Moving On - from what

 

Moving on in the physical realm is made easier by a map. Go from here to there. Simple. Two dimensions. Get out and start walking it's a different matter entirely. Shit happens. Obstacles appear.

Moving on in the matter of relationship begins in multiple dimensions and gets more difficult! No map. A cluster of hopes, fantasies, memories, thoughts and interpretations. 

So we want to move on from this construct that we think is real, or thought was real. Does anyone ever question this ❓ Part of the breaking up is realizing we didn't know what we thought we knew, right?

Moving on - prep

 I hear that a lot. In film, in print, online. What does moving on mean to you? Here are a couple choices:

     Moving on means not thinking of your ex with anger, resentment or hatred. It means not spending hours looking at their social media activity, or trying to find who they're with now. It means not making it your life's mission to avoid them, or to “accidentally” bump into them.

     Let's put that issue aside and move on. We should move on to the next item on the list. After 10 years working for one company, she felt it was time to move on to a new job.

Both sound pretty good right. To me the first is going around and the second jumping over the 'object' moved on from.

The object in these cases is a mental construct of thoughts, memories and projections. So we want to move on from what we think is real, or thought was real.

Maybe that's where we should start.

Monks and Mortality

A monk I met recently gave me a book to read that was on the NYT best sellers list. Doesn't sound like much right? The meeting of this man, our conversation and th implications definitely are a big deal for me. He is caretaker and former monk at a once active Buddhist Temple where I go to often. 

I met him one day when he and a couple friends were drinking in a corner of the yard behind the ordination hall. They had the standard Thai street set up; small bottle of moonshine, large bottle of water and bowl of limes. Somewhere in the conversation about why he isn't a monk anymore he told me that he wants to be in paradise. I heard the longing and frustration in that and the implication for daily drinking. Definitely lost his way. 

The book he gave me, Being Mortal, is about mortality and how modern medicine transformed many dangers in life but when it comes to aging and death what medicine can do often runs contrary to what it should do. My career as in healthcare taught me that as well.

I want to find out how these threads connect for this intelligent being who has moved away from a life of faith to one of addiction.

The Time is Now

 It has been 4 years since the last entry here. Maybe 5 years. Of course there is a reason.

I returned from my 3 month trip to Tiruvannamali, India in January of 2017. Don't really care exactly because it was the end of the life I had been living for almost 20 years. I guess at 76 the years aren't milestones any more.

Anyway, the people I love decided, independently I hope, to say goodbye to me and asked me to leave them. Says a lot about me, for certain. I have always had ass-hat tendencies and I guess it all caught up with me at that time. No pity, maybe some judgement and overall a sense of relief.

Perhaps they sensed the longing in me to be quit of the drama, frequent and copious IMHO, that came with these relationships. I certainly didn't have the courage or power to leave them. Probably still don't. So there is a sense of gratitude that they took the final step for me. I have been free to travel the world since then and pursue my spiritual, intellectual and wanderer interests wihtout trying to fit them into my "life."

So, the time is now to begin writing again. What's going on, what do I see and experience and how does this world of 2023 look to someone born Mid Last Century?

Shhushing

“Speak only if it improves upon the silence.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

Nothing improves Silence; the unmoving, silent, peaceful state of the Self that is beyond and prior to the antonyms of noise and physical quietness. It is near perfect.

"The Guru (the Source) is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is vaster and more emphatic than all the scriptures put together.

Initiation by silence is the most perfect; it comprises looking, touching and teaching. It will purify the individual in every way and establish him in the Reality." Sri Ramana Maharishi

So it is the Guru, the Teacher, who must be silent but not to improve silence! Depending on the students' perspective it is contradiction, paradox or said to quiet un-quietness. It is often misused by those who want to still voices that aren't appreciated.

Better to be more direct and truthful. Or simply enter into Silence and establish Awareness.

I recently attended a Satsang and this quote was paraphrased. "Dayanand, will your speaking now improve the silence?" My immediate response was, "Never."

I realize that speaking is imperfect and there is no substitute for inward looking.

The curious nature of the exchange was that the person was soliciting ideas from the group. Obviously not everyone in the group!

But teaching is teaching even by the power of negative example.
So on 1 January, 2019, in the same place Yogi Ramsuratkumar directed me to stop speaking and enter deeper into silence.

Yogi Ramsuratkumar changed my life

Yogi Ramsuratkumar changed my life

One year ago on 27 December, 2017, I was invited to the 4 am Pradakshina in the

Yogi Ramsuratkumar Pradhan Mandir. The one hour Nama chanting and circumambulation

of the large hall was a profound experience. Following the lead of Ma Devaki,

beloved disciple of Yogi Ramsuratkumar, the rounds went quickly and were full of energy

and grace.

This was followed by Ma Devaki’s Satsang in the Grace dining hall with tea, coffee and biscuits.

A welcome refreshment in the still early morning hours.

With a subtle blend of stories and insightful teachings Ma drew me into the world

of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. Sitting among 20 or so Westerners I felt a little less the outsider

and more connected to Guruji. I imagined he himself would have done the same were

he still in his body. There are many stories about how he had welcomed and comforted

Westerners with his presence and teaching.

It wasn’t long before I experienced a tremendous attraction emanating from this place.

After several days the energy was clearly focused on the quote on the wall of the Grace

dining hall and the nearby photograph of Yogi Ramsuratkumar. Suddenly I became lost in a transcendent grace that pervaded my entire being. As I read the words repeatedly,

hypnotically, a shift in perspective opened up a world where everything was God.

If you want God alone

Why do you accept

The existence of

Anything else?  Yogi Ramsuratkumar

The wording challenged the last defences of my resistant ego;

the ‘you’ that separated itself from God. That ‘you’ once released melted and God alone

shone everywhere.

From that moment onward a clear direction was set to the magnetic north of Truth.

“Father alone exists. Nothing else. Nobody else.” Yogi Ramsuratkumar

In fact, what was formerly seen as other, people, places, and objects, became animated

by the same magnetic energy. Everything is God. Including the ‘me’ I thought I was.

I returned to my country and former life in January 2018.

Rapidly all the responsibilities and emotional attachments of my former life

resolved themselves. I did very little. Business holdings, family relationships,

financial and other obligations clearly and decisively ended.

The effortlessness itself was exhilarating. Within a month of leaving I found myself

back in Tiruvannamalai appreciating that heaven on earth had admitted me.

An outsider no more. I was Home.

Ways To Leave Your Lover

A very powerful image of Kali that I have experienced. Laying down for the Love of Your Life in the form of Kali is what Shiva does. No argument, no fighting, no deal making.

Om Mata, Om Kali, Durga Devi Namo Namaha 🙏

The pose shows Dakshinakali at the conclusion of an episode in which Kali was rampaging out of control after destroying many demons. Shiva, fearing that Kali would not stop until she destroyed the world, he could only think of one way to pacify her. He lay down on the battlefield so that she would have to step on him. Seeing her consort under her foot, Kali realized that she had gone too far, or maybe just far enough, and calmed down.

The problem is all inside your head she said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover

    Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover