Footnotes to Crossroads Dispatches

be a light unto yourself - j. krishnamurti on education and gutterpunks

"Be a light unto yourself;
Betake yourselves to no external refuge.
Hold fast to the Truth.
Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves." - Buddha's final words

This excerpt from a dialogue between students, former students, parents, teachers with J. Krishnamurti at Brockwood Park, May 15, 1973 later published in Beginnings of Learning really struck a chord with me since I meet a lot of homeless youth that travel America this way. Today, they're known as gutterpunks, but it goes very far beyond begging (or spanging) as it a deep-seated rejection of the status quo that comes from seeing through the shallowness of our culture; however, while I totally grok that stance, I find solely rejecting or resisting isn't the way to an original flourishing that doesn't depend upon the state or society.  It's reactive rather than creative.

---

QUESTIONER: ``First of all, if I may start out,'' said a young man with clean long hair and beard, ``why should I earn my livelihood? Why should I make a career, knowing where it leads - property, bank account, a wife and children, and the utter middle-classness of it all? I don't want to be caught in that trap. If others want to, it is for them, but not for me. I don't mind being a beggar or asking people for a handout. I sleep in somebody's house and I have enough clothes to get along with. I have been all over the State for the past few years living this way and I like it. Let them all work if they wish and if they feel like supporting me - let them. I don't want to belong to any commune, to any group. I am free and I want to remain free. And I'm not against anyone - black or white. But I'm told this is exploitation: that while I'm young it is all right but when I'm in my thirties I'll begin to see I can't go on like this. I don't know what the future holds but I'm living from day to day and that's good enough. I would like your opinion on this.''

KRISHNAMURTI: Only fools offer opinions. You know the monks in Asia live this way: not in organized communities but as individuals going from village to village begging and being protected. In return they preach the good life: not the physical good life but a life of goodness. That is what they offer, unless they are criminals or exploiters. So what are you offering in return to those who feed you?

QUESTIONER: ``Why should I offer anything in return? I have nothing to give them. I don't want to tell them how to live. Any sensible man knows when the way he is living is bourgeois, square, and it is up to them to break away from it. I have tried talking to people but they don't care. I don't want to offer anything in return for their food and clothes. Basically I have nothing to offer. I don't paint, I don't play a guitar. I don't do any of the things they like. I am entirely outside their circle. If I had something basic I would offer it without caring whether they took it. But I've nothing. I am just as confused as the rest of the world and probably just as miserable. I'm not a drop-out. I've been through college and I'm disgusted with the whole thing; with their hypocrisies and with their pretensions. But what bothers me a little is, I want to find - not God, that is a bourgeois concept - but something that is real. I've read some Eastern books about this but they all take off on theories and ideas. I want to feel something real in my guts which they can't touch or take away. I want to get to the heart of it as quickly as possible. I see the absurdity of instant illumination but I haven't the patience to go through the rigmarole of discipline, fasting, following some system. I want to go straight to it on the shortest road possible.''

KRISHNAMURTI: Surely this is possible: to see clearly `what is' without any distortion, without any motive, and go beyond it. If you see very clearly what is, you are already beyond it. And can you see very clearly what is? See not only the outward, the environment, the social morality, the bureaucratic sanctions, religious and worldly, but also inwardly? To see what is going on actually, without any choice, without any reservation. If you can, then the door is open. That is the shortest way and the most direct. Then you don't follow anybody. All systems are useless and the guru becomes a mischief maker. Can you do this? If you can, then the mind is free and the heart is full. Then you are a light to yourself.

High School and You, 1937

I ran across a first edition of a book published in 1937, titled, "High School and You" by Irwin T. Simley, then Superintendent of Schools, South St. Paul, Minnesota. It is edited by Harold C. Hand, professor, School of Education, Stanford University.

Connecting the dots, it appears that high school wasn't compulsory in 1937, so the tone of the book is to give guidance to pupils on why they should consider attending high school and how to make the best use of their time there by selecting the best-suitable electives for their unique talents and needs. The tone of the book also leans toward self-actualization of the student's potential and in that way they contribute to the whole of society.

It also seems obvious that high school subjects covered much more breadth, including vocational topics, than offered--many of these subjects have been cut from the electives nowadays--and seems less standardized, one-size-fits-all. It's hard to tell if this is the actuality of high schools at the time of writing, or it is the ideal conveyed by the author and editor. However, the book isn't organized as a visionary tome, but as a simple guidebook for students as well as teachers.

From the chapters in the book, I can tell that the subjects offered in high schools at the time included: English (includes grammar, composition, literature, etc) and is stated as a mandatory course in all H.S., home economics (includes childcare in addition to the typical food, clothing, shelter househould management), bookkeeping and accounting, sociology, psychology, stenography and typewriting, agriculture, business training (includes commercial law, business math, salesmanship, etc), natural science, biology, chemistry, physics, other high school sciences (includes astronomy, geology, physiology, agronomy, botany, zoology, physiology), social science, history, civics, economics, industrial arts (includes mechanics, woodwork, drafting/mechanical drawing, metalwork, printing, etc), music and art, sports and physical education, algebra (not mandatory at the time), geometry (not mandatory), English, Latin and Greek, modern languages such as German, French, Spanish, etc.

A few excerpts (note there aren't any hyperlinks, of course, in the original!)--

From INTRODUCTION by Ernest O. Melby, Dean, School of Education, Northwestern University

Every high school pupil is an essentially creative organism. He is not only different from all other high school pupils, but he has creative capacities. If all the high school pupils in America should paint a picture of a landscape, no two of these pictures would be exactly alike. In-so-far as each pupil in the group was able to express himself in his painting, each picture would be essentially creative. The same thing is true in every field of activity. Therefore, the function of school and the teacher is not to shape the boys and girls in accord with a pre-determined pattern and scheme, but rather to create the environmental setting in which each of these boys and girls can attain the maximum of creative growth and development.

Page 32:

It Will Help You Find Yourself

One time, an English poet, Thomas Gray, when sitting in a country churchyard looked at the tombstones and read the simple inscriptions. He thought that many of the good people buried there might have become great if they had only had the chance. So strongly did this idea appeal to him and so much truth did this thought seem to contain that he was immediately inspired to write a poem about it. The poem is called Elegy Written In a Country Churchyard.

Both the poem and the poet have become famous. People still read the poem and enjoy it because of its beauty as well as its thought.

Many people are great because they have had the chance and because something has happened to bring their greatness! Likewise, people are destined to live in obscurity, because the best there is in them has never been called to the surface! Education will help bring out the best there is in a person and will thus help him truly to find himself.

page 69-72:

Who Should Take Algebra

Now, who should take algebra? There was a time--and not so many years ago--when everyone who went to high school took algebra. There were many reaons for this. To begin with, high school was thought of principally as a preparation for college and, because of the importance of mathematics as a factor or reason for the progress of civilization, nearly all colleges required it for entrance. Then, too, there were--as there still are--a number of vocations and professions that required a knowledge of algebra. Again, there were other subjects that had to be taken for certain reasons, for the successful study of which it was necessary to know algebra. Physics might be offered as an illustration. Thus it is clear that there are many types of workers who need algebra and who use it as a tool but, that there are also a great many who do not so need it. Scientists, engineers, architects, and many other professional workers must not only know and use algebra in their work, but they must also know and use the higher forms of mathematics. To determine whether or not you should take algebra, therefore, you should know pretty definitely whether you are going to college and what you are going to study. Many colleges require algebra for entrance. Be sure about your college future.

There is another test, however, which it is well to apply. Do you like mathematics? Do you like arithmetic or is it hard for you, and, if so, why do you find it hard? There are a number of people for whom mathematics is very hard. If the difficulty is to be found in laziness or in lack of application, the remedy is,--to wake up! If the difficulty is to be found in the fact that mathematics, even after honest and conscientious trial, is naturally very difficult for you, the question should be asked as to whether it would not be a better plan to take up a life work in which mathematics is not necessarily required. There are plenty of such openings and life callings. Incidentally, a person should not allow himself to become discouraged simply because he finds himself unable to master mathematics. Nor should that be so for any other subject, for that matter. Most people find some things hard. Few people can excel in everything. It is always wise first to find the different things one can do and then to choose what one is going to do from among these things that he can do. Hence the question as to whether a person happens to have the ability to succeed in mathematics. If he hasn't, he may still have the ability to succeed in other subjects. The great secret of success lies in first discovering in what field a person can develop success.

Who Should Not Take Algebra

In view of what we have said, it is clear that not every one either can or should study algebra. Though it will not do anybody any harm to study it, nevertheless, if there are other suitable subjects from which to choose, only those should select algebra who will need it for further study, or for college entrance, or for the work they are going to do, and who, because they like mathematics better than other possible subjects, get a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction out of it for its own sake. Who should not take it? Those who find mathematics too hard and those who do not need it for college entrance and who feel they are going to get more good out of something else. It is a satisfaction to know something about all subjects, but it is no disgrace not to know algebra. There are many other subjects of more common use and need.

so I hammered the story into a nice, smooth, straight line. I threw out the magic - Chuck Palahniuk

A friend scanned and sent me the Reintroduction to the latest edition to Invisible Monsters (named Invisible Monsters Remix) written by Chuck Palahniuk. Palahniuk explains how he was finally able to release Invisible Monsters in the experimental, nonlinear format he originally envisioned.

The initial published edition was "hammered" to fit the mold of The Way Things Are (in that case, within known and trodden The Publishing World). Palahniuk explains:

"Back then, neither Monica or I had been published. We didn't want to make trouble. We just wanted for people to love us.

So I hammered the story into a nice, smooth, straight line. I threw out the magic."

I replied to my friend: Happens so often: we throw out the magic to conform.

Well worth reading the entire Reintroduction where Chuck Palahniuk explains his storytelling vision for the new release. I've included the scanned pages below:

Download Invisible-monsters-remix-1

Download Invisible-monsters-remix-2

Download Invisible-monsters-remix-3

Introduction to "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Re-read Paulo Coelho’s introduction to “The Alchemist” and I am reminded again how much I love it.

I'm preparing to facilitate a workshop for Latino urban youth ages 13-18 years old on transmedia storytelling where I am going to encourage them to share their gifts and dreams with the world. I thought about how even when adults ask "What do you want to be when you grow up?" it's asked politely already hemmed by familial and culturally-condoned expectations. This book popped into my head as a possibility for an all-ages inspirational tome to pursue what calls you, and express that voice.

p.s. I'm taking a version of that workshop and making an online "summer camp" for all-ages too. Stay tuned.

Anyhow, here's the full Introduction to the book.

I remember receiving a letter from the American publisher Harper Collins that said that: "reading The Alchemist was like getting up at dawn and seeing the sun rise while the rest of the world still slept." I went outside, looked up at the sky, and thought to myself: "So, the book is going to be published in English!" At the time, I was struggling to establish myself as a writer and to follow my path despite all the voices telling me it was impossible.

And little by little, my dream was becoming a reality. Ten, a hundred, a thousand, a million copies sold in America. One day, a Brazilian journalist phoned to say that President Clinton had been photographed reading the book. Some time later, when I was in Turkey, I opened the magazine Vanity Fair and there was Julia Roberts declaring that she adored the book. Walking alone down a street in Miami, I heard a girl telling her mother: "You must read The Alchemist!" 

The book has been translated into fifty-six languages, has sold more than twenty million copies, and people are beginning to ask: What's the secret behind such a huge success?

The only honest response is: I don't know. All I know is that, like Santiago the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God's blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.

Why?

There are four obstacles.

First: we are told from childhood that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still there.

If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.

Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn’t work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.

I ask myself: are defeats necessary?

Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and get up eight times.

So, why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are only going to suffer more than other people?

Because, once we have overcome the defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense, unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest of our lives.

Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.

Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.”

And it’s true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal—when it was only a step away.

This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.” 

Paulo Coelho

Rio de Janeiro

November 2002

Translated by Margaret Jull Costa

 

When you hold some part of yourself in reserve you deny it exposure to life - Deepak Chopra

Excerpt from page 237 in The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your LIfe, by Deepak Chopra on giving your all, how passion brings up your shadow--dark and golden, and living without reservations:

"Being able to affect your whole reality at once is the essence of "simultaneous interdependent co-arising." There is no limit to how far your influence can reach but to find that out you must engage life with passion. When you do anything with passion, you express every aspect of who you are. Passion releases all the energy you possess.  At that moment you put yourself on the line, for if you throw everything you have into a pursuit, your defects and weaknesses are also exposed. Passion brings up everything.

This inescapable fact discourages many people, who dislike the negative parts of themselves so much, or are so intimidated by them, that they hold their passion in check in the belief that life will be made safer. Perhaps it will, but at the same time they are greatly limiting their understanding of what life can bring. In general terms, there are three levels of commitment you can express:

1. Going into a situation only far enough to meet the first real obstacle
2. Going into a situation far enough to conquer some obstacles
3. Going into a situation to conquer all obstacles

. . . . If you didn't know human nature, you might suppose that a single activity like painting, mountaineering, or writing could be treated separately, but the whole person is affected because the whole person is being expressed. (This is why it's said that you get to know yourself on the mountain or in front of the lank canvas.) Even if you pick a very narrow skill, like running a marathon or cooking, your whole sense of self shifts when you succeed with passion as opposed to failing or backing off.

The willingness to reach inside every part of yourself opens the door to total understanding. You place your entire identity on the line, not just an isolated part. This may sound daunting, but actually it's the most natural way to approach any situation. When you hold some part of yourself in reserve you deny it exposure to life; you repress its energy and keep it from understanding what it needs to know. Imagine a baby who wants to walk but has these reservations:

1. I don't want to look bad.
2. I don't want to fall down.
3. I don't want anyone else to watch me fail.
4. I don't want to live with the burden of failure.
5. I don't want to expend all my energy.
6. I don't want any pain.
7. I want to get things over with as fast as possible.

For a baby those reservations seem absurd. If any of them applied, learning to walk would never happen, or it would happen tentatively. The chance for mastery could never present itself. Yet as adults we resort to these reservations all the time. We deny ourselves mastery as a result. No one can can change the fact that all the negatives of a situation express themselves the minute the situation arises, along with all the positives. There is no escaping the internal decisions we've made.

Everything you've decided about yourself is in play at this moment.

Fortunately, these individual decisions can be reexamined and changed. Since all the negatives are right in front of you, you don't have to go searching for them. What people experience as obstacles in life are reflections of a decision to shut out understanding. If you shut out too much understanding, you become a victim, subject to forces that bewilder and overwhelm you. These forces aren't blind fate or misfortune; they are holes in your awareness, the places where you haven't been able to look.

Today, try to look at one of the decisions that has kept you from totally engaging in life, which may be included in the list just above."

...when you have learned to synchronize your life with the universe itself, you are celebrating the cosmic dance. - Deepak Chopra

"We maximize the probability that something will happen by our actions. And many of our actions are determined by our karmic conditioning--those interpretations of past experiences and relationships that form and affect our life's memories and desires. If we have had past experiences of being lucky, the probability of buying a lottery ticket increases. But a person who has never won anything feels defeated even before the ticket is purchased, and may never buy the ticket at all.

In order to change your life, therefore, you must break free of your present karmic conditioning. You've got to change your interpretation of what happens in your life. You must transform yourself into the person for whom the probability of great things happening increases. And this transformation starts at the level of the soul. The soul gives meaning to events. The soul takes actions by influencing our minds. And for every action, there is a memory, an interpretation. Meaning, experience, interpretation, memory, desire--all of these are very closely connected through the karmic cycle.

We get used to a certain way of doing things and continue this pattern out of habit, simply because it is comfortable. In order to change your life, you have to find a way to break the pattern.This is not easy, but people do it every day. The best way is to watch for signs of new probabilities--and those signs come to us in the form of coincidences.

Coincidences are messages from the nonlocal domain, invitations to break our karmic bonds. Coincidences invite us to relinquish the known and embrace the unknown. A coincidence is a creative, quantum leap in the behavior of the universe itself. Since the known is itself a habit of past conditioning, creativity and freedom exist in the unknown--anything that breaks through the probability amplitude set by karma. That is why it is important to look for coincidences, to keep a record of them. When you notice coincidences, you can discover their hidden meanings for your life.

A coincidence is, by definition, a synchronistic experience. It comes from the nonlocal domain, and affects our world in unpredictable ways. The very fact that it's a coincidence means that it is a message from God. We must take heed, and then take action. This is our opportunity for a creative response. The goal of enlightenment is to go beyond the probability pattern and experience true freedom. This is why it is important to never ignore a coincidence. Never pass up a chance to see what the universe has planned for you. And if you pay attention to coincidences, you'll find that they accelerate, creating even more opportunities.

This is the secret of synchrodestiny. All the ideas presented here are the ruling principles of the universe. If you make them the guideposts of your own life, you live the life of your dreams. Understanding that these principles are not just abstractions, that actually they are operating in everything we do, is really more than just awareness: It's really a kind of celebration. When you have mastered sychrodestiny, when you have learned to synchronize your life with the universe itself, you are celebrating the cosmic dance." -- from page 244 in Deepak Chopra's book, "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence":

Note: This is a companion blog to collect longer excerpts from books that are cited in my main blog, Crossroads Dispatches, by Evelyn Rodriguez.

...you are the artist and your life is your creation. - Miguel Ruiz

Excerpt from The Voice of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace, by don Miguel Ruiz (page 143). I've been in a workshop led by Ruiz in Teotihuacan, Mexico in 2003. As best I can tell from inner knowing, he walks his talk.

"You have seen how you create a virtual reality, the dream of your life, and you know that your life is a story. Now with that awareness, the question is: Are you happy with your story? Something important to understand is that you can be whatever you want to be because you are the artist and your life is your creation. It’s your story. It’s your comedy or your drama, and if the story is changing anyway, then why not direct the change with awareness?

Now that you are an artist with awareness, you can see if you like your art, and you can practice making it better. Practice makes the master. But it’s action that makes the difference. When I discovered this, my action was to take responsibility for my art and purify my program. As an artist I started exploring the possibilities—-every action and every reaction. And by the way, this is our real nature: to explore. Explore what? Life! What else can we explore?

To change the story of life is what the Toltec call the mastery of transformation. It’s about transforming you, the storyteller, the dreamer. Life is changing so fast, and you can see that you are always transforming, but you master transformation when you no longer resist change. Instead, you take advantage of change, and you enjoy change.

To master transformation is to live in the present moment, all the time. Life is an eternal now because the force of life is creating everything right now, and it is transforming everything right now.

How are you going to change your story? Well, now you know that you are creating your story according to what you believe about yourself. The way to transform what you believe about yourself is to unlearn what you have already learned. When you unlearn, your faith returns to you, your personal power increases, and you can invest your faith in new beliefs.

If you want to know the truth, if you are ready to take your faith out of the lies, then remember: Don’t believe yourself, and don’t believe anybody else. This will give you clarity about many things. But you may need a little support to stop believing the lies, and to start breaking all of the agreements that go against yourself.

The Four Agreements offer this support. They are just for you, the main character of your story. These four simple agreements can take you all the way to your integrity: Be impeccable with your word.Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best."

This is a companion blog for longer book excerpts that are cited from the main blog, Crossroads Dispatches, by Evelyn Rodriguez.

surrender to the universal domain, which is much grander than anything you could imagine - deepak chopra

"The realization that "I" am separate from "you" starts to happen at around age two or three. At this stage a baby starts to differentiate between "me" and "mine," and "not me" and "not mine." This separation creates anxiety. In reality the world is not separate from us, but part of the continuum of consciousness. Intent works by harnessing the creative forces inherent in the universe. Just as we have our personal creativity, the universe also displays creativity. The universe is alive and conscious, and it responses to our intent when we have our intimate relationship with the universe and see it not as separate but as our extended body.

We can restore the power of intent through a return to the true self, or self-actualization. People who attain self-actualization reestablish their connectedness to the nonlocal mind. They have no desire to manipulate and control others. [They no there is no "other."] They are independent of criticism and also of flattery. They feel beneath no one, but they also feel superior to no one. They are in touch with the internal reference point that is their soul, and not their ego. Anxiety is no longer an issue, because anxiety comes from the ego's need to protect itself. And that anxiety is what interferes with the spontaneity of intent. Intent is the mechanics through which spirit transforms itself into material reality.

Mature spirituality requires sobriety of awareness. If you are sober, you are responsive to feeback but at the same time immune to criticism and flattery. You learn to let go and you do not worry about the result. You have confidence in the outcome, and you start to see the synchronicity that is always organized around you. Intention provides opportunities that you have to be alert to. Good luck is opportunity and preparedness coming together. Intention will provide you opportunities, but you still need to act when the opportunity is provided.

Whenever you take action, have the attitude that you are not performing the action. Have the attitude that your actions are really the actions of nonlocal intelligence, the organizing universal spirit. You will begin to notice a great diminution of anxiety. You will also be less attached to the result.

Stress is a form of anxiety. If you're stressed, then you can't even begin to think about synchronicity. Synchronicity is a means of getting in touch with God. It's a path to meaning and purpose in your life. It's a means of having the experience of love and compassion. It's a means of connecting to the nonlocal intelligence of the universe. If my attention is on situations that generate stess, then it is difficult to access synchronicity. To do so effectively you have to have an attitude of surrender to the universal domain, which is much grander than anything you could imagine. Surrender requires a leap of faith, a jump into the unknown. Your inner dialogue can support this by saying, "Things are not going my way. I'm letting go of my idea of how they should. My sense of 'me and mine' has to expand." If you take this leap of faith, you will be richly rewarded. If you find yourself worrying about next month's bills, it would be appropriate to remind yourself that it is your intent not only to fulfill your needs but also to send your children to school, to contribute to your community. All people want to fulfill these needs in their lives. However, having articulated and expressed your intent to fulfill them takes them to the infinite mind, and in effect says, "I put all this at your disposal. I'm not going to worry about it because you, the nonlocal intelligence that resides within me, will take care of it."

Great artists, jazz musicians, writers, and scientists talk about having to transcend their individual identities when they create. I've worked with a lot of musicians and songwriters and I've never known any who are thinking about royalties when they are writing a song. A new song or a new piece of music involves letting go, and incubating in the nonlocal domain, then allowing the music or song to come to you. All creative processes depend on a phase of incubation and allowing. Synchronization is a creative process. In this case, however, the creative mind is the cosmos itself. When self-concern departs, nonlocal intelligence enters.

Remember, your thoughts must not conflict with the designs of the universe. Wishing to win the lottery can magnify your sense of separation from the universe. Frequently lottery winners report alienation from friends and family and no greater happiness. When money alone becomes the aim, it alienates you.

How do you know which of your intentions is likely to be fulfilled? The answer lies in paying attention to the clues provided by the nonlocal mind. Notice the coincidences in your life. Coincidences are messages. They are clues from God or spirit or nonlocal reality, urging you to break out of your karmic conditioning, your familiar patterns of thinking. They are offering you an opportunity to enter a domain of awareness where you feel loved and cared for by the infinite intelligence that is your source. Spiritual traditions call this the state of grace." -- pages 115-118, The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, by Deepak Chopra

I've come to the realization that we have to discover the shaman within. - Alberto Villoldo

Another excerpt from Alberto Villoldo's book imparting the knowledge he gained through Inka shamans and his own direct experiences in Shaman, Healer, Sage. This one about the transpersonal awakening (typically comes from a collapse of the conceptual separate identity, and can be facilitated through mental queries like, Who am I?, What am I?, Am I?, et all) and its potential "personal' consequences.

He explains a pretty common ego trick which has us worshippinng the exoticism of the Other as the self-realized--the whole "not me, I'm not worthy" routine--and plan elaborate excursions to South America or to drool over an African shaman dressed in his native garb in your local cellphone shop--and I cite two examples from folks I know, and totally be oblivious to the ordinariness of It, and its innate in-dwelling in yourself. Seeing it only out there (and in specific steoreotypical disguises) keeps you from knowing and being It yourself and seeing It everywhere anytime. Anyhow, without further ado, Alberto's words:

"I've come to the realization that we have to discover the shaman within. I teach my students that no amount of traveling with the Indians will bring you to your own wisdom and power. I've found that it frequently achieves exactly the opposite, distracting us from a true encounter with Spirit. The shaman is a self-realized person. She discovers the ways of Spirit through her inner awakening. Antonio would remind me that the Buddha was not a Buddhist, and that Christ was not a Christian. One sat under the banyan tree until he gained illumination. The other went to the desert for forty days. In the sixth chakra [pineal gland, third eye] we experience our own awakening. We shed the ponchos, the robes, the rattles and feathers, and all other exterior markings.

An awakened third eye allows the shaman to know who he is. It gives him knowledge of the past and the future and allows him to envision alternative destinies. Some legends report that those who awaken this chakra can even attain physical immortality. They no longer age or succumb to disease, but rather are able to maintain their youthful vitality and strength. All the desires of one with an awakened third eye come true, and if a number of healers hold the same vision, it comes true for the planet. Native religions have long practiced this tradition. Elders of the Hopi and a similar council of Inka medicine men and women sit in meditation envisioning the kind of world that hey want their great-grandchildren to inherit." - pages 98-99, Shaman, Healer, Sage by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D.

The real reality is behind the curtain. - Rumi

I adore this example of the unfolding nature of "destiny" and chance by Deepak Chopra taken from his own life story:

"When I was finishing my medical training, I knew that my interest was in neuro-endocrinology, the study of how brain chemicals work. Even then, I could see that this was a place where science and consciousness met, and I wanted to explore it. I applied for a fellowship to train with one of the world's most prominent endocrinologists. This highly respected scientist was doing Nobel Prize-worthy work, and I was eager for the opportunity to learn from him. Out of thousands of applicants, I was one of the six selected to work with him that year. Shortly after I started, I realized that his laboratory was more about ego gratification than about real science. We technicians were treated like machines, expected to mass-produce publishable research papers. It was tedious and unsatisfying. And it was terribly disillusioning to work with someone so famous, so respected and still mange to feel as unhappy as I did. I had taken the position with such idealism and I found myself doing nothing but injecting rats with chemicals all day long.

Every morning I scanned the Boston Globe newspaper want ads, aware of my disappointment, but thinking that this path I was on was the only way to go. I remember reading a little advertisement for a position in a local hospital emergency room. In fact, every day when I opened the newspaper, I would see that little ad. Even if I was only flipping through the paper quickly, it would fall open to that same page with that same ad. I would look at it and then push it out of my mind. Deep inside, I could imagine myself working in the emergency room and actually helping people, instead of injecting chemicals into rats, but my dream had been to land this fellowship with the renowned endocrinologist.

One day that endocrinologist addressed me in a cruel and demeaning manner. We argued, and I walked away to the lounge to calm myself down. On the table was the the Boston Globe newspaper opened to the page with the little want ad--that same ad that I had ignored for weeks. The coincidence was too powerful to ignore. Everything finally clicked into place. I knew I was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing. I was fed up with the routine, with the ego of that endocrinologist, with the rats, with the feeling that I was not doing what was in my heart to do. I walked back into his office and quit. He followed me out into the parking lot, screaming at the top of his lungs that my career was ruined, that he would see to it that no one would ever hire me.

With his voice still ringing in my ears,I drove directly to that little emergency room, applied for the position, and started work that very day. For the first time, I got to treat and help people who were really suffering. For the first time in a long time, I was happy. The Boston Globe ad had been beckoning me for weeks, but I had ignored it. Finally I noticed the coincidence and I was able to change my destiny. Even though the laboratory work seemed to be the very thing I had been striving for all my life, paying attention to this coincidence allowed me to break my habitual patterns. It was a message just for me, my life's personal road flare. Everything I had done up to that point was simply preparation for that change. Some people thought the endocrinology fellowship itself was a mistake. But if I hadn't gotten the fellowship, I might not have been in Boston. And if I wasn't working in the endocrinologist's lab, I might not have seen the ad and I might never have felt my heart's true calling. Endless details had to fall into place in order for this part of my life to play out the way it has.

According to a poem by Rumi, one of my favorite poets and philosophers, "This is not the real reality. The real reality is behind the curtain. In truth, we are not here. This is our shadow." What we experience as everyday reality is merely a shadow play. Behind the curtain there is a soul, living and dynamic and immortal, beyond the reach of space and time. By acting from that level, we can consciously influence our destiny. This happens through the synchronization of seemingly acausal relationships to mold a destiny--hence, synchrodestiny. In synchrodestiny, we consciously participate in the creation of our lives by understanding the world that is beyond our senses, the world of the soul." -- pages 126-129 Deepak Chopra, The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire

This blog is accompaniment (mostly excerpts from books) to the main blog, Crossroads Dispatches, by Evelyn Rodriguez.