What is True?

How can we truly know with any degree of certainty that we what hold as true is in fact true?

Our thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, affections, and relationship to the world and others are often based on feelings of surety, that what we are experiencing is truth. But what is a personal truth ("I like chocolate") cannot always be translated into a world truth ("Everyone likes chocolate") or certainly a Universal truth because it's unlikely that as much as we like or love chocolate that it exists in every corner of the Universe :)

Take another example: The roles in essence.  Many of us reading this blog know about The Michael entity and what they have to say about the 7 roles in essence, (slave, artisan, warrior, scholar, sage, priest, and king) that our world is composed of millions of people who are all one of these 7 roles for each and every incarnation, a choice they made at the beginning of ensoulment. We read about this, and then apply it to the world- can you validate the 7 roles by looking around you? Do you see slaves serving the common good, artisans creating? Yes.

Here is the intersection of a personal truth with a Universal truth.

So we adopt this truth as our own and begin to apply it to our personal world view.

Then, a question might occur to us which goes something like "How can I with absolute certainty know that this is true?".

We can't. But we can look to see if there is evidence to support our beliefs (which in the case of the roles in essence there is enough supporting evidence for me to validate it) and decide whether to adopt it as a probable truth. We can allow for the possibility that some of what we have come to believe as true could not be (think The Matrix) and some could be. Here we have the opportunity to hold our thoughts lightly which then allows for us to be open, receptive, and joyful without the need to be right, or to know. We can allow for different perceptions without the need to change others for in truth how do we really know what is true?

Lots to think about.

"We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."       Anton Chekhov

Photo Lagoon Nebula

"Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem."      Jiddu Krishnamurti

Blessings

"To bless all without distinction is the ultimate form of giving, because those who you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives..It is impossible to bless and judge at the same time."   Pierre Pravervand from The Art of Gentle Blessing

Freedom and Jeff

Freedom and I have been together 11 years this summer. She came in as a baby 
in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even 
after surgery, it was broken in 4 places.  She's my baby.


When Freedom came in she could not stand
and both wings were broken. She was
emaciated and covered in lice. We made the
decision to give her a chance at life, so I took
her to the vet's office. 


From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a
huge dog carrier with the top off, and it
was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her,
urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay
there looking at me with those big brown eyes.
We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still
couldn't stand. It got to the point where the
decision was made to euthanize her
if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't
want to cross that line between torture and
rehab, and it looked like death was
winning. She was going to be put
down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in
on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go
to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't
bear the thought of her being euthanized;
but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone
was grinning from ear to ear. I went
immediately back to her cage; and there she was,
standing on her own, a big beautiful
eagle. She was ready to live. I was
just about in tears by then. That
was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director
asked me to glove train her.
I got her used to the glove,
and then to jesses, and we started
doing education programs for schools
in western Washington .
We wound up in the newspapers,
radio (believe it or not) and some
TV. Miracle Pets even did a show
about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I had stage 3,
which is not good (one major organ plus
everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of
chemo. Lost the hair - the whole
bit. I missed a lot of work. When I
felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey
and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would
also come to me in my dreams and help me fight
the cancer. This happened time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000

the day after Thanksgiving,
I went in for my last checkup.
I was told that if the cancer was not
all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last
option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they
did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for
the results. I went in Monday, and I was
told that all the cancer was gone.

So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and
take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty
and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her
up, and we went out front to the top of the
hill. I hadn't said a word to
Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me
and wrapped both
her wings around me to where I
could feel them pressing in on my back
(I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she
touched my nose with her beak and stared into my
eyes, and we just stood there like that
for I don't know how long . That was a
magic moment We have been soul mates ever
since she came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who
were sick come up to us when we are out, and
Freedom has some kind of hold on
them. I once had a guy who was
terminal come up to us and
I let him hold her.
His knees just about buckled and he
swore he could feel her power course through his
body. I have so many stories like that..

I never forget the honor I have of being so close
to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom.
~Jeff

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."    Henry David Thoreau

Your Daily Rumi

The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox

A huge lion went hunting one day, and took with him a wolf and a fox.

They were all excellent hunters and by the end of the day the team had caught an ox, an ibex, and a hare.

The wolf was already hungrily eying their prey, so the lion magnanimously told him, “Wolf, divide up this abundance between us in any way you like.”

The wolf, though hungry enough to eat the ox himself, decided it was safest to give the largest prize to the lion. He claimed the ibex for himself, and handed the small hare to the fox. The wolf was already licking his chops and about to begin his meal, when the lion roared:

“Wolf! How dare you talk of ‘mine’ and ‘yours’!” With a single swipe from his mighty paw, the lion slew the wolf.

The lion slowly calmed himself, and then turned to the fox. With a huge smile, he said, “Fox, divide up this abundance between us in any way you like.”

The fox, being no fool, immediately said that the entire bounty belonged to the lion.

The lion rumbled in satisfaction, and said, “Fox, you are no longer a fox; you are myself. The entire bounty is yours!”

/ Photo by wwarby /

Wearing the World like a Loose Garment

Letting Go of Attachments

St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226 ce) is credited with the saying “Wear the world like a loose garment." 

In order to be truly free, it is beneficial to cultivate a relationship to external events where clinging does not occur, and to see that anything outside of the self which is seen as providing security is temporal at best. This approach to life doesn't imply ambivelance or lack of participation, but rather suggests that it is when we become attached that we suffer as attachment lends itself to disappointment due to failed expectations.

The first step is becoming willing to let go of anything: people, objects, and expectations. We begin to let go of looking outside of ourselves for satisfaction and pleasure, understanding that our true sense of joy is within. And, contrary to what at first may seem as negative or indifference, letting go of our attachments creates the chance to experience life without imposing our hopes, needs, dreams, wants, desires, and expectations on others which then creates freedom all around. The freedom to choose, both for ourselves and for others.

Byron Katie wisely says "As long as we continue to resist reality we will suffer". When we wear the world like a loose garment we are accepting reality without the need to change it and this is where suffering ends and freedom begins.


Coffee Art by Brendan McCarthy

Of Butterflies and Stillness

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch." --e.e. cummings


A Beautiful story, "Of Butterflies and Stillness" by Shwetha Sridharan  
Take a moment to read...

Of Butterflies and Stillness  (link)

Photo by Victoria Marina-Tompkins