The Serene Way

“Societal choices, more often than not, are the result of expediency, statistical fallacy, sentiment, political or media pressure, or personal prejudice and vested interest.”

David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.

Power vs. Force

I received a comment after posting a blog titled ‘Acceptance, Compassion & Tolerance Out of Anger & Resentment”, which was the catalyst for this entry.

“I (Also) Noticed On The Front Page Of Your Website That You Are Selling SHEEP SKIN Mats! That Is Not AHIMSA And It Certainly Is Not Peaceful And Serene For The Sweet Innocent Slaughtered SHEEP! :/ ~::~”

Why use meditation mats that are made from sweet innocent loving slaughtered sheep??? That is bloody bad karma and just mean. It is ahimsa for me to point this out to you. Why seek to make money from industries of horrid cruelty?You are a spiritually intelligent being. You seek to embody goodness and loving-kindness towards all beings…I believe. To do so we must wake up from participating in cruelty towards other beings… right? We must have an empathetic loving awakened conscience of loving-kindness towards ALL Life as Divine Spirit.

In order to fully discuss this position, let’s look at a definition of ahimsa. Wikipedia describes ahimsa as follows: “the principle of non-violence can or should be applied to different life forms…”

This resource (Wikipedia) continues, “Jains go out of their way so as not to hurt even small insects and other minuscule animals and make considerable efforts not to injure plants in everyday life as far as possible. In accordance to this policy, eating of some foods, whose cultivation harms small insects and worms, as well as agriculture itself, is to be abstained from.”

Research and information gathered from texts such as ‘The Gospel According to Rama Krishna’, books by Swami Vivekananda, and other volumes of spiritual writings state that ahimsa—a yama of Yoga— is the practice of non-violence or harmlessness in action, word, thought, deed or emotion. All we do creates a karmic affect, no matter its desired intention.

It is evident that this ‘practice’ has different meanings and applications depending on the environmental/cultural experience and religious belief of the individual. There are levels of adherence to this practice. This is true for all ideologies; it is the depth of conviction to the belief, whether individual or group, that plays a fundamental role in their actions and reactions. We need look no further than organized religion to see how extremes in the attachment to dogma have created tension and segregation, leading to struggle, suppression and war.

Traditionally, meditation was performed on natural animal skin such as tiger or deer, as I have seen in pictures of gurus and swamis. This provided a softer cushion for a more comfortable way to maintain a meditative posture; it also created a synergy with the meditative process by providing a deeper, natural connection to earth energies, thereby intensifying the benefits of meditation. I have not read that these pelts materialized out of cosmic energy; the animals’ lives did end in some manner.

Historically speaking and according to evolutionary theory, man was a hunter-gatherer. Being of aboriginal heritage—Native Canadian M’ic M’aq—my family’s heritage and culture dictated that whenever an animal is taken for food, all parts of that animal are used in order to honour a manifestation of gratitude for that which the earth provides. As a child, I remember that after the moose hunt (which my extended family continues) the meat was canned or frozen, the antlers were used for the handles of eating utensils, and the hide for leather garments, snowshoes and various ties and bindings. All was treated as a gift from Mother Earth and what She provided for our sustenance.

The sheep in question are from my brother’s farm. He has a small flock, and his intention is to use the entire animal, in keeping with his cultural heritage, in order to provide for his family. The sheep run free in the pastures on 108 acres, eating grass and natural feed. They are tended with love and kindness. They are protected from coyotes by dogs, donkeys and a llama provided by my brother and his family. His wife is the ‘at home’ veterinarian who provides the occasional antibiotic to ensure the sheep’s health, and is doula or mid-wife during lambing season. In the winter, lambs that are born too small or too many at a time for a single ewe to care for are taken into the house, dried with towels, and bottle-fed—one of the great experiences I have had the pleasure to participate in.

Indeed, I take issue with commercial farming and the poor treatment of livestock for the gathering of wealth for the few. The treatment of animals on commercial farms is in truth a manifested aspect of profit and greed. I also take issue with the reckless harvest of animals of the sea for a singular use, such as longline net capture of sharks for the sole purpose of obtaining their fins, which some claim are an aphrodisiac. This materialistic approach has caused many problems. Commercial farms have created the need to regulate society’s food channels. Yet, with a single bacterial outbreak in an industrial processing plant, an entire food network delivers health hazards. Recently, an outbreak of listeriosis in a packaging plant in Canada played havoc on the food channel, resulting in a recall of processed, packaged meat. This past summer tomatoes had to be removed from the shelves due to problems at a processing plant in the United States. Both of these incidents also affected fast food outlets, including the corporate giant MacDonald’s.

I often think that we have formulated a hierarchy based on what we perceive as sentient beings. It is only our current perception that dictates these ideas; they continue to change and develop based on scientific research, which increases our understanding. There are many ‘seekers’ who have taken leave of society to live in renunciation in the wilderness. There, they develop the ability to listen to the wisdom of the tree and the messages upon the wind. There is even mention of those who can live on air alone; they receive sustenance from the energy inherent in everything that is, so highly developed is their connection to the divine source.

A tree is alive—it has a series of capillaries that carry nutrients throughout its body, similar in function and design to the human lymph and digestive systems. Firstly, in terms of the lymph system, it has circulatory vessels without a central pump which regulate defense mechanisms. Secondly, like the digestive system, fluid is moved by a process of contraction called peristalsis. A tree has life, it exists, it is energy. The same can be said of all plants. They react to external stimuli: lower vibrations limit growth, whereas higher energies accelerate it. If you sing to a plant it will respond positively with growth; if you yell at it, so too will it wilt.

Man, in being a form of compressed energy, is in essence the same as a potato, a carrot, an apple or bacteria, only differing in the form of the expression of that energy. Anything we ingest is an aspect of energy, which is necessary for cellular metabolism and the continuance of a physical form. All life forms must absorb energy in order to sustain their life cycle. The process is consistent and paramount for all life—energy, in some form, is assimilated and then expunged to return into the fold of a universal balance.

Our current perspective deems an animal closer to our own existence. It is our own ego-centricity and the rationalization of projecting human characteristics onto other life forms that creates an imposed judgment. Pulling a carrot out of the ground ends the life cycle of that plant, the same as ending the life cycle of any other organism, whether or not we currently consider it to be sentient. If one is sacred, then all is sacred.

On a Path to Light, only when we accept all forms of energy as equal will we truly realize that all life is sacrosanct, and to be accepted as a blessing.

© T.S. (Tim) White, 2008

All rights reserved

www.TheSereneWay.com

To be continued…

With a further discussion of commercial farming and Ahimsa

I.L.C (Integrative Life Coaching) session conversation

PART I

Identify patterns from your life and how they can be used to your best advantage

Achieve balance between work, home and play

Create personal tools to maintain and enhance a healthy lifestyle

P.:  hi Tim…

P.:  how is life?

P.:  sloooow connection….

P.:  or perhaps you type slowly with much awareness…:)

P.:  mindful moments or have we lost connection?? hmmm

      (edit)

P.:  energy is good…

       (edit)     

Tim W.:  yep..

      (edit)

P.:  positive thinking is very powerful

P.:  more so than I once realized

Tim W.:  it is very much…that process keeps all things positive…though without negative positive does not exist

Tim W.:  life is about duality

P.:  balance

Tim W.:  we can either accept that duality and all that belongs to life or repress and supress aspects of our divine nature

Tim W.:  yes balance…though in true balance the energy is potential, only with a tip in the balance can we move forward

P.:  acceptance and moderation

Tim W.:  hahahah….yes, acceptance, understanding & moderation… AUM or OM

P.:  perhaps that is where I am at…finding how to tip the scale a bit in the positive direction

Tim W.:  all things can be positive it just depends on the way we look at it.

P.:  ones perception does play an important part

Tim W.:  I remember a friend saying you never acknowledge your faults…for me they were not faults only weaker character traits, that can be used in that form to create a positive

P.:  ooh…I like that

Tim W.:  for sure…all we are and do and act or react to is our perception based on who whe are as individuals

P.:  no faults, just traits to help us grow?

Tim W.:  our past, our environmental experience

Tim W.:  you got it!!!

P.:  its all in how you look at

Tim W.:  everything we connect to whether it creates a positive or negative reaction is an opportunity to grow to the light

P.:  it has taken me a long time to realize these truths

Tim W.:  yep, and it is our mind that creates that perspective, we have the ability to change that in anything we do

P.:  so we are able to see all that is within us as “good”…yes?

Tim W.:  that’s right…it is good…only when we judge do we put other spins on it

Tim W.:  niether is good nor bad…it is only from where we sit that it becomes either

P.:  so often we judge …others and ourselves

P.:  why?

Tim W.:  energy is energy…it cannot be negative or positive

Tim W.:  insecurity is why

Tim W.:  fear

Tim W.:  death

Tim W.:  life

P.:  but really, there is no death

P.:  so why the fear?

Tim W.:  fear of living of death

Tim W.:  fear of the self

Tim W.:  the simple truth

P.:  and how does one “fit in” when these things are realized?

Tim W.:  when we go into the fear it does not exist…it is the mind that creates this aspect of the self.

Tim W.:  if we try to find it within…it cannot be found…

P.:  we were chatting about the fear inside

Tim W.:  yes fear in the mind…that is where it is created…the mind creates many things that are in essence ‘un’real….they are only machinations of chemical and electrical impulses based

Tim W.:  behaviour patterns and impressions of our external interactions

P.:  patterns…sigh…those are tough to diminish

P.:  external interactions can obtain there own power at time…

P.:  impulses…like the fight or flight response?

Tim W.:  when we exert a force they get further away…when we accept they are no longer

Tim W.:  fight or flight is a biological mechanism…survival instinct that has been replaced by emotional turmoil.

P.:  often, the way we lead our life is a pattern, yes? so by recognizing this, are we able to diminish it

Tim W.:  we no longer have to fight tigers or run for our lives though at times we feel the need to do so in reaction to a particular circumstancce

Tim W.:  exactly…even in just the awareness of that patter at least we are conscious of it and have the opportunity to deal with it in a manner that better suits us as individuals…

Tim W.:  all different and beautiful.

P.:  is that reaction a pattern as well though?

Tim W.:  I would say that with most of my research that all reactions are of a pattern..

P.:  hmmm

Tim W.:  often we may change a particular object of reaction yet the reaction is the same

Tim W.:  replacement

P.:  my greatest challenge has been to recognize my patterns and also to look upon them and myself seperately

Tim W.:  that is a step in creating the witness

Tim W.:  when we look at things from this ‘detached’ witness we are no longer part of the reaction.

Tim W.:  we can look at is as separate, yet part of who we are

Tim W.:  the patterns are so ingrained and sub or un conscious that we are not able to recognize them in a conscious manner

Tim W.:  all programmed before we are 6 years old

P.:  yet does the reaction change…go away? doesn’t there always have to be a reaction to every action so to speak?

To be continued….

Stay tuned for Part II

Available in one week from today!

©T.S. (Tim) White, 2008

All Rights reserved. 

www.TheSereneWay.com

‘The Secret’ and ‘The Law of Attraction’ as Fabrications of Greed

“The enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.”

Julius Caesar, 75 B.C.

The pursuit of happiness and peace is caught in, and now churn and grease the wheels of, consumerism, commercialism and materialism. This ultimately makes a mockery of spirituality and the quest for meaning in our lives, and never so dynamically and ubiquitously as both The Secret and the ‘Law of Attraction’. For years we have been hearing and literally ‘buying into’ the promise that we can have all that we want—the good life—through visualization, belief and a modicum of effort. This only serves to intensify desire, leading to greed and a further spiral into the illusion that materialistic gain will give us the security for which we search.

Perhaps we can say that the rape and pillage of the earth began with Imperialism. Certainly the Industrial Revolution introduced many benefits. However, when we look closely, we see its empty results: the destruction of our air, our water, our earth. We continue to pass down to future generations the responsibility of repairing what we have been systematically destroying. We have not been able to set an example for these future generations, teaching them how to shoulder responsibility, nor have we demonstrated much more than a single care about them. They see only a continuation of the same actions, of single-minded greed that keeps the current system intact and causes endless cycles of crisis.

This repetitive program results in a pattern of fear which is based on illusion, currently manifest as the profit turned in ‘paper’ transactions upon which our ‘free market’ society is based. This programming has become a source of control for the mechanisms of consumerism—its manipulation, calculation and deception. It has been instrumental in separating us from our selves, in giving power to someone or something—an entity—other than our selves.

How can the goal of the bigger house, the faster car, the gold, diamonds and pearls fill this emptiness within? The idea of more, more, more and guzzle, guzzle, guzzle can lead only to a repetition of history, where stock markets plummet and fear grips the world. It certainly hasn’t changed in this lifetime; we need look no further than the real estate crash of the ’80s, the dot-com crash of the ’90s, and now a combination of both monetary lending for real estate and commodities crashing today. Trillions of dollars have been said to have been lost on the global markets, and a single country is spending $700 billion to bail out those that continue this repetition of historic pirating.

The promise of ‘abundance’ has proliferated like nuclear missiles and weapons of mass destruction. In the end, it creates the same emotional reaction—fear—out of power, control, and an ‘I am better than you’ mentality. These ideas, no matter who discusses or promote them, whether it is Rhonda, Oprah, Jack, Bob or Phil, lead us down the path not only to earthly ruin, but to the ruin of humanity itself. It appears that the last bastion of the self—our soul—is becoming fodder for the markets.

Perhaps we are getting what The Secret and ‘The Law of Attraction’ promise, as there is never an action without a reaction.

It has been said there is enough for everyone on this earth. These works, which promote the manifestation of our materialistic desires by focusing on our intentions, lead only to a further exhaustion of all non-renewable resources and move us closer to the brink of extinction.

“We can have what we want” is the chant and chorus bombarding our senses. Do we need a 5,000 square foot home? Do we need a television for every room in the house? Do we need all those gas guzzling cars? They only serve to suck up limited resources and abuse the fertile soil we need to sustain our selves. We encroach upon the habitat of other animals without concern for their demise, only appreciating their monetary value. We continue to destroy the symbiotic relationship we have with this planet and all that exist upon it for the sake of power, control and materialistic gain.

Perhaps the better question is, “What do we need to exist?” No longer do we gather for the long winter. Instead we horde for the sake of hording and feed the illusion that this will give us a sense of identity, our desires creating a self image in a society lost on its path to light. The cycle of abuse perpetrated not only on this planet but upon ourselves has manifested itself in the form of the current economic turmoil—we reap what we have sown.

Originally, abundance and attraction were intended to enlighten, to instil a true sense of security and self. They are now being used against us. The plunder has reached into our most basic nature, raping our very souls. The sanctity of self is being prostituted, sold and re-sold as pretence of materializing the divine—an impossiblity, since it is an infinite expression of energy.

We continue to take an internal quest and externalize it in the form of materialistic goals, missing the point completely. The secret is not to manifest materialistic desires but to release them.

The secret is to know that abundance and wealth in physical terms are illusions. They are transitory; they are ‘no’ thing, not everything.

Take the opportunity to release these attachments and create a new world order that will manifest understanding and compassion on our path to light.

© T.S. (Tim) White, 2007

All rights reserved

www.TheSereneWay.com

The Silent Wait

The storm exists within the infinite sky: clouds ominous and dark billow and swirls toward the eye within, energies evolving through its simple movement whether manifested as light, sound, wind or rain.

Between the lightening strike and the crock of thunder’s roll is the silent wait, where the transition of energy is from light to sound then a return to nothing. The non-presence of no thing—the silent wait.

Within the silent wait there is only the potential to exhibit various forms of energy. It is expressed as light and sounds within the vortex of the storm, distance the regulator of our perception. No matter the speed of the transition, the silent wait always exists, for it is from here that all things manifest.

The storm continuously moves. It is through this movement the energies gather culminating in the wrath of the storm. Lightening strikes though it’s centrifugal movement, winds raging through its rotation, rain following the path of the storm. Yet, within is the eye is the infinite sky, always still and calm no matter what is happening in its periphery, silent to cause and effect.

Even between cause and effect, know that the silent wait forever exists.

In the breath—movement in and movement out—there is a pause between the change from inhale to exhale, again here is the silent wait. The same can be said for the beat of the heart—a beat, a pause—it is in the resting that we find the silent wait.

Electrical charges bounce along pathways to the brain, spinning towards receptor centres like the electrical charges of the storm expressed as lightening. Here in the brain there is a translation or a transition from electrical impulse—the cause—from the periphery to these centres which in turn has effect upon that same periphery, the body itself. This moment of transition or translation is the silent wait, where potential is yet to be expressed.

Energy is expressed based on movement whether it is physical as with the storm, the breath or the beat of the heart. It can also be expressed in the form of thought as illustrated by the electrical impulses within the brain that are translated into knowing or reaction, the cause and effect.

Cause and effect seem to continue incessantly always missing the silent wait, too wrapped up in its own mechanisms. Awareness of the silent wait wakens the observer—the witness—who has only potential. There is the ceasing any imposition of value or judgement. There is a moment of rest which comforts and holds.

The silent wait is between all, before and after everything, the point to which we all return even from the darkest recesses of the storm of our minds.

If cause and effect exist not in the silent wait then nor do bliss, joy, anger, resentment or struggle. Life becomes pure existence, pure potential with no walls or boundaries. The mind is calm, the wild beast is tamed, movement ceases as the waves of consciousness are quieted. The loss of self seemingly like paralysis, yet in no self is true existence, a deep current of expansiveness—One ocean, One life, One will.

The silent wait is freedom.

Live in the silent wait.

Be the silent wait.

©The Serene Way

T.S. (Tim) White

September, 2008

Tolerance, Acceptance & Understanding

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