| Archive for Lighting the Path Less Taken A place to discuss and learn about alternative ideas & thoughts ie Reiki, healing techniques, past lives, astral projection, dreams, visions and more in this already difficult world |
| Sage/Debs |
http://www.davidstanleybell.com/ (wonderful site)Now mind, tho this is posted here, it can relate to all the forums and their emotions and goals. I very much like the words, thots and emotions this gentle man puts forth and wanted to share it. I have his site bookmarked..I do love his poetry and thots, I hope you will as well.
http://www.davidstanleybell.com/ Poetry For The Journey - Passionate Living Newsletter Innocence and the Spirituality of Desire Issue: Sept 2009 Innocence is a word that means many things to many people. It is often associated with a child-like nature. When we become adults and lose a little of ourselves to blend in with the world, many of us feel that we lose our innocence. Some think this is a good thing. After all, to be a successful adult, some say you must be strong and tough, you can’t be naïve or ignorant. But none of these are innocence. We hear of adults that have had their childhoods cut short or tainted because of trauma, abuse, or just way too much responsibility dropped on little heads too early. To be forced into adult roles, situations and responsibilities too early is such a violent experience. Then we here of adults trying to re-live their childhoods by doing child-ish acts. This is not innocence either. Innocence, to me, is such a deep and broad state of being. Initially, it is our way of being, before some one told us that we have to be another way. Innocence in expression is honesty and integrity; it is raw. It is coming out and saying what you feel. And then we may have heard “little boys or little girls don’t say things like that” or “it is disrespectful to talk to adults like that.” I think you all know what I am talking about here. I like to think of the attitude of innocence in way (*) Thich Nhat Hanh describes "freshness." This ability to see things, even seen before, with openness and newness. When people perceive our “freshness” it often comes across to them as beauty, lightness of being. When I have difficulty centering myself in meditation, I think of a meditation from Thich Nhat Hanh about being “Mountain strong, reflecting-water calm, and flower fresh.” It is difficult not to breathe with “flower fresh” and not have a smile on your face. A smile like the meditating Buddha. The challenge is when the mediation is complete, to take this freshness with you into the world, into your job, into your family life. Let them see your smile at your job, and smile even more as the people that see you wonder what you are smiling about. I honestly felt I lost my innocence for quite a few years, but it was good to feel it return to me, when I finally figured out what it was that I had lost. And I found it was my own head that was keeping it away. We may feel that once we have become the rebel or the black sheep and have forged our own way, that we have kissed our innocence good bye. But the rebellion can be the force of our integrity acting outward to establish ones own path that we can once again be ourselves. This is courageous; this is the return to innocence. Oh those Rolling Stones! They recorded a popular song, which I like by the way, called “You can’t always get what you want.” The words say: You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes, You might find You get what you need Cool, but bass ackwards. It is such “adult” thing to focus on what we need, on what is necessity, or thinking that getting what we “need” is the consolation prize in the game of seeking what we want. And then we adults can get really intense about how we are entitled to or “have to have” what we need. Notice a child will say “I want” long before he/she emulates the adults and says “I need.” Follow your needs and you can end up banging your head against the wall or experiencing much lack of fulfillment. Follow your desires and you follow your truth. First of all “need” is a judgment, a mentally rationalized conclusion of something that is necessary for something else to follow. For example, I need food in order to live. Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” What we want or desire, is the direct path from the voice of our soul, our guides, our true nature. James Hillman writes, "A principle intention of an emotion is to connect our animal nature with the world in which it is embedded. Emotions respond immediately to the truth of things. They are the most alert form of attention. Disgust turns away from decay, fear warns of danger, desire recognizes beauty, and pity responds to need. ..[One lets] emotion guide behavior into participation with things as they appear." Our emotions, our desires are our “real-time” guidance system. Second guessing is the mind trying take control and break down to the simplicity of logic, something it cannot understand. Logic is linear, life is multidimensional. You can “do the math” if you care to. So we desire something, we realize this is our truth, so what do we do about it? There is a love for self within that will confirm that we are deserving of what we desire and a courage that will help us to move forward, in mind or in action, to making real what we want. We may attain what we desire and we may not. This is where the song seems to have some truth. If you are like me, once I set my mind to a goal I focus a lot of energy in that direction. Unconsciously, I have measured my success and my self-value by whether or not I got what I set out to attain. But this is where some spiritual maturity is needed. Because not getting what you want can bring emotional pain and disappointment. But who said we need “to have” what we seek any way. Our soul is formed not so much by what we do, but by how we do it. The ends do not justify the means because, in a spiritual sense, the guidance directed us to experience and live, not necessarily to “have” something at the end. Sometimes we get what we desire and have more wonderful experiences. Sometimes we get what we wanted, and find out we didn’t want it. Does that mean that we should not have gone after it in the first place? Only in an “ends and means” frame of thinking. This could be the starting point for a new journey, new experiences. The spiritual path is about being, not having. Having is fine as long as you can still BE who you are and have. But all “having’ will turn to “not having;” this is impermanence. The only thing that lasts is the one who is being. Being doesn’t even last, but that is another newsletter. Either way, evolving from having to being is a big step in spiritual maturity. This is part of our maturing to be more in tune with our inner guide, to shed the illusions of our mind, and to more experiencing who we really are. Awareness is what matters. The “prize” of the whole journey, is the knowing what is real, the absence of judgment, the understanding and experiencing of the divine beings we really are. And then we get to experience some more. The tools of our path are integrity, genuineness of emotions, courage to follow desires and embrace the goals you attain, and understanding that you do not have to have anything. I do not believe there is such a thing as theoretical spirituality. To know your true self, you must experience your true self. The fish, must swim. The eagle, must fly. We must follow our hearts, our truth, our desire, our true nature. There is a higher “mind” that guides us to our realizations. Some call it The Tao or The Way. The language of the heart is spoken here. Love and Light, Sajan David Stanley Bell Poetry For The Journey Poetry For The Journey www.davidstanleybell.com info@davidstanleybell.com (*) Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese: Nhất Hạnh, pronounced [tʰǐk ɲə̌t hâːˀɲ] ( listen); born October 11, 1926 in central Vietnam) is an expatriate Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He joined a Zen monastery at the age of 16, studied Buddhism as a novice, and was fully ordained as a monk in 1949. Commonly referred to as Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese: Thích Nhnh), the title Thích is used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan. |
| herding cats |
thanks for that....
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