Meditation is The Ultimate Bullshit Meter.

Excerpted from:

The Book of Gardens: a Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

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{ Source }

"[...] Today, psychologically and literally, even in our most wise and radiant moments are we each pinned into our place as economic units: bricks in the wall of a labyrinth where it is far too easy to simply hide behind the latest appearance of a new freedom found. Think here on fashion for now, and on the feeling which arises when matching something external to the otherwise internal experience of your person: though we can buy a sense of freedom, we often become chained to its purchasing. 

I think an argument has long stood – which is being argued very effectively today – in that we play a direct role in our physical health by virtue of the attention and care we devote to our emotional health. As my arguments forthcoming are bound to stir up some emotionality I invite you to continually go back through the basics in part one, sit, and experience your physical body in rest and recovery from the movements of its thinking. Do not focus so much on the content of your thinking: you can always return to the content later, and forthcoming, with what I trust will be an increased amplitude for awareness and clarity. 

As you move forward with this technique look always for an open space to your thinking, where you can recognize alone the physical act of thinking. That is: look for the door. Look for a sensation of breadth, width, or height, or internal spaciousness. As we proceed, the sensation of thought-as-movement within this spaciousness will steadily increase, as will the witnessing of its immediacy – that sudden changing of your course away from the task at hand. 

Provocation and inspiration share the same body. Yours. The force of your thinking has its persuasiveness and its pervasiveness, and with complete respect for the intelligences innate to you, I invite you to simply look behind the thinking directly upon the sensation of this force itself. That, in time, is to 'open the door.' It is the thing about meditation which is rather easy to 'understand,' or picture oneself doing, and because of its 'easy' nature we by and large avoid doing it. We resist taking part in something which appears to be a complete nothing, or delay doing so, ever drawn back into the seeming excitement of the day-to-day. Yet we still seem to yearn for something else to do... The causes of this have made me very curious, and by such I've grown to enjoy the fact of a corpulent gulf between what is 'easy,' and what is 'simple.' 

I think the life forces which course through our veins ultimately make us a creature with good intentions. Their constancy tells me as much. Whatever the face of our excitements be, we seek pleasure, curious toward our fullest enjoyment of life. However, when we look at the remarkable prevalence of neurological disorder today, these fun intentions may not be coming to the surface in the way we initially had hoped. Abuse, divorce, addiction, emotional disturbance, the expanding array of diagnoses to our mental states – like the now popular self-diagnoses of personality disorder, or ODD, Obedience Defiance Disorder – when and if we view these dis-eases somewhat topographically, from above, in consideration with the economic factors of today, Western cultures are in a very interesting time to say the least. 

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Mental illness is essentially having a seriously industrious day in the sun... 

I see very little distance between the economic shape of a nation and how we shape our selves. In a word: Bhutan. In two words: Happiness Index. Out from our perpetual blind-spot, The United States as the chief world reserve currency is so in title, yet barely so in practice. That is, the things which herald any nation's place amongst the rest is being challenged - reordered. Regime change at the level of global power is usually, and invariably, uncomfortable. The current world reserve currency hosts disorder, and we, its subjects, prove again the adage: as above, so below. Put succinctly: there is a big thing going quite nuts, and so, kinda, are we.

{ Source }

By an ever thinning veil is our world-view presently changing regardless of how staunchly the prevailing power insists upon keeping the blinds drawn. It is as if the human mind, our institutions, and many of our social contracts, are entering an outright failure. We simply cannot continue to think as we have been lest we accept going legitimately batty, accepting the dichotomy between what we hope to be possible, and what is actually, truly, upon us. 

I am of the opinion that the Invisible Hand may as well come out from hiding now. Its presence hangs over every major Western city not unlike an animated real-estate balloon, or a mickey-mouse hand zipping from cloud to cloud spelling out through the puffy white and into the blue sky behind: 'L-o-o-k! I'm i-n-v-i-s-i-b-l-l-l-l-l-e! Hee-hee-hee!' If the rest of the emperor to this invisible hand be just as naked, if the power which holds sway the actions of our days be in disarray, let us look upon a few rules the hand plays by as our first bit of evidence.

If bipolar behaviour could be made observable at the cultural level I believe the long-standing feud of environment-economy today expresses exactly that. 

Recall, if you will, transitioning from Carter to Reagan (and if you cannot recall this, I think you will be amazed by the radical directions Western cultures followed – or almost followed – by these two men). Our species couldn't possibly be more divided on this issue, and Reagan's words on the environment – and 'environmentalists' – have pretty well stood the test of time since. 

As our economy continues pulling itself apart at the seams – fracking its foundation for further support and sustenance – as the world reserve currency comes up for questioning, as our oceans acidify and as our forests wither, as the permafrost prepares to embrace a warming atmosphere with the gift of an unprecedented release of carbon, so too does it feel as if our sense of self comes apart at the seams. We feel threatened, and any traditional sense for order clings rather dearly to what is familiar and readily understood. 

Because we are not truly offsetting the outcomes for our predicament at the cultural/policy level, a lust intensifies for the narrative of smooth and constant-growth to remain buoyant. "When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this alone is ugliness," says Lao-Tzu. And indeed I find such a self-reinforcing denial of situation unmistakably difficult to look upon. We have not entered an economic recovery.

In response, I also see the salience of Mindfulness on the steady increase. It stands right upon the balance point of our most intense wishing. It is an authentic echo from the wilds for fresh air and renewed thinking. It is that quiet and mature power whose song could well retune our public policy. 

Our minds do not wish for us to be sick yet there is an unusual sense of pressure today. There is a constant contradiction, split between the dis-ease of a shrinking Earth, begging us each to raise our standard of accountability personally and culturally, while simultaneously our positivist psychology has us simply humming along as we have been doing. A voice within, ready to scream the name of freedom to each and every hillside, wants to sprout claws and tear through the skins containing it to enjoy better its natural ether. This sickness – or discrepancy at least – is at the level of psyche, and I haven't crossed paths with too many who have developed their immunity. Certainly the cultural narrative which covered the baby-boom is alive and well, but the page is turning – as I believe it will under the dichotic banners of sustainability and exponential growth. And yet, regardless of socio-economic status, we believe ourselves helpless to the unfolding of this larger story: we believe it is Our Nature now to behave solely as economic units, so much so that it can hardly be called a belief next to its being just a plain ole fact. 

Beside such a discrepancy have I found meditation to be key. It is a psychical sieve. It is the ultimate bullshit meter. [...] "

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: a Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

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{ Source }

Further reading: "Meet Your Brain Waves -

 Introducing Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta, and Gamma"

Meditation is key. It is the ultimate bullshit meter.

{ Source }

Today, psychologically and literally, even in our most wise and radiant moments are we each pinned into our place as economic units: bricks in the wall of a labyrinth where it is far too easy to simply hide behind the latest appearance of a new freedom found. Think here on fashion for now, and on the feeling which arises when matching something external to the otherwise internal experience of your person: though we can buy a sense of freedom, we often become chained to its purchasing. 

I think the life forces which course through our veins ultimately make us a creature with good intentions. Their constancy tells me as much. Whatever the face of our excitements be, we seek pleasure, curious toward our fullest enjoyment of life. However, when we look at the remarkable prevalence of neurological disorder today, these fun intentions may not be coming to the surface in the way we initially had hoped. Abuse, divorce, addiction, emotional disturbance, the expanding array of diagnoses to our mental states – like the now popular self-diagnoses of personality disorder, or ODD, Obedience Defiance Disorder – when and if we view these dis-eases somewhat topographically, from above, in consideration with the economic factors of today, Western cultures are in a very interesting time to say the least. 

Mental illness is essentially having an industrious day in the sun... 

The Book of Gardens: 

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

{ Source }

I see very little distance between the economic shape of a nation and how we shape our selves. In a word: Bhutan. In two words: Happiness Index. Out from our perpetual blind-spot, The United States as the chief world reserve currency is so in title, yet barely so in practice. (*1) That is, the things which herald any nation's place amongst the rest is being challenged - reordered. Regime change at the level of global power is usually, and invariably, uncomfortable. The current world reserve currency hosts disorder, and we, its subjects, prove again the adage: as above, so below. Put succinctly: there is a big thing going quite nuts, and so, kinda, are we.

By an ever thinning veil is our world-view presently changing regardless of how staunchly the prevailing power insists upon keeping the blinds drawn. It is as if the human mind, our institutions, and many of our social contracts, are entering an outright failure. We simply cannot continue to think as we have been lest we accept going legitimately batty, accepting the dichotomy between what we hope to be possible, and what is actually, truly, upon us. 

{ Source }

I am of the opinion that the Invisible Hand may as well come out from hiding now. Its presence hangs over every major Western city not unlike an animated real-estate balloon, or a mickey-mouse hand zipping from cloud to cloud spelling out through the puffy white and into the blue sky behind: 'L-o-o-k! I'm i-n-v-i-s-i-b-l-l-l-l-l-e! Hee-hee-hee!' If the rest of the emperor to this invisible hand be just as naked, if the power which holds sway the actions of our days be in disarray, let us look upon a few rules the hand plays by as our first bit of evidence.

If bipolar behaviour could be made observable at the cultural level I believe the long-standing feud of environment-economy today expresses exactly that. Recall, if you will, transitioning from Carter to Reagan (and if you cannot recall this, I think you will be amazed by the radical directions Western cultures followed – or almost followed – by these two men). Our species couldn't possibly be more divided on this issue, and Reagan's words on the environment – and 'environmentalists' – have pretty well stood the test of time since. 

{ Source }

As our economy continues pulling itself apart at the seams – fracking its foundation for further support and sustenance – as the world reserve currency comes up for questioning, as our oceans acidify and as our forests wither, as the permafrost prepares to embrace a warming atmosphere with the gift of an unprecedented release of carbon, so too does it feel as if our sense of self comes apart at the seams. We feel threatened, and any traditional sense for order clings rather dearly to what is familiar and readily understood. 

Because we are not truly offsetting the outcomes for our predicament at the cultural/policy level, a lust intensifies for the narrative of smooth and constant-growth to remain buoyant. “When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this alone is ugliness,” says Lao-Tzu. (*2) And indeed I find such a self-reinforcing denial of situation unmistakeably difficult to look upon. We have not entered an economic recovery.

In response, I also see the salience of Mindfulness on the steady increase. It stands right upon the balance point of our most intense wishing. It is an authentic echo from the wilds for fresh air and renewed thinking. It is that quiet and mature power whose song could well retune our public policy. 

{ Source }

Our minds do not wish for us to be sick yet there is an unusual sense of pressure today. There is a constant contradiction, split between the dis-ease of a shrinking Earth, begging us each to raise our standard of accountability personally and culturally, while simultaneously our positivist psychology has us simply humming along as we have been doing. A voice within, ready to scream the name of freedom to each and every hillside, wants to sprout claws and tear through the skins containing it to enjoy better its natural ether. This sickness – or discrepancy at least – is at the level of psyche, and I haven't crossed paths with too many who have developed their immunity. Certainly the cultural narrative which covered the baby-boom is alive and well, but the page is turning – as I believe it will under the dichotic banners of sustainability and exponential growth. And yet, regardless of socio-economic status, we believe ourselves helpless to the unfolding of this larger story: we believe it is Our Nature now to behave solely as economic units, so much so that it can hardly be called a belief next to its being just a plain ole fact. 

Beside such a discrepancy have I found meditation to be key. It is a psychical sieve. It is the ultimate bullshit meter. 

The Book of Gardens: 

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

Notes: 

*1 - Over the course of editing this [section], the number of countries included as 'safe' reserve currencies increased – including Canada. At the time of writing, the global financial system is now rather outwardly dancing to its own tune of diversification, looking for as many soft landings as it can find. Factions are developing faster than I can form my sentences; new financial mechanisms are being created out of thin air, and it is difficult to tell into which direction this new global market may bend. 

*2 - Wu. JCH. Tao Te Ching. Shambhala 1990.

That Rainbow Connection Thing.

I love being 40.

Everyday I'm able to sing to myself "We have done just we set out to do!" I recognize my privilege in that every day that passes I am able to keep doing just that: face-down forward into goal setting and achieving, and my-god-it's-not-easy, but odds aside, here's my latest:

http://www.nelsonstar.com/community/241351941.html

www.thebookofgardens.com

What The Heck is the I-Ching. (Part I)

Have you ever had that moment when you realize you have become so deeply passionate about something and then think: "Maybe no one knows what I'm talking about anymore..." Luckily, the I-Ching is a well traveled thing, - many people have at least heard of it - and in having moved toward working with others from the past few years I am avoiding this pitfall. 

However(!) Just in case(!) I'm going to write a few posts to introduce my guests to just what-the-heck I'm doing. 

I host for I-Ching readings, and each one proves to be a very meaningful experience for my guests. And(!) it always proves to be a step-along-the-path for myself. I-Ching is truly one of the great Wonders...

Sitting with others contemplating I-Ching is truly my favourite thing to do. It is perhaps one of the oldest methods for decision making, inner contemplation, peace, and experiencing oneself by a seamless extension of nature. The I-Ching is the study of Yin & Yang, the two most universal energies to all things, all people, and all time.

The process revolves around crafting or uncovering a question unique to you. We all have multiple themes and relationships running through our lives, and underneath our actions and busyness resides a question: perhaps scratching under the surface with a bit of unrest, pushing you forward, holding back its clear understanding... Sitting with I-Ching is a time to uncover this question, and to use meditation to reveal the process by which you may proceed with greater certainty and understanding.

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It never ceases to surprise me how deeply calming (and relevant!) I-Ching is for the questioner. I-Ching simply reveals 'what-is,' pointing a way to greater sensations of Acceptance and even Gratitude. And here's an interesting thing... I never want to know what your question is. ...

I'm not a psychologist or a counsellor or anything like that. I am quite simply 'well-traveled.' (Like, getting-old.) I speak only toward the actions of Yin & Yang at the time of our reading, which allows you your much deserved Privacy. And it allows me to speak with ease about the thing I've studied so dearly. 

The method is easy to follow, step-by-step, and progressive. I take you through this at your unique pace - like untangling a ball of Christmas-lights(!..) When you first 'take them out of the box,' it's kinda like "Why, again, do we do Christmas?.." But, strand by strand, the thing gets lain out in a highly manageable sequence, you set up the tree, and by the time the sun goes down there is a thing of beauty to gaze upon. ... Such is Your Question. The first reading acquaints a person with the breadth of I-Ching, and subsequent readings deepen your own process of discovery.

Even though I keep rather busy, my time is flexible. I do not charge for the I-Ching session (just yet!) however, I do have my own published book on the subject ($25 www.thebookofgardens.com) and am donating 20% of proceeds to Johnson's Landing to aide in transition and recovery from the largest landslide to hit the region in 12,000 years. 

I'd be very happy to step through the book with you after we sit together over tea, your question, and a guided meditation. I would also be happy to work with you on-line as well if there is too great a distance to travel to me for tea.

Enjoy the day - talk to you soon.

Phil

www.thebookofgardens.com

This Way: Peace and Your Direction.

In my most favourite book, the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu speaks with a unique precision about Virtue. He is precise while being esoteric; hence the book's timeless allure, and its sense of mystery. This is also why Lao Tzu remains what I call a 'true teacher,' in that he gives you a definite invitation toward something he has learned - without spelling it out for you. In the Taoist tradition, he is called an "immortal" by this, his effective teaching, and the universal depth he offers.

Reading the Tao Te Ching you indeed gain a sense of Lao Tzu being a kind and gentle companion. His words - without an ounce of force - truly inhabit you. His wonder, his inner peace, his clarity, his humour.... these things are passed onto you through this idea he wraps up into the word Virtue. It becomes a jam packed word - radiant - and countless people like myself move through their lives with a sense of certainty and gratitude for him having (eventually) shared his knowing.

Taoism is understood through the observing of Yin & Yang. And the I-Ching is the Tao symbol described in complete detail. If you think of this symbol as a mask, and pull off the mask, behind it are sixty-four symbols, called Hexagrams, which depict the very fine balancing of Yin & Yang: Yang the solid line and Yin the 'broken' - like two dashes.

In my Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, I have gone through the lessons of meditation from each line of the I-Ching, condensing my study into sixty-four six-line poems: "The Gardens." At the end of these poems is a long poem, "The Shorelines of Johnson's Landing" which reflects back the totality of this study, and what a more mindful life feels like and what it may look like, encouraging a grace and acceptance of our ecological and spiritual limits. The book also contains sections on how to use the I-Ching toward your own life decisions, whilst holding in the backdrop the meta-goal of a complete  sense of self-acceptance and awareness of Tao. I include a brief non-denominational meditation instruction, and two longer essays on where all of this can be readily applied today: an essay on growth-only economics, and where we need head as a species, toward an appreciation of our one world, our Earth. I call this Eco-Theology, the Practical Value of Wonder. 

Best to You - Phil

www.thebookofgardens.com

The Soft Fish Hook

“… those who know well how to live meet no tigers or wild buffaloes on their road, and come out from the battle-ground untouched by the weapons of war.”   Lao Tau

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‘Ancient Chinese Wisdom’ can often sound hocus-pocus or even nonsensical until you sit with it. Tigers & Wild Buffaloes are easy threats to ignore when seated comfortably, wrapped in a blanket or shawl, but when the door to our imaginations are opened even a little, it is not much farther a distance before realizing how present the feelings of being threatened really are.

In my Book of Gardens, I look into the seeming abyss of behavioural economics, and just how pervasive the sensation of scarcity is, under our current version of economy. Constant Growth on a Finite Planet simply cannot add up to much else, and a reconciliation is forthcoming putting us all - psychologically at least - in potential positions of peril. 

Each morning during my Sit and Tea, I re-read a verse from the Tao Te Ching. I’m currently on #50 where Lao Tzu speaks of tigers and buffaloes (oh my!) 

Lao Tzu is arguably one of our species most prominent Teachers ever, keeping good and easy company with Socrates et al. - despite having penned so little himself. The Tao Te Ching consists of a mere 5000 Chinese characters (81 verses in English), which is the entirety of what he put to paper. That’s it. And yet the book is alive and well - and as relevant - as ever. Lao Tzu is a very subtle teacher. 

Despite having stepped through the Tao Te Ching about six or seven times, I still catch myself breezing over a sentence here and there - only to come back to that exact point for clarification. 

Such moments are like soft fish-hooks... 

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Given my current ‘obsession’ to fully understand the ramifications of growth-only economics, I found a ready comparison with Bear & Bull psychology, and Lao Tzu’s Tigers and Buffaloes. Both the bear and the tiger attack with their claws, both are large predators, capable of mischief, stealth, agility, and possess a fierce strength to pull down its prey. The bull and buffalo are herbivores, prefer the open calm of a field where they can observe anything coming their way, and similar to the degree of strength of the tiger and bear, become a frightening force to deal with once enraged.

Such pairings to my mind reflect back to me our sympathetic nervous responses; ones which invariably arise out of our current economic situation. I’m very excited to see Hollywood’s latest “The Wolf of Wall Street,” whose timeliness ought to be of no surprise given the long standing connection between Hollywood and Washington… However, I’m always rather amazed at what Scorsese ‘gets away with’ in terms of suggesting how things really-are.

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Playing with juxtaposition in meditation - pairing of things - is very beneficial and in fact quite fun. Our imagination gladly cork-screws toward an idea, passing its point through each side of a pairing, looking for the central root: between the tiger and buffalo, between the bear and the bull, between fight or flight… 

What is the lesson here...

Lao Tzu ever so gently draws you in toward his understanding. He is quite the timeless ghost in this regard, ever ready and glad to teach and help. I find it continually noteworthy that Lao Tzu - so far as I understand - refused many offers to be part of King Wen’s court… Such a way, suggests to me that he prized the open space of his autonomy so dearly, that no riches - even in name - were of greater value.

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It cannot be said enough today that what is taking place on Wall Street has very little benefit for Main Street. Without becoming too biblical about it, the sins of Pride and Greed readily come to mind. The path of Libertarianism dances somewhat dangerously with both of these - a strange three-some - but instead of becoming entangled by them, moves instead toward the purpose of an actuated freedom and autonomy: our status quo, regrettably, merely gives us the husk of such things. It strikes me that, to know autonomy and to possess freedom, one must know intimately what your enemy is.

The Bears of this world, which economically speaking I am currently quite glad to identify with, are for better or worse a rather proud bunch. They look at fundamentals. The lively cynicism in these circles puts the ‘fun’ in fundamental, with the ‘mental’ part trailing close behind, tripping upon the lack of restraint and reality our supposed ‘economic recovery’ is deemed to possess. There is an occasional sense of being the victim underneath that pride, as if the bullish enmity took a solid swipe out of their side, impinging their wind.

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Paradoxically then, the bulls and buffalos, the seeming innocuous herbivores, as they put their charge and horns into a thing, lifting it ever higher, have the quality of the addict - of greed - being given a window to express their otherwise dormant powers. It is also a kind of pride, ever-quick to invert into action. All of these qualities - pride, greed, victimhood, the addict - reside within our psyche moment to moment, and gently, it is up to  each of us to discern our direction. Such is the work of Emotional Resiliency, and the main offering throughout

 The Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth.

www.thebookofgardens.com

So a few questions come to mind. Mainly: What is it to be at Peace with Oneself... We understand such a statement, but what does it FEEL like? Why are such individuals, or moments, so rare? Why does our inner peace disappear? Have we not looked into that 'blind-spot' repeatedly? Why do we remain 'blind?'... And where then is the point of entry for this feeling? Such arises Lao Tzu’s concluding statement in his 50th verse:

“… a buffalo would find no butt for his horns, a tiger nothing to lay his claws upon, and a weapon of war no place to admit its point. How is this? Because there is no room for Death in him.”

In one of the poems in The Book of Gardens, (#26), I write “Being of no threat / how, can you be threatened?” And such is Lao Tzu’s lesson here: aware of one’s enemies - or rather, aware of enmity - one is not so passive as to lay oneself open for unwelcome and attack, and one is simultaneously not so defensive so as to become the cause of unwelcome and abuse. Walking such a path, there simply cannot be any room of Death…

The Entry & The Balance Point

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Finding this entry point asks that we sit with ourselves in quiet for a little part of the day each day. I do recommend the early morning hours to be sure. The morning possesses an inherent peace worth capitalizing upon. The sensation of breadth, watching the light spread out into the time before you (I live somewhat in the North) is a wonderful thing to allow in to yourself. It is a place to rest one’s breathing - fully and freely.

Staying on that balance point is of course the challenge. Growth-Only Economics generally prohibit that, siphoning our time into the pursuit of a currency, keeping the ready bulk of us dancing to the tune of “more for you is less for me…”

In The Book of Gardens, I call this process, Crossing the Bridge, and Opening The Door. And I’ll conclude here with a selection from this point in the book. I give a very brief beginner-styled intro-to-meditation in the book before diving into the deep end of my take on today’s behavioural economics. Bringing out a truer understanding of how practical the study of Taoism actually-is, and the method of I-Ching is the soft fish hook I offer.

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to order a copy.

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“The traditions which have long addressed meditation in their pedigree are fantastic to their detail, yet I found many groups functioned best by an initial acceptance of the tradition at large before learning anything on the practice of meditation. I respect that the process a person need accept toward an embodied compassion is multi-faceted, and next to the fact that cultural or behavioural change is a gradual process, I continue to see a consistently growing, immediate, and intimately felt need for mindfulness on the steady increase. That is, our culture today is experiencing the pressures of an intrinsic change, and it is between this inward pressure and the externalities of our situations where I invite in your concentration here. Readied cultural change is rare, and making a behavioural shift becomes an overtly broad exercise to ones psychology when greeting something otherwise foreign. It can be difficult to begin, and if constantly propelled by the busyness of ones external situation, the intrinsic invitation for change often gets discarded. So the remainder of this Prelude is a primer toward a way of mindfulness through the lens of a cultural critique, reasoning out how mindfulness may well be the cultural salve to apply to our current ecological and economic confusion. If you find yourself in agreement that this is indeed a potential remedy, or a preparedness to bring forward into this rather intense predicament, you might then further explore cultural traditions should you be inspired to do so. 

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     Under the banner of Western psychology there are now many discoveries to be made on the subject of Mindfulness. Yet they come to us only after a considerable length of scientific resistance to apply scientific scrutiny toward things seemingly 'esoteric' and tricky to observe. And it is the resistance which is interesting to me here. I am finding it compelling to watch these seemingly disjunctive pursuits of religiosity and science come together, and I am of the opinion that my fellow Westerners will find less arising antagonism when meditation is presented in a form closer to that of an exercise. Which is not to lessen the thorough impact of meditation overall; under the banner of an exercise might its introduction and efficacy travel much farther. I had too often seen in our culture a general confusion between a seeming oblivion and the pursuit of enlightenment; and by such confusion, catalyzing a rather contentious, dark and culturally divisive mess toward something which is otherwise profound, beautiful, and reliable. Perhaps now the balance on this tips...

     Those already into a mindfulness practice may have found Part One as a kind of review, and I hope I didn't bore you to tears. There is always much to be said in any avenue of learning for sticking to the basics though. It is my hope here in 'Opening the Door' that my point of view on the economy will supply an interesting and pointed degree of awareness – an influence tucked neatly into a cultural blind-spot - by which one may find very practical, moment-to-moment, interpersonal applications for everyday decisions and conversation. 

It is my wish for us all to begin to see just how dominant of a factor the economy has become in how we are able to experience the fullness of our minds and our lives. Reducing the economy to a factor within a psychological landscape may be insulting for some – threatening certainly – however, I have not found this one element of human civility to reflect accurately Our Nature."

www.thebookofgardens.com

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Fuel Your Wonder. Know Your Authentic Power. Discover the I-Ching.

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Ian Mackenzie recently described the "mind bomb" which has been Occupy. His message is excellent, describing well the social conundrum of an 'underprivileged meme.'  I'd like to add to his message with sharing an age-old method for self analysis and mindfulness meditation - an often neglected, misunderstood, or romanticized meme - encouraging a renewed sense of culture much needed to heal our planet, our relationships, and our sense of freedom.

The Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, is a manual of self-study via the I-Ching. In sixty-four poems, The Book of Gardens contains the lessons of mindfulness meditation held by this true and great classic. 

Briefly, the I-Ching is the original study of Yin & Yang. You might compare the practice with Tarot, but there is a significant step away from egoic energies. Yin & Yang are pure energies flowing through all things, and are in proportion throughout all space, matter, and time: Yin & Yang dance through the weather before you, just as much as they dance through every moment of your thoughts. The I-Ching, is the method of observing Yin & Yang within yourself, distilling thought and emotion, experiencing your sense of self as a seamless extension of Nature.

Inspired by Charles Eisenstein, I am giving proceeds from the sales of this book to the Johnson's Landing community, recovering from the largest landslide to hit the area in 12,000 years. The area remains widely unstable, with all major rivers in the area literally moving mountains. In this region of glacier-fed lakes this event marks yet one more symptom of climate change; and this otherwise quiet and self-sustaining hamlet is now deep into a Transition thrust upon them.

"Sacred Economics" put to rest so many of my long-held fears and ambitions which seemed to go nowhere. His book illustrated that many of the solutions we need in action today are already here - waiting for us to engage with them. We already know what to do, and where to go for our solutions. One such method is Gift Economy.

In terms of our emotional resilience, The I-Ching is a profound tool for facing transition and transformation. The Book of Gardens: A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth, makes this otherwise foreign process, familiar.

My study for this book took place in Johson's Landing - sitting in the exact creek which flooded - six years prior to publishing The Book of Gardens. I had honestly never heard True Silence before living there. You can hear the entire valley on the smallest hint of wind… I began my study of the I-Ching in 1995, and its practicality continues to feed me both surprise and Wonder for this beautiful life.

In a nutshell, I am committed to making a contribution of Emotional Mastery and Emotional Resiliency during this Great Transition. The Book of Gardens introduces what the I-Ching is (the first ever study of Yin & Yang), how to use it, and essays on why this skill is crucial for us as we head ever deeper into Transition - into Change. The book has a brief primer on non-denominational meditation, pointing readers toward The Practical Value of Wonder. Or what I also call, Eco-Theology.

All the preparedness in the world - all the gold, guns, and baked-beans - mean little without a new Emotional Accountability at our collective fingertips. The economic collapse coming is without any doubt excitable, but as old systems peel away, revealing our much-needed changes, no doubt many may find chaos where before we had felt secure. At some level, we all know Change is coming...

Kaun Yin by Moonlight.

Having long been part of an underprivileged meme, the I-Ching (also known as the book of changes) has been my guiding light for nearly two decades. This study has always stood as the hermit of spirituality: that one quiet book waiting for you to introduce yourself to it. It is a true blend of science, method, discipline, and true Wonder. It is a map of the human psyche as palpable and physical as a dollar bill...

I know I am far from alone, yearning for cultural and economic change, and in these pages I offer you both my story and my study, that you may gain strength in this skill-set, which, as the SHTF, will serve you greatly toward building your community, thriving by the meme of your truest choosing.

Bring Gift Economy into practice. Visit:

 www.thebookofgardens.com 

or Lulu.com to order a copy.

Close To The Heart There Are No Obstacles.

Ben Capozzi

This has been a year of surprises. Opening always to change, listening always deeper for change, knowing the direction I take is truly now impossible to be forced - old trick! -  but discovered, through appreciation and listening. Closely: I find daily patience.

Close to the heart there are no obstacles. 

The farther we stray from the heart, the more obstacles we will find, and life will feel difficult.

I am learning to not follow these strains... naming them either as triumphs, ambition, or careerist-success; or, as the necessary 'have to's.' Success is contentment. It is the sigh alone, upon the moment we complete a thing. And to follow success only - to be lead by that sighed sensibility - is to find that there is no burden near the heart: that place where we feel our radiant best. When I reside near that heart, appreciative of my own very life, that alone is the compass by which I discover: community, friendship, honesty, trust, wonder, joy, welcome forthrightness... forgiveness coupled to love, the shared tears which are all of the above through the lens simply of another and others. We all move together so. And we all wish to do so, always more thoroughly - deeply.

◊    ◊    ◊

I Ching Trigram Study

Writing is a collected set of wrapped presents - words - which give life to others. Writing is, and is not, sharing that immediate 'thing' before you: It is to share that-thing and of-yourself toward your own benefit absolutely last. Words are like blood, or money: no one owns either, truly: we all use them temporarily. By such light, words themselves are the last vestiges of The Commons, flowing unhinged between us all. The day we monetize words alone - and I regret to say that we are not above such crazy sub-division - is the same day stupidity makes itself a visible entity and truly catches up to us - and keeps pace! - and stares us into the face.

Likely, there will be no such decree of monetizing words, but I think there will be a time soon - full - when we take that second glance, that long look as if the sun did something different, and from this changed light see all things new.

Our monetized psyche of today has the opportunity to change.

◊    ◊    ◊

Writing is blood, writing is money, but never is writing blood-money. It has been a true freedom for me. I think it is the most precious thing I partake of (next to shared food, and the sparkle in the Others eye as we eat). Writing is where I feel a sense of totality - where I understand I can be of best use in this life. Words have been my study in many forms: theatre, poetry, reading avidly...

Kuan Yin

when honest - at rest -
knowing this here me a riverbed 

which over words and ideas 

are shared, borrowed flowing 

long enough to bend their 

shape, their arrangement

words the water

eyes clear through

skyward: I write,

I write, I write


Please Visit:

The Book of Gardens: 

A Lover's Manual for Planet Earth

Pollution

I know it is unsociable to complain, but the degree to which a problem becomes severe, calls for it. People have long complained about environmental contaminants, well before the infamous 60's. Thoreau speaks of it in Walden, naturally; Grey Owl, and even Heraclitus. And I wonder if today we are actually getting to the root of the issue.

Thanks in part to the popular influence of yoga, I believe people are finding the map. Entire social circles have exploded into the cultural mainstream toward the state and health of our Consciousness: the quality of our thinking, whereby our actions follow. Social media at its best, truly asks one to keep their noses clean when all actions are readily publishable. So I think we're getting closer... In recent years I have been feeling much relieved to see the social ideals of environmentalism, long debated and pushed aside, truly grip a cohort and affect a generation. Young people today care. They care to the point of changing our cultural and business landscape. Have you noticed in Alberta that it was only ten years ago or so that a vegetarian option on the menu was totally weird? Now there are superfood elixir bars, like Noorish Cafe, which are leading the way.

Simply put: it is nice to share the torch. This new wave of interest arrived in the nick of time, and there is lots to be done. There is a lot to care about.

That said, I think we are only getting closer. That is, not yet at the root.

Perhaps many have named it, but it is so much more difficult to embody. Mindfulness is helpful, as it is a definite bridge upon which the West can stand with some degree of security, expressing the value of things like stillness, wonder, and conservation rather than excessive consumption.

Embodiment is key.

It's natural to model our behaviour after others we admire, cobbling together the aspects of others into a sense of self. This self, then, is both business card and performance: entry points for meeting. Yet these things do not contain all the answers. Watch Barack Obama, for example. Remember being dazzled when he arrived on the scene? Wasn't it refreshing, at the very least, to listen to actual-power being articulate and literate? Yet now, can we not also sense something else present inside all the sincerity? Are we surprised? It's just one example, but I think it shows clearly The Mask, perhaps the necessity for it, yet also the invitation so constantly in the wings - waiting - waiting to truly step into the light.

I appreciate the president's speaking ability greatly, and I do believe that he is a good man. However, as we close in on peak oil, peak gold, peak silver, peak wild salmon, peak harvesting anything from the ocean, peak species extinction... and so on... I am reminded that "the map is not the territory."  I appreciate all the green groups in the world, protecting habitat, and making some legislative headway, but I wonder how deeply these 'reminders' travel into our day-to-day, moment-to-moment thinking.

I would hazard to guess that the fifteen-year-olds of today will truly shake things up. They were born with internet, while I only just got onto G+ and Twitter. What social savvy - and so then social currency - will they have, by which to discover the quality of a persons speech and mind? I do invite you to hold me to this: in the next five to ten years.... lets see what 'the kids' create.

Humans: we think ourselves clever. I believe, though, that we are upon a crest of awareness, where many are realizing the busyness of our thinking is a lot like pollution. That 'business card' is merely a thing: It is an idea of self, which at best points the way. But the map is not the vehicle, and we cart around our lives as if the map is the answer, holding it up in front of us while we travel about, aware of where we are going, but not necessarily aware of each step along the way.

Imagine how effective ones driving would be if the inside of our 'VWs' were completely postered with flour and water and maps... We would certainly understand how to get from A to Z, but woe to the person, or persons, who take such cars out of 'park.' And yet I see us all to some degree driving around rather blind, shifting and redecorating the interior space of these map-laden vehicles; mistakes and social blunders and rudeness are covered up with yet more maps, and the walls are getting thicker. It's paradoxical at best, and I won't speculate what it could be at its worst.

Over-consumption comes to mind, but that's too simplistic.

We think we want to be right about something, but I think that underneath we want to be content. I believe we want relief more than anything else, as the mutual guess-work of positioning ourselves is exhausting. Certainly there is a great reward for 'hard work' and I'd like to suggest that the hardest is to know oneself. Beyond the mask of any 'business card,' or performance, or anything we have done - successfully or otherwise - is all in the past, and today, we are always new.

So it takes a lot to see this territory and to discover the tool of mindfulness, but I believe it is arising, and many are learning to speak its language. We have to allow the ripest and most sensitive part of the bud some 'air time.' It needs weathering, and it needs to be heard. And as with any flower, it's time is brief before it is again replenished by another in-coming incumbent bud.

I will not argue if it is an insensitive and uncaring world, but rather, I do argue that we live in an over-sensitive world wanting and waiting to care; to crawl out of our skins, to put down our colourful maps, to peel away the interior-dec which has imprisoned us, and let some serious light in.

But how do we do this...? Well... perhaps let us look to those who spent their time observing. The observing scientist tells us what the problem is: the observations point toward the solution, and in this case the solution calls out clearly for a change of pace. Not only that, but also into a depth of self acceptance to simply Not Know what is directly ahead. That to develop a comfort of not knowing may also bring us into a place of ready acceptance, finding a  breadth which reveals the territory; A united vastness, intrinsic and extrinsic simultaneously. When we de-mask ourselves, we prepare ourselves to care - and moreso - we become ready to feel, to know our feelings, and live by them.

You can see this in young people today. Feeling becomes an intellect: A form of reason.

Please visit my

"The Book of Gardens."

for further guidance

in Mindfulness.

Thank you :)