Thought
For Food

Heaven and Hell

A story, told many times by many people:

The old monk sat by the side of the road. With his eyes closed, his legs crossed and his hands folded in his lap, he sat. In deep meditation, he sat.

Suddenly his zazen was interrupted by the harsh and demanding voice of a samurai warrior, "Old man ! Teach me about heaven and hell !"

At first, as though he had not heard, there was no perceptible response from the monk. But gradually he began to open his eyes, the faintest hint of a smile playing around the corners of his mouth as the samurai stood there, waiting impatiently, growing more and more agitated with each passing second.

"You wish to know the secrets of heaven and hell ?", replied the monk at last. "You who are so unkempt. You whose hands and feet are covered with dirt. You whose hair is uncombed, whose breath is foul, whose sword is all rusty and neglected. You who are ugly and whose mother dresses you funny. You would ask me of heaven and hell ?"

The samurai uttered a vile curse. He drew his sword and raised it high above his head. His face turned to crimson and the veins on his neck stood out in bold relief as he prepared to sever the monk's head from it's shoulders.

"That is hell", said the old monk gently, just as the sword began it's descent.

In that fraction of a second, the samurai was overcome with amazement, awe, Compassion and Love for this gentle being who had dared to risk his very life to give him such a teaching. He stopped his sword in mid-flight and his eyes filled with grateful tears.

"And that," said the monk, "is heaven".

First *Consciousness* IS all that is seen or unseen. Whatever is IS Consciousness. As a physical entity we can visualize Reincarnation, in that there will be a Re-Incarnating of our True Divine Essence animating yet another physical entity. This is True. Yet in actuality, the Continuum of Consciousness that IS physical manifestation (seen and unseen) does not *end* and *begin* again. Even the body can not *die*, but is only transformed to other states of manifestation. What must DIE is our conditionings and what must be Reborn is our Awakening DAILY and HOURLY and by the MINUTE and by the SECOND and by the NANOSECOND.

Through our surface Understanding of Reincarnation we look at Death as a glorious stepping stone to greener pastures. We associate physical realm Death with the transition to yet another physical realm life. Yet there is no Ending or Beginning, so we set up yet another false security-blanket. Each Moment is New and Fresh, not one Moment ending and another beginning. IN the Moment, Eternity IS and therefore there can be no beginning or end, and since it is Eternal there can be nothing other than What-IS IN the Moment -- not a past incarnation or a future incarnation.

Such postings as these are not a refutation of prior postings, but a Deeper look at them. First we crawl, then we walk, then we run -- and it is still *we* Unfolding Deeper and Deeper Understanding of our Mobilization. When we crawled, we are the same person who runs. Likewise, we must first Understand the surface meanings of Wisdom or Truth before we attempt to Understand the Deeper aspects of that same Wisdom or Truth. Once we are used to such seeming contradictions we Dwell on these seeming contradictions to glean that Deeper meaning that is assuredly there. As we Awaken, we not only See more but also See Deeper.

What is *sincerity* ? Is it not simply being Open and Honest without fear ? Even in telling a joke we can be sincere in it's telling. Awakening, we are Open and Honest IN our Direct Experiences and the Direct Experience in return Open and Honest IN us. By the same token, Awakening we should be Open and Honest with All. THAT is *Sincerity*.

"New Age" ? What is 'new age' ? These items have been with us for a very long time and so are far afield of being *new*. I would only offer that it does not behoove us to lump that which is not experienced into a *category* that we may reserve for that which we *think* we can not experience.

BE Sincere and ask. An Open Honest question should be able to be Openly and Honestly *responded* to. The Sleeping consider questioning something to *react* to in order to *be right*. Awakening, questions are to be *responded* to for clarity or further information for there is nothing to *prove* or *be right* about. What-IS is What-IS. If our feeble attempts at communications do not satisfy the Open and Honest Sincere question, then we must continue with our feeble attempts at communicating.

"Breaking the game" ? This is very True of those who are playing a game of spirituality, trying to convince themselves and others how *spiritual* they are. Being false with themselves becomes even more than a game in that they start to *believe* themselves. They are soon convinced that they are Awake, yet fast to Sleep -- and they do a pretty good job of convincing other Sleepers that even they too are Awake. The Internet is over-run with *Gamesters* mimicking the *Grand Trickster*. Here in this little Oasis are not Gamesters and so the offerings and questions are Open and Honest and Sincere. A comfortable Feeling.

Believe Not, Experience or Experience Not, but Belief is for those who do not want to Experience, gather information, meditate upon it, and what works apply it, what does not work set it aside until further data comes in. If it is not Directly Experienced, in one way or another, it is not Real or True YET.

By all means, a trip to South Africa would be a worthwhile experience, I would say. Both the trip and South Africa would be experiences worth experiencing. But the experience of either the trip or South Africa is not a desire, they are experiences that, if we are mindful, we can be experiencing to their fullest IN the Moment of the experience. Yet the *desire* to take such a trip is detrimental to both experiencing the trip and South Africa once you get there AND to you experiencing either. It is the desire that is the waisted energy because it keeps us attached to some future event -- and the future is not quite Real yet. It is all in our state of mind. "As a man thinketh, so is he". There is a major difference between the desire to experience and the experience itself. Would it not be better to be experiencing the experience rather than be experiencing the desire to be experiencing the experience ?

Why desire ? Why want ? IF the opportunity of experiencing South Africa offers itself to you, and IF the opportunity for you to be experiencing South Africa offers itself to you, and IF it is an experience worthy of experiencing, "Just Do It" ! Those initial arising thoughts of how and/or if such an experience can be experienced in actuality rather than just a thought, is a preoccupation that prevents the spontaneous experiencing. So desire causes both a state of mind of preoccupation as well as the aggravation and stress of whether such an experience is possible. To say nothing of what experiences one misses due to this preoccupation. Desire is a hunger that can never be satisfied, a wishful thinking that continues the mental and emotional chatter, a longing for that which may or may not be Real and therefore attainable or experiencable, an attachment to 'this or that'. Experiencing is a bird in hand, desire is many such birds in the bush. Chasing after desires and wants tends to slide one past, without notice, the simple experiencing of everyday Life -- as Jacquie pointed out: "Without desire the snow came silently and i woke to a wonderland of such awesome beauty".

Interesting concept -- *Spiritual Life*. How many lives do we have to live ? I have heard that cats have nine lives, though not verified by me. Humans wear *Masks*, and so tend to present themselves in various guises depending upon the Mask worn at a given time. I have yet to find but One Life, and indeed to Truly Live it is very Spiritual. First to "know thyself", and then BE ourself, and BE it every Moment, Moment to Moment -- THIS is a Spiritual Life. Further, BEing a Spiritual Life, we would not know that it was a Spiritual Life because it would be just Life. Life IS. And if we Truly Live it, then we are Living Life AS it IS. Can there be some state of Life greater than Life BEing Life ? IF Truly Lived, Life can be none other than Life BEing Life. Is not such a state of Life BEing Life quite Supreme, and thereby quite Spiritual ? To *exist* in the swallar of conditioned thinking and behavior is Sleeping -- and Sleeping could not be considered Spiritual. Awakening to the non-dual nature of One Life, unencumbered by our projected notions of spiritual and nonspiritual, is indeed a most Spiritual Experience -- a most Spiritual Life.

By the way, I was reminded by a good friend that the word *Spiritual* is taken from the foot word *Spiritualis* -- a Latin word meaning *of the Breathing* or *of the Wind*. As such, it is not surprising that Meditation involves Breathing or *Following The Breath*.

We must be careful not to blame the jump for the frog. The jump is the innocent bystander BEing what the frog is experiencing. Likewise, the Cosmos in it's Infinite Wisdom in the conservation recycling of energy or Force, automatically relinquishes the confinement of said Force upon the end of the physical form's usefulness. At which point the physical form will entropy further toward it's natural elements. Such Force can not be destroyed, but rather can only be redirected or reassigned to manifest yet more physical manifestation. That very Force that animates the physical form we call Enrique, will one day animate yet another form we may call CornFlake. Not Force "jumping" from one for to another, but rather the continual animation of manifested form. And from what I gather from "Friends in Low Places", it is a rare case that this so called "jump" is an instant transference. But you are correct, many have *re-molded* the ideas of afterlife/reincarnation to their own conditioned liking so as to *try* to get beyond the fear of physical death (as it is called). Such *re-molding* is a good indicator that they Understand little of either death or afterlife or reincarnation.

Looked at from a scientific bent, afterlife and reincarnation and death and life, are quite natural and understandable. Veiling these with the Mystique of a seemingly Spiritual bent, they become quite arbitrary and debatable and stand in the way of our Awakening. May I offer: let the frog BE the jump, without considering which is which -- for is not the jump simply a frog BEing a frog ?

BE Well and Mindful Wonderful Friend, Shanti, Namaste, Metta, Zikr

As Namaste is to say *may the Divine Essence IN me Embrace the Divine Essence IN you as a Divine Essence of One*, so too Metta is to say *may the Loving Kindness IN me Embrace the Loving Kindness IN you as Loving Kindness of One*, so too Zikr is to say *may the Self Remembering IN me Embrace the Self Remembering IN you as a Self Remembrance of One*. It is in the Inner Embracing of each other that we Realize that we are all cut from the same bolt of cloth yet most do not Realize it yet.

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This present day in age ? Is this not the Way of the Sleeping ? Is this not the conditioned thinking and behavior that we discard IN Awakening ? Is this the Way of the Golden Age, the Age of Aquarius that is Unfolding our Spiritual Development (as some say this is) ? Is this not a mere sign of our times ? This Age, though it has cycles of increased Awareness, is but the foreshadowing of the Dark Age that we have been entering for some time. Humanity has seen Dark Ages in the past, but none as Dark as the one we are entering. Such thinking and behavior that you present above is but child's play in considering what is to come to pass. Would this, then, not set the tone of our Awakening Here and NOW, as opposed to a future time when it may be to Dark to continue our Awakening ? It is What-IS, and is a precursor of that which will also BE to a far Darker degree. It was not dealt with in the past so we continue to deal with it in the present, and if not dealt with NOW we will continue to deal with it in Moments to come.

Take note of the thinking and behavior of the Sleeping, for they are good Teachers. They show us the Ways of Sleeping. Is not such an example a very strong reminder of why we are inclined toward Awakening ? At times we ask ourselves why we bother looking at our pitiful selves in the Mirror of Truth, for it only degrades us to ourselves, destroys the conditioned Image we have of ourselves -- until such a reminder as what you presented affords itself to us. For such a reminder affords us the Realization that what we find so revolting in others is the very things that we find most revolting in our reflection in the Mirror of Truth. The only way that we can Save the world is to Save ourselves, and BE the example of Help for others to do the same.

IN the process of Saving yourself, IN the Unfolding Awakening, the only dilemma is not being distracted by the "madness" of the Sleeping. BE you, BE Awakening, and in this way BE a distraction to the Sleeping. So I offer, that we BE a distraction rather than opposing them with condemnation. Perhaps one day the Sleeping will give a War, and no one will show up for the party (if enough of us distract them enough).

It becomes broad when we embellish it with our own conditioned notions of what we would link it to be. Whereas in Reality, Truth IS the Narrowest of Paths -- and gets more difficult to find all of the time.

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Light Mission Private Postings/Teachings "Private Postings/Teachings", which is a random sending of Deeper more Revealing Teachings for those who sincerely want to Work on themselves in their Inner Awakening. If you would like to receive these postings at random times, let me know and I will add you to phe list of recipients. It will require a dedication to Inner Awakening and the dropping of toxic conditioned thinking, for the conditioned and faint-hearted will certainly be too offended by Pure Unconditional Truth.

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