Things to do in Denver when you're Awake

What do you do with the waking state?
Get down in the details. It is difficult to perform very ordinary tasks in the waking state.
We are not accustomed to doing anything in this state. Our daily activities are usually managed by the personality, the mechanical creation which is so good at performing these tasks you can sleep right through them. This bio machine called human being is so efficient it can manage an entire lifetime for you while you sleep.
When you have made the effort and do wake up, you will find it difficult to remain in said state while performing activities that are usually done asleep. There are millions of things that you can do while functioning automatically as a sleeping machine. It has become habitual. Because it is habitual you will find that even when you approach an activity from the waking state you may find yourself baited back into sleep as you engage in it because you are used to performing that activity mechanically. The habit of doing that thing automatically is stronger.
The way to get over it is to develop a new habit of performing that activity in the awakened state. To form a new habit you will have to make the effort again and again until it gains "momentum"... more "momentum" than the old sleeping habit. In the waking state you may create ever more activities/spaces in which you can be awakened.

Move Slowly

When things have gone off course and you feel the need to hurry in order to right them, slow down. It is most important to observe rituals of awakening in the moments when the tug and troubles of the sleeping world seem to demand all of your attention. If something must be sacrificed, let go of the dead limb. Do not loose your hold on the vital and delicate stream of immortality to gain a tighter grasp on the process of decay. You will never be able to prevent the death of the mortal creation, it will never truly be safe or comfortable.
The intelligence that has been developed to prolong the mortal creation’s existence will find it difficult to admit such impotence. It will in fact edit out the real in order to seem even more useful than it really is. Its plight is pitiful, destined to die with the mortal creation, frightened and delirious , cowardly burying its head in the sand to preserve the illusion of individuality which it perceives. And it will voice its concerns loudly and desperately, do anything to win control of the nation. It especially uses fear and urgency.
This aspect of self is the drowning man who panicking, drags the able bodied swimmer down. Be aware then that to give your whole self over to its rule is to invest only in certain death.
Be disciplined, move slowly, and don’t give in to its panicked cries. Nothing can be saved by submersing the self in sleep, by identifying with that voice. Move against the resistance, towards the awakened life that the distressed sleeper by nature must be blind to. Strive towards the dark, frightening, uncertain territory with steady measured steps.

Star Making Machine

Here I am again. Such a painful curve of the wheel.
This too will pass. Down will soon be up, up will return to down. It would be best to be silent, hold still, don’t struggle against the tide. Open your eyes, open your mouth and breath, open your heart.
It hurts to be so nonexistent.
It only hurts when you are trying to prevent it. Don’t struggle.
I wanted to make something real.
That will never happen if you struggle and crack the vessel.
I feel lost at sea. And sinking.
Nothing lost and nothing gained yet.
Wake Up! Wake Up! Man the ship, damn you! Don’t listen to that song, the one that lulls you with desperation, with "oh it’s too late, all is lost, I’ve lost everything again…"
You see the alignment is off in this vehicle, it veers right, so you will have to compensate for that. Steer hard to the left. To the left, to the left! Turn it on its head, invert the cross.
It feels like insects are crawling on my skin. There’s a cold wind blowing through my veins. Someone has driven a stake through my heart.
"It’s your father." Julia says, " He was trying to protect you." Her hair is curly brown.
I pull the stake out and the insects come pouring out of my heart, crawl over the surface of my body and devour it.
But Saint Veshua watched it all from a distant hill top, his scarf flapping in the wind, spy glass poised for the view. What he saw was a blond girl from some great American novel kneel to pray, and at that moment her heart burst into flames which soon consumed the whole apparition. For a moment it reminded him of the Inquisition, then the formation changed, and the flaming girl collapsed into a brilliant star. The explosion was magnificent. It knocked Veshua clear off of his feet. The hillside was toast.
That’s right listen… it was a star making machine fed by the popular song. Quite a trick, like powering your car with the oil from french fries. It seems like an inappropriate use of materials, but that’s Magick.

Experiment: Silent Act

The following experiment is an evolution of Lights! Camera! Action!
By now you have had a chance to observe and act out some of your mechanical manifestations. Possibly you have even discovered other subtler manifestations that initially eluded you.

Now you will make a short silent play made up entirely of those gestures you have observed in yourself.

This play will be 10 minutes long. Decide on which manifestation you will exhibit and in what sequence. Aim to make it realistic with believable transitions. You will want to create a script to follow and eventually memorize.

For seven days set a timer each morning and perform you silent act. If you have a video camera you may record it so that you can watch it at the end of the seven days.

Cosmic Fool

How, you may ask, is it possible for me to carry on accepting everything and rejecting nothing? What an insurmountable burden, how can I be this and that? Hold everything at once?

I can tell you only that God loves fools. The cosmic juggler holds everything at once with attention and balance, in perpetual motion. A balance between the force exerted by the fool and the force of gravity can birth the sun in the heavens.

There is no way to be a performer and a critic simultaneously. To perform requires complete devotion, the absolute commitment of presence and heart to the act at hand.

If you are trying not to drop balls, you are not juggling.
Juggling is catching.

Make the effort to do the thing at hand, never wondering whether you will succeed or fail. Never wonder if you should, if it is best, or necessary. Nothing at all is necessary. There is only true will to take into account. A choice to be artful and manipulate the subtle details for no practical purpose whatsoever, or let everything fall forever unnoticed.

Lights! Camera! Action!

The following experiment is an evolution of the "Posture" experiment. In that experiment you were asked to keep a notebook with you for a total of six days in order to record re-occurring mechanical manifestations. In other words, you kept a log of some of your most habitual gestures and the accompanying moods and circumstances.
At this point you should begin to notice these re-occurring gestures as you are performing them. During the course of a day, whenever you catch yourself in one of your mechanical manifestations, say to yourself, "Cut! " At that you point you should freeze. Then say to yourself, "From the top." And prepare to repeat the scene. Say, "Action." And perform the gesture again.
This can also be done with a partner. The two of you should be familiar with each other's catalog of mechanical manifestations. When one partner notices the other engaged in a habitual posture or gesture they will issue the commands for them.
In either case it is useful to run through the sequence up to three times when showcasing a particular manifestation. When you are finished you say, "Break."
Break.

Cogs

Where are the boundaries?

The lines etched into our minds that dictate how we behave and interact with our world, tell us what is dangerous, what is safe, lovely, and frightening- how objective are they?
We move like animatronic pirates, revolving in the same circle in pursuit of wench and wine, endlessly running round and round.

But what is it that keeps us in formation, revolving without question. Are we afraid of the outlying caverns and doors that lead from our world into the sun drenched alien landscape beyond?

Or have we been lulled into a stupor by the repetitive motions of the entire clockwork fantasy, the mechanical motions of living acted out by ourselves and our peers?

We are chained in the invisible binds of conditioning. Such subtle bondage requires abnormal astuteness to be observed.

When we are asked to accept this or that, right or wrong, black or white, we are really being asked to forfeit our perception of everything in between.
When we sacrifice our vision to preserve contrived divisions we are absorbed into the machine, one more cog in a sleeping giant.
And our apathetic submission has consequences beyond our own miserly existence.

For one truth to rise all others must fall.

Consider that your choice to remain in the service of the sleeping giant because it is easy, comfortable, and sensible is a choice to send a myriad of worlds into exile.
Consider that whatever fate you sentence them to marks your own destiny.