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Here Comes the Flood

When the night shows
the signals grow on radios
All the strange things
they come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There's no point in direction we cannot even choose a side.

I took the old track
the hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
they were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
and as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain was warm and
soaked the
crowd.

Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

When the flood calls,
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they'll use up what we used
to be.

Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again, the seas are silent
in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

--Mark Otter
____________________________________________________________________

What could be more ludicrous
Or boring
Than a discussion about the truth?
--Michael Johnson


1.

Ram Tzu has some questions for you...
Just who do you think you are?
Are you other than God?
Are you separate from Me?

If so...
What are you made of?
Where did it come from?

Don't look to science to help you.
The physicists have all become mystics.
They're of no more use to you than is Ram Tzu.

If you're really clever you'll turn around
And walk away
Fast!
Hang around here and you're liable to lose
Everything you hold dear.

Go back to your church, your temple,
Your therapist, your drug dealer, your ashram.
There you may find a moments peace.
You found it there once.
Here is only emptiness for you.
You'll find no food for your ego here.

What if your precious sense of self
Were to shrivel up and die?
Where would you be then?
What would happen?

Best not to risk it.

-- RAM TZU

http://www.advaita.org/

_________________________________________________________________________

Dave (Manchine):

Here in central Chile, there was a 20 year record
rainstorm, closed down everything, practically. Man we
humans don't like to get wet... almost worse than cats.

I was driving to work, (more like rowing, the streets turn
into rivers here) when I looked over and saw a dog picking
away happily at his regular smorgasbord of garbage, as if
nothing was happening.

Man it's a dog's life, no?

*****

Melody:

That reminded me of a scene in the movie 'Instinct' I
talked about last week.

The character played by Anthony Hopkins was sitting in the
forest.... in the midst of a rain storm. He was huddled
under a giant leaf, miserable, trying to stay dry.

He looked up and noticed that the apes were all going about
their day....with no show of resistance ....no show of
aggrevation or discomfort....no hiding from the elements.

So he dropped his leaf, and within moments, he was
celebrating the experience of rain.... arms
outstretched....eyes turned upwards... welcoming every
drop.

Melody


\ /
\O/
| \ ^ ^
| | __/OvO\
/ \ /\ /\U
_/ \_ / \/ \

--Dave

________________________________________________________________________

A great place to buy and sell used books: half.com

--Michael Johnson

_________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Gloria Lee gives in and starts an online journal:

Okay, okay..you talked me into it. For better or worse,
here is my first one. I hadn't quite realized where this
was taking me until I did write it down, so it does take
one deeper simply to start writing about the day.

Gloria

http://www.livejournal.com/users/nirvana/

_____________________________________________________________________________

David Hodges discusses journal keeping. There was a second
letter in this series by David, but it is not included. It
will be posted to a web page along with other material on
the subject.

One of the best - and oldest - workshops available on
journalling teaches Ira Progoff's "Intensive Journal"
method. I went to one of their workshops about 10 years
ago, and I got a lot out of it. But I found the loose leaf
notebook approach, with lots of tabbed sections in it, got
unwieldy, and I lapsed back to my more sequential method
which I had been using since I was in high school. Of
course the Internet then was unknown by the general public
and the thought of doing my journalling online would never
have occurred to me.

There is a website at http://www.intensivejournal.org with
information about Intensive Journalling. And an excellent,
book, "At a Journal Workshop: Writing to Access the Power
of the Unconscious and Evoke Creative Ability" at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0874776384/qid=961027457/sr=1-1/104-39699\
09-5374348
Here is a lengthy quote from Ira Progoff about his method.

The Intensive Journal workbook contains both "log" sections
and "feedback" sections. In the log sections, we record the
factual data of our lives. The feedback sections are used
to carry out the active exercises that generate the energy
and momentum to propel us forward to develop our lives
further. The workbook also is divided into four main parts
or dimensions that each have their own realm of human
experience, content, and characteristic ways of expression.
These are: "Life/ Time," "Dialogue," "Depth," and
"Meaning." Each of these dimensions in turn, is divided
into subsections or "miniprocesses."

In the Life/Time Dimension, we deal with the other level of
experiences, our personal life history. This dimension
includes the major periods or phases (Steppingstones) of
our lives, important choices made (Roads Taken and Not
Taken) and provides a vehicle for reviewing these periods
to gain a perspective on the continuity of our lives.
Through these exercises, we explore in detail new
possibilities and interests that were not developed yet as
a way to broaden our range of opportunities in life.

Working in the Dialogue Dimension, we enter into a dialogue
relationship with each of the major facets of our lives:
personal relationships, work and special projects, body and
health, events and society. By "walking in the shoes" of
the other person or object, individuals deepen their
relationship with that aspect of our lives, avoid blockages
and preconceived notions and gain insights that otherwise
would not be possible. In the course of these dialogues, we
often find that we write things that we do not know that we
knew.

In the Depth Dimension, we explore our symbolic messages in
the form of dreams and imagery. The exercises provide a way
for individuals to bring these elusive images up from their
depths to the surface to be developed further through
various non-analytical techniques. By developing our
sensitivity to these messages, our intuitive capacities are
strengthened that provide new energy and leads for our work
in other dimensions of the workbook.

The fourth dimension, the Meaning Dimension, focuses on the
fundamentals of life: values, priorities, and ultimate
concerns that motivate people. We focus extensively on
connecting to larger than personal aspects of society
whether through symbols or experiences. When people become
connected they are strengthened inside. Individuals also
utilize the dialogue techniques to learn from a person,
whether from the past or present, who can teach us
something about life.

This dimension also includes Entrance Meditation techniques
that are used throughout our Journal work, that provide a
neutral way for entering into our depths to tap into these
symbolic feelings. The Meaning Dimension is helpful to
people because they can only be fulfilled when they have
meaning in life. Meaning also produces a great energy that
can have very positive effects on their lives.

Interviewer: Initially, the amount of sections seems
overwhelming. A person could spend hours on their journal
daily. Is that what typically happens?

Ira: The Intensive Journal workbook is not overwhelming.
Rather, the Method helps individuals get a handle on the
many elusive and challenging aspects of life. Because the
workbook mirrors the contents of our lives, the Method's
structure and organization helps people to write down their
journal entries in a systematic way and to develop them
further.

___________________________________________________________________

"All your efforts to become enlightened are ridiculous if
you don't accept this basic fact, that you are buddhas.
This has to become a tacit understanding, that you are it!
This is the right beginning, otherwise you go astray. This
is the right beginning! Start with this vision, and don't
be worried that this may create some kind of ego--that "I
am a Buddha," because the whole process will make it clear
to you that the ego is the only thing that doesn't
exist--the only thing that doesn't exist! Everything else
is real. Once the buddhahood becomes revealed the 'I'
disappears, just like darkness disappears when you bring a
light in."

~ Osho (contributed by Melody)

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