Monstaville Book II. Chapter 36

36

 
We all have our problems 

Some BIG, some are small

Soon all of our problems

Will be taken by the cross

Black day, stormy night

No love, no hope in sight

Don't cry 4 he is coming

Don't die without knowing the cross

Ghettos 2 the left of us

Flowers 2 the right

There'll be bread 4 all, y'all

If we can just, just bear the cross, yeah

(Excerpt from ‘The Cross,’ my favourite song by Prince, from the album ‘Sign 'O' The Times,’ 1987).

I will endure the suffering patiently and, by not accepting your aggression/nastiness by reacting, I receive only a fraction of the negative energy you are creating in - and for - yourself.

Be one with the dust of the way,

Then you can't be controlled by love or by rejection.

You can't be controlled by profit or by loss.

You can't be controlled by praise or by humiliation.

- Laozi.

“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” - Zora Neale Hurston.

“He jerked himself violently to his feet.

                ‘Ford!’

                Ford looked up from where he was sitting in a corner humming to himself. He always found the actual travelling-through-space part of space travel rather tiring.

                ‘Yeah?’ he said.

                ‘If you’re a researcher on this book and you were on Earth, you must have been gathering material on it.’

                ‘Well, I was able to extend the original story a bit, yes.’

                ‘Let me see what it says in this edition then, I’ve got to see it.’

                ‘Yeah OK.’ He passed it over again.

                Arthur grabbed hold of it and tried to stop his hands shaking.

                He pressed the entry for the relevant page. The screen flashed and swirled and resolved into a page of print. Arthur stared at it.

                ‘It doesn’t have an entry!’ he burst out.

                Ford looked over his shoulder.

                ‘Yes it does,’ he said, ‘down there, see, at the bottom of the screen, just under Eccentrica Gallumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon 6.’

                Arthur followed Ford’s finger, and saw where it was pointing. For a moment it still didn’t register, then his mind nearly blew up.

                ‘What? Harmless? Is that all it’s got to say? Harmless! One word!’

                Ford shrugged.

                ‘Well, there are a hundred billion stars in the Galaxy, and only a limited amount of space in the book’s microprocessors,’ he said, ‘and no one knew much about the Earth of course.’

                ‘Well for God’s sake I hope you managed to rectify that a bit.’

                ‘Oh yes, well I managed to transmit a new entry off to the editor. He had to trim it a bit, but it’s still an improvement.’

                ‘And what does it say now? Asked Arthur.

                ‘Mostly harmless,’ admitted Ford with a slightly embarrassed cough.

                ‘Mostly harmless!’ shouted Arthur.

                ‘What was that noise?’ hissed Ford.

                ‘It was me shouting, shouted Arthur.

                ‘No! Shut up!’ said Ford. ‘I think we’re in trouble.’

                ‘You think we’re in trouble!’

                Outside the door were the clear sounds of marching footsteps.

                ‘The Dentrassi?’ whispered Arthur.

                ‘No, those are steel tipped boots,’ said Ford.

                There was a sharp ringing rap on the door.

                ‘Then who is it?’ said Arthur.

                ‘Well,’ said Ford, ‘if we’re lucky it’s just the Vogons come to throw us into space.’

                ‘And if we’re unlucky?’

                ‘If we’re unlucky,’ said Ford grimly, ‘the captain might be serious in his threat that he’s going to read us some of his poetry first…’”

- Douglas Adams (The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A Trilogy in Four Parts, William Heinemann Ltd, London, U.K., 1979, p.53-54).

Monstaville Book II. Chapter 35

35

“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.”

- George Washington.

Marcus Aurelius: Meditations (translated by Gregory Hays. Weidenfeld and Nicolson History, London, U.K., 2003).

p.73. 6:20. In the ring, our opponents can gouge us with their nails or butt us with their heads and leave a bruise, but we don’t denounce them for it or get upset with them or regard them from then on as violent types. We just keep an eye on them after that. Not out of hatred or suspicion. Just keeping a friendly distance.

                We need to do that in other areas. We need to excuse what our sparring partners do, and just keep our distance - without suspicion or hatred.

p.54. 5:2. To shrug it all off and wipe it clean - every annoyance and distraction - and reach utter stillness.

                Child’s play.

p.54. 5:3. If an action or utterance is appropriate, then it’s appropriate for you. Don’t be put off by other people’s comments and criticism. If it’s right to say or do it, then it’s the right thing for you to do or say.

                The others obey their own lead, follow their own impulses. Don’t be distracted. Keep walking. Follow your own nature, and follow Nature - along the road they share.

p.143. 10:37. Learn to ask of all actions, ‘Why are they doing that?’

                Starting with your own.

p.111. 8:49. Nothing but what you get from first impressions. That someone has insulted you, for instance. That - but not that it’s done you any harm. The fact that my son is sick - that I can see. But, ‘that he might die of it,’ no. Stick with first impressions. Don’t extrapolate. And nothing can happen to you.

                Or extrapolate. From a knowledge of all that can happen in the world.

p.112. 8:51. No carelessness in your actions. No confusion in your words. No imprecision in your thoughts. No retreating into your own soul, or trying to escape it. No overactivity.

                They kill you, cut you with knives, shower you with curses. And that somehow cuts your mind off from clearness, and sanity, and self-control, and justice?

                A man standing by a spring of clear, sweet water and cursing it. While the fresh water keeps on bubbling up. He can shovel mud into it, or dung, and the stream will carry it away, wash itself clean, remain unstained.

                To have that. Not a cistern but a perpetual spring.

                How? By working to win your freedom. Hour by hour. Through patience, honesty, humility.

p.113. 8:55. The existence of evil does not harm the world. And an individual act of evil does not harm the victim. Only one person is harmed by it - and he can stop being harmed as soon as he decides to.

p.114. 8:59. People exist for one another. You can instruct or endure them.

p.39. 4:6. That sort of person is bound to do that. You might as well resent a fig tree for secreting juice. (Anyway, before very long you’ll both be dead - dead and soon forgotten).

p.39. 4:7. Choose not to be harmed - and you won’t feel harmed.

                Don’t feel harmed - and you haven’t been.

p.39. 4:8. It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you - inside or out.

p.39. 4:9. It was for the best. So Nature had no choice but to do it.

[L] story: She was in a job with a bitch of a boss who wanted to know what she couldn’t do - her limits, her failings - not what she could do, to bring out her potential - in order to control her, to push her down. She had a chip on her shoulder and felt powerful by reducing another’s power through applying pressure on their limitations.

[F] story: People put us in a box. They want us to conform to their expectations. They are bitchy and gang up on us. They ignore or abuse people who are different, to whom they feel unable to relate. They want everyone to be the same so they can feel safe. They are scared of being challenged. They do not want to recognise the need to change or grow. There is no development mentally. Their bullying is all about their own subconscious insecurities. Rather than express their potential they seek to cut you down to size so there is nothing that reminds them why they are here on Earth.

"When you have made some serious (not minor) changes in your perception of life on Earth, your aura does change its vibration. This vibration is noticed by others, although they don't know why. It's just that you seem to ‘no longer fit’...and you DON'T. You are spiralling up and away from 3rd density Earth. They are spiralling DOWN into the Dark plot. You will find you irritate them by no longer conforming. Minor quirks are tolerable, but you are vibrating to a new, higher reality, and they don't like it. If you find people going out of their way to be vile to you, ignoring you, talking about you behind your back or confronting you for seemingly minor things, don't worry. Take it as an indication you're proceeding as your Higher Self wants you to. It isn't easy. You WILL lose 'friends'. Of course if they ever REALLY were your friends, they would not be put off by the new you. You can lose 'family' (I lost ALL of them).

                This shows you that although blood may be thicker than water, spirit is stronger than blood for you are NOT your body. YOU are not your incarnation for it is the clothing you chose to wear in this lifetime, no more, no less. There are a few others (very few in relation to the population of the planet) who are experiencing what we are going through. They are scattered all over the planet. When the shift comes, all of the new vibrating beings will advance while those who resist REAL change, inner change, will get to continue this farcical Game. The thing is, once you've reached a certain level, although you can miss the company of those who've chosen not to associate with you any longer, it's not the emotional wanting most people associate with a loss. It's more of a 'well, that's too bad, but I gotta do what I gotta do' attitude. The more your Higher Self kicks in, the more the real YOU kicks in, the quicker you advance. It always pays to look forward, not backward. Let the dogs howl and snap at you. You're on the rocky road. Once you've come to a point on that road, the dogs can no longer try and hinder you..."

                - Val Valerian (‘Changes in You,’ excerpt from Matrix 5 Gold Edition, Volume 1, Leading Edge International Research Group, www.trufax.org/matrix5/welcome.html).

“This is why, when people start on the spiritual journey, the reason that they start to walk the journey, that all hell breaks loose in their life, that structures break down in their life and they think, ‘Crikey, if this is spiritual…’ I remember me, when I started on this route, my life broke down in so many ways, I thought, ‘If this is spirituality, you can stuff it. I don’t want to know. Why does this happen to people? Because, when you put out your intent, ‘This is what I want to achieve,’ that intent energy will always draw towards us what we need to achieve that intent. So, if we’re going to reconnect with the cosmos then that intent will draw to us the experiences necessary to achieve that.

            What we need to do to achieve that connection is to clear out that cess pit level of low vibration. And so we draw into our lives people, experiences, what have you, that make sure that we can no longer do that, that this has to come out and be processed. And we have to clean out this emotional debris that’s disconnecting us from who we really are.

            If we’re prepared to walk this journey, take a step back and realise that it’s actually an experience that is going to set us free rather than a really negative bad thing or at least something to do with the fact that we’re not good people – must have done something terrible in a previous life; I hear that all the time – these challenges are to help set us free by clearing us out. It’s important we understand that.”

- Author unknown (from the web: I lost the address!).

Toir: Communications One to Nine. (Gemstone Press, London, U.K., 1999).

p.52. It is just this that your Christian teaching does not seem to understand, for a person cannot commit what is called a sin against another, one can only commit a sin against oneself. What is committed upon others is offence and what you call stigma. And if you have built and amassed antagonisms in yourself, and then you can’t find others to put them on, they will work against you, yourself, and cause you, unbeknown to you, to massacre your own temple. So we who try to help and understand you say, don’t massacre, but do MASS-A-CARE.

p.57. When you are angry you are senseless; when you are senseless you stand against all the good in you; when you stand against the good in you, you give empire and control to the lower and the wrong. These workers of iniquity glutton upon you, and squeeze out the good of you in the intensification of your physical faculty - when your eyes glare and your ligaments tighten - when everything gets overintensified, and violence, in one form or another, exudes from you, making every action an indignity to existence, Creation and yourself.

p.63. You often say in your world, ‘I do not like this person or that person,’ and we have learnt that what this means is that they do not fit into what you want, which for you is I WANT. See that if you take millions of I WANTS, all based in different ideas, manners and conceptions, your possibility lies in your finding, amongst these mad millions, a madness that doesn’t prevent your own madness from growing stronger and stronger.

                All this we see you cannot change, but let us now say to you, need you deal in it, partake of it? Can you not build and cause in yourself a history of fairness and stability, where you receive what you earn?

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti: meaning of the shanti mantras (of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi) by Vedarat.

The mantras chanted in Amma's ashrams at the end of arati and archana are called shanti mantras. Therefore to conclude each one, ‘shanti,’ which means ‘peace,’ is chanted three times. As a spiritual aspirant, one chants shanti in desire for the occurrence of circumstances conducive to a spiritual education. But these mantras can be chanted for peace in a general sense as well. Shanti is chanted thrice not for emphasis but because disturbances are of three distinct categories. In Sanskrit, these are referred to as adhi-daivikam, adhi-bhautikam and adhyatmikam.

Adhi-daivikam literally means ‘mental disturbances that come from God’ - i.e. things that are utterly beyond our control: hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunamis, etc. We have no control over these types of disturbances. So when we say the first shanti, we are praying, ‘O God, may we be protected from these obstacles that are beyond our control.’

Adhi-bhautikam literally means ‘disturbances that come from the world.’ That means anything stemming from the world around us - mosquitoes, noisy neighbours, barking dogs, the phone ringing, family arguments. As opposed to the first category, we have some control over this second category of disturbances. We can use mosquito repellent, we can call the police on our neighbours, we can turn off the phone, we can leave the place altogether, etc. So this shanti means, ‘O God, may we be protected from the people and surroundings.’

The third type of disturbance is the most powerful and, at the same time, the only one over which we have total control. Adhyatmikam means ‘disturbances stemming from the self.’ For one who is still identified with the ego, the people, places and things of this world stimulate one of two reactions in the mind - attachment or aversion. Whether we physical see someone we consider our enemy as we walk down the street or remember him during meditation, the mental turbulence that results is the same. Lust, jealousy, anger, sorrow, hatred destroy our peace. During meditation, pleasant memories also distract us. Hearing the sound of a jet plane flying overhead may mentally carry us off to a fabulous holiday we once took. Only after 10 minutes of daydreaming do we realise we have lost focus on our object of meditation.

In fact, Amma says that the ego is the only true obstacle to mental peace. This third shanti is therefore the most important one, because even if we are free from outside disturbances, if the inner realm is not calm we will never know peace. Conversely, once we have found inner peace, no external force can ever disturb us. So chanting this third shanti is akin to praying, ‘O God, please remove all the inner obstacles.’

There is one more element to the three-fold chanting of ‘shanti,’ and that is the silence that follows each repetition. If chanted properly, this silence is the emphasis: shanti…shanti…shanti…

This silence is representative of true peace, the peace of an Enlightened One like Amma. For the spiritual seeker, peace is the goal. For an Enlightened One peace has been realised as his very nature. To have equipoise in every situation in life verily is realisation.

(www.archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/mantra/shanti.php).

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi (AKA ‘the hugging saint’) sings a traditional Indian song on David Sylvian’s album Dead Bees On A Cake (1999). The song - ‘Praise’ (Pratah Smarami) is so beautiful that I have played it on ‘repeat’ over and over again many times, unable to turn it off! Sylvian has explained that the underlying theme of the album is ‘devotion’ and dedicated it to his teacher: “With immense love, gratitude and humility I offer this work at the feet of my beloved Amma.”

A few statements from Jeshua and Jayem a friend wrote down at The Way of the Heart Festival, 27 September 2010:

“Full embodied acceptance...”

“Be fully present with what is...”

“As the awakened Christ what do I choose to transmit to humanity?”

“What frequency would I most desire, as Christ, to send to the heart of this beautiful soul?”

“A friend is one who deliberately gives the whole of their being to seeing you only as the light of Christ Itself and holds you in this frequency for all eternity...”

“Genuine Mastery is when you are no longer compelled in any direction - you are at rest...at peace...in the present moment.”

“I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.” – Groucho Marx.