I watched the Terminator last night, and wondered why there are so many sci-fi movies about cold, calculating, apparently unstoppable robotic and/or alien adversaries. What is so fascinating about them?

Of course, it can be exiting - and useful - to get in touch with the clarity and energy of our basic survival instincts. There is a sense of all of us, all humanity, being in the same boat. There is comfort in the simplicity of having a clear enemy and knowing what to do, and entertainment in the openness of not quite knowing how to do it. And it is enjoyable to vicariously experience drama without being part of it ourselves.

Then, if I see these movies as a dream, with all parts mirroring something in me, what in myself do these characters remind me of? 

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I received a couple of doses of morphine that interesting night at the ER, and I was curious about its effects. Mainly, it took the edge off the pain in a very effective way. And there was also a physical sense of warm and fuzzy wholeness.

The experience reminded me of the experience of body-mind wholeness (centaur) in general, and also of the shifts that happens when I do bodywork and work with projections. 

In all of those cases, there is a sense of wholeness, nurturing fullness, being home. 

There may be a shift from a sense of lack, neediness and being a victim, and into that sense of nurturing wholeness and fullness. (0ver time, the baseline tends to move so that shift may be more subtle.) 

When I explore it through the three centers, I find…

In view, there is a recognition right here of what I see out there - in the wider world, the past or the future. I see and feel it right there, in this human self. 

There is a more open heart, which in itself is nurturing and quietly joyful and satisfying. 

At the belly, there is a felt-sense of a nurturing fullness, nurturing all of me - body and mind - as a human self. 

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There are many flavors of seeing ourselves in others…

At the level of who I am - my human self…

• I project stories out there - in the wider world, into the past or future
  • There is a mental field overlay, interpreting what is happening, creating scenarios about the future, creating memories of the past. 
  • If I recognize this overlay, it becomes a very helpful tool for my human self to function in the world. (I can recognize this in an immediate way, as it happens.) 
  • If I don’t recognize it as an overlay, I take it as substantial and out there in the world. I take it as true, and act as if it was true. (Inevitably creating problems for myself.) 
• I project qualities and dynamics out there
  • Whatever qualities and dynamics I see in the wider world - in others, nature, movies - are qualities and dynamics I am familiar with right here. 
  • If I take them as true, I overlook information that doesn’t fit. 
  • If I take them as only out there, I get caught up in blind attractions and aversions. 
  • If I recognize these qualities and dynamics (also) right here, there is a sense of us. I am also less needy, less of a victim. 
  • If I recognize them as stories, I am free to first find in myself what I see out there. And then to see them as innocent questions about others, myself, the world. Maybe they serve as useful temporary guidelines, maybe not. 
• I project advice out on others
  • Advice comes up 
  • If I see this advice as (only) for others, I get caught up in how they live their lives. 
  • If I see this advice as (also, mainly) for myself, there is a sense of relief and direction. I am relieved because I recognize where the advice belongs. And I have something to work with. A question. Something to explore for myself. A temporary guideline for action. 

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A few ways the world is, in a lose sense, a mirror…

First, I can notice the overlay of images on all of the sense fields. These images interpret the sense fields, and are - in a very real sense - the world I relate to. Whenever I see a quality or dynamic in the world, what I am seeing is what an image tells me is going on. I am seeing, and relating to, my own overlay. So in that sense, what I am seeing in the world is my own overlay right here.

If I take this overlay as real and substantial, it appears to be inherent in the world. I project it out on the world and take it as real out there. When I notice the overlay itself, for instance through sense field explorations, I see that it is a creation of my own mind. It is, quite literally, imagined. It can be very helpful for functioning in the world, but it is also imagined and happening right here.

What I see in the world is a mirror of my stories of it right here. When the world is brought into stories, those stories are right here.

Then, I also find that whatever those stories point to is something I can find right here. The dynamics and characteristics they tell me about is something I can find right here in my own human self. I recognize something in the wider world, or in the past or future, and it is right here too.

When I see it only out there, and overlook it right here, it is easy to get blindly caught up in projections. I see desirable and undesirable qualities out in the wider world, or in the past and future, and not also right here, so I get blindly caught up in attraction and aversion. When I recognize those qualities and dynamics also right here, there is more of a freedom from being caught up in blind attractions and aversions. After all, what I see in the wider world is also here. I find myself as less needy. Less of a victim.

Finally, there can be the noticing of whatever happening as Ground, as already empty/awake. It is all God without any I and other. God is a mirror for itself.

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Here is a slight variation on a common topic…

Our stories create a limited identity for us, and to the extent we identify with it, we are at odds with reality.

There is an identity to justify, defend and prop up. Someone may see something in us that doesn’t fit, and we feel a need to defend against it. Or our human self may do something that doesn’t fit, and we feel a need to defend our identity there too. We are at odds with life as it is, and there is a sense of drama and struggle.

So whenever this happens, it is a great opportunity to notice our identification with a particular identity. We take the offended identity as true, but what is more true for us? What do I find when I explore it for myself.

Someone may say “you are …” (fill in the blank). I notice a reaction to it, a movement to defending an identity, and this is a sure sign that I identify with and take a story as true. There may be stress. Tension. Hurt. Defensiveness. Reactiveness. Getting caught up in stories.

And I can meet and explore this in different ways. I can allow and meet the experience, and the fear behind it. I can notice the belief behind it, and find what is more true for me. I can feel and see the characteristic in me, as a part of my human wholeness, and our shared humanity.

In each case, what I find is that behind the initial reaction, there is pure gold. I find another piece of my lost wholeness as a human being. I am released out of a false - and too narrow - identity. I find another aspect of our shared humanity right here. I experience more of the fullness of who I already am.

If I get caught up in defending the threatened identity, all the usual things happen. A sense of stress. Tension. Conflict. Separation. (To myself and others.) Getting caught up in obsessive thoughts. Hurt. And more than that, I miss out of pure gold. I miss out of finding a previously excluded piece of my own wholeness.

The only problem is that most of the time, I don’t know what people think about me. They just don’t tell, at least not if it is anything they see as unfavorable. I miss out of the gold because it doesn’t happen that often. So what can I do?

Fortunately, there is a way around it. I can use any statement that comes my way, no matter who or what it is about and where it comes from (including my own thoughts), and turn it around to myself.

How is it true for me? Can I find it right here? What happens when I inquire into the beliefs and identities preventing me from feeling and seeing it in my human self? What happens when I allow myself to feel and see it right here?

Whatever statement comes up, I can turn it around to find it in myself.

This process leads to a healing and maturing of who I am, as this human self. And it releases identification out of stories, which makes it easier for what I am to notice itself.

It is pure gold, so why wait?

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The former Republican vice presidential nominee told reporters in Anchorage that a recent Fox News report — which cited unnamed campaign sources as saying she did not know Africa was a continent and could not name the countries involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement — was false, and that her comments were taken out of context.

“That’s cruel. It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair and not right,” Palin told CNN in an interview.

- Source: LA Times

Hm… Let’s see. Who was it that made a big point out of the connection between Obama and Ayers? Who took things out of context? Who tried to spread it on national news?

(And who was it that used a certain plumber to discredit Obama’s tax policy, when that same plumber would be among those benefiting?)

It is easy to see this double standard in someone else, but we all do it in our own ways. It is inevitable. The question is, when and how do I do it?

For instance, do I gleefully read and talk about unfavorable things about republicans, and overlook the same in democrats? Yes I do, sometimes.

One of the best tools to have in one’s toolbox is ways to work with projections, and that is equally true for how we relate to our path.

In general, if I notice I am caught up in stories about something out there - in the future, past or others - I can find it right here.

I can find the stories here now, obviously, and also whatever they seem to refer to.

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As with anything else here, this is basic and almost childishly simple… which most important things are. And it is what I need to explore it seems.

Some pointers for relating to the path that I find useful…

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I keep hearing folks saying that we use only 10% of our brains, most recently at a potluck this weekend.

It is obviously a myth if taken literally. Even on the surface, it makes little sense. Why, for instance, would we evolve a brain that is only partially used when it is so enormously costly in terms of energy? And brain imaging shows that we use all parts of the brain, although all parts are - thankfully - not highly active at any one time.

The intention behind the statement (apart from revealing to the world an appalling lack of understanding of common-sense principles of evolution) is obviously to remind us that we have untapped potentials.

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I keep appreciating the simplicity and beauty of the double turnaround.

Someone says something about someone else. In my mind, I turn the statement around to themselves. And then to myself.

So I get to see that their advice is for themselves, and how perfect it is as advice for themselves. And I also get to find it in myself. I get to see how it is true for me.

The effect of this is a shift into receptivity, clarity and an open heart.

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As I relate to my human self, I relate to the wider world.

Or, I relate to life the same way whether it comes up in my human self or the wider world.

I can meet my own anger by picking up its energy and using it in a constructive way. I can allow and be with the experience of anger. Welcome it and allow it to be seen. Felt. Loved. As it is. For what it is. Even if it would always be here.

And the more familiar I am with this, the more this way of relating to it is available to me when I meet anger in others.

Also, how do I relate to apparently opposing energies or viewpoints? Do I automatically glom on to one and reject the other? Do I defend one? Try to make it appear right and the other wrong? Or can I hold both and see what comes out of it? Relate to them with curiosity and receptivity? Gentle and firm? Find the validity in each, and how they can both be facilitated within the same field?

The more I am familiar with it in myself, the more it is available to me when it comes up in the wider world.

This is just one of the many ways work on myself is - in a direct and immediate way - work in the world.

It is always fascinating to me to hear what others are facilitated by, and then find it in myself. We went to a potluck tonight, and the topic - for a while - were different doomsday scenarios. Economic collapse. Collapse of the US empire. Ecological collapse. And so on.

How likely is it that disaster will strike at a collective level? What are the ways it may happen? What are the dynamics leading up to it? How may it unfold? How serious may it be? What can we do? How will it impact us? How can we prepare?

The first thing I find when I look at this for myself is that any emotional fascination (draw, attachment) I may have towards doomsday scenarios is proportional to the extent I resist certain emotions in daily life. If I resist experiencing fear, terror, dread, anger and so on in daily life, there is an emotional component to imagining and exploring doomsday scenarios, and also an emotional fascination with it - whether I seek it out or try to avoid it, or do both.

Likewise, if I allow, welcome and am with those emotions, in a kindhearted way, there is a release of the charge around them. They are welcomed, as they are, for what they are, even if they would stay forever. They are seen. Felt. Loved. And as the charge around them is released, the emotional draw and fascination with doomsday scenarios goes out as well.

What is left is more clarity. A choice to explore these scenarios or not, depending on what seems appropriate and useful in the situation. And a very practical approach if I chose to explore them. It boils down to what can I do, and how? And stays at the practical.

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A draft that didn’t go further… (too many points to flesh out!

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Reincarnation holds a particular fascination for many. After all, if I am someone, then what will happen to this someone after death, and what - if anything - was it up to before this birth?

And as usual, it can be very helpful to see what is going on here now.

What I find is that any fantasies I may have about these things (have to create them intentionally since I am not very interested in it!), mirror something here now. That is the case whether someone else tells me about past/future lives, or it comes up for myself in dreams, regression therapy or some other way.

The characteristics and dynamics of those stories mirror something here now. And also, when I take stories about past and future lives as real, I take stories alive here now and tell myself they are (a) about the past or future, and (b) are about something substantial and real. I project characteristics and dynamics out into those stories, and I project a mental field activity out in the past/future and as substantial and real.

In general, stories about reincarnation mirrors how we - and content of experience in general - continually dies as what it was and is reborn as something else. In that sense, the process of reincarnation is happening here now, always.

And more in particular, whatever I imagine into past or future lives - who I was, what life I lived and so on - also mirrors something here now. Typically, it mirrors my fears (shadow) or my hopes. Qualities and characteristics present here now, which I am not completely aware of so can more easily see out there in someone else, in the past or future. (Usually things that are here, but do not fit my conscious self-image, who I am in the world.)

So it can be very useful to work with imaginations around reincarnation, and I find that I can do it in any of the ways I work with anything else.

I can dialog with figures - who I was or others in that life. Who are they? What do they want? What do they need? What do they want to tell me? How can I help them? How can they help me? What can I learn from them? How do I relate to them? How can I relate to them in a more skillful way? How can I notice them more in my own life, or bring them more out? What is a healthy expression of the qualities I see in them?

I can do tong-len with these figures, especially the ones that suffer.

I can find the figures that appear as demons to me (troublesome) and go through the feeding the demons process.

I can allow the experience that comes up, as it is, including any resistance to it. I can find myself as that which already holds and allows all of it. And I can do it with kindness and compassion for my human self who may have trouble dealing with it.

I can find any beliefs I have around particular stories about past lives, and inquire into them. What happens when I hold onto those beliefs? Who am I without them? What is the grain of truth in their reversals?

I can explore it through the sense fields. When I activate stories about past or future lives, what do I find in the different sense fields? What do I find in the mental field? Can I see it all happening within and as this timeless present, as activities in the mental field - sometimes combining with sensations and other sense fields?

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In the feeding your demons practice, we identify and take the role of a demon, find what we - as the demon - need (usually love, acceptance, safety), ask ourselves how we would feel after getting what we need, and then feed a nectar composed of just that to the demon.

This is something that can be done throughout daily life as well, in a shortened form.

I notice a craving, compulsion or desire and then ask myself how would I feel if I got that?

Then, is it true it is not already here? (An invitation to notice it here now, as is.)

And finally, if it seems helpful, I can give it to myself. I can give myself that love, acceptance, safety or whatever else it is the desire sought.

Following this I am free to seek it out - or not - in the outer world as well, although now less from a compulsive place and more from a relaxed clarity.

Whenever someone says I need to talk with you, or can I ask you a personal question?, or something along those lines, it is a good opportunity to notice where my mind goes.

What am I most afraid she or he will ask me?

What do I imagine she or he will ask me? What is the worst case scenario? The best case scenario?

Which question would be most embarrassing?

And whatever comes up here is a good pointer to where I have hangups, where there is still a blind identification with certain roles and stories. It is good to notice, and whatever comes up is something I can take to inquiry.

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Here is an excellent practice on feeding your demons, adapted from the Tibetan chöd practice by Tsultrim Allione. The link goes to an excerpt in Tricycle from her book on the same topic.

Her version of the practice is quite similar to the Big Mind process, although goes far beyond in some respects.

Doing The Work is a pleasure in many different ways, including the simplicity in how life itself shows me which stories to work on. I notice stress, identify the story behind it, and inquire into it to find what is more true for me than the initial belief.

After a while, many of the low hanging fruits have been harvested and the remaining ones may be more hidden from view. So what to do? Exploring underlying beliefs can be very helpful here. Taking a surface belief, and then find underlying beliefs by asking why?, what is not OK about that?, where does my mind go?, what do I fear would happen if I didn’t have that belief?, and so on.

Also, I have found that imagining the beliefs of others, and then taking them on as my own for the sake of inquiry, can be very helpful. After all, I am the one imagining the beliefs of others, and those stories - that I see over there - are really my own. And after exploring the dynamics around those beliefs, I see more clearly how I hold the same ones in my own life.

They may have looked quite different on the surface, but very similar when investigated.

As a bonus, there is often a new understanding of where the other person may be coming from, a sense of being in the same boat, and also of a sense of kindness towards the other person and myself.

Another life 101 pointer that I find helpful in daily life:

Whenever someone says something about someone or something else, I can turn it around for them, realizing that the advice - or description - is for themselves. This is especially helpful if there is some charge around what they said for me.

Then, I can do the same for me. I can find how the same advice or description is true for me. And also its reversals.

So Bush may be talking about terrorists, and I see how his descriptions of terrorists also fit with the actions of the Bush administration. (And how that may be the default view for some around the world.) Then, I find how the same is true for me. And how the reversals are true as well, for him and me.

It brings a sense of all of us being in the same boat. In my own mind, I bring him into his own business (describing and giving advice to himself) and me into my business (describing and giving advice to myself). There is a natural empathy from recognition. The charge goes out of the situation. And this leaves more clarity for action and engagement, or not, depending on what seems appropriate in the situation.

This pointer is equally helpful when someone says something about me. No matter what it is, I can turn the statement around to the person who said it. And from that place of more clarity, I can find it in myself.

…one of the functions of an inner or outer teacher (really just the same)…

In what ways is an inner and outer teacher the same?

In a conventional or psychological sense, whatever we see in the outer world mirrors something in here. Whatever I see and receive from a teacher resonates with and mirrors something right here. The teacher only points to it and helps me notice it. (And if I am not ready to notice it, it will just pass by for now.)

Within form, the inner and outer teacher is part of the same seamless process. The flows and dynamics of the universe itself which appears within this human self and in the wider world. One process which we filter into belonging to this human self, and the wider world - including teachers and anything else.

Those two belong to stories. These stories may be functional and helpful at times, but it is still only something that appears through the filter of stories.

Finally, there is no difference between the inner and outer teacher in that both happen within content of awareness, and as awareness itself. They are both just the play of awareness, appearing as something. Within the world of form, something happens and it can appear helpful or not. Yet no matter what happens within the world of form, or within content of awareness, it is still only the play of awareness itself. All happening within and as this timeless present.

This is something each of us can notice here and now through allowing experience, explore the sense fields, the Big Mind process, headless experiments, and many other pointers.

He is a stupid gorilla.

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One of the precepts from the Center for Sacred Sciences is to not overindulge in escapist entertainments. It is a very helpful precept since it brings our attention to when we do just that, and also invites in the question of why and what the dynamics are around it.

What am I trying to escape? What happens when I try to escape in this way? What happens if I meet what I am trying to escape, and more wholeheartedly allow the experience of it as it is?

And some other questions I have found useful for myself…

Is it true that what I am seeking is not already here? (From Adyashanti.)

What is/are the belief(s) behind the impulse to escape? And then take these to inquiry: What happens when I hold onto that belief? Who am I without it, here and now? How would I live my life differently without that belief? What are the truths in its turnarounds? (From Byron Katie.)

And also, while I am indulging in escapist entertainment, allow experience and notice beliefs.

I can notice whatever experiences and emotions comes up from what I am reading/watching/listening to, and see what happens when I resist them (even subtly), and what happens when I am with them and allow them more wholeheartedly.

And I can notice beliefs coming up about what I am watching/reading/listening to, and take these to inquiry later.

In this way, escapist entertainment can become a full fledged practice in itself. Still as entertaining, and maybe more juicy.

Trigger: This article on BBC.

Road maps for the awakening process can be helpful in a few different ways.

They can help us see that what happens here is shared, common, nothing unusual about it.

They can give us pointers for how to work with what is happening, if anything besides our usual practice can be helpful.

They can give teachers and people researching these things pointers for how to teach and practices to suggest.

But that is about it. They are sometimes helpful, in a practical and quite limited way. And there are of course many of these road maps, each one helpful in some circumstances and not in other.

And if either of these road maps is made into an expectation - by either students or teachers - it gets pretty weird, as usual. It ends up as yet another struggle with what is.

As they say, if 6.7 billion people awaken, there will be 6.7 billion different awakenings.

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What are some of the functions of gossip?

Whether gossip happens in our own minds, between people, or in the media, I can find at least two main functions of gossip.

In an evolutionary perspective, it seems that it makes sense for people to exchange information about others. When we do, and to the extent it is accurate, we have a better idea of what is going on, and that is often helpful. Even when it is not accurate, it serves to create a sense of intimacy among those who share gossip.

Gossip also serves an important function in terms of projections. We get familiar with a characteristic or dynamic in somebody else, and - if we are receptive to it - can then get familiar with it in ourselves.

There are also a couple of other projection-related functions of gossip.

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Spiritual teachings/stories have several different functions.

First, they function as bait to get people interested, usually by triggering a variety of projections. We take ourselves as an I with an Other, and with a particular identity. The stories reminds us of what we are on the other side of those boundaries, and we are attracted to it.

Then, they invite a reorganization of the stories people use as guidelines for how to live their lives. They become new beliefs, which has an important practical function in keeping people out of trouble. This is the social aspect of stories/teachings.

For those interested in the practice part, they are pointers for practice, questions for us to investigate on our own. Each statement is a question only, to take to inquiry.

And finally, and most importantly, they offer tools for practice, for instance for investigating beliefs and finding what is more true for us. (The teachings and tools themselves are of course included as material for inquiry.)

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We can experience ourselves as ordinary at the levels of who (this human self) and what (that which experience happens within, to and as) we are.

If what we are notices itself, we see all as the dance of Ground, the play of nothingness appearing as something. All becomes ordinary in that sense, of being the play of awareness itself.

If what we are does not notice itself, there is a sense of a separate I which then inevitably appear as special one way or another, better than some others in some ways, worse in other ways.

If who we are is split, divided against itself, this sense of being special is amplified. We cling to an identity which splits us, making some aspects of who we are OK and other aspects not OK.

If who we are is whole, there is a sense of everything happening here being universally human, shared, the wider world becomes a mirror for qualities and dynamics happening right here. There is a sense of this human self being ordinary in that everything here is also seen in the wider world, and the other way around. There is of course still distinctions and differences in a conventional sense, but within the context of shared life and the world as a mirror.

So the sense of ordinariness comes from what we are noticing itself, and more consciously embracing the wholeness of who we are. And a sense of being special comes from what we are not noticing itself, and our human self being split by a limited and rigid conscious identity.

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Vince has a good post on ways teachers and traditions sometimes speak about enlightenment, and what types of dynamics it may set up in the group.

The verbal level is of course important, partly because it sets up maps people use to navigate by.

Yet, something else is as important: The tools we are given. First, to have an immediate taste of what we are. Then, to work with beliefs and stories directly, no matter what they are about.

The tools I am familiar with here are the ones I have written about many times before.

Some tools for inviting in a taste of enlightenment include headless experiments and the Big Mind process. These give a taste of what we are and ways to explore it for ourselves, although obviously not with the same clarity as a full blown awakening. Doing this can be helpful in letting go of some of the more exotic ideas about enlightenment. What we are is something that is quite simple, available to be noticed here now, and not really out there in others or the future.

And there are also good tools available to help us unravel beliefs and stories about enlightenment, teachers or anything else. The Work helps us explore the effects of beliefs, and find what is already more true for us. And exploring the sense fields helps us see thought as thought, and how an overlay of thought on each of the sense fields create gestalts. It also helps us find ourselves as what we are, outside of what any story tells us.

At least for me, having and using these tools - with some sincerity - is far more important than any models, mainly because they first help me explore the terrain for myself, and then because they help me unravel beliefs and attachments to any story and identity.

Also, any model can become a belief, an identification with a story. So it is helpful to work with any model we are presented with - or come up with on our own - in this way, no matter how accurate it appears to be. In a conventional sense, some models are more accurate, meaning they have more practical value. But really, all models are equally far away from what they appear to be about.

I also see that I personally prefer practices aligned with awakening, but with an emphasis on the practical and day to day aspects of it. So in that sense, I would be more in the “no need to talk about it too much” camp. (Although I obviously explore it quite a bit here, but that is on my own.)

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In the beginning of shadow work, it may be difficult to find here what we see in others. After all, I am a relatively nice guy, so how can it be that the monster over there is mirroring something in me?

The trick is to be specific enough, and also keep in mind that it may look quite different in degree and form, although the quality is the same.

So I see someone who is a monster.

First, I see that he is misguided. Can I find where I am misguided?

Yes, I can find examples of that in the past and also now. Whenever I get stuck in a rigid view, I am misguided, and it usually has undesirable effects, even if it is just an achy stomach from eating something I knew I shouldn’t have eaten.

The outcome in that example is dramatically different, but the quality is the same. We are both sometimes misguided.

Then, he is cruel. Can I find that in myself?

For me, I can most easily see it when I see my own actions from the perspective of others. I walk past someone asking me for money, and I can understand how that can be seen as cruel. I could have helped, but I didn’t.

Also, there are lots of people in the world who could have benefited immensely from the money I use on frivolous eating and entertainment. I get a little bit of short lived entertainment out of it, and they could have used it to stay healthy or even survive. That is certainly cruel, from their perspective.

I sometimes eat meat, so I support the meat industry. The current meat industry is cruel. It is a system of massive imprisonment of living beings, of conditions that often amount to torture, and systematic killing just so I can get a meal from it. From the perspective of nonhuman beings, that is definitely cruel. (And quite possibly cruel from the perspective of future mainstream human society considering the longer term trends in morals, and who is included in a sense of us.)

Additional qualities may be heartless, manipulative, lier, and so on.

For each of these questions, I find examples of how it is genuinely true for me, and I take the time to see it in more detail, and also to stay with it and feel it in my body.

To summarize, the trick is to be detailed enough in what I see in the Other that is repulsive to me, and in finding it in myself. To find genuine examples of how I do the same. To take time to investigate, to stay with it, and to feel it in my body. And to remind myself that the expression of it can be quite different in type and degree.

In this way, I can find in myself anything I see in even the most misguided (evil, cruel) person out there.

This helps me embrace more of the whole of who I am, so I can relate to it more consciously and not be at the mercy of it. It helps me open my heart to myself and others. And it helps me act out of a little more wisdom and compassion, and a little less from reactiveness and rigid views.

Trigger: This post showing how it sometimes is difficult to work with extreme examples.

Some of the things I notice when I do tong-len…

• It works with projections. Whatever I see over there - and especially shadow material - I find right here. I find in myself the suffering I more easily see in others. And I also find right here the causes of suffering, confusion and all its expressions.
• I see all of that as not or less personal. I see that it is shared, it is a part of human life. I also see that it is all an object, content of experience, coming and going on its own.
• There is a shift from a sense of I-Other split to a sense of us. We are all in the same boat here. We all experience confusion and its many effects.
• In the taking in of suffering and giving of clarity, there is a shift from confusion to clarity. I gradually get familiar with and come to trust that shift. I know, deeply, that it is possible. This helps me remember in daily life, and invite it in.
• There is an opening of the heart towards others and myself. A shift into kindness. Holding us all, including my own human self, in kindness.
• There is a shift into a sense of nurturing fullness, and out of reactiveness.
• There is a shift into a more receptive view, and out of rigidity.
• There is a release of identification with content, and an easier shift into finding myself as Big Mind/Heart. I see content as shared and coming and going on its, and there is less of a sense of a separate I.
• There is a shift into more engagement in daily life. There is a release from fear. Less sense of separation. A shift into kindness. And all of this is naturally expressed in engagement.

Some things are more important than vacations, so here is a quick pointer to a new book: Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. It is based on a large scale Gallup study following 911.

For more information, here is a MPR interview with one of the authors, an article by and a Counterpunch interview with the other author, a summary of the findings, and a brief BBC story.

From the Georgetown University review:

[...] Based on more than 50,000 interviews conducted between 2001 and 2007 with residents of more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations, the poll surveyed more than 90% of the world’s Muslim community, making it the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.

The research suggests that conflict between Muslims and the West is not inevitable and, in fact, is more about policy than principles. “However,” caution Esposito and Mogahed, “until and unless decision makers listen directly to the people and gain an accurate understanding of this conflict, extremists on all sides will continue to gain ground.” [...]

Some of the key findings of the research include:

• Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable.
• Large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution and they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution.
• Muslims around the world say that what they least admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same answers that Americans themselves give when asked this question.
• When asked about their dreams for the future, Muslims say they want better jobs and security, not conflict and violence.
• Muslims say the most important thing Westerners can do to improve relations with their societies is to change their negative views toward Muslims and respect Islam.

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