Houston, Do You Read Me?!

                                        Houston, Do You Read Me?!

 

 

 

              

 

                              “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

                                                                             Neil Armstrong

 

People, at times, accuse me of being "out there, Earth to Zim, beam me up Scotty," so I've written a few blogs on “Zim for Dummies,” which are intended in the vein of how to get the most out of this blog, so here's another post along those lines. This is where a writer is attempting a degree of transparency and disclosure with the hope of guiding the reader in understanding and self-discovery through the modeling of one who has invested a great deal in the process of awakening.

Just as counseling/psychotherapy is a process of self-discovery, so too is the writing and reading of material that is expressed with intentions of bringing more light, love, humor, and entertainment into a world with a lot of darkness, fear, seriousness, and poor quality entertainment! In working with clients, I'm always coaching them to not take themselves too seriously, and to find the absurdity and ridiculous nature of what we've come to call civilized society. This lends itself to a general lightness of being and openness to experience that tends to get closed down as we get older.

My writing is holographic in nature, which is to say there is no linear, cause/effect, time or goal orientation, each piece of writing is completely contained and will have the seeds of the totality of all my writings within it (including this one). Just as a single cell of our body contains the blueprint of our whole body, so too any particular essay will have enough information to clone my whole body of work. In Zen this is called “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” When I'm working with clients, I don't need them to tell me their whole detailed history, I can take one circumstance they present and we can extrapolate how this is representative of their whole life.

The reader will also notice that I write, speak and act as declarative as I can muster. I own and take full responsibility for what I write, even when it's complete crap! I am my own authority, reference, and model, I'm not looking for a justification for what I express. Emerson wrote; “Bravely speak the utmost syllable of your conviction, God will not have his work made manifest by cowards,” and “Speak (write) as if what you say is true for everyone,” or Gandhi’s proclamation to; “Act as if humanity depended on your every thought, word, and deed.” It should also be noted that there is; nothing new under the sun, and every artist, scientist, philosopher, politician, etc. is always standing on the shoulders of those who came before, as we're all begging, borrowing, or stealing everything we think is new and original.

Speaking as your own authority can be very off-putting to some, because we live in a culture that is dependent on external authority. Everyone wants to know your sources, references, evidence, and model you use to teach, do therapy, and exist. But the greatest thinkers, writers, teachers, and leaders are the ones who are their own authority. This is another coaching I do with clients who present with such insecurity, doubt, dependency, and self-negation. I try to help them see that they know who and what they are deep down, and they have the power and resources to know themselves and to be true to who they are. This is a contradiction to how we're socialized, which is to be; who we are not.

I use pictures because they point to another, deeper, more expansive form of communication that is symbolic. The pictures say much more than the writing, just as a dream, poem, song, painting, dance, or movie will say much more than any commentary about them. My writing uses concepts to go beyond concept, 90%+ of communication is non-verbal. I'm interested in facilitating experience, not concept, God knows we've got enough of that! So readers are encouraged to make contact with what they are able to experience in relation to the writing, not what they think about it.

These writings are each an individual meditation that can be contemplated and integrated into your being if you invest and set an intention to share my hope for awakening. If you work on integrating and incorporating what you glean and act in such a way that your behavior reflects your understanding, than you are truly participating in your own as well as others awakening, what could be more fulfilling?