I have had a longstanding interest in both science and spirituality, and since I don’t even know what these words mean anymore, let’s just call it a longstanding interest in desiring to know and understand the experience you and I have found ourselves within. This process of coming to know has been alive within me since early days, and it has been fueled by my daily encounters with a broken world, with a self whose feelings I can no more control than I can shut off, with sensations of light and buoyancy that have snuck into gaps in my consciousness and beckoned, with friendship, with the magic of discovery, with failures and disappointments, with dreams that have now passed by me and wafted up through the leafless branches of moonlit trees, back to the beyond.
Along the way my thoughts have changed color. I have changed my mind about some things I once believed. Some of the endeavors I dove into with as much passion as I could muster, the ones I thought would bring the greatest good to the world, have come up short, been stymied, or sprung a leak and wilted. My heart has dilated and contracted– then flowered. I have behaved other than I would have desired to behave. I have had reactions leap out from the shadows within me of which I’m not proud. I have sat down with demons and thanked them for their time. I have stood quietly within a sunlit moment, and been flooded with gratitude for it’s finding me and not caring about anything other than the way we, together, collaborated in a spontaneous collage of peace and wholeness.
It’s hard to look at oneself, at one’s fellow human beings, and at the world at large and say there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s nearly impossible. Try it, and you will realize just how clean a break this is with who we’ve been, with the meaning we have assigned to things, with the purpose we have given to our lives. As soon as you work up the gumption to spit that one out, even before the first whisper has passed through the canyon of your larynx, the voices materialize in the air around you, seeping into the very medium of your thoughts, and start yelling in your face. They’re angry. They’re right. They know what’s going on here. Have you looked around? Have you looked within? The furies rush in to be sure this little revolt is suppressed before it even gets going. We shudder to think how close we came to irreconcilable folly, to walking away from our fellow men and women, from all those who shoulder the yoke of the world, who shoulder it’s burdens. Don’t they need our help? Our contribution? I’m just going to walk away…? Abandon them…? Commit the most horrid act of treason imaginable…?
What about the big governments and big corporations? What about the genetically modified food, the atmospheric pollutants, the greed, ignorance and hypocrisy, the failures of our educational systems, the instability of the economy, the magnitude of our indebtedness, or the pains in my body? What about the unbelievers, the wrong believers, the scarcity of natural resources, or the poverty and famine that shreds some entire countries? What about that?
What I’m trying to say here is that today I have realized I am abandoning worldly solutions. I am abandoning the notion that what we need is the right policy, the right education, the right idea or point of view, or the right persons in the right roles– all of the perspectives that come from the accomplished study of the disciplines available to us. I am abandoning the notion that things would be alright if only this group of people didn’t think or act a certain way. I’m tired of turning on the radio or television and hearing someone explain why some other group of people have got it all wrong, or why their latest idea is the one we’ve been missing all along, the one that will set things straight. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s pointless to think any one of us will complete the hero’s quest to bring back what was lost and save all the others. That implies there’s a whole passel of helpless people that need to be saved. That implies we know what needs to be done. That implies our broken views of self and world are correct. And if I do abandon these notions of a solution, I have to look at myself, at the world at large and all those within it, and say, “There’s nothing wrong with this picture.” I have to commit this final act of heresy.
Before you dismiss me as a lunatic, let me just say that the picture one has to be willing to see in order to commit such an inner act is not the picture the world presents. One has to be willing to look at the invisible heart of the world, and recognize its profound and indomitable spirit of goodness, and recognize that nothing is but what is an extension of that Source. To see otherwise, is to insist on a broken perception, to insist that our false beliefs about ourselves and the world and the effects those false beliefs have had upon the drama of the world are accurate, and that the deep and abiding Love at the heart of the world is a lie.
What solution can we offer that is not a stopgap, a temporary measure until the deep awareness of Love has returned? In the context of Love’s return, our ideas and inspirations are no longer attempts to achieve individual greatness, or to fix or correct a broken world, but a means of expressing and sharing the heart of the world, the reality we share together. It is hard to admit in the meanwhile that our stopgaps are postponing the inevitable we have so long desired. It is hard to admit our insistence on the validity and meaning we have assigned the world is creating the very problems we are seeking to solve. It is hard to admit we’ve been mistaken… that the world is not broken, but merely reliving for us the deepest myths we carry inside… the myth that we are broken and alone… the myth that something has gone wrong… the myth that we are guilty of ancient errors for which we cannot atone…
I know I’m not a solution guy but I wonder: what would the world show us if we let these deeply held errors be washed clean? I don’t think this a worldly solution per se. This isn’t something for which we have to lobby or convince, as this only asserts the opposite. This isn’t something we do rightly or wrongly. This is the abandonment of falsehood. This is Love quietly growing within us. This is being who we are. This is simply a new color of thought.
Embracing Forever 
“It is hard to admit we’ve been mistaken… that the world is not broken, but merely reliving for us the deepest myths we carry inside… the myth that we are broken and alone… the myth that something has gone wrong… the myth that we are guilty of ancient errors for which we cannot atone…”
We can’t truly live until we can truly die. There is a resurrection of the body, necessary, yet to come, that will be lived in fully when we live daily with death. Death will transform our guilt and suffering into a love of the body, each other and the world.
You are a brave soul Michael. Your wisdom will be hard for some of us to hear.
Debra
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Debra,
I wonder if you would elaborate on your second paragraph. What does it mean that death will transform our guilt and suffering into a love of the body, each other and the world?
And I don’t feel brave, though I know this type of thinking can be a hard pill to swallow, and potentially confusing to consider. If we knew the nature of the world was to either embody what we extend into it, or to enact what we have projected upon it, the power inherent in changing our inner world generator to another frequency would be obvious. As it is not obvious, this feels like a HUGE leap of faith. It seems a risk.
Is the taking of this risk the necessary death? For what is protected in not taking this risk, but the world we already know?
Michael
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Hi Michael,
Yes, to be free to live we must be free to die. The fear of death can get in the way of being fully alive.
Taking a certain amount of risk is necessary because mentally we can find ourselves living for safety only, and distorting our ability to feel. Avoiding the possibility of death, or acceptance of death, also keeps us from fully living and fully loving. How much love does it take to pull someone else away from a car that is about to hit them? That is an animal instinct. You can teach it, or plan for it. Either you move instantaneously to save the person, acting out of love or not.
On the other hand, wouldn’t our love for each other increase if we look at them and see the possibility of their death, and yet know that we must let go in each moment so they can also give themselves over to life?
I think it’s brave now days to not take sides and to admit fully that we may not even know the solution because perhaps we can’t even know the problem. I think that we think we know the problem because we can’t stand in the muck of life, we can’t stand the suffering that all of us eventually will go through when being born requires dying.
I so agree with you that there isn’t a solution to the problem of suffering in the way that it is framed now days. Suffering is not the enemy, it’s suffering without meaning that leaves us without the ability to accept the conditions of life.
Debra
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Debra,
Let me preface by reiterating my lack of knowledge of a solution, or even what to say… Ha! I feel myself sliding into a mental-analytical mode, thinking and questioning, waiting for my heart to intervene and nudge me in a definite direction.
You ask if our love for each other would increase if we looked at people and saw the possibility of their death, knowing we must ultimately let them go so they can give themselves to life. I don’t know. I think our love for each other would peg the scale if we looked at one another and saw the echo of our own eternal, radiant nature looking back at us, wholly distinct, yet cut of the same cloth. I often resist the argument that the value of a relationship or experience is inversely proportional to the time it will remain in its present form, because that type of mindset feels hollow and empty to me. Like, enjoy it while you can, because it’s about to be gone… There’s no peace in that mindset for me personally. But when I read this I don’t think that is what you are saying, and I think maybe you are saying to let things be what they are, to let them be what THEY are, and not what I would have them be through my own fear and need. This is perhaps giving them over to life, avoiding the clinging or clutching that stymies change, inhibits flow and transformation, and attempts to preserve history as the present. If that is what you are indicating, I love it!
I really liked what you wrote about the way insisting we have a solution is sort of a protective mechanism that allows us to keep our distance from the muck of life. This is definitely part of the feeling that underwrote this post. I do feel we as a society would do ourselves a great service by teaching ourselves that the state of not knowing is perfectly acceptable. It is such anathema to not know. We trip over one another en route to the podium to tell what we know and be heard.
And meaninglessness… I react to that word like the veteran of a POW camp… I flinch and whisper a sacred word that sparks a recognition, that teleports me back to my heart… I don’t want to go back, for that truly is suffering…
Michael
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Hi Michael,
Yes, this is more it (again you are so good at rephrasing my ramblings!):
“This is perhaps giving them over to life, avoiding the clinging or clutching that stymies change, inhibits flow and transformation, and attempts to preserve history as the present.”
Love grounds us in the present does it not? Love, as a tangibly alive touching, happens through the senses.
Debra
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Yes, Love not only grounds us in the present, but I find when I’m not present that Love is strangely absent. Life becomes that tad more effortful, confusing, certain in it’s meanings and limitations, and yet simultaneously uncomfortable, as if I’ve entered a strange world in which I no longer know how to be…
Michael
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Excellent post yet I have to ask, Who then, if not you or I, will stand ready and willing to do the hard work to release the world from the madness? If we all stand back and wait for the world to shatter will it be possible to reconnect afterwards?
I am not referring to being a catalyst for change, but to being willing to stand and be counted when necessary and speak out for the injustices in the world. Perhaps I am an idealist, but I cannot step back and pick up the pieces later, not without trying to help those who may fall along the way.
Very thought provoking.
Blessings,
Susan x
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Susan, thank you for this note, which brings me right to the precipice of this inner inflection. Am I saying I am not willing to do the hard work? Do we know that hard work is required? What holds the world in the grip of madness? And if the world were to shatter, what then?
These questions are good, abiding, and challenging. They get right to the root of this place that can be so prickly to navigate. Is it okay to be joyous when there are those on the planet who suffer? Is it okay to be healthy when there are those on the planet who are ill? Is it okay to call for peace when there are those who seemingly have none? Is it okay to live relatively “easy” life in a western society while there are those who lack basic survival needs? The world is indeed mad.
Some might say it has already shattered, countless times, countless times each day. Each breath that one of us takes in pain, is a shattering. Each loss, each death, each absence of what is needed, each indignity suffered, is a shattering.
This is a question of how to respond- how to respond when those holding the spears are also you and I, how to respond when those perpetrating injustices are also you and I. And it brings up a fundamental question about victimhood and powerlessness. Are any of us truly victims? Or are we experiencing the world as we have made it to be?
Tough, tough stuff. In part, my post came from thinking about some of the dialogue and debate that take place removed from the front lines- where ideologies and intelligentsias clash over words, where new experts are always arising with answers, where those who think or believe differently than we do are “the problem”. And yes, taken to the logical conclusion, there is contained in what I wrote the belief or notion that somehow choosing to see the truth behind every set of eyes I encounter is the most transformative thing I can do. I do believe there is great power in this choice.
Our nightmare is one of being isolated and powerless, of suffering that we can neither choose to dismiss nor avoid. All of the symptoms of chaos and destruction in the world around us are the product of a way of seeing that says this experience I have had or witnessed involving these bodies, is more real than the Love of the spirit that holds and allows all things. So long as we see this way, we keep the power of that spirit at bay. This is not, perhaps, how the world thinks, or has taught us to think, but in the end, it seems to me that this is the choice we make.
The choice of how to see. Do we dare believe there is power in this choice? Do we dare believe there is enough power in this choice to end suffering? To allow a new world to come into being that works for all of us?
I don’t see this as leaving people by the wayside along the way. I see it as choosing to see Love behind every face, regardless of which side of the spear it is on…
Michael
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Yes.
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Michael,
I agree we have to see love in everyone and everything – to some extent. I also believe we must accept if there is light and love there may also be darkness and “evil”. It has always ‘amused’ me that Live and evil are the same words in essence… does that mean to be alive we must also be evil – at some point?
I believe, because I refuse to believe otherwise, that the good, will eventually triumph as it has in the past. There may be upheaval before this happens, as is often the way, but in the end we have the opportunity to begin again.
This time one has to trust that we have learned yet more than before and stand a better chance to make things right. I have to believe it because the alternative is too awful to contemplate.
The age old dilemma of good versus evil – the lines are drawn in the essence of humankind. Sometimes we have to do the best we can and be ready to do what we can when the time comes for that to happen.
I haven’t been cheery, nor solved any dilemmas yet I hope you understand where I’m coming from.
Blessings
Susan x
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I do understand, Susan. And I understand the importance of coming from exactly where you’re at. Nothing else would be genuine. Please understand I love your presence and contribution here, and thank you for sharing it. Evil… It is so obvious and palpable at times, and we’ve all felt and witnessed it. And so I think one of two things is true… There is only life, and evil is life, distorted… Or there is truly evil in and of itself. I have hitched my wagon to the former view, which says evil is evil BUT… once it is untangled it is a ray of Light. And I think that in choosing this path, the logical approach to unwinding evil is to see it as it truly is, prior to and after, it was distorted. The “miracle” Jesus speaks about most, in the particular books of words I enjoy that trigger thoughts of joy and states of peace for me, is the change in understanding that leaps across the gap of ignorance. When one person holds a recognition of Love in the face of all evidence to the contrary, it offers the tangled the chance to recognize or remember what it is to be untangled. In a sense this is as hard a work as there is… I don’t see it personally as a sideline position, although I can fully understand how one might see it that way.
And the thing about the second path, if evil is truly real, then we have this issue that goes like this: if Love and Evil are equals, it is not at all clear that one or the other will win out. In fact they couldn’t unless one destroyed the other, ending the other truly and permanently. And if we agree Love and Goodness definitely, without doubt, will win out, then we are saying that Love is real and evil is a temporary or ephemeral and passing thing. If we’re saying Love MIGHT win out, then we’re saying all good things have a viable chance of fading into non-existence. This is a common human fear I think, but I don’t think my heart experiences justify this position. For me.
I have felt the presence of Love as something that cannot be opposed, and so I’m committed to the first path. My brain may struggle at times to agree with this conclusion, but somewhere in my heart I have this place which suffers no doubt on this issue.
All my doubts and fears ultimately bring me back to that place… I rambled more than I thought I would.
Michael
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I understand where you are coming from, a life isn’t means to be a smooth course, it has to have its ups and down for us ti work out that which is important for us ti ‘fight’; for, or struggle to acquire -even peacefully, That way.If it was all simple with no struggle to attain it, would we value it less because it was so easy to acquire? We have to find our way to travel through life according to our mores and precepts. and gain meaning for out actions, attachments and life,
Is this what you mean? (Slighting our of it tonight 😦
Blessings Susan x
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Susan, I hope you are feeling better this day. In thinking about this a thought comes to mind of a continuum. If we think of this continuum as having separation consciousness on one end and unity consciousness on the other, as we move towards unity our thoughts about what our lives mean, about what is possible, and about the meaning of creation and of our relationships and about the various challenges and travails of our present circumstances all change.
And as we make our way, there are very obviously stages in which we struggle and effort, stages where we are victims of circumstance or past choices or evil or whatever it may be. At each of these stages, to continue walking we conjure a vision of what is next, what might lie ahead, of where the processes of inner purification and transformation might take us. And these are all just ideas, offered to us by Love, in the colors and geometries we’ll accept. They are perfect for the time and place in which they are given.
And then we get to the far end of this continuum, and we realize with every step we took, the places behind us simply disappeared, and what remains is not a continuum at all, but a radiant flowering of Loving consciousness that offers itself without limits, and sees quite clearly that every being in every circumstance will ultimately walk away from their own continuum and return to the Singularity they are- a Singularity which contains all of us…
So this traveling through life, and the efforting along the way is meaningful as we move towards this point of ignition. But maybe it is not “ultimately” meaningful, because as our past and our pain and our separateness are dissolved, the meaning we carry inside necessarily changes. And it changes until it is only Love, and that is all we have left. And we realize, a being such as this held the door open for us at the end of the continuum not by seeing us as who we thought we were, by what or experiences and conditions seemed to say about us, but by holding us in a perfect vision of our full potential, and by sharing in the Idea of us the Creator had and maintains to this day.
So I think we are on this same journey, all of us in the big picture, and you and I in the micro, and until we step into this Singularity, our perspectives of what is meaningful– of what words are the “right words”, of what perspectives are the “most accurate”, of whether it makes sense to believe in evil or to look past it– will always seem a little off from one another. We might not always be on the same exact page. And yet we are saying the same thing, because all continuums lead home… They are profoundly unique and individual gauntlets of transformation we have to walk, but they are also all pathways to the same place in the end.
And realizing the door at the end of the walk is held open by beings who see only Love and give only Love, and who know that suffering will be dissolved everywhere as each of us are healed, I simply choose to write about and swim within that awareness to the fullest extent I can muster…
I find it to be a view that embraces everyone…
Michael
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Many thanks for your beautiful explanation. As you say, when we use our words to express ourselves we are coming from a certain point in out continuum – a point I am having a struggle with at present.
I understand your point clearly now, (it reminds me of a song – I can see clearly now), and feel we are not so far apart in out ideology, merely our way of expressing it. Once past this hurdle I;m sure I will be able to view things with more equanimity. I hope I caused no offense as that is the last thing I would wish to do
Blessings
Susan x
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Susan, you have offered no cause at all for offense in any way. This is challenging- to communicate about what we hold dear, and to do so using the blunt tools of words from places near and far. Discussion can be, for me, a type of creation as it gives rise to unearthing what one really thinks and feels. Discussion can make our own views wriggle around, or solidify and strengthen, and these are both beautiful forms of discovery. I would never have been given the image of the continuum without your engagement, and that experience alone was wondrous.
Thank you…
Michael
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Thank you Michael and my apologies for not replying sooner. I think whenever we are passionately invested in something we can become overtaken with the thought and emotion and sometimes become too blunt giving an opinion. (I speak for myself here). Yet at the same time I am often loathe to delete what I have written because I feel the truth of the words I am expressing, not wanting to offend anyone makes for a fine balancing act. Thank you for understanding the intent behind the exchange… I always enjoy being stretched with new ideas.
Blessings
Susan x
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Hi Susan,
I agree with you about the passion sometimes giving rise to bluntness. Been there done that. And you’re right, we see in our own bluntness our attachments and sometimes imbalanced perceptions. Dialogue that gets to these places is always so helpful to everyone involved, and I thank you for sharing it with me.
Michael
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I’m with you on this one Michael. Have been for a long time. As each of us reconnects with Love, and spreads Love in the world, it will become a more loving and loveable place. I refuse to add to the negative energy by bemoaning what is, by hang wringing, and by making wrong the creative force behind All That is. Doing this implies that we know who we are, and what we are, that we know what we are doing, and that we can *claim* something, any thought any action, as our own. Each being arises by Grace, and I have more faith that Grace knows what it is doing than any one of us.
It has been interesting for me that with all this travelling I’ve been doing I find myself on the verge of a deeper discovery and acceptance of the horror and darkness that arises in this hologram. There seems to be no way of escaping the fact of it, no way of fixing of it. Just accepting, and trusting the Mystery knows what it is doing, and giving Love and Love and Love over and over and over.
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Thank you for taking the time to write and share your thoughts, Alison. I am sure you have seen a great deal in your travels. I am always just blown away by the beauty in your photos, however! Great games you and Don played with perspectives and horizons in one of your recent posts, by the way!
I echo your sentiments as you have echoed mine. We indeed arise by Grace, and once we start thinking we know better than Grace I think we can find ourselves up the proverbial creek in no time. Having said that, this isn’t about passivity, but of expressing what this Grace speaks to us about, and giving Love over and over and over as you say…
There is no one way to give Love. No one way to say what that “should” look like. No way to measure if we are doing it right… And of course, we are when we are coming from the space in our heart…
Michael
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Thanks re my photos (though I must say that the perspective ones were set up by our guide).
I agree it isn’t about passivity. And I’m awed by those people whose passion is to help others – but only when they’re helping in a way *I* think is right 🙂
See! It’s a loop isn’t it. A catch 22. There’s no winning except authenticity. As you put it ‘expressing what Grace speaks to us about’. At the same time I feel it has taken all of my 63 years to learn how to live authentically, from the heart, from inspiration. And I’m still learning. And I learn by the Grace of God. The impetus arose in me to heal the pain, to see if I could discover inner peace, and love. But this impetus doesn’t arise in everyone, or not all people at the same time, so I can only conclude it is by Grace, that all our thoughts, good or bad, are by Grace, from Grace, or what I call the Mystery. And I agree there’s no one way to do Love, no ‘should’ about it. There’s just what is. As it is . . . .
Alison
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I loved the way you said it here, and loved this line, “There’s no winning except authenticity.” Authenticity is the thing. It’s that which cannot be planned or defined, but must arise in the spontaneity of the moment, in actions of the heart not interfered with or judged by the mind, but in the alignment of both. Stress and crisis can drive us to such a spot, but so many other times the pressures of the world allow us the space in which to fester, the slack in which a forest of thoughts can arise to erode the vision of the heart. Authenticity is like the holy grail. Thanks for your presence here in the Mystery…
Michael
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And thank you for yours. I love the way you write – like this – “the slack in which a forest of thoughts can arise to erode the vision of the heart.” So evocative.
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So well expressed! It is the truth that we know deep in our spirits yet as human beings we still try find other solutions, give our opinions, argue and fight about who has the ‘right’ answers. I think you are saying that there isn’t anything wrong with the temporary solutions except that they are only temporary and not whole solutions. Lots of great things have been accomplished by great doers and thinkers but real transformation has its start within each and every one of us. Love what you say here…I will probably quote you from time to time in conversations! 🙂
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Teresa, you are right, there have been so many great things accomplished and yet the world still grinds away, does it not? What we accomplish in individual greatness is like a spark that maybe doesn’t catch, or maybe paves the way for the more widespread transformation that occurs when we link within… Individual genius always inspires me, so I can’t knock it. It is incredible, breathtaking, marvelous, heart-stirring and beautiful to behold. It speaks to us. But when we get beyond special and realize that what speaks to us is that recognition of who we are, of what we all share within on this radio frequency of loving presence… Look out!
Michael
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Loving what is and seeing it as not broken – yes! But I also realize when you describe turning on the radio and hearing “news” from the broken perspective that in my walk Gradually all of those sources slipped away because the whole premise is off from where I find myself. Information about the world from a broken and fixing perspective is no longer is relevant. I have new channels for information; the perspective I seem to come from now has me more in line with the wind and the trees as a source of what is up, as well as a few other word based sources, but the trees so far are more accurate indicators of que es muy importante. The inner shift makes most outer sources unpalatable – and transparent in their broken perspective of brokenness. To certain ears, this sounds like denial or a turning away of responsibility to the world and its “problems” yet I have found the opposite to be true. the compassion has grown, but it is not compassion for brokenness, but just an openness to be of use, to be love, to not be sucked dry by sorrow, but expanded and detached from misconceptions. Eh, I cannot explain, but perhaps you know what I mean. See why the trees are better – they say it without words.
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If I don’t know what you mean, I know something proximate. In A Course of Love Jesus says we never quite know another, not to the extent we know our selves. We have these experiences through our relationships- with one another, with the trees, with the birds, with the water- but what we come to know in all of this is our self. And yet this deepest, holiest presence within is where we all meet. So, in the sense of meeting you there, I understand as best I can… 🙂
I sometimes imagine all of us standing back-to-back, like surrounded gunslingers out on the high desert, all of us starting out grim-eyed at those “others”, those projections upon the land, not always realizing we’re all protecting the same holy presence inside.
I love your description of listening to the trees, and thank you for this inspiring line, “this sounds like denial or a turning away of responsibility to the world and its “problems” yet I have found the opposite to be true. the compassion has grown, but it is not compassion for brokenness, but just an openness to be of use, to be love, to not be sucked dry by sorrow, but expanded and detached from misconceptions.”
I don’t listen to much news, but part of what prompted this post was going back to a resource I once looked to often, and finding that those who were it’s caretakers had moved on, and a new group of people were advancing the message, and I heard them speaking as if they knew what was “right” and kind of downing all these “forces” at work in the world, and it just made me think… I was once probably in the same boat… And yet the message they seek to convey is beautiful and helpful, when it is allowed to be what it is… This is the beauty of the trees’ message: it is nothing if not authentic and pure.
Michael
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🙂 …welcome to the party.
I am being the doing of the work while working at moment with limited time for writing, but I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo heart happy to look out into the mirror of such profound and powerful words that help clarify and remind.
EXCELLENT dialog and contemplations with great minds you are attracting here. You juju maker you!
-x.M
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—what do I mean by the “BEING” of the doing of the work while working:
I look into the eyes of pain on this planet currently with a thought of joy in return for the sacred and precious moment that the severe suffering is so specifically creating, allowing humans to remember and know real empathy which then leads to compassion or despair. It is our choice in what we want what we see to mean. Pain without the need to suffer it is only an awakening thought and different choice away.
In sharing our pain on this planet without being attached to suffering it, this can be the birth of awareness that helps us past the illusion of our separation from it and each other. It then becomes not so important what is happening, but rather how we are allowing our being of and with it when it is happening.
There is a toilet as teacher example of living life like this (on a small scale) which I am reminding myself to put into a post. When I do, I will link it here. -x.M
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Toilet as teacher, eh? Not one of those aluminum airline models, though, was it?
Thanks for the reminder of the pain without suffering choice. The suffering really comes from identification with the pain, doesn’t it, and with the body that evidences the pain. But I have to confess, as long as I’m really going for it here, I do believe somewhere deep down we’re not drawn to a reinterpretation of pain, but a complete release from pain.
The reinterpretation seems to me a necessary, beautiful, and vital step towards dis-identifying with a small, isolated sense of self, and stepping into a vaster, connected Self. Maybe I’m asking for my cake and eat it, too, but once we embrace that larger Self, I suspect we undo the states of mind that cause prolonged periods of pain to arise in our experience to begin with.
Let me just say as one who knows how this works, the mind will turn this statement into the meaning that the presence of pain is the evidence of some failure, or having done something incorrect, or having not done something, and will make of a door to freedom a closed gate that would lock us in. I had pain today. If I add unto that the notion I am guilty of something that caused the pain, rather than simply offering a willingness to accept Love’s gentle, compassionate correction, then the self-fulfilling pain engendering cycle fulfills.
But… to your point, Maren, my response to the pain is either a step towards freedom or a retreat from it. What will our response be? As many times as it takes, until the end of time, I will offer my willingness for Love to teach me what I have heretofore not accepted… Given I could be here for a while, I went ahead and got a meal plan… 🙂
I eat crow, shoes, and the occasional baked good.
Michael
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Thank you, Maren. Thank you for mirroring right back. What a strange phenomena, the space and time between us all here, and the words that act like wormholes to close the gaps…
Michael
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Your stomach must be extraordinary.
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I have built up an immunity. It comes with the territory from which we are emerging. It is so strange to dwell in a world where we’re all trying to be right at the same time, but think it’s not a possible state to achieve. What a strange undertaking. 🙂
Michael
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Yes, we must put our own house in order before we can presume to know how to do so for others.
I have enjoyed this article and also, very much, reading the exchanges between you and ‘Owls & Orchids’.
Hariod.
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Thank you, Hariod. I had to go back and re-read this and it felt like a glimpse into another era. Amazing how things spiral and twirl around the center…
Michael
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