The New BHP

The New BHP

I feel like Stephen Hawkins, sitting on an event horizon, as I discover and name an emerging phenomena I've termed 'BHP' - Black Hole People.

Like cosmic black holes, I've observed a marked increase in recent years of BHP who I have encountered in a variety of situations.

The most common area for encountering BHP is in business.

Consider this scenario: A long-term client with which you have a solid relationship, appoints a new manager who contacts you with an urgent request. You drop everything, visit site (which in my case is a good 90min drive), meet the manager, discuss the project, and understand it has to be delivered by 'yesterday'. You head back to the office, make all the necessary enquiries, collect prices, compile a quotation (which takes about a week), all the while advising the customer out of professional courtesy that you're 'progressing'.

Finally the proposal comes together, with your days of thinking, discussing, analysing, slicing and dicing, articulated on electronic paper and you press the 'Send' button.

.... silence.

After 4 weeks of polite phone messages, emails, voice-mails, calling the managers' colleagues to see if he is still alive .... more silence.

Or you're looking for a job, see several ads with various agencies (or the HR department itself), and you fire off that much loved and refined CV that articulately explains why you fit all the published criteria and would like them to be your next employer.

.... silence.

After repeated emails, messages and not even a 'we'll get back to you', you give up, disheartened.

Or a 'friend' who gets busy, makes repeated promises to call you, meet you, have coffee/dinner/brunch with you, yet after weeks of leaving messages via various media makes it clear through any lack of response that you don't rate the 5 seconds (out of 86,400 in a day) that it takes to type, "Flat out, call you in 2 weeks", and you're left wondering if it's time to change your deodorant or mouthwash.

Or the peer at work who has been there much longer than you, whose urgent advice you need to progress a deal for the company you both work for, yet after emailing and calling and leaving messages, simply refuses to respond.

If any of these situations ring a bell, you can be sure BHP are active in your life!

The very nature of BHP is that like a black hole, nothing, zip, zero, nada, comes back, so there's no opportunity for dialog and therefore no opportunity for any form of relationship. There is no solution other than to do a u-turn and get on with Life, before you too get sucked in.

However, in the wise words of Ghandi about 'being the change', there is something you can do and that is a mantra that has served me exceptionally well: always respond. 

I don't mean to the penis enlargement spam or the lottery-winning or Nigerian money scams, however if, for example, someone sends you a well composed, intelligent and respectful email offering you a service that you don't need, a simple and polite 'no thanks' does several things:

1. It closes the loop and lets the sender know you have read, understood, evaluated and concluded they can be of no assistance
2. They move on to the next client and don't waste their valuable time
3. You don't hear from them again and so don't waste your valuable time
4. The sender is so used to being ignored that a response is seen as a mini-miracle and so the sender is grateful
5. You receive their gratitude whether you know it or not

 The corollary of not responding is:

1. You scan the first email, dismiss it and delete it
2. They send you a follow-up email which you scan then delete
3. Depending on their tenacity you may get several more ...
4. They get frustrated by your lack of response and whether you know it or not, you receive their frustration
5. You get frustrated by them continuing to send you emails that you don't want!

We might think that we don't have the time to respond, yet somehow we find many times the time to scan and delete on multiple occasions, than it would take to respond. 

False economy really.

And when it comes to CVs, some words of caution: you never know when you might meet the author who may one day be interviewing you!

So be the opposite of a BHP by responding. You'll feel happier within yourself, have more time, be regarded as respectful and gracious, be remembered and receive much gratitude. 

And to all the BHP reading this: you don't have to be a BHP until you disappear down your own rabbit-hole. Your disregard for other people may come from feeling that you are the centre of the Universe, but rest assured there are real black holes out there that are (see previous post!).

Simply respond, give back, do something different, and your dark days will be over.   

You never know, you might even transform into a Sun!

Is God a Singularity?

Back in the mid-nineties while at an experiential workshop, I was guided in a deep meditation to open my Heart and imagine a thread connecting my Heart to the centre of our Sun, from which another 'dimensional' thread would lead me to a Central Sun. My experience of this place and the sense of one-ness, has never left me and it was the first time I had heard the term Central Sun.

From this point on my Teacher referred often to "The God Of The Central Sun Where All Is One", a space/place of unified wholeness where duality ceases to exist.

He therefore concluded that the 'God' we refer to in a patriarchal sense as Father God, must in this dualistic existence therefore have a balance - a Mother God. So Mother/Father God, or Father/Mother God, were used interchangeably to describe the dualistic God of this existence, while The God Of The Central Sun denoted the God of unity.

Imagine my surprise when years later on a training course in a particular healing modality, the presenter mentioned our Sun as having a consciousness, referred to as The Solar Logos, a consciousness which transmutes energy from the Central Sun.

Mmmmm, I thought ... interesting! 

Then I read José Argüelles' book on the mathematics behind the Mayan calendar (The Mayan Factor). It's a complex book and I'm not sure that all his views stack up, but what did fascinate me was that the Mayans apparently referred to a Central Sun which they called Hunab Ku or Supreme God.

We've all heard about the 21 Dec 2012 solstice yada, yada, yada .. but what Argüelles claimed is that on this date, a very special alignment happens.  You see the Earth, in its orbit around the Sun wobbles around its own axis, which is called a precession, and once every 26,000 years or so, the Earth's axis points directly to the centre of our galaxy, to Hunab Ku.

The Mayans had no wheels, metal tools or other signs of what we might call 'civilised' society, yet they had a mathematical model of planetary and solar movement so astounding, that they could predict with accuracy when the Earth would be in this unique alignment.  On this date their calendar also 'resets'.

More recently physicists have discovered that right at the centre of our galaxy (which we call The Milky Way) is a supermassive black hole. (It is now widely accepted that the centre of nearly every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole, with the latest discovery being one in a galaxy called NGC4889 which is estimated at 21 billion solar masses or the weight of 21 billion of our Suns!)

Physicists also theorise that the mass drawn into each of these supermassive black holes becomes infinitely dense and infinitely small, eventually disappearing in a mathematical construct called a singularity. In this place all the laws of physics (as we know them) break down.  No one yet understands or knows where all the matter drawn into these supermassive black holes actually goes!

The name singularity is and of itself an indication that duality cannot exist, so is this a place where all the laws of our dualistic world reach a point of unification? 

The Mayans called it Hunab Ku, my Teacher called it The Central Sun long before the supermassive black hole was discovered, and now physicists confirm that something beyond our laws of physics sits at the very Heart of our galaxy.

I would think that a space/place of unity, where duality cannot by definition exist, would be a singular place, beyond the laws of this dimensions' physics, and therefore a probable place for a unified existence.

I was fortunate to experience the feel of such a place and it felt like Heaven!

Is God a Singularity?

Who do we think we are?

Who do we think we are?

If we could suspend our limited subjectivity, if only for a moment, and see ourselves objectively - our species, co-species (and their right to existence), our planetary Home, our Moon, our place within the 'scheme' of things ... perhaps it'd be an easier question to answer.

As you read this, there are most likely sand tornadoes on Mars, lightening storms on Saturn, active volcanoes spewing their inner contents over the surface of Jupiter’s moon Io, stars being formed in the farthest reaches of our galaxy, suns the size of our own condensed to 20Km across and spinning 30 times per second, black holes drawing in matter and sending it to who knows where.

Science currently tells us that our observable Universe, that is all the billions of stars in the billions of galaxies, make up only 4% of the Universe itself, with the other 96% being made of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy', both of which we cannot yet see nor measure, however must exist for the Universe to comply with some basic laws of physics!

If, as one sage observed, we are the eyes through which the Universe sees itself, is it not arrogant to assume that 13.7 billion years of Universal evolution was just for us? And yet without 'us' who or what is observing?

If not for us then what is the purpose of such an extraordinary creation? A construction of unimaginable size and complexity, from the space between galaxies to the space inside atoms, neither of which can we humanly comprehend.

Surely the paradox of human existence is simply that on the one hand we're an irrelevent species on a small spherical rock, orbiting one of 100 billion suns in our galaxy, in the outer suburbs of one of 100 billion (known) galaxies, yet all our spiritual teachings refer to our existence as being of Supreme interest, so much so that our human prime directive is the creation and support of life at almost any cost.

Maybe George Carlin was correct when he said that it doesn't matter whether we 'make' it as a species or not, as we may simply be another failed evolutionary cul-de-sac. The Earth, Moon, Sun, planets, galaxy and Universe will all go about their business irrespective of whether we annihilate ourselves or not. 

And if so, who will be the eyes through which the Universe sees itself?

Maybe we need to ask, 

"Who do we feel we are?"

"Who do we sense we are?"

"Who do we know we are?"

Maybe then we'll find our place in the 'scheme' of things!

EXPECTATION

In a recent experience I learned about the suffocation of expectation!

I and others wanted, needed, a certain outcome, so I did what most people do and set a level of expectation of someone else to deliver an outcome.

As the day unfolded I had this strange sense that the 'other' person who had volunteered themselves to organise the evening, had not done so. My frustration started to rise, my emotion with it, and the 'edge' we put on ourselves sharpened to a point of razor-like delivery.

Then, in a moment of clarity, I realised how much expectation I'd placed on the outcome, how this had built an energetic prison around my friend, and in doing so had suffocated any possibilty for an unfolding other than that which I had expected.

Spontaneity had no chance of expression in my reality.  A 'no win' situation.

What happened next?

Well, literally in the minutes after I had owned my expectation, understood its suffocating and blanketed delivery, decided to withdraw and 'let go' of any outcome or expectation, and own my frustration and grumpiness, a phone call happened, plans were made, the 'someone else' seemed to display characteristics of freedom, and the evening unfolded in what can truly be described as magical and spontaneous!

What did I learn?

That to create an environment of expectation on another (or even ourselves) creates an energetic matrix which confines and limits any possibility to only one: the outcome we expect!  And if this is not in keeping with anothers' unfoldment, then we do indeed create a prison of expectation which for the 'other' cannot be escaped.


By seeing this, owning this, withdrawing this, we remove the energetic shackles and allow for the unfoldment of possibility, sometimes a possibility beyond anything our limited self could possibility expect!

Wow.

Is it really that simple?

On this day, it was ... and it was wonderfully magical!

To Infinity & Beyond!

The Infinity symbol reminds me of Life ... a central overlap that we keep crossing, a knowing place where we may choose to rest and recouperate. 

For some it is the only place we know in Life, as we choose to remain within the confines of our limited Self.

A friend of mine today coined this place as "comfortably numb", a place where frightened Souls may choose to BE for a while - or a whole Lifetime.

In this central place, ignorance truly is bliss, or at least a perception of what we believe to be bliss, for true Bliss would never rest in this central place.  It is only to be found out on the edge.

However for some of us, this is also a rest-less place, a place where our yearning to be more than our belief systems tell us we are, cries out for, even demands, more expression.

As we gain self-awareness, expand our view of who we are and extend beyond our own 'safe' limitations, our rest-less-ness guides us along the outswing, another expedition into a greater unknown, simply to know more of 'what is', 'who is', 'I AM'.

The more we become self-aware the more capacity we have to increase our orbit away from the central place of "comfortably numb".  And as we do we expand our view of who we truly are, and therefore everyone else.

It's almost as if we set ourselves a trajectory that's wider and more encompassing of Life, like an asteroid that returns home to the Sun, only to depart on an even longer and lonelier journey, yet filled with trepidation, excitement, experience and learning.

On our way through the centre we may find and intersect with others on their own journey, if only for a brief moment, as other Souls pass within our orbit. Sometimes these journeys are concurrent and we have the privilege to share both the central and outward experiences. 

At other times these interactions are as brief as a heartbeat and yet their importance is no more or no less, as Time in this place, does not dictate the quality of the interaction.

"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center"-  Kurt Vonnegut

Another Sage, offering sage advice!

Hang on for the white-knuckle ride of your Life ... it's the only one you have ... this time around, so may as well make it interesting and exciting as you can.

Oh, and try to stay away from "Comfortably Numb". It gets boring after a while!

Wise Words ...

A question posed to His Holiness, The Dalai Lama:

'What thing about humanity surprises you the most?' 




His answer was as follows:


"MAN, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money, then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health, and then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present, and as a result he doesn't live in the present or the future, and he lives as if he's never going to die and then he dies having never really lived."

Tomato

In a recent film entitled "Schooling The World", a comment is made about how our western educational model has moved from being one of Wisdom to one of Knowledge, to now, one of Information (or even data?).

Why a tomato?

Well, data might tell me the chemical composition of the tomato, information might tell me its weight and colour.

Knowledge might tell me that a tomato is a fruit, as it contains seeds.

Wisdom, however, tells me not to put it in a fruit salad!

As we are bombarded with more and more information, from screens, iPods and other 'multifunction devices', how do we ensure that we stay 'connected' when so many modalities being presented to us take us away from the very fundamental connection we need to ensure our survival?

Wisdom, in any form, is wisdom and it can come from an Elder, a child, a tree, an animal. Perhaps the trick is not to forget what wisdom 'feels' like, when it is received, so that we may remember it in times of need.

And to do that, surely we must expose ourselves to as much wisdom as we can seek, when we can, and become conscious that the 'information age' is subverting our ability to listen.