Helping others and Freedom

It's strange to discover how much impact we can have in the most simple actions.

I usually only hear or see the effects of what I did long afterwards. Today I just talked to someone I helped back a few years ago, within a few hours of conversation, that ended up forming whole new work groups and ways to do business, that then rippled out to helping countless others in substance abuse treatment...

As a Taoist I assist in very simple ways, as quietly as possible and to move on quickly. Never to guide others beyond what fits their life. Striving always to Wu-Wei. It's strange after 10 or 20 years how people will bounce back into me and inform me what I built, did or said is still in use or growing...

The point being: you can make a difference, just don't get trapped by ego or desires to make it more than what it needs to be.

Our ego, likes to fool us into thinking it's "Us" that is required to make a difference.

Truth is: "I" never make any difference in the help I share: What made the difference was just sharing the simple acts of kindness at the right moments. It had nothing to do with me, even when being the messenger.

It's possible to look at this in many ways, but within the Taoist style you have the most freedom to explore unhampered the larger world, while still assisting others.

While I am happy I helped, if I let myself be defined to that process, The very definition would force me to be back to continue fulfilling the endless shapes formed by the empty space of need.

Instead, I help as I can, moving with life as my life flows. So instead: I am now freely watching wild turkeys cross in front of me, embracing the wet morning rain and having the warm sun wrap around me in blissful peaceful moment. I still make a difference, while fully living my own life, defined by my own wonder, rather than being defined by the problems I solved in passing in kindness.

I hope you catch the difference!

This is an important Taoist lesson about how to be free and assist in kindness at the same time.

Peace

Silence

Sitting on the edge of the wood, silently.

Rains came down for a few hours.

Now it's all becoming morning steam.
Jumping, no walking, in a drifting lazy manner.
To go back into the sky...
as directed by the sun.

Two mother wild turkeys and 10 young walk pass me.
we reflect no worries
each going our own way.
Other birds chime in
I have nothing to say.
The world speaks enough.

Life passes by.
Without care
In being together, it's being aware.

I might be homeless, but I am at home

---------------------------------------
My morning notes/journal as I move on with the day...

Peace

Some Poetry on the road

Twilight started in the middle of a storm.
Raging clouds, thunder, wind all roiling around the car.
We slept. Waiting for the calm.
Until morning broke free
To a running start, we drove towards the sun.
Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa...
States pass by on Highway 76

Sunflowers now stand sentinel
splitting the highway divide
being witness to nothing, like us, also moving to the sun.
The highway
leaves me alone.
Pushing, driving me, without stopping.

Being Homeless and on the road

America you have broken your own dream.
Jack tells me to listen to the road.
A speech in ricket tone,
our car calling out the road's truth:
chu bu chu buh bhum bhuuh bum bumm Bum BUM...
... To be a bum.
The exit comes and goes in this realization.
I go on and on and beyond stopping...

We think answers should appear.
Such as a convenient exit to a new home
So we wander and move on
in hope.

Somewhere, in acceptance of movement
it just becomes... motion itself
as miles count off, to numbers I will never remember
In Nebraska and beyond
The sunflowers will still be standing here
tomorrow.

--------------------------------------------------
Started to write this 7/22/2008 while on the road
wandering

Second pass edit.

I suppose the feelings of the words are my home

peace

Path of Life: Part II

In change,
In transformation,
In finding yourself on a spiritual path.

The question becomes: What is the best route to take?

Many people take a long path, which is the hardest on a person, since it breaks you down from the outside. Yes this is the most painful path, since it involves are getting beaten down by others. However, it's easier for most people, since the world is doing all the work to break you down. So it ends up being the long path as you resist the change and beatings. For many people it's the path they take, since they don't know any better way. This is the path of crisis.

Very very few people take the shortest path. However, this is the hardest path, as you voluntarily do most of the work of letting go and breaking out of your own expectation traps. But it's hard and full of dead ends and exploration into the unknown. This is the path of transformation.

Finally, many people look to spiritual teachers, religions or established systems as a path in life. This works since hopefully you find a guide to short cut you around known problems. This could end up either as a path of crisis or transformation depending on who you find to help you.

The trouble is: what if the guide is taking you to a place, you don't want to go? Many people avoid this path since they distrust many spiritual practices as being false.

So this is a very tricky path since finding the right guide to match your style and needs can be difficult.

However, there is another problem with finding a guide in life. The trick is realizing you still have to work, even with the guidance, otherwise your life's path just reverts back to the longer path with no personal involvement of direct action. That's the deeper pattern we have to break out of.

Which comes around back to heart. Be true to your heart in this process to help guide you towards personal truth. Your heart is a guide and outside resource, already built within you, to help direct you towards completion of spirit.

Learning that, trust of heart, is often the part of any spiritual practice that takes years to master. This is what I teach first to any traveler in spiritual practices.

All Taoist teachers use the heart-mind to reflect upon as the true guide in spiritual life. We use many terms and fancy symbols to represent this truth, from many angles. However, in short hand: discover trusting your own heart as part of the guidance for your life.

If you know this up front, it can make the journey more enjoyable along the way.

peace

Path of Life

In the path of life we are all equal

It's just a matter of perspective and possibility of where you can go.

I mention this, since many spiritual teachers are placed high, as if their wisdom and words are the only truth. To be taken over one's own personal truths...

It's not

Which gets me back to heart.

I spend quite a bit of time teaching people how to connect to their own heart. This is only possible when a person accepts their own words and actions equally to that of what is given to them by "spiritual" teachers. Something to consider if you are starting a spiritual quest.

Peace

What is Heart?

:)

So I talk about heart, over and over the past few posts.

So the question then becomes:

What is heart?

Taoism teaches to give a definition would also limit your nature.

Personally this means: how I live, is "heart". For myself this means it's defined by

• my actions every day
  
• guidance of possibilities I aspire toward
• the interchange within sharing life itself
  

What words could ever fully cover this? :)

Smile and let that be your guide in possibility.

peace

Why A Personal Tao?

Why this blog? Why A Personal Tao?

As a Taoist, I spent most of my life hidden and as a hermit. Most people never saw my practice or the depths to which I practiced it. Taoist's do not go out of their way to tell others how life should flow. As a Taoist I am most happy to stay upon a personal path and not in sight of others. Taoism doesn't preach much or go out of its way to be public.

However, Taoist practice is such that: no absolute rules exist.

We must live to the times as the times happen.

We are entering a warring period states period which, to some degree, makes it appropriate to be a bit more pro-active.

The current times represent a major point of change. Where conditions are malleable to many different possible outcomes. We are at a similar point in history as when the Taoist sages in the past came out to write the Tao Te Ching to help Chinese society find new direction.

Right now, we can join in to give shape to society during a time of "chaos" to help sway it towards something better to live within.

It's time to impress upon society our own heart. In flux, society listens to everyone's actions!

Taoist wisdom teaches a sage cannot make chaos orderly.

We should not try to prevent what is happening at all. Instead it's a time to mix in our very nature with society. Not to dictate what might be, but to add in possibilities of what could be. This is an important distinction!

So in teaching Taoism to current times, the purpose is not to reinvent it, not to re-translate it, but rather place it in terms the current culture can (1) accept and (2) connect to and (finally) embrace as part of its nature.

From Taoist practice this means

We live to our heart.

We listen to our heart.

This is the key to understanding what the sages of old taught.

Many people have asked me time and time again how to live as a Taoist. In how many ways can I say : Acceptance of heart? Kindness within action? Quite a few ways it turns out.

A Personal Tao is a simple lesson to help others discover Taoism in terms of modern life. In terms of the heart. Taoism isn't a difficult or complicated message to write about. What's hard: is living to your own heart. People think the message is hard to understand becuase of difficulty of embracing their nature. The message is very simple. What is hard: is finding what acceptance means to live to your own heart!

In reality: what matters is being brave enough to be part of the process which is unfolding around us: as our own life.

If this seems simple: it is. Strangely, when it appears too easy, then people make it hard for a challenge.

As example

I have watched people scream for decades: it's your right to vote, so vote! Make change happen by voting... You must vote to make a better change for the world...

Voting for another person is bullshit when you are assigning your action to another person. This is giving away one's heart of action to another. This process actually can make many people powerless when voting carelessly or in a rigged system. Yes you can vote to help "dictate" a society... HOWEVER:

If you truly want to make a difference:

Vote by action of your own action, to the beat of your heart!

This is the reason I write here. To remind people, it's not about the past, it's not about the future, it's not about politics, it's not about fear, not about others or what they dictate to you... It's not about anything outside of your life!

It's simply about living your life as your life, to your heart.

If you do that, you are as wise as any Taoist sage. Yes it's that simple.

That is what A Personal Tao is all about.

Re-discovering heart.

Remember what's hard: is how to fulfill this truth. Yet it's as easy or as hard as you make it to be.

Peace

American State of Solutions: Part Three

I stated earlier:

Be careful don't get trapped by reasons, or large scale solutions...

This is very important to understand.

Something about myself first: I have been quietly working for years working with all the states in the United States towards implementing Drug and Alcohol Treatment systems. I was one of the grandfathers responsible for starting a system called WITS many years ago, the first integrated treatment tracking system which is use by a dozen states and political entities to consolidate and make the process of Substance Abuse Treatment more easily shared so states could have more money to help those in need.

I have lots of experience trying to get states to work together and share. All of this very quietly and patiently over the years. I work in such a way that very few people know I even exist, since it makes it easier for me to be effective. Even today, I am working in charity with a small non profit called NDIIC to help the states share and communicate with each other. It's hard work and very slow work. Soon I will leave this work, since it's my time to hand it over to newer and more excited individuals to keep the energy high in the process of sharing.

I have spent decades pondering how best to help people, and putting into practice how to live to kindness.

So I am not being a couch quarterback just sharing ideas hoping to make a difference. I live to my statements becuase I know it works.

So here is some wisdom on solutions on how to make our society a better place.

(1) People are all visionaries, we have the capacity to see final results.

Don't mistake the vision to be the path of the solution.

All effective solutions are those that start simply and grow into final results.

(2) The larger the solution, the less effective it becomes

(3) Communication is key to making any solution work.

(4) It takes simple solutions which evolve over time to meet the needs of many people.

I must stress all complicated systems are all systems with simple rules that evolved into complicated relationships over time. If you try to create complicated relationships at the start, you will fail due to the complexities. Start with simple actions and let the following interactions over time define the more complicated final solution.

This is a very very fine point and why most visionaries fail in making their dreams come true, and why it takes many generations after the visionary to make the dream come true!

(5) Ii takes INVOLVEMENT, the active desire to make a difference, in order to make a difference. Wishing doesn't work, nor does handing off the problem to someone else to make it work.

(6) It takes very very basic local actions to make a difference.

(7) You can never dictate a solution. Rather you must embrace it from the heart, and let it change with the heart of others for it grow into a solution.


If you take all of this, it means the solution is very simple

you start with:

your own heart, your own actions

reach out in simple kind actions and share.

Repeat

Thats it. Really! Seriously... That's it!

Over time this can and will evolve into a solution into that will make our society a better place.

Is it easy? No, since you have to be persistent.

Does it work overnight? No since you work over your whole life in making life better!

Does it save everyone? Not directly, by your own hand. Since we each can only interconnect with a few people. Yet as a community, we can share relationship and assistance to all willing to be in that relationship. Remember: not everyone desires to be saved.


Does it work and can it make our society into a place wonder and peace.

Yes! Provided you truly place your heart into this process.

or you can let go of heart to live upon the couch called "comfort".

We all have that power of choice.

Just a question of what world you decide to live in : within your own actions.

peace

American State of Mind: Part Two

What was made clear the other day by my interaction with the police, is a large scale fundamental shift in the United States culture.

I have been watching this change slowly since 1970's when it first crossed my awareness.

The tactic of using fear to control others.

This is something that has been evolving for a long long time, going back to the turn of the previous century. However, Mr Bush and his war of Terrorism has refined the practice of isolating people with fear to a fine art.

In terrorism, we all have become targets of terror from our own society.

First understand this very basic truth about fear:

In becoming "targets of terror", everyone then becomes a suspect : always!

In a Fear base society everyone becomes a minority.

No one can stand out in such a system for fear of being attacked.

Over the last few years, many many people have been outspoken about the dangers of such a society. I am not going speak over why it has happened or point fingers. That just adds to the problem.

The only way to resolve such fear, is to open up your heart and live to kindness.

My encounter with the police the other day was very important to me. It showed how far down in the pit of fear the heart of the United States has fallen.

This isn't something that will get fixed overnight. It will take brave work of the heart to make a difference.

Right now to be a freedom fighter is to be a lover, to love those who live around you. To be a person who lives from their heart and kindness.

Be careful dont get trapped by reasons, or large scale solutions... The large scale solution is based on the smallest and simplest of actions: Being kind, discovering love in sharing. But those actions have to be fully part of your life, not something done for show or only for others..

It must fully be of and come out of the heart.

If you have a dream of a better world for your children, then place your heart into that dream so it might become reality.

Now is the time....

Now is always the time.

to reach out and reconnect to the world in kindness.

If you claim you want to have the solution, Then take this most simply of solutions to heart to actually be it! Otherwise it counts for nothing and you just reinforce the fear based culture of division and minority we have become.

Peace

How to Save the World

About today's social problems.

I Posted this on Bill's Blog yesterday, I am sharing it here since it's important. It's basic 101 on how to truly make a difference, when you see others in need on the street or passing by your life.

There are no perfect solutions, and yes things are bad right now getting worse.

In all my years of helping people, what makes a difference is kindness.

When I have a home, I share it with the homeless. When on the street, I share laughter and hope.

It's not complicated. Except, people are unsure about what is in their own heart, uncertain about sharing. Right now fear is being used to control people since it keeps us apart. Until this tactic changes, the homeless situation and other problems like drug use will get worse.

If you want to make a difference right now: it is very simple

Give up the fear and work towards kindness.

It doesn't have to be all at once, and it does start simply and grows from simple acts.

It really is that simple. Not perfect, but simple.

You can't help everyone, and you can't help those who are not ready for help.

However, many people , decent people who can use help abound. You would be surprised how a smile at the right time can turn a person's world around. You would be surprised how easy it is to share time with another person on the street, just to talk and to share a moment.

While money is nice at times, its not about throwing money about either. This is about "Time" about relationship where you connect to another person, just talk and share what is needed at that moment.

You can't Directly save the world, you can't save a nation, a state, etc

But you can save the occasional person, child and others who happen to cross your path.

Yes it also takes practice to learn who you can help and who you have to let wander. That has taken me years to learn. So I know how hard this can be. This is why fear wins out so often... fear is an easier path, why risk reaching out when it's all too easy to only embrace personal comfort.

The process of helping others might be simple, but it's never ever easy. But so often what is worth doing is not easy :) that is part of the joy of learning and becoming more in the sharing.

If you do this then ironically you can save the world. Simply in acts of kindness.

It is that simple, when opening up the heart to make it so.

peace

American Police State of Mind

I spent a good half hour in a police car yesterday as they recorded me and tried to discover all the dark and dirty secrets I might have becuase I was speeding 7 miles over the limit yesterday... ( I thought I was only going 3 over the limit when it turns out I was in a 70 mph zone not a 75 mph when I crossed the state line)

I was searched for weapons, drugs and any thing that could be wrong. At one point the police officer got all excited over the possibility my cell phone could have been a concealed weapon. ( I kid you not, his body re-action was one of getting ready to kick my ass for having a semi hidden cell phone. I have done martial arts long enough to know the signs of a person ready to fight.)

I learn quite a bit today. Things are shifting indeed.

It's a long story, for what should have been only a few minutes of a traffic ticket. I will say the Mid-West is most assuredly getting a bit over zealous in the cops.

Zen style of mind does come in handy as the performance of the whole bad cop good cop went down... seessh! The police most assuredly don't like homeless folks on the road now a days.

It was fascinating as I got crossed grilled in all the questions to find dark truths. It was very clear if I said something wrong, I was going to find my self in jail (for only a speeding offense, mind you). It was also very clear, the cops are no longer just working to help people. In fact I am finding the police are now going far out of their way to discover something wrong with anyone they pass. In this half hour I had no innocent until proven guilt, I had to prove I was innocent instead! They were looking very hard to boot my ass to jail: Just because I look and act outside their normal expectation.

Remember expectations are just a lie in the end. If the police work to expectation then they work to a lie. That is very dangerous when supposedly the police work towards truth and most policemen are both armed and on a hairs trigger to bust you!

If you start assuming others are guilty, the road towards truth becomes a much more difficult path. More often than not that destination will end up guilty! Since most people are lazy and don't want to work too hard. It's easier to find something "wrong" with any situation...

This is a very very bad sign indeed!

That's a major shift in America if you ask me. Yes I know, this is has been the case for a long time. However, I am finding it's much worse now. I watch this and I am telling you its going deeper. As I travel around the country I am disturbed at this fundamental shift into ever more aggressive police tactics.

I got out of all tickets yesterday afternoon, despite the lengthy incarceration. I was let off with a few warnings. While I am laughing over the incident, it was actually very serious and the policeman's body language was telling me he was fully expecting me to be guilty of something. I was very close to being hauled off to going to jail for no offense other than being different.

So many different disturbing truths rose out of the encounter, about currently being homeless and how that made a police officer over react. About how in being out of the ordinary, I was a major threat. About how hard he worked at trying to make me slip up in my statements and use it against me in the recordings. About how he work at a half hour to find something to arrest me on. How how easy it would have been for him to just take me to jail to sort it out later. I suspect having my children in the car helped stopped him from doing just that. I make no joke how serious this event was despite it just being "kicked off" by speeding a few miles over the limit.

Being different is a unwritten crime in a nation that lives to fear!

First and foremost: I have no dark secrets.. So they can pry all they want. I only speak truth and stand firm in who I am. I know how to connect and work with everyone. So I had no problems enjoying the experience, playing my role properly, learning from the temporary incarceration, and then working my way out of his prison of "expectations". I thanked the officer in the end for everything he taught me and gave him a small blessing, which shocked him.

Yesterdays experience was very disturbing, since it represents a deeper trend in the way police procedure is working in America. The way I was shuffled into the car, the way I was being recorded and grilled. The way it was clear, that I was going to going to get my ass busted to jail if I step a hairbreadth in the wrong way or even said the wrong thing. The way it was clear: I was guilty not innocent in that Cop's mind. While I was able to stay true to my innocence... I can see: if this is the way Police are acting in America, a lot of people who are innocent are going to find themselves compromised into false police action. That this has been evolving for a while and with all the damage already done, the police's job has transition into enforcing the social problems rather than being peace officers.

No, America is in for some serious problems judging from that encounter yesterday.

I wrote on another blog how I felt something wrong as I traveled the country. I now know what it was I felt and this doesn't bode well at all in my mind, as we enter more chaotic times.

Please be careful out there, but stay true to yourself.

peace

Back on the road...

Graffiti

:) I love this! Tricked up snail.

Just playing this morning

I am just playing right now... Don't expect anything.

It's not about seeking, nor destination

Rather discover:

Whimsy, Possibility, Heart, Reflection............ Awareness

within

Dance, Release, Pause, Merging................ Acceptance

In defining time: it limits the very practice.

Are you trying to

Break on through to ... ?

Of yourself? This make me laugh :) but now that is progress and a key of sort.

To releasing all pre-definitions.

be nothing for a change of pace: rather than any limitation or definition...

This is the secret to full Transformation

peace

Time and Roads

Time

A little bit more about time.

Time does exist and it doesn't.

Time when it exists, is a definition of relationship. When it doesn't exist, it's absence defines unity.

Use that as you will, if you find yourself fighting against time.

---

Speaking of relationship.

I will be back on the road again for a week. Driving to the state of Minnesota for 3 weeks to be with family. Taos was fantastic. A very spiritual and peaceful community. I met with many other spiritual teachers, had a chance to chill, took the time to truly share life with new and old friends.

To anyone who has read my book, the art on the Dance page 45 is rooted in Taos and a thanks to that spirit of movement which one can connect to in this place.

My respects, love and friendship to everyone in Taos.

And most respectfully thanks
To the mountain and sister spirits
for opening the space by being available in acceptance .

Peace

Time of Nothing

A friend of my mentions:

So much work, so little time. Is it the same everywhere?

Time doesn't exist,

Perhaps that is why there never seems to be enough as we try to make it more than nothing.

Peace

Joy or Comfort

Ever notice how in getting comfort most people lose their joy?

I am not saying you can't have both comfort and joy. However, the two experiences tend not to play and mix often either.

How in getting to a "comfortable" life, do you have "joy"?

Watching when times are rough, and it's a struggle... You can feel joy in life itself: as you embrace towards making your life more...

What's more important for you. Comfort or Joy?

Seemingly more people than not, take comfort in the western culture over joy.

I wonder why. Lets dive into this puzzle for a moment

---

I have written before comfort is the poor man's version of immortality. In comfort a person doesn't change, in comfort time goes away, in this: a person has fleeting immortality since it's "timeless".

I think this is the reason reason most people crave comfort. In a fear based culture, where people fear death, it makes sense to carve comfort at all costs for that fleeting illusion of immortality.

Living to change is hard, living to comfort is not to change is just to take in "pause".

Joy isn't pause, it's in fact accepting change and working towards enlightenment, towards a higher state of being.

That's why joy and comfort tend not to be had together. In comfort a person pauses in their journey to hold onto what they were and are... While in joy, you actively release into the journey of becoming "more" and fully experiencing your own nature.

Strangely, since most people cannot accept themselves, they can't have true comfort to experience their own nature. Instead in western culture... most people to be comfortable actively intake "entertainment" to fulfill themselves with fantasy of how other people are...

Now isn't that strange, and isn't that the opposite of Joy? If you intake other people's stories rather than your own... how can you in the end find joy of being oneself, of becoming more into the light?

Hence: without personal acceptance: Joy is a fleeting experience or even fantasy for most people...

I see joy when people play, but play is the active experience of exploring life itself. So that makes sense also. Play and Joy are interconnected.

This is not judging lifestyle, its more understanding why "true joy" is so lacking when I talk to people living such a comfortable life in America.

peace

Ah the times!

The times are chaotic and are forcing people to re-think how to live their life.

Since I help guide people through mid life crisis and also teach Taoist spiritual transformation practices. I am seeing more people coming to me for help.

A simple piece of advice I would like to share.

These are times of change. That means it isn't good nor bad. Instead these times are what we make them to be. So much energy is about and you can use what is happening now to aid in one's journey or to diminish oneself.

If you live to fear, give in to other people projections of fear. You will diminish in your nature.

If you live to love. Give in to connecting to others and sharing. You will become more.


While it makes sense to live to love, your instincts will grab on to fear. So it isn't as easy as it sounds.

Work to love right now. Reach out and practice sharing.

If you do you will discover the difference that makes your life better now, rather than having to wait for society to reform itself after the mess.


Peace

The Tao of Trading

As a Taoist, life is about exploration.

I explore everything, poke about and play. In my more recent wanderings I have been watching the financial markets closely. The chaos felt in our world now is directly reflected in the financial markets. In that, watching how the financial market shakes out, also tells a person where the society is heading.

I have found many day traders who share in Taoist practices and outlook in life. It's been a fun experience to exchange philosophy and daily information. In talking with Bill Cara and others, I have found similar aspects to our practices and in that it becomes useful mirror to explore my own practices more deeply, from other angles of perception.

The lesson being: Spiritual practices include movement of life. In moving to your own life, don't be afraid to poke about, even in areas which at first might seem unrelated.

In truth, everything is connected.

It's just a question of where you find joy and wonder in the exploration. Just don't forget to temper your actions to kindness: lest you lose yourself in the exploration.

Peace

Book Reviews

If anyone is looking for help figuring out how to invest in today's market, I highly recommend Bill's Book Lessons from the Trader Wizard.

His blog is a great place to learn from and the book is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn the basics of investing.

I respect Bill since his heart is honest & kind, he is a true financial expert and his goal is to help people navigate through these chaotic times.

In times like ours, kindness is the difference that helps each of us together live in a better world.

Peace

Issues and Healing

To continue the last post.

Our very nature includes rough edges: "Issues"

Everyone has issues to work against. These internal issues often prevent full healing, and yet, they also give a person "edges" to work against to find personal meaning in life.

It's an interesting paradox to deal with.

Spiritual work includes resolving personal issues. It's the working towards completion against these problems that gives each person a unique spin to life.

Lets look at freedom as an example:

Freedom is an inner truth: each person needs to find their own freedom in terms of their life.

Yet because of "issues" many people cannot accept this definition. Often times a person will try to force a larger definition of freedom on themselves and the world. It's easier for many to let go of personal responsibility and just live to the dictates of others. But then this just extends their problem, as it means suppressing the discovery of personal freedom! To live to another person's version of freedom by definition means living to the dictates of another: Do you see the trap?

You cannot force a definition of truth onto another: no matter how profoundly true it might generally be for yourself or many others!

Truth is not determined by weight of public opinion.

Here is an example:

A person abandoned as child could hold on to the "issue" of abandonment, to the point they can't leave a bad relationship for their own freedom. They may not accept that it's required to leave and define their freedom in the leaving. The reasons can be many: for example, they don't want to subject children of the relationship to the feeling of abandonment. In fact: If I were to tell such a person that freedom is an inner truth and described what it meant... They could rebel against the idea and hold on to the bad relationship even harder...

In this very simplified example, a person leaving the bad relationship doesn't have to leave their children. Sadly, people tend to clump together multiple situations as if it had to be all resolved by a single action... This causes even more confusion and problems in the untangling of personal truth.

So in this example here, a healer doesn't separate the person away from the issue. The answer isn't a final truth about freedom, to simply leave. Instead, discover that the answer is a path. It takes a little work to help discover a path that works against resolving the issues of abandonment also! It's about teaching a person how to not to trap themselves into prison's of self judgment and larger statements that bind them down. The healing isn't to remove the issue of abandonment, but to instead work with it to find acceptance... The true healing is a path of acceptance, not the destination in the cure of personal freedom.

Many many variations to this example will exist. I happen to see this quite a bit, but it doesn't make the problem a universal truth just because it's a common pattern. Many people will find exception with my example, precisely because of personal issues. I used the idea of abandonment or leaving a bad relationship because it stirs up issues and serves as an example how we feel and live to our own problems. This example is also so simply stated, that it doesn't include all the variations of the problem. That too can be enough to stir up edges that people need to explore.

If you are chasing and finding problems with these statements: then it means to chill. Frustration in reading what I wrote means getting trapped into exactly the personal problems I am talking about that we each have.

A healer needs to be very flexible and understand the variances we each have, and work with that in with acceptance.

For a healer, truth isn't always the best tool to heal a person with! Instead truth is discovered in the process of healing.

Some healers try to cheat by only teaching "truths" since it can pull a person towards a solution. (They do this since, it's easy and it does work for those close to your own truth). The problem is depending on the issue, it could also take a person further away from where they really need to be. Ironically often times: spiritual healers who only heal with "truth" are often those trying to heal themselves with their own truths. Not a healer I would recommend.

Healing comes out of acceptance and kindness and
to work with that person's own flow of life.

Peace

A Lesson for Healers

Many

working ever so hard

towards answers.

They are already within us. No need to work hard, just relax into them.

Many

Holding on to pain

too afraid to let go.

People avoid answers, due to the fear of losing their unique nature in the revelation.

Holding onto what is known: is easier than risking the seemingly unknown.

"Truth" is not desired by many, despite claims otherwise. Before finding truth, a person must release their own pain. Being a spiritual healer isn't always to cure the pain, it's to be patient enough to help others remove their own chains (which more times than not is often the source of inner pain).

Don't make the mistake thinking your inner spiritual answers will fit to another. The Taoist path is to be patient. To help another release into their life, to find their own truth, over giving an answer as a short cut to resolve the internal issues people hold deep inside.

People will work through their pain at their own pace. Healing can at times lengthen this process.

In these cases the answer is not the healing, Healing is a process. People seem to always confuse a destination to be solution.

A person needs to walk their path of healing in order to make it their own. Only then can a person accept the answers, already deeply inside of us.

Releasing pain and healing pain are not the same thing. Be careful to understand this difference if you decide to walk a spiritual healers path.

peace

Fire in the Sky

The sky was on fire tonight while raining and all jumbled about.

Not a bad evening to chill in the mixture of earth, fire, water and air

July 1st!

WOOO Hoooo July 1st!

I was getting all excited to write my first post for July

only to realize that was yesterday.

Not living to time has it issues at times...

especially since other people are so attached to it

Just remember when you discover the secret to time travel to also carry a calendar... otherwise you will trip over yourself in the jumps.

Seessh!

Peace

Rivers and Tar

Working in Santa Fe today

Wrote this poem, while waiting in a parking lot, in some random mall under the only shade trees in sight.

---

Countless cars transversing
Hot tar oceans
outlined with
mall, malls and more sprawl

A river runs through this
Here
I am

The world moves busily by:
not knowing, trapped to destination.
As I am in my freedom
flowing to lightness of being
the river.

------------------------------
July 1st 2008
Santa Fe


People move about, very much so

but how many flow to their own life?


Peace