…the only true force in the Universe.
All other forces are traced back to that One force… taking separation back to Oneness.
The ‘force’ that manifested the universe is Maya… illusion…
Below is a picture of love in action.
I remember when writing The Golden Frog how many times my editor and I would go back and forth on even one sentence. It drove me nuts but it was great. It is the process of writing. The messenger is not the message. Yet all their personality flaws glare in your face if you do not like the message!
Thoreau would spend days on one sentence. He said there is no choice about the words. There is one and only one right word.
Write and rewrite… then do it again and again.
Did you see the movie, ‘A River Runs Through It’? The father was teaching his son to write. Whatever the son wrote, the father would read it, give it back to him, and say “Ok, now write it again with half as many words.”
Learning is often frustrating. Writing is like mathematics in that way. It can be a most frustrating process.
What you write is an intimate part of your self. It is not uncommon for edits to feel invasive.
Treat those edits as part of the process. Writing is a learned skill, like playing a musical instrument.
I am not a great writer, but I do have some sense of the process of how to become one.
For the purpose of blogging, I just write. I look forward to having the time to try my hand at really writing again.
As time passes, the process gets more and more fluid.
As you know, Hemmingway wrote a book that required no edits. That is something to aspire to, but do not mistake the goal for the process.
It takes a lot of pressure to make a diamond.
If you feel that God is far away, it is only because your definition of God is inaccurate. God is here, now, with you. But ‘definition’ is more than a thought. It is something you feel in your heart. As you evolve your consciousness changes, thereby changing your definitions of everything.
Clinging to your old definitions is a drag on your evolution. Emancipation means freedom, means moving beyond where you currently are. Change does not happen without flexibility. Boundaries will be broken as you evolve. You must do what you think is right, but you must also think rightly.
Keeping a steady hand on the rudder, move forward. That means move, but move wisely. Think, ponder, reflect… cultivate discernment. Infinite flexibility, yet with a steady hand.
The teachings of the ancients must be revered, but your understanding of those teachings must evolve. Infinitely rigid, one pointed, committed, reverent, undeterred, yet at the same time, infinitely flexible… like the flowing branches of a tree anchored in the trunk of Eternal Truth.
Life is a paradox. Redefine everything for yourself… for your Self. The words may not change, but their meaning will. Truth is subtle. It cannot be grasped with words.
Do not let your definitions bind you. Be reverent, free, respectful, strong, humble, and bold. In the final analysis, obedience and independence are the same thing.
From time to time someone asks how to help a soul that committed suicide. The three suggestions are:
Karma moves like a current in the sea… like the flow of the wind on a chaotic breezy day. It carries you, families, and nations wherever it does.
Feeling into someone’s karma may prompt you to warn them or inform them of what you feel and see. You may just think you could tell them, “Hey, look at this. Now that you see it, just snap out of it.” But of course, it is not so simple.
Karma overtakes people by casting a spell, by putting them into a sort of trance state. Once in that state, it seems they have no choice but to think, act, and believe in accord with the current of that trance, where ever it leads. At first it is a frightening thing to witness. In time, you understand and act artfully in your dealings with the world of winds of karma.
Why are people so susceptible to the winds of karma? Because we all long to fly. We long for frictionless flow in our lives. In fact, such natural flow is your birthright. Note there are karmic winds yet there is also the Cosmic Flow, the Cosmic Current that is one with the depth and breadth of all that is. A frictionless Divine Current underlies all that is, just as the silent stillness at the depth of the ocean underlies all the chaotic waves on the surface.
Your physiology is designed to evolve. It evolved into existence. Evolution is its way, its nature, it’s sustenance in life. Evolution culminates with a Being who has caught the Cosmic Wave, the natural flow of their Divine Essence.
The physiology evolves in that direction. It longs for the Cosmic Wave. Yet all along the way, karmic waves ensnare your life through that same mechanic of the physiology… the longing to catch The Wave.
Your affinity for your karma is really just misplaced trust. You long for God. As a result of that longing, you grasp at karmic waves, which then capture you and carry wherever they do, throughout the ages.
I implore you. Do not stop until you find the Cosmic Wave and allow it to catch your sail.
Whatever you want, 90% is just showing up.
Want to have a PhD? Just keep showing up to college. Become more spiritual? Just keep showing up to meditation, classes, temple. Be in good shape? Just keep showing up at the gym. Good parent? Just keep showing up for your kids.
Really and truly, if you just keep showing up, you will attain great things in this life. It is just that simple. Just keep showing up.
Once you are there, you will do the other 10% as a matter of course.
Neither of these quotes stands alone as the way to manifest your dreams. Taken together they paint the picture.
“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” – Winston Churchill
“Leadership is action, not position”. – Unknown
Said another way:
Many are great conceptualizers. Few are great actualizers. It is not what you can do. It is what you actually do that matters.
The Absolute is perceived through the lens of the personality self, complete with the distortions of conditioned emotional responses, belief systems, and indoctrinations.
Before the Hubble telescope, the land telescopes we used looked toward the sun as if from the bottom of a 10 foot deep swimming pool. The image was distorted. These parallel (map) nicely.
As you evolve, the window of perception clears, as if you are moving toward the surface of the swimming pool. Yet be it from the bottom of the swimming pool or the top of the highest mountain, you are looking at the same sun, which maps on to the absolute. Even an earthworm, with relentless conviction, crawls through the soil reaching toward the sun.
Evolution means increasing clarity… less distortion. Yet all remain fervent in their devotion to their conditioning, for though they see the rays of the sun and feel them touching the depth of their soul, they see and feel it through the lens of their conditioning. They therefore ardently hold to their conditioned beliefs, thinking them to be the truth of the absolute.
Even the atheists (Those poor souls that were presented with such a distorted notion of God that they rejected the notion in total.) continue to feel the pull of Truth, though the very idea of capitalizing the word ‘truth’ may offend them. Yet it is that light, that sun, that truth (that Truth) that all of life gravitates toward. Just as all water most assuredly returns to the ocean, all souls return to God.
The root is solid, unshaken by thoughts and emotions, while the branches sway and flutter with every breeze. Yet they are connected.
Emotions are connected to the heart of your soul. Yet the very heart of your soul remains untouched, unfettered, unshaken.
To what degree are your emotions in infinite harmony with the depth of your being? Yes, that is the question.
The answer lies within the place that remains untouched. Awaken to that. Only then will you have your answer. Yet the answer will even then not be a quantifiable fact. It will be a feeling.
Wisdom is a feeling.
This is not the same world as it use to be. People think quite differently than they did even just a few decades ago, not to mention a few hundred years ago.
Religion faces decline today for one simple reason. It no longer speaks in the language of the time.
The truth is that it cannot, because its leaders do not understand the scientific rationale of spirituality, and the language of this time is rationality.
By understanding the seamless interface between science and spirituality, we can express spiritual knowledge in a manner that not only makes sense to the people, but also purifies the knowledge of spirituality.
As Adi Shankara said, “The knowledge is easily lost and the understanding must be purified throughout time.” By doing so, we will change the world.
As Nelson Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
There are some incredible spiritual scholars in the world. I respect them greatly and love to listen to them speak. At the same time, discussions regarding the taste of a strawberry by those who have never tasted one are of limited value.
Spiritual education may start with the intellect but culminates in the heart. I do not here mean the emotional heart, I mean the heart of ones soul, ones being… the absolute.
The Truth about Religion and Flatlining
