Ring of Fire

Good Morning Relatives

What do you think it means if you die and come back but you don't really notice 

 it's kind of like those word puzzles that we had to do in tests at school trying to recognize the key word in the scenario that unlocks the answer to the question that we cannot see but is not the obvious one

what is the question exactly  which attention paid to death gives it that magical power when overcome of elevating a previously disregarded or minimally valued life to the state of precious one?

is the value of surviving death the preciousness of an almost lost life that is suddenly recognized, or is it the need to be valued that makes the death worthwhile in the first place or, is it the opportunity to go beyond the emotions and the eventful and see into ourselves where it is exactly that we get hung up on being alive or not? it really does depend on what you notice 

what am I really after what really holds me back and brings the boogie man to my door at night? what's worth dying for and is life precious or is it something else something we get distracted by because it takes a really long time to understand that all that glitters is not gold but the thing is not to figure out what is gold but to give up being distracted by the glitter

what glitters can I see it inside of me the desire that creates glitter can I kill that can I free myself to live my life is not that kind of like dying and coming back to life all in the same moment

wouldn't having that idea or enlightenment give us the chance to really be free live to really actually exist at all or is it et al?

I wonder how many times the Dali Lama will have to die and come back before those of us who are around him will figure out the key in the scenario is not that he came back but that he never died in the first place can we use that understanding to move on to a different life so that he can as well do you think that what makes him precious is that he doesn't mind that we don't get it and that he does not allow immortality to rob him of the delight that comes when on occasion someone does not just understand like John Donne did that death isn't real and has no power over our lives but actually uses that understanding to develop and to grow beyond the limited beingness that we surround ourselves with 

ti's a tricky thing walking around in a world where war is meaningless but horrible all the same, where money and power are irrelevant yet so painfully present and absent at the same time where choice and action matter but not in the way of abandonment as those who are inattentive would have us believe

its's a thought 

Life is full of delicate thoughts  thoughts that can change m/y/our life in an instant if I have the courage to actually step into a different life than the one I was comfortably cradled in five minuets ago 

remember it's not the not doing that matters 

when I wake up in the middle of the night realizing that sometime in the Dreamtime I visited my past and watched myself die and come back as a very small child yet the remarkable thing to me was not that death was not real but that when the doctors told my parents they all of the sudden perceived that I had value, more or different value than before that information that idea that thought washed through them what's interesting to me was that for me in that time and space what was valuable was not the ability to come and go but my inner response to them suddenly recognizing that I was precious it presented me with the urge the need the opportunity to link my own inner self my own value to their belief and expression that I was valuable that I was precious to them 
the attachment took hold in me the need to feel to maintain that perception of preciousness was the most powerful moment of creation in the room, in my room  looking back as the person I am now I was detached enough prepared enough that I could feel its grasping desire wanting to live inside of me, wanting to trap me in the ring of fire known as love, holding onto the idea that being the valuable object of preciousness wanted to eat me alive

I feel like Sam/Frodo/Gollum on the edge of the river of fire in the heart of Mount Doom each one an example of who we become when we reach either for pure love with no attachment or, that attachment to the precious ring of power where our lives become centered around the value of maintaining our connection to our own preciousness even if it means death as the distractions in our scenario try to subdue us try to eat us alive by creating a great illusion about love and life and loss 

Johnny Cash knew exactly what I am talking about  
love is a burning thing 
and it makes a fiery ring
bound by wild desire

so desire burning desire and it burns continuously 
so why not let it burn up desire, burn up attachment to the persistent need for preciousness
trust me relatives the Lama knows that we are already precious and when we let ideas like death, or desire to be the focus of another's idea of what is valuable we have fallen into the river of fire in the heart of mount doom 
so if you're going to burn down the house relatives make sure the right ideas are inside

can you keep the love and kill the attachment 

it's a thought relatives 

you see what happens when you venture out in the morning at 3:56am to let your puppy out to pee and sit on a frosty cedar bench and drink in the air and look up at the stars while you wait for that small ball of fur to let loose 

kind of makes you think outside your box 

the world is so much bigger than our little brain can imagine thank Life for the laughing Lama and his willingness to die over and over and over again

 I have a new puppy and its a really big thing trying to guide a small unfolding mind and wriggly body that is so full of can do and want to through the ins and outs of yes and no and NEVER THAT
you know delicate things like not peeing in the house but its ok to pee outside of no you can't pull on my pants but you can pull on your toys yes you are safe and I will comfort you but I will also tell you no and mean it puppies we don't want them to grow up but we want them to have grown up thoughts 

delicate thoughts timings that lead but do not crush keeping the wonder while winnowing the mischief its a really big choice to decide to small a puppies potential down into a well trained good companion for a disabled sixty year old who's world is not as adventurous as it once was and whose landscape is regarded as an obstacle course as well as a remarkable expression of the day

it's a big thing to be a puppies person 

I imagine its a big thing for the Dali Lama to be our person too 

take care
remember to say please and thank you 
love ya
mean it