Portal to the-hum
the-hum meeting participants enjoyed a stimulating experience: Starting with an invitation to imagine, that the experiences we are having at every moment are whole and complete, and perfect as they are. In essence, the suggestion was to embrace that which is occurring and to abstain from arguing about the rightness-or-wrongness of it occurring – as it already occurred.
Much of the time, human nature is to run after ideals, to have our lives and the world at large unfold in ways we would prefer. Clinging to the madness of controlling what is happening, many keep tirelessly searching for new and better tools to change the status quo, or, to make progress towards objectives that promise happiness and well-being.
And yet, it-is-what-it-is – some of it always changing, some of it appears to remain still at the center. This is where the-hum comes in: The portal to the-hum, as one attendee put it during the check-out lightning round.
As so often, there was ample discourse about whether there is a “me”, and let’s presume there is one, could it be used to remove the “me”: It takes a thorn to remove a thorn – an ancient Hindu Proverb.
Tom Das: “…For example, to remove a thorn in your finger you use another thorn; then you throw both of them away. But if you keep the second thorn which was used to remove the first one, you’ll surely be stuck again.
‘Use a thorn to remove a thorn, then throw them both away’
Tom Das
In this Hindu saying, a thorn represents a concept that gives rise to suffering when it pierces our skin. The teachings are another concept/thorn that you can use to remove the first thorn from your body. However you must throw the teaching away too when its work is done, otherwise it simply becomes a thorn in your side that binds you.
Another discourse was looking into language and how it affects experience: Observations included the effect personal pronouns have on the habitual identification with our personal selves and stories. It was shared that those pronouns perpetuate the egoic self as the hub of our being – implying that we are this body and exist in a world of objects and subjects. Eliminating the use of those pronouns apparently have a therapeutic effect, disrupting the “I’ as the central instance of our being, incarnated in this body with a particular history for this life, and in many cases, a myriad of lives, connected through a string of karmic code that supposedly is maintained through different incarnations.
It was pointed out that communications based on language are subject to linguistic, philosophical, religious, epistemological and many other filters, and they all distort the meaning and definition of a phenomenon.
So what is real? How important is our “human sense of self” to navigate through a universe in this human body? – Those types of questions keep being looked at from various angles and perspectives.
Sound, music, and art was brought up – as a medium that transcends language – and might communicate more directly.
Today’s meeting concluded with an outpouring of gratitude for the resonance, connection, and willingness to engage in the exploration and sharing.
And since we got into music, and portals – here The Allman Brothers Band with “One Way Out”
(Courtesy of Bonni)
Ain’t but one way out baby, Lord I just can’t go out the door
Ain’t but one way out baby, and Lord I just can’t go out the door
‘Cause there’s a man down there, might be your man I don’t know
Lord, you got me trapped a woman, up on the second floor
If I get by this time I won’t be trapped no more
So raise your window baby, I can ease out soft and slow
And Lord, your neighbors, no they won’t be
Talking that stuff that they don’t know
Lord, I’m foolish to be here in the first place
I know some man gonna walk in and take my place
Ain’t no way in the world, I’m going out that front door
‘Cause there’s a man down there, might be your man I don’t know
‘Cause there’s a man down there, might be your man I don’t know
‘Cause there’s a man down there and Lord, it might just happen to be your man
Lord, it just might be your man
Lord, it just might be your man
Oh baby, I just don’t know
