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David Jon Peckinpaugh

A Notification Of Impending Experiments

I have decided to make of this life an experiment. My sense is that there is a need for me (for others?) to explore more deeply the potential inherent in standard, traditional forms of spirituality. What I am getting as it whether or not there are any objective indicators of the effectiveness of traditional transformative practices.

What do I mean by objective indicators of effectiveness? Am I talking about 'measurement' here? Yes. Yes I am. The 'reign of quantity' is not over. The process of objectification can have its place; it does have its merits.

For example, say I am going to pray for a month straight. Say I endeavour to engage in a prayer-full spirit for 30 days. Now, let me ask you what kinds of measurements can I take before those 30 days commence and after? What kinds of measurable quantities exist in life that might give me an indication of the effectiveness of prayer, the neutrality of prayer (no change), or the maleficence of prayer (harmful consequences/results)? Should I just take into account the numbers that exist under my name in the Credit Union as a measurable form of data? Should I wiegh myself before and after? Should I do a BMI (Body-Mass Index) to check my % of bodyfat pre- and post experiment?

Maybe I could have my blood drawn and have a series of labs done to check the status of the various bio-markers that are signs of health and/or disease? That is an objective, measurable form of data, isn't it?

Why?

I just want to know what works. I am interested in 'results' at this point. No. Not the mystical language and the poetic rimunations on the Non-Dual Source and Suchness of the Cosmos (Kosmos anyone?). I just want an effective form of existing; which includes being able to deal more effectively with difficulty and hardship. Not to mention I tend to prefer pleasurable states. So, how can these be generated. Is prayer a process whereby we can be strengthened in soul, spirit, mind, and body? Is prayer helpful when it comes to living?

Simply put, DOES PRAYER WORK!

How?

How am I going to conduct this experiment? What are the experimental parameters that I am going to be employing? What is the 'T-factor?' How much time am I going to invest in praying?

My interest is not so much in setting aside an allotted time for parying as much as my interest is in maintaining a prayer-full mode of being at all times! As it is put in the Bible by the Apostle Paul, I am going to 'pray without ceasing.' It is not so much about the 5 minute quickie prayer or the marathon retreat session of prayer on bended knee. After all, if prayer is going to be effective--i.e., it is going to manifest beneficial results for simple, ordinary human beings like you and I (oh, you are not simple and ordinary? sorry!)--then the experimental envelope in which prayer is being subjected to for analysis and inquiry has to be the same as the average living conditions we expect to encounter on most days. It does no good to set up 'special conditions' to pray while in experimental mode and then have no indication of whether or not those conditions will translate into the lives of the non-experimenting layperson (you and I, Tom and Sue, Steve and Ahmed).

Where?

Because our lives do not exist in isolation I see no merit in studying prayer as an effective transformational avenue in the laboratory sealed off from the messiness of the world. In fact, what we want to do is study and experiment with prayer in the midst of the messiness, chaos, and tumult of the world. Again, if prayer is going to be effective then it needs to be effective for the single-parent working two jobs and trying to support three kids as it is for the lone, hermit recluse on the mountaintop, or the monk at the Abbey.

So, with that in mind, I will experiment with prayer where prayer needs to work--provided it can work! And that is right in the midst of rush-hour traffic and cranky bosses who obviously didn't 'get any' over the weekend! ; o )

Who?

Who am I going to be praying to, you now ask. Allah? YHWH? Zeus? Cronos? Ganesh? Vishnu? Jesus? Who exactly am I going to direct my prayers to? Where is He/She? Who is He/She? Who am I hoping will hear my prayers?

In answering this the understanding gets really cool. I am so excited to be explaining this that I can barely contain myself. Really! This is awesome. It is awesome that I am going to be directing prayer to no one in particular and everyone in particular all at the same time. How so? Because there is no separation inherent in the nature and make-up of our existence in this-world (the Cosmos is a seamless energetic/informational Whole) any and all prayers are non-local the moment they are uttered. And the 'utterance' I take to be crucial. The emittance of sound-waves are akin to being the local corollary to the non-local nature of information.

It is as there is a reverbation of what we utter in our immediate surroundings---which by rule of natural law will make an immediate impact. So the utterance becomes the local and immediate expression of a non-local phenomena that has Cosmic implications. This is why I am saying that I am not going to be praying to a 'God' and yet I am going to be praying to 'just that God' and everyone and everything else at the same time!

For example, Buddhists often pray (yeah, Buddhists pray too!) for the 'liberation of all sentient beings.' His Holiness the Dalai Lama has confessed to praying for the 'happiness of everyone.' It is in that same spirit that I intend to pray during the experiment I am about to conduct.

A Prayer For The Cosmos Is A Prayer For Everyone

This isn't my attempt to get all 'New Age' and 'foo-foo' on ya'all. Hard-core, mainstream science conducted in state of the art laboratories with the latest technology, inquiring into the basest of elemental energies has revealed the permeability of what were once deemed static boundaries. We are shot through with the 'stuff of Stars.' And I don't mean Britney Spears and Brad Pitt! I mean that the Cosmos is a Field of Information and Energy that only appears to be frozen, fixed, and solid because of the normal manner in which so-called 'things' are perceived by us humans. At far subtler levels it is revealed to us that the apparent solidity is just an 'appearance' and not 'reality.' Reality is far more fluid in fact than it appears to us to be at first glance.

It is that fluidity of fact--rather than fiction--that allows for our transformation here on Earth as it is in Heaven. Apart from that fluidity we would be totally 'fixed.' And not 'fixed' in a good way either!! We would be incapable of growth. We would not be able to be transformed. If we were lost we would be lost forever. That condition would be unchanging. Thankfully it is not so. Transformation is possible. And my Heart of Hearts tells me that there are exceedingly 'traditional avenues of transformation' that have yet to receive the acclaim and merit that they deserve. That is why I am doing this. Because I want to know if prayer works firsthand. I don't want it to be a part of my life because Momma or Daddy said it was good for me; or because the Pope does it! Instead, I will be a 'lamp unto myself' for then there will be no doubt. I will know that prayer is effective or not. I will no beyond a shadow of a doubt.



Note: I'd like to thank Paul Salamone for his entries on his experience with the Integral Lie Practice Kit. He has proved himself both informational and inspirational. Thanks Paul (I just hope it was not a 'work requirement' that you do so!). ; o )

Urgency

When you lay down at night, ready to drift off to sleep, waiting for the sandman to come, what burns in you to be lived?

What colours to you want to use to paint life with? What have you yet to taste? Whose smile beckons you in the still of the night? What visions captivate you, somewhat hauntingly, making you wonder if you will ever experience the 'life you seem meant for?'

This is a powerful experience of reflection we are all capable of: take into account what is transpiring in consciousness as you prepare to sleep and you will realize where you have an urgent need/desire to travel in the direction of. Maybe you want to express more affection and love for those close to you. Perhaps you want to be less sensitive and touchy, as you seem to be afflicted with generating 'drama' unnecessarily. Or maybe you just know that the life you are living now is not fulfilling you, not feeding you, not sustaining you, not anywhere near offering you the kind of nourishment and support that you need in order to continue.

So, I say, don't dream of dying and escaping from what has become of your life--no matter what the difficulties may be--but, instead, dream of that which is urging you to live. Find the fire in your soul. Find the bounce in the body. Find the melody in the mind. Find the song in the spirit of that which conspires to leave you contented at night. For it is present, whispering to you now in quiet, breathing life into your lungs, preparing you to fly above and beyond all that you may think is possible of holding you back. But nothing is. Nothing can hold back the one who knows the urgency of a life aching to be lived.

You can. You wouldn't even be 'aware of it' if you were not capable of it. That dream. That transformation. That vision. That 'you' that awaits in the distance that is no distance at all. Unite with the promise of that 'you.'

A Day of Utter Fulfillment

I often wonder what the ideal day would be like. Would we find ourselves wholly activated in as many sectors as we exist in? Would all of our 'chakras' be alive, spinning, and fired up? Wouldn't we find ourselves stimulated in the best sense of that word on all planes/dimensions of our being--physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual? Wouldn't we be in such a state as one in which we are not able to deny any aspect of our beingness because that beingness would be 'called forth' in our day?

Would we go to work knowing that we didn't have to 'deny' some part of ourselves? And wouldn't that be lovely--to rise in the morning knowing that 'all of us' is welcomed into this-world once again?

Diverse Needs & Forms Of Expression

I suspect that if we were only 'emotional' beings then the mere expression of our emotions would be totally satisfying. Likewise would intellectual pursuits leave us completely contented if we were only 'mental' beings. But we are not are we? We are not 'just this' or 'just that.' We are 'just this... and then some!'

It may be why drugs and psychedelic experiences leave us dry after a time. It could be why sex for the sake of sex is an inevitable dead-end. It could be why total immersion in any one single area of human endeavour is bound to leave us 'empty' inside.

And so, if the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes, then have we not come to understand that no 'single thing' can ever satisfy the necessity bourne of our multi-dimensional nature? Do we not know enough to know that we can't find happiness in monotheism; where we make idols of romance, work, sex, drugs, mystical experiences, enlightenment, truth, philosophy, science, spirituality, guys, girls, children, lovers, and roles we hope will be 'The Answer?'

The Living Experience Is??

One? None? Many? Neither?

What are we privileging? Are we able to formulate an unbiased opinion on the nature of sentient existence? Might our being raised in a culture of monotheistic leanings predispose us to a view of 'singleness' and 'essence' that indicates to us that we are a 'one?' And would we see ourselves differently and judge reality according to a different set of criteria if we grew up in a culture that had multiplicity as its existential basis?

How can we know? How can we determine the most factual basis for our existence? That is the real question I am begging to ask here: What is the real basis for our existence?

What view or perspepctive is going to best accord with Reality? How are we to establish that basis? Or, check that... how are we to best realize the perspective on our existence that most accords with what is Real?


Deep Subjects

For many the topic itself is just too deep to bother with. Just 'getting by' and 'making ends meet' is worry enough. There isn't time or inclination to consider such matters--even if such matters bear an ultimate weight and importance upon our lives. Therefore, many people just come to adopt the creeds of their forefathers. Those who, you guessed it, adopted the creed of their forefathers... who... so... on and so forth... on down the line, through the generations.

That seems to me to say much for what has come to be the case for humanity. The fact that we are faced with the bare, and often brute, facts of existence in this-world leaves us in a position where we cannot examine our basis for existence. That is left to others. It is all fine and well to do so if others are to be trusted. But if others have ulteriour motives then it is not fine. We can end up duped. We can end up victims of our own inability or unwillingness to realize 1) who we are, 2) how we came to be here, and 3) what that all means.

So... are we these single substances... these enduring monads? Are we an essence of some sort that is sure and certain, solid and unshakable?

Or... might we be a community that is in constant flux, flow, and exchange? A collective of entities that only seems to have some 'essence' in relation to the organization of the many parts that make us up into an apparent 'I?'

The Living Lab

Where can we go to begin such a study? Where is there a truly open and uncharted field of investigation that does not have its own already established creeds and methods? If we go the contemplative route and adopt the tenets of Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, or any of the Christian Monastic Orders then are we really going to be answering that most vital of questions? Or, will we just be getting an answer that is already implied at the beginning; due to the innate assumptions of each of those systems?

I wonder if it is truly possible to be like the American maverick Henry David Thoreau any longer? Can we live life raw and strip existence down to the bone in order to arrive at what is essential? Or is that just a fool's game?

Was Thoreau--and others like him-naive? Or could have Thoreau been a wayfarer of something totally historic: a prime example of a non-dogmatic, creedless investigation that strives to discover first things through unmediated, direct experience, rather than through the second-hand of approved literature and/or popular opinion?

One & Many

Houston we have a problem!

Anytime that we are going to propose a solution to the dilemmas of a living existence in a world such as this-one we are liable to run into a difficulty or two. For the monotheistic psychology based upon 'the One' that difficulty can be felt in a certain tightness and rigidity--a narrowness and constriction--that appears to deny multiplicity and difference for the sake of 'the One.'

A polytheistic psychology has its own problem, though. I don't suspect it could be termed a panacea for what ails us. The long-noted problem inherent in a polytheistic psyche is that of 'integration.' How shall the various gods get along? What shall bring us direction and order? We can't just have a cacophony of voices can we? We need some ordering principle do we not? We need 'the One,' right?