Silent Ripples

My first book when I was studying _A Course in Miracles. Stories that uplift. If you enjoyed The Prophet you should enjoy these parables.

"It is but your choice. You can tarry here under this cloud of despair, holding onto this work of yours you hold so dear, adding onto it as you do, collecting more and more as time goes by. But there will come a time when you will have had enough of carrying around your burden, when more light will penetrate the cloud and reach into your mind, a gift from others who have made the climb.



"And the path will always be here, as long as there is a valley to fly from, where I will await patiently.

Excerpt from "The Valley"

Un hombre mirando al sudeste - Escena

"Man Facing Southeast" is one of my favorite spirtual movies. It is about this enigmatic, Christ-like figure who mysteriously appears in an insame asylum playing Back on the organ. This new patient, Ramos, quickly challenges the head doctor's sense of reality and what is sane and insane. Everyday, Ramos, stands and receives communication from the creator and he, in turn, sends back communication. He claims he is a hologram projected by the creator, and that many other agents have been sent, with many forgetting their identities by being swept away by the senses. This scene shows this lovely enthusiasm and not caring what other people think--symptoms of being in alignment of who one really is.

Legend of Beggar Vance - The Woods

May we all leave the shadows and stride onto the field and play the Game, in the unique way we were all born to do. A great inspirational movie.

Koyaanisqatsi -1- Life out of Balance - Opening

This is one of my favorite films as it is a visual journey between the techno world and the world of Nature. It is a reminder that, while technology offers wonderful things, it is seductive and destructive when out of balance. It is like the mind--both technology and the mind are good servants but not masters. Technology is a tool, but it is mastering our children who are ever-plugged in, and thus threatens our future. It is not what I choose. I choose a life in balance, to walk in appreciation of the glory of our natural world. And that is the world I choose to live in.

Krishna Love

A real nice blending of rap and world music in celebration of Lord Krishna.

The Vortex

I was just given a book, The Vortex, by Esther and Jerry Hicks, for my 50th birthday. I finished it in a few days and have been practicing watching my emotions to see if I am in alignment with Source, as they call God, or if I am not. And when I am not than I am focusing on what I do not want instead of what I want. The whole premise is that the Vortex is the becoming of our thoughts before they manifest in our physical reality. We have created this world of contrasts for us to manifest what we truly want; although we often go through experiences to show us what we don't want. If we stay focused on what we don't want then we just keep getting the experience of what we don't want.

These teachings are similar to A Course in Miracles, in that no one or thing is there to fulfill a lack. If one is out of alignment with Source, with that great feeling that everything is perfect right now and is manifesting exactly as I have created it, then the desire is based on fear, of a need for some outside fulfillment. No one or thing can bring us happiness; yet desires are the pigment by which we paint our life.

The book has a list of False Premises that I found are good reminders. Here are a few with my commentary.

#1 I am either physical or Non-Physical, either dead or alive.

When one meditates, or remembers one's dreams, or goes into the realm of the imagination or pure thinking, one experiences the non-physical world. And when one breaks down physical matter to the smallest element what is left? Energy, space. Am I in my body or is my body in me? Or is it both?

#2 My parents, because they were here long before I was born, and because they are my parents, know better than I do what is right and wrong for me.

This is a tough one for me as a teacher and parent, for I want to instill a trust for the little ones in the adults in their lives; so this is something I wouldn't burden children in believing. However, it is true in the sense that most adults are not in alignment with Source so thus are acting out of fear and not true love, which trusts in the inherent wisdom of the child and what the child brings in. That is why in Waldorf education we teachers are there to guide and not direct the children, not to fill them up with facts and ideas of what they should become. We know that they bring with them a wisdom of what they are to do that goes beyond our ken. When I was going to college I listened too much to my parents' "shoulds" and not to what I really wanted. Now I have two children going into college and am just encouraging them to follow what excites them, not what I think is practical or prudent. After all, we do not own our children; they only come through us and have their destinies calling them.

#3 If I push hard enough against unwanted things, they will go away.

In other words: What you resist, persists. Focus on what you want and not on what you don't want.

A Story of a King

This is a story about a king Who lived in a marvelous castle,
Full of intricate passage ways,
Rooms and halls.

This castle had five gates
And each day upon awakening,
Feeling alone,
The king would send forth his ministers
Out into the world through these five gates,
Searching for the king’s beloved lost queen.

And each night he would await their return.

Yet never did they come.

Then one day,
After shutting the five gates,
He heard a cry--
One he had heard before
But had chosen to ignore.

Sometimes it was a wail,
At other times a wimple,
And sometimes just a sigh.

However, this time he followed,
And down he went
Past all the chandeliered halls.

Down

Down

Down

Into the darkness,
Until he could smell
The stench of the dungeons.

And behind a locked cell
A boy he saw.

And the boy looked at him
And said:

Free me, father.
I want to come home.

And the king opened the cell.
With the boy in hand;
They ascended to the king’s throne.

And the king said:
Sit upon the throne;
For only suffering
Have I caused this court.

And the boy did.

The boy called forth new ministers
And told them to go into the world,
And through the five gates they went.

And the king and the boy awaited their return.

To the king’s amazement they returned,
Their eyes wide with joy.

And walking behind them
She walked--
The king’s beloved queen.

And the three ruled together as One.

Janaka was such a king.

And each morning
Sight would fly from his eyes
Smell would grab from his nose
Taste would drip from his mouth
Hearing await in his ears
And feeling would reach through his skin.

And nothing he learned of the world.
Until he shut down the senses
And journeyed past the glittering of the mind,

Following the sorrow,
The longing,
Down past the stench of the guilt of wrong doings.

Until he found the Innocent One
Awaiting patiently in the darkness.

And when the Innocent One
Returned to consciousness,
Janaka truly saw
truly heard
truly smelled
truly tasted
and truly felt.

And truly learned of the world.

For he found his Beloved within it all!

--Janaka Stagnaro