NEW Gifts for the Season:

A Message from  Wayne C. Allen

Seasons Greetings from Wayne & Dar!

So, how do you like the re-design? I know, I know. 3 columns instead of 2. Whoopee. Seems easier to read, somehow, at least in Wayne's world.

So, here's a story for you. My new book is now available on Amazon.com (click) I was all excited, until I did the math. Amazon really, really controls the process, gets a huge chunk of the retail price, and makes publishers pay shipping. Last week, they got into ordering books, one at a time. Each book I shipped (one at a time) I LOST a buck on the sale. As soon as I shipped 2 or more in a bundle, I make a buck. Yikes. (I encourage you to use our website to order!)

We'll leave it up there for a while, and if you think shopping at Amazon is easier than on our site, go for it!

Oh. Here's a request. If you bought the book and wouldn't mind, I'd love a review. Just e-mail it to me.

Warmly, Wayne & Dar

 

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The Fringe Dweller's
Guide to the Universe

What the Bleep?

A few months ago, I heard about a movie that combined Quantum Physics and the search for the "real" meaning of Self. The move is called, "What the Bleep do We Know?" Or, as they write it,

(click the graphic to go to their site.)

This is another one of those limited release films that those of you in the boonies will be annoying yourself about finding. If you absolutely have to, you may have to wait for the DVD. Here's what they say on the website:

We have been besieged with questions about the DVD release of What The Bleep Do We Know!?. As you know we are in the midst of our theatrical release, which is the most effective way to get this information out into social consciousness. We want to make a splash in the marketplace. That way Hollywood will wake up and start making films that are worth watching. Once the theatrical run is over, the DVD will hit. It'll be a 3 or 4 DVD boxed set. We are sitting on 60 hours of interviews, so there will be much more depth about the science and mystical perspectives introduced in the film.

So, what's it all about? Well, there has been a recognized link between Quantum Physics (QP) and mysticism since the beginning of QP. At the level of the very small, all rules are off. It's like at that level what is seen or identified has much more with what the observer is looking for. A particle can exist in two places simultaneously. What looks like a particle acts like a wave. And on and on.

Things exist as potentials. One potential comes foreground, and might be considered "real," but in a sense does not eliminate other potentials.

Very Zen.

Now, watching this movie will be hard for any of you who are stuck in any belief system - religion being the biggest sticking point. If you think you are a part of some group that is "chosen," and that others are excluded because they don't see it your way, you're going to hate this movie.

On the other hand, if you've been struggling with who you are and how you fit (which is likely why you're reading Into the Centre,) you'll find directions to look in.

On the third hand, understanding some or all of what is in the movie also does not make you special. (Spare me from the "I'm so enlightened!" crowd.) The real point is that at the most profound level, we are not only all the same, we are all One.

The freedom that comes from this peculiar understanding is immense. I no longer have to spend my life trying to convert others. I can let go of judging what others are doing. I can let go, perhaps mort importantly, of judging myself. I can, from that place, make choices about elegantly living my life.

Perhaps that's really the point of this holiday season. It's no coincidence that the Christian Church forced Jesus' birthday from spring to December. December 25th was chosen to counteract the "pagan" celebrations of renewal - the sacred days when the shortest day and longest night (Winter solstice) turns, and there is more light, less dark.

The wise, the people who have come to us with visions of better worlds, cannot be denied. They saw through the games, the masks and the torture we do to ourselves, and offered us another view. A view of the infinite mystery contained in the unlimited potential of life.

Let go, let go of the need to cling to outmoded thought and life understandings. Take the risk of dancing to a new song. Find a new ground and stand there, with eyes open and filled with wonder. The gift of life is too precious to waste on making yourself miserable.

At this most special time of year, I bid you peace!

See you in 2005!!!

Warmth and love,

Wayne

I read the above quote on an Osho Zen Tarot card earlier this year. I copied it and showed it to Wayne who dug around and found a sticky note he'd written with the same quote already written on it. I now have that sticky note on my computer monitor.

I regularly pull a card or a 5 card spread using the Osho Zen Tarot deck or the Osho website. (www.osho.com). This morning when I did my cards for today on the computer - this card appeared again and has several times in the last couple of weeks. It shows up regularly when I let my life get too busy to take time for me. I can easily get lost in the "busyness". As I am just getting through reports, IEPs, interviews and Christmas planning – it makes perfect sense that this card shows up.

The card is called Exhaustion.

The person in the middle truly looks exhausted and the mechanical workings surrounding him are the obvious reason. Keeping all the externals working well is quite the job.

For me, this card is a reminder that I am putting too much effort into 'keeping it all together' and 'making sure things run smoothly' and forgetting about taking time to be playful. If I examine life on the days when this card shows up, I notice that I am spending most of my time worrying about how things will work out. Getting all the pieces of my life to line up in the way that I think they should at that moment.

It truly is exhausting work. In the midst of it all, I keep forgetting to show up. The moments pass and I miss them. There is something safe about the routines. It is familiar. 'Doing life' this way keeps things predictable. My attempt to stay in control. The chaotic and spontaneous aspects of life are kept well away. There is business to do – who has time for playfulness – not me!

What this leaves me is feeling exhausted. I also become aware of a suffocating feeling. Life gets heavy. Everything seems to be a drag and I am not having much fun. Work piles up – you should see my desk. My students always note when it gets cleaned up and take bets to see how long it will last. They even took time to clean it the other day. That's how our dear friend Leanne entered our life - her endless efforts to clean my desk when she was a student.

When the card shows up in my life, it reminds me to not take things so seriously. I laugh and take a breath. It reminds me to live in the moment, to trust enough to allow things to work out as they will and to open myself to the possibilities of the moment. In this space, I am truly more relaxed, productive and content. AND, the card keeps showing up again and again as a reminder.

May the year 2005 be a year filled with the mystery of life. Enjoy each moment. As Eckhart Tolle reminds us in Stillness Speaks,

"The present moment is as it is. Always.
Can you let it be?"

The Parable of the Trapeze

Turning the fear of transformation into the transformation of fear…

Sometimes I feel like my life is a series of trapeze swings.  I’m either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along or, for a few moments in my life I’m hurtling across space in between trapeze bars.

Most of the time, I spend hanging on for dear life to my trapeze-bar-of-the-moment.  It carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I’m in control of my life.  I know most of the right questions and even some of the answers.

But, every once in awhile as I’m merrily (or even not so merrily) swinging along, I look out ahead of me in the distance and what do I see?  I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me.  It’s empty and I know, in that place in me that knows, that this new trapeze bar has my name on it.  It is my next step, my growth, my aliveness coming to get me.  In my heart-of-hearts I know that for me to grow, I must release my grip on this present, well-known bar and move to the new one.

Each time it happens to me I hope (no, I pray) that I won’t have to let go of my old bar completely before I grab the new one.  But in my knowing place, I know that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar and, for some moment in time, I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar.

Each time, I am filled with terror.  It doesn’t matter that in all my previous hurtles across the void of unknowing I have always made it.  I am each time afraid that I will miss, that I will be crushed on unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between bars.  I do it anyway.  Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience.  No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because somehow to keep hanging on to that old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives.  So, for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void of “the past is gone, the future is not yet here.”  It’s called “transition”.  I have come to believe that this transition is the only place that real change occurs.  I mean real change, not the pseudo-change that lasts only until the next time my old buttons get punched.

I have noticed that, in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a “no-thing,” a no-place between places.  Sure, the old trapeze bar was real, and that new one that’s coming towards me, I hope it’s real, too.  But that void in between?  Is that just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible?

NO!  What a wasted opportunity that would be.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing and the bars are illusions we dream up to avoid the void where real change, the real growth, occurs for us.  Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that the transitions zones in our lives are incredibly rich places.  They should be honoured, even savored.  Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can (but not necessarily) accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments of our lives.

So, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away but rather with giving ourselves permission to “hang-out” in the transition between trapezes.  Transforming our need to grab that new bar, any bar, is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens.  It can be terrifying.  It can also be enlightening in the true sense of the word.  Hurtling through the void, we just may learn how to fly.

Danaan Parry, 1991, “Warriors of the Heart - A Handbook for Conflict Resolution”, Earthstewards Network Publishing, Bainbridge Island Washington.

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Dr. Self-Help

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Your gateway to the wide world of mental and emotional health, wellness,  growth, peace, and tranquility on the web. Why waste time searching and book marking when we've already done the work for you?

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Peter Hoban's site, for views and thoughts on 
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Psychotherapist Ellen Moore's site, dedicated to journaling, reinterpretation of meaning and "sitting with" life issues.

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Mystic Visions

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