My Name is Michael Hawkins, I live in Boulder, CO, USA, and I’ve been blogging since August 2004 at Spontaneous Arising.
I appreciate the opportunity to rant and rave at my other blog, but have decided that I need to give equal voice to the part of me that desires peace and contentment, no matter how much it seems to suck “out there.”
So that’s why I’m here, looking for ways to inspire us to turn within for solutions to what’s going on externally.
I do believe that the world will evolve into a heavenly place, but it will only do so one individual at a time. Each of us must find peace and contentment inside of us, so that it may radiate outward, changing this planet’s paradigm from the inside out.
Yes, I’m saying that the answer is spiritual in nature, and that’s the angle I’ll be taking at this blog. And I truly looking forward to discovering what’s meant to emerge here. I think it will be better than I can imagine.
AntiSniveler 
Dear friend,
greetings of peace.
i am blogging on you soon as part of reivew of blogs on sufi themes.
Hello dear Sadiq,
Wonderful news on your review of Sufi blogs — I can’t wait to see it when you’re finished. I look forward to learning more about Sufism from you.
Two groups one for cathars issues
at Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cat_har and one for self-realization, enlightenment at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/realized
OOH! dont like the Brown-Noses Michael?
The members of your own little Group-Mind centred around You as the Apex
Im going to destroy you
I would like to say that as someone who knows Michael personally, that he is as legitimate as it gets. I have seen him reach out to individuals targeted by the national security state with violence and psyops (is that what is going on here) – individuals under intense surveillance – and stand alongside them both in name and in deed, helping them physically and speaking on their behalf as publicly as on the internet. That not only takes gall but integrity.
I have been online en masse for ten years and have been an in-the-field activist for environmental issues and social justice ones and have spoken ad infinitum on these issues on the web and STILL, to this day, I have never met another that would even entertain this level of activism. Many will go to protests and wave signs and risk a couple of days of incarceration followed by what is usually a dropped charge or fine. Few will risk their own neck to stand up for what they believe in. By the way, I speak of REAL risk.
I didn’t realize you had two blogs Michael. Very cool.
Before I ask my questions, let me clarify my current belief structure:
I’m an anti-theist. I used to be an atheist who felt religion had a place in modern society as a beneficial aid. I now believe that is no longer true overall. I have no problem with spirituality, even if it is formed from modern religion. I have studied many religions and philosophies. The belief structure I would say that epitomizes most of the way I live my life is Taoism. I believe in science. I do not fully understand the ‘sense’ of spirituality that many espouse as I have never experienced it. I do feel a connectedness to humanity and nature, but I don’t feel it is spiritual in nature?
The picture you show above is what makes me wonder how humans can believe in A god that watches over or governs us. We are but a speck of dust in the scheme of it all.
Second, you say that we may have different paths but end up in the same place. How do you know it’s the same place?
namaste
Hi Susannity,
Glad you found the place.
One thing that tends to frustrate people is that I have almost unlimited tolerance for everyone’s relationship (or lack there of) with the concept of God. It’s such a vast subject, and with all the human beings on this little planet in this little galaxy, there are unlimited potentials for spiritual awareness. Another person, for instance, would look at that photo of Earth in relationship to the Milky Way, and that person would see it as a confirmation of a God — while another sees it as confirmation of the absence of God and the presence of an implicate order devoid of Mind intelligence. Or that person may have a completely different experience — and who am I to say which is valid and which is not?
My comment about the many paths leading to the same place is based on my own studies, which continually encounter similar (or precisely congruent) features along the spiritual path. Religion in its purest sense represents a path to Source — the path having begun with the religion’s progenitor(s), who wanted (on some level — I know I’m oversimplifying to make a point) to leave humanity with a roadmap Home. Have religions become corrupt? Absolutely. Is the idea of leaving humans in charge of religion insanity, since humans are fallible and will inevitably convert the original message into something ugly and lethal? Yes. Nevertheless, many a spiritual practitioner will begin to give rise to certain “fruit,” or ecstatic “charisms” that are experienced as Sacred indicators of “something” beyond mundane existence. Within the religious literature, we frequently find references to the very phenomena that are arising within us — and it can be immensely helpful to attain a larger context (i.e., cosmology) that connects the inner with the outer, the particular with the universal, the individual with the archetypal.
I’m rambling, but what I’m trying to convey is a sense that it is people who tarnish the message — who go to war and beat their loved ones over their beliefs — while the teachings themselves are simply information, to be experienced in different ways by different humans. Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Shamanism, Bon, Sikhism, Shinto, Taoism, Kashmir Shaivism, Zoroastrianism — you name it, that religion has an exoteric dimension as well as an esoteric dimension. Each is available, should the seeker come to a place along his or her path where a roadmap is helpful. Granted, for most people the roadmap is never utilized the way it was intended — but that’s not the map’s fault.
Wonderful conversation! Wonderful to have a new friend….
Warmly,
Michael
So you are taoist in nature it seems. You see all information as neither good nor bad, it is what it is. It is up to humanity to then use it or not, turn it ugly or not. Am I understanding you correctly?
Aye, it is good to be back in the blogosphere connecting to open individuals again.
namaste
You got it, Susannity. I just don’t feel that any of us has the right to push our beliefs on anyone else, even if we think we have the corner on the Truth market.
I spent five years working in a metaphysical bookstore. Having access to all those teachings (as well as customers and authors who made themselves available for conversation) convinced me that it’s all talking about the same think, and that it’s all headed toward the same… Ineffable.
I’m glad you’re back, too!
Peace be upon you Michael,
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog — I found it when searching for material on Hallaj — but stayed to read the rest. I have similar preoccupations, although based within Abrahamic mysticisms, I have trained in Therevada Buddhism and western philosophy, and I try to make it all come together in the garments that I weave. If you are interested, please check out my blog — always happy to discuss ideas through comments.
Onward towards the Garden!
http://thegoodgarment.wordpress.com/
The Tailor
Thanks for the kind words, Mr. Tailor. I’m going to add your site to my blogroll — I love what I’ve seen so far.
I come from the Abrahamic tradition myself, being a preacher’s kid in a family lineage filled with preachers. I ran away from all that for a long, long time, finding in Eastern traditions much experiential expression that matches my own. Only now have I come back to the Abrahamic world in order to see that, yes indeed, Truth is right there where I started. Beautiful.
Many blessings,
Michael
Wow,Micheal!
I just found you site after I posted something…
You sure stir it up in people with a big spoon!
Yes-the answer is spiritual – and we can add to that energy stream; this world will never be “perfect” and so it will always be frustrating if we think we can only find peace after we “fix it.” –
And yet, we also do need to apply our energy to bring blessings to the world…and then let it go.
May divine love awaken all hearts…
All is God..
Yogananda Aum
Ever-new joy!
Mary K
i interisting in sufim n picture in ur blog
Hi Dreampuppet,
Great site. Nice work, and thanks for sharing your views! We share a similar view of religion and esoterism, I think. I, too, have studied many of the traditions you have, and believe in the Transcendent Unity that each may lead one to. I think I read in one of your posts that you subscribe to the Traditionalist view that, although a Transcendent Unity exists, one should practice within one traditional context to the exclusion of all others. I have subscribed to this view also, but now am not so sure. I am curious… do you indeed share this view, and if so, what religion or spiritual tradition do you call “home”?
Hello Stavros,
I thought about your comment overnight, and came to this: while I value and resonate with the Traditionalist view, I can’t honestly say that I’ve adopted it in my life. My contemplative practice, for instance, is Buddhist (according to the Buddha’s actual teachings, without the corruptions that came later — thus, negating Tradition!). The religion of my upbringing is Protestant Christianity, and I carry on an active search of the Scriptures while seeking inner communion with the Divine through prayer. I also go through periods of intense study of the Qur’an and Hadith literature, with a Sufi friend who is kind enough to explain things to me along the way.
I would have to say that I remain a Christian, having been brought up that way and having never lost my connection with the person of Christ (although I long ago ceased church-attendance and have had great difficulty relating to others who call themselves Christian). For me, Buddhism is more of a practice strategy and ethical way of being, with very clear instructions available for both — but it is not really a religion, at least not in the Judeo-Christian way of thinking. After many, many years of yearning, I found that the early Buddhist practices laid-out in the Nikayas (Discourses of the Buddha) are the most accessible way for me to adopt a rigorous daily contemplative practice that then opens the way to That which all the religions point toward.
Thanks for your comment, new friend!
looking forward to reading and connecting 🙂
http://allaboutenlightenment.wordpress.com/
http://lesleehare.wordpress.com/
thank you for this perspective, Michael!
really great blog man, keep it up, thanks
Great to find you here on the wordpress platform. We seem to meet on different social media unexpectedy on a regular basis. Keep in touch. I see that you have not been very active in the past year. Let me look around a little and read here and there about the mysticism you incorporate with your being.
Good to see you here, Bert. I’ve taken an unplanned hiatus from all of my blogs over the past year — but (knock on wood) the ship of life seems to be turning in the water, and I’m feeling that ol’ inspiration coming back. Interesting that you would pop up right at this moment, brother…..