WEEK 1

August 4, 2020 – Human Development (First four podcasts)

Hi Everyone. Welcome to Phase 2. In our Monday group we are going to take on Human Development. One resource I discovered about 12 years ago was a series of blogs that Bill Harris created. Bill died a few years ago. He was owner of a company called Holosync. Some of this may seem like review for those of you who took Pscyhology classes in school. In a way, the Monday night session and the work that goes along with it is just like a yoga class; Patience, Perserverance, Continual sustained effort are key. These first 4 blogs will provide a foundation from which we can build upon.

August 5, 2020 – Quick Update

In this webiste I have a Welcome page and Philosophy and Experience page. They are under construction. There is a Yellow Brick Road Page. This is a series of blogs I wrote shortly after finding out about Justin (My son). I think it was my attempt at showing him where I was. His girlfriend at the time read it but I don’t think he did so much. I have a Transforming Diabetes page which is series of blogs on my perspective of living with and managing diabetes. I have a blog page that holds all my random blogs. I have created this page for our group. My intention is to create a private on-line presence for our group moving forward. In the near future you will have a user name and password to login.

August 6, 2020 – What’s Really Going On?

If there is one thing we have been introduced to, inquired into and, perhaps, had some direct personal experience with is that Dharma (The Nature of Reality) is paradoxical in nature.  

Buckminster Fulller  – From the Foreword of his book ‘Critical Path’ –  Bucky writes funny…..

        “It is the Author’s working assumption that the words good and bad are meaningless.  This is based on science and not on opinion. In 1922 physicists discovered a fundamental complementarity of disparate individual phenomena to be operative in physical Universe. This was fundamentally amplified with the subsequent discovery of the always-and-only-different, always-coexisting proton and neutron which, with their always-coexistent electrons, neutrinos, and antineutrinos, are eternally intertransformable. “

Bucky continues on………”No longer was valid the “building block” of the Universe. It was discovered that unity was plural and at minimum sixfold. All the intercomplementations are essential to the successful accomplishment of eternally regenerative Universe. Science’s discovery of fundamental complementarity has frequently occasioned individual scientists’ realization that the word negative used as the opposite of the word positive is at best carelessly and misinformedly employed.”

OK….Goosebump time. The first use of injectable insulin….1922.

Bucky continues……..” Since complementarity is essential to the success of eternally regenerative Universe, the phenomenon identified as the opposite of positive cannot be negative, nor can it be bad, since the interopposed phenomena known heretofore as good and bad are essential to the 100-percent success of eternally regenerative Universe. They are both good for the Universe.”

Here is a Rebel Wisdom Video entitled spirituality and conspiracy…..Interesting…….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZHZHygS3Es

August 7, 2020 – Course Correction

It’s Friday today. We are in the first week of our next three month yoga inquiry and I want to clarify a few things. However, I also want you to know that the first step in the five step Growth Process is called CONFUSION. I was introduced to the Growth Process 30 years ago and since then have been discovering other 5 step transformation/development processes to compare and contrast. For example, remember BRFWA? BRFWA is an acronym for a Kripalu Model for transforming energy. I will be talking more about the 5 steps and other comparisons. The first step in BRFWA is ‘BREATHE.’ In another process it is called CONFRONT. In a more business type model of the 5 steps the first one is called “OBJECTIVE.” You can read more about the 5 steps in the Philosophy and Experience Page. I also use it in both the Yellow Brick Road and Transforming Blog Series in this website.

OK….Here comes the clarifying …… What are we doing? What are we trying to accomplish? What is the objective? What are we Confronting? And. perhaps, even more importantly, WHY?

Chapter 9 of The VIpassana Book is entitled “The Goal.” ……………………..

“Whatever has the nature of arising also has the nature of cessation. The experience of this reality is the essence of the teaching of the Buddha. Mind and Body are merely a bundle of processes that are constantly arising and passing away. Our suffering arises when we develop attachment to the processes, to what is in fact ephemeral and insubstantial. If we can realize directly the impermanent nature of these processes , our attachment to them passes away. This is the task that meditators undertake; to understand their own transient natures by observing the ever-changing sensations within. Whenever a sensation occurs they do not react, but allow it to arise and to pass away. By doing so they allow the old conditioning of the mind to come to the surface and pass away. When conditioning and attachment cease, suffering ceases, and we experience liberation. It is a long task requiring continual application. Benefits appear at every step along the way, but to attain them requires repeated effort. Only by working patiently, persistently, and continuously can the meditator advance toward the goal.“

What we are doing in practicing yoga, mediation and studying maps of the territory is coming to the continual realization that what we see or experience as permanent is in fact a process of arising and passing away. This realization happens on three levels. First, we know about it. We are told from someone else or we read a book about it. Second, we apply inquiry and practice. We check it out through study and practice. The third level is penetration of what we have learned and put into practice. We have direct personal experience.

In these human development podcasts we are being introduced to our own human development as a process. Pay particular attention to the growth and development of ego.

I know everyone is working at different paces. Some of you are, right now, mostly interested in the yoga sessions. That’s fine. Some of you have included the practice of meditation. That is good. The meditation and the yoga are the core practice of mind-body. The mapquesting work will accelerate your progress in yoga and meditation. I am posting the next two podcasts from Bill Harris here. Remember, these were created in 2008 and his blogs are no longer accessible because he passed away a few years ago. These next two podcasts are the lynchpins connecting Tier 1 to Tier 2 Consciousness and Perspective. The first four were dry and review for many of you. Now, we start to enter into some very interesting information.

August 8, 2020 – The Weekly Torah Portion

In yoga class I often mention the weekly Torah Portion. In the Jewish religious tradition they have their “church day” called Shabbat starting Friday at Sundown ending on Saturday at sundown, I don’t know so much about Shabbat. I went only once to Shabbat ceremony on Saturday morning where they need 10 people to read the portion; the parashat. The Torah is the first five books in the Bible. There is that number 5 again.

The beginning of the year begins on Rosh Hashanah, which this year, lands on September 18th through the 20th. This means, right now, we are only 6 weeks away from a new year. Every week I will inform you of where we are in The Torah, the name of the portion and, perhaps, a little blurb about it.

WHY? You may be saying….”I am Christian so why do I need to know about the Torah?” Or…..”I really don’t know what I believe about God, Religion, The Bible or all that stuff. It just doesn’t resonate with me?”

I remind you that yoga is a journey, a quest, a seeking ultimately for union with Source. I was introduced to the Torah via my study of Kabbalah. I am asking you to keep an open mind, to employ your suspension of disbelief and belief, and to restrict your initial cognitive and emotional reaction. From a Kabbalistic perspective, each week is a unique “window of opportunity” to ‘connect’ to The Light of The Creator, to be illuminated to a certain aspect of our soul’s journey and learn about possible avenues of inquiry in order to course correct, progress, grow and evolve. The Torah is a metaphor for humanity’s journey. Just another “map of the territory.”

This week’s portion is called “Ekev”. The portion in the Torah is Deuteronomy 7:12 through 11:1. Instead of writing anymore about it, here is a short video clip perspective. Tonight after sundown we enter the next portion…….”Re’eh.”