random thoughts for today

It occurs to me that many of the apparently discrete things that I'm interested in all overlap in some way. Essentially, Chinese medicine/QiGong bils down to the same map as shamanism. Tone and vibration play a part in each. The whole of Sheya is rising from the same structure - integrating tools and techniques from all of them. It's all the same thing expressed in different ways. At a superficial level, it's an obvious and simplistic statement, however, at a deeper level it is also a reflection of the nature of all those pieces.

Not all teachers are appropriate for every student. I can tell if a teacher has something of value for me to learn by observing who he is and how he lives his life. If he is the sort of person that I would like to be, then I might be able to learn something from him. The person I am now - and the person I want to become - are different from who I was and wanted to be when I was twenty. Therefore, the teachers I look to now would have been invisible to me then. 

Context is everything - a warm coat is bliss to someone in a snowstorm, but on a sunny beach it is repulsive. The same can be said for much else in our world of samsara. Even though we may "realize" that it is all illusion - that there is no difference - the experience of matter and energy as "real" is remarkably persistent. Is this really just a matter of perception? Or is the very nature of our context such that, in order for us to experience, we take on this dual existence? 

Terma - there are hidden teachings everywhere. Not only in the rocks and caves of the Himalayas, but in the everyday experience of each and every human being. However, one of the keys to accessing these "hidden" teachings seems to be a process of opening doorways in certain objects - like special rocks - and exploring what we find there, with the intention of discovering such teachings. What can the nature of this key tell us about the fundamental nature of our relationship with the world around us? Is this the meta-teaching behind the terma?

seed stone sits in the palm of my hand

opening doors beyond mind

I close my eyes and contemplate

endless sky

LumensGate '08

Friday night I spent all night - and I do mean ALLLL night - around the heartfire, dancing, drumming and trancing out with the rest of the wonderful folks at LumensGate. I am still amazed, after 18 years, at how well it all comes together. The flow of the rituals, the openness of the participants, the presence of spirit (and spirits) all working together to make the transformations happen. 

I'm still too toasty (and glowing) to make as much sense as it deserves, but I definitely found new doors to walk through. They were not comfortable, and I'm still dealing with the feelings of vulnerability and loss that arose once I had made it to dawn, but I have a feeling that this was the most powerful one yet. It will be "interesting" to watch the results of the ritual cycle take shape over the next year - both in myself and in the other "gators". 

Jai Hanuman!