SHACK 2133 TO BE OR ?

Courtesy Wikipedia

 

To Do is in 

 

the

 world of form, the material

To Be is in 

the

world of the spirit , the Invisible

SHACK   aka   GEOFF

SHACK 4132 LIFE ESSENCE

Courtesy ANMJ

 Often it comes back to me, the breath.  Since an early age when I first felt the breath in my nostrils I have been fascinated with it. Then I felt I did not will myself to breathe It was automatic as is the heartbeat. How so? I tried in quiet moments and meditation to trace the breath back, it seemed to arrive spontaneously from nowhere.

Then came the realisation I was breathed, something or someone is breathing me and I was like a flute and something was filling the flute with breath. I could alter the rate of breathing by exercise, emotions and various other aspects of so called breath control through exercises. In sleep breathing kept going as is the heartbeat, what mysterious invisible force or Intelligence caused this, was it God, The Great Source of Life, no amount of figuring it out, brain storming or intellectual reasoning and science could satisfy me. I just simply had no explanation for it and the more I tied the more frustrating and vexed I got. 

As I aged I came to realise that breath was life and oxygen was not the only factor in it as Life comprised of nature, rocks, seas and so on, animals, birds, fish and so breathe, do rocks and what sustains them? I felt that breath was a carrier of a Life essence, some refer it as qi, prana, life force, spirit, which possibly sustains all Life and maybe the quantum essence from the vacuum? 

The came the realisation that my inculcation, the brain washed conditioned mind was at odds with Life's intention for me and that caused breathing to alter into modes of difficulty, tightness and fear with tension. Then I felt to trust the breath to surrender to the breath as it was a gift and from the Unknown and the ego rebelled, it wanted to rule supreme and taste the momentary tastes of power, lust, greed and I felt these were impermanent and transitory never the less the thousands of years of bombardment of beliefs, rituals, disciplines were so ingrained that they were like a separate entity in me, a lodger, a tenant who was sometimes quite impossible to reason with and downright hostile and shared the same breath as me, I and who was this I that breathed through my fleshly cocoon?     

Then came a doubt and yet strangely confirming and comforting; I came across many quotes and saying from many sources. 'A monk who saw the leaves falling, the birds migrating and the snows and winter and when the birds came back, the trees budding and the spring grasses came, he exclaimed 'all this and I didn't do a thing to make it happen' from this I got it is done for one and nature indeed the Universe and my little ego and the collective ego can thwart my ideals and be at odds with the Great Source of Life, how I wanted to let go and just Trust In Life. Then 'Consider the Lilies of the field in all their glorious beauty they toil not or spin and also the sparrows they all have their supply and the Source of Life knows this and knows their needs'. There were many more quotes and examples, for instance, my beard grows and hair for a while after death my bodily functions go on even with neglect and yet my ego pushes for control and the Frank Sinatra song 'I did it my way'  epitomises this.  

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

[Verse 2]
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

[Chorus]
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all, and I stood tall
And did it my way

Yes the 'I' comes into it a lot and this is the the old question asked in Self Growth and the Quest 'Who am I?

SHACK  aka   GEOFF

SHACK 4131 BEING

Courtesy Peaceful Mind 

 I often contemplate renewal, regeneration, rejuvenation and so on. Years back I thought it may be through good diet, sleep, joyful attitudes and relationships, then it turned to ancient arts such as Yoga, Tai chi, Qui Gong then to cell stimulation through stem cells and then hearing about the growth of new teeth and the visualities and intentions to do this, then brain revival and the neuroplasticity and they all have their merits and greatly assisted in their functions as to their commensurate purposes.

I felt meditation was possibly the key and yet years of meditation, binaural tracks, chakra sounding chants, qi gong were sort of OK and then it came to me the true 'not doing' just not even concentrating on the breath, or even wanting to meditate or being drawn to it, but just 'SIT' stand lay down and just not do anything. just let the breath be as it would, no distractions, of course falling asleep would not help.

The old Zen quote 'when tired we rest or sleep, when hungry we eat, the leaf has no choice but be blown by the wind' in natural not doing one feels what the body needs and feeds, the mind at zero input and just solitude of the most profound order or not order.

Not being aware of not doing or not ever aware of awareness, just an observer in a mindless way, attention without intention.

Some other views on meditation and metaphysics

https://kfoundation.org/meditation/#:~:text=Meditation%2C%20he%20says%2C%20is%20not,bound%2C%20rooted%20in%20the%20known.

https://youtu.be/oOZoMR7GAks?si=s863Bq4DurM9U4T4

SHACK aka GEOFF

SHACK 4130 TALKING TO TREES

Courtesy Well + Good

Like many people who talk and hug trees I have mentioned many experiences and feelings about trees and written in the articles. Some that may find weird, imagination and even deluded, never the less to me they convey a meaning and a bonus to my feelings in the way of being sure of other worldly mundane routines and repetitive thinking.  

I was sitting at my computer to do an article for my other geofffreed.com (online) when suddenly out of nowhere so to speak a flash came up of a completely other thoughts at the time.

Many people have been contacting me and sharing by the way of all faiths and denominations from scientists, clergy, law officers, judges and MP and saying they felt slightly out of focus and sync and especially after reading many articles on the 'illusion of reality' mine being several they had come across.

In the early and late seventies I stayed at the Findhorn Centre in Scotland, my stays at Same Ling (1967 writing downloads) , Minorca in Spain and for several months at my dear late friends in Cavendish in Suffolk, on many of my walks I went up a particular lane and was attracted to a large tree. I was immediately attracted to it, it was not particularly beautiful or graceful and could have been an ordinary tree in a forest that one just passes by. I hugged this tree and sometimes just rested my hand on it, I felt thoughts passing between us and once it seemed to say go to the greenhouse where the grapevines are growing and connect with them. I did and I felt communication with them.

Coming back to the flash as above I felt connected to that tree although it would be about fifty years since I last connected to that tree and as I connected to it now it said ' do not concern yourself or worry about the disconnect you and many people feel at this time, it is the influx of the Aquarian energies of deep change and it is rearranging the outcomes and new information, do not try to figure it out, the human brain is not capable of it, just trust it is the plan and all is well'.

I felt reassured and I do not know if that tree is still standing or having been cut down for development of land or homes. Somehow its spirit lives on in the ethers and auras of time and space. All memories are contained in the Akashic Records and like our minds which if not clear pass onto the next as unfinished business in the next incarnation.

SHACK   aka GEOFF

SHACK 40129 NOWHERE ?

Courtesy OTT   PLAY

 

I CAME OUT OF NOWHERE

AND

NOWHERE IS NOT SOMEWHERE

I CAME OUT OF NO FORM

INTO FORM FROM NO FORM

SHACK   aka  GEOFF

 

SHACK 4018 INVISIBLE PERSON

Courtesy Pinterest

 This is a sort of follow up on SHACK 4120 and going into some other aspects of it.  For instance can one cope with the notion that one is just an idea, one is just a programme and is in fact only there to oneself as a projection of some programme from somewhere and reinforced many times over through the ages as to become an accepted idea by consensus. So drummed in and by continual repetitive chanting, world wide the only real agreement by religion, science, philosophy, political masters and atheists academics that we, feel, think and have the senses of the human flesh, even though the atoms are empty.    

Can one realise we are only visible because we believe are, we are so programmed by this belief we exist in this human form because we were are programmed to believe so and to go beyond this possibility and probability is perhaps a stretch to far, it is beyond the imagination to most of us we are not here in reality as we acknowledge it but mere believe we are. 

Beliefs can be so cemented and fixed in a tight confine that to break free of the adhesive quality of this substance of seemingly unbreakable box which may offer a safe 'reality', a box that is known and can be there for one in all sorts of circumstances and although it maybe limited and in some instances claustrophobic, never the less it is the known and it can it may not be ideal at least it is the known.

A quote by KrishnaMurti, ' One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end'.  The known as one knows it is in some cases before awakening a inculcated brain washed conditioned mind, or is there such a thing as mind, maybe the content of the mind produces the mind as such, I know I am here because the content of my mind dictates it so and on awakening one has a realisation most of what I know or all of it I have been taught, groomed and in a way a cloned mind and on realising this finds the question of who am I when stripped of everyone else's 'stuff' filling an empty something, what is this mind stripped of it's content, am I the unknown that I Feared?

To go further; can I be aware of the unknown? well in some experiences when the mind in meditation, not trance or altered state of conscientious, when thought has stopped naturally through the awareness meeting Itself and this is perhaps the unknown. One is invisible, one is what one is and has no definition, then one maybe able to feel that 'that the known coming to an end' is acceptable not by a neat imaginative innovation or through fear conjuring up by the incredible power of the monkey mind ego some ploy to be an adhesive plaster over the wound of the fear of loss of self. Some have retreated into an imaginary world or extreme distraction in order to face the demise of the body and a self imposed deluded mind especially when one realises the illusion of reality and reality is just another fantasy, mind game, dream and whatever one creates materially or psychologically is impermanent and transitory.   

One may now feel there is no platform, no solid stance and one is what one is with no substantive solution as to the nature of reality as it may not exist and as I do not exist how is it I feel I do?  This brings up the the thought, that do I exist because I want to feel this, or is that a programmed long held belief and what would happen if I saw through the box of beliefs as just a programme and then went outside the box and then what? What would be that, that went outside the box? Would this be just a coping mechanism to perhaps allay the fear of not knowing, existing or being? All the above and this are word games and until the unknown becomes the unknown in an intuitive spontaneous experience then all the above is hypothetical and conjecture and a mere mind exercise in logic and intellectual masturbation.

SHACK  aka  GEOFF

SHACK 4127 FREEDOM

Courtesy Darius Fox

Sitting doing Qi Gong with my eyes closed I heard the chirping of the birds, a delicate sound, quaint, and I smiled spontaneously and a beautiful rapture ensued and I felt so free and felt I could just fly away in this free flowing stream of bliss.

I wondered do the birds and animals feel this, I felt the trees did and I then felt they all grow and live without thought. This is their nature freedom, they do what Life created them to do, their natural expressions and life is freedom and because of that when not threatened they move with ease, they are loose in limb, tendon and muscle, that is why they are graceful and easy to watch, the ease and grace of the uncaged, the bear caged and walks endlessly around its cage crunched up and sad it only felt free and easy before capture, it knew the only thing that it was free and yearned for that life giving energy and with us humans we are caged in many ways and to see a free human is a thing of beauty.

The little chirping teachers connected to my freedom, I was in a cloud of something heavy and when that first chirp sounded it immediately without thought or will brought a smile so natural so without thought or effort, this was Life in these chirping birds speaking to the Life in me. I realised afterwards that Life is freedom and why do we humans create boarders, territories, wars, broken hearts in relationships, why do we smile at babies because they are free until we screw them down. 

I realised how the subtle feelings before thought came into mind and body, just feelings, maybe from way down and had grown into an entity, a splinter mind of its own, now a cloudy misty nebulous murky drop down thing, not distinct by subtly present. This maybe accumulated from many pasts, the dim history of time lines perpetuated by karma and sought after when death took hold and the soul hungered for the past emotional high or wanted to complete unfinished business especially as it had a faint mere fine touch of the freedom it could not have had in that particular host body and incarnation.

So I was created by Life and Life only knows freedom and as that freedom engenders joy it also is love in abundance an unconditional love which sets every part of creation free and us humans could be free if we could unlock the prison of our conditioned inculcated mind. I am a prisoner to my own thoughts often these thoughts are someone else's thoughts I have taken in as sacrosanct and have written my own bible which is far removed from the Life of Life of Creation.

SHACK   aka    GEOFF

 As to why we encapsulate ourselves in a shell a carapace and plastron, perhaps because we have been taught we are flesh and therefore committed to birth and death with tragedy in between and suffering, war, disease and torment is normal and because to the fleshly senses we could not comprehend an invisible Creator and worshiped the creation and not the Creator. We literally could not or would not look or search beyond the human senses and seemingly frailty and so confined ourselves as slaves to the flesh and the seasons of birth, adolescence, adulthood, elderly and finally some hazy days sinking into oblivion or painfully dying in a hospice after some years of pain and wheelchair bound existence. Yet a little bird and a tree can on a day in the morning sing its happiness and joy and the stillness of the tree and in a lapse of the stream of thought connect with that beneath thought which is floating on the surface and take one to beneath thought to something that the birds and trees know so well. SHACK