SHACK 494 OVER THE RAINBOW

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There are two popular songs ‘somewhere over the Rainbow’ and ‘One day in your life’ these came in my youth and portrayed how I felt at the time.

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
And the dreams that you dream of, once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
And the dreams that you dream of, dreams really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly
And the dream that you dare to
Why, oh why can't I?

Someday I'll wish upon a star

This was sung by Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and I really felt that God was like the Wizard and that childlike belief was God was out there and I could dream and search for him, and yet somehow I got cynical and through my childhood experiences that were not ideal to say the least and the Wizard sending me to Earth to suffer as in my NDE there was a real discrepancy and where indeed was God. So my search led to confusion.

 One day in your life
You'll remember a place
Someone touching your face
You'll come back and you'll look around, you'll

One day in your life
You'll remember the love you found here
You'll remember me somehow
Though you don't need me now
I will stay in your heart
And when things fall apart
You'll remember one day

One day in your life
When you find that you're always waiting
For a love we used to share
Just call my name, and I'll be there
You'll remember me somehow
Though you…

This was sung by Michael Jackson (I met him and got many autographs, I describe this in my Posts in geofffreed.com ) I very much like Michael and felt a real empathy with him.  I looked into his eyes and I felt the hurt child in him resonate with that hurt child in me.

In my meditations sometimes I get this grace, this other worldly love, a love so profound and uplifting and as the lyrics say ‘You’ll remember a place someone touching your face (mind) You’ll remember the love you found here (there) You’ll remember me somehow, ‘and when the dark night of the soul’ comes I will stay in your heart, and when things fall apart, You’ll remember one day.

I suppose I am falling into to a trap and wish a meditation experience to repeat itself when I am undone and in the darkness. Yet I do feel that, that grace and love is Love and all is well and I feel co joined with the all and all.

I liken this to my experiences as clouds and these clouds float in the space of my mind and they contain within themselves the ‘video of the experience’ and that for the light to shine through them, the sunlight of awareness has to dissolve the content, which when released causes the light to be whole again.

Perhaps they remain buried for the reason of not acceptable material and the shock of witnessing the horror of the dark content, dark as in all manners of atrocities and these days March 2018 the full extent of war and horror and nuclear extinction apart from all the pollutions and so on.  The huge suffering and many people maybe born to this age to feel and share the pain, the Tibetans call it Tonglen;

 Pema Chödrön gives tonglen instruction in as follows:

"On the in-breath, you breathe in whatever particular area, group of people, country, or even one particular person... maybe it’s not this more global situation, maybe it’s breathing in the physical discomfort and mental anguish of chemotherapy; of all the people who are undergoing chemotherapy. And if you’ve undergone chemotherapy and come out the other side, it’s very real to you. Or maybe it’s the pain of those who have lost loved ones; suddenly, or recently, unexpectedly or over a long period of time, some dying. But the in-breath is... you find some place on the planet in your personal life or something you know about, and you breathe in with the wish that those human beings or those mistreated animals or whoever it is, that they could be free of that suffering, and you breathe in with the longing to remove their suffering.

And then you send out – just relax out... send enough space so that peoples’ hearts and minds feel big enough to live with their discomfort, their fear, their anger or their despair, or their physical or mental anguish. But you can also breathe out for those who have no food and drink, you can breathe out food and drink. For those who are homeless, you can breathe out/send them shelter. For those who are suffering in any way, you can send out safety, comfort.

So in the in-breath you breathe in with the wish to take away the suffering, and breathe out with the wish to send comfort and happiness to the same people, animals, nations, or whatever it is you decide.

Do this for an individual, or do this for large areas, and if you do this with more than one subject in mind, that’s fine… breathing in as fully as you can, radiating out as widely as you can."^[6

There are many forms of doing this; one is that one takes in on the in breath the smell of a burning rubber tyre acrid and awful representing the pain of whatever and on the out breath beautiful white smoke, with a lovely aroma which disperses the pain and anguish, suffering and cruelty, remembering as an empath not to retain the smell or pain and afterwards clear oneself by a cleansing ritual. 

So I no longer hunger so much for the ‘pot of gold over the rainbow’ although there is still a hankering for what I missed as a kid and young teenager and that residue plays out to this day. The child and teenage mind really buried deep frustrated wishes and unfinished business in my body / mind interface and trust with whatever years left on this Earth I may clear this up with love and patience.

My heart goes out to the children in war torn places and refugee camps, where water and food is scarce, where drought, flooding and extremes of weather decimate and I grumble in a basic small apartment and a small pension and about my pains and aches in my 79^th year.  I feel humbled by those who make their suffering light and see it as a path to liberation, perhaps in the end I will see that Love, compassion, grace and letting go of trying to force God to shower grace on or in me is knowing that I have to clear the clouds, let them arise so that they be cleansed and God is not out there because the clouds have covered the light and one day I will realise there is no out or in and all is light.

SHACK