My uber driver

I was on holiday in Cape Town. Life had sent me some financial curveballs and was I feeling a little distrustful about its benevolence. I got an Uber to Mum and Mike.  Without me mentioning my life or predicament at all, my Uber driver told me how a couple of years ago he was financially destitute.  Being God intoxicated, he prayed for help.  Then suddenly he was contacted by a Joburg company who offered him the chance to rent a car and end up owning it.  It just felt right so he spent his last remaining money to get there.  When he arrived at the dealership, he was gobsmacked to discover that his tshirt was exactly the same colour as the ribbon on his new car.  "It was a clear sign and it gave me the most extraordinary sense of trust and gratitude" he told me.  He drove the car home and used it to generate income as an Uber driver.  "It has brought me so much financial prosperity" he said.  "Life is good.  God is good."

The story brought tears to my eyes.  It reminded me of the exquisite benefits of trusting Life and surrendering to it.  There is an Infinite Intelligence running the show and I am loved and cared for.  Life is not meant to make us happy but to wake us up.  So not all will always go to plan.  But ultimately all is as it is meant to be and all is unfolding for the ultimate benefit of The All.  There is nothing but The All.  Life is inherently good.

Below is the photo of him getting the car.  He was delighted that he had inspired me and I wanted a copy of it.

Spiritual Moments (2023)

Being

• Lie and Be (peace & stillness)
• World, Body, Mantra, Breath
• Sound Healing (Bamboo Buddha)
• Monastery mantra chanting
• Massage with Renata (x2)

Nepal

• Chitwan birding: Kingfisher, Coucal, Owlet, Hornbill
• Everest peaks

Love

• Heart open, cry with love at the drop of a hat (e.g. couple holding hands)
• In city, I see God in each person. I see God. I see God. Love.
• Shushann video tribute
• Michael video tribute

Synchronicity in Ceres

• "Trying to understand with intellect is like chasing a butterfly. Sit quiety and understanding will alight on you." 
• Russel brings 5 green apples. Painting in kitchen of the cottage with 5 green apples.

Wisdom

• Life is God's Movie and the clarity it brings
• Wisdom & Being reminder

Priceless Moments (2023)

Priceless moments

• Frida Kahlo emotional reaction plus virtual reality experience.
• Dunn Swamp kayaking

Hiking & Nature

• Prince Albert waterfall leap
• Riviersonderend Kloofing and leap
• Mermaid Falls leap & glory it brought with friends.
• Mermaid Falls through waterfall.

Nepal

• Chitwan birding:  Kingfishers, hornbill, coucal, owlet, Bishnu, the guide
• Close views of Everest, higher than anyone else
• The peaks when it cleared
• Flying into Lukla. Alive!  Not nervous. 
• Touching elephants
• Rhino and baby
• Bonding with dogs

Antarctica Moments

• 60000 King Penguins on beach
• Gentoo penguins colony
• First Georgia wildlife experience: Maceronis, baby seals, pipit, duck, elephant seals, king penguin. 
• Antarctica Bay and barbecue
• Marcus presentation
• Polar plunge
• Playing cards. Jasmine. This is how it’s done in pros.  Winner takes all.
• Urshaia climb mountain
• Power of Chat GPT write Jasmine teacher message. Frosty Five
• Photo slideshow gasp with porpoising penguins and relief

Rugby World Cup

• Won quarter, semi and final by 1 point
• Watched SA NZ final with Chris

Movies

• Really into movies.  Movies with a twist.
• End of Wild Rose "No place like home."
• The Last of Us S1E3: Release with gay lovers
• Whitney Houston biography and music
• Movie theme music

Moments of synchronicity (2023)

 Two wonderful synchronicities on the same day:

Trying to understand is like chasing a butterfly

In the car, on the way to our weekend away near Ceres, I asked Heather, Russell's mum, a whole lot of questions about her belief in God. Eventually, she exclaimed "You need to get out of your head. God is not an intellectual thing. God is an intuitive experience."  We arrived at our destination,  at The Fynbos Farm.  As we drove to our cottage on the farm, we drove past a large poster that said "Trying to understand with intellect is like chasing a butterfly. Sit quietly and understanding will alight on you."

The five green apples

In the kitchen of our cottage, there was a painting on the wall of 5 green apples. In a bowl, on the counter, were five identical green apples; the apples that Russell had brought for us to eat on the weekend.

Insights (2023)

Dx binging is bad for productivity

• 7 hours on 7 pills (5 hours on 2 pills)

Essential to do bank checks 

• Lost $440 over 2 years from Roommates.com

Be informed, ignorance is stressful

• Capital gains on property, did calculations. Became clear.
• Research on PAYE.
• Research on % of house in tax returns.
• % yield on dividends verse interest.

When the mind is anxious, it tells terrible lies

• E.g. Slideshow, tax sms

Nip potential issues in the bud right away

• Become informed (online & experts)
• Prevention, not cure.
• Face worries & take action.
• Knowing can prevent so much worry.
• E.g. Tax issue if I'd googled it.

Look after health. 

• Blood pressure
• Pulse
• Blood tests
• Slim checks
• Get a watch
• Do exercise
• Get rid of belly fat

When climbing a hill, go slow. 

• Not exert heart rate
• Metaphor for life. One step at a time, super slow.
• Power of tiny steps without exertion. This step alone. Limit looking at destination.

Don’t take Gav as gospel

• Better to be realistic than overly optimistic 

Love & respect My Future self.  

• What I do today. What I choose. My dex consumption.  All effect my beloved future self. Do it for him.

Non fiction books read (2023)

Idealism

• Dreamed Up Reality: Diving into the Mind to Uncover the Astonishing Hidden Tale of Nature  (Bernardo Kastrup)

Spiritual moments (2022)

Being

• Sitting and Being at park with Mack near tree
• Nov & Dec, timed Being. Ave of 30 mins per day.

Love

• Love to music (driving to and from Carocar at Xmas)

Wisdom

• Presence, Spaciousness, Surrender wisdom deeply reviewed & understood.
• Reading daily wisdom (Life is God's experience)

Birding 

• Malachite kingfisher in Rondevlei
• Puffin close to the zodiac in The Arctic
• Wagtails at Dunns Swamp
• Cape Rockjumper and Buntings in Cedarberg

Animals

• Polar bears in the Arctic
• Arctic fox

Synchronicity

• James at La Perouse (never been there before)
• NRMA car service van at Barton Park after I left my lights on.
• Fine for seat-belt

Beauty

• Ndlovu Choir

Vision

• Sight of camera screen in dark

Evidence for benevolence

• Getting dex in Longyearbyen

Moments of synchronicity (2022)

Meeting James at La Perouse

I was hiking at La Perouse with Gavin, Srini and Elna.  As we walked, we spoke of Gavin's friend, James, who I knew well and liked very much.  Gavin said he had asked James to come hiking with us that day, but that he had decided he wanted to do a solitary hike to sort some things out in his head.  Half an hour later. we walked out onto an isolated headland to have some lunch.  Suddenly who should appear but James!  He said he had never hiked at La Perouse before but had decided to explore it on a whim.  The chances of us doing the same hike and then meeting in this isolatied spot was mind boggling.

The NRMA service van

A few months later, I went birding at Barton Park near Botany Bay. I parked at an isolated parking spot well off the main road and walked into the park.  After a couple of hours, as I walked back to the car, I remembered I had switched on my car lights on my early morning drive to the park and had forgotten to switch them off. I made mental peace with it as I returned to the car. When I reached the car, what should I discover, but an NRMA van parked right next to my car. There were no other car in the parking lot. The NRMA driver had parked there to have a short break. I asked him for a jump start and he willingly obliged.

Priceless Moments (2022)

Outings

• Leaping Mermaid Falls with the boys
• Photography at Dunns Swamp
• Swimming with Gavin at Centennial Glen and the Coastal track
• The Grand Canyon in flood
• Bonnum Pic trail
• Wolfberg Cracks and Arch in The Cedarberg
• Corang Arch, Buddawang

New Macbook Pro

• Anticipation and getting all sorted
• So fast (especially Lightroom) with its 64 gigs of RAM.
• Giving my old computer to Chris

Medical relief

• Discovering my hand (growth) was ok
• Stool test negative
• Neck after physio

Buying and learning my new R5 camera

• Realisation wider angle lenses are not expensive
• Camera store: especially 100 - 500 lens
• Taronga Zoo: Realise I have something special
• Birding

The Arctic

• Polar bears (including cub)
• Puffin
• Photo presentation on ship and feedback
• Photographing with Peter Eastway on my back at the bird cliff and chatting on our hike.

Birding

• Rondevlei, Strandfontein, Kirstenbosch, Barton Park
• Malachite kingfisher mating
• Puffin in ocean close to zodiac
• Mousebirds, Sugarbirds, Sunbird

Movies

• Maestro music

Non fiction books read (2022)

Advaita Vedanta 

• Advaita - Tools for Spiritual Unity (Merlyn Swan)

Idealism

• Brief Peeks Beyond: Critical Essays on Metaphysics, Neuroscience, Free Will, Skepticism and Culture (Bernardo Kastrup)
• The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality  Bernardo Kastrup
  
  

Priceless moments (2021)

 

Book launch

• Time with Sharon (at Aimee's book launch)
• Sharon witnessed the affirmation
• Sharon: You're such a beautiful man
• Thanks from Aimee and Pip (at book launch)

Dianna

• Talking to Dianna at Eckhart

Wisdom Trove

• Menu and random owl working

Movies

• Dune (with lamb after)
• The Last Duel

Spiritual moments (2021)

MDMA experience

• Spent a weekend with Aimee and Shushann in The Blue Mountains where we took MDMA for spiritual purposes.
• It didn't effect me as much as Aimee and Sharon, maybe because of medication I'm on?
• Aimee and Shushann were extremely loving and said some beautiful affirming things to me. I felt deeply appreciated and loved. There was also lots of loving touch.
• I helped Aimee process some past trauma and issues and stood in for her dad and some others.  A little self conscious but Shushann later said it was exactly right what I said.  

Morning gratitude

• I go through a list of things I'm deeply grateful for each morning. It makes me feel very connected to Life.

Talks with Yogi when he was struggling with anxiety

• Yogi was struggling immensely with anxiety over having to find a new home to stay in.  
• We had some amazing conversations and I found myself giving wise advice on how to cope with anxiety, relating to Presence (resting in awareness), letting things be and being the space for emotions. Also how being in our senses reduces anxiety.
• Beautiful feedback from Yogi such as "That was just magnificent"  and "You and Eckhart are my guru."

Wisdom

• Bernardo Kastrup Youtube and course

The Ultimate Experience

 

I Am

I am unremitting joy. I am utter despair.

I am languid peace. I am chaotic turmoil.

I am abundant generosity. I am insatiable greed.

I am adoring love. I am heartless indifference.

I am pure innocence. I am vulgar sleaze.

I am cocksure swagger. I am fearful doubt.

I am a shy smile.  I am a vicious snarl.

I am a soaring symphony. I am a fearful din.

I am a scurrying ant.  I am a motionless sloth.

I am a soaring eagle.  I am a crawling worm.

I am a gargantuan tree.  I am a tiny flower.

I am an omnipotent king.  I am a cowering subject.

I am an athletic champion.  I am a lazy slob.

I am a holy saint.  I am an atrocious tyrant.

I am an impenetrable jungle.  I am a withered land.

I am a  mountain peak.  I am a gaping abyss.

I am a blazing sun.  I am a planet of ice.

I am an endless galaxy.  I am a grain of sand.

I am a radiant light.  I am the darkest night.

I am this.  I am that.

I am here.  I am there.

I am him.  I am her.

I am you.  I am me.

I am the collective experience of all these things

and many, many more;

a kaleidoscope of a quintillion different perceptions

and I am that which makes experiencing possible.

I am the Eternal Subject

yet I also take the form of every object.

I Am All That Is.

I Am all Knowing.

I Am all Being.

I Am.

I Am.

I Am.

Written: 2021

Right now

Right now I Am…

   soaring high on outstretched wings

   opening my petals to the morning sun

   scurrying through a termite cathedral

  spinning an intricate web of silk

   trumpeting through an upturned trunk

   laying eggs in a little pond

   picking nits from my lover’s fur

   probing the damp soil with my spindly roots

   singing a duet through a twittering beak

   galloping along on mud-spattered hooves

   surfing waves with gleeful squeaks

   gazing out meditatively with large, luminous eyes

   stretching my branches up and out into the vast, open sky

   smelling for truffles with my sensitive, pink snout

   probing a hole in the rocks with a nimble tentacle

   paddling along a stream with powerful kicks

   hungrily sucking warm milk from my mother’s teat

   searching the ocean bed in search of a larger shell to call home

   charging headlong into the horns of another with a mighty clash

   licking my paws with a raspy tongue

   wriggling this way and that to shed my scaly skin

   breathing in air through my damp, permeable membrane

   bobbing up and down in an intricate dance with my life-long mate

   cutting the water with my dorsal fin

   rising up on thrusting haunches in orgasmic release

   stalking stealthily in pursuit of unsuspecting prey

   enclosing my young one in a protective embrace of flippers and feet

   staring patiently at the water with my rapier like bill ready to strike

   wagging my tail in unrestrained welcome

   sharing a belly-laugh with a beloved friend

   staring in wonder at a crimson sunset

   shedding grief-stricken tears at an untimely loss

   typing this poem with clumsy fingers and an open heart

All these things I, the Cosmic Mind,  experience in the timeless Now

and a quintillion quintillion more things

across countless different worlds and dimensions.

All experiences past, present, and future

exploding forth as pure perception from the Singularity I Am,

the Infinite Awareness I Am,

in a great, exultant cosmic bang,

creating the ultimate immersive, experiential work of art,

wondrous and beautiful,

epic and profound,

beyond all imagination.

Written: 2021

Embrace experience

Gaze at beauty like tomorrow you’ll suddenly find yourself blind.

Listen to music and birds singing like tomorrow you’ll be deaf.

Eat a meal like tomorrow your taste buds will dissolve and be gone.

Smell a flower like tomorrow your nose will be eternally blocked.

Make love like tomorrow you’ll lose all sense of touch.

Express love like tomorrow like you’ll be struck dumb and illiterate.

Reminisce like tomorrow all your memories will be lost.

Written: 2021

Correspondence with Yogi

 From Yogi

Beautifully said Graeme. You are being of enormous help to me. Thank🙏 you!!

Presence

Notice that you’re noticing. Resting deeply in the awareness of being aware. Resting knowingly as the presence of awareness (Rupert Spira).

Surrender

All is exactly as it is meant to be at this moment. This includes anxiety. I don’t care what happens - (Krishnamurti). God/Life is running the show. God, universal intelligence, is having a human experience through me. Yogi is just a character in the movie. Trust that all is well. Be welcoming. Sit back in the seat of awareness & enjoy the show. Be curious as to what will happen next. Enjoy every twist in the plot, & the synchronicities. You are in the world but not of the world. Don’t take it so seriously. No self, no problem.

AA - God, I turn my will & my life over to your care.

AA. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake.

VRE - God is well, & so are you, if you would but know it.

VRE - The awareness of the presence of a higher & friendly Power.

NM - You see yourself as in the world. I see the world as in me.

Spaciousness

Remaining relaxed & open to events, emotions - not closing. Not rushing.

Yogi. Do one thing at a time. Take your time. Pause between activities. Do everything for its own sake, not as a means to an end.

From Graeme

Wow, Yogi, that's a superb synopsis.  I love it.  Really great.  It really sums up the philosophy that has brought me a great deal of freedom and peace over the past year or two.

As you said in your follow up text, the "I don't care what happens." has absolutely nothing to  do with apathy or indifference  - and everything to do with surrender and acceptance.  When you know that there is an Infinite Intelligence unfolding all experiences and events, you surrender to that power and let it run your life.  You thus allow these unfolding experiences and events to be as they are, trusting that all that arises is for the ultimate Good of the All.  All is as it's meant to be even if it doesn't feel like it at the time.  In my experience, the good of what the mind labels as bad is often revealed much later in hindsight.   

It is very much in this sense that Krishnamurti said "The difference between you and me is that I don't care what happens."  As Eckhart says, he is totally aligned with life and with what is unfolding in the present moment. He is fully surrendered to God and to Life's unfolding.  

In this state of consciousness, paradoxically, the choices that get made and actions that get taken in order to deal with life's challenges are so much more inspired and intelligent.  You have access to universal intelligence. In a sense, God is choosing and acting through you. 

In an even deeper sense, there is no you.  Only God experiencing being you and everyone else. In this sense, the life of Yogi really is like a movie and Yogi exists as a character in it. And who would want to experience a movie where nothing ever seems to go wrong?  It would be dull and there would be no character development or profundity. The "movie of life", I believe, is all about the experience of limitation and the experience of transcending that limitation in order to increasingly discover our true limitless nature.

I so loved our discussion yesterday and the brilliant quotes you shared.  It brought a beautiful sense of clarity.

G

Non fiction books read (2021)

Consciousness

•  The Flip: Who You Really Are and Why It Matters  Jeffrey J. Kripal

Idealism

• Rationalist Spirituality: An exploration of the meaning of life and existence informed by logic and science  (Bernardo Kastrup)
• Why Materialism is Baloney (Bernardo Kastrup)
• More than Allegory (Bernardo Kastrup)

 

World as Simulation

• The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics All Agree We Are In a Video Game (Rizwan Virk)

The illusion of the separate self (ego)

• No Self, no Problem (Chris Niebauer)
• The Self Illusion (Bruce Hood)

Advaita Vedanta

• The Greatest Secret: (Rhonda Byrne)

Death and Near Death Experiences

• The Top Ten Things Dead People Want to Tell YOU (Mike Dooley)
• 500 Quotes From Heaven: Life-Changing Quotes That Reveal The Wisdom & Power Of Near-Death Experiences (David Sunfellow)
• The Purpose of Life as Revealed by Near-Death Experiences from Around the World (David Sunfellow)

God

• Mind, World, God: Science and Spirit in the 21st Century (Tam Hunt)

Priceless moments (2020)

Hiking

• Swim at Empress Falls with Gavin and Srini - then lose and find keys
• Walk down to Colo River
• Plenty of fun with the boys

Connect

• Friendship with Shushann and her affirmation

Wisdom Trove

• Get Formidable Forms working

Movies

Spiritual moments (2020)

Gratitude

• Gratitude practice every morning.

Love

• Feeling love at the Deva Premal concert in Mullumbimby.

Elevated and renewed

• After blessings at the Blessing Group I go to with Christina, I feel renewed and blissful.

A realisation with Marion

• There is no such things as the absence of God. Ever.

Release

• I feel a great release after saying "I’m so sorry. Please forgive me." I do this after collecting quotes for for "God as merciful judge", part of my "Metaphors for God" collection.

Meditation

• Sitting and Being at my desk.

Non fiction books read (2020)

Evidence for God

• How To Know God Exists (Ray Comfort)
• How Science Reveals God: What Every Thinking Person Must Know (Stephen Martin)
• The Experience of God (David Bentley Hart)

Spiritual narratives

• Rethinking Our Story: Can We Be Christian in the Quantum Era?  (Doug Hammack)

God and Science

• Soul Search, A Scientist Explores the Afterlife (David Darling)

Metaphors for God

• God Reflected: Metaphors for God (Flora A. Keshgegian)
• God the What: What our Metaphors for God Reveal About Our Beliefs in God (Carolyn Jane Bohler)
• Wearing God (Lauren F. Winner)

The power of awareness

Hi there Aimee

I had this thought and wanted to share it with you...

If you were God, you could go to anyone, spiritual or not spiritual, and offer them the entire world and all they could ever dream of (all the money, fame, love, intelligence, talent, good looks, experiences, special powers and indescribable pleasures imaginable).  In exchange for this, all they need to sacrifice is their conscious awareness.  No-one in their right mind would make the exchange!  Without the light of awareness, these things would go on in the dark, unknown and in-experiencable and therefore, meaningless.  That’s how precious awareness is!!

In my circumstances, if God were to come to me and offer me 100 million dollars and in exchange for it, all I need to sacrifice is my ability to be aware of being aware while thoughts arise. In other words, I'd go back to and stay in the state I was in 7 years ago of being totally identified with my thoughts and mind.  I'd say "thank you, God, but no, I'll stick with my awareness."  That's how sacred awareness is to me: the ability to rest in it and know myself as it.

So it has just struck me how precious awareness is. And we can rest in it knowingly (bask in it, Be it) whenever we want.  It's effortless and free and our innermost essence.  Wow, what a priceless gift!!!!

Graeme

---

Wow... that is so beautifully put. I really had to take a few moments to sit in the Awareness-I-AM and feel the preciousness of that.
And you are so right, AWARENESS is the treasure, the gift, the jewel, the diamond...
What ELSE could possibly be? I am laughing even thinking about the concept that anything could be more precious than the conscious Awareness-Infinite Mind-we are.
But we think fame, money, beauty etc etc etc is the PRIZE for Awareness - Never!
This Awareness is unpossessed and that's what makes it so incredible... no amount of external pleasure can make you feel more Aware...
How blessed are we, Graeme? Truly, we have found the most prized jewel that is free for all.. paradoxical yes...but also simply the Truth.
AND YET we also get to experience being this unique individual called Graeme and Aimee.. what a Wonder of Wonder ! ! !
Aimee x o x

Insights (2019)

• The importance and power of balance and variety.
• Power of being real, not perfect.
• Thank you life, for awareness, surrender and spaciousness.
• Wisdom Trove, Compass and Life Trove are expressions of the same thing: Guiding wisdom and appplication (Compass) and the sharing of the wisdom, applied to my life (Life Trove,)  Also about truth and inspiration to see sacredness of world and embrace life.
• My life is a laboratory for experimenting with the wisdom from Wisdom Trove.
• Wisdom Trove is a form of content curation: Selective wisdom, specific theme (Wisdom on the art of living) and a specific point of view.