A Talk with the Great Masters

My dear friends talking to the Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Siva and Krishna this season I heard the news some old and some new. I am not sure if I will be able to translate it right because when you are a translator you never know if you are translating accurately but I will try anyway. I hope you will forgive any mistranslation on the part of this humble soul who is searching for the ancient wisdom that blesses the inner core of every living organism.

The old news is, say the Masters that human beings are in despair building sand castles, houses on the sand, and building their foundation on top of nothing. Violence, greed, competition, hate, jealousy, pride, prejudice, and all the rest that goes with it are overflowing the boiling pot of every nation on earth and human beings are lost in trivialities trying to resolve secondary problems of limited importance. In the science of cause and effect the primary problem is the cause and only by resolving the cause can the problem be really resolved in this way all the secondary problems will take care of itself with no need of extra effort on our parts.

When only the secondary problem is worked on it feeds the fire and brings more competition and greed and people try to fill their little corner with crumbs of bread in detriment of others and no real agreement can be reached although many intelligent minds sit around the table to work the problems that we face as one nation under the roof of what we call this world. This is not all. Can you imagine how expensive is it to gather every president of almost every nation of the world in one place, each traveling on his private plane with all the gadgets possible, all the staff possible and all the others that only go for the ride staying in expensive hotels and eating expensive meals? However everything is well justifiable by the ways of the ego. I bet you that this amount of money conservatively would feed thousands of hungry men, women and children walking around every nation in this world be that nation poor or rich, developed or underdeveloped. We hope you don’t think about this as a criticism because it is not. To criticize you need to place value judgment and there are nothing of this nature here because there is no anger and no hate in the mind and the heart of the one translating this message. All guns are silent in this corner and can fire no more bullets. This is though recognition of what is going on in the world today. This is not against any government and for the people and vice-versa because there are no taking sides here. It is not difficult to recognize that in both sides we have the good and the bad and the ugly.

The other old news is, say the Masters that human beings or they have no clue what the real problem is or they know it and don’t want to face it. So their perception is distorted into seeing secondary problems as the cause and the primary problem as a secondary problem so that the real cause is never worked on because no intelligent mind can bring it to the table a task that can only be done by a mind full of wisdom which is never invited to such gatherings. The question is how long we are going to stand such level of pain and suffering and how long we are going to allow our minds to be distorted and to be deceived without facing the big challenge of resolving the real problem.

We are being forced through secondary problems to get together because the primary problem is being ignored and has its whereabouts unknown for most human beings in the face of this planet. However deep down the primary problem is knocking on the closed doors of our bewildered minds and unaware of it we send our governments to work on the secondary problems but the unconscious hope is that once there they, by working enough on the secondary problems they will finally discover the primary one. However we are mistaken because following the wrong path they never will. Another reason that they never will find the real problem is simple: they cannot. The discovery of the real problem lies in our hands and nowhere else but we are afraid. However the Great Masters say that the only hope resides within each of us; we need and have the power to surpass our fears which are based on lies made by our own egos.

The other old news is that the primary problem is that of lack of love which causes separation and separation breathes sickness, suffering, pain and wars. We are separated from every other human being in this planet because we are separated from ourselves and we don’t care about ourselves and therefore we don’t care about one another as deep as we would if we would recognize this painful state of affairs that we are in. Wars, competition, disagreement, quest for success, greed, and lack of love are all signs of this painful separation. It is one nation against another, it is one culture against another, it is one race against another, it is one political party against another, it is one religion against another, it is one family against another, it is one brother against another, and it is husband against wife and vice versa, it is women against women, it is men against men. it is men against women and vice versa, and the list goes on. How blind my friends can will still be?

Would not be great to have a meeting throughout the world where the primary problem was discussed? Would not be great if the primary problem was addressed and a plan was set to end all this miserable state of affairs? Would not be great if we had a meeting to create a new life for human beings based on love, compassion and communion? Would not be great to have a meeting where we would discuss how to end separation and therefore sickness, wars, suffering and misery in this world? Would not be great if we had meeting to learn how to silence the guns of anger and hate?

The new news, which only is new because, if we are not doing much about it, it means it is new otherwise it would be also old, is that the primary problem has a solution and we are not condemned to starve any longer then we decide to. So it is a simple problem with a simple but not so easy solution. Let’s rise up and stop this madness. If the primary problem is that of lack of love which causes separation, it does not take a higher intelligent mind to find the answer but it does take a mind full of wisdom because the answer cannot come from the intellect by merely uttering nonsense words without any meaning. The answer can come only from an experience between two or more human beings who decided to silent the guns of hatred and anger and refuses to raise them up even when they are attacked and deceived like did the great sages such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and many others who took to heart the practical example of the Great Masters of Love Socrates and Jesus.

Love is a powerful force, say the Masters that is available freely within every human being who has walked, is walking or will walk this grassy land. They are not talking about the love that we mostly know about through words that have no meaning at all and are only empty promises that never are realized. They are talking about a Love so profound that is deeper in meaning than our own meager sense of love so common to our little selves which play everything safe and by the rules set up to conform, to adapt, and to play by the book of a crumbling society. Love is more than that and it is something so deep that we don’t even have words to talk about it not only because words are limited or because we cannot describe It but also because It can only be experienced internally. Although it can only be experienced internally, it can only make sense in deeper ways when It is extended to other human beings creating an encounter, a meeting, that allows life to flourish as never before, and so we become happier as never before, we come alive to live life as never before, and we treat others as we would like them to treat us as never before. The good news is that if we meet one human being in this way, said the Great Masters of this news, we would have met all human beings in that moment in the same way although we might not ever have been in their presence because time and space do not play a part here. Therefore, after this meeting we would be entangled forever like two particles and wherever we are our minds will never lose perspective of each other and we remember one another without any sign of anger, despair, hate, jealousy, competition and all else. We will remember one another with a respect so profound which is the kind of respect reserved for the dearest part of us where lies the peace of God.

In this way my friends what the Masters are trying to say is that the answer can only come from within us and depends on our meeting in this exact moment when we lose sight of our separateness and remember each other so dearly having met each other or not. The Masters say that there is no need for fancy meetings where people who are lost talk about trivial things and march like lost souls through the corridors and streets of life carrying in their lost minds and in their lost hands guns of hate and despair instead of the flowers of Love getting almost nowhere although they show a satisfied face to please their constituency. However here and now between you and me, say the Masters, in this conspicuous meeting is different and lies the answer because our satisfied faces have a Light in them that brings down every gun and raise up a hand full of flowers which sparkles like diamond in the middle afternoon ocean being hit by the beautiful yellow and reddish sun’s rays. This is a call to inspiration my friends, let us rise, let our minds free and let us bring with us this season the Light of wisdom to everyone that we possible meet or think about through Happiness, Love and Compassion allowing Wisdom to transform all fire into Light opening the eyes and mind of the most blind soul walking this planet.

You can copy this and send it to anyone that you would like to and my hope is that every President, every Prime Minister, every King and Queen, every Dictator and everyone in charge would get a copy of it. Just credit the blogger with his name and his blog address. Mostly important is that you do something about it right now among your friends and family taking advantage of the season’s gatherings to cheer them up with the good news of the Great Masters and so invite them into the circle of Love and Compassion because we need as many people as we can in this world to be awake to heal all the madness and the insanity that we are facing. More let’s send messages, letters and e-mails to everyone in the world living inside a friendly or unfriendly country, a friendly or unfriendly religion, a friendly or unfriendly culture, and so on inviting them with this call for inspiration to participate in the circle of Love and compassion, letting our enemies become more than friends by letting them to become our saviors who can save us from our anger, hatred and despair so that the garden of Light and Wisdom can grow even more.

God Bless all of us.

Antonio

Pounding the shadows on the windows of our minds

This morning as the sun hits one of the glass doors, which is built with little squares of windows dividing it and which faces the backyard, there is a bird persistently hitting the glass with its beak. It sounds so strong that the sound is quite loud as if someone is knocking on the door. It keeps pounding the door constantly. This is the time of the day where the position of the sun allows one to see clearly one’s image reflected on the glass from outside it and blocks one from seeing inside the room. I am not the bird but I can guess quite accurately that it is seeing its own image through the glass because I have been outside of that door on this time of the day and know that it clearly reflected my image although I did not hit glass. I guess that it is hitting the glass because it sees its image reflected there and it does not like what it sees or because it interprets the image as its enemy that could be one of its own kind or of another kind. I believe birds are like and at the same time unlike us in this respect. They are like us in they would not hit so persistently on what they like. A bird unlike us would not hit its offspring so hard in such way and for such a long time as we humans do. So it stays there for hours and hours until the one soul of this house passes by, and, even so, it returns when there is no one around and it keeps pounding the door with its beak. I guess it will stop when the sun finally moves on to another position in the sky. Now try to go there and tell the bird that it is mistaken and that it should stop doing that. We don’t know the language of the birds so we are never going to be able to communicate that to it. If we go there to try to convince it, it will fly away in fear because we are bigger and stronger but when we go away, it comes back and starts hitting the window repeatedly.

I guess in a way we are like that because when we are with the ego running our minds, we hit what we don’t like but we are also different from birds because sometimes we hit what we profess to like. The ego is extremely sensitive to dualities such as good and bad, likes and dislikes, appropriate and not appropriate, right and wrong and so on. When the ego is on the go, we hit someone because we don’t like what they did or how they behaved or we hit ourselves because we don’t like what we did or how we behaved; or we hit someone because we don’t like what they said or we hit ourselves because we don’t like what we said only because we believe they were or we were wrong, inappropriate, bad or because we don’t like what happened. It does not matter if what happened is just an interpretation of our minds or if it is what really happened. Unlike the bird we keeping hitting on our weaknesses, or on our mistakes or on what we don’t like about ourselves in the same way that we hit on other people weaknesses, mistakes, or on what we don’t like about them which we find negative, ugly or terrible begin true or not. We do that sometimes for days, weeks, months or even years reminding ourselves or others of these things every time that we have an opportunity sometimes even sounding playful. We keeping doing that for as long as the ego is ruling our minds and we do it without ever stopping because the ego is insatiable. So if we don’t like our nose, we keep reminding ourselves often that we don’t like it, that it is ugly, and if we are rejected in some, we immediately connect to our ugly nose. Then, if we have the means, we even try to change it using our sophisticated medical procedures of today often invented to beautiful a dead tree, which is what our bodies really is under the ruling of the ego, and in this way to help our dreams come through and further ourselves on them. Sometimes even with the changes, we cannot forget the old nose because we think that the job was not quite as we would like it to be so that we keep hitting on ourselves. However, with the change sometimes we hit on ourselves less often until the inner satisfaction builds up again.

Another way that we are similar to that bird is that if someone tries to come and say that we are just hitting on our shadows or on the shadows of others, we will find one of the following options: Or we are going to shine away in fear and if we do shine away in fear we are going to become resentful of the good Samaritan and find ways to get back to him; or we are going to argue or probably hit him with words or physically or kill him even if this good Samaritan is a real Sage. Like they did with Socrates and Jesus two beings killed because they tried to warned people they were hitting their shadows.

When the ego is in action, it leads us to interpret everything that happens in minuscule details but in our own way and the worst of it, it is that it does not matter if our interpretation is correct or mistaken, we act on it blindly. So with our egos in action, we interpret that the good Samaritan is trying to say that we are lying or trying to disprove what we believe to be clearly real and not shadows. Very similar to the reactions that Plato preview about in the Allegory of the Cave saying that if someone manage to free himself from the shackles and leave the cave, where they have been shackled their whole lives unable to see the world of light outside, and comes back to tell everyone the good news that what they are seeing on the walls of their lives are only shadows, they will not think that it is such a good news at all. They will probably call him crazy, lunatic, unsound, if they don’t hit him verbally or physically or even kill him first for saying such heresy.

We only stop hitting on shadows when finally allows the Self, the Light, the Truth, the inner Wisdom, or any other word that we would like to use in this line of thinking, to guide our minds. Then we stop seeing shadows on the windows of our minds and we stop hurting ourselves and consequently we stop hurting others. Then we realize that the shadows on the windows are only shadows and we open the windows to see beyond the shadows, beyond the windows to the reality outside of an insane world that keeps showing us shadows. This is the beginning of wisdom through which our minds opens to a new world and we begin to experience everything around us in a more objective way and we never take shadows for reality so we stop hitting on shadows.

When we stopped seeing and hitting on shadows, it is quite certainly because we allowed the Self, the Light, the Truth, the inner wisdom, or any other word we would like to use as I said, to guide our minds. Then we begin to undo the whole ego system. This is a slow movement and takes much time and much internal work not because we necessarily need time to this but because of the fear of dissolving or transforming the ego and the uncertainties of not knowing who we are going to be after this enormous task is accomplished. This is not an easy path because the ego’s grasp upon our minds has been so strong and of unbelievable proportions.

This change when attempted by someone happens slowly for some and fast for a few others depending on the sense of inner urgency they have and on how willing they are to invest their lives following such a path. So the Wisdom, the Self, the Truth or the inner Light shines depending on the speed that our feet are moving. For most this is a slow process and when this is going on the Wisdom, the Self, the Truth or the inner Light shines only occasionally and then disappears. It disappears not because It went somewhere; it disappeared because when one of the rays of this Light shines on our minds, we shine away from it in fear. However these rays of the Light in passing by our minds leave a shadow of it. Although it is only a shadow, it sometimes can make a big difference in our state of mind. A shadow is allowed to stay because it is less fearful to our egos and it can be easily misinterpreted. So the ego is less afraid of it and sometimes it even glad that it is there because it can use to distort the truth.

Sometimes you can do this work alone and sometimes you need a guide to help you. If you are lucky, after being with different guides and they are real sages they helped you to find or they pointed you in the right direction toward your inner guide so that you can travel with your own feet after the work is accomplished with those guides. To travel with your own feet is a powerful experience because it will bring a certainty and a confidence on ourselves that we have never had before which is beyond this world of shadows. You will experience a strength of unbelievable proportions and you will fear no evil whatsoever because you finally realize that they are all only shadows on the walls of the mind of a dreamer.

The silent Moment of freshness and freedom

After some months silent, the rain has returned to the land of silence with its heavy showers hitting the roof from time to time. Everything seems to wake up around here and the persimmon tree that had no leaves at all for months seems to have come back out of the dead like the trees in the north of US after the winter. I was surprise because at first glance it looked dead. Only this tree has this behavior that I have never seen around here. No wonder it was strange to me. All trees around here have some leaves during the winter and I did not know that this one tree would behave like as if there is snow around here. I guess to remind me of the winter time with snow that sometimes I miss. It is amazing how the rain wakes up these plants from the most tiny to the bigger ones, and they seem to be singing the song of joy as everything else around here. The plants are so happy that many of them already have fruits on them after the beautiful flowers they had.

The birds fly everywhere and they seem so happy with the increased amount of food because some insects they like are everywhere, and so they singing beautifully more than ever. Sometimes they think that I am part of the environment here, I guess I am, because they fly so close to my head or face sometimes that I might think that for them I am like any other tree or any other bird or something else within this place.

Even the chameleons seem unafraid at times and extremely happy. The other day one jumped almost in front of me to eat some ants that become flying insects. I was so surprised by its action that I stayed there immobile staring at it and after eating, it started staring back at me. I lowered myself to the ground and for quite awhile we just stayed there staring at each. There was nothing in my mind but the chameleon and I am not sure if there was anything in its mind because I am not sure how the chameleon’s think. However, by its stead look, quietness e no movement at all, it look to me that it was also meditating like me.

In the other land next to the land of silence where we enter from time to time nothing ever sleeps so trees are awake always; birds don’t need wings to fly and they fly always; chameleons don’t need anything to eat because they have their bellies full always. In this land we rest a bit whenever our egos lose its power and its weeds of ignorance cannot grow to block our sight for moments. This moment of rest we cannot speak of because there are no words to speak the unspeakable.

If there is freedom it must be from everything because to be free is not to be bound. We are like mummies that are all wrapped in bandages and protected with some kind of chemicals to preserve the body which in the end does not smell good. I don’t know if you have been to these exhibition in museums and if you get close to one of the mummies, the smell becomes strong and difficult to take. The mummies are us enveloped on our convictions and beliefs of any kind and the smell is our egos that leaves a bad smell on anything that we touch because our creativity, our wisdom and our light is out of the window.

I believe that is a metaphor for the way we are. We are so wrapped up and so stiff by our religions and spiritual convictions and beliefs, on our social conventions, on our political ideas and beliefs, on our working convictions and on the pursuit of a false happiness that we cannot move one millimeter out of our cage to smell the flowers, to see the birds, to smell the freshness of the earth when the rain comes, to look at each other without wanting anything, to listen to each other without interfering and blasting our ignorance, and to laugh at this insane world. Remember we cannot buy the Lord's Love by following religious rituals or giving gifts to the poor, or any other means made by our ingenious egos to placate our guilt. We can only get to the Lord's Love by love.

It is really difficult to put in words what is going on around here besides dealing with birds, ants, chameleons and taking care of the vegetable garden that is growing steadily. The lettuces and the rugula are delicious and fresh. Soon we will have green onions, carrots, spinach and more. I hope things were that easy to grow on the garden of the ego. There the weeds grow wild and they are very persistent. As soon as you take one of, some other will come. It is an incessant battle that requires much persistency, determination, perseverance, and a tremendous amount of energy. In the garden of the Lord there are no weeds. However to get there, one has to uproot all the weeds from the garden of the ego in such a way that they would not grow back because one tiny weed that grows again in the garden of ego is enough to push one back and to block one’s way.

Well, as I was saying, words when we approach another realm, another level of the mind, become a limiting factor in our description. However, the only thing the being can do is to try hoping that the ones who read them also get what is in between the lines. So the best thing to do is to let the words before dawn to speak.

My dear Lord

I know that you are here.

Forgive-me Lord but my blind eyes cannot see you,

my deaf ears cannot hear your marvelous songs

my insensitive nose cannot smell the perfume of Your beautiful flowers

my frozen hands cannot fell the softness of Your touch

Forgive-me Lord

Your garden is completely alive here and I am ignorant of everything in it

How long Oh Lord will I keep ignoring the inner workings of freedom that lies beyond the stars and the moon?

How long Oh Lord will I be ignorant of your ways?

How long Oh Lord will I be chained to the shackles of despair and ignorance?

How long Oh Lord will I be caged away from the wisdom of Your inner light?

Be merciful my Lord and show a little light to this beggar of the inner truth

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When we travelled in the land of ignorance,

we look for the light where it is not;

we look for wisdom where we cannot find it;

we look for peace making war, misery and pain.

Open our minds Oh dear Lord.

Shine Your wisdom in our minds Oh Divine One.

Let our ignorance be dispelled by the soft drops of your healing rain

God Bless you my dear friends,

Antonio

From the Land of the Free and the Home of Silence

Life here on the land of the free and in the home of silence continues to flow. The Bentivi (kaskadee in Bermuda) still sings his song, which originated his name, every morning and at the end of the afternoon. It is interesting because in Brazil it really sounds like Bentivi and in Bermuda it really sounds like Kaskadee. Isn’t interesting how last silable dee and vi have a similar sound perhaps that’s why they are so similar physically. It is amazing how our ears work? Maybe in Bermuda it sings in English, which has to be British because Bermuda is after all a British Island, and in Brazil it sings in Portuguese. This is so funny I cannot stop laughing.

Well, continuing the news from this far land, the other birds always join in with the Bentivi and it is a symphony in the morning and as the day ends. The sweet oranges are finished for the season and the Caja Manga, and the lemons I guess also are finished. The mangos were finished quite while back. Some of these trees have a mind of their own and sometimes they bear fruits out of season. Let’s see what is going to happen. However the mulberry tree is bearing fruits again and has little green mulberries in it and the Surinam cherry (Pitanga in Brazil) is also bearing fruits again as well as the coconut tree have fruits. I am waiting for the coconut to fall so that I can drink the delicious water as they are so high and I cannot reach them.

This has been an eventful month. The meditation has been difficult and shallow at times but at other times it has been deep and profound. I started to do more contemplation and it has added another piece of quietness and peace just being at the balcony observing this beautiful skies, the sunset and the dawn, the green mango trees, the caja manga tree without its leaves, the coconut and palm threes with its green leaves whose green survives the winter. and the stars and the moon. On the 7 was full moon and it was really radiant and the backward has been clear as day at night. Here it seems that the winter just started and the sky has more dark clouds than usual.

However there has been some dark days this month where the ego attacked the mind in the land of the free and the home of silence. It was difficult. The ego knows where to attack and the ego does attack your most vulnerable points and mine is the stomach. So I have been struggled with difficult digestion and upset stomach. I have worked with all the power I can to make it better using meditation, medication, teas of different forms, green juices with lemon and so on. It really starting to pay off. These last three days it has been much better.

Our ego is amazing friends and what it puts on our way when it feels threatened is out of this world. These last three days I have been dealing with two cats who used to live here and were left in the neighbors. The neighbors next door moved out from here and left them floating around. Guess where they returned. I could not leave a mother and a baby hungry so I started to feed them. However I knew if they stayed here it would be trouble because soon she would get pregnant again as her boyfriend was starting to come around. So I had to move fast and I did with the value help of Ligia. We found them a shelter and they left on the eight. It was an art to trap them to be taken because the little baby had lived in the wild and it was very afraid and difficult to catch. I used all my behavior modification knowledge and skills and it worked. I brought them into house little by little by moving their food further into the house each meal and finally into the bathroom. When they were eating I locked them in there, and there they spend their last night here. In the morning they were pick up which coincided with the day of the week that I have someone here to help with the up keeping of the house. I was so glad and relieved. I felt that a heavy weight was lift out of my back. However it was interesting how I got so close to them that I almost gave up the idea of let them go but I knew it was best for them and for myself. This feeling soon went away although not completely for a while. Now I know it was the best decision and I am glad I took it.

The other day when I was in deep meditation and I suddenly notice a voice. The moment that I noticed it, the voice disappeared. I got a hint of it and I am sure it was going to say that I should stop this business of being really free of the chatters that clogs my mind. It was a voice coming from my head which appears quite independent of me. Don’t worry friends because I was not going to answer back. I just laughed. It was so funny that I could not stop laughing at the fact that at first I interpret it as coming not from me because there was no one here but me and I don’t believe in ghosts or spirits that talks to people. I guess if you don’t believe in them, they don’t appear to you.

They say in pop psychology that the problem is not that a voice talks to you because voices talks to us all the time. So the problem is if we answer back and besides forget to laugh taking this mad idea seriously. Thank God I laughed and did not take the idea seriously. If I did not laugh and took this seriously, it was going to be a problem mainly if I told someone about it because soon would be people in my door trying to take me to a psychologist or a psychiatrist thinking that after all this work I went really mad. It is also interesting because if you don’t tell anyone there is no problem, the big problem comes when you tell. The problem is if you don’t tell and you believe in it, you will become so afraid that you end up telling someone.

Then we would have to find a psychologist, even after being one, for therapy that we probably don’t need but could make use of it or a psychiatrist that will give us medication that we probably don’t need and perhaps don’t need to make use of it either. Perhaps we would have to find a psychologist or a psychiatrist because we are really in need of them. Not only because we answered the question but most important because we failed to realize that the voice came from our head although we experienced it otherwise and that we forgot that we are talking to ourselves and forgot to laugh. Isn’t this amazing? Just this small difference can make a big difference in our lives in the medical establishment, and we can be labeled of mentally ill, schizophrenic, or normal.

We have part of our minds that I call the ego. It loves to play trick on us hoping that we take it serious enough. If you really look at this world, you know what a mean because we take serious such mad ideas that it is unbelievable but it does make de ego happy. Can you, being sane, believe that God, being God, all love, all unity, all peace and all harmony could tell people to make war or to kill another people? Can you believe, being sane, that God chose some places on this earth that are more wholly than others where only certain people can visit because they are close or because they have money to pay their way there? Someone said, I forgot whom, forgive me for my forgetfulness, that “God created human beings at His own image and they return the compliment.” Perhaps that is the reason we impose on God our own standards so often. Can you believe, being sane, that love, if it is love, being all union, can make someone suffer? Can you believe, being sane, that violence and war can bring us peace? Can you believe, being sane, that there is a winner in any war? Can you believe, being sane, that by punishing children they will learn something important besides hate and anger? I could go on and on, on how insane our thinking can be and how distorted our minds can be become building a world of suffering and misery.

Who is normal and who isn’t it is difficult to discern if we look at the world’s affair throughout time and mainly today. Sometimes it seems without hope mainly if we are on the front lines or coming away from it with our mind so confused that we hurt even our immediate family which we loved dearly before the life in the front lines; we hurt our best friends which now are not best friends anymore because the alcohol and drugs have taken over and we auto medicate to put up with the monotony, boredom or guilt that have survived the front lines. I don’t mean only the front lines of war when I write this, I also mean the front lines of the ego where greed, jealousy, envy, anger, hate, arrogance, luxury and the violence of our desires and of our emotions manipulate our directions and kidnap our minds ruling our lives with iron hands.

The movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon tells the story of Saint Francis of Assisi. In the movie young Francesco used to go wild with his friends around town in the front lines of the ego and then he went to the front lines of war. He came back disgusted with both and was sick for days. Then one day he woke up and saw a bird on his window and began to chase it. From this day on he was silent and he step unto the land of the free and the home of silence. He would go around the fields after the flowers and talking to the birds. The whole town including his friends thought that he was mad. Claire, his beautiful friend, saw the light in him and one day on the fields she came to him and said: “They say that you are mad because you chase the flowers and talk to the birds. I thought you were mad before.” This young woman’s wisdom which led to the beautiful summary of Francesco’s whole life in these simple phrases is astonishing. No wonder she became a saint. This is what happens when you come back from the front lines of war or of the ego and you are disgusted with everything. You first become silent and listen to a different song, see a different world, and feel and smell things differently. Most of us come out of those lines and live a life of misery but not Francesco. He woke up unto another world as Saint Francis of Assisi, which makes him an example to be followed.

I feel like I am returning from the front lines of the ego and every moment I pray and send light to those I hurt in any way even without knowing it and to those who I think hurt me. Now after a month of silence, peace is returning slowly and fear is beginning to subsides. With fear being more out of the way, I can begin to forgive myself and by forgiving myself I am sure will also forgive others. Although for quite a while now in my life with the help of A Course in Miracles, with the help of Krishna, Siva, the Budha, Jesus, Socrates, and others, I have learned to take responsibility for everything that happens to me in my life and not to blame others for mistakes and my misery, sometimes I still do. When I do slide on the ego side and start blaming others, and in the exact moment that I become aware of this, I quickly correct myself.

However, when freedom and silence arrives at your door and you leave the front lines of the ego, my friends, I can tell you that it is a blessing. It is an opening of unbelievable proportions. It is a little similar when you are going on a straight narrow road around and down the mountains and suddenly in from of you is the ocean. There you have it, this large, so vast and so enormous space of water so blue merging with the sky that you become static mainly if you have never seen the ocean or if you have not seen it for a while. This is perhaps one little spec of light compared to the vast space that opens when you inhabits the land of the free and the home of the silence.

So my friends there is hope. Wherever we are let’s just for a few minutes of the day take a little step outside of the front lines of the ego. Let’s step on the land of the free and the home of silence. Let’s place aside the noise world. Let’s see the sunset; let’s see the moonlight; let’s hear our child’s laughter more often; let’s listen to the song of the birds; let’s see the trees around us; let’s bring more flowers into our homes; let’s take good care of ourselves and of those around us, and let’s stop running because it will takes us nowhere.

So my friends there is hope. I can assure you that the land of the free and the home of silence can take us from the Himalayas of suffering to the vales of healing; I can assure you that the land of the free and the home of silence can take us from the ocean of violence to the land of peace; I can assure you that the land of the free and the home of silence can take us from the fire of hate, greed, desires, and arrogance, to the waters of humility and harmony; I can assure you that the land of the free and the home of silence can take us from the darkness of our egos to the light of our Self. However my friends we need to take a step on that land and visit that house so that the light that shines in there uninterrupted by the ego’s affairs will brighten our lives for ever.

God bless you all.

Antonio

Lessons on projection received from the afternoon clouds

June 10, 2009

Lessons on projection received from the afternoon clouds

This afternoon I am having an incredible lesson on projection. What an incredible thing is projection. I am looking at the skies and suddenly everything seem to be looking back at me. I see an eye out of some scattered clouds and it looks like it is looking back at me. Then I leave that and focus my attention on one small cloud appearance out of many flying in the sky this afternoon. It begins with an upward arch looking like a half moon and it is looking south. It is supported by a strong base all white and shinning. Suddenly the arch moves forward and the up part of the arch becomes the face of a dog, one of the dogs that has thin beard hanging from his face. The supporting part of the arch becomes its paws. His paws are extended as if he is laying down looking south. Suddenly the dog figure fades and the cloud becomes a gazelle. The gazelle only lasts a few seconds and it soon becomes something without form but suddenly the above part of the clouds split in two and it reshapes itself like the tales of a whale and suddenly the small cloud becomes an ocean with a whale diving in it just showing its tale. Again everything fades and the cloud becomes a cloud again and not far from it there is a big cloud and I am not sure who is moving toward whom but they begin to move close to each other. It is in a very slow motion but very, very slow the kind of slow motion that if you have one hint of impatience you could not notice. It is as if they are not moving but they are moving. When they are very close, the tip of the big cloud became like a big strong lion. I thought the bigger cloud, now transformed into lion, is going to engulf the smaller cloud that is now formless. However soon the lion disappears as they continue moving towards each other. Not long the smaller cloud becomes shaped like a long thin back of a person or like a soft road as if waiting for the bigger cloud to just plunge on top of it. However it is not finished yet as they approach each the smaller cloud just begins to fade unexpectedly and it soon disappears completely without touching the bigger cloud. The bigger cloud continues to move and it splits itself in three parts and it begins to fade where the splits were. The last part of the split is approached by what I think is an inverted face of some quality that I cannot define very well. I am going to say demon but I think it looks like more a wild face with the demon figure attached to it. This face as it approaches that piece of cloud it simply fades as it get almost on top of the bigger cloud.

I guess life is like that whatever we look we are just making it up. The biggest problem I see is that we don’t know often that we are making it up and we think that what our perception is showing us is the truth. The worst is that we act on it and defend our actions with teeth and nails as if it is the truth. In the observation above I believe I knew all the time that I was making those images up perhaps based on my personal history of experiencing, seeing dogs, gazelles, designs of wild faces on tv, dreams, movies and so on, and have seen whales diving on the ocean with their fins up. So I am not afraid moreover I do not feel moved on way or another by them because the mind is just contemplating or observing in peace and silence.

I think about all this and look back at my life and see how many times I have not realized that what I was seeing in a situation was just my faulty perception of what was going, it was just out of my own making and had little to do with the situation. Something in the situation just stimulated my perception and my mind went on making up what I thought was true for that situation. Then conflict arouse and blind by my own perception I would asked how did this conflict happen when I “knew” that the other person was wrong and I was right. The worse yet was about to come which was my feelings of guilt mainly if the other’s response was very strong and showed pain. This guilt would last for days and sometimes years or even decades if I did not have an opportunity to atone with the other person. The other worse part of it was that some of the time this guilt was my own creation because the other person took our interaction up as a lesson and I failed to take it as a lesson until I learned that what happened was a learning lesson for that person.

I keep thinking how this might happen to millions of others like me who travels the hard ways of this world. We look at something or hear something or feel something and we began to make our story up about what we are looking at, hearing or feeling like I did with the clouds in the sky. There is a big difference in the case of the sky because if one is peaceful and here and now and has patience one will see that the shapes and forms in the sky will become a cloud again and everything was one’s own construction. In daily life it is very difficult to see or hear or feel things that way. There is no time and patience to see things through; see them beginning, going through its course and ending. We just react based on scraped pieces of information gathered at the beginning or during its course. Then disaster, pain, fear, suffering and guilt strikes and are the likely outcome of our reactions. So in these situation we don’t act, we just react. A blind being reacts and a sage acts.

How many people have been burned, killed, or strangled throughout history or are burned, killed or strangled today by a distorted perception caused by our own ignorance of the true of what really happened? How much suffering, hate, pain, guilt and misery have dawned upon this world based on senseless ideals built from a false perception of each other, of a situation and of an experience? How many wars were not made up through this faulty system of perception? And worst how many wars happened based not only on this faulty system of perception but based on baseless information made to deceive even more and to make this system of perception more faulty yet?

Thanks to the inner silence, thanks to our higher self, thanks to Jesus, the Buddha, Socrates, Saint Francis, Arjuna, Ramana Marharshi and others who saw the truth beyond the images. Thanks to the mind that can wake up and see that everything our body eyes, our body ears, and our bodies senses perceive are probably if not all perhaps 99% of them are false, and that they are just an illusion and they are just made up by our false perception.

When the mind is awake, when the being is in silence and peace dawns upon the mind, the mind knows that every scrap of thinking, every thought, is just a construction of its own dreaming part. So the awake mind just observe that dance within and does not get involved in its raucous sounds and strange dance but keep still, unmoved by anything good or bad. In this it becomes more peaceful still and its strength is unheard and this mind begins to think and to say what is behind all the illusions of the world.

Let’s wake brothers and sisters and see beyond the image. Let's hear the unspoken song of truth, and feel the clear feeling of the pristine waters of the highest lake were pollution cannot reach. Let’s cultivate at least a moment of silence in our busy lives and pray the way we can or just stay silent observing the images of the mind coming and going without getting involved with them, without making anything of them, without transforming them into something else. Just stay still and don’t allow the ego to rule your mind and make a carnival out of it. Whenever you realize you are getting involved in the carnival of the mind just remind yourself that everything is just your ego making things up at least for this moment of silence. Remind yourself that these are just your thoughts and there is no one else right here. Then see your thoughts disappears ones faster than others and just stay there resolutely that no thought good or bad will take your moment of silence away. This will take, I am sure as it has taken me, to a more lasting inner quietness and inner peace building your strength and resilience to face the worst things in life with strength and wisdom as well as the best things of life with grace without destroying its deep perfume.

Dear Beloved:

Light the path of your friend

Clear the mind of the debris that dirty its darkest corner

Help peace dawns upon it opening the doors of wisdom.

Be at peace my dear friend,

Antonio