 |
 |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
| Compassionate Council |
| Compassionate Council is concerned with all things related to the well-being of humanity as a whole and the happiness and quest for Truth of the individual in particular. |
| Language: English |
| RSS Feeds for this Blog |
|
Statistics |
| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Visitors Out: 1376 |
| Total Visitors Out: 1376 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| Images Reign Over Consciousness. |
| 2008-04-17 18:43:00 |
Our entire planet is ruled by images already established in the mind. Whatever you hope to be, whoever you think you are, wherever you feel you must go, all of it is image based. Self-growth is image based, fixing self-perceived problems is image based, your saviors, saints, and gurus are all image based. There is nothing outside of the image as far as one's life is concerned. Everything you do is for the sake of the image you have of yourself. Images lie at the beginning and end of every endeavor. In fact, there can be no destination without an image, for it is the image that you arrive at, nothing more. Those among us who peddle freedom, truth, and understanding are selling images, for they are none other than the fulfillment of an image themselves. An i...
|
| |
|
| The Collective Mind Is A Superficial Mind. |
| 2008-04-10 12:24:00 |
Walking alone one has a sense of all things being alive and having no purpose other than being. There is no goal, no outcome, no way to the natural world. One may assume a goal, see an outcome or propose nature's way but it is only one's fleeting thoughts on the matter, nothing more. Life lies beyond the individual's grasp, beyond the ability of the mind to comprehend. Because the mind feels insecure in not knowing it creates meaning and boundaries where there simply are none. It then, the mind that is, chooses to live within the confines of its own making, an imaginary world leading an imaginary life, because it knows the rules, the boundaries, and its general place there. Seeing as the mind only knows its self-restricted landscape it seeks constant expansion through knowledge, through ad...
|
| |
|
| The Root Of All Suffering, Part 1. |
| 2008-04-04 22:09:00 |
As observed from a certain perspective, everything the human being is currently doing in order to be happy, to help others, to save the environment, to be secure, and comfortable is a complete and utter waste of energy. For until the human being faces what lies within the field of their very own consciousness, all of our actions simply sow the seed of our own suffering. This "current of time-bound existence" is the root cause of all disorder, both within and without, and trying to solve or fix this disorder through any other means than honestly and openly reflecting upon it within one's own sphere of influence and awareness is utterly disastrous. Wherever one looks, throughout every aspect of our lives, humanity is locked in a bitter race against time, with all of our suffering, from the g...
|
| |
|
| Earth Hour Revisited. |
| 2008-03-31 21:35:00 |
California's Earth Hour was at 8:00pm, on March 29th, and as one turned off all the electricity in the apartment the mood and energy of the place suddenly switched. After but a few moments of sitting comfortably silent, in the flickering candlelight, one's life of sheer make-believe dissolved. There was no year, there was no hour, there was no mental structure from which a line of self-continuity could be established. Without time, nothing else, in the realm of individuality, was possible for time holds one's entire perception of reality in its tightly closed grip. And in doing so, gives total importance to the object of it's own making, me. Being alive is the only factor not under time's control. All else, all that is internal, and all that is external, ha...
|
| |
|
| Time + Life = My Life. |
| 2008-03-28 11:11:00 |
The moon sat motionless above the city's shadowy outline. Large and looming, the 3/4 moon seemed to almost be watching over a city at sleep, like a mother would a frightened child. It was a beautiful sight to see, how the immensity of life can dwarf all the human being has put together. The air was now still, a sharp contrast to the daytime which felt hefty, ocean-drenched gusts of wind driving onshore. Everything seemed to be at peace, resting or asleep, and in hours like these it is easy to believe that all could be well on Earth. At least in this corner, at this time, all was indeed well. Suddenly a morning bird began to sing. If it were close to dawn one would not pay it much mind but it was still the middle of the night. This morning bird's song seemed so strangely out of place in tha...
|
| |
|
| The Brain Cannot Be Trained To Be Compassionate. |
| 2008-03-26 16:43:00 |
Sitting outdoors one can only wonder at the beauty of it all. How the clouds blowing over high above, the sun shimmering off every new leaf, and the trees and bushes dancing in the cool breeze unmistakably welcome one to the timeless present at hand. In this space nothing has ever been before, and if one watches close enough, one will notice how nothing will ever be just so again. Taking in the ever-expanding view one becomes aware of how at rest one's own body is when nothing in particular is being asked of it. There's a resting into an observation that has no cause, an observation that is not specifically searching anything out. Boundaries blur, distances disappear, separation ceases to exist. Spring has come on in all its glory, in these last several days, and the birds have been especi...
|
| |
|
| Learning Implies Having No Outcome. |
| 2008-03-24 20:53:00 |
I was aware of something extraordinary today. I was watching CNN, which was running snippets of Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton, and realized I have absolutely no opinion on who should be the Democratic candidate for president. And this position I found myself in had nothing to do with 'not caring,' because I care deeply about all issues concerning humanity's well-being. No, my position, or lack there of, was entirely due to my passion for learning, and learning implies having no outcome. Allow me to explain. When one has an outcome, an opinion, a static perspective, a belief, a background, an identity, or what have you, one is incapable of learning, because one is continuously operating under a blinding bias. Don't wo...
|
| |
|
| How Can Anyone Other Than Me See This? |
| 2008-03-21 23:20:00 |
Knowledge: facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; justified belief; awareness or familiarity gained by experience or situation.To most people knowledge is an absolutely significant aspect of their lives and it would be silly for me to deny that. And yet, from my point of view, I cannot justify feeling the same way. There is certainly a place in one's life for knowledge, particularly surrounding one's own survival, but when knowledge operates in its right place it leaves no mark in memory. By this, I mean, when knowledge operates in terms of the body's survival it simply operates automatically and then is gone. Let's call it a genetic instinct. For example, when one learns that fire is hot and should not be touched, this is quite accurate and ob...
|
| |
|
| The Root Of All Evil...Relationships? |
| 2008-03-19 22:16:00 |
Have you ever examined the movements of your own mind? That is, bringing one's awareness to the movement of thought, feeling, memory, and experience? If you have, then you are equally aware of how these facets of mind do not arise independently of each other but rather blend together to form the indivisibly familiar movement called 'me.' And one of the fundamental elements of this movement of 'me' is the duality of relationship. Where there is a 'me' there is not only a 'you' but also a manner in which 'I' can relate to 'myself.' In a very basic sense, the movement of 'me' is divisive, creating separation in order to transverse it through its own, predetermined means of relating. Let us define relationship, within the realm of humanity, as a connection between two or more people or groups ...
|
| |
|
| The Magnificence Of Life. |
| 2008-03-17 13:16:00 |
Sitting outdoors one can feel the depth and magnificence of life. The wind was blowing quite forcefully and everything was being shaken to its roots. Trees swayed and leaves blew from there branches. The sun was bright and its light reflected off every surface, everywhere. The blades of grass were all alive, individually standing out with a vivid green only the Earth knows. The sky was such a stark blue and the big, bellowing clouds were in such sharp contrast that one could almost get lost in the movement of shape and colors. The air was cool, with each forceful gust of wind blowing right through one's sense of self, waking one up to the ceaseless activity of life all around. As one continued to sit and bask in the joy of the day all the things of the mind began to slip away. Reference po...
|
| |
|
| Tibet's Suffering...And Beyond. |
| 2008-03-16 23:02:00 |
I feel for the people of Tibet as they struggle against an unjust rule. I have no way of knowing what their rule was like before the Chinese invaded in 1950, but I can only hope the Tibetan people have the opportunity to rule themselves freely and openly in the not so distant future. Of course, feeling for those who are suffering knows no national boundaries and so my heart also goes out this evening to all those suffering for normalcy in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as, those living in Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Nigeria, and D.R Congo. There are really so many areas on our Earth were people, just like you and me, are suffering. May each and every one find peace and know that they are loved.
...
|
| |
|
| Life: The Understanding of Consciousness. Part 2 |
| 2008-03-15 12:12:00 |
As the mind continually identifies itself with the physical body, thoughts and feelings begin to surface from the silent background of consciousness. Both owe their existence to this marriage of consciousness with the body. However, these thoughts and feelings spring from the limited perspective of this newly emerging identification and are therefore 'self-centered' in nature. By ‘self-centered’ we mean that all of these thoughts and feelings seemingly arise from an individual body, called ‘me,’ and move out in a linear direction towards ‘the world,’ which we're referring to as everything other than ‘me.’ The experience of life is, therefore, translated through this screen of 'self-centeredness,’ which weighs every encounter agains...
|
| |
|
| Life: The Understanding of Consciousness. Part 1 |
| 2008-03-14 14:20:00 |
What we’re speaking about is not a religion, nor is it the perspective of a religious person. It is not new-age theory or even some ancient Indian thought system concerning the non-dual. It hasn’t been practiced or handed down from one guru to the next, nor is it some fanciful concepts strung together to lead one astray. It is simply a series of observations gathered from the practical, and truly functional, lifestyle of being aware of one’s own mind at work. Since one cannot be compelled to become aware of one’s mind, nor can one do so in the hopes of achieving some desired result, it is left to those who have a genuine interest in doing so. It is left to those who feel deeply that understanding one’s own makeup is in absolute line with the natural movement of life itself. Maybe...
|
| |
|
| Truth Is A Pathless Land. |
| 2008-03-13 21:24:00 |
"Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest, or ritual, nor through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation, and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a sense of security- religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these dominates man's thinking, relationships, and daily life. These are the causes of our problems, for they divide man from man in every relationship...The uniqueness of the individual does not lie in the superficial but in the total freedom from the content of consciousness." J. Krishnamurti 'Total Freedom'
...
|
| |
|
| Understanding Goes Only So Far As Your Identity Allows it. |
| 2008-03-11 14:54:00 |
Ones identity can be thought of as that which one protects. Wherever there is resistance, defensive posturing, avoidance, conflict, or ignorance there is bound to be an identity operating. For the most part one is quite unfamiliar with the depth and scope of their identity, for one only comes into contact with its totality when it is threatened. Once the threat is over, the identity sinks back into the murky depths of consciousness where it lies low until threatened again. The surface features of this identity are those aspects which one wears around like an article of clothing, the ones that has been field tested throughout one's life. It is the identity that one feels comfortable claiming as its own, the one that is no longer challenged much, and the o...
|
| |
|
| Listening To What Life Has To Say. |
| 2008-03-10 21:37:00 |
Walking through that door is unlike anything else one has experienced in quite some time, if at all. The dozen or so young children, ranging in age from 18 months to 2 years old, are already playing on the mats and cushions laying on the floor. Their eyes turn to see who has arrived and their faces light up as one walks over to them for a morning hug. Each child rushes over, arms extended, and runs, unbridled, into ones lap. Love is so effortlessly transmitted when the very young are involved. After a hug and pat on the back most run back over to the playground, hardly able to keep their legs under them as they go. A few stay close, however, and gaze up with those eyes that are so full of expression during these predominantly pre-verbal times. It only takes but a moment and one is engrosse...
|
| |
|
| Life Has No Meaning, It is. |
| 2008-03-08 17:00:00 |
Hiking in the mountains was a beautiful way to spend the early afternoon. The sun was bright but not too hot and the trees and bushes that have overgrown the trail created many cool, shadowy sections to relax under. So many different scents filled the air, many more than one is accustomed to in the towns and city below. As one ascended step by step up the twisting trail a curious stillness moved in. There was a sense that the natural world contained everything and therefore there wasn't a single thing missing from the moment at hand. All of nature was rejoicing in itself. There were a number of lizards darting here and there and quite a few would allow one to get within a few inches of them, even allowing one to touch it on its spiny back. There was affection in these shared moments, a deg...
|
| |
|
| Away From Understanding. |
| 2008-03-06 13:16:00 |
As one walks down the street today one notices all sorts of construction taking place. A home being built where there was previously an empty lot, a wall being torn down only to be built up again, several small sections of the street being mended, and two separate businesses improving upon their exterior facades. And yet no matter how urban the setting, how asphalt-based the landscape, the natural world is all around, crowding in. Grass must be cut, weeds pulled, trees trimmed, debris picked up, all in order to keep the natural world at bay. We humans have carved out a space and called it our own only to become locked in a near constant battle with natural elements. On the one hand, we must constantly keep the natural world at bay and on the other, we must ceaselessly maintain the space we...
|
| |
|
| The World. |
| 2008-03-04 22:03:00 |
Life is experience based. There is no life, as we know it, without what we would typically call experience. There is a need for experience. We need the experience of eating food, the experience of drinking water, the experience of warmth, the experience of thought, the experience of love. Without these experiences, over and over, on a daily basis, our experience of life would come to an end, our experience of being a body, wiped out. So the experience of life depends on certain experiences being repeated over and over, day after day, year after year. The human body, in other words, demands experience in order to survive. Survival is need and need is a form of conflict. What is conflict? Is conflict some thing, or a relationship between two or more things? As we've said, the human body need...
|
| |
|
| And Society Would Flourish. |
| 2008-03-02 23:07:00 |
What are the consequences of one's perspective on life changing? Please, don't be to quick in interpreting what you think is meant by this question. Society, if one could generalize, shares particular perspectives, and it is the adherence to these perspectives that holds society together. Take the idea of patriotism. Yes, it is an idea, a word, but one must also be seeing the world through this
...
|
| |
|
| Walking Without A Problem. |
| 2008-02-29 19:29:00 |
Walking today one could see how the mind operates as a problem solver. Whenever there is a conflict the mind steps in and attempts to solve it, straighten it out. A lot of times the cause of said conflict is the mind itself and yet it still goes out in search of the solution. One thing ought to be clear to all reading this post, the mind always operates in a state of fragmentation, duality. And
...
|
| |
|
| Spring Is In The Air. |
| 2008-02-26 00:28:00 |
Walking out of doors today one could smell the jasmine blossoming along every street corner and the orange blossoms, sprinkled here and there, beginning to bud. The skies have been heavy with rain the last few days but today the sun is shining and the air is crisp and clear. There's nothing like a good rain to wash away the soot, pollen, and smog of city-life. As one passes a corner of pines
...
|
| |
|
| Our Total Lunar Eclipse Of Understanding. |
| 2008-02-21 01:21:00 |
As one looked up through the pale black sky, drowned out by street lights and the constant, nearby glare of a large city at night, one could make out the full moon begin to be eclipsed by Earth's shadow. Accompanying the sounds of people chatting, televisions flickering, and cars driving by, there was a sense of a distant spectacle happening in a blanket of deep silence. The air was cool, it had
...
|
| |
|
| The Air Is Crisp, Can't You Tell? |
| 2008-02-17 16:06:00 |
The air is crisp with a bit of that winter breeze still blowing through the trees, although one could feel the subtle heat of the midday sun on one's forehead and hands. The faint smell of jasmine flowers filled the chilly breeze with a welcome new fragrance of the spring quickly approaching. The light is brilliant as it reflects off the tall green palms and mature eucalyptus trees across the
...
|
| |
|
| Vicarious Volunteers, Part 2 |
| 2008-02-12 14:05:00 |
Vicarious Volunteers is a new idea, I believe, and was not only born from my roommates fascination with my lifestyle choices but also from several needs I have come across in my volunteering efforts so far. I've worked with, and within, several non-profit organizations in the past and know first-hand how, well, awful they can be in their administrative organization and overall ability to operate
...
|
| |
|
| Vicarious Volunteers |
| 2008-02-07 17:57:00 |
The idea of vicarious volunteers has come about from some of my own interests, passions, and positions concerning the welfare of our human family. For the last few months I have been plugging myself into several, 15 to be exact, different organizations within the Los Angeles area as a volunteer. It was a logical thing for me to do, seeing as serving others warms my heart and allows me to love
...
|
| |
|
| Thank you. |
| 2008-01-10 22:16:00 |
Thank you for reading, thank you for sharing, thank you for listening. These posts will remain here for the time being but will eventually come down. I have grown up. I no longer am in need of such things. Nothing left to describe, nothing left to share, nothing left to teach, hahhh!!, nothing left of any importance, worth, or merit. Nothing will help you, nothing ever has. There is simply no
...
|
| |
|
| Wordless Tuesday, Part 5 |
| 2007-12-04 12:33:00 |
Prayer flags planted illegally flutter over a prison camp outside Lhasa, Tibet, the capital city. Photo by, Lynn Johnson.
...
|
| |
|
|
| Buddha |
| 2007-11-20 19:58:00 |
No-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-
no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-
no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no-mind-mind-no
...
|
| |
|
| Wordless... |
| 2007-11-15 21:51:00 |
Have a wonderful weekend!!!
...
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Endlessly Wordless... |
| 2007-10-30 11:43:00 |
Sedona, Arizona.
double rainbow
touching heaven and earth-
or so it seems.
motionless clouds
held firmly by the sunlight-
seagull flying low.
...
|
| |
|
| |
 |
|
| |
| |
|
 |
