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TO BE OR NOT TO BE...

10/11/2016

Even if you are not an aficionado of Shakespeare you will know the quote "to be or not to be?" What does it mean to a practitioner? What does it mean to you?
Maybe we can rephrase it "to acquiesce or not to acquiesce?" Is this a question that is relevant or should concern us?
Surrender is at the heart of Yoga and other paths. Surrender though has connotations of loss. Acquiescence is more palatable for us, as conceptually it holds an element of choice.

Does it serve us to acquiesce or not? We maybe have a deep reluctance to acquiescence or surrender. We have already surrendered to the power of alignment which delivered us into the wold of our human ancestors. A world of separation, struggle and strife, a world of pain and pleasure, have and have not.
Locked into a point of self-reflection we are chained to something that we are at odds with. No wonder surrender or its companion acquiescence has such a bad reputation.

We are though adults, practitioners. At the centre of all sorcery practice is the element of will. Chinese energy practitioners locate the Dantien in the self - same place as Castaneda's description of the position for will, four fingers below the navel, slightly to the left.
Whatever the name or position we give it, if will is something desirable, surrender would seem to be the last thing for us to do.
Yet will is a strange thing. Will is not what it seems from our approach to it. Self-determinism is attractive to us. Yet we have been resisting, for so long, are we actually resisting our own freedom?

Possibly we are still behaving like children, forced to do our homework or make our bed or some other such task and resisting out of sheer habit. The thought of getting our own way is paramount to us and blinding us to clear evaluation and action.
Are we still at that point in our life? Are we still caught in childish reactiveness? Blindly attempting to show the world, something or the other.
The power of alignment is irresistible.
Either we are aligned with one thing or another or we are nothing, between alignments.

A man may navigate the seas, yet is never master of them.
We can say the difference between a sorcerer and a man of Knowledge is that even though both have found their will, the sorcerer keeps hold of his.
For him annihilation is his greatest fear, his will, his defense against this calamity.
For a man of Knowledge though he has seen that this state, is actually the last attachment. He gambles on his vision that personal will and will at large are not in direct contradiction but are the ultimate alignment.

The Sufis tell a story to illustrate this. A Sufi leaves his master and travels as is the way of all Sufis. After seven years he returns to his master's house and knocks on the door.
The master calls out "who is there?"
The Sufi answers "it is me master"
From the master's house comes no reply.
The Sufi travels for another seven years and again on his return goes through the same scenario without admittance.
A further seven years are spent in wandering and the Sufi again returns to the master's house. He knocks and the master calls out "who is there?"
The Sufi replies "it is you master."
At his words the door opens and the master reaches out and embraces the Sufi saying, "come in, make yourself comfortable, as you have recognised our intrinsic oneness, so there is room for the two of us."

The infinite is reflected in nature, nature is intent and will its major component. A man of Knowledge aligns with that Intent. The infinite in essence is indivisible. We will return to the indivisible, in reality we never left it. We can do it consciously or unconsciously. We can do it in resistance or acquiescence.
As the Sufis want to insist. "Freedom is the art of having no choice."
So there is our choice, in the words of Shakespeare, "to be or not to be."

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COAL AND DIAMONDS

10/2/2016

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We know that coal and diamonds are just forms of carbon. What is necessary to transform one to the other? Pressure heat and time have made this change come about.
Diamonds are valued according to their clarity, their luminescence, their lustre, they have always attracted men, since he first came across them.
I once made myself laugh, thinking diamonds are coal that adapted particularly well to stress. Yet most of us would eradicate stress from our life if we could. Stress disturbs us because of our resistance to it.

I see fate and destiny like, coal and diamonds. Our fate and our destiny are inextricably linked. One may become the raw material for the other.
Time will transform all, matter and energy wherever it is going. Beyond this change is consciousness. Yet consciousness of consciousness gives us the realisation that consciousness doesn't change. It is our perspective and perceptions that do. Consciousness realises its unchanging nature from its attention to awareness.
Here from generalised we realise a specific alignment. Awareness holds the possibility of consciousness, as its inherent nature.

Sages have realised the nature of this transformation and have made suggestions. Their suggestion is that heat and pressure be brought to the body in an organised way. This idea is cross cultural and has many attendant practices.
Sages have cultivated many practices that can be used to bring heat and pressure to the body. Firstly discipline. Secondly exercises to strengthen the body and put it under controlled pressure. Thirdly certain breathing exercises are practiced bringing heat. This leads to concentration and focus which leads to inner silence and the opening of the body to transform.

Don't wait for time to bind you to your fate, use it to realise your destiny. Find your lustre, breath by breath, realise yourself, your diamond nature, and shine.
Open Wing have used and collected many of these practices which are incredibly helpful to living a free and purposeful life.
We encourage you to make your body a priority and join us in our programs and treatments. Practitioners of these arts are seen to be healthy, strong, robust, flexible, and focussed and so can withstand the pressures of life and make use of them.
Sages say these practices rid the body of impurities. Purity means undiluted, uncontaminated by other things. We can say authentically 100 percent itself.
Just as the grossness of coal obscures and absorbs light so the diamond in its clarity, refracts and reflects that light, giving off its natural lustre.

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Wisdom From Within

TO BE OR NOT TO BE...

COAL AND DIAMONDS

Gammadian Freeman

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