WINTER SOLTICE REFLECTIONS …

“Death is a stripping away of all that is not you.

The secret of life is to die before you die – and find that there is no death.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

WINTER SOLTICE REFLECTIONS …

As the daylight reduces I find myself getting more reflective. I have thought on death and dying off and on for sometime, as I want to diminish my fear of the inevitable next stage of Life.

I had a shockingly delightful breakthrough insight the other day. It pierced the fear and often invisible cultural discourse we live inside of:

“What if the experience of death was a relief, but not only a relief but Beautiful? Joyful?!?!

That moment was freeing … as I now have access to the possibility of a joyful passing, a dropping of the body that could be, not a loss, but an extraordinary expansion.

What if, culturally, we lived into that possibility …

University of Pennsylvania: A Discussion with Werner Erhard, April 2016

A Discussion with Werner Erhard

Published on Jun 10, 2016

The film, "Transformation: The Life and Legacy of Werner Erhard", was screened at the University of Pennsylvania's Bioethics Fim Festival in April, 2016. Following the screening, Werner Erhard, founder of Erhard Seminar Training (est) - discussed the film with Penn professor Jonathan Moreno. This is the full version of the discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6hZ9eXCvxQ

POSITIVE TRANSFORMATONAL CHANGE

"Transformational Vetruvian Man", Detail from a painting by Laura Basha

“The problems and questions are the precursors to the solutions. 

It is the question which raises the possibility of hearing the answer.

The question allows for the solution to be brought into conscious awareness. 

Therefore the longing is the promise of the fulfillment.”

POSITIVE TRANSFORMATONAL CHANGE

“An attitude which greets life with inspired expectation and an understanding of the power inherent in being present in the moment brings with it a capacity for resilience and, consequently, a more stress-free life experience. Such an attitude generates a growth mind-set which integrates people’s personal values with the choices they make. Anyone who values humor and good feeling values health and well-being for self and others, and realizes the connection between well-being and a happy, fulfilled life experience.

A person’s thoughts result in a person’s attitude, which results in a person’s choice, which results in a person’s behavior. Understanding this logic lays a foundation for the increase of the experience of humor and concurrent resulting positive change. …

By positive change I mean here a movement in the direction of one’s purpose and vision for self, which would be based on core values personally meaningful to the individual. Goals would be met through actually living from the touchstone or ballast of one’s authentically articulated purpose in healthy, lighthearted, creative, and respectful ways. The meeting of these goals or intentions in this way would constitute positive transformational change.

It has been my experience over the years of working with people in transformational contexts … that people are able to access great reserves of resilience, common sense, and self-esteem when feeling hopeful. Once people begin to reclaim a sense of humor and hopefulness, creative thinking and pragmatic possibilities surface, providing insight directly connected to the specific problem at hand, regardless of personality, condition, or circumstance.

Of compelling interest is distinguishing the source behind the transformative process and how one can become more consciously aware of this source. How does one become free of the limitations that bind? How does one become aware of such limitations? And once aware, how does one address them in such a way as to be able to transmute them into strengths—using them as signposts, if you will, pointing us in the best direction to target the problem in order to evolve more into our inherently perfect selves?

The problems and questions are the precursors to the solutions. It is the question which raises the possibility of hearing the answer. The question allows for the solution to be brought into conscious awareness. Therefore the longing is the promise of the fulfillment.”

~ from The Inward Outlook, by Laura Basha, Ph.D.

THIS THING WE DO ...

THIS THING WE DO ...

 This thing we do...

This separation which we perceive...

This experience of life or lunacy which we create and which has no existence without our permission...

Or, closer to Truth - without our choice it could not be ...

Why choose it at all?

Why have to choose it?

We have to choose it if we wish to continue to forget who we are ...

And so we keep choosing the illusion as reality

Until it gets so loud - the illusion, that is - that we can’t stand the noise and so scream to ourselves:

“Turn that blasted thing OFF!!”

And then the intellect is quiet for a moment.

So we have a glimpse of Reality and It is so quiet, so infinitely No Thing, so peaceful, so full of Peace...

And we remember for a flash Who/What we are.

And that is why we have to choose it: Separation.

So we can finally consciously see who/what we aren’t,

 so that we can begin to consciously see Who/What we ARE.

Perfect beings.

Our perfection is our only stumbling block.

For we are perfect with or without our self’s permission, or awareness.

We are all Masters in our own universe.

We are either conscious of this Mastery or not, and this is the essential difference.

So it behooves us to become conscious of our Mastery so we can consciously choose the direction of the play instead of endlessly unconsciously scripting it and acting it out.

It isn’t a requirement to become conscious. There is free will.

But then ... there is Destiny.

It is simply a matter of being Home vibrantly free or

coming home in the waking sleep.

What is it like, waking up?

Sometimes I have dreamed, and realized I was dreaming, and wanted to wake up,

And yet all my screams were silent, and all my attempts were futile as I wrestled with all my being to wake myself up from this falseness and re-align with my consciousness and body and then, suddenly

I would find myself back in this reality,

confused but present.

And what had I been wrestling with anyway?

For from here, it looked like nothing,

An invisible kind of membrane from which I had to de-enmesh myself,

Like exhaustively wrestling with the angel and then to see there is no one there ...

Like Bert and Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life wrestling with Clarence in the snow in the dark.

That’s what it’s like sometimes.

And sometimes, it’s like noticing the moth on the window.

~ Laura Basha, response paper, July, 1994