Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings!

Last week, the focus of attention was on Forgiveness in the ancient Hawaiian healing practice of Ho'oponopono:                          

a) I forgive you; b) I'm sorry; c) I love you; d) Thank you. 

Let's have a look at the others:

When we say I am sorry, we still create separation between you and me. Furthermore, the focus seems to be on me and not you! Isn't that odd?                              

Of course, what we are really trying to say is: will you forgive me? But the focus is still on me, not on you, the person I hurt.  When Dr Len said I'm sorry in his Ho'opnopono practice, he was expressing empathetic awareness of that part of himself responsible for the unconscious actions of his patients.

Your reflection is clearly you.

Even though the words are I am sorry, there was no separation of  'I' and 'You' in the feeling. (Remember, he never even saw his patients J)

I love you.  Those pronouns again!  (I &You)                                                

These days, we are told not to be afraid to say I love you more often.         

But is that correct?                                                             

Why do people need to say I love you if the love is already there? And if they have to say it, or if it's expected of them to say it more often to a partner or a family member, does it not suggest that there may be an element of doubt? L

But, I hear you plead, people like to be reassured that they are loved! With words?  Isn't that a bit facile? Surely, there should be no reason for having to say I love you if the love is already there. The unconditional love. After all, there is no other kind of love except unconditional love.  Would you not agree?

So, what do I think Dr Len meant when he said, I love you?  Clearly, he was expressing universal compassion for his patients and, of course, for himself, agape, the ancient Greek word for spiritual love, or unconditional love. (I choose to translate agape as lOve, in writing, at least (capital O); it's a noun and a verb! J )

As far as romantic love is concerned, by the way, if you can fall out of love as quickly as you can fall in love, the love in question can never have been real, or unconditional, love to begin with! Can it? K

Thank you is powerful when it's said with the energy of feeling behind it. What or whom was Dr Len thanking?  I believe he was thanking the universe, thanking life for being what it is, in all its uniqueness and abundance. Thanking is like giving, you give thanks.  In giving thanks, you release yourself from your ego and let the universe back onto the driving seat. That's why it's so liberating to be thankful, for everything, no matter what your circumstances are in life.

Well, that's what I feel anyway, this wet Friday.

What do YOU think?

Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!   (I know it's Wednesday today, but the exception proves the rule!)      

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture. We explore and discover  Ireland and its Culture - so that's why I call them 'Logs', as in a ship's logbook!  

Each Saturday, I hope to post an extract from each of the Logs.

Below each extract, we have an extract from the Mining The Text section which focuses on the use of English involved in creating the paragraph.

In our Course, participants sit back and listen first to a recording of the reading, then we read it together, look at how it was created and discuss the content involved! In the afternoons and evenings, we go out, explore and discover!

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

LOG 1, (Extract)  IRELAND IN A NUTSHELL        

The first millennium (7) in Ireland is what we might describe as the happy millennium and the second millennium as the sad millennium in Irish history. 

Now, in our third millennium, we are members of the EU, recovering from the economic crash of 2008.

Although (8) the Republic of Ireland is a small country (population c. 4.5 million), it has a wide (9) variety of fascinating landscapes. The coasts of Ireland are full of hills and small mountains and the centre is flat by comparison, like a plate, so some of the most beautiful sights are along the coast. We call Wicklow, for example, the Garden of Ireland.

By contrast, the west of Ireland is wild, rough (10) and rocky but also very beautiful. Some people say that the real Ireland is the Ireland west of the Shannon - the longest river in Ireland and Britain - which flows down through the centre of Ireland.

7.       Millennium = a thousand years.  Century = a hundred years;  Decade = ten years.

8.       Although/Though/Even though  the Republic of Ireland.....

          Though  is also seen at the end of the sentence in everyday conversation, e.g. 'It's a very long           film but it's very interesting, though!'

9.       'Wide variety'  = a collocation, two words that usually go together. (We don't normally say 'a           big variety', although it's not wrong!)  wide ≠ narrow; deep ≠ shallow; (The deep and the           shallow end of a swimming pool; a person can also be deep or shallow!)

10.     rough ≠ smooth; 'In a friendship, you have to take the rough with the smooth!'  Tough means           difficult or hard. 'She's a tough customer' = she's difficult to manage!  'When the going gets           tough, the tough get going!'  (The 'going'  - from horse-racing - means the conditions; when           the conditions are difficult, people who are tough don't mind the difficulties. To get going = to       make progress.)

 

         

                  

Teaching without words and working without doing
Are understood by very few.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings !

Last week, I wrote about the wonderful Dr Len and how he healed all those patients in Hawaii who were diagnosed as criminally insane. His method, the ancient Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono, focuses on the following:                           

a) I forgive you; b) I'm sorry; c) I love you; d) Thank you. 

Many people will just laugh at that.They know that such phrases are overused or used insincerely or expediently, i.e. out of self-interest (small 's' J) .

Maybe one needs to examine what these phrases really mean.

Today, we'll just look at that first phrase, I forgive  you.

But what does it mean?

The problem with the word  forgive, as in, I forgive you, is that it seems to place "I" on a higher judicial or moral platform than "YOU":                                                              
"I" (Yes. Me.) "Forgive" (Yeah, I know I'm a good guy)  "You" (Yes, you over there). 

So part of the problem is the pronoun ( "I" and "You").                                                  

Some people won't forgive or even accept forgiveness, even though they might have already ostensibly buried the hatchet.  'How dare she forgive me! '  they think.  'Who does she think she is? I'm the one who should be doing the forgiving!'

Of course, when you don't forgive, it's like holding a hot coal in your hand to throw it at the offender, as the Buddha put it.                                                              

So what exactly does the word forgive mean?  

We know that it's linked to its Germanic cousin, vergeben, geben meaning to give; the ver part of the German word  - the v is pronounced as  f  in German, so the  v eventually turned into the  f  in the  for prefix in English -  seems to have come from the original Latin per, meaning through, as in the Latin perdonare, donare to give, perdonare  to forgive, (we have the word pardon from that), which presumably means to give through and through, to give completely. Give what?  Give away any wish for retribution, I guess, completely give up any desire for revenge, something like that.  Hence,  forgiveness.                       

No wonder it's confusing!...K

The Irish word for forgiveness is maithiúnas (mah-hoo-nass); maitheas (mah-hass) means goodness. You could say it is the giving of goodness. The mother kisses the naughty child; that makes more sense than saying, 'I forgive you' !  Now that makes more sense to me.

Nevertheless, I feel that in forgiveness there is no giving or receiving. You see, there is nothing to forgive. Real forgiveness is always to accept the wrong-doer but never, of course, the wrong-doing. Society should punish the wrong-doing, not the wrong-doer. How do you punish the wrong-doing without punishing the wrong-doer?  By never confusing the doer with the deed.                                                                                                                                       

Punishing  the wrong-doer is punishing ourselves. Forgiving others is really forgiving ourselves for being asleep, for the unconscious action of being asleep at the wheel.  

So who was Dr Len forgiving?  He was forgiving himself. As he said himself, he was forgiving that part of him which created the conditions in which crimes were committed by the patients he had never seen.                                                                 

But, I hear you cry, Dr Len is not his patients!

Of course not. You're right. Dr Len is Dr Len. The patients are the patients.         

You are not your reflection.

But your reflection is clearly you.

Well, that's what I feel, anyway.

What do YOU think?

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings!

I just can't get away from that mirror!  Remember?

You are not your reflection, but your reflection is clearly you.

Last week I wrote about Ho'oponopono, the ancient Hawaiian practice  of reconciliation and forgiveness, and how a local therapist was able to heal all those criminally insane people at the hospital without even seeing them.

In the course of the interview, the humble Dr Len also said:

'I was simply healing the part of me that created them.'

I have a feeling that if we can understand that statement, it will literally change the world.

Gandhi's famous words were, You must be the change that you wish to see in the world. 

Most people think that this is about being a good example. You know, the Golden Rule.

Well, that's partly it, of course.

But it's much deeper, much more profound, much more radical than that.

You see, you are responsible for what's happening in the world. 

Who? Me?

Yes.

Your reflection is clearly you.

To be honest, I can't pretend that I really understand it myself.  But I'm trying.  Really. I'm trying hard to understand it. To really understand it.  

(Maybe I should't try so hard! J)

Anyway, there are just four key concepts in Ho'oponopono: 

a) I forgive you; b) I'm sorry; c) I love you; d) Thank you.

That's all. You just say that. With feeling, of course.

Is that it?

That's it.

But what does it mean?

It means what it says.

But it's trite! you plead.  It's ridiculous!

True. All four phrases have become trite and ridiculous.

In next week's Friday Feelings, we'll have a closer look at the F-word, the S-word, the L-word and the T-word.

In the meantime, I'll be thinking about the incredible Dr Len and his wonderful quote. 

I hope one day I'll understand it.                                                                                       

I hope one day we'll all understand it.

And the world will live as one...🎶

Well, that's my feeling anyway.

What do YOU think?

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings!

Here's a little story to follow up on last week's Friday Feelings...

You are not your reflection, but your reflection is clearly you.

Some years ago in Hawaii, a psychiatric hospital on the island also served as a kind of a prison for the criminally insane. Doctors and nurses were unable to work on that ward for very long because it was so disturbing and the patients were apparently beyond recovery.

Eventually, in desperation, the hospital employed a local therapist who decided to use his own treatment: no electric shock therapy, no drug therapy and most surprisingly of all, no psychotherapy of any kind;  no 1:1 sessions with the patients.

So what was he doing there?

He simply studied the file of each individual patient.

Gradually, their mental and emotional health began to improve. In fact, in less than four years, each and every patient was well enough to be released and the ward was closed!

What was the secret?

'Everything in your life is a program,' said the healer. 'I erase the program.'

He could feel the problems from their files. He noted what he felt and 'cleaned' what he felt and as he did, the patient in question got better.

It's called Ho'oponopono.

How was this possible? we may ask. The healer is the healer is the healer! He is not the patient!  Of course he isn't. That's true.  He is not the patient. 

After all, you are not your reflection.

But your reflection is clearly you.

This, I believe, is what Gandhi meant when he said, Be the change...

All healing is spiritual. And you and your reflection are one.

Well, that's my feeling anyway.

What do YOU think?

Welcome to my weekly blog, Friday Feelings!

I have a feeling that discussing # 169 from our Insights Archive is going to be the most difficult blog of all - I'm having difficulties explaining it to myself! J

As promised last week, here's the complete couplet from the old Zen poem, The Jewel Mirror Samadhi (the poem is still chanted as a sutra in some Zen monasteries in Japan, I believe):

Like gazing into a jewel mirror, form and reflection view one another;

You are not your reflection, but your reflection is clearly you.

But what does it mean?

Phew!... The monks understand it intuitively, I'm sure; they don't have to put it into words.                                                                                              

In the past hundred years, however, quantum physics has made it easier for us in the western world to understand the second line.  Oops! Sorry!... I'll have to re-phrase that:

In the past hundred years, I am led to believe that quantum physics can help us understand that second line. There's no way that I understand quantum physics, I just have to believe it, I have to believe the physicists; after all, every physicist in the world says it's the most accurate science ever - even though none of them has ever seen at atom!                              

According to quantum physics, the world as we know it does not exist - it's just a fuzz of vibrations - until we 'collapse' it into existence, just by being our conscious selves.                                                 (Speaking of vibrations, by the way, where/when does a vibration begin or end? J)     

Quantum entanglement states that there is no separation at all, in time or in space!               

The physicists have been telling us for the last hundred years that we are intimately connected with everything in existence. And that we - and everything else in existence - are 99.999% empty space.     (I can hear those Zen monks chanting, Shunyata! 😊  )

But let's park that for now.

Three million. Think of that number for a moment.  3,000,000.

Think of three million children. Three million children in a huge playground. Imagine the noise, the delight, the fun, the shrill clamour of spontaneous joy and giddy excitement!

Currently, at least three million children die every year because they don't have food.

Sometimes, the headlines grab our attention for a while when they state that a child dies every ten seconds for lack of food, even there's more than enough food in the world to feed everybody. 

So who or what is responsible for this? Climate change and crop failures? Partially. The governments involved? Partially. Greed, inequity, capitalism gone mad? Partially. We ourselves, reading this blog? Partially.

But then, it's not necessarily about responsibility for others; it's about responsibility for ourselves. You see, one could actually say that we ourselves are the children.

"But I'm not the children!" you respond, defensively. "I'm me!"                                

Of course you are you.  As you rightly say, You are not your reflection. Very true.                        

But your reflection is clearly you.                                                                                                                               

You are also the children.

You are the mindless terrorist, you are the hapless victim, you are the bereaved family, mourning the loss of your loved one.   

The 17th century English poet, John Donne, wrote, 'Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind...'  He could equally have said, 'Any child's death diminishes me because, even though I'm me, I and the child are one'.  

We are not the children, of course.  But the children are clearly us.

Even a recognition of this fact will help create real change. You don't have to do anything at all; you don't have to work with any of the large number of national and international organisations addressing the never-ending problem of hunger in an unjust world.  

That's what Gandhi meant when he said Be the change...

You see, when you change, your reflection changes. And then everything changes.

Well, that's my feeling anyway.

What do YOU think?