"WHAT CAN MAKE MUDDY WATER CLEAR ?"

As I wrote this on Monday, it was the thrid anniversary of the death of Terry Schiavo...

Boy, did that Muddy the waters, and did I write... perhaps some of you do not know that I am / was a Cleric...and my special area was Ethics, (Perhaps from having been formerly involved deeply with Government work).

Monday was also the birthday of British Novelist John Fowels, who penned these words in his work , "The Aristos" :  "Show the young sailor how to sail; but don't so falsify the compass and the chart that he can sail in only one direction".

What can make the Muddy Water Clear ? The Ancient Taoist Sage would respond : "Stillness and Time !" Doing doesn't get it done, and neither does thrashing about like one "Boxing the Air"!

Do, Do, DO... we are each of so much inclined to wanting to do; as was I when I went to Seminary. I didn't wish to waste my time "sitting" when I had this burning desire to tell / to DO. After being in Southeast Asia for three-years, I felt I knew something about living and dying. My Old Professor said "Walk with me Reverend Gordon" ; in Seminary, they call your Reverend... Milo Arnold said, "I understand your urge; but if I had ten years to cut down a forrest, I would spend three-years sharpening my Axe". We are so prone to wanting to Do, rather than "To BE" !

This past weekend was an interesting one for me. I gathered with some friends from across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, just to sit and talk, eat Sushi , (what we call bait in New England) and be together.( We even went to see that Adam Carolla Movie with my youngest son, Noah...not bad !) Well, one friend had to bury his Father on Saturday, another friend , from Nothern California...his Mother died on Sunday, and yet another, whose Mother is in the throes of death, fell down a full flight of stairs ! Lots of Muddy water...

I am a thinker and a dweller...and I Thank God for B.K. Frantzis...whos because of his deep caring, dosen't cut me any slack when it comes to my personal Practice, and offers my much guidance in Meditation, where my major battles tend to be fought. Although one would dispute this with what has transpired this past calendar year for me, with major Jaw-surgery, two Cancer surgeries, a Massive Heart-attack followed by two heart surgeries...suffice it to say I have been busy with a bit of doing, and longed for "Being"...and when my mind has clothed these newly revealed truths with words, I may just share them...for I have found that in the darkness of my Heart Attack experience, when all turned Black, that it wasn't a cold-black, but rather, a Black with texture, and the black also had hues within ; that this emptiness was not void, for I was "tended to", almost to the point of feeling "Cherished", and not cold or alone...and there was pleasant-ness of sound...But more on that later...except to say, as I lay there in Cardiac Intensive Care, I opened my eyes and saw my Brother from a different Mother, Teja Bell placing a string of Prayer Beads around my neck, and just sitting there...Here, I had a blessing forced upon me; one of simply sitting, with my Brother, and my Heart, in silence, listening. V.V. Rozanov, the Russian author and Philosopher wrote : "All religions will pass away, but this will remain...simply sitting and looking into the distance". (This is a most difficult Practice...taking much courage and discipline !) Thus, and even now, I Sit and Listen and allow my self to become totally engaged / my total being to be fully focused on this one thing.

If you engage in this "Allowing Meditation:, realizing the "Meditation is not what you think", you will find out that this so-called "One-Pointed Object Meditation" is a most powerful transformational tool, being effective if for no other reason, than "focused attention causes magnification", and in this instance, the magnification is of my Hsin, my Heart/mind energy !

This Practice also affords the abitlty to "Simplify...it's 'en passant ; for the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak and be attended to...so I guess I know why some of us would not wish to engage in this practice when "inter-positioning" has proved so effective up to now...What was it Albert Einstein said : "The problem (s) that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them"...

WHAT CAN MAKE MUDDY WATER CLEAR ?...TIME AND STILLNESS...it allows "that still small voice to be heard !" It allows us to see with fresh eyes, and hear with a fresh heart !

Come, rest awhile...take some time for yourself, Sit, Relax and Let Go, Focus and Listen. What you may notice is the underlying vibration/energy of the Universe, perhaps you'll even glimpse Joy, the quality that permeates the Universe; as well as other sensations, experiences, perhaps sounds, textures, hues of truth, fragrances...whathaveyou...

I sit in a chair,(on the front-third of it), aligned, with my hands folded in the Namaste / Prayer posture. As my hands touch my Heart Center (my Middle Tantien), so does all of me; for everything within is connected with everything else within ! I also get a little braver each time I come heart-to-heart with Fred !

What do I find ? Love, Wisdom from a life lived on-the-edge, Inspiration and Compassion to be sure; but also I find Hurts, Brokenness, Missed-Opportunities, things / stuff. Sometimes some of the things I find scare me...and yes, some of the things , you know, like the stupid comparisons and other games I've played and lost (SURPRISE !), cause me to smile...All this from sitting in stillness and listening... "There is nothing in all creation so like God as Stillness" wrote the mystic Meister Eckhart. One of the first commandments found in the Bible is " Be Still and Know"...

As Sun Tzu wrote in "The Art of War " :

  "So it is said, if you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.

   If you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one.

   If you do not know others and do not know know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."

WHAT CAN MAKE THE MUDDY WATER CLEAR...be it your life, the world you live in, that which you do battle with on a daily basis...STILLNESS AND TIME

Shen Sung

Fred