7/31/2008 - Heart of the Lion - G14

GONG #14

I went to lunch with Leo today. We had an excellent discussion about a movie he recently saw; DALAI LAMA RENAISSANCE directed by Khashyar Darvich. This movie documents the happenings of a conference with the Dalai Lama and forty of the worlds top thinkers as they attempt to solve the problems of the world.

Leo was disappointed because all of these individuals came together and instead of identifying and planning methods to help solve the world's problems, they just built a microcosm of the same problems the rest of the world have: pride, ignorance, negativity and close-mindedness.

We discussed what the problems actually were. Leo listed them previously as hunger, disease, oppression/slavery, ignorance, homelessness and being financially destitute. He had a wonderful idea to help solve the worlds problems and the solution starts with education.

I told Leo about my realization of universal love and the situation that helped bring it about. I explained how I felt the day I told my co-worker that I would go to the ends of the earth for her. When this came to me at that moment it was almost as if my heart knew this feeling was true and it was saying the words for me. We discussed an innerconnection to the Universe/Creator/God which may explain that feeling.

At the end of the meal we received fortune cookies. Leo's read something like "You will meet new friends soon."

We were both astounded to read my fortune:

"Your heart will always make itself known through your words"

GONG!

7/27/2008 - To the End of the Earth

OK, this is weird:

My wife, son, mother and I were all out for lunch today. When we asked the waiter something about getting a refill on a drink he replied "Yes I will, anything you would like, I would walk to the end of the earth for you!"

My wife and I just looked at each other amazed.

7/26/2008 - Throwing Popcorn

My wife and I had an opportunity to finally see the new Batman film, which is fairly great. During the film someone near the front of the theater was exclaiming remarks. It sounded like a high school kid and my wife and I made some comments to each other about the interruptions. I was not distracted, nor did it bother me terribly, but I still got strange thoughts of throwing food or drinks and maybe shouting out to "BE QUIET!" I was a little confused about this as I had not really been bothered and of course did not do anything of the sort.

Once the movie was over we walked in front of the girl making the noise. "There is the noisy girl." I pointed out to my wife as we turned the corner. It turned out to be a down-syndrome teenager who was really excited about being in the theater.

In retrospect, I do not know why I had thoughts of throwing or shouting, but I have a theory: maybe I was in some way "feeling" peoples' reactions in the audience and "picking up" from them their fantasies about what they wanted to do about the situation.

The lesson I took from this experience is that jumping to conclusions and judging someone before you have all the facts is the improper reaction to most situations. There may be a reason why behavior is less than optimum and assuming someone is being malicious may be incorrect. In the future when someone is misbehaving I am not going to assume that they are a "bad" person. There is most likely a reason why and they should not be judged too quickly based on their behavior. They may even need help or guidance which one should be more than willing to give.

7/23/2008 - Unconditional Love

I have noticed lately that I have been "nicer" than usual. The other day at Costco I helped two people load heavy items into their carts. I have been opening more doors for people, cutting less people off while driving and even seem generally more friendly to everyone I meet.

The other day I was walking with a group of co-workers. One of them turned to me and said "Would you mind doing me a favor?"

I replied "Yes anything;" I told her jokingly "I would walk to the end of the earth for you lady!"

Her response was "Yeah right!"

At that moment I realized that I meant it and expanded "No really, I would. In fact I would walk to the end of the earth for anybody."

I was not really sure why this came out the way it did and what it truly meant, but I went on with my day and did not think much about it.

I was reading something today that I found a very interesting:

"Only the outer ego, the individuality, seeks to 1) coerce; 2) judge; 3) flatter; and/or 4) threaten or frighten the outer self or selves of others. On the other hand, the Inner Self, the Master Within, offers unconditional love...We know that our outer ego-self is but an instrument for unconditional love. This unconditional love is tempered with a universal wisdom that is tolerant—being a harmonium which is balanced and equitable for all concerned."

I know that this sounds like a statement that the Dali Llama might say or something the relative that calls you brother no mater how you are related and insists on enthusiastic grace at absolutely every meal (even when dining out) would say, or what my wife called "hippy-dippy," but when I read this and compared it to my personal journey to enlightenment it really hit home. It reminds me of lessons one might be taught out of the bible (like love they neighbor/enemy).

I feel that love/respect/acceptance for everyone regardless of their appearance, background, nationality or attitude is something that if we all strive to do, could change the entire Universe. The only caveat to this theory is that in order to love unconditionally, one must love one's self unconditionally. This means getting over all the preprogrammed self esteem sucking dispositions you have developed throught your life and realizing that you are worthy of absolute self-respect.

Directly after writing this entry I came across this quote from Nelson Mandela in The Power of Flow:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

7/18/2008 - Goodbye Uncle

My uncle passed last night at about 6pm.

I was driving to his house this morning to say goodbye before they picked him up to bring him to the funeral home for cremation. On the drive I heard a song I never really listened to the lyrics before (I always thought it was called Run Away.) Here are the lyrics which I thought were very interesting and pertinent...recognize it?:

I have spent a lifetime
Waiting for the chance
To save you my confession
Save the one last dance

The same old superstition
Haunt us now and then
I'm begging for ignition
To start it all again

We'll burn away
Burn away, burn away my pride
We'll burn away
Burn away, burn away my pride

We'll burn away from all the other flames that burn tonight
We'll burn away
Burn away, burn away my pride

Breathe for me from now on
Breathe for me when I'm gone
Burn out beyond
Out beyond the sun

Will you still remember
There behind the skies
Walking on the embers
Standing in their light
The hardest part is knowing
Everything must die
The hardest part is waiting here
Waiting to collide

We'll burn away
Burn away, burn away my pride
We'll burn away
Burn away, burn away my pride

We'll burn away from all the other flames that burn tonight
We'll burn away
Burn away, burn away my pride
Breathe for me from now on
Breathe for me when I'm gone
Burn out beyond
Out beyond the sun

Burn on, burn on
Calling to you
Burn on, burn on
Calling to you
Burn on, burn on...

I'll never burn again
Never burn again (x3)
We'll never burn again
Never burn again (x3)

7/17/2008 - Think+ Review

I thought it would be a good post to review the method of how I came up with Think+.

Years ago I learned a technique used when building Sigils, but it also is used in logo design for markting and advertizing. I have used it to help find things that I have lost, bring about change and even to represent me symbolically.

It bascially entails writing out a sentance or set of words describing what you want the symbol to represent, bringing them down to a common denominator (single letters) and then arranging them in different ways until you are happy with the symbol.

I used that technique to build the Think+ symbol. In each pic you can see each letter and the plus sign outlined in red:

7/09/2008 - Interesting Realization

I remembered something today when I ran into a co-worker that I had not seen since I had been back.

Back in post 4/28/2008 - Awake Song, I mentioned the group of numbers I found while pondering the Golden Number. I took these numbers and stopped by a gas station to fill out a lottery scan tron and they did not have a station with a pencil to fill it out. I took a scan tron and decided, for some unknown reason, that I should leave and go to another one.

I stopped at the next gas station down the street and asked for a pencil from the cashier. While I was filling out the sheet the co-worker I ran into today tapped me on the shoulder and said hi. We talked about management changes and how things were going in life and he mentioned that I should come back to the old job someday. I thought nothing of it at the time, but realized now when I saw him that this may have been what the numbers were all about in the first place, to meet with him and start the ball rolling on starting back at this old job.

Ain't life grand?

7/05/2008 - Yoga TJ's

My wife, son and I were getting groceries at TJ's when we ran right into the woman from the other day. I introduced her to my family and we discussed Yoga. My wife has been trying to get me to try Yoga for years as I am just about the least stretchy person on the planet. I asked my wife to buy me a mat while she was out shopping. We plan on going this Friday. I hope I don't snap any tendons!

7/02/2008 - Bike Ride Disaster

I decided, in an unanticipated whim, to ride my bike to the bus stop this morning. As I was flying down a steep hill near my house, I started turning with the left-hand curve of the road. I did not notice until it was too late that the road was covered with a fine coating of dirt and gravel. I could not lean into the turn enough to turn and had to move in toward the curb. I slowed down and tried to run out of the crash and was not able to and rolled and flipped. It was fun and I was not hurt, but did put my hand down and collected about 30+ goat heads in it.

At lunch I was driven over to a pizza place to meet folks from my old job. A man I used to work with, Terry, told me that he has had a headache for about six weeks. My headache has been gone for nine. I am hoping that I did not transfer this headache to him. I told him all the knowledge I could about having chronic headaches and suggested some treatments and doctors.

That night my wife and I were eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant. She handed me my fortune cookie and it read: "Be weary today, you should only be a passenger, do not try and drive anywhere."

My thought was "too little to late!"

I did take the bus to work, was driven to and from lunch by a co-worker, had my wife pick me up after work and after getting the fortune I also had my wife drive home...just in case.

7/01/2008 - Lunch with the King - G13

GONG #13

Out of nowhere I decided that I should give Mr King a call. He was on his way over to a local Chai house so I decided to go meet him.

I met a nice lady who he told me was suffering from severe arthritis and practiced pikram yoga. I noticed her before he introduced me because she sat down on table next to us and was reading "The Pillarts of the Earth" by Ken Follett. I just finished this book a few weeks ago.

We were enjoying lunch and I was listening to his perspective on his roots (Pacific Islander/East Indian) when I looked above the register. GONG! Perched above the registered was a white board. Drawn on the white board was a symbol all too familiar to me that I immediately gasped and ask Mr King, "What does that mean?"

He stated that this was a Northern Indian Astrological chart. I looked closer and the chart (which almost exactly resembled my Think+ symbol) has a list of planets including the sun and moon on the right side with corresponding dates. The symbol for the sun was a circle with a dot in it. This is the exact symbol I have come to draw in different areas of my symbols.

The chart is a map of where the planets are for this time. The sun in this chart was in the center upper quadrant. This, reflected in the first iteration of the Think+ symbol, is where I placed the dot (the north diamond.) I was amazed and needed to know more.

On the way back to the office I called Leo and asked him if he knew what this chart was. At first he did not, but finally put it together with my description. "This is the Vedic Chart and I believe it has origins in ancient Hindu culture."

Here is an example of one the latest version of the Think+ symbol (Keep in mind I drew this over a week before I went to lunch with Mr. King):















This is an example of what was on the board:



















One interesting parralel I realized at this lunch is that I saw the Eye of Horus on the sign at Canteras Del Rey a few days ago. The word Canteras in spanish means either a certain type of volcanic rock sculptures (which I think is the definition on the sign,) quarry or players (as in performance arts.) Rey means King in spanish. I find it curious that I met Mr. King at a presentation where part of the discussion was revolving around quarries.

Facinating no?