Showing posts with label journaling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journaling. Show all posts

Saturday, December 5, 2009

May The Force Be With You

I can’t stop thinking about a conversation i was drawn to the other night.
Given the innocuous set of circumstances, i could never have foreseen that somehow i would be compelled to provide a short list of harrowing circumstances that i have encountered as examples of; "i too have suffered". Even more shocking to me, i started with, being threatened to be shot, and continued including mild assaults, harassments and intimidations. It was a very short list, and as the days between grow i find an inner dialogue expands the list with really impressive dramatic moments of life, death and encounters with dark forces.

((((“ Moments”, ….if you have been in the presence of darkness, would you agree with me that it is just within moments, when it is realized, a potential for darkness to control the moment?)))

For those folks who don’t know me, i too am innocuous. Perhaps this is where the conversation may have held a thread of familiar that drew me in, i can only suppose. I am no Jedi warrior, my age, gender, physical characteristics, temperament and very dull life routines create a quirky, nonchalant, invisibility in a group. In every situation where i was in the presence of “the dark side”,  it may also be true that i was innocuous, an ant involved in the purpose of my task and therefore had the responsibility to do the task, believing that the task was the purpose which held me in, and would lead me out, within that perspective i continued to give “the task” my whole hearted attention.

((((Admittedly it was a spontaneous conversation and i had not given it any previous thought, so regrettably i left out all the really interesting, colorful, events. I am not a list keeper by nature, unless the list is established to remind me to do something very innocuous. )))

Bottom line truth, i have always felt safe. I don’t intentionally initiate dangerous episodes, yet i am not afraid of things that evolve and are outside of my control. I believe my life has purpose. I don’t try to paraphrase or list the purposes, to do so would limit my opportunities to events that i can realize and that would limit me to a very small area of possibilities. Could i have imagined myself riding in front of a crowd in a bullring in Spain? Living in mansions? Giving birth to children? Being shot at? Sailing? Watching a tornado pass me by? [Once again a short list of reality episodes given for a sensationalized backdrop to draw you in.] I was born with a Zen perspective; i think it is called faith. I believe i am apart of a bigger life than my own, which for me needs no explanations or rationalization.

There is a Zen premise that i don’t understand well enough to discuss, but i am mindful of, so to maybe catch  glimpses of understanding. It is the belief that in life we experience suffering and suffering is one with experiencing life.

I realize, the roots of my suffering are fertilized by my own struggles to love, me, holistically, as I am. I realize that my connection to all the moments of extreme joy, passion and love have been experienced in moments when i have been of no mind, with no further intentions other than unconditional surrender to a purpose greater than i. (((This truly has been learned through experience not formal education.)))

This may be the same threads, which run through contentment with “innocuous, quirky, nonchalant, invisibility’ as well as inner contentment when living in the center of the forces of nature’s greatness, dark or light?

May The Force Be With You,





Dear Father and Precious Mother,
sometimes we choose,
sometimes we are chosen,
grant me the gifts of acceptance,
balance, and your breath within my breath,
so that i may keep pace.
lovingly, i open all i posses to our journey along the paths we walk as ONe
(trust, is the greatest of these small possessions)

witten 9.23.09
dbc/zendog/Katherine





Sunday, November 1, 2009

What Inspires You Towards Deeper Levels of Understanding?

We invite you to comment,
"What inspires you toward deeper levels of understanding?"


Please feel free to comment multiple times.
Your thoughts on inspiration are gifts,
with momentums and connectivity,
which you selflessly offer.

For these gifts of inspiration

we extend humble gratitude,

to you and to the source

of inspiration alive within us all.


Live Free,
Zen Dog

(( Link to the radiant and beautiful full version, of Catherine L. Ghosh's presentation to the Smithsonian Institution))

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Zensational Cultural Congruence, Laughter, Love and Family

Subject:  Zensational French Bulldog from Japan, named "Chai". The original post on 'You Tube', is by lavendar2003, sent in by "Rigger."

(1) can't roll over


(2) finally he gets up


(3) Chai and a cat


(4) Chai and a Japanese beetle

Thanks Rigger,
Trick or Treat
BA-HaHa




Zen Dog

Friday, October 30, 2009

Are Mandala's Present in Your Life?



"Light echo illuminates dust around supergiant star V838 momcerotis"

Celestial Mandala sent in by Hubble

Send us your personal interpetation of a Mandala,
["lick -it"] [or] "link-it" under comments and i will send out the photos on Monday .




Shown in the center of the Mandala is the symbol of the diety being honored.


Live Free



Thursday, October 29, 2009

Can You Move Sand?


Mandala: "(Sanskrit maṇḍala "essence" + "having" or "containing", also translates as "circle-circumference" or "completion", both derived from the Tibetan term dkyil khor) is a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism. According to David Fontana, its symbolic nature can help one "to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises." [3] The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self,"[4] and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality.[5]" [From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/]






Live Free,

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

" What is a Zen Dog Collective? "

Zen: \’zen\ noun \ form of Buddhism, a major school of Buddhism originating in 12th-century China that emphasizes enlightenment through meditation and insight.  [Encarta Dictionary: English (North America)]

Koan: is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Zen Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. A famous kōan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (oral tradition attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686-1769, considered a reviver of the kōan tradition in Japan). [Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dan]

Zen Dog: a paradoxical nonlogical thought meant to create a contemporary puzzle with no logical clarification.

Zen Dog Collective: a community of nonlogical thinkers creating nothing logical or rational yet philosophical and religious questions are paradoxically answered.

http://www.presentationzen.com

Live Free,
Zen Dog Sam and Katherine