Footprints

Time magazine describes Deepak Chopra as one of the 100 heroes and icons of the century. If what he says is true, it gives us something to think about, and if it is partially true, it still gives us plenty to think about, and if everything he says is untrue, it certainly would give us something to think about.

The more of his recent articles I read, the more I read my own ideas. I'm beginning to think that his spirit guides know my spirit guides socially and are sharing ideas at the Celestial Bar.

For example, 'the only fact that you are sure of is that you are. The 'I am' is certain, the 'I am this' is not.'

I've had this thought early on in my adult life, and isn't it the most extraordinary thing? Isn't it highly improbable that here I am? I never cease to wonder at this. Whenever I am disheartened and tempted to become a dye in the wool materialist, this 'I am' comes back to stare me in the face - it's too ridiculous. I know I'm not to start on any 'I am this or I am that', but here I am in all my glorious complexity!

'God has managed the amazing feat of being worshipped and invisible at the same time...Although it doesn't seem possible to offer a single fact about the Almighty that would stand up in a court of law, somehow the vast majority of people believe in God, as many as 96 percent according to some polls...
One bald fact stands at the beginning of any search for God. He leaves no footprints in the material world' (from How to Know God).
(deepakchopra.com)

Now, if you have made up your mind that the material world is all there is, and deny all other possibilities and make it your mission to spread the word (as do Richard Dawkins and the Brights at the-brights.net) then you need read no further. And if you are open to the possibility that God exists, but will only accept court of law truth, the same applies. And if you are open to the possibility of God, and are absolutely convinced you cannot know anything about it here in spacetime, and that no contact is possible, and you would never try for that reason, then don't read on. Stay with your faith, stick to your decisions. What are you still doing here? Go on, be off with you!

Now, for those of us not yet eliminated, can we accept the following starting point:

There might be a universal truth, not material or accessible directly by the senses, which despite our subjective positions, experiences and thoughts, we could have access to.

If you are drawn to the idea of universal, eternal truth, which although it can't be measured as defined by ordinary science, can be worked towards, prepared for, and received, then try this idea:

We have within us, given to us, the means of access to this truth, tailored to our own nature (this might be expressed as our being the 'children of God').

General Mission: We souls on earth need to work on coming together and finding this uniting universal truth.

We can have (and most certainly will have for this is the time of independence) different paths, different methods, different experiences, different points of view, but we each have a unique contribution to make, and are heading towards one universal truth. (This is very different to everyone having his or her own individual interpretation and making lots of money selling snake oil, or floating off on a detached cloud of bliss, and generally dispersing on multiple spiritual paths that lead nowhere in particular). This is one-pointed. This is work. It is not unscientific, in the sense that there are not as many realities as there are experiencers, and no way of measuring it. There is a universal meeting point, and we are the instruments of detection.

Anyone still up for it?

Our job is to access it, polish it, perfect it, bring it forth in our own lives. To continue to develop and perfect our 'instrument' of detection, which is our very being, in all its multifaceted glory, waiting to be discovered. Only when we all manage that will suffering end. I think you might call it atonement, in the sense of reconciliation. But we don't need to wait for the ultimate communion - each instant of our lives is available for us to touch universal thought.

If we can go with this, just to the point of trying it out, or trying to understand it, then let us begin.

Leading thoughts

I'm just off to the Thinking Class, I can't wait. Methinks there is more to this thinking business than methought. Last week it was so intense I needed to drink several bottles of water afterwards and for the following three days felt light, elevated and energetic. Then there was the inevitable backlash, horrible aches and pains and fatigue - this often seems to happen after a period of elevation.

I can report back from the field about being lead. I put foward the theory that it was possible to listen in the same way that the coach suggested 'being lead' rather than following, in a dance. I have to admit ahem that I have not been successful in executing my intentions to listen fully to anyone - at all. But I know someone who can. The leader of our thinking group. He listens in a state between expectant and expecting nothing, and he goes right along with where the person he is listening to leads him. He goes to where the person leads him and waits patiently even if the speaker starts to falter and the lead becomes confused - he does not suggest anything or in any way interrupt the lead. When the lead has ground to a definitive halt, he speaks. The first thing he does is to summarise where the speaker was leading him, with extraordinary perception, insight, and clarity of thought. He may well suggest where she would have continued to lead him, had she been able to expres it, - for which the speaker if visibly grateful. And then the discussion begins on the leading idea, measured against a certain thought system which I am disinclined to disclose for the time being. All I can say is that it addresses absolutely everything I've ever been interested in and explains it in a way I had never quite come to before. And as the thinking unfolds in lovely whirls and twirls, the ohs and sighs of the group ring out. The ability to listen like this, with full attention, full intelligence and good background research, is quite simply. divine.

Face Lights Up

They confront us in the places where our heart isn’t open. And when it is, they reinforce and reward in us the joy of an open heart. (Stephen Levine).


The Bath Scene, B aged 5 and R aged 2
I am in the bath with the R. I had promised him this as a treat after I wounded him deeply by, in a moment of stress, shouting at him for scribbling on the B’s homework. R explained tearfully that he just wanted to do some too.

R likes to lie on my tummy in the bath, floating happily, while I go through my entire repertoire of nursery rhymes. Isn’t that lovely?

B decided not to join us. After assuring himself that I was thoroughly incapacitated he decided to raid my locked cupboard. The locked cupboard (out of bounds) is the last safe house for Things Not For Children (eg: nail polish remover, paracetamol pointy scissors). B had long ago found the key (not hard especially as Mummy can never remember where she hid it) opened the cupboard, hidden the key where Mummy can’t find it and now he also has forgotten where he has hidden it.

He starts to make damands.

B: ‘I want this cupboard Mummy. Can I put my things in this cupboard?’

Mummy is feeling very mellow but is not really listening. She is thinking, I am enjoying this bath and humming nursery rhymes and I want the B to be happily playing and all to be well.

Mummy; (generous, warm-hearted) I tell you what, you can share it with me.

B: But I want ALL OF IT

Mummy: (still just about warm hearted, the water is very relaxing) Just move my things onto one shelf and you can have the other

B: I want to take all your things OUT.

Mummy: (still not listening, instead thinking, why is he annoying me? I can’t deal with this now I am tired, I am in the bath. Can he never stop Wanting Things and just play? etc.)

Mummy: No, it will make too much mess. You can have one shelf and that is my final offer.

B: (Throws a horrible tantrum during which me makes Horrible monstrous child demands and screeches deafeningly)

At this point the normal war outcome would be some pretty heavy shouting fire and the lobbing of judgemental and crushing statements, to 'make it go away', fuelled by thoughts such as: why is he being such a monstrous child? And then not listening to the answer.

Mummy: (Suddenly remembers children are never upset for the reason you think, breathes deeply into the abdomen, also breathes out, is inspired:) Come in here and talk to me. (genius, genius)

B: (Appears unwillingly in front of bath, Face like thunder, thunder which threatens to last for up to an hour or until Mummy can bear it no longer)

Mummy: (Has fleeting and very satisfying image of roaring out of the bath like a grisly sea monster and counter-attacking, but retains self-control and tries instead): Are you saying that you need a place to keep some of your things safe from your brother?

B: (Face lights up) yes

Mummy: When we put the shelves up in your bedroom, how about we have a special box which you can lock on the top shelf and you can hide the key?

B: Yes, yes, and (goes on to outline several schemes he has in mind. This cheers him up no end, even though the likelihood of J-C and I ever getting round to putting up the shelves before the end of the world is slim)

Why didn’t he tell me in a straightforward manner? Probably something to do with the fact that he is a child. Why did he do it by making demands? Well, he could have learned that off me.

Who is Deepak

Have a look at this film clip on YouTube of a Deepak Chopra interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_rdYiLAz38

What do we think of him? I've talked about looking deep into the 'souls' of toys, but can this be done with people? Do we make these kinds of judgements routinely in our lives? Is it accurate, useful?

I wondered about Deepak because I found some of his publicity shots mildly alarming, and I wondered about the publicity machine which springs into action every time he writes a highly lucrative book. Who is the real Deepak? Is he ok?

I like what he writes. He exhibits and demands clear thinking, he illustrates his work with stories which we recognise and dilemma we face. Deepak is one of the few who has gone into the spiritual side of things with his thinking intact, who has researched widely, and found universal truths in the living heart of many religions.

I'm going to read his latest book The Third Jesus, (the first Jesus being the historical one, the second being the version projected by the subsequent pervertion of 'Christianity', crusade, inquisition, repression and all). The third Jesus is the part in all of us, the Christ Consciousness - but I hesitate to use this phrase as it has already been kidnapped and perverted, so I use the phrase Christic Influence which has not yet been perverted as far as I know, as I have just made it up. I am pretty sure I am going to read some things I want to question, that's the whole point.

When I watched this clip I found myself weeping with laughter and delight, and when I called
J-C over, he did too.

Mind you, he does have a HUGE business empire, a prolific online shop with some more obviously 'New Age' products, his blog is full of adverts, some of them not exactly uplifting. Mmmm, I'm in three minds. I'll have to read that book to get to the bottom of it.

I want a blog

B has been peering over my shoulder. He wants to know what a blog is. I mumble on a bit and he says

'So, Mummy, it's the story of your life, isn't it?'

'Ah, well, yes I suppose it is'

'I want a blog'

'What?' I exclaim, this from B who does not have two words to rub together, what could he possibly have to say?

At this point his father intervenes and points out that before B can write to the world on his own personal blog, he had better get practising writing with a p-e-n and reading a b-o-o-k, so B is temporarily beaten back, telling me over his shoulder as he is dragged off not to use any rude words on my blog or he will be prevented from accessing it by his parental control filter.

Dancing, thinking...dancing

Why am I warbling on about dancing, what is the point unless you are a fan or a practitioner?

Because it is a dancing lesson, and it could be applied to other situations in life. The next time you meet someone who offers to lead you, imagine that you agree to be lead. You avoid being floppy and useless, you avoid becoming over-eager to please, anticipating, offering your own judgements and solutions and worrying about your performance. You find that place in between which is just right, you give your full attention, you are present, you offer unbiased but firm resistance, to see if the leading really works. You are just lead. I wonder what the result would be? I'm going out there, and will report back from the field.
I've always had trouble with finding this place in between. In Britain we play 'more courteous than thou' games and very nice it is too. In the Paris region, no such niceties exist, and I am continually offending, outraged and indignant. I think I need to stop anticipating others and trying to get out of their way. I think I need to just go, like the French.
Recently R taught me the following lesson:

R tends to charge off and canon into people, leaving me to apologize to the flustered, trampled, and knocked-aside in his trail.

'R' I said after one particularly nasty bout when he wanted to reach the school gates before his best friend, 'You are old enough now to pay attention to where you are going, to notice people coming towards you , and to stand aside graciously rather than careering into them at full speed.'

'I know I know' says R 'But if I move out of the way they move out of the way too and we still crash. And anyway why should I always be the one to move out of the way?' He's so logical.

We enjoyed the snow

Hoar frost at Ashridge, sent in by my mother.

R's snowman. He did rush in grab a carrot and two acorns for the face, but as he inserted them the face split in two and fell to the ground. He did not despair. He rebuilt the head and improvised with some cast-off winter clothing instead. As Jenny says, it's not the size that counts...

R&B's friends M&I take full advantage in urban Gelsenkirchen, sent in by Jenny.