Asheville Spirituality, Satsang, Meditation

January 2010 Blog Posts (17)

Why Ask Why?

Over the past few years (since around 2006 or so), I have been in an off and on state of mentally describing my discoveries on the topic of enlightenment, or awakening, or self-realization, or whatever word turns you on the most. I have found that as I begin to see through the illusory nature of the world, I begin to mentally talk about it. The mental movement comes from the idea or feeling that “This must be shared,” which is something I’m sure I’ve shared with you before.

This… Continue

Added by Trey Carland on January 31, 2010 at 12:23pm — No Comments

THE MANUFACTURING OF OUR MEN

Written on and in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday

Just outside Red Hook, St. Thomas, USVI

Draft Version 1.5

© 2010 Howard McQueen

OUR MEN,

society manufactures and churns them out in droves.

The production line begins

with the anger and rage of fathers

rained down on their male children,

a constant barrage of obedience,

fealty, patriarchic control,

this breeding ground for Spartans,

culling and selecting

for… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 19, 2010 at 6:00pm — No Comments

DIVINE UNITY

Beachside, the Ritz Carlton, outside of Red Hook, USVI

© 2010 Howard McQueen

What is personality

but a bunch of contrived

loosely strung together programs and habits,

designed to perpetuate,

prop-up and propel the manufactured “me”.

This me, creating and sustaining the illusion,

the semblance of exterior continuity and consistency,

in support of ever-shifting transient goals

wrapping around some vague, pre-packed and misunderstood… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 19, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

IGUANA FOR LUNCH?

St. Thomas, USVI

© 2010 Howard McQueen

My beachside Caribbean waitress and I agreed,

my Caesar salad was really quite tasty.

We are both staring at my empty plate.

I offer “the dog got most of it”.

She politely suggests “iguana” as

the more likely culprit,

and the moment is again,

magically

transformed,

as two enter into the dance of life.

May there be magic and mystery lurking,

waiting patiently in… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 15, 2010 at 5:18pm — No Comments

THE WHIMISAL LINEAGE IN THE NAME ROCINANTE

Tuesday January 12, 2010

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

The sun has recently set,

the sky shifting to a steely blue-black,

lots of stars now visible straight overhead.

Silvery white clouds seemly harvesting

the last glimmering rays of the sun,

bringing a friendly Casper-the-ghost blanket effect

to the rugged mountains below.

I am laying on my back, looking straight up.

There are vertical structures,

these tall, skinny, limbless… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 15, 2010 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Eckhart Tolle on "Gratitude"

We are talking about a deeper gratitude. There are more superficial forms of gratitude, and that is not what we are talking about. By that I mean, to be grateful that someone else is worse off than you are… sometimes that is a source of gratitude. People say “Oh I really should be grateful, because look at this person – they are worse off than I am, so I should be grateful.” That’s not the true gratitude, that’s the gratitude that is arrived at through thinking, where you compare yourself to… Continue

Added by Cullen Anderson on January 13, 2010 at 9:29am — No Comments

WINTER’S GRIP ON DEPRESSION

© 2010 Howard McQueen

It is a blustery Sunday morning,

white caps forming on the Intracoastal.

Pelicans vigorously pumping their wings

seeking to gain ground,

flying into a raw

nor’eastern wind.

Deep blue outdoor umbrellas tightly wrapped,

the water, a dullish grey-green cast

reflected off of a hazy, mostly cloudy,

weakly brushed sky.

Cold surfaces: glass windows, tiled floors;

radiating a cold that seldom… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 11, 2010 at 9:00am — No Comments

HERITAGE WITHIN SPIRIT

© 2010 Howard McQueen

The rainbow of addictive behaviors;

instant gratification,

self-centered destinations,

one-way tickets to desolation,

uncovering the gold beneath awakened suffering.

The dawn of re-discovering awareness

that spirit is what

brings the glow,

adds the radiance,

is the flow of life force

animating our flesh.

Flesh is our sacred home.

Flesh, organically grown

from the shared DNA of all earth… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 8, 2010 at 10:02am — No Comments

EVOLUTIONARY PROCLIVITIES

CLOTHED IN OUR FORMS, YET AGAIN

This, the Seventh Day of our Awakening, 2010

Writing from West Palm Beach Shores

© 2010 Howard McQueen

Right there, in the fold

of the form and the formless.

I am there.

So are you.

We are intertwined.

Separate,

yet also connected.

Putting on faces

crowding into subways

exchanging glances across the park.

Here we are, always

in the fold

between form and… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 7, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

Habits of Mind

“Our ordinary sense of practical reality…is a construct of socialized conditioning and repression, a system of selective inattention whereby we are taught to screen out aspects and relations within nature which do not accord with the rules of the game of civilized life.” - Alan Watts – from This is It

While meditation is commonly understood to be a practice of calming the mind with certain techniques, and entering into a self observant, relaxed yet very alert awareness, in… Continue

Added by Bill Walz on January 3, 2010 at 5:56pm — 1 Comment

ARTISTRY AND SERVICE TO THE AWAKENING

On this second day of the Awakening, twenty-ten

© 2010 Howard McQueen

There is a moment in one’s journey

of waking up

when we real-eyes

everything that came before us

has been used to

champion

and quicken

our opening,

our awakening.

This is,

all at once,

incredibly

REVEALING …

TRIGGERING

an emptying out

of the rest of what was

personally held… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 3, 2010 at 10:00am — No Comments

EVOLUTION ACCELLERATION

(c) 2010 Howard McQueen

The distilled wisdom of the ages

is accessible,

as are the teachers,

ready to guide you -- to transform this YOU

as deeply

as is

your passion.

to let go

of everything

you know,

about yourself

and the world

as you once knew it.

It is more than a bit disorienting.

Best to get re-oriented soon.

Come step into the flow.

We are all in this together.

There are many ready to… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 3, 2010 at 10:00am — No Comments

BLESSING THE CLOSING OF A BUSINESS

A friend of mine is closing his business this week. This is a blessing to him and to all the business owners, employees, customers, suppliers ... that are encountering hardship and/or experiencing a closing-the-doors of a business.

It is so important to honor the sacredness, not only of our beginnings, but also those things that come to us through endings.

We are all so incredibly connected and affected by what we construct and so often,… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 2, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

DEAR HEALER

(C) 2010 Howard McQueen

There is this vital, life sustaining energetic river

flowing through each of us.

It cannot be known by our ego, or our mental effortings.

It is not born of a science describe-able by the words or mind of man

You as healer intuitively catch glimpses,

these fish from the river

that you bring back and use to heal others.

It is time that you learned the art of fishing these waters

for your own… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 2, 2010 at 11:00am — No Comments

CHARISMATIC SPIRITUAL ATTRACTIONS

(C) 2010 Howard McQueen

Charisma, attraction, desire ...

Being drawn toward someone

and their words, beliefs, and

lets be frank: personality and showmanship.

Breathe deeply.

Take a sip from your own well.

We all benefit from the vision and pointers from others.

Lets remember that we always have to:

- breathe for ourselves

- feel for ourselves

- discern and do our own work of transformation

Allowing… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 2, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

SURRENDERING TO BEING SUCKERED IN

© 2010 Howard McQueen

The inner sucker bet,

setup by the “me”.

sucked-up by the Sleepwalker in the Dream of Separation.

This Sleepwalker has awakened (now called I AM) and shaken off

this “me”, this inauthentic, delusional energetic gravity field.

This I AM now awakened and enthroned

laughs at the hollowness,

seeing the anti-life wrapped within these Trojan horses

of me’s sucker bets.

All habitual betting suddenly… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 1, 2010 at 3:00pm — No Comments

LIGHTING UP THE PATHWAYS

© 2010 Howard McQueen

I am learning to celebrate,

through my own embodied personality

a connectedness to others,

so sweet and sublime

and sometimes

so deeply arousing is this Love,

so much more powerful and greater than the personal.

The personal, with its history of separation influenza,

teeters at times, near the precipice of old habits and beliefs,

this force of love so bright and illuminating,

it calls deep within us to… Continue

Added by Howard McQueen on January 1, 2010 at 9:00am — No Comments