Jester!

My enemies!

Can we choose who they are?

Coffee.

Tumultuos - green and slimy...I don't like how it sits in my wallet, nor how I 'need' it.  But at least I live in Canada where it like Monopoly Money, produced in a stunning variety of colors and foil stamping, making it seem less important, less serious, less curiousity.  OK, OK...it's fun to spend...to get...gather...build my pile of belongings to the ceiling and beyond, knowing with all certainty that my beloved ones will have to clean up my mess when I'm gone.  Maybe I'll have bought something worthwhile, to hand down from generation to generation.  But prolly not.  But they still love me - and that's more important than anything I can buy.  You do love me, don't you? Don't you?

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.  "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.  "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.  One is evil -- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.  The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you -- and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."

Eckhart Tolle opened my eyes on how we see, or have identified ourselves (legs, hands, feet, eyes) - we have this crazy notion of having to label everything - now, we are so tuned by society of these labels, and the perceptions of what we think God looks like (ref. the Da Vinci Code; the old, wise/stern, grey-bearded man - Zeus), that I find it hard to return to a more primal, ethereal visage of who we 'are'...then there's Dr. Pert, which neatly holds hands w/ Tolle, describing us as mind-bodies.  Then my latest foray into 'everything'....Wilber - still wading the turbulent waters here - will post more later on this.  To say the least, I'm now doing an "Integral Life Practice" and trying apply the AQAL map to, well, just about everything.

So, I'm at this stage of a 'god' or some energy residing in us, uniquely linking all of us, and that this life is merely a transition (Buddhism). And not particularly THE transition...just A transition, of many (and no, I don't prescribe to Shirley's world either ;-). Our worldly, material views of how things work and are made shouldn't be applied to the living core; we are unique (but from the same). [Going to] Church isn't going to save us, nothing saves us, but we can alter the transition - make it easier/harder, kind of thing (sorta like the Hopi's preparing for the next world...next birth). Acceptance is key...that's prolly the 'true leap of faith'.

Religion (not faith) is permeating everything in society, blindly, and people are using 'beliefs' as dogma, but are lacking, completely, in the foundation of personal faith. Satori. We've all had moments of satori, and they are fleeting, but only because of our lifestyles and blind faith of dogmatic principles.

Education, lifestyle, American Dreaming, all push against personal faith - they consistently challenge and make me question the light inside..."dayum, that's not practical." The Gnosis.

Short:
Integral Gnostic Bioped, Father/Husband, Musically Inclined (well, I make noise), Artist, Writer, Project Manager.

Long:

My name is Bruce, and I'm in "Recovery from Western Civilization." I've started an Integral Practice which includes yoga, exercise, meditation, and a dose of creativity.  I'm deeply interested in the Human Condition, our relation to others, and the environs we have manifested to live in.

I was born in Heidelberg, Germany, 1963, and subsequently raised under the sweltering Southwest skies of New Mexico and Texas. I moved to Canada in 1989, married, and started a wonderful family; Canada is a beautiful place with a great society - but you can have the weather (!) I deeply miss Adobes and the Mexican/Indian Culture and Peoples of the Southwest. Truly. Thus, I am the "Dislocated Texan".

I'm an artist and like to dabble in guitar, writing lyrics, and poetry, too - My art is influenced by the Mexican art movement such as illustrative Spanish artists; Fransisco Goya, and Salvador Dali, Diego Riveria, Frida Kahlo and the Southwest genre in general. I've been a commercial artist, illustrator, and writer for over twenty years, and throughout managed technical level projects.

To me, art is beyond the mere interpretation or extension of our surroundings. It is an extension to our minds. Turn off your TV, damnit...engage. "Television must be a medium; because it isn't rare, and it's certainly not well done."