Redirecting Our Desire

"Eliminating our desires will not end our suffering. Our suffering is result of our attachment to the form. Our judgements about what we have created, and our fear and the regret that these instill in us. Desire is the force behind all of creation so what we must do is raise the level of awareness and in so doing exalt our desire, in truth." ~ Spotted Eagle on Creating with Essence

The Struggle Side of Creating

"Most of the suffering human beings experience in their daily lives is a result of their attachment to the form. We are fed images by the culture about what success means and we feel a deep need to control what happens to us. When we encounter uncertainty that might threaten the form that we are attached to we experience great fear. We pour our life force into protecting the forms that we are attached to and we fill our emptiness with the forms that will medicate our pain and longing and we become like addicts with our satisfaction dwindling while our need grows. What we don't understand is that creating the form is a difficult task. It requires controlling a thing into being. It demands great struggle to create a certain thing by a specific time in a specific way and the most unfortunate thing about creating the form and the thing that makes it most difficult, is that when the essence is not there, creating the form becomes a grinding burden as we struggle to make it happen, usually out of fear of failing, fear of disappointing others, fear of losing our false sense of security. Creating a form that has no essence robs us of our joy and this is how it destroys the quality of our life." ~ Spotted Eagle on "Creating with Essence"

Beware the siren song of marketing media. Do we really need so much stuff in our lives or are we responding, as Spotted Eagle says, to our need to medicate our fears or quiet our longings for the medication that the forms of our possesions give us. Requires a very tough look at ourselves.

Essence

"One of deep virtue
cherishes the subtle essence of the universe.
The subtle essence of the universe
is elusive and evasive.
Though it is elusive and evasive,
it unveils itself as images and forms.
Evasive and elusive,
it discloses itself as indefinable substance.
Shadowy and indistinct,
it reveals itself as impalpable subtle essence.
This essence is so subtle, and yet so real.
It is the subtle origin
of the whole of creation and non-creation.
It existed prior to the beginning of time
as the single deep and subtle reality of the universe.
It brings all into being."

~ Number 21 from The Complete Works of Lao Tzu

Choice

"If we focus on the forms of our lives, the job, the house, the car, the clothes, the bank accounts, the wives or husbands, the girlfriends or boyfriends, we can experience life as gain and loss. If instead we put our attention on the essence we receive from these things there is nothing to be lost. Essence is either there in the present moment or it's not there so what we need to do when we make choices is we chose to move in the direction of our dreams not based on the form things take, not on the outcomes of our lives but on our dream for experiencing essence. Then as we move in a direction, choosing something that will bring us that essence, when it shows up we can ask the question, "Is it there?" It will either be there or it won't." ~ Spotted Eagle from his talk on "Peace of Mind"

Peaceful Thoughts

Speaking for myself I find that being in a state where my mind is at peace is oftentimes very elusive. I can't help it that I am human and being that, I respond to the internal pressures, some innate, but most learned, that I must create security for myself. This in turn takes me from this moment in which I find myself, into future thinking and imagining a scenario of doom and gloom. If I don't do something about it today, a very uncomfortable future awaits me. Now this is not to say that I should kick back and expect the universe to deliver without any effort on my part. Of course living in a material plane requires attention to the ebb and flow of resources and so allowances must be made for that. What I would like to emphasize here is that when I take myself out of this present moment and hang out in a state of worry and fear of what could happen, I am missing out on the peace of mind that is really there in most of my present moments. In those times when I can truly put aside the worries and concerns for the future that doesn't exist I am discovering little essence rich moments that are making my life much more pleasurable.

" See yourself in a state of a simple and pure desire for your fearful mind to be at peace. Feel the sincerity of this desire. Feel your longing to live from this place. Notice that, in spite of what is, you can touch something, higher, something deeper. " ~ Spotted Eagle from his teaching, Peace of Mind