WELCOME 18

P. 60-63

As I was reading over this section I was reminded of the concept of “grok”—

Grok /ˈɡrɑːk/ is a word coined by American writer Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. 

the meaning of grok as "to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with" and "to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment", understand (something) intuitively or by empathy.

"because of all the commercials, children grok things immediately”

My understanding of the concept is a little different. It includes all of the above, but also carries with it a sense of union, being fully absorbed or “digested” in an experience or another being. When I “grok” you—I not only love you unconditionally, I am One with you; I am not only walking in your shoes, I am you in your shoes. When I grok a sunset, for example, I am so absorbed  in the experience of beauty that for an instant or so there is nothing else.

I hope I am not stretching things too much, but I believe that this is what Jesus was attempting to get across when he instituted what is called the Eucharist–becoming one with the Christ consciousness.(Although the metaphor here is food, it is not terribly far-fetched to get a sense that when the food/the bread/the Body of Christ is digested, it becomes a part of you, and you become a part of It. If the language existed back then this is also what Jesus meant when he said, “Father I pray that they all maybe one just as you and I are one.” In other words, “I pray that we will grok one another in truth.”

John Denver expressed this beautifully in his song, Spring:

Riding on the tapestry of all there is to see, so many ways and oh, so many things.

Rejoicing in the differences, there's no one just like me.

Yet as different as we are, we're still the same.

And oh, I love the life within me, I feel a part of everything I see.

And oh, I love the life around me, a part of everything is here in me.

A part of everything is here in me, a part of everything is here in me.

“Now when you know something, “I am in my knowing,” you are in resonance with something. It is not an idea, it is not an intellectual structure, it is a way of being. Knowing and being happen simultaneously. You cannot know and not be at the same time. You are this thing that you know because you are in agreement with it. ”

The interesting thing here is that in our work with this book and other books like this, the major emphasis is always about Oneness and that separateness is an illusion.

“And what you sacrifice is your attachment to who and what you thought you were. And those creations that you have used to decide these things must be altered as you begin to know yourselves anew.”

In this journey of spirit, we are releasing whoever or whatever it is that we have thought ourselves to be. All of that, we are told is more a reflection of our individual personality selves than the truth of who we really are. 

I have not thought about this before, but whenever we release or let go of an idea, concept, or belief or any other form of attachment, there carries with it the necessity for grieving. It is a major difference between having the thought or the idea of letting go of something, sort of just saying to ourselves, “Oh yes I have let go of that,“ compared to really experiencing the release, the letting go and whatever results in that process. In other words, letting go is an experience rather than a thought. Within the experience of release and letting go there is grieving. Even when I release something that no longer serves me, I will still grieve, and I need to allow myself to grieve, to experience the loss, that is an essential part of my letting go.

One of the reasons why it seems so difficult to let go of some beliefs or concepts or forms that we hold as being true is that we have not grieved or given ourselves permission to grieve or opened ourselves up to experience the loss in the letting go.

WELCOME: We are never alone on the path—no matter what we might be feeling. 

“As we sing the songs of our readers, as we remember them by name, we anoint them to their own possibility that they may be listened to, heard, and healed.”

Here again our work is not about forcing something to happen, it is being open to the possibility, the endless possibility of continuing transformation in love.

At the end of this chapter the guides use the word or concept of being “anointed.’ There is a very subtle or perhaps not so subtle awareness here that is being presented to us. The name “Christ” from the Greek or “Christos” means the anointed one.

I am, you are, we are the consciousness of the Christ. I know who I am; I know what I am; I know how I serve.

“I am he as you are he as you are me

And we are all together…”