I attended a Quantum Wealth workshop last weekend. It was led by Mr. Steven Sashen from Boulder, Colorado. Luckily I didn't have to travel there (although it would've been nice) since it took place in my hometown. It felt really a priviledge to be able to attend. Steven's teachings were all about using our relationship with money as a practical spiritual practice. A lot of the stuff was based on The Work by Byron Katie, which I was only anecdotally familiar with before. I liked the direct approach of it. The other "Work" known to me is G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way practice. Katie's to-the-point inquiry seemed like a great supplement to the sometimes tedious but very stabilizing  practice of the Fourth Way which I've been involved with for some years now. Another point of departure was a meditative standpoint similar to that of vipassana meditation. I attended vipassana (as taught by S.N. Goenka) course in the summer of 2005. Although I prefer zazen as my daily sitting meditation practice, the "passionate equinimity" of vipassana was appealing. I'm glad it appeared again in my life in the form of Quantunm Wealth. In that it was all about finding the still point, the fulcrum where the opposite ends of the pendulum meet. That still point exists as a compassionate acceptance of all our conflicting desires. By resting in that Witness it is easier to let whatever decision might arise lead us into taking the next step.

That is what brings me to the actual topic of this post. What I've come to notice is that our lives tend to go around in circles. We have our set of desires and aversions. Swinging from one end to another we are bound by what we want and what we don't want. I've been painting myself into that corner for a while now, and experiencing that empiness beyond the opposites, however slightly, is a great relief. In my daily life it sometimes comes in the form of a feeling that I'm lying as I speak "my mind". More often than not it could be such a good practice just to refrain from choosing. Just seeing and feeling into those opposites that claim their space inside our beings, and realizing them as the contours of my limiting self. I think I might've written a song about that a while back. I'm not sure, since I mostly don't have a clue what my songs are about, but I think so.


PS. As a part of the course we had to make an exchange with two "million dollar bills". The point was to see what comes up not only in the form of concrete results but also in form of thoughts & emotions about the task too. Well, I won't go into those now, but I'm pretty pleased with the trade I made. I got a friend to work totally illeagal hours in filming & editing a music video for me, and another friend (who's a graphic designer) to make unique covers for it. Really cool! I might post the video here later on. It's for the song I mentioned above called Silence So Beautiful.

"I am willing to sell my product despite what I think about it".

This simple yet revealing sentence stopped me in my tracks last weekend. It was formulated with the assistance of Steven Sashen as a part of an exercise in the Quantum Wealth workshop I attended. What it got me to notice was how I can expand my thinking from a limited perspective to something that might yield better results. From a fear/acceptance/control-based thought like "I need this to be perfect, otherwise I can't let anyone (including even me!) see it" realizing that I really can think otherwise.

I started to see the perfect beauty of imperfection all around. Watching my bookshelf I caught a glimpse of Herman Hesse's Narcissus And Goldmund. It's good but not that good. I looked and saw my flat. I love it. It's not perfect, but I love it. Suddenly I saw how everything that exists must be, by its very existing-nature, in the state of imperfection and becoming. Everything from atoms to molecules to cells to animals to humans to my dad is constantly and perfectly imperfect. This state is vibrating with aliveness. And I dig it!

Taken on a practical level (something my girl always asks me to do) it means that I am free to create into existance whatever is my heart's calling. I can see the beauty where there's supposed to be none. There is absolutely no sense in striving for perfection that never comes. Seeing the world with eyes that are more real makes everything glow. There is nothing that could not be imperfect!  Anyway, the joy and release of imperfection is the acceptance of the Noble Truth that every thing is in-perfect. Imperfection is resting in-perfection. The "funniest guy on the internet", Mr. Ze Frank has an excellent v-cast on the subject called Brain Crack. Go see it. Now.

"Hello Juha

Thank you very much for this excellent question!  We'd love to have you on the call, if you can make it."

Although my name is technically Juha-Pekka and I don't like to reduce it to its constituent parts I won't be holding any grudge towards Mr. Rollie Stanich from whom I got the above lines. Rollie is Chief Facilitator of Integral Spiritual Center and Managing Editor of Integral Naked, both of which I am a member. Ken Wilber's latest book, Integral Spirituality, is covered chapter by chapter in the form of conference calls on the Integral Spiritual Center website. Anyone who's a member of ISC can submit their question via email and maybe get to present it in a phone call to the author himself. Well, looks like I got lucky this time!

So yesterday was the Official Coolest Email Ever Day for me! Today is the official get-to-deepen-my-spiritual-practice-by-getting-my-teeth-drilled-day, so I'll be off to the dentist soon. Anyway, catch the call tomorrow live on the website or later on when it comes available online. And buy the book! It's probably the most important book I've read on the topic of "science" and "religion".

I am listening to the new Dinosaur Jr album. The band is my all time favourite and was a reason why I picked up the guitar in the first place. I wasn't overly enthusiasted about their re-union but having listened the new album, Beyond, a few times through I got to say it kicks some major ass. The songs are top notch, playing is tight and loose (kind of a trademark) and the sound...what can I say, I love it! J Mascis' latest release was a collection of chanty song written in honour of Amma and that wasn't bad either. But this new stuff really gave me back my faith for rock and roll music. With all the crap they call music these days it's just so refreshing to hear soul shining through the chords of a guitar. Truly a wonder of all wonders, if any.

My call with Ken Wilber will take place this evening. Too cool! I spent the best part of yesterday evening at a school mate's housewarming party trying to convey the excellence of Integral thinking to some friends who'd never heard of it before. Not sure if I did a good job. At least they didn't throw me out, which is always a good sign ;)

Here's the video for Been There All the Time from Dinosaur Jr's new album - out in two days! 


 

I just finished a four-hour marathon of a conference call with Ken Wilber, being one of the five chosen participants to present their question on Wilber's latest book Integral Spirituality. It's a strange experience hanging on the telephone for the duration of a crappy European art film listening to the world's foremost integral theorist discuss the finer details of Integral Life Practice. I was somewhat nervous before the call. That's not very usual for me so I had to rely on some heavy duty feng shui shit: the finest ammachi insense, a water fountain, a couple of glasses of chilean white wine, some water fresh out of a tap plus chamomille tea - with honey!

"Play, irony, growth, transcendence are [approximately] the same thing!", said Wilber on the call. Right on! Asking what I intend to do after I finsh my studies I didn't have a stock answer so I rambled something incoherent. Reflecting on it now I kinda see myself facilitating more of the aforemenioned synonyms into the world. Growth, irony, play, transcendence. What could be better than that? Could one make any better use of the merciless heropass, as Mr. Gurdjieff called time? Is there honestly anything more worth our while, anything more True, more Beautiful or more Fun than the same sacred foursome: Play, irony, growth & transcendence. That's where I see the future, including mine, heading. Thank you for asking, Ken. Took a while to come up with a good answer. How sweet will sleep be now.

A prayer is always good before bed, though. So Dear God: please bless Mr. Ken Wilber. He has done so much to make the world a better place. Let him get the recognition he deserves. And let his re-cognition become our cognition. Let his subjectivity become at least an object for our awareness, and possibly become our subjective experience too. For integral philosophy and AQAL thinking is the now thing for a messed up world.

PS. If you're not yet familiar with Ken's work, here's a good introduction - a bit of a mind strecther, but you're savvy - you'll get it!