Let me start out by saying twenty five years ago I walked across America with The Great Peace March in the most beautiful city I have ever lived in, called Peace City. That journey went from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. and took nine months. I came to LOVE my yellow North Face home. The following summer I walked from St Petersburg to Moscow with the First International Peace Walk, two hundred America's and two hundred Soviets living in Peace City within Ronald Reagans Evil Empire and our true enemies Motherland. Living in a tent in a community of loving friends has been a high light of my life.
Also, after working as artist in residence at Sol y Sombre the home of Charles and Beth Miller in Santa Fe New Mexico and Georgia O'keefee's last residence....the only other comparable position was to be 'artist in residence for planet Earth' so in full filling that position I feel that EVERY WHERE on the planet is MY HOME....so saying that I AM homeless in Iowa ....seems somewhat of a lie.
I left 'the family' behind and took off on my 'meditation about' the Mount Vernon homeless adventure. Several layers of clothes with a native pendleton black and brown designed 'gathering' blanket for real warmth.
The large hillside Mount Vernon Cemetery was close. The almost full moon and clear sky were a perfect backdrop for my first several hour meditation. I sat behind a large grave stone so no one would notice my presence. Seems so miraculous that so soon after a dramatic dialogue that I could be feeling so good again. Clearness of the sky matched my empty thoughts and emotions. Just Being ALIVE among the dead felt pretty soothing.
My meditation focused on being in the heart space, beautiful pure perfect love, I like to say. I had stayed within that space of ' We are all One' from the Bass Farm mediation combined with the original zygote being ONE cell to the now added third ONE heart meditation. The ONE love we all seem to share. It was a beautiful night, perfect.
When the time came to move...I moved. All wrapped up in my native wool warm blanket, I sat at the out door comfortable table and chairs of the First Street Community Center. I love Rick and Trude Elliott, the owners and creators of the MainStreet Community Center. Building community from the inside out is one of the most difficult arts of our time. I have been blessed to have lived in some amazing communities that are always in the process of attempting to improve on their art of community building. Marion Iowa my hometown. Carefree Arizona, Naples Florida, Lajolla California, Peace City, Aspen Colorado, Taos New Mexico and Beth Miller's Sol y Sombra in Santa Fe, and now Mount Vernon Iowa ...home of Cornell College my alma matter.
Edgar Helms is my favorite Cornell Alumni. He created Goodwill Industries in Boston in 1902. He was amazing, more on him later. His inspiration along another mile of my journey brings inspirational light to my path, always.
I was ready to move westward to the old Lincoln highway bridge crossing the double railroad tracks. A favorite pastime, decades ago, to be on the tiny wooden bridge while huge freight trains would pass inches below you. I got to experience two trains at once last night....a 'remember me' kind of experience. Then I walked over to the park on the entrance to town, I had never been there before and it was beginning to get cold and damp. I layered on the picnic table by the nearby fire pit. A fire would have been wonderful. I wasn't really prepared except for a bottle of water that I brought along. Several hours later...I got cold and decided to find a warm spot in town. Olin Hall was nearby, the dorm that I spent three years in while at Cornell. I found a first floor study type room that was warm with nice furniture and the most quiet space I have experienced in Mount Vernon. My meditation went on for several hours before I felt the pulse of early morning movement about town. I walked through town, people were starting to move about the dark town. I even encountered a group of four joggers and cars parked at the community center fitness center.
I went back to my old white home on hilltop drive and quietly made my way into 'my' second floor bed. It felt good. I lay awake meditating on my experiences and all I had learned about THE SELF, loving the self and the layers and layers of complex systems of symbolic characters screaming out or hiding away within the ideal self awaiting to be 'discovered.' or just re known .......I went straight into a short dream and was awakened quickly as it played out. Clear as ever was the transition into the morning hour.
It is amazing that we ever communicate with one another as the real communication takes place within the mufti-dimensional layers of unknown and known senses of being oneself. While the external superficial material layers of skin providing such a beautiful representation of the wholeness never seems touched nearly enough.
Life is so beautiful in its myriad diversity. Time to contemplate another night of meditation about town.
The Adventures of Iowa and international "IDEA" artist rasa - (Robert Allan Schueler Artist. ) Suddenly, completely out of nowhere he is kicked into the new, previously , unknown universe of homelessness in Iowa. From BEING fully, totally and completely homeless to three days later "OWNING THE WORLD" Follow his adventures unfolding.....
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Relationship with Oneself
I return 'to my past home' to see Makiah but no one is there....so I let myself in and make myself at home, doing several loads of laundry, folding clothes, emptying the dishwasher and continuing my meditation in a space all to familiar for the last six years.
All life is about relationships. And the most important relationship of all is with oneself. Master oneself and the world is yours, THEY say. So this is kinda where this blog takes a divergent kind of twist. How to tell the TRUTH and how to keep the story positive and upbeat and educational for EVERYONE involved.
So, I will use my lessons learned as examples....hopefully several other spin off books or films or projects will spin off from this blog. I think we ALL have our own individual unique miraculous creative perspectives on the truth...and ...I believe consciousness and other natural systems or mediums do contain some aspects of THE TRUTH...which makes life somewhat manageable in co-creating and co-designing systems of utopia.
The Self is made up of many internal perspectives and layers of perspectives. Complex we ALL be. How we SEE ourselves, feel and know oneself ....how we complete the integral 'perfect portraiture' of ourselves within our natural rasa, or essential nature is the foundation of how we love oneself.... loving oneself is what defines EVERY RELATIONSHIP you will ever experience. If the foundation of THE PERSPECTIVE of oneself isn't full, total and complete....neither will the richness of your relations. Empty holes or aspects of your 'perfect portraiture' will assist you always in forming relationships filled with pain and abuse. Learning how to LOVE oneself and being free to express oneself is the basics of life time health and happiness. Simple and easy as that.
So I'll leave out the MAJOR INSPIRATIONAL CHARACTERS of this blog for another day. Let it be accounted they are very normal people learning to learn how to master the art of life so to best full fill their Dream BIG Dreams. They are AMAZING life partners...full of beauty and grace and geniusness AND the most CHALLENGING relationships of my life. Enough said for now.
Back to SELF.....left brain right brain intelligence. Emotional, spatial and intuitive integrated. Beta, alpha, theta, delta brain waves balanced ...peace ....charka flow of energy with heart based centered communication systems. Balance balance balance.....balancing the conscious and unconscious mind with awareness of all the positive negative archetypal characters directing your games of play. Seems like there is always a new internal system to balance. Makiah taught me the simple "happy hands, happy feet, happy heart...happyplanetindex.org" dance to bring oneself into simple and easy balance with the planet, oneself and the universe. There are very simple profound ways to maintain that ONE magical relationship with the creator....but I have never found them too easy to find.
My birthday was day four of my homeless meditation and it was almost perfect in my eyes and heart. The best birthday probably ever. With Joe Jennison hosting a large community volunteer dinner party in the towns park....it was classic beautiful MainStreet Mount Vernon USA event. Makiah and I had a good time. The large crowd sang happy birthday to me and a cake and candles were wished upon and devoured.
Diving into the depths of dysfunction followed. Remembering to remember, remembering to know, remembering to learn, remembering THE LOVE, remembering the journey, remembering THE DANCE, remembering enough that all pathways of the future were known.
I began to be concerned about not sleeping...very little eating with NO appetite, I really enjoyed. I met with Rev Catherine, the expert on all things meditation and she didn't seem to be of concern and I certainly was feeling NO areas of concern with my body....balanced, calm, yet energized, peaceful, alert, all systems humming radiating and acting like I would never again need to sleep. Kinda weird I thought because I always was one to love sleeping and dreaming.
More issues exposed. More pain. More insights. And on to the my first night of homelessness.
All life is about relationships. And the most important relationship of all is with oneself. Master oneself and the world is yours, THEY say. So this is kinda where this blog takes a divergent kind of twist. How to tell the TRUTH and how to keep the story positive and upbeat and educational for EVERYONE involved.
So, I will use my lessons learned as examples....hopefully several other spin off books or films or projects will spin off from this blog. I think we ALL have our own individual unique miraculous creative perspectives on the truth...and ...I believe consciousness and other natural systems or mediums do contain some aspects of THE TRUTH...which makes life somewhat manageable in co-creating and co-designing systems of utopia.
The Self is made up of many internal perspectives and layers of perspectives. Complex we ALL be. How we SEE ourselves, feel and know oneself ....how we complete the integral 'perfect portraiture' of ourselves within our natural rasa, or essential nature is the foundation of how we love oneself.... loving oneself is what defines EVERY RELATIONSHIP you will ever experience. If the foundation of THE PERSPECTIVE of oneself isn't full, total and complete....neither will the richness of your relations. Empty holes or aspects of your 'perfect portraiture' will assist you always in forming relationships filled with pain and abuse. Learning how to LOVE oneself and being free to express oneself is the basics of life time health and happiness. Simple and easy as that.
So I'll leave out the MAJOR INSPIRATIONAL CHARACTERS of this blog for another day. Let it be accounted they are very normal people learning to learn how to master the art of life so to best full fill their Dream BIG Dreams. They are AMAZING life partners...full of beauty and grace and geniusness AND the most CHALLENGING relationships of my life. Enough said for now.
Back to SELF.....left brain right brain intelligence. Emotional, spatial and intuitive integrated. Beta, alpha, theta, delta brain waves balanced ...peace ....charka flow of energy with heart based centered communication systems. Balance balance balance.....balancing the conscious and unconscious mind with awareness of all the positive negative archetypal characters directing your games of play. Seems like there is always a new internal system to balance. Makiah taught me the simple "happy hands, happy feet, happy heart...happyplanetindex.org" dance to bring oneself into simple and easy balance with the planet, oneself and the universe. There are very simple profound ways to maintain that ONE magical relationship with the creator....but I have never found them too easy to find.
My birthday was day four of my homeless meditation and it was almost perfect in my eyes and heart. The best birthday probably ever. With Joe Jennison hosting a large community volunteer dinner party in the towns park....it was classic beautiful MainStreet Mount Vernon USA event. Makiah and I had a good time. The large crowd sang happy birthday to me and a cake and candles were wished upon and devoured.
Diving into the depths of dysfunction followed. Remembering to remember, remembering to know, remembering to learn, remembering THE LOVE, remembering the journey, remembering THE DANCE, remembering enough that all pathways of the future were known.
I began to be concerned about not sleeping...very little eating with NO appetite, I really enjoyed. I met with Rev Catherine, the expert on all things meditation and she didn't seem to be of concern and I certainly was feeling NO areas of concern with my body....balanced, calm, yet energized, peaceful, alert, all systems humming radiating and acting like I would never again need to sleep. Kinda weird I thought because I always was one to love sleeping and dreaming.
More issues exposed. More pain. More insights. And on to the my first night of homelessness.
Meditation at the Iowa Meditation Center
As everyone let Alle Chapel ....i continued to stay in the comfort zone of peaceful feel good breathing. Then I decided to 'Keep Going' ....to pick up my tent and sleeping bag and head out to my favorite meditation spot that I liked to call The Iowa Meditation Center...which is located among the corn and bean fields of Bass Farms outside Mount Vernon. The miles and miles of journey through town, down a old dirt road pathway, up and across gravel roads through fields of soybeans and corn and ending up in a very secluded spot in the middle of the Corn and Soybean National Forest (what mr wood of 'i walk this earth' would refer to.)
The golden yellow North Face tent was put up and I crawled in with my purple sleeping bag and continued the homeless meditation. I think I began mastering the art of meditation in The World's Greatest Mom's womb and loved to go sit in small dark closets as a child. I always loved the silence and darkness, as there I always could find perfect peace with an ability to develop my imagination and intuition at will. Later in life, I walked across America with The Great Peace March with an intention to learn all I could about PEACE...so I set out across America with my focused attention on mastering prayer-contemplation-meditation. Twenty-five years later I still love learning all I can concerning connecting and networking the software for the worlds most amazing human bio-computer.
Meditation for me, is playing with the central control center of focusing the attention of consciousness...that god energy that is the source and power of all life.
So, I begin the process of focusing on the breath, the heart beat...then everywhere and anywhere throughout the body and then to the sounds outside my little golden dome tent. I was feeling really really good. Relaxed. Refreshed. I started asking questions in order to practice the ART of LISTENING, probably the greatest art of all the arts. I wanted to understand my condition of the why's of being HOMELESS IN IOWA and how could I possibly have gotten here. ( Although I love The Iowa Meditation Center that Chris Bass was sharing with me.)
Questions mostly on relationship issues. The answers started appearing quickly. I decided to ask "What is the Greatest Truth of ALL" ..... " WE ARE ALL ONE " was heard very clearly. I started to remember my conversations with Cliff Brown that I had days earlier while helping him move. I was AMAZED at the stories of 84 year old Cliff's journey through servicing, knowing, programming, teaching and managing everything in Iowa during the earliest days of computers. He said the wave of technological advancement NOW was in the area of cellular technology.
My brain neurons began to collect all the information that i had collected over the 59 years of my awareness concerning cells, biology, computers, programming, consciousness, psychology, spirituality, relationship theory, engineering and health and well being.
Every Thing seems to begin with Inspiration and then Intention. My inspiration was being kicked into a new unknown universe and how could I master the art of it as quickly as possible...kinda like designing a new game....being totally FREE and being totally in the play of designing a system that would make me happy happy happy.
My Intention was who to connect the hardware of the world's most miraculous computer with the creative genius software that god had provided for us. My intention began more a vision of seeing my body fully completely totally connected to the state of the art software available. I began to see the connection. Consciousness, that source or life energy that connects everything in the universe...kinda like 'god's body.' the we are all one kinda of experience. Then I remembered that most magical time of life when WE were all ONE, when the sperm combines with the egg to integrate the most miraculous individual unique wondrous beautiful creative genius in the universe. The zygote. Oneness connecting with Oneness. So I very simply and easily connected the cosmic circuit. Consciousness to One Original Cell......WOW....something began to happen....I was connected for the first time....every cell in my body began to start to move and dance and warm up and radiate....I started asking questions...answers came immediately...I played with asking questions from different chakra centers and received appropriate answers. WOW WOW WOW. For three days I played with the new self human bio computer and got to experience so many wonderful visions and answers and ways and means of perfecting the system.
I was happy. I was having fun. I would extent my meditations to walking meditations at nearby Palisades Park where they also had a nice bathroom that I used to feel fresh and clean and new.
I asked what was the greatest IDEA in the world ....and received an answer that immediately started me laughing. So I began practicing THE SECRET...a simple easy meditation technique. And hilarious happiness began to brake out. EVERYTHING was at my command. Answers abounded.
I owned the world.
From being homeless and clueless to within three days feeling so happy, balanced, complete, connected, EMPOWERED to know that yes, I owned the world. It was hilarious.
I wanted to see Makiah my magical man of a twelve year old son who I had not said good-bye too when I set out on the three day meditation....I packed up my tent and sleeping bag and headed out through fields of corn and soybeans, gravel roads and the old dirt road path leading straight into MainStreet Mount Vernon Iowa USA and into the while house on hilltop drive that three days earlier was my home.
The golden yellow North Face tent was put up and I crawled in with my purple sleeping bag and continued the homeless meditation. I think I began mastering the art of meditation in The World's Greatest Mom's womb and loved to go sit in small dark closets as a child. I always loved the silence and darkness, as there I always could find perfect peace with an ability to develop my imagination and intuition at will. Later in life, I walked across America with The Great Peace March with an intention to learn all I could about PEACE...so I set out across America with my focused attention on mastering prayer-contemplation-meditation. Twenty-five years later I still love learning all I can concerning connecting and networking the software for the worlds most amazing human bio-computer.
Meditation for me, is playing with the central control center of focusing the attention of consciousness...that god energy that is the source and power of all life.
So, I begin the process of focusing on the breath, the heart beat...then everywhere and anywhere throughout the body and then to the sounds outside my little golden dome tent. I was feeling really really good. Relaxed. Refreshed. I started asking questions in order to practice the ART of LISTENING, probably the greatest art of all the arts. I wanted to understand my condition of the why's of being HOMELESS IN IOWA and how could I possibly have gotten here. ( Although I love The Iowa Meditation Center that Chris Bass was sharing with me.)
Questions mostly on relationship issues. The answers started appearing quickly. I decided to ask "What is the Greatest Truth of ALL" ..... " WE ARE ALL ONE " was heard very clearly. I started to remember my conversations with Cliff Brown that I had days earlier while helping him move. I was AMAZED at the stories of 84 year old Cliff's journey through servicing, knowing, programming, teaching and managing everything in Iowa during the earliest days of computers. He said the wave of technological advancement NOW was in the area of cellular technology.
My brain neurons began to collect all the information that i had collected over the 59 years of my awareness concerning cells, biology, computers, programming, consciousness, psychology, spirituality, relationship theory, engineering and health and well being.
Every Thing seems to begin with Inspiration and then Intention. My inspiration was being kicked into a new unknown universe and how could I master the art of it as quickly as possible...kinda like designing a new game....being totally FREE and being totally in the play of designing a system that would make me happy happy happy.
My Intention was who to connect the hardware of the world's most miraculous computer with the creative genius software that god had provided for us. My intention began more a vision of seeing my body fully completely totally connected to the state of the art software available. I began to see the connection. Consciousness, that source or life energy that connects everything in the universe...kinda like 'god's body.' the we are all one kinda of experience. Then I remembered that most magical time of life when WE were all ONE, when the sperm combines with the egg to integrate the most miraculous individual unique wondrous beautiful creative genius in the universe. The zygote. Oneness connecting with Oneness. So I very simply and easily connected the cosmic circuit. Consciousness to One Original Cell......WOW....something began to happen....I was connected for the first time....every cell in my body began to start to move and dance and warm up and radiate....I started asking questions...answers came immediately...I played with asking questions from different chakra centers and received appropriate answers. WOW WOW WOW. For three days I played with the new self human bio computer and got to experience so many wonderful visions and answers and ways and means of perfecting the system.
I was happy. I was having fun. I would extent my meditations to walking meditations at nearby Palisades Park where they also had a nice bathroom that I used to feel fresh and clean and new.
I asked what was the greatest IDEA in the world ....and received an answer that immediately started me laughing. So I began practicing THE SECRET...a simple easy meditation technique. And hilarious happiness began to brake out. EVERYTHING was at my command. Answers abounded.
I owned the world.
From being homeless and clueless to within three days feeling so happy, balanced, complete, connected, EMPOWERED to know that yes, I owned the world. It was hilarious.
I wanted to see Makiah my magical man of a twelve year old son who I had not said good-bye too when I set out on the three day meditation....I packed up my tent and sleeping bag and headed out through fields of corn and soybeans, gravel roads and the old dirt road path leading straight into MainStreet Mount Vernon Iowa USA and into the while house on hilltop drive that three days earlier was my home.
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