Releasing the Floating World, or Happy New Year, Japan-style

All tatted up and no place to go.
Images of "The Floating World"
have always been popular 
themes  for Japanese tattoo 
artists.

In the Floating World, Yet Not of It

         Every winter before New Year's me and my mom used to thoroughly clean the house for the coming new year, what "spring cleaning" is to Western culture.  Then we'd sit around drinking green tea, eating rice balls, and we'd pretty much call it a year.   

        In fact, "cleansing" is a big theme in Japanese culture all throughout the year due to Japan's Buddhist and Shinto background.  The reason for this is the underlying theme in these spiritual paths is that individuals are not to get attached to "The Floating World" that surrounds them.

         The Floating World is just going to pass away, like waves of a river flowing past us, so we're advised to keep ourselves dry and safe on a spiritual river bank of mental/emotional "detachment" and "equanimity."  From that vantage point, we just observe wave after wave of the ephemeral phenomena of that world float by, without getting swept away by it, without getting drowned in it.

Song in the Key of Sting: The Lazarus Heart

Remake yourself.

 

Uploaded by Деян Желязков

For a friend.  Yay, you did it.  <3

The Lazarus Heart

He looked beneath his shirt today
There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide
But from the wound a lovely flower grew
From somewhere deep inside. . . .

"Sirius" Film About Alien Disclosure, Trailer

From Neverendinglight Productions:

Friends and Supporters,

        We are contacting you today to personally thank you for all of your support and generosity throughout the campaign. It is because of your hard work that we have the resources to finish this ground breaking documentary.

Do It Anyway...

Found this floating around Face.

Frank Zappa at Work

Original article titled, "The Clonemeister Speaks"

Source:  http://www.science.uva.nl/~robbert/zappa/interviews/clonemeister.html


I stumbled upon this obscure article this morning about the late musician and composer, Frank Zappa (b.1940 - d.1993).  It provides a snapshot into the creative process of an artist who knew what he wanted, and didn't care what people thought.  I love studying process, how different people get things done.  May we apply this kind of uncompromising focus to all our endeavors.

Be a Maestro at Work

        Frank Zappa's daily work schedule was legendary, consuming nearly every waking moment.  Almost as grueling was the rehearsal schedule he set for his band, which amounted to eight hours a day when they were preparing for a tour.  After bassist Arthur Barrows' first tour with the band in 1978, Zappa bestowed upon him the title of Clonemeister, which carried with it the awesome responsibility of running rehearsals in Frank's absence.  Here Barrows recounts some Mothers stories and reveals his, uh . . . advanced rehearsal techniques:

Good Advice from Bob Olson About Predictions in Psychic Readings

http://www.afterlifetv.com/

        "Really it's about training us to trust our own inner wisdom. That can be the power of having a reading with a psychic..And I know this might sound silly coming from me, but this is what it's all about: get to the point where you don't need to have readings anymore...working with practitioners in this way can just be a stepping stone to us learning to trust our own inner wisdom and not needing a third party, like a psychic, to tell us about our lives anymore. We all have the ability."     -Bob Olson

       As with any endeavor, it’s good to do as much research on the psychic reading process as possible before investing time and money into it.  Watching videos like this is a good start.  As one who has both received readings from others and given readings professionally, I find Bob’s advice quite solid.  What reader hasn't repeated many of these points in the past?  In fact, I'm sure most would like to see this video plastered on billboards all over the place to save their breath, lol.  I'd make that happen, but it's not in my budget at the moment, so this blog'll have to do. 

"Hello.  You want a choc-late?...I don't
know if we each have a destiny, or if 
we're all just floatin' around accidental-
like on a breeze...I think maybe it's both."

        Note especially the comment about the problem with being "in denial." (@9min:52sec).  This is a fear-based reaction we all experience occasionally, and it tends to bottleneck our spiritual growth.  Another good point, please note the comment about being open to several "messages" from diverse sources confirming an accurate prediction  (@22min:00sec).  I, personally, have a "3rd time's the charm" policy with myself before I take any prediction seriously, even my own.

About the Heart, Did You Know?...

Ruth and the Angels

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'"So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn

there's vultures and thieves at your back...
In the arms of the angel, may you find some comfort here."

My Angel, My Friend

        I miss my friend Ruth.  She and her husband are globe trotters, and at times I lose track what country she's in at the moment.  Lately, I've really wanted some lightness in my life, and it's times like this when I hear my own spirit guides say to me, "Elisa, it's time to go get The Book."

Meditation in Prisons: The Dhamma Brothers & Doing Time, Doing Vipassana

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We exercise the body, we steal, we run.  

But no one taught us how to exercise the mind.

                                  --Inmate/Vipassana practitioner

        Below is a full-cut presentation of an award-winning documentary called, Dhamma Brothers, which chronicles a groundbreaking Vipassana meditation program created for a group of America prison inmates.

Click on this image for a link to Netflix to view the film:

For further information, visit:  

The Dhamma Brothers links page

Just Imagine...

        Please note:  This is not meant to be a pro-Obama plug on my part.  I like the message of the lyrics and the performance of the talented, young singer, so here it is. 

In the Words of Will: A Solution to America's Food Problem

by Will Allen

"My vision is to have this world [where] everybody 

has access to good food.  It's something we should 

always be working on, so my work [exists] to

help make that happen."    --Will Allen

The State of Food in America

        Over the past century, we allowed our agriculture to become more and more industrialized, more and more reliant on unsustainable practices, and much more distant from the source to the consumer. We have allowed corn and soybeans, grown on the finest farmland in the world, to become industrial commodities rather than foodstuffs. We have encouraged a system by which most of the green vegetables we eat come from a few hundred square miles of irrigated semi-desert in California.

Pratyahara, and Unplugging from Haters

         When Haters Are a Good Thing

       Once, a colleague of mine did a reading for this person.  As we talked afterward, I could really see this person's troubling energy dynamic, just as my reader friend saw it.  This person was bright, beautiful, and talented ...and inundated with haters.  I mean, you could see the vampiric energy taking bites all over this person's auric field, mainly from the solar plexus chakra area, the seat of our self-esteem energy.

Dreamworking: Introduction

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A Dragon in the Halls

Artist: chrysaetos-pteron

        Here's one good reason to pay attention to your dreams:

        I had a dream years ago that a hungry, 6-foot dragon was slithering throughout the halls of the business for which I had recently began working.  The strange thing was, I was seeing through its eyes as it walked.  I was looking for "more," as though trying to feed a raging addiction of some sort.  I could feel this addictive need surging through my body.
 

On Alignment with One's Purpose, and Relieving Suffering

An excerpt from a speech made by comedian, Jim Carey
at the inaugural event for GATE (Global Alliance for 
Transformational Entertainment)

June 4, 2009 

       I was two people my entire life:

       I was in the living room, entertaining people, being a monkey, doing my thing for the company...

       ...and I was always trying to relieve my mother, who was suffering.  She had arthritis, flubitis, and everything under the sun that was nagging at her...she was depressed. 

On Eating Crow, and the Four Levels of Knowing

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It's OK not to know, until you do know --and you will know; 

the Universe always answers questions we throw at it, 

just (sometimes) not at our desired rate of response.  

It may be days, weeks or even years before the answers 

reach us.  But they reach us.

Mmm, mm.  Dig in.

        John Ellis, an affable, congenial drawing teacher I had in college, lectured one day about The Four Levels of Knowing.  He applied the concept to drawing, but I have found that in fact, it is applicable to all of life, really.  In all things there are levels of understanding, some shallower, some deeper.  In my travels through The Rabbit Hole, I have found this a very helpful philosophy when it comes to the metaphysical world, where like Alice, one confronts people and phenomena that all seem quite hard to believe.

My Experience Doing Angel Card Readings

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Angels in a Box

        I've never been one of those "angel people," never had a bunch of angel-this-and-that littering my world: angel wind chimes on the porch, angelic wallpaper on my desktop, gaudy angel t-shirts, angel posters on the wall...never been my thing, still isn't.

        And I'd describe myself in a lot of ways, but angelic would probably not be at the top of the list.  Not sure why, then, I felt compelled to buy Doreen Virtue's Healing with the Angels Oracle Cards one day, other than mere curiosity  –it seemed I had been seeing, feeling, communicating with and dreaming of them almost daily.

        But, at that time there was no way I would have told anyone about this.  I thought I was imagining these things.  Initially, I filed these experiences away in my ever-growing mental file folder, "Yet Another Weird Thing in My Life."   And that was that.

When Groups of Beings Work as One Mind

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        I've observed that groups of sentient energies will sometimes work as one consciousness.  I don't mean work "together," I mean they speak and act as one, single mind.  Here are a couple examples.

It was on an episode of his show, Beyond,
which aired some years ago, that I noticed 
the angels working  with him.  There are 
other interesting things about James I will
write about in future articles. 

Healing with the Angels

        One day, I was casually watching a video of James Van Praagh speaking to an audience, doing readings, his usual work.  I had to do a double take of the video when I noticed two, tall  angels (for lack of a better description) standing on either side of him.

Dr. Oz on How Mediumship of John Edward Changed His Life

by Micheal Logan of TV Guide

Published March 14, 2011

"I've learned in my career that there are times

when science just hasn't caught up with things,

and I think this may be one of them."

                                                  --Dr. Oz

        As a rule, the worlds of western medicine and psychic phenomena just don't mix, but that's not the case on Tuesday's installment of The Dr. Oz Show. Oprah discovery Mehmet Oz will welcome famed psychic medium John Edward, who claims to relay messages from the dead, and the two men will discuss how connecting with the afterlife can be therapeutic for those in grief.

The Old Religion in Japan

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The fox spirit, or kitsune, carries out the 
will of the onmyouji, was a messenger to 
the divine realm, and could be a shape-
shifting trickster.

          I recently stumbled upon the following article posted by "ren" back in 2004 on a religion website.  I have edited the text some, so it flows a little better.

          In the article, ren makes a point-by-point comparison between Japanese witchcraft and Wicca, the neo-pagan religion founded in the 20th century, based on ancient European spiritual practices.

          I found it interesting because witchcraft isn't often spoken of with regard to Japanese culture.  As Christianity had in the West, Shintoism and Buddhism trumped the Old Religion in the Land of the Rising Sun ...but its vestiges remain.

          Here is the article:

_____________________________________________________

Abhyasa

Just because I can't do it today, doesn't mean 
I'm not going to be able to do it someday.

abhyasa: repetition; practice
abhyasa yoga: the yoga of persistent practice
--Glossary of Sanskrit terms

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Adult Children of Addicts

.

          I guess this theme is still on my mind since my last post, On Souls Slipping Away, Addiction, and the Death of Whitney Houston.  In that post I mention how people raised by and around addicts may have developed coping strategies that no longer serve them in their lives presently.  The dynamics of addiction don't only apply to alcoholism. Any addiction can be hurtful to the well-being of a family, such as sexual, gambling or narcotic addictions. Despite the circumstances, the impact is always similar and the self esteem and coping strategies of the adult child of an addict are negatively affected.

On Souls Slipping Away, Addiction, and the Death of Whitney Houston

Bittersweet memories, that is all I'm taking with me.

So, goodbye ...please, don't cry.

 

Whitney Houston, 1963 - 2012

It is said we undergo a life review upon our transitioning

back to the spirit plane ("death"), which makes this video 

all the more haunting now, as Whitney's character in the 

"The Bodyguard" watches scenes of her life flash by.  

And the imagery is also quite poignant to me personally, 

in light of a dream I had once...

The "door" of the airplane in my dream

was actually a noren, fabric hung

in doorways and windows in Japan,
like this one in a small apartment.  They 

represent a change in venue, literally and
metaphorically.

Death as an Airplane Trip

          Singer Whitney Houston, who passed away today, is taking a long trip in Spirit to what some call the "life between lives."  The internet of course is plastered with news of her death, and  today when I saw the video above embedded in a news report, it reminded me of a dream I had about my mom many years before she passed to spirit.  It was one of those uncanny dreams, the kind where you're pretty shaken up when you awaken, and it stays on your mind for weeks, maybe months ...or in this case, years.  It was that kind of dream.

Change is Gonna Come: Gwen Olsen and Jennifer Shaw Expose the Pharmaceutical Industry

This song, recorded by Sam Cooke in the late 1960s, is relevant today:

As the need for change in racial segregation was Cooke's theme then, 

so might the need for change in abusive practices of Big Pharma be an

an interpretation of the song now. A change needs to happen.

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The familiar format for fear-inducing, 
late-night drug infomercials: "If you 
feel like this, then get these pills
right away!" 

          One of the most insidious, "hidden in plain sight" crimes against humanity right now, in my opinion, is the damage done by drug corporations and their cohorts, especially in America.

        I first noticed something weird going on many years ago, when commercials advertising  drugs began popping up regularly on television.  The commercials usually describe a litany of symptoms the viewer is "probably" suffering from.