THIS INCARNATION 15

p.110-112 

 “It is only with the heart that one sees rightly what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

The Little Prince  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

We have created a world that lives in duality, and that is the continuing challenge of living in the density of planet Earth. To be aware that practically all that we encounter is defined in terms of opposites. Good/bad; right/wrong; black/white; short/tall; and even Truth/illusion. The list is seemingly endless. Even the language you have given your computers is a continuing series of opposites 0’s and 1’s.

Now the challenge is to see beyond the dualities. That does not mean they disappear on the material plane, but what it does mean is that we do not look upon them as being the truth. (As Dr. Seuss pointed out, “Life’s a great balancing act.”

What Jesus spoke in his prayer is the absolute truth:”That all of them may be One, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us.” See, our words have reached a limit here, even though He speaks of Oneness He has to use the language “You; me; us.”

When we live in non-judgment, when we are in the moment, we are in Oneness; holding a child; watching a sunset; that moment right before you go to sleep; (claim a few others for yourself).We have all encountered moments such as this. The mind somehow thinks we created these moments and so it becomes possessive of them and tries to define them. It attempts to recreate all of the factors and situations that seem to contribute to that moment of Oneness. From these mistaken notions comes all sorts of attachments and distorted ideas of luck and superstition.

You do not create these moments of Oneness, you simply have a realization of the only Truth there is-- what exists in reality beyond illusion-- that there is only Love that there is only Oneness.

And yet here you are seeming to struggle and wondering, “How can I possibly know myself in Oneness and still live and learn in this world of duality?

The following two passages are from Khalil Gibran’s wonderful book called The Prophet. In poetic and spiritual terms he describes living in duality, but not being attached to one side or the other. In fact, to be able to comprehend and embrace the beauty of both sides, so that we rise above comparison and rest in The Wonder of our experience.

On Pain

 Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

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On Joy and Sorrow

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. 

Some of you say, "Joy is greater thar sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. 

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

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The story goes that the student was struggling. He was overly attached to the concept of enlightenment, and, of course, because of  this attachment, was blocking his own process. His teacher looked upon him with compassion and said, “Brother, look at those bamboo plants over there. Are they short or are they tall?” With that simple question the student was overcome with laughter and released his attachment.

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“Now we say yes, it can be, it is so, for the simple reason that mankind’s true essence is to be expressed in love, in freedom, in choice, and in gratitude for all that has been gifted to him. If you can be in gratitude, if you can move your awareness to a place of wonder, to new possibilities, you will, you will, you will claim them and call them to you. But you must trust the possibility that this is happening even when you cannot see it. Even when it is not seen, it is so. The sun is alight somewhere when all you perceive is darkness. You can understand this. The sun is shining somewhere and you must see the sun as in its return in the darkest moments of your life.”

We have all experienced dark times, difficult times, times even when we might have been in despair and yet again here we all are. What if, even in our darkest times we became aware, beyond reason, that there was a part of us or an aspect of us or an awareness within us beyond all thought or emotion, that continued to dwell in the Light. It is not something we could know with our minds, but we could be aware of it with our hearts, our inner knowing. This awareness did not make the darkness disappear nor did it necessarily make the sun shine through the clouds, but this knowing beyond knowing allowed us to realize that despite everything to the contrary, we were still able to put one foot in front of the other, to move, even through this muddy, sticky swamp until the fog was lifted. I have no way of explaining all of that.

“Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”― Meister Eckhart

Here again we are asked to embrace the POSSIBILITY-- with the human mind and heart-- this is as far as our limited sense of self can take us-- to the realm of embracing the possibility. When we do this the soul opens in surrender and the Divine Self takes over. It takes over both the teaching and learning.

And then again, we realize on deeper and deeper levels of consciousness that we are continuing and continually creating our lessons AND within their learning comes our continuing evolving in creation and the essence of love.

This next paragraph is such a powerful teaching; i would encourage us to sit with it a bit, and let it sink in. 

“As you are taught by your creations, your creations being those things that you have chosen to learn through, you encounter yourself in each interaction. And as you learn who you are, as you are re-created through these encounters, you claim an ideal, an identity of who and what you say you are. But nothing that you choose is infinite because your soul knows better than you do. What you choose in fear may be re-created in love. What you have known in pain may one day be known in love. What you have been imprisoned by may, indeed, be the way you find your freedom.”

Paul’s mind and human consciousness are in rebellion for a moment, Just as we are attempting to grasp these teachings with our human intellect and personality consciousness. Listen to the answer.

“Paul is saying, “What does this mean, our name—I know who I am?” I am who I say I am, and I know what I am. And as I know, I encounter you in your worth. There is no Christ but you. There is no Christ but me. There is only Christ in the manifestation of God and seeded in each of you. It has come to be, it has come to be, it has come to be.”

We all have choices here, to hold onto the old--ideas, beliefs, systems of thought, that might have served us very well in the past, but are no longer either necessary or useful. In other words, they no longer serve us. And for a while we do not even realize that our holding onto these useless and sometimes even destructive ideas is much more painful than we could imagine.

If we are willing to persist in our embracing of the possibility of knowing the truth of Who We Are then we get to what I would like to call a “Popeye” moment when he says, “I can't stands no more!”

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anias Nin

“We will tell you this, Paul. You are a teacher of the Word. And there are many teachers of the Word coming into their own awareness through these times of change. A teacher of the Word is a teacher of embodiment. The Christ has come in man to be expressed as man as man aligns to the vibration of it. But when you decide in advance that you cannot be forgiven, or he or she cannot, you close that door until you are willing to open it again. When you judge your fellows, you judge yourself. And we have said this many times: What you judge, you fear. So why do you fear yourselves and why won’t you allow us to teach you a new way: a new way to be, to freedom, to sing, to align, to create, and to know who and what you are?”

Sunday morning our group consciousness created a profound space of silence and stillness. It was/is a remarkable gift. Reminding me that Resurrection does not require noise or drama--it is in the Stillness that we KNOW.

In Love and Gratitude