Human Being vs Human Doing

From The Book of Awakening:Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.

Enlightenment is intimacy with all things
- Jack Kornfield

To live with things and not in front of them, to no longer watch, but to realize that we are part of everything we see-this is the love that keeps moving us back into wholeness when divided. To love by admitting our connection to everything is how we stay well. Allowing the current of another's inwardness to connect with our own is the beginning of both intimacy and enlightenment.

I've just woken up from a rather bizarre dream, most of which I only remember in a 'sense' kind of way… not remembering the content, but the sense that I'd 'been away' for a very long time. While I was away, my parents were looking after Halling. (Only Halling, though). The part of the dream I remember is standing that asking a friend, (a male, I don't know who), 'what about Halling' and then going to the shed, where he was being kept in his cage to try and find him… and he wasn't there. Instead of going frantic looking for him, I immediately turned around and walked out and went to where they cage was, tapped on the glass part of it and called out his name in just the same way that Mir always does… he came running out, and up into the wire part to be with me. I took him out, and onto my shoulder and there he stayed… and by stayed, I mean he didn’t want to go anywhere but on my shoulder. The next part of the dream I was flying home to Mir, they were checking my suitcase, and Halling was still on my shoulder, even though I'd gotten a little ratty carried for him, (like a soft 'dog-crate' for tiny sized dogs). We were connected, he didn't want to run away, he was perfectly happy being inquisitive from my shoulder.

It strikes me that this is the kind of connection with life that I've also lost sight of in losing myself. Instead of a human being, with all the gentleness, kindness, and connections, I have become a human 'doing.' So busy rushing around doing things, in many cases not all that well either, barely having time (nor care) to notice all of the things in my life. I've stopped living consciously, and simply exist, touching little, and barely being touched.

There was a time when, eating, I would be silent and focussed on the food that I was eating, the connection I had with each part of it, the intimacy of it nourishing my body and in turn this connection would help to nourish my spirit. I know that people found it 'cute' or didn't understand it. Did I become self-conscious about this? Is that part of why I stopped? I'm not saying that I demand mealtimes to be silent, just that I want to be conscious about what I'm doing as I'm doing it… a blend of doing and being.

Being conscious, focussing on what I'm doing rather than being absent from my life, detached, is a key to recovering who I am. Listening… feeling… opening my heart up once again. Perhaps then, with my 'Universal Intimacy' restored, or at least reawakening, my personal intimacies – my relationships with those people immediate and important in my life – will open up and in some cases return to the way they were, and the way I wish them to be.

Attributed to Chief Seattle, I heard this first on a record (yes, the vinyl type that you listen to with a needle), and have heard several times in various forms and expression since. It comes to mind again now, as I come to these thoughts.

This we know…
The Earth does not belong to us: We belong to the Earth.
All things are connected, like the blood that unites one family.
Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.
Mankind did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand on it.
Whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves.
This, we know.

Revelation Act 1

Title: Revelation
Rating: NC-17 (adult readers) due to S.L.V
WARNING: Act 1 contains non-con - may be triggering
Spoilers: Some spoilers for S1-4
Summary: On the brink of death, Todd risks an untested serum and is thrust into a spiral of madness and instinct. Meanwhile, Kenny must persuade the inhospitable Wraith Sentinels to transfer the Queen's young to the Nursery facility. On Atlantis, Haddad continues the desperate race to save Keller, that may lead her to follow Beckett into the deepest peril she has yet faced. (WARNING: Contains Non-con essential to the story.)
Disclaimer: MGM own Stargate: Atlantis. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no revenue is being made from copyright material. No infrigement intended.

Act 1 now available.

Author's Note: Look guys, the rating says it all, but I'll spell it out. This contains explicit scenes, and the non-con warning appears at the header of the Act's page above the image, and on the Atlantis home page. You HAVE been warned. Many thanks gospikey for hard work in Beta.

Previous Episodes:
Harm's Way (1), Chain of Command (2), Enmity (3), Mantle (4), In Truth... Freedom (5), Letting Go (6), Beyond the Third (7), Deliverance (8), No Way Back, (9) Apostasy (10) and Crossing Lines (11) can be accessed here.

Mother of Darkness/We All Come From the Goddess

From The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.

To reach Accord,
just say, "Not Two!"
-Seng-ts'an

"To be certain, sharing a common beat does not mean that everything is the same, for things are infinite in how they differ. And faced with the richness of life, we can't value everything the same. But when we believe that only what we want holds the gold, when we find ourselves easily depressed by what we lack. Then we are pained by what we perceive as the difference between here and there, between what we have and what we need.

We still need to discern the ten thousand things we meet, but holding them to the light of our heart, we can say, "Not Two! Only One!" and realize there are no wrong turns, only unexpected paths."

As one currently walking path of rediscovery of the self, and of life, and experiencing the lows and the highs of it, I wrap six words around me as a blanket to comfort me when I stumble; six words that are my shield against crumbling under the stones and the arrows that are the pains and experiences of the journey – but not against the sorrows and joys of the experiences themselves. As a spiritual being I know that to embrace those things is to grow, to live, and to be an honest light in the darkness of fear.

I went looking, the other day, for pagan chants, I used to have a lot on cassette, but slowly over time they broke, or wore out, and I missed listening to them. With the wealth of material that can be found on the internet you'd think it would be easy to find some, but no… ended up resorting to YouTube, which doesn't work particularly well for me, but on which I found a particular chant that seems appropriate now… this one…

I've fallen into the trap of becoming depressed by what I feel I lack… and haven't we all, at times, made choices based on the perception that what we could have (or think we need) is bound to be better than what we already have… and what about those times when the choices we are faced with are no real choice at all…?

Happily, though my life is not always easy, I am beginning to be able to hold things up to my heart and see the connectedness of all things. There are no right, or wrong choices, just different ones… and each one will bring us new branches on our paths to meet ourselves in the end. I know that I'm not perfect – not by any stretch of the imagination – but it is a comfort to me to know that I'm loved, and that no matter the choices I make, I'm accepted for who I am and not judged for what I did or did not do; do or do not have.

…as I hope that I am with others…