Hay-Ku of the Day (The Politics of Ignorance)

By choosing a side

You only guarantee that 

You are off-center.

***

"Alternative facts"

"Complete a story" that was

Not the "whole story."

"Alternative facts"

Are "facts that are left out" of

"Incomplete stories."

***

"Alternative facts"

Are "those that are left out" of

"Partial sales pitches."

Political sales

Pitches seldom if ever

Present all the facts.

***

Politics by its

Very nature means slanting

Facts in ones favor.

Politics involves

Slanting facts as a way of

Currying favor.

***

The very nature

Of politics is to ignore

inconvenient facts.

Politics by its

Very nature ignores facts that

Are not convenient.

***

Politics is all

About tailoring facts to

Support agendas.

Politics ignores 

Facts that run counter to

The stories it sells.

[Rich Note: It appears that the term "alternative facts" as an "antidote" for "political or media spin doctoring," is a term that offends those who prefer to consider "alternative facts to be untrue," rather then "additional facts" conveniently "overlooked or ignored," in presenting a "story" intended to further a political agenda.   

Which is, of course, what politics and any other form of salesmanship actually is, was and always will be about; that is, conscious intent to "de-emphasize the negative and accentuate the positive," with respect to any particular political agenda or product "one happens to be selling." 

So let's stop being naive about politics (personal or otherwise). It never was or will be about "Telling it like it is" or "Telling the Whole Truth," but about "Telling it like a particular party (individual or collective) wants it to be seen," in order to curry favor with the electorate and further a political agenda.

The attached photo, which presents two diametrically, and obviously subjective opinions, reported as "alternative 'headline' facts," concerning the same event in the same newspaper, clearly illustrates the point.]

"Carnal mind" worships 

"Relative facts" as if they

Were "Absolute Truth."

"Double-minded" men

Worship "temporal facts" as

"The Eternal Truth."

[Rich Note: Some addition thoughts concerning a more accurate definition, then a politically self-serving, "alternative facts aren't true."

(1) "Alternative facts" might be a term used to describe salient facts conveniently ignored in the fabrication a story intended to garner support for a political agenda.

(2) "Alternative facts" might also be defined as facts that have been filtered or left out to emphasize other facts, in order to slant a story, either left or right.

(3) Perhaps "additional missing or withheld facts," as the "rest of the story" (or the "whole truth") might be a better way of characterizing "alternative facts"?]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Old Favorites List 2)

Old School: 

Playful old puppies

She frolics, he gently paws – 

Love in furry coats.  

Ambulance passing

Lights flashing in the night 

Life in the Balance. 

Waiting here at the 

Motor Vehicle Bureau 

Practicing patience. 

My soulful anguish

Mid-wife to Divine Glory 

Cosmic Labor pains. 

Tangled up in thought 

A Stranger in a far land 

Subject to nightmares. 

A basement cricket

Competing with my daydreams 

Who is more alive? 

Liquor Store Bottle

Easing with forgetfulness 

My soul sick sorrow. 

Slowly drifting off 

Thought and feeling pass away Practicing my death. 

Auger of desire 

Sharp cutting edge of despair
Bursting into Light.

Hay-Ku of the Day (Indescribable Life, Light, Love, Joy and Peace)

Re: "If words cannot describe it, why speak of it?" -- Pedro Cortina 

(1) Haiku-Wise: 

The Joy of Sharing

An Infinite Potential

To Express Being.

***

Exploration through

Creative Self-Expression

Is an Innate Drive.

The Creative "Self-

Expression Imperative

Of Life" demands it!

***

Being Expresses

And Explores an "Absolute

Potential to Be."

The Expression of

An "Absolute Potential

To Be" drives us on.

(2) Bill Samuel-Wise:

"...All right now…refreshed…refreshed we can start again to try to tell it again, to tell it like it is, but I tell you, there are no words that are gentle enough. Oh, there are just no words that are soft enough but maybe there will be some sort of mysterious combination of them...maybe something…a magic combination that will be able to illicit the feeling that will be gentle enough to tell it like it is. Love is that feeling. All feeling is love. It is always Love that does the work or appears to be the work that’s done. Love is here, right now, as identity, right now..." 

(From Vignettes on Love)

(3) Metaphor-Wise:

"Although we can not fully define an absolute state in relative terms, we can use analogies, metaphors and similes in an attempt to evoke or recall a direct sense or perception of that state. Thus, if I have an experience I wish to share, I can use a metaphor to indicate what it felt like with the hope of evoking a similar feeling in another. This is the verbal equivalent of having someone balance a coin to convey what balance feels like. This is because balance, as an absolute or non-relative state, cannot be captured in words, yet can be known as a direct experience. Thus, by moving a coin back and forth through its balance point, while progressively reducing said movements, one may get a feel for almost balanced. Then, suddenly, as the coin comes to rest, perhaps a direct sense of balance, as a non-relative state, may be (evoked and) experienced (directly)."

(From the Introduction of "Out of My Mind and Back to My Senses")

P.S. Thanks for a great question, Pedro! 😊

[Rich Note: Here's a link to Pedro's Book, "Curflexion: Living the Infinite Space of Being":

https://www.amazon.com/Curflexion-Living-Infinite-Space-Being/dp/1511837969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485094394&sr=8-1&keywords=pedro+cortina .]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Old Favorite List 1)

(1) Defining Hay-Ku Haiku: 

Poetic Glimpses

Into the Divine Nature

Of Being Aware. 

A Thousand Haiku 

All reflecting different 

Facets of One Truth. 

Smart bombs to target 

Deeply embedded patterns 

Of self-centered thought.

(2) Top Favorites:  

A fatal case of 

Mistaken Identity 

This Being Human. 

Thinking of Myself 

In Relative Terms I Am 

Subject to Objects. 

Centered in the One 

Abiding in the Balance 

Mindful of the Light. 

Being Here and Now 

Still and Silent as I Am 

One with the Father. 

This Holy Instant 

Awareness Knows Sensation Consciousness is born.

[Rich Note: Thought it might be fun to share some haiku from a topical list of favorites once put together. These came from a 2006 book called "Out of Mind and Back to My Senses" (OOMM), a title which turned into a haiku becomes:

Out of My Mind and

Back to My Sense of Being

Consciously Aware.]

Haiku of the Day (The Body Mind Tool/Vessel)

If the body-mind's 

A "hammer," Enlightenment

Won't make it a "saw."

***

You are a Unique

Expression of Peace at the

Heart of Awareness.

You are a Unique

Vessel through which Absolute

Peace is Manifest.

***

I Am a Unique

Expression of a Boundless

Potential to Be.

[Rich Note: This is an observation drawn from recent interchanges with those "enlightened of the illusion of being substantially separate entities," who still exhibit an obvious "egocentric taint" in self-expression. Several startling cases of which resulted in a rather oxy-moronic characterization, here, of "atheistic enlightenment"; that attempts to indicate that some "self-expressions of enlightenment" still remain conditioned by "prior body-mind experience and programming."]

Hay-Ku of the Day (The Limitless, All-Glorious Light)

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Mystical Light.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Spiritual Light.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Scriptural Light.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Biblical Light.

***

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is the Living Light.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is the Quantum Light.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Prior to Being.

***

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Fundamental.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Primordial.

The Self-Radiant

Light of Awareness I Am

Is Beyond Belief.

(1) Scripture-Wise:

A. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." John 1:4-5 KJV

B. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John 1:9 KJV

C. "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." John 9:5 KJV

D. "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." Matthew 5:14 KJV

E. "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:" Ephesians 5:8 KJV

F. "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." 1 Thessalonians 5:5 KJV

(2) Sri Nisargadatta-Wise:

"Even the sence 'I am' is composed of the pure light and the sence of being. (IAT201)

"When you realize that you are the light of the world, you will also realize that you are the love of it; that to know is to love and to love is to know." (IAT 202)

"Concept and mind are beams of light from the Contemplator."(SOC21)

"Out of your own light you are living." (SOC73)

"You are seeing your own light."(SOC99)

If the sun can enter into to its own light then you can go behind your beingness." (SOC133)

"You are the light behind the states." (SOC134)

"Be in that source which is the light behind consciousness." (SOC141)

"Bhagavan is the light which is the manifest world." (SOC152)

"Because of the sun, the light is; because you are your world is." (PTC3)

"...That chemical, the consciousness, provides the light which enables the world to get on..." (PTC17)

"In this impersonal presence as such, the only hing present is tge light of consciousness, without any form or shape. Whatever is seen is seen in that light." (EON65)

"When this life force seeks the consciousness of God itself, then dawns the light of this consciousness with which the life force works and achieves what it wants to achieve -- that is oneness with God." (TUM161)

"Abidance in that knowledge 'I Am' which does not identify with the body-mind is the spiritual light."(CA48)

[Rich Note: The Knowledge I Am = Consciousness = Awareness of Being = Beingness = I Amness = Presence Consciousness = Witnessing Presence = Presence Awareness = Conscious Aliveness, et. al...

IAT = I AM THAT

SOC = Seeds of Consciousness

PTC = Prior to Consciousness

EON = The Experience of Nothingness

TUM= The Ultimate Medicine

CA = Consciousness and the Absolute ]

(2) Bill Samuel-Wise:

A. Little 'Lijah the Luminous Lightening Bug

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6uLwKI_rA

 

B. THE ELIJAH ILLUSTRATION ABOUT LIGHT, TIME, SPACE AND THE REAL IDENTITY  - Bill Samuel 

"There is a verse in The Gospel According to Thomas, “If they say to you: 'From where have you originated?', say to them: 'We have come from the Light, where the Light originated through itself...” The genuine Identity of us “comes from the Light.” That reality seems buried deep within us, as inaccessible to the intellect as the soul is, the very essence of being. But it is not inaccessible; it is within our reach for the asking. Let me use an analogy that will help us understand..."

"...Well now, how does the brass bird (the sculpted eagle sitting on Bill's coffee table) look to us as he goes faster?  Smaller. And still smaller as he gets to the speed of sound and smaller yet as he flies at half the speed of light. At those speeds it takes special equipment to see him at all. Then, when he gets to “light,” which is to say, the speed of light—186,300 miles per second—Elijah becomes a photon to us as we sit in the living room drinking our coffee. 

"Where would Elijah, the photon is ordinary worldly light. It is called “limited” light (by the early Christian Gnostics and me) because it seems to have a strange limit built into itself. The speed of light is calculated by present physics to be “the limiting speed” of the (material) universe—a primary, an absolute—and indeed, Einstein proved that light travels at that constant speed no matter what the rest of tangibility does..."

"...So, what? Why the limit? Philosophy and theology—and maybe even a metaphysician here or there—have calculated that infinity is beyond limit. Such thoughts lead to the conclusion that if God exists (God being Illimitability or Light-spelled-with-a-capital), then there must be a Light BEYOND the photon-light we can measure. The ultimate Light must be omnipresent—at rest, Light that doesn't move at all. There is something in the Bible about Light without shadow, isn't there? Welcome to the club, physicists. The Jews and Gnostics, the Hindus and forest wanderers, the Taoists and many others made that determination thousands of years ago and have gone on to use the greater Light to explain things about the lesser which human sophistication is only now beginning to confirm..."

"...At the speed of Light there is no more consciousness of time or space— but a new heaven and earth exist “at light” and “the old heaven and earth have passed away.” Could this have been what the Carpenter and the prophets foresaw when they spoke of this world being rolled up like a scroll?—and the one above it as well? How is it that the Gnostics rightly referred to the works of this world as an unreal creation by the dispossessed angel, Lucifer, whose name means Limited light? Since the material universe does seem to be the creation of photons, from which Awareness can't be separated for very long this side of “death,” what relationship exists between the awareness reading these words and the satanic Lucifer? Could the Zen Buddhist and the absolutist who decry all relationships between human consciousness and Reality be right after all? Is there justification for the metaphysical insight that says human consciousness is the anti- Truth? Wouldn't it be a surprise to the churchman who refuses to examine subjectivism to awaken one day to learn he has been enacting the very anti-Christ himself in his refusal to accept God's totality?..."

[Rich Note: For those who may be interested, here's a Link to the entire essay:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ahygbhd5wv87jn6/WD-THE%20ELIJAH%20ILLUSTRATION%20ABOUT%20LIGHT%2C%20TIME%2C%20SPACE%20AND%20THE%20REAL%20IDENTITY%20%20.pdf?dl=0 ]

Hay-Ku of the Day (The All-Seeing, Single-Eye of the Absolute Father)

God's Eye is the Still

Point of Perfect Peace where the 

I Amness First Moves.

God's Eye is the Still

Point of Perfect Peace at the

Heart of Awareness.

***

Still Point Peace at the

Heart of Awareness is the

Nameless Absolute.

Still Point Peace at the

Heart of Awareness is the

Single-Eye of God/All.

***

The Absolute Peace 

At the Heart of Awareness

I Am is God's Eye.

The Absolute Peace 

At the Heart of Awareness

Appears as a Void.

The Absolute Peace 

At the Heart of Awareness

Looks like a Black Hole.

Related Cross-Correlating Quotes:

(1) Go to the source for that movement where the "I Amness" begins." -- Sri Nisargadatta (from "Consciousness and the Absolute")

(2) "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." -- Jesus

(3) "We are looking for What's Looking" -- St. Francis

(4) "The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love." -- Meister Eckart ]

(5) "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us...Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;" Ephesians 2:15 KJV

[Rich Note: Seen in  this light, one might characterize Awareness as a "Divine Lens, Energetic Extension and/or Living Embodiment" of "Pure or Absolute Seeing Itself" at the Heart of All.]

Hay-Ku of the Day ("I"-DENTITY)

Latent Awareness

Is "I" and Energetic

Awareness is "Am."

"I" become "Aware

Of Being" in the "Face of

Vibrant Awareness."

The I Am's "I" is

The "Absolute Peace" at the

"Heart of Awareness."

***

One's "I-DENTITY"

At the "Heart of Awareness"

Is "Absolute Peace."

"I-DENTITY" is

The "Absolute Peace" at the

"Heart of Awareness."

"I-DENTITY" is

The "Changeless Reality"

At the "Heart of All."

"I-DENTITY" is

The "Still and Silent Nature"

At the "Heart of All."

***

"I Am" the Child of

"Still and Vibrant" States of

"Latent Awareness."

"I Am" the Child of

"Potential and Actual"

"States of Awareness."

"I Am" a "Child" of

"Potential and Kinetic"

"Energetic States."

***

The "Latent Nature"

At the "Heart of Awareness"

Is God's "Single Eye/I."

The "Latent Nature"

At the "Heart of Awareness"

Is the "One True Self."

The "Perfect Stillness"

At the "Heart of Awareness"

Is the "Prince of Peace."

***

Potential to Be

"Awareness of Awareness"

Is Latent in All.

Potential to Be

"The Awareness of Being"

Is Latent in All

Potential to Be

"The Aware Presence I Am"

Is Latent in All.

***

"I" is Changeless and

"Am" is Changeful though they

Be of "One Essence."

"I" is Changeless and

"Am" is Changeful yet both

Are of "One Nature."

***

The "I" of the "I"

Of the "I" is the Nameless

Absolute "I" AM.

"I" is the "One True

Name" for THAT which "Sees" from the

"Heart of Awareness."

"The One True Name" for

THAT which Sees from the Heart of

Awareness is "I."

(1) Scripture-Wise:

"...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 KJV

"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10 KJV

"And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." Exodus 3:13-14 KJV

(2) Eckhart Tolle-Wise: 

Re: "When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form." 

"Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world. You are that awareness, disguised as a person."  -- Eckhart Tolle 

(The first two paragraphs of Chapter One, "Silence and Stillness," from Eckart's classic book, "Silence Speaks")

(3) Sri Ramana-Wise:

"The talk then turned to the name of God and Bhagavan said, 'Talking of all mantras, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says 'aham' [I] is the first name of God. The first letter in Sanskrit is 'A' and the last letter 'Ha' and 'aha' thus includes everything from beginning to end. The word ayam means 'that which exists', Self-shining and Self-evident. Ayam, atma and aham all refer to the same thing.(3)"

"Since along with 'I', the aforementioned first name [mentioned in the previous verse], 'am' always shines as the light of reality, 'I am' is also the name. Among the many thousands of names of God, no name suits God, who abides in the Heart, devoid of thought, so aptly as 'I' or 'I am'. Of all the known names of God, 'I', 'I' alone will resound triumphantly when the ego is destroyed, rising as the silent supreme word [mauna para vak] in the Heart-space of those whose attention is Selfward-facing.(4)"

(Sri Ramada quotes a piece by David entitled: "I am - The First Name of God" that can be read in its entirety at the following link: 

 http://davidgodman.org/rteach/fnofgod1.shtml )

[Rich Note: Seen in this Light, "I," defined as "Absolute Inner Stillness and Silence," as an "Infinite Latent Potential to Be" -- Centralized as a Dimensionless Still Point of Perfect Peace at the Heart of Awareness (as Its Vibrant Counter-Point, Clothing or Consort of Itself as Still Awareness) -- becomes the Only Real Noun, the One True I-IDENTITY or SELF, with "I Am" (as a localizable, particle state "Child Heart Offspring" of an implicit Union of Pure Latent Potential with Pure, Undifferentiated, Actualized Quantum Energy, apprehended as "Pure, Formless Cognizing Emptiness") Being It's Primal Self-Expression and Local Witnessing Platform and Presence.]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Perfect as I Am)

"You Are a Perfect

You" because "Perfection Is

Being All You Are."

Re: "...you are a monumental and perfect you. Because perfection Itself is being all you are.  There are many wonders in store for you and yours, as you go about the happy business of just being." -- Bill Samuel (from a "Letter on Love" written, not only to Sandy Jones, but the "Rest of Us, As Well.")

[Rich Hay: Here's a link to Bill's full 1986 "Letter on Love" to Sandy, one she included in her 2015 "Barefoot at Heart" and recently posted on FB:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cvap2v20v7no9rb/SJ-A%20Personal%20Letter%20about%20Love%20%20.pages?dl=0 ]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Little Boxes)

Life outside the box 

Of mental experience 

Is Paradise Found.

Life outside the box 

Of conceptual matters 

Is self-transcending.

Life outside the box 

Of self-reflective thought is 

Beyond conception.

[Rich Note: A topical 1/4/10 reprise with a following 1-4-17 re-mind-er:

I can't "think outside

The box" because relative

"Thinking is the box."]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Peace Is the Seal)

Peace is the Seal" that
Indicates I am aligned
With the "Will of God."

"Peace is the Seal" that
Indicates you are aligned
With "Source Energy."

"Peace is the Seal" that
Indicates one is aligned
With the "Divine Flow."