If Pigs Could Fly and Dogs Could Reason

Yesterday as the dogs and I were ending our walk we encountered a neighbor walking her dachshund. They were directly opposite our house and her dog spotted us before we could enter our driveway. The dachshund began barking and lunging toward us which brought Sophie and Muttley to a halt. Sophie has an expressive face and I could almost read her thoughts. Towering above the little dog she looked down and said, at least in my mind, “What’s your problem?”

Our neighbor knelt down and began talking to her dog: “I know they’re bigger than you, Trudy, but they won’t hurt you. They look friendly.” Trudy ignored this information and continued barking. Meanwhile Sophie, Muttley and I started down the driveway and, as we turned into our backyard, I heard our neighbor say, “See, I told you they wouldn’t hurt you.”

But dogs don’t think as humans do. Our backyard is a fenced half acre and Sophie could spend every day in it if she wouldn’t dig up the plants, eat dirt and get covered in mud. Heaven knows I’ve tried to explain this to her a hundred times. I use simple logic: “Sophie,” I say, “if you would behave and not dig or bark, then you could roam free all day.” It seems so easy. Then I add, “If you roamed free all day, then you wouldn’t be penned up on the porch.” Why, it’s not even that difficult, just a simple if/then situation.

Sophie doesn’t comprehend. As soon as I open the porch door she bolts into the backyard barking ferociously at the trees, hoping a squirrel will appear. When one does, she gets so excited she runs to the closest plant, digs it out and begins eating the dirt. So much for reason and logic!

On the other hand, Sophie seems to have a great time when she’s in the yard. She runs, barks and digs. Sometimes when she barks Muttley runs to see what’s exciting. Other times Muttley barks and Sophie tears across the yard. They seem happiest when they’re doing everything I don’t want them to do.

When I call them in, or go get them which is the usual occurrence, I sometimes wonder if they say to each other, “It’s a shame Charles thinks so much. I’ll bet he would have a great time if only he would let himself go. All he does is sit penned up in his room. If only he would stop reading and thinking, then he could roam free in the backyard and have fun experiences with us. You would think humans could understand something so simple.”

Quotations from “A Taoist Classic: Chuang Tzu”

Today I was rereading the notes on Chinese philosophy and religion which I took when I lived at the lake house and was doing research. Recently I purchased another book, “A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy” translated and compiled by Wing-Tsit Chan which inspired me to review the material. Below are quotations from the book “A Taoist Classic: Chuang Tzu”.

“The theory of letting-alone is not only a political philosophy; it can also be applied as an art of living. In the human world, in the relationship between man and man, we are always in a place of safety, if we will let everything do what it is fit to do, while we ourselves maintain the appearance of inferiority, ignorance, and humbleness…In dealing with other men and other things, we should let them alone without interfering with them; in dealing with ourselves, we should also let the different bodily functions alone without interfering with them. (A Taoist Classic: Chuang Tzu pp 9-10)

“The knowledge of the ancients is perfect. How perfect? At first, they did not yet know that there were things (they had experience, but no intellectual knowledge). This is the most perfect knowledge; nothing can be added. Next they knew that there were things, but they did not yet make distinctions between them. Next they made distinctions between them, but they did not yet pass judgments upon them. When judgments were passed, Tao was destroyed. With the destruction of Tao, individual preferences came into being.” (A Taoist Classic: Chuang Tzu p 15)

“But the perfect man is absolutely free, because he has transcended all distinctions and is happy in any form of existence. The transformation of life and death is to him but as the succession of day and night, and cannot affect him, to say nothing of the worldly gain and loss, good luck and ill luck.” (A Taoist Classic: Chuang Tzu p 17)

“The perfect man identifies himself with the universe, and follows the nature of things. So Chuang Tzu said: ‘The perfect man has no self; the spiritual man has no achievement; the sage has no name.’ They have no achievement and no name, because they let everything do its own work and have its own name.” (A Taoist Classic: Chuang Tzu p 18)

“The spiritual man has no achievement…He simply lets every man do his own work according to his own ability.” (A Taoist Classic Chuang-Tzu p 109)

“Do not be the owner of fame. Do not be full of plans. Do not be busy with work. Do not be the master of knowledge.
“Identify yourself with the infinite. Make excursion into the void. Exercise fully what you have received from nature, but gain nothing besides. In one word, be empty.”
“The mind of the perfect man is like a mirror. It does not move with things, nor does it anticipate them. It responds to things, but it does not retain them. Therefore, he is able to deal successfully with things, but he is not affected by them.” (A Taoist Classic Chuang-Tzu p 113)

“Non action does not mean nothing doing. Let everything do what it does, and then its nature will be satisfied.” (A Taoist Classic Chuang-Tzu p 124)

A Realization is Slowly Creeping into my Consciousness

During the last few weeks and months a realization has been creeping into my consciousness. It’s a very simple, elementary one that should have been evident years ago. And, honestly, it probably was but I didn’t do anything about it. I could check my journals and surely it appears many times. In fact, it’s almost embarrassing to admit that it’s just now sinking in. But even then using the word “embarrassing” indicates a less than complete understanding. So…here it is:

Any time that I’m happy/unhappy, joyful/angry, accepting/judgmental, or virtually any other combination of adjectives describing emotions, it’s because the moment is either happening as I want it or not as I want it. It’s that simple!

“I” have a set of beliefs and expectations about how the world operates or should operate. When the events in my personal world and I are in sync everything is fine. When the events are counter to what I expect, well, I’m not pleased about it and my emotions indicate it.

For instance, Sophie, our Golden Doodle dog, is a primary focus during my day. When she listens to my commands I’m delighted. When she doesn’t respond, which is most of the time, I get frustrated. My thoughts are, “I want Sophie to act this way but she’s acting that way”. Yes, I know, life is what it is and if I could accept that then my realization would have had its impact probably 60 years ago. But I’m 65 and still working on that simple understanding.

Life is what it is. It’s a cliché that we say and soon forget. But, in actuality, it is probably the essence of enlightenment. I recently read “Who is My Self? A Guide to Buddhist Meditation” by Ayya Khema. She writes on pages 67-8, “Equanimity, one of the seven factors of enlightenment, is the highest emotion there is. We can experience it on several levels. The first is when we no longer become agitated should something happen that we do not like.”

She continues on page 69, “The third kind of equanimity does not leave us ever again, because we have become so imbued with the awareness of impermanence that we have it, so to speak, constantly at our fingertips. Our ego assertion has been reduced to the point where it is no longer an obstacle to equanimity. Whatever happens, needs to happen, and that is all. If it is exactly what we wanted, that is fine, and if it is not, that is fine too.”

It seems so easy, simply accept whatever is happening now. And, with certainty, how I react to what is happening now will have an effect on whatever happens next. But, then, there is also Sophie who is barking at a squirrel in the yard and I would prefer that she didn’t disturb our neighbors. So…after I try convincing her that what she is doing is not what I want her to do, I’ll practice more equanimity.

Your present life will be a past life memory

I just finished reading the three “Betty Books” written by Steward Edward White, so I’ve been thinking a lot about this life and life-after-death. In the first two books Betty White communicates with beings she and Stewart call the “Invisibles”. In the third book Betty has died and communicates with her husband via another medium. There’s no question in my mind that a person, minus the body, continues existing after death. I also firmly believe that there are levels of consciousness so that a dead person doesn’t suddenly become enlightened on the “other side”.

At the highest level of consciousness there is only unity, or Self, which is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds. Until we realize this oneness we compartmentalize the Self into smaller selves or individual personalities. I believe that when we die our individual present personality leaves the body and continues its existence as an energy body. In “The Betty Book” the Invisibles provide a lot of information about life here and some information about life there. In essence though, the message is that we continue evolving our consciousness there based on what we have accomplished here.

Eventually, possibly many, many future incarnations later, the small self evolves to a level where it merges with its higher self. I like to think of it in terms of Robert Monroe’s “I-There” group which includes all the varied incarnations. Let’s say my higher self’s name is Zog and it has incarnated on earth hundreds, thousands or millions of times. Let’s say we’ve had a life called Pierre, another Justin, another Sheila, another Peter, and now Charles to name a few. When Pierre died in the 16th century and went to the other side he remained the personality of Pierre. And when I die I will remain the personality of Charles. Zog will then incarnate again as another personality and this new personality in the 23rd century, let’s call this being Pearl Bay Moonglow, will someday go to a psychic and receive information about a past life being named Charles and another named Pierre. Pearl Bay will have her/his new experiences and these will be added to Zog’s.

At some point all the smaller selves will merge and just be Zog with lots of memories compiled as one being. And, as Zog evolves, he/she will merge with its higher self which will include many more personalities and incarnations until, at long last, all the higher selves will realize the Self. At which time maybe all creation starts over again.

Dandelions and Muscles

My wife and I live with our two dogs and two cats in the “suburbs” outside the bustling village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Yellow Springs is often referred to as an old hippie town where beautiful homes with manicured yards sit next to houses falling down with yards overgrown with weeds. A year ago we sold our YS home, one with a cared-for yard and Jenny’s wonderful vegetable and flower garden, to move to a more spacious house with a large yard for the dogs. Our community is the antithesis of hippie-like YS since many of the residents are retired from the local Air Force base.

The suburb is comprised of three parallel streets with attractive homes and perfectly manicured, often-sprayed chemical lawns. I walk the dogs several times a day and sometimes entertain myself by looking for a weed or dandelion. They are few and far between.

Jenny and I resonate more with hippie YS than our development. We don’t use chemicals on our yard so, consequently, we had a yard with thousands of beautiful yellow dandelions. On Tuesday peer pressure got to me so I decided to remove the dandelions the old-fashioned way—with a dandelion puller.

Out I went with puller and bucket determined to make our yard somewhat conform to our neighbor’s. I started along the road and removed the first fifty, standing up, moving about four feet, crawling around, standing up, moving about four feet…and continued my effort for approximately three hours. Thousands of dandelions later I finished our rather large yard, just short of an acre, and saw no visible signs of dandelions.

I was tired, bordering on exhaustion, hot and sweaty, but somewhat pleased with myself. As far as our neighbors knew we had come to our senses and succumbed to chemicals.

On Wednesday morning when I tried to get out of bed I noticed my legs barely moved. Standing up required a supreme effort of will and determination; Sitting down was a Herculean task with accompanying moans and groans; Tying shoes was virtually out of the realm of possibility. But the dogs needed walked and fed. Fortunately Jenny was already out and about so the vocal accompaniment to each movement didn’t bother her. Both dogs tilted heads and stared but basically I think they were communicating displeasure with the speed of my getting ready rather than compassion for my aches and pains. Somehow I managed to take them out and feed them. Most of the day remains a blur.

Today, Thursday, isn’t much better although there is some improvement. As I walked down the driveway with the dogs I noticed two yellow dandelions in the middle of the yard. I wanted to remove them, truly I did, but I knew that if I got down I might never get up again. So…I simply frowned and gave them my meanest look…they didn’t wither and die as I had hoped. Tomorrow, though, before they turn white and fluffy and dangerous to the health of our neighborhood, my muscles and I will do our best.

Quotations from Harold S. Kushner’s book “How Good Do We Have to Be?”

Below are quotations from Kushner’s book “How Good Do We Have to Be?. They primarily deal with Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, seeing this story as a myth signifying the Emergence of Humankind and not the Fall of Man.

P 6 There seems to be something in the human soul that causes us to think less of ourselves every time we do something wrong.

P 14 But the illusion that we can control events if we do everything right, that we can make people love us if we do things right, and that we can guarantee happy endings by deserving them, is an illusion, and a very destructive one…We just make the situation worse by hitting our heads against the wall and repeating the words ‘If only I had done something differently.’

Pp 21-2 The account of Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as I see it, is a mythical description of how the first human beings left the world of animal existence behind and entered the problematic world of being human. It is the biblical account of evolution, seeing the difference between humans and animals in moral rather than in anthropological terms.

Pp 23-4 [God] is not so much punishing them as saying to them, ‘You ate of that tree because you wanted to be like God, knowing Good and Evil? Well, you’re about to find out how frustrating it is to be like God, to create something and then give up control of what you have created, to want something to turn out as perfectly as you pictured it in your mind and then see how far short the reality falls of your original intention. There is more pain than you could ever imagine knowing about Good and Evil.’

Pp 30-1 [The Garden of Eden] is the story of the first human beings graduating, evolving from the relatively uncomplicated world of animal life to the immensely complicated world of being human and knowing that there is more to life than eating and mating, that there are such things as Good and Evil. They enter a world where they will inevitably make many mistakes, not because they are weak or bad but because the choices they confront will be such difficult ones. But the satisfactions will be equally great. While animals can only be useful and obedient, human beings can be good. The story of the Garden of Eden is not a story of the Fall of Man, but of the Emergence of Humankind.

P 31 I don’t believe that eating from the Tree of Knowledge was sinful. I believe it was one of the bravest and most liberating events in the history of the human race…for the person who has experienced the complex, hard-earned satisfactions of human existence, there is no doubt that it is worth the pain.

Pp 31-2 Religion is the voice that says, I will guide you through this minefield or difficult moral choices, sharing with you the insights and experiences of the greatest souls of the past, and I will offer you comfort and forgiveness when you are troubled by the painful choices you made.

P 54 It ought to be with a sense of relief, not a sense of compromise and reluctance, that we come to the conclusion that we are not and never will be perfect. We are not settling for mediocrity. We are understanding our humanity, realizing that as human beings, the situations we face are so complex that no one could possibly be expected to get them right all the time.

If I could have anything in the world

I’m presently reading Robert W. Krajenke’s book “Edgar Cayce’s Story of the Bible.” Krajenke relates the vision Solomon had in which God said the following: “Ask that which I should give you’. Solomon answered, “Give therefore to thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people and to discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?’

Solomon was granted his desire and became “the wisest ruler in the world”. Unfortunately, Krajenke writes, he also became “one of the most greedy and ambitious” leaders of his people. “He was the father of many injustices and his administration fostered dangerous principles.”

In Thomas Sugrue’s biography of Edgar Cayce , “There is a River,” he relates a vision experienced by Cayce when he was a teenager. An angel appeared and said, “Your prayers have been heard” and then posed the same question as was asked of Solomon: ‘Tell me what you would like most of all, so that I may give it to you.” Cayce answered, “Most of all I would like to be helpful to others, and especially to children when they are sick.”

Edgar Cayce went on to give over 14,000 readings in a trance state to children and adults. Some were ill and benefited from his advice while others questioned him regarding their personal affairs and previous incarnations.

So…last night as I lay in bed I wondered what I would request should an angelic presence appear in my room. My vision went like this:

Angelic Being: Okay, Charles, tell me what you would like most of all, so that I may give it to you.
Me: [thinking…I probably shouldn’t ask to win the Powerball lottery.] Clarifying, so I’ll get whatever I want but only the good part. Right? This isn’t a trick? I mean, I don’t have to sell my soul to the devil like Faust?
AB: Look, I’m just an angel-in-training. It’s not like you are Solomon, Edgar Cayce or even Abou Ben Adem. I was sent here to give you what you want. So, what do you want?
Me: Well, actually, I would like to win the lottery. But suppose I win the lottery one day and die the next? And it’s been proven that millions of dollars don’t equate to happiness. So, maybe I should ask for good health until I die. But maybe I would die tomorrow, or worse, live to 110.
AB: [Looking impatient]
Me: A home in St. John would be nice.
AB: So you want a house in the Virgin Islands?
Me: Wait…no…I’m still thinking. I mean, really, you’re dead and there isn’t any time over there so what’s the hurry?
AB: Okay. [The being sits down on the bed beside me.]
Me: Oh, I know. I want to know how everything started. You know, the universe and all that. I want to know who or what God is. I want to know the meaning and purpose of existence. I want to know all my incarnations on earth and other realms. I want to know what happens after I die.
AB: [Interrupting] How about the house on St. John? I used to be a real estate agent. I could get a good deal.
Me: No, I’ve been there. It’s too hot. Hot! Hey. Were you in Hell? Is that why you’re only in training? What’s it like being dead? Is it fun? How many people do you visit each night? Are you like the tooth fairy? Do you just appear in bedrooms and scare the bejesus out of people? Oh, sorry, probably shouldn’t use that word.
AB: No I wasn’t in Hell. There is no Hell except when I get sent to Earth to help indecisive people. So…what do you want?
Me: I want to know everything. I want to be healthy until the day I die. I want a calm, peaceful, happy life. I want to have an open heart, not meaning surgery you know, and I want to use all my wisdom to help others. And, if it’s not pushing it, I would like to win a really big Powerball lottery.
AB: Done
Me: Really?
AB: No. I’m just a figment of your imagination, an undigested bit of tofu and a blot of mustard.
Me: No winning lottery numbers either?
AB: Not a chance.

And then Sophie barked and I woke up. I don’t know if it was a dream…but maybe it was a real vision. Maybe everything I asked for will come to me soon. Just in case I’m buying a lottery ticket today.

Quotations from Edgar Cayce’s Story of the Bible by Robert W. Krajenke

Today I picked up Edgar Cayce’s Story of the Bible to read and take notes, leaving the remaining 19 have-to-read-these books sitting on my desk. So, since this is a pleasurable reading day I decided to simply copy the quotations below without further commentary. They certainly relate to my present situation and possibly to others as well.

P 137 The Edgar Cayce readings insist that, because man has been endowed with free will as a spiritual birthright, nothing but the nature of his desire binds him to any condition. If we listen to the mouthpiece of God within (Exodus 6:9), instead of our own miseries and bondage, we can leave our ‘Egypt’ anytime.

P 138 This extract reiterates that the pattern of mental unfoldment is molded through service, ‘the willingness to be used to produce that as the Creative Forces would have manifested in a material world,’ and through the seeking after truth, ‘the constant desire to be at an atonement with Creative Forces.’ These are the desires that will lead us out of the thrall of the appetites, the senses, or the ego. But the first step toward freedom leads into the wilderness. Psychologically, once we decide to leave the narrow world of a habitual consciousness, we must confront the subconscious, the repressed and hidden areas of our mind.

P 138 ‘Mind is the factor that is in direct opposition to the Will,’ Cayce tells us. (3744-1) Like the complaining children of Israel, the old habit patterns, the conditioned thinking, our familiar and unquestioned attitudes and responses, will scream out with desire to return, to go back. Any step forward entails new responsibilities, new obligations. Often we feel we would rather be bound in servitude, free from responsibilities.

 
This is our wilderness period. We cannot cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, where there are more battles to be fought, until the conflicting aspects of self are brought under the spiritual function of the Will. When we have the courage to take the responsibility for the whole body—spiritual, mental, and physical—raising it from servitude to service, we begin our Moses structure, another phase in that pattern ‘from Abraham to Christ.’

Across the Unknown by Stewart Edward White

January has been a long month. A few days after the new year began I found myself miserable with a cold/flu which inconvenienced me for over two weeks. Today is the first time I have read and taken notes for almost a month.

I began reading “Across the Unknown” where I had left off and was surprised to find the information quoted below on the very next page. I suppose one might call it an odd coincidence.

P 126 “Do not resist pain. Begin there. This does not mean to give up and let pain take whole possession. But to relax to it. Allow it to descend on a strong conviction of its transitory nature. This opens floodgates which dilute the force of pain and gradually dissolve its power. It will then be seen to spend itself merely on your surface consciousness, however all-absorbing that surface may previously have seemed during suffering. But it is in times of health you must develop the conviction of the transitory nature of pain which will uphold you when it floods over and seems to take possession of your life. Then when it comes you can afford to let it flood, just keeping open the gates which will soon clear the turgid stream.

 
“Fundamentally, life and all its experiences pass through you like radio waves, and you are not affected by them. It is only your resistance to them that damages you. Therefore if you can just let them pass through you, and assert yourself of higher substance, you can take them in quantity, from the most exalted honors to the direst calamities. In themselves, they are as little disintegrating as shade on your body: they are just fleeting phenomena. Never object to any experience if you can attain to that. The more they come, the more honored you are in your selection of apprenticeship.”

Cornucopia of Books

I hesitate writing “I knew it” but I did. We woke up on 12-22 2012 and the world was still here. And, wonder of wonders, (that’s sarcasm) the United States didn’t fall off the fiscal cliff, as if anyone really thought we would. It’s all hype.

In a previous entry I also wrote that I didn’t know if there would be an energy change on 12-21-2012 but I think there was. I don’t feel as stagnant as I did during most of 2012. From 1989 through 2011 I read, on average, three books a month and for some periods a book or two a week. Then 2012 rolled in and I might have read one book a month. I don’t know what changed except, of course, the addition of two active dogs.

Now that 2013 arrived I suddenly want to voraciously devour the books sitting on my desk…some of which have been there for a month or more. The pile contains the following:

Frank DeMarco’s “Afterlife Conversations with Hemingway”: half way through it and enjoying it immensely…just keep getting sidetracked

Ayya Khema’s “Who is My Self”: half way and taking lots of notes

Joseph Chilton Pearce’s “The Heart-Mind Matrix”: half way and taking lots of notes (Joe was our neighbor in VA so I heard him explain his main thesis in his living room)

Theon Wright’s “The Open Door”: finished, took about 27 pages of notes and want to reread some parts

Immanuel Velikovsky’s “Worlds in Collision”: read before but found a copy at the used bookstore and purchased it since I can’t find the one I read…lost in moving?

Ken Carey’s “Starseed: The Third Millennium”: might have another of his books but it caught my attention in the bookstore yesterday

Stewart Edward White’s “The Betty Book” and “Across the Unknown”: channeled information written about the same time as “The Open Door”; also read and have “The Unobstructed Universe” but can’t find it either

Frater Achad’s “Melchizedek Truth Principles”: never heard of it but purchased it yesterday

Ruben L. F. Habito’s “Total Liberation: Zen Spirituality and the Social Dimension”: pulled it off my shelf when I walked by it last week

Richard Maurice Bucke’s “Cosmic Consciousness: jumped off my shelf last week

And, finally, the book Jenny purchased for me, Charlotte Kasl’s “If the Buddha got stuck: A Handbook for Change on a Spiritual Path”

So the books sit there, almost like the mythological sirens, calling to me, but I have chores to accomplish. Can I resist them?