Living the Dream

"I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine

On a cloud of sound I drift in the night

Any place it goes is right

Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here" ....Steppenwolf, Magic Carpet Ride

I generally enjoy my dream life.  I hardly ever have "bad" dreams.  But when I was a young child I had a recurring nightmare.  It went this way:  I was not conscious of my body but felt waves of pressure and flashes of light.  That's about all I remember about it now except for three things:  It was scary, I always woke up screaming, and I never visualized anything but light.  Until the last one that is.  On my way out of that last one I saw a mountain ridge covered with pine trees.  It was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.  There was nothing special about this scene but I remember it perfectly.  It is seared onto my brain.  This time I didn't wake up screaming and immediately knew what this vision signified...and how crazy it seemed.  I'll share it with you if you are interested enough to contact me.

Some say our lives are composed of three parts:  our waking life, our dream life, and deep sleep.  

We call our waking life being awake but I wonder.  Mostly we are lost in thought... trapped in memory or scheming a future.  When we do this we aren't all that conscious of what is going on around us.  This is dangerous when driving 80 miles an hour on the freeway.  In essence, we are dreaming.  We are only rarely in the present moment.  We are somewhere else.  In fact, if you look back onto your day you only remember highlights.  Most of it is gone.

"Well," you might say, "When we're awake, it's just that, we're awake. We're thinking. We are in reality.  It is only when we are asleep that we dream.  Dreams aren't real!  Just like Jiminy Cricket says, they're just "a figment of your imagination!" Please don't go cosmic on me with all your BS!"

A "figment of my imagination" eh?  Who's quoting a Disney character? Hey, my dreams are just as real as my waking life.  When I touch objects, they're solid.  When I am injured, I hurt.  If I have sex, it's great. And everything's in color!  I meet people I've never ever met in my waking life and have conversations with them about subjects that I've never given a thought to otherwise!  Some of these people have been around in my dreams for years too although interestingly, I don't know their names.  My dreams don't feel like leftovers from my waking life.  They are a life.

Deep sleep is another thing entirely.  In deep sleep we are not conscious of our 'personhood'.  There is no 'I'... no thought.  Where are you then?  Where did you go?

I love to think about this stuff but in the end, I may just be blathering about my own concepts- making it all up as I go along...just dreaming.  As a seer once said:

"All concepts, are false."

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© Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock, 2014 Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

STFU for a Change

This is not earth shattering news but here you go anyway:  we are a noisy species.  We just can’t seem to shut up.  Try this:  go anywhere people have gathered, be still, close your mouth, and just listen for few minutes.  Here’s an example:

I wrenched my back and am in physical therapy for a few weeks.  The therapist gives me a massage and ultra sound then sends me to an assistant who guides me through a stretching routine.  It’s nice and really helps. After stretching, she has me lie down on an ice pack for 10 minutes.  During this 10-minute period she helps others so I just lay there quietly.  It’s a large room and isn’t crowded.  I’ve never seen more than 10-12 people in there at any time.  But, the din is incredible!  Don’t you ever stop talking?

Which reminds me:  I’m sure you’ve noticed groups of animals exhibiting the same behavior.  Monkeys come to mind.  But there are others…such as ducks.

We have a water feature in our neighborhood and we enjoy walking the paths around it especially in the spring when the baby ducks are everywhere.  Now that it’s late in the summer the survivors have grown up.  The other day I encountered a team (or brace) of ducks.  I counted them:  35 strong…and they were swimming my way.  I stopped while they exited the water and waddled right in front of me to a lawn where they gathered together…quacking constantly.  I don’t know what they were saying to each other but they were loud and in a way, sounded just like… all of you.

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Interesting mind-blowing fact: green-rumped parrots name their children.  Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ed9A4HPdXgQ

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© Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock, 2014 Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Is the Universe Intelligent?

When I was 10 to 14 or so my friends and I spent many warm summer nights “camping” around my parents’ backyard swimming pool.  We’d spread a blanket or two on chaise lounges, watch constellations, satellites, and shooting stars traverse the sky and of course, talk about everything. I remember those nights well but what I remember best and think about most is not the show in the sky.  What I remember are the big questions looking at the sky seemed to naturally spawn: where did the Universe come from, how can it be infinite, is it intelligent, and what does it all mean?  My friends and I turned over many rocks searching for those answers.  None were found.

Scientists tell us that the Universe started with a big bang.  They say that something very small blew up and became very big and is still expanding to this day.  They say that the Universe is infinite and may be conceptualized by visualizing the shape of the number 8.  Some of these scientists say the Universe just “is”.  It is raw nature and by itself has no meaning or intelligence.  Life happens when the chemistry is right and this rightness is a rare event in space where extremes of hot and cold are the norm.  They say we are essentially arrangements of organic molecules swimming aimlessly on the surface of a moist Petri dish hatched by a giant ball of flame floating in the sky. 

Others say a god created the Universe.  They say this god is intelligent, caring, and watches over us in our lives although it is up to us to decide if we’re going to be “bad” or “good”.  When we die, he will send us to where we deserve: heaven, or hell.  These two destinations are somewhat ill defined though and the rewards or punishments vary according to which god one believes is in control.  This god is supposedly benevolent and wishes us well even as we are constantly hammered and tested by the never ending suffering and conflict we bring on ourselves.  One could imagine that a little intervention would be appropriate at times.  Incredibly, no one seems to know what he, or she, even looks like…although some of us think this god has a beard.

I don't buy any of this.

I’m not saying I don’t believe in science.  Science is fun and interesting and certainly useful as we go about our daily lives.  But it just doesn’t give us an answer to this most important question “What does it all mean?”  I’m also not saying that there is no God.  Interestingly, the idea or concept of God is something we have trouble defining and there is no consensus we’ve reached together on who or what this god is except that God is somehow looking down upon and guiding us.  Some, after much thinking or dreaming, have come up with their own version of a god or gods. Some choose to take the existence of a god on faith from parents, teachers, peers, and even old books.  Consequently, we have manufactured hundreds of religions all convinced that it is their god only that sits on the throne and supplies the correct answer.  Then there are a few of us who don’t conceptualize God as an “other” in any sense of the word.  It’s all kind of a mess.

So for me, neither science or a god has convinced me that the Universe is intelligent. But maybe we can think this through another way by making some logical suppositions:

1.     We exist inside the Universe.

2.     Being inside it means we are a “part” of it and not “separate” from it.

3.     We are generally conscious and intelligent beings.  Some of us anyway.

4.     Since we exist inside this Universe, are a part of it and are intelligent, then the Universe itself is intelligent.

If all this is true then perhaps you’d like to think of this Universe as…God.  Would that create enough meaning for you?  Beware though:  if we are connected so fully to this Universe then we must be God too.  

I am going to tell you something now.  Remember it well.  If I am God and you are bad  “the next time you see me comin’ you better run.” (1)

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If the Universe is intelligent…isn’t that just incredibly cool?

Let me know what you find under your rock.

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(1) from Bob Dylan’s song Highway 61 Revisited

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© Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock, 2014 Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Unsmiling Face of God

Several years ago, at the invitation of three male friends,  I took my two sons on a camping and fishing trip to the High Sierras above Bishop, California.  The town of Bishop sits at an elevation of 4,200 feet above sea level.   Our destination was a campsite just at the tree line near Golden Trout Lake. Elevation: 11,000 feet. Fit hikers walk this dangerous twisting and steep rocky trail in a very long day or two.  My friends though had hired a guide who would get us to our camp in eight hours or so via horseback...with mules to carry our gear.  We were planning to stay a few days so we needed three mules to carry our tents and food, plus one more for beer.

Our guide dropped us off at our campsite and promised to return a few days later.  We pitched our tents, roped and hoisted our food up into the trees and organized our gear.  This took longer than it should have.  After riding a horse for 8 hours I could barely move.

Towards dusk we settled in around the fire and, beers in hand, began to appreciate our surroundings.  You've seen, if not in person at least in photos, how spectacular the scenery is in the High Sierra:  big blue sky, jagged peaks with patches of snow in the shadows, pines transformed into banzai miniatures, lichen growing on giant granite boulders, and little gems of crystal clear lakes sprinkled about. This area is incredibly beautiful and remote from any kind of civilization...very very remote.  In fact, one of my friends made a point of telling us to be very mindful hiking and fishing as help, if needed due to a fall or bear attack, would not be arriving any time soon.   He ended this warning with a statement that I think of often:  "Up here" he said,  "you can see the unsmiling face of God."

I saw it again last week as we drove around three states I had never visited before:  Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  I took a photo of it for you between Bismarck, ND, and Deadwood, SD.

It is untouched prairie... an unspoiled bit of what was called The Sea of Grass that once covered almost a third of this country.  Beautiful, intimidating, alive, moving and ever-changing, infinite...an awe-filled panorama stilled and quiet somehow even in the wind.  Raw nature showing us again her face:  The unsmiling face of God.
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© Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock, 2014 Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steve Stewart and SeeNextRock with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.