What are the Benefits?

There always has to be a benefit in all that I do. What do I gain from doing something, anything? When I scratch my back, I relieve an itching back. When I eat something, I relieve a hungry stomach.

When I meditate, I find relaxation and peace. Without a benefit at the end of an activity, I would not engage in it. What would be the point?

To find happiness and comfort, I travel down many avenues in life, from material to spiritual ones. Light ones and dark ones. Some are wide open, others are like a tunnel. It doesn’t matter what kind; ultimately, they are all my avenues, not someone else’s. And only I can gain the most benefit from them. Nobody else. My experiences, my benefits, my growth, my life, my impact in this existence.

Someone once said that freedom of choice is the choice of either moving towards a purpose or away from it. That is similar to what I am saying. What benefits me most in life is finding a groove that leads to a meaningful purpose.

To focus on focusing on the Breath

Not just focusing on the breath, but consciously focusing on focusing on the breath. That way, the focus is on the Self, the power of the Self, the will power that will direct the mind to the essence of breathing.

The focus is on consciously breathing. To experience breath and knowing that I am experiencing it. It is the I am that experiences everything. There are things to be experienced and there is the experiencer. Objects and the subject. The inert objects – however alive they may seem – and the conscious subject – fully alive in the present.

The intention directs the will towards the object of observation, which becomes the focus. The first and foremost focus always needs to be the conscious Self. This is not an egoistic self, an egocentric self, a self that feels better or superior to other selves. It is the conscious Self in its vibrating crystal-clear scintillating revelation.

This crystal-clear conscious Self is one half of the experience of focusing on the breath. The other is the experience of the breath in the body itself. This is a powerful meditation. Clarity of mind and body energies are the results.

How to deal with the pandemic

1. Listen to the experts.

2. Learn as much as possible from established sources.

3. Take anecdotal accounts into consideration.

4. Protect the ones you love.

5. Support everyone in all efforts to stay healthy and in recovering those who became ill.

6. Push back on misinformation that could harm people, the vulnerable.

7. Don’t argue and dispute with those eager to prove their point.

8. Nobody has all the answers, and nobody is right all the time.

Mill grinds to order

This is the order of the day. The mill of daily life grinds the individual into a shape that fits into the pattern formed by the surrounding shapes. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Nobody lives in a vacuum. We all grind up against others, against the environment in which we exist, the air we breathe, the waters we drink, the space we occupy, and the space we create for ourselves.

Our self-effort springs from our innate desire to stay alive. After we have provided for the necessities of life, we then venture out and create things to make our lives easier, prettier, more ornate, more elaborate, building up our material fortunes, our creative fortunes, our spiritual fortunes, our social fortunes, our political fortunes.

Once we have “enough” of the necessities of life, we either relax and sit back and simply enjoy our lives, or we become more ambitious and put our stamp on more than we “need” in an effort to shape this world in “our image.”

The Ghost in the Machine

I deleted this post, because I submitted it to the online magazine BodyMindSpiritOnline.com

They want online exclusivity.

You are I am

You are thought

I am thought

You are action

I am action

You are feeling

I am feeling

You are will

I am will

You are power

I am power

You are movement

I am movement

You are breath

I am breath

You are sight

I am sight

You are hearing

I am hearing

You are memory

I am memory

You are all that’s been lost

I am all that’s been lost

You are devotion

I am devotion

You are surrender

I am surrender

Here

Here is to sitting here. Here is to writing here. Here is to being here.

Sitting and writing. Thinking. Sensing my way through my thoughts. Finding clarity. Finding the passage through my brain synapses. The pathway is narrow but enlightening. A collection of synapses firing and there “I am.” Being conscious. Realizing that I exist. Self-awareness. Consciousness in action.

Using modern language to describe reality. Descriptions will always change. Experiences will always change. The core – the inner divinity – will always remain the same, will always remain divine. No need to be religious, only the need to appreciate the uniqueness of existence. Special words are needed to celebrate the extraordinary that appears at times so ordinary. Is water ordinary? Is air ordinary? Are the sun and moon ordinary? Is our galaxy ordinary? Are computers ordinary? Are paintings ordinary?

What is ordinary and what is extraordinary? Is grass ordinary? Are elementary particles ordinary? Is love ordinary? Are thoughts ordinary?