Cultural renewal is an act of individual appreciation

In a conversation on the future and role of a web site for the circle dance network was said:

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Over the longer term, I'd like to see it develop/link to consolidated resources of material such as notes on dances, e.g. their origins, sources of music, cultural notes, etc.

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I felt this rep lie expand out of the question:

So I ask, what is the 'it' that will in time develop and link to consolidated resources for the dance?

The control/withholding/owning  of information feels to me to be a defining paradigm of an age that I feel is coming to its end. I feel that anything operating on this basis will fade with it.

Not that anything 'should' be free, or that sources 'should' be ignored, usurped, dishonoured, repackaged and sold. There is an energetic basis for the communication and exchange of energy that is a living relationship and not a system of steps set in stone.

Life can operate or unfold as a matter of integration as communication of a nature, that the 'control/withholding/owning mentality' obscures, denies, or distorts to render unrecognisable and therefore untrustworthy.

Because I hold the dance within the sense of a reintegrating movement of being, I feel to accept and align with that movement - as I uncover the seeming blocks and relax through them. Indeed I see life as the process of such apparent blocks rising in order to be re-cognized or known again in an original perspective instead of the assertion of a mentality that arises from a negatively or fearfully defined sense of disconnected self - and seeks to eradicate them in perpetual war.

I put that first because without a foundation, there is no basis for change.  The old foundation can only persist in a depleting and burdensome struggle.

So I ask, what is the 'it' that will in time develop and link to consolidated resources for the dance?

There is no 'it', only us - and perhaps there is no us excepting as we each re-cognize our self in the desire or movement of being that is

... the willingness to begin,  

... the motive power to do and sustain, 

... the guiding consciousness to direct, 

... the appreciation of fulfilment shared.

So the idea of the 'it' is all too easily the wishful rehearsal of ideas that perhaps fish for something to line up as transaction without the  transformative process of relationship, involvement and embrace. It is sort of talking in code so as to make our now seem to be 'later' so as to attend to something else given precedence in the 'meanwhile'. 

I don't say any of this in rebuke or blame whatsoever - but simply to notice that we all know how to operate in coded ways that tend to mask or cover over facets of our self or our relationship that we sought to hide from or indeed hide in.

In order to be able to develop and link and share in such a venture we need to embody a different consciousness than the judgemental right/wrong, either/or mentality - much as our personal mythology might be predicated on it.

A process of communication, honourably engaged, has an outcome that all who are willing to share in it, can walk with. The attempt to coerce the outcome is always a denial or avoidance of communication as assertion of personal or private agenda - which is often operating unconsciously UNTIL it comes up to awareness as a dissonance of communication in relationship.

No one 'should' engage in communication or relationship of commitment, but such is life already. A true and honest accounting of what we accept as true of us and are thus committed to as the basis of our relationships is our integrity. If we persist in choosing out of alignment with our integrity, we experience disconnection and loss and thus attempt to operate from a sense of independence that we do not have - although we can assert the wish of a segratively defined sense of self and play its experience out in such a way as to believe we are as defined in the story and are not the scriptwriter.

I know that in attempting to articulate a different perspective, I become unintelligable in the same way that a non dancer can be dropped into a vocabulary of rhythm and movement and neither know what is going on, nor have any handle on it to begin to get with it - until they relax the models that simply don't fit - and be open to receive the living information, guidance or direction that does.

To give oneself wholly to what one loves or is moved or inspired to do - to the best of one' current ability -  is the key to living in any given moment. But to live this is to be willing to challenge or enquire as to how and why one actually IS choosing to squelch or limit or invalidate that which truly, is you.

Being no more and no less but exactly who we are is the condition in which all else is appreciated as it is.  The attempt to defend and maintain who one is not is no longer finding the music to support it - and thus generates conflict in order to 'survive and prevail'. 

Authenticity and integrity are not constructed or derived from external author-ity without uncovering one's own, nor asserted without due honouring of the true authority working through the willingness of others that join and link in shared purpose as the dance of life - which is not really about 'getting there' or becoming someone' so much as being this moment of unfolding as a creative act.

In Peace

Brian

Creativity from embracing differences

The principle "love thine enemy" is the willingness to open or abide in a relationship with that which your mind is conditioned to reject. Living amidst this apparently conflicted mind but NOT choosing to react to the temptations of fight or flight allows the reintegration of the 'More' of what your consciousness is - not so much expanding the polarised and segregated identity but widening and deepening the perspective that embrace it AND the previously rejected or judged against.

The expressions of a reintegrated being are creative whether they make pop songs or simply relate in calmer, clearer ways.

Inspiration is freely available - but the mind gets in the way when trying to 'go it alone' . Yet often people have to effort hard as a symbol of willingness in order to then let go and let in. A willingness to abide through the personally difficult with an active receptivity.

Everyone has particular themes that attract and energise them and by committing to their passion or excitement they attract alignments within themselves as well as around themselves.

When a fresh expression is brought into manifestation it speaks a 'language' relative to the need or yearning that is as it were the forerunner and preparation for reception. But the Life is communicates is presence beyond definition.

As the form is focussed on the original is covered over and its patterning is absorbed into the 'established order' and milked dry with followers and clones. But where creative freedom communicates.

Written into The Creative Climate

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/opinion/david-brooks-the-creative-climate.html

The New Testament Revealed in a truly new light

The Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament: A Course in Understanding and Acceptance or NTI" ( "New Testament Interpretations") 

(Blurb): ... is a metaphysical interpretation of the "New Testament", which teaches oneness as the only truth, and surrender (or letting go) as the practice that leads to spiritual enlightenment. "NTI" stresses the importance of willingness, acceptance, gratitude, mind-watching and trust on the path of enlightenment while teaching the reader to let go of unworthiness, fear, guilt and false (or separation-based) thinking. "NTI" is unique as the entire course is delivered by the voice of the Holy Spirit, which the reader recognizes as a personal and loving guide."NTI" has been described as a love letter and as a loving approach to letting go of the ego. Following on from the strength of A Course in Miracles, "NTI" teaches us how to experience the oneness of God here and now by showing us exactly how to release the obstacles that prevent us from having that experience.

~ ~ ~
My review:(Amazon UK) See below for Guardian review



Is it possible to be looking in the world at a book or text and find it speaks your heart's light - talking to you through a book - while simultaneously recognising this is your own voice?

Such is my appreciation for this book.

If I step back a little I can say that such truth as I find opening with this book, has the capacity to calm, restore and awaken me to an altogether present perspective.

I find it truly revelatory at a level the intellect cannot reach. Yet the book is an intimate conversation with you that holds you in deepest reverence. It could not be more gentle or honouring of the truth of all.

The story of Jesus, his teaching and demonstration, may be disputed by the world - but its coming into our mind carries more than any 'religion' can own when its truth begins to speak directly to our own life.

When we are willing to open to a true understanding, we put our own judgement aside and listen in true desire of life. We are led by the movement of Spirit within to recognise and release the mentality by which we have deceived ourselves and lost our soul as we gained a world. And by this we are restored to what we thought lost.

Many will experience resistance to some of what this book reveals - but also many will come to a deep and abiding gratitude for being gently and clearly guided through it!

I find nothing coercive here, no sales pitch, and no judgement against or condemnation of. It is as direct and profound as human language can be - yet it is as nothing outside of a willingness for and love of truth. You cannot be made to drink!

That this book has appeared is surely witness to a hunger and readiness for truth.
But don't put the value or authority onto the book - but be the extension of that which is in your heart revealed.

There is much that Jesus shared that could not be received then by minds fitted only to the terms the world sets. I feel this book opens this anew in terms that can speak to anyone from any background.

What might this book bring in terms of you and your life?
A revealed basis - that is opened within You - for peace, joy and freedom in capacity to share love as the basis of life.

Does such enlightenment come from a book - No!
It comes because in some way you are ready for to accept.

The Holy Spirit authorship can be an issue for some who either dont believe in divine guidance or others who cant believe such grace could actually have anything directly to do with themselves and all others.
If you read the various books within you will find different voices - yet one purpose.

If you share this purpose you will find yourself as you do not expect - for awakening is prior to the mind we engage in the world - and by which we are ignorant of truth.
There is a grace that reveals what is always true, to a mind that believes it has lost its original nature, one step at a time, as you are willing to accept. 



My Book Review: (posted to the Guardian website)

Only willingness can read it

Anyone who is actually called or stirred in awakening from the mental sleep of a taken-for-granted identity of self and world will have experienced a living synchronicity or concurrence between the outer and the inner. The outer form of which may well be helpful, but the inner recognition is of a different order of experience than anything 'in-the-world has or could ever be.
This is a book of awakening and for awakening from a perspective that is itself awakened and which speaks to the same in you.
It is not a book that will offer any relevance for the mind that wants to think that it is who it thinks it is - and that the world is as it believes and judges it to be.
If the title were not already taken, I would call this 'New Testament Revelations' - not because of 'truths' that are given to use in the world as we believe it, but that truth is uncovered to the reader, right where you are - and offered to you to in a gentle and honouring spirit of invitation.
Each 'Book' of the New Testament has a particular voice and approach in NTI (New Testament Interpretations) and all share one purpose; awakening.
Not an idea of awakening others or society or in some future time, but of awakening and opening to the same truth that Jesus lived and shares - of an Intimacy of being the mind-in-the-world cannot know - that waits but on your welcome and acceptance, to immediately heal the mind of a false association by which all things are seen in a new light, and yet this unfolds step by step as free desire and willingness allow.
The basic ego or self sense would start out from a presumption of separateness from everything and seek to get for itself what it thinks best. If that is still what you want you wouldn't still be reading now. Yet our present appreciation and intuition of the truth of Life, Light and Love is constantly being blocked, filtered or distorted by a 'mind' of thoughts of which we are largely unaware and which we allow to essentially control our experience by use of guilt, fear and the illusion of escaping these while yet using them.
But NTI speaks clearer than I on all such things. My essential witness to this work is of its capacity to awaken not just interest or intention, but actually of speaking directly to our present condition, again and again and yet again.
What is it to be brought out from complex and delaying patterns of denial and self justifying habit into a clarity of unified joy? It is to awaken to the true foundation of one's being from which therefore to live out from.
Jesus's demonstration and teaching and the Christed message that is offered through the the New Testament is largely interpreted by minds that do not live as Jesus, see as Jesus or love as Jesus, and this indeed means that much that is given was not understood and has not been understood - because the mind was not ready to accept. Fear always distorts.
This book has appeared in response to a willingness, and in that willingness it is not a book, but a Message of Light to a mind ready to open to the Light of its own true Understanding. Not that there is not also resistance to such an opening - but that there is a conscious willingness to take a step with their Living Spirit, now.
A search online will soon reveal excerpts by which to test the waters - but gently watch where you put your attention - and the purpose in your mind that is guiding it. Peace knows, because it does nothing to block or deceive knowing all that it is.

Sir Jonathan Ive: Interview

There are a lot of important points here that transcend the particulars of Jony or Apple.

To uncover or discern an inspirational movement - no matter how fragile it may seem 'in the world', and to hold faith and focus with it  - is to allow ourselves to be guided from what otherwise could be summarized as a faithlessness or blind template approach to life.

I also had a really strong sense of the makers of the Mac when I first used it - as a tangible relationship. This 'should' be the natural or normal 'sharing' of culture, for we are in what we make and do. But when we make without any real relationship, our making and doing is devoid of 'soul' - even if it still functions on the level of base utility.

What we need is to re awaken to the need to GIVE of ourselves truly in what we make and do. This is the key to an innate happiness and harmony of being because it is in an expression of Value - that we share value - whereas in the attempt to GET something without Giving our all, is the cheapening of ourselves to fall asleep in disconnected appetites.

There is nothing sacrificial about doing what you love and loving what you do - but there is everything sacrificial in following and identifying with an old thinking that effectively disqualifies bringing full attention present now - and living out from a sense of shared worth in shared life.

To uncover true worth is to remember the true basis for culture. Value cannot be defined and then have definitions substitute for the actual passion and presence of living.

A bankruptcy of culture is simply a collective willingness to be stuck in definition. The guidance and inspiration that is Life, has to be discerned and nurtured. We each have individualised paths - but the principle is Universal - and when that is given embodiment, it speaks at a level below the radar of the mind-in-definition. One could say that Life knows itself through embodiment - and we can feel it as qualities of an integrity or harmony of form and function.

Implicate design is uncoverable as an expression of  essence in relational wholeness. The reduction of essence to defined forms of design elements is the blindness of the wish to make all things validate our own image; a prodigal waste.

But what gets covered over or discarded remains un-coverable to an honesty of desire. Apple operates within a market based on manipulation of fear and lust. There is always room for improvement - for going out beyond the definitions that make hidden but inherent contradictions which result in dis-integration of purpose and value-stripping in place of value-sharing.

Thank you for your attention.

Philosophy as Inspiration

Philosophy is an activity of human thinking that can be inspired by intuitive realisation - but can also deal in derivative meanings that are not true - but are in some way appealing to the personal sense  - to our sense of self as an independent authoritative presence in its own right.

It is quite possible to deal in 'truths' while not knowing and sharing them truly, and in this sense seek to use truths to 'add to my self' rather than subjugate and align the sense of self with revealed truth.

Philosophers can - and do - argue about 'what is truth?' - but if their appetite for being right or self-validation is released in favour of truly desiring to know - then truth will no longer be obscured to their own awareness by their own self-assertion - and in reading philosophy as much as in taking a walk, they will be able to discern and be receptive to, inspiration.

The notion of engaging in activity of thinking in order to arrive at truth is absurd. Yet in the earnest attempt engaged fully, we can experientially come to the limits of thought - and so also release the limited and open to a perspective that a thought-based identity cannot know.

But such awakened 'perspective' in its experiential and unified sense, can of course be then clothed in thought and presented in a currency that serves the need of the times. Not so much the time in which it appears - as the times that it lays foundation for.

The story of humanity can be seen at the level of idea - in which persons are mere agencies of idea and not as some Promethean hero dealing stolen goods as good stuff. And we can see that our world is experienced and lived out in the terms of the ideas of the times - that are of individual expression finding shared acceptance. But truth itself is not a matter of consensus. Truth is not a grey meaningless existence in which to treasure crumbs of comfort.

I feel that the uncovering of the nature of Mind in which such idea arises is nigh. Not least because there is a great need for fresh inspiration to free us of the traps of our thinking - and of the experience that such thinking gives rise to. There's not much room for manoeuvre amidst the insanely complex world We created - let alone joy in being alive - and sharing it!

"I think, therefore I am" is  considered a foundation. But it is easily misinterpreted as "I, the doer am proven to exist by my power of doing". But is this not simply expressing a wish-idea to interpret the arising of an idea in awareness in terms of a capacity to act independently from the Field of Awareness Itself. In other words is it not of the very same apple from which comes a seeming capacity to judge all things good or ill - according to a personal power of will?

Truth is that we cannot in any True sense be independent from the Field of Awareness in which and of which everything arises. Not even for an instant. But who wants to spoil the game when its in the midst of play? Free will is the capacity to accept willingly but tolerance for pain is limited, and so initiates enquiry from which health and renewal springs.

Yet when a fundamental meaninglessness rises to our awareness, we can NOT engage the game of life on old terms AND find it works or holds currency any more - and needs must regain a direct connectness with a true inspiration and value rather than rebranding or recycling the same old same old in desperate attempt to maintain our presentations of validity and of being respectable and capable in our own right.

So I have blown a trumpet here to offer a framework that says YES! to philosophy as Inspiration and invites disregard to the practice of thinking about thinking in order to think some more.

Thankyou for your attention!