Ego and Acceptance

Folk Plus is a lyrically-based, themed folk show. There could be bits of Broadway, spoken work or oldies included, and that is the "Plus" part. It airs Saturdays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm on WJFF, at 90.5 fm in Jeffersonville, N.Y. and 94.5 in Monticello N.Y. in a chemical and fragrance-free space. WJFF is Hydro-Powered Public Radio and streams online at WWW.WJFFRADIO.ORG

THANKS SO MUCH to the station management for accommodating my health issues which allow me to continue to volunteer Saturday mornings and bring you the music that 'moves and sustains me." - [a phrase made famous by Maris Hearn]

Saturday April 19, 2008 : Ego and acceptance
http://www.wjffradio.org/bartleby/pls.php?mp3fil=4462750
Listen the show at the link above

Practically everyone I have spoken to this past couple of weeks is reading Eckhart Tolle's New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. I was planning on a show about home but the idea of ego vs acceptance began to take over. Of course, my ego wanted a perfect show. Some of these songs just seem to fit but I can't explain why. So without overthinking about it, I present a show trhat losly is tied together with ego and its opposite of awarenessa dn acceptance

In the first chapter of Tolle's book he speaks about seeing nature, a flower, and not labelling. Just experiencing. Pay attention, being present, in the moment with nature.

1. Kat Eggleston - Go to the Water 324 - Outside Eden - Waterbug

" The ego is often associated with mind and the sense of time, which compulsively thinks in order to be assured of its future existence, rather than simply knowing its own self and the present"

2. Patty Larkin - Me Me Me 250- In the Square - Philo

The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people. - Lucille S. Harper
Egotist: a person more interested in himself than in me. - Ambrose Bierce

3. New Middle Class - I Was Born 324 - New Middle Class - 2nd mortgage records
"all that really matters is me"

"Listen to people's stories and they could all be entitled 'Why I Cannot Be At Peace Now'. The ego doesn't know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now. Or maybe it does know and is afraid you may find this out. Peace, after all, is the end of the ego."
4. Electric Bonsai Band - Nobody Loves You 319- I am Joe's Eyes - Yellow Tail Records

"Make it a habit to feel the inner body as often as you can...It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego" " The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

5. Lou and Peter Berryman - Stuff Song 302- Love is the Weirdest of All - Cornbelt Records

6. John Flynn - Who's Whose 243 - John Flynn - www.johnflynn.net/

[How much worth do you put in things?]
How do you let go of attachment to things? Don't even try. Its impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.

7. David Wilcox - Johnny's Camero 853 - East Ashville Hardware - Koch

Most people's lives are run by desire and fear. Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something and thereby becoming diminished and being less. These two movements obscure the fact that Being cannot be given or taken away. Being in its fullness is already within you, Now.

8. David Roth - Cutter of Stone 423 - Irreconcilable Similarities - Wind River - http://www.davidrothmusic.com/recordings.php

"Fear arises through identification with form, whether it be a material possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or an emotion. " Fear is the underlying theme that drives the ego. What do you fear?

9. Artisan - Fear 216 - Our Back Yard - Bedspring Music

Chapter three in Tolle's New Earth suggests that “Whatever you fight, you strengthen and what you resist persists.”
What can you do to stop the negative voice in your head?
When we have hurt feelings and hold grudges, that is the ego.

10. Chuck Brodsky - Talk to my Lawyer 221- Letters in the Dirt - Red House

Chapter four focuses on role playing: "we will usually play some kind of role to get its 'needs' met, be they material gain, a sense of power, superiority, or specialness, or some kind of gratification, be it physical or psychological." Some of the roles Tolle mentioned in this chapter included that of the villain, victim, or lover. He also talks a great deal about parenthood and how many parents play this role so well, that they become lost in it.

11. Paul Simon & Art Garfunkle - I am A Rock - Greaetest Hits - Columbia

12. Casey Chambers - The Captain 431 - The Captain - Warner Bros.

The ego identies with form. The outer form is a temporary reflection of what you are within, in your essence. That is why love and beauty can never leave you, although all outer forms will. All the things that truly matter- beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace -- arise from beyond the mind"

13. Garnet Rogers - Beauty Game - Summer Lightning - Snow Goose

Thinking, or more precisely identification with thinking, gives rise to and maintains the ego, which, in our Western society in particular, is out of control. It believes it is real and tries hard to maintain its supremacy. Negative states of mind, such as anger, resentment, fear, envy, and jealousy, are products of the ego.

14. Laurie McClain - I Wanna Be Like You 312 - Child Behind My Eyes -

15. Berrymans - Why Can't I 300 - Love, Weirdest of all - Cornbelt

Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

16. Original Caste - (lambert/potter) One Tin Soldier 335- Bell Records 45

By chapter five, Tolle introduces the 'pain body' a which Tolle says is the "accumulation of old emotional pain.”

"There are two levels to your pain: the pain that you create now, and the pain from the past that still lives on in your mind and body. Ceasing to create pain in the present and dissolving past pain - this is what I want to talk about now." "See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness."

17. Christine Lavin - Victim/Volunteer- Attainable Love - Philo

If you were not familiar with our contemporary civilization, if you had come here from another age or another planet, one of the things that would amaze you is that millions of people love and pay money to watch humans kill and inflict pain on each other and call it "entertainment." (p.153)

'Pain body' feeds on violence it watches. Pain bodies write them, produce them, watch them...
“If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”

18. Terri Allard - Never Ceases to Amaze Me - Terri Allard

"It’s only by becoming aware of our egos and their destructive nature that we can learn to change. ""Awareness is the greatest agent for change."

19. Martin Sexton - Who I am - This American - Atlantic

20. Cary Cooper - Back When I was Grown Up 237 - Yellow - ww.carycooper.com

What a liberation to realize that the "voice in my head" is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.

21. Neil Diamond - I am I said- Greatest Hits 66 - 92 - Sony

Always say "yes" to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say "yes" to life -- and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
Submission flattens the ego; surrender transcends it. Submission is passive, but surrender is dynamic. - Robert Augustus Masters, Darkness Shining Wild, p. 30-31

22. Lui Collins - Surrender - Stone By Stone - Molly Gamblin

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.
You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only palce where you can find yourself is in the Now.

23. JohnSmith - What Is - To The Four Directions - http://www.johnsmithmusic.com/Newsletter.htm
"I cant change what was" " what could be is just beyond my touch"

24. Beatles - Let It Be - 1 - capitol

If you keep your attention in the body as much as possible, you will be anchored in the Now. You won't lose yourself in the external world, and you won't lose yourself in your mind. Thoughts and emotions, fears and desires may still be there to some extent, but they won't take you over.

When you live in surrender, something comes through you into the world of duality that is not of this world.

25. Sons of Never wrong - With or With 253 - 3 Good reasons- Waterbug

26. Joe Crookston - Bird by Bird - Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog - Milagro rec. - www.joecrookston.com

27. Dana Robinson - Stalk Your Calling- Midngiht Salvage - http://www.robinsongs.com/presskit/bio.html

Folk Plus is a SING OUT! magazine Radio Partner (www.singout.org)

Thanks to all well wishers with my curret battle with neurotoxic poisoning and chemical sensitivities (http://pagewebberink.com/~angie/)

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