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“With winds on early mornings rains come and calms eager feet which want to run. Rather than rushing about into passion, I sit calmly into the silky mystic haze that slips through fern laden hills. Breathing in clouds, breathing out mists, green dewdrops cast spectrum rainbows on clear shimmering surfaced orb. Fingertips delicately touch this precious gold, it slips from form out of sight out of sensation and into deep knowing who is behind these eyes that see. All in continuity”

-C

_________________________

Qualities
There is a sun-star rising outside form.
I am lost in that other. It’s sweet not

to look at two worlds, to melt in meaning
as honey melts in milk. No one tires of

following the soul. I don’t recall now what
happens on the manifest plane. I stroll

with those I have always wanted to know,
fresh and graceful as a water lily, or a rose.

The body is a boat; I am waves swaying against
it. Whenever it anchors somewhere, I smash

it loose, or smash it to pieces. If I get
lazy and cold, flames come from my ocean and

surround me. I laugh inside them like gold
purifying itself. A certain melody makes

the snake put his head down on a line in
the dirt…. Here is my head, brother: What

next! Weary of form, I come into qualities.
Each says, “I am blue-green sea. Dive

into me!” I am Alexander at the outermost
extension of empire, turning all my armies

in toward the meaning of armies, Shams.

-Rumi

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…Look up at the sky; it changes from hour to hour, through 365 days, yet the polar star never moves. Our mind is also like this; mind is the pole, energy is the myriad stars revolving around it. The energy in our limbs and throughout our whole body is basically a network, so do not exert your strength to the full on it. Refine the conscious spirit, remove arbitrary views, and then after that medicine will develop…

The Secret of the Golden Flower

Excerpt from Inner Paths to Outer Space.

“We must close our eyes and invoke a new manner of seeing… a wakefulness that is the birthright of us all, though few put it to use.”

Plotinus

The Shamanic State of Consciousness

“This type of ASC (altered state of consciousness) is dreamlike, but shares with the waking world a feeling of reality. In this state the shaman – like a skilled navigator – is keenly aware of the surrounding reality (both ordinary and nonordinary), and can give direction at will to her or his movements. An ASC is one that differs significantly from ordinary or basic consciousness. Baseline Consciousness might be best defined by the presence of two important subjective characteristics: the sense of self at the center of perception and a sense that this self is identified with the body. States of consciousness in which we lose identification with our body or with our self are definitely ASCs. The former happens in the shamanic state of consciousness.

An ASC is marked psychologically by an individual’s modified perceptual responses, processes of memory formation, cognitive skills, affective reactions, and personality structure relative to the basic or ordinary states of consciousness for that person. Integration in an ASC can occur because – based on set and setting (frame of mind and situation of the person, respectively) – an attenuation of the ordinary mode and its primary faculties permits the emergence of the integrative symbolic and cognitive processes normally repressed by ordinary consciousness. Orchestrated destructuralization, combined with patterning forces that redirect psychological functioning toward culturally desired patterns of experience, can lead to a stable, integrative ASC.

Some examples of ASCs recognized by Western culture are hypnotic trance, deep sleep, dreaming (REM) sleep, meditation, use of hallucinogenic substances, and periods of peak athletic performance. Some of these states may be spontaneously achieved, instigated by, for example, psychological trauma, sleep disturbance, sensory deprivation or overload, neurochemical imbalance, epileptic fits, and fever. Yet the also may be induced by purposeful activities such as breathing exercises; extreme deprivations (fasting, social isolation); self inflicted pain (flagellation); reductions or elevations in the level of sensory stimulation; rhythmic photic or sonic stimulation (drumming); and frenzied dancing, spinning, or chanting. Finally, they may be evoked by the use of psychoactive substances. Altered states of consciousness are frequently marked by vivid hallucinations and visions, the content of which is determined by the cultural background, set and setting.

During its history, humankind has devoted astonishing energy and ingenuity to altering consciousness. In a survey of 488 societies in all parts of the world, Erika Bourgignon found that 437 of the societies had one or more culturally patterned forms of ASC. This means that fully 90 percent of the world’s cultures have one or more institutionalized ASC. In tribal societies and Eastern cultures these are regarded – almost without exception – as sacred or revered conditions. Mystical or sacred states of consciousness are called samadhi in yoga, moksha in Hinduism, satori in Zen, fana in Sufism, and ruach hakodesh in kabalah. In the West they are known as unio mystica (Christian mysticism), a numinal state (Carl Jung), peak experience (Abraham Maslow), holotropic experience (Stanislav Grof), cosmic consciousness (Richard Bucke), and flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).

Western rational thinking marginalizes or even pathologizes ASCs: it considers them not only altered but deviant states, cannot differentiate between their disintegrative and integrative forms, and cultivates only the basic state of ordinary consciousness. Hence, the West has been stuck in one state of mind, not capitalizing on the potential of integrative ASCs. To put in ecological terms, Western civilization, with its institutionalized propensity to escape transcendence, is a monoculture, like a corn field with low levels of biodiversity, in contrast to the flowery pasture of other traditions. Cultural relativism prohibits comparing and judging the validity of cultural values. Nevertheless, evolution prefers diversity. The West is largely suspicious of ASCs, lacks institutional means to experience the sacred directly, and is left without an understanding of the integrative properties of transcendent ASCs. Techniques for inducing ASCs – typical in tribal cultures – gave way to mere symbolic rituals; direct experience is replaced by faith; and living ritual tradition of the past is fossilized into dogma. The West would benefit from reexamining a deeper level of spirituality, paying respect to higher structures, living in accord with other holons (a term favored by Ken Wilber for denoting systems embedded in joint hierarchies), and working to regain personal access to transcendental realms. This infusion of more traditional spirituality into the West has been called the Archaic Revival.

We have seen that the institutionalized procedures for altering consciousness is a near-universal characteristic of human culture. The majority of societies regard ASCs as equal to or of higher value than ordinary consciousness. This raises an intriguing dilemma: if there is more than one accepted form of consciousness, then the reality to which ASCs of the integrative type provide access is multiple, and we cannot discard any one as irrelevant or delusional. Here, we arrive at the incommensurability of realities. It is untenable to make statements from one form of consciousnes regarding the reality of another. Rationalists think about satori as a dreamlike state, while a Zen monk may say that it is the ordinary, rational people who live their lives in the dream world. Experiences of nonordinary reality are ineffable in ordinary consciousness. Judging or valuing one state of consciousness compared to another is logically prohibited. “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent,” said Ludwig Wittgenstein. A Zen Buddhist would agree with him on this accord. Yet we continue to break the silence.”

Infinite Visions of the Cosmos, and a Dying world Reborn

Am I dreaming?

I close my eyes and open my soul. In pours a flutter of winged images, and I am wonderfully overwhelmed by the brilliance of what comes. Words are incapable of describing the magnitude of what these visions hold, for what is seen is as liquid gold, slipping through the grasp of open fingers, imparting their radiance as they pass from form. A dance of celestial winds offers crystalline clarity, illumination, ascension into more subtle dimensions, higher frequencies, and the shimmer of the Peacocks tale from the ether beyond. I can do nothing but let go, and I dissolve through my body and drift into the light. In a moment I realize that my feet are the only thing on the ground, and my torso has exploded into millions of particles, revealing the solar system, the universe, universes of universes, and then a momentous look at the infinite. Here I rest in refuge, aligning microcosm with Macrocosm, finding sanctuary in vast brilliant white. As this process unfolds, I transfigure into a conduit of universal consciousness, and through me is channeled something so vast, so spacious, and so beyond what I have ever understood myself to be, that the notions, conceptions, and world views that I have held in my story crumble before my eyes. In clear sight, I see layers and layers of illusions in this mind, in this culture, and in the world that we inhabit. I see clearly see the societal machine that strives to govern this planet, and I see that it seeps, heavy laden in seductive illusion, and its intention is to control the inhabitants of this planet to serve its purpose of perpetual greed. A machine exists on this planet, and it’s only intentions are to serve itself. It appears to be born from man’s mind, and has grown into something so rigid, structural, and completely dead to what life really is. Here I understand how this has come into play, as it has time and time again throughout history. It is shown to me how imprintable and controlable human beings are, and how we become so easily seduced through culture, education, religion, media, and just about the great majority of what our society tells us. I see this crumble, for where I reside and who I am has no place for this. I exhale, and I watch this wave of illusion pass, just as all things do. I too see the notion of “me” dissolve. In this place I understand that my story, my identity, and this person who I call me does not even exist at all. I expand more deeply, clearly, and expansive into this, and as I breathe out the vision folds greater into itself. Through the layers of mysterious and foggy haze of illusion, Presence shows itself. Like a sword, it cuts through the clouds of perception, popping each bubble of false impression, each layer of misconception, dissolving great and alluding mirages, and continues onward until nothing left remains. Nothing at all. In this space, I exist as Presence, all inclusive, all encompassing, infinite, everything and nothing; Source. In a tangible, experiential way, I embody the infinite cosmos, extending so far that all dissolves back into source, and my presence returns back into my body. I am awakened within the dream that we call life. I remember who I am, I remember where I came from, and where I am going. In a language so profound and so complete, I am told that I am not alive for the first time, nor the last. I understand that we are all reflections of each other, that we are all different parts of the same whole. We are the universe made manifest, we are the eyes with which it wishes to see. All of us; humans, birds, bees, plants, butterflies, and everything in between. Let us remember. Let us see clearly. Let us understand our potential, see through attempts to hinder or limit our unrealized dormancy to anything other than what That is. Let us Live in Love, reside in light, and learn to embody Natural Great Peace. In this moment I awaken

“After all, what is a butterfly, if not the flowering of a caterpillar beyond its wildest dreams.”

“Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart, and I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.”

Oriah

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.

T.H Huxley