Here You Are... Wondering ... Who am I? Ramanah Maharshi Verus Jackie Chan

Here you can find the subtle and sophisticated method of inquiry as taught by Ramanah Maharshi in order to answer that question - or rather - to BECOME the answer to that question. How do you become the answer to that very question? It is very simple. Every child can do it, only adults find it close to impossible to forget in order to remember.

If you don't know who you are, all kinds of trouble can show up in your life!

Here You Are... Wondering ... How Everything Vanishes, Into Nothing... BBC DocumentaryPhilosophy

... Like The Waves, On A Calm Summer's Day, Into The Mirror-Like Lake.

Nothing has been debated and fought over for centuries. Philosophers have the greatest difficulty with it as their minds are in the way, ending up in nihilistic hell. True "nothing" has been experienced only by the few - and they do not attempt to define it.

Where does the flame go when the wind takes it? Where does the child go when cancer takes it? This heaven, this nothing is absolute non-resistance as in absolute trust and love. Something to practice in life and find in death. This is Heaven, this is the Great Nothing - God herself, beyond time and space, pregnant with all there ever was, is, and will be. Even Atheists are right - God does not exist in our limited understanding of existence. And they are wrong also. God contains all possibilities - even his non-existence.




Alice: "I see nothing."Cheshire Cat: "My. You have good eyes. (Lewis Carrol)

Here You Are...Wondering... How Everything Appears Out Of Nowhere ... Lawrence Krauss Lecture

...Like The Waves Rise Up From The Sea...

Lawrence Krauss is one of our brilliant physicists. Brilliant physicists can make you laugh like Buddhist masters can, as they try to put into words the nature or existence. Why we even try to do this for each other is the mystery of love - mutually "destructive" enlightenment to balance the constructs of our minds.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Wisdom And Foolishness...May 21, 2011, End of the World

Doomsday May 21, 2011 has come and gone and the mocking of the gullible, trusting souls is in full swing. I am not sure, though, what is worse - the prophets or the arrogant?

NASA's warning of guaranteed solar flares of worrisome magnitude and consequence are enough to keep me humble as far as dooms days in general are concerned. I have more faith in scientific than in religious guesswork - but look what that is getting me. A more certain doomsday scenario? A better reason to prepare? Do we trust in God but tether our camel? Or do we just trust?

Trust - is both foolish and wise - and so is "preparedness".

Here You Are...Wondering...About Fearing and Wishing...Death Be Not Proud

When we fear things I think that we wish for them ... every fear hides a wish.
DAVID MAMET, Edmond

Since our greatest fear is our fear of death it must also be our greatest wish. Here are two poems to shed some light on the nature of death, and a Sufi's explanation of the teaching "to die before you die", which sheds light on why our greatest fear would also our greatest wish.

The Holy Longing
Poem by Johann W. Von Goethe

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.

In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.

Now you are no longer caught in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher love-making sweeps you upward.

Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.



Death Be Not Proud
By John Donne

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Weak And Strong...Live Cam On Eagles Nest In Iowa.

This is a live camera watching over an eagles' nest in Iowa. My parents in Germany just called to tell me all about what happened last week - egg by egg, so to speak. We used to watch seagull parents take care of their babies on our dock in California, but now we live high in the mountains in the snow. There is a coyote we see looking for food in the mornings. The puppies most likely hiding in a cave near by. Maybe a bit risky to go and install a camera... but I'll think about it.

Happy spring!

It may take a while to load. You can also go to http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles directly.


Live video by Ustream

Here You Are...Wondering...About Sad And Happy...Tokyo Pool

This video made me both sad and happy today.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Bitter And Sweet - Babies Eating Lemons

Here You Are...Wondering...About Loud and Quiet - Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

This is beyond brilliant and wonderful... maybe it is how we all become what we only used to be able to imagine... angels in heaven... voices in harmony flying through infinite space on our little water planet...

Funny how ordinary people making a small contribution from their little offices and bedrooms suddenly make us think of angels. I love how the root cause of this whole project was gratitude.

Here is Eric's Website if you want to keep up with his projects.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Earthquakes and Hurricanes - Band Of Brothers

Best Report from Japan out of all YouTube videos - Thank You, AlJazeera! These boys are my youngest son's age. A great and noble band of brothers, indeed. Love and Compassion will conquer all suffering!

Here You Are...Wondering...About Mountains and Oceans - Love Poems

"Mountains and Oceans" interestingly  took me mostly to blogs. People writing about the vastness of experience, the ups and downs of life...

Here is one of my favorites - a lovers blog with lots of poetry and wonderful photos of mountains and oceans.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Sunshine and Rain...The Day Before

Sunshine and Rain make Rainbows ! I will never forget this day. 

The next day my neighbor's healthy and vibrant mother, who was visiting from Hawaii, fell down the stairs carrying a laundry basket, and was paralyzed for life. The day before, the day this picture was taken, we had all been standing on our decks enjoying this beautiful rainbow for a long time - a kind of neighborhood meditation.  

Both my neighbor and her husband have cancer and are struggling through Chemo while faithfully visiting and taking care of her perfectly healthy, but paralyzed mother, at her nursing home. This accident moved the mother from Hawaii to California, and mother and daughter see each other far more than they would ever have seen each other otherwise during what maybe the last years of their being able to do so. Happiness and sadness weaving the rainbow of our existence.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Winter And Summer...Antonio Vivaldi

A little Antonio Vivaldi for today -

The minds that can compose this kind of music, or can play this kind of music are truly astounding. Music is my favorite kind of math - as in "The Language of the Universe". Music may be the bridge between religion and science, silencing the preacher as easily as the evolutionist.

Silence is the only way to "describe" both infinity and eternity, or God, if you will, although music can come close, while mathematicians as well as philosophers get very confused at this point.

Even the most exquisite music therefore - I am always glad when it ends, and returns me to silence. Like a mother kissing her baby "Good Night".

Winter -



Summer -

Here You Are...Wondering...About Friends And Enemies...Best Friends, Worst Enemies

This line in Here You Are, every time I read it to five-year-olds in Kindergarten or in First Grade, makes everyone sit up straight. Eyebrows go up, mouths open, accompanied by wriggling and looking around the classroom. It seems to be the main thing to wonder about at that age, while out in the big wide world for the first time on a regular basis. It is quite something to have to figure out who is on your side and who is trying to hurt you when you are five years old, and suddenly find yourself among dozens, if not hundreds of strangers every day at school.

Here You Are's magic does not come from clever advice on the subject of friends and enemies or any other questions raised, but from confirming this "wondering" about things, that we all do. Readers who do not wonder about anything, or who, if they do, want others to give them answers, find Here You Are boring, if not "offensive". Those who wonder and try to see with their own eyes and decide with their own hearts, on the other hand, are often so deeply touched that they start crying and putting their hands on their hearts.

Some Christians wrongly assume this book is based on Hinduism or Buddhism when it clearly is about "the kingdom within" we all share and that all religions talk about. Nobody is closer to it than children, no matter their religion. People forget this major teaching of Jesus. And he did not mean only Christian children. This kingdom within is the answer to all questions arising in the material world of opposites. Here You Are shows the way - which has been called the long journey from here to here. That's what's so much fun about it. Here we are, and nowhere else for all of eternity, no matter whether "here" looks like heaven or looks like hell or like nothing at all. "Here" is the truth that sets us free. A person who can remain "here" fully, without wanting to be anywhere else, even in the middle of being crucified, like Jesus, is home, free, and "at-one" with God. God is here, eternal, infinite, perfect. And it is so simple, and so obvious, that you have to chuckle.

Here You Are...Wondering...About Animals And Trees...Shearwater Bird Japan

Sometimes even birds have to climb trees before being able to fly.

It reminds me of my sister's divorce last year, and the promising new life ahead for her.



And it reminds me of the present struggle of the Japanese people. What a tall, and difficult tree to climb. May the Cherry Blossoms of spring soon bring hope to everyone. Life is so fragile. Every moment we are given is just that. A precious moment in time that contains all of eternity. What good messengers these Cherry Blossom are!