Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Okay. I got that off my chest. We're all subjected to our own sins, be they lust (perversion) or gluttony (waste, overindulgence), greed or sloth (laziness, apathy or even sadness) including wrath, envy and pride. Each of us, no matter our social status at one time or another deal with one or some of these 'deadly sins.' It's difficult to be hu'man and completely avoid them during our growth period. They all become teachers for us... if we pay attention.

Like all dualities, those 'sins' (doing them over and over again, never learning, always denying), have their opposites: chastity opposing lust, abstinence opposing gluttony, liberality is in opposition to greed, as diligence opposes sloth... patience vs. wrath, kindness vs. anger and humility counterbalances pride.

It's not just those "bourgeois" that need balance to their living, but all of us need balance... to far in one way, either way, is not the answer. Our hu'man nature at it's core is the same nature that surrounds us daily... the natural world is (or should be) our teacher. It has taught us since we began our assault upon this planet... some have listened while others have ignored the teachings.

Seems we're prisoners of our own dualities - one way then another, see-sawing up and down, up and down. But there comes a time within our lives where the message speaks loud and clear. Unfortunately the message is personal. A one-on-one message that warns us of our personal excessiveness. Our minds may ignore it. Our bodies may ignore. But that deep, inner message summons us with it's whisper of forgiveness. It offers compassion. The message promises more than our constant battles... it offers us peace.

If our minds surrender it's necessity to run our lives, if our bodies respond to the message, we feel a freedom that we never have known... ease... bliss... connection to life that we always desired but had to go through our 'sins' to find and to escape from.

The message has always been there.. within us. But learning to understand it, accepting it through our need to, is our choice. Many deny the message - refute it, blow it off, deny what it offers. But what 'they' do is not what the 'I' knows is Truth - no need for either sins or virtues, duality becomes One, the Way, the Tao. Our slate is wiped clean of all our madnesses, our foolish desires to alter our inner being. We drop our masks and see our Original Face. No struggles, no wars, no battles... all is ease. Dis-ease evaporating into the ethers, we become our True Nature... one with all Nature, Nature giving freely without expectations.

Is this a false promise, these words that I write? We will never know if we rely upon simply believing another's words. Words must have a connection to our hearts, our souls... our inner being. If words don't inspire, if they fail to unlock those doors within us, they are not the right words. But if we fear what's behind those doors that we have closed and locked tight, no words can open them. We have to learn and understand our own language. Our own message needs to be deciphered through our own senses. When these senses respond to the words by releasing the grip of fear we have created for ourselves, then we too can find our Nature, our Way. Dissolve our barriers that have protected something... it's been too long to even know what is being closed off, that if we don't open up to our fullness, our inner nature, our true Self, we deny our very Being from Nature... wrapped in a fig leaf, ashamed of our fullness to Be... simply to Be.

[enough]

Cecil
08 july 2007

Walking that human tight wire...damned if you fall off one side deprived on the other....object being????....don't fall.......

It always gets down to that balance issue, doesn't it? (I'm a little "off balance" today from all that whiskey I drank yesterday while talking about politics and life in general on the phone--and celebratin' 7/7/07-7:07PM... heh).... For both the individual and humankind, excess can be a hell of a bash, but unsustainable and disconnecting... same with "isms" in general. (I'm tempted to think all "isms" represents off-balance excess almost by definition-- but that might be excessive).

If some of the greed-consumed, warmongering power elite factions who run the world are "in so deep" that they can't recognize how far out of balance many of their socioeconomic and political systems have become, then the systems themselves will eventually start to fail and self-correct toward equilibrium. Excessive consumerism is ultimately unsustainable, and politically-sponsored rampant corporatism can only erode the middle class (in effect) and trash the planet for so long before the entire system starts to bog down...

Good stream, Cecil.

balance.. yes. not just a word but an activity that one must partake of daily... an exercise of awareness for awareness.

balance can´t be felt or measure in a day sometimes... and all we can do is laugh a little at it...
thanks for the stream, Cecil!!

Arcadia

arcadia: "all we can do is laugh a little at it... "

verdad, amiga mia... verdad! i laugh (or chuckle) more than i should.

thank you y saludos a usted.