energy

"People who are 'evil' are usually first-timers or later big mistakes. 'O, I thought this was my room,' they say when they gather; but it's usually a mistake. And they don't get here. They move directly to dismantling. Some of them are already coming apart... like explosives. Explosives are made by forcefully combining things that aren't normally stable together. It takes energy. And most of such systems can't sustain that energy for long, and then POOF!

"Just like cultures: Good cultures don't take a lot of energy to maintain. They give participants more energy than they demand.

"Some things just should not be combined. And some things are forcefully combined because one element seeks some resolution, but it's not a natural one. It goes back into the individual elements, and it is painful, so to speak, for the elements. So they don't try that combination again. But some elements still have unresolved issues, so they may create different but equally bad combinations. But usually an element that blows it twice is dismantled to its inherent subelements that need to find other combinations.

"It's the same pattern up and down the line. When it works, it is sustained and moves to greater complexity. And when it doesn't work, it is returned to previous realities for dismantling. Like uranium: Is uranium good or bad, neither. But when it reacts, then we can discuss the reaction. Like in astrology: Is a sign good or bad, no. But some combinations are... ahhh... not so great." (4/5/96 - R#11)

"The natural state of being is trust. Babies--those cute little things--begin by trusting. They have to experience otherwise or else they just trust. Loss does not destroy trust, betrayal does. In Tarzan, he trusts until, as a man, the British teach him to mistrust.

"Erikson was half right. There are tensions between things like faith and doubt, etc., but the natural state is the positive and people have to unlearn that. Left alone people are good, with support they're even better; but with the opposite they can go bad. The propensity of the universe is towards goodness and understanding. Remember, when you see a person for whom goodness is not natural that entity will not be sustained as a spiritual continuity.

"So to trust yourself is natural, and if you don't you have experienced something to keep you from that. All the self-esteem workshops don't work unless you get to understand why you don't have esteem--what have you experienced and how can you get beyond it. It is not a constructive activity, but a cleansing one." (6/1/96 - R#12)

"All the great religions have found and lost the answers. They are great depositories of emptiness where fullness once was. What happened? Institutionalization, and greed for money and power. What gaineth a man to get the riches of the world and lose the kingdom of heaven." (10/20/96 - R#13)

"Now about fear. It is not a barrier, but it can be an annoying companion. But ultimately what is real shows through fear and pain.

"It's not what you do to avoid it, but what you have to live through it. And the most fearful people are those who either don't learn or don't remember. And people with no fear are not people of faith; they are usually without faith, too. And people who are filled with faith are not free of fear, but often are filled with fear because they build false faith to avoid the fear which they then fear will destroy their faith. They fear their faith is not enough, so they create more systems of faith, but to no avail. Faith that is not a function of fear overcome is no faith." (1/6/97 - R#14)

"Clones are good but mistaken--physically identical, but what about spiritually. You get two clones, both born the same day, but--and here's the big but--only one spirit per body. So you think you have two of the same, but noooooo. Here's a paradox: If you get two bodies with the same spirit, what inhabits one while the other is out partying. Huh." (2/28/97 - R#15)

"This is about love. There is nothing you can do to earn it and there is nothing you can do to lose it. Love to the universe is like air to the physical body. It is life. It is the sustaining force and the element that infuses and animates all there is. If you exist you are loved. It has nothing to do with who you are. It has to do with what you experienced and how you were treated by others. It has to do with trust, and trust is fragile and easily broken. You can relearn it but it takes work and openness to the love of the universe.

"My wish for you is that you may be able to feel that love as the continuing background to your life--kind of like a soundtrack. A lovetrack, if you will. Listen to it. Hearing it will help you let go and the trust will grow from it, as a theme reveals itself in a symphony. At first all you hear is individual notes, but as the piece develops the notes form a pattern and you begin to hear a wholeness that you can remember--that can become part of your being and your memory and is always available to you to recall and relive. It becomes your own.

"So it is with love and trust. It takes some listening, some hearing, and a lot of remembering. Focus on those things and you will be rewarded with peace of mind and a sense of spiritual continuity and a deeper wisdom. It will help you understand the abundance of life and allow you to live wholly and purposefully and, yes, even joyfully. Listen to the love and hear your purpose and possibilities and persistence. Love is what binds us each to the other, and it is not dependent on time or space or behavior." (4/6/97 - R#16)

Listen to Rikkity when she was 6 years old singing about love.

"This is about relationships. There is nothing more frustrating or more glorious than the relationship between two people. It is fundamental to life and to growth. Life is relationship. Energy flows naturally between two points. If it stays static it turns in on itself and self-destructs. There is nothing that is static in the universe because nothing that is static lasts.

"Growth is about the flow of energy. It goes out in one direction and comes back more than it was before. What comes back the same has no effect, and so it is not even noticed. Relationships like that have no effect on a person because they don't add anything to the person's life. There must be difference, there must be change, there must be newness in order for there to be growth.

"In relationships what stays static shrivels and dies. If you try to hold onto your energy and not let it flow between you and the other it will eventually dissipate. You will eventually lose it. If you don't let it go it cannot come back to you. That old saying about 'if you love something, let it go' is so right! But the corollary to that is that if you don't let it go you will lose it.

"The effort of putting out the energy is what sustains life, and without it winter would not turn to spring and pain would not produce growth and what is destroyed by natural disaster would remain barren. The rain would not produce rainbows if the sun didn't make the effort to shine through it. In the end you really have no choice anyway. If you love you give. And if you give you are given in return.

"Energy is a precious commodity, but it is not rare or something you need to get. It is the essence of life, and you will always have enough as long as you use it with love and for good. Use it in anger or doubt or despair or hatred and you will never have what you need. Use it in love and care and creativity and belief and you will always have what you need because you will always be nourished and sustained by it. Energy used for positive purposes will feed you. Energy used in negative ways will suck from you. It's always a two-way street and you always have a choice.

"Stay positive, stay whole, stay on your own course and you will not get lost. Look here for your guides but look there for your companions. Keep your eyes on the stars, but your arms around each other." (5/15/97 - R#17)

"A few thoughts for today about energy. It is true that we can energize others, and we need to be careful and discriminating about how and where to send our energy. Black holes can suck us dry. But if we retreat and send none, then those in need will be left bereft. So it's almost like electricity. If you take a wire with electricity from your home and touch it to ground, it will let vast quantities of energy flow into the earth (and you'll get a big bill) until all your resources are gone... bye-bye, sayonara, ta-ta, brokeski. But if you put a fuse on the line, that can't happen. But it also means any contact with earth will cut the circuit. With some situations you need a fuse; if the energy flow is too much, just shut down. But in most cases you have an option: put something between you and ground that will use the energy to good effect. When you turn on a light, that's what you do.

"So, between people you need to establish what will be energized; and it won't be them, but something between you and them. And it has to be of sufficient load that it uses the energy before it gets through to them. All good relationships have this feature--that what flows creates something between the two, appropriate to the intensity and power of what goes in. You can't light a regular bulb with a C-cell, and if you try to light the same bulb with a high-tension line, POOF. The relationship and the energy need to be in an equal relationship.

"Fuses keep you from giving too much, and even receiving too much. And they also serve to keep you from amassing too many little relationships whose sum total exceeds your capacity to give or deal with. Fuses are the boundaries we choose in relationships. Without them we are either fried or enervated. There is no one standard of emotional fuses. Each relationship requires its own ongoing calculation. If you fear black holes you will create inappropriate fuses. Life is about using and controlling energy, not about abusing or denying it. That's all." (11/17/97 - R#18)

"Now about Saddam Hussein. Take the guy out to lunch at the Yale Club. That's enough. Stop making him into a villain and a martyr. Be good to his people and undermine him. Focus on them, not him. They aren't bad. He can't preach about their oppression if they ain't oppressed." (12/16/97 - R#19)

"Think of it like this: You have one wastebasket, and when you look in you see there is some trash and also some garbage. So you yell, 'Who put this garbage in here.' But wait... the can is not labeled. But if it were labeled Trash, No Garbage, then probably you would get only trash. And if you got garbage, you would have no trouble dealing with it and the offender." (5/13/98 - R#20)

"One thing about Korea and Vietnam is that we have generally let go of it; but WWII we had to keep hearing about. It was because it so focused on negative energies, and those people are still feeding it. They don't know any positive direction that is as compelling. And they got their rewards in the '50s from surviving the '40s. And now we have to hear it all here... but not for long." (5/16/98 - R#21)

"Question: Evil: Systemic quality or situational reality? I can't tell from the great and mighty Rikkity which it is.

"What appears as a continuity of evil is not. It is not a force. It is the situational occurrence of unstable combinations of spiritual energy. It comes and goes. There are few examples of specific atrocities that are the same. People are as inventive with bad as they are with creativity. If there were a continuity of evil it would be the same... not, as it is said, 'rearing its ugly head' in new and pernicious ways. But there appears to be similarity because in the human sphere there are only so many ways that energy sucking seems to manifest itself. So now we use guns and then we used arrows, but both were used to compensate for a feeling of intense need for energy and power.

"It is actually the opposite. If we think of evil as systemic then we spend and focus energy on something that is not real, and that is a form of evil itself. To use energy that could be positive to fill the energy needs of a phantom energy drain is to waste goodness. Let me be specific: Crusades. There was no evil in the Holy Land. Islam is not evil--no more evil than any religion that has grown beyond its spiritual foundation, but it was not specifically evil. But the Crusades spent a lot of energy against supposed evil, and all the energy was wasted with death and suffering while at home people starved. To treat situational badness as evil is as bad as ignoring the situational badness. Both refocus energy in less than good ways. If energy is not focused on connection and connecting it is no better than what it seeks to address." (7/2/98 - R#22)

"Fuses all look different. It could be people, or distance, or a setting, or even tranquilizers... whatever stops an undue amount of energy flowing from you without the fuse also taking energy. That's the key. Some people use another person as a fuse between them and another, but that fuse takes as much energy or more. Substitute holes are not fuses. It's not about stopping wasteful energy flow to a certain place, but about stopping it altogether. Got it. It's controlling the energy without using any itself.

"I give another example. You have a pesky acquaintance and she will suck you dry; so you decide to see her only in social settings--that is, not one-on-one. But if the others who fill out the scene demand energy they are not fuses. So, suppose someone else can shut her up but that other needs a lot of attention. What's the difference. Switches change energy direction; fuses protect your spiritual circuits. You can get just as fried by a short circuit to a water pipe as you can to a shit pile. Just because it's pure water doesn't mean the pipe can't suck your energy as much as the shit, ok." (9/29/98 - R#23)

Questions and answers at a chat session:

"So if there is no evil and love is all there is, what should we do with people who seem bent on hurting or taking advantage of us? That is such a problem for so many people. You think if you're strong and loving, that means you have to give--even to those who don't give in return, even to those who give only pain in return. Try to remember that your choices will not make or break someone else. Try to remember that you can, and really must, focus your energy where it will be helpful and creative and loving. But you don't need to focus your energy on feeding those who don't love you back. Give them understanding if you want to, but don't give them your energy to feed on. That will only sustain their need, and not fill it. To fill it they must find ways to create their own energy." (11/1/98 - R#24)

"What about loving our enemies? Loving your enemies does not mean feeding them and making it possible for them to go on hurting you! Loving your enemies simply means acknowledging them as fellow human beings who are on a journey of their own. It means not making them into more than they are. Got it? Ok, good. And with that I gotta go. Goodbye." (11/1/98 - R#25)

"About the Columbine shootings. O, don't make more of it than 2 stupid, crazy, lonely people. It is not symbolic of anything larger, and those who use it for such do violence themselves.

"It is so easy to focus on the negative that we let it win. Gandhi knew this, and believed that he could change the negative by never ever ever being negative. So when he was beaten, he did not beat back nor did he cower. Both would have let the negative win. Only the positive can triumph over the negative and in its wake bring forth the dawn of... wait, that's the campaign speech. But you get the point. Eye on the prize. He was not passive when he peacefully sat down, knowing he would be beaten. That's not passive; slinking home would have been. He was not passive, he was assertive--positively assertive. And here's a test: In any situation, do the people act out of fear or faith. And I don't mean a fearfull faith, I mean an empowering one. That's all you need to know to know which way the wind is blowing." (6/10/99 - R#26)

"Now about the death penalty. Kill the suckers... no, that wasn't it. Mercy and understanding, and let the process take its eternal course. It's more about how people feel about life than it is about death. And in times when people don't really appreciate life, they use death as a means of escape. Bad times always bring about killings. The killings are a symptom, not the real badness. When a group needs to kill, it usually has an incomplete identity of itself. Negative images breed negative actions.

"When we cut short the lives and learnings of people, we may be prolonging the process of their spiritual evolution. With the really evil black holes, no, but with the infinite number of guiltless ones we do--and that holds us back, too. A life in prison could be a life of learning and remembering, but a life cut short like that can't always be. And that's all I will say." (7/1/99 - R#27)

"Hey, never trust anyone who is always up. That's a sign of an energy sucker--use it before you even have it. Not what logic would tell, but the mellow folks have their own internal energy... like wow. And that's all I have to say, man." (11/2/99 - R#28)

"Specific fears have an appeal in a time of uncertain fears. Hell had the biggest play when life was uncertain but no one knew from what. Just as the Enlightenment pulled away the veil of superstition, and fears were made specific but not uncertain, now again veils need to be pulled off to show realities--which are always less frightening than suppositions and mysteries.

"The cult of technology, when it is held in the clench of nerds, creates an uncertain in the rest of us. So only as the secrets of it all are shared without lingo... and also without lingonberries, yum... will we find a way out of the uncertainties. But the nerds hold on tightly because they feel so outside the culture. They like the feeling of superiority they get by keeping everyone else uncertain. And what do the idiots do, they sue Gates and prove he is besieged, and this will work against what should happen. Threaten a technogeek and you get more secrets, not fewer. It has to be a mutual handshake. And most common people are as scared of the technos as they once were of the medieval priest. So I invite in the geeks, and say they are socially accepted, and then they will share and the fears will diminish. Circles of openness.

"So, Y2K was about all of this. So the next time someone fails to program a VCR, they should not curse the VCR or the designers, but call up one of those who know, and ask for help and invite him or her over for dinner and a VCR party. The future of the class struggle will not be economic but technological, and it is not about possessing the objects, but about understanding the principles. Them that's gots the info are top dogs... and the rest of you make fun of them. Remember Peggy Sue Got Married and Richard. She opened to him and he opened to her and fears dissipated, but all the rest stayed in fear. One of the smarts and one of the in-crowd. So ponder that.

"And let me say it again. Once we had tribal war, then racial, then national... and always class. But the coming conflict is about ideas and knowledge supported by technology. If you want to make a difference, focus on that. Give an African American or a Hispanic access to knowledge and technology, and race won't mean shit... oops, I mean beans. And in the coming period, focusing on race or economics will be a handy way to avoid the issues and keep the whole struggle alive with top dogs and fear... or is it hot dogs and beer... no, top dogs and fear." (1/3/2000 - R#29)

"So, you want to know about disassembly. Well, when it happens you get a great shock, so to speak, and the components know that and also know nothing... it's like shock therapy. It wipes the slate clean, but you have a lingering sense you don't want to go there again. There is no conscious memory of being in that combination, and no learning... much less remembering. But if one were to attempt a similar entity assembly, something spiritually primal would scream, Do not. It is so primal and essential that one would have to work to overcome it.

"You wouldn't want any of that entity to exist in memory, because memory is reality. So wipe it clean, or the universe will go to the same place over and over. Notice that while you've had many villains, they are each unique. Only one Hitler, one Vlad, one Jim Jones. If the slate were not cleaned, then you would risk more than one. All cases of evil are unique. That's why systematic attempts to eradicate evil always fail, because they deal with the known--the already evil--and the problem is with the evil yet to come into being. And since the evil is just a random bad combo, you can't systematically deal with randomness. You all try but it don't work, do it. So they try to deal with Hitler as if he were Bismarck and it fails... and Saddam Hussein as if Hitler. So, enough deep shit." (2/15/2000 - R#30)

"Now about racism and addiction. All dysfunction is about energy, and chronic dysfunction is addiction to some form of energy--hate, booze, drugs, violence, religion, and sports... not to mention dogs... rrrrr. It could be anything external to one. Some are addicted to running and some are addicted to sunning... music, cigarettes, fruit punch, peanut butter, applause, quiet. The substance doesn't matter as much, but some also have a physical claim as well." (8/9/2000 - R#31)

"Can't have a rainbow without a clash of water and light. Is it violence or creativity. Ponder that. All physical matter is the product of either thought or violence... hmmm. So, I go... he goes... we go." (11/21/2000 - R#32)

"So, pay attention. Energy released by change is a big problem. And moving on into more complexity is a big change; and so there is a lot... a shitload... of energy potential in the change, and the sensation of that keeps some peeps from changing. The final awareness for many before they connect is how to deal with such tremendous shared energy. You think fear is a big deal, try not understood energy!

"So keep on pondering the energy. It has been my most constant theme. It's all about energy. In any sustainable entity, the control and use of energy is an essential issue. And without a balance, then you either get explosions outward--a coming apart--or inward, like a black hole... suuuuck. That's all for tonight. I haven't got energy to go on." (1/17/2001 - R#33)

"Let's talk trash... like refuse... like what you get rid of. Did you ever notice, most people keep trash and trash valuables. People have something that bothers them and so they eliminate it... bye-bye, adios. But wait... if it bothers you, it is in conversation with your being. Just because you perceive it as negative does not mean it is.

"Actually, the only stuff physically and emotionally and spiritually you shed is what has no meaning--positive or negative--for you. Everything else is valuable. But too many times we throw out the negative, keep the worthless, and in the process devalue the positive. So don't trash anything unless it is really meaningless to you. And most people live with lots of meaningless stuff. And one of the tasks of life is looking at what we keep and asking, 'What does this mean to me.' If you don't know immediately, trash it, give it up. Our psychic worlds as humans are too limited to clutter them up with that crap.

"It's like the person who says 'I've got this great quotation for you,' and then digs for 3 days through all kinds of meaningless scraps looking for it. What a waste of energy. Ah, energy again. If you waste your energy keeping meaningless stuff in your life, you have that much less for meaning. Thus spake Rikkity.

"By the way, letting go and trashing are not the same. Many people let go but do not throw away, so their lives become cluttered rooms of discards--no longer meaningful, but still under foot. Sometimes the trashing is physical, but sometimes it needs to be symbolic or ritualized. But in our culture we don't have that. More later." (1/23/2001 - R#34)

"No pearls of wisdom tonight. But here's an opal. There are many energies that work together; so, like the seeming luminescence of opal that does not shine really in the dark but seems to glow in the light, we each and we all have qualities that appear in relation to other energies. And we can't relate to those who we see as connected energies unless we deal with our own.

"So the question of energy is always complex--we and the rest in connection, not alone. The opal does not shine in the dark, and the sun does not an opal make. Each complements the other. And with that, blessings to all the seekers and the searchers and the travelers and the huggers." (1/27/2001 - R#35)

"So, what a mess. So if we can find fault, the world will be perfect, right? I don't theeenk that's the way it goes. If you look for fault, you measure by the negative... but if you look for hope! Think of a newspaper with the big head of: PEOPLE ARE GOOD TO EACH OTHER. No one would ask whose fault that is.

"Sometimes one has to let go in order to go on, or the tragic will catch you and eat you... or worse, sour you so you become the poison others taste in the act of living and loving. Don't be a living Sour Patch Kid. If you become negative, then it wins." (9/19/2001 - R#36)

"Do auras have auras. Everything has an energy field, so why not energy fields--like ever-slighter ripples going outward. Big dogs have little fleas who bite 'em, and little fleas have littler fleas, and so ad infinitum... grrrr... snap... one less.

"A person dies... plunk. The body gets taken away... wwrrrr (siren). Then later you go to their favorite place and smell them: aura. And suddenly you have a sense of light: aura's aura... which is not Walla Walla... Bora Bora. That's it, I quit." (1/18/2002 - R#37)

"More suicides are disassembled than others. The system just doesn't hold--often sustained for years on external energy. But when the candle burns low for most, it is just a dark day... but for some it is the end of existence.

"Here's a thought that is sure to be controversial, but hey I'm not shy... grrrrr. Go, dog... gggrrrrrrr. When those who have seen it, speak of going to the light, the light is not an external source--like God as a separate entity--but it is the light of one's own being; an awareness at last, without fears and blinders and physical limitations, of what is essentially us: great piercing energy. We walk through the tunnel from the physical into our own gleaming presence. But alas, those caught in darkness without the balanced set of personal... or should I say entital... energies, do not go to the light, for there is no light that is internal to them sufficient to sustain the entity. Or, when you are an entity and truly fit together, you have spiritual energy beyond bounds, contained only in the physical world by your physicality. Whoa.

"But there will be many who want and need and insist to see the light as separate. But... but... but if we are always a part of All That Is, then there is nothing separate. And why can't we affirm that we are the light. Why can't we step back and say, 'Whoa, we're good.' God is reputed to have done that--created, stopped, and said, 'Whoa, it's good.' Well, if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for me! So there. I've said enough.

"Some stupid pride crap keeps us from affirming our goodness. And also a lack of faith in self--which is another name for fear. Ponder that. We are afraid of our own goodness and potential. But some, like Buddha and Mohammed and Jesus, got it. The Kingdom of God is in YOU! So, I guess I've said enough for today." (1/22/2002 - R#38)

"An energy trough is about change. And since people fear change, it's related to fear. Fear is a symptom. But 'I'll remove the cause, but not the symptom.' So long after the trough is gone, the fear of being in it lingers. And most great achievements occur, not on the upswing of the crest, but riding out the energy of the crest as it begins to move trough to trough. So the seeming greatness is usually a product of the crest, not the cause of it. You ride the waves, not the swells. And waves are crests moving to oblivion.

"So, the fear is a memory of the experience of the trough, where everything is uphill, but that fear is only known later, when some of the uphill is already achieved. The social emotions, like personal ones, live with an experience lag. You know people who live on through the worst, then collapse when the worst is over. I think that is eeenough." (4/19/2002 - R#39)

"Know your spirit and honor it. And see who gives off energy and who takes it in. And negativity tries to attract positive energy. But only those lacking focus on lacks." (5/12/2002 - R#40)

"Watch out for them. Them. It's a paranoid thing. If you can have a them to fear, why worry about things you actually could do." (9/12/2002 - R#41)

"So, tonight we talk peas. I believe that if everyone would just boil them lightly and add some salt, the world would be a better place. What. O... never mind.

"Peace is not an end, only the fulfillment of other values. You don't create peace; peace is the reward for things like acceptance and connection. If we want peace, we need to energize those things which promote understanding and cooperation and fellowship... like a giant vegetarian barbeque. If everyone could just have enough food and eat together, oy what a pile of napkins." (9/30/2002 - R#42)

"If you think you are basically ok, you don't use energy on looking for change, but you can still be open to change. Change from contentment is enhancement; change from discontent is striving. One presumes an existing internal identity, and the other seeks an external desired identity. So one seems more energetic, but it ain't necessarily so.

"The same water flowing steadily over the wide river bed contains what it later has falling down the precipice. Don't think the quiet murmur is any less energetic than the roar. And the Grand Canyon was carved by a slow stream, more than a great waterfall." (10/9/2002 - R#43)

"Too many seeds of fear are not only being sown, but harvested. But this is a time to speak out... but only to speak out of vision, not fears or speculation. They have nothing to worry about reactions because those can be turned into fear issues. But visionary talk is really troubling because it has another point of empowerment--always toward, not away. Thus saith the Moo." (10/25/2002 - R#44)

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