You can’t get Here from There!

by jacksokol ~ March 19, 2008

You are probably familiar with the old saying originating in the song “The Arkansas Traveler”, “you can’t get there from here!”

A traveling salesman stops to ask a farmer for directions, and the farmer starts to try to help, and then becomes frustrated as he remembers the nooks, crannies and complexities of the local terrain.

I lived in Arkansas for a summer and I can attest to the difficulty of getting from point A to point B. A place might be only a few miles away, as the crow flies, but getting there might take half a day of fording swollen creeks, and careening down rocky dirt roads. The most direct way is not the fastest way is not the fastest way at all.

In terms of Awareness and Enlightenment, I am a lot like that farmer. I know exactly what the terrain looks like it but “Dad Gummit!” as soon as I try to tell you what it is or how to get there exactly, the directions might get “confusticated” a slew of concepts and ideas that are foreign, and new.

My gosh, a whole new paradigm is required!

“why there’s not much difference ‘tween you and fool!”

“No sir, there ain’t. Just me and a fence.”

This blog is about nothing, if it’s not about a new way of thinking and looking at things. Well, maybe it’s not new exactly, but it’s certainly different. It’s not the norm.By changing our ideas, and the way we look at the world, gradually, we ourselves change. And as we change, the world changes with it.

But if you try to approach this with a mind full of old ideas and time-worn concepts, then I would say, “You can’t get Here from There!”.

The purpose of this blog is to introduce the ideas, or notions that come to me during my moments of spiritual practice.

I have been involved in a number of practices that revolve around what I would call “a Work of Attention”

Unlike Arkansas paradoxically, in terms of Enlightenment and the work of attention, the most direct way is also the fastest away and takes practically no effort!

In other words, there is a self-existing, primordial Wisdom, and this wisdom is the fabric of reality itself, the essence of Mind. The very nature of the Mind is this self-existent, spontaneously arising Wisdom, which, should, were we in touch with it help us to discern the right action, the appropriate and most skillful choice to make at any moment … among other things …

… were we in touch with it …

But it’s not that simple. While that which the Wise seek is not far at all, there is no way anyone can just hand it to you.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”.

Yes, well that’s true, but only if you are present. Learning how to be present is an art.

We don’t know how to be present as we are. You might disagree, with that, but I don’t mean ordinary waking consciousness, which is why I came up with the term awarenessPlus, which is basically presence on steroids.

Not that I am anymore awake than you are. I’m not! As I am, I am just like everyone else. I don’t know anything!

So, why would you read my blog? You certainly don’t need to; you are already enlightened!

My sense is that enlightened beings are not all that uncommon. In fact enlightenment maybe a lot more common than people would think. But, we while we may have experienced it, we may not have learned to remember it or practice it. If we don’t practice it regularly, it’s not part of us.

Community, we need community, Sangha, if you will, using the Buddhist term for community. We need to correspond and connect with other people who share this in common. Otherwise our understanding won’t grow. We’ll be stuck in a rut like the traveling salesman.

My intent, to share with you the ideas that I have been studying with other people involved in this work.

Right now there are many other people practicing this Work in very many ways, under many names.

But it takes a bit of skill to put the ideas across in such a way, that makes sense.

The right philosophy is a fulcrum that can transform the entire world!