Open-Secrets

Month: September 2008

  • Platonic Forms – Platonic Love

    What did Plato refer to when he used the word “form”?

    Reality. If Plato is right, we are not entitled to think of reality in the conventional commonsense way, that is, to assume that that which is sensible is most real. That which really exists is to be apprehended only through thinking–by constructing and testing theories. Sensible objects could not possibly be real; they could at best be “copies” or “images” (as Plato calls them) of underlying realities which can be thought about but which cannot be perceived. In short, what we usually call “the real world” is not that at all, but is rather just a world of appearance or seeming. Only the Forms really exist, for they are the “causes” (in the sense of archetypal standards) of whatever intelligible properties are discernible in those sensible things which seem to be most real. If we don’t know what beauty, or equality, or justice is ideally, how can we recognize particular instances of these? – James Dye

    For Plato’s Forms are not mental entities, nor even mind-dependent. They are independently existing entities whose existence and nature are graspable only by the mind, even though they do not depend on being so grasped in order to exist. And mind refers to the “nous,” the higher mind, not our every day conceptualizing mind.

    Each of the aspects of Essence is a Platonic form, eternally and primordially itself. Love is always and eternally love, so is peace, so is joy, so is intelligence, and so on. Each cannot be anything else, cannot evolve and cannot devolve. It cannot be contaminated and cannot be improved upon. Each aspect is aware of itself, and only of itself. It is the presence of a particular quality, and only this quality. It is a pure consciousness, a consciousness aware of its presence, but its knowledge is different from that of the soul. The soul can be aware of herself as pure consciousness, and then she is like essence, for she is then essence. The soul, however, can know herself as any of the aspects of essence, for all of these aspects are elements of her potential.  – A.H. Almaas – Inner Journey Home

    Platonic Love

    Platonic love is mostly understood to be a pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences.

    Love, though, is a Platonic form, so Platonic Love could also refer to the undelying ground of love despite its appearance or manifestation. Platonic love could be how we experience the Platonic form of love when love is not tied to the instincts.

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  • What Do You Do, When You Do What You Do

    Butterfly_chaosYou’ve heard of chaos theory?

    • When a butterfly flaps it’s wings in the Caribbean Islands, does it affect us here in California?
    • When a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound.
    • If a man makes a decision while his wife is not around, is he still wrong?

    Few of us consider the consequences of our everyday actions in depth. If we did, we’d be busy all the time thinking of the consequences of our actions. Of course, the superego is there to help you with this endless mind chatter.

    Enlightened souls seem to spend little time thinking of consequences, they act from an integrated place of being. Thus, their actions are in the flow of the logos, in harmony with the arising of being.

    For those of us still trying to do the best we can with our actions and doings, it seems the more open our hearts, the more likely our actions will be less violent to others. Violence = Divisive = Separate

    You’ve heard the Dervish Tale???

    Knock, Knock

    “Who’s there?”

    “You”

    Reminds me of Cheech & Chong –

    Knock, Knock

    “Who’s there?”

    “Dave”

    “Dave’s not here anymore”

    What’s your favorite meditation koan?

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  • Belittling Whittling

    Self-esteemThey live among us and seem to be breeding faster than a warren of rabbits on amphetamines. Chip, chip, chip…

    They spend their days whittling others down. They are the belittlers, the whittlers of others’ self-esteem. Whether their actions are conscious or unconscious, these distorted souls often display a self-righteous attitude to justify their violence.

    How do we handle judgmental, critical people who seem stuck in a pattern of behavior so narrow that relating to others is reduced to an endless stream of put-downs and objections?

    We could handle it the way another mindless group of ignoramuses always offers up as a solution to complex issues – “Nuke ‘em all and let God sort it out.”

    We could try reasoning with the assassins of self-esteem, but this type of ingrained behavior is usually indicative of minds too shallow to reflect on the possibility of personal improvement opportunities on their end.

    The only course of action that holds any hope is for victims of character violence to explore the depths of their own psyche to ferret out the unconscious material that gets hooked by personal attacks from others.

    The focus is the dignity of the soul, the nobility of being, the preciousness of life.

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  • Non-Doing is Brewing

    Non-doing-brewingHow often do events and daily drama trap us in reactivity?

    Reactivity seems to always engage us in some kind of doing response. In fact, the reactivity itself is a doing. When we react, we’re always taking the world and ourselves to be something other than they are – and this is a subtle form of doing. Of course, I am defining reactivity here as mental and emotional response.

    This type of reactive state results in a form of mental grinding and emotional juicing that is fundamentally a form of suffering.

    In contrast to all of this doing drama is a way of being that centers around non-doing. Grokking the concept of non-doing can be difficult as conceptualizing is a form of doing and our whole lives have engaged us in doing. Doing to understand, doing to experience, doing to get, doing to survive – the doing list is endless.

    In approaching the practices of non-doing, we usually begin by making the non-doing practice a doing – it’s difficult and challenging to not do.

    Non-doing is like a form of brewing – we sit and don’t follow any thought, feeling or sensation. We rest in presence and awareness.

    Making tea involves brewing and it’s easy to apply an analogy here. When we sit in non-doing, abiding in presence and awareness, our consciousness begins to naturally move more into the foreground. Our presence deepens. Our awareness sharpens. Consciousness strengthens.

    Perhaps our souls are really tea bags looking for a good pot of hot water!

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  • Ego Self

    Ego-selfWhat is the Ego Self?

    Is the ego self something we need to reject?

    The ego self is what most refer to when they say – me, I, me self, you, her, him, and etc. The ego self is the sense of self that most people have any awareness of.

    That awareness is usually very vague. Very few take the time or expend the energy to investigate what the ego self is. Exploring the ego self can be very challenging and painful – something not very appealing to people in general because it does not usually appeal to the ego self.

    Many people talk about or refer to – their true self. Most talk about a true self is really about a renovation of the ego self. Listening to talk about the true self generally consists of listening to the ego self babble on about an extreme makevoer.

    It’s easy to spot this. The give-away is that the self talking expects to still be around to enjoy the fruits of its rebirth. In fact, what really happens in transformation of the ego self is the self ceases to exist as we have historically known it. There is no self there to pat itself on the back and say – job well done, now let’s go and save mankind.

    Taking the position or viewpoint of getting rid of the ego self only results in more internal conflict and more resistance from the self. Do you really know of anyone who jumps for joy when you offer to annihilate them?

    The most productive and meaningful way to move toward what is real is with openness. Open-ended curiosity about the self, the ego self, who we take ourselves to be – is the way to align ourselves with the optimizing force of reality.

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  • Visitor

     

    Past midnight

    The moon crept in

    Announcing Your arrival

    Grumbling

    Accompanied my hasty departure

     

    On the bare roof

    Sheer

    Night-sky majesty

    Flooding me

    With gratitude

     

    Poetry Expressing the Heart & Soul

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    Where does poetry come from? Where does poetry go? When you write poetry, is it a struggle, a flow – is it even you? Poetry has as many faces as souls on the planet. Share a bit of yours.

Open-Secrets