Author: L.E. Hansen

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Kafka Memories

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” ~Franz Kafka (Book: Letters to Friends, Family and Editors

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Our dear Franz. Not many read him anymore, unless in some far-away lit class. I wonder if The Metamorphosis is still taught. I recall that he wrote some small piece about us wanting to be a wild Indian. I thought of it one way and was so moved by it, long ago. How we all want to be a wild Indian, riding on that horse across the prairie. When I looked it up some time ago, it was not the same. Of course my memory was better. But what had set the imagination in play was the original.

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To The Spirits

To our Ancestors, to the Past, to all things mastered and of repent…All Hallows Eve…

  • Posted by Spirit of Old

Nightmares past and present lament, let us now go forth renewed. May all the souls have flown from purgatory, their penance done!

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We Are Light

And now, hearing from another corner about that which we already know.

Tao & Zen
Your body is composed of atoms that are billions of years old, that were born long ago in stellar clouds and the hearts of stars. The energy in those atoms is spinning light that can trace its beginnings to the dawn of the Universe. And that’s just what Science “knows.”
The great masters of numerous spiritual traditions tell us that we are in truth the Field of Consciousness that has created all things, inhabits all beings. This is our deeper Self & Source, core spiritual identity, a hidden “truth” we share with every other person, animal, river, flower, cloud, galaxy, butterfly and tree.
What the mystics of history call “waking up” is when we come back and align with (tune into) this deeper sense of identity. Which is not really “identified” with the limited story of any one person, object or thing.
Spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, chanting and prayer can help us to align in that way. Help us let go of identification with our social thoughts and limited ideas of identity. Help us to go deeper, and return to Source…
~Christopher Chase

Empty yourself of everything.
Let the mind become still.
All things in the Universe rise and fall
while the Self watches their return.
They grow and flourish
and then return to the Source.
Returning to the Source is stillness,
which is the Way of Nature.
~ Lao Tsu ~
Tao Te Ching
The Way of Waking Up – Alan Watts

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NOW

From Tao and Zen

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Zen & Bruce Lee

“Zen is both something we are, our true nature expressing itself moment by moment, and something we do, a disciplined practice through which we can realize the joy of being. So, what is Zen? Stop trying to get an intellectual lock on something that is vast and boundless, far more than the rational mind can grasp. Just breathe in with full awareness.”~ Bruce Lee

Once again the mystery and simplicity of Zen. Bruce Lee. What a shame we lost him so young. Many theorize that it was no accident and that forces, perhaps from China, did not want him to continue in this world. Some photos of him are just incredible. He made himself into the cobra that represented him. Or that he represented. Where could he have taken himself in this world had he remained here?

The above photo is from the internet. I didn’t see a credit given though it does look as if it is from a movie. The photo I am thinking of shows him sitting on a meditation pillow—zafu—in a sitting cobra pose. It is beyond impressive. It is as if he becomes a cobra.