Self-Sufficiency - A Quality of Pure Consciousness

"O seeker!
Rely on nothing
Until you want nothing."

Buddha (563-483 BC)


"Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.""

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948


"Robinson Crusoe, the self-sufficient man, could not have lived in New York City".
Walter Lippmann (1889 - 1974)


Today, in our quest for the Qualities of Pure Consciousness, I will talk about Self-Sufficiency.

The quotations that open this piece should bring into your mind something of a paradox. Gandhi talked about interdependence as something in contrast to self-sufficiency. This makes us think at first that the two are mutually exclusive, but his conclusion leaves us with an impression that the two are parts of a larger whole. How can that be?

Knowing something of Gandhi helps our understanding. He did preach self-sufficiency, but I interpret his intentions as promoting self-sufficiency as the act of not being a bother or a burden. I do not get a feeling from him that he ever thought self-sufficiency to mean detachment, independence or isolation of one person from the rest. Did he not say: "Man is a social being"?

Walter Lippmann makes a small quip about how Robinson Crusoe's enviable accomplishments would be futile given the realities of life in New York city. The inference is once again that self-sufficiency is equated with independence and that New York life, by extension, requires more of the individual than one person can manage alone.

Personally, I thought Lippmann's choice of metaphor was somewhat misplaced. Think about the Robinson Crusoe story for a minute. When did his situation improve and the story become an order of magnitude more interesting? Why, when Friday appeared on the scene!

I fail to see how the existence of the two of them could be termed independent. They may have been self-sufficent as a team. As individuals, they were in fact co-dependent which is the term for interdependency in the context of only two people.

It is not news that there is strength in numbers. This realization is the organizing force in all human societies and cultures. Inherent in the strength found in interdependent relationships is the gift of freedom. Fully functional interdependent structures allow members unparalleled freedom because individuals can draw on the accumulated resources of a greater whole. The individual is no longer constrained by what he or she can accomplish alone, in isolation.

Pure Consciousness is self-sufficient unto itself. Individually, we are part of the whole created by the Pure Consciousness. The structure created by Pure Consciousness is characterized by interdependence of the constituents. We depend on it and we depend on each other.

Buddha said "Rely on nothing until you want nothing". I interpret this to mean that wanting nothing is the ultimate self-sufficiency and this is the key insight that resolves the paradox we started out with.

Here's the argument as I see it. Free yourself from distractions and depend on the Pure Consciousness to aid you and to guide you. Since you, your neighbour and everybody are part of the Pure Consciousness; depending upon the Pure Consciousness means dependence on everyone else. Freedom from wants will bring you self-sufficiency. Having reached that exalted state of development, your interdependence with the Pure Consciousness will provide for you.  ⊕

Unboundedness - A quality of Pure Consciousness

"Who hath desired the Sea?--the sight of salt water unbounded—
The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?
The sleek-barreled swell before storm, grey, foamless, enormous, and growing—
Stark calm on the lap of the Line or the crazy-eyed hurricane blowing."

The Sea and the Hills (1903)
Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936)


Todays’ watch word in our quest for the Qualities of Pure Consciousness is Unboundedness. It refers to the pervasiveness and omnipresence of a pure consciousness.

The Pure Consciousness is everywhere; it exists as the backdrop of everything. More to the point: It is everything. It gave rise to all things past and present. We have but to look around us and we see the manifestations of its presence.

The Pure Consciousness embodies all possibilities and possesses the freedom to manifest in any and all ways. Our own observations lead us to marvel at the astonishing variety of life we find in nature. This suggests that the manifestations are certainly beyond what we humans would imagine if we were to design all this.

The Pure Consciousness is of course not about to disappear anytime soon, either. It is inexhaustible, limitless and unending knowing no bounds in time or space. We may not be aware of its presence, but it is still there whether we recognize it or not.

If we approach perception with an open mind, we will begin to notice presence of the Pure Consciousness where we suspected nothing at all. In the discussion about Freedom, we became aware that the Pure Consciousness is lurking right there in our own minds behind all the mind chatter. Today we have seen that Pure Consciousness could literally crawl out from under any given rock.

Perhaps, we should stop being surprised by surprises and instead look for the other point of view: Maybe it's not all strange; maybe it’s normal after all. Maybe we should be looking for the underlying message and ask ourselves "What is the Universe really trying to tell us, here"? I hope you like the answer.
  ⊕

FBI says Macs are secure out of the box

In this column at SecurityFocus HOME Columnists: A Visit from the FBI, a US information technology teacher tells of how he had an FBI agent come talk to his students about home computer security. Pretty interesting stuff for us home computer owners.

One interesting tidbit: Macintosh computers (Macs) running OS-X are secure out of the box and FBI uses them a lot for that reason.

Another interesting tidbit: The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are the acknowledged experts on forensic data recovery from Macs. Even the FBI ships their seized Macs up there. We already know that the Mounties always get their man. Now they always get their Mac, too. Go Canucks!  ⊕

Freedom - A Quality of Pure Consciousness

Today I will address Freedom, the second of the 25 Qualities of Pure Consciousness. Before I start I want to share the following two quotations with you to get the mind going:

"The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within."

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

From Me & Bobby McGee, sung by
Janis Joplin (1943-1970)


These words from two very different sources illustrate some of the diversity of opinion about what freedom really means. In this case, we get a sense of contrast between east and west.

What Janis expressed is a common perception that freedom means you can do what you want, that you are not beholden to or tied to anyone or anything. In essence, it means absence of responsibility. This is a very catchy concept for teenagers, no doubt, and perhaps also for many others who are steeped in stress and struggle.

This notion idolizes a myth. There is no freedom at the end of that wishful road. Freedom does not come from disconnectedness or complete independence. That condition is known as loneliness, or more properly aloneness. Abandonment comes to mind, also.

Gandhi speaks to something else. If there is a Pure Consciousness pervading the Universe and everything in it, then freedom comes from aligning with it. The alignment is only possible through inward focus and connection with our authentic selves. We must discover the "I" in our own beings. Let me expand on this lest I lose you in obtuseness.

A couple of years ago I attended an evening with Deepak Chopra in Vancouver, Canada. He had us sit quietly for a moment and just observe our minds and the mind chatter we know all too well. Then he asked us to pay attention to the stillness between the chatter. He shared with us that in that stillness we should sense a presence and that presence is the soul.

Connecting with the soul is difficult because the mind is very forceful, the chatter never stops for most of us. This mind chatter is a universal condition for all human kind. All the eastern philosophies and religions focus on how to tame the mind chatter to access the stillness and the presence behind it. The central belief in these schools of thought is that the soul represents the connection to the Pure Consciousness.

The soul is itself a manifestation of the Pure Consciousness. Whatever the Pure Consciousness focuses on becomes reality if the focus implies a desire. Remember what we learnt from All Possibilities: "inherent in the desire is the mechanics of its manifestation".

If we become connected with the Pure Consciousness, we tap into an enormous power of manifestation. This power will work through our desires in the external world. Interpreted this way, we could say that enlightened beings have within them the power to manifest whatever they desire. Such beings can shape their own destinies to a very large extent.

Inherent in this concept is the notion that such enlightened beings would also have the wisdom not to abuse their powers. The safety mechanism that prevents any abuse is found in the fact that the process required to become connected to the Pure Consciousness by necessity induces a significant transformation of the individual.

In addition, the pure Consciousness transcends any one individual and works solely for the greater good of all. Any overt abuse is inherently futile. Indeed, it may be impossible for the uninitiated to even know a "good" manifestation from a "bad". Just reflect for a minute on your own experience. How many seemingly "bad" things have you come across that were really blessings in disguise? Mother may or may not know best, but Pure Consciousness really does.

From this we can conclude that freedom implies two things: First it implies that freedom means interdependence, not independence: we will not be cast adrift, we will be connected. Secondly, it implies access to the Pure Consciousness and the powers of manifestation. The journey starts inwardly but brings us around to the external world. When you have the kind of freedom we have been talking about, you need nothing yet have everything. So paradoxically, Janis had it right after all: Freedom is indeed just another word for nothing left to lose.

Now go meet your soul that you may find freedom in your own being.   ⊕

Girl 'sees' broken bones

Natasha Demkina, a 17 year young Russian woman, demonstrated her gift as a medical intuitive for the Sun newspaper in London.

She wants to become a doctor. Hopefully med-school will not disillusion her too much. I doubt a lot of med-schools are ready for her. Her talent is rare and in great need. It needs to be preserved.

Another great medical intuitive that comes to mind is Carolyn Myss. Wouldn't it be great if the two hooked up? I am thinking that Natasha needs a mentor more than med-school right now.  ⊕

All Possibilities - a Quality of Pure Consciousness

Yesterday I presented the list of 25 Qualities of Pure Consciousness. Today I begin the sojourn into the individual qualities. I'll start at the beginning.

Our topic, our idea for the day is "All Possibilities", the first quality or characteristic of pure consciousness.

To understand what this means let us begin by looking at what is called the quantum mechanical universe. The quantum mechanical universe is very interesting because it goes a long way towards building a bridge between the world view - spiritual or otherwise - of Eastern philosophies and traditional Western thought.

According to this paradigm, the universe exists as a unified field of pure energy. Something non-local. Something that just is everywhere without being confined to any particular locality. Infinite and unbounded, it is pure potentiality. And, goes the argument, so is the mind. The mind is non-local, infinite and unbounded. Thus, if we can cultivate pure consciousness, we can indeed become one with the universe because we align ourselves with non-local pure potentiality where anything is possible. Where anything may manifest.

How can we say that about the mind? Don't most of us feel as if the mind is an integral part of our bodies, of our brains? The answer is that irrespective of how we feel, we need to become aware that we tend to confuse our mind with our thoughts; they are not the same. The mind is a deeper awareness with thoughts bouncing around in it. The thoughts are just the most visible or perceptive part, but they are not the mind.

And we are not our thoughts, even though we often feel as if they have a strangle hold on us. We are merely the thinkers of our thoughts. These thoughts are very much a function of who and how we, the thinkers, are. If we are tired, that affects our thoughts. If we are rested, that affects our thoughts. If we carry stress or anguish or whatever emotions within us, that affects our thoughts. So that's the mind-body connection. Having thought a thought that is a result of a state of body or state of mind, we have also created a reality: we have caused a manifestation of something non-local to become local. Stated another way, the act of giving something our attention causes the object of our attention to become stronger.

The driving force behind many of our thoughts is desire. One way to look at desire is as pure potentiality seeking manifestation. What we desire has a tendency to manifest itself. Not necessarily in the way we expected, but manifest just the same. Sometimes we call this good luck, other times bad luck. But luck may not have much to do with it at all. Rather, we usually just don't fully comprehend how these things hang together. And why should we? Did you ever receive any instruction in the things we are talking about here today? I know I didn't.

Let's dig further. Inherent in the desire itself is the mechanics of its transformation, its manifestation. Thus, to create something for ourselves, it is enough to have the desire and then let it go. By becoming completely unattached from the outcome, by being non-judgmental, non-interpretive, non-analytical, we build a perfect environment for the desire to manifest itself. We relinquish our attachment to the outcome so that the circumstances will provide all the necessary details for the transformation.

The way to do this is to cultivate a silent mind, a quiet mind and become a silent witness to the spontaneous triggering of the desire's manifestation. In fact, letting everything become effortless.

Is this true? Can we find any proof? Actually, yes, there is proof right outside our doors. Look at nature. Do you see any signs of effort in nature? I don't think so. Do trees struggle? Does the grass struggle? Do the clouds struggle? No, no and no. Nature just is. In nature, we see a tendency to do less and accomplish more. How different from our own predilection to work harder and harder to increase our chances of reaching our goals. The lesson from nature is that things of true value are always there. We just need to become aware of them.

I will close my thoughts on "All Possibilities" by sharing five things we can all work on:

1. Recognize yourself as the creator of all your experiences.


2. Be completely self-referral (define yourself according to how you feel about yourself and the world around you and not by what objects you own, possess, lack or see around you).


3. Do not create boundaries through analysis, judgement or classifications. Instead, stop your negative self-talk about what you can or cannot do. Remember: If you argue for your limitations they will become yours (if you win the argument).


4. Trust the cosmic intelligence to handle the details for your desires. This is not merely a fatalistic view. Remember: We said you are the creator of all your experiences, so your actions matter always. Another way to look at this: Prepare yourself for success, don't brace yourself for failure.


5. Seek always bliss and create always joy for yourself and for others.

Credit where credit is due: Many thanks to Deepak Chopra, who inspired this piece, for making so much wisdom available to us all.
  ⊕

The Qualities of Pure Consciousness

The thoughts of Eastern mystics and Western physicists are converging, strange as that may seem. Common to both groups of thinkers is the idea that at the core of everything is pure consciousness. Some time ago, a number of Vedic and other scientists came together and discussed what is this pure consciousness and what are its qualities or characteristics.

To make a long story short, they came up with a list of 25 qualities that they considered descriptive of pure consciousness. Here they are as presented by Deepak Chopra in his audio tape/CD collection called Magical Mind, Magical Body.

1. All possibilities


2. Freedom


3. Unboundedness


4. Self-Sufficiency


5. Bliss


6. Integrating


7. Self-Referral


8. Invincibility


9. Perfect Balance


10. Fully Awake Within Itself


11. Total Potential of Natural Law


12. Simplicity


13. Unmanifest


14. Harmonizing


15. Infinite Correlation


16. Infinite Dynamism


17. Infinite Silence


18. Pure Knowledge


19. Infinite Organizing Power


20. Perfect Orderliness


21. Infinite Creativity


22. Purifying


23. Evolutionary


24. Nourishing


25. Immortality

I am making this list the the starting point for a 25 day virtual voyage to explore what the individual qualities of pure consciousness mean how they are manifesting themselves. We'll look for one quality per day.  ⊕

Parrot's oratory stuns scientists

The star of the show, as reported in this story by BBC, is an African Grey parrot with a vocabulary of 950 words, a sense of humour and the ability to conjugate some verbs verbs.

Did you know that there is a World Parrot Trust? Means some people have neat jobs. I could handle some parrot work right about now. How about you?

The story is heart warming and one that every pet owner can appreciate. Those of us who have pets have known and sensed for a long time that the cognitive abilities of our pets are far greater than we normally give them credit for.

There is much we do not know in the traditional, literal sense of the word. That is not the same as saying it does not exist: First the world was flat, then it was round. Yet, the earth never changed, only our perceptions. Things are as they are whether we notice or not.  ⊕

Papal blessing for break-dancers

I admire and respect Pope John Paul even if I am not of his faith. How can you not smile when you hear about a papal blessing for break-dancers and see the hilarious picture in this CNN story. In the words of the pontiff: "Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it".

Isn't he speaking to us all, not just to break-dancers? Break-dancing may not be Haute Culture, but it is still an important way to express the human experience. What the Pope is saying is that there is merit in expression, full stop.

The first step in healing, others or oneself, is creating awareness. Knowing oneself and having appreciation for one's inherent talents is indispensable. Yet we give it short shrift and look for silver bullets and other miracles. And we don't even admit we believe in miracles most of the time. I find paradoxes amusing, but this brings more than avearge mirth.  ⊕

Folklore.org: Macintosh Stories

Being a Mac Addict, I'm going to enjoy working through the material over at Folklore.org: Macintosh Stories. These stories present some historical details around the creation of the original Macintosh computers. Heady days they were, I'm sure.

I like the Macs because they do not get in the way of things I want to do like a Windows machine often does. I have always felt Apple's take on technology is less intrusive and more mindful of the average user, i.e., someone who is not a programmer and does not actually delight in custom registry edits and nonsense like that.

I work with Windows machines every day, couldn't live without them and in all fairness I have to admit that the gap has shrunk over the years. Still, Windows is focused on business users while Apple takes the prize for being focused on you and I and the kids and making products that work for everyday folks. This is just a personal rumination. Enjoy your machine whatever you have and let's all get on with our day!  ⊕

At long last: the website is up to support the blog

Well, it was certainly a busy weekend, but at long last I got the Healing Voyage website up. At least the key pages. Content is sketchy, but now I have the structure. Even figured out how to keep the links working in the archived pages. This requried a little sleight of hand and use of page redirects. But it works and shouldn't have to be monkeyed with too much.

Now I can concentrate on the writing and less on the infrastructure. I have declared victory and will celebrate accordingly. Yeay!  ⊕

Godly finance: Money ideas from religious texts

The Bible and the Quran may offer more advice than just spriritual. Seems there are more references to money in the Bible than a lot of other things. Goes to show little has changed in thousands of years: people worry about money for the here and the spirit for the hereafter. Fitting thought for a Sunday, don't you think? Have a good one.  ⊕