Desire as a circus act

Cathy said: "I am so terribly disappointed in you".
While Pete had no idea what his girlfriend was talking about.

It is not easy to have a decent and constructive conversation clearing skies between partners in life when one of the two is occupied with feelings of strong disappointment in the other.
Hence, Cathy and Pete crashed into a bad relationship brawl.

What was the matter then between Cathy and Peter?
They were together for four years.
And Cathy had expected that Pete would invite her on the evening of the day of celebration to a nice restaurant and she expected him to ask her to marry him.

For Pete it was different.
He didn't even remember the exact day when he started dating Cathy.
And thoughts to marry her were less on his mind than the hard time he was having in keeping his job.

In general, each person has certain desires.
Possibly expressed in expectations.

Cathy was desiring to have a romantic dinner with a marriage proposal coming out of the vortex.
That desire she transformed into an expectation projected on Pete.

Of course Pete is a man that is not fully into his relationship with Cathy.
If it is serious, a man should remember certain vital dates related to the partner and the relationship.
Invite the lady for romantic dinners and bring her flowers once in a while.
To make work not more important if it is the woman of the dreams.

But Cathy too has some work to do.
A desire is a personal thing and it is very inappropriate and destructive to transform desires into expectations to be fulfilled by others.
That is asking for trouble.
Dumping tons of disappointment into the own heart.

A desire can be seen as something that comes up in the heart.
It can grow to large proportions but the trick is to remain the observer.
Not to have the desire encapsulate life and become the commander.
Once the desire is in control, bridges are made with other people who are expected to satisfy the desire.
In most cases that doesn't work resulting in deep disappointment and often a ruined relationship.
But the Cathy's among us who can observe neutrally a desire develop by circling around the phenomenon free as a bird, do not need to get others involved.
The desire grows and grows and the most fantastic thing is that by remaining an observer and avoiding being overwhelmed and taken over by the desire, it eventually starts to lose momentum.
Like threatening clouds building up in the sky, inspiring to quickly find an umbrella, the wind blows the clouds away to see a blue sky again.
Remaining the observer is like the own desire performing on a stage in a theater.
The show starts, it is performed and it ends.
Or see it as a balloon.
It swells and gets a round proportion until the air comes out again and the balloon shrivels to nothingness.

Cathy would have made her life much more easy if she had been able to be aware of her desire as an observer.
And her relationship with Pete would not have been damaged needing serious repair after the projection of her expectations on him.
If they are to marry, no desires are needed.
It will happen one day when time has come.

Some weeks ago, because of a new contact, suddenly tremendous desire arose at El Triple.
Fortunately, at this location, life is very meditative.
Relaxed, calm and peaceful.
A perfect situation to avoid to become driven by sudden strong emotions.
To loose one's head and start projecting expectations.
Trying to force the other person to satisfy the desire.

The desire did not manage to come inside and take over but is observed hovering like a hurricane above the Pacific Ocean.
Losing power, influence and impact.

The contact with the person in question continues though.
Without disappointment.



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How to remain friends

Naturally there is a huge difference between the reality of life on a Mexican Rancho and the reality of life of a pioneering photographer.
Different cultures, different objectives and different traditions.

However, there is nevertheless a harmonious symbiosis working well due to mutual respect.
And by limiting the knowledge about the other party’s reality.
The Gonzalez do not know all the ins and outs of the practice of the photographer.
And the photographer doesn’t know too much what is going on in the family and on the rancho.

There are very few questions asked because the mode is to politely wait until the moment someone involved in the friendship feels it is appropriate and relevant to tell something.

This may sound like a superficial relationship.
While it is definitely not.
To the contrary.
Because most of the daily anecdotic stuff is not the subject of the communication, the sharing is of only essential words and feelings.

One thing the Gonzalez family did not have to inform about was their sudden passion for roosters.
Over the last two months cages were put near the house of the rancho.
In those cages roosters are housed.
By now there about thirty.


The Fuso Szulc is about 500 metres away from the rancho but every morning the roosters can be heard at daybreak.
A tremendous concert of thirty roosters trying to outperform one another by crowing as loud as possible.
And the Gonzalez do not seem to bother much about this rather overpowering way of the cocks waking up people.



There is a reason why they keep roosters these days.
They are used for cockfights, the new hobby of the young Ismaël Gonzalez and his oldest brother Juan-Manuel.
During the weekend they go with some of their roosters to villages and towns in the area where cock fights are organized.
If one of their roosters wins a fight, the brothers can earn as much as 30.000 Mexican Pesos ($ 2.060 or € 1.600).
A lot of money in a country where a construction worker makes daily 300 Mexican Pesos ($ 20 or € 16).

For the rooster it is a different thing.
The fights are about life and death.
If the roosters looses, it is because he died in the fight.
And the rooster that wins is probably so wounded it is also going into the soup pot.

In the USA and Europe cockfights are illegal.
Because it is considered a heinous blood sport due to the physical, always-mortal trauma the cocks inflict on each other.

Meanwhile, nearby the thirty roosters waiting for their life-ending fight lives the photographer that loves and respects animals.
Who is even a member of a political party in the Netherlands defending animal rights in Parliament.
Who is more concerned about the well being of animals than about the well being of the NATO-troops in Afghanistan.

The only way to live with this situation of 30 roosters at the rancho is not to have an opinion about these activities of the Gonzales boys.

Jiddu Krishnamurti explained that man has built in himself images as a sense of security—religious, political, personal.
These manifest as symbols, ideas and beliefs.
The burden of these dominates man's thinking, relationships and his daily life.
These are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man in every relationship.

So, the pioneering photographer observes the roosters without having a condemning opinion.
What Krishnamurti calls the “ choiceless awareness”.
And is therefore still friends with the Gonzalez.




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A virtual wetsuit

The virtual wet suit.
This is what is needed every morning when swimming in the Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico.
The temperature of the water has been going down too much.

What the hell is a virtual wet suit?
So often this blog reports about things hardly anybody knows about.
Because it is coming from a fantasy or is simply exclusive information.
A normal person gets lost often here.

Maybe fervent and loyal blog readers know what is a fakir?
This is a person from India who has managed to have the mind control the body.
We all know the fakir who dresses in a loincloth only and lies down on a bed that consists of large nails.
With the sharp points upwards.
But the fakir lies down anyway and the nails do not get into his body.
Or a fakir is able to walk through a fire.
Or is able to survive exposure to a long period of cold.
The fakir is able to perform these feats because he is able to concentrate.
A concentration on an ultimate high level so that his mind gets control over his body.

What are we supposed to do with these anecdotes from the circus?
What has a fakir to do with a swim in the sea?

Another way of having mind control the body is the dealing with pain.
If for example extreme pain is suffered in the hand, the mind can imagine it is making a barrier at the wrist not letting any pain through.
Because the pain is in the hand and cannot be guided to the brains, as it is blocked where is the wrist, the person with this mind power, will not feel pain.

If this is true, why don’t you try this yourself?
Cut your hand, imagine a wall in your wrist and see how much pain you feel!
Nice story but seeing is believing…

The situation here at Punta Boca del Salado is that the Sea of Cortez has been cooling off considerately.
Nevertheless, each morning a long swim is made.
A normal person would not do this.
It is too cold.
Hence, the only way to perform the exercise is to be like a fakir.
To control the body with the mind.
The system of autosuggestion is used.
The mind is forced to think constantly: “Gee, what a warm morning today!”
The moment the water is entered the only thought allowed is:
“Amazing how warm the water is!”
While swimming and the body cooling off more and more, the thought is forced:
“Puff, it feels like Summer time here”.

And this strategy of autosuggestion works.
The swim is made and not one moment is there any suffering while in the cold water.
The mind is covering the body with a virtual wet suit.

Oh, thàt is a virtual wet suit.
Now it is to understand.
How about a virtual mini-skirt?







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Black pebbles and nonsense.

The fervent and loyal blog readers who have ordered and received the book “The PS series” have been reading in the foreword about the issue of awareness.

How awareness is not a constant thing.
It has a level and this can go up or can go down.
The level going up is decided in the first place by openness.
A person must have an open mind to make the level of awareness go up.
A person sank in doctrines stagnates awareness as long the fixed way of thinking cannot be left behind.

Secondly, there must be a peace of mind to truly be able to digest, understand and feel what is be aware of.
The mind must have calmed down.
The spinning of thoughts must have come to a halt.

Recently there were two experiences concerning awareness.

Gumaro is building a small house on his property.
The idea was born to have the sand path in front of the new building covered with cement.


The suggestion was made to put small pebbles in the cement saying:

FAMILIA
G M

The G and M standing for the initials of the family names of Gonzales and Montaño.
The plan is to use white pebbles and there happen to be a bunch of them left from a former project.
Yesterday, Luis, the labourer, came to say that it would be nice to mix white with black pebbles.
Great idea!
But Ketcha said there were no black pebbles and stones at Punta Boca del Salado.
They can be found at Cabo Pulmo, 40 kilometres away but not here.
Somehow she knew.

Her statement was rather unbelievable.
Punta Boca del Salado has been visited since 1979 and never it was realized there were no black stones.
Immediately a walk was made in the dry riverbed and to the beach to look for black pebbles and stones.
There were none.
All stones and pebbles are grey or reddish.
This must have a geological explanation but harder to explain is that this fact has never been entering the awareness.
The absence of black stones has never been noticed.
What else is there at Punta Boca del Salado what has not been seen or understood?

The other experience concerning awareness happened last week.
There was a dinner with two American friends.
In the beautiful house of one of them.
There was fresh tuna, rice and beans.
Of course the conversation was partly about politics.
Friend F. was the most outspoken and expressive about his opinions.
And was in opposition to the two others on almost every issue.
For example, according to friend F. there is no climate crises.
Al Gore is an idiot.
Nor is there a danger we will run out of fossil fuels.
Friend F. is saying that the oil reserves under our soil are replenishing themselves naturally.
We can pump up as much oil as we want and never will run out.

F.’s friends were rather flabbergasted by these statements.
And asked where F. was getting his information from.
Then it became clear why F. was making his peculiar statements.
His awareness had only been filled with magazines and radio shows ventilating these absurd points of view.

Awareness needs openness.
But next, one must be wise and selective about what is allowed to pass the doors of perception.
No to conservative, right wing nonsense.
Yes to black pebbles.

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To learn more about the book "The PS-series", click on:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/301597






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