sirguessalot

big music fan here...lifelong geetar lover...electric bass is my speciality... just want to say that ive been watching this thread from afar...enjoying it nothing more to add except for this photo i took a few years back...of my faithful roadie testing the gear and sorry...as it seems you have to be logged in to see it

sticking my neck out here with yet another attempt to paint a very simple picture of a possible bandwidth of faiths as i have come to understand them with the hope that my GSc friends may find something useful, and perhaps good reasons to reach beyond ... always and forever feel free to read, reflect, comment, inquire, etc... but i ask that if you do respond, plz do so from your highest deepest truest most noble self...whatever that means to you i recommend a blend of precision, gentleness, and curiosity 1) Faith in a magic God. Experienced as a God that exists as an imagined parental servant of our needs, wishes and wants. This is a natural way for a very young child to see God. This is the era of history where humanity first rose from the wilderness and claimed dominion. This is the God of me, Me, and ME. 2) faith in a mythic God. Experienced as a God that exists as a shared storyline and imagined parental servant of an exclusive group's needs, wishes and wants. This is a natural way for a young child to see God as a way to make friends for the first time. This is the era of history where humanity first gathered in groups around an ideal. This is the God of us, Us and US. 3) faith in a rational God. Experienced as a God that exists as the truths of the physical universe and is not subject to our imagination, but rather discovered and uncovered. This is a natural way for a growing child to learn how to think and learn for ones' self. This is the era of history where humanity first learned to prove and disprove how things are described and understood. This is the God of it, It and IT. 4) faith in a caring God. Experienced as a God that exists as the process that cares for everyone and everything and is not limited to mere magic, mere myth or mere reason. This is a natural way for a young adult to come to trust the systems of the universe. This is the era of history where humanity first learned to embrace equality for all living beings. This is the God of its, Its, and ALL OF ITS. 5) faith in a self-aware God. Experienced as a God that exists as the very nature of our own consciousness as it exists beyond death, and seen as the enduring everpresent Witness that has always simply been. This is a natural way for adults to discover the nature of grace that transcends our mortal limitations. This is the God of nothing, Nothing and NOTHING...the spacious invisible everpresent endless field of being that all other faiths occur in. 6) and 7) and beyond...faith in a non-seperate God. Experienced as a God that exists as the very marriage of form and formlessness. This is a natural way for anyone to see God at anytime. This God is ME, US, IT, ITS, NOTHING and ALL. This is the unnamable ONEness and NON-seperate God as described in all ancient wisdom. The God who is equally outside and inside, the one AND the many....where the search is over, and we realize that we are already in the home we never left in the first place...perhaps an intentional exploration of how all previous stages have more and more details and contours and textures worth exploring. Perhaps this is where we are no longer sitting on a rung of a ladder, but where we come to see all previous faiths come into play....now that we have learned all the notes, we can finally play music, and tap into the entire spectrum of faith that exists in us. This is the God of present moment that does not exist in history or the future. note: nothing i have written here is the truth. and none of the words i used are sufficient. ...such is the nature of language. all blessings...

"Our mission is to provide information that tells the other side of the story about the Way International and it's trustees." i wonder if it might be better to adjust those italicized words a bit to... "Our mission is to provide information that tells another side of the story about the Way International and it's trustees." or even "other sides of the story" and such i know its not always easy to change even a single word of any long-standing mission statement...and maybe it don t matter if it is officialy changed but i basically assume that change for myself anyway...regardless of the actual wording simply cuz it makes more sense to me..and better describes what is trying to happen here anyway and what has been happening here that said...what i often see happening in posts...is what i would call 'reductionism' where people reduce a complex realities and complex possibilities into some way-too-simple statement that is usually too flat and too absolute to represent truth at all naturally...we tend to wig out a bit when it rubs against our experience and its not what we really mean anyway...more like a clumsy sloppy hasty attempt at expressing so i cant blame anyone for it...i mean, who here really knows how to write simple things that handle these complex realities all the time anyway? of course, some are better than others at time at keeping away from reductionist and absolute stuff...but we all have a range of different capacities, even if we dont know how to talk about them...yada yada takes practice i guess...and perhaps a real interest in reaching for such things in the first place i dunno just sayin...

here is a pdf doc with some valuable guidelines for dream interpretation..."Six Basic Hints"...a product of some 30+ years of study and practice by Jeremy Taylor

well...something real quick and easy... - Keep a small notebook or journal next to your bed. - It may help to tell yourself you want to dream well and recall them. - And then practice writing anything in the journal before you wake up fully. - Dont worry about spelling or grammar...even if you only write out key words and phrases that you recall. Though it may even turn into an hour of detailed writing. - And it doesnt even matter if you read what you write right away... cuz the mere act of writing something out evey day will likely increase detailed recall of dreams...even multiple dreams. - Coming back to the book days, weeks, months even years later will be very interesting, too - A further step would be to form or join a 'dream group' of some kind...some good group practices out there (haha! i was posting as you were Shifra...funny how similar)

thought some of you guys might enjoy these. a friend of mine gathered them for a journal project we are working on together. mostly posting it to be read...but feel free to comment and/or inquire. ...or even add quotes of your own

i think OM is onto something at the risk of opening a pandora's box... ...im wondering how it might work if posters were to use these GS radio announcement threads to compose and post written questions for guests to field and discuss

thanks for the feedback...you guys are kind ok, sticking my neck out a bit... i've been wondering....would anyone be interested in participating in a podcast series that i am thinking about starting this winter? a few details... - ive been learning a lot in recent years...and i need to 'release' or im surely going to melt - it would be independent of the regular GS radio and perhaps parallel to an ex-way blog group - i am trying to get away from writing until i can afford to sit and write well...so i want to practice speaking - i would like to experiment with a variety of dialogue styles and formats i have been studying and practicing - i would post a list of topics i am becoming fluent in for people to ask from (sexuality, the arts, religions, dying, etc...) - i find that i respond well to open, honest Q&A ...in fact, i have come to prefer it over trying to compose 'outta the blue' - i would like to keep the invitations somewhat cozy and somewhat limited to GS members - this is a project with a limited scope...it is meant to come to a natural end - i cannot do this alone...i will need a bit of help for some of the elements - i am not making any claims of supernatural elitism or anything like that - it does not always need to be recorded for the public - i would like to be as transparent as possible - and all the other details i surely missed... feel free to inquire Todd ..a 27th way corps drop-out

as requested/suggested during today's radio cast... from the work of Parker Palmer...based on the Quaker community oral traditions... + Extend and receive welcome. People learn best in hospitable spaces. In this circle we support each other's learning by giving and receiving hospitality. + Be present as fully as possible. Be here with your doubts, fears and failings as well as your convictions, joys and successes, your listening as well as your speaking. + What is offered in the circle is by invitation, not demand. This is not a "share or die" event. During this retreat, do whatever your soul calls for, and know that you do it with our support. Your soul knows your needs better than we do. + Speak your truths in ways that respect other people's truths. Our views of reality may differ, but speaking one's truth in a circle of trust does not mean interpreting, correcting, or debating what others say. Speak from your center to the center of the circle, using "I" statements, trusting other people to do their own sifting and winoowing. + No fixing, no saving, no advising, and no setting each other straight. This is one of the hardest guidelines for those of us in the "helping professions." But it is vital to welcoming the soul, to making space for the inner teacher. + Learn to respond to others with honest, open questions instead of counsel, corrections, etc. With such questions, we help "hear each other into deeper speech." + When the going gets rough, turn to wonder. If you feel judgemental, or defensive, ask yourself, "I wonder what brought her to this belief?" "I wonder what he's feeling right now?" "I wonder what my reaction teaches me about myself?" Set aside judgement to listen to others--and to yourself--more deeply. + Attend to your own inner teacher. We learn from others, of course. But as we explore poems, stories, questions and silence in a circle of trust, we have a special opportunity to learn from within. So pay close attention to your own reactions and responses, to your most important teacher. + Trust and learn from the silence. Silence is a gift in our noisy world, and a way of knowing in itself. Treat silence as a member of the group. After someone has spoken, take time to reflect without immediately filling the space with words. + Observe deep confidentiality. Nothing said in a circle of trust will ever be repeated to other people. + Know that it's possible to leave the circle with whatever it was you needed when you arrived, and that the seeds planted here can keep growing in the days ahead. Guidelines for Asking Honest, Open Questions… …in support of the rule “no fixing, no saving, no advising, no setting each other straight”—and in support of our intention to help each other listen for inner truth… • An honest, open question is one you cannot possibly ask while thinking, “I know the right answer to this and I sure hope you give it to me…” Thus, “Have you ever thought about seeing a therapist?” is not an honest, open question! But “What did you learn from the experience you just told us about?” is. • Try not to get ahead of the focus person’s language with your questions. “What did you mean when you said you felt sad?” is an honest, open question. “Didn’t you also feel angry?” is not. • Ask questions that are brief and to the point rather than larding them with rationales and background materials that allow you to insert your own opinions or advice. • Ask questions that go to the person as well as the problem, questions about the inner realities of the situation as well as the outward facts. • Ask questions aimed at helping the focus person explore his or concern rather than satisfying your own curiosity. • If you have an intuition that a certain question might be useful, even if it seems a bit “off the wall,” trust it—once you are reasonably certain that it is an honest, open question. E.g., “What color is this issue for you, and why?” • If you aren’t sure about a particular question, sit with it for a while and wait for clarity. • As a group, watch the pacing of the questions, allowing some silence between the last answer and the next question. Questions that come too fast may feel aggressive, cutting off the deep reflection that can help the focus person. • If you have asked one question and heard an answer, you may feel a need to ask a follow-up question. But if you find yourself about to ask the third question in a row before anyone else has had a chance to ask one, don’t! • Avoid questions with yes-no or right-wrong answers. At the same time, remember that the best questions are often simple and straightforward. not sure how such things might be applied in the hypertextual conversations of the GSC but i am sure yall are creative enough to find ways to make use of them space and grace... +ODD

indeed...by far among the best posts-outta-da-blue ive ever seen here such a sign of the times and significant sense of style like some authentic hypertextual expression of one's eye-opening intersubjective baptism in this transpersonal pool of cyberspace we got going on here or something like it bravo

ah..i see

and well..we are actually writing something here, arent we? and so ok...i put this thread on instant email alert so if you should post ... i'll be right there to wrestle with ya, buddy so you dont have to wait grrrrr

ok, so im mostly just sitting here wonderin what the heck yer talking about cuz you havent even touched the muffins yet i am wondering if you actually sitting there waiting for me to spend time writing with back and forth like that with you? and right now? is there something wrong? exactly what rules do you prefer to play by? i mean cmon man...share one your muffin recipes and get on with it i'll wait...

i must confess ... how you are now one of my official most favorite posters/people, Larry especially how you helped teach me how to figure out how to finish this batch of muffins probably not the usual stuff, i know but i made them for everyone, you know and i do hope you at least try a bite for having taught me so much but and too ... if you dont want to taste em right away or taste em here in public go ahead and taste em in private maybe even give it a week or so come back and tell us what happened ... or not :mellow: no sh!t

repeated and rephrased from another thread... `·.¸ ><((((º> .·´¯`·.¸.·<º))))><¸.·´¯´·.¸ .·><((((º> ¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º> .·´¯`·.¸.·<º))))><¸.·´¯´·.¸ .·><((((º> ¸.·´¯ + for our guts: wondering : what kind/type/style (whatever) of format we might want/need (whatever) in order to contribute what it is we want to seem to want to teach/convey/share and/or learn/discover here? + for our hearts: wondering : how it might we feel about shifting gears and finding ways to ask and answer ever better questions in the spirit of friendship?...for lack of a better term + for our heads: wondering : how it might help if we asked what we think we have come to understand about the nature of perspectives? `·.¸ ><((((º> .·´¯`·.¸.·<º))))><¸.·´¯´·.¸ .·><((((º> ¸.·´¯`·.¸ ><((((º> .·´¯`·.¸.·<º))))><¸.·´¯´·.¸ .·><((((º> ¸.·´¯ a few general suggestions for balanced cultivation of living words... - let us all please feel free to discover and apply our richest blends of precision, kindness, and curiousity - let us all please feel free to reshape the questions by reflecting and re-asking and re-answering them - overall...let love be the rule

hi Larry...if i may... wondering : would it help if i asked what you think you have come to understand about perspectives? and wondering : what kind/type/style (whatever) of format would you want/need (whatever) to contribute what it is you want to seem to want to teach here? and also wondering : how would you feel about shifting gears and finding ways to ask and answering questions in a spirit of friendship?...for lack of a better term

very nice article, bluzman...covers a lot of bases <_< and yeah..that was me... sputtering 'either/ors' mindlessly and other such crimes...and writing in a lazy sloppy slant of a hurry as usual...sorry let me restate less roughly...and then im unplugging to make up for my unruly behaviour ... :wacko: :B) ....it seems to seem to seem to my me...given what ive seen and felt and read and done and guessed and wondered and other such things human beings die from being mortal (which is to say....while being actually radically bodily transformed trying to healing and resolve waves, streams, states and stages of meaning, hope, belonging, and other forgivabilities as it relates to experiencing a variety of possible periods of one's own organic shifts, struggles, power downs and collapses of all our many bodies ... followed by cascades of final radiant releases and leavings the ripple out through gross, subtle and causal fields of reality... and other other truly unnamable things...yada yada yada) but and too... it seems not only likely that many kinds of someones from in and across all our numerous known and possible historical and ongoing contexts have somehow found ways to really go beevus and butthead on the weed from kanab and other related such oily doobie burning projects which contributed to tipping the scales on their lung's capacity to function and support the rest of our many bodies...inclunding but not limited too all the various cancerous realities but large segments of we also seem to have been living and dying while being ill and suffering being a part of this whole mixed cocktail of interrelated and industrial strength self-inflicted atrocities in growing waves and streams and fields of addictions to illness and pollution causing stuff we call foods/medicines/entertainments/vanities/atmospheres/cultures/behaviours/delusions and all such things (each of which are specific and non-specific amplifers of this that and the other thing...happening in old, old, and old old and ongoing interrelated fields of genetic and cultural background noise...which all makes it even harder to be so severely reduce ... like i kinda did previously) anyway...though it sounds kinda absurd to me, i guess thats more like what i wished i woulda tried to say but it seems english is my second language at times p.s....so as not to seem so gloomy about state of health and medicine...i would have to add that meanwhile, all kinda of strange and wonderful waves of things are happening and trying to happen...as usual and as always, in response to whatever new crazinesses weve invented...and i find hope in that, too

not to be a buzzkiller, but i must say i strongly agree with mstar's points ...especially as it pertains to kids and yeah, people have died from smoking too much pot...either from lung cancer...or just being mindless while doing dangerous things you guys might find this article on Entheogens interesting/useful especially this part: and yeah...i am a freak...in that alongside all my other studies in states and stages of consciousness (including altered)...i have spent a bit of time looking into the history of drugs and rites of passage ...gawd...somebody shoot me (or pm me if interested) the topic sure would be another interesting gsc podcast experiment..hehe btw...Dr Stan Grof (whom i have met) and Dr Andrew Weil have both done extensive research into the subject

well...i have a feeling that (especially) after i listen thru this most recent podcast, that you and i will have plenty to bounce around and fill up a 2 hour slot (or more) quite easily not only do i have a terminal case of gabs when it comes to art and such ... i think that perhaps if we try to include too much...we wont get to some of the juicier stuff and too...maybe we can tag a Q&A towards the end of the podcast...as well as spend a bit talking about future art related podcasts .. and how to invite them in ways that avoid the need for a lot of coordination but and too... i do still have an important Sunday engagement looking for a home on my calendar...so lets plz keep in touch about the whens of it all cuz once i plug that date in...i can then commit

Hi again Larry i must confess how difficult i find it to try and respond to your comments, assumptions, and rhetorical tangents in detail without merely quadrupling the work of finding those mutual meanings and given what ive seen from your participation at the GSC since you arrived you seem to expect others to do your homework for you not that i couldnt do such a thing for you ...its just that i've got bills to pay... so please except this frail apology for not being able/willing to apologize to you for my earlier polemic as i wrote that i could/would maybe someday lovingly, Adam and Eve edited to add: rather than merely leaving...i think i will just try and avoid getting drawn into certain unskilled styles of hypertextual dialogue perhaps another another thread on language itself would help keep from derailing this one

very cool...i cant wait to listen and im kinda glad i missed it...i would have probably talked too much but i was sitting in my booth all weekend, peddling my work in the summer festival in downtown Bend

hi Larry my guess is that its because we cannot make the same assumptions about many fundamental things especially as it pertains to the meanings found in words like "Adam," "Eve," "God," "said," "garden," "serpent," "tree," "eat," "evil," "sin," "naked," "Lucifer," etc... so it seems we may be writing the same language...but from an entirely different tongue which makes it quite difficult to give an answer the rest of your post but i do trust you will find your way well enough maybe someday i'll learn

it might be worth adding... how it seems that neither the Buddha nor the Christ seemed to promote themselves as personal saviors/messiahs but rather promoted a path to 'salvation/liberation' through very potent forms of contemplative arts its we who tend to wrap them in some super human mythic messianic role ...which both of them seemed to warn strongly against though if we have come to see either of them as our personal messiah i think it might be worth talking to them about that a little more they are both quite understanding about such things, as scriptures say

wow..well this sure is a topic that could take a few years to explore for one...it might be interesting to know that early Buddhist thought and practice had already made its way into the middle east, greece and egypt a few hundred of years prior to the life of Jesus ...although it was not called 'buddhism' at the time judaism, hinduism, and buddhism...all come out of the same era of early contemplative discovery (all sharing the perennial notion of "I AM") and i would have to say that perhaps Jesus learned from them all and took it a step further (by adding a very strong descending element) no one religion is simple enough to be described or explained away with some sweeping monolithic statement as there are thousands of years of overlapping histories and languages and influences to consider and one cannot understand a single religion (or its arts and literature) without comparing it to the others ...not only seeing where and why the maps overlap, but appreciating where and why they do not and alongside comparing mere theologies and etymologies of words ... is the importance of comparing of actual spiritual practices and their implications cuz there are ways to see the truths and meanings that are behind and beyond the mere names we use to describe them there have been many very valuable periods of interfaith and interreligious dialogues in recent (and not so recent) human history where religions have been compared and discussed quite successfully ....and by deeply devoted men and women of those faiths feel free to pm me if interested