“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”  – Edward R. Murrow

Prejudice reaches far beyond the limits that most project upon it.  This is particularly so in how one views ones own personal prejudices.  Through prejudice, you create your world.

Most information is wrong information.

Putting all that together, you may feel there is little hope… no way out of the illusion. However, it is through the awareness of this nature of life combined with the dedication to Truth that you will navigate the waters of life and ultimately attain wisdom.

Life’s beauty lies in its elusive nature.  The spiritual path is the path of discernment.

Discernment arises with the integration of heart and mind, both discovering their roots in the same one thing.

I remember…

It was over 30 years ago when I first learned the Siddhis. While deep within the transcendent a feeling of solidity, far beyond the solidity I had felt through meditative transcending, overtook me. It permeated my body. I remember trying to describe the feeling… “I feel like a walnut… solid, fixed, strong, established.”

The transcendent is solid but unstructured… infinite, but without edge… all pervasive. This feeling was very different… infinitely integrated… as if all pieces of the infinite puzzle of life fit together into a solid integrated field of Oneness. Yet no piece was dissolved or lost. The integration was so complete that ‘other’ and ‘all one’ created a state of oneness in unity. This is integration… wholeness… Holiness.

It is not an attitude. It is not about choosing to be strong. It can not be adhered to via behavioral modification. It is not superficial… not a personality trait. It is not forceful, aggressive, macho or controlling. All of those things are superficial… of the personality. It is rooted in the deepest level of existence, where Oneness births multiplicity. From that level it wells up to permeate the entire physiology… body and mind, heart and soul. It certainly has little if anything to do with what society portrays as strong. It is a state of physiology.

It is the ‘Iron Ball.’

When one is not rapidly evolving, they are essentially like a single point in space.  From the perspective of that one point, a line can be drawn through it in any direction and be argued as just as valid as any other line.

However, after doing PROPER meditation for a while, another point is experienced. The newly discovered point is a more evolved state of being. Those two points determine a line that points in the direction of enlightenment… just beyond the horizon. That is what really gives your life deep meaning.  That is when you really begin to evolve rapidly.

There was a great Guru who said to not even bother talking too much to people about spirituality until they have learned and practiced proper meditation. This is the reason why. Without those two points, most anything can be justified as valid.

In this world today, you are bombarded with a multitude of perspectives… unlimited lines through a single point. Anything can be and is rationalized with the intellect. If you allow yourself to be swayed by all those perspectives, you are cast into a tailspin that wastes time… wastes life.

It is an essential awakening to move in the direction of your evolution at least enough so you experience that next point. It lies within you. It is not what you have been told or have taken on from the outside.  It is what you have become from the inside.

Only then do you know what direction to set the rudder and cast the sail. Then the real journey begins, as you tack your way over the ocean of karma in the direction of what lies just beyond the horizon.

It is a common legend.
The monkey put his hand in the jar and grasped the content within.
Unwilling to release his grip, he was unable to remove his fist from the jar.

No life of real meaning ever existed without unbridled, unbounded, unrelenting courage.

I remember the early morning rains of my childhood. Invariably a time to pick up a stick and poke around at the ground and roadside as we walked to the school bus stop. I remember all the worms on the road… millions of them, it seemed. A gentle tap with the stick and they work scrunch right up… contracting to a fraction of their size where they remained until the road and their bodies dried up.

Admittedly it’s an odd analogy, but how to you respond to external events and notions in life? Your life is your choice. Henry Ford put it beautifully:

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

I also remember my childhood encounters with butterflies.