Here and Now...What's Happening?

[dan33]

Yes, wonderful. Thanks Rahykt.

Like the picture you choose.

[ulli]

This group I saw last night was recently formed. Not everyone's taste.
Only one Video on Youtube, with just 98 views so far.
It looks like they recorded it in a mall, and not dressed up like last night, on that big stage.
The music is South American village music,
with more Flamenco influence from Spain, than indigenous. Cute dancers.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0nrF7wfbyA

[another bob]

Posted by write4change (here)
I have been away a week and a half. Some not so good stuff happened. ...Thank you for listening.

Greetings, Dear Villagers and All Various and Assorted Visible and Invisible Sentient Beings!

I have been pre-occupied with a gaggle of in-laws lately, but did feel moved to respond to Write4Change.


Hello W!

Of course, you have to go with what feels right to you, but if I may, I'd like to offer another perspective or two on the situation within which you have found yourself entagled, and thoughtfully shared with us here. I have often said that everything that comes our way is both a gift and a test. Unquestionably, sometimes it might not look anything like an actual gift, but I mean "gift" in the sense of an opportunity provided for us to grow and evolve.

That's also the reason for life tests -- to bring buried stuff to the surface and show us something about ourselves that may have been previously obscured by mind's habitual superimpositions. The fruit of these gifts/tests will be unique to each. For example, maybe it was time to learn something about mindfulness, maybe about trust, maybe about clinging to possessions, or any number of other possibilities. Only you will know, by inquiring into your own reactivity. Wherever the reactions stick, that shows us where we still have work yet to do.

From another angle, this kind of experience you have recently been put through might even provide an opportunity to pay off old debts, in the sense of ripening karma. One attitude, when faced with apparently difficult situations like being robbed, is to consider that this may be pay-back for transgressions we ourselves once committed, and so be glad that the scales are finally being balanced in that regard. For anyone who has ever finally paid off a credit card debt, there's a certain satisfaction and relief that comes with the experience.

There are no random events in consciousness, and none of us are excused from the results of past deeds. Although it's pointless to speculate "why", or to try and trace back to the origination of any effect, be assured that there is a law in play in this realm, and whether we agree or not, it is a just one. Seeds planted will come to fruit, and that is unavoidable. What is avoidable is the suffering we attach to the play of karmic functioning.

Upon inspection, we can observe that this suffering arises simultaneous with our clinging to the sense of "me" and "mine". With the fixation of identity on the "me story", we will inevitably have to deal with the "other story". With the appearance of "the other", fear arises. It really doesn't matter what skin color or socio-economic class the other happens to represent. That is all just costume and prop. What matters is the conditioned fantasy of interpretation on perception that creates the sense of separation in consciousness, and consequent urge to protect and defend what's "mine". By penetrating that fiction, the sense of a suffering self (victim) that arises in any experience like yours can be seen through and transcended.

And yes, it's easy enough to say, but hard to do. That's one of the main reasons we keep coming back to these kinds of situations, and will keep coming back -- until every nook and cranny of our being that would have us believe we are the victim is illuminated by a love that carries us beyond entrenched and limiting concepts like "me vs them", and grants us the direct recognition that, regardless of what may seem to be the case at any given moment, all is well.

Finally, just to round out the consideration, there is the Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"May be," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"May be," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

"May be," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

"May be," said the farmer.


Blessings!

[dan33]

Thanks meeradas.



From 3:50 to 3:56 you can listen a PurpleLama sound Effect

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZTMaYiONDY

[Rahkyt]

Posted by dan33 (here)
RUSSIAN OMELETTE from the movie AIRBAG.

Ok Dan, that clip was hilarious.

Great souls in this space, it's a privilege to share it with you each.

Ulli, the band was awesome! That music makes you want to get up and dance even if you don't know how!

AB, the clarity of your expression remains transcendent.

Bless!

[eaglespirit]

Coming Together, Going Solo, Bringing Love, Leaving Love, Taking Love...
One by One By One...Together, Now...
Endlessly
!

[dan33]

Posted by Rahkyt (here)

Posted by dan33 (here)
RUSSIAN OMELETTE from the movie AIRBAG.

Ok Dan, that clip was hilarious.

Great souls in this space, it's a privilege to share it with you each.



Ulli, the band was awesome! That music makes you want to get up and dance even if you don't know how!

AB, the clarity of your expression remains transcendent.

Bless!

You can see below Carlos Arguiñano. A great Chef. He was the producer of Airbag.

(Oye, Rahykt!, vente a Bilbao y nos tomamos tu y yo unos vinitos y unas tortillas.)

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtHsCX09yA

[Sierra]

Posted by Rahkyt (here)
In the Village,
Souls weep, creep and fly
across skies soaring through illusory ties
to Earth
a rebirth of community
the decision to live in unity
despite the tribulations of life's surprises
love realizes we're all of one heart.

In the Village,
experience calls
laughter transcends and hate stalls
while manatees solemnly imbibe
and cat tribes meow in delight
recipes of life bless
lives lived in the Light
leaving behind scenes of fright
opening sublime discourse of
wrong vs right

In the Village,
people are real
still learning still making mistakes
but ever yearning to be
the totality of who they are
free from the banality of fallen
stars ...

In the Village.

Loved your poem, loved your picture. Tears in my eyes.

Sierra

[Rahkyt]

That lil twilight village looks so inviting, doesn't it? Just like this space. Bless, sistren!

[astrid]

Chocolate moose anyone??

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAsYwW7pt7o

[astrid]

Speaking of food,
I'm thinking of doing another fast, just a short one.
The last few weeks with the moving and all,
my eating habits had lapsed into some questionable fast foods.
Which means that I'm now back with those awful cravings for carbs, ugh.

I figure a week should do it.
This weekend I'm aiming to also set up my practitioner space, so i will
use the next two days to prep.

So far the unpacking is going ok, I'm having fun setting up my kitchen,
as i have loads of retro things, that i didn't really get to display much in
all my Victorian houses.

I'm more thinking here to use loads of color, a bit like a Pedro Almodavar, Film set,
the kitchen has these shelves with curly brackets, which straight away made me
think "Spanish restaurant".

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Posted by astrid (here)
Chocolate moose anyone??

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAsYwW7pt7o

Thank you so much, you just made my night worthwhile here at work, heeheehee

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3BNRF9ICc

[astrid]

popcorn anyone???

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UmUX68KtE

[astrid]

ohhh Beaker was my second favorite

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA4TiL9L0hc

[Belle]

What a day. I've been so in sync with the ebb flow of the Village today, it's almost scary.

Astrid started it with the Hang Massive video...that music takes me to a gentle, loving, peaceful place inside...love it.

After posting the quote from Haile Selassie I, just had to visit youtube for Marley's "War"...it was "Redemption Song" that kept me humming until...

1inMany's vid's. "Imagine" by Playing for Change...an assured lump in my throat every time.

Then benevolentcrow just had to attach that DIVERSITY thumbnail...

By the time I read Rahkyt's poem...guess what happened? Yep...heart fell out...opened so wide it could not contain the love within and became a part of All. The feelings of Oneness, Unity and Love were so overwhelming...the giving and receiving all at once. Words can't describe...well, other than blubbering like an idiot for a while...

After pulling it together with as much dignity as I could muster, lo and behold, there's dan33's RUSSIAN OMELET...giggles.

Ulli's foot tapping flamenco...

AB's words to write that included one of my favorite stories...the one about the farmer...

almost lost it again at eaglespirit's love spiral,

but saved by the muppets video's.

Laughter, nice ending.

What a ride!...emotions at the very surface today riding the waves created by the Village.

God, I love this place!

Love you all.

[another bob]

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdKM_RJXmKM

[Unified Serenity]

I just love the Spanish Guitar and pan pipes, relaxing to some songs:

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQKCiuSR2F8

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FUSKO_6NFA

[WhiteFeather]

May the longtime sun shine upon you. All love surround you. And the pure, pure light that's within you Guide your way home.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gexkiDmQa9I

[write4change]

Posted by Rahkyt (here)

Posted by 1inMany (here)
am not racist by any means, but I understand what you are saying because it seems to me that sometimes a person not normally considered a minority is a minority amongst a larger particular ethnic group...and it seems the "difference" is taken advantage of. (If that makes sense) And on top of that, with all the inner-city buzz it is so hard to find anyone who is investigating spiritual or otherworldly happenings, let alone awakening in any way. I absolutely hate it that there are still places - everywhere actually - that one needs to keep an eye on people...watching for theft or being on the watch for others up to something. I think that is changing, personally...but not quickly enough.

Yes. It's funny, I just left a thread where someone said Adam in the bible was the beginning of the white race and I had to ask if they really believed that. Not that it matters, I don't mind what anybody believes, nor does W's comment offend me personally.

While her experience and her feelings after seem extreme, I totally understand where she is coming from. I think a lot of people have bad experiences with particular kinds of people and they hold it against the rest of them for the rest of their lives. They can't tell the good from the bad. It's sad to see that happen but it does, more often than a lot of people would be comfortable saying.

A lot of black people feel the same way about white people. They don't trust a one of 'em. Life experience has shown them that they are indeed at the bottom of the social rung. This is probably a version of that same thing that W's feeling. These people have gone thru that same experience emotively if not in exact replication of the event; of losing jobs, or being taken advantage of, of being put down, looked down upon. And so they see W and they think, I'm taking this one. The thing is, tho', W was seen as a mark. Being kind-hearted was why she got taken. If the black folks in their neighborhood didn't know better and kick them to the curb from the getgo, they would get taken too.

Drugs are a terrible thing. Living in poverty is a terrible thing. Being stuck in a city and being in pure survival mode all the time can make you lose touch with your soul. The loss of empathy is the last sign that you're heart has hardened and these times are so terrible a whole lotta hearts have grown hard as rocks, no matter the ethnicity.

Something has to change.

I spent several hours with a black woman today I met a few weeks ago in Goodwill that I took home because she could not make it on the bus and I also treated her to lunch. We had a long talk about what is going on in the neighborhood and what our backgrounds are--we are about the same age. I told her what happened and how I just have to move etc.

I have started doing design work again and it takes some time to get oriented to whose who and what the going rates and prices are. In LA even set designers go to Goodwill first and work our way down. We also do a lot of business with Ross and Marshall's because they have such an easy exchange and refund policy so you don't have to eat things that don't work.

She has recently taken over a flower shop as an antique collectible place. It has been unused for 15 years and is part of big complex also much underutilized. So they are giving it to her free for a year to see what she can do with it. It also has a big one bedroom in the back of the store that needs an enormous amount of repair. So we are discussing it all and tomorrow we are going to one of her contacts for cut glass and I will take her to one of mine for reupholstery.

What she essentially said is there is a Grand Canyon between middle class blacks and ghetto blacks and no one seems to want to recognize the problem much less deal with it.

So while I sounded bad, I think I remain not racist. As I said to her I put my life on the line in many ways even with my parents for pushing integration of recreation facilities on military basis. In 1961, I was elected the first girl president of the youth of the chapel. That is where I first met black people we could pray and sing together just not swim, recreate or go to movies together. This is where I learned all the sterotypes of black people I had been taught was wrong.

I also added that I have come to realize that while I would still die for Sidney Poitier--I will not give the time of day to Dennis Rodman and she said she understood exactly what I meant.

Any way life and the discusssion goes on. I now have my phone back up. The internet at the office. Need phone at the office and internet at home. Still working on it.

[write4change]

Posted by another bob (here)

Posted by write4change (here)
I have been away a week and a half. Some not so good stuff happened. ...Thank you for listening.

Greetings, Dear Villagers and All Various and Assorted Visible and Invisible Sentient Beings!

I have been pre-occupied with a gaggle of in-laws lately, but did feel moved to respond to Write4Change.


Hello W!

Of course, you have to go with what feels right to you, but if I may, I'd like to offer another perspective or two on the situation within which you have found yourself entagled, and thoughtfully shared with us here. I have often said that everything that comes our way is both a gift and a test. Unquestionably, sometimes it might not look anything like an actual gift, but I mean "gift" in the sense of an opportunity provided for us to grow and evolve.

That's also the reason for life tests -- to bring buried stuff to the surface and show us something about ourselves that may have been previously obscured by mind's habitual superimpositions. The fruit of these gifts/tests will be unique to each. For example, maybe it was time to learn something about mindfulness, maybe about trust, maybe about clinging to possessions, or any number of other possibilities. Only you will know, by inquiring into your own reactivity. Wherever the reactions stick, that shows us where we still have work yet to do.

From another angle, this kind of experience you have recently been put through might even provide an opportunity to pay off old debts, in the sense of ripening karma. One attitude, when faced with apparently difficult situations like being robbed, is to consider that this may be pay-back for transgressions we ourselves once committed, and so be glad that the scales are finally being balanced in that regard. For anyone who has ever finally paid off a credit card debt, there's a certain satisfaction and relief that comes with the experience.

There are no random events in consciousness, and none of us are excused from the results of past deeds. Although it's pointless to speculate "why", or to try and trace back to the origination of any effect, be assured that there is a law in play in this realm, and whether we agree or not, it is a just one. Seeds planted will come to fruit, and that is unavoidable. What is avoidable is the suffering we attach to the play of karmic functioning.

Upon inspection, we can observe that this suffering arises simultaneous with our clinging to the sense of "me" and "mine". With the fixation of identity on the "me story", we will inevitably have to deal with the "other story". With the appearance of "the other", fear arises. It really doesn't matter what skin color or socio-economic class the other happens to represent. That is all just costume and prop. What matters is the conditioned fantasy of interpretation on perception that creates the sense of separation in consciousness, and consequent urge to protect and defend what's "mine". By penetrating that fiction, the sense of a suffering self (victim) that arises in any experience like yours can be seen through and transcended.

And yes, it's easy enough to say, but hard to do. That's one of the main reasons we keep coming back to these kinds of situations, and will keep coming back -- until every nook and cranny of our being that would have us believe we are the victim is illuminated by a love that carries us beyond entrenched and limiting concepts like "me vs them", and grants us the direct recognition that, regardless of what may seem to be the case at any given moment, all is well.

Finally, just to round out the consideration, there is the Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"May be," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"May be," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

"May be," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

"May be," said the farmer.


Blessings!

I started teaching at 20 at an all black high school in South San Antonio. I understood a lot of the problems then and I still understand a lot of the problems now. I always always ask what is my part in this.

I have not yet decided if writing about what people usually do not want to attend to is a valid theory or not. I am not impulisve and I have the willingness to contiue to learn and let things play out. I read you a lot and give some serious thinking to a lot of your posts.

What remains true right now is that I feel I no longer have the time nor the money to risk in a way that there is nothing to be accomplished by the doing right now. I tend to say yes more than no and somethimes saying no is claiming and retaining your power not throwing it away. Right now I feel like I have spent too much of my time throwing a way my power which is not why I was given it in the first place. Throwing away power is being irresponsible.

I spent the whole next day cleaning the house when before I felt too exhausted to do so and I was the only one dealing with it. Clutter starting to board on chaos. There is no focus in chaos which is why this could occur. While I have cleaned up my part in that--I still feel a fool to open the door and for sure none of my neighbors would have.

How bad is the world. Tonight at 6PM coming back from eating I am on the far left side first in front of the stop light. The light is green. Before I can go--a car crosses in front of me and hits the motorcylist---a young man--that is on my right. The motorcylist flies up and over and bike slides a 1oo feet away. The guy is writhing on the ground. No one is doing anything. So I put the car in park and look at everybody in their cars and pantomine dial the police and emts and I go to the guy. The cars all start honking. I talk to him--tell him I am a retired nurse. He is injured but not in danger of dying on the spot. I have seen some of those. The cars are still honking so when I get confirmation calls are made and people are now coming over. I get back in my car and drive off with these guys still honking.

The price of caring seems to be too much of everything--even time. I am exhausted.