Glurg in the Coconut Storm

Glurg walked innocently through the forest, noticing the feathery light filtering through the treetops. Ah, glorious light! He continued pondering, as he always does, while noticing mindfully the nuances of forest smells and sounds.

Glurg thought back to the distant past on the Coconut Island with Princess Coconut. Suddenly, a coconut fell from the sky and clonked him on the head! "How odd!", thought Glurg, noticing that he was walking through a mango forest, and there were no coconut trees to be found. Perhaps a crazy monkey threw one down. Glurg walked on.

Again, he thought wistfully of Princess Coconut. Instantly, he was pelted by TWO coconuts. Fearing a concussion, Glurg looked for shelter. Perhaps this was a magical revenge of Princess Coconut, angry with Glurg for leaving the island. Glurg continued walking, looking for a cave or other shelter. He wondered about the Princess, and her world, and again... coconuts fell from the sky in abundance, all smacking Glurg on the head. He ran and cried out "No more coconuts! Please! No more coconuts!"

He saw a rocky overhang, and crawled under there for shelter. He sat quietly, silencing the monkey in his mind, bringing his awareness to the numerous lumps on his head. With a peaceful equanimity, Glurg resolved not to think of Princess Coconut again, for each thought created pain and discomfort for him.

The river, now in the distance, continued to sing out "OM". Glurg smiled a friendly smile.

Moments

There are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable; life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only Being.

                                              - Albert Einstein

What to believe...

Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not because it is your national belief, believe not because you have been made to believe from your childhood, but reason truth out, and after you have analyzed it, then if you find it will do good to one and all, believe it, live up to it and help others live up to it.

"Buddha"

Your Inner Buddha

Back in 1957 in Bangkok, a group of monks had to relocate a huge clay Buddha from their temple to a new location. When the crane attempted to lift the giant idol, the weight of it was so tremenduous that it began to crack. The monks fearing the idol would fall and break, lowered it back to the ground.

One of the monks noticed a golden gleam coming from one of the cracks in the clay. After fetching a chisel and hammer and knocking away part of the clay, the monk discovered the clay Buddha was really solid gold!

It is believed that several hundred years earlier, the Burmese army was about to invade Thailand and the monks, (fearing their precious golden Buddha would be looted), covered it with clay in order to hide it. Unfortunately, all of the monks were killed, along with their secret of the golden Buddha until that day in 1957, where it is now found in a Buddhist temple in Bangkok.

The solid golden Buddha is ten and a half feet tall, weighs two and a half tons, and is worth over 196 million dollars!

When we think about it, we are all like the clay Buddha, covering ourselves with a shell of hardness to protect the Golden Self from looting and pillaging. Yet underneath everyone's clay shell, is a golden Buddha.

No matter what we have already been through in our lives, or may continue to go through, our practice is a process of wearing away the clay, to discover, and share, our Golden Self!

Positive Thinking

A bit of brain food for today.... to help maintain your strength!

-- I take complete responsibility for my responses to situations
-- I respond positively to all situations, no matter what
-- Whatever happens to me, I live and renew my purpose in harmony
-- I am bigger than anything that can happen to me
-- I am willing to keep learning about life and what it takes to make it work

Reflections of Glurg

Glurg sat peacefully, listening to the all-encompassing OM of the river. Glurg reminisced. Glurg thought back to a very happy time, a time of delight, and pleasure, and intimacy, and sunshine. Glurg felt warm. Glurg wondered... "Why am I reminiscing on this memory?" ... Glurg became aware that he was reflecting on his reminiscing, and what an amazing entity the 'mind' is. .. He then observed that he was analyzing the reflection about his reminiscing, and thought he would lose his mind if he went any further down this strand of consciousness.

So, he returned to his pleasant memory. "Why is it important? Am I grasping a past that is over? What is the point of this past memory in the present NOW?" Glurg paused. He went back to that time, to see what it had to teach him.

Glurg realized that, in that happy time, he had met someone special... someone who could see the light and power inside him. Poor Glurg had been rather fatigued, in a deep cloud, and had lost sight of the light. In fact, Glurg had thought the light was burned out (it happens with age). But in that magical time, Glurg met a Goddess of Light who saw the light inside him, and reflected it back to him, and somehow, enabled Glurg to see that light in himself again. By this reflection, and new self-awareness, Glurg was transformed.

Reflecting back, Glurg was not clinging onto this moment. Glurg was re-learning, and honoring both himself, and his inspiration. Glurg hoped inside that, someday, he would be able to reflect the inner light to another being who had fallen into a cloud. Glurg was aware of how tenuous our sense of 'reality' is... how it can be muddled by cloudy thinking, unsupportive environment, any number of put-downs that make us believe we are incapable of various forms of greatness, or connection, or relationship.

Glurg held warm memories of the Goddess of Light. That Goddess brought new life into so many beings, every day. Glurg thanked his lucky stars that the Goddess had noticed him, had reflected his inner power, had allowed him to wake up, had given the gift of transformation.

Glurg listened to the murmur of OM from the river, and got up from his resting spot. Glurg walked down the forest path, knowing that he too was a Light Being, and could bring light to others he would meet along his path.

Mind The Gap

"Mind the Gap" -- I have a T-shirt from London with that on it. A mug too. It gives me pause to think. About a lot of things. About the mind. About gaps. About gaps in the mind. And, of course, about minding the gap.

In London, and in Athens too, the subways have these big gaps between the platform and the train car. A good sized toddler could drop right through there, disappearing in a sad tragedy. Hence... "Mind the Gap". Apparently, it is deemed to be the parents' responsibility to keep their toddlers on the platform or on the train. And an adult is expected to keep his/her foot on one of those surfaces. Humans are expected to own the responsibility of keeping themselves out of the gap. Mind the Gap. Be aware. Notice where you are. Take responsibility for your place on the planet.

Thinking about the mind, and the constant stream of thoughts, ideas, emotions, memories that flood through. Really, they go in sequence. Mind can't deal with more than one thing at once. It may jump quickly enough that we THINK we are multi-tasking, but actually, we're sequential-tasking really really fast. And sometimes, there is just the tiniest of gaps between the processes. ThoughtIdeaEmotionThoughtThought...Idea. The GAP. In the rare instance when you can catch the gap, the empty space between Thoughts, emotions, ideas... that empty space is a precious gem. It is so hard to mind the gaps in the mind. There are so few, and we aren't trained to notice them. From an early age, we're trained to recite, relate, compare, recall, think, describe. We don't really have a course called "Stillness", though it would create more wisdom than many courses we do subject our children to.

One can mind the gap. One can train the mind to create a bigger gap, and to notice the stillness there. It is like a teleporter, and the soul can slip quickly through that mysteriously small gap into an unknown universe. Indescribable. Returning with a tale that cannot be told. You will know those who have transported through the gap. They wear a steady, radiant smile. There is a way about them that is compassionate, connected, caring, yet not attached or craving.

I think Buddha called it enlightenment. Going through the gap, beyond this world, to experience the greater connection with all life, wherein there really is no gap.

So, Mind the Gap, Mind the Stillness, Still the Mind. And, in the Gap, find the ultimate universal connection.