Gaia is the word for "unity-of-life-processes". The experiment here is to unify the various threads of voice and sense of self together into an undivided unity. Spirituality, economics, politics, science and ordinary life interleaved.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Dogen and Zazen

Today I got Dogen's Zazen guidance book from the library. The sense of peace emanating from the words is amazing. Two poems suffice:


Viewing Peach Blossoms and Realizing the Way

In spring wind
peach blossoms
begin to come apart.
Doubts do not grow
branches and leaves.

On Nondependence of Mind

Water birds
going and coming
their traces disappear
but they never
forget their path.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Thirteen months of blog remembering!

I've just noticed that I've had this blog for exactly thirteen months.

I started this blog at my brothers' suggestion. He felt that it would be a good way to get my words out there and fed back upon. Well it hasn't in some ways fulfilled that, but it's certainly an amazing record of a year in the life of myself, of my thirty-first year of life on this planet.

It has been a time of small changes and slight adjustments, tentative missteps and constant desire to advance and grow as a person thwarted by prevailing conditions again and again and again.

But I haven't fallen into frustration or despondency about this.

Why not? I think it is because I cultivate a short memory.

On www.writingFAST.com

I have purchased the Writing FAST system yesterday and read the book. It's exciting heady stuff.

So I have been reflecting on what I will use it to write. I want to use it to write my novel and nonfiction book obviously, but I feel that I need to master the system itself and be adept at using it when I write.

So what I'm intending to do is write some short nonfiction pieces. And that's exactly what I've done!

Tonight I've written and send four crits of Science Fiction stories, and done some research and a letter for an issue I seem to have become involved in (government-sanctioned dolphin mass murder season in Japan). So I've done a LOT of writing tonight. And much of it really seems to have been using this technique of Talktation which Jeff Bollow teaches, which seems in fact to slow me down and break the flow - break it, that is, until I happen to have a distraction. Then it keeps me soundly on track.

But I'm tired now and it's about 2 in the morning. It's been a startling night for me because I managed to download Skype and have a phone call directly to (of all places on Earth!) Algeria!

Not only that but thismorning Doctor Hawkin's latest book arrived in my mailbox. I practically skipped up the drive, flung myself on the bed, and read with ardour for several hours. It was fascinating reading! The title of the book is "Truth Versus Falsehood" and it impactful stuff indeed!

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Talking with Silk, a Japanese bath, protest letter

Uhn-um....what happened?

Oh yeah.

Last night my great buddy F-- came back from Malaysia, felt lonely and wanted to meet for coffee. At the pancake parlour I got talking with Silk, a buddy of mine from two years ago, about what I was up to, and my brother rang from Singapore. So F-- turns up jetlagged and tired and unaccustomed to English-speaking after three weeks using only Malay day and night. And it's no surprise that Silk and I hold the conversation.

I had brought his some incense sticks and when he excused himself he left them on the table. I chased after him and gave them to him... "Hey are you leaving because Silk is there?" I asked. "No, I'm just tired," he said, with a tired smile.

Silk and Thor work at Pancake parlour raising money for a permaculture farm. We talk about things... dreams, hopes and goals. It is our customary conversation from two years ago, picked up right where we left off.

She tells how she and Thor "stopped doing what wasn't right and true for us, and started doing what was right and true - and the moment we did, coincidences started to happen to us all the time. We took it as a sign."

Considering I spent the day listening to Shakti Gawain, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, and others, this was highly confirmatory. Excited by the meeting I had a late-night pizza and planned a brilliant day today, but unfortunately I missed the train hope and, still buzzing from coffee and conversation with Silk, walked to the tram stop with a bit of entertainment and got home at 11. I had planned to be asleep by TEN...

So to unwind I had a looooong bath, in the Japanese style. I had a cool quick shower to get rid of any dirt, then a steaming HOT bath to get blood flowing with a natural sponge, stroking inwards to the heart to stimulate circulation. The heat got too much for me and I wandered out into the backyard wrapped in a towel. In the cloud-covered moonlight the playing cat and the cool air was amazingly refreshing and stimulating. I slipped back into the reasonably hot bath and with soap manually relaxed my legs and shoulders and neck (I have had a headache for three days now since I started taking ginseng again). Then I slipped out again into the cool and drank a honied camomile tea or two. The indian classical music moaned in the background. I stared up at the stars, dumbstuck with awe. Then I padded over the wet tiles back to the bath, where I vigorously soaped my ears and scalp and feet, trying to stimulate the reflexology points. My arms got tired and I almost feel asleep. I moisturised and towelled off the excess moisturiser then threw the towel on the tiles to soak up the water. Warm in the moonlight, I slipped into new longjohns and a bleachy new cotton t-shirt, wrapped myselfl in the bright orange eiderdown, and slid the armchair out under the starlight. The cat leapt onto my lap. I did a progressive relaxation. A mantra rose and fell into awareness. An hour later I returned to awareness. It was one O'Clock.

So I woke up to my sister ringing thismorning, feeling extremely woozy and dopey. I have been awake an hour.

Someone wants me to write a protest letter so I'm educating myself about the issue the last hour, online. So my careful plans for today are shot, and I'm feeling deeply disappointed. How to embrace the disappointment and make a great day is the prevailing condition of awareness at the moment. We will see!

Saturday, August 27, 2005

reflections on 12 week goals

I reflected on my 12-week goals in bed today... the cat cuddling between my legs... and I noticed something interesting.

All but one of my goals have easy systems to follow.

I am writing my two book projects (the nonfiction project dubbed "Excellence" and the fiction project known merely as "Gaia" at present) using the FAST system (www.writingfast.com)

I am recreating my body using the Body for Life Program (www.bodyforlife.com).

I am improving my mood, productivity and happiness using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy via Dr Burns bestselling book 'Feeling Good' (www.feelinggood.com)

But in terms of my professional life, where I am intending to go into business tutoring in English as a Second Language, I am without a system of any kind to follow!

 
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