Gaia Community: Naumadd's Blog

What is the relationship between health and spirituality?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:13:59 GMT

Personal "health", personal "spirituality" are the same thing. A human being isn't a conglomeration of parts, but one holistic integrated complex and dynamic working whole. And disagreeing with many traditional views, a human being isn't a "spirit" trapped in a physical shell.

In the views of many, the human "spirit" is what you experience as your total "person". It is your fullest sense of your own life, your passions, your specific experiences, your memories, values, your knowledge and wisdom, your talents, skills, imagination, goals, achievements, physical health, mental health, etc. "Spirit" is everything that makes you "you". Of course, like many others, I reject the idea of a "mystical" spirit. "Spirit" is all-natural but it is still as wondrous to me and to those who agree with me on the nature of "spirit" as it is to anyone else. In fact, I believe a full understanding of and appreciation for the "spiritual" isn't genuinely possible until one agrees "spirit" is and only can be a naturally based phenomenon. When you deny the material roots or material source of the spiritual, you cut yourself off from genuine spirituality in insurmountable ways until you recognize where "spirit" actually comes from and appreciate it for what it is.

"Spirit" as the sum total of a person is directly affected by one's physical and mental health and, of course, one's physical and mental health are directly affected by one's sense of "spirit". Our languages make it difficult to speak of such things but, suffice to say, I think of health and spirit as one thing rather than two, just as I reject the artificial division of "mind" and "body". Mind is body is mind. There is no affecting one without affecting the other. There is no infuencing one's health without harming or feeding the spirit and vice versa.

This has the meaning, at least in my own mind, that: taking an aspirin, taking a bath or shower, combing one's hair, applying lotion to one's hands or chapstick to one's lips, eating an apple or your vegetables or a hot bowl of oatmeal are spiritual acts as much as lovemaking, walking through a beautiful forest, collecting flowers, holding your ailing mother's hand, playing with a child, watching a fire burn down, or pleading in prayer and so many other things one might call "spiritual" experiences. Whatever it is you do or say or experience that nurtures, preserves or improves your life is for health, is for spirit.

They are one and the same.

Tags: Q&R, health, spirituality, life

Memory ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:09:52 GMT

__________

Over shadow
the river has no sway

it will not wash away
it will not wash away

it will not wash
and the river cannot stay

... over shadow.

__________

Tags: rivers, memory, shadows, force, station, pain, suffering, acceptance

What do you want from beauty?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:32:38 GMT

Eventually one has to realize that "beauty" doesn't exist in anything inherently but is rather a very personal estimation applied to whatever we wish or withhold from what we do not wish. Although we call it "looking for beauty" in something external, what's actually happening is we are discovering our own internal ability to see in beautiful ways and to define what we personally mean by "beauty". A sunset, after all, is just a sunset - it is the self that sees and makes it beautiful, or finds it ugly or, worse, a commonplace. Regardless of our estimation of the sunset, the sunset itself is unchanged by our vision or lack of it. Some have looked at what many consider to be beautiful paintings and seen only ugliness and have attempted to destroy them. Others look at things that are instinctively ugly or even commonplace to many of us and somehow seen astonishing beauty instead. They have a vision most of us do not.

What do I look for in "beauty"? I look for the answers to who I am and who I am becoming. I am what makes the world beautiful and joyous or something else. I am where the power of those emotions exists. To have beauty, I need only choose to see it, to experience it. To have joy, I need only choose to allow it no matter the context in which I find myself.

Tags: Q&R, beauty, beautiful

The One Equality ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:42:42 GMT

_______________

But
we are not the same
NOT
created equal

nor equal our experiences
our memories
our ideas
our loves and fears

never equal our creations.

Forever
respect the rarities
honor the surprising inequalities
of lives -

this is
the one equality

borne
and precious
of life itself.

_______________

Tags: equality, inequality, respect, life, rarity, pricelessness, value, individuality, humanity

The Peel ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:38:18 GMT

_______________

A people's spirit
or spirit of a single being
peels only just

to wonders
it will not suffer to see
to words
it will not suffer to speak
or to hear
to ecstasies
it will not suffer to feel
to hearts
it will not suffer to love

to lives
it will not suffer to live.

Masks of spirit
peel
some to fearful retreating thorn
others to milk and womb

bits of meat unwilling
or willing to suffer

... the peel.

_______________

Tags: compassion, empathy, fear, division, connection, living, awareness, consciousness

What is the life stage of humanity?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:30:29 GMT

Unlike with a single human being, it is impossible to know the full potential cycle of life for the entire species. We cannot know whether we are collectively in our infancy or at some other stage in our full development - if it can even be said there is some ultimate end to it. Without knowing the ultimate end, we cannot determine the stages themselves. Truly, we do not yet have a single extraterrestrial life with which to make comparison and any intellectually honest answer would require many examples of "life out there". Statistically, it is said there must be abundant other life in the universe. Although I have fond wish for that to be true, I'm also aware that somewhere and at some time there must be or must have been a "first life" and there's yet no sound reason to say we are not the first just as there is none to warrant saying we are. The answer is indeterminate. If we judge ourselves by our ignorance regarding how much life there actually is in the universe, its nature and location, one is compelled to say we are simply toddlers in that respect. Surely a truly "mature" species has a more complete knowledge of life beyond their own world. All we actually have is speculation. Some are working very hard to turn at least a small piece of speculation to tiny but cold hard fact.

Compared with other species on the planet, one might say we are further along in complex consciousness but, again, looking at our mismanagement of the complex, dynamic and highly interdependent environment upon which we all completely rely, it's not entirely clear whether our additional complexity is a survival advantage or disadvantage here on Earth. With regard to the rest of the universe, it is certainly unclear what advantages and disadvantages our complex consciousness gives us. There are certainly some who think we are much better off staying home and foregoing everything but a simplistic awareness - "Don't ask questions" is their motto - but aren't there always? I suppose I count myself among those fully prepared to ask every question I'm able to ask and chance adventure as deep into the unknown as I'm able to get before I am stopped by the inevitable ignorances. Personally, I can think of no life more fulfilling than to continuously seek what I have not experienced, what I do not know or understand. Curiosity is what keeps my heart beating and without the constant wander, the constant question - "Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?" I would surely perish. Of course, I've in no way experienced all that can be experienced right here at home, but I've always believed that to fully understand the nature and value of "home" one must venture until the journey leads unavoidably back to where one began. Call it "home" if you like. I call it the "center" and have never entirely known it to have an identifiable place or time as much as it is an evolving idea I carry with me wherever I happen to be. I suppose I will find that "center" when my personal need to journey comes to an end.

What we can say is we seem sufficiently and collectively mature enough to begin asking this question but there is a far greater number of us unprepared to ask it than there are those with the insight to ask and perhaps find some piece of an answer. It is always the few that lead the many.

Perhaps it will not always be so.

As for what has pushed my transitions through moment to the next in my life, you probably have already guessed - an obsessive curiosity and a deliberate attitude that I will never reach a point where any of my answers are entirely satisfying. I'm at peace with the fact that, as much as I wish contentment, I will never have it and I even encourage discontentment to avoid my one and only fear - apathy.

Paradoxically, the joys my lack of contentment brings me through constant discovery give me a measure of contentment that, as you might guess, makes a bit nervous. I continually seek serenity and, when I momentarily find it, I'm soon driven to end it before it begins to sink in.

I sometimes envy those for whom serenity is everything, their depth of place, their intensity of time. Maybe they too sometimes envy the adventurer their restlessness and unique discoveries. Certainly, one is encouraged to think the ideal human life is a blend of the two. I like to think there is a purpose for both extremes in the universe we've all yet to experience.

Tags: QaR, universe, living, humanity, stage, life, development

What if we saw the universe as a living thing?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:06:37 GMT

If each of us saw the universe as a living thing, we would see it and ourselves genuinely for the first time. The simplest path to that point of view is to see and accept the truth - "universe" and "I" are not two - they are the same. They are one. They, in fact, are not "they". Universe is you and YOU are universe self-aware and asking the question.

The living, conscious universe ... is you and, of course, every living consciousness. The question seems to be seeking a universal life and consciousness somehow separate from you, from me, from Earth. If universe is "all that exists", YOU are necessarily the life and consciousness you seek. We humans see the lives and consciousnesses on the planet as "many" but they are all irrevocably tied to one another as "universe". Where is this "many" but in our own minds? Where is "separation", "division", "isolation" but in our own misunderstanding?

Universe - you - ought to ask instead - why do I not already extend "me" to all that is - everywhere, everywhen? Why do I not already embrace all that is "me"? Why do I look to be apart from from that which is inseparable, from that without which I could not and cannot exist? Why do I not already see myself - universe - as "living", as "conscious"?

Why You-niverse, do you divide yourself from yourself? What is it you do not see? What is it you do not understand? What is you will not see or will not understand?

What is it you wait for, what do you need to be genuinely whole?

Tags: qar, living universe, alive, evolution, living

One Never Knows ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:45:42 GMT

_______________

There was time for us all
when we didn't know mother
not brother
nor lover
neither any other.

It's hard to imagine
being that blind
and so utterly love blank

short
very short for some
maybe not ...

But there's never been a time
when we didn't know ourselves
never will be I suppose, but

of course,

one never knows.

A time without mother ...
what was that like?

Sure,
I know what it was about, but
I can't really remember -
who can?

I know one day
I'll find out.

I once said,
heaven
- one of the important ones -
is a mother's voice
and hell
- yes, that one too -
is merely its memory.

Like my scrapbook of heavens,
I'll collect that hell one day
and add it to the others

... like other children
with other mothers.

Perhaps,
I think
it will be bearable

having known my Mom's
particular kind of heaven.

It's what she'd want
... I think.

There are worse kinds of hell
I suppose, but

one never knows.

One never knows.

_______________

Tags: heavens, hells, mothers, children, loss, doubts, knowing, memory

Happy National Poetry Month!

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:43:00 GMT

My Gaia friend Enlightened Thinker has generously shared Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" in honor of this month's poetry celebrations. In keeping with my own passions for poetry, I thought I too would offer a favorite poem by one of those sensitive souls who grant us such insightful art.

__________

W.B. Yeats

The Song of Wandering Aengus
by William Butler Yeats

I WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream,
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

__________

Many more Yeats poems can be found at the Poetry Archive online and at other websites. Also check out the Wikipedia entry for William Butler Yeats.

Naumadd

Tags: yeats, W.B. Yeats, poetry, song of wandering aengus, poem, national poetry month

Choking ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:55:00 GMT

__________

Shh ... wait -
that hunger to create,
its moment,
you must always answer it
... Now.

Urgent breath in
must have
urgent breath out
lest the breath thin and stale
lest it edge and kill.

You'll choke
... you will.

Perhaps
you choke even now
and, years to come,
you'll be choking still.

You must pull apart
your fear of creating
your fear of art
from your fear
of sharing your creation.

They are not the same.

They are not the same.

Please,
... they are not the same.

__________

Tags: art, creating, fear, self-doubt, awareness, creativity, breathing, choking

"Help me unite people", they ask

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:18:49 GMT

I recently received an invitation to connect with an individual here at Gaia who sent me a simple message:

"In want to learn how to unite people - will you help me?"

Although I consider my answer incomplete due to time and other projects, I feel it appropriate to place here what I wrote because the question itself is a very apt one always needing asked and an answer always attempted.

The thoughts of others are always of interest to me, most especially as they relate to this kind of question.

My response:

You ask a good question but, after reading your profile page, I think the best answer to your point of view is this: abandon divisive religions so horribly consistent in promoting the “us vs. them” mentality. Rather than continue to preach that human beings are worms unworthy to be living, perhaps we can promote the idea that every - EVERY human being is a living treasure … even in light of their many mistakes. We must abandon the false idea of “evil” to finally overcome our fears of nature and of each other. We must abandon the idea of a “universal perfection” because there is no such quality. “Perfection” is always circumstantial or context-dependent and thus can never be universal. Abandoning the idea of “universal perfection” we find the way to abandon the idea of “universal imperfection” - an equally absurd notion.

There is no evil, there is only correct or incorrect thinking, correct or incorrect action, correct or incorrect speech … all of it using the truths of nature as the standard of judgment.

Unite people by emphasizing the priceless value of their individual gifts and their comforting similarities to one another. Discard everything that smacks of “us vs. them”.

“Division” is mental construct. All is connection - always has been, always will be. “Other” is merely extension of self and “self” merely one point of view in a universe of seemingly endless ways of seeing.

Tags: unity, individualism, conflict, cooperation, war, peace, questions, answers, humanism, life

Awareness ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:45:01 GMT

__________

We are most aware
most open
when we remember
not to run from
but to treasure

ambiguity.

Is your point of view,
do you delight
in the sealed box
or the restless dragonfly
in a sleepless forest?
Do you cling with closed
or hold with open hand?

Meaning is made,
not discovered,
in a world
and in hearts
ever-changing.

Ambiguity
is the heart ever-open.
It is growth
and growth - life.

Less than ambiguity
is station.
It is the stifling box,
the self interred.

__________

Tags: ambiguity, awareness, openness, consciousness, change, life, growth

Heartbreak ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:20:35 GMT

__________

It's a single view
of course
but it seems proper
from time to time
our heart be brutally ripped open.

It is only then
life's heaviness
unconsciously collected
can fall away
leaving us that lighter stuff
allowing us when mended

sometimes

to soar in awe.

__________

Tags: heartbreak, heart, burdens, life, mending, rapture, flying, joy, awe

Prayer ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:31:50 GMT

__________

Genuine prayer
is voice of deepest need
to that alone
possessing power to answer -

deepest self.

Private dialogues
of heart.

__________

Tags: prayer, self, meditation, self-knowledge, wishes, needs, awareness, consciousness

How does your mind relate to your body?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:00:30 GMT

The only distinction between "body" and "mind" is the same as that between anatomy and physiology - "body" is the physical substance, "mind" is at least one of the characteristic functions of that substance, and certainly a major one. "Mind" is what the "body" does. One might say "body" is a noun, "mind" is a verb. Mind is a fundamental function of the body, albeit an extremely complex one. A clock merely assembled is a collection of pieces held together. Without being wound, the clock does nothing. Wind the clock and it "comes alive" thus allowing the marking of time. Telling time is the function of the collected and assembled pieces of the clock when they are operating together. "Clock" is the body, "marking time" is the mind. The clock, of course, as complex as some clocks can be, has nowhere near the complexity of a human being, however, the analogy is good. The clock isn't built to wind itself when need be. Humans can do this - sleep, water, food, exercise, etc. to remain functioning. We ought not let the complexity of our functioning lead us to think we are merely a shell inhabited by something else. In other words, we are not a symbiosis of "mind" and "body" - "mind" is the function of body. They are inseparable and, in fact, they are not "they": they are one.

As might be obvious, I dismiss the mind/body dichotomy. It comes as no surprise that what happens to body has an effect on "mind" and what is happening in "mind" affects the entire person. We are not "mind" and "body", we are each a human being, complex, integrated, dynamic and holistic. We aren't simply an assemblage of parts - like the clock. Science is still studying the relationships, however, as I understand it, science has not as yet found reason to treat "mind" and "body" as separate identifiable entities, i.e. "mind" residing or trapped within "body". As I understand it, the functions we laymen typically identify with mind such as "memory" and "thinking" are as much function of the other "parts" of the body as they are the brain. One cannot alter one's chemistry without affecting "body" and "mind" - the organism and its functioning. Do we remember with our muscles, our feet, our hands? Do we think with our stomachs? Without indulging the complex details of explanation here, suffice to say evidence points to a "yes", at least partially. This comes as no surprise to me and quite likely is of no surprise to many others, however, I understand it is no small irritation to many who absolutely need to believe in the notion of a "soul" or an alleged "entity" trapped in one's material body needing only to be "set free".

It's a fanciful notion but observation and reason still offer no other conclusion but that "soul" is a simplistic and incorrect understanding of "mind" as a fundamental function of the whole human being.

Tags: QaR, mind, body, life, holistic

What could you never give up?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:12:15 GMT

I will never give up asking questions nor relinquish the passion for asking them again and again. Apathy - the true opposite of every human emotion - is a walking death.

A life must be approached with passion, with intelligence and with empathy - in that precise order. Our passions are what make us ask incessantly and our asking engenders deeper passions. Personally forming a question is the surest sign you are more than alive - you are living.

If there are truly zombies in our world, they are those who are infested with apathy, they are those who rarely or never ask questions.

Tags: QaR, letting go, commitment, love, passion

Of Evil and Lifetimes ...

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:03:17 GMT

__________

A thinness
of self-knowledge
of self-love

is the catalyst to all human sin,
is the root of all human evil.

By each
it must be found out
it's the task of all
within our lifetimes
to authentically know
to authentically love ourselves
before both
are gone from us
that we may never truly know
that we may never truly love

another.

__________

Tags: humanity, self-knowledge, self-love, regrets, love, purpose, sin, evil, time, authenticity

What type of weather are you wishing for today?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:03:58 GMT

It seems I'm always hoping for rain and today will be no different. I've never quite been able to explain it but it's been true of me as far back into memory as I'm able recall. I seem made to be forever drawn to thick foreboding clouds and winds, the cloak of rain and thick fog and, of course when I can get it, I'm inexplicably at home in heavy snows. These describe the skies of my most authentic and unwavering spirit but, ironically, I'm also frustratingly sensitive to the cold which causes intense pain and have always had a genuinely paralyzing phobia of winds that frequently results in full-blown panic. It's nature's cruel joke I suppose. As some compromise, I've always loved walking in very gentle rains with only slight breezes where I tend to imagine the glee of my favorite trees as they get a drink in the welcome moisture in the cleansing wash.

I'd swear I can often hear the trees and brambles giggling in mockery at my usual silly pretensions to romance in the rain while looking somewhat instead like a drenched and slow-witted rat.

I try to ignore their impertinence.

Tags: QaR, weather, day, feelings

What is one thing that there are no words for?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:21:03 GMT

It may sound unusual coming from someone to whom the power of words means so much but, I'd have to say there are no words sufficient to anything and everything one may or will attempt to name. This is to say, no matter how many words or the quality of the words one applies or hopes to apply to a place, a time, a thing or a life, the words will come up so far short as to seem no words at all. Words, of course, are not the experience and we perhaps ought not ever have believed our words up to the challenge we give to them. I'd be the last to say we ought not try.

We believe sometimes our many diverse words for "love" are sufficient to the thing itself. They are not. We believe the word "beauty" is sufficient to that which is beautiful - it is not - and neither is the word "ugly" sufficient to genuine ugliness. We believe our words for "mother" or "father", "lover", "companion", "child", "home", "war" or "peace", "nature", "universe", "right" or "wrong" are sufficient to those things - the list can go on and on but ... I trust you get my point. We ourselves are not our designations, our names or our labels, our memberships or categories. We are not our descriptions. These are NOT sufficient. They never have been and likely never will be.

I use the word "me" in the appropriate ways but "me" is hardly a beginning to the real thing. "Me" tells you practically nothing at all. One has to ask then, what is its real utility?

There is no word or collection of words - no matter how large that collection - sufficient to anyplace, to anytime, to anything or any person. I've spent decades attempting to manufacture new ways of using the words I know, the words that are common and, from time to time, invent new words weaving them into new patterns to attempt to fill in what's missing. Despite the seeming impossibilities, I'm not ready to give up because, like so many and even though I believe on one hand words will forever be insufficient, on the other I believe they can be MADE sufficient with talent, skill and lots of determination. Perhaps, it's a fools belief.

But, it is what I have. It is what I love. In all humility, it is what I'm best at and I cannot and will not stop.

One word we have for my - our - seeming quandry is "contradiction". Another I'd tend to choose is "madness". Believe me ... the word is insufficient and, perhaps, there is no "good" word for it.

Tags: QaR, words, new, experience

What will you never regret?

http://rickybarnes1960.gaia.com — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:55:24 GMT

I will never regret the discomforts of genuine honesty nor belittle those earned pleasures in its discovery and those experiences of its consequence.

I wish to live a real life and spare myself death before its time.

Tags: QaR, regrets, life, living