Your Daily Fool

The Fool and the Abbot

It so happened that a Fool and an Abbot sat down to have a meal together. All went well, good food and lively conversation, until finally it was time for dessert. The server set two steaming pieces of apple pie on the table, one much larger than the other. The Fool immediately grabbed the larger piece and began to gleefully gobble it up. The Abbot was horrified!

“How can you be so rude!” he exclaimed. “Where are your manners, where is your sense of fairness, morality, generosity, kindness, respect?”

The Fool was caught quite by surprise. Putting down his fork, he slowly thought about what the Abbot had said. After a moment he began to understand the Abbot’s point.

“Do you mean to say that if I hadn't gone first, you would have taken the smaller piece?” he asked incredulously.

“Well, of course I would have” stated the Abbot emphatically. “I have respect for others, and a generous and kind nature which is the result of many years of meditation and hard work.”

The Fool took another moment to take in what the wise Abbot had told him, and then looked down at the table where the two half-eaten pieces of pie now sat. A broad smile came over his face as he took in the whole situation.

“Well”, he said, “It looks like we’re in luck; it turns out that we both got exactly what we wanted!”

Illustration 19th century engraving of Will Somers, King Henry VIII's jester

Eternity

"This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies
And lads and girls;
Was laughter and ability and sighing,
And frocks and curls;

This passive place a summer's nimble mansion,
Where blooms and bees
Fulfilled their oriental circuit.
Then ceased like these."

Emily Dickinson
1830-1886

"Each man's life represents a road toward himself."

 Herman Hesse

"It All depends on you. 

                                         
You can go on sleeping forever,

or you can Wake Up right this moment." 

Osho

Expanding Our Perceptions

Expanding Our Perceptions

What if we wake up one day and think that maybe many of our Perceptions while true may in fact be limited?


Our perceptions are colored by our personal experiences as well as social and cultural lenses, all of which help us over time to create our world view. Beginning when we are young, we look and listen to see what others think and create our own opinions, holding them as true for us at the time which of course they are. As we mature, we may begin to become more open to the possibility that what we have thought all along may be in need of some reconsideration followed by adjustments and in this way, we continue to grow.


For those of us who are students of spiritual teachings whether Eastern, Western, or somewhere in between, we also develop a spiritual viewpoint in our dedication to understanding the vastness of the Universe and how "things really work". It's not unusual for students of the Michael teachings for example to say "this is the way it is" after being introduced to the system, finding comfort in knowing a truth about themselves through the overleaves and life task information, both extremely valuable if accurate. But what if these teachings are really just a beginning rather than an end? Perhaps they provide us with a foundation upon which to build our viewpoint as well as a lens through which to understand others and their choices. All good. A place to start.


The Michael Teachings are a focused aperture through which to view the Universe.


What if you were to open that aperture? Let in more light, more love, more openness. We are each a grain of sand in the Infinitely Creative Universe. Sounds a bit simplistic or even hokey?  Maybe so. But worth a try.

The Beloved

The Freshness

When it's cold and raining,

you are more beautiful.

And the snow brings me

even closer to your lips.

The inner secret, that which was never born,

you are that freshness, and I am with you now.

I can't explain the goings,

or the comings. You enter suddenly,

and I am nowhere again.

Inside the majesty.

Rumi

"You are what You want to become. Why search anymore? You are a Wonderful manifestation. The whole Universe has come together to make Your existence possible. There is Nothing that is not You. The kingdom of God, the Pure Land, Nirvana, Happiness, and Liberation are All You."           


Thich Nhat Hanh

Our Environment

Sandra Olliges has written a very insightful article about the four addictions of Intensity, Needing to Know, What Isn't working, and Perfection in her Psychology Today blog. Thanks Sandra for mentioning me in the article!

Addiction and the Environment (link)

Seeing the Unseen

"Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more - more unseen forms become manifest to him."


 ~ Jalal-Uddin Rumi

"Now is the time to know that all that you do is Sacred... Now is the time for you to deeply compute the impossibility that there is anything but Grace."   Hafiz

"Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."
Carl Jung










Heart 2 by Daniel Holeman

The Seven Life Transitions

"In terms of what makes Monadal change possible, we would say it is a culmination of both internal and external factors which ally together to create the necessary incubation for the perceptual shift to occur.” Michael 2009

During the course of our lives there are many transitions, turning points or markers where we cross into new territory. The 7 Internal Monads as discussed in the Michael Teachings are age specific and include birth, the "terrible twos", adolescence, mid-life crisis, life review, the onset of whatever will cause death, and the last breath. Every person engages the 1st (birth), 6th (onset), and 7th (death) in each life, and the remaining (2-5) need be accomplished during each soul level in order for progress to occur. (to the next level). There are also positive and negative poles for each monad and the monads build upon each other.

Birth age 0 - Life + Vitality The taking of the first breath

2nd 2-3 -Solipsism + Identity Differentiation from the mother

3rd 12-30 -Separation +Independence Differentiation from family of origin

4th 35-50 -Acquiescence +Self realization True personality emerges from false

5th 65-75 -Evaluation +Appreciation Life Review

6th variable - Capitulation +Catharsis Onset of whatever will prove fatal

7th variable -Fatalism +Transcendence Begins with the last breath

During these transitions perceptual changes occur within which then allows each person to relate to the external world in a different way based on the new understanding of the Self. And, as Michael has said, there are usually external factors which occur which propel the individual toward internal processing which is the hallmark of each monad.

For more detailed information on the monads, please read my book "Spiritual Turning Points: A Metaphysical Perspective of the Seven Life Transitions c.2011 Available at all major book sellers and online. 

"For behind all seen things lies something vaster; Everything is but a path, a portal, or a window opening on something more than itself."   


Antoine de Saint-Exupery

State of the World: Food

State of the World: Food (click here)

To Be Alive!

"To be alive in this beautiful, self-organized Universe--to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it--is a wonder beyond words." 
Joanna Macy












Photo: Inspirational Village at wordpress