Who stole and sold that book? I never finished it. I wonder if Libby or Cheney stole it? I hope they read it before they hock it at the pawn shop.

I attribute that to Barry Stevens who wrote, “Don’t Push the River [It Flows By Itself]”, but she may have been quoting Fritz Perls in that book when she used the phrase…..can’t remember as I read it decades ago.
Barry’s son John Stevens, later known as Steve Andreas [he took his wife’s last name when they married] wrote a wonderful book simply titled “Awareness” back in the early ’70’s which contains a richness of exercises for practicing sensorial awareness and thus escaping the tyranny of the illusions of one’s mind.

Moonbat, you made my morning with this post. Thanks. I’ll go out and build a fence today with a bit more enjoyable awareness than usual.

This time when I read the comments of both I finally experienced the phrase “both and, not either or”, as opposed to just the thinking of it. Andrew’s articulation of his faith (which I do not share) and the comfort it brings him seemed valid in that it serves him well. I got that it is powerful whether it is literally true or not. He has found meaning and depth through a particular narrative and in that context it is valid.

Harris’ voice is also important as it calls us back to reasoning and our own analysis of the mystery. I am not given to belief in the supernatural, and therefore, thoughtful observation is in itself grounding. His voice is a necessary counter-balance to the way-right drum beat that is pervasive in my neck of the woods.

BTW for over a year now I have listened to Tolle on CD on the way to work;15 - 20 minutes of him several times a week really helps me come out of (as he says) my mind made little me, my story where things are not as I want them and produce frustration that pulls me out of the now.

Really nice post Moon. I appreciate it very much.

For many of us, the beginning of wisdom was some dark night of the soul, when all assumptions are shattered and all the props are kicked away. And there you are, alone with yourself. The choice is to either look into yourself for insight or run away from yourself for something new to cling to.

But I think a lot of these hothouse flowers who are making our national decisions have never had that moment. They are utterly un-self conscious.

I am thinking of David Brock’s book “Blinded by the Right.” He was a right-wing shill writer who for a time was unconscious of his own dishonesty. Somehow he went through a waking up process and began to discern fact from fiction and see the sham he was living in.

Be sure to read this Peter Birkenhead article, if you haven’t already –

Let’s face it, George Bush doesn’t have to doubt himself, any more than Donald Trump or Tom Cruise or Mitt Romney do. We live in a culture where they will never be forced to examine their prejudices or flaws. Of course, they have been denied the true confidence of people who are brave enough to face their doubts and who know there are worse things than feeling insecure. Like, say, feeling too secure. Pumped up by steroidic pseudo-confidence and anesthetized by doubt-free sentimentality, they are incapable of feeling anything authentic and experiencing the world. But that hasn’t stopped them, and won’t stop others, from succeeding in a society that is more enamored of a non-reality-based conception of leadership than previous generations were.

“Even if there’s just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It’s not about our analysis, It’s about our response.”

That pretty much encapsulates the unconsciousness to me. It circumvents reasoning in a most insidious way. It leads to manic thrashing since there are thousands of equally unlikely but sinister possible outcomes. Listening to this stuff only makes curing up into a warm ball all the more inviting.Fearing everything leads to doing nothing or abdicating will to the first person who promises to deal with it all.

Each comment about the candidates well-stated platform was met with a comment about how he won’t win. The exchanges went on for some time and an admission of “you might be right” was eked out of me but I just like to consider all opinions and pay those with plausible ones some modicum of respect.

I made some tongue-in-cheek remark about the soppiness of the idea of voting one’s conscience and taking ones vote as an expression of one’s deepest hope.

It just seemed to be a good example of dwelling on a plane of consciousness that sought to divorce or even shield the sentient self from the effects of actions…as opposed to embracing the effects of actions.

I find it curious when ordinary Joes abdicate participation as they assume the role of analyst, concluding nothing on the basis of personal values.

“It’s my belief that out of the ashes of the destruction of the current order, a new human race is being born, one whose level of consciousness will be quite different from what created the current order based on fear, which is the basis for the ego. In another hundred or two hundred years, there are going to be a lot of enlightened people on this planet. ”

That is worthy of hope. Who knows how the world is really perceived by fresh young minds? Minds taking their first look at the mess that exists today. How will they respond to what surely must be perceived in a negative light? Practically, I hope.

I keep going back to soppy ideals and how maybe just because no one told them it would be difficult, many fresh, inquiring minds will ask why peace is not possible and reject our inculcated delusion that it can be no other way.

The unconsciousness of Bush to which you refer is but a widespread delusion that we are powerless and have no effects. It is all them, the evildoers and therefore we have no choice. There can be only one avenue. It is downright seductive in a twisted way with the ease in which thinking is relegated to a negligible role.

Take Cheney’s One Percent Doctrine