shaman's thoughts

Some see a beautiful rose and notice the thorns then say"oh what a shame I'd sure like to have the rose without all those thorns". Another will see the thorny bush and say" wow! What beautiful fragrant flowers next to those thorns" . Do you see two fighting elephants or a heart shape creating embrace? Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder my children. If you gaze at your world and see all that is wrong, more wrong things will show their faces to you because the universe is always doing what you perceive it doing. If you listen to the negative news every day and choose to have your time occupied with listening to people telling all that is horrible and horrid, then don't be surprised if more of the same show up every day. The state of our world then is the total sum of our mutual perceptions and intentions. Now go look for the beauty my child and accept that along with every beautiful rose there is a thorn by design. But you my child CHOOSE TO LOOK AT

She says: "This neighbor hates my guts, I can feel it across the fence and I have done nothing to her" Yes my love I say "but you just added fuel to the fire by telling me about it and telling jack and Jill and dick and Harry too". Regardless of how innocent we deem ourselves even in the face of pure evil, if we have no grace to bear the situation, if we cannot look at all life forms and accept gracefully that which IS, then we too are part of the problem my children. Bear all your life's events with grace, even as it hurts and the pain is taking you to your bad place inside. Bear that pain in grace and don't complain. Because the moment you begin to complain you have added to the pain and the hatred. Bear all with grace and kiss the face of God!

This has a thought provoking message no matter how you believe. Does evil exist? The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied yes, he did!" "God created everything?" The professor asked. "Yes, sir," the student replied. The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil." The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth. Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?" "Of course", replied th

THE FOLLOWING IS A POEM BY MY TEACHER RUMI; not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion Or cultural system. I am not from the East Or the west, not out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal Not composed of elements at all "I" do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of traceless. Neither body or soul. I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, First, last, outer, inner, only THAT BREATH BREATHING HUMAN!

No matter how we slice life there is only SOURCE! Think about it, for as long as we have been on this planet we have yet to figure out why we are here or who/what force made it happen. I tell you kids the only way you will get through this is with knowledge of how it works(because that's pretty much a science thing) and learning how to be content within your own skin. My children you can put a content man in hell and he'll be fine and conversely put an unhappy man in dead center heaven and he'll be miserable. My secret? Well I don't see me as separate from the SOURCE. I say if and where there is only SOURCE then nothing about me is real enough to get hung up on or worry about. THE SOURCE LIVES, THE SOURCE LIVES ON AND ALL IS COMPLETE IN THE SOURCE. The best I can do is show up every day and see what's next on the show of life's forms and disguises.

Be grateful then my love for contentment comes through it. Be grateful my child so your eyes may see the less fortunate rather than wanting more. Let troubles and trials wash over you like the water drops on the petals of a flower not losing the beauty within or without. Let me embrace you my children this day for your fortitude and earnestness in being a better human! Long before we were stamped with a "National flag" to be proud of we were HUMANS ALL! A FAMILY OF SOME ADAM OR ATOM OR .....FIELD OF ENERGY. If I were to be proud of anything, let it be the common HUMANNESS OF US ALL!

List me amongst the dead this day for I have not been to the house of the Friend. Any day without the conscious act of the walk to that great house is not unlike a day spent eating food but with very little nourishment(much like most do now). Whereas a thousand naked beauties may prance before a man desperate for that sexual attention, only the sight of the path to that wondrous house of The Friend will every satisfy his deepest desire to be loved and touched affectionately. Count me amongst the dead this day my love, for I have numbed the spirit and the mind by materials hindering in nature and thereby created a day in which the touch of The Friend is not felt nor is the tenderness shared. Good fortunes can be had any place, but true love is only found in the bounty of time spent with That Friend. Thus I say to you my children, yet again I remind you that each day is a NEW DAY and the canvas before you is clean and empty. So let not a dead day become a dead week or more, grab this day

SOME HAVE FOUND COMFORT IN THINGS SPIRITUAL IN NATURE SOME HAVE FOUND CERTAINTY THEY AVOW IN RELIGION OR ZEN SOME STILL LOOK AT LIFE AND SEE ONLY DEATH SOME WILL BE FOREVER MOVED BY THE WINDS OF CHANGES BLOWN THEIR WAY BY OTHER MEN I SUSPECT THERE SHALL COME A CRY ONE DAY O' FOOLS TRUTH IS NEITHER THIS NOR THAT NOT EVEN WHAT MAJORITY HAD NOT EVEN GOODNESS NOR SIN WHAT WAS WRITTEN WITH THE PEN THE INK IS DRY IN THE DARWISHS' DEN

....and the old man left this as his last instrutions; " Wake every morning and be still first before you begin activities. Let your stillness allow the flow of the TAO in your life. Live each day with these three wisdoms: 1- BELIEVE, 2- ACCEPT, 3- NOT EXPECT. Believe in the WISDOM that began you long before you were born into the material world, that as it did so, it also can take you back again. Accept all with no judgement of good or evil, right or wrong, Let THE JUDGE be the judge. And EXPECT nothing of people, things, and places. In such a way my children you will find the serenity for which you've longed all your life."