Georgi Y. Johnson's Blog: I AM HERE - Opening the Windows of Life & Beauty, page 39

MOTHER TREE

Through that lonely gate

Where this one waits

I see you in ease of night

Holding childhoods forever

In timeless branches

Stretching awesomely

Into light.

You never promised

More than this

(as spring leaves

Quiver with bliss)

Thankyou mother

Let me rest this soul

In stillness of your beauty

Suddenly unburdened

Suddenly whole.

SHOE-LESS IN NADA

Once, it was a bad dream,

a little girl at school, no shoes

out of place, out of grace

a pearl born to lose

it’s shell broken to dust

in a wilderness between

heaven and hell.

Now, it’s freedom’s heart

the naked feet on the ground

of earth not flat but round

no beginning, no start,

Just bare feet kissing earth

Not a curse,

but a blessed rebirth.

On Suffering, Affliction and the Passion where we are One

There is a subtle difference between suffering and affliction.

Affliction is a form of suffering arising out of fundamental misconceptions – such as the belief that each individual is ultimately separate and disconnected from the other. Afflictions take the form of entangled anger, hatred and jealousy.

These emotions, when hidden, repressed or denied, become unconscious or entangled, leading to the harming of ourselves and ill-intention towards others.

Embedded in every affliction is suffering. Many root causes of suffering are an integral part of the miracle of creation. For example, the suffering of grief or loss, the suffering of separation, the suffering of transience or the suffering of illness and death.

In the denial of suffering we become caught in afflictions, which create more suffering. When we are able, through inner softness and an attitude of tenderness or care, to allow the feeling of suffering into our experience, the surrender can bring an alchemy. In this, suffering transforms to passion – a passion to be of service to others, and a passion to be of service to life.

It is not for nothing that the root words “suffering” and “passion” are synonymous.

If we are free of mental agenda, which is so often an agenda based on the belief in inherent separation, then this passion is free to rise from the pit of our internal emptiness towards the heart.

Here, passion becomes compassion. Through the eyes of compassion, the “other” is no longer perceived as a cause of affliction but as the same self in different form. Different forms are able to support each other within the unity of the whole. We are truly one family, precious to one another precisely because of variety, the subtle differences or spaces between us. We can be together in the passion of life, (even with the ones we considered enemies), through allowing the inter-dependency or non-separation of all forms of life.

The more we move with compassion, the less we believe we are separate or isolated, the less we suffer the fear that can only arise out of a belief in separation, and the more our so-called “enemies” evaporate as a composition of particles formed by our own imagination.

This is why, when suffering knocks at the doors of the heart, broken and crying in pain, we need to let those doors swing open and welcome her into the warmth, even if our private comfort zone seems to be (for a while) disturbed.

CHILD OF LIGHT, DIRTY GIRL

 

Dirty girl, she can be That,

soiled with guilt and shame.

It’s the name impressed

on the healing game.

Yes, they’re spinning webs

in tight, invisible rows

of power-blessed agenda

without mission, cause

or wisdom,

they tie the knots.

So throw on the dirt,

here, where hearts open

in the womb of earth

each grain atomically near,

unconditioned, always free

of the contracts

of this pitiful fantasy.

She will not falter,

this child of light

playful in god’s creation.

Seeing you outside-in

She laughs in the face,

alchemy of freedom

again and again

turning dust to gold.

Are we ready for the Quantum computer? A spiritual inquiry.

“We are so conditioned, so programmed, like the computers, that we cannot learn something new. The computer can, but we can’t see the tragedy of it. The machine that we have created, the computer, can learn much faster, infinitely more. Whereas our brain is sluggish, slow, dull because we have conformed, we have obeyed.”

Krishnamurti

By Georgi Y. Johnson & Bart ten Berge

It looks like a new-age public toilet. A giant black box, with the logo D-Wave printed on the side. The box (the height of two small women) is actually a container for the isolated environment and sub-zero temperatures needed to use any quantum effect in the operation of the now commercially available quantum computer: the ultimate high-end toy in the neighborhood of the next technological revolution. For $10,000,000 it could be yours.

Google had got one and so does the CIA. NASA is in on the game, as is Microsoft. Also, a handful of mystery buyers seem to have got one. It’s not exactly the next wave in high-power miniaturization, nor is it (right now) delivering awesome abilities, so what is the race to possess a quantum computer all about?

Quantum Computers from D-Wave.

The ownership and effective employment of a quantum computer could literally change the map of our world. Computing power, in the end, is power – whether it is personal, national or globally strategic. In short, a quantum computer could be an existential threat to a nation that hasn’t got one.

Taking advantage of “strange” effects like quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, quantum computers have the potential to unlock massive amounts of processing power, and to solve problems that would take conventional computers literally centuries to crunch.

Commentators are expecting dramatic manifestations of this Quantum shift in science and technology. The range goes from unbreakable (absolute) encryption, through to really accurate weather forecasting; big data mining and a new league of machine learning and automation.

In regular systems, the classical “Bit” at the core of a processor is either 1 or 0, or “false” or “true”. A Quantum Bit, or Qubit,  is not confined to a two state solution, but can also exist in superpositions. That is, it can be both 1 and 0 at the same time. Thus Quantum Computers can perform many different calculations in parallel. This is all a result of the ability to pursue simultaneous probabilities through superpositions. To use a different language, the quantum computer is introducing hardware that could process infinite potentiality.

Stay still a moment. Infinite potentiality? Something and nothing at the same time? Movement beyond binary (either-or) choices into the conceptual land of all inclusion – the “and-and-and” scenarios of co-existing multiple perspectives? All this could ring bells in nonduality land.

Our pre-Newtonian Psychology

Are we limited by mechanical thinking?

As mental creatures, we don’t have a great track record at adjusting our basic psychology to scientific facts. For example, we still tend to experience the sun as going down and rising, rather than the earth spinning as it orbits the sun.

Our minds are still formed on the basis of absolute separation determined by the individual physical body, even though it is fact that any change in the physical environment (such as a radiation leak) will act on us as surely as it does on the trees, rocks and wildlife. Each visible component of the physical body is composed in form and will decompose to the same atoms and particles that make up the whole physical universe.

Furthermore, we still relate to this material substance as dead and inert, despite Hiroshima and our willingness to deploy hydrogen energy or nuclear power. (How many potential atomic explosions does your body contain)?

Let it be flat.

We still act according to beliefs in beginnings and endings as absolute, and as past and future as stable entities, long after the general theory of relativity.

We often still believe that visible phenomenon are more real than invisible, and that the consciousness within us is individual, separate and finite. Although we might give lip-service to realms beyond our perception, we certainly don’t give them a significant, functional space in our hierarchical minds, let alone dare to investigate them.

The very building blocks of our reality are based on structures of judgement and either-or, good v bad choices. In some ways, psychologically seen, our world is still flat and not round. And some will go to the “end” of the world to prove it.

The software of our minds runs deep, and it is based on inheritance, conditioning, imitation and conformity. And as with all software, a vast portion of it occurs behind the visible screen, invisibly, without a need for conscious interference.

Although we all have the ability to access quantum thinking processes, we remain addicted to thought forms that give a short fix of safety and that allow us to stay in communication with people around us. In many ways, the software of our minds is becoming increasingly out of alignment with the rest of our individual ecosystem, and especially with the physical universe around us. So we suffer, and imitate some programs to deal with that, from one another.

Even after awakening, we still can experience binary thinking, through the basic duality of head and heart. Do our thoughts decide our direction, or the feelings of our heart? If all knowledge is imitation, or reflection of a deeper truth within ourselves, then how does the mind need to transform in order to purely reflect the quantum truth of what we are, as one?

The interconnectedness of mind and the unity of consciousness.

The infinite potentiality of quantum is within each of us. Within each sub unity defined by the physical body as “individual”, there are multiple parallel dimensions. Just in the area of perception (input), we can look to superpositions of physical sensation, emotions, sentience, imagination, memory and thought processes. If we take one individual as one unified dimension, then we can multiply that by around 7 billion individuals in superposition on the planet at this moment. And this is only referring to the sub-unity called humanity.

It is possible to turn the non-dual belief that states a need to be free of our minds to the equally valid possibility that our minds need to be free of us.

After all, when the big guys manage to put their quantum computers to work, the power of the machine will be determined by the ingenuity of the software and the wisdom behind the formulation of questions asked. Effects could reflect the difference between an enlightened world civilization and a reign of terror under a global dictatorship.

The individual as a Qubit.

So far, despite claims, it seems that the potential of the new age of quantum computing is still beyond our reach, partly because of our limited psychology – the in-built collective restraints of our own mental programming. The software of our minds is in an old program, based on linear stories of past, present and future; either-or choices; true V false; 1 or 0; you v me. In short, our minds run on dualistic software, like conventional computers.

Infinite possibility in a single snap shot.

Quantum computing is a subtle science, said one expert: “Because quantum is not part of our daily experience. We tend to experience everything according to classical physics and to classical logic. We’re used to experiencing the world in a certain way, and the quantum rules are different. If we were quantum objects, it would be more intuitive.”

Like our computers, we also need to evolve more deeply into the miracle and infinite potentiality of matter, in order to liberate the quantum power of our minds. The addiction to having to “know” stuff needs to subside to a receptive ability to allow the unknown, or even the unknowable which is inherent to the quantum dimension of infinite possibility. In short, we need to have the humility to say: “I don’t know.”

“If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.”

Prof. Richard Feynman

To allow the magnificent Quantum promise at the core of our physical being, we need to switch the software of our minds from the binary software of duality to the infinite potentiality of nondual thinking.

A Qubit hard to grasp.

A way to start could be in the melt-down of inherited beliefs: the mental software that we maintain through imitation and conformity. This can happen through a willingness to unplug processes of identification and through experiential inquiry. In this, it can become clear that one personal mind is not ultimately separate from the minds of others or the collective mind. After that, could be the experience that our private waking consciousness is not ultimately divided from the shared consciousness of humanity.

In this, there is a chance we could move into the kind of collective responsibility that could mean that tomorrow’s quantum computer might (just might) be of service to the whole physical dimension and to the creative evolution of humanity within it.

“You are the story of humankind because you are not a small entity struggling in the corner of the earth. You are part of this whole humanity. It has a tremendous responsibility, vitality, beauty and love, but most of us won’t see this, as most of us are concerned with ourselves, with our particular little problem, and our particular little sorrow.”

Krishnamurti

OUT OF CARE

Here, by a road in Manchester.

A child blows bubbles, sees them pop,

asks with wonder for “more, Mummy more”.

And in this room, behind the glass,

(a divider of that and this),

a great soul hears them fall.

Not Steve, not Russell, but All

as voices through windows call,

reaching new lands unaware.

Bubbles pop, and “more Mummy more”.

Russelll, he’s a man of care.

One hundred years of human,

as he cares to ponder this pain

and tenderly hold its hand;

in grief, stillness and loss again,

with a faraway look of the slain.

Bubbles pop, and “more Mummy more”.

And Care she comes unguided,

unwintered and ungroomed,

rising even unassumed,

from the body’s derelict rooms.

Softly, she’s here now, from behind

borders of mind, long-entombed.

In silence and softness, freedom talks,

through lowly, well-worn comfort walks,

in this sitting room, a terraced niche,

of boundless peace in Manchester.

Bubbles pop, and “more Mummy more”.

Georgi Y. Johnson

The Here and Now – where the nondual secret is in the “And”

The Here and Now – where the #nondual secret is in the “And”. http://t.co/u4MZGo5ybApic.twitter.com/6NP3Jmcduw

— 7 Steps (@7Steps1) April 24, 2015

There is a tendency to throw out the term “Here & Now” with little attentiveness to what we mean in terms of living experience. In general, it is received as becoming “present” or even simply as paying attention. Yet for those who have begun to uncover the incredibly positive benefits of inner inquiry, the here and the now can represent two parallel dimensions – of time and space. As such, each can be a journey in its own right.

Yet the real magic, and perhaps the core of human purpose is not found in the Now, neither will it settle in the Here, it is in the AND – that mysterious third point of perception that allows both time and space to take form.

&

…and so we begin to move beyond the forms of language itself. As it is, the Now is just a word, denoting a relative position in a timeline of cause and effect – whether it is a linear story told in our minds in a chronological fashion of the happenings that have made us what we are, or whether it is the fantasy of unsatiated needs we project into the future, the Now is always relative. It is an empty space, unhooked from cause and effect, from linear time, or even from the time it takes the mind to argue with itself in endless internal dialogue.

In the Now, silence falls, and that which is beyond time becomes apparent. First, we might realize that time does not define us, and in this we stand in a kind of timelessness, outside of time, yet still relative to time. When we are able to relax deeply into this new freedom of disentanglement, we can find ourselves as the eternal witness of our lives, unaffected by the changes in the body, or the experiences or happenings that are occurring in a constant flow of impermanence.

In this, many throw the “Here” away, as if it were synonymous to the “Now”. Although we cannot truly access here, except through the Now of physical sensation, the Here still exists independently of the Now. It is, in a way, the container in which the Now – or Time, can happen.

The Here is connected in the first instance to the physical dimension. But don’t let that make you think it’s not sacred. The deeper we go into the quantum core of the physical, the more we can atomically shocked by the flow of pure energy, vitality and awakened consciousness.

In a way, the Here contains the Now, just as the body contains the brain. Which means that the “Here” can never be left behind, without creating an inner split of accumulating despair.

When we search for the Here, or come into the Here, our first impressions can be of an enlivened attention to physical sensations. The sensations are changing, just as the perspective of our senses is constantly changing. As we allow ourselves to sink into the miracle of physical sensation – the surreality even of being in a body, here – the physical dimension can become increasingly fluid as the mental sense of separation fades away as in itself impermanent. When we are truly Here, we no longer need worry about the Now, as the mind itself immediately bows in obedience to this most notable and real feature, of being in a body for the Now of this life time.

Yet there are two dimensions – time and space – now and here, through which all form is composing and decomposing, and through which all transformation can occur. All of this is witnessed and observed by us. In witnessing or observing, we are forced to allow it all – for how could we truly perceive something with which we remain entangled or to which we remain attached?

At the source of ourselves, in that first layer of awakening, whether it is of the sentient awareness or objective consciousness, we witness ourselves being here. From the space of the & – not entangled with thought and not attached to feeling or emotion – we see the creation, destruction and recreation of forms within ourselves. A moment of sorrow. A guilty feeling releasing. A wave of beauty. A tiredness, normalcy, or sense of despair. It all rises and falls before us, from the critical perspective of AND.

AND there is this experience arising and these thoughts happening, and yet I AM HERE. I am still here. Perpetually here.

The AND is the masterkey, as it introduces relativity. All perception is occurring, beyond our control, from a relative perspective – from a certain dot in time and space. This perspective is relative to any other perspective – it is never absolute in itself. This means it is never separate. All perspective are interdependent on other perspectives. There is no division, only points of view – to the profoundest depths of impression and experience.

This is one of the powerful beauties of mindfulness. With the simple use of breathing, we make perspective relative. I am experiencing anger, AND I am breathing calmly. I am experiencing a busy mind, AND I am breathing calmly. The two are always also observed by a third point – you – the one who sees both and in this, is ultimately held captive by none. This is the formula of freedom, all the way home to source of who we are – that place where we are one – and which is never its own reflection.

 

We are Here for the Here. #SAND Italy 2015

SAND Gathering 2015 Italy is being held

Sunday, May 24 through Friday, May 29, 2015

in Titignano Castle in Orvieto Terni, Italy

Georgi & Bart will be there to enjoy, experience and learn from all the amazing attendees and will be delivering a talk on Thursday at 11:50 in the Cellar of the castle. We look forward to seeing you there!

Abstract for the session with Georgi & Bart at SAND Italy.

“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness” 

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

At the core of being human is the miracle of being here. Awakening is based on an ability to allow perception to expand through all layers of form. It is based on the “Here” which is a container of the “Now”. The “Here” offers a bridge to freedom in form, and as such can bring a liberation into relative perspectives within unity.

Yet, there can be difficulty in staying “awake” or in remaining ‘Here’ as an open channel of consciousness or awareness. Instead, we see a living circulation of perception, between denser layers of form, and ‘awakened’ perspectives.

Where is the difficulty in becoming fully “here”, as an embodied miracle of life?

Is it in the mental superhighway of many thoughts? Is it in the emotional forest of contracted energies and unprocessed emotion? Is it in a fundamental rejection of physical incarnation?

Nonduality is based on an affirmation of inherent unity – and on the science and wisdom that nothing is born and nothing dies, that even physical matter continues to exist, albeit through constant transformation.

The narrowing of perception is a result of rejection: rejection of the physical dimension as “other”; rejection of the energetic dimension of feelings and emotions; and rejection of mental dimensions through the exclusion of unwanted thoughts.

The dynamic of rejection is based on duality: the belief that one is able to ultimately reject the ‘other’. This dualistic movement leads to entanglement and a narrowing of perception. A core rejection is rooted in the illusion of separation from the physical dimension. Another fundamental duality is in the division between male and female.

In this experiential  inquiry, Georgi & Bart show how THAT which is beyond polarity, beyond perspective, and beyond perception can also be THAT which is the master-key of embodiment.

For more details of the retreat, click here.

10,000 galaxies in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand. #nonduality http://t.co/cSbJCQTeL6 pic.twitter.com/zckW1IJMzK

— I AM HERE (@PerceptionIAH) April 13, 2015

PATHOLOGY OF NOWHERE

They’re blowing, these winds of rage,

and heroes fall through chance,

some, into miasmas of trance

where kings in castles of sand compose

traumatic spells and scenery of hell.

Yes, on this sacred hill, we know this dread,

that bitter pill of tyrants drunk on light

in a lunatic unfolding of flags, and emblems of pain

Auden knew, we must suffer them again,

It’s the cycle found in the slain.

And here, Elijah crushed Baal’s fame

as purer rain whips human flesh

with a sharp cut of stillness.

No victories, not righteous, not fair

just, natural and unweathered.

As Time.

Waits still,

at the center of the clock

heart beating for us all

a universal rhythm of care.

Path

They’re blowing, these winds of rage,

and heroes fall through chance,

some, into miasmas of trance

where kings in castles of sand compose

traumatic spells and scenery of hell.

Yes, on this sacred hill, we know this dread,

that bitter pill of tyrants drunk on light

in a lunatic unfolding of flags, and emblems of pain

Auden knew, we must suffer them again,

It’s the cycle found in the slain.

And here, Elijah crushed Baal’s fame

as purer rain whips human flesh

with a sharp cut of stillness.

No victories, not righteous, not fair

just, natural and unweathered.

As Time.

Waits still,

at the center of the clock

heart beating for us all

a universal rhythm of care.