Loving Coexistence

It is all about presence and loving

     I do not teach theory anymore and have not done so for some time.  I do not talk about the causal body or subtle body, or I Am as if they exist as real entities.  They are only concepts that point to somethings that you ay not recognize as you yet. But I no longer talk theory like you find in Siddharameshwar’s or Nisargadatta’s books. That stage is gone for me.  Such discussions are only philosophy and go no deeper than mind, despite Nisargadatta's belief that correct words are all that is needed for awakening.

     Instead, I try to show you, YOU, directly from within, by waking the experience of You in you.  

     I do this with exercises, meditations, word images and stories, and by wrapping you in the presence of our lineages, the Ramana-Robert and Nisargadatta-Dunn lineage of classic Advaita. Some teachers refer to this "power that knows the way," as Consciousness or shakti to take the student's attention away from the personal, and make it an impersonal process.  But it is personal when I use the term "lineage" because the "energy" acts through the individual entities that comprise the order, whether Robert, Nisargadatta, Jean Dunn, me, Rajiv, Deeya or Ruby.

     I also encourage you to love intensely and frequently, everything and everyone that arises before you. Love, devotion, serving are quickest way to self-realization. The love of another is really your own self seeing the Self in another, and the 'you' recognizes the love you feel for the other is really you.  You are love itself.  It is your own nature, the experience of which was not caused by the other, but only triggered by another.

     Many people have told me, and a learning I received from Robert, the experience of one's own spiritual presence comes easier from sitting in the presence of the lineage and its particular flavor of Shakti. That is, sitting with the teacher in Satsang or Darshan attunes you to the shakti, or the power that knows the way as manifest by a line of teachers.

     Of course constantly abiding in one's sense of self also accomplishes the same end of developing that sense of presence, but loving another, or sitting within the "presence" of the lineage expands the opportunity to grow your sense of presence, the love of which creates sensitivity to internal energies, bliss and ecstasies, that eventually become the explosive recognition of Self.

     What I try to do is set the stage for the breaking out of the explosion, the volcanic eruption of energy and light that happens when you first see your Self, which is my Self, and is the Self of all.  The Bhagavad Gita refers to this experience allegorically, when Krishna reveals his true nature to Arjuna.  Nisargadatta calls it attaining Krishna Consciousness.

     This experience is beyond the emptiness that Robert taught, that you are nothing, no thing at all.  It is beyond the Voids of the Buddhists because it fills those voids with an etheric presence of bliss and light, and empowers you to move worlds by being a vessel for its activity.  It is this Self energy that brings the void to life. 

     Now Robert's own awakening experience was of a classic self-realization experience where he was blown away by a volcanic explosion of energy and light arising from within and exploding the world, mostly he talked about nothingness and disappearing the individual sense of self. Yet, he did not directly teach how to be self realized except through various forms of self-inquiry.  Though he talked about the bhaktic approach, it was not his primary teaching modality.

     Very soon we will have weekly satsangs in LA, meeting at my house either Thursdays or Fridays, then going out to dinner at Follow Your Heart or a quieter restaurant I know nearby.

     I need to be with you more in the flesh.  As it is it is hard to make room for visitors who come for a day or two to LA.  The meetings have to be more consistent and extended.  Single meetings for a day or so do nothing.  It is repetition of exposure to the power of the lineage that does everything.

     I love you all.

He followed the self-inquiry method perfectly:

Dear Edji,

I have spent last two years trying to become enlightened. I have never read much of the relevant literature or listened what enlightened people teach but concentrated on the practice instead.

The general plan was always simple: find a method that works and execute it. So I chose Ramana Maharshi's Self-inquiry. The practice happened in cycles.

I would try to practice self-inquiry and it wouldn't seem to work so I would try something else, like Osho's witnessing or Gurdjieff's self-remembering. After a while practicing something else I would return to self-inquiry. This went on two years and slowly I became better at what I was doing. Then I found the book called The Path of Sri Ramana Part One suggested by Edji. I didn't quite read the whole book, but enough to gain some inspiration.

After reading the book I started calling my practice witnessing the subject. By doing this I tried to define myself what I should do in order to make progress. I used word witness, because what I did was very passive observing. And I used word subject, because its meaning is to me very clear. Subject means the opposite of object. There are these things around me and then there is me. Maybe the most important reason for choosing word subject was that its exact meaning for me depends on the situation, so there was no pressure to perform this witnessing according to exact instructions of others.

When I witnessed the subject I started by observing the feeling of existence I could feel. This feeling of existence grew to larger sense of self. It was like following a single thread and finding a big ball of yarn. In a sense this sense of self was quite solid and warm. In a way you could compare watching this self to watching your body. So there was big similarity to the sense of body. After some time, witnessing the sense of self turned spontaneously to being/resting in this same sense of self. I would turn my gaze inward and rest in central feeling of existence.

All this happened in about one month. After this month of practice my sense of self dissolved unnoticed. I tried to continue my practice, but all I was able to find were echoes of this sense, but not the solid real deal. I felt somewhat distressed. I didn't know how to go on. In a few days I started feeling different than before. More free. More calm. Certain element of fear/anxiety was missing. Somehow being was more central than doing. My motivation had somewhat dwindled. Few days after this dissolving in one evening I just rested in my bed and listened radio for hours. That is not something I would normally do.

When I tried to find the sense of self all I was able to find were feelings in my body. These feelings I found were in a way part of this solid sense of self, but they were not the whole of it. Some kind sense of existence still existed but it didn't feel as real as before.

When I turned my gaze inwards, I found nothing to focus on. It was like a hand trying to grab something but finding only empty space.

I felt this strong urge to move forward, but didn't know what to do, so I contacted Edji. After several unanswered demands to tell me what to do, I realized that something was happening on its own. I realized that I didn't actually have to do or practice anything at the moment. After this Edji suggested that I could ask myself "I wonder who I am, or what am I?" and be open and accepting to whatever the answer would be.

It was late evening, nearly midnight, when I tried this. At first the answer was that I am my body and that is all I will ever be. I asked second time and something happened.

I understood that I am the current experience. Not some part of the experience, like body or thoughts, but the whole experience. I felt happy, calm and more wide and deep than before. The world was brighter, as if someone had added brightness to the computer screen.

Asking myself who or what am I launched something I first thought to be some kind of altered state that slightly calmed down after 24 hours. Sense perceptions were stronger and more potent than normally. I listened music and it had deep 3-dimensional quality in it. My visual field was bright and very large. Most of my attention was automatically drawn to it. My sense of identity was changed. I felt that I was mainly these sense perceptions. My body, thoughts and feelings were overpowered with sense input.

I strongly believed and felt (and still do) that content of my consciousness is what I truly am.

My identity has always been locked inside my body. When I asked myself who or what am I, the lock opened and my identity expanded to cover the whole consciousness. It has always been undeniable fact, that I am my body (although I have tried to deny it many times). Now it is undeniable fact, that I am this local awareness. These are thoughts, but they are accurate descriptions of the reality I see at this moment.

Everything is basically the same, expect the fact that I'm not quite what I was before. I really don't know yet what this means. Although my sense of identity has expanded, my body and feelings still cover large part of my awareness. I don't feel my senses as sharply as I did earlier, but there is still meaningful difference. My senses and imagination and what they convey are now equals with the old me. I feel that all that is here at the moment is part of me.

It has been few days since I asked the question and at the moment my feelings are quite normal despite now and then experiencing these feelings of space and presence. This all has been quite a ride. But although my feelings and perceptions have changed during the last few days, the basic change that happened few days ago hasn't wavered a bit.  ---M

Ed:

M. realized he was the totality of his experiencing.

The marvelous thing is the more you expand your inner life, the more inclusive that experiencing becomes.  Like Lila found, there is no true or false self objects to be found, only ever changing experiences.  It is words that try to create permanent objects like "Self," true and false selves, God, guru, student relationships.  Really, it is just an ever changing mess that makes no sense if you try to comprehend it with hollow thought.

When you stop trying to understand, your self just gets bigger and bigger until it is all you, but then you realize that too is just a concept.

No you, no not you, and with this comes profound peace and contentment, and ever expanding "growth" of simultaneous ownership and non-ownership of everything.

M.s real path now is just beginning.  But notice how just a small change in the method of inquiry can make a large difference.  M. just changed from a passive watching aspect of cold observation, to one of lightness, wonderment, acceptance and welcoming of experience, and what a difference it made.

Something More Real, Something More True?

I could clothe my self in poetic rhyme or enshrine my self with structureless prose, and in these forms dance merrily and fluidly across the stage of the heart. But these costumes don’t suit me at the moment. I am resolved to dress myself in expository attire, which I find somewhat tiring, as it makes me feel my wings are clipped and I am left to crawl rather than fly.

 So be it…

I have heard my teacher say time and time again to, “Drop all Concepts.” Easier said than done. The very effort to drop the concepts seems to give birth to a new conceptual stance, namely that of, “It’s just a concept,” or the more popular saying, “It’s all bullshit.”

It dawned on me today, while I was sitting in my car, enjoying a grande, Holiday Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks that there were concepts that I was clinging to that were actually creating a lot of division, preference, and resistance within Me.

I had set out on a mission to rid myself of something called the ‘false or smaller sense of self’ for the oh so sought after ‘truer or real sense of self.’

As I sat there I had to admit to myself that I did not really know what a false self or a true self was, outside of what I have read in spiritual literature. I had never really experienced a ‘false self’ or a ‘true self’. I had only differing experiences.

What if there is no ‘false self’ and no ‘true self’? What if there is just the experience that one is having in the moment; whether it be as a gross body, as an emotion, as the void, as spaciousness, as a movement of energy…? Why is there a preference as to what is being identified with? Why are we always trying to get rid of ‘what is’ in hopes for something higher or truer or more real?

What if there were no aspects of our selves that we deemed ‘truer’ or more ‘real’ than others aspects of our selves? What if there are simply just different or varying aspects of our selves without the hierarchical rankings of true/false – higher/lower – real/unreal?

Isn’t it these so called ‘less real, less true’ aspects of ourselves that which we set out to fix, to change, or to get rid of? What if we embraced these along with all that we discover about ourselves and own it all; no aspect lesser or greater than another – just a multi dimensional Being?

Thank you Ed Muzika for your teachings. I am really beginning to understand you.

Lila Sterling, AKA Joan Burtner, 

Dear Edji,

Although I ran into some technical difficulties, I did attend satsang last night.  Thank you for your teaching.  I was moved by the exercise you had us do of giving our pain to you.  Your dharma seems to incorporate all your experience: a call to abidance in I-am via a disciplined meditation practice (paleo-Advaita, I like to call it).  Chanting (which I've always loved).  Awareness of and working with affect and psychological states.  Love, devotion, and surrender.  

I think I will be challenged by this particular integration of teachings.  For example, when you asked us to bring up pain and give it to you, I found myself instead falling into meditative stillness (again, I know nothing of actual samadhi; by stillness I just mean a relatively quiet mind).  

However, in addition, I felt a stirring in my upper abdomen.  I think it was an attempted upwelling.  Intellectually, I thought in the moment of painful childhood memories and recent anxieties.  I believe the subtle upwelling was the body attempting to connect with the thinking but not quite succeeding.  I would hate to think that I use meditative stillness to repress emotion, but if that's the case, I'm sure I wouldn't be the first.  As I mentioned in my intial e-mail to you, I am in therapy, so I do work actively to bring forth emotion and work through it.  

In any case, I plan to attend satsang regularly.  I was thrilled to learn of the plan to hold a retreat in February.  My last day of corporate serfdom is 2/1, so if the retreat doesn't start that exact day, I can and will attend.  

I welcome any comments or advice.

Jason

Dear Jason,

I think you'll do fine with my approach.

I see the biggest blockages for advancement in the vast majority of spiritual students are two: wanting to do all the spiritual work themselves without a teacher or therapist, and the use of the teachings and practices to avoid both the personal, and walled off parts of the personal self.

The first sort of person is effectively and permanently self-deluded, because their "inner-guru" is merely their opinion of the moment.  They tend to be frightened of their "insides," and take a route where it is never exposed.

You are actively reaching out in many modalities.  So this is not your problem at all.

Then you are aware how meditation and quietness can be a form of conscious repression or a reinforcement of unconscious denial.  Therefore this is not a major problem area for you either.

You will do well.

Love,

Ed

When a Dog looks like something else

Role of the Teacher

So many people are on a purported spiritual path of “self-discovery” without ever having spent any face to face time with a teacher in the flesh.

This is almost exactly like having a Facebook romance with someone you never met in the flesh.  It is all imagination and concept.  You are having a dialogue with your image of the teacher; in other words, a dialogue with yourself.

You cannot “know” a teacher, or a teacher a student, through emails, phone calls, or Skype.  You have to spend time together, face to face, otherwise the idealizations that made you want a guru in the first place, will always poison the instructions he or she is giving.

A huge number of “spiritual virgins” form their concept of what a guru is or should be like from reading about Ramana Mahashi.  Forty years ago the most common guru models were either Ramakrishna, Yogananda and his Babaji lineage, or a Zen master such as Yashatani.

But all of us have ideal-guru concepts which no teacher ever fits because it is an image personalized by us within our own minds by our felt need for a certain type of mirroring.  That is, we project onto the guru the quality in us we most cherish to become and own.  Some want a nurturing mother or father, all accepting, all caring, all loving.

Others may want a stern, warrior-like, strong guru who can contain us, protect us, lead us, show us the way to greatness or whatever.

Others want a wise man, like Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan.

You see, we seek the guru that we think will show us that part of ourselves we most desire to become, and if they appear to be failing at that, we have several choices: leave for another guru that will fill that need, or allow the current guru to show us parts of ourselves that may be as valuable or more valuable than that which we seek.

I was fortunate enough to study directly under six Zen Masters, Muktananda, and Robert Adams.  However, during the years of study with these eight, I got to meet and know well many, many other teachers, famous and not, such as Ram Dass, the Dalai Lama, Trungpa, Hsun Hua, Ananda, Song Ryong Hearn, Ed Wortz, Krishnamurti, U.G. Krishnamurti, and many others.

What I discovered is that all were first, human. They were ordinary men with some extraordinary qualities, such as love or compassion, intellect, or energy gurus, yet they were all men or woman first, ordinary men and women, with faults, problems, desires, loves, favoritism, and with endless opinions.

U.G. for example, kept talking about how his body purged itself of all thinking, all concepts, and underwent enormous transformations.  Yet the U.G. I met, was an extremely garrulous old man who chatted constantly and voiced opinions about every topic under the sun.  He had opinions about everything and was as tainted as any man I ever met by concepts and ideas.

Every master I knew had had at least one affair that got them into trouble with their own sangha, and what I learned here is that “Masters,” “teachers,” “gurus,” are among the mostly harshly judged people because they do not live up to the personal and idealized images students have of them. 

They are judged on the basis of having favorite students; they should treat everyone the same, he same amount of time with each.  They are judged based on what they do with donation money, such as giving some to support their families. They are judged based on who they put in charge of the sangha or satsang. They are judged on the basis of their diets, whether they are vegetarians, vegans or meat eaters. But especially they are judged based on their attitudes towards sex and relationships. It is as if in this area, the teacher has nothing to teach, and has everything to be taught. I.e., anytime a teacher looks at a student of the opposite sex, it is some form of abuse.

You see, teachers are on earth to pull you out of your concepts and comfort zone to show you a whole new reality, while you are judging them based on your concepts of what a teacher should be like or how they should teach.

Unless you directly study with a teacher on a daily basis, you are no more than conducting a dialogue with yourself.

Ed,

 

I've had some recent experiences that I'd like to share with you.  I don't know what any of them mean nor am I sure that I need to know.

 

For the past couple of weeks I have noticed more of a sense of presence which to me feels more like something True and stable.  I have felt an unshakeable peace or courage or strength most of the time, even when I am deeply hurting or sad or jealous or afraid... 

 

Most of the energy I have felt, such as vibrations, burning, tingling, currents going through my muscles, feeling like my head is being swept clean...has been more associated with the gross body.

 

I have also felt huge movements of energy within what seems to be a sort of an infinite type space, which I only become aware of due to the moving energy.   These movements of energy sometime feel like gentle waves moving through this space and at other times I have heard a rumble deep within me followed by what would feel like a gigantic earthquake within this space. These movements of energy seem to happen outside of the body, but it seems to me that the body is required to experience them.  So to say, "I am not my body" does not seem altogether true to me. It seems more true to say that "I am more than just my body."   

 

I have also been experiencing a sort of hum in my head off and on, sort of like the sound a tuning fork would make... a vibratory type hum that changes in intensity.  The first time I heard it it sounded more like there was a gathering of humming birds in my head.  Now it is more subtle when I hear it.

 

From time to time I have heard the most beautiful music.  The first time was last week while I was sitting outside of the dance studio waiting for one of my daughters.  I had the windows rolled up on the car and all of a sudden I hear almost angelic sounding music.  I rolled down the windows to see where it was coming from.  It was not coming from outside, but from within me. 

 

And just today, I was sitting in the kitchen wasting time on face book and I began to feel a surge of energy begin to arise from deep within me.  As it arose, the power and strength of it gradually increased until it felt like a volcano had erupted from deep within me.  I felt the most amazing bliss, along with a sense of awe and wonder at this power.  

 

My inquiring mind wants to know: What is feeling this energy that seems to be felt outside of my body?  What experienced and felt this volcanic eruption of power from within me?  I can't make it come back, but I feel the residue of it as a stronger sense of presence so to speak. 

 

I felt awe and wonder at this sense of power that I felt rise up within me. 

Joan

Ed:

Joan, this latter experience of the inner arising of bliss/energy and love that comes as an inner explosion, an inner volcano, is that of the Self revealing itself to you as a human personality.  You have "seen" the Self-of-All as a separate entity, an awesome "other," which at this point still seems separate from you as you still identify with Joan as opposed to Turiya, a gate to which has been opened to you.

But congratulations!!  This is a very important step towards knowing who you are.

You have glimpsed the Ox, so to speak, using the Zen analogy.

You have begun to disidentify with your primary identity of being the body, and are now identifying more with subtle body phenomena, such as sounds, the nadi, energies as manifestations of impersonal shakti, and other subtle body phenomena.  You are going beyond the human world towards the universal and transpersonal.

Gradually you will integrate all of these energies and experiences within yourself and continue to grow into a new personality, one free of fear because you will know yourself as the Self of All, and the owner of everything as a constant presence.

Satsang is on for today, Saturday, Nov 17 at 6 PM.

I have the flu, so maybe we will talk about suffering (joke). But because I have missed two satangs due to visitors and medical emergencies, I thought today's was imperative.

Go to satsangwithedji.weebly.com,

Enter the password: edji

This will take you to a page with a lot of instructions and a large grey box with a rotating “eye.” It will again ask you for a password. Use the word “edji.”

It will then offer four ways to enter the chatroom, click on “guest.”

It will ask you for a user name. Use any name you want.

You will then come to the chat screen, and in the upper left corner, there is a blue button labeled: Start Broadcasting. Click it.

Then it will ask what camera and microphone you want to use, or it will start one for you automatically.

DO NOT USE GOOGLE CHROME AS A BROWSER; THE CHATROOM DOES NOT WORK WITH CHROME. USE MICROSOFT EXPLORER WHICH I DO KNOW WORKS.

My dear Deeya, who recently spent two weeks in Los Angeles with me to my delight, has a free webinar series as part of her work with Quantum Touch based here in L.A. Below is a link either to one of the videos leading up to the webinars which introduce one to the world of subtle body energies, including heart energy. Already 4,000 people have signed up for the webinars.  I am so proud of her.

http://seeingandperceiving.ka
jabi.com/fe/32102-video-3

Deeya and I outside Follow Your Heart

Training in energies is definitely not for everyone.  One feels like one is making great spiritual progress, but one is just focusing on one layer of the subtle body, one of many levels.  The experiences can be exciting, but they can be frightening too.  Other levels of the subtle body are emotions, thinking, imagination, and the various voids or emptiness.

Eventually you have to go deeper, all the way through the subtle body into the great unknowing Causal Body, and even lower into Turiya. But the subtle body work can get you lower than the surface beingness that the neo-advaitins talk about.

Coming Alive to the Whole Self

We live in a mad, mad world.  I felt it from the time I was seven.  I knew this could not possibly be my world.  There was too much violence, too much indifference, too much uncaring, too much depression and too much anger.  Every one of my readers knows this.

Why is this?

First and foremost, we live in a consensus world, the partially stable world of consensual agreement as to what is real and what is not real.  This is the world of commonly perceived objects, social acceptance or non-acceptance, such as with racism, tribalism, family realities, political parties and ideologies,  dress codes, education, TV game shows, the nightly news, etc.

This whole bowl of wax is interpenetrated by a network of accepted ideas and interpretations, and to live in peace, we need to shape and contract our incredibly intuitive and powerful self to fit within the common pattern of social acceptance.  And this pattern shifts and changes from country to country, and century to century, and in none of this is there real happiness, for we are never ourselves; we are always caricatures, little robots or puppets, that once we discover this, and begin to lead authentic lives in a different reality, we are quickly shuttled away to the sidelines, not accepted, not allowed into the fold of family and society.

Now, as you know, there are tens of thousands of people now claiming to be enlightened.  I get emails every week from people who claim to be awakened, and indeed they are if you accept the definition of awakening offered by neo-advaitins, or other Facebook-style gurus.  The common thought now is that the whole world is awakening on an unprecedented basis.

This is absolute nonsense.  What has happened is that the bar measuring awakening has been lowered so far that even the most minor of “spiritual” experiences are accepted as awakenings, and then they join awakening groups where they congratulate each other.

Yet, essentially they remain the same, but now feel special, enlightened, above humanness in some cases.

You see, they are still blind, in fact even more blind than when they were simple seekers, wondering what was real, wondering what was the true way.

Seventeen years ago I had my first “awakening” experience after 27 years of thousands of different no-mind, oneness, and kundalini experiences.  But looking back, I would not now accept that initial no-I, no-self experience as an awakening.  The single experiences, no matter how world shattering are not what constitute “awakening.”

To me, the terms “awakening” and “enlightenment” mean absolutely nothing.  The big, shattering experiences MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING UNLESS THEY LEAD TO TRUE SELF-REALIZATION AND HUMILITY!

One needs to go beyond any single or multiple awakening experiences, no matter how deep or how persevering, through a long, long period of “training” whereby one loses dependence and primary identification with the conditioned false self, leading to a discovery AND integration of one’s true self, with all of its subtlety and sensitivity.

You see, the process of growing up and surviving in the mad, mad world is one of progressively dying to our deep sensitivities in order to fit and be sane within the confines of our assigned roles and accepted beingness in society.

Self-Realization is a progressively letting go of the conventional, and becoming open to repressed parts of ourselves. By true self, I mean all of the powers and percepts we had to reject in order to stay sane, but at the same time, to recognize the need for the sanity “box” we were forced to contract into in order to fit.  It is all me, it is all self.

The totality of this true self is incredibly powerful, incredibly sensitive, incredibly loving, compassionate, but also incredibly vulnerable.

Self-realization is not the result of any single transcendental experience, or even a hundred experiences.  It involves a progressive reowning of all of our sensitivities, including love, compassion, and awareness of all levels of the subtle body, including the surface awareness of beingness of the neo-advaitins, but also awareness of unconscious states, and the weird and somewhat disturbing energies and entities found in the so-called astral states, and then the conscious transition across the Causal body of unknowing, and then merger into the Turiya state and beyond.  Only then can we say we are self-realized, that we know who we are.  Mere energetic or emotional integrations really do not go so deep.

Today we have so many instant gurus, who have an experience one day, and are teaching the next.

They ignore the fact that the great gurus, Ramana, Nisargadatta, Robert Adams, Zen Master Joshu, etc., may have had a great awakening experiences, but did not open their mouths about it for at least 20 years.  Ramana did not teach for more than 20 years after his awakening. The same with Nisargadatta, and even moreso with Robert. Joshu supposedly struggled 40 years before his first awakening, and then had 60 years of 16 great enlightenments after that.  Did suddenly something happen so that now adays there are thousands of Ramanas, Nisargdattas and Robert around, or only those who think they are?

The descent into all the energies and qualities of the self we had to kill off to gain functional “sanity” in the “real world” of convention is a developmental process in its own right, just like the progressive stages of development of the psyches of the infant, toddler, adolescent, and adult, but now in a transcendental direction of returning to the totality of our true selves. This is done by shedding all the conventions and regaining those parts we buried, yet still retaining the defensive structures that allowed us to cope and function in this artificial world in the first place.

The struggle always remains how to go deeper into ourselves yet retain an ability to function in the common world of insanity and insensitivity that we call modern life.

You see, true self-realization means one becomes ever more sensitive to the world that we buried in order to stay sane, and that world is not the one presented to the average, non-spiritual person.  We live in a different world and have to be careful how we present ourselves within “their world” otherwise we are branded as immature, narcissistic, crazy, wacko, or as a “diamond in the rough.”

Only when the whole world becomes incredibly sensitive to every aspect of every embodied, individual self within the universal Self of All, will the world not appear to be insane.  This is not a short-term project.  We are talking millennia maybe.

In the meantime, we need to learn how to remain sane, exploring an ever deepening inner world of energies, compassion, love and acceptance, while living within a world that is not real.  Good luck to all of us.

All of this came to me after meeting one of the most open and compassionate people I have ever been blessed to meet, and then a conversation with yet another such person.  What a blessing was bestowed on me during the last few days.

I Told You So

Sarah BufkinBecome a fan

sarah.bufkin@huffingtonpost.com

Fiscal Cliff Talks Will Likely Target Medicare, Social Security, Programs For The Poor

Posted: 11/11/2012 1:03 pm EST Updated: 11/12/2012 8:26 am EST

WASHINGTON -- After bailing out a global financial crisis, enacting a series of major tax cuts for the wealthy and waging two unpaid-for wars, the U.S. government is some $16 trillion in debt. Now, in exchange for paying off a bit of that debt by returning some of the tax rates to their previous levels, Democrats have offered, in a series of high-profile negotiations, to slash trillions in spending, much of it hitting the elderly, the poor and the middle class. This process of transferring wealth up the economic ladder is known in Washington as a "grand bargain."

With the election over, Democrats and Republicans will soon be back at the negotiating table, driven there by the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- the moment in January 2013 when the Bush-era tax cuts expire and automatic cuts to defense and social programs take effect.

In order to avoid this scenario, President Barack Obama is proposing a grand bargain that would reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, relying on a 3-to-1 mix of spending cuts and revenue increases.

Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected including new taxes, but are open to negotiations. What exactly will be on the table when the two sides sit down? Surprisingly, we can predict with a high degree of certainty just which programs will come under attack. A raft of articles and books have been written about last year's series of failed deficit negotiations, most importantly Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics" and David Corn's "Showdown," offering a roadmap of where the talks are most likely headed.

Last year's talks demonstrated just how little fat the federal government could trim away from its budget before impacting the services and benefits it provides. All in all, Republicans and Democrats found only $40 billion that they agreed could be saved by targeting waste and fraud in government operations.

To make a real impact on the deficit, agricultural subsidies and oil and gas giveaways may also face the chopping block now. But more than anything, lawmakers will likely target Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and a host of other social programs that help those with the fewest advocates in Washington, including people on food stamps, veterans, retiring federal workers, home health care workers and the elderly.