AIMS Archives: Analogies, Images, Mental Pictures, Stories

Wine Making

For the best quality grapes, wine makers know the environment cannot be lush and easy. You find flourishing wineries in somewhat dry looking, semi-desert areas. Without challenges, the best flavors of the grape stay dormant.

One great Sufi wrote he was concerned God had deserted him, since challenges and difficulties had disappeared from his outer life. What a diametrically opposed viewpoint to the mindset found in our modern times, where most students primarily seek comfort and ease under the guise of the “spiritual” search.

By Tom Russell

The Fallow Field

Just as farmers allow a field to rest for a year after 6 or 7 cycles of planting, so a wise and intelligent cessation of all effort allows space for the dawning of something new.

It is a strange fact that students often get used to a tense state of struggle, and even feel “guilty” when they lay all effort aside for awhile. This is the same old tension patterns under a different coating.

J. Krishnamurti said it so well, “To be still after tilling and sowing, is to give birth to creation.” This Bible also teaches this by placing much importance on the Sabbath Day — the day of rest.

By Tom Russell

Jigsaw Puzzle

Because of your life experiences, genetics and countless other factors, there is no duplicate to your life-puzzle, or one even similar. Your puzzle is truly unique!

We may investigate the viewpoints and discoveries of others to see what pieces of the jigsaw puzzle they may have found, that we can perhaps find within our own puzzle. However, thinking that any program or given teaching has all the pieces of the puzzle for you, closes off precious possibilities.

Many have found writing and journals to be a powerful piece of their puzzle; it is one that may work wonders for you also. Consider the immense benefits of having your own expanding row of journals on your bookshelf, teaming with insights and memories for your eyes only!

Membrane

Membrane defined: “Biology: A thin, pliable layer of tissue covering surfaces or separating or connecting regions, structures, or organs of an animal or plant. Chemistry: A thin sheet of natural or synthetic material that is permeable to substances in solution.”

What is the self? Big question. One way to perceive the self is as a membrane, with porous qualities allowing a two way exchange of energy from outer to inner, and from inner to outer.

The membrane has its concerns and quirks. Why be overly concerned with getting rid of them? Many have found that a direct frontal assault on imperfections does not work, and can in fact cause them to multiply.

Wholeness includes the eternal and the temporary. Touch the eternal, and the imperfections of the temporary membrane pose no concerns; however, to hunt down the quirks and imperfections is an indirect way to make a “god” out of them. It generates conflict that scars and solidifies the membrane, thus obstructing the touch of the eternal.

The membrane, no longer trying to perfect the temporary and “enlighten” it, turns instead to allowing more space and openness. The energy now flowing through has built in charm and lots of rejuvenating pep.

By Tom Russell

Butterflies

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” (N. Hawthorne)

We begin this quest with persistent efforts to stay alert, refusing to roam in the maze of associative, unchecked thinking. This initial (and necessary) stage of effort can be compared to the caterpillar stage of the butterfly. Without this initial struggle, there can be no stirring up of dormant inner powers.

Just as the butterfly breaks free of the shell and flies, so intelligent effort gradually gives way to understanding. In the beginning, to quote author Vernon Howard, “We work hard because we don’t yet know enough to work easy.” The transition from hard to easy, therefore, is from effort to listening — from movement to catch the butterfly to receptivity that invites the butterfly, and when it alights, to cherish it.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –
Related Butterfly Podcast

Underwater Geysers

Underwater geysers are rare places in nature where great quantities of life abide. Likewise, spiritual ideas of tremendous power and clarity orbit the center of our Being (the “heart” so often mentioned in the Bible), yet we walk in unawareness of this unfolding paradise.

With the quest for enlightenment being largely co-opted today by sophisticated commercial interest with a worldwide mass marketing effort, author Henry David Thoreau conveys a most relevant point: “Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man.” Fascination and fixation on any outer source of wisdom, or the frantic attempt to find one, block perception of the inner geyser — the only Source from which advanced answers flow.

Awaken the inner teacher. Books, discussions and group meetings can help serve this sacred aim. Just never forget your aim, because most people will have forgotten theirs, urging you (often in subtle ways) to place outer sources of assistance on pedestals. The last thing any instructor with something valuable to teach wants to see, is fawning behavior in a student.

Related Resource:
The Perils of Group Think – Audio Discussion

Electricity

This invisible power now permeates and brightens our modern world. Many connections can be made to the inner life, including the discovery by Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla that made it all possible.

In the late 1880’s Thomas Edison held the patent on DC – Direct Current. Relying on brute force, it was an unreliable and inefficient means of conveying electricity from the dynamo to the end user. To Edison’s great chagrin, Tesla discovered AC – Alternating Current. Tesla first demonstrated AC’s vastly superior power at a bid competition held at Niagara Falls. Now electricity could be conveyed almost effortlessly over great distances.

Just as the false self goes on a propaganda campaign when one first taps into spiritual AC, so did Edison launch lie after lie to discredit the new discovery. (See wiki article) Yet the Truth with its poise and charm wins out in the end.

We practice inner life AC when we rotate between different pools of energy. The wise student never tries to force anything (as Edison did with Direct Current). He or she employs the light touch to change centers when a given direction of activity or inquiry has served its purpose for now. This also includes a given author or teacher. Upon following this natural inclination, notice when you revisit the author the new connections you make.

By Tom Russell

Breath

Breath lives loser to us than anything else. To breathe better is to live better.

Full and healthy breath cycles effortlessly through four phases: inhale / retain / exhale / rest. The profitable use of inner life information follows the same stages.

Reading, audio and video, classes and discussion are among the methods for inhaling information. Contemplation, experimentation and making lists of your connections, these are practical ways to retain the information for awhile.

Then, unlike conventional worldly information that gets mentally stored, inner life information has one purpose — to cleanse and open. Attempts to store the information lead to competitive comparison, top heaviness and rigid religious structures. This third stage, exhalation, is perhaps best described as an intelligent willingness to not know. Happiness is Beingness, the bubbling spring mentioned above. After all, no isolated self exists that can Know, since true Knowing flows freely without reference to apparent selves and boundaries.

The fourth stage of the cycle, rest, includes simply noticing the silence, and at other times it includes recreation. J. Krishnamurti, for example, surprised people when they heard he loved to read detective novels. Vernon Howard enjoyed reading history for recreation. Gurdjieff relished telling and listening to jokes while taking a Turkish bath.

By Tom Russell

Turtle

The Chinese revere the turtle as a symbol of wise, intelligent living. The turtle carries its home (its shell) with it wherever it goes. It moves slowly and deliberately, never rushed. The more at home we are with ourselves, the more others enjoy and benefit from our presence. A desperate person attempts the impossible by demanding happiness and attention from the environment. Others sense this undercurrent of pressure and withdraw.

Slow, deliberate movements can never be authentically expressed as long as I think my home exists someplace else. If I know I’m already there, then where’s the hurry? “The happiness we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings.” (Metrodorus)

By Tom Russell

Windsock

At small airports without radio towers, a pilot wishing to land flies over the airport to locate the wind sock. The pilot lands into the wind, toward the opening of the sock.

Like the wind, challenges and setbacks provide LIFT. We land (or take off) into the wind. Another element of lift is weight. Excess cargo can cause an airplane to crash.

Ever wonder why change seems so difficult? Does your cargo bay overflow with useless objects, demanding people, habitual activities or mental patterns? Change requires nimbleness. First discard ruthlessly, then perhaps add something new.

By Tom Russell