other, your obsession with the other, is what causes the relationship to fail. It only matters what you are being in RELATIONSHIP to what the other is being, doing, having, saying, wanting, demanding, etc. Often times, two people literally lose themselves in a relationship. They get into the relationship hoping to find themselves, and they lose themselves instead. This losing of the Self in a relationship is what causes most of the bitterness in such couplings. Two people join together in a partnership hoping that the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts, only to find that it is less. They feel less than when they were single. Less capable, less able, less exciting, less attractive, less joyful, less content. This is because they ARE less. They've given up most of who they are in order to be, and to stay, in their relationship. Relationships were never meant to be this way. Yet this is how they are experienced by more people than you could ever know. Bring forth to the table a solid self, and the companionship of yet another solid self will then create a beautiful duo.
-If you cannot love yourself, you cannot love another. Many people make the mistake of seeking love of Self THROUGH love for another. Of course, this is not a conscious effort. They think: "If I can just love others, they will love me. Then I will be lovable, and I can love me." The reverse of this is that so many people hate themselves because they feel there is not another who loves them. This is a sickness--it's when people are truly "lovesick" because the truth is, other people do love them, but it doesn't matter. No matter how many people profess their love for them, it is not enough.
-You are not fear, you are love. Love that needs no protection, love that cannot be lost. Yet you will never know this in your experience if you continually answer the question "what choice in this situation is the most profitable?" or "How can I lose the least?," rather than "What is the highest choice?" There is nothing to gain or lose. Only those who see life in a different way ask the latter; those who see Self as a higher being; who understands that winning or losing is not the test, but only loving or failing to love. Ask yourself "what would love do?" Think not "I am my body," but "I am my soul".
-And when the absolute highest choice is made, the mystery dissolves itself, the circle completes itself, and the highest good for you becomes the highest good for another. What you do for your Self, you do for another. What you do for another, you do for the Self.
This is because you and the other are one.
And this is because there is naught but You.
-Be now and forever centered on your Self. Look to see what you are being, doing, and having in any given moment, not what's going on with another.
-The most loving person is the person who is Self-centered.
-Cultivate the technique of seeing all problems as opportunities. Opportunities to be, and decide, Who You Really Are.
-There is no "wrong" or "right". "Wrong" is a relative term, indicating the opposite of what you call "right". There's nothing "wrong" with anything. Yet what is "right"? Can you be truly objective in these matters? Or are "right" and "wrong" simply descriptions overlaid on events and circumstances by you, out of your decision about them? And what for the basis of your decision? Your own experience? No. In most cases, you've chosen to accept someone else's decision!
"Someone else decide! I'll go along, I'll go along!" You say. "Someone else just tell me what's right and wrong!"
This is why, by the way, human religions are so popular. It almost doesn't matter what the belief system is, as long as it's firm, consistent, clear in its expectation of the follower, and rigid. Given those characteristics, you can find people who believe in almost anything. The strangest behavior and belief can be--has been--attributed to God. "It's God's way", they say. "God's word". And there are those who will accept that, gladly. Because, you see, it eliminates the need to think.
-Then, when others have told you how you should feel, and it runs directly counter to how you do feel, you experience a deep inner conflict. Something deep inside you tells you that what others have told you is not Who You Are. So you go to your religionists, the people who put you there in the first place. You go to your priests and your rabbis and your ministers and your teachers, and they tell you to stop listening to your Self. The worst of them will try to scare you away from it; scare you away from what you intuitively know. They tell you about the devil, about Satan, about demons and evil spirits and hell and damnation and every frightening thing they can think of to get you to see how what you were intuitively knowing and feeling was wrong, and how the only place you'll find any comfort is in their thought, their idea, their theology, their definitions of right and wrong, and their concept of Who You Are. The seduction here is that all you have to do to get instant approval is to agree. It's an easy way out, a quick fix.
-A choice, a decision, coming from no previous personal knowledge, is called pure creation. Most people are not interested in making such decisions. They'd rather leave the important stuff to others. And so, in turn, most people are not self-created, but creatures of habit: other-created creatures.
-If you want to change a habit, a root thought, you have to act before you think, as opposed to the other way around. New thought is your only chance. It's your only real opportunity to evolve, to grow, to truly become Who You Really Are.
-If you want guarantees in life, then you don't want life. You want rehearsals for a script that's already been written. Life by its nature cannot have guarantees, or its whole purpose is thwarted.
-Opportunity, not obligation, is the cornerstone of religion, the basis of all spirituality.
-We have repressed sex, even as we have repressed life, rather than fully Self expressing, with abandon and joy. We have shamed sex, even as we have shamed life, calling it evil and wicked, rather than the highest gift and the greatest pleasure. The moral codes, religious constrictions, social taboos, and emotional conventions we have placed around sex (and, by the way, around love--and all of life) have made it virtually impossible for us to celebrate our being.
-You are going to be doing what you're doing for the rest of you life, just as you've been doing since birth. The only question is whether you'll be doing it consciously, or unconsciously, as the cause of my experience or the effect of it.
-Your life has no purpose, save the one you give it.
-Who do you think you are, anyway?
-Embarrassment is the response of a person who still has an ego investment in how others see him. Invite yourself to move past that. Try a new response. Try laughter.
-There's nothing to do but to be. "Be what?", you ask. Whatever you want to be. Happy. Sad. Weak. Strong. Joyful. Vengeful. Insightful. Blind. Good. Bad. Male. Female. You name it. Literally.
-Choose to make a life, not make a living. How can you think of wasting a moment doing something for a living you don't like to do? What kind of living is that? That's not a living, that is a dying!
-In the true order of things, one does not do something in order to be happy--one is happy and, hence, does something. The soul's decision precedes the body's action in a highly conscious person. So, just be, and everything else will follow.
-God is the energy you call imagination.
-You cannot be what you do not know your Self to be. That is why you have been given this life--so that you might know yourself in your own experience. Then you can conceive of yourself as Who You Really Are, and create yourself as that in your experience--and the circle is again complete, only bigger. :) And so, you are in the process of growing--or becoming. There is no limit to what you can become.
-You can change form all you wish, but you cannot fail to be. Yet, you can fail to know Who You Are--and in this failing, experience only the half of it.
That would be hell. And there is no hell. What would be the purpose of it?
-Desires change as even larger realities are glimpsed.
-Each to his own, without judgment.
-Be the cause of your experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment