Storytelling

Become the watcher

Gerard S. Hoff1 Comment

 

IMG_3410

Your mind is in a constant mode of doing marathons. Most of the time you’re not knowing what you’re thinking, that you’re thinking, how you’re thinking, who is thinking and why ‘it’ is thinking. So many unfinished thoughts, just lingering in your mind.
It’s a busy place up there.

Now imagine driving a mountainbike (it could be a car, but then it is difficult to end the story…). Fortunately, our brain has a sub-routine that is able to manage the constant stream of thoughts while doing a complex thing like biking.

But sometimes you’re too pre-occupied with thoughts and not paying enough attention to biking, the road and the obstacles, Suddenly there’s an abyss.

In a reflex you turn your wheel, your whole life passes in an instant before your eyes, you fall on to the ground, your bike keeps sliding, but you somehow you’re able to grab a branch of some kind and manage to hold.

Then there’s this silence.
A few seconds later you hear your bike crash.

In the reflex, your mind stopped thinking instantly. It is exactly then when your consciousness takes over. This reflex is the deepest part of your being that reacts. The thinking of the mind becomes obsolete. It is this sensation I believe we should embrace more often.

It is the angel in you. And you can use the angel, because she’s is in anyone of us, spread your wings, fly up and look from a distance at yourself. Become aware, as a watcher, of your own thoughts. You’ll probably have a lot of laughs! It doesn’t have to be on a constant basis (that is impossible), but be aware.

Just now and then, during the day, become the watcher, release the angel.

 

 

The Path

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

In one of his rare writings, the Sufi sage Hafik comments on the idea of travel;

“Accept with wisdom the fact that the Path is full of contradictions.

Many times the Path will contradict itself, just to stimulate the passenger to discover what will happen at the next curve. If two travelers take this journey together, it is almost certain that one of them is on the wrong Path.

Each person must run his own risks along his Way, because there are no set formulas to achieving the Truth.

Only the ignorant try to imitate the ways of others. The intelligent men don’t waste their time with that, and develop their own set of skills.

They know that no two leaves in the forest of a million trees are exactly the same. No two Paths on the Journey of Life are exactly the same.”

I like to add a last thought. Either as inspiration or as a post-rationalisation. Whatever fits best at the time or situation: “Diversity is the path to enlightment”.

Animal Zen Masters: The Gecko

Gerard S. Hoff1 Comment

The word Gecko comes from Indonesian-Malay word gēkoq, which is an imitation of sounds that some species make. In Indonesia we call them Cicak and children love to sing about them. We’re happy to have them in the house, because they eat the moths and mosquitos.

It’s amazing to see how cicak’s can walk any surface vertical or upside-down with their ‘magical’ adhesive power, and theirfeet are self-cleaning and will usually remove any clogging dirt within a few steps. Very practical.

The really cool thing about Gecko’s is that they leave their tail behind when they’re in danger. It’s called autotomy (self-amputation) and it’s a way to distract the predator, thereby allowing to escape.

Losing ego,
saves the soul.

 

 

ego = 1/knowledge
EINSTEIN

Animal Zen masters: The Mola

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.


The mola is the heaviest of all the bony fish, with large specimens reaching 4.3 m vertically and 3 m horizontally and weighing nearly 2,300 kg. They are frequently seen basking in the sun near the surface and are often mistaken for sharks when their huge dorsal fins emerge above the water.

Mola can become so infested with skin parasites, they jump out of the water up to 3.0 metres in the air, in an attempt to shake the parasites (and they are lousy swimmers). They’ll also often invite small fish or even birds to feast on them.

.It’s wiser to share burdens, then to drown under their weight.

Animal Zen Masters: The Albatross

Gerard S. Hoff3 Comments

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

IMG_0564

Albatrosses are the biggest birds on earth.
Some of them can have a wing span of 370 centimeters (12 feet). The bones in the wings are hollow to save weight and at the same time make them ultra strong. The front of the wing bone has a rounded shape for aerodynamics.

Albatrosses spend most of their life in the air.
They fly highly efficient and can lock-up the wings in with a special muscle and shoulder joint. By only moving their head they change direction, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring. That way they can fly distances up to a 1000 kilometers a day, effortless.
The only exertion is when they take off.

Life is not about carrying weight,
it’s about floating in the air.
Lock your wings.

Animal Zen Masters: The Anglerfish

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

1280x720-Xv2

Perhaps not the most attractive fish in the ocean, but definitely an interesting one. Its luminescent organ, called the esca, is lit by symbiotic bacteria that dwell in and around it.

The organ lures a prey in dark, deep-sea environments. The beak, that stretches over the complete width of the fish, falls opens up while sucking in the water.
Including the prey.

The esca also serves to call males’ attention to the females to facilitate mating.

At all time
it is I who can decide
who to be.

Watch the first anglerfish on camera here.

Animal Zen Masters: The Cheetah

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

Animals_Views_HD_www.laba.ws

The hunt of a cheetah is almost like a gracious dance. It moves synchronic with the gazelle it wants to catch, making sure he’s not seen, getting as close as possible and find just the right time to attack.

Although it can accelerate 4 times faster than Usain Bolt and and has a top speed of  100 km/h, it’s only capable of running 500 meters like that. 20 seconds.

Life is about timing
and taking your time.

Animal Zen Masters: The Turtle

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

Hawaii Beaches-26 (1)

I was watching a turtle on the beach who spotted a juicy green leave of lettuce about 200 metres in the distance and he started moving.

After 45 minutes he still wasn’t there and I could see he was getting tired because he was moving even slower, so he rested for a while. Then he carried on. Bridging the last 50 meters or so, still took another 15 minutes. Finally he got there and I have never seen a turtle indulge in a piece of lettuce that much.

Even at the end of your strength, there’s still power within you. Find it, use it and you can achieve amazing things.

The power of the mind

Gerard S. Hoff1 Comment

 

IMG_0342

She drained the energy out of me in a way, even a Duracell Power Plus battery couldn’t handle for long. She was full of negative energy almost to a level I had difficulties coping with it. Fortunately, I was aware in time, and wasn’t sucked into this river of negativity.

It was clear, our visitor was a very unhappy person.
She blamed past (and future) of the heavy life she is in now. Her ‘egoic’ controlled mind was driving her behaviour a 100% and blamed anyone and everything as the cause of her misery. Even I couldn’t change her mind in a positive way, and believe me I tried.

It made me realize how strong the mind or ego can be in controlling behaviour and life, by squeezing out all oxygen out of consciousness. A terrible feeling.

The Mind,
it is talking continuously in my head as well, so I was wondering how much it controls my behaviour (and fears) and how to handle that in relation to my consciousness. I too have negative thoughts, feel anxious or insecure now and then, have judgements about others. I know it’s my ‘egoic’ mind that takes control, but I want my spirit to be. I want my spirit to be free and in direct contact with the source.

Instantly it became clear: It is the moment I think of my mind thinking.

It is then I am becoming the watcher of my thoughts and thus ‘in control’ of them and closer to consciousness. It is that space I want to be, briefly at least, or longer when possible.

So, the moment you’re aware of thoughts (negative and positive), you’re able to put things into a perspective (enlightenment). A perspective where mind and consciousness (ego and being) can team up and create synergy. All thoughts, bad and good, are positive energy, it is important be aware of the thoughts, in order to tap into the infinite source of energy.

Be conscious of mind

The painting is part of the Heavenly-series

Dance!

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

0c74706a8bf8d43a198e1d3519faf8b9

Without bad, there’s no good.
Without black, there’s no white.
Without hate, there’s no love
Without Ying, there’s no Yang,
in fact everything needs an opposite to exist. Without opposites, there’s no perspective and things fall into nothingness.

But the interesting thing is that it is not about balance. It is about restoring balance. In a positive way.

There’s an article I read a while ago about running. The ‘normal’ way to run is to push with one foot and then push with the other and so on. The harder you push and higher the frequency, the faster you run. But there’s another way to run as well.

This way of running starts with falling forward and to make sure you don’t fall on your face, you need to restore balance by moving your feet (try it). This way of running is based on preventing to fall. It is a different technique, different muscles are used, but it is less straining for your back and bones. Besides it is fast. Faster then you can imagine.

Anyway, back to restoring balance.

Live, or reality, is no more then a projection of our imagination. If we don’t know it, we can’t imagine it. And if we cannot imagine it, it cannot become reality because we don’t have the images to see it.

It doesn’t mean we’re stuck. On the contrary, the only thing we need to do is increase our power to imagine, but too many people limit their imagination and therefore are not able to change their reality.

So when Picasso said “Anything you can imagine is real” he was also talking about the limitations of imagination. I think he gave at least 2 messages:

  1. When you look at my () paintings and accept them, you’re able to enlarge the way you can perceive reality.
  2. In live, increase the fuel of your imagination by experiencing more and you’re able to increase your reality.

I see it like this:
Imagination is inward and about being, like thinking, meditating, your inner-voice. Experiencing on the other hand is outward and about doing, see how your increased imagination, creates a new reality and experience that. Being aware of it. This new perceived reality is again fuel for being and thinking, which fuels in it’s turn imagination…

It is like a dance, changing between doing and being and sounds like:

“Do-Be-Do-Be-Do-…”

Enjoy your dance and increase reality.