The Serene Way

Where or when a self realized soul appears we may not know, nor does location or time make much difference, It is confined to neither.

I believe that the guru within is the ‘real’ goal, and from my limited reading that is the approach that all guru’s have taken. They offer inspiration for us to be.

Guides may be encountered along the path, yet only with self ‘realization’ through an internal effort can we learn to assimilate these lessons with practical application and not lip service. The self realized may not have written books themselves, yet without these written accounts, the past would dissolve like forgotten civilizations. I’ve read that no religion can continue without a book, a tangible for others to follow. It was not the self-realized that wrote the accounts that make the Bible or Koran or Torah and most others. Their followers did so, perhaps with encouragement from the originator of the thought, as their ‘real’ message the dogma and ritual contained therein - this was only a tool along the way based on the current culture. Like anything it is then a reflection based on perspective and coloured so. Much like the game where a whisper is started and continues around a circle…it is never the same at the end as it was at the origination.

Should we worship a book? They are only words of man; the essence of the message perhaps would be a better thing to understand. Should we worship the guru? I think not, but worship the Source that is in each and every one of us. Should we pledge allegiance to the guru? I think only to the light incarnated beyond the human form - a dance with the universal.

The steps of the dance itself are merely details; the lessons learned are the rhythm of life.

 1. To stand on my own two feet. My experience accounted for more that what I had given it credit.

 2. Listen. A lesson in discernment that came at the dissolution of the relationship; the “me” and “mine” of ownership that I heard was a faint signal that should have rung more loudly in my heart. What is heard in speech may ring empty in the heart.

 3. Forgiveness. No matter what occurred asking for forgiveness to the higher selves of each and for my part in the situation included. We are each on our own path and struggle as best we can to end that suffering.

4. Trust. I do my best in any situation and with awareness and stillness the answers will unfold - a revelation within the self will manifest.

5. Faith. In my self, the path that is mine to follow will shine no matter the circumstance. The direction to follow is one that is suited to my incarnation, others must lead their own.

6. Acceptance & Understanding. Each of us has our own issues or karma to address, we can assist each other or remain fixed in these samskaras, all can be used to best effect along the way no matter the weight we define these impressions or characteristics.

7. Gratitude. I was able to learn from the experience and deal with in a manner that I felt was gracious and non-injurious. An opportunity to reflect was offered and taken to reveal my own path to light.      © T.S. (Tim) White All rights reserved 

I agree that in torture - animals vs. humans - we are no more important than any animal and in turn they are no more important that we are.

The seal hunt has many personal triggers for me, as I have seen the place that I come from, Newfoundland, completely transformed and broken down with the failure of the fisheries. It is the fishermen themselves that have felt the brunt of this, though they had been telling the governments for years of excess international fishing which continues unabated, and the effects of the closure of the seal hunt upon fish stocks. Outside observers and experts had their own views and statistics that did not take into account the observations of a people who had spent their lives working with the ebb and flow of nature.

It has been a tradition for these people that have lost their livelihoods—much has been taken from these people of the sea which has seen an exodus from the province, which had been built on the fishery. They did not use just the pelts for warmth or fashion, the entire animal was and still is utilized – omega 3 oils anyone? The traditional flipper pie still exists; seal meat is still consumed, though one would have to take the current state of the ocean and mercury levels of larger sea animals into account for the safety of this practice.

I question this particular target – the seal hunt - why not all international fisheries for over fishing and all the industries that have created a far greater concern with environmental pollutants. If the goal is to protect, then where are our priorities?

The media and various interest groups continue to proliferate the idea that baby white coats are still targeted; this is sensationalist hype and emotional manipulation. This has not been the case for years. If you’d like to see a different take on the seal I would direct you to the movie “Happy Feet” to see the ferocity of this animal, which eats its weight in fish on a daily basis.

The latest ‘protest group’ effort on the East Coast, not even near the most of the hunt, had Paul McCartney and Heather Mills in the midst of the milieu. There was a posed picture of them with a white coat. Well, that baby seal being touched my human hands, lost its mother (mother seals with pups are not hunted). Once touched, the mother will abandon its offspring, in this case it was not the hunt that destroyed the baby white coat but the opportunity for an emotionally charged photo.

Now, the east coast of Canada, Newfoundland in particular has off shore oil reserves. Yes, a different resource but non renewable and what effect will this have should there be an environmental disaster created by oil spill or even worse a terrorist attack? This area is along the gulf current that runs to Europe with great winds and storms travelling this route. Will the animals of the sea then be protected? What greater potential for loss is there here? What wars are being fought based on oil production and the loss of human lives for this cause? These are just questions I ask myself, where does the balance exist? Is it six in one and half a dozen in the other?

I have no answers, only my heart which belongs to my home. Now it is on a slick and oily slope filling the pockets of international corporations and the feeding frenzy of over consumption. The livelihood lost from the ocean’s natural abundance, where there was a provision of responsible management by these people for centuries without ill effect.

© T.S. (Tim) White  

We have the ability of a ‘gut instinct’ or precognitive reaction to a energy stimulus/event. Like with all other senses it is a matter of allowing them to act or refine the receptors for a higher sense perception.

Though the organ is the ear, the wave patterns are translated in the brain - a recent program (The Nature of Things) devoted to this, mentions two particular areas one for speech another for music. There are now instruments for the blind that allow them to see sound wave patterns of particular objects. This is quite fascinating as the wave pattern is transmitted to the brain where it is translated as sight, a combining of different areas of the brain.Taking this example, the ‘intuitive’ sense can also be refined and we can become aware of this action. Calming the mind to allow this ‘extra’ sense, though it cannot be extra as it is always there in as much as we sense another’s emotional state. That energy is being ‘felt’ in some manner as much as the energy of sound is being translated to that of sight - a true second sight which is another term for precognition. It may be a simple (and complex) as training or quieting the mind to allow this input to be translated to a conscious state.

Meditation as an exercise in focus on concentration is perhaps the first step; allowing the mind chatter to gradually be calmed with attention to the breath or other single point depending on the process which is most comfortable for the practitioner, being the first hurdle.

The mind in its function is to think so allowing this process to be quieted is the first and perhaps greatest obstacle in proceeding to deeper levels of meditation. Non-judgement of the ‘clocked’ time is again a rite of passage, perhaps at the beginning only a few moments will pass before the engine that is the mind begins to chug in other directions, acknowledge these thoughts and allow them to float away like a cloud across the sky or a bird flying into the distance and bring the attention back to the single point or action. There is no right or wrong only the path that the individual takes to get to their destination.

As we develop control and release so too does our practice improve and the journey to the One continues and can increase the faculty of intuition or precognition. The now, then and when all exist within the One.

With my daily meditations (whether guided, self directed or a fold in time & space) come insights and clarity, strength and energy, love and harmony – the mind is calmed and perception is heightened. A day without turns the physical self lethargic, dull, sleep deprived and frustrated. Thus the mind is otherwise occupied with the ‘self’ and perception is skewed with the rabble associated with these energies.

How can we ‘see’ if the mind is in this state? Only by returning to calm can we follow a path to light.

© T.S. (Tim) White

The roles that we are ‘assigned’ by society are part of our cultural heritage and environmental experience, often thought of as patriarchal though, I have to admit that my upbringing was much more matriarchal in its construct. The major role of mother/grandmother in the family was much more dominant, from my perspective at least.

Through a cultural/historical evolution we have stereotyped specific attributes as masculine and feminine.

There is a teaching in Yoga that there are three major channels of energy, one central and balanced to which we strive and the other two on either side being sun and moon energy. It is here that I tend to shy away from the association of masculine-sun and moon-feminine and prefer to the description of active and reflective energy or character traits taken to that level. In this way we are no longer making unnecessary associations based on gender only the energetic aspects of personality, both are necessary for a balance to be achieved. One does not exist without the other. Our emotions can be associated with one of these energies, just like the magnetic field of the earth or a battery both are needed to complete the circle of energy, ebb and flow. When we place positive and negative in this instance there is perhaps only a slight thought of good and bad. Yet, when we use that in a description of traits then there is more of a judgement. They are neither, they must be in order to be complete and return to balance, only with one more dominant can anything be accomplished no matter what we call it, masculine/feminine, active/reflective, right/left (again we have an association with right being correct and left being associated with evil if raised in a particular religious environment). The sun energy is the active force and the moon the reflective or nurturing energy. Like the changing of the seasons we need both in order to manifest upon the physical plane we have to act, yet the act can only take place after the idea or thought has been brought to the conscious mind. Thus, the latter is the reflective energy of creation. Both in tandem give rise to the manifestation of anything within that which is All on a path to light.

© T.S. (Tim) White

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