In The Driver's Seat

Awakening to Deep Time gave us a vast perspective of the evolutionary process and of our place at the leading edge of this unfolding;

The Pull of the Possible reveals how that vibrant energy - Eros, which created and is still creating the universe and which impels us toward the future - is the very core of our being;

This Andrew Cohen Quote of the Week, In The Driver's Seat, suggests how we can fully engage in that process:

The central tenet of Evolutionary Enlightenment is that a more enlightened future for our world depends on one thing and one thing alone - our very own higher development. The world around us changes for the better as much as we're willing to change ourselves. If both you and I are committed to our own personal and spiritual evolution, and the relationship between us is based upon that commitment first and foremost, then the world can't help but become a better place because we are here.

How much do we really care about how unthinkably positive this life we're living right now could become? Now we have a real chance to find out. Right from the very outset, this teaching puts us in the most important place: in the driver's seat of our lives and our destiny.

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The Pull of the Possible

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." - Albert Einstein

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We hear a lot these days about learning to be in the present moment, and that is very good advice. But, like Andrew Cohen, I am more powerfully attracted to the moment right after that - to what's next? what's possible? where can we go from here? how far?

In this EnlightenNext Blog post, Cohen envisions "... a worldspace that is humming and thriving with the unique vibrancy that is the authentic expression of what I call the Evolutionary Impulse. I'm referring to Eros, that powerful vertical thrust in the cosmos, which created and is still creating the entire universe, including you and me.

When we awaken to the primordial movement of this impulse at the core of our being, we become aware of a part of ourselves that is untouched by anything and everything that has ever occurred within the sphere of our personal and psychological experience. This part of ourselves is always ecstatically and urgently compelled towards the as-yet-unmanifest future and is ever-focused on that alone ... Because of what is becoming visible on the horizon of our inner vision, we are captivated by the immediacy of the potential within our reach. And that in and of itself is quite marvelous, wonderful and spiritually enlivening indeed."
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A comment from Gayle: "What if... 'the possible' is pulling us forward into our next evolution and there is nothing we can do or not do to hasten or stop it? What if it only appears that we are creating the future at the leading edge but in actuality each of us is perfectly positioned, uniquely designed for this moment in apparent time ... and we are That which designs it all. What an amazing game that would be! It seems the moment I fall into the grace of presence, it all unfolds perfectly. Hmmm...."

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and whether or not it is clear to you
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should
- Desiderata
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Awakening to Deep Time

"When we become aware of the vastness of the entire evolutionary process - from the Big Bang to the present moment - that is called Awakening to Deep Time."

"It means having the capacity to assume a perspective that is nothing less than cosmic and being able to see whatever's happening to us personally from its lofty vantage point. It is also the profound recognition that our very own present-day highly evolved capacity for consciousness, cognition, introspection, compassion, empathy and even spiritual insight has all been produced by this deep-time developmental process."

In this EnlightenNext Editors' Blog, Andrew Cohen reveals how this changes everything.

"It means that our personal experience is not half as personal as it seems to be. It also means something that is so startling it is hard to let in. It means that human beings, because of our highly developed brains, are the very leading edge of the entire panoramic unfolding. And as far as we know, we are the only life-form in this vast process that has gained the capacity for self-reflective awareness. The personal implications inherent in this truth are enormous. When we ask the question, "Who am I?" from the perspective of cosmic evolution, the answer comes back:

"I am the universe becoming aware of itself in human form."

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Outrageously Sincere and Wildly Psychedelically Hued Furry, Feathered and Otherly Surfaced Animated Beings Joyously Performing High Opera

to entertain and uplift us...



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Beauty, Decency and Loss

Krista Tippett (Speaking of Faith) and Kate Braestrup talk about love, death, God and miracles...

Kate Braestrup is a Maine writer and a Unitarian Universalist chaplain to game wardens on search-and-rescue missions. She is called in when children disappear in the woods, when snowmobilers disappear under the ice. Kate Braestrup likes to say that she is "religious but not spiritual" -- she is, she says, a doer, and her sense of God emerges from what happens between and among people. We hear about the wisdom she draws from the world of law enforcement in the wild. There, as she puts it, "the rubber meets the road" theologically.

From the human dramas in which she becomes implicated, Braestrup gleans and shares insight into the raw processes of human grief and healing -- the fact that waiting for news of a missing person is aching physical labor; the way in which the officer who has just discovered a young woman's body in the woods becomes acutely aware of the feel of ordinary ground under the soles of his boots; the simple, stunning, recurring experience that human beings are equipped, preparing unconsciously in all we do, to deal with unimaginable loss. These losses are final, and yet they have a power to draw beauty and decency into relief, to be tended and redeemed on some level, by the practical care -- the human concern -- that arises to meet them.

Among her many bracing reformulations of basic truth, Kate Braestrup notes that we only use the word miracle when improbable events go our way. But she inhabits a world where improbable things go wrong, go badly, all the time -- and so do the rest of us. Her Unitarian Universalist sensibility is reflected in her sense that Christianity has spent too much time focusing on death as a problem to be solved. This is our culture's instinct, certainly; and yet as it turns, notions like solution and resolution are meaningless at the hinges of our lives.

Of the deepest lessons she draws from her work in the wilds of Maine, Kate Braestrup writes this: "Sometimes the miracle is a life restored, but the restoration is always temporary. At other times, perhaps most of the time, a miracle can only be the resurrection of love beside the unchanged fact of death."

To listen to the audio version of this broadcast (52 minutes), click on the play button below. To read the discussion as a transcript, go to the Speaking of Faith website, and under Program Details click on Transcript.

Kate Braestrup: "If nothing else, and that's a big if, but if nothing else, God is that force that drives us to really see each other and to really behold each other and respond to each other. And for me that is actually enough."
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Two Ways of Seeing

For your enjoyment...



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The Freak Factor

Ever wonder what might have happened if Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had gone to Hollywood and gotten a nose job? If so, you're not alone.

This manifesto by David Rendall on the ChangeThis site suggests that success and happiness lie not in overcoming our weaknesses, but in discovering that our apparent flaws are clues to our true strengths.

Do you want to make history or at least make a difference? Unlike Rudolph, we don't have to just wait for the right situation to come along - we can seek it out or even create it.

Rendall cites three examples from his own life:
1. There is nothing wrong with you. Weaknesses are important clues to your strengths.
2. You find success when you find the right fit. You need to match your unique characteristics to situations that reward those qualities.
3. Your weaknesses make you different. They make you a freak, and it's good to be a freak.

In the final segment, "Putting Your Quirks To Work", he offers gems of wisdom - my favorite is:
~Engage in permanent procrastination
~~ instead of procrastinating activities you don't like, just stop doing them altogether.

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The secret to success is to find out what it is you don't do well and don't do it.
- Author Unknown
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Unicorns and Virgins

See if this sounds familiar...

Whew, it took a lot of effort, but I finally have it all - a beautiful home, the perfect job, a nice car, the two most remarkable cats ever (apologies to other cat lovers - I'm sure your kitties are quite adequate, but...), high-speed Internet, enough money to not worry about it, etc., etc. Friends tell me I'm living the dream. So how come I'm not happy? I'm supposed to be happy. Maybe there's no such thing as happiness after all...

From The Paradox of Happiness by John Tarrant
in the Shambhala Sun, January 2004

The unicorn of happiness is not elusive because it is an illusion - it is real. It just inhabits a different dimension from getting and losing and good and evil and pleasure and loss, which are the places we usually look for it.

The legend of the unicorn says that it is attracted to virgins; indeed, virgins are its only known weakness. Before you despair, it might be interesting to take this bit about virgins as an image of what goes on in the mind. The virginal mind is innocent in the positive sense. The innocent mind is not thinking about itself and what it can get. It isn't thinking, "How do I look as unicorn bait?" "No unicorn could ever be interested in me." "I'll be famous if I catch a unicorn." "How do I construct the best unicorn-catching machine?"

Instead, the innocent mind is just hanging out, living its life. It attracts the unicorn because it is like the unicorn, who is also just hanging out, living its life.

further on,

The Chinese unicorn is sighted even more rarely than the European one. It is said to have appeared at the time of Confucius' birth and to have a taste for wisdom. One sage had the interesting thought that if a unicorn is so seldom seen, you might not know for certain what it looks like. It might be capable of changing shape. In fact, you might meet one and not realize it. How can you be sure a unicorn is not present on a given occasion? You might be sitting with the unicorn of happiness at this very moment and not know it. Perhaps when you are unhappy, you are just not paying attention.

he concludes,

When you get the hang of being more interested in life than in agreeing with your thoughts, then you will get the life you get. And you will be able to have as much happiness as you want with almost no effort whatsoever. When you stop believing your thoughts, you look around just for you, just because it is interesting to look around. Some people call that enlightenment. But you won't call it that. You'll be too interested in the new view.

And you'll notice that wherever you look, there will be nothing but those damned unicorns.

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John Tarrant is the author of The Light Inside The Dark: Zen, Soul and the Spiritual Life (Harper Collins) and director of Pacific Zen Institute which conducts retreats devoted to koans, inquiry and the arts.
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Is That Me Bleeding?

We see so much suffering and injustice in the world, and it is our natural desire as humans to want to relieve this suffering. But what in the world can we do? How can we not be overwhelmed, how do we not retreat into helplessness and despair?

In this dialogue between Andrew Cohen and Roshi Bernie Glassman, we begin to see that in wanting to "solve" the world's problems we may be starting at the wrong end of the stick.

"When we live in a state of knowing, rather than unknowing, we're living in a fixed state of being where our notions of what should happen block us from seeing what actually does happen. We get upset because our expectations aren't met. The truth is, no matter what we think, we are never in control and things will happen as they happen. But in a state of unknowing we actually live without attachment to preconceived ideas. There is no expectation of gain, no expectation of loss."
- Bernie Glassman, in Bearing Witness.

True compassion reveals itself through our willingness to be with the rawness and discomfort of not knowing, again and again; our willingness to step through our fears and hesitations into that groundless place where we no longer pretend we have any answers. It is only from this state of open mind and broken heart - the place of our shared humanity - that we can truly see each other.

Then it's simple.

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The Led Zeppelin Guide to Creative World Domination

Do you have a great big "excuse me" written across your face?

There has never been a bigger, badder or better rock band than Led Zeppelin. And there never will be.

Now we’ve got that straight, let’s take a look at how they did it – and what you can learn from their example.

This post from Mark McGuinness of LateralAction is a real treat for Zeppelin fans as well as darn good advice for anyone. Mark's "takeaways" at the end of each section nail the point home, keeping it real about how we can show the world who we are and what we've got.

"Takeaway: Whatever you do, somebody somewhere will have a go at you. Personally, I'd rather be criticized for being over-ambitious than over-cautious. How about you?"

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and it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune
then the piper will lead us to reason
and a new day will dawn for those who stand long
and the forest will echo with laughter
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Does Sex Matter?

Yin and yang. Active and passive. Driving and yielding. Assertive and receptive. Thinking and feeling. Eros and Agape. Rational and emotional. Hard and soft. Pointed and embracing. Strong and…

Well, you probably see where this is going. What exactly do we mean by masculine and feminine? Where does this leave us in relation to relations, sexual and/or otherwise?

The first thing I notice upon meeting another person is not whether they are short or tall, fat or thin, young or old - but whether they are male or female, and it makes a difference, consciously or unconsciously. Part of this is obviously a primitive survival response - is this person a potential mate or a potential threat? - a lot is related to personal history and karma.

But there are more subtle energies involved...

This article from the EnlightenNext Editors' Blog takes a look at another backlash of the feminist movement - how pushing men to be more "feminine" often fosters separation rather than the unity we (both sexes?) so yearn for.

"Our solution, for the time being, is to ask all integralists to put the words “masculine” and “feminine” on furlough for a year. Let’s see what happens when we stop using those words in business or in relation to personal growth or change. My hunch is that we’ll all be more effective at bringing about the changes that we want to see."

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Trippin' Down Abbey Road

Released almost 40 years ago, the Beatles' Abbey Road still does not disappoint. On the contrary, like most Beatles' music/poetry, their artistry reveals subtle textures and nuances which reverberate through time and space. While each song is a masterpiece individually, the album expresses itself most eloquently as a sumptuous feast offering many distinct but complementary flavors, one path with surprising twists and turns.

Opening with Lennon & McCartney's Come Together (one thing I can tell you is you've got to be free), softened and mellowed by Something (in the way she moves...) we are led on a playful romp through Maxwell's Silver Hammer (naughty boy), Oh! Darling (pure schmaltz) and Octopus's Garden (happy and safe). The mood palpably shifts with I Want You / She's So Heavy - an intimation of a deeper dimension to come - this segment takes us beyond our comfort zone into impatience and expectation; finally with Here Comes The Sun we can relax and let go (it's all right...); a wormhole opens with Because:

because the world is round it turns me on
because the wind is high it blows my mind
because the sky is blue it makes me cry

Then it starts to get really interesting...

Weaving sensuously through You Never Give Me Your Money (oh that magic feeling, nowhere to go) and (here comes the) Sun King (quando paramucho mi amore...), awareness like a guitar string vibrates in perfect harmony with ~~

Abruptly Mean Mr. Mustard (such a dirty old man) shatters that reverie - the energy shifts, expanding through a completely seamless transition as Polythene Pam rockets us higher and higher, reaching the album's exquisite crescendo, its perfect wave - cascading into She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (didn't anybody tell her...), riding the awesome power of that wave all the way to the shore...

Golden Slumbers is a gentle denouement, a tender lullabye (once there was a way to get back home), and that mood continues into Carry That Weight, but surprise! - another flawless segue into an incredible guitar/drum piece (oh yeah! all right!) and we peak again, with a joyous freefall to The End:

and in the end the love you take
is equal to the love you make

Her Majesty arrives after a silence that seems a bit too long, incongruous but somehow perfect - it pops the bubble and we're back.

What a trip.
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Not One, Not Two

Symbols can take us to a place we can't get to with words. Like art, poetry or music they cut through the thinking mind to reveal our source, our place of clarity - "the moment we never leave even though our mind strays quite far".

Preparing to lead a group deeper into that place of clarity - of wisdom - to find the raw beating heart which is at once our own and that of the entire cosmos, this symbol came to mind:

This is the Chinese symbol Yin/Yang, which is generally taken to represent feminine (yin) and masculine (yang) energies at play in the world. These energies manifest in different ways, not limited to our usual notions of male and female. There are many ways to express this interplay and interbalance of apparent opposites - space and energy, passive and active, water and fire, receptive and creative, dark and light, intuitive and rational, matter and spirit, wisdom and compassion.

Accepting the limitations of language to express these energies, words can sometimes point to the essence, like a finger pointing at the moon, with the caution, "do not mistake the finger for the moon". Another disclaimer - this is my own experience of how the power of this symbol resonates for me - it is in no way a scholarly treatise on the meaning of Yin/Yang.

The first thing noticed is that the symbol is a circle - a geometric shape often used to denote the sacred - "we all stand at the centre of a sacred circle". There is a very distinct black area (yin) and an equally distinct but opposite white area (yang). But these two are not sharply divided by a straight line down the middle, like a solid wall - they flow and dance together - the feeling is more of each holding and embracing the other within that one sacred space.

Significant also is the black dot within the white space, the white dot within the black space. Using wisdom (black/yin) and compassion (white/yang) as our reference points, we can see that the seed of compassion is contained within wisdom, at the same time the seed of wisdom is contained within compassion.

In this image the Yin and Yang are in perfect balance, complete harmony. This is our natural state, our source, our resting place - the place we never really leave, never lose. From that place of balance and harmony we venture out into the world knowing that that inseparable space and energy are always within us, and we can call upon these energies whenever, wherever and however they are needed. With the intelligence and clear seeing of Yin and the warmth and compassion of Yang, we understand that the entire world that we move in is not one, not two, and we are empowered to act, to give what is needed when it is needed. We realize that we are inseparable from everything else - that self and other are, again - not one, not two.

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and the time will come when you see we're all one
and life flows on within you and without you
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The Gift

Fell through a trap door and broke my heart - bleeding sadness, joy and big, big love. Poet Bruce Cockburn knows how that is:

these shoes have walked some strange streets
stranger still to come
sometimes the prayers of strangers
are all that keep them from
trying to stay static
something even death can't do
everything is motion
to the motion be true

in this cold commodity culture
where you lay your money down
it's hard to even notice
that all this earth is hallowed ground
harder still to feel it
basic as a breath
love is stronger than darkness
love is stronger than death

the gift keeps on moving
never know where it's going to land
you must stand back and let it
keep on changing hands

hackles rise in anger
heat waves rise in sex
the gift moves on regardless
tying this world to the next
may you never tire of waiting
never feel that life is cheap
may your life be filled with light
except for when you're trying to sleep

the gift keeps on moving
never know where it's going to land
you must stand back and let it
keep on changing hands
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How Do I Look?

This ad is BRILLIANT - for us hard-core Toyota fans ...



You asked for it, you got it... TOYOTA
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A Declaration of Emancipation

"It's a pregnant morning. Full of sweet promise and a dream..."

Some thoughts from Doug Green on change

"In some ways it's like looking at a blank sheet of paper, an empty garden, an untouched block of sculpture wood and not having a friggin' clue what's going to emerge. And being able to laugh at that uncertainty because you just gotta know something good is around the corner. This morning is the uncertainty; the freedom to choose, the terror of choosing, the delight in the lack of boundaries and the wonder in trying to understand how it's all going to turn out."

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Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix
- Christina Baldwin
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And The Winners Are...

four very funny TV commercials....



'specially love the "CHEERING WORKS"
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Just Shut The **** Up

This copyblogger site is so FUN... check out this post entitled:

7 Types of People Everyone Wishes Would Just Shut The **** Up

SURPRISE!! - these folks have something to teach you...

"When you’re worried about other people telling you to STFU, several bad things happen...

• You only speak when you’re totally sure of yourself.
• You carefully measure how everyone will react.
• You make sure nothing you say will cause anyone to think less of you.

You think this is smart. And to a certain extent, it is. If you want to get through life without anyone disliking you, then buttoning your bottom lip, keeping your eyes to yourself, and getting on with your business is the perfect strategy.

But no one tells you that it’s also a good way to spend your life in fear."
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About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of
Copyblogger and co-founder of Partnering Profits.
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Box? What Box?

Ever berate yourself for not "thinking outside the box"?

Ten powerful ideas from copyblogger.com about how to soar beyond our self-created obstacles...

Brian Clark: "You create your own imaginary boxes simply by living life and accepting certain things as "real" when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional. ...You're already capable of creative thinking at all times, but you have to strip away the imaginary mental blocks that you've picked up along the way to wherever you are today."

Now imagine all those boxes dissolving one by one like fluffy white clouds and our mind expanding further and further into that vast blue sky without limit ...

Feel better?
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nothing is confined except what's in your mind
- Bruce Cockburn
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One For The Money

A local news station was interviewing an 84 year old woman because she had just gotten married - for the fourth time. The interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 84, and then asked about her new husband's occupation.

"He's a funeral director", she answered.

"How interesting", the newsman thought. He then asked her if she would mind telling him a little about her first three husbands and what they did for a living. She paused for a few moments, needing time to reflect back all those years.

After a short time, a smile came to her face and she answered proudly, explaining that she first married a banker when she was in her early 20s, then a circus ringmaster when in her 40s, later on a preacher when in her 60s and now, in her 80s, a funeral director.

The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married four men with such diverse careers.

"That's easy, son", she smiled.

"I married one for the money... two for the show... three to get ready... and four to go!"

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Sand or Stone?

Two friends were walking through the desert. At some point in the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand,

"Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath in the pond. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and was in danger of drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he found a stone on which he wrote,

"Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who had first slapped and then saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, when I saved you, you wrote on a stone. Why?"

The friend replied,

"When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can carry it away.

"But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."
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Lose Touch With Your Inner Whining Artist

or, Less Lateral Thinking, More Lateral Action

Well, synchronicity strikes again. Smack on the heels of the last post, this LateralAction Article popped out of cyberspace. It talks about what author Mark McGuinness calls our Inner Whining Artist, that ubiquitous voice that urges us to do just enough to get by, to not ask for too much, to expect the world to adapt to us without any effort on our part, to just go with the flow, ignoring and avoiding the reality that is always right in front of us.

The world - life itself - is more vast, vivid and alive than we can ever imagine, and it wants us to come out and play. But it can only extend the invitation - we have to make a decision to accept the invitation and then step through that door which is always open. We have to be willing to look at how we constantly get in our own way, fooling ourselves into thinking that we're engaging when we're really avoiding, and be willing to go through and beyond our usual comfort zones, our fears and our fantasies. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Mark McGuinness: "You’ll start facing down the fear and taking action, doing the difficult things you’ve been shirking. You’ll start making a difference to your own life and to other people. You’ll make new friends and leave the IWA behind…

"Of course, you don't have to do any of this. You can carry on listening to the IWA and forget you ever read this article. Maybe life will be easier that way.

Your choice."
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I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch
he said to me, you must not ask for so much
and a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door
she cried to me, hey, why not ask for more
- Leonard Cohen
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Do Or Do Not - There Is No Try

A quote from Yoda in the Star Wars movie

How often have you heard yourself say, "I'm going to try to..." (... get there on time), or "I'm going to try to..." (... be more thoughtful), or "I'm going to try to... (you fill in the blank). How do you feel when you say this? Do you feel committed, enthusiastic, confident? How would you feel if the pilot of an aircraft you were on announced, "I'm going to try to land this plane at the New York Airport in five minutes"?

We sabotage our own intelligence and ability, undermining our chances of accomplishment and the confidence which that brings, when we fall into the mindset of "I'll try" instead of "I will".

Decide what you want to do, announce that to the world, and then DO IT.

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Don't be timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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