THE CANADIAN CONCERN--The Neighborhood

Sitting on a dock..on a lake....nobody around....its rejuvenation.

In the background after taking a good hour to digest the beauty...I am listening to Pema Chodron the Buddhist talk about Shenpa.
.
Shenpa being the attachment of the mind to things and emotions..not just attachment...but the hook they have over you..

.She talks about a feeling that we automatically close up when faced with one of these hooks..

I know that I personally get sucked into a vortex of revolving thoughts about obligations, guilt, food, sex, abstinence, and a plethora of others.

She talks about being gentle with ourselves...we apparently say hundreds of negative, critical things about ourselves everyday and for me.. this has to be recognized and softly changed in order to have a certain freedom of the mind and soul.

For me, I have a deep feeling of shame and guilt for not living up to a certain projected life or potential. This hits me alot...paralyzing me with fear.

One way to help with this is to practice something called.."one at the beginning and one at the end" Simply explained..its about setting intentions in the morning (whether spiritual or not) and reviewing your day at night..without being too brutal on yourself.....The real magic of this act lies deep within the ritual..Good things start to happen...a contentment... a peacefulness....or just more feelings of failure to complete a special task..I am not sure yet.

I have alot of empathy for all of us who are faced with suffering, guilt and feelings of inadequacy on a daily basis. It sucks and is not real..Our self perceptions are terribly skued.

Getting close to nature makes me feel so much love and connection though....but like most of us. the merrygoround of thoughts about food and my cell phone have started to swirl again.
I don't mean to complain..today I am happy out here.

Rick

The soul behind the chattering mind

Recently after I was told that my health had improved by 20%, I was excited. I was enthralled. I loved the doctor that told me that. Thank god I had one of the most esteemed members of medicine on my side. My sobriety of over 3 years was a testament to my new healthy vindication.

THEN.....A couple of months later for no apparent reason.....my heart went into a-fib,  my heart was beating out of control at 170 beats per minute, which got me in the operating theater and got me shocked three times with the padels, given a huge dose of Propofol..and eventually assigned a 5 day hospital stay.

Why did it happen? Could it be that the small amount of weight lifting I did that day had this contributed  to the breakdown?....its doubtful.  The jury is still out.  What it did mean was that I would have to take another medication that completely sucked the life out of me. When you get sucked, you get sucked hard. You feel like going down to the corner store is an adventure. Bottom line is that it blows.


However, I'm alive. So fricken grateful to be alive. This world of suffering and chaos is an absolute garden of Eden to me now. Really, every time I have a near death experience, I come out the other side, just marveling at this world of ours and all the intense beauty in it.

Human beings gravitate towards beauty and mystery. Put the two together and you have a recipe for passion. I feel now, that any animal I come across these days and any young child I encounter, are just divine messengers.They are gorgeous!.

 I have gotten to a point of observation, which somehow limits my mental associations a little bit, and instead I am able to breathe in these moments directly without labeling them.

I think that's happening because of my brush with death...(I have had quite a few over the years) Now before I make myself out to be the Maharishi or somebody, this lasts for a couple of minutes, and really doesn't stay with me for the whole day. 

I do basically subscribe to the existential view that we are all stranded here, living a life that is not of our choosing, and a life that can be extremely cruel sometimes. On a brighter note, there is something to be said for the saying ..."You will see it, when you believe it" 

I do believe that in this existence where nobody definitively knows why we are here, (and the world is balancing on a rock of narcissism and a twig of consumerism) there is a connection that can be made to source energy or to love and gratitude.. Now, even after my experiences, I have no actual plan, I am just trying to live in the now spiritually....Honestly.

I am reading a great book called the untethered soul. The author Michael Singer starts out by talking about the crazy chatter in the mind. Constant chatter.....in the shower..walking to the closet...."should I do this...what if I did that ...they don't deserve this...the weather will be awful...some pizza might be nice...etc" It is never ending. If you don't recognize the chatter behind the real person, you are literally imprisoned....All of this talk is not us, its the mind monkeying around with one thing after another.

We are the being and consciousness, behind the chatter..We can recognize this chatter and observe it and transform it. I am no great mediator and my downward dog is pretty awful, but even I know that these two ways of quieting the mind, will bring you closer to your real self..As well,  a walk or swim in nature would also do the trick for me.

Who the hell am I.? The guy who got the margarine commercial at 15?  The guy that travelled to BC to start a new life, or to Taiwan to teach.... or am I  the guy that said all those awful things to the people I loved when I was drunk for 7300 days. Actually, I am the consciousness behind these events. I am the sensitive witness to these events.

I would like to think that my existence, my sometimes irritating and sometimes charming mind and soul....are here for some purpose.  I dont think I will ever know.

I know one thing though, I am happy to be here, on this beautiful earth, with all of these beautiful people and animals. That sounds very hippyish, but that's the way I feel. That is ofcourse until the next train of doubt is thrown into my world from my constantly intervening and chattering mind.

I am rambling. I am glad to connect though on any level. If for some reason I don't make it next time...I will try to connect with all of you ....from beyond our experiences, beyond our bodies made of stardust as Carl Sagan said.Perhaps, I will communicate with you while you are sleeping. Or not.

Rick Lynn

Doing it instead of thinking about it...

Writing has taken a backseat to doing these days, hence the layoff..

" You cannot get to the next phase of a project without a grander mind-set, more acceleration and extra horsepower."  Grant Cardone



When you get yourself back in the game of life and you are physically and mentally healthy enough to get a job, keep it and contribute to an RRSP , it is amazing how your focus moving forward seems much easier to deal with.
When I was sitting around everyday contemplating the metaphysical and the meaning of the aging process, it was absolutely exhausting. Am I a Pantheist or a Nebulist?... really? We are a very small planet in a very large galaxy and we all seem to be struggling on different pages, so where do you go from there....exhausting.


I am working with a fantastic company in Honda and they offer a great product that was just voted the most trusted Brand in North America. However, positions in Sales ultimately come down to the individual. It's a kind of stylistic dance focused on  producing your best character for a particular situation or individual, Strong Communication can ultimately bring you wealth. Your ability to communicate value will be either your bankable talent or your demise. 

Some days are very exciting and I can feel the "flow" or I can feel that I am in the communication "zone" while other days feel like I am walking back and forth in a dungeon of doubt and negativity.

I am back in the game, and the only way I would be able to make a large contribution to this world was by putting myself into a position where I can afford the time to believe and create the personal vision that may impact this world for the better. Or I may ultimately just be another guy that desperately wanted to make a difference on a grand scale, but instead, made a small difference to certain individuals on a very small scale. That is alright. Just smiling at the right individual at the right time can  produce a huge impact in itself, or so they say..

In this case, it all starts with a word, an action, and a belief..


I read that Human Beings are only capable of dealing with one reality at a time, which means as you languish in your reality of the moment, there are Billions of other simultaneous realities happening around the world at the same time, that you are not experiencing. I personally want to transcend this, but that will have to take a back seat to my reality of selling new cars right now..


Rick

The meaning we fail to see...

I read this paragraph today that resonated...

Stop Hoping For A Completion Of Anything In Life

Most men make the error of thinking that one day it will be done.  They think, "If I can work enough,
then one day I could rest."  Or, "One day my woman will understand something and then she will stop complaining." Or, "I'm only doing this now so that one day I can do what I really want with my life."
The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way.  They won't.
It never ends. As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift.

The Archetype And The Man

2013....Very cool. (we made it to this far out future)  It better be, there are no substitutes.



We are the architects of our own futures....

In terms of what I am concentrating my efforts on right now, it is all about this book project that I am working on and doing research for right now.  Without saying too much, it involves the language of  communications between men and woman. 

Through this porthole I have stumbled on alot of information on what it really means to be a man in Society these days. I have been looking at Iron John by Robert Bly and Wild at Heart by John Elderidge. How do the classical male archetypes fit into the ever involving relationships between the sexes.  There is alot there. Also Feel the Fear and Do It Anyways is a great read.

 I have been studying the fairly clandestine world of pick-up artists, including Ross Jefferies, Neil Strauss (The Game) and David Deangelo. I had no idea that this type of community existed and that the members were so very hard core about there secrets and techniques.

 To be honest, it has been a very long time since I was in a real life situation where I was trying to get a number from a female with hopes of something more. I didn't ever use a script and things came fairly naturally, but these guys have things down to a very deep science.  As Tom Cruise said to Neil Strauss when he was interviewing him for Rolling Stone..."If you guys used this type of energy and technique for bettering the world instead of for personal pleasure, you would really be on to something big."

One of the men that is thought of as an expert in Spirituality and Sexuality for men is David Deida.

Here is an excerpt from his book "The way to the superior man".....Interesting stuff.  Talking about a mans true journey and how it relates to his partner.





Stop Hoping For Your Woman To Get Easier

A woman often seems to test her man's capacity to remain unperturbed in his truth and purpose.
She tests him to feel his freedom and depth of love, to know that he is trustable.  Her tests may come in the form of complaining, challenging him, changing her mind, doubting him, distracting him, or even undermining his purpose in a subtle or not so subtle way. A man should never think his woman's testing is going to end and his life will get easier.  Rather, he should appreciate that she does these things to feel his strength, integrity, and openness.  Her desire is for his deepest truth and love.  As he grows, so will her testing.

Every moment of your life is either a test or a celebration.  The same is true about every moment with your woman, only doubly so.  Not only is her simple existence a test for you, but one of her deepest pleasures in intimacy is testing you, and then feeling you are not moved off course by her challenge.
The most erotic moment for a woman is feeling that you are Shiva, the divine masculine:  imperturbable, totally loving, fully present, and all pervading.  She cannot move you, because you already are what you are, with or without her.

She cannot scare you away, because you already penetrate her in fearless love, pervading her heart and body. She cannot distract you, because your one-pointed commitment  to truth will not bend to her wiles.  Feeling the hugeness of love and freedom in you, she can trust you, utterly and surrender her testing in celebration of love.



I am looking forward to continued good health, integrity and inspiration for myself and for everybody out there this year.



Rick

STRUCTURE AS RHETORIC

Writing a good solid FILM SCRIPT has kept my mind churning for a number of years now.  A few courses later and a few dozen books on SCREENWRITING later, I am still trying to come up with something that would be considered, solid, unique and sell able. I do love the process and the constant challenge.  Apparently they say that there are really no new ideas left.  Everything is simply derivative and apart from a very few classic stories being regurgitated in new ways, it's tough to impress the readers and get an idea in the studios hands. I am working on something now which might be the one. On the other hand, maybe I should simply write this and have another piece of my girlfriends marvelous homemade cheesecake instead. Here is a paragraph I just came across that turned my crank.

STRUCTURE AS RHETORIC

Make no mistake.: While a story's inspiration may be a dream and its final effect aesthetic emotion, a work moves from an open premise to a fulfilling climax only when the writer is possessed by serious thought. For an artist must have not only ideas to express, but ideas to prove. Expressing an idea, in the sense of exposing it, it never enough. The audience must not just understand; it must believe. You want the world to leave your story convinced that yours is a truthful metaphor for life. And the means by which you bring the audience to your point of view resides in the very design you give your telling ..As you create your story, you create your proof; idea and structure intertwine in rhetorical relationship.

STORYTELLING is the creative demonstration of truth. A story is the living proof of an idea, the conversation of idea to action. A story's event structure is the means by which you first express, then prove your idea...without explanation.