The Season of Harvest

Many centuries ago a very wise Greek, named Aesop began telling moral tales.

They were called Fables, Latin for ‘little talk.’

These talks set a tone for the Seasons of the Harvest.

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and slaving away?"

"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present."

But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

When the winter came the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing, every day, corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

As with tales that tell a truth, it contain many truths.

Ants are really strong.
Grasshoppers have very little use for the future.
Save now.
But For me it speaks of time to prepare to harvest:
So-Sew

What seeds have you sown?
I planted, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, rosemary, basil, squashes. And with weeding, watering and fertilizer that’s what I got. A harvest of fresh food to make the ants happy and feed a few freeloading grasshoppers too.

What aims, goals and intentions did I plant?
I started with a presentation on Goals to Flow-ers at a Soropotist meeting. A speech on how our goals become the fruits of our efforts and how when firmly planted goals become the flowers of whom we are.

I found the words that form our Pity Pot, the consume’ of our Stinkin Thinkin and SHARED the deodorant for Stinkin Thinkin.

I planted seeds to handle my peers who have been caught by their own critic, got the disease of cynicism and are headed into being a curmudgeon-the person who throws the wet blanket over our enthusiasm and appreciation. I answered the challenge of the curmudgeon with our greatest tool humor.

I bid you come with you now, into the seasons of Holidays with a taste of what the holidays can become BECAUSE:
We can reap compassion in a challenging economy.
We can share kindness with all.
We can harvest the fruits of our labor, making work-love made visible.

For the fall plant a fall seed of Holidays.

Of holy days to come.

Of being grateful for each moment.

Start by putting real meaning into Halloween, change your costume and change who you are, find new ways to look at life, get an attitude adjustment, to have fun.

Followed on November 1 by a reverence for All Saints day.

All, everyone as a SAINT that day.

And on the American Thanksgiving I make gratitude lists and extort over grace the thanksgiving of our bounty.

I celebrate holidays I barely understand, Hanukka and Kwanzaa, searching for meaning and respect for others' ritual. Respect for that I may not understand.

And then on a bedraggled Christmas I ponder the multitude of meanings given to a day of commercial magnitude and of good cheer, goodwill and excited grandkids.

And a new start on New Year’s Day, that you can extend all the way to A Chinese New Year.

To make ReSoultions to what I want to create in 2010.

Begin now as each day grows shorter, to lengthen your compassion, your kindness, your gratitude for the miracle you are.

Plant your seeds.

Bring your harvest home with aliveness, enthusiasm and appreciation.

Because if you are not appreciating this moment, what are you doing?

Ya Gotta have a Buddi or Two

Happy May Day 2009-

This is a recycled, edited, updated Avatar Fry Day, a newsletter from 2004 to Buddi’s.

Dear Buddi your in this one and each blog, and each Sunday Sermon I write.

"I ended April coining a new word. Washington Post does it all the time, words like:
Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
My word is Buddihood (v).

A buddi is not so committed as a bodhis (bo·dhi·satt·va (bo´dî-sùt¹ve) noun Buddhism. An enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others. [Sanskrit bodhisattvah, one whose essence is enlightenment: bodhih, perfect knowledge + sattvam, essence, being (from sat-, existing)., but a buddi is on the path to nirvana.

Buddies are more than a friend, they are an inspirer.

Not a muse, though they have qualities of a muse, but empathetic.

They are role models, mentors and peers. Someone who listens and hears with compassion and insights. They bring out the best in you, and you mirror them.

It is not a friendship based on what SAGE creator, Brandon St John, called “you buy my bullshit, I’ll buy yours.”
It’s not based on money or the sympathetic snivel of sharing a pity pot.
The relationship does not depend on length of time, although like wine, aging these buddihood decants into magic.
It’s the partner in the master & baiter game, a student and coach.
The questioner and answerer.
Your partner in drilling a skill.
Your mirror.
Definition of a Buddi is the archetype on the list of character ethic’s I wish for.
Love of all life, especially self-love.
Compassion when feeling and experiencing another person.
Empathy, a sign of wisdom, a relief from our self-importance.
Commitment to being present no matter what.
Courage to keep coming back for more.
Perseverance to do the real work. Know They Self.
Patience to accept the unacceptable.
Understanding practiced into an art form.
Wit to laugh at ourselves, & sense the contradictory humor in consciousness.
Insight into finding another way of looking at all situations.
Clarity to see all the other ways of looking.
Creativity to come to solutions.
Honesty in being real.
Changeability with the flow.

My life has been blessed with many amusing buddies.

Partners, in dyads sitting across from me, with a presence, and being a ‘present’ to work with.

Framed?

I love framing. All life is framed.

Framing a building, creating the ribs and skeleton of a structure where it’s possible to walk through walls. I earned a living in the 1970’s framing.

In the 1980’s I meet the Ricki’s, my Metalinguistic Institute NLP trainers and learned about reframing-whats another way of looking at this/that? And the ways we frame life. I remember the Ecology frame, Family frame, Survival frame, Spiritual frame, Fun frame, and my favorite, the just for the hell of it frame. I became good at framing ideas, eventually creating Avatar Fry Days, blogs and The Sunday Sermon of The Church of Attention.

Later in the 1980’s I became a fan of framing pictures. A passion grown first with the salon hair gallery, then into themes, hands, my Art Deco mode, the credos and mottos, ancient wisdom, Art Nouveau, the Who Are You prints, Raleen’s flower art, collages, Hollywood’s glamour age, and the family & friends. Now those frames are boxed, another way of containing a structure, separating this from that, cataloging where and what it is.

Frames on my glasses have become important, especially the green frames that neutralizes my red eyeball scar, covering the gravity around my eyes.

Framed amongst the redwood trees, the cabin popped out to greet us.

Framed within the soft chords of the guitar, the flute spoke of distant dances.

Framed inside an island of safety, we believed many things.

Sitting on my porch watching the sunset and listening to Joni Mitchell sing Coyote, I was amused by her framing of the song, with the chorus creating a frame. Both as a way to contain the characters and theme, and how like the choir in Greek theater, the voice from above, a right angle to the action. Another way, often a divine way, of looking at a subject, from the edges, the frame, over the fence like the cartoon Kilroy.

Grandmothers telling nursery rhymes, fairy tales, begin the frame with Once upon a time and bring us to completition with and they lived happily ever after or simply The End.

It’s all-possible within a frame. Time and space are at your command.

Feeling confined, make a bigger frame.

Feeling confused make a clearer frame, or add some mirrors.

Feeling separate and alone, add characters.

Feeling overwhelmed, use some ‘white out, take an eraser, or lift the screen on your etch-a-sketch.

An interesting twist is to take the frame to the past, as in “I was framed,” lose creativity and freedom amongst the paranoid delusion of victim hood.

What frames do you love?

Conscious Mortality

Being aware of the presence of our demise is as rare as the common sense necessary to count back change.
“Here’s your purchase sir, that’s $14.95 from a $20, a nickel makes $15, and $5 makes $20.”
Counting change is a game where you start with the end in mind. What about starting or at least being aware of life with the end in mind, because life does end, it’s a round trip.

If I knew the end of this life was tomorrow, or today, say after lunch would I:
Repent? Rue the moment? Regret and moan to the end?
Or
Find my attention quite expansive?
Express emotions of gratitude?
Would my mind become curious and very interested?
Would I be kinder & nicer?

A philosopher and teacher from the last century wrote in the epic 1238 pages of All And Everything “the sole means now for the saving of the beings of the planet Earth would be to implant …a new organ…that everyone of those unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as the death of everyone upon who his eyes or attention rests.”

A best selling anthropologist referred to death constantly being over a spiritual warriors shoulder in his many books.

Simon and Garfunkle sang “So I’ll continue to pretend, My life will never end.”

Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan’s first electric guitarist picked up the theme on The Native American album with the chant, “It’s a good day to die.”
Put life on the line.
Give your life everything.
What do I have to lose?
These clichéd lines of motivation to not hold back, to get in the flow, to be all you can be, to leave it all on the court, are real.
Mainstream wisdom from the righteous right to the liberal left encourage us to be here now, to worship the moment.
I have an old friend who took this seriously; I mean dying is serious business, a business worthy of paying attention too.
Being present to what we love. Family, friends and this moment. To go beyond our habits and inhabit the thoughts of how do I want to be when I die?
How do I want to be as I live?
We heard of the ‘Bucket List.”

Those things to experience even appreciate before we kick the bucket,
BUT
Is there a cool way to go?
Would you rather go
“MAKING LOVE or MAKING WAR?
“Leave ‘em guessing or Leave ‘em Groaning?*
“Making a Difference or Making an Alibi?
“Trailblazing or Covering Your Tracks?
“Full of Passion or Full of Pills?
What’s a cool way to go?
“Laughing or Litigating?
“Singing or Screaming?
“Praying or Cursing?”
“Loving or Blaming?”

The author and guru of Death and Dying Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote her way, “At home with lots of flowers, a large window and grandchildren playing by the bed.”

“It’s never too late to die.”

If you’re not appreciating this moment, what are you doing?

*101 Cool Ways to Die By Douglas Gillies

Namaste Gary

I Practice, Always.

I remember 2/7/2004
It’s a clear blue morning on the Straits. Dozens of sailboats are headed out toward the Golden Gate.

I have been up since 5 practicing.

Practice from prassein, Latin ‘to do.’
Practicing Doing what?
Sitting in silence, for a while, a very little while.

It became so hard to do I got my beads and OM-ed. My voice deep and resonate through the Chakras. My imagination adding a spiral Chi feeling, an ascending motion.
I am practicing.

WHEN’S THE GAME?

I wonder, is this real?
I’m a western westerner, can’t get much further west without getting real wet. I am a Smith, a kid named Gary.

Practicing to experience the silence of the Shining Black Void, the Onyx of existence, which disappears (where can nothing go?) each moment I grasp for it.

As soon as I reach for it, believe I see, feel or have it, POOF, its gone.
What is it? Which way did it go?

But I practice. I have always practiced.

I tossed the tennis ball against the basement wall practicing ground balls.

Shot free throws, and practiced right and left-handed drives against invisible Boston Celtics.

Practiced throwing three strikes in the tenth frame to win the U.S. Open.

I practice my poems, the words to the song, and the lines to the play.

I can practice every chance I get.
It’s Saturday, such a good day to practice.
My bowling psychologist gives tips to practice. He asks:,
“What is your level of awareness?
“Virtually every bowling situation is either heaven or hell depending on your point of view you choose!

I practice, always practice.

“The eye of the storm-which ‘area of drama’ is your mind residing?

Those are practice for some practical results.

To be a poet, singer, bowler, a player, but personal practice, practicing nothing?

Doing that which leads to enlightenment.

Setting time aside, when no one else is watching, and doing something incredibly kind for ourselves.
It is from this well of patience and understanding, we develop from practice, which allows us to draw upon compassion, even when our mind is screaming in righteous rage of rightness to be right, right now. Right?

Practice to create compassion on the spot, anytime anywhere.

There is always a game for compassion.
The important thing is a time each day in which we practice waking up, beyond the sleep of the night, waking up to the amazing fact that we are alive.

Practice to be capable of developing skills of attention and will that leads to understanding and appreciation of our minds, unstuck, without boundaries and view the world and our self in motion.
A time of practice where we can go deeper into our

being and experience what the Tibetans call Namshak, equipoise. The balance and grace of the moment when we are able to respond to the present and not habitually react.

I practice to handle my racing, rushing and obsession with results.

I practice because there is something more here, more than my mind to comprehend.

I practice to find appreciation in a new way.

I practice to find gratitude in an old place.

I practice for teamwork and cooperation.

I practice to feel thanks always.

I practice because I have learned to love.

I practice Namaste
Gary

3. e·qui·poise (ê¹kwe-poiz´, èk¹we-) noun
3. Equality in distribution, as of weight, relationship, or emotional forces; equilibrium.
3. A counterpoise; a counterbalance.

At the risk of seeming Masterfully Metaphorical Paying Attention is Our ONLY Investment!

Its the time of the year of Soothsayers, NaySayers, ReSolutionists, Goal Gurus, and Janus's of every sort, it is only the ability to be present that will predict your future.

My Attention is on the Big Picture of what 2008 has brought, and What I Want in 2009.

We all have a New Charge in the Cosmos with Barrack presiding, and Change in the Air.

Pay Attention to which way the wind blows, where you can Show Up, chances, choices and risks, and remember to Do It Now.

Join the cause to see where to put your Attention, Possible Agendas, and Wishes for All.

Make the new year, new day, new moment filled with the understanding of who turns the screws that run the Ship of Your Destiny.

Its YOU!

Happy ThanksGiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING It will be the Thursday of the year! Lets roast some gratefulness, appreciation, and gratitude in an Expansion oven.





Let’s assemble our ingredients starting with your self. Find your most basic
component of gratitude, your breath. Put your attention on your breath. Appreciate a single breath, and then stir in some Thanks Source I am breathing.





Breathe through your nose and catch the wafts of you. Smell the smeller. Today it will be a prime sense and source in your aroma heaven. Take a moment to appreciate this sense.


Intensify odors and discern the members of the smell universe.


No scent and no meal are without the memories of tastes and smells that have gone before.

Appreciate grandma’s fragrances; the sit down Turkey dinners at home, the vegetarian years with the yams. Expand into appreciation of those frozen moments. Extend as far into them as you can. Effortlessly occupy all your past scents and mix liberally with gratitude and appreciation.


Since we are cooking let’s get an impression of our mouth, tongue, chewers and tasters. Get some impression of the space they occupy in you. How far do they extend? As effortlessly as you can, taste in all directions. Intensify and include all the tastes you appreciate.


Now gather impressions of gratitude. It’s Thanksgiving, time to bring out the best, use only with special guests, the gratitude you’ve been saving for a special occasion is for now. Intensify and expand your attention into the space of gratitude you have created. Feel where the gratitude comes from. Be grateful at your source.


Time to mix specific thanks into the Feast of Appreciation.


Intensify the feeling of the freedom you occupy. Appreciate that freedom with many breathes.


Extend and engage all the specific types and kinds of Thanks you create.


Add Thanks for all of your body.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


Add a full serving of Thanks for your feelings and senses.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


Pour in Thanks for your ideas, intentions and goals.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


A dash of Thanks for all you remember, and all you don’t.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


Add a heaping amount of Thanks for the other bodies, friends, & family.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


Spice the feast with Thanks for the decisions you make.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


Pull out the Thanks for the epiphanies.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.


Sprinkle on Thanks for the actions created.


As effortlessly as you can, make your Thanks extend in all directions.

Add that one more jewel of Thanks for finding a way to create your Feast of Thanks, & sharing your thanks.

Attention to higher thoughts

There are virtues, that at times, are so rare, so small in comparison, that what is happening that is fixed attention or a plethora of distraction seem to constitute all & everything.

Paying attention as an investment means staying open to the possibilities that virtues and meaning exist in each moment.

It means discernment as to what is happening and what can happen continues to happen,
"There are many rooms in my fathers house," appears somewhere in Biblical translations."

As Does, "There are more things under heaven and earth than dreamed in your world Horatio, " may come altered a bit from Shakespeare.

And the one I was weened on, Beelzebub said to his grandson Hassiem, "Dear Boy, always remember that as the sunsets, those higher centers exist whether we are aware of them or not.

"
So paying attention is in degrees.

As with all temperature we are hot and we are not.

We remember, we forget, we may even have forgotten that there is no death, as in there is no loss of love, self or otherwise but when one's body dies, a new vessel begins its journey and only the waters from the river Lethe and we forgot how connected, how much time we have to remember to bring all virtues into existences.

HOPE

I am turning 61 at the end of this year.

It has been 40 years and 6 month since I last felt any hope in the American government.

For two thirds of my life I have not felt the joys and pride of being on the team.

Oh there were times, the way we felt the pride and partied for the Bi-centennial.

The Viet Nam was ended and some friends came home alive, but suffering.

A lying president was impeached and resigned and a really nice guy from Georgia was president. But he was as inept as the Ford he defeated.

The cowboy president brought down the wall and ended what I thought was to be the end of the world in nuclear holocaust. That was relief and I felt the need to take a serious look at the future and Raleen and I invested in America with IRA’s & SEP’s.

During the Clinton era I grew to expect long term business boom, conflict resolution, sex scandals, but any hope that may have been growing collapsed with his successor and the dot coms, collapse.

All to be further buried under the rubble of 911.

And it got worse when we attacked a country. We are the aggressor. I don’t know if shame is the opposite of hope, but I am ashamed, and the whole planet suffers from our aggression. We had become the evil empire pointing at others our finger, winning a war, and losing more peace.

BUT today I felt that hope at 3:33 am when I got ready to vote.

It felt like Christmas, a special gift was coming, it was under the tree and all I needed to do was vote and open the package. I felt joy at my polling place, and with all those who wore there I voted stickers. NPR talked about 80+% turn out. Raleen and I both cried.

It’s 4:30 PST, and I want that package, and I feel the fears and doubts of there not being a present under the tree as large as a bike.

BUT just the taste of hope and the civility of waiting, of the candidates having fought the fairest in the last eight years and that maybe 80% of US voted.

I feel the possibility that we, US, have the power and guts to get out, and fairly elect leaders.

I now sit in front of the computer and say, whatever happens in the next few hours, Lets JUST BE NICE

Let US win or lose like we were taught, shake hands and agree to disagree.

Let US lead, as in Let US have no more blame, excuses, spun stories of someone else did it to US.

No matter what happens, it can’t happen to US again if we believe in the hope of change, of responsibility of accountability of the creative power of our imagination to WE THE PEOPLE, in order to form a more perfect union, are taking back the country.

I HOPE We now know FREEDOM is a process that we must work at always.

Namaste

Gary

Help is the hardest thing to ask.

Help, I need somebody, something, some way out of here.

Is "Can you help me?" The hardest question to ask?

Is this another reason to believe that The Beatles were divinely inspired because their first movie was HELP?

As I peruse an alphabet anchor, a way to remember meanings from the alphabet, I am searching out charge words.

My criteria is what motivates me.

Motivates towards or motivates away?

Going down the alphabet to H, I was motivated to move away, “I mean I don’t need any HELP, I can do it myself.”

There is a charge in asking for help, so H is for help in my New ABC’s.

I have some counter productive beliefs around this word.

Beliefs I sure don’t want any grandchildren to catch, or maybe they will catch them and it will be an opportunity, as my wise fisherman son practices, to Help with “Catch & Release.”

Here are some beliefs about HELP:

The ego believes it has to be right, so there is no space to ask for help.
·

Only weaklings ask for help. The Fonz or John Wayne never asked for help.
·

If you ask someone for help you have to listen and do what they tell you, and I don’t want anyone telling me what to do.
·

If I ask for help then people will know I don’t know, then they might think I am not invincible.
·

Help is humbling; a more graceful word that I could have chosen to let me off this helpless treadmill and not have to explore my own helpless beliefs.
·

Think of all the excuses and blame I’d have to give up if I asked for help.
·

Being an adult, especially an elder, means never having to ask for help.

That’s a bunch of indoctrinated, self-defeating beliefs that keeps attention stuck, outcomes limited, and leaving me to continue to create from trial and error.

Lots of errors or even worse, lots of giving up.

So I would like your help.

Business is going well and it’s important for you to know I have time for you, your friends and family members. If you would like to refer your family members. I can help free fixed attention, create entertaining content and help you find your way

For the grandchildren of the world, ask for help, it’s as easy as pushing the F1 key on a PC.

But REMEMBER to ask nice.

Grandpa

Gary

Inspiration

Inspiration is like a bath, never hurts to take another one.

Perhaps you wonder about my maxim, Paying Attention is my Best Investment in the Future. After all if you just let things slide don’t they have a way of working themselves out anyway?

Isn’t it really enough to get by day to day?

Why should you care to give your best to the way your life turns out?

Statesman, Patrick Henry answered this complacency with:

“Why stand we here idle?
What is it the gentlemen want?

What would they have?
Is life so dear, is peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains & slavery?
Forbid it all mighty God.
I know not what course others may take, as for me
Give me Liberty or give me death.”

Patrick Henry

The meaning is clear; complacency is a form of slavery. The shackles are comfortable and easy to slip into. They require nothing but disinterest and indifference.

As the plumbers say, “Shit runs down hill and payday is on Friday.”

Why wait for disaster to wake you?

Can you make change without pain?

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Scrub down the filth of ‘stinkin-thinkin’ and find that foundation of your being where the desire to make a difference lives.

It is time to add your creativity to life.

Remember the bakery slogan, “Life is short, eat desserts first.”

Stressed is desserts spelt backwards, so maybe we have that tasty part of life backwards.

Do not let gravity suck you down. Use its force to identify the ruts and ask, “Where have I stopped paying attention?”

Step out of the rut, and get into your groove.

“Slow down you move to fast, gotta make this morning last. Just kicking down the cobblestones, looking for fun and feeling groovy.” Simon & Garfunkel were insightful and a little bubble gummy, but being in the groove or getting your groove back is an attention builder.

Use your attention to build your excitement and enthusiasm for life.

Do it now, because tomorrow never comes. Tell others. Be an early adopter to change.

Become an enthuser, someone who fires others with spirit.

For help finding your enthuser, or your message call me.

510-722-3212 http://www.garycsmith.net

If I weren't me, I'd envy me.

"If I weren't me, I'd envy me," was a revelation from The Sugi Way founder Ofer Erez.

It rings a number of times for me.

From being called conceited in junior high to carrying the sledge hammer of self abasement, during challenging times.

The person I found least appreciating was me.

Its not a PC thing to do, blow your own horn. I have wanted to write about “Shameless Self Promotion’ but a garden variety of false-humility

So from a paying attention point of view, lessons in atonement (at one minute), are a stepping stone to self-appreciation.

The subject is rare in religious liturgies.

My favorite atonement is from Marianne Williamson poem on Fear used by Nelson Mandela in his inauguration.. The challenges he faced, to come from prison, win an election and enlighten his country with the message:
“Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented & fabulous??
Actually, who are we not to be?
You are a child of god, your playing small doesn’t serve the world..
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are born to manifest the glory of god that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
When we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

There are many identities within me, those that resonate this poem, I appreciate, honor and envy.

Equinox Magic

Fall has arrived with the days after the equinox cooling from 105 to the 80’s. The Golden Gate fog is the gray background, foreground of water and sky as a beech tree begins, like us, to change to our fall wardrobe.

Sitting on the deck, I harvest this first fall week as the planet 'up rights' itself into the plumb erect posture the Pilates teachers preach and the cycle of precious light continues to defuses for an entire season. The sun bows away and we accelerate an inner harvest of work and gratitude toward source.

(Source-when I am present without demands or expectations, or beliefs, my attention is free and unlimited even by ‘I am’ Gary, just-a-guy.

For One’s lifelong work is to trust thy self, the Source.)

And the ever-present story of whenever two or more are gathered in my name continues.

Chang Tzu, long dead Taoist, tells the story of a master craftsman who made beautiful things of wood. They were so exquisite the King demanded to know the secret of his art.

“Your Highness,” said the carpenter, “there is no secret; but there’s something. This is how I begin.:


“When I am about to make a table, I first collect my energies and bring my mind to absolute quietness.(Source)

“I become oblivious of any reward to be gained or any fame to be acquired. When I am free from the influences of all such outer considerations, I can listen to the inner voice, which tells me clearly what I have to do.

“When my skill is thus concentrated, I take up my ax; I make sure that it is perfectly sharp, that it fits my hand and swings with my arm. Then I enter the forest.


“I look for the right tree; the tree that is waiting to become my table. And when I find it, I ask:

“What have I for you, and what have you for me?”


“Then I cut down the tree and set to work.”

“I remember how my master taught me to bring my skill and my thought into relation with the natural qualities of the wood.”


The King said, “When the table is finished, it has a magical effect on me; I cannot treat it as I would any other table.“What is the nature of the magic?”

“Your Majesty,”said the carpenter, “what you call magic only comes from what I have already told you.”

Namaste
gary

Want to be somebody? Or just want to be?

To be or not to be, that IS THE QUESTION.
To form an identity
or OR OR
Free yourself from labels, tags or limits.
Become a verb. An action, preferably a virtue
Patience
Compassion
Enthusiasm
Love
Integrity
And support others to become a virtue.

There is a school of New Age programs, some maybe cults, that have the tools to disassemble your EGO, and replace those 3 EGO beliefs:

1. I have to be right
2. I can't make a mistake
3. I already know that

Replace with personal beliefs in virtue.

Ego less Human Beings WILL create affirmations of the highest thought.

Affirmation, created in supportive groups, not all are cults, promote world peace, enlightenment, prosperity, wisdom, interconnection with all beings, satori, unconditional love, oneness, freedom and much more.

Yes, I have experienced being without an identity, and creating goals, aims, and beliefs of all the above virtues or states.

BUT, I like me!

The cleaned up, ego free, version of me that goes for the highest thought.

That knows gary makes a difference.

The garythat builds a karmic bank account of compassion, patience, love, enthusiasm and integrity.

An identity that shows up and shares the experiences, exercises, and excitement to be, alive, alert and comfortable paying attention, it is my best investment in the future.

To be or not to be, a question I ask each moment I remember to remember to remember.

Namaste

gary

avatar

Paying Attention to Exercise

Doing what ever needs to be done.

Doing what you can do.

Where haven’t I been Paying Attention Lately or where is somewhere new to increase my attention payments?

I been having arthritic/gout attacks. My movement becomes restricted, my energy constricted, my attitude patiently simmers.

I may still functioning under a younger set of phyical rules, the can and can’t do lists.

So now my future is going into the loss column as days pass with less than favorable physicality.

I an unable to remodel on the house, Golf is impossible. Gardening attributed to some of the current relapse. Aerobics attributed to rest of the injury.

It ‘s all about my attention.

Creating a primary belief that is fully functional, mobile, pleasurable and pain free, is possible. All things are possible.

What stands in the way?
Where are the “Yea, Buts?”
“The PT said”….
“The Rheumetoligst said”…..

Exercise

Oh yea, get out the book and Pay Attention to whatever needs to be done.

Be here now or else!

Exercise in a new way.

Back to School

Summers vacation ends, time to get back to school clothes, sign up for class and put away the swim trunks.
Oh boy, new clothes. What outfit for the first day?
Who am I excited to see on the first day?
What do I have to share about summer vacation?

What classes? I want to take Beginning Spanish, Esoteric History, Writing: Blog to Novel, Wood Shop, Green Ecology, Philosophy, Advanced Business Marketing and for PE-Bowling or Jazzercise.

Or maybe:

Drama, Basic I-Pod, Economics: The Millionaire Mind, Wine Tasting 102, Speech 401, PE-Tap dance.

Or:

The Music Classics-Surrealist Pillow to It’s a Beautiful Day, Self Esteem 402-‘I’m Okay, You’re Interesting’, Philosophy 401-‘Alternate Viewpoints’, Home EC ‘Couples Cooking-’ Try it you’ll like it’, The One sentence book, PE-JFK fitness class circa1962.

And for shopping

I love the sleeveless preppy sweater with the green & gold checks, Khakis pants, elbow patches put on my corduroy coat, and two-tone saddles shoes with super insoles standard preppy Gary.

Back to school implies I had a vacation, I have a desire to learn, a rekindling of school spirit, new friends, and a new routine. It’s not an initiation, transformation, epiphany or synchronicity, but an opportunity to learn and study. There is new info blending with the old, clarifying old info, and the magic processional effect of experiences unimagined.

It's time for new experiences leading to new learning and new being.
Traditional schools systems require a great deal of imagination and considerable fortitude to create the kinds of classes I wish.

What about my learning about ‘likes & dislikes’?
" " my fear of being late for class?
" " being stupid & wrong?
" " the ‘whatever’ apathy?
Who cares about this anyway?
What good is calculus?
The pragmatic how can I use this? WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
What about all the many excuses and blaming of not learning.
What I want is learning to learn for learning sake.

There is the learning as an escape, a way of staying in school and never hitting the ‘real world’ being a seminar junkie-becoming and never being.

I AM inspired to put Hamlet on the CD and get a taste, more like a full course meal of Shakespeare to check on which is nobler-TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

I do feel nobler using my God given Imagination, making up classes, cause first it must be imagined to be created.

Writing it down, having a purpose, to learn for learning sake, how specifically, metaphorically cosmically, and comically will I know I am that being?

I have new and exciting ways of enjoying the present, the gift that keeps on giving, that grows into more than ever was imagined, with a student mind, imagination, new school clothes I am always ready for school.

How was your summer vacation? What classes are you taking? What will you wear the first day?

Namaste,
Gary

Exercises in Paying Attention

Learn the piano-Buy a Casio, not a Grand, Baby Grand or upright a $49 investment in Attention.

Cook a recipe from newspaper or cookbooks. Find THE ingredients & follow directions.

Go Hiking to burn off the food and pay attention to the scenery, your likes & dislikes.

Learn a language-Rosetta Stone has the tools to make payant attention tres simple.

Write-poetry, essays, personal history, or blog.

Attend different churches or culture and pay attention while in their costume.

Volunteer-Its will always be new. Get out of a rut and put your attention out.

Work with children, with or without an agenda. Keep them safe by paying attention.

Become a member- join, enroll pay attention to the new rules.

Paint or draw-Try a circle, a straight line, or get a stick figure to pay attention to you.

Learn hypnosis-But first get de-hypnotized by paying attention.

Build a model-ship in a bottle. From the pay enough attention & you get patience lessons.

Wine tasting- Well i say give it a taste.

Learn computer skills- If you are over fifty.

Mentor/Mentee- Help someone else pay attention by you paying attention.

Work out & Dance. Try NIA.

Organize an event-Advanced exercise in paying attention, often beyond patience.

Analyze the stock market-someone should.

Fantasy sports- Lessens the chance for sports injuries.

Use your opposite hand-do not do as you have always done-put on the other shoe 1st

Learn NEURO LINGUISTIC PRACTICES

Practice flirting- remember only practice paying attention.

Get a new hair style-I have a number for a great stylist in Alamo, California.

Learn to give a massage-Its a giving and receiving lesson.

Travel in a new way-take the bus, the ferry, unicycle or pogo stick.

BECAUSE *Paying attention burns 3 times the amount of calories as couch potatoing.

Golden Rays of Happiness

I ate all yellow fruit today.
Golden pineapple, banana peel yellow, peachy yellow peaches, a sunny mango, all of these I feel the energy and see the smiley face of happy.
A happy to be me start to my day.

I dress in gold and look for music that radiates sweet tunes of happy.
Not Bach, or Ravel, some of Chopin has my mood ‘pitter-patting’ to piano etudes of mirth, but I won’t settle for sounds that drop me into silent movies, I wish an epic of Joy-Ah Beethoven Ode to Joy-his 9th-“Oh friends! Not these sounds! But let us strike up more pleasant sound and more joyful!

This morning I wish to celebrate the joy of the golden rays of happiness and tell my story till the spark of divinity lights appreciation for all of precious humanity.

Thirty-three (I used to lisp firty-free-get wiff-it Gary) years ago I embarked on a study of the Cosmos. A search to seek the source, the origin of the adventure which had turned into a world I belong in and felt alien too.
My insight was that it was not the world, but my awareness of the world, which answered my quest.
I began to see myself as a cosmologist, a student of God, and turned my awareness toward mimicking the creator.

What is the creator’s mode of awareness?

God goes for its attractions. God is attraction. A corollary was I could go for my attraction as if I created the attraction.

Another corollary appeared quite soon.
The creator’s multi-dimensional nature became aware of itself.

The contradictory nature of my cosmos,

saint & sinner,

aware/oblivious,

love/hate,

attract/repulse

desire/resist

and all I wanted-I didn’t get , and all I didn’t want I got.

It all became evident.

Now 33 years of sorting out my attractions, distractions, repulsions, resistances, an old friend, a book, Another Roadside Attraction reappeared in my life.

Ah, inspirations, awareness’s attractive friend, whose glimmerings, like the leaves of the poplar out the window, reflect, not create light. Fashioning movement and insights in phraseology that attract and contradict knowingness and nothingness.

Upon reading I knew we had left the Dark Ages, found treasures and entered a Golden Age of happy. I know it again-Enjoy the Golden Rays of Today.

Namaste

gary

Varieties of Attention

I am on a mission. A pure mission to share ATTENTION, but there is more than one type of ATTENTION, and some types are counterproductive.

When training clients it's counterproductive to have my ATTENTION FIXED.

Time is an issue and it fixes my ATTENTION when people are late.

Where is my ATTENTION?
@It’s important to share the material.
@Better late than never.
@Better late, with attention on empowering the audience than fixing one’s attention on a clock.

I started by acknowledging where my ATTENTION is fixed:
@I am not prepared.
@Who do I think I am?
@They won’t show up.
@They’ll forget the book.
@This is a tough class.
@They’ll hate me.
@This is just like school and they hate school.

Handling FIXED ATTENTION means decide to change. (Change is inevitable, but FREE ATTENTION is not), acknowledge where your ATTENTION is. Then move it to another object. Repeat this process till the FIXATION loses its glue and slides easily from one object, thought, emotion, sensation, desire or wherever you want it to be. With ATTENTION in a fluid state it's a good time to create goals, aims, & move toward your compelling future.

The process of letting go of stuck ATTENTION also works on the other kinds of ATTENTION:

My BIASED ATTENTION:
@They don’t care.
@There uninterested.
@They are going to resist.

My OTHER DIRECTED ATTENTION:
@I don’t have to do this.
@I’m not getting paid enough for this.
@This is weird.

My DISORIENTED ATTENTION:
@I can’t pay enough attention to do the exercise.
@I wish I was somewhere, anywhere else.
@I can’t pay attention THIS time of the month.
@These hot flashes.
@What’s this all about?

FREE ATTENTION creates participation, the key to making life a PARTY.

Namaste, Gary
And then THEY PARTICIPATED!

Your Attention is Calling

I believe each one of us has a calling.
A purpose divined before birth.
We are diamonds in the rough.

Each person has uniqueness that asks to be lived, present before birth.

We bear the seed of the mighty Oak before we were even conceived.

How can that be?

The soul of each is given a daimon, a guiding angel, before birth.

The soul has selected an image or pattern to live on earth, guides the process of arrival. However, we forget all that took place once the soul arrives on earth.

We believe we come empty into the world.

The daimon remembers and carries our destiny. Choosing the body, the parents, the place, and circumstances that suit the soul.

This we have forgotten.

Our calling is shadowed by fate and fortune.

It does not teach morals and is not to be confused with the “still small voice” of your conscience. It is invisible, yet present, like sunshine and farts.

Myths And fairy tales say,
“Once upon a time, what took such good care of me was a guardian spirit.
I damm well knew how to pay it appropriate attention!

Gary C. Smith Public Speaking & Trainings offers lessons in handling our biggest fears:
Public Speaking, & our fear of No-thing.

The crystallization of attitudes or oops another identity.

The crystallization of attitudes, or how identities take over.
It’s fun to try on new attitudes, different viewpoints.
As a professional judgment machines I swing through the gamut of beliefs and find it’s worth taking a look and to step into the shoes of different folks. It’s like Halloween, trying on diverse costumes, but many costumes are so enticing that if I give them enough attention they solidify and I identify with the costume. The cowboy, the princess, The Village People, Superman, Wonder Woman, the hobo, all new experiences, but I am challenged by horses, my princess is picky about peas under mattress, the Village People are cool to dance to YMCA in aerobics class, and tying on a cape or a rubber bustier is acceptable in San Francisco, as are the homeless. I was stuck for a while as the Construction Worker, and my pink complexion is reddening so I could be the Indian, but never a Cop. Those are costumes. When we look in the mirror we can recognize that that this is not I. But what if it happens with attitudes? What if our judgments become our identities? “Danger danger Will Robinson. *
Aging is not just a battle of the bulge, hairlines, and wrinkles but the hardening of the attitudes. The skepticism I feel and see with us baby boomers is in believing as Ram Dass said 40 years ago, “I am my Chevy Corvair.” I am my attitude, attached to the truly deadly sins.** My current list of sins:
Having to be right,
Already knowing that E
I can’t make a mistake G
Political Correctness O
Religious Rightness –one wayisms
Whatever or like whatever....
Blame
Litigation
Boredom
Laziness
Hate
So how to melt the crystallization and return to aging as being Elders in training?
I go to seminars, write Avatar Fry Days, wear my Grandpa hat, know that paying attention is my beat investment in the future, and keep in touch with great buddies.
Asking, curiosity, interest, following attraction all offer freerer forms of attention. If you're attention becomes fixed, can an attitude be far away?
Thanks!
Namaste, Gary
My mythology comes somewhat from my Nana’s Fairy Tales, but largely television and rock N roll. I apologize to my writing instructor for the indulgence in adverbs. Sins are enough without being deadly, but holding death is a great re-member-er to hold the preciousness of life.

Sanctifying Connections

Paying Attention is My Best Investment in the Future July 24, 2008
“…to share his part of the secret of heaven: that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories , but the stories are all one.” From Five People You Meet in Heaven By Mitch Albom. It was number two on the bestseller list says a lot about how connected with each other we wish to be.

Time to pick up the talking stick and tell the next part of the tale. It’s the ritual retelling that sanctifies the memory itself. Ah, the moment of choice, so many stories. So many ways to look at the same event.
Of times The Answers to:
Who Are You? I am who ever I want to be.
What’s happening? –What I choose to create.
What am I doing here? –Sanctifying this moment.
Now sanctifying, to set apart for sacred use, to purify, consecrate, to make holy, implies that a moment may not be holy, that an effort is needed. Or does it imply that biased or fixed attention is doing the sanctification? Who am I choosing to be, is what creates the sanctity.
One day, long ago in a far away galaxy (creation) a moment, a process, connections became so real, our being was touched so deeply, that I believe I can make this moment holy, by remembering, reminding, recalling, other’s with whom I’ve created connection.

We pay most of the mortgage from the beauty world. We are somewhere inside or outside a sphere orbiting from vanity to healing, where the outside reflects the inside, where beauty is only skin deep, & where beauty is from the inside out. These are baby steps into the world of change.
We are falsification, image creation, a fight against aging, enhancements and distractions, human art, and we believe we are more than labels; we are a way of being.
We offer stimulation, possibility, kindness, a warm touch, and a chance to change without pain. We listen, are interested, educated on our services and guarantee our work. Compassion, patience, perseverance, creativity are tools that sanctify our services. (serve us)
With attention and a touch on the client we ask,
“Tell me about yourself.”
“How is that working out for you?
“Is there anything you would alter or change?”
We bridge beauty and beliefs.
What are we being?
Is it an old or new story of profit or presence that inhibits the spread of good news?
Is the tension & drama of this or that necessary to gain attention?
Where is the continuity of our creation?
How can we be what we say we are?
Namaste
Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Training

Stupid & Wrong

Paying attention is often moving away from limiting behavior and moving towards desired outcomes. In the process of paying attention our own demons, habits that maintain 'stinkin-thinkin' and the inSAMEITY of doing the same old stuff (SOS) and expecting different results, attention can fix on punishing ourselves. We may have created identities that believe (useless indoctrinated beliefs) in change with pain. There are EXERCISES that can loosen the chains of indoctrination free attention to change and move towards desired outcome., and can life can become more fun.
So if you have demons who label your efforts as 'stupid & wrong' its possible to create 'correction without invalidation' by practicing these two exercises.

Here are two simple exercises to practice: staying neutral. As all my clients are entrepreneurs, as I am, one of our biggest challenges is self judgments. The boss lives inside of us and can be more critical than necessary. (Is criticism necessary? Isn’t it all feedback?) These two exercises are in the “stick & stones may break my bones but words can never harm me” mode. Exercises are designed to stretch yourself and are intended to be fun and may fall into useful versus useless suffering mode.
1. I ‘m stupid & wrong! Stand in front of a mirror, full length if possible, and call yourself ‘stupid & wrong' until you can say it without any emotions arising. When you have the I am ‘stupid & wrong' down, try the blamer role with “you are stupid & wrong.’ Have fun with the blame game and notice when you are pointing the finger at another, three fingers are pointing back at you.
2. Correction without invalidation. This is a corollary of the first, perhaps an antidote. This requires more thought. Again stand in front of a mirror find fault with your image and offer correction without invalidating that person. Such as “You may want to plan one evening meal a week to just eat oatmeal. Its good for those few pounds you want to lose, good for your heart and it would set a good example for the others in your family.’ “When you are talking with your significant other, boss, friend it's an interesting exercise to put your attention on their story and be OK not explaining or excusing your story.

Be gentle, especially with your self.
Namaste
Gary

Mind Mapping Your Attention-Who Are You?

Mind Mapping & Treasure Maps $10
How can you get very far, if you don’t know who you are?
Winnie the Pooh
Mind Mapping is a method to find out Who You Are.
Treasure mapping is a method to find out What You Want.
Putting the two together as in the Who Are You© poster offers a highly visual, hands-on way of finding out who, what, where, why & how you make it happen!
Mind-mapping, like brain-storming, employ’s free-association of ideas, creating a "structure," that is visual fitting any situation.
These are strategies useful for organizing information, and generating ideas. They are used to create patterns, build connections, & establish associations between experience & new information, between known facts & new concepts, between parts of a concept or problem & its’ whole.
Mind-mapping’ begin with a center or nucleus. The issue. The question. The quest. The general idea. The topic. Even the problem-solving exercise, is placed in the center of the page.
What’s the question?
What do you know?
What do you want to know?
Main ideas are connected to the central topic by drawing lines from the center. Supporting ideas become "branches" off main ideas. Working outward from the center in all directions, the learner produces a growing, organized structure composed of key words, phrases, and images.
The map becomes a graphic representation of the knowledge.
The map is an exploration for the missing pieces.
It becomes questions for further exploration; both as a motivational technique and as a way of establishing benchmarks.
In the beginning was the word,
Then it became chiseled in stone, denoting good or bad.
I like work which has more neutrality so when mind mapping I do not get trapped in my own words. The core idea is Mind Map.
So Who Are You? 24x36”Posters $10Postcard size sent at no charge.

Invessting in stocks, real estate or yourself?

The week of 7/7 thru 7/11 was not a prosperous time for those invested in other than their own attention.
We meet with our new investment advisorsTuesday and my constant question to all our advisors is "Are you paying attention to the changes?"
Am I paying attention to changes?
If my major investment is in ATTENTION, how do I monitor changes?
What type of attention am I investing?
Is is details, or am I looking at the bigger picture?
Is it how do I fit, freer, more compassion, greater return on investment. Or is it focused, goal oriented, narrow scope, stepping or nearing desires?
A key word in this search is 'scheduling.' Meetings, presentations, multi-tasking that reduces driving, keeping cool ( I don't know about global warming, but the San Francisco Bay area hitting 114 degrees two days in a row is tthe hottest I felt in 25 years living here.) and its cool to be prepared, on time, with attention to share. So the more focused variety maybe the same type of attention I am asking of an investment advisor.
The question is are they moving towards investment rewards or away from investment
fears? Am I moving towards my freer and greater attention or am I moving away from things I don't want to pay attention too?
Improved communication, more clients, better computer skills-Why am i unable to write a profile & have my sites post them? Why is my streaming audio & video dammed? Why the video camera is still in the box and my power point remote only works on this box and not my laptop.
With scheduling I am moving towards a computer wizard who has me on a content management path as a content provider.
With scheduling my clients have choices of appointments.
With scheduling the house is getting painted.
With scheduling the blogs are growing.
With scheduling I am consciously competent of knowing where my attention is and is going.
Namaste Gary

Defending Procrastination

If I defend procrastination (the disease of tomorrow); is it from the belief that if I never finish I never die? Ergo: the finish of life is death so procrastination keeps a myriad of humanity reincarnating to never complete but returning to enjoy the show., create more love +/or learn the lesson.
What lesson?
The answer to life, the universe & everything.
Enjoy the show, be present, accept feedback, make decisions, move toward outcomes, & pepper with varieties of attention & beliefs. Paying that much attention creates fabulous answers and better questions.
Sort the beliefs by importance, usefulness, intensity, familiarity, humanity, and as source of whatever beliefs you want.
Not what you believe, but what you want to believe.
It is worth a free trip around monopoly to take the tomorrow train and enjoy the ride, procrastinate today. Use procrastination to decide, to plan and to be present everywhere all at once.

intent, attention & tennis

With Wimbledon being in full force, and the Williams sisters testing each others skills at levels of intensity most never experience intentionally, its useful to look at the intensity of intent & attention.
Word origin offers clues to the many levels of meaning humanity has created for itself. Shipley Dictionary of Word Origins page 358 under Tennis goes from the popular, game to the making of the ball, thru the tension involved in the stringing of the net, into intent, and the stretching toward of ATTENTION.
The fascination and psychology of words runs a gauntlet of a certain 'feel', a type of tension, actually an ease of tension that reflects the relationship between the tennis racket and the net. I am left feeling that intent, and attention, is not a tense operation but a tenet of the net, that sags equal to the width of the racket over the width of the court. Intent is not taut or tight but a tension that eases to a max at center court. And by adding the magical verb, to let' as in LET, a do over, permission is given to ease up the tension of our intent and make a softer, more appropriate effort.
So our intent and paying attention is not the tense constricted effort often taught by coaches, but a relaxed stretch toward what we desire, and the meaning(s) we wish to create.
Namaste
GARY

The Price of Attention is Going Up!

What is the cost of paying attention?

What is the cost of not paying attention?

The cost is in suffering. Useful suffering versus useless suffering. It is useful suffering to invest in the discipline to practice paying attention. To suffer to learn, to move through fear, to tell the truth, especially to your self. To listen. To love and let go.
Its useless to suffer from the stinkin-thinkin of private speaking with worrying, guilt, blame, should, ought, can’t, musts, have-to, most phrases that start with You.
Its all in what we tell ourselves, the private speaking of our inner dialogues.
Stay tuned for how to control your private speaking.

Attention is the only investment that is a guarantee to return dividends and incur interest.
Attention is an investment in focusing towards what you want.
Do you know what you want?
Are you moving towards your desired outcome or are you moving away from what you fear?
Fear (False, Evidence, Appearing, Real) is the number one tool in maintaining the hypnotic trance, the sleep walking, blind obedience, inSAMEity, sheepishness, rut of mass indoctrination. The answer, KNOW WHERE YOUR ATTENTION IS!
From Gary C Smith Public Speaking & Trainings-Private Speaking