104-How to Attain Complete Liberation, Through The Law Of Success: In The Time of The Renaissance

 Man as an image of God, possesses within him the all-accomplishing power of will. To discover through right meditation how to be in harmony with Divine Will is man's highest obligation.-

Paramahansa Yogananda,  "The Law of Success"      

"The knower of Spirit, abiding in the Supreme Being, with unswerving discrimination, free from delusion is thus neither jubilant at pleasant experiences nor downcast by unpleasant experiences,

"Unattracted to the sensory world, the yogi experiences the ever new joy inherent in Self. Engaged in divine union of the soul with Spirit, he attains bliss indestructible.....

Only that yogi who possesses the inner Light, becomes one with Spirit (after attaining freedom from karma connected with the physical, astral, and ideational bodies). He attains complete liberation in Spirit (even while living in the body)."

(God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita v:19--21,24).

Aligning your will with Divine Will through proper prayer, meditation, and action will free your sensory attachment to delusion (Maya). Once free you will be able to fulfill your potential on this earthly plain unencumbered by the failures of your own making. You must realizes that the Law of Success is absolute, that by following right living, right knowledge and right thoughts you will find your Liberation.

103-Following The Law of Intention And Desire, In The Time Of The Renaissance

You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.

Brihadaranyka

The Law of Intention and Desire

Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment... intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power. And when we introduce an intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, we put this infinite organizing power to work for us.

                                                                                      Upanishad IV.4.5.                                                   

                                            Just Ask A Horse

Now You See

I've Got This Light 

It's From These Mountains

That I Bring

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season), The Byrds

102-From the Belly of the Beast

"As one changes himself, others around him are also changed. The salutary effects of their law can be seen in the transformed and transforming lives of all great Masters."

"One who gives sincerity that is not appreciated or is abused is casting away "Pearls" uselessly: the wise reserve their spiritual treasure to benefit those who are receptive."   

The Second Coming of Christ

The Resurrection of the Christ Within You

A regulatory commentary on the original Teachings of Jesus

Paramahansa Yogananda

Volume 1

Discourse 30

Matthew 7: 1-5,6

                                  “From the Belly of the Beast,

 Once, I stood strong and tall atop America’s highest mountain peak. Turning I faced Mecca toward the East, to my eyes came this vision of a holocaust that brought me to my knees, touching the very depths of my soul. I saw the American Armada’s storming the seven seas. Hear my voice ring, for truth and freedom for the children! To every nation’s mountain peaks, from the depths of the belly of the beast!”

101-A Simple Protest Poem

 

                                                Upon the Ocean’s Breezes

 Listen! The ocean breezes are beckoning across the Isle Ellis. They are calling extraordinary artisans accustomed to nature listening. Apres’ her lady’s commissioning to let our collective lights shine brighter than the torch lit for Liberty, to let our collective voices be raised for all of Humanity, crying from the ocean’s depths of Peasantries, combating the silence of indifference, armed with swords of insignificance, to stem the rising tides of Russian Armageddons. Turning back the raging seas of Radical Extremism’s blasphemies spewing from the cauldrons tended by the World’s Aristocracies, beckoning across the sea of mediocrity.

How do you even begin to address the atrocities that are being waged against the Nation of Ukraine? My thoughts are very hawkish at the moment. Yes, the tide of World Outrage is shifting and it does look like we will get there. Do not let the simplicty of the Poetry lessen the urgency of the Mission.

If I Had A Rocket Launcher, Bruce Cockburn

100-Journey of an Awakening

 I stand on the rocks of the Rio Grande Trail in the John Denver Sanctuary and read the words of Rocky Mountain High and Annie's Song etched in to the surrounding stones. I  stare down at my hiking boots and think of how many trails and mountain peaks I have walked, climbed and skied to arrive here at this moment. The words ring clear in my mind and are part of the reason that I looked to the open road in search of sunrises, snowflakes and sunsets. It is a lot like reading Walt Whitman and Poems like Song of the Open Road. Each word, note or phrase touching a part of me and reaffirming everything that I believed in. All the reasons to continue on to another winter and another town or mountain to ski. "Aspen Colorado," I say to myself in my mind. Twenty Years in a town I thought I would never set ski boot in. It wasn't the Lure, the mountain is not king here, although beautiful and challenging in places, I can't put my finger on what has kept me here. Why didn't I go Chamonix, France. The draw was there. The lure of extreme skiing. The ever deeper snow and steeper mountains. It is the thing. Is it age? I am in my late 60's. I only went to Colorado to take Film and Screenwriting courses in the early 90's. A ski bum looking for a way to salvage a career from a mis-pent youth. In 1973 I took a year off from an Engineering Degree to go skiing, I never went back. Too late to be an extreme skier in Valdez, Alaska, too old. Part of the heart wants to carry on, even now, but the body refuses to. So you entertain other options. Ah! Aspen, the other option. The words to Rocky Mountain High pass before my eyes as I begin my walk down the Rio Grande Trail. I reflect on my time in Aspen now as I have left it. I am all right with that. It was time. It is unique and there was no other ski town in the world like it. I know I have tried them all. While I never cared much for the mountains there myself. This place has been a home and friend. It has allowed me the success for the freedom I wish in the future. Perhaps It is time to pick up my screenplay that I began here about Arapahoe Basin and complete it. I do not underestimate the work and I understand the challenge of getting it to market. The difficulty of Publishing Mountain writing will be a challenge. A challenge that others have faced and overcome. A young Nepalese Mountaineer Nimsdai Purja just conquered all of the world's 14- 8,000 meter peaks in seven months. (To put this into perspective Mount Everest, which was one, is 8,848.86 meters. Reinhold Messner an Italian Mountaineer, considered the World's Greatest Mountaineer, took 16 years to accomplish this. In all fairness Messner accomplished it without supplemental oxygen. Nimsdai used it above 8000 meters. Youth knows no limits. The will to accomplish what you were put on Earth to do cannot be denied at any age once it is realized and acted on. You do not often realize your goal or mission in life when you do you should not deny it. Accept the challenge and conquer it.) Reinhold has expressed a desire to make a film about a mountain which is encouraging and he is also the author of 80 books, however many are not published in the U.S. The difficulty is great but I believe not insurmountable.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible This is an absolute Incredible Inspiration for anyone who ever dreamed of accomplishing any Great Feat.

 On my way from the park I look up into Oklahoma Flats at the big log mansion that Kathy and I managed and lived in. It is dusk and I marvel at the beauty and the expense. I find joy in the freedom of not being a slave to it. I own my soul, my backpack, my hiking boots, and my Mac Air stuffed with my latest project. I have two tickets to Awake: The life of Yogananda, for Monday night in Carbondale. I still climb peaks to sit and meditate on. Even though they may be smaller hills these days. I am looking forward to an evening with my Guru and with my family. Things for me now are simpler. Maybe I look at things differently these days.

 I smile when I sit on the cliffs of Encinitas, California and meditate on the benches at Swamii's overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and Thank God that I was shown this Ashram by my wife. Although it is now somewhat commercialized it is still the most Beautiful Ocean Cliff in Southern California.

 I devoured Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket as a young man in the Eastern United States and I hope to return home soon to pay respect for my Father's Passing during the Corona Virus Time and look forward to seeing the Atlantic once again. However my die has been cast and I have no choice but to accept what God's Will is for my future. I am after all tested and ready.

Years ago I saw a concert in the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York. The group was called Renaissance. I was poised to set my feet on the road and try my hand at being a true to life ski bum. 
" Carpet of the Sun" became my song of the open road.
"Carpet of the Sun", Renaissance

99- What Are The Dreams Of An Odd Beat Poet?

      I remember a line to a song that said, "such are the dreams of the every day housewife you see anywhere any time of the day." What are exactly the Dreams of an Odd Beat Poet. I always thought my dreams were of the white. Snow, skiing, mountain sides covered in white snow, being above timberline. A climber friend of mine in Vail once told me, "I get very quite above 20,000 feet in elevation." Do you think? The silence of mountaineering and the white and the solitude and the quite is deafening to me. It touches me deep in my soul. My back pages are filled with mountain scenes. I have consciously chosen places to live where mountaineering and skiing were a by product. Dreaming of my golden years and acclimating to being around people and society in Oregon, preferably Eugene, I still have mountains on my mind. How about the Three Sisters in the Cascades, Mount Hood and Mount Bachelor? What is it about not letting it go. Do you ever really give up your first love? In Vail I had Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, and the Beaver Creek Children's Theatre. I'm sensing a theme here. Is old age spent in trying to recapture your youth? Ah to be twenty five again. I was in the best shape of my life for skiing in Aspen at forty after taking my wife's skiing conditioning class at the Aspen Athletic Club. I would like to think that I move on. However my obsessions are still my obsessions. I am a schemer, a dreamer. Dreaming about the ocean and walking on the beach and writing short stories and conquering the writing challenges that I envisioned for myself in my youth. I still find myself googling Mount Ranier and wondering how hard it would be to climb. I find myself taking long walks with Kathy these days under the pretense of staying in shape. I secretly think the Odd Beat Poet is plotting advanced workouts to get in shape for a major climb, somewhat similar to a Walter Mitty adventure. He googles late at night, "The oldest man to climb Mount Everest."

What are you doing? Those days are gone, not forgotten but gone.

Why is it that men attach feminine characteristics to inanimate objects. I know that almost every mountain that I have climbed or skied, I have at some point looked back at it and said, "isn't she beautiful." My most favorite ski run has to be the Pallavicini at Arapahoe Basin. Even tho it is next to impossible to rule out Utah and British Columbia, run for run my heart belongs to the Pali. I think that because in the early days you would have to start at the top of Montezuma Bowl traverse the cornice run to access the Pali. It was a long traverse with a giant tuck and a herring bone climb, if you didn't hit it hard enough to reach the top of the Pali.
All good things eventually come to and end. In bounds skiing gave way to out of bounds, open snow fields and steeper runs with deeper snows. Long climbs and incredibly steep unforgiving chutes, couloirs. Places where you came to the bottom rested on your ski poles your knees knocking together and your heart racing in your chest and couldn't wait to climb back up and do it again. Even those came to and end with age, fear, and disability. The body and mind betrays you. A ski patrolman friend of mine always said, "there are old ski patrolman and bold ski patrolman, but there aren't any old bold ski patrolman."
There is a new youth and they are more daring than my friends and I ever thought of being. I secretly envy them and wish I had thought of skiing off cliffs with parachutes or gliding suits. There are amazing young men and women accomplishing feats of daring that are astounding.
The Walter Mitty Odd Beat Poet flashes back to reality and he is walking along the Colorado River, with his champagne toy poodle and wife of twenty-six years, in Laughlin Nevada in the desert and avoiding other people so we don't get. Covid. We still talk about Oregon and will go there this summer. The Russians have invaded Ukraine and I am letting life flow with the Beautiful River. Since the beginning of the Pandemic Kathy and I have watched the news and said is it time to stand up hug each other and wail? We came very close watching the invasion lately. A full scale assault on Innocence, Freedom, Sovereignty and Democracy. If I was younger I would go and fight. I had a high draft lottery for the Vietnam war and did not have to go. I went to ski! It is out of my control,  at least I will write today. My writing is getting good. Hopefully, I'll write about my Love of Mountains.

Take the time to watch this young skier.
Skier Takes An Insane Run Down A Tiny Gap Between 2 Mountains

A Song of and Odd Beat Poets Love.
Judy Collins and Leonard Cohen "Suzanne"

98-Life is Love (A Humble Tribute To The Suffering Of The People Of Ukraine)

Beau Preparing Breakfast

Life is love, love is trust, trust is earned. These are truths that I learned from our equine massage school and equine rescue ranch. John Thompson would often have his good friend Beau in for breakfast. Beau is a buckskin stallion from the Buckskin Stallion Station. (Photos by John's Photographer, Cookie) We mutually learned about trust from one another. We both had wive's we loved and shared love for each others wife. More than once I have leaned over to kiss my wife in front of a horse and found myself standing several feet away from her with pursed lips and a big bucket head horse between us. I was literally knocked away by a jealous suitor.

The very first time that we worked on the brood mares in their stalls we were stalked by Beau. He would walk up to the stalls and create a ruckus. I quickly went out and attempted to shoo him away. I did not realize at the time that I was giving him the signal to rear up on his hind legs. I found myself looking straight up at the belly of this big Buckskin and his front legs pawing at the sky.
I fell quickly in love with Brooks. She was Beau's wife and partner. They always shared the same field and often a double stall. I came to admire the relationship of Beau and Brooks and their offspring. My favorite was Little Man. He was a Cremello, also known as an Albino. He was mesmerizing to watch in the field. I miss all the animals and the time we spent with them.

When I was a single young man and living in New York at this time of year I would enroll in ski conditioning classes. There was a particular pneumatic crunch machine. It was at the Steuben Athletic Club in Albany. It strengthened your core for skiing. There was a saying on the  machine. "The more you use what God has given you, the more God will give you." It wasn't until I surrendered my heart to love that I found happiness.

Corey Hart - Never Surrender

Life is Love and Memories and All We Work Our Lives to Achieve!

My heart is broken as I watch the news reports about the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin and the Russian Army. What happened to the world. The World for these people is being destroyed. Families torn apart, children dying, old people losing everything they have worked for. Democracy and the Ideals of it Destroyed. My words fail me. My mind is numb. All I can do is watch in horror. To all people of Ukraine, I can only send you what I know of Love as an American Citizen. May Your Suffering Be Eased. May the World come to it's senses and aid you in your time of need. People of the World Rise Up And Be Heard!