A gift from the Universe

It is supposed to be early spring in Britain now, London? Not so much… it’s 9am, it’s dark, cold and my class is cancelled, great! Let’s finish that Sandel’s lecture on affirmative action, let’s listen to some old skool techno (still trying to educate myself on electronic music, that I don’t know shit about) and read a bit of this new book I got: Personal Power through Awareness. Awareness… Do you reckon you are aware of you and your actions? Think it twice… of how you perceive yourself? of how you perceive external energy? of how others perceive you and you perceive them? Think it three, four and five times! So many things we ought to be aware of! so many distractions that later become anguishes and the result is a complete distortion of reality. However, at the end of the day we are all distorted… by media, marketing, etc. Couple of week ago I believed I made decisions, that I could choose but thanks to some cigarettes in the cold, after some express debates and reflections in the smoking area now I see it clearly; everything has been chosen already, and not precisely by us.
Thinking about all of this, plus the weather, plus a complete wasteful week off uni, wearing off some chemicals from my body and mind… I don’t feel nearly as cheery and motivated as I could or should?
Finally I put myself together and get out of the house for my next class at 2pm: magazine’s design. As I walk from Camden St way to Euston I feel depersonalizated, I don’t feel like myself, I feel walking as an ant; hurrying up, the hour, I’m still early, as I walk I wanna faint and disappear….

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The amazingness of the books I’m lately buying, pretty randomly, is not measurable. Call me crazy but I can truly feel how the universe is sending me all of this information at the amazing price of 0.01GBP (2.76 w/postage) per book. This morning I read 2 chapters from which I got some excerpts:

the more you can become aware of other people's energy, the more aware you can become of your own inner guidance.

learn to see how your energy is affecting others.

learn how to observe others by being silent.

assume an attitude of confidence, and TRUST THE INFO U R RECEIVING!! doubt can be a friend if it keeps pushing you to become more accurate and precise in what u sense, as long IT DOESNT STOP YOU FROM CONTINUING.

begin by believing in what you are sensing.

do not hold expectations of what you will experience (idealization?)

do not judge your initial attempts but simply let any impressions come in.feedback is a very important part of ur reality as actions create reactions.

~here comes the best bit....!~

as you tune into others, open your heart, and embrace them with a thought of love, not criticism.Imagine an unloving, critical person tuning into someone's energy. The other person would not open (even subconsciously or on energy level) to reveal any information, for that critical energy would feel like an intrusion. !!!!!! HEAVY SHIT!!!

Then imagine a gentle, caring, and loving soul seeking information. The other person would open to that warmth and bask in that love.if you discover what is unique, is free, open, and loving about everyone you know and meet, you will discover new ways that you yourself may become more free, open and loving. !!!!! HARD STUFF!

if you want to see clearly the world you live in, you will need to be willing to see life from other people's perspectives. as u do so, remain open and nonjudgmental, keeping a sense of discovery, love, and adventure . :)))

IMAGINATION IS THE MOST POWERFUL ENERGY-SENSING TOOL.

unbounded by belief structures, imagination is one of your most powerful energy-sensing devices.

when u make things up, u often do it with a sense of joy and play, in a state of relaxation, this is a highly intuitive state.

when you come from the lighter energy of playfulness, when there is less heaviness or seriousness around the outcome, you are often more accurate in what you sense.if you don’t know how to do something, pretend that you do, for the subconscious does not know the difference between pretending and what is truly happening.

As I walk, I remember everything I read this morning and I start playing; I fill my head up with wonderful thoughts and I thank the universe for the opportunity of being here in this amazing land.
I keep walking and I smile at people and they smile at me, by the time I’m at Euston road I look to my right and there is a bus full of children, 7 years-old perhaps? One of them start waving his hand at me with a huge smile that could light up a dark room, I salute him from outside and smile as I look to the floor with a feeling of if I did something impulsively random but fun, when I look to the right again it was not one but all of the children waving their little hands at me and smiling in the kind of joy only a 7year-old (or someone on srooms) can experience and show so well.
This is it, I’m lost, I’m lost in joy, and I don’t remember or care about the weather, the aftermath, and the controlling media anymore. All I can think of is love, how the universe loves me unconditionally and how bad I’ve paid in return.

Suffering is Graceful!

Ram Dass: For most people, when you say that suffering is Grace it seems off the wall to them. And we’ve got to deal now with our own suffering and other people’s suffering. Because that is certainly a distinction that is very real, because even if we understand the way in which suffering is Grace – that is the way in which it can be a vehicle for awakening – that is fine for us. It’s quite a different thing to look at somebody else’s suffering and say it’s Grace. And Grace is something that an individual can see about their own suffering and then use it to their advantage. It is not something that can be a rationalization for allowing another human being to suffer. And you have to listen to the level at which another person is suffering. And when somebody is hungry you give them food. As my guru said, God comes to the hungry person in the form of food. You give them food and then when they’ve had their belly filled then they may be interested in questions about God. Even though you know from say Buddhist training, or whatever spiritual training you have had, that the root cause of suffering is ignorance about the nature of dharma. To give somebody a dharma lecture when they are hungry is just inappropriate methodology in terms of ending suffering.

So, the hard answer for how you are able to see suffering as Grace, and this is a stinker really, is that you have got to have consumed suffering into yourself. Which means, you see there is a tendency in us to find suffering aversive. And so we want to distance ourselves from it. Like if you have a toothache, it becomes that toothache. It’s not us any more. It’s that tooth. And so if there are suffering people, you want to look at them on television or meet them but then keep a distance from them. Because you are afraid you will drown in it. You are afraid you will drown in a pain that will be unbearable. And the fact of the matter is you have to. You finally have to. Because if you close your heart down to anything in the universe, it’s got you. You are then at the mercy of suffering. And to have finally dealt with suffering, you have to consume it into yourself. Which means you have to with eyes open be able to keep your heart open in hell. You have to look at what is, and say Yea, Right. And what it involves is bearing the unbearable. And in a way, who you think you are can’t do it. Who you really are can do it. So that who you think you are dies in the process.

Like I am dealing, I am counseling now, the counselor of a couple who went to a movie and when they came home their house had burned down and their three children had burned to death. Three, five and seven. And she is Mexican Catholic and he is a Caucasian Protestant. And they are responding entirely different to it. She is going in to deep spiritual experiences and talking with the children on other planes and he is full of denial and anger and feelings of inadequacy. And in a way, that situation is so unbearable and you wouldn’t ever lay that on another human being but there it is. And what will happen is she may come out of this a much deeper spiritual more profound, more evolved person. And he, because the way he dealt with it was through denial, may end up contracted and tight because he couldn’t embrace the suffering. He couldn’t go towards it. He pushed it away in order to preserve his sanity. In a way, there is a process in which suffering requires you to die into it or to give up your image of yourself. When you say I can’t bear it. Who is that? And they talk about the saints of India as being the living dead, because they have died who they thought they were. And they talk about the saints for whom all people are their children. So that everybody that is dying is their child dying. It’s easy to say “Well, it’s not my child.” or “It’s not my brother or my friend.” This poem is most familiar to most of you here, but it’s still every time I read it I get off on it. I think it’s worth it.

from Earth Prayers, Thich Nhat Hanh


Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.

Look at me: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird whose wings are still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
in order to fear and to hope,
the rhythm of my heart is the birth and
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing in the
surface of the river.
I am also the bird which, when spring comes,
arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily in the
clear water of a pond.
I am also the grass-snake who,
approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.
I am also the merchant of arms, selling deadly
weapons to Uganda.

I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after
being raped by a sea pirate.
I am also the pirate, my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with
plenty of power in my hand.
I am also the man who has to pay his
“debt of blood” to my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes
flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it
fills up all the four oceans.

Please call me by my correct names,
so that I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are but one.

Please call me by my correct names,
so I can become awake,
and so that the door of my heart be left open,
the door of compassion.