a search for sanity or..........

• Of voices of reason

  Posted: September 17, 2008, 1:52 pm by gal africana

  "The world urgently needs to create a diversified currency and financial system and fair and just financial order that is not dependent on the United States," Shi Jianxun, a professor at Shanghai's Tongji University said in the overseas edition of The People's Daily.
  
  
  
  
  

• Of love

  Posted: September 17, 2008, 3:59 am by gal africana

  I'm reading "How To BE An Adult In Relationships" by David Richo and really enjoying the book beyond measure. I'm not even done and the AHA's have been uncountable.
  
  First off I really like the definition of love as five mindsets: Attention, Acceptance, Appreciation, Affection and Allowing.
  
  I never understood the idea of love as a feeling that naturally appears...and even if did just appear, I always wondered what actions constituted love. These mindsets have defined love for me in a more tangible way that allows me to work at being unconditionally loving, firstly of myself and then of others.
  
  More Ahas
  
  " The recurrent fantasy of or search for the "perfect partner" is a strong signal from our psyche that we have to work to do on ourselves."
  
  And when the work is done
  
  " We find we want a partner who walks beside us in the world and not one we hope will change its givens or provide an escape-hatch from them."
  
  
  "The complexity of adult relationships is not about transactions between two adults but the fact that such transactions never start. Instead two children are tugging at each others sleeve shouting in unison " look what happened to me when I was a kid. Make it stop and make it better for me".
  In effect we are asking an innocent bystander to repair a problem he has no knowledge of and little skill to repair.
  
  Funny enough, he speaks of meditation as well...recommending at least 20 minutes everyday....I love how he defines meditation
  
  "Meditation is not a means of forgetting the ego: It is a method of using the ego to observe and tame its own manifestations."
  
  He defines 5 mindsets of the ego that curtail our ability to love in a way that hit home with me.
  
  

  1. Fear or worry
  2. Desire for others or something to fulfill our demands
  3. Judgment...could be criticism or idealization...putting people on pedestals...insincere praise.
  4. Control...wanting others to comply with our idea of how things should be. My experience is that control is usually employed by using the infamous "if you love me you'll do...123" sentence.
     
  5. Illusion...in the form of denial, projection, depreciation etc.

  
  And finally...
  
  "To love is to become loving. To practice the 5 A's....It is not that practice makes perfect but that practice is perfect."
  
  
  

• Of questions

  Posted: September 17, 2008, 3:30 am by gal africana

  I'm all for being in the moment and moving forward from this moment...setting intent and then living that intent moment to moment. Is this right?
  
  I have to ask, because of :
  
  “In evolutionary spirituality, we are more interested in the future than we are in the present moment. Why? Because the present moment has already happened, so there is not much that we can do about it." Andrew Cohen
  
  hmmm...
  
  Upon reflection, I can see that I'm STILL a fan of the present moment. The future exists as thought alone...it has not manifested. The present moment is really ALL there is and ALL we can do is be in it, acting in the present moment. We affect the future from this moment...it is not done...it is NEVER done.
  
  hmmm...
  
  "When we begin to care about evolution, we feel a passion for the future that is all-consuming.” Andrew Cohen
  
  Er...I don't know?????? Something doesn't fit right. "All-consuming"?
  
  
  "We’re convinced that spiritual enlightenment is not a personal matter, but an evolutionary potential that really does have the power to change our world from the inside out and create a new foundation for our collective culture." Andrew Cohen
  
  
  Hmmm...it IS a personal matter, such a radical thought that...we are all unique thus our paths are such, and YET we are one.
  
  
  I might be nitpicking...but again a single word bothers me..."potential"...reeks of something out there...which reeks of looking without rather that within...which reeks of not accepting what is.
  
  
  But like I said...I don't know....
  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes