SUFFERING IS AN INSIDE JOB

November 4, 2023

And guess what?

Do you suffer from the “I’ll be happy when . . .” syndrome?

So interesting. I’ve been recognizing and spelling out the ramifications of this phrase more and more lately, not realizing that it’s in fact a well-recognized syndrome, also called “conditional happiness.” Just internet search the phrase and you’ll get an eyeful, without even having to listen to any of the many youtube videos or podcasts on the subject.

In other words, I’ve been pondering the ramifications of the apparent inability of most people to BE HERE NOW, as Ram Das famously advised. For a fascinating discussion of both the story of Richard Alpert, or Ram Das, his quest in India, and various permutations of perspectives surrounding his 1971 book BE HERE NOW, which, one might say, ignited the consciousness revolution for us ’60s folks who were ready ready ready! — see this marvelous website:

The Legacy of Be Here Now

Way back then, when I was still “smoking dope” like all my peers (I wonder how many of them remain on this plane, and of these, how many still need weed to shift them into the NOW?) my ever-restless, searching, Sagittarian mind kept wondering about this notion, BE HERE NOW. Because whenever a fellow hippy would admonish me for my striving, saying “Hey man, just be here now” I’d respond, “Yes, but the Now can be large or small!” To which I would usually get either a puzzled look, or a shoulder shrug.

Now why would I say that? “The Now can be large or small?” Well, it came about through contemplating the, to me, impoverished notion of time’s arrow, where time moves from past through present to future in a straight line, plus noticing that most people were (and are!) either stuck in the past (nostalgic, wanting to repeat, or bitter, guilty, full of regret) or the future (ruled by expectations, wanting more more more of whatever it is we think we lack. I.e., the I’ll Be Happy When syndrome).

The present moment? Why it is conceived as a mere evanescent point on the straight line stretching from past to future, from birth to death. The point itself has no dimension! It’s just an made up posit, in “space.” Thus the very first dimension is the line, stretching between two points; the second dimension is the plane; the third dimension is the solid. But the point? Nothing! Zilch.

But wait a minute. What I noticed back then, without even being a professional meditator, was that when I stopped whatever I was doing and/or thinking, whenever I simply moved into the spacious presence within my own body and its reach into the world and within around me, then the Now was no longer a point, but a space! And that this space itself expands out and in forever!

All this is by way of backstory to posts I’ve been putting up lately, about “not taking sides.” I.e. not identifying with one point versus another in any straight-line 3D polarity. Rather. Consciously allow in whatever you’re internally feeling “now;” notice, for example, how an internet image of a pile of slaughtered babies, whether Palestinian or Israeli, makes you feel nauseated, a horrible aching in the heart. Notice how we then seek to identify “the cause” of this awful feeling, because we want to stop feeling that way, it hurts so much; i.e., we want to identify the perpetrator in order to at least, in our mind, not just judge, but banish to oblivion. If this person (or group, or nation state) is eliminated, then I won’t hurt any more. So make it stop! Please make it stop!

Let me repeat: whenever some perception from the outside world stimulates internal agony, then we seek to find and destroy the “cause,” because we want to stop suffering.

Thus the concept of dimensions. All that is taking place on earth now is set in the third dimension which utilizes the dynamic of polarity as fuel. Once we can not just stop identifying (and thus in this case, empathically suffering) with one of the points in any polarity while judging the other as wrong, bad, evil, but instead notice both points as real, and in this case, radiating with the immense energy of unimaginable suffering, not just now, but in the past (stretching back prior to the holocaust, when Jews were being judged, and sought to relocate in Palestinians’ homeland), then, when we simply stop thinking and step into our own bodily presence, this entire polarity disappears. We Are Here, NOW, having shifted into the spacious 5th dimension.

You might want to join me in watching this youtube documentary:

1948: Creation and Catastrophe

And, of course, this particular suppurating wound in the human species goes much further back than that, given that it takes place in the famous “holy land,” but I’m not familiar with the details.

All this is to simply advise, both myself, and everyone else still subject to programming by the usual one-side-or-other good vs evil dogma that creates continuous conditions for war, and which now, has ramped up to such an extent that we are one tiny step away from nuclear war . . . to let go of all of it, for at least this one moment in time, when we drop our minds into the silent, fathomless peaceful presence of our own bodily existence.

And then what happens?

Conclusion: both suffering and happiness have to do with whether or not we are truly present within our own bodies, which in turn, are continuous with the whole of the living, conscious, breathing natural world. The Cartesian mind/body split, ushered in formally over three centuries ago, heals when we allow the animated presence within embodiment.

 

This Now moment

expands into infinity —

silent, watchful, loving.

 

 

Either/Or? Or Both/And? Polarity Thinking in and about the Mideast

November 3, 2023

If we plan to outlive the current madness, we will need to shift dimensions, from 3rd to 5th. Polarity thinking is a feature of the 3rd dimension. We identify with one side or the other in any argument. When we let go of identification, the world opens into spaciousness.

In 5th dimension, we don’t mind coming across ways of thinking that, until now, appeared so wild as to be unimaginable. In fact, we relish how our 3D belief-systems get blown, sky high, over and over again.

So, for example:

If you’ve been paying attention to Clif High lately, you would discover that he claims that the Elohim were “space aliens”, i.e., ETs. If he’s correct, then this turns western society’s obsession with The Bible as humanity’s founding document on its ear. 

Clif High, substack:

I Have Discovered A Great Secret

Excerpt:

The Torah, and thus the original material for the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, does not contain the word for ‘god’. Instead, the words translated as ‘god’ for today’s audience that believes the book to be about ‘god’, worship, and religion, are actually the words for the race of Space Aliens, called, within the Torah, the “Elohim”, which means “many (of the) El”. The “El” are what they called themselves, these conquering, brutal, space aliens.

Since this substack in July, 2023 many (most?) of Clif’s videos either assume or directly speak of this alien presence masquerading as gods.

If Clif is correct, then what happens to religion? To all the theocratic institutions built upon some foundation of dogma that claims to spell out the real meaning of the Bible?

And how does this torque our confusion of perspectives on the current — and terminal? Sodom and Gomorrah? — eruption of utter viciousness in the Mideast?

Even so, I can appreciate people who ground their lives in principles, e.g. Christian Mike Johnson. I presume this means he tells the truth and doesn’t lie, and that he does his best to work for the common good. That makes him a really rare politician these days. But unfortunately, principled or not, even this new Speaker of the House goes along with the program and cannot see beyond left brain. Yes, he also comes down one side or the other, in his case, Israel.

As does, believe it or not, one who was, until now, my absolute favorite historian: Victor Davis Hanson. I am stunned to recognize that even he doesn’t put what’s happening in Israel/Gaza in a large enough historical context to imply or declare that the various complex and confusing chains of causation here are seemingly limitless, receding into millennia past. His latest.