1 2020 Blogs Part Two By Michael Erlewine 2 An eBook from SpiritGrooves.com A Wide-Awake Production © 2020 Michael Erlewine/StarTypes.com ISBN 978-0-9794970-8-7 All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Graphics designed by Michael Erlewine [email protected] Free to use but not to bundle and charge Readable, but not finely edited (no time) 3 Table of Contents BEYOND GRASPING .......................................................................... 7 GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT ........................................................... 8 PURE SENSE ................................................................................... 10 “DON’T THINK TWICE, IT’S ALL RIGHT” .......................................... 12 A BRIDGE TOO FAR FOR THOUGHTS TO CROSS ............................. 13 A MOMENT OF SILENCE ................................................................. 15 THE REST OF OUR LIFE ................................................................... 16 GIVE IT A REST ................................................................................ 17 THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ........................................................ 19 “EVERY GOODBYE AIN’T GONE” .................................................... 21 CATCHING UP ................................................................................. 23 DESCRIPTORS ................................................................................. 24 CAKED IN THOUGHT ...................................................................... 26 SPRITIUALLY SENSIVITE BODY AREAS ............................................ 28 BINGE WATCHING SEEDS SPROUT AND TV SERIES ........................ 29 THE EDGE OF BUSY ........................................................................ 30 THE SHEER WEIGHT OF EMPTINESS .............................................. 32 DHARMA BEYOND ITSELF .............................................................. 34 A LITTLE EXCITEMENT .................................................................... 36 GRIEVING LOSS .............................................................................. 38 TAKING REFUGE ............................................................................. 40 POINTING OUT YOUR WILD HORSE ............................................... 42 PROACTIVITY ON OUR PART .......................................................... 45 “TILTING AT WINDMILLS” .............................................................. 46 4 GRIST FOR THE MILL ...................................................................... 50 GETTING PERSONAL ....................................................................... 52 FORCING THE ISSUE ....................................................................... 53 TALES FROM THE HEART OF THE SIXTIES SCENE ........................... 55 DON’T THINK ABOUT IT ................................................................. 57 THE TRAIN TO NOWHERE .............................................................. 57 THE ROAD TAKEN ........................................................................... 58 MIXING EARTH AND SKY ................................................................ 59 MIXING NIRVANA WITH SAMSARA ................................................ 60 “YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO IT” .................................................. 61 MICHAEL, WALL-BANGER .............................................................. 62 SIGHT UNSEEN ............................................................................... 64 THE KARMAPA COMMENTS ON THE PASSING OF MY TEACHER ... 64 BESIDE THE POINT.......................................................................... 65 The Mahasiddha Tilopa taught: ..................................................... 66 THE MIND CANNOT SEE ITSELF ...................................................... 66 THE FOLK-MUSIC REVIVAL: 1950s-1960s ....................................... 67 REFLECTING .................................................................................... 78 VIVID AWARENESS ......................................................................... 78 THE TWO AND THE ONE ................................................................ 79 WORDS FROM MY TEACHER .......................................................... 79 CORONAVIRUS NOW CONSIDERED UNCONTAINED ...................... 80 FAMILIARITY WITH THE MIND ....................................................... 81 RECURSIVE TAUTOLOGY: A SIGN OF THE TIMES ........................... 82 SAMSARA’S CAUSE ......................................................................... 84 GROOVE AND BLUES IN JAZZ – THE ALBUMS ................................ 85 5 CONCENTRATION TRAINING ........................................................ 106 RECOGNITION: POINTING OUT YOUR HORSE .............................. 107 THE TIBETAN CALENDAR .............................................................. 108 ASTROLOGY’S SELF-SECRETS ........................................................ 115 THE POINT OF CERTAINTY ............................................................ 116 THE ART OF DOING NOTHING ..................................................... 118 BLINDED BY THE LIGHT ................................................................ 120 “I LIKE TO WATCH TV” ................................................................. 122 THE LAMA OF APPEARANCES ...................................................... 124 TIBETAN ASTROLOGY: CHAPTER FOUR ........................................ 130 OUR PILGRIMAGE TO TIBET: CHAPTER FIVE ................................ 132 ORGANIC DHARMA ...................................................................... 137 OUR PILGRIMAGE TO TIBET: CHAPTER FOUR .............................. 139 TIBETAN ASTROLOGY: (Part 3) WHERE I CAME IN ....................... 143 RESTING ....................................................................................... 146 OUR PILGRIMAGE TO TIBET: CHAPTER THREE ............................. 148 NOTHING DOING ......................................................................... 152 ASTROLOGER NOEL TYL PASSES ................................................... 153 MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION ...................................................... 183 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020! .............................................................. 186 6 Jun 16, 2020, 4:06 AM BEYOND GRASPING Often, what I write, what comes to mind and I feel needs to be said, never gets said. It’s like when I was swimming as a kid and lost hold of the inner tube. My own efforts to swim toward it pushed it beyond my reach. I find that certain topics are like that. I do my best to describe them, but when I do, I find I have maybe said a lot (or too much), yet I never said what I meant to or started out to say. My own descriptions and words end up being a kind of forward or introduction to the topic and the gist or heart of it all, what I meant to say (and still mean to say), never got said. Like the inner tube, it slips out of my reach again. It reminds me when I was a teenager and a certain song came on the radio, one that I could never hear enough. No matter how often I listened to the song, I was still getting something meaningful out of it. I seemingly never exhausted the content of that song or only did so after a very long time. In other words (more words), in certain cases, what I write only pushes my meaning (like the inner tube) out of reach. I have learned to live with this, but I have also learned that such topics are so “hot” that they defy description and any attempt on my part only ends up with something cast off, and not the heart of my truth, not what I started out to say. Anyone else do this? As the dharma texts point out, the true nature of the mind is ineffable, impossible to describe. And any attempt to do so only results in grasping at, but never obtaining, anything real or germane. It reminds me of those little fake-fireworks we had as a kid, called “snakes.” You lit a little pellet on the sidewalk and they spewed off a long charcoal snake, but remained burning at the center. I feel many key topics are like those snakes, they spawn an almost endless cast-off, but remain untouched (and unsaid) themselves. Another way to say this, is that these topics are “evergreen.” They are never exhausted but keep on wanting to be defined, but yet manage to remain not defined and out of reach. 7 I have found that, over time, such impossible-to-define topics do get defined, are realized as to their meaning for me, and can finally be set aside as settled. Yet, I wonder if they are ever defined or do I just grow beyond the need to define them. Who knows? Certainly, dharma realizations, like the nondual practices Insight Meditation (Vipassana) or Mahamudra Meditation cannot be defined or approached directly. Equally true, however, there are an almost untold number of dharma writings and teachings trying to do just that out there, put the ineffable into words and language. Like the inner tube, they keep being pushed just out of reach by my own desire to express them. Funny that. Jun 15, 2020, 9:24 AM GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT Something that I have learned through my spiritual journey is that we literally pass through different realms. I believe these are what are known as “chakras,” although that term is pretty-much misused by this point.