Online Satsang gets closer.
We are in the final stages of software testing and setting up administrative procedures. Consciousness is acting in very strange ways through this process as all involved will tell you.
Once it is working we can have informal "coffee Darshan" sometimes in the morning besides regular satsangs.
This will be a lazy man/woman Satsang. No need to leave the bedroom or living room. No commute. No smelly incense, no long ride back home followed by a beer. You can have your beer during Satsang!
When it is ready I'll name all the people involved and we will all share the blame.
The only blockage now is me and my schedule. For two months I had no medical reports to edit so spent a lot of time getting in trouble cooking people. Now, suddenly the reports are pouring in late, which means they are all overdue.
In addition, Jimmy left also, abandoning many colonies of cats and I am now feeding and taking care of them plus helping others with money to feed the other colonies of his I am not feeding. Jimmy came back to town and disappeared, then he reappeared and disappeared again, going back North.
I meet so many feral cat colony managers in Los Angeles who support anywhere from 2 or 3 colonies, to 19, with almost 100 cats. They give all their income to feed and take care of them and provide spay/neuter trapping, sterilizing and re-release, and thousands in vet bills. Some of these people have 30 cats at home, which is illegal in LA, and they all fear people complaining about them bringing the City down on them. One woman took over the feral cat colonies of Jimmy that I am not taking care of. She has 13 colonies and maybe 60 cats. I help her as I can, when her car breaks down or she needs cat food.
We are the caretakers of all sentient beings. Enlightenment and self-realization are purely secondary to having developed an inner saint. I have known many who have struggled for years to awaken, who have failed, and I think it largely because they haven't developed that compassion and love towards all sentient beings; they are too wrapped up with their own personal quest.
Many Zen koans are dedicated to pointing out how warped is just the drive to awaken without a strong drive to take care of all living things.
So, free time is rare this moment.
Ed
Realizing the Manifest Self--the Life Force permeating our humanity--and the Unmanifest source from which it arises.
"This will be a lazy man/woman Satsang. No need to leave the bedroom or living room."
ReplyDelete(((whew)))
Warmth,
Chris
Will all participants require a camera and microphone?
ReplyDeleteYes, camera and microphone.
ReplyDeleteMost testing has been done with participants wearing headsets, with mouthpieces, rather than risking feedback through a microphone on a laptop or computer. This means you need a high speed Internet connection too.
Thankyou Ed for opening me up to my holding back.
ReplyDeleteI can only love all sentient beings intellectually, and have not been able to feel this love as a heart thing.
I look at a lot of humans in society who I know are really lovely people to EVERYONE and EVERYTHING and enlightenment and self realization doesn't even cross there minds they are just happy where they are.
Yet someone like me, who is less compassionate, and less charitable attaches themselves to lovely dreams of enlightenment and is not very compassionate.
Thankyou Ed
Warmly
Ricky
...I guess I also want to know is how to arise to this compassion?
ReplyDeleteWarmly
Ricky
It just happens to you along the way. But, you can make it happen faster by consciously taking small steps of giving.
ReplyDeleteLook around you at a problem of compassion. Is it homelessness? Is it homeless cats or dogs? Is it animals dying at public "shelters?"
Is it old people who need help in their houses with upkeep, yardwork, transportation? Adopt an oldster.
Take a cat off the street. Build a little shelter in your back yard and put a heating pad in for the winter.
Small steps of reaching out along with strong spiritual practice.
Too many only practice and live in very small worlds of their family and practice. It is very difficult to progress this way, as it is hard for the heart to open in such small environments.
I cannot wait. I love you all that are one this forum.
ReplyDeleteConsciousness acting in strange ways?
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
Ed, I was JUST checking in with the intention of asking you of the possibility of an online satsang in the future. . . and I find this post.
:-)
Yes, compassion is the door :)
ReplyDeleteEdji,
ReplyDeleteCould you please clarify a doubt. Recently I used to give food to a duck. But my friend says that that duck is peeping into the house even when I am out, without searching for food by itself. So he says, I am really acting against the duck by making it lazy.
I don't really understand what is correct. When feeding the duck I have a feeling of happiness though.
Pranaam,
I guess your friend hates fat ducks.
ReplyDeleteDump the friend. That person might also advise you not to feed hungry children in India, as they may lose their ability to scrounge food from the environment.
This person has no heart. Feed the duck and feral cats to your heart's content. As if a duck would forget how it has lived in the past--such nonsense this friend.