Quitting Spirituality

I don't make New Year's Resoulutions - haven't in quite a number of years. Generally speaking when I've resolved to change something about Life, I don't need it to coincide with the calendar. Nor should the calendar call for making up resoulutions that have not come about of their own volition.

Occassionally, however, resoulutions do come along right about New Year time, and this is one of those coincidences. Do with that what you will.

I'm giving up Spirituality. For good.

Spirituality, from what I can tell, has come to be very Other-oriented, like Religion. The insights given to modern spiritual leaders are like those given to religious figures of old: they are insights for and about others, for and about the world. They carry promise of a better future for all if their messages are heeded by those Other than The Messenger. They are very special messages from the Grand Self to a Very Special Leader who can now help Others change, and thus change the world.

I'm giving it up.

I resolved this awhile ago actually, I thought. My recent experience with the New Spirituality movement has simply proven to be my final reminder of the effects of Other-based paths. I am indeed grateful to their leader, Neale Walsch, for the fine books he has written, and thank him and his followers for this final empowering reminder.

Insights of Self, however, are the ones I am going to focus on going forward. In the beginning was the Self, and looking about it said "I Am". That Self.

Self-based ideas - Insights from the Grand Self to the Grand Self about the Grand Self and for the Grand Self.

Of course this is exactly what has gone on for centuries in the history of "man's communication with" god or great spirit or whomever. As manifestations of Grand Self our deepest insights are simply of Grand Self. They "come from" Grand Self and are perceived by a particular human manifestation of Grand Self.

No big deal, and flat stunning, all at once.

It is quite enjoyable to share our various insights with one AnOther. Indeed quite often just when we need a particular Insight in Life we encounter that very Insight in the form of someone else sharing theirs, perhaps in a poem, a song, or a sermon. However, it is not necessarily true that anyone routinely receives Insights that are Abslutely Applicable. The Grand Self does not convey messages to the Grand Self about The Grand Other.

There is no Grand Other. Spiritual Leaders should know that, as should their followers.

Actually, there should be no followers...

I'm Quitting Spirituality.

I'm going to keep up these deep Conversations with Alice though... she has great messages for Self!

Happy New Year y'all!!

Greg Allen, with Alice the cookie monster

As It Is

"If I could tell the world just one thing it would be: We're All Okay.
And not to worry cause worry is wasteful and useless at times like these.
I won't be made useless, I won't be idle with despair.
Gather mySelf around my Faith for light does the darkness most fear." (Jewel)

**

A friend wrote to me recently with some news about their father, who is gradually losing cognitive abilities. It took awhile to find the words to write back. Here is what I came up with.

**

Hi ....,

I'm very sorry to hear about your dad's news.

My grandmother had a stroke when she was still alive, after a surgery. She was doing fine, and they came in and got her out of bed and helped her to sit in her chair for a few minutes, as they had done each day - and they came back and she had suffered the stroke.

It was tough seeing her fine one day, then with so much gone the next. While she regained some of her abilities, she struggled with speech, and it was quite difficult for my mom and all of us. She had been a master seamstress, and all of that was gone - all of her creativity and ability to express...

I do not know what it was like for her. I do not know if she compared her skills "today" with those of her youth, or even last week. I only know what it was like for me. Sad. Frustrating. Painful. Agonizing trying to understand what she was asking for, what she wanted or needed. Gut wrenching to see her this way. It was hard to be around, and I wish I had spent more time with her then, on her terms. I was sick when they buried her, and did not go to her funeral.

My dad just accepted her as she was, and began to learn how she was able to communicate. The challenge seemed to be his, not hers, and for all she knew he was thrilled to be challenged with this new aspect of their life together. He never ever acted like anything was wrong, or different - other than the respectful, courtesy things of course, like being sure she was safe when walking, and using stairs, and making sure she was comfortable.

My dad understood - as he always has I think - that "it is what it is", and never missed a beat. Even though this lady had treated him not very nicely for much of their lives together, as his mother in law.

My point is this my Friend: It is what it is.

I respect your compassion, and I respectfully wonder about the wisdom of holding dad in comparison to some past "ideal state" he used to inhabit, and labeling the present moment "sad". Your dad is glorious just as he is, right now. He does not exist in comparison to anyone, or anything, or any idea. He does not exist relative to his past or some idea of a future. That is mind stuff, not existence stuff.

Your dad exists as an Absoulute incarnation of The Grand Self. Pretty impressive stuff. He is Self, acting as grand and glorious a role as any of which we are aware. You can honor the current role my Friend, as well as the past. The man with the 90 IQ is to be honored, is he not?

Perhaps this is what I am trying to get at: My dad honored my grandmother's 80+ years of life, and all she had accomplished, through the display of respect for her in every aspect of his dealings with her. He always treated her as the most brilliant artistic seamstress he'd ever known, even when she could not color a page in a simple child's book.

At the same time he honored the 80+ year old lady with a stroke by helping her color that page, and never ever carrying a thought in his head of how sad this all was as she smeared the page, or spilled her Cheerios everywhere for the thousandth time at breakfast...

He never had time for sad my Friend. He had time for Love. He absorbed his pain into his heart, and it came out Love.

Wow. You are helping me realize how deep my dad's heart is.

Thanks! :0)

I wish you, and yours, Love.

**

Dance In the Moment,

alice and greg

Solstice of The Self

Enjoy the Day y'all!

...and Remember, It's About Self.

That has always been The Grand Message.

May the Light of the Season Shine Thru Year 'Round...

Dance In the Moment,

alice & greg

Can I Play for You?

I was listening to Bob Seger's rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy" - the notorious ragamuffin child who comes to the manger to celebrate Jesus' birth. As the story goes everyone is bringing gifts "fit for a king", but the little drummer boy, being poor, and a little boy, says he has no gifts to bring.

"Since I have no gifts", he seems to be saying, "Can I play my drum for you?"

There it is again. That twisted modern idea about "no gifts".

One more time, this time let's sing it:

"Dear little baby, lest You forget, we'll sing this song to remind You that You come to Life with nothing of Value or Interest."

Unbelievable.

Yet one more way our culture drives home the belief that we come to this Life with absolutely nothing of value or interest to anyone.

Talent is not a gift. Time is not a gift. Love is not a gift.

**

The song, being a Christmas song, resolves nicely of course. The little boy plays his drum, Jesus smiles, and it's all good.

Does the message ever get through, I wonder?

The little boy brought the finest gift of all - HimSelf!!

Do children understand all the wonderful things they bring to Life, the idea that Life is an Absoulute Gift Exchange? I am just now figuring it out.

Do you know??

**

For those of you spending your life in pursuit of gifts worthy of consideration, forget it! You can relax now. You have had them all along.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is simply to uncover, discover and re-engage Your Absoulute Gifts - the ones you brought with you to this Life.

...and, to teach the children.

**

Celebrate!!

Dance In the Moment,

alice and greg

Rest In Peace Dan Fogelberg

Hats off and hearts out in honor of the legendary Dan Fogelberg, who passed away Sunday December 16, 2007 after battling prostate cancer.

Thanks for everything Dan! You have long been an inspiration.

alice and greg

**

there's a great AP article here...

Just One?

Alice woke me up this morning with the thought: "This could just be One manifestation of The Self."

Huh??

Just One?

What if you and I and all that is "going on here" are ONE manifestation of The Self?

NOT many, like I am One manifestation, and your dog is An Other manifestation and so on.

Just One manifestation.

Doing all this. Unique personas and all...

Wow. Where does this dog come up with this stuff?

Dance In the Cookie Moment,

alice and greg

What The Messenger Knows about Me

"Greg, I was just looking at the forum, 10 posts 5 are yours. That is my definition of monopolizing. I have had no more complaints, Now I am pointing it out. So be aware and stop that.
I am sure that's not who you are."

That's the text of an email I received from the nice folks at the Neale Donald Walsch website. Neale is a self-proclaimed spiritual guru who wrote some books about a series of long chats he had with god.

I have said for awhile now that anything labeled "New" begins getting "Old" immediately. Remember how quickly the glitz wore off the new toy when you were young? I have discovered this also applies to things like Spirituality, and "new" ideas about a very old word like "god".

I am quite certain that indeed The Grand Self of the Universe communicates with the Neale Donald Walsch Self of the Universe.

As The Grand Self has done with every incarnation of ItSelf.

The Grand Self shares messages FROM The Self, TO The Self, ABOUT The Self, and FOR The Self.

In many traditions, somewhere along the line, this message from Grand Self becomes about Other and for Other, and suddenly the Messenger becomes convinced that he/she is the Grand Interpreter of this Self-message-for-Other. This sort of attitude would indeed allow a spiritual organization to say:

"I am sure that's not who you are."

Eerie. Funny. Sad at times.

All good.

It's a great role and I applaud these Messengers. Many times in my months at Neale's forum - I have now instructed them to cancel me after receiving the above email with vague personal guidelines for how NOT to post - I have sensed that many of Neale's "messengers" (the people who pay to be in the forum) are asking for clarification of the message of Self Realization, and Self Awareness, but they keep being pointed to the condition of Other in the world as the true basis for any meaningful spirituality and/or eventual action and/or assessment of their own Life.*

Strange.

Traditional.

Not seemingly New to me, although Neale calls his movement The New Spirituality, and his followers defend that term staunchly.

I met Neale at a seminar, and very much enjoyed the seminar, the exchanges, and my time chatting with Neale briefly. His intentions are good, and I hold no ill will for the manner in which his forum admins. do their job.

Note that, in the spirit of transparency and acceptance and open expression of the Self/spirit there are no stated rules for Neale's forum, and no guidelines for posting.

Nothing. So I did find it interesting to be told I am posting "too much", while not being given an indication of what "just so" would be. I have asked, in writing, before, for clarification and received none.

Anyway - check it out. NealeDonaldWalsch dot com, and join the Messenger's Circle. I encourage you to get involved and I'd love to know if you sense the same atmosphere of "God gave me a message for you" that I have sensed. Going in I thought Neale celebrated and recognized us all as Messengers; even the spoken intro by Ed Asner indicates there is no person or time more special than any Other (there's that word again) ...

Suddenly it seems that maybe Neale is the Messenger, and we should gather 'round to be given the truth about who we are... sp-o-o-o-o-kyyy....

Sounds like a journey of Other Awareness, Other Realization.

Which is cool - eventually one realizes it is Self, and there is no Other. Take the long way home...
I love the following quote. It was staring me in the face at a gallery last night where my friends blue stone sky performed. In hindsight it was like an omen for the email I would get today. I had posted the qupote at the Messenger's Circle last night. It was part of the "too much" for them... no kidding! ;0)

I have been struggling to clarify this idea that losing sight of Other is a good thing, One that frees Humanity's Grand Self to full expression. This nails it...

"and finally she came to a place
where the other no longer mattered.
where Grace lit up the room.
lighting her candle from that
sacred flame -
she went out to warm the world."

from Terri @ Bonesigh Arts

Dance In the Moment,

greg and alice

* Notably this Life assessment is in terms of a flawed past and anticipated grand future. This sort of Time based assessment is generally done under the able guidance of their guru who has shown them that there truly is only the Now moment. Yup.

Life is Bigger

"death of this physical life is actually the greatest thing that ever happens to us" (since we are being freed from this bondage of our physical body).

That's a quote from an arguably wonderful book called Conversations with God (CwG) by Neale Donald Walsch.

Physical Death is the greatest aspect of Physical Life, it seems to say.

THAT is an interesting statement, linguistically and conceptually.

Is CwG promoting yet another spiritually based idea that "Later" is the Goal, far superior to Now; that Physical Death is Far Superior to Physical Life...???

This would seem an interesting twist on what is purported to be the refreshingly new spiritual message of the CwG series, and its offshoot called The New Spirituality. This "new" spirituality indeed seems to have many direct parallels with, and apparent carryovers from, traditional religions and belief systems.

Indeed, even Jesus tried to show us that Death is preferable, didn't he? Not to be feared. Ugh! Did we miss his message again? Follow me, get dead.

Truthfully, given the opportunity to stick around and Live or accept Death on a cross, all accounts tell us Jesus did indeed choose Death. Hmmm....

What are we doing staying alive?

Was Jesus' message after all that Physical Death is Preferable to Physical Life - and has CwG provided insight into this stunning new truth?

We don't think so. It's deeper than that.

Dance In the Living Moment,

alice and greg

What Thinking's For

There is only The Self.

If you look out and see Other than Self, look again.

Spiritual folks seem to get hung up with this idea, afraid that it takes them into a highly egotistical realm of "this is about me, john doe, and nobody else".

Quite the opposite. It destroys the basis of the Relative Ego and opens the possibility for the Absolute Ego to be expressed and experienced.

The Grand Self manifests in every imaginable way, and in many we cannot imagine.

Knowing this, we look out and are aware of countless aspects of The Grand Self.

Our Self Awareness is also an aspect of The Grand Self, and we give it a name like alice or greg allen.

Deeply we know that all we are aware of is The Grand Self.

And then comes the question "So you think this is all you? You do not think that I am even here as a unique personality called jane doe? How egotistical of you."

And we say "You and I are one, jane doe. That much we know. But... Do we think you are Other than Us? Even though we know we are One, do we think that you are Other than alice and greg?"

"Of course we do. That's what thinking is for."

Up to Know Good

Wing.
It's written on your feet.
Your Achilles Heel is a tendency
To Dream.
You've known that from the beginning.
You didn't have to go so far.
You didn't have to go.**

**
The idea that we absolutely MUST experience really lousy stuff in order to know what "not lousy" stuff is, is a wonderful "alibi", a basis for all sorts of horrible human behaviors and excuses to justify them.

We find it interesting that spiritual leaders and their followers are convinced of and propagate this outdated and arguably harmful idea.

It is a human idea of Relativity, a Relative Idea of Relativity.

It is not an acceptable idea to us any longer, although we enjoyed that movie for years...

As manifestations of the Absolute, humans "know", and have been privileged with glimpses of "it all".

We know Love, or we would not long to return to it.

We are Love. (With the glorious ability to pretend we are not, and make excuses for it.)

Relativity is an Absolute concept, in which there are no "lousy" experiences.

Only Grand and Grander.

Dance In the Moment,

alice and greg

** lyrics from All the Way to Reno from REM's Reveal CD.

Pearls of alice

In the realm of the Absolute there is only Relative Up.

Grand and Grander.

so says alice...

Happy Celebration Season!