Thank you for this resource Daniel. I have had the privilege of working with psychiatric populations in a hospital, a prison for the criminally insane and in private settings. I have some knowledge of psychology because it was my major in college. I had already had spiritual experiences when I started college in 1969 and was disappointed to find that the outlook was toward abnormal psychology. Everything was pathologized. When life put me in direct contact with the populations in psychiatric settings I realized that I knew from experience many of the conditions that got them there. The difference was that I wasn't freaked out by them. Grounded in awareness, in “serene reflection” I had just accepted them as a part of the stuff of mind and let them blow through.
Reading the work of Arnold MIndell in the 90s, I understood that these experiences were common. In “Riding The Horse Backwards” he
says, “Native American tribes often spoke of a "Heyoka", a crazy-wisdom trickster figure who did everything differently. His horse went
forwards, for instance, but he rode it facing backward.” and concludes “The open heart says, more than anything else, "Go on, ride the horse
backwards. Let the impossible unfold." We've come a long way in understanding that the impossible will unfold with or without our cooperation. Better with it. Your effort in making this understood is appreciated.
