Guy, thank you so much for sharing your healing journey with us. I too have been slowly, slowly healing a very painful relationship with my parents, in particular my father. The meditation where I imagine my parents as 5 years olds has really helped me let go of my ego identified suffering, to realize we are all suffering and to extend grace and forgiveness to those who hurt me.
It is a billion degrees in this room and I have all of the chilly bumps.
Serendipity strikes again.
I've passed this along to a friend here in the Stacks, as it felt particularly relevant for him. I'll let him speak about it for himself when he arrives; I am confident that he will.
Regarding additional serendipity, I've sent you a follow up message elsewhere...perhaps we will write about it together sometime.
A walking air conditioner? I love it. So glad that my sharing has touched you and, I hope, lifted you up in mind/body/spirit.
I have read your comment on your post and will respond later, likely tomorrow. It sounds like we have come together in large part because of the magically way the Universe has of bringing to us healing energies. Your writing has lifted me up too, which means that you have lifted me with you as expressed in the written word.
Thank you for sharing it.
I have not read 'The Body Keeps Score.' I have heard of it, of course. In a similar line, I might be tempted to say, 'You have read "The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting" by Alice Miller', yes?'
I like the moody slightly menacing music. I'm glad to have seen the title as "Writing On My Father's Hand" with the Macbeth-esque skull. For some reason, I was wondering why I was feeling this dislocated sadness today. There are reasons aplenty around me, which I won't trivialize by listing. Yet I don't feel that's it. I feel like it's channeling this generalized wrongness. Offness. Off-kilterness.
You may be taking your sadness too personally. You may be the alchemical vessel holding it for all of us. Not because life is suffering, since I argue that with ol' Guatama. But because right now things are pretty fucked up. And you're a 'sensi'--sensei.
I've been wondering with my sudden lower right back pain, whether I forget about it because it stops hurting or whether it stops hurting because I forget about it. It seems like I'll get distracted and forget that it's supposed to hurt. But it's a very humbling experience to try to psych myself into it not hurting. Even the magic of pills seems psycho-somatic to me. If I think it's going to change it, it does. If I don't expect it to do anything, it doesn't.
I don't experience pain often but when I do, it gives the lie to all my Course in Miracles. Which is the function that pain serves, according to the Course. It's our way of convincing ourselves that the world is real and we're its victims.
Here's another song I've been saving for you on my open tabs: https://youtu.be/4kkdRc4FCs0. Along with being one of my favorites, it's nice to see confident, sexy full-bodied women.
Hola, Tereza. I am glad you liked the music. I hesitated before putting it up because it is... well, 'slightly menacing' ;-) The title and the energy seemed to fit, this time so... As part of my journey to authenticity with 'appropriate eccentric action' I will share what fits my feeling-tone for the situation rather than bow to pressures of conformity to possible mass appeal.
I will consider your thoughts on my taking it so *personally*. I hadn't thought of it quite that way, although I can see how that can be perceived. Interestingly enough, the process has had a liberating feel. I have been intellectually aware of the healing / affecting seven generations for quite a long time. It was amazing to get a somatic experience of that happening in at least one generation. (Funny synchronicity: my friend has picked up *The Four Agreements* and #2 is 'Don't take anything personally'. Funny.)
With my yoga studies having gone where they are, my having experienced pain for much of my life in different ways has become an interesting exploration. (I'll share my talk with 'gout' here in substack one day; it followed an encounter with Ganesha during a seven day intensive retreat.)
"Pain is nothing" Ramana dictated. Hmmmm. And yet the presence of people like Louise Hay and pharmacies infer otherwise. Have you spent time looking at the possible psyche / spiritual aspects of the pain that comes and goes? I do a muscle testing process to see if my pain is organic or psyche. So far, consistently psyche, which may be another way of saying 'nothing', I guess.
I'll revisit 'Ego' here, too, around pain. I've recently been hearing/reading conflicting thoughts about ego, pain, suffering.
For a long while I likewise dismissed Gautama's suffering assertion, from once when very young having 'believed' its claim. I have now swung back to accepting the truth of suffering, although with a different perspective. I don't think that suffering means *pain* per se. Pain is, as you nicely infer, some kind of touchstone wrt alignment and attention. With Stone's ideas, combined with Jung's and something from Samkya philosophy, I think that suffering is a kind of natural discontent we experience as physical creatures. Stone describes it as the discontent arising from a lack of nourishment. I think that that has some merit, as it is that discontent that gets us feeding creatures moving, even at the basic level of eating to live. What is the lack of spiritual nourishment required to 'inspire' us to move our butts from torpor, sloth and laziness? It takes actually a lot, which the time of covid has beautifully (even if with ugliness) realises with the drift of the majority of humans going along so as to avoid an immediate discomfort. And, almost as soon as we are rested in a 'stage' of contentment, that becomes the next 'trap' blocking us from expanded nourishment. I think that his is how Gautama may have meant 'suffering.' And it aligns with Jung's observation about the paucity of people looking to 'heal'.
The song was great, and the singer's beauty was in clear evidence in spirit and in body. Loved the song and singer. I'll go looking for more by Simmy. (I did and enjoyed what I came to hear.)
Now for a change of continent and pace. Maybe you'll enjoy Monsieur Perriné from Columbia:
I hope that you've woken up as refreshed as I did. I seem to alternate early nights of good sleep and nights of non-sleep or little. It's another thing that I find doesn't bother me if I drop the "should" from it.
And it was a very early pre-Substack where I talked about Ganesh being who I saw looking back when I close my eyes to meditate, so I know you didn't see that: https://youtu.be/dtID5Ho_OBY.
I have to start by saying that I know nothing about how pain works. In the Course, of course, I'm entertaining the possibility that the world is psycho-somatic, a dream of bodies that exists in the mind. So pain is the most obvious contradiction to that. What I tell myself is that it's telling me there are people I need to connect with. Maybe that's people caring about me and for me, maybe that's connecting with other people figuring out their pain.
My meditation this morning is "Today I will judge nothing that occurs." There's a way in which finding the source of pain is a judgment, but it's hard to distinguish judgment from finding meaning, or figuring out its purpose. I don't know, Guy!
Okay, I'm off to dance class but I'm glad you enjoyed Simmy and I look forward to your listens.
Hola, Tereza. Yes, I did wake up very refreshed today, although without any way of comparing the two, of course! ;-)
I see that I had been reading you then, as I put a like on that post. This was likely early in my days of substack, which I discovered in early 2022 and began to explore more quite a bit later after Yoshiko and I stopped being active covid refugee nomads.
I enjoyed your talk about Vananda Shiva and the matrix-iarchy, etc. I left a comment there. My experience of Ganesha was not as you hope for in your description. I loved your dream!
"I'm entertaining the possibility that the world is psycho-somatic, a dream of bodies that exists in the mind." Yes, very similar to where my contemplations and readings are taking me. As I worked through the prescription asanas this morning, during which 'pain' is very clearly and distinctly felt, I am keeping in my psyche-soma the mantra that this pain is a nothing that is expressing restriction and a lack of freedom in some way. My inquiry is to take that discomfort (aka a *form of suffering*) and allow my open curiosity to see through to either its source, if required, or its dissolution before the sourcing of it, which ever comes first. This goes back to Gautama again – I've really come to appreciate his psychological perspecuity and wisdom – who said that when we are able to see mara and say 'I see you' without rancour or animosity, that mara and the associated maya dissipates like morning fog with sunlight. Pain is a manifestation of mara. My chronic pain is a manifestation of my unwillingness to see this particular mara/maya manifestation. Curiosity and willingness to change will bring them into clarity and with it dissolution. Avidya! OMG, I see how important that is, because clear seeing is only possible when our ego is calm and we have achieved some level of equanimity.
So, I don't think pain actually contradicts the world as pysche-somatic. More likely it is confirmation of it. I am not sure that pain is *necessarily* telling you there are people (outside of your Self) that you need to connect with, although certainly that may and can be a part of it! That becomes an odd artificial separation when we consider in the pleroma of the dream bodies as interdependent existence, of course!
I am smiling at your meditation seed. In a way that is connecting to what I'm thinking will be the theme of my next essay, which is 'freedom'. I'll go back to my journey into becoming a covid refugee in 2021-22 to explore that. We'll see. Once I start writing, these days, my exploration often meanders into truly consciously unexplored territories.
"There's a way in which finding the source of pain is a judgment, but it's hard to distinguish judgment from finding meaning, or figuring out its purpose. I don't know, Guy!" RotFL! Yes! That is the challenging skill we can associate with discernment. The ability to see sublte distinctions without that becoming judgment. Fascinating process.
I hope you enjoyed dance class. I wandered off to a local mercado here in Mexico that has a kind of magic. I imbibed in a ceremonially made cacao beverage made by an amazing female shaman that had the prana moving in my body for the rest of the day.
I'm looking forward to your next essay connecting my meditation seed to freedom. I'm glad you 'got' my confusion over what's judgment and what's meaning. It's a daily conundrum! I'll incorporate your reflections on psyche and soma and maya and mara into my next meditation.
And my dance class was great. I was in the back of a crowded room, so I could look at all the people I love instead of myself in the mirror. And I'm so jealous of your cacao shaman!
Guy, thank you so much for sharing your healing journey with us. I too have been slowly, slowly healing a very painful relationship with my parents, in particular my father. The meditation where I imagine my parents as 5 years olds has really helped me let go of my ego identified suffering, to realize we are all suffering and to extend grace and forgiveness to those who hurt me.
It is a billion degrees in this room and I have all of the chilly bumps.
Serendipity strikes again.
I've passed this along to a friend here in the Stacks, as it felt particularly relevant for him. I'll let him speak about it for himself when he arrives; I am confident that he will.
Regarding additional serendipity, I've sent you a follow up message elsewhere...perhaps we will write about it together sometime.
You have read The Body Keeps the Score, yes?
A walking air conditioner? I love it. So glad that my sharing has touched you and, I hope, lifted you up in mind/body/spirit.
I have read your comment on your post and will respond later, likely tomorrow. It sounds like we have come together in large part because of the magically way the Universe has of bringing to us healing energies. Your writing has lifted me up too, which means that you have lifted me with you as expressed in the written word.
Thank you for sharing it.
I have not read 'The Body Keeps Score.' I have heard of it, of course. In a similar line, I might be tempted to say, 'You have read "The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting" by Alice Miller', yes?'
I like the moody slightly menacing music. I'm glad to have seen the title as "Writing On My Father's Hand" with the Macbeth-esque skull. For some reason, I was wondering why I was feeling this dislocated sadness today. There are reasons aplenty around me, which I won't trivialize by listing. Yet I don't feel that's it. I feel like it's channeling this generalized wrongness. Offness. Off-kilterness.
You may be taking your sadness too personally. You may be the alchemical vessel holding it for all of us. Not because life is suffering, since I argue that with ol' Guatama. But because right now things are pretty fucked up. And you're a 'sensi'--sensei.
I've been wondering with my sudden lower right back pain, whether I forget about it because it stops hurting or whether it stops hurting because I forget about it. It seems like I'll get distracted and forget that it's supposed to hurt. But it's a very humbling experience to try to psych myself into it not hurting. Even the magic of pills seems psycho-somatic to me. If I think it's going to change it, it does. If I don't expect it to do anything, it doesn't.
I don't experience pain often but when I do, it gives the lie to all my Course in Miracles. Which is the function that pain serves, according to the Course. It's our way of convincing ourselves that the world is real and we're its victims.
Here's another song I've been saving for you on my open tabs: https://youtu.be/4kkdRc4FCs0. Along with being one of my favorites, it's nice to see confident, sexy full-bodied women.
Hola, Tereza. I am glad you liked the music. I hesitated before putting it up because it is... well, 'slightly menacing' ;-) The title and the energy seemed to fit, this time so... As part of my journey to authenticity with 'appropriate eccentric action' I will share what fits my feeling-tone for the situation rather than bow to pressures of conformity to possible mass appeal.
I will consider your thoughts on my taking it so *personally*. I hadn't thought of it quite that way, although I can see how that can be perceived. Interestingly enough, the process has had a liberating feel. I have been intellectually aware of the healing / affecting seven generations for quite a long time. It was amazing to get a somatic experience of that happening in at least one generation. (Funny synchronicity: my friend has picked up *The Four Agreements* and #2 is 'Don't take anything personally'. Funny.)
With my yoga studies having gone where they are, my having experienced pain for much of my life in different ways has become an interesting exploration. (I'll share my talk with 'gout' here in substack one day; it followed an encounter with Ganesha during a seven day intensive retreat.)
"Pain is nothing" Ramana dictated. Hmmmm. And yet the presence of people like Louise Hay and pharmacies infer otherwise. Have you spent time looking at the possible psyche / spiritual aspects of the pain that comes and goes? I do a muscle testing process to see if my pain is organic or psyche. So far, consistently psyche, which may be another way of saying 'nothing', I guess.
I'll revisit 'Ego' here, too, around pain. I've recently been hearing/reading conflicting thoughts about ego, pain, suffering.
For a long while I likewise dismissed Gautama's suffering assertion, from once when very young having 'believed' its claim. I have now swung back to accepting the truth of suffering, although with a different perspective. I don't think that suffering means *pain* per se. Pain is, as you nicely infer, some kind of touchstone wrt alignment and attention. With Stone's ideas, combined with Jung's and something from Samkya philosophy, I think that suffering is a kind of natural discontent we experience as physical creatures. Stone describes it as the discontent arising from a lack of nourishment. I think that that has some merit, as it is that discontent that gets us feeding creatures moving, even at the basic level of eating to live. What is the lack of spiritual nourishment required to 'inspire' us to move our butts from torpor, sloth and laziness? It takes actually a lot, which the time of covid has beautifully (even if with ugliness) realises with the drift of the majority of humans going along so as to avoid an immediate discomfort. And, almost as soon as we are rested in a 'stage' of contentment, that becomes the next 'trap' blocking us from expanded nourishment. I think that his is how Gautama may have meant 'suffering.' And it aligns with Jung's observation about the paucity of people looking to 'heal'.
The song was great, and the singer's beauty was in clear evidence in spirit and in body. Loved the song and singer. I'll go looking for more by Simmy. (I did and enjoyed what I came to hear.)
Now for a change of continent and pace. Maybe you'll enjoy Monsieur Perriné from Columbia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGL-eQAAxGs
Back to Africa:
I love this concert by Sona Jobarteh.
https://youtu.be/Ig91Z0-rBfo
Now to bed for an early night tonight. Good night.
I hope that you've woken up as refreshed as I did. I seem to alternate early nights of good sleep and nights of non-sleep or little. It's another thing that I find doesn't bother me if I drop the "should" from it.
Were you reading when I did my episode on The Four Agreements or is that another synchronicity? https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/the-four-agreements
And it was a very early pre-Substack where I talked about Ganesh being who I saw looking back when I close my eyes to meditate, so I know you didn't see that: https://youtu.be/dtID5Ho_OBY.
I have to start by saying that I know nothing about how pain works. In the Course, of course, I'm entertaining the possibility that the world is psycho-somatic, a dream of bodies that exists in the mind. So pain is the most obvious contradiction to that. What I tell myself is that it's telling me there are people I need to connect with. Maybe that's people caring about me and for me, maybe that's connecting with other people figuring out their pain.
My meditation this morning is "Today I will judge nothing that occurs." There's a way in which finding the source of pain is a judgment, but it's hard to distinguish judgment from finding meaning, or figuring out its purpose. I don't know, Guy!
Okay, I'm off to dance class but I'm glad you enjoyed Simmy and I look forward to your listens.
Hola, Tereza. Yes, I did wake up very refreshed today, although without any way of comparing the two, of course! ;-)
I see that I had been reading you then, as I put a like on that post. This was likely early in my days of substack, which I discovered in early 2022 and began to explore more quite a bit later after Yoshiko and I stopped being active covid refugee nomads.
I enjoyed your talk about Vananda Shiva and the matrix-iarchy, etc. I left a comment there. My experience of Ganesha was not as you hope for in your description. I loved your dream!
"I'm entertaining the possibility that the world is psycho-somatic, a dream of bodies that exists in the mind." Yes, very similar to where my contemplations and readings are taking me. As I worked through the prescription asanas this morning, during which 'pain' is very clearly and distinctly felt, I am keeping in my psyche-soma the mantra that this pain is a nothing that is expressing restriction and a lack of freedom in some way. My inquiry is to take that discomfort (aka a *form of suffering*) and allow my open curiosity to see through to either its source, if required, or its dissolution before the sourcing of it, which ever comes first. This goes back to Gautama again – I've really come to appreciate his psychological perspecuity and wisdom – who said that when we are able to see mara and say 'I see you' without rancour or animosity, that mara and the associated maya dissipates like morning fog with sunlight. Pain is a manifestation of mara. My chronic pain is a manifestation of my unwillingness to see this particular mara/maya manifestation. Curiosity and willingness to change will bring them into clarity and with it dissolution. Avidya! OMG, I see how important that is, because clear seeing is only possible when our ego is calm and we have achieved some level of equanimity.
So, I don't think pain actually contradicts the world as pysche-somatic. More likely it is confirmation of it. I am not sure that pain is *necessarily* telling you there are people (outside of your Self) that you need to connect with, although certainly that may and can be a part of it! That becomes an odd artificial separation when we consider in the pleroma of the dream bodies as interdependent existence, of course!
I am smiling at your meditation seed. In a way that is connecting to what I'm thinking will be the theme of my next essay, which is 'freedom'. I'll go back to my journey into becoming a covid refugee in 2021-22 to explore that. We'll see. Once I start writing, these days, my exploration often meanders into truly consciously unexplored territories.
"There's a way in which finding the source of pain is a judgment, but it's hard to distinguish judgment from finding meaning, or figuring out its purpose. I don't know, Guy!" RotFL! Yes! That is the challenging skill we can associate with discernment. The ability to see sublte distinctions without that becoming judgment. Fascinating process.
I hope you enjoyed dance class. I wandered off to a local mercado here in Mexico that has a kind of magic. I imbibed in a ceremonially made cacao beverage made by an amazing female shaman that had the prana moving in my body for the rest of the day.
I'm looking forward to your next essay connecting my meditation seed to freedom. I'm glad you 'got' my confusion over what's judgment and what's meaning. It's a daily conundrum! I'll incorporate your reflections on psyche and soma and maya and mara into my next meditation.
And my dance class was great. I was in the back of a crowded room, so I could look at all the people I love instead of myself in the mirror. And I'm so jealous of your cacao shaman!