Everything Old Is New Again

It was a week after my 21st birthday in April of 1970 that my freedom of movement was suddenly and drastically curtailed by my conscription into the Australian Army. 50 years later, in April of 2020, my freedom of movement was again restricted by the measures taken to combat the pandemic. These restrictions have gradually but progressively tightened to the extent that I cannot now enter any of the local malls because I don't have my vaccine passport. I certainly can't travel on domestic airlines and, were I to venture out more than I do, I would probably encounter further restrictions on my movement. Hence the title of this post: everything old is new again.

Having my freedom taken away from me at age 21 certainly made me appreciative when it was restored about nine months later in January of 1971. This followed the success of my appeal to be recognised as a conscientious objector. That was a pivotal point in my life. Part of the reason for my success was that the tide of public opinion had began to turn against the war in Vietnam and the conscription of Australian youth to fight in it. Even though the political parties of today are scarcely differentiable, such was not case back then. 

I'll forever despise the Liberal National Party (LNP) in Australia for its introduction of conscription. Over 800 Australian males, many of them conscripts, were killed in Vietnam and these deaths can be squarely blamed on the NLP politicians of the time. When the Labor Party was elected in 1972, conscription was abolished. Of course, the Labor PM of the time, Gough Whitlam, was overthrown in a cleverly contrived coup three years later and the LNP took over the reins of government again.

I spent a weird nine months in the Army and how I got out is another story. None of my friends had been conscripted. Their birthdates had not come up in the lottery to decide who would be conscripted and who would not. Their lives rolled happily on, unlike mine. I emerged with an appreciation of my freedom and thereafter it was never curtailed, until now. It's become apparent how fragile that freedom was and how easy it was to shatter. 

Back in 1970, the Australian government declared that certain individuals must join the Army and, if required, go to Vietnam and kill the Commies. In 2021, governments around the world are declaring that all individuals must join the ranks of the vaccinated and a war of sorts has been declared on the unvaccinated. 

It's Been a Long, Long, Long Time

While having a shower this evening, the Beatle's song "Long, Long, Long" came into my head for some reason. After my shower, I decided to do a little research into the song. Below are the lyrics and Figure 1 shows the lyrics along with the guitar chords.

Figure 1: source

It's been a long long long time

How could I ever have lost you

When I loved you

It took a long long long time

Now I'm so happy I found you

How I love you

So many tears I was searching

So many tears I was wasting, oh oh

Now I can see you, be you

How can I ever misplace you

How I want you

Oh I love you

You know that I need you

Ooh I love you

Oh

The song was written by George Harrison and the Wikipedia article provides some interesting details surrounding its creation. Here are the opening paragraphs from that article:

"Long, Long, Long" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by George Harrison, the group's lead guitarist, while he and his bandmates were attending Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968. Although Harrison later stated that he was addressing God in the lyrics, it is the first of his compositions that invites interpretation as both a standard love song and a paean to his deity.

"Long, Long, Long" originated during a period in which Harrison emerged as a prolific songwriter, coinciding with his return to the guitar after two years of studying the Indian sitar. He based the chord pattern on "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" by Bob Dylan, while the song's understated arrangement partly reflects the influence of the Band's 1968 album Music from Big Pink. The Beatles recorded it in London towards the end of the White Album sessions, which were marked by acrimony among the band members in the fallout to their experiences in Rishikesh. An ambient and meditative ballad, it ends with a partly improvised segment that was inspired by the sound of a wine bottle vibrating on a speaker in the studio.

"Long, Long, Long" has received praise from several music critics. On release, William Mann of The Times rated it the equal of the album's best Lennon–McCartney compositions; Ian MacDonald later described it as Harrison's "touching token of exhausted, relieved reconciliation with God" and his "finest moment on The Beatles". Elliott Smith and Jim James are among the other artists who have recorded or performed the song.

The connection of the song to Dylan's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" was a surprise. Reportedly, the only Western LP that Harrison took with him to Rishikesh was Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, which contains the eleven-minute "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands". The Wikipedia article notes that:

In 1987, Daniel Amos vocalist Terry Scott Taylor recorded what Trouser Press admired as a "first-rate cover" of "Long, Long, Long" for his album A Briefing for the Ascent.

I quite like this cover and in fact YouTube Music has this to say about Terry Scott Taylor:

Terry Scott Taylor is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies. Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternative music group, Lost Dogs. He is currently based in San Jose, California, U.S. Taylor is highly regarded for his songwriting skills. These often include allusions to and reworkings of material ranging from Elizabethan poets to modern authors. Foremost among Taylor's influences is William Blake. The Daniel Amos album title Fearful Symmetry was drawn from Blake's poem "The Tyger," and numerous songs across The Alarma! Chronicles series of albums have Blake-inspired references. Some other poets who have influenced Taylor's work are T. S. Eliot and Christina Rossetti. Eliot's poetry inspired the song "Hollow Man" from the Doppelgänger album. "Where Dreams Come True" from Taylor's solo album, A Briefing for the Ascent, draws heavily from Rosetti's poem "Echo". The inspiration for many Daniel Amos and Taylor songs from the mid-1980s can be found in the book Behold, This Dreamer: Of Reverie, Night, Sleep, Dream, Love-Dreams, Nightmare, Death. 

To my mind, he has a similar voice to David Byrne and as well his cover of "Long, Long, Long" on his A Briefing for the Ascent, I also like "Changeless" that has the following, spiritually-aligned lyrics:

Once upon a lonely hilltop

Where my heart could find no sleep

Rest came down and filled my soul up

From the everlasting deep

Changeless are the stars that shine

Changeless morn' succeeds to even

Still the everlasting hill

Changeless watch the changeless heaven

I need your love

Your changeless love

I need you

I have climbed some lonely hilltops

I have touched the fleeting soul

Dreamt I saw a billion teardrops

Falling down like ice and snow

Changeless breaks the tide to shore

Changeless are the times and seasons

You are the same forever more

I will keep these changeless reasons

(Why)

No shadow of turning falls

No promise is broken

No nothing can turn my heart

From the words You have spoken

Changeless Your love

Deep as an ocean

Taylor was born on May 24th 1950 so he's only a year younger than me. He is a complex character musically as his Wikipedia biography attests. His music deserves further investigation. Getting back to George Harrison however, it can only be noted that his time in India in early 1968 corresponded to a time when Meher Baba was still alive. Baba of course was quite reclusive at that time and it would have been difficult to have an audience with Him. Harrison certainly seems to have been the most spiritually inclined of the Fabulous Four.

The One

I was listening to Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" where he sings of giving praise to THE ONE. 

There's a love that's divine

And it's yours and it's mine

Like the sun

And at the end of the day

We should give thanks and pray

To THE ONE, to THE ONE

I thought I'd check out anagrams of THE ONE and discovered NO THEE which is most apt. THEE is an archaic form of YOU and so what more eloquent equation that this:

THE ONE = NO THEE

From the perspective of THE ONE, there is indeed NO THEE but our perspective that means NO ME. The mention of ME conjures up the word EGO and recently I came across another eloquent equation that involved this word.

For a mathematician, this makes perfect sense. This talk of Mathematics and ME and THEE puts me in mind of Omar Khayyam and his famous Rubaiyat where he says (in Edward Fitzgerald's translation anyway):

There was a Door to which I found no Key: 

 

There was a Veil through which I could not see:  

 

Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee 

There seemed — and then no more of Thee and Me.

I found this blog post from July of 2010 that interprets these words very well I thought:

It’s been too many months since we last had a selection from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. First, just take a moment to speak these lines aloud. Really feel its rhythm on your tongue, and let its rhyme dance in your ear. I’m not normally a big fan of strictly rhymed verse, especially in translation, but something about Edward FitzGerald’s translations of Omar Khayyam bring a big smile to my face every time I read them. You can taste the sugar in each line.

There was a Door to which I found no Key:

There was a Veil through which I could not see…

The door that has no key and the veil through which one cannot see is the final barrier that separates us from the Divine Beloved. That barrier is dualism itself.

Some little Talk awhile of Me and Thee

There seemed

At first there is the dualistic perception of “Me and Thee,” of the separate identities of the lover and Beloved. That sense of separation — separation from God, separation from Source, separation from the True Self — is the fundamental pain of the soul.

Caught in the midst of this dynamic, we feel pain, we struggle, we encounter a terrible emptiness we try to hide from through the dramas of life. But looking back from the perspective of deep realisation, it can be seen as a sort of dialog between the soul and the Eternal. The dramas of life… “Some little Talk awhile of Me an Thee…” But there is only a surface appearance here, a seeming — “There seemed”

— and then no more of Thee and Me.

When we look, when we learn to really see, that’s when an amazing thing happens — suddenly that final veil falls away. The barrier is passed, not through some action or “key,” but through the instantaneous recognition that the barrier does not, in truth, exist at all. We are stunned to discover that there is no separation (only the ego’s pretence of a separation). And then — “no more of Thee and Me,” only Divine Presence within, without, everywhere!

Omar Khayyam was best known in his time as a mathematician and astronomer. His theorems are still studied by mathematicians today. His poetry really only became widely read when Edward FitzGerald collected several quatrains (rubaiyat) that were attributed to Khayyam and translated them into English as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The common view in the West of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that it is a collection of sensual love poems. Although some scholars debate this question, many people assert that Omar Khayyam was a Sufi, as well as a poet and mathematician, and that his Rubaiyat can only be truly understood using the language of mystical metaphor.

The Master's Prayer

I've always had an aversion to prayers, ever since abandoning Catholicism in 1965. However, today's email from the Avatar Meher Baba Bombay Centre reminded of Baba's 1953 prayer, dictated 68 years ago today. Such emails are an important source of remembrance of Beloved Baba, a daily reminder of his Avatarhood.

Opening page of Avatar Meher Baba
Bombay Centre website

To quote from Lord Meher, American ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 12, p. 4209:

Meher Baba dictated the Master’s (or Parvardigar) Prayer in Dehra Dun on Thursday, August 13th, 1953 and from that day until the 2nd of September, it was recited every evening with Baba taking part in the prayer. Donkin would read it aloud in English, and it was repeated by another mandali in Gujarati. When it was over, Baba would lay his head on the feet of each of the men mandali. This is the prayer:

The Master's Prayer 

O Parvardigar! The Preserver and Protector of All.

You are without beginning and without end.

Non-dual, beyond comparison,

and none can measure You.

You are without color, without expression,

without form and without attributes.

You are unlimited and unfathomable;

beyond imagination and conception;

eternal and imperishable.

You are indivisible;

and none can see you but with eyes divine.

You always were, You always are,

and You always will be.

You are everywhere, You are in everything, and

You are also beyond everywhere and beyond everything.

You are in the firmament and in the depths,

You are manifest and unmanifest;

on all planes and beyond all planes.

You are in the three worlds,

and also beyond the three worlds.

You are imperceptible and independent.

You are the Creator, the Lord of Lords,

the Knower of all minds and hearts.

You are Omnipotent and Omnipresent.

You are Knowledge Infinite, Power Infinite and Bliss Infinite.

You are the Ocean of Knowledge,

All-knowing, Infinitely knowing;

the Knower of the past, the present and the future,

and You are Knowledge Itself.

You are all-merciful and eternally benevolent.

You are the Soul of souls; the One with infinite attributes.

You are the Trinity of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss.

You are the Source of Truth, the Ocean of Love.

You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High.

You are Prabhu and Parameshwar;

You are the Beyond God and the Beyond-Beyond God also;

You are Parabrahma; Paramatma; Allah; Elahi; Yezdan;

Ahuramazda; God Almighty, and God the Beloved.

You are named Ezad, the Only One Worthy of Worship. 

Baba had indicated, “I have given these prayers to humanity to recite. They are for all posterity. Whenever anyone recites these prayers, they will be helped spiritually because of My present personal participation.” 

I should recite this prayer more often. My early years of reciting Catholic prayers mechanically and unthinkingly has left me wary. I don't want to relapse into doing that. If I do recite the prayer then if must be done with awareness and sincerity or not done at all. As Baba says, He only listens to the language of the heart.

Another option is to have it recited it to you. You can copy and paste the prayer into a site like Natural Readers and have it read back to you. I found setting the speed to zero and using the voice of Peter (Premium UK) gives a pleasing result. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: screenshot from this source

An even more pleasing result can be had by listening to YouTube versions of the prayer, spoken by an Indian women:

There's another version spoken loudly and forcefully by Harry Kenmore, the blind chiropractor from the United States, but it's less to my taste. However, in that video he also reads out the Prayer of Repentance (given by Meher Baba on 8th November 1952) which is quite powerful:

Prayer of Repentance

We repent O God most merciful, for all our sins;
For every thought that was false or unjust or unclean;
For every word spoken that ought not to have been spoken;
For every deed done that ought not to have been done.
We repent for every deed and word and thought
Inspired by selfishness;
And for every deed and word and thought inspired by hatred.
We repent most specially for every lustful thought,
And every lustful action;
For every lie; for all hypocrisy;
For every promise given, but not fulfilled;
And for all slander and backbiting.
Most specially also, we repent for every action
That has brought ruin to others;
For every word and deed that has given others pain;
And for every wish that pain should befall others.
In your unbounded mercy, we ask you to forgive us, O God,
For all these sins committed by us;
And to forgive us for our constant failures
To think and speak and act according to your will.

Here is a version of the prayer in which the words are displayed slide by slide with accompanying music. The words are not spoken but it's quite beautiful: 

ADDENDUM

added August 25th 2021:

Baba came into the hall on August 25th, (1959) after working with Kaikobad. The men assembled before him. For some time, Baba sat with his eyes closed. He stretched and rested his legs on the bamboo stool. A bed sheet was    spread over his legs for warmth. After resting for some time in this position, Baba signaled for the men to go outside. He remained alone inside for several minutes and then clapped, and the men reentered.

Baba instructed, “None of you should do anything which might disturb my mood.”

He informed Francis, “In connection with the repairs to the old bus, it will be enough to paint it, because if any of the work involves hammering, it is likely to disturb and spoil my mood.” He added, “The world is at stake, and my health is also at stake.”

Pendu was asked by Baba to describe how Baba’s health was last night. “Last night, Baba’s health was very bad,” said Pendu. “These days, he generally feels unwell at night, but yesterday was worse.”

Baba’s face still appeared dark.

Baba stated that he would dictate a prayer, but before this he asked Aloba to perform namaz  (Muslim prayer). Eruch was directed to recite the Parvardigar Prayer.

“Last night, when I was in a very painful state, this new prayer came to my mind.” And humorously, he stated, “First, I memorised it, and now I will dictate it to you:

Beloved God, help us all

to love you more and more

and more and more and still yet more

until we become worthy of Union with you.

And help us all to hold fast to Baba’s daaman

until the very end!

Baba stated that the prayer would be recited again three days later on August 28th.

Lord Meher, American ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 16, p.5633.  

Gulmai Irani

August 10th marked the anniversary of the death of Meher Baba's spiritual mother, Gulmai Irani, who died in 1962 at age 80. Figure 1 shows my favourite photograph of Gulmai with Baba because she looks so utterly content.

Figure 1: Source

The following extract is taken from Lord Meher:

MEANWHILE, Adi’s mother Gulmai’s ill condition, due to kidney disease, worsened in August. While at Meherabad on August 6th, Baba informed Padri to be prepared for Gulmai’s burial on the Hill, as she would be dying shortly. On the evening of August 8th, Gulmai’s condition became serious, and Adi sent Sarosh to Meherazad to inform Baba. Baba instructed Sarosh that when Gulmai passed away, he should be informed and her body removed to Meherabad, where her coffin would be lowered into the grave in his presence.

On the morning of August 9th, Baba unexpectedly decided to be driven to Khushru Quarters to see Gulmai. Although she had ceased to recognize anyone and was almost in an unconscious state, she opened her eyes and her face brightened when she saw Baba. She caressed his face and managed to utter, “Ba-ba.” After kissing her on the forehead and embracing Gulmai, Baba returned to Meherazad.

The next day, taking a critical turn for the worse, Gulmai was unable to speak and suffered spells of unconsciousness. Even so, with great difficulty she was moving her lips and repeating Baba’s name. At midnight, she startled from a coma-like sleep and loudly called out Baba’s name. With all her strength, she continued this for a few minutes without pause. While uttering Baba’s name, Gulmai merged in him forever at the age of seventy-eight.

Waman Padole was sent to Meherazad to inform Baba of Gulmai’s passing.

At 9:00 A.M., on Saturday, August 11th, Gulmai’s body was taken to Meherabad Hill where a grave had been dug. Baba arrived at ten o’clock and performed the last rites by placing flowers on her forehead and body. Almost two hundred persons from Arangaon and Ahmednagar were present. As the coffin was lowered into the earth, Baba, looking extremely sad, tossed flowers over it while Kaikobad offered prayers. Thus Baba’s spiritual mother Gulmai came to rest in Meherabad, the place she herself had been so instrumental in laying at his feet.

Baba remarked to Adi, “She is very fortunate that I was present at her burial.” As if in an additional tribute to her, this was the last time Meher Baba ever went to Meherabad.

Gulmai’s dedication, service and love for Meher Baba are truly monumental, for she and her husband, Kaikhushru (Khan Saheb), were the ones who gave him the land in Arangaon later called Meherabad.

Lord Meher, American ed., Bhau Kalchuri, Vol. 17, pp. 5919 – 5923.

A full account of Gulmai's life can be found at this site. Figure 2 shows Gulmai's family tree.

Figure 2: Source

Figure 3 shows a photo taken of Gulmai, supposedly taken the day before she died, which seems to contradict the story told in Lord Meher (that she was at death's door). In any case, the photograph must have been taken not long before here passing. She has a faraway look in her eyes, that's for sure.

Figure 3: Source

Like Doctor Donkin whom I wrote about in my previous post (Baba on Masts), Gulmai is another person who surrendered to Baba completely and unconditionally.

Baba on Masts

I found this explanation, taken from Lord Meher, about how masts see the world to be very poignant:

Although Baidul would work wholeheartedly and very hard in the mast work, his mind would at times trouble him. He could not accept Mohammed as a saint or wali, thinking him to be mad for playing with dirt or digging with his fingers in dirt. Once in Ranchi it began raining heavily. Baidul tried to dissuade Mohammed from playing in the dirt (or “deesh” as he called it), and to come in out of the rain to protect his health. Baidul was rather harsh with him and Mohammed started crying. Baba happened to come by when Baidul was threatening Mohammed and forcefully pulling him out of the mud and rain. It was this incident that caused Baba to give a long explanation about the condition of these masts and the undesirability of using any force on them.

"You have no idea how these masts feel in this changed environment. All the care we bestow – the food and clothing we give – is no obligation to them at all, for they do not need it; rather they resent it. In allowing us an opportunity to serve, they are, on the contrary, obliging us. Otherwise, it is a binding to those accustomed to live freely and happily according to their own peculiar whims and methods. To distract them from a particular thing in which they are interested is a torture to them, for they find relief even in staying in their squalor and playing with dirt and filth.

A mast such as Karim Baba gulping five and six coins at a time and passing them out in his stools, and again gulping them down is an example of this. It is his method. If you try to stop it, even with the best of motives to keep him clean and out of the dirt, and he gets enraged, you could be doomed for life, because the wrath of masts and saints is very dangerous.

Mohammed’s trait of finding and looking at his “deesh” is a sort of relief to him to be thus occupied. You think that he is playing with dirt and is exposed to the elements. With the best of motives of safeguarding his health, you try to bring him in. When he resists, you forcibly try to pull him out and break his link to what he has seen in that particular object, through the higher consciousness of the spiritual plane on which he is. And what happens? The moment he finds you trying to dissuade him, he feels disturbed and is indecisive whether to be there or here, meaning where his consciousness has taken him on the higher planes through the thing he is looking at, or where he is called on by you to go, leaving his deesh on this earthly plane.

This is no joke. It is a regular torture to Mohammed to reconcile the two different and conflicting states of the higher and lower planes of consciousness. If, in the torments of this torture or excitement, he were to abuse or curse anyone for thus disturbing him in the enjoyment of his ecstasy, the cursed one would be doomed for this life. It is simply because of me that he cannot do this and you are saved from his wrath. That is why I have been asking you constantly to be very tolerant and lenient with the masts and never to disturb them if they are persistent, even when you have the best of motives such as to protect them from the elements, uncleanliness, et cetera, which is also one of your duties.

The best way to handle them is the way of love and mild persuasion. If these do not succeed, nothing else will. Compulsion or force would be worse, even if they cannot hurt you for my sake. It reacts on them and causes them to suffer, which I do not want. For I know what a torture it is to them, and how they suffer.

It is a torture both ways. First of all, the masts suffer from being deprived of their own environment and their freedom in the places where they used to live. To be thus kept confined, even with all the other liberties we give them, and best care we take of them is to suffer. Secondly, the masts suffer whenever disturbed and pulled out of their ecstatic enjoyment. It is because they feel happy in my presence that they stay. They see me and know me as none of you do. That is why they are quiet. Otherwise, they would be impossible to manage.

If efforts made with love are effective with worldly people, they would be all the more effective and essential in dealing with these saintly beings who are lost in the love of God. You love to enjoy one phase of some of their peculiar traits when they are quiet and pleasing. You should equally enjoy the other phase of their insistence in the experience of the bliss they find in certain things which your eyes cannot penetrate, nor your mind understand."

Lord Meher, American ed., Bhau Kalchuri Vol. 7, pp. 2583 – 2585.

There's not much that I can add to that. It makes you realise how little we really understand about what is going on. We are totally mesmerised by the world and experience it as the only reality. The masts become mesmerised as well and the reality they experience is very different to ours. They are still trapped in illusion but with far fewer veils of ignorance separating them from the ultimate reality. Yet the "well adjusted", those who are fully absorbed in the earthly drama, have no understanding of these masts who are seemingly insane or mentally handicapped. Even Baidul, one of Baba's mandali, failed to understand them.

Of course, with any mention of masts, one cannot forget Dr. William Donkin, or Don as Baba called him, who accompanied Baba on many of his journeys to find masts and who wrote "The Wayfarers" that chronicles these journeys.

Dr. William Donkin

Born : 14 November, 1911 - England

Died : 9th August, 1969 - India

To quote from Meher Baba's Life and Travels:

These Men of God, who are themselves the "Great Heroes" of the Spiritual Path, have at times spontaneously given expression to their recognition of Baba as He Is: they are able to see and know from personal inner knowledge The Real Being that is Baba. As Dr. Donkin points out in "The Wayfarers” from which these examples are taken, "In reading these brief paragraphs one should remember that, when on tour in search of MASTS, Baba is almost always incognito, and that when a MAST bears witness to Baba's spiritual greatness, he often does so without having any external means of knowing who Baba is; those (who do know Baba externally) have reputations as MASTS or saints quite independent of their contact or relationship to Baba, and this, I believe, adds greatly to the value of what they say.”

Bob Mossman has written a biography of Don titled "Slave of Love" and in this YouTube video he talks about the inspiration behind the idea of writing of the book as well as the process of of its creation. Unfortunately, it only seems to be available as a paperback and not in electronic form.

Silence Day 2021

Another Silence Day. For the first time ever, I was aware of needing to maintain silence in my dreams and remember making at least a couple of slip ups in them. It's only mid-morning now in my waking life and so far so good. In the past, I've slipped up by speaking a word or two to my dog. Not so this morning. 

The current climate of fear makes it easier to keep silent due to the reduced opportunities for visiting people and the fewer people likely to visit. These are strange times and the need to maintain equanimity or poise is greater than ever. As Baba said:

What is spirituality? It is the undoing of what you have been doing since ages. You always thought of selfish motives for eating, preserving your life, and attending to every need with zeal. All these lives you have made a habit of looking [out for] yourself. If the slightest thing goes against your habit you are upset. Now, to undo all these selfish bindings, you have to do what you have not been doing, or not to do what you have been doing.

What you have been doing always is thinking of yourself; so now you must not think of yourself, but think of others. This is what is called love. But it needs character, poise, perseverance. Poise — what is it? That state of mind where nothing excites you, nothing upsets you. Only [if you have poise] can you help others, then only can you make others happy. That means love. Thinking not of yourself but of others.

If you are in the Sahara, and for four days you have no water to drink and all of a sudden one bottle of water appears — how do you react? If you have poise, you will let your companion drink and not mind dying and letting her live. But if you fight and grab for it, you lack poise and spirituality. It is this poise that makes you sacrifice and [make] others happy.

I just reread my post of December 25th 2020 titled Complete Detachment. In that post, I wrote:

As humanity heads into a dystopian future, it's not all bad news. If it lived in a utopia, the incentives for individuals to turn inward would be minimal. In a utopia, the lure of attachments draws the individual away from the inner life and makes detachment difficult. The growing dystopia that humanity is now entering poses the danger that individuals will actively shun the world and retreat into isolation, cynicism and misanthropy. 

In our pre-Covid world, we were attached to travel, socialisation and an illusion of freedom. Suddenly that was taken away and severe restrictions were placed on travel and socialisation. The illusion of freedom was cruelly shattered. For some, this was accepted as the necessary price for combating and controlling a dangerous pathogen. For others, like myself, who understand what is really going on, acceptance is not easy. 

It's tempting to be drawn into the great divide that is opening up within humanity between those who accept what is happening and those who do not accept it. Amongst the former is the belief that governments and the medical establishment are doing the best they can for us. If we just cooperate, we'll get through these trying times and, while things will never return to the way they were, things will at least get better.

For those who do not accept what is happening, reactions are mixed. Some want to resist. Others are resigned to the "sound of inevitability" as Agent Smith put it in the original Matrix movie. Whether an individual embraces opposition, withdrawal, resignation, acceptance or cooperation, there is in each case attachment. It's difficult not to take a side or choose a position. The powers-that-ought-not-to-be know this and exploit it, playing different sides off against one another.

It's not easy to remain detached. Retreating into "isolation, cynicism and misanthropy" is not detachment but instead it is a very powerful form of attachment. The fact that our former way of life has disappeared should remind us how illusory it really was to begin with. The freedoms that we thought were our God-given right were snatched away or willingly surrendered by the muzzled masses. These freedoms were not God-given after all but granted by our benign overlords.

Worldly-wise, things have gotten worse since I wrote those lines, making detachment even more difficult, and things are going to get far worse. The abnegation of basic human rights is chastening for the egos of those who realise the game plan of the cabal but seem powerless to oppose it. The spiritual aspirant must learn the learn the lesson that the ego is nothing but now even the non-spiritually inclined are learning that lesson as they are trampled underfoot by the fascist boot of the State.

What is the difference between squished under the fascist jackboot and being dust at the feet of the master? Someone who has been reduced to dust at the feet of the master has had their ego crushed by a spiritual master who has the enlightenment of the disciple as the goal. It is a very personal process between master and disciple. Someone who is being squished under the fascist jackboot is a victim of an impersonal process that is spiritually barren and that seeks to enslave and not liberate.

Humanity is currently being herded into a spiritually barren future and all we can do is to nourish our spiritual roots so that we do not wither and die. Baba of course saw where humanity was headed and it was not his intention to see a spiritual winter descend over the Earth only a few decades after he dropped his body. A spiritual flowering will occur but Baba, as Lord and Master of the Universe, works in mysterious ways and we can only hope and wait, and not lose faith in Him.

In these trying times, when the evil forces seeking to control the world have come out of the shadows, it's more important than ever to cling to Baba's daaman and not let go. It's easy to fall prey to despair and depression unless we constantly remember Him. Jai Baba!

Disillusionment

Had I died in January of 2020, I would have left with a relatively positive view of the world. I could travel wherever the whim took me and on very short notice to most countries because of my Australian passport. Sure, I knew the world was run by a global elite who controlled the banking system and mainstream media but that didn't seem to affect my daily life. Cut to June 30th of 2021 and things are so vastly different.

I don't need to spell out how different. Over the past year and a half, the iron grip of the global elite on NGOs, governments, health services and mainstream media has become glaringly obvious to many, even while the majority remain oblivious. The depopulation agenda, once a seemingly unrealisable fantasy of the psychopathic cabal, is now being realised and people are lining up to participate. What's particularly loathsome are the celebrities and musicians who have actively aided the globalist agenda. At least one of my favourite musicians has had the guts to stand up and speak his mind. That would be Van Morrison. Contrast the Van to Bruce Springsteen and his recent concert for the vaccinated only. The latter is off my listening list for good now. 

Part of the price for spiritual advancement is disillusionment with the "glamour" of the world and if I were to die today, I would be leaving with a sense of profound disillusionment with all the world has to offer. Such an attitude promotes rebirth with an innate disinterest in the world and accelerates progress on the spiritual path. It's also possible to take up residency on the subtle plane and not return to this shit hole ever again. There are 8.4 million occupants and vacancies must come up from time to time as souls move on to the mental plane. Less likely but who knows? For those who remain, the full horror of what is being wreaked on the planet will become clear and a profound distrust of global organisations, politicians and government, health authorities and media outlets will arise. Hopefully some of the more prominent individuals will be called to account.

The emptiness of the technocratic vision will promote a revival of spiritual values but not a return to organised religions. Those religions have failed us by allying themselves with the powers-that-be or, rather, ought-not-to-be. The different faiths have divided humanity instead of uniting it. As the one hundred year period following Baba's death in 1969 draws to a close, a Sadguru will arise who draws attention to the Avatar's most recent advent and a new spirituality will develop around what He left for a despairing humanity.

As I write this, it's the midpoint of the year. What horrors await us, I don't know. Only the psychopaths orchestrating this drama know what the plan is. Bankruptcies, depression, and suicides will continue but the toll on children is inestimable. The current crop of children may be the last as they fall victim to irreparable damage to their reproductive organs. Herded into smart cities, tracked and traced, medicated, irradiated by 5G, brainwashed by the media, gender-confused ... these children would probably not want to reproduce anyway, even if they could.

However, each individual must cope with the horror in his or her own way. Even though I consider myself to be psychologically robust and medication-free, I wake up some days and feel an overwhelming sense of despair. It's like being in a vice and the vice is getting tighter, ever tighter. Where once I might have engaged in spirited debate about the state of the world, now I don't bother. There is nothing to debate. There is only division. Division between those who know what's going on and those who don't. 

The Numbers of Creation

There are numerous references in Lord Meher to the fact that there are 56 God-realised souls on Earth at any one time.

Lord Meher Online Edition Page 683:

While Baba was discoursing on the 29th, someone asked, "Why are there 56 Realized souls in the world in every age?"

The number 56 denotes perfection. This number appears to be perfect to those who manage these spiritual workings, as one Supreme Being alone cannot manage the whole affair single-handedly. He requires assistance, and the number of assistants is fixed at 56.

For instance, a toddyshop-keeper needs several helpers — one to prepare the toddy, another to serve it, another to collect payment, et cetera. But if there is no shop, what is the use of helpers? In the same way, when there is no universe — as is the case for the majzoobs, who are realized but have no consciousness of the world and its affairs — for them, there is no work.

To return to the question: The universe must be maintained, and to carry out the affairs of the universe in an orderly manner 56 God-realized persons are required. The number is fixed at 56 because a number less than that cannot do all the work and the different duties. Suppose a man has lost one of his eyes. Although he can still see with the other eye, he sees with difficulty. Therefore, two eyes are given to each human being to enable him to see perfectly.

In just the same way, two ears, one nose, two hands, and two feet are provided. In short, everything in nature goes on according to rules and regulations and principles laid down by the "Experienced" or Realized Sages, and nothing is haphazard.

All these explanations are beyond comprehension by your intellect. Such understanding is virtually useless, unless one has the real Experience of Realization. However much you may exert your brains, in the end it is all like the caterwauling and barking of cats and dogs, until such time as you experience the wind of Reality.

The Knowledge and Experience of a Sadguru cannot be grasped through the intellect because it is altogether beyond the intellect. As Hafiz says:

This Knowledge is never grasped by the intellect's noose; Untie the noose and you will obtain it.

Lord Meher Online Edition Page 2350

Figure 1 shows a chart with explanation following.

Figure 1 

Now, after the human form reincarnates 84 lakhs of times, how does the soul enter the subtle world?

From the gross to God state, there are seven stages of winding and seven stages of unwinding. Up to the stone form, there is no winding nor twist. Neither are there species up to the stone form. Thereafter, 14 lakhs of species in each of the six forms up to human evolution, equals 84 lakhs of species. These seven twists, where each form changes to another higher one, are for making the seven main species thicker and thicker.

There are always and eternally 84 lakhs of souls who experience subtle experiences. Among them, there are seven who are the chiefs and can experience the mental world in the same subtle body. These seven have duty. The 84 lakhs of subtle experiencers are existing even today. The figure is always constant. There are an equal number who experience the mental world. But in each new unwinding, one of the seven chiefs with duty becomes less, meaning he gets no normal consciousness nor duty. How many out of the seven chiefs get duty in the subtle? Seven. In the mental, six have duty; in the God-state, five.

On the gross plane: 84 lakhs of reincarnations, although there are millions of human beings in the world.

On the subtle plane: 84 lakhs of souls who experience the subtle world.

Out of these 84 lakhs of those experiencing the subtle world there are seven chiefs who have duty. When these seven cross over to the mental plane, only six have duty and one remains dormant. When these seven cross over from the mental to the God-state, five have duty and two remain dormant. In the God-realized state, out of 56 there are five heads and two majzoobs. The majzoob state is attained on the seventh plane.

The first human form that one gets after the last animal form of monkey is not a complete human form. It has no differentiation in sex. The first human form is that of a bahirupi [neuter]. That is to say, the first human form is neither male nor female. Then what happens? The same form develops a different form with a male sex organ. If you reverse this organ, it is transformed into a female sex organ. This is mere phenomena, but it is all the exchanging of sanskaras.

How does this happen? It is just like a slight flicker, a flash or spark of light. When a railroad engine changes tracks, its light flickers. It is the same here. The first human form has both the male and female sexes latent in it. Therefore, the first human form is that of a bahirupi. Only when the bahirupi takes another form, either male or female, are the organs visible. This causes the process of reincarnation to begin.

That is also why among the five Perfect Masters there are four males and one female.

This is most interesting because Baba explains that there are continuously 8.4 millions souls experiencing the subtle plane and the same number experiencing the mental plane. Meanwhile, there are billions of humans on Earth and other planets experiencing the physical plane. I've long entertained the notion that each soul can be conceived of as a prime number, unique and indivisible, with the Avatar as 1 and the Godhead as 0. The next God-realised person, made so by the Avatar, would be 2 and so on. This is just my imagining and has nothing to do with Baba.

Getting back to Baba, here is what he had to say about the number 7:

There are seven worlds [planets in evolution], seven skies, seven suns, seven moons, seven planes and seven heavens [in involution]. Why this figure seven? And sanskaras too are of seven colors. Why? Because in the very beginning, when Energy (Pran) clashed with Matter (Akash), it created seven divisions.

Each individual human being is a universe unto himself. In the head there are seven openings: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth. In the body there are seven parts: two arms, two legs, two openings (front and back), and one trunk.

But all this explaining of the universe and creation relates to the hair and has nothing to do with the head. So first try to get hold of the head, because out of it comes everything.

Baba drew a figure of a man's head with hair and added:

The barber's work is to shave the head. And who is the barber in this case? Mahapralaya! For when it occurs, all the hairs (universes) on God's head are shaved off.

It is said that the universes pour out of the Godhead; they are like God's hair. Your head may symbolize God and your hair the universes.

The White Horse

 In my last post to this blog, I wrote:

Still there is something eerie about the broken thong. In two recent dreams I had been barefoot and then suddenly, this morning and in "real life", I was barefoot again by force of circumstances. The incident serves to blur the divide between "dream life" and "real life". For some reason, the two have overlapped and it would seem that my psyche is trying to tell me something. Is it to go barefoot and heal myself and others? Am I being too literal?

That division between "dream life" and "real life" continues to blur. Last night, I dreamt that I was guiding a white horse into the lift/elevator of a tall building. I succeeded in getting the horse in without difficulty and the horse and I ascended in the lift. There were a couple of other people present but they remained anonymous. That's all I can recall.

The next afternoon, I was describing the dream to my grand-daughter as we were driving to the bank. There in front of us was a small brown horse that a man was attempting to guide across the road. I stopped the car and allowed the man and the horse to cross. Synchronicity like this tells us that there's something in the air.

After the bank, my grand-daughter and I spent some time in Starbucks. When we returned home, I took the dog for a walk but I slipped as I began to descend the front steps of our house. The maid had recently washed the steps and they were still slippery. I fell backwards heavily and bounced down the five or so steps. Though I was initially shocked, I recovered quickly and sustained no apparent injuries.

I was sufficiently recovered to not only go for a walk with the dog but afterwards my grand-daughter and I also went for a longer half-hour walk. During the course of our walk, we passed a woman on a motorcycle with a baby and young child seated in front of her. She had come down a side street and was about to pull out into heavy traffic. None had helmets. I remarked to my grand-daughter that in Australia, she would have been quickly surrounded by half-a-dozen police cars. I had no sooner said this than we noticed a police car parked directly in front of us. The synchronicity was thus still at work. The car's number plate was B 128209 VII.

Meher Baba is sometimes called the White Horse Avatar described as follows:

"Kalki is the next Avatar of Vishnu. He is yet to appear and when he does He will appear, riding his white horse and wielding a shiny sword, at the end of the Kaliyuga, the dark age through which we are passing. This is considered to be the age of suffering, darkness and doom. His task will be to end the evil and restore the Dharma. Thus will begin a new cycle, again will start the Satyayuga or the age of truth and righteousness.”

The night before I had started reading Bhau Kalchuri's "Lord Meher" again. I had read about the lives of Hazrat Babajan, Narayan Maharaj and Sai Baba. Looking the transiting aspects to my natal chart, I notice that transiting Chiron was in 9°15' Aries at 7am this morning and it is 9°17' as of 7pm when I'm creating this post. I'd written previously about the influence of Chiron in a post to my astrology blog. It's interesting to note that the mythological Chiron was a centaur, half man and half horse. 

In my natal chart, Mars is in 9°16' of Aries and Venus is in 9°10' Aries, with a consequent midpoint of 9°13'. Transiting Chiron would have been on precisely this point when I had the white horse dream. Transiting Uranus is in 9°13' Taurus. Figure 1 shows the chart as presented on my astrological blog, showing transits as of April 2nd 2021:

Figure 1

So I'm not sure what's going on but something is, so all I can do is to monitor the situation. Chiron of course is the Wounded Healer and so I'll continue experimenting with healing, especially while this planetary body remains so prominent in my chart.

Barefoot Trifecta

Having dreamt I was barefoot in two recent dreams just prior to my 72nd birthday, I found myself barefoot in the physical world on the day after my birthday. After I had headed off on my morning walk, it was at the halfway point that the Y-shaped strap on my left thong snapped and I had no choice but to gingerly complete the remaining half of my walk barefoot. Thus the title of this post. The photo shown here is not my thong (which is blue) but it accurately depicts what happened to it.

For some reason, as I started this post, I thought of what I wrote yesterday in my mathematical blog about my diurnal age of 26298 days. One of the properties of this number is that it has a Collatz trajectory of 77 steps, a fact that I stumbled upon by happenstance. Or was it? 77 steps might correspond to 77 years of life and the barefoot experience might refer to the journey through life. After all, we enter the world barefooted and we leave it the same way.

Or is the snapped thong and the two preceding dreams a reminder to spend more time barefoot and allow the Earth's energy to flow through me? I tend to favour this option as I have been preoccupied lately with harnessing my psychic energy. I've not done much in a practical sense except form a few psi-balls and hurl them at my solar plexus and the nape of my neck. It does seem as if this has been of some benefit.

Still there is something eerie about the broken thong. In two recent dreams I had been barefoot and then suddenly, this morning and in "real life", I was barefoot again by force of circumstances. The incident serves to blur the divide between "dream life" and "real life". For some reason, the two have overlapped and it would seem that my psyche is trying to tell me something. Is it to go barefoot and heal myself and others? Am I being too literal?

The Barefoot Dreamer

On the night prior to March 29th 2021, I dreamt that I was barefoot. I had just stepped out of a house (unidentified) and realised that I was barefoot. I immediately returned to the house to retrieve my shoes but I had been on my way to the airport to catch a flight to somewhere. 

On the night prior to April 2nd 2021, I dreamed that I was approaching the bus stop just down from the corner of Milton Road and Hale Street, near my maternal grandparents' home. I had obviously walked up from there. As I approached the bus stop, I noticed my first ever girlfriend sitting there but suddenly realised I was barefoot. I thought about asking her for the money for the bus trip but realised I was still without footwear. Together we rummaged through a pile of discarded thongs but couldn't find a matching pair. All of the thongs were green and ugly. Again I was intending to travel somewhere.

What's common in both dreams is that I'm surprised to suddenly discover that I'm barefoot and make an immediate effort to find footwear. It's not that I've made a conscious decision to step out in public barefoot. I've done it inadvertently. About a year ago, I was strongly into "earthing" after reading the book "Earthing" by Clinton Ober and others. I even bought an earthing blanket so that I could be earthed as I slept. I stopped using it after a couple of months and haven't bothered it since but I've always felt that the idea of earthing made a lot of sense. In the light of my dreams, I've resurrected the blanket and have put it under my feet while I'm typing at my desk. It can't hurt.

The dream is probably psychological in meaning but in terms of my daily life over the past year or so, it's only earthing that comes to mind. However, I have been lately thinking about harnessing my psychic energy for healing purposes and the idea of earthing sort of ties in with this. Some of the techniques I've been working with, shaping psi-balls or energy-balls, might be enhanced by means of simultaneous earthing.

Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Psi-Ball

Meanwhile my 72nd solar return occurs at 2:39pm Jakarta time today so that might be a good time to experiment. Chiron is strongly involved in this solar return and the mythological figure of Chiron was associated by Jung with 'the wounded healer':

In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron was a "Wounded Healer", after being poisoned with an incurable wound by one of Hercules's arrows. Jung mentioned the Chiron myth "wounding by one's own arrow means, first of all, the state of introversion". For Jung, "a good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's examining himself... it is his own hurt that gives a measure of his power to heal. This, and nothing else, is the meaning of the Greek myth of the wounded physician." Jung felt that depth psychology can be potentially dangerous, because the analyst is vulnerable to being infected by his analysand's wounds by having his own wounds reopened. To avoid this, the analyst must have an ongoing relationship with the unconscious, otherwise he or she could identify with the "healer archetype", and create an inflated ego. Withdrawal of both projections may however ultimately activate the powers of the inner healer in the patients themselves. Jung’s closest colleague, Marie Louise Von Franz, said “the wounded healer IS the archetype of the Self [our wholeness, the God within] and is at the bottom of all genuine healing procedures.” Jungians warn of the dangers of inflation and splitting in the helping professions, involving projection of the 'wounded' pole of the archetype onto the patient alone, with the analyst safely separated off as 'healer.

 It was interesting to read what Von Franz said:

“the wounded healer IS the archetype of the Self [our wholeness, the God within] and is at the bottom of all genuine healing procedures.”