Choices of Love
Category: Religion and Philosophy

~"Ramana Maharshi recommended posing the question 'Who am I?' the purpose of which was to direct attention from the experiencer to the Source of Awareness itself, and thus lead from the self to the Self. " Discovery of the Presence of God, David R. Hawkins~

~"The fullness of Joy is to behold God in everything" Julian of Norwich~

Love is the essence of spirituality. There are choices that unveil more of the ever present Reality of Love (and those that seem to make us less aware). Choices of where to place our attention / intention are happening all of the time. In any given context, there are possible choices, but no individual chooser behind choices. All is Consciousness, and Consciousness makes her choices through all of us. There is accountability but no blame. Whatever the choice, we are loved infinitely just as we are. This is a reflection on such choices:

~There is the choice between demanding that people and life fit in with our expectations, and realising that what we think we want is not necessarily the Highest Good, is not the whole story

~There is the choice between projecting negative labels onto that which we do not like, and accepting that the map is not the territory

~There is the choice between addiction to drama, and surrendering drama's hidden payoffs for the peace of heaven within

~There is the choice between seeing life as an endless struggle, or as a series of invitations to freedom

~There is the choice between seeking more and more blissful experiences, and knowing the peaceful Reality beyond experience

~There is the choice between seeing a world full of disorder, and knowing the Unity of the Love underneath all appearances

~There is the choice between believing that our experience is the centre of the universe, and surrendering our experience to Divine Reality

~There is the choice between attachment to our "individual" windows into space/time, and knowing that our essence is infinity

~There is the choice between identifying with the content of our lives - the body/ mind and all its thoughts, emotions, experiences, and knowing ourselves as the One Awareness that is beyond identity

~There is the choice between knowing ABOUT, and simply to BE

Love and peace!
Joseph

8:10 PM - 46 Comments - 88 Kudos - Add Comment

Love Without Conditions
Category: Religion and Philosophy

~Love...thy will be done
Since I have found you my life has just begun
And I see all of your creations as one
Perfect complex
No one less beautiful or more
special than the next
We are all blessed and so wise to accept
Thy will love be done~
(From "Love Thy Will Be Done" by Martika)

~ I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor empires nor things present nor things to come, nor height or anything else created shall be able to separate me from the love of God...~ St Paul (Letter to the Romans: 8:38)

~Our real nature is pure LOVE which must return to its source, the pure awareness. This pure love, our true nature, we have forgotten through the power of Maya, and have replaced it by our attachment to material objects - love for certain objects and hate for others...~ Ramesh Balsekar

What would it be like to love without conditions? To love ourselves unconditionally, to love others unconditionally, to love Life unconditionally? So often, we find ourselves placing conditions on loving ourselves, others, life and even the divine. And so we unwittingly place conditions on whether or not we welcome peace and joy into each moment. Even prayer can turn into a shopping list of requests, rather than an expression of trust in, and surrender to, the infinite love of the divine.

The current human condition is that we are each consciousness identified with a certain set of experiences, and tend to judge everything else in relation to how it affects those experiences. Whereas the Universal Self (the infinite field of Awareness in which our bodies, minds, thoughts, and experiences happen) IS love without conditions. The awareness of all "others" is as real as "ours". Our spiritual evolution involves moving beyond our identification with individual perception and experience, to finding the infinite freedom of our true essence - the awareness that has always been present and always will. We discover the unconditional divine love, that loves and accepts us AS we are, not in spite of how we are.

It is one thing to know this intellectually, but how do we apply this in practice in this evolutionary realm called Earth, where light and the apparent absence of light often seem to appear side by side? Here are some approaches that I have found useful:

- be unconditionally loving towards ourselves. We can regard our selfish human nature as a naive pet, and therefore learn from and move on from our mistakes, without judgement, blame or guilt. Only once we are compassionate to ourselves, can we find the strength to genuinely face up to just how identified with our own experiences we have become. We can also know that all the beauty we see around us is a reflection of the infinite Self within.

- realise the wisdom of Socrates' perspective that people can only choose what they believe to be good. (Though what people THINK is good is often mistaken). As we know this, we become more forgiving of ourselves and others. As evolution progresses, people's understanding of the good expands beyond their own individual experience, through wider circles of awareness, to include the good of all.

- understand that in a way, perception is projection. What we do not accept within ourselves, we project outwards. Unless we embrace our shadow, it consumes us. Often that which we resent around us is a pointer to a hidden aspect of our own human nature that we are not facing up to.

- understand our own hidden pay-offs of judging others. We only make others wrong to make ourselves right. Certainly, love includes standing up for the truth, and love does not have to be passive. We can assert our boundaries, without blame. But positively standing up for truth is different from making others "wrong".

- recognise that, somehow, all things are working together to further the evolution of love, despite appearances. This world is meant to be a place of evolution, it is not a paradise. Sometimes, only apparently negative experiences can shake us out of the dream-trance. Despite the apparent intentions of an individual, the intention of the Universal Self is always love.

There is no point trying to place conditions on what is, in reality, our own true essence.

Love, thy will be done!

Love and peace!
Joseph

Currently listening : Overpowered By Roisin Murphy Release date: 16 October, 2007

7:30 PM - 56 Comments - 106 Kudos - Add Comment

Consciousness Levels- A Perspective
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Humanity, both individually and collectively, is evolving to higher and higher levels of consciousness (although not always in straight lines!). As consciousness advances, so does the realization of love, joy and peace. There is also a shift from identification with experience, to knowing one's Self (and the Self of all) as awareness. As we evolve, we progressively surrender the assumptions, attachments and aversions of each level until eventually the attachment to experience itself is surrendered.

The good news, indeed the VERY good news, is that at every level, we are loved absolutely, not in spite of how we are, but AS we are. The unconditional love of divinity is impossible for our minds to grasp; its realization is truly mind-blowing. Unconditional love is the essence underneath all that we think we are.

Below are personal reflections of attitudes associated with different levels of consciousness. It is not meant to be anywhere near a full summary of the levels (for that I would recommend any of the books of David R Hawkins), rather it reflects my current understanding (which is itself evolving) of attitudes that underpin the different levels. And it is worth remembering: the map is not the territory, but maps are useful nonetheless.

At the level of shame: "I despise/ hate myself (or them)"
At the level of guilt: "I am (or they are) wrong and should feel bad about it"
At the level of apathy: "I/ they/ life is worthless"
At the level of grief: "I should not have lost this part of me"
At the level of fear: "This must not happen"
At the level of desire/ craving: "I must have this to be okay"
At the level of anger: "what is happening / hasn't happened is wrong"
At the level of pride: "I'm better and different from others"

At the level of courage: "I can do something about this"
At the level of neutrality: "it will be okay eventually ("some you win, some you lose")"
At the level of willingness: "I can be positive about this"
At the level of acceptance: "I can accept myself and life, however it is"
At the level of reason: "I can consider this beyond the effect on my emotions"
At the level of love: "I am devoted for its own sake"
At the level of unconditional love: "I love all things just as they are (including myself) without conditions"
At the level of enlightenment: "all is perfect as it is ("my" perception of separation from divinity and "others", and the labeling of "wrongness", was all just a projection)".

Many blessings dear friends!

Love and peace!
Joseph

Currently listening : Passive Aggressive By Nicola Hitchcock Release date: 07 June, 2005

11:27 AM - 44 Comments - 78 Kudos - Add Comment

Essence of Spirituality
Category: Religion and Philosophy

~His disciples asked him," Do you want us to fast ? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe ?" Jesus said, " Do not lie and do not do what you do not like, because all things are revealed before heaven . For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered".~(Gospel of Thomas, Saying 6)

~Jesus said," If the flesh came into being because of spirit , that is a marvel , but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty"~ (Gospel of Thomas, saying 29)

~"Enlightenment is not a condition to be obtained; it is merely a certainty to be surrendered to, for the Self is already one's Reality. It is the Self that is attracting one to spiritual information"~ (Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, p304, David R. Hawkins)

What is spirituality really about? Underneath all the terminology, all the mystical-sounding words, all the theatrical displays, what does it really mean? Here's a perspective, for what it is worth:

Spirituality is about the knowing that the awareness of "others" is as real as the "my awareness". The human condition means the apparent individual thinks that their own pleasure and "problems" are somehow more real and important than that of others, because we are identified with our own experiences. But this is just a perspective, it is not Reality. Knowing this (deeply, not just intellectually) makes us realize that we are not the centre of our Universe, that the field of awareness endures for ever, not the individual forms that come and go within it. This is liberation, joy and peace: to know our true infinite identity - we are not our bodies, emotions, thoughts, memories, success, ambitions, what others think of us, or our experiences: we are the One Awareness in which all these things happen. Surrendering the payoff of identification with our own experiences gives an incredible new freedom - no longer do we have to spend our lives run by trying to "get" something - we realize that there is nothing to get because we ARE the Allness.

The atheist says consciousness (awareness) is but an accident of evolution. The mystic says that the material world is an appearance within consciousness - it is in divinity/ consciousness that we move and have our being. It is the knowing of the true Self of everyone as this divinity/ consciousness that is the heart of spirituality from which emerges love, peace, and joy.

So far, so simple. So what makes it appear so complicated? Here are some thoughts:

First, people are often seeking "spiritual experiences" (and often, experiences of the paranormal), whereas spirituality is beyond experience (though experiences might, perhaps, be signposts along the way). Experiences come and go, the awareness behind experiences is eternal.

Second, people are often seeking a replacement identity through spirituality - which of course is just another identity, little different from an identification with a particular fashion brand or particular culture. Spirituality language and spiritual self-labeling is nothing to do with authentic spirituality; spirituality is about discovering the liberation of living beyond identity. (Whereas one of the biggest attachments of human nature is to its manufactured identities).

Third, we are conditioned to think of spirituality as something we can do, or grasp hold of; whereas it is simply the unveiling of what already IS. Human nature wants to be the doer; the reality is that Life is the doer and realizing our true infinite Self is a gift of grace.

Fourth, spirituality is often regarded as a means to an end, whereas the realization that we-are-already-that-in-which-all-things-happen brings the knowing that there is nothing to gain or achieve.

And, last but not least, the IMPLICATIONS of knowing that all-others-are-as-real-as-me, are so radical, that the human condition would rather focus on anything other than this reality. Who really wants to be dethroned from the centre of their universe?

Your comments and views are most welcome...

Love and peace!
Joseph

Currently listening : Instead By Onetwo Release date: 05 March, 2007

10:17 AM - 39 Comments - 84 Kudos - Add Comment

Difference and Unity
Category: Religion and Philosophy

(It's been about a year since I joined MySpace. Thanks for all your love and support, it's been great to encounter the blessings that you are! One thing that I've learnt more and more about is the paradox of Unity and Difference. The prayer or meditation or whatever one wants to call it below flows from that ongoing learning).

May we have the wisdom to know:
- The difference between identifying with experience, and seeing beyond it.
- The difference between spiritual experiences, and actually knowing oneself as Oneness and Spirit.
- The difference between loving something and hating its apparent opposite.
- The difference between form and the essence within it.
- The difference between being authentic to a desired self-image, and being authentic to love and the divine.
- The difference between detachment that disengages us from life and non-attachment to that which is not the essence of Life.
- And the difference between truth and its absence.

And, in love, may we know:
- The unity of appearances and the pure awareness in which all things happen
- The unity of that which sees and that which is seen
- The unity underneath appearances of every person and of every thing in this universe
- The unity of that which hears and that which is heard
- The unity of the path of devotion and the path of non-duality
- The unity of love and the courage to BE
- And the unity of truth and love, of wisdom and peace.

Amen
Love and peace!
Joseph

7:20 AM - 45 Comments - 95 Kudos - Add Comment

A Prayer of the Heart
Current mood: peaceful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Divine One, you hold us in your arms like a mother holding her child
You are the pure awareness in which we move and have our being
From you comes forth the subjectivity through which all life is known
You are the Unity that unites all the diverse appearances
The One consciousness behind the apparent multiplicity
You are the Light that has no opposite
The Truth that has no untruth.
You are the endless dance of stillness
The paradox beyond all minds
In love you create the appearance of individual beings
In love you lead these appearances to remember that they are indeed you
There is only Oneness, there has only ever been Oneness,
the Oneness you reveal as you bring us out of this dream-trance
You are love, joy and infinite peace
You are Divine Lord, Beloved Goddess, Great Spirit
In you are All Things
Hallelujah!

Amen



Love and peace!
Joseph

2:50 AM - 48 Comments - 93 Kudos - Add Comment

Love Thoughts
Category: Religion and Philosophy

~"Take a color from the wall and the color would cease to be. So too, all creatures would cease to exist if they were separated from the love that God is"~
Meister Eckhart, translated by Matthew Fox.

~"To understand the nature of God, it is necessary only to know the nature of love itself." Eye of the I, David R Hawkins

~ 'God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." ~
St John

1) Love simply is. We sometimes try to hold on to it, like a "thing". But it is an infinitely powerful beyond-thing/ no-thing. It is the fullness that fills the emptiness, it is the One still awareness in which all things happen.

2) Love always looks for the common essence under diverse form, to understand the common truth under diverse concepts.

3) The word love means different things to different people at different levels of consciousness. At one level, it is associated with wanting, needing, owning. At another level it is about commitment and alignment. At another level it is about the KNOWING that the awareness in others (that which is beyond the thoughts, emotions, body) is the same in "you" as it is in "me".

4) Every loving thought or word lifts up the consciousness of this world. It is as if the whole Universe smiles when we think "love and peace!" as we walk past a stranger. Telling a tortoise that you love him lifts up the whole world, even admiring a tree is embracing the planet.

5) In love, there is no "you" or "me". Love is the recognition, at deep level, that all is of the same essence. There is one awareness in all things. "You" and "me" are but points of perception in space-time.

6) Often, love is mistakenly associated with an endless of series of "shoulds". Yet there are no "shoulds" on the spiritual journey, just a series of invitations to freedom. With the awareness of "others" being as real as "ours", loving action happens inevitably. A dance in the infinite field of awareness, a dance of consciousness.

7) Is love something we do? It just IS, something that is unveiled once we have the eyes to see, the ears to hear. Once love is known, loving happenings simply occur.

8) Love embraces our humanity 100 per cent. It knows every stage of infinite evolution is perfect as it is.

9) Love transcends concepts of spiritual and unspiritual, divinity and humanity (these linguistic conveniences in the play of consciousness!). It is simply OUR essence, the one reality under diverse appearances.

10) We can love the appearances in what some people call duality, knowing that Unity includes what is labeled duality. (Does not Oneness include ALL?) We can enjoy what some label the illusion of life, knowing that we are the awareness in which all things happen - even the dream itself.

11) There is much talk about "authenticity" and "keeping it real". How valuable things these are surely depends on what one is authentic to, or real to (real to gangsta?!). The question is authentic to what? Is not only love totally real, only love totally authentic?

12) In love, we realize that not only are we NOT the centre of THE universe, our individual selves are not even the centre of "our own" universes. Does the infinite field of awareness have a centre?

~'Without Self-realization no virtue is genuine; it is only when you arrive at the deepest conviction that the same life flows through everything, and you are that life, that you begin to love all naturally and spontaneously' - The Wisdom of Balsekar, Ramesh Balsekar~

Love and peace! Comments, and your thoughts on love are most welcome.
Joseph

1:50 PM - 52 Comments - 108 Kudos - Add Comment

Beyond Seeking?
Current mood: peaceful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

~"The dispassion which is at the root of true spiritual seeking is neither the dulling of the senses through an excess of sensual enjoyment nor the suppression of the senses through force disciplines. Both these lead to frustration. It is only after the senses have experienced their respective objects and a sense of dispassion has arisen through a deep conviction that life and living must have a meaning that is deeper than merely enjoying the pleasure of the senses, that the genuine seeking begins" ~

~"A seeker seeking salvation through a particular path is in fact trying to get out of a hole he has never been in: the effort itself becomes the whole"~

The Wisdom of Balsekar (Ramesh Balsekar)

There is a seeming paradox in spirituality, hinted at in the two Balsekar quotes above. It seems that our perspective has evolved through seeking; yet "seeking" can be an endless process of avoiding the reality, here, now, within. We have probably all done our share of "guru shopping" at one stage or another, eagerly seeking a new teacher who will enable us to "get it". (This can be a similar process to trying to find fulfillment in the latest possession, or the latest fashion). Until eventually we realize that every genuine mystic is saying the same message, albeit with different words. They are simply holding up a mirror to what is here, within, forever. Eventually we are invited to focus our attention on embracing fully the truths we have already heard, rather than seeking new ones to wrap our minds around.

Of course different people may communicate the one reality in ways that are more accessible or not, to us. Reading different ways of expressing the Mystery can be helpful, so long as it is not an excuse for evading the letting go that we are invited to partake in right now.

It is a paradox, yet the journey is simply realizing - at a deep level not just intellectually - what IS, here, right now, forever. That the awareness in "others", is the same as that in "me". There is just one awareness. The KNOWING is about moving from perception of others as objects, to discovering that "they" are subjective awareness - just as much as "we" are. Most people think that they get this intellectually, but the knowing described here is a different essence.

This knowing does not take place in linear time, it is a realization that takes us beyond time and space, for the awareness that enables us to know that life is beyond both. (Space and time - and the events of life - are within the field of awareness rather than the other way round.) Of course, even after this knowing is unveiled we still retain a persona for conducting the practical necessities of life in space and time - but it is a practical convenience, not the essence of who we are.

There are quite a few books saying "give up the spiritual search" - at their best they are saying how the spiritual search can just be the identified self seemingly trying to grasp yet another object, in this case what it calls spirituality, as a self-centered route to happiness. To that extent, they make a valid point. Yet one need not be too dismissive of seeking. Who has not had self-fulfillment as a motive for getting interested in spirituality at some stage or another (including the authors of those books)? At first the journey might be about gain (and that is fine), but that gradually changes as we realize that there is only one "Self" (which is beyond self-hood as we understand it), one awareness, and see beyond everything that we thought we were.?
The need for personal effort is true at the level where it seems to be true, the sense that there is no individual doer behind deeds is true at the perspective of enlightenment. There are levels of truth, what is true at the highest levels will not seem true at "lower" levels - indeed it might be actually misleading to certain audiences. All meaning is context dependent. What at seems to work well and be true at one level may not be at a higher context of understanding. For example, at one level we are implored to forgive, and another level we are invited to see a larger context where victimhood is transcended and there is actually nothing to forgive. In one context the spiritual journey seems to be about personal effort and devotion, from a different perspective it is simply about letting go of the pay-off of apparent control and surrendering to the flow of Life and Wisdom. From one perspective, nothing really exists, from another all is full of love. When there is apparent disagreement on spiritual (and other) issues it is always worth considering if the difference is substantive or whether it is simply a matter of speaking from different contexts.

The Divine Comedy, the Great Mystery, is full of paradoxes. We can have a go at expressing it, but like trying to capture beauty in words, the description we create is not the reality itself. Whatever, the truth of different levels of understanding, we can be sure that love and acceptance are both the first and last steps of the journey.

Thanks to Nene (http://www.myspace.com/n_e_n_e_) whose comment on a comment inspired me to think more about this, as have Suzanne's (http://www.myspace.com/intergalactic_gemini) questions and Rob's (http://www.myspace.com/roblw) words.

Comments welcome. Love and peace, dear friends.
Joseph

3:04 AM - 32 Comments - 69 Kudos - Add Comment

Self Esteem
Current mood: peaceful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

"...too many of us fell for the cathartic theatrics of 'acting up' instead of facing the mundane exigencies of making concrete progress." John McWhorter in Catalyst magazine January 2007 p17

"The fear of the loss of self-identity brings up resistance. As we get closer to the discovery of the source of the ego's tenacity, we make the amazing critical discovery that we are enamoured with our self" David R Hawkins: I: Reality And Subjectivity, p40

Self-esteem is a huge topic - particularly in the context of spirituality, and would need more than one blog to do justice to it. (Quite a few friends have considered this topic recently.) And there is of course a big difference between the self (what we have identified with) and the (Higher) capital "s" Self, the divine essence that enables us to know life. Here are a few starting thoughts:

A healthy self-esteem is, of course, perfectly good. How can we love others AS WE LOVE OURSELVES, otherwise? Many people, particularly with very strict religious upbringing, confuse positive self-esteem with pride, a word which has different associations to different people. Pride is based on a sense of separateness from the Allness of Life - "me" versus "them" and a need to compete with and be superior to the perceived other. The isolation that pride creates paradoxically eventually leads to low self-esteem. From this perspective, pride is not necessary to feel good about ourselves. (Nor do we need to be against pride, when we are "anti" something we strengthen it). Comparison with others is an enemy of self-esteem. It's fine for purely practical purposes - e.g. "who is the best sports person who can represent our team/ city/ country etc?" - but not for self-identification.

Whereas positive self-esteem is about knowing who / what we really are, pride is attachment to illusions about who we are. (Most of us probably realise that healthy self-esteem is not the swaggering mentality that gangsta rap culture, for example, celebrates). It is perfectly good to accept praise and compliments. Sure, life is the real doer, but do we have to say that in response to everything nice said about us? In fact is not genuine humility more open to accepting compliments, because from that perspective we know that the One Life is both giver and receiver of the praise? (Some people unconsciously resist compliments e.g. with cynicism about the motives of the giver).

Yet, many people - including spiritual people - report problems of lack of confidence, lack of self-esteem etc. If we derive our self-esteem from our individual selves (from what we believe are "our" thoughts, "our" beliefs, and "our" actions etc), will it not always be a bit fragile? There will always be people who disagree with us, there will always be the media and society saying we must all look like super-models (and not get older!) to be confident, and that we must be super-rich to feel successful. There is always the excuse of past experiences, past so-called failures, and past relationship issues.

Esteem pressures can increase around Valentines Day particularly for people not in a relationship as all the hype raises self-doubt. Self-esteem can be linked to relationships, which is very understandable, but from the perspective of Reality we are NOT our relationships (or lack of), not how other treat us, not our past, not our circumstances, not our bodies, nor any identity we are attached to. When self-esteem is totally linked to a relationship or the sense of owning someone, then we can see "love" quickly turn to hate (even violent hate in extreme cases) of the partner / ex-partner or any real or imagined rivals. Surely this is not really love, but infatuation based on the animal mating instinct?

We can try and improve self-esteem by thinking more positively about the individual self - which may or may not work. We can seek to abandon perfectionism, and give ourselves unconditional acceptance and realise we are okay "as we are". This is all good, to the extent that it works. But often the old mental programs still run however much we tell ourselves these things. Such positive thinking would be an example of what is sometimes called a first order change - trying to improve self-esteem within the paradigm. A second order change is one that changes the system or paradigm itself. It is hard to address self-esteem at the levels on which the conditioning has occurred. Hence moving to a higher level, to transcend how we think about what we are, is more powerful. As we realize that we are not all the things that we thought we were, we are set free. (Of course, some people would prefer not to be free in this way, which is fine).

What would it be like to derive our sense of esteem from one he awareness that animates each one of us, rather than our individual selves? How about capital 'S' Self / Higher We' esteem? If there is no attachment to the small 's' self, there are no self-esteem problems. We can give consciousness, the flow of life the credit. We can still accept response-ability - the consciousness that we are steers our attention and thus the direction of our lives. This way we grow in confidence as we know Life is the doer and let her flow through us. We start to realise that confidence is the absence of the mental interference that holds us back - neither confidence and nor self-esteem is a "thing".

Another perspective is that what we do to others we do to ourselves, what we think about others we are effectively think about ourselves, and our unconscious minds know that. So as we focus on seeing the pure awareness in "others", rather than focusing (and passing judgement) on the individual persona they are identified with, it becomes easier to know our own true Self. And love for what had been perceived as "self" and "other" now flows.

So, to all that the world says on why we should feel less good about ourselves, we can respond "so what, who cares". We can know that all the beauty we see in others and in life is in our own infinite essence too. We are worthy of all the infinite blessings life has to offer (does that bring up any limiting beliefs about your worth?). We have infinite worth by virtue of the divinity of that which gives us awareness. We can reside the essence of ourselves that IS forever.

Comments welcome, dear friends. (And if any one wants to signpost their blog on this or a related topic in their comments, you are welcome to do so).

Love and peace!
Joseph

3:29 AM - 31 Comments - 66 Kudos - Add Comment

Blessings of Christmas
Category: Religion and Philosophy

~ Jesus ... did not come to make us religious, to make us righteous or moral, or even to make us orthodox. All of those are demonstrably killing formulas throughout our world... Jesus had only one purpose and that was to call us into life more abundantly. ~ "The Sins of Scripture" - Bishop John Spong

~For it's only the illusion of individuality that is the origin of all suffering - when one realizes that one IS the universe, complete and at one with all that is, forever without end, then no further suffering is possible~ "Power vs Force" - David R Hawkins

As we move closer to Christmas, may I offer to you and your families the very best wishes for a happy and renewing holiday season. In this time of goodwill to all people, I pray that we will all know the infinite blessings that life has to offer and that 2007 unveils even more joys.

I intend to take some time off blogging for a few weeks, so this is the finale of the first volume of blogs since I joined MySpace in the first half of this year. Ramesh Balsekar, speaking from the perspective of enlightenment, says there is no individual 'doer'. There is certainly no individual blogger - as a myriad interconnected influences drive our words. Life, not the individual, is due the credit and the kudos.

There will still be comments on friends' sites and blogs. But right now the intention is for a "pregnant pause" in blogging, to be recharged by the grace of Lady Wisdom, to return with fresh ways of expressing this perspective. Above all, I will be present on MySpace in prayer and conscious silence, partaking in what Naralila has called this Love Community (her page www.myspace.com/naralila is so worth looking at, I simply do not have the words to describe how powerful her insights are!) .

Regular readers will know the heart of these blogs' perspective - identifying with the field of awareness in which our thoughts, emotions, bodies etc happen, rather than these objects themselves. The still awareness in "you" is the same as the awareness in "me". The content of the mind might be different, but that content is not the real us. Once that is truly KNOWN, all else follows. And that is it. All the rest is commentary, from this perspective. The human condition (I have talked of the ego, but this is a nominalisation for a whole bunch of programs, attachments and tricks - the ego is not a "thing") clouds who / what we really are - our essence. The journey is of acceptance, then transcendence.

If one looks at the world in the light of this understanding, there are some interesting observations. At the "lowest" levels of awareness, there are those who are so identified with their own programs that they regard the awareness of others (at least those outside the circle they associate with) as a threat. They are violently against those outside their street gang, tribe, religious faction or whatever unit they identify with. (Low awareness cultures tend to hate feminine beauty - hence "gangsta" music describes women in derogatory language, and fundamentalists want women covered up completely). You see the effects of this on the news every day. There are those who are unconsciously very attached to (and proud of) their ego programs and will resist anything that challenges that.

Then there are those do not consider the being of others much at all and simply accept the programming of the media and society, although if you asked them about it they would probably say "well of course others are just as real as me". (This probably accounts for the majority of the population). There are those willing to engage with others' perspective through the process of reason. And then those who seek to walk the path of love, then unconditional love and beyond, where oneness is sought for its own sake. Peace, beauty and love emerge more and more.

These levels provide a "karmic playground" with opportunities for growth for all of us. Of course all these levels of awareness / unawareness are not just out there, they are within us ALL too. There is not really an "us" and a "them". What we perceive out there is a mirror into "here".

From the perspective of the Divine Comedy, all is simply as it is, and that is that. But I can't help thinking at this time of Goodwill to All, that what the world seems to need most is loads more awareness that we all share the same one Being. Some of the symptoms of this lack of awareness are: religious fundamentalism, irresponsible businesses (that for example sell anti-moral video games that get the user into the mental programs of violence), and the kind of relativist secularism that seeks to throw the baby (spirituality, responsibility, love and decency) out with the bath water (puritanism, repression and fundamentalism). Another symptom, is the spiritual ego, which in extreme cases can lead to the type of predatory pseudo-guru (in 3D and in cyberspace) who seeks worship and devotion to themselves, rather than the Truth. Of course, it's no use being AGAINST these symptoms; being against an illusion is not the same as being pro-Reality.

Yet, I am also optimistic. The fact that against the odds, awareness has animated life to evolve to greater and greater levels of consciousness over the aeons, makes me believe that this process will continue. (Although it might not be in straight lines!) For every bit of so-called bad news, there is the Good News - largely unheralded - that the global love community is growing in strength as more people realize the Oneness that the Christmas story is about.

Consider this - many of us have access to dozens of verbatim writings of enlightened mystics from several traditions, when a spiritual seeker in previous centuries might often have had to make do with diluted sayings of perhaps one teacher that probably was not written down for centuries. (If indeed they had that). We have access to incredible support from across the world: wise friends (and friends whose mistakes we can learn from), meditation groups, satsangs, this online Love Community etc. Reflecting on this, I think the odds are in our favour and I am sure that love, one day, will triumph.

Comments and questions welcome.

Infinite love and peace, beloved!
Joseph

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