This post is just a brief update on the status of the mission along with enough information for you to Google a point or two and maybe amuse yourself for while.
Or, if you're on a similar mission, you might want to spend a bit more time following the points I'm about to lay down.
This is not a religious statement because I'm not religious, not any more. I was born into a religious family which lived in a religious part of the world. For a time, I wanted to be a missionary and for a number of years I was a minister. For a long time, a lot of people told me I had made a difference in their lives, and for a while I actually believed them. Then I got it that I can't make more of a difference in anyone's life than they are willing to have a difference made there. I pondered that and realized that if a person wants a change, they will find a way to do it whether I'm there or not. That was a big relief, because I'm on a mission, and it's not about making a difference in anyone's life but mine.
The Mission is simple. I want to know God, or Allah, or Jehovah, or The One, or whatever you choose to call the force that created all that is. There's never been a doubt in my mind that my mission is doable, and I know I'm getting closer to my objective. There have been many wrong turns, a lot of misinformation, and a number of false prophets, still I've made a lot of progress, though I can't quantify that for you in any way other than a statement of knowing that it is so.
The booklet I'm going to tell you about in a moment speaks more eloquently to that situation:
A mark of progress
at one stage
is an obstacle at the next.
You cannot note when
(or how much)
you have progressed toward
any liberation...
only discern your limitations
less and less.
Without a guide, mentor, or teacher, I've had to rely on books. I just did some quick, conservative, calculations on the number of books I've read, which doesn't include The Bible (which I've read through a number of times) or all of the versions of The Tao I've read (one I've copied by hand three times), and here's what I've concluded: In fifty years of reading, twenty esoteric books per year, with an average of 50,000 words per book, I've read fifty million words.
The irony of that is that everything I've read and studied, EVERYTHING, is covered in great detail in The Divine Moment, a 900 word booklet written by Pama Rab Sel (James Lane Prior - born in Deland, Florida in 1928 - died in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1990.) Though I never met Pama Rab Sel, I've walked and talked and laughed with him since we met in a bookstore in Huntington Beach, California in 1993.
The Divine Moment is long out of print, however, if you want to chase a used copy here's a link to the only one I found on the web - it gives the pertinent search info.
I'm thinking about blogging about the key points in Pama Rab Sel's amazing work, mostly for my gratification. You're more than welcome to follow along and add comments - or not.
The Divine Moment begins this way -
This moment is it.
There is no "better" moment
than this one.
Later I'll tell you how it ends.
#2
In the mid-eighties, I lived in Memphis, Tennessee, where I was employed by Ryder Truck Rental. It was my third tour with this company that I loved. I began my time with Ryder, Memphis, as an account manager. A year or so later I became the District Sales Manager. In my new position, I kept a few of my accounts and oversaw the sales efforts of three sales managers.
One of the accounts I retained after my promotion was FedEx. I kept that account for three reasons. First, FedEx is headquartered in Memphis. Second, though not a lease customer, I was convinced they were a solid prospect to be one. And, third, I had managed to get a national rental agreement with FedEx. This post isn't a commercial for FedEx, though it could be. Nor is it a commercial for Ryder Truck Rental, which it also could be. This post is about being in the moment and the story I'm going to tell you about FedEx is a metaphor for that.
This post is also a lead in to the first installment of The Divine Moment series that I promised last week - If you missed that post and would like to read it, here's the link that will take you to it.
Now, back to Memphis, almost thirty years ago. It took a number of visits to FedEx to finally get to the right person and quite a few more to find an area where I knew my company might assist them. I wanted to present a lease proposal but that only came much later, after we proved we could and would do what we said we would do.
First, I had to sell FedEx on renting from us when they needed more equipment than they owned. The agreement I sold was a standard agreement with one exception. It specified that if one of our rental units broke down we would not send a service truck to attempt to repair it where it was disabled. We would instead, without delay, send a wrecker to the disabled unit. The wrecker would then tow the disabled vehicle to it's destination.
Payment for that service wasn't an issue. In fact, payment was never an issue. The only issue was speed. You see, "When It Absolutely Positively Has To Be There Overnight", was the mission statement that built the company, before it was their advertising slogan.
It costs a lot more money to send a wrecker to a disabled vehicle than it does to send a service truck, and it a costs a whole lot more to have the wrecker tow the vehicle to a location that isn't one of your service facilities.
Because such a provision went against standard, logical procedure, I had to work harder to sell my people on the special provision in the FedEx Rental Agreement and even harder to ensure it was implemented, than I worked to sell FedEx. In fact, all I had to do to sell FedEx was convince them that we would do what I said we would do. That is the difference between advertising and being. Or, in other words, that's the difference between a way of life and empty rhetoric and that brings me to the point of the post.
The Divine Moment, begins:
This moment is it.
There is no better moment
than this one.
The FedEx version might well be:
This moment is absolutely,
positively, the only moment there is.
Do not waste time waiting on a better one
or daydreaming about a historic one.
Come back Thursday for the next lesson from The Divine Moment.
#3
On August 28, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered what has become known as the, "I have a dream speech."
His delivery and content were impeccable, proved by the fact that the presentation has stood the test of time and will continue to do so.
I'm not about to add another commentary to the words he spoke that day from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, to over 250,000 supporters. It's my intention to use that familiar presentation to make a point about a less familiar topic.
First, and you might think this isn't important, but bear with me and let's see: What Dr. King shared wasn't a dream, it was a vision. And, to digress, in my opinion it's the most powerful vision anyone of our time has ever shared.
By using the word "dream" instead of "vision" he made his vision otherworldly, since no one knows for sure where dreams come from or what prompts them. Visions, on the other hand, are equated with personal goals or even wishes. Hear the difference, "I have a dream..." "I have a vision..."
In the forty-seven years since he delivered the speech hundreds of millions of us have adopted it as our "dream." However, each of us has a slightly different, or in some cases, a totally different version of Dr. King's vision. In fact, to use the word comparison one more time, he had a vision, from his vision we formed a personal dream. Each of our millions of dreams have been filtered though our individual egos. Which brings me to my point.
The Divine Moment is a powerful piece of esoteric literature that has totally impacted every facet of my life. When It Absolutely Positively, is a commentary on the opening lines of the work. Now, I'll share the first point following the definition, and use Dr. King's vision to assist.
"Characteristics
of any kind or degree
of subtlety are of a kind
of "sticky" nature;
they cling to the flow
and drag attention
off center."
The subject of that paragraph is the moment - this moment - the only moment there is. We all understand what that is. We all know how to get there and, we all have problems staying there. That is the problem that is being addressed.
Our attention is dragged "off center" or out of the moment, not because we have an illness or physical defect, but because we add "subtle characteristics" to what we have experienced in the moment. For example, what do you think of when you hear or read Dr. King's words, "I am happy to join you today..." Hopefully not much. Those words shouldn't generate anything of a "sticky nature," that could snatch you out of the moment.
Now, what do you feel when you hear or read this line: "One Hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination."
Unless you have trained yourself to recognize and avoid "characteristics of any kind or degree of subtlety," you felt emotion and you probably felt it to the point that you were dragged off center and if not totally out of the moment, at least to its outer edge.
We are run by feelings and emotions that can be triggered by words, recollections, pictures, and actual events. Until we are aware of that and do something about it, we will forever flit in and out of the moment, never fully knowing or experiencing its infinite beauty, peace, and deep joy.
More on that topic is coming. Until then,
Remain steady in the Stillness.
#4
A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin, is the book on which the recently released movie, Mr. Holmes, was based. I've read the book and seen the movie and my comprehensive, albeit short, review is simple. They are both great. And, my advice is, read the book before you see the movie. You'll know why after you have done both.
If you have to do one or the other but can't do both, as much as I love Ian McKellen, my advice is, read the book. It will last longer and you can carry it with you and, as you will discover, Mitch Cullin is a marvelous writer.
Here's a passage from the book to beef up my argument for the book:
"Not through the dogmas of archaic doctrines will you gain your greatest understandings, but, rather, through the continued evolution of Science, and through your keen observations of the natural environment beyond your windows. To comprehend yourself truly, which is also to comprehend the world truly, you needn't look any father than at what abounds with life around you - the blossoming meadow, the untrodden woodlands. Without this as mankind's overriding objective, I don't foresee an age of actual enlightenment ever arriving."
Those words are spoken by the 93 year old Sherlock Holmes to his young friend, Roger Munro.
When I read the passage, I stopped and copied it into my notebook because it is such a beautiful way of restating one of my favorite lines from The Divine Moment, this one:
If you have to do one or the other but can't do both, as much as I love Ian McKellen, my advice is, read the book. It will last longer and you can carry it with you and, as you will discover, Mitch Cullin is a marvelous writer.
Here's a passage from the book to beef up my argument for the book:
"Not through the dogmas of archaic doctrines will you gain your greatest understandings, but, rather, through the continued evolution of Science, and through your keen observations of the natural environment beyond your windows. To comprehend yourself truly, which is also to comprehend the world truly, you needn't look any father than at what abounds with life around you - the blossoming meadow, the untrodden woodlands. Without this as mankind's overriding objective, I don't foresee an age of actual enlightenment ever arriving."
Those words are spoken by the 93 year old Sherlock Holmes to his young friend, Roger Munro.
When I read the passage, I stopped and copied it into my notebook because it is such a beautiful way of restating one of my favorite lines from The Divine Moment, this one:
"A mark of progress
at one stage
is an obstacle at the next."
Holmes' message to Roger is a great one to use to emphasize what we all must overcome to move successfully through this portion of our evolution as life forms, a process that began eons before we made our appearance on this minor planet, in a mediocre constellation, parked in an obscure corner of the universe, an evolution that will continue long past the time we leave this place on our way to the next.
The guidance we receive in a given moment, no matter how useful or profound, will only serve for a finite period of time and must be released, without regret or hesitation, the moment it no longer serves.
Few of us are willing to release the things that worked so well in the past. We cling to them long past their point of usefulness.
Which brings to mind another passage from an old favorite, Illusions - the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach:
"Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current was what each had learned from birth. But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.
The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!' But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more."
The longer you've clung to the teachings that brought you to this place, the tougher it will be to turn loose. No matter. Of this you can be sure. If you have the courage to turn loose, the river will lift you to the surface.
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