Friday, December 16, 2011

Really Knowing Earth, Divinity and Our own Place

Talking change?

I suspect that most people on this planet
would agree that we are living in challenging times.

Whether we buy into conspiracy theories or not,
whether we are noticeably affected by Earth changes or not,
whether it is we ourselves or people we know and love
who have had their lives and livelihoods upturned
by economic, political, or other type of stricture,
daily we can see signs that Life-as-we-know-it is changing.

And, for better or for worse, 
we ourselves are being changed, too.
This is a tide we cannot resist.


There is a process which is predominant in our western culture...
 become aware of a "problem" ->
have discussions and work out possible "solutions" ->
try to put the "best" solution(s) into practice
and later..
change and/or "correct/modify" the "solutions"
when they don't seem to be working as well as we'd hoped.

Publicly, this process has been done for centuries
by the people who have been given 
(or, more often, have taken) the authority to do it;
It is done predominantly "in the head" 
and then talked/written about
until some kind of decision is reached 
- hopefully, in agreement -
a decision which is then enforced at some level.
Most of us use the same process to reach agreement at home.

But much of the time this process doesn't work.
Seldom does it seem to give 
the long-term results we say we desire.
People and nature are hurt in the enforcement.
Yet we continue to use the process.

Any pattern of discussing/talking which never really succeeds
and any method of enforcement 
which doesn't really ever give the desired result
will, sooner or later, lead to a mind/body split
and a break-up of society;
our control-processes and our gut-feelings
become permanently out-of-sync,
leading to national/community/family/personal sickness.
And no amount of "surgery" 
- whether political or medical or psychological -
or "drugs"  
-whether TV/computer-entertainment or things we ingest -
can be more than a temporary fix.

~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the interesting things about the Occupy movement
is that it does not have a unified agenda 
- no common mental construct.
Its supposed weakness 
- that many people are motivated to join in 
by responding to a feeling of just "being called" -
is actually in many ways its greatest strength;
yes, there are discussions, 
but since there is no common agenda
there can be no absolute decisions to be reached -
only a flow of change to be part of!

"Trust the process!"

In the ancient hidden practices of Left-hand tantra,
there was a recurring theme of
daring to "allow the unthinkable"
in order to reach a deeper Knowing (in the Biblical sense!)
This was the Knowing which could not be defined,
something which could only be experienced
by suspending the rules and habits of ordinary living.
As is fairly obvious from the news in our mass media,
connecting with indefineable Knowing  
is not a predominant way
for our modern politicians and doctors!
Yet allowing and conjuring
the pathways into indefineable Knowing  
is what ancient cultures have used for milennia
to come into contact with and then effect 
processes of deep and potent transformation.
These process are not only "divinely-inspired";
they are Earth-friendly and People-friendly.
And they are still being practised in modified ways
by modern indigenous shamans, spiritual mystics,
alternative healers and visionary leaders today
to enable a body-experience 
of being part of desired change.

Bradford Keeney demonstrates one way to access the Knowing
in this video-clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGt1L7QXSDw
What I feel Bradford Keeney is sharing here is

As we come to allow Knowing to be felt by our bodies
so the process of change is allowed to happen in us.
We cannot think it or discuss it into being,
but we can align with its process already begun in us
and by extension through us into the world,
- in connection with us and everything.
It is a pattern of process which develops
from the inside -
the more we trust it, the easier it comes.

This Knowing is what we in everyday terms 
might call a non-knowing, an emptiness
an open book with no pre-meditated plot.

To be in this open space takes courage 
and a willingness to be vulnerable,
two ways of being not particularly prevalent
in mainstream public life today!
(After all, can real vulnerability and honest
not-wanting/looking-for "solutions and answers" 
win you an election in today's climate?!?)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Trying to solve a problem using the same methods
which brought the problem in the first place
is seen by modern prophets of change
as a waste of time and energy.

Yet, even among those of us who profess
deeper connections and understandings
there seems to be a reluctance to let go of
the discussion/enforcement model
as our "best solution" for humanity's 
and the world's perceived problems.

Here I would like to share a deeper longing.

There is an intense desire in me to see
today's political green movement  
more in-tune with the kind of body-connection,
the not-knowing, that is shown 
in Badford Keeney's video.
And in those of us who espouse
divine connection and healing through
many-levelled body-awareness and practice 
I long for the greater embodied recognition
of the value of irresistable awe -
like when we are first in love,
blissfully discovering without needing to know why;
to be, if you will, in the delicious
"I'm a cosmic moron"-space
(like those fools for God of old.)

Maybe, by not having any "solutions"
but by being willing and daring to be limitless
in our experience of life (what a concept!)
we can open ourselves into  
allowing healing to happen -
on its own terms, in its own way,
a healing which in its absolute Essence
knows its own process
as an integral part of the fabric of Creation.

What a relief to be able to hand over our deepest worry
and yet be Co-creative with Life itself!

Let's SHAKE!

John O