Taking a step into the world of our Being

Edwin

We're all beginners. The ideas Irene has touched on here are, I think, vitally important for everyone to understand. Our culture of mind has more or less conditioned us to believe that the intellect alone is king. We think whatever we can wrap our big old brains around we can master. That's just not the case.

All intellectual knowledge is a function of relativistic thinking which, as I alluded to earlier, is a wonderful and necessary thing but it's far from being the only game in town (though it would like you to believe it is.) Experiential knowledge transcends the process of gathering intellectual knowledge. To use a metaphor, the intellect works through things sequentially, in syllogistic fashion. It's a pathway of thoughts that are connected in logical sequence. You go from point A to point B and from point B to point C. If you want to get from point C to point F you must first travel to points D and E in that order.

But direct personal experience is a kind of shortcut to knowledge. If I have the right experience I can jump from point A right to point F without need of traveling to any of those other points in between, and when I get there point F will still make perfect sense to me. If I were to try skipping like this using the intellect it would result in complete chaos and confusion, not in understanding.

In matters of the spirit there are some points that are missing. In other words, you may start at point A but there is not point B or C to go to. There is only point D way up the road. This presents an insurmountable obstacle to the intellect. Without all the intervening points there is no way to get to point D. You're at a complete dead end.

In our culture of the mind we're taught that there MUST be a point B and C somewhere if we only look long and hard enough to find it. The culture of the mind convinces us we must keep flexing our intellectual muscles until we untie the Gordian Knot. But as Alexander the Great found, some knots cannot be untied. They must be cut. In the case of spiritual growth, the sword to cut the knot is the sword of direct, personal experience.

If we believe the culture of mind we will be locked into a habitual pattern of attempting to use the intellect to gain knowledge, even when it is a kind of knowledge the intellect is incapable of understanding. At some point we either seek out direct experience or we resign ourselves to perpetual frustration as the answers we seek remain always somewhere on the horizon. If I can just read enough books. If I can just have enough people tell me how they managed to get there. If I can just accumulate enough pieces of the puzzle I'll be able to fit them all together to form a whole.

These are the arguments of the culture of mind. Attractive as they are to our habituated ways of being, they give us only a partial view of the truth that poses as a whole truth. I can no more attain experiential knowledge by hearing about the experiences of others than I can satisfy my hunger and nourish my body by listening to others tell me what they ate for breakfast.

I appreciate Irene bringing these issues up because they're something I think we all need to dwell on periodically.

 

I have a story about what i just experienced just now when I went on my bike ride. I have to write it so it won't be here immediately. I think sharing this with you will not necessarily allow you to experience what I experienced but I think you will appreciate what I experienced. AND possibly hopefully learn and grow from it...

Here is why sharing experiences does work...we are all human and we are, well at least, most of us, from this planet.... lol.....we have all experienced the transcendant, whether we are aware of it or not. We have all experienced the beta, alpha, theta, delta and gamma levels of consciousness again whether we are aware of it or not....sharing our stories helps us to become aware of when we are experiencing the transcendent.

No I can not describe the transcendant to you but I can describe how I got there. AND any successful persons steps can be followed...

Eckhart Tolle wanted to kill himself...his story would have touched my heart I am sure of it...feeling compassion for another...as well as for ourselves is a big step towards BEING in the transcendent. At least, I think, that compassion, is a big part of it for me.

More to come....

Irene

 

The Transcendent

I Bike for exercise. Today a friend of mine went with me on my bike ride. She is not as fit as I am and I had to slow my pace so that she could keep up with me. After we went around the park twice she needed to stop…it is 3 miles around and I barely broke a sweat. I stopped and told her it was ok if she wanted to rest, and that I would do the 3rd lap without her and that she could join up with me again for the 4th lap. She said, “ok.”, and I said, “I will be back in 15 min.”

I suddenly felt free because I could finally ride at my own pace. I had my headphones on and the song that was playing was “the music of the night” from phantom of the opera. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with this music but it is spellbinding and haunting and it builds in momentum. So off I went on my bike as fast as I could pedal, “the music of the night” was filling my head, the wind was in my face, coupled with the speed of my bike giving me a feeling of movement much faster than I was actually moving. I turned the bend. And there in front of me, I could see the outline of every leave on every tree, that was gently swaying along the tree lined path. I felt everything was in sync, the music, the swaying trees, the speed of my bike….and then to the left there was a large clearing which allowed me to see the incredible azure blue sky with its gorgeous puffy white clouds…. my view suddenly felt so expansive ….I felt every sensation throughout my entire body, mind and soul and I began to cry. I was crying because I was so happy and at peace and at one with everything in the universe. The entire rest of the lap left me filled with a heightened awareness. When I finally met up with my friend again, my face was stinging from my dried tears and I felt UNBELIEVABLE.


Now I am not a writer but I think you get my drift.


Also, i want to clarify that NO i don't want to follow someones footsteps who is on the path to self destruction. I don't believe we need to hit bottom in order to Transcend. But hearing peoples stories is always a learning, growing experience for me.

Thanks for listening and allowing me to share.

Irene

 

WOW to new posts....quote instructions for Irene

let me add another......WOW to Ta tsu wa's "angle"



Irene the quote thing is quite cool. ................

1) On the post that you want to select section of text from (click the quote action button).

2) Then do a "copy" of all the text in that new window (it is now saved on your PC scratch pad).

3) Then navigate even to another thread and select action button "New reply" as usual.

4) In the reply text window "paste" content text that you have saved prior.

5) Carefully delete all other text sections leaving the quote text lines that you want displayed (be sure to leave the "starter" and "ending" tags intact as your "shink" the text body till you have the line or lines that you want).

6) "Test" the "look" of your post prior to commiting the post via action button "Preview post" (this will "demo" your "new learned" quote section)

7) Note that you, of course, add your post sentences before and after the special "quote" text characters.



hope this helps Irene


shine on

jim

 

That's a wonderful experience, Irene. Thank you for sharing.

 

How true ! ( not just this quote, the entire post, but I wanted to specifically answer to this part ).

I have been knocking into that dead end for quite some time. There seemed to be a fence, and for some reason, the longer I kept banging into the fence, the more wonderful I imagined the other side had to be. Mystical.
Once I would be able to cross that fence, all my troubles would be over, I was convinced of that.
And about 4 weeks ago, thanks to some emails from a newfound friend who is an Advaita teacher, I realised that there was no fence. More shockingly, I had been in "point D" all that time, and imagined myself to be in "point A". Even the fence turned out to be imaginary.
One of the ways to understand this is self inquiry. This worked well for me. Instead of wondering what it is, try to find out what it isn't. The first time I actually made mind work for me instead of the other way around. When you have chipped away everything that you aren't, all that is left, has to be you. At that point it is as if a candle is lit in a part of the brain where it used to be dark. You "know" your true self to be there, and not with the intellect. To me it initially felt like a blind spot. Yet that blind spot was the source of my being. When I tried to find out it's size and shape, that was when I realised that the Self is shapeless, therefor endless. Left hemisphere shutdown... cannot compute...floating point error

And as far as all those wonderfull things I imagined are concerned... It's not what I expected. It's less amazing, not at all mystical. Just natural. Things are as they should be.
A lot of people seem to go through wonderfull experiences. I didn't, and I am glad. Those are just temporary phenomena. Great if you have them, but just as great when they have passed. I have had similar experiences before my "realisation" and after that phenomenon ended, I wanted desperately to return to it ( http://www.project-meditation.org/community/meditation-chatter-box/1324-brief-moment.html ) But you can never return to a phenomenon. It has passed. Never to return. What I failed to see at that time was that there was something underneath the experience that never changed, that was everpresent. I was just completely focused on the experience.

Thanks for adding your view to this thread Ta-Tsu-Wa.

 

Reminds me of Quantum physics.
Electrons can go from one place to another without passing through any of the "space" inbetween.

Usually, people cannot accept such a concept and even debunk it as one of the "theories" of science that they have yet to explain. Yet, without this quantum principle, we wouldn't be as technologically advanced as we are. Did you know that something as simple as the memory card in your camera or phone (I know it's for Compact Flash, and I assume the same for the other types), relies on the above principle. The bits (0 or 1) stored in the memory of such devices is determined by which side of a barrier an electron sits. When we write to these devices they cause the electrons to jump instantaneously from one side of the barrier to the other. It doesn't jump "over" the barrier. It doesn't jump "through" the barrier. It simply disappears from one side and appears on the other. Now that's cool.

Or, more succinctly, "point A" is "point D", simply that the ego attaches to something and creates the dualistic belief of "other".
(and now to replace some of my lost post...)
The Ego in Vedic philosophy (the teachings of Advaita (a.k.a Not Two)) is known in sanskrit as Ahankara. Ahan (or Aham when used as a word alone) is the True Self or the unchanging observer that we all are. Kara is anything in the "creation" (physical or abstract/conceptual). When Ahan becomes attached to anything in the creation we get AhanKara, the ego; a mistaken belief that something belongs to us (even if that is as subtle as a perception or as obvious as some material belonging) and this creates the dualistic belief of the self (small S) being something seperate from "other".

Indeed. Instead of looking for what you are, simply let go of what you are not.
e.g. You are not your emotions as you can observe these arise within you and you can observe them going again, but you are still the same observer after as you were before; you are not your memories or thoughts as, likewise you are the same observer after they arise as you were before them and you observed them rising up. And you are not your body as you are still observing even as your body changes or even if something drastic happened such as losing a limb; you don't lose that observer. The observer is unchanging and always present. This is your true Self (big S).

Letting go of what we are not is not a case of saying, well I don't need my thoughts or memories so I'll discard them, I don't need my body so I'll get rid of it etc. as this is not the purpose and we have a need for these things as tools in the physical universe we live in. The idea of "letting go" is to become aware that these things are not our True Self, so that, for example, when an emotion does arise within us, we can choose to stop our mind/ego attaching to it and bring ourselves back to the present moment and deal with the situation without letting such things get in the way. Awareness is the key.

LOL! Indeed this is so. There is often "fear" that prevents us letting go to the extend of BEing our True Self, but we do find, with meditation, that we experience this more and more. It is a little bit of a misconception (conception = conceived by the mind, therefore it is not truth by it's very nature) that by "going inside" when we meditate we are "looking for something" smaller within ourselves. The thing is, when you really experience it, you realise that it's a bit like the Tardis on Dr. Who., you step inside and suddenly the whole Universe is you, you are the universe. There is no words that can truly describe it because it is everything and nothing all in one; the "Emptiness" that Buddhism talks of, but which is anything but empty.

This is the joy of the Practical Philosophy class that I attend that teaches along the lines of Advaita. It isn't just theoretical philosophy, it is something we can put into practice each week and discuss in the classes. Only through first hand experience can we know it to be true. It is not something that can be bestowed upon us as we already have it naturally in (as an aspect of rather) our True Self.

This is a most wonderful thread and I'm thoroughly enjoying everyones contribution.

Hugs

Giles

 

Hi Irene
Thanks for sharing.
I also find it helpful to hear about other people's experiences. It's 'satsang' which can be inspiring. Of course we can never duplicate someone else's experience, but we receive a vibration or taste that can be helpful.

I would say, though, that Eckhart Tolle's spontaneous awakening was unexplainable. Like others who've experienced similar events, he was transported beyond words and stayed in a non-verbal state for a long time afterward. Same thing with Byron Katie and the notable Ramana Maharshi to mention a few. We can only receive what they're able to give us even though we might want more. (I, for one, had always hoped to get a magic potion but alas, it hasn't come! )

I've been fascinated ever since my late teens with the spiritual journey in all its forms and I've read the lives of those who've attained great realisations: Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna, Amma (Mata Amritananda Mayi), many Christian saints, etc. It's rich reading. What's even better is to be in the presence of a great saint like Amma. I've learned so much from her, just watching that generous outflowing grace. There is something that gets transmitted. Indescribable, and undoubtedly felt in different ways by different people.

But nothing, of course, takes the place of spiritual practice in all its forms.

Every morning I ask for guidance and help in this journeying towards Home: to be able to give to others and to receive that which I need to stay in a pure and permanent state of Presence. We are That, but most of us don't know it on an ongoing basis.

I like what the I Ching says: Perseverance furthers!

Wishing you joy on your journey

Bhavya

 

Left brain shutdown

You give a very good description of the process that koans take you through in Zen. They're designed to be incomprehensible to the left hemisphere or even antagonistic to it. The koan takes the form of something that seems as if it "should" be amenable to inquiry from the left hemisphere in that it is a puzzle, riddle, or statement ostensibly meant to be "figured out," and yet it defies all attempts at a logical solution. Figuring out puzzles is the forte' of the left brain. Though the koan takes the outward form of a puzzle, its inner content is such that it cannot be "figured out".

Sure, sometimes you can draw a logical inference here or there, but overall the koan remains an enigma. When the left brain has worked itself to the point of exhaustion over the problem it falters and its grip on us momentarily weakens. A crack in our logical center opens itself and a glimmer of the light of transcendent knowing slips through. This is Satori or the "Aha!" phenomenon.

Zen is only one of many traditions that actively cultivates this experience. What you expressed is essentially the same end arrived at by a process with a slightly different methodology.

It's funny that you yourself don't experience this process as being "mystical", but to those around you looking on and watching it might seem so to them. They'll ask themselves what could possibly account for the changes in Edwin? Why do things not bother him as they once did? Why doesn't he get sick as much anymore or, if he does get sick, why is it that he isn't acting like the typical sick person? He seems to take it all in stride. Where did his temper go? Why don't annoying people annoy him?

Subtle changes like these accumulate and to you they don't seem like changes at all. They creep up very gradually. To spot them you might have to look back at a few specific situations from your past (another of those wonderful tasks made possible by virtue of the fact that we have at our disposal the tools of Ego and the dualistic ability to differentiate between things, and aren't you glad you didn't actually try to annihilate that Ego!) and compare them to similar situations occurring more recently. When you do you suddenly see, "Oh, yes, I really have been evolving."

The genuinely puzzling part of it will be that you can see that hypothetical point A I mentioned, and you observe that you're now standing on point D, yet you find few if any points in between that you travelled through to get there. It will be difficult if not impossible, even for you, to detect a logical sequence leading from where you were to where you are. The difference is you'll simply accept that things are as they are while others will insist on trying to logically figure it out and failing this it will seem to them that something "mystical" has occurred. This is Giles' phantom virtual particle, existing as pure Quantum potential until it manifests into the phenomenal world, then vanishes back into potential until it manifests again somewhere/somewhen else.

Chop wood, Edwin, carry water.

 

Crap Ta-Tsu-Wa that almost made me cry.

It was like you were talking face to face to me, and as if we were life long friends ( which we are actually at a higher level... or is it lower ).

About the chopping wood, carrying water...

Do you have this strange sensation as well when working, that everything is done by itself, that the body makes the right moves, while inside, deep inside it feels as if I am doing nothing ? I was making a series of keys today for a customer, and he said: Wow you are working fast !
and without thinking I answered " I don't have to do anything, it works by itself "

Customers face :

My face :

Yet that was exactly how it felt to me. I have to mind my mouth a bit more I guess.

Same with a phone call I got this afternoon from one of my suppliers, who wanted to get paid soon. Normally, a month or so ago, I would have been pumped with stress anyway, and an event like this would leave me trembling.

Now the stress is gone anyway, I go about my day with minor nudges that seem to point me in the right directions, but other than that, no stress.
I was able to talk to the supplier in a very calm way, because of the ... for lack of a better word "stillness" inside. I asked him what he would consider a reasonable payback arrangement, and suddenly he was extremely considerate and made me an offer that seemed almost bad for him. Of course I promised him that any money that I would make in between would come his way aside the payments he suggested, and both of us seemed happy at the end of the call. Normally at the end of a call like this, I would have been stressed out for half an hour, but now I just went about my normal business with just a faint feeling of happiness that I had had such a pleasant talk

You are right, something inside me has changed.

And I have no idea how I got here, you are right !

Oh, Giles, I loved your post as well

 

You should read a small book called "Zen in the Art of Archery". You would find it familiar. A westerner learned the Japanese art of archery as a form of Zen training. His master would constantly remind him to stop interfering with the process of aiming and shooting at the target and "let It" do the shooting. This was, of course, an incomprehensible statement to the man in the beginning. Was it not "he" who was holding and drawing the bow? Was it not "he" who was aiming at the target, controlling the breath and, ultimately, releasing the arrow? And who or what was this "It" that the Master spoke of? In the end he did indeed learn the art of archery and he found it to be very much as you described your experience. He had to get himself out of the way and allow something greater to perform the act of shooting. It felt as though he was only a spectator in an automatic process. There are those who would say this is simply a case of extreme neuro-muscular memory conditioning, but my own experience convinces me that far more than simple conditioning is taking place.

Here is a snippet of a post by Greg Bishop; a UFO/paranormal researcher and author. He is specifically addressing how personal opinions and conclusions are arrived at which make no sense to third parties that are looking on, but make perfectly good sense to the one who has gone through the process and experience of arriving at them. Though his subject matter has to do with UFOs and the paranormal, his insights are nicely applicable to our discussion of spiritual experiences.

"The problem is that the researcher has been delving into the issue for many years, and the twists of mind and personal revelations are almost impossible to explain to others who have not trodden the same path. This becomes even more difficult when people want a sound-bite version of how you come to your conclusions...

Since we are dealing with subjects that are not generally agreed upon as “real,” there is perhaps no good way to convince a reasonably intelligent and unbiased person that the anomalous is worthy of serious consideration and study. All it presents us with are questions, many of which may never be answered.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try, and remember that we should be looking for answers that satisfy our personal curiosity first. Issues of whether to share this publicly are up to our own discernment. Once someone goes public, they are automatically put in a position to defend themselves, which may derail the original inspiration and end up as an emotional issue or worse, a crusade."

As Greg points out, the journey is a personal one. What you choose to share, you share at the risk of having others challenging you to defend. Where personal experiences of spirituality are concerned it can be particularly sensitive having others adopt a skeptical or antagonistic attitude towards your experiences.

 

I am currently experiencing the same with my Jiu-Jitsu lessons. Something in those martial arts... We even start and end the training sessions in Zazen...

My experiences have turned rather useless once they have passed. They are not real anymore, just a memory. People are free to judge any past experience of mine. I won't be offended. People's opinion of me isn't that important for me either. It is all ego.

I seem to recognise the ego not only in myself but also in other people. In a workgroup in our church I even noticed the ego's of 2 people discussing doing their game. I was even able to manipulate their ego's/opinions. Not something I would like to mis-use tho. Since the topic wasn't all that important, it was fun to play with it. No harm done. But the "fight" ended and they all ended up agreeing with what I suggested. Just by deeply understanding how they thought about themselves.

I do feel a certain sadness, when looking at the news or hearing about a crime... If only all people were interested in self-realisation. The world could be a better place.

 

Interesting. My self-healing and "getting into" all these complementary therapies and meditation etc. all started with me going to Tai Chi lessons at my gym (I wanted something to help me reduce the stress of work). Most people attending the class were just doing it as a relaxation thing and to strengthen their postures etc., but, for those who were interested (like myself ) the teacher was able to show us how the movements related to the actual martial arts aspect of Tai Chi and also introduced me to the "Chi" energy that was flowing. It was from there I researched and learnt Reiki, then became interested in therapies esp. Mind Therapies such as EFT, FreewayCER etc. and then that led to me wanting to understand more about the way the mind works in others, which of course meant I had to start the journey of understanding my own mind, which has led me to start understanding the "I" of who I am. As the need has arisen the opportunities have presented themselves. For example, the philosophy class came about due to a person handing me a flyer on the street while I was out shopping; it was just what I needed at that time.

Their opinions are "THEIR" opinions and belong to them. So you are right to not be offended.
A good example I was given to help recognise this type of thing was told to me something like this...
When you feel hatred of a person, recognise that there is also someone out there who loves that person. That person cannot be both love and hate, and therefore the love and hate is not that person themselves, but merely the perceptions of those who feel that love or hate. You can choose to hold onto those perceptions but, if they are causing you issue, it can only be you who lets go of or changes those perceptions, you cannot expect the other person to do it for you.

This is something that I believe is common. As our awareness increases of our own True Self, and what is not truly us, we also come to recognise more what is not truth in other people. By recognising that the actions of others are not their true selves we can let such actions pass and become more connected (as One) with them. This is the natural state and takes no energy to do; we simply (I say simply but it can take practice) have to practice at recognising the effects our mind has on trying to control us and creating a dualistic "them and us" between us.

Was it manipulating for your own benefit, or perhaps you were really teaching the truth without realising what you were doing. Sounds like it was the latter to me.

<from my philosophy teacher>: "The wise tell us, if there were just six fully realized people in the world, then things would start to change for the better"

We can wish for the world being a better place, but we have to first look at ourselves and realise our true self. Then, by our True Self interacting with those around us, the truth will naturally spread. Of course there will be those who's minds are strong and will resist such truth, but we can only recognise the Self and let others recognise it in their own way. Worry or Sadness etc. are emotions; constructs of the mind to take us away from the present moment and to take us away from our Self. We could say that, by focusing such emotions on such situations that are not in our present moment, we feed those situations with energy and do nothing to improve them. That isn't to say we are making the situations worse, but we are wasting our energies and maybe even feeding such situations into our surroundings (gossip, scaremongering etc.). This is what the Media uses to feed it's own attachments. However, that's another whole topic in itself I feel.

Hugs

Giles

 

Thanks for that Giles !

Nothing I can disagree on

 

Enjoying the journey

Having had relatives for a week and catching up with work I am now catching up with the community.

What a very deep and interesting thread - I have really enjoyed reading everyone's comments which made me think of the following.

Have you ever witnessed yourself or another adult "having a tantrum" as I used to call it or over reacting to something? It just didn't seem right to me as I or my ego used to think

Using "having a tantrum like a little child" as an example is probably a very good description, however, when you understand why, you can understand the adult.

When emotions are supressed in childhood and we are not allowed to display them, it's like we stunt their growth and don't grow up in these particular areas. Almost as though we place a restrictive cover over them so we don't have to deal with them to keep us feeling safe.

It's difficult for me to explain but through meditating regularly and not looking for any specific results I have found that every now and again these supressed feelings have surfaced with a sensation or feeling in the body. Although it initially took a great deal of courage to accept and observe the physical feeling, by doing so it went away and in actual fact there was no reason for me to fear doing this simple exercise.

This is when the saying "The map is not the territory" is so very true. I believe now that parts of my ego or map of reality will always be improving and updating to serve me to constantly grow and improve myself to be of the best service I can be to my purpose.

When I was about 30, I went through my "searching years" as I call it and I very much relate to this being my spirit or true being was in desparate need of nourishment.

I am just simply enjoying this now amazing journey and often when I spend time with some people and animals I feel a deep sense of love and compassion for them as though God, someone or something is gazing at them through my eyes and I know they sense this. That's the only way I can describe it. I hope this makes some kind of sense and I wish you an abundance of peace and joy

 

Thanks Bhavya...



It worked ... Thanks Jim!!!

 

Hi Polly

I have been waiting for you to jump in on this thread.

I personally understand what you wrote first hand.

BTW Polly I want to say that many of your descriptions of living and being in the transcendent are inspiring to me and do help me to be more aware of my own experiences as they are happening.

Thank you for sharing your details.

Irene

 

I have been re-reading this thread over and over the last couple of days.

This part kept popping into sight every time, because it describes the situation I am in.
Especially this one:

It is quite amazing how a small realisation a few weeks ago set a process into work that has not stopped ever since, even when it felt like it did.

I am convinced that there is more to let go of, more that I would have described in my seeker days as " something to explore".
But yet I know that the process is happening by itself in exactly the right pace. Every question that occurs is answered either by itself or by a seeming accidental situation/sentence/post by you guys..

How can this process be happening by itself, without effort, when I have been working to get here for 2 years, with a racing mind, fears, tensions...
And now all that is gone, or in the background somehow, and the process continues.



( personal message )Oh, btw, Ta-Tsu-Wa , I finally figured out your little riddle I think. There is a Cherokee legend of a man transformed into a white bird who is the bringer of sun,moon, stars, water and fire to the human race... ~R~ ?

BTW Did you know that your name in Japanese language means "Joined in Love" ? Let the people sing: hymn tunes in ... - Google Books

 

Legends

Native American stories and legends are intriguing though hardly riddles. There is another Cherokee tradition where every morning before sunrise the people would gather in the center of the village facing the east. They would hold their arms out, palms down low facing the ground. Then they would slowly raise their arms upwards until their hands were overhead, the whole while chanting, "Wayyyyy, oh, wayyyyy, oh, wayyyyy oh..." And when their hands were overhead they would drop them low once more and begin again. This would continue until the bottom edge of the sun's disk broke free of the Earth's horizon at which time they would give a loud shout, "Whoooooo!" They said they were helping to free the sun from its resting place so that it could take its position in the sky. And they believed without their help the sun would remain forever locked to, and unable to clear the horizon.

This is an ancient tradition. How long it goes back, no one knows, not even the tribal elders. All this time the Cherokee have been bringing the light of the sun to the world without anyone ever knowing they were responsible. One wonders why in such legends they wouldn't want to take credit. But many ancient stories are like that. It may be that some tasks are best done quietly in the background, eh?

What about you Vikings? Surely you guys have some old legends to share. The Finns have the Kalevala, the Danes have Beowulf. What are some of the old Norwegian legends?

 

Edwin...I totally get this and know this feeling. I have felt it many, many times.

It doesn't just happen when I work...

Many things feel effortless...and many things feel as if I am meant to be at a certain place at a certain time to give or get information.

This seems to happen more and more with my meditation practice.

Thanks for sharing this.

Irene