Sunday, June 23, 2013

Life as a See-Saw: the All-Seeing-I sees All!

"May he rest in peace!" Is the grave the only way we might achieve peace? Much of the time and for most people it certainly seems so. Take diet: we want to eat healthy foods, but, gee whiz, I'm hungry and I don't have time and those potato chips are yummy and look, they are right there on the counter! "I'll just eat one."

You'd think most people were born in the June astrological sun sign of Gemini: being of two minds! I want to make changes in my life but I don't have the will power, or I'm not sure how to do it,, or I'm just too busy, or, or or.....

Sometimes we cling tenaciously to our daily routine, reveling in its quiet stability, until, well, it becomes so boring that we are desperate for some excitement! Maybe we are fortunate enough to go on a vacation but then we find we can't relax and enjoy it and by the time it's over we're actually looking forward to being home in our routine!

I remember as a kid looking forward to my summer vacation. But I also remember that by the time August was on the wane I was secretly looking forward to school.

How many people complain about how hard they work but if their boss makes noises like she's going to shift your work to someone else, how quickly we defend our turf. We complain about present circumstances but then we resist change, especially when it comes from outside ourselves.

Can't we make up our mind? Are we crazy, or what? Will we ever find contentment in our life?

This world is a see-saw, you see. There is my idea of reality, and then there is the truth about reality. Consciousness has no form or condition, no definition, no limitation. Yet, poured into the human body like an invisible fuel into a tight fitting otherwise inert form, it not only roars to life but it rapidly enters into the act of becoming........a man, a woman, an artist, a businessman, et cetera, et cetera.

So this Spirit, in taking on form, becomes that form and all too quickly the memory of itself as limitless Spirit becomes like the bathroom mirror fogged by the shower you just took. But it can't do this entirely because Spirit gives the form life and being Spirit it retains, even if randomly and fleetingly, an awareness of itself.

And so we go: back and forth, between thought and potential and matter and actuality. The world is like a see-saw. Now I see matter, but a moment ago I saw Spirit.

If it were that simple, I doubt we would take so long to unravel the puzzle of our discontentment. For, you see, what happens is that the world of our thought perception is not so much preoccupied with the unconditional experience of Spirit but with the reconstruction of the world of matter according to what matters to us. In short, this Spirit, being all but wholly identified with the body it inhabits, is keen on defending or promoting its new identity.

So, in relation to what pleases or displeases us, we begin to construct our own new reality with our thoughts  out of our perceptions of what we think "matters" in the so-called objective world around us. Thus, for example, if I conclude that so-and-so doesn't like me, I begin building my case for why this person is not likable. Everything she says is self-serving or petty or simply incorrect. Never mind that everyone else around me thinks she is a wonderful soul. To me (because she doesn't like me), she's bad news.

So we construct this world of ideas to protect, defend or promote ourselves. After a time we don't relate to others as they are but as we perceive them to be. If we hate cold weather, than it makes us grumpy. Some people enjoy the rain and find it soothing. Never mind, them!

Can this be solved? Should we enter a catatonic state and never have a thought about anything, or anybody? Never responding except dully to anything that happens? Should we just give up and say, Gee, what do I know? Maybe? Sure, whatever!

Should we simply assert our reality over others like a so-called Type A personality: a bull in a china closet?

Behind the see-saw between perception and reality is TRUTH. It simply is. That truth is the perceiving consciousness of Self. It is neither dull nor stupid. It is innately Self-content and the wellspring of creativity, willingness, wisdom and compassion. It is the Clear Mind that has no compelling identification with the body. It has no need to defend or promote that ego-body.

It is the degree to which we retain contact with this All-Seeing-I  that life begins to come into focus. There are times to defend; times to promote; times to stand tall; times to roll-over. A time to sleep; a time to get up. Well, you know the Biblical quote from Ecclesiastes, "There is a time for everything under the sun."

This Eternal Now, this All-Seeing-I, doesn't need to struggle over decisions. Knowing simply IS.

Befriending this Friend of Friend can take some practice. It doesn't take time because it is always with you and IS YOU. "Be still and know that I AM God." (Is it "you are God?" The syntax doesn't really definitively say.) But it does take practice and practice usually takes time. But that's only because we keep slipping back owing to entrenched habit of ego identification.

By now you've guessed that regular meditation practice is the one, definitive tool by which we perceive the Self! Yes, you are right. Calming the turbulence of the ego mind is not an easy task. Nature has given us well honed incentives to defend and to promote. But even these instincts have their origin in the Mind. For the Self can never die and the Self is the Self of all. Immortality and Infinity is all there IS. As such it is complete fulfillment. Indeed, we can say that Immortality and Infinity equal Bliss. True, Einstein didn't say that but some One does.

We cannot eliminate paradox, nor struggles, nor hardship, nor hurt. But we can live with realization and contact with this untouchable Self which is immortal, self-aware, and ever joyful. When saints and gurus speak of immortality they do not mean the body. They refer to this Self. We will lose our body to death eventually but we don't lose our "mind." I don't mind. And by mind, I don't mean mine. I mean this Self which is your Self. Do you see it, too? I just saw it go by, too.

And to you, blessings from your own Self.

Hriman