Change

I am packing and in the process of moving for the second time in a year. This time, completely out of the community I have lived in for almost ten years.

I'll be back online, God Willing, in a month or two and am still checking and responding to emails.

Be Well
Be Good
BE Love,

L.

THE GUEST HOUSE

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

 

~ Rumi ~

(The Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks)

Valuation of the Work

The first bloom on Helen's Tree after a frosty winter's rest ~ 26 April 2012, LL

"Nearly two years later, in November, 1917, a small party of us consisting of six people, among whom was G., was living on the Black Sea shore twenty-five miles north of Tuapse, in a small country house more than a mile from the nearest habitation. One evening we sat and talked. It was already late and the weather was very bad, a northeast wind was blowing which brought now rain, now snow, in squalls. 

I was thinking just of certain deductions from the 'table of hydrogens,' chiefly about one inconsistency in this diagram as compared with another of which we heard later. My question referred to hydrogens below the normal level. Later on I will explain exactly what it was I asked and what, long afterwards, G. answered This time he did not give me a direct answer. 

"You ought to know that," he said, "it was spoken of in the lectures in St. Petersburg. You could not have listened. Do you remember a lecture that you did not want to hear, saying you knew it already? But what was said then is precisely what you ask about now." After a short silence he said: "Well, if you now heard that somebody was giving the same lecture at Tuapse, would you go there on foot?" 

"I would," I said. 

And indeed, though I felt very strongly how long, difficult, and cold the road could be, at the same time I knew that this would not stop me. 

G. laughed.

"Would you really go?" he asked. "Think—twenty-five miles, darkness, snow, rain, wind." 

"What is there to think about?" I said. "You know I have walked the whole way more than once, when there were no horses or when there was no room for me in the cart, and for no reward, simply because there was nothing else to be done. Of course I would go without a word if somebody were going to give a lecture on these things at Tuapse." 

"Yes," said G., "if only people really reasoned in this way. But in reality they reason in exactly the opposite way. Without any particular necessity they would face any difficulties you like. But on a matter of importance that can really bring them something they will not move a finger. Such is human nature. Man never on any account wants to pay for anything; and above all he does not want to pay for what is most important for him. You now know that everything must be paid for and that it must be paid for in proportion to what is received. But usually a man thinks to the contrary. For trifles, for things that are perfectly useless to him, he will pay anything. But for something important, never. This must come to him of itself. 

"And as to the lecture, what you ask was actually spoken of in St. Petersburg. If you had listened then, you would now understand that there is no contradiction whatever between the diagrams and that there cannot be any."

~from: In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of An Unknown Teaching, P.D. Ouspensky

Resistance to Waking (Re-post from 2010.6)

I had a conversation with someone very new to the work about resistance to sitting and to doing the tasks. Hopefully the following post from 2010, June will help.


"Question:  http://ajourneymanswayhome.blogspot.com/2010/06/resistence.html"

Comment:
 "So, who (which part or "i") wakes up prior to the part of you that appreciates Qi Gong? "It likes, it doesn't like." as G said, eh? So, which "i" wakes up, unaware that another part of you likes Qi Gong and appreciates how it helps the total Being?"

"I wonder [must see] who [what part of self] is awake first in the  [morning] when I become aware of my own being as I wake from deep sleep and the rest of me begins to catch up. Who is it that resists and does not want to proceed into the next moments? Just then, in those first moments of becoming aware of self awakening, there is a small space in time to watch those first "i's" gather and and to hear their individual songs (stories). I have the opportunity to objectively observe them "waking" up in their sleep, already talking, complaining, etc. ..."

We can apply this question at any moment we begin to awaken a bit from illusion or daydreams, etc. We can be curious about what is really going on in those moments. That kind of curiosity, [that of the 'watcher' or 'observer'] - allows me to silently, without the 'head brain' [picking away at or analyzing or judging what it sees], gather more information about my little devils - those illusive little "i's".



Be Observing
Be Peace
BE

Searching for a New Home: The Search Is Over... For Now

For now, another apartment has been found in another building here in the same complex I've been in for many years. I move next week. I say "for now" because this is a temporary move as I plan to continue to search for the perfect house for myself and for group work.

I'll be paring down quite a bit as I am moving from a 1142sq' space to a 750sq' space on the ground floor. Last night I felt sad. I'll miss the extra space to spread out in and the sunlight that fills every room all day and being on the top floor where I can look out at the birds and squirrels in the trees as they go about their business and scamper about. At the same time, I look forward to being in the new apartment which has a little patio that opens onto a beautifully lush green lawn that runs the entire length of the building. There is nothing else in sight except for a tall fence entirely covered with vines and pink flowers that bloom year round. I seem to remember the scent of Jasmine back there as well. The lawn is very well kept and the building is at the center of the property well away from the main road, so the air will be cleaner and the space much quieter.


Lesson in Limitations # 2million, five:

The 'lessons' never end.. and that's a good thing, otherwise life would be boring. Yesterday I had to climb a flight of stairs with a small hand truck loaded with folded moving boxes. I was pretty much asleep until I arrived home with my new moving boxes and other supplies. Getting the boxes upstairs was going to be a challenge. I had to STOP for a few moments to work out how to load the hand truck and then 'watched' myself do that and then carefully go up the stairs without tumbling down or dropping everything.

I noticed recently, that since I started using a cane I've been feeling a bit embarrassed to be seen using it or hobbling around without it. Faced with the current tasks and the undeniable reality that the only one here to do this was me, all thoughts of embarrassment disappeared. I became interested in how to do it. I kindly gave myself permission to take my time and go slowly and came fully into my body - then moving up the stairs was easy and interesting. One step at a time the left foot lead while the weaker right one waited patiently for its turn to step up. The left leg lifted the body with the support of the cane, enabling the right to move up as well, and when both feet were firmly planted on the next step, I could pull the little hand truck up to the step I just left. Sixteen steps in all.

When I reached the top I smiled and thought , "What a clever girl you are."  realizing I'd just had fun fully using my body with my current physical limitations for the first time.I'm looking forward to packing - which I'd been dreading before.

LOL - climbing steps with a cane and a hand truck loaded with flat packing boxes...a new sort of work movements exercise for the aging and infirm? Yes, actually. The exercise can be called "Limitations"... Ah well... and so it goes my dears. It gives new meaning to, "going to heaven in a hand-basket." No? (Yes, I did say "heaven" not hell)

More tropical rains coming. Happily we won't be in the center of it all this time so perhaps it won't be as bad as last week's downpour.

Off to begin packing - the next test - can I do it all before next Wednesday???

…to be continued

Bee Good,
Be well,
BE

L.

Artwork: "The Evolution Series ~ 2008"

In all there are 41 pieces in this series of drawings of individual and collective octaves.

The series evolved as I intentionally tried to remain aware of each movement of the hand and practiced self observation for a designated period of time or during lulls in business each day while working as a receptionist in a very busy engineering office for several months. I was wishing to be consciously aware of self as a living breathing organism as much as possible and not be taken by the outer ebb and flow of the energy in the office.

I have been posting one drawing each week on the weekly work page. So far I have posted three. Each is a direct result of my experiences of the day it was drawn. If you sense yourself in time and space as your eyes try to follow the continuous lines without losing contact with yourself, you may be able to hear the story of each octave - not my story - but your own.

... to be continued

In These Moments

I stand in front of you,
You stand in front of me.
If we are both present

In

the Moments we stand thus,
what need is there for words
except,
maybe,
to ask  directions to a friends house,
or to pass the salt,
or how to perform some outer task?

Words are useful in the world.

In Here,
The Light in our eyes
Is all We need to
Know We Are Loved.

~LL
March 2011

Drawing, 2009