REFLECTIONS YARO - JANUARY BLOG - 2023

 

JANUARY 2023

 

Dear Reader,

I am looking out of my window and see the summer sun shining upon my garden. December is summer here and I am reflecting about the parts of our planet where there are winter disasters, terrible volcanos and war in Ukraine where people have no electricity nor heat to stay warm and enjoy the coming new year.

To me it all feels like the 2022 was a year of painful crises. COVID pandemic still with us, divisions in world politics, and authoritarian leaders who, without any conscience are adding more pain and destruction to many people in many countries.

Michael Meade’s podcast speaks about the myth of the Greek gods called THE TITANS. These gods delighted in creating pain and destruction among the people. Here is his quote:

 

“There are times when myth and fact coincide, when events in the common world become mythical in shape and scope. In such radical times, myths can offer ways of understanding what otherwise appears as completely unprecedented events and impossible dilemmas. In mythological terms, we are facing the end of an era during which everything can seem to collapse back into chaos and darkness before a regeneration of the dream of life can occur.

In some Greek myths, the Titans appear as primordial, pre-cultural giants who act out the extremes of insolence and arrogance, vengeance and wanton violence. They were called “the strainers” as they were full of hubris and strained to be like the gods. Before civilization could develop, the Titans had to be pushed down and be held in Tartarus, the deepest darkest part of the underworld.

However, it turns out that while the archaic energies and raw emotions can be suppressed, they cannot be completely eradicated. When the dark times come around again and people feel under great pressure, the deeply repressed energies, emotions, and forces can erupt back into life. As the web of life loosens and meaning and trust drain from cultural institutions, unconscious energies from deep in the human psyche can become loosed upon the world. Extreme beliefs and raw emotions can infect and inflate both individuals and groups as unconscious forces lead to extreme and inhumane behaviours.

All around the world, we can see these kinds of energies manifesting in the form of extreme political parties that act with the fervour of religious zealots. And in the rise of authoritarian figures who, in their hubris, insist that everyone must follow and be loyal to them while they, like the ancient Titans, break all the rules and follow no natural order. Having no genuine conscience and no inherent meaning of their own, they can only destroy whatever carries meaning for other people.

The rapid spread of all kinds of conspiracy theories, the increase in acts of hatred and violence can also be seen to involve an uncovering and release of the deep shadows that grow beneath the shiny surface of mass cultures.

The counterbalance to collective forms of extremism and tragic acts of inhumanity must be found, first, in the awakening of the individual soul to a greater sense of the underlying wholeness and inherent meaning of life on Earth.

Just as the earth continually renews itself from its own deep resources, each person harbours hidden resources that try to awaken in the darkest times. In awakening to the presence of the deep unifying self and the ancient wisdom of the soul we become more able to shift the darkness and assist the return of the original dream of life on earth”.

Michel Meade

 

As we are coming to the end of this year, I am trusting and hoping that we are all filled with the desire to make things better and joyful for all. As the story goes, the old man year is leaving this world and the new one is arriving full of hope and happiness. This is my new year wish”

That the collective wisdom of billions of people on this Earth will join their energies to defeat the TITANS of today and thus shift the evil energies cleaning all the corners of this planet. This is not an easy task as the death of one force requires a space to defeat another and another and ‘ad infinitum’.

This fight is well documented by the Tibetan masters, and they call it THE BARDO journey of the Soul. Here is a definition of this spiritual practice:

“The "bardo" is the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. According to Tibetan tradition, after death and before one's next birth, when one's consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena. These usually follow a particular sequence of degeneration from, just after death, the clearest experiences of reality of which one is spiritually capable, and then proceeding to terrifying hallucinations that arise from the impulses of one's previous unskillful actions. For the prepared and appropriately trained individuals, the bardo offers a state of great opportunity for liberation, since transcendental insight may arise with the direct experience of reality; for others, it can become a place of danger as the karmically created hallucinations can impel one into a less than desirable rebirth”.

Tibetan book of Living and Dying.

I imagine that as we travel from the ‘old year’ to the new, we need to make that journey through a series of “bardos” to enable the new year to be born again.

“Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control. We can love and care for others but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family, or friends. We can assist them, pray for them, and wish them well, yet in the end their happiness and suffering depend on their thoughts and actions, not on our wishes.”
― Jack Kornfield

BLESS ALL!

 

                                                   

REFLECTIONS YARO - DECEMBER 2022

AT THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE – December 2022  BLOG

 

Dear Reader,

As the year is coming to an end (as all years do), I feel like I am standing at the edge of a precipice wandering what is at the bottom. Such image generates a lot of fear. The end of a relationship,the end of a job, the end of healthy body and mind. I am curious about the image and wander what is at the bottom?

Over the millennia, most people felt fear and asked a god of some leader or spirits or magic powers to answer the question as to what is at the bottom of this precipice. Religions emerged that promised a relief indicating the existence of a Heaven (if you are good and obey) or horrible Hell for those who do not ‘believe’ of are ‘sinners’. Therefore, most people followed a dogma or a system that promised them peace and happiness.

I am now reflecting on the ideas of the Zen masters. They seem to have the vision of what is at the end by observing in the moment their awareness. The practice is basically sitting and noting the flow of thoughts, feelings, wants, desires, wishes, etc - we seek happiness. We then discover that we are sitting at the abyss of illusions and that at the bottom is LIFE – life as it is. Life is not “over there “ found in some wise god or wise leader – Life is living in the here and now. Living each moment as we are, using our senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, touching, tasting, thinking and so on. Yet, life as most of us experience, is split into two aspects: What is here and what is over there. That split creates many difficulties. Therefore, sitting at the edge of the precipice without any understanding what is going on is a life of troubles that will never go away.

Zen master JOKO teaches the way of understanding this illusion we all create and how to overcome it:

“Practice is about understanding the razor’s edge (the precipice) and how to work with it. Always we have an illusion of being separate, which we have created. When we’re threatened or when life doesn’t, please us, we start worrying, we start thinking about a possible solution. And without exception there is no person who doesn’t do this. We dislike being with life as it is because that can include suffering, and that is not acceptable to us. Whether it’s a serious illness or a minor criticism or being lonely or disappointed—that is not acceptable to us. We have no intention of putting up with that or just being that if we can possibly avoid it. We want to fix the problem, solve it, get rid of it. That is when we need to understand the practice of walking the razor’s edge. The point at which we need to understand it is whenever we begin to be upset (angry, irritated, resentful, jealous).

So, I want to encourage you to understand, difficult though it may be. First we have to understand with the intellect: we must know intellectually what practice is. Then we need to develop through practice an acute awareness of when we are separating ourselves from our life. The knowing develops from the base of daily zazen, from many sesshins, and with the effort to remain aware in all encounters from morning till night. Since we are most unwilling to know about the razor’s edge, this wisdom is not going to be presented on a platter to us; we must earn it. But if we are patient our vision will become clearer and then we will see the jewel of that life, beginning to shine. Of course, the jewel is always shining, but it is invisible to those who do not know how to see. To see, we must walk the razor’s edge. We protest, “No! No way! Forget it! It’s a nice title for a book, but I don’t want it in my life.” Is that true? I think not. Basically, we do want peace and joy.

Beck, Charlotte Joko: Everyday Zen (pp. 148-149). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

 

WISHING ALL READRES A PEACEFUL XMAS CELEBRATION AND A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

 

 

 

 

 

REFLECTIONS YARO - NOVEMBER 2022

 

Everyday ZEN

REFLECIONS YARO BLOG – NOVEMBER 2022

 

Dear reader,

Just this morning I realised that I id not write my November Blog. I was busy reading the world news. I have Canadian news, American news, Spanish news, and Australian news. All news seems to be a copy of the same stories: wars, floods, major accidents on bridges and boats. And the horrible Halloween chaos and deaths from a panic effect in South Korea.

As usual, I search for some inspiration from wise teachers and found a ZEN book entitled “ EVERY DAY ZEN by Joko Beck who, in her chapters describes with wonderful simplicity, everyday life.

“We tend to run our whole life trying to avoid all that hurts or displeases us, noticing the objects, people, or situations that we think will give us pain or pleasure, avoiding one and pursuing the other.”

One of her chapters caught my attention as it was just what I was reflecting about: RENOUNCING.

She states that renouncing life creates more pain and suffering – the kind of suffering that our soul feels and not much can be done to stop it. However, she teaches that being present and aware, is a way to overcome every hurt in life. Accept and do not renounce is her theme and here is a quote from her book:

Renunciation

Renunciation Suzuki Roshi said, “Renunciation is not giving up the things of this world but accepting that they go away.” Everything is impermanent; sooner or later everything goes away. Renunciation is a state of nonattachment, acceptance of this going away. Impermanence is, in fact, just another name for perfection. Leaves fall; debris and garbage accumulate; out of the debris come flowers, greenery, things that we think are lovely. Destruction is necessary. A good forest fire is necessary. The way we interfere with forest fires may not be a good thing. Without destruction, there could be no new life; and the wonder of life, the constant change, could not be. We must live and die. And this process is perfection itself.

All this change is not, however, what we had in mind. Our drive is not to appreciate the perfection of the universe. Our personal drive is to find a way to endure in our unchanging glory forever. That may seem ridiculous, yet that’s what we’re doing. And that resistance to change is not attuned with the perfection of life, which is its impermanence. If life were not impermanent, it couldn’t be the wonder that it is. Still, the last thing we like is our own impermanence. Who hasn’t noticed the first gray hair and thought, “Uh-oh.” So, a battle rages in human existence. We refuse to see the truth that’s all around us. We don’t really see life at all. Our attention is elsewhere. We are engaged in an unending battle with our fears about ourselves and our existence. If we want to see life we must be attentive to it. But we’re not interested in doing that; we’re only interested in the battle to preserve ourselves forever. And of course, it’s an anxious and futile battle, a battle that can’t be won. The one who always wins is death.

What we want out of life as we live it is that others reflect our glory. We want our partners to ensure our security, to make us feel wonderful, to give us what we want, so that our anxiety can be eased for a little while. We look for friends who will at least take the cutting edge off of our fear, the fear that we’re not going to be around one day. We don’t want to look at that. The funny thing is that our friends are not fooled by us; they see exactly what we’re doing. Why do they see it so clearly? Because they’re doing it too. They’re not interested in our efforts to be the center of the universe. Yet we wage the battle ceaselessly. We are frantically busy. When our personal attempts to win the battle fail, we may try to find peace in a false form of religion. And people who offer that carrot get rich. We are desperate for anyone who will tell us, “It’s all right. Everything can be wonderful for you.” Even in Zen practice we try to find a way around what practice really is, so that we can gain a personal victory.

People often say to me, “Joko, why do you make practice so hard? Why don’t you hold out any cookies at all?” But from the point of view of the small self, practice can only be hard. Practice annihilates the small self, and the small self isn’t interested in that one bit. It can’t be expected to greet this annihilation with joy. So, there’s no cookie that can be held out for the small self, unless we want to be dishonest. There is another side to practice, however: As our small self dies—our angry, demanding, complaining, manoeuvring, manipulative self-a real cookie appears: joy and genuine self-confidence. We begin to taste what it feels like to care about someone else without expecting anything in return. And this is true compassion. How much we have it depends on the rate at which the small self dies. As it dies, here and there we have moments when we see what life is. Sometimes we can spontaneously act and serve others. And with this growth always comes repentance. When we realize that we

have almost constantly hurt ourselves and others, we repent—and this repentance is itself pure joy. So let us notice that our efforts in Sesshin are to perfect ourselves: we want to be enlightened, we want to be clear, we want to be calm, we want to be wise. As our sitting settles down into the present moment we say, “Isn’t this boring!—the cars going by, feel my knees hurting, notice my tummy growling…” We have no interest in the infinite perfection of the universe. In fact the infinite perfection of the universe might be the person sitting next to us who breathes noisily or is sweaty. The infinite perfection is this being inconvenienced: “I’m not having it my way at all.” At any moment there is just what’s happening. Yet we’re not interested in that. Instead we’re bored. Our attention goes in another direction. “Forget reality! I’m here to be enlightened!” But Zen is a subtle practice: even as we fight it and resist it and distort it, our concepts about it tend to destroy themselves. And slowly, in spite of ourselves, we begin to be interested in what practice really is, as opposed to our ideas of what we think it should be. The point of practice is exactly this clashing space in which my desires for my personal immortality, my own glorification, my own control of the universe, clash with what is. This moment occurs frequently in our lives: the moment when we feel irritability, jealousy, excitement—the clash between the way I want it and the way it is. “I hate her noisy breathing. How can I be aware of what is when she does that?” “How can I practice when the boys next door play rock and roll?” Every moment offers us a wealth of opportunities. Even on the calmest, most uneventful day we get many opportunities to see the clash between what we want and the way it really is. All good practice aims to make our false dreams conscious, so that there is nothing in our physical and mental experience that is unknown to us. We need not only to know our anger, but we also need to know our own personal ways of handling our anger. If a reaction is not conscious, we can’t look at it and turn away from it. Each defensive reaction (and we have one about every five minutes) is practice. If we practice with the thoughts and physical sensations that comprise that reaction, we open to wholeness, or holiness, if you want to call it that. In good practice we are always transforming from being personally centered (caught in our personal reactions) to being more and more a channel for universal energy, this energy that shifts the universe a million times a second. In our phenomenal lives what we see is impermanence; the other side is something else; we won’t give it a name. When we practice well, we are increasingly a channel for this universal energy, and death loses its sting. A major obstacle to seeing is unawareness that all practice has a strong element of resistance. It is bound to have this unwillingness until our personal self is completely dead. Only a Buddha has no resistance, and I doubt that in the human population there are any Buddhas. Until we die we always have some personal resistance that has to be acknowledged. A second major obstacle is a lack of honesty about who we are at each moment. It’s very hard to admit, “I’m being vengeful” or “I’m being punishing” or “I’m being self-righteous.” That kind of honesty is hard. We don’t always have to share with others what we observe about ourselves; but there should be nothing going on that we’re not aware of. We must see that we are chasing ideals of perfection rather than acknowledging our imperfection. A third obstacle is being impressed and side-tracked by our little openings as they occur. They’re just the fruit; they have no importance unless we use them in our lives. A fourth obstacle is having little understanding of the magnitude of the task that we have embarked upon. The task is not impossible, it’s not too difficult; but it is unending.

A fifth obstacle, common among people who spend much time at Zen centers, is substituting talk and discussion and reading for persistent practice itself. The less we say about practice, the better. Outside of a direct student-teacher setting, the last thing that I will talk about is Zen practice. And I don’t talk about the dharma. Why talk about it? My job is to notice how I violate it. You know the old saying, “He who knows does not say, and he who says does not know.” When we talk about practice all the time, our talk is another form of resistance, a barrier, a cover. It’s like academics who save the world every night at the dinner table. They talk and talk and talk—but what difference does it make? At the other end of that pole would be someone like Mother Teresa. I don’t think she does much talking. She is busy doing. Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not. And of course, I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that. I am impermanence itself in a rapidly changing human form that appears solid. I fear to see what I am: an ever-changing energy field. I don’t want to be that. So good practice is about fear. Fear takes the form of constantly thinking, speculating, analysing, fantasizing. With all that activity we create a cloudy cover to keep ourselves safe in a make-believe practice. True practice is not safe; it’s anything but safe. But we don’t like that, so we obsess with our feverish efforts to achieve our version of the personal dream. Such obsessive practice is itself just another cloud between us and reality. The only thing that matters is seeing with an impersonal searchlight: seeing things are they are. When the personal barrier drops away, why do we have to call it anything? We just live our lives. And when we die, we just die. No problem anywhere.

 

 

 

OCTOBER 2022 - THE FLOW OF TIME

 

OCTOBER 2022 BLOG – REFLECTIONS YARO

 

 

Dear Reader,

At the end of this month of October, I will be reaching the age where most men are considered “wise”. Yet, wisdom is not an acquired skill but a gift from the Universe. Many men in the past historical times were described as the wise men such as the three wise kings during the birth of Jesus, Buddha and I particularly like Yaroslav the wise - prince of Kyiv, Ukraine (1019 – 1054).

In 1987, on my arrival to Australia, I took the name of YARO which is short for Yaroslav. However, this blog is not about names but the story of TIME. Perhaps most people have an instinctive awareness that time is a mystery. The whole idea of time is that is “marching on” and we feel that “time is running out” and thus time becomes a commodity to either run with it or save time for important things in life. We are in great hurry to “race against time” and, as we become more deeply aware, we discover that time is nothing to be kept or discard as we wish, but we really get to the truth: TIME IS AN ETERNITY!

Modern people are tied to the wristwatch and are oblivious of the fact that time is like a river – it just flows and flows. It something we cannot measure on a clock. Science has been able to design the ‘atomic clock’. An atomic clock is a clock that measures time by monitoring the resonant frequency of atoms. It is based on atoms having different energy levels. Electron states in an atom are associated with different energy levels, and in transitions between such states they interact with a very specific frequency of electromagnetic radiation. This phenomenon serves as the basis for the International System of Units' (SI) definition of a second (Wikipedia).

So, instead of looking at the watch or measuring seconds on the atomic clock, as everyday life requires, sometimes just take a walk at night, and look at the starry night sky and feel the Nature all around you in an eternal flow of the immeasurable time. This flow of time is felt in the changing of seasons all over this planet and try to marvel at the blooming of flowers in springtime.

The ancients described time origins as stemming from the eternal darkness when a sudden light emerged and thus creating the Universe. This event separated the light from darkness and established the flow of time that is cyclical and eternal. We can picture the alteration of time flow as the waves of the ocean constantly moving and flowing like an eternal dance.

I am now looking at the nearest galaxy called ANDROMEDA (see picture). This galaxy is circling at the rete of 2.5 million light years and has a radius of 110,000 light years. Here is the idea of TIME as the great circle of life that leads to an inevitable end or death. This death leads to new life again. It is always circling in the dance of Eternity. By placing time on a linear (digital) measure, we lost the connection with Eternity. This loss is at the cost of security in the measuring time. Daily saving time by turning back the clock one hour is useful but it does not connect us with the eternal time. Before the clock time, there was a local phenomenon. Where people would feel the movement of the seasons that gave them notice of what to plant and when to gather.  Time and space were experienced as an essential element of life ever changing.

One of the ways the Wise men suggest in becoming aware of the eternal time is through  storytelling, rituals of ancient times (like the aboriginals in Australia) and celebrations of the ‘day of the dead’ in Mexico. The Halloween day is also a symbolic event celebrating the day where children dress in costumes and do the “trick or treat” game to get a reward of candies.

By understanding that time is a flow of energy that emerges from darkness into light and the returns to darkness again, we will be less afraid of death as an eternal emptiness but also a potential to regenerate and be reborn or transformed. So, turn your imagination to the passing of seasons ever year and celebrate with rituals every season as a passing of time. From darkness to light, from winter to summer and that is the way of becoming part of the Eternal - Cosmic time. Connecting us to the origins of Creation.

Coming back to my reflections about time, as a way I experience Time as an external flow, I am noting how the taking the name of YARO has given me a going back in time to the ancient city state of Kyiv, Ukraine, where I feel a link to that ancient Slavic people so riding the waves of time, to my own birth in Ukraine, the leaving my country due to the communist invasion, living in Venezuela and then in Canada and finally in Australia. My connection to life as eternity is a fascinating reflection of my experience about the time I lived this life. I encourage you to take some photos of your baby times, your toddler times, your teen times, and your adult time and examine your flow of life as you are growing and changing and how Eternity is being reflected in each photo. Take the courage of experiencing your own eternity!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEPTEMBER 2022 BLOG – REFLECTIONS YARO

 

Dear Reader,

Recently, I was reflecting about the lack of men that want to learn about creativity, art, or therapy. Our GESTALT ART THERAPY CENTRE in Brisbane, has been conducting seminars and workshops related to art and mysticism, and the attending participants are all women. So, what is going on with men today? I am asking myself.

I decided to examine deeper this issue and found some interesting research and writings about men. Here is a quote from a proposal I wrote some years ago for a MEN PROJECT, and it was not accepted by the funding resources.

“During their childhood and adolescence, Men are more likely (than women), to suffer from slow mental and physical development. They experience more often a short attention span due to "hyperactivity", Schizoid difficulties, transient or chronic spasms, stuttering, functional enuresis, sleep walking, nightmares, autism, as well as persistent and specific developmental problems such as dyslexia.

As adults, men, make up a significant percentage of those who present personality disorders related to paranoia and compulsive antisocial behaviours.

Men suffer from alcoholism and drug abuse four times more than women; they also outnumber women three to one in areas of suicide and high-risk behaviour.

 It is also a well-documented fact that men do not go to seek help from a doctor as often as women do and do not attend workshops and seminars on creative subjects.

If we add the fact that men's work occupies a large proportion of their time, we come to the glaring conclusion that a large proportion of children are growing up without making any significant contact with their fathers. This frequent absence of a father as a masculine model for the young (particularly the male children) seem to explain certain behavioural difficulties connected with men's affirmation of their sexual identity. *

* H. O'Neil:  "Mental Health: Men, the forgotten group" Actualite, May 1988.

* Dr. H. Wallot. Parliamentary Commission on Mental Issues. Canada, 1988.

 

As I reflect about the article that is dated from 1988, I am still finding similar behaviours in men today. Meaning that men are not open to the mysteries of the ‘esoteric’ and mystical aspects of human beings as an alternative to self-abuse.

Michael Meade, my Mentor (see his bio below) is a very wise teacher that is now offering podcasts on the mythical mysteries and how important ancient stories and tales are for the resolving some of the difficult issues facing the world today. A world that is going into deep darkness as we observe the pandemics, wars, and political divisions, as well as the emerging authoritarian regimes.

I agree with Michael Meade that men need to enter a new path to healing of personal and collective road to initiation with Elders as Mentors enabling this process. He proposes three steps:

1.     SEPARATION. Separate from the everyday routines that create dis-ease. Separate from those that interfere healthy development. We do not need to become a monk in a cave or a recluse but take time alone when possible.

 

2.     THE ORDEAL. A descent into dark places either by choice or by life events. Many men are already feeling the ordeal of divorce, unemployment, current pandemic sufferings and mental disorders.

 

3.     THE RETURN. Those who have been challenged by life’s difficulties and learn from them and become resilient, will become the Elders and Mentors who help others cope and recover.

The question that arises in me is: WHERE ARE THE ELDERS TODAY? They are hard to find and even harder to find men who enter this ARCHETYPE of wise man. An Elder that is ready to guide younger men (even mature men) in the celebration of SPIRIT. An elder is a man who is totally aware of his inner self and is in touch with SOUL. This call to the Soul can be at any age but requires work that I call SOULCRAFT.

Perhaps the concept of an Elder/Mentor has become “old fashioned” as the young are mostly connected to the internet and learn from whatever is fed into it. However, no one can discard an Archetype, as this is an eternal phenomenon and can emerge again and again as it is called to be manifested and embodied.

Coming back to my earlier reflection, that men are not involved in any artistic or creative endeavours, like art therapy creative arts etc, I am realising that the COMING BACK for men is encouraging groups of men to become creative and learn to let go of the fear of being too weak.

So, this is my proposal:

To invite the MENS HEALTH AND WELLBEING organisation to develop art and creative events. The task is a simple one. At a Common Ground meeting bring a box of colour crayons, A4 white paper, distribute the materials to each man and (a calm music is also a good thing) ask the men to do a free drawing on the paper. No thinking, no planning, no skills needed and keep attention only whatever emerges from your heart.

Your Soul will rejoice and carry you into places of calm and creative work. This the work of developing creative imagination that is in much needed today. Here is where the Elder Archetype will connect to this imaginative work. Creativity is the ‘building block’ to wisdom.

 

Finally, I am quoting a poem by William Blake:

“Wisdom combined insight with experience

And Vision with Maturity as it expands vision

If not, Maturity becomes degeneration.”

Men initiation in 1988

 

Michael Meade bio:

Michael J. Meade D.H.L. (born 16 January 1944) is an American author, mythologist, storyteller, and was a figure in the Men's Movement of the 1980s. He continues to publish and teach to a broader audience, having distanced himself from the Men's Movement.

His essays have appeared in To Be A Man, Tending the Fire, Wingspan, Walking Swiftly, and The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. The latter is an anthology of poetry, which he edited with Robert Bly and James Hillman. His book Men and the Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of Men was published in 1993 by HarperSanFrancisco. He is the author of the books The Water of Life, The World Behind the World, Fate and Destiny, the Two Agreements in Life, and Why the World Doesn't End, Tales of Renewal in Times of Change. He frequently contributes essays to Huffington Post,[2] and Sun Magazine. Meade uses story and mythology as a means of discovery for others to find their inner wisdom and inherent gifts, and he is among those interviewed in the documentary Mythic Journeys, focused on other leading figures as per above Robert Bly and James Hillman, and other leading figures of the Men’s Movement.

Web page: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/

 

REFLECTIONS YARO - AUGUST 2022 BLOG

 

REFLECTIONS YARO - AUGUST 2022 BLOG

 

Dear Reader,

 

I sat to write the August Blog and felt strongly that I am very perturbed by the chaos that is being experienced all over the world today. I notice a constant turmoil in the political world, war in Ukraine that was invaded by Putin without any provocation. Climate events like the fires in Spain and other parts of the globe, followed by floods and other destructive phenomena due to extreme heat and dryness. Many western counties have not experienced, in the past fifty years, the lack of fuel energy and the food is getting more and more expensive.

However, in these moments that seem to be so chaotic and depressing, I like to seek wise mentors and men with courage, who have gone that path before and are better for it, and ready to give us answers that connect with the SOUL. The personal Soul and collective Soul.

My Mentor, Michael Meade is my current Wise Man, who speaks and writes about the issues we are experiencing today - both culturally and environmentally. I have no words to add to the wisdom he is expressing, and I wish to share this with all of you readers.

 

THE ARCHETYPE OF APOCALIPSE  by Michael Meade.

To be alive at this time on Earth, is to be a witness, willingly or unwillingly, to the upheaval of the world. To be alive now means to be caught between the opposing poles of existence as many things polarize and conflicts multiply. All the great questions about life and death and all the fears of dissolution and destruction, now hang in the polluted air and troubled waters all around us.

The chaos we witness in the outer world repeatedly stirs the unconscious within us. On a collective level, that leads to a psychic overflow of fears and resentments that threatens to swamp whatever is left of civil society and the social contract. Even if we are willing to face the facts, the facts themselves keep changing as radical change at all levels of life may be the fact that most needs to be faced.

The scope and complexity of problems that face every government and every citizen are so great that an increasing fragmentation of parties and politics is also part of the reality we are challenged to witness and absorb. We are increasingly governed by insecure majorities and threatened by extreme minorities as patterns and institutions that may have provided a sense of wholeness in the past can rarely do so now.

To be alive at this time means being called to become consciously aware of more aspects of reality than most would choose to be. It means to be challenged to undergo an awakening of the soul, a shift of imagination and an expansion of identity to avoid being overwhelmed by the flood of changes surging through both nature and culture.

At this time, it is not simply a change in political perspective that we need, but rather a shift in archetypal understanding that we must find. To make such a fundamental change of awareness, it is helpful to know something about how archetypes work. An archetype is an original pattern that exists on a universal level that can affect human thinking, imagination, and behaviour. When activated, archetypes can connect the primordial, generative forces of life with the pressing issues of the world.

Archetypes are the original forms of life that continue to carry transformative power and boundless potentials. If we can recognize and assimilate an archetype, it can change our lives, help us grow and have a healing effect on the world. Although commonly associated with images of the final end of the world, it turns out that apocalypse refers to the initial phase of a greater archetypal process. The first phase of the archetype involves apocalypse, which has the sound of collapse in it. While the subsequent phase, termed ‘apocastasis,” carries the sense of restoration by virtue of a rebalancing and renewal of the world.

Archetypes carry intentions as well as powerful potentials and a restoration of the world is part of the intention and aim of the archetype of apocalypse. In this ancient way of imagining, the world renews by returning to its origins and reactivating original potentials. Thus, the new world that comes out of all the chaos and upheaval is the old, original world, renewed and reinstituted.

Amidst all the upheaval and uncertainties, we face, it becomes easy to fall into despair about the future of the earth. Strangely, just as so many things in the world become divided and polarized, scientific theories and religious beliefs now seem to parallel each other. As both statistics and scriptures predict apocalyptic scenarios, science, and religion, seemingly opposed for so long, finally find agreement in a fatalistic sense of the impending end of life on Earth.

 

Rationalists as well as fundamentalists can both miss the point that the exaggerated images and fears of apocalypse refer not simply to facts about the outer world, but more meaningfully to psychological conditions affecting the inner world of psyche and soul. By contrast, the archetype of apocalypse presents a paradoxical situation of dissolution and re-creation, rather than a predetermined or preordained outcome. In mythological terms, the world can end, but not completely as the end of one era secretly leads to the beginning of the next.

In accepting that we are amid a great turnaround that involves a shift of the underlying archetypes of life, we become more able to tolerate and understand the tragic events that threaten both nature and human culture. The question becomes whether the pattern of collapse and renewal takes place simply through the raw energies of the unconscious or does a transformation of life on earth develop with the conscious awareness and assistance of people living at this very time.

The archetype of apocalypse is related to the archetype of wholeness and to the sense of creation as an ongoing force of life. According to the old traditions, the original energies of creation try to enter the world through us, especially in times of crisis. As human beings capable of being conscious and aware, we are called and challenged to be a part of a transformation of life on earth that is already underway.

The wholeness that is missing in the outer world at this time cannot be found through a political process or be created through an agreement of ideas alone but must be found in the depths of the individual soul. The fragmentation and polarization that troubles the outside world is deeply felt and experienced within us. And that which is missing in the outside world must be sought for and be found within us as well.

The way we survive the feeling of  chaos is to find the creative energies and healing potentials within our souls and live with the courage of our own dreams, pulled on by the threads of our inner destiny. When enough people do that, the deep archetypal energies of restoration and renewal can find their ways into the world. Without anyone having to be overly heroic, we can assist and aid the archetypal dynamic through which the world falls apart only to renew and restore itself again.

THE FOUR HORSMEN OF THE APOCALIPSE

REFLCTIONS YARO -- JULY 2022

 

                                                                                       Climate change image from TIME magazine

REFLECTIONS YARO - JULY 2022 BLOG

 

Dear reader,

 

The month of July is significant in history. The French revolution of 1830; the American revolution or Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July).and many more important events that changed the world.

I am sitting at home and reflecting on the events of the current year. Again, the news is bad for everyone on this planet. The future has not much hope for humanity. The pandemic crisis, the war in Ukraine, the economic disasters are only a few examples how we are dealing both with Nature and Culture.

My favourite writer in the weekend Australian, Phillip Adams, just wrote an excellent article entitled “U.S. OF FAIL”. He reflected that the once Democratic Republic called “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is no longer united but BROKEN” – he said that it is a failed state.

  One example is what seems an endless shooting as people with guns enter schools and kill children. In the first 22 weeks the state had 246 deaths. And these are the consequences of wilful disregard of the old constitution that permits everybody to carry arms for ‘self-defence’ and the Rifle Association is spending millions of dollars promoting that old right.

And as we are still suffering the outcomes of the Pandemic crisis, some people are turning more and more their attention on the CLIMATE CHANGE issues and how the Pandemic can lead the world to a better, greener world.

Although we have known the science of climate change for many years now, there is still a lot of nations that are in a denial stage, but the reality is that in the last year or two, we have witnessed fires in Australia and California, flooding in India and earthquakes in Afghanistan. Pacific islands on the edge of being inundated, and there will be more to come.

Now, spurred by the alarming scientific facts, there is a growth of public fury everywhere. The deadly Pandemic is by enlarge being controlled by multiple vaccinations, most government, corporate bosses, and political leaders are finally waking up to a practical and necessary idea whose time has come and that is: CLIMATE CHANGE.

The notion that even in the darkest times, there are surely bright lights if we care about our Earth - collectively. A new definition has emerged from young people who are working as so called    ecopreneurs. The assumption that government leaders would lead the climate solutions, but recently the young entrepreneurs declared that “this is a war in which all nations must be allies” (Ed Felsenthal - Time editor).

I am now reflecting on a notion that has been for some time, but science is still confronting and that is that humanity will suffer a collective crisis and we may go the same way as the dinosaurs – become extinct! However, there are other people that believe that any crisis is an opportunity to change and learn from the consequences. Today I found two TIME magazines and one University of Toronto journal exploring the possibilities to resolve many cases such as:

1.      Eliminate carbon emissions much faster

2.      Improve youth mental health worldwide

3.      Prevention of a new pandemic

4.      Build robots for any purpose to facilitate the workforce

5.      Advances in artificial intelligence leading to a better future for all.

All these ideas and ideals are great but 7,8 billion people on Earth have not reached that stage and those ecopreneurs must lead the way to not only to do things better but also teach people how to be HUMANS. Here is an example of a professor in Toronto, Canada who has developed a teaching style called: COMPASSIONATE TEACHING that resulted from the shift to online teaching due to the pandemic. Determined to promote single acts of kindness among her students, she was able to reduce student mental health and inspire many to go out into the world and engage everyone in kind and compassionate activities.

Here is one way to enable yourself and others around you to be more human and this small exercise is a simple way to BE!

There are some questions to answer by yourself. Pause after reading these statements and reflect on: “I do not know” Realize that we are a vast mystery that holds you and all life.

1.      Become aware of that mystery that is your body. Note the trillions of synaptic connections in your brain. The 100 trillion of bacteria in your gut. Your liver processing millions of cleansing reactions. Your body is awash with in fluids, tubes of blood, urine, bile, and spinal fluid all collaborating to keep you healthy and well.

2.      Look into the eyes of a small child. See the spirit born into a new form. Where did this child come from? What will it become?

3.      Get a spoonful of soil. Discover that it contains billions of bacteria, millions of fungi, thousands of protozoa etc. There is more in a spoonful that is all the planets combined.

4.      Visit a cemetery and quietly contemplate death.

5.      Sit in a park and contemplate about love and desire.

 

We are all humans and when we accept our humanness, we discover a remarkable transformation.

by Jack Kornfield,

 jackkornfield.com

Finally, here is a quote from the Buddha who lived about 4,000 years ago:

Live in Joy and love

Even among of those who hate

Live in Joy and health

Even among the afflicted

Live in joy and peace

Even among the troubled

Free from fear and attachment

Know the sweet joy of THE WAY!

 

 

JUNE 2022 BOLG

 

JUNE 2022 BLOG

UNIVERSAL PEACE

 

Dear Reader,

 

Now that we are living in a “post Covid” era, and experiencing other major critical events, like wars, terrorism, climate changes and economic shifts, we may take a moment to gaze at the night sky and experience the wonder of SILENCE.

Become aware how vast is the Universe is and how eternal and we, as humans, are so temporary and small in comparison. Yet, the human being has invented (created) many survival tools. The ancient cave dwellers invented the wheel and the fire and domesticated wild animals.

One of the most fascinating inventions is TIME. All Zen masters and Buddhists knew well that time is only an illusion and is only a construct to count, organise and define, but the idea of past present and future time is a ‘model’ that keeps us thinking we are going forward.

In spite of many inventions of ‘time pieces’ over many centuries, like sundials, obelisks, Greek water clocks, hour glasses, the pendulum, monastery and church towers clocks chiming every 15 minutes to either call people to work or to attend a church service. Now we enjoy the wristwatch powered by a tiny battery and then came the mobile time clock always in our pocket.

My favourite newspaper commentator, Phillip Adams, who is about my age, states that he is not a relic of the past but a relic of the future. He states:

“My task is to save humanity from itself and I failed to alert you to the dangers of Covid -19. I tried and tried but would you listen? NO! Not any more than the everchanging fires, draughts, and dusty storms. It was a waste of time. My principal reason to attention here is to warn you about the present threat that awaits you and it is the persistent illusion of present, pat and future illusion that climate change is here and the scientific evidence states that we are in great peril”

Since time is an illusion, we have only one choice and that is act in the HERE AND NOW! We cannot help but to be in the NOW! This is clearly important in the times of war, terrors where gunmen kill children in schools. Inhumanity is not only destroying peace but also repeats itself all the time, again and again.

Perhaps in a mythical way. We are on a long journey to healing and all healing requires a wound. This collective wound can only be healed by a medicine that we all know and that is LOVE. Universal love is an energy that brings healing, and we can do this by taking action. Here are some ideas to reflect upon:

INTENTION:       

Intention is what focuses your mind like an arrow towards its target. It is your reason for doing something. While this sounds a lot like what a goal is intentions are like the impetus while goals are the destination. Intention is what pushes you forward, relentlessly. As such, they are extremely powerful and make no mistake, you will carry out and do whatever your intention is. Therefore, it is extremely important to set it up for action and not for thinking. If you were to observe the most successful people in our world, be it in terms of financial wealth or happiness, you’ll notice that their intention is completely focused on doing, not talking. While they may spend time talking about what they do, most of their time is spent carrying out what they preach. Thinking about doing something ultimately costs you more energy than actually doing the thing. There are many reasons as to why people refuse to do and are content with sitting there dreaming up different ideas and to do lists. A big reason is the ego. Your ego needs constant external validation and unfortunately, the nature of our society provides more exposure to people who talk about doing than those who actually do. The internet is full of self-proclaimed gurus who know nothing about what they're saying and only know how to manipulate their viewers' egos. By using the promise of an idea to improve one’s life, people are lured into thinking about them incessantly while providing the ego the short term boost it requires through validation of its intelligence, further driving people to seek this. Here’s the thing: Thinking is easy. Doing is the tough bit. It requires you to face problems and figure out solutions.

It requires you to make yourself vulnerable and be brave by opening yourself to feedback. People who never figure out their purpose in life tend to cower behind their egos, afraid of what sort of feedback they will receive. The way past this fear is to simply define your intention. What is your intention in life? Is it to placate your ego, or is it to live the best life you can? Define your intention, and you'll automatically find yourself propelled into action. This has the added benefit of opening yourself up to your heart and receiving negative feedback from the infinite knowledge. Always assume positive intent from everyone you interact with, including your heart. Assume everything is set up to help you improve and live life with greater joy and peace. You'll find that this turns into a reality.

Setting Intentions to Water The power of intention can be used to improve your daily life through some very simple practices. The first of these practices may cause a lot of controversies, but it has its share of believers. This is the practice of setting positive intention to water. The method was conceived by Masaru Emoto, who is referred to as either a scientist or a pseudoscientist depending on which point of view you adopt. Through experiments he conducted on setting positive intentions to water, Emoto claimed to find that the crystals of water which were formed by imparting positive emotion were of a more beautiful structure than those that were imparted with a negative energy. Thus, he postulated that the energy transmitted through our intentions has a real impact on the molecular structure of water. Given that our bodies are almost entirely made of water, this is quite significant. There are multiple ways of transferring positive energy into the water we drink. The first is to hold a glass of water in our hands and to repeat our intention either out loud or in our minds. Our intention could be either a short term focused, daily one or something connected to our long-term goals, it doesn't matter. As long as the emotion is positive and loving, you're on the right track. A good way to further energize the water is to visualize yourself carrying out your intention and doing things in the manner you wish to. By doing this, you’ll be recruiting the power of both your intention as well as visualization. Intention statements are not the only thing you can visualize and repeat.

Setting Intentions to Statements A far more palatable exercise for some might be the process of writing intention statements. These statements are affirmations that you can use to govern how you intend on living your life and what it is you would like to change. There are a couple of characteristics of these statements you should always incorporate, such as writing them in first person, using present tense. In other words, the subject of these statements should always be you and not someone else. This would simply be you trying to control someone else's actions, and that isn't in line with the way nature works. Instead, focus on controlling your own actions and reactions to triggers. The present tense is used to reinforce the fact that what you want in your life is real and that you have full faith that the universe will provide it for you. This is a step where quite a few people stumble. You see, you’ll have faith in the realization of things that you believe possible. However, the point of setting goals and intentions is to push your limits and to achieve something that is outside your comfort zone.

One thing to avoid is the use of words such as: try, but, and or. Your statements need to be as specific as possible. Specificity can be in the form of a quantifiable thing or in terms of emotion. What I’m saying is that you need to know if the goal or intention is met. So you can define reaching a goal in terms of feeling an emotion or in terms of something quantifiable.

Monitor your self-talk constantly since this is just another form of stating your intention. If you detect negative talk, reframe it to positive by using the phrases mentioned previously. Always reframe negative talk and don't let it pass by without questioning and challenging it. Do this, and over time you'll find that your brain will get the message automatically correct itself.

Shinohara, Ryuu. The Magic of Manifesting: 15 Advanced Techniques To Attract Your Best Life, Even If You Think It's Impossible Now (Law of Attraction) (p. 84). Kindle Edition.

Finally, this is a 'tongue in cheek' a "prediction" that many politicians are commenting now about 2030....

HEADLINES FROM THE YEAR 2030

Ozone created by petrol & electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, LittleIndia , formerly known as Australia .

Tasmania executes last remaining Greenie.

White minorities still trying to have English recognised as Australia 's third language.

Children from 2 parent heterosexual families bullied in schools for being 'different'. 
Tolerance urged.

Gay Marriages now overtake heterosexual marriages as preferred 'lifestyle' choice

Kookaburra and platypus plague threatens North Western Australia crops and livestock.

Melbourne schoolgirl expelled for not wearing Burqa: Being a Christian is no excuse says school. Sharia law must be enforced. 

Japan announces that they will no longer consume whale meat as whales are now extinct and the scientific research fleet are unemployed. Australian Government have told the Japanese that Cane Toads taste like whale meat.

Australia now has 10 Universities of Political Correctness. Professor Goldman of ANU says there is still a long way to go in the fight to stop people saying what they think.

Australian Deficit $10 trillion dollars and rising. Government declares return to surplus in 100 years which is 300 years ahead of time. Prime Minister Mohammed Yousuf claims increased growth through more immigration secret to success.

Baby conceived naturally! Scientists stumped.

Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being taken over by Islamic Countries. ... No other country volunteers to come forward to help the beleaguered nation!

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally into the USA, but US President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

Jose Manuel Rodrigez Bush says he will run for second term as US President in 2032.

Australia Post raises price of stamps to $18 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

After a 10-year, $75.8 billion study: Scientists prove diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.

Average weight of an Australian drops to 115 kgs.

Global cooling blamed for citrus crop failure for third consecutive year in Vicindia and New South India ....

Senate still blocking drilling in Canberra even though gas is selling for 5,000 Rupees per litre and gas stations are only open on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights. Victims to be held partly responsible for crime.

Average height of professional basketball players is now nine feet, seven inches.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters, and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2035 as lethal weapons.

Australian Tax Office sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Richmond Tigers won this year’s National Footy final beating the Hindu Hornets 20-11 to 13-18

South Asia (formerly Northern Territory ) voters still having trouble with voting machines.

I Love This Country! Don’t you?

 

 

CONTACT: Yaro Starak  email:  starakister@gamil.com