And on to the Big Apple
Greetings again AM,hD,tR readers! [I thought "fans" was perhaps assuming too much.]
The soUrcerer prepares for yet another departure, this one tomorrow from his home town, which has had about six inches of snow dropped on it in the past few days. Shoveling the driveway on Saturday at my brother Scott and his wife Kathy's place was the most exciting and invigorating thing I've done all week. Also the most back-breaking. Good clean fun nonetheless.
Got in to Rochester last Wednesday night -- thanks again Janet for the tip on Independence Air, which got me up here from Washington in an hour and ten minutes, for $55: about $10 less than what a bus-ticket would've cost! -- and since then have greatly enjoyed the warm coziness of their little log cabin. Scott got the wood-burning stove cranked up the other night, and with snow on the ground outside, there are few things more delightful that one can mention in a family-oriented blog than a crackling fire at home with family. Their home used to be more isolated than it is now: houses selling for $400,000 are going up all around them at a frightening pace: human habitats causing still more loss of habitat for our animal buddies. Will it end only when we've covered the landscape with houses and shopping malls?
On Sunday, the three of us drove out to Kathy's niece's place, where her parents and a couple other friends of the family were already assembled to help with her move into her very first home! Vicki had been looking for something for the past coupla years, and was really lucky to find a cute little house for like $60K not far from the shores of Lake Ontario, with a backyard that overlooks a wooded ravine. All of her stuff just fit into the full-size moving van she'd rented, and after we finished unloading it, we all chowed down on sheet-pizza while guzzling Dr. Pepper, the guys watching the Denver Bronco's vs. the St. Louis WhatchaMawho-zitt's. RAMS! [Cardinals is the baseball team, right guys?]
It's funny, the only other football game I've seen in like the past 3 years was also a Bronco's game that I watched 20 Dec. with Crystal's brother Chuck [who of course is a big Bronco's fan], and they were getting their butts kicked that day too, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs 45-10.
These last coupla paragraphs were just to demonstrate that even gay guys can talk about professional sports sometimes, too. But let's now move on to things that really matter, shall we?
Oh my God, Janet I hope you have not been perusing my DREAM JOURNAL which I left next to your bed before walking out the door last Wednesday afternoon. For now just wrap that puppy up in brown paper will you? and we'll figure out how to re-unite it with me later. Geez Louise, of all the things to leave behind at someone's place ...
Hey I am once again in front of a public library computer, and right now I've got 75 minutes left, so this ain't gonna be a link-heavy posting. Man am I impressed with how the old downtown library has expanded across the street: I walked through an underground passage below St. Paul St. connecting the old with the new, and was amazed to emerge into this gleaming new structure, built on a grand, almost classical scale. I walked up to a woman behind a desk and said, "This place is beautiful! How long has it been here?" And she said, "Eight years. May I help you?" It's coming into contact with humans like this that ya just gotta say to yourself, "Good thing I've been reading .. [drumroll please] .. The Power of Now!" Have I mentioned this yet? [Just kidding, I know I have, but in case you've just joined us, add this dang tome to your reading list and thank me later. We'll be getting to today's excerpt in just a second.]
Meanwhile, Kathy was on her way to driving me downtown this afternoon [to drop me off at the Get a Friggin' Job Dept. -- I am now officially registered] when we stopped to get gas, and who do I see at the next pump but my cousin Phil! We haven't seen each other in ages and it was really great to hook up with him, even for a few minutes. When he talked about what it was like raising two kids and mentioned the word ego I thought, "Oh man, this guy is ripe to hear about TPON. And what a nice surprise when after I asked if he'd heard of it, a big smile came across his face. "Oh yeah, I knew after the first five pages that I was on to something big!" A fellow member of the Tolle fan club in the family, how nice.
Well without further ado, here is this week's excerpt. Enjoy, and see you back here in seven. Peace!
Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche. No other life form on the planet knows negativity, only humans, just as no other life form violates and poisons the Earth that sustains it. Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or a stressed oak tree? Have you come across a depressed dolphin, a frog that has a problem with self-esteem, a cat that cannot relax, or a bird that carries hatred and resentment? The only animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity or show signs of neurotic behavior are those that live in close contact with humans and so link into the human mind and its insanity.
Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being. Let it teach you integrity -- which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real. Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.
I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats. Even ducks have taught me important spiritual lessons. Just watching them is a meditation. How peacefully they float along, at ease with themselves, totally present in the Now, dignified and perfect as only a mindless creature can be. Occasionally, however, two ducks will get into a fight -- sometimes for no apparent reason, or because one has strayed into another's private space. The fight usually lasts only for a few seconds, and then the ducks separate, swim off in opposite directions, and vigourously flap their wings a few times. They then continue to swim on peacefully as if the fight had never happened. When I observed that for the first time, I suddenly realized that by flapping their wings they were releasing surplus energy, thus preventing it from becoming trapped in their body and turning into negativity. This is natural wisdom, and it is easy for them because they do not have a mind that keeps the past alive unnecessarily and then builds an identity around it.
Oh my God, Janet I hope you have not been perusing my DREAM JOURNAL which I left next to your bed before walking out the door last Wednesday afternoon. For now just wrap that puppy up in brown paper will you? and we'll figure out how to re-unite it with me later. Geez Louise, of all the things to leave behind at someone's place ...
Hey I am once again in front of a public library computer, and right now I've got 75 minutes left, so this ain't gonna be a link-heavy posting. Man am I impressed with how the old downtown library has expanded across the street: I walked through an underground passage below St. Paul St. connecting the old with the new, and was amazed to emerge into this gleaming new structure, built on a grand, almost classical scale. I walked up to a woman behind a desk and said, "This place is beautiful! How long has it been here?" And she said, "Eight years. May I help you?" It's coming into contact with humans like this that ya just gotta say to yourself, "Good thing I've been reading .. [drumroll please] .. The Power of Now!" Have I mentioned this yet? [Just kidding, I know I have, but in case you've just joined us, add this dang tome to your reading list and thank me later. We'll be getting to today's excerpt in just a second.]
Meanwhile, Kathy was on her way to driving me downtown this afternoon [to drop me off at the Get a Friggin' Job Dept. -- I am now officially registered] when we stopped to get gas, and who do I see at the next pump but my cousin Phil! We haven't seen each other in ages and it was really great to hook up with him, even for a few minutes. When he talked about what it was like raising two kids and mentioned the word ego I thought, "Oh man, this guy is ripe to hear about TPON. And what a nice surprise when after I asked if he'd heard of it, a big smile came across his face. "Oh yeah, I knew after the first five pages that I was on to something big!" A fellow member of the Tolle fan club in the family, how nice.
Well without further ado, here is this week's excerpt. Enjoy, and see you back here in seven. Peace!
Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche. No other life form on the planet knows negativity, only humans, just as no other life form violates and poisons the Earth that sustains it. Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or a stressed oak tree? Have you come across a depressed dolphin, a frog that has a problem with self-esteem, a cat that cannot relax, or a bird that carries hatred and resentment? The only animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity or show signs of neurotic behavior are those that live in close contact with humans and so link into the human mind and its insanity.
Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being. Let it teach you integrity -- which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real. Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.
I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats. Even ducks have taught me important spiritual lessons. Just watching them is a meditation. How peacefully they float along, at ease with themselves, totally present in the Now, dignified and perfect as only a mindless creature can be. Occasionally, however, two ducks will get into a fight -- sometimes for no apparent reason, or because one has strayed into another's private space. The fight usually lasts only for a few seconds, and then the ducks separate, swim off in opposite directions, and vigourously flap their wings a few times. They then continue to swim on peacefully as if the fight had never happened. When I observed that for the first time, I suddenly realized that by flapping their wings they were releasing surplus energy, thus preventing it from becoming trapped in their body and turning into negativity. This is natural wisdom, and it is easy for them because they do not have a mind that keeps the past alive unnecessarily and then builds an identity around it.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle; pp. 157-8
posted by Doug Tickner at Tuesday, January 11, 2005
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