P O I N T C O U N T E R P O I N T Mental Touchstones for the Searching Spirit by: K. Bradford Brown Introduction: Mental touchstones for the Searching Spirit These pieces, dedicated to the searching spirit, will speak to those who are engaged in what W. B. Yeats called: 'that endless research into life, death, God, that is everyone's reverie...' They may be seen as a point of reference, a touchstone in this search. The touchstone was once an instrument of alchemy, used to test the purity of gold. The word still carries the meaning of a measure, like a 'yardstick' or 'rule of thumb': a point by which the truth of our emotional and spiritual lives may be revealed. These pieces are short, aphoristic, yet they are not quite 'aphorisms'. Aphorisms offer a comforting banality, they please us because they confirm what we always thought we knew. In the search for knowledge, they evoke another kind of knowing. Like the classic Zen koan they have a disquietying, paradoxical quality which presents a challenge to our rationality, in a form our rationality cannot ignore. In the search for truth, they ring of the truth, yet they remind us of something contradictory about truth itself, which confronts our easy, everyday acceptance of the obvious. In the search for wisdom, they offer support. When you are struggling, they can make things seem simple. When you are feeling lost, they can bring you back to earth. And when you are feeling hopeless, they will make you laugh. As Ivor Cutler wrote: "Please, mister will you be my touchstone? Sitting by you sets me straight..." David Templer ******************************************************************************** I am indebted to the following mentors Men go out to gape at mountain peaks, at the boundless tides of the sea, the encircling ocean and the motions of the stars, and yet they leave themselves unnoticed; they do not marvel in themselves. --St. Augustine The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because we wish it to be so. --Louis Pasteur, 1876 ******************************************************************************** J O U R N E Y 3 Don't wait to be ready. Everything you need for this journey is available to you right now. ***** 4 Life's first commandment: Wake up. Life's intermediate commandments: Wake up. Life's last commandment: Stay awake! ***** 5 How is it that some people can live a lifetime and never ask who am I? ***** 6 It all ends and begins with death and resurrection exemplified in a thousand different forms and faces. Never didn't. ***** 7 Life is the greatest stimulant you will ever need! ***** 8 We have inadequate language to describe our experience of "it", because "it" is not yet our experience. ***** 9 If you get it it will be in spite of any method you use. That's how it works. And you need a method. ****** 10 When all else fails don't pray to God to fix it. He's not the local repairman, but the gremlin in the works. ****** 11 God comes to us in many disguises. Are you noticing which one He is wearing now? ****** 12 "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" means there is another order or dominion present that we are not noticing. That we do not notice does not excuse us from the consequences of acting or believing that no such thing exists. ****** 13 Our lives are based on compromises. In this domain it is either or. We are doing it or we are not. And there are no deals. ****** 14 It's easier when you trust the process whether you are being nailed to a cross or having your teeth pulled. ****** 15 God does not require us to be what we ought to be, but what he has already made us, and that is enough. ****** 16 Before you start any journey complete the last one, or you'll discover the old and new path are on an inevitable collision course. ****** 17 Love is the only way in and the only way out. ******************************************************************************** G I V E N S ****** 21 We have no true control over the outcome of anything important to us. ****** 22 People are where they are for the best of all reasons: they learned it. That's the bad news, and the good news. ****** 23 We're all in a box and the instructions for getting out are on the outside. ****** 24 Each new moment is an opportunity to begin, because we are always beginning anyhow. Blasphemy is our unwillingness to make the start, while we settle for all the good reasons we didn't or won't. ****** 25 God is that which we experience when we encounter life exactly as - it - is. ****** 26 For every inner awakening and growth step some sacrifice, some little death is required. ****** 27 At times life is packaged as suffering. You can escape it... by dying. ****** 28 Living for the truth, by the truth, under the truth, and within the truth is guaranteed to awaken you and keep you awake. It is also guaranteed to lose you a lot of friends, until you make some more for whom truth lives, like you. ****** 29 Most love isn't. ****** 30 What we like we call good. What we don't we call bad. Then we become little Gods, but with clay feet and dirty bottoms. ****** 31 My need of you is not my love for you. ****** 32 All negative emotions are results of lies we tell ourselves and are not noticing. ****** 33 The Prince of lies does not appear to rule the world. Have a closer look. ****** 34 In spite of what your mind may think, the holy of holies does not lie between your ears. A largely unbridled undisciplined mind does. ****** 35 Religion is man's invention. God is God's invention. ****** 36 An intention is a way of holding thing in my mind, a way of creating space for things to happen. Expectations create a claim on what will happen and unnecessarily prejudice the outcome. ****** 37 I have become my true intentions, and there is no excuse I can appeal to. ****** 38 It is difficult to understand God because He acts so much like Himself. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= O P P O R T U N I T I E S ****** 43 I am constantly defining myself anew in every life situation. How do I understand who or what I am now and now and now and... ****** 44 The choice is succumbing to your fate, or fulfilling your destiny. No choice is a choice. ****** 45 What is the greatest pain? To lose myself and fall back into self justification and blaming. ****** 46 I can't miss because the target is directly in front of me. If I don't take aim I become the target. ****** 47 It is very important to stop demanding. It is more important to notice I am. ****** 48 If you haven't experienced despondency despair and fear on the Path, you probably missed it a little ways back, and it's just ahead. ****** 49 Many of us will begin this work by simply learning to wipe our own behinds. ****** 50 Getting agreement from others about your condition is a narcotic you don't need. Sharing the state of your soul you cannot do without. ****** 51 If we would talk less about it, we would speak more of it. ****** 52 True enlightenment begins with unloading the truckloads of garbage we've been saving, thinking we could market it some day. ****** 53 We attract to ourselves exactly what we fear most, until we dispel the fear. ****** 54 The greatest gift God can give to us is the mirror. ****** 55 "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is fairest of them all?" Silly lady, when will you notice? It's not Snow White. ****** 56 Believing in God is a warm bath you don't need. Opening your heart to your enemy is a little death you can't do without, if you are to know the God you are believing in. ****** 57 Love doesn't cast out fear. Truth dematerializes it. ****** 58 All significant communication begins and ends with telling the truth. ****** 59 Opportunities fate destiny fearful at one knowing un-knowing external internal changin it living it future present then now resentful forgiving pleasure serenity self indulging disciplined no yes yes no things no-thing controlling letting be selective indiscriminate love me love you tight-fisted open-handed hope faith suspicious thoughtful closed-minded open-minded withdrawn expansive defensive exploring lying truth-telling demanding offering credit satisfaction ****** 60 Finding Him is not seeing Him. Seeing Him is not knowing Him, But loving Him is to know Him, see Him and find Him. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Q U E S T I O N S ****** 65 "Brother sun sister moon." What did Francis know that we don't? ****** 66 You are always in a relationship with God because everything is God was God will be God. Your concern is the quality of that relationship. ****** 67 If we are looking at red we can't see blue. How many other things can't we see because of what we are seeing? ****** 68 Contemporary wisdom reminds us that heaven is not "up there" or "out there." So, why don't we act like it? ****** 69 It is questionable that anyone knows what being truly spiritual is. It is a dictionary for each new generation to make in the light of contemporary history. ****** 70 Mother said, If you fell in a crap pile you'd come out smelling good. I certainly went to great lengths to prove her wrong. Didn't we all? ****** 71 It looks like we took a fall, did we? ****** 72 Most positive thinkers have not flushed their toilets... forgot they have plumbing like the rest of us. Have they lost their sense of smell as well? ****** 73 If no one knows what is truly right and wrong, good or bad, if it is true that it is we who are free to decide, don't we want the rule book back, and the chains? ****** 74 Why do we bless the food we eat which was blessed in its creation? Thanks would help... not the Creator but the receiver. ****** 75 When was the last time you rocked your baby? ****** 76 Who or what is crumbling your cookie is an important observation. Have you noticed what is on your hands lately? ****** 77 You love me when I do what you like. And when I don't? ****** 78 Spirituality is a joke God plays on us to see if we will get it. ****** 79 Have you noticed? Life is perfectly imperfect. ****** 80 When the inevitable onslaughts come, do not ask what shall I do but rather, what shall I be. ****** 81 If prayer or meditation is what the spiritual way is all about why didn't Jesus give seminars on prayer rather than getting hung on a cross? ****** 82 Everything is a metaphor. Question is: what is the metaphor for? ****** 83 Asking the right question is the doorway to the right answer. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= C H O I C E S ****** 87 Sometimes we can't see the way out or the way through, because this is the way. All that is needed is one more step, and then another and another... ****** 88 Every moment, every event, without exception is a test of our willingness to discover new willingness to discover the new possibility and act upon it. Always there is an implicit question: Are you willing? Now are you willing? And now? And now? And now? The question is implicit even as we draw our last breath. Are you willing? Even now? ****** 89 Some of your choices will create powerful consequences which will last a long time. Rejoice that a debt is being paid, and go on. ****** 90 When you conclude you have no options you can be sure you just lost a battle. ****** 91 Dead end: "Don't confuse me with the facts my theories about the Path are made up." ****** 92 While I shall always seek my own good, I can never be sure what it is. ****** 93 The desire for happiness will get you to the starting line, but not to the finish. ****** 94 The seeker may set off on his journey willingly. If he has no clear destination his willingness will lead him haplessly into the first snare. ****** 95 True change come through taking radical responsibility, not through hoping. ****** 96 Trying didn't get us to the moon or distant stars, nor, did it get us out of bed this morning. Worse, neither will it let us sleep in. ****** 97 The point is: you haven't done it until you've done it. And that's it. ****** 98 Remorse is the mind's devious invention to fool us into believing that we have turned from our misdeeds. Scratch remorse and its partner, anger, will bite your finger off. ****** 99 Righteous indignation seldom is. Look for it as a cloak for self-righteous revenge. ******* 100 The real change cannot be the ego working on itself. It requires the Truth revealing the Truth to the Truth within oneself. There is the further requirement to say yes. ******* 101 A spiritual seeker without a dream is like a knight without armour. Any dream will do for a while, but a highly polished one works best. ******* 102 Don't say you don't believe in God. You live and die for one every day. ******* 103 Beware the teacher who preaches peace and advocates killing to achieve it. ******* 104 An intention is a vision of something we want to manifest. It will be corrected modified and transmuted to give us exactly what we get. The masterful intention is to want exactly what we get. ******* 105 If you compare your internal movement with others, you won't have theirs, or yours. ******* 106 Life is evoking us to witness to what we know see and feel. If we do not it is very likely fear has won again. ******* 107 You can't be sure you are making the right choices, but no choice sure isn't the right one. ******* 108 Faith is another way of saying you'll get up in the morning and go for it. Faith in God is a way of saying it's not for no reason. ******* 109 The critical reality worth knowing: This is it. The critical question worth asking: Will I choose it? ******* 110 Love is not a feeling but a choice of gracious will. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- B R E A K T H R O U G H S ******* 115 Love offers no resistance, therefore it misses nothing. ******* 116 The connection between the heart and mind is clear. One enlightens the other... slowly. ******* 117 The love and enlightenment you rejoice about in others is the awakening of the same thing in you. How else would you have recognised it? ******* 118 When power is love, love is power. ******* 119 When I cease resenting, I end part of the Cold War between America and Russia. ******* 120 Loving is the heart's greatest sacrifice. ******* 121 Jesus... Jesus... jesus... Seeker's seeker. ******* 122 If you learn to die to yourself regularly and discover the meaning of resurrection, physical death will be just another one. ******* 123 I didn't know what it was to live until I died the first time to my conviction that I knew how things ought to be. Since then the work has been to remember. ******* 124 Our humanity and our divinity are married, when we are ourselves. ******* 125 Nothing this good can be this simple. Tell it to a sunset. ******* 126 I don't know about past lives but from what I know about this one, I want to make it count. ******* 127 Spiritual work begins with what you are and what you have with no regrets. The next step is to celebrate. ******* 128 Contrary to popular opinion, breakthroughs do not have to be ruptures. ******* 129 The real win is when people win with me. ******* 130 Each of us walks upon his own path each passing hour. Does a fish in the ocean seek the sea? Or the bird find its flight? It is only to awaken in the next moment with eyes to see "the path hath found thee". ******* 131 The hardest part is believing that it's all as simple as trusting how it is. ******* 132 You don't have to believe in God to believe in God no matter what "they" say. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= G I F T S ******* 137 Since you can't buy love, how about receiving it as a gift? Only your pride will hurt. ******* 138 You will come forth, as if from the grave, when your vision is great enough to awaken you. ******* 139 Because God is present in everything in every moment there is no eternal God to attain, only a yes to right now. ******* 140 The life you really want is a choice, and it takes exactly one second to have it. ******* 141 Bind me imprison me shut me up. I am still as free as I choose to be. ******* 142 No one knows what you should do or should have done, not even you. ******* 143 The ego is the freedom of the mind to select an alternative to God. ******* 144 Face it. If waking up is the prize, wouldn't life give you everything that is going on in your life right now to accomplish it? ******* 145 What's next is what's next. ******* 146 Your mental devils were once the best resources of your mind. ******* 147 When the sacred is secular and the secular is sacred, we will see another change. ******* 148 God's dominion is sovereign over all other domains of existence. The conditions and "rules" of this dominion transcend, supercede, and transform all others in its path. ******* 149 In this domain the darkness and the light are not different. ******* 150 The Spirit of God is upon you... never wasn't. ******* 151 You didn't go though all this for nothing. ******* 152 When we are clear we deliver ourselves from imagination, illusion and lies. Objectivity is at hand. Only then may we be truly free to create our lives and our world. ******* 153 There are no extraordinary people only ordinary people who do extraordinary things with what they have been given. ******* 154 If the only prayer you say in your life is "thank you", that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhardt