wrote:
>
> Yesterday I got up early and drove to Sommières, a
> village about 30 kilometers away, because they were
> having a medieval festival, and I'm a real sucker
> for those kind of things. They always make me higher
> than a kite.
>
> This one was no exception. I was sitting there at a
> cafe in the town square, drinking hypocras and eating
> lamb brochettes while watching the townspeople walking
> by in their costumes, and this huge smile began to
> form on my face and this almost-irresistable urge
> came upon me to say "Yes" and just Wake Up.
>
> But it was tough getting to "Yes." There was a part
> of me that was still locked into the dealing-with-the-
> pissant-parts-of-life mindstate, and that wanted to
> respond to the wonderful day and the cubic centimeter
> of chance it had offered me with the standard safe
> answer, "Yes, but..." You know...stuff like:
>
> * Yes, I'm having fun here, but I haven't really done
> everything I wanted to do with my life yet, have I?
>
> * Yes, that stunningly beautiful woman who just walked
> by and smiled at me *is* wonderful, and just the
> *sight* of her should make me shout "Yes!" to the
> universe, but I'm probably too old for her.
>
> * Yes, this town and this festival and all these
> people dressed up in their medieval finery are all
> cool, but I did read BBC News this morning, and the
> outside world still sucks.
>
> Yes, but. Icky phrase, one we repeat to ourselves in
> our heads to keep us from fully relaxing into the
> experience of Now, and thus from realizing that the
> thing we're relaxing into is not just some emphemeral
> moment but the eternality of our Self.
>
> The proper answer to life when it presents us with one
> of those cusp moments is "Yes," not "Yes, but..."
>
> IMO, far too much of spiritual teaching is about
> training people to respond to life with "Yes, but..."
> You all know what I mean. How many times have you,
> like most seekers, thought to yourself, "Yes, I'd
> like to be enlightened but...?"
>
> It really doesn't *matter* what you put after the
> "but...," does it? Whether you think it's "stress"
> that keeps you from being enlightened or some skanky
> samskara you've never managed to get past, or that
> incident from ten lifetimes ago that still has you
> convinced that karmically you are lower than the
> lint in a snake's navel. *Whatever* it is, it's
> just an excuse, a rationalization that allows your
> self to say "No" to the Self.
>
> Each of us is already enlightened. The proper answer
> when the universe presents us with a cool moment and
> that moment asks us whether we remember our own
> enlightenment, is, "Yes."
>
> By changing your answer into "Yes, but...," you are
> pushing away the Self and saying, in effect, "I'm
> not ready to accept that you are me yet, so I'm
> going to make up some excuse for why you can't be
> me." Then you put that excuse right behind the
> "but" in "Yes, but..." and you say it. And as a
> result, you create it as a seeming "reality" in
> your life. Sigh. Big fuckin' rut. No fun.
>
> There in that cafe in Sommières yesterday, I managed
> to get beyond "Yes, but..."
>
> I sat there trying to not have as much fun with the
> day as I knew I was capable of having, and then I
> caught myself doing it. The moment I did, I was
> able to laugh at myself. And through my laughter,
> I found my body saying "Yes." Out loud. Weirdest
> damned thing.
>
> Everything changed. Background flipflopped into
> foreground and the witnessing, a moment before
> unnoticed, moved front and center and reasserted
> its Self again. And all it took was getting to
> "Yes."
>
> I'm sure it'll pass...all things do...but it's
> neat while it lasts. Life's cool sometimes, yes?
It most certainly is. Sounds like a cool day out too!
I just got back from the "Fortean Times" convention, a whole weekend
of wierd theories and discussion of the bizarre with like minded
strange persons.
Perhaps there was something in the air yesterday as I very nearly
became enlightened myself while listening to a lecture on the quest
for the Holy Grail by my favourite drummer and punk pioneer Rat
Scabies of The Damned (I'm not making this up!).
It started like a hit of Deja Vu but grew into a greatly improved
view of the immediacy of reality and the realisation that the only
thing preventing me from becoming truly enlightened is the inability
of my mind to just "Be". It was very liberating to suddenly know how
what is perceived is coloured by my subconscious hopes, fears,
reflections etc. these things happen at a very fine level usually,
but it was suddenly very clear how they hold one back from
experiencing "reality" and render everything cloudy and distorted.
But just for a few minutes I could keep hold hold of this Truth with
no effort. I'm sure I don't need to tell you guys, but the view of
the world when the doors of percption have been cleansed is rather
nice. Really quite exceptionally so in fact.
Just as it was becoming clear that I had the answer to all the
problems of the world my ability to stay with the new-found
knowledge disappeared. But I know it's there and
unlike "traditional" witnessing there are intellectual things here I
can work on. Always nice to catch a glimpse of the Glorious
Revelation to come.
However, with all this internal pondering I did miss the end of the
lecture and consequently never found out if Rat found the Grail, but
my guess is not as I'm sure it would have made the papers by now.
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