As some of you know, and many of you won't, the backstory to what I do is mostly contained within the Matrix.  There is more that one matrix to consider, however, and it's important to realize that the one that I'm specifically referring to is the training matrix that's found at Zen Mountain Monastery, and reflects a lifelong effort of the late John Daido Loori, Roshi.  Although I can't speak on his or his organization's behalf, I'm being quietly reminded of his own call to serve and the founding of his monastic setting that began in the early 1980s. I'm being asked to consider alternate timelines when mirroring his own movement throughout space and time, and how his presence in Spirit continues to affect us to this very day. And for those of you wondering, and for however briefly we worked online, I also have the pleasure of connecting with the late Bernie Glassman, who remains in Spirit as well.  Although this could be taken as a counter-intuitiv...

The Curtain Keeper Sometime during the late '90s or early '00s, and while I was exploring shamanic realities, I had a dream that included a curtain, a giant hand that pulled at its seams, and a podium that stood center stage that included the promise of an Oscar, if I were to pursue it.  Never having been an acting type, or ever having explored my thespian attitudes towards the arts, I brushed it aside.  The dream was very vivid and served as a direct pointer to what would become an interest in the following years. I never saw myself as an actor though, and when I would engage in dialogues with my inner self, it never seemed to be a realistic approach for me.  I was a glassblower, and then a car salesman, and the visual cues that would set off my creative spark were far less performance indicated, and much more colorful and hands-on in their approach.  The messages from upstairs were always very clear about this, go through that curtain, and see what opportunities come to...

I'm being quietly encouraged to open up on the Matrix, both the film franchise and the psychologist in question, and in an attempt to shed light on the topic, and what's brought us to this point in time.  Of course, with a background in shamanism followed with a lay practice in Zen Buddhism, it's easy to confuse the facts surrounding my trip to the hospital in 2006, and how those assumptions have lead many members of the audience into the false belief of mental illness. For those of you that are suffering from more severe cases of mental illness that include schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and manic depression, I encourage you to seek real help.  For those of you that are on an awakening path, and for those of you that can see the similarities that clinical psychology labels it as, I encourage you to continue reading this post.  And for those of you that have been deluded into thinking that a Jewish psychologist's half-brained attempt at diagnosing me with somethin...

Thanks for your patience while I paused on the creation of new content over the last few months.  We've had a lot going on since April and I took advantage of this time to witness the events as they unfold.  There's an important dialogue going on in this country and it has to do with race, and America's systemic racism that has defined our country since the beginning.  Please don't mistake my silence as a negligible attempt to undermine these efforts, it has simply been a time when I, as a white person, took a step back to understand my place in all of this. Needless to say, I welcome all different types of people into my life and this includes blacks, yellows, greens, reds, whites, and all of the other color variations that you can imagine.  I also accept people into my life that have different sexual orientations, genders, lifestyles, and political preferences.  True, I don't always like the division that America's two-party political system tends to creat...