Main Menu

External Pages

Hanging Loose

and

Eagles and Crows

Hanging Loose

(From: ‘Earth People’ Volume 3 Number 4)

This is Sitting Owl's Dad showing how to 'Hang Loose'
in a Victorian Rally Championship event.

Now Playing: 'Call Me The Breeze'
By: J.J. Cale

I would like to give readers another example of the connectedness of all things.  I say another because for those who may not remember Volume 1 Number 4, where I wrote an article about 'Money and the Economic System’.  In it I mentioned how my experience and understanding of basic accounting has given me the insight to know that the only solution to the social problems of today, is to go back to the beginning of man’s consciousness, which was with the first shamans.  And that is where we must turn our ears and eyes, to hear, see, listen and learn about the truth of the entire reality of both pairs of opposites, at all levels of existence, and to create a harmonious future for All Our Relations, and therefore also for the Self.

Here, I would like to show, through another one of my past experiences, that an experience of oneness is not limited to meditation and spiritual practices, although there is a difference in the character of the two experiences.

I began my car rallying experience as a child passenger, strapped into a special seat and harness that my father had made by some clever improvisations.  In that experience, I found that no matter how exciting an experience is, it is possible to become tired and fall asleep in the middle.

Later I tried navigating for my father, and found that no matter how strong your constitution and stomach, the conditions of concentrating on maps, and the rough movement of the car, can cause anyone to empty their stomach out the window and decorate the side of the car.  Nervousness of course can add to this phenomenon.

Then I began my driving experience when dad offered me the use of his rally car to enter rallies that didn’t clash with the ones he was entering.  And later I built and entered my own car, sometimes competing in the same rallies as my father.

Some of the things I learnt about rallying,

that I now realise are also relevant to living a spiritual life are:

1. When one allows time to gradually raise one’s adrenalins, one has much more control.

2. As a result of this control and concentration, one may experience a type of tunnel vision, where the subconscious or body conscious is simply going through the motions fluidly, to fulfil the decisions made by the conscious mind a split second earlier.  This is what Joseph Campbell calls the centre of stillness out of which all action must come.  I had an experience once, where my conscious mind temporally came back from the tunnel and thought we were not going to make the bend.  I thought that at least there were not too many big trees on the outside of the bend to hit.  Then I temporally became unconscious, waking up to find that my higher conscious and body conscious had executed the bend perfectly.

3. Success and all best performances always come half way between trying too hard and not trying hard enough.

4 In rallying, as with life, it is important to have your vehicle (body, including the brain and other organs, directing consciousness of the body or vehicle) hanging loose, flexible, fluid, and able to change direction with a quick jerk of the steering wheel, a heavier foot on the accelerator, or a tap on the brake.  In rallying there is a technique called ‘The Fin Flick’ (Invented or perfected by the Finish rally drivers), which deliberately unstablizes the car prior to a corner.  But in spiritual terms it is ‘The Shaman’s Way’ (see Shaman Principle PONO – Effectiveness is the measure of truth, flexibility and wisdom, there is always another way of doing anything, shamanic healing, etc.).

My own successes in rallying really came as a result of absolute teamwork between myself as the driver, my navigator, and the car.  If any one of these did not work properly or made a mistake, there was no hope for any success.  Of course, I was the mechanic as well as the driver, so I can take two thirds of the credit.  But I must say that I don’t remember any time that my navigator let us down, so I can only blame myself for any rallies in which we either didn’t finish, or went poorly.

In equating this to spirituality I can only say that we must all work together, sharing our experiences and knowledge as a team, a family, and a humanity, for the sake of All Our Relations, because if one fails or falls down, we all fail and fall down.

Here is a link to a YouTube of Ken Block giving an excellent example of Hanging Loose in San Francisco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuDN2bCIyus

Eagles and Crows

(From: ‘Earth People’ Volume 4 Number 3)

I am very blessed to have some eagles that occasionally come over the bit of bush I call home. I may have mentioned that one spring when they came over the one, that was obviously a mother eagle seemed to come close to me, as if to proudly show me her young offspring who was trying to follow her every move.

Lately I have noticed that I get a call that indicates that the eagles, now only two presumably a male and a female, are around. The call is actually one or two crows that are harassing one of the eagles. At first I didn’t think much about it, as I was so grateful and in awe just watching these magnificent birds. After a few visits I wondered why the crows were harassing them, after all, surely the crows might benefit from one of the eagles’ kills. And the eagles were certainly no threat to the crows. The crows were definitely aggressively seeking out and chasing the eagles. I now realise that there are two reasons for this behaviour.

Firstly, and purely physically, the crows may be doing it to protect their young, as it is springtime and there is new life all over the place. But secondly, or should that be firstly, there is a spiritual message that I believe they want me to relay to you all.

The eagle represents the Great Spirit or God, that transcendent force that is beyond anything we can actually think about, beyond any pair of opposites. The crow, however, represents that universal law of the pairs of opposites and of the duality, that same force, but in the field of time and manifestation. As we are manifest beings it is only through the knowledge and understanding of this duality that we can come to know the Great Spirit, God etc.

So the message, as I see it, is for us humans as beings in the world of manifested duality, to aggressively seek the Great Spirit that is beyond the duality. Aggressively here meaning: persistently, patiently, with all our will, with all our might, with all our time, and with all our resources. Or was it a personal reminder to me that that transcendent God aspect of myself will always be harassed and limited by my manifested dual aspect of myself. I have taken the message to mean both, as messages like this and from dreams, visions etc. can have hundreds of messages from our higher or lower unconscious trying to make us aware or conscious of its/our powers, gifts or habits.

Donations

If you would like to make a donation to Sitting Owl 
please use this button.