December, 2023 Bardo Buzz (05-12)

A woman embodying the attitude "I Can Do This" in a labyrinth setting that obviously demonstrates her successful accomplishment navigating toward her goal. - prompt for Night Cafe using SDXL1.0 model with the preset Night Cafe.

Musings of a Labyrinth Reader

FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

By Marvette Kort

Why bother with a formula for success? In a world of uncertainty that imposes new shocking often violent stimuli daily, one can find oneself on many levels ensnarled in stressful responses and cluttered with destructive impressions.

I had a job to accomplish that evoked anxiety and dread. This was in part due to a cluttered attention and fatigue from extraneous stress factors. In other words, my machine was getting sucked into the drama -- that's an endless "rabbit hole".

In this case, there was no choice for me but to put my attention on the task and permit options to open up. The nature of this challenging assignment imparted necessity as an asset which can intensify one's efforts toward the goal.

I know from experience that I must collect my scattered attention and decisively start approaching the project, no matter the obstacles, whether they be physical, emotional, mental or circumstantial. The way into the work space is to voluntarily adopt an affirmative posture. In order to focus on my focus, attitude is the key.

My formula for success is in outline form below. May it be of assistance to those in need of leverage towards their aim.

Formula For Success

• 1. Attitude
  • A. Agree with the inner posture -- I can do this
  • B. Embrace confidence -- relax in the face of fear and self-doubt
  • C. Open to your creative process
  • D. Impartially observe the follow-through and strategize for success
• 2. Set your window of implementation
  • A. Choose your time frame that allows for high concentration
  • B. Arrange for a time that you and your environment are compatible for engaging the process
  • C. Set intentional work periods, create a trial of linked transitions throughout the project
• 3. Focus on your focus
  • A. To be disciplined, prepare yourself in any of numerous ways as in
    • 1) Work with the SuperBeacon
    • 2) Focus on a related positive mantra
    • 3) Sit in meditation
    • 4) Run the Discipline orb and/or the orb for Attention from urthgame.com
    • 5) Give yourself permission to clear your mind
    • 6) Talk or write out an outline of your plan
  • B. Efficiently handle distractions without being reactive
  • C. Let yourself participate patiently in the flow of how the activity unfolds
  • D. Acknowledge your completion and success

Unfinished Desk -- Created with NightCafe by B. Haynes

LESSONS OF AN UNFINISHED DESK

by B. Haynes

In the serene corners of our lives, where the demands of the world intersect with our inner sanctum, a profound dance unfolds--a dance between attachment and non-attachment.

For me this dance takes center stage at my desk. After observing my almost obsessive attachment to not leave behind unfinished business at my desk, I decided to undertake an exercise that might help loosen the grip of that particular habit. So, I embarked on a month-long experiment in intentionally leaving tasks unfinished.

I originally found myself feeling anxious and plagued with obsessive thoughts about the unfinished work at my desk. However, as I persisted with the exercise, what emerged was a newfound space -- a spacious void that beckoned for exploration. It wasn't about neglecting responsibilities, but rather about embracing the art of letting go -- of non-attachment.

As I left my desk more and more often with unresolved matters, the mental chatter of completion slowly faded. Instead, an openness, a delightful emptiness, took its place. In this void, I found a sanctuary free from the clutches of obsessive thoughts.

This intentional act of non-attachment became a practice in observing the self within this newfound space. I resisted the urge to fill it hastily, resisting the familiar pangs of guilt that often accompany unoccupied moments. Instead, I stood as a witness to my own experience, allowing the emptiness to breathe.

The exercise has allowed me an opportunity to ponder the significance of leaving room for the unexpected, the unscripted pauses in our lives. Through intentional non-attachment, I am discovering that it's not just unfinished tasks I leave behind at my desk, but also the heavy burden of incessant mental chatter about that unfinished business.

As I continue to explore this uncharted terrain, I remind myself that sometimes, the most profound spiritual lessons emerge not in completion, but in the vast openness of the unfinished.

HABITS AND KARMA

Jewel McInroy

From The American Book of the Dead Guidebook, The Seventeenth Sunday sermon
Seventeenth Sermon: 5

The habitual tendencies which you have cultivated in yourself or which have become ingrained in you, create for the most part the physical, emotional, and mental incarnation which you have "chosen" for this lifetime. I say chosen, but in fact these habits have chosen this lifetime for you. All you need do in order to change not only future lifetimes, but also this very lifetime you are in right now, is to change those habits. In fact another very good definition of the word "karma" is "the result of habits".

You may have forgotten about these habits of yours, but they have not forgotten about you. Out of all the experiences of many trillions and trillions of years what has basically survived in you and makes up your "soul" is the accumulation of habits and tendencies. Even whether this incarnation of yours is male or female is determined by those habits and tendencies which have followed you through the centuries.

All your likes and dislikes were created by those habits, and all your skills and failures were made by them also. Even the youngest child has in him from the first day likes and dislikes. Where do you think they came from? They came from these same habits of the past incarnations. Knowing this should help you to always act from wisdom and not from like and dislike.

THE MOVING AND SENSING CENTRUM

From Sheep in Sleep, TOTM #10

Michele Marie

"Little by little, we're going to learn to trust these sensations, because sensations can also tell us when the machine is awake. Sensations are our key. Your whole work begins with the moving and sensing centrum. If we can sense when the machine is asleep, we can certainly sense when it is not asleep. We may think that we are awake, but we sense that the machine is asleep. We believe that we are awake, sense that the machine is asleep. Our vanity tells us that. Our logic tells us that we are awake, but our sensing tells us that the machine is asleep. Our common sense tells us that we are awake, but our sensing says that the machine is asleep. Our philosophy says that we are awake, but our sensing tells us that the machine is asleep.

"How can we go to work every day if the machine is asleep? How can we hold a decent conversation? How can we cook? How can we play? How can we eat? How can we dress ourselves if we're asleep? If we listen to our sensing, attune our sensing, we can feel and sense our sleep. "If we can sense that the machine is asleep, in everything we do we are on the path. We have taken the first real step. Until then everything is imaginary, just fantasy. If we can only sense the machine's sleep in everything we do no matter how rapid, no matter how exhilarated or exalted!" G. continued, "Now, turn to one another and begin to talk, to chatter about just anything under the sun. Ask each other questions about each other, pretend you are at a party. But sense that the machine is asleep...

"Listen once again. You are going to sense that it is the machine which is asleep. Notice how the machine operates; even though it is asleep, the machine just carries on. Now watch everything the machine does. It even knows how to think, how to respond. It knows all the appropriate gestures. It knows the protocol...

"Try to actually obtain and hold the sensation of sleep, keep it going all day long, no matter how active you are, no matter how busy, no matter how exhilarated, no matter how distracting. Keep the sensation of sleep and remember that the machine is asleep. It will take a while to catch on, but once you do, you're going to have the first real experience of what it means to work. Your arms are moving, your mouth is making sounds, your mind and body are following the rituals of life -- it's so easy to follow rituals in sleep! Life is ritualized because it's easy to follow rituals in sleep. You know exactly what to do, you know everything appropriate, all the appropriate things, and of course, one dare not step out of the ritual while asleep, and even if you did dare, you can't; all you can do is fall into another ritual...

"So you asked for beginning work, and now you have it. "

“We just watched this video that EJ had chosen for us. He says they got most of it right. He says it is not a bad way to introduce someone to those ideas.” Yanesh