A Message from  Wayne C. Allen A big welcome to those of you that  are new to  "Into the Centre"!

I'm going to keep this short again, as I have a couple of added articles for you, and I don't want the file getting too big.

The Finding Your Self group in Toronto is a go for Sunday February 2. (Parenthetically, this means the Into the Centre will be delivered either the day before or later than normal on the 2nd.) There are still a couple of places for people to join the group, and you have to let me know if you are coming. Click here for info, location, MAP and cost.

2003 Wishes, from Alanis Morissette

i wish for you...
the opportunity to speak your truth (whether you're heard or not, but i wish for you to be heard at least once, in a big way, to know how that feels)
to walk at the pace that feels good for you (curling up in a ball counts)
the opportunity to live your day to day life the way you would love to see the rest of the world live
that you know who your resources are and that you turn to them when you need some help and that you have the courage to reach out
i wish you humor in everything, no matter how serious it is...
i wish you awareness of your connection to everything, no matter how disconnected we all may feel from each other
i wish you love for all parts of yourself, including the parts that you think are utterly unlovable.
i wish you endless expression in whatever form, whether it's in how you dress or how you speak or how you cut your vegetables
i wish you freedom from any box or construct that doesn't encourage life in you
i wish you courage to set your boundaries with clarity and love
i wish you allergy-free white kittens and pillows to fall into when you are despondent and spent and lost
i wish you faith in the moments where it seems stupid and foolish to have it
i wish you moments of blissful solitude and yummy community and safe intimacy in the doses that feel best
i wish you moments of feeling like a student, equal and teacher - all roles spent with you in your power
i wish you gratitude for all that you have and boot strap up-pulling for when you want to move forward into entirely unknown territory, for that is where i believe liberation and growth is most often found

i wish this for you.
and i wish this for me.
and i send you love throughout 2003
i'm with you and i'll be right here....living and stretching and resting alongside of you.

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Bass Notes, and Life with Rhythm

As I noted last week, the Quartet model for life is a simple construct around balance and flexibility. Another way, in other words, to describe what it means to walk through a day with verve and style.

The Bass notes, (which I also equated with the pelvis down), are the underpinning of a Quartet's song. In a sense, the bass notes "anchor" the rest of the Quartet. There is a ton of vibration down there; that's why home theatre systems have a separate output for the base notes. That speaker doesn't send out particularly recognizable notes - it just vibrates and puts that vibration into the floor, so that the "shake" can be felt by the listeners. In other words, while there is some audible noise that the ears pick up, the Bass notes are actually felt more than heard.

Which also fits with the location of the Bass section of the body, if you will. Not to unnecessarily repeat myself, but remember - this is a metaphor. The legs and the pelvis might be thought of as a sort of triangle with the apex at the pelvis and the base where the feet meet the ground. The legs and the pelvis interact with the ground through the pulley and rope system we call muscles and joints, and this interaction is called balance or stability. Rock solid, with deep vibration. And that deep vibration is passion.

From a psychological framework, this matches with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. At the base of his triangle are: security, food, shelter, and the sense that one belongs.

Groundedness is precisely this - that emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically I know that I belong here, have a right to be here, have a right to occupy space and use resources. Many people are not sure of this, and in that, they are unbalanced.

Groundedness and balance are a function of both belief (above paragraph) and form. (The way in which something is enacted.)

** Please note! -- Recurring Phoenix Theme!
It's not enough to know this stuff and believe this stuff.
You actually have to do it!! **

You can't be balanced if your weight is not distributed accurately. Notice I didn’t say "evenly." Balance occurs as my weight distribution matches the terrain I'm standing on. If I'm heading down a steep downhill slope, my weight is most likely on the downside foot's inner edge. Nothing "even" about it. I am, however, in balance.

The point is this: many people confuse stability or rigidity or "evenness" (or fairness) as the only way one can be in balance. It's like someone learning to walk on a flat surface, as we all did, and then assuming the same rules apply to stairs and mountain climbing.

We learn, by falling down, that different approaches are required by changing circumstances.

When we change locales from walking to the intra and interpersonal realm, please note how often people don't get this. The don't change with circumstances - they desperately repeat what doesn't work, or repeatedly do in relationship "b" what worked in relationship "a." To them we say: one must create balance and groundedness in response to the actual ground upon which one is standing - the circumstances.

Balance, in walking and in relating, is a continual shifting and accommodation of the terrain. It is "based" upon my sense that I belong here, and have every right in the world to be here, not as others want me to be, but as me.

Pelvis energy and 1^st Chakra energy is passionate energy. Also, the pelvis has long been considered "home" to the power or energy source for martial arts. Flexibility in this lower region is necessary to kick, and groundedness is required to punch. The lower dan tien, 2 inches below the navel (Chakra 2) is considered one of the places where chi is "burned" to make power, and is also considered the body's centre of gravity.

If we take a step back from the body and into the metaphoric realm, passion is a misunderstood thing. There is a mis-perception in the West that passion "should" be about specific, limited things.

While we all give lip service to the idea of living life with passion and verve, most people get pretty uncomfortable around those who are actually doing it.

I find that most people seem to be waiting around for permission to be passionate. Or, they are passionate about politically correct things.

*Crunch!* (The sound of Wayne shifting gears.)

Ever since I was 9 or 10 and saw, in Buffalo, a van Gogh exhibit at the art gallery, I've been in love with impressionist and post-impressionist art. While I'd be hard pressed to name my favourite van Gogh or impressionist painting when I was 10 it was "The Potato Eaters."

I mention the Impressionists because of my resonance with them. The major shift proposed by the Impressionists was the use of light and colour to convey an "impression." In other words, they were fighting against the Romanticists, who were, in a sense, literalists who simply recorded scenes. The Impressionists attempted to create a felt sense of the subject -thus, their subjective feeling was caught on canvas. What stands out in Impressionist and Post Impressionist art is the sense of balance, passion and flow, yet without hyper-detail.

This, believe it or not, was not an excursus. Last week, I mentioned the Three Bears Metaphor - too hot, too cold, and just right. We might see the Impressionists as being the antithesis of the Romanticists. Thus, while "Romanticist" sounds "hot," it might be actually cold - sterile, predictable, a technical recording of a subject. And while Impressionist art might be seen as cold - merely colour slathered on canvas or board, it is actually hot - as it encompasses the passion and the interior landscape of the person doing the painting. In a sense, then, Romanticists painted for the audience and had to be politically correct (they painted what sold.) The Impressionists painted as a way of capturing on canvas their interior landscape. The paintings were therefore personal, intense and quite "chargy." Passionate, in other words.

The danger of "too hot" is burnout. The danger of "too cold" is lethargy moving toward apathy. In our society, as I wrote above, "too hot" is scary to the masses. People disturb themselves over what are considered excessive displays of passion, whether in music, the arts or in lifestyle choices. Society attempts to stop over-zealousness, because society makes this uncomfortable. Because people want to fit in, they reign themselves in.

If you look around, you won't see an over-abundance of passionate excess these days. We see it in our artists, and that's about it. No, mostly we see flatness, and a lot of unmotivated, bored, stuck people. This is so, I believe, because people fear their passion. Or maybe better, they fear expressing themselves passionately because they imagine that they have been rejected for their passions. One sentence I hear repeatedly is, "I can't do that. What will people think?"

The "just right" posture is the place of balance. I have to live and function in the world. I have to know how to communicate, to earn a living and to get by. And I may need to engage in functional behaviour at work and out on the streets. I don't, however, have to surrender my self in the process. In Christianity, there is the idea, "be in but not of the world." In Zen, "Chop Wood, Carry Water."

This means that we all must fit in, unless we want to live in a cave. On the other hand, the way I choose to express myself and live my personal (as opposed to my political) life, is totally up to me. Who I relate to, who I am in relationship with, who I choose to be sensual, sexual, erotic with, how I choose to play out my passions, is totally my choice. I might want to push my boundaries, expand my container, in the personal realm.

To do this, I have to choose (as the Impressionists, other than van Gogh, who killed himself, learned),  to "paint for painting's sake." If I live my personal life with one eye on the opinions of everyone else, I am doomed. The list of people I choose to listen to as they comment on my life needs to be short. (In my case, it's 4.) Otherwise, I am doomed to limit my experience or torture myself over the comments of all of those around me.

The beat of life is contained in the bass notes, and is all about passion, and movement and "just right" expression. It, like everything we talk about in Into the Centre, is an individual walk, enacted in the presence of the rest of the world, evaluated by my closest intimates and myself. It is a walk for the sake of the walk, and for the sake of the ever-increasing flow of energy. I want to live my life out in the real world, through real actions and encounters, not in my head in my imagination.

Because passion is not passion if it is not expressed. Plain and simple.

__________________________________________

The Game Of Life & Death
Copyright 2003, Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved. __________________________________________

It is often said in spiritual teachings that the world is an illusion, suffering is unreal, and that Good and Evil are dualistic fantasies. Doubtless, this is all well and good. Yet, how do we reconcile this with the fact that all of this seems very real indeed to the vast majority of us?

As I pondered this one day, an interesting metaphor came to my mind that might well go some way towards illustrating this...

Imagine a boy playing a computer game (I am using a boy as an example because it IS mostly boys who play these games.) This is not just any old computer game. This is one of those huge "virtual reality" fantasy role-playing environments that have been created on the internet. In this strange virtual landscape, our hero wanders around exploring mountains and caves, fighting dragons and trolls, and meeting and talking to other players.

The latter are, of course, also all costumed up in their respective roles. Hence, although in real life, our lad may be still at school or working on a building site, in this world he can be Sir Galahad, Luke Skywalker (from Star Wars), or anyone else he chooses. Indeed, he could even take on a female persona, if he chose to do so.

As our friend plays in this virtual world, we begin to observe a change occurring. It begins to get a grip on him. He really begins to "get into it". Now, he's spending hours every night wandering around in this fantasy. It's so fascinating, and there's so much to do and see. As we watch, he begins to spend less and less time away from the computer screen. Finally, it gets to the point where he is there 24 hours a day. His mum comes by to give him food and drink, but he gulps them down without even noticing, so immersed is he in his interactive fantasy.

Now, we may imagine that he begins to develop a moral framework about this game. When he sees other fantasy characters getting "killed" in the game, he judges this as wrong and evil, and grieves over the suffering that they underwent. In a sense, they DID suffer since they are just as hooked on this fantasy world as he is. However, in reality, the other players are all just sitting alive and well in their bedrooms, also glued to their computer screens. Hence, there was no suffering in actuality; only to the fantasy character they had identified totally with.

The boy regards his own fantasy body as real, and hence when he is attacked by another player, he even "suffers" as his "body" dies in the game. However, nothing has really been destroyed: only something that never really existed in the first place outside the virtual realm. We all know he can just reincarnate right back into the game, and WILL do so, such is his desire to get back into play. Maybe he lost a few points, or some of the weapons he gained last time round have disappeared, but he can just carry right on from where he left off.

Do you see how this relates to the dilemma of the world, of suffering, and of Good and Evil? We believe in all of these things so totally because of our total identification with our physical bodies and the world which we inhabit. It is only because we identify so completely with the material world, and believe this is all there is, that we are haunted by all these notions. Yet, if we could awaken to the fact that reality is far more than this, and WE are far more than the limited beings we mistake ourselves for, then our notions will become to us as absurd as the boy trapped in the game.

A funny thing sometimes happens (extremely rarely) in this game world. Once in a while, a player "wakes up" to who he/she really is. She realizes she is NOT the role she has been playing lifetime after lifetime in the game. Rather, she is a person in a whole other universe, staring at a computer screen and wrestling frantically with a joystick.

She also realizes that she is NOT bound by the limited rules of the game at all. She can simply walk away, and those rules hold no power over her whatsoever. And she does walk away, never to return to the illusory trap of that fantasy world again. She knows now that none of it was real; the fantasy dramas, the wars, the killing, and all the mental anguish. It was just a game, although it seemed so real at the time. Although she died a million painful deaths (or so it seemed at the time), none of it touched her true essence. She didn't really kill anyone, and nobody really killed her. It just seemed that way at the time.

To those who remain, it seems as if she just "vanished". Some say she attained what they call "Nirvana", and ceased to exist. But that isn't really true: she just found out who she REALLY is, and disappeared into realms beyond the game that they, still bound to it, can never conceive or imagine.

Sometimes, such a person chooses to re-enter the game, but this time remaining fully aware, undeceived by the illusions of the fantasy world. She does so unselfishly, with the motive of rescuing others still trapped within the illusion. She tells them that this world that seems so real is nothing more than an illusion, that what they perceive as suffering is not real at all, and that what they perceive to be Good and Evil is likewise nonsensical, when viewed from a higher perspective.

Most of the players laugh at her. These ideas are so ridiculous. They ask her to describe this "Enlightenment" she claims to have. But she cannot, because THEY cannot conceive of anything outside of the game world in which their senses are totally immersed. So, because she cannot relate it to the world they know and understand, they conclude it is extinction or non-existence. Some of them ask her to give them this enlightenment, by touching them on the shoulder, or by physically taking them there. But she says she cannot do that. Each person has to realize it for him or herself. Each person must awaken from the illusion alone. She cannot do it for them, although she can show them the quickest way to do it.

Hopefully, this metaphor will have helped you to gain some insight into why spiritual teachings say the things they do about our everyday experience. It can help you to think of this world as a sort of virtual reality game. In essence, that is what it is! It would be false to say that it does not exist in ANY sense, but it IS true to say that it is nothing like the way it seems, and it is definitely not all that there is. If you can visualize the physical world as only the very tip of a vast iceberg that constitutes reality, you will be far less inclined to take it all so seriously: least of all your "bit part" in it.

Oh, by the way, in the game metaphor, we were assuming that these were all separate individuals playing the game in different locations. That is only partly true. You see, at a still higher level, there is actually only ONE player who is role-playing all THOSE people sitting at their computer screens, immersed in their own fantasy world.

But that is a whole other game!...

Copyright 2003, Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights Reserved.

________________________________________________

 Dr. Asoka Selvarajah is the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your Higher Self". His work helps you achieve your life dreams through learning practical, effective spiritual and personal growth strategies. You can learn more at: http://www.higherselfsecrets.com?ATW

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