Negatively Bound

“Revolution doesn’t have to do with smashing something, it has to do with bringing something forth. If you spend all your time thinking about that which you are attacking, then you are negatively bound to it. You have to find the zeal in yourself and bring that out.” —Joseph Campbell
in “Man and Myth”

How easy it is to become bound to that which we do not want. The more we argue, the more we worry, and the more we focus on negative conditions as we perceive them to be, the longer those conditions will remain.

We create through our thoughts, either more of the “bad” we are focusing on, or changes for the “good” as we dream and imagine them.

Malcolm

Postcard from the future

 “When man solves the mystery of imagining, he will have discovered the secret of causation, and that is: Imagining creates reality. Therefore, the man who is aware of what he is imagining knows what he is creating; realizes more and more that the drama of life is imaginal — not physical. All activity is at bottom imaginal. An awakened Imagination works with a purpose. It creates and conserves the desirable, and transforms or destroys the undesirable.” –Neville Goddard in The Law and the Promise

Dear Family,

      I’m writing you from a time zone you call “the future.” I’m doing fine and want to assure you I haven’t gone nuts. You remember, don’t you, that when I was in junior high school, my favorite book was H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine published “back” in a time zone you call “the past.”

      The good news for time travellers is this: you don’t need the machine. All you need is your imagination. And, when you “get here,” you won’t be greeted by those horrible Worlocks Wells put in his story.

      I know you’re not going to believe this, at least not until your time zone catches up with mine, but I was greeted by Oprah Winfrey. Really. (Yes, her TV show is still going strong.) You remember, don’t you, how those of us that hung out on writing forums always used to pretend “we’d gotten the call” and were sitting on that couch in front of a live audience talking about our novels.

      Turns out, if you pretend this is happening, it happens. During the spring and summer of 2008 when I began sending the manuscript of my novel Garden of Heaven out to prospective publishers, I began imagining what it would be like to talk to Oprah about my book. At first, I worried about what I would say when she asked, “Where do you get your ideas.”

      There wasn’t any reason to worry. I just said, “I keep my eyes open,” and she seemed to like that because she said—and I’m not making this up—“I have dreamt for years an author would come on my show and tell me that. I imagined it would have sooner than I expected.”

     I hope you guys are doing well and will enjoy the novel as soon as it comes out “back in” your universe. Until then, just imagine what it will be like to read a book that fractures time with a mystery that might even give Sherlock Holmes a fair bit of a challenge.

 

 TTFN,

 Malcolm

Hollow Bone – The Healer

“Her eyelids twitched slightly, yes, she heard “forgive” and “bear puke” and she was fractious enough to anger up over such things even now.  Heal, Cinnabar. He repeated the words inside his head, but he knew, was coming to know, that brute force would never bring the sun.

“He was just thinking, just reasoning, looking for pinpoint control through a proper sequence of words when, truth be told, he needed to be nothing, hollow, what was it Grandfather’s old friend said, yes, a hollow bone, free of logic and self.”     –Malcolm Campbell in “The Sun Singer”

 

Robert Adams, the main character in my novel “The Sun Singer” faces the same problems many of us do when the first attempt to use various healing methods such as Reiki and other contact methods or absent (at a distance) such as Rosicrucian and Silva techniques. He’s trying brute force, supposing that if he could think or speak loud enough and with passion enough, he’ll save Cinnabar, a woung woman just injured in a mountain battle.

Brute force doesn’t work whether one is “using” the power of God, as understood by organised religion, or “the cosmic” or “the Universe” with or without the assistance of angels or spirirtual guides.  Reiki practitioners usually do not concentrate on the specific organ, bone, system, or condition that may be causing a person’s illness. We are told that the energy the energy knows where it needs to go. This idea is a good beginning for many healing methods.

In the novel, Robert fortunately remembers his avatar grandfather’s words. He remembers that ”directing” the energy usually is ineffective. Instead,  “he needed to be nothing, hollow, what was it Grandfather’s old friend said, yes, a hollow bone, free of logic and self.”

Since hollow bone was a term used by the famous Sioux holy man Fools Crow, Grandfather Elliott traveled in good company! In relation to healing, Fools Crow used the term hollow bone in the same sense that others use the term channel or tube to indicate that while healing, a higher power flows through them to the person being healed. In his book Fools Crow Wisdom and Power, author Thomas E. Mails writes that prior to healing, Fools Crow first went through a ritual to remove all the stumbling blocks within himself that might impede the flow of energy.

“I saw myself as a hollow bone that is all shiny on the inside and empty,” said Fools Crow. “I looked around inside me to see if any obstacles or junk were left, and there were none. I knew then that I was ready to serve Wakan-Tanka well, and I held up my hands to offer my thanksgiving and to tell him how happy I was. Immediately, I could feel the power come into me.”

This necessary stepping back to allow the flow of energy was what Robert had to do to successfully call the Sun on Cinnabar’s behalf. This “stepping back” works well, for me, with Kabbalistic, Rosicrucian, and Silva Method approaches to healing as well as with Reiki.

Ego, logical thought, and passion only clog up the channel of one’s self being offered to the one in need.

What are we seeking?

“In this visionary work, New York Times bestselling author (and key team member behind The Secret) John Assaraf teams up with business guru Murray Smith to offer special insights, specific tools, and surefire mental strategies that will help you leap ahead in any career or business venture and achieve major financial success.

“Are you ready to transform your life and live exceptionally? The home of your dreams, financial freedom—or whatever your aspiration is, is within your reach with this brilliant step-by-step process. Using cutting-edge research into brain science and quantum physics, Assaraf and Smith show you how it is possible to rewire your brain for success so that you can create the kind of extraordinary life you want.”

–One Spirit Book Club blurb about THE ANSWER

The editorial reviews displayed on Amazon.com call this book a “must read” and a “masterpiece.” Currently number 15 on Amazon, the book is attracting attention.

While I have no idea whether The Answer delivers the kind of answer that will transform readers’ lives, I’m curious about what the question might be. What, actually, are we seeking? Perhaps we’ll know when we hear the answer; or perhaps we’ll know another person’s version what we ought to be seeking.

One would have to be living in a closet not to have noticed that in recent years, there have been a seemingly infinite number of books, gurus, websites, channelers, teleconferences, seminars and retreats all claiming to have the answers we need. 

Some commentators say all this is happening because we are in, or approaching, a universal shift in consciousness. While the cynic within me wants to ask, “according to whom?” I still think that quantum leaps are not only wonderful, but probable.

Are these books the tip of the iceberg, examples of a world-wide wont for transformation? Perhaps so. Or, are they a knee-jerk response to the growing ills we see in the world? Possibly, though I hope not.

It must take a great deal of passion and belief on one’s part to be able to write a book called “The Answer.” I don’t think I could do it even if I thought I had the answer. If 10000000000 books, sites, gurus, etc. all claim to have the answer and/or the secret, is there some redundancy here? Are they all saying the same thing? Or are there 10000000000 parallel universes here with a different applicable answer for each?

This is all a puzzlement.

 

Absolution

“It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.”  –Oscar Wilde

 

Where is our absolution hidden?

In the heavens, in the forest, in the sea? Behind trees or beneath rocks? In the words of a holy man or a friend? Not at all.

How could it be somewhere else when we are here and now in this moment wishing finally to say, “I shouldn’t have done that”?

Absolution is hidden within our hearts waiting for us to claim.  We must claim without looking back, or we’ll need to claim it again.

 

Living a path or talking about a path

“The Universe Abhors a Vacuum. When you create space, the universe will fill it with what serves your highest good. How do you use it? Commit to clean out the useless, confusing, energy-draining clutter (physical, technical and emotional) and it will be replaced with what you need.” –Tricia Molloy, Divine Wisdom at Work 

Carolyn Myss has written that talking about, reading about, and dabbling with a spiritual path does not constitute devotion and provides neither the joy nor the wisdom of chosing that path above all others.

While I believe a spiritual path as interpreted by one organisation or one author/guru/teacher may not represent truth for us, we often go to the opposite extreme and clutter our lives with bits and pieces of many paths. Perhaps the smorgasbord of techniques and ideas fascinates us. Perhaps we think that embracing all paths is a noble effort at diversity and respect. Perhaps we fear that a single approach might miss the mark and see that a little of this and a little of that will ensure we’re at least partly right.

Can we not, though, acknowledge that there are many roads for many people and then hold true to the one intended for us? It’s difficult to live that road if we’re not really on it and have no devotion to the ways and means of the journey that road provides.

Paulo Coelho has written that while there are many paths, trying to walk all of them is the same as walking none of them. While we feel comforted, perhaps, in a totally eclectic approach, we’re really stumbling through clutter, a clutter ot maps, recipes, steps and hallows.

Once we choose the path we want to live and clear away the rest, the universe will find the vacuum it’s been waiting for and will manifest our route more fully formed, radiant and filled with light.

-

Copyright (c) 2008 by Malcolm R. Campbell

Two Roads to Knowledge

“There are two roads to knowledge–the longer, slower, more arduous road of rational combination and the shorter path of the imagination traversed with the force and swiftness of electricity. Aroused by direct contact with ancient remains, the imagination grasps the truth at one stroke, without intemediary links. The knowledge required in this second way is infinitely more living and colorful than the products of the understanding.” –Johann Jacob Bachofen in 1854, quoted in Joseph Campbell, “The Mythic Dimension”

While this quotation in a Joseph Campbell essay is directed at the viewing of myths more interms of their central meanings and intents (grasped intuitively) rather than only through laboriously studying the outer-world chronology of their “plots,” I see here a wider application.

I do not suppose that any of us has the skill to obtain 100% of our knowledge–especially about the day-to-day events of our lives–via intuition, dreams, Tarot cards or readings from the I Ching. I do think, as Einstein observed, that even within the most scientific of displines, intuition often paves the way to our discovery of empirical facts.

Learning how to to trust our hunches will, I believe, allow us to walk down the shorter path to knowledge more often–and to great advantage. 

What this blog is all about

A friend asked in a recent post on her MySpace blog “How Do You Define Success?”

Essentially, her answer was finding the freedom to be herself and to follow her dreams. The challenge for her–for many of us–was that while following our dreams requires a measure of security and financial well-being, if we spend too much time or stress establishing that, we may not ever get to our dreams.

My answer to her question was similar to hers. Success to me is doing what I’m here to do: making an inner journey and writing about it. This blog represents my random thoughts, and a lot of yours, about the challenges we face and about the things we see along the trail.

I’m influenced, as many of you can tell, by the work of such writers as Edward Abbey and Colin Fletcher and by the dedication of volunteers in such organisations as the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy. I’m also influenced by Jane Roberts’ “Seth Books,” by the writings of Carlos Castaneda and Caroline Myss.

As we walk the trail, we learn–as Carlos was taught–that our outer journey is a reflexion of our inner journey and, conversely, that if we are impeccable in what we do in the physical world, we will be more centered within.

For me, success is being on the path and experiencing what I find there and then putting those feelings into words on the page.

What about you?

 –

Visit me at The Sun Singer and Garden of Heaven.

New Voices Wanted in 2008

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” – T.S. Eliot

How often we look back at the old year and make lists of what we no longer want. If we have a mess to clean up today, personally and globally, with lists of resolutions and political slogans, I’m certain we will still have a mess on the first day of every month throughout the year. Looking at the world as a constant mess that needs to be cleaned up is the glass is always half empty approach.

In my view, we literally create the reality we experience. If our energy is focused on half empty, we’ll never have anything else.

In 2008, I hope to hear new voices who can help reduce the feelings of powerlessness so many people feel whenever they begin listing everything that’s wrong with their lives, their cities and their world; the solutions needed to implement these lists usually appear so unlikely to happen, that it’s easier to spend one’s days waiting for Santa or the government or for a sugar daddy to smile upon us and make it better.

I want to hear voices reminding us that perception is reality, that thousands of good things have happened, that half full is more proactive than half empty, that gratefulness and appreciation are not only warranted but expedient, that sharing always increases that which is being shared, and that resolutions and slogans are reactive and disconnect one from both spiritual and temporal light.

Best wishes for a new year filled with everything you truly desire and wish to create.

You can call it either dedication or passion

“Few of us can do more than a small handful of things well and with the proper passion, so don’t spread yourself too thin if you can help it. Jalaluddin Rumi said,
‘A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.’” –John Gierach
 

In one of the early Star Wars movies, Yoda tells Luke, “Do not try–do.”

Whether it’s a marriage, a job, volunteer work, a hobby, church work, or going back to school, I believe a lot of us try on purpose. When we try, we can avoid making a passionate commitment to whatever it is.

When I was one of the managers at an Atlanta museum, numerous people came in and told me they were passionate about what we did and wanted to become volunteers. Great! But later when we called and asked if they would help out, they always had an excuse.

In many ways, they seemed like the teenagers who say “maybe” to the first prospective prom date. They can’t say “yes” because that would commit them to one person when better offers might come along.

What a boring and potentially meaningless way to go through life, never whole heartily saying “yes” to anything out of the fear that one will no longer be available to the real or imagined “better offers” that may show up down the road.

We all postpone things that we tell people we’ve been intending to do for a long time. In reality, we don’t really intend to do them because if we did, we would.

No wonder our affirmations and prayers and visualisations are falling short of bringing us what we said we desired.

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