Richard`s Ponderings

Richard FoggRichard’s Ponderings is an occasional newsletter column where Richard shares his thoughts, feelings, and revelations on a wide range of topics that can stretch the mind and open the heart.

Richard’s Ponderings On:

Stranger Than Fiction

You see what you see when you see it and not a moment before. Duh, well of course you may say; this is rather self evident. Yet is it since we typically “see”, even visually, only partially through our eyes and largely through expectation and interpretation. As Mooji says, there is one planet yet there are billions of worlds since every person experiences the planet in their own unique way.

Ever looked for something that you really wanted to find yet were convinced, for whatever reason(s), wasn’t in that location or must be somewhere else? I remember my father on multiple occasions almost frantically asking me if I had seen his eyeglasses that I “triumphantly” announced were perched upon his head. It was rather amusing to me until I was unable to detect some prized item that I fervently wanted to find and was unable to see until my father returned the favour by pointing it out on the table right in front of me.

Realization is like this with one adage declaring “enlightenment to be the flash of the blindingly obvious”. This is my experience with a movie that I have watched half a dozen times so far, feeling drawn to it each chance I have to share it with a newbie. Stranger than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell in what I feel to be his best performance, features a wonderful cast in an offbeat comedy that unlike much of American comedy movies is in this instance played quite straight with the humour arising mainly through the unorthodox plot and the situations in which the unlikely hero Harold Crick becomes entangled.

Harold leads a stereotypical life of an IRS agent (at least in my perception): monotonous, boring, repetitive and highly mental. Early in the movie Harold’s activities are narrated for the audience with a twist, Harold increasingly becomes aware of the narration about his current, then future events. This is a journey of awakening to the wonder of life, a journey from his head to his heart, from reliance on outer authority to inner direction, and especially from egoic determination about the path of his life, to surrender to, acceptance of and alignment with higher purpose.

A WORD OF CAUTION: Don’t read the reviews or plot outlines: it tends to spoil the surprise. Relax, enjoy the movie and stay tuned for Part 2 in the next newsletter.

NEXT NEWSLETTER: My realization about the profound nature of this movie and what it indicates about the relationship of the ego to the soul and us in our ‘regular’ human existence to Higher Self and Source.

What Is Love? A Masculine Perspective

For me love is a fact of existence. There is only Source, The All; whatever name we choose to use to point to or make reference to the Originating Principle / First Cause / Source, and simultaneously “What Is” / the Manifest & Unmanifest Reality / All. “Love” for me is the reality that All is One. At this level, i.e. through words, “All is One” is (as Eckhart Tolle points out) only a nice concept that may have an associated feel-good emotion. Each must open, embrace and awaken to this themselves through their personal experience if the desire is to grasp this at the depth of our being; rather, than to simply know that this is true.

Love is always 100%. There are no degrees of love. The only apparent degrees of love rest in our willingness and ability to experience the truth of what love is. The emotional component of love arises out of the fact of what love is at its heart or foundational level and is felt or experienced on the personal level through the heart and emotional body. On a personal level, I have experienced love as the two who are one and yet are still two. When you are deeply in love with another and that being is in love with you there is no feeling of separation — only a feeling of togetherness or oneness — yet there is the cognizing that you both go about your individual days, as two individuated beings existing in the space of love.

A Note on ProofNo matter how thorough, exact or voluminous the evidence, proof can only be provided to one who is willing to accept the evidence as proof of an assertion. For me this rests on the understanding that acceptance is a personal choice. I find this knowledge helpful when communicating with others in that I feel my responsibility is to communicate my understanding as clearly as possible without holding the feeling of needing to convince the other that I am right / correct. This creates a greater feeling of openness to simply explore a topic without getting caught up in an egoic attempt to “come out on top”.

A Note on TruthThere is only “Source / The One / All” is not a new idea. Only through personal experience within can each of us realize the truth. Truth cannot be taught. True ideas / concepts can be taught regarding the relative realms of experience yet “The Truth” can only be opened into. It cannot be reasoned. In my world, insight comes from within through heartfelt desire, intention and grace. Ultimately, THE TRUTH for me is ALL THAT IS, i,e, Source. All else are only poor approximations and allusions to the ONE REALITY that is SOURCE.

Back to LoveAt the mental level of perception & experience the “two who are one and yet are still two” can appear as a paradox arising from the dual nature of experiencing “What Is” / Reality through the mental body or mind. When in the experience there is no paradox because all paradox only arises in the mental field and not in the greater Consciousness itself. When you are deeply in love with another and that being is in love with you there is no feeling of separation yet there is the cognizing that you both go about your individual days. Only in the mental realm is there a sense of “how can this be”, i.e. the two who are one and yet are still two.

In this regard, it may be helpful to draw a distinction between emotion and feeling. Although emotion and feeling seem to me to be generally used interchangeably, in my world emotion arises more in the energy bodies (and specifically in the emotional body / field) associated with this and the next dimensional level of experience; while feeling is more of a soul quality that underlies emotion and is typically experienced in a more subtle way. Feeling is like the seed that is the foundation of all personal experience. [ Much more could be explored about this but let’s do that another day. ]

On a transpersonal level, Love is — at least in my cognizing of my Enlightenment Intensive experience to the best of my current ability — a quality of Source / I AM that embraces the ability or potential of Source to individuate, differentiate and relate to Itself. In the simplest sense, individuation is something like giving birth or creating in the image of the creator, and differentiation is akin to imagining with thinking or the producing of thoughts being a highly restricted and limited form of imagining. “Relating to Itself” is like the notion of love on the human level except that human love tends generally to be experienced as an emotional bond between two beings. In a more transpersonal sense, love felt in relation to humanity or nature or Deity is approaching the living reality – at least in my world — of the various creatures and aspects being merely the stage names and “masks” of Source / I AM.

On an individual experiential level, Love has degrees and is experienced to different depths according to the ability of the individuated aspect of Source that is holding a perception / identity of a Self, , i.e. you,  to open to the reality of “What Is”. When in relation to another being, then the individual awareness of the reality of oneness, i.e. that there is nothing separating each from the other, is experienced as a deep feeling of ‘love’ in relation to that being. When this is expanded, especially as the identity of Self expands beyond the apparent confines of a body-centered sense of Self or flesh-encapsulated ego, then this love is felt as nonpersonal or transpersonal love. All the same Love since there is only one Love that can be experienced in different ways to different degrees. At least this is my current worldview.

In my opinion, if someone suggests that he / she can love another so much that “I would have to kill you if you ever left me, especially for another person”, this is not love at all but rather ego identification & attachment to another & to a concept of love. This is a dependent relationship, in my view. This is an ego’s concept of what love is. And the ego is entirely mind based. The ego can only conceive of love while not truly being able to experience love since love is not a concept & is entirely beyond concept. Concepts are, for me, boxes and it is not possible to ‘fit’ the infinite into any box no matter how large.

We can attribute many characteristics to love if we wish. Love is embracing, inclusive, nonjudgmental, expansive, feminine, etc. all of which simply arise out the fundamental nature of what love is. When one seeks to exclude, to attach, to attack, etc. then this certainly is ‘something’ but that something is not love — at least not in my world. On the other hand, these can be understood as arising out of a significant lack of experiencing the reality of love since for me love has no opposite. Some declare that fear or hate is the opposite of love and at a mental level only I can consider this as valid to me; however, from a more expanded level of perception, fear and hate are temporal and short-lived and tend to arise mainly or even only at lower vibrational levels of experience.

I am more in alignment with the understanding presented in the Course in Miracles:

“This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum.   It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.

This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.”

Until next time, May you all Thrive !

Richard Fogg 7 Feb 2015

Romancing The Soul:

Self-Preservation, Romance, Power & Money

For this installment of the newsletter I am focusing on one area that Monica & I covered for Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14 & 15 at Grail Springs called “Romancing Your Soul”. In future newsletters we will be sharing other aspects of the workshop, as we feel moved.

It has been our joy to explore many topics with our friend, Duke Redbird, Elder, Wisdom Keeper, Poet, Actor, and Director. One focus that arose quite regularly was the significant differences between indigenous & European cultural imperatives, i.e. the Europeans brought with them a perspective of the need for Self-preservation, Romance, Money & Power and attempted to enforce this outlook on the existing North American culture that had already existed in peace for 500 plus years (according to some modern estimates) with the perspective of Self-preservation & Romance being entirely sufficient for living in this world.

Self-preservation is perhaps obvious; however, it can be beneficial to be aware that the feeling of actual ‘need’ is quite easily confused with desire / preference; an example of which is that food is necessary for most people to maintain the body but for many they feel that they ¬must have their favourite food each day & can be quite perturbed if it is not available.

Romance (to me) may be broadly described as being in the Flow of Life moving in, through & around you & includes expressing creatively through love (of family, partner, community, nature, planet, Great Spirit, etc), art, dance, music, sensuality, sexuality, etc. I feel this as the dance of the Self in the world & am personally opening to this as best I am able each day.

In brief, desire for power & money arise (in my understanding) from a felt sense of lack within self. When Divine Spirit is understood & experienced as being in & all around self – not just animating the form but actually being All That Is in potential & manifestation & showing its face as the various forms – there is a feeling of deep connection (even a oneness) within & without. A natural desire to live in harmony & to respect all aspects of the One / Source is present as a living reality & not just as a good idea in the mind.

We invite you to share some of your favourite approaches & any comments, insights, etc. Thank you!

Live well & Be true to your heart.

 


Comments

Richard`s Ponderings — 2 Comments

  1. You sound like very spiritual individual Richard. However, what I would like to ask you is have you forgiven those who you feel have hurt your feelings in the past?

  2. Hello Richard, voice from the past David Bryan here. I hope yourself & Monica are doing well.
    I would love to have phone chat with you to catch up : 416-787-7577. Maybe you could email me david.b.bryan@gmail.com and we could set a time for a half hour call or so to catch each other up on news. I am no longer working in law, so my time is generally flexible both days and evenings.
    BTW, I do in fact have a Buzz Lightyear action figure to give you, following our prior discussion on the point.
    To Infinity, and Beyond !
    Your friend, David Bryan

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