Hello,

By coincidence I posted a message on this subject at "guyfinleynow.org" and it is a blessing that so many people continued the thread and that it also happens to be the theme of the weekly blog.

Maybe I am wrong but I think that everything teaches us in our life even if it can take a very long time to integrate it. So, the name of the Foundation resonated very strongly when I first discover it in "freedom from the ties that bind". So, what would these difficulties of attention mean in life ? I think they are a reminder of the necessity to search for freedom whatever the material or physical conditions are. Because obviously I am not free, not the master of my own mind, but more a kind of a Don Quixote who fights against imaginary giants which are in fact inoffensive windmills (the "passing" thoughts). So at the end, it is true that I foster that unwanted thought by searching rescue in other thoughts (one example : "what next! come back to what you have to do now, don't let you disturb by this mundane thought again"). I think it refers to what Guy Finley synthetized in the expression "to bring kerosene in the fire". We probably all long for the last sentence that Doug quoted from Lao Tzu but we are not always aware of that.

Among the solutions that I have read, the only one that seems to be in my possibility is to start over. For example, I can read again the same sentence until I understand it, until I am united with it, that is to say until there is eventually a reader not someone who sees a succession of words while thinking to something else.

Williams

There is a lot of dust and pollen in the air right now and this has had me reaching for the tissues a bit. To help alleviate this I chewed on some menthol and eucalyptus gum. It works for me but there is a down side, the mechanical chomping of my jaw can quickly hypnotise me to such a degree that I soon act and must look like a vacant-eyed cow chewing the cud.

This morning whilst waiting for a bus, I broke out of such an inattentive state when I noticed that a pop tune was going through my head. I wondered why it was playing. What I noticed was that the unconscious rhythmic chomping of my jaw was in tune with the song. It seemed to me as if the mechanical chewing had clicked a mechanism into action and, like a jukebox, my mind searched its memory bank to find the song to match my masticating. I had no real say in the matter.  

Helpfully, the song was Bruce Springsteen?s ?Dancing in the Dark?. I say helpfully because it seems that even in my dark, dreamy Daisy-the-cow-like-state something was trying to get through to me, to awaken me and bring me back to reality. The words ?dancing in the dark? snapped me out of my unconscious reverie, as in a flash of lightening awareness I realised that I had been spiritually asleep again. I saw that I was outwardly ?chomping in the dark? (though broad daylight), because inwardly the devil in me had set up his night club and had been ?Dancing in the Dark? of my unconscious mind.

Although the tune still played for a while in my head, the awakening daylight of consciousness had at last penetrated - so it was truer to now change the words of the song to ?awareness in the light?.

In a similar way I get caught up in the yah-boo-shame of news headlines. These may well rightly point out that some such financier, politician or pop-star has behaved disgracefully, dishonestly, untruthfully, and that they like nothing but cheating crooks. However, as I chew over the scandal sheet revelations, and before I join the lynch mob, I do well to remind myself that in my unconscious states I cheat myself daily. A Guy reminds us often, it is just a question of scale. Once again Jesus? words on the cross come to mind, ?Forgive them for they know not what they do.?

?They? includes the unconscious cow-like me, to which state I should say to quote the cowboy ? ?head ?em up move ?em out.?

Thanx Pete. You don't know how much I needed that!:)

God Bless You!

Clyde