Meditations
 Meditations
Experience Prevents Experiencing
Martin LeFevre: The discontinuity of thought is the door to eternity. ... We only know the continuity of thought, as the illusorily permanent self; as becoming; and as psychological time in the form of "later," or "gradually." ... When thought yields to undirected attention gathered through passive observation however, the mind falls silent, and the continuity of psychological thought ends. Thought becomes what it actually is---a functional instrument, rather than the false ground of our being. ... When thought and self no longer filter experience, one begins directly experiencing beauty and sacredness that permeate nature and the universe. ...
Apr 7, 2020, 3:16pm
Meditations
Can a New Culture Be Created?
Martin LeFevre: As bad as this pandemic is, it's also a tremendous opportunity to re-examine and reset our relationship with nature with respect to the climate crisis and the Sixth Extinction, before the rapacious global economy starts up again. Most people are waiting for it to be over, but waiting is death. ... Four things are clear. First, a psychological revolution is essential to awaken human consciousness and change the disastrous course of humankind. ... Second, a revolution in consciousness is not a collective movement, but a creative explosion igniting in a sufficient number of undivided human beings...
Apr 4, 2020, 5:09pm
Meditations
Solitude Is Not Isolation and Loneliness
Martin LeFevre: America, the epitome of the failure of reason as an ideal, is a wasteland. It was a wasteland for over a generation before the pandemic revealed its underlying reality by turning everything upside down. ... Just as we make a distinction between unhealthy guilt and a healthy conscience, we need to make a distinction between shame and repentance. Jesus taught repentance, not guilt, because repentance, like conscience, flows from a deeper emotional and spiritual source than reason. ... Repentance is, at bottom, a form of "truth and reconciliation." ... Solitude through "social distancing is compelling us to stop escaping through meaningless sociality and busyness, through all the innumerable ways of avoiding ourselves, and simply look at and remain with what is within and around us. ...
Apr 1, 2020, 1:50pm
Meditations
Sickness, Mortality, and Dying Without Death
Martin LeFevre: An hour of passive observation gathers sufficient attention to end all thinking. ... When life and death are emotionally experienced as a single movement, one sees the true meaning of freedom. Psychological thought is time; psychological time is memory; and psychological memory is suffering. Freedom is the ending of time and suffering, which allows death to draw near without fear. ... Experiencing death as part of life, on the other hand, flows from a deep intent to understand life, which, one discovers, is inseparable from death. That isn't just a philosophical truth; it's an emotional fact, and experiencing death as inseparable from life is tremendously liberating...
Mar 29, 2020, 5:18pm
Meditations
Apocalypse Means Destruction of the Ruling Powers of Evil
Martin LeFevre: Being a pessimist by nature and experience, I tend to see dark linings in silver clouds. But is there ia real chance to change course now, if those who remain healthy can be true and look beyond the immediate crisis? ... Each day, as the pandemic deepens and widens, I've been grappling with the question of whether to keep going with the work in the midst of its predictive realization. ... What I mean by the work is bringing about the transmutation of our species, always beginning with and within oneself, to change the basic, disastrous course of humankind. It is, in other words, the messy ditchwork of radical change...
Mar 26, 2020, 5:12pm
Meditations
Regarding Mass and Masses
Martin LeFevre: This is the last chance for humankind to change course in our age. The question is, will human consciousness have a radical reset, or will people return to business as usual when the pandemic is over? ... The human madness that has been underneath, that's been covered over by meaningless busyness and noise, has been brought forth into the open, into the light of day. ... Most people deny that there's something metaphysical at work, and are reverting to form. Two New York Times pieces in the same day represent two sides of the same debased coin-- "Where Is God In a Pandemic?" written by a Jesuit priest, and "Chin Up, Extroverts, We Will Crowd Again!" written by a post-grad party girl...
Mar 24, 2020, 5:05pm
Meditations
Alone Can Mean All One
Martin LeFevre: The canyon was so unexpectedly beautiful that I literally felt a little disoriented climbing the trail to my usual meditation spot overlooking the gorge. ... As reported in the national news, "On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California commanded the people of his state to stay home. That's roughly 40 million people. ... I've never seen as many people in Upper Park however. It's the jewel of Chico, which stretches for about 8 miles into the canyon just beyond town. ... Group meditation is an oxymoron. The origin of separation and alienation is the primal habit of the observer. To end the observer, one has to intently watch the stream of thought/emotion alone in the mirror of nature, allowing awareness to grow quicker than thought...
Mar 22, 2020, 4:01pm
Meditations
Leaving the Grand Chasm Within
Martin LeFevre : I have a theory. I think that subconsciously, Americans know we lost the Cold War as surely as the Russians did, and connect it, as some primal, scatological level with toilet paper. Now that the poop has hit the proverbial fan, we need lots and lots of the TP to clean up. ... Seriously however, the issue confronting serious people everywhere, whether in America, the Philippines, or Tanzania, is how to keep one's heart alive if it's been alive, and how to rekindle the flame if one has adapted to the deadness of America and the West by becoming numb. ... People in freer countries need to reflect on what kind of culture and country we want to have afterward...
Mar 19, 2020, 5:10pm
Meditations
Is God Enforcing Non-Busyness at Humankind's Darkest Hour?
Martin LeFevre: Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, it may be, as Joe Biden said during the recent debate with Bernie Sanders, "People are looking for results, not a revolution." But without a spiritual and philosophical revolution, Americans will continue to get the same results. ... Amid the sound and fury, does the pandemic and panic signify nothing? Or is it designed (without implying a Designer) for maximum impact with minimum harm to change the course of humankind? ... The fog of this simulacrum of world war begins to clear however, when one considers the coronavirus in the context of the crisis of human consciousness, and the urgency of radically changing...
Mar 17, 2020, 5:27pm
Meditations
Rebooting After the Pandemic: Creating a Global Civilization
Martin LeFevre: As I've noted before, there is something metaphysically strange about this global pandemic. It's like we're living in a slow-motion version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," with the threat, fittingly, coming from within rather than without. Beyond dread and fear, self-concern and paralysis, is this a tremendous opportunity to re-envision the world? ... Will there be a reboot of the status quo ante, with a return to man's rapacious ways, or will a true global civilization begin to emerge? ... There will be a restart of some kind, so why not use the time to reflect on what it means to be a human being, and envision a new global society while we're confined to our homes and apartments?..
Mar 15, 2020, 4:54pm
Meditations
We Are All In This Alone, Together
Martin LeFevre: Take time to sit quietly, preferably in nature, and observe the movement of the mind and emotions without interference as judgment or choice. It's like watching a turbulent, brown stream after a heavy rain, except the very act of passively watching the inner movement gathers undirected attention, which clears and cleanses the stream. The mind spontaneously falls silent, and in that silence, one grows in insight and deepens in awareness of sacredness beyond words. ... That may sound like odd counsel at a time like this, but it's the most important thing. We're all being thrown back on ourselves, and our inner resources as individuals, not our instincts as social creatures, however helpful during earthquakes and tornadoes, will determine whether we come out of this crisis having grown as human beings...
Mar 12, 2020, 4:50pm
Meditations
Restoration Is a Delusion
Martin LeFevre: All told, the dream and delusion of restoration has prevailed in the Democratic Party over the necessity and urgency of revolution, albeit at a completely different level than Bernie's "political revolution." ... Trump is our manifest destiny, and the pusillanimous Democratic Party cannot be blamed for the predictable repetition presently unfolding, because the underlying truth about this nation as a whole has not been faced. ... If a minority of people in America and abroad look beyond their national frames however, humankind can still change course before it's too late. That's what the coronavirus is compelling us to do...
Mar 10, 2020, 4:25pm
Meditations
Coronavirus: Human Consciousness Gone Viral
Martin LeFevre: One has a disquieting feeling that the coronavirus is an "act of God." It seems designed to produce greatest impact with least harm, to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, even as everyone is affected or infected. To the modern mind stepping back from personal fear, it appears God does have a sense of humor. ... On one hand, the urgency of adequately responding to the paralleling ecological and consciousness crises increases by the week. On the other hand, there is a desperate desire by the economic, political and media powers to restore the status quo. Is a last chance lesson is being given, at least for our age? As one doctor said, "the world's got to work together, or we're toast."...
Mar 7, 2020, 2:47pm
Meditations
Does the Cosmos Care About the Human Brain?
Martin LeFevre: Recently I heard an eminent astronomer proclaim: "The universe doesn't care if we exist, and it won't care if we go away." If you've spent any time alone in the wilderness, you know that's true physically. But is the cosmos, which may itself be conscious, really indifferent to the evolution of brains such as ours, with the capacity for consciousness beyond thought, science and technology? ... My spiritual practice reflects the imperative of negation and stillness. Taking a daily period of passive observation is a matter of internal hygiene to my mind, an action of simple inward cleansing. ... A daily period of passive, intense observation cleans off the caked material that builds up on the windowpanes of the mind and heart....
Mar 4, 2020, 4:26pm
Meditations
Nationalism Is a Bad Thing
Martin LeFevre: Humankind has entered a new phase of history. As the coronavirus pandemic/panic illustrates, everyone lives in a global society and economy now. It is not only possible, it is essential to begin with a feeling for the whole of humanity before the part, as my people and my country. ... Besides, the identification with our family, folk and nation has become dysfunctional, increasingly preventing the harmonious functioning of nation-states. ... As we can attest in America, when a people are no longer intact and minimally cohesive as a people, it is worse than futile to speak of belonging in terms of nationalism, for it feeds into the right-wing extremism that is sweeping the world ... Identification with particular groups ... lies at the root of the human dilemma in the present age...
Feb 25, 2020, 4:19pm
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