earth resting on earth
Playing @ the Altar of Now: Dream Of Love (Anjunadeep 11 Mix) by Nox Vahn and Mimi Page
Currently Being Read @ the Altar Of Now: History Ends In Green
Books are open through October for Reiki, Psychedelic Integration & Consultation, Individual/Group Holotropic Breathwork and Meditation - Lets hang out (book here)
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On Work by Kahlil Gibran
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream . . .
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
Work is love made visible.
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I cant read. I feel.
I cant see. I feel.
I wont speak. I feel.
An empty jar, just before the flood.
Speak no other language
Inner worlds of my mud tongue.
Odd doors to other moments and strange stretches of peculiar work in the bright blue sun.
Time blurred by the enormity of space.
Elsewhere grass edges concrete
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II’m back from the desert and regaining my water weight.
I went to to the Burn with 0 expectation for what I would be after. 0 need for some solve, salve or solution. For the 1st time in the 3 years I’ve gone, I went into the experience without desperate need for something to make sense afterwards thanks to some vision or moment of clarity.
A weighty departure given that this current era of my life has been characterized as rudderless by me and others who know me and my current timing well.
Rudderless in the sense that I couldn’t turn the ship if I tried. I’m in the stream, subject to the storm and no longer reaching for the sail or the paddle.
So while I was out there I kept turning over any notion of control, because its not real.
You’d think that out there at the dirt rave its really easy, everyone and everything is in the flow.
True to an extent, the table’s set for such an experience but there’s a transition necessary to cross the threshold. Much like life outside, we interact with people and with our own notions of what is right and what we should be doing and what we don’t want to miss, cant miss, lines to stand in, permission to be granted…. its all out there.
The one difference I’ve noted is that there’s space to realize the absurdity of it. A large clean mirror in which to see yourself performing, searching made possible by the sheer enormity of the Burn’s absurdity.
I spent a good bit of time asking myself (rhetorically and playfully), who is in control right now?
What part of me is making a decision?
What version of me is generating this emotion and what is that part asking for?
I rode my bike out at night alone, forgoing landmarks to inform where I was and where I was going. Moving in large, loping circles, puncuated by extended periods of stopping to stare, think, meditate, stare again this time at the moon, listen to the sound that drew me in. I’d get hungry or bored or need to pee and move one- gracefully.
I can and did hold court with only myself, in deep appreciation for the time with me.
I love and am so thankful for life.
Another powerful experience to share was my time working with Zendo, a camp affiliated with MAPS that provides peer support to people at the Burn having challenging experiences (sober or altered).
Amidst the unceasing, competing drumbeats of the Burn’s bacchanal things get shook loose. It is an environment that requires you to be ready for anything- literature leans towards preparedness but should be expanded to include emotional, physical, metaphysical, psychological and pyschospiritual girding.
The Burn is a meditation in high energy circumstances, and as a deep meditation it will inevitably surface insights that require rest, contemplation, connection, quiet.
Psychedelics do not provide an answer in such situations, at least not the answer we think we need, the answer we pre-ordain. They can create confusion, disorientation, grief that may prove to be helpful later but many are not ready for the turbulence of all that lies unsaid within being rocketed to the surface in a city of 70k unified by their desire to resist and/or reset prior programming. All this is true, and for a portion of the population the unofficial, unspoken past-time of the Burn is getting altered.
The Zendo becomes a beacon for those looking to ground.
It is the Burn encapsulated crossing the transom into the space, being greeted by beings who are there to provide safe harbor. Last year I was a sitter, this year for two 7 hour blocks I ran the Zendo, meeting every guest in their moment of need and helping them find sanctuary. I was nervous about this experience because I knew it would be chaos ( I was correct) and I was unsure how I would handle the fire, but I held steadfast that in the last 3 years I’ve lived many lives, and grown immensely particularly in my ability to maintain presence. I knew that no matter what I was still me, there, amidst it all.
all that was required of me was to be in each new moment.
That is all that is required of us, and we’re doing it already. The work is to bring our awareness to the truth, that we’re already present.
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earth resting on earth
Bholenath
Also If you’d like to talk about earth, rest, burning man, reiki, san francisco, bodywork, psychedelic integration, or something else, please please, please reach out via the link below- it is free
Altar Of Now, based in San Francisco, is the work and calling of Bholenath.