Unconditional Love – Part II

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Humankind is at a watershed in its history. We have bourn witness to millennia of male-sponsored societal malfeasance, wherein the ‘strong’ within and among societies made the determination as to whether a particular individual is of more value (to them) being dead or alive.

Such is the world of ego. Ego is both author and master of a transactional world, a world wherein ‘might’ trumps ‘right.’

The World, our world, is now at an inflection point. From here, humankind, the societies and institutions it creates, its dreams and aspirations, its vision -will either evolve or cease to exist.

But, unbeknownst to us, the ego of humankind is now experiencing an inversion. Whereas the masculine component of the human spirit has dominated the scene for as long as humans have, it is assuredly the feminine side that is emerging from the muck of ego in these days and assuming leadership roles.

This is not something strange or new. It implies, however, that humanity is undergoing a reversal of its collective consciousness: we had previously turned away from the Light of the creator, and now we are turning back toward the Light. We are coming full-circle.

Today we bear witness to the onset of an era of reconciliation between the human spirit and the spirit of the creator. In Nature, it is the feminine spirit that rules over the home, tribe, society; the male operates within society in a service role –not one of authority. These societies operate in the way the creator intended.

Long ago, the male spirit usurped authority over society from the human female, by using its strength (as opposed to its wits and heart) to dominate her and to elevate his interests over hers.

That is all changing.

With the election of Kamala Harris as VP-elect of the United States of America, a nation soon to reassert itself as the bastion and beacon of liberal democracy, and reassume the role of building an equitable, universally-inclusive, participative world-order after a four-year hiatus, we may, post-Biden, see America install its first woman as president and her partner as ‘First Man.’

Here in Canada, following the term of PM Justin Trudeau, we might see Canada’s ‘Minister of Everything,’ Chrystia Freeland, assume the Office of the Prime Minister. Perhaps it will be JWR, if  she, the PM, and the party, can reconcile and let ‘bygones be bygones.’

The World, our world, is so entrenched in ego after centuries of European expansion, colonialization,  industrialization, and a century of globalized warfare, that to continue along the trajectory of ‘maleness’ now will only serve to push humankind over the edge and into the abyss in only a few years.

It is the likes of women like Kate Raworth and young Greta Thunberg, and before them, the likes of Mother Teresa and, in my life, my own mother, who lead us forward to the place we left many, many years ago.

What these women hold in common, and which is, in fact, part of the fabric of womanhood, is that their approach is universal and non-transactional:

They are motivated to address any shortfall their fellow citizens may experience by mobilizing those in society (domestic or global) who have more than they need and can give of their excess; NOT by the value members of society represent to those who already have and would take more. These women perceive a need, and they address the need.

And then they move on to address other needs.

This is the difference between the operatives of ‘conditional’ vs. ‘unconditional’ love. It is the difference between a world dominated by the male spirit or served by the female spirit. The male-spirited world is transactional and conditional; whereas the female-spirited world is nurturing, supportive, and unconditional in service.

A mother’s love is unconditional. She is happy ONLY when her children are happy.

But, the mother’s love has been operating within the constrictions imposed by humanity’s male ego component, ever since we left the Garden. Rather than humans developing nurturing, equitable societies and a sustainable social model to face off against emergent challenges, they have trended  toward the controlling, authoritarian, Fascist intolerance suborned by Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, MBS, Netanyahu, and many others.

I am male in form. I am spirited somewhat ‘male,’ somewhat ‘female.’ I grew up in a family with a wonderful mom and a dad who was a great provider. Because of the paternal format of the world we found ourselves in, my mother had to employ ‘politics’ to get things done with respect to the household, inclusive of her husband, her children, the family pet and herself. She had to exercise diplomacy with respect to spending money…it didn’t matter on whom or what. Were it not for her diplomacy, she would have been spending according to what dad thought was most important. But dad, god bless him, and despite his best intentions, was not equipped to know what was ultimately best for our family-community. The creator determined that woman should be so-equipped.

Our mother did the right things by her family, always. No one doubted her love.

But I hadn’t, until my old age, realized her true legacy.

Like Jesus, she pointed the way forward for us, her partner and her children, toward the Light. The Light of our creator.

She did not coerce us into her way of thinking, nor could she have, because ego was the force majeure in the world she was born into. To avoid evoking ego’s entrenchment, she did the only thing she could do to pierce our ego’s shell and appeal to the light within us:

She led by her example, and her example was service.

The fact I write this today is because my mother raised me. Pure and simple. Otherwise I would have been misled into thinking the paternal world was ‘natural.’ The paternal world is patently un-natural.

The paternal world is a construct of ego. We came to think too much of physical strength and material acquisition. The adopted mores of ego are wholly responsible for the miserable, perilous state of the World, our world, today.

When humankind says ‘no’ to human ego with one voice, our creator is going to hear us.

He/she might then send his ‘prophet,’ ‘messiah,’ ‘chosen-one,’ – whatever- for to lead us back to the Garden, to a life in the Light, because we will have shown ourselves to be ready for it, at last.

To be led away from ego’s prison, and out of the heart of darkness.

p.s.

Thanks, mom, for being our mom, and for living and teaching us the Golden Rule!

…and for helping to open the door to the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

 

 

Timmy and the Trouble Tree – a tale in the tradition of Aesop

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Once upon a time, a very, very long time ago, there was a dinosaur named Timmy. Timmy wasn’t just any dinosaur, he was a fine, young three-horned triceratops.

Now, as all of the other dinosaurs knew, a triceratops was one you should never trouble, for to do so would be to invite a poke in the nethers. A poke from not just one sharp, pointy horn, but three!

Three big, angry horns —and an angry triceratops right behind them!

Now, every morning at sunrise, Timmy would go with his herd to the plain where the peanut trees grow to forage for food.

As they wandered about the plain for their breakfast, the herd stayed close together, because in the middle of the plain stood the Trouble Tree, and anyone who got too close was certain to find trouble for the rest of their days.

But Timmy just couldn’t believe it.

One day, he decided to put the Trouble Tree to the test.

“I’m going to show Jimmy, Billy, and Buck there’s no such thing as a ‘trouble tree.’ It’s a tree, not an evil spirit!” he vowed.

He followed after his mom and dad for the plain. His best friends were already there, waiting for him.

“Here comes trouble!” they cheered when they saw Timmy.

“Not this time!” said Timmy, “this time, we’re going to go find it!” A low grumbled warning from father got lost in the laughter of his friends.

“Let’s go!” and with that, the four friends went off to play in the thorny bushes and tall grass of the plain.

“Stay away from the Trouble Tree,” called their mothers after them.

Before long, the friends found themselves deeper in the bushes than they ever dared go before. Billy stopped.

“Billy, what’s the matter?” called Buck, as he dodged past.

“I don’t know…I’m just scared.”

Timmy overheard. He stopped. Then the others, following close behind, stopped.

“You are scared because you know where we are,” he said to Billy.

Billy nodded. “We’re almost at the Trouble Tree.”

The others, in their haste, had not realized where Timmy was leading them. They were just having fun along the way to somewhere; but none of them thought for a moment the Trouble Tree would be Timmy’s destination that day.

Timmy turned back toward his friends. “Yes, I admit it! I’ve brought you to the Trouble Tree. I wanted to show you there’s no such thing. It’s a tree, not a big, bad evil spirit.”

“Only evil spirits are scary,” Jimmy, the eldest of the friends and Billy’s older brother, said.

“But mom says it is an evil spirit. It only looks like a tree because of a magic spell. It waits for people to get too close, so that the wind can sprinkle the seeds of trouble upon them, and then the seeds grow into Trouble Trees.” Billy replied.

“Mom says the Trouble Tree tries to grow its roots deep, so you can’t pull it off of your head and escape from under the shadow cast by its leaves and branches. That’s how trouble follows you everywhere, ever after, once you catch the seeds,” Jimmy added.

“That’s a bunch of dodo-droppings!” said Timmy. “And I’m going to prove it to you.”

With that, Timmy turned to face the centre of the plain, lowered his great head, and rushed, horns first, in the direction of the great tree.

The friends followed after Timmy, but were still out of sight of the Trouble Tree when they heard a great thud and felt the ground shake beneath them.

They could hear their moms and dad’s calling after them in alarm.

Soon, the ground set to trembling once again, only this time, it was the hooves of triceratops an entire herd!

Jimmy, Billy, and Buck looked at one another. They froze in place, waiting for their parents to arrive. They feared for their friend Timmy, but they dared not move forward another inch.

They were never so scared in their lives.

They knew they were in big trouble for going near the Trouble Tree, but the friends were never so happy to see their parents appear.

Soon, the friends found themselves surrounded by the herd.

“Where is Timmy?” asked Timmy’s dad, his face grim. The boys were too scared to speak.

They could only point in the direction of the Trouble Tree, which lay on the other side of a thick patch of burly bushes.

A look of concern washed over his face, then Timmy’s dad turned to face the herd.

“I will go alone. It’s too dangerous. He’s my boy.” And with that, he spun round toward the bushes, lowered his head, and charged with all the might a 12 tonne triceratops can muster.

But the herd didn’t listen to him. No matter who was in trouble, or what the trouble was, triceratops always stayed together and stuck together. They followed after Timmy’s dad, by the lane he created through the bushes.

The air stilled. Nothing moved. Not a sound, save for the crunch of their hooves on the ground. As they got closer, their dread grew stronger, each step heavier than the last.

They pressed forward. One of theirs was in trouble. They cared more about that than about what the Trouble Tree might do to them.

When they emerged from the brush and trod upon the apron of grey sand and stumped grass at the base of the Trouble Tree, what a sight met there eyes!

There was Timmy! There was Timmy’s father! They were both laughing and frolicking and playfully poking one another with their horns, right in the middle of the plain but there was no Trouble Tree! There was only a hole in the ground where the Trouble Tree used to be.

“Timmy! Timmy! Timmy!” the friends cried together, “What did you do to the Trouble Tree?”

Timmy couldn’t speak, being so filled with relief and joy. Instead he gave his great, three-horned head a shake, proudly showing the great pieces of tree bark stuck on his horns, then pointed a hoof in the direction of the tree.

The Trouble Tree lay just out of sight, on the far edge of the patch.

They could not see it from where they stood, because Timmy had hit the tree so hard with his horns when he charged, that for much of its final voyage, the Trouble Tree’s had been airborne!

Timmy and his dad could not stop laughing and playing (and poking at one another) and soon the rest of the herd joined in the fun, never to be troubled by Trouble again.

That night, Timmy and the other triceratops children slept their first night without nightmares, and from that day on, never worried about what trouble might come, because Timmy showed them what to do when it does.

Their parents slept soundly too. Now that the Trouble Tree was uprooted and laying on its side on the plain, it would soon die and no longer spread its seeds upon unsuspecting triceratops children that venture too close.

The Trouble Tree would never again haunt them with fears and doubts.

It is better to use your head to push trouble out of the way, than as a garden to grow a Trouble Tree of your very own.

The Devil’s Endgame

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You may have heard the maxim, ‘Bad news travels faster than good news.’ I have heard it, ad nauseum; I’ve also seen it, over and over. Even the news on TV is mostly of the ‘downer’ kind.

Why does it have to be that way? Why should the ‘good’ kind propagate slower than the ‘bad?’

I believe it is because we live so much in fear of bad stuff happening that we can’t resist looking for it, anymore than we can ‘rubber necking’ as we drive past a motor accident along the highway.

This is our ego in action. When we open the mind’s door to our ego, when we let it grab our attention, it oftentimes Satan speaking to us, cloaked in the darkness of ego, posing as being ‘us,’ to wit: our thoughts. As in the tarot image by Pamela Coleman Smith, Satan appears to be waving at us, saying, ‘I’m right here. I’m always right here.’

Satan wants us to think about, focus upon, only the negatives, to the exclusion of everything else. This is because he desires for us to be miserable, to make others miserable, to only feel ‘happy’ as a Faustian prelude to the onset of profounder misery.

He wants everyone to go about their daily business depressed, anxious, and full of regret -all rolled up into one great big ball of emotional entanglement. One that is impossible to disentangle. Now you need a counsellor.

Bad enough, but the strategy in and of itself does not reveal the devil’s endgame.

The devil’s objective is the destruction of the human soul, not just to make us miserable while we are on this side of the River Styx. His attack is really on god, the creator. He wants to ‘kill’ god, move god out of the way, like a Trumpian coup d’état.

Then he can ‘be god,’ and preside over the only thing he and ego are able to create: a dunghill of misery.

The creator is not like Satan. The creator has ego but doesn’t appear to listen to it or to be absorbed in it. In his/her wisdom, the creator thought it good to rely on a ‘distributed network’ approach: instead of controlling life like a puppet master, he distributed life and gave each living thing a soul, a little piece of him/herself. To do that, he/she gave us free will.

This means Satan has an impossible job for himself. The creator has found a means of putting him/herself everywhere, and Satan must take us, one at a time, in order to kill god.

The soul is eternal of its nature. It is a little wee piece of the creator which is in everything living thing. It is what animates the individual. It is a little wee piece of Life itself.

The thicker the veil of ego upon our souls, the less the sustaining light of the creator is able to enter in to recharge the soul.

The veil thickens according to the time we spend allowing the ego to highjack our consciousness, away from its focus upon the now, where the light of the creator exists. It also thickens as we age.

The way to counter this is simple: cultivate the ability to ‘think only happy thoughts’ like Peter Pan and speak only ‘happiness’ to others, and, to, as the nonagenarian I met 40 years ago when I first landed in Red Rock advised, ‘to never hate anyone.’

Deepak Chopra’s Tuesdays revolve on the notion of Karma. He says: ‘Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind. Choosing actions that bring happiness and success to others ensures the flow of happiness and success to you.’

That’s what the devil doesn’t want anyone to know. Project whatever joy you can. Share your joy. Let your light shine forth from under the cover ego has placed over your soul, your light-source.

The more happiness you muster, the thinner the veil of ego becomes, because to muster joy, you must be at the moment already beyond the consciousness of ego; receiving the creator’s light into your own soul.

It is the ego that ‘belongs’ to Satan. It is what he keeps of us when we ‘die.’ The rest of our spirit (the mind/soul/soul-body combo) moves onto a higher plane of existence. The ego is left behind, save for the little we require to maintain our identity in the Light Stream.

Satan will toss the  ‘memento’ you leave for him into the ‘fire’ along with all the other ones from those who have gone on already. He is left your corporeal body, because it will rot and become part of the matrix from which new life emerges. But he wants all of you, mind, body, and soul, for this will make the fire he maintains burn brighter, hotter, and longer.

He cares most for your soul. This he can obtain only if it becomes trapped under the scab which ego forms upon it. The weight of ego could render the soul unable to lift itself, and your spirit, to the next level after you ‘die’ and separate from your corporeal body.

No soul – no life -and so the individual spirit perishes. Bad for you, bad for me; painful to god.

No souls – no god -and so god perishes?

It is not possible for god to perish at Satan’s hand, or for any other reason. God is simultaneously the ‘Light’ and the ‘light-source.’ It is only when light becomes trapped as matter (E=mc2) that it loses its ‘lustre’; unable to dispel the darkness around it. Light can only be trapped by ego and its constant companion, Satan. The creator too has an ego, but the creator knows the light and will never listen to it. The soul of the Universe, of the creator, is truly forever.

It is only the ego of Satan that permits him to ‘think’ he can kill god. It is ego that motivates him to continue going after us, in the way of trying to get at god.

If we were to each set our ego aside, as the Prayer of St. Francis recommends, Satan will retain only a residue, a wisp of our being, our corporeal bodies, and those he must give back to the Earth- they aren’t the fuel for his fire.

There will be nothing for the fire, and so the fire he maintains will eventually die out, him along with it.

That is humankind’s destiny. Our return to the Garden. The soul and spirit’s emergence from under the internment of ego and into the Light of the creator. This has already been broadcast. So few of us seem to have heard.

Bad news really does travel faster than good.

p.s.

Have a listen to Be happy-don’t worry. And don’t forget the Golden Rule.

There is a song by the Great Canadian Bard, Gordon Lightfoot, wherein he draws the relation between the soul, the mind, and ego, at least that’s my interpretation .

 

Let Us Pray

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Let  us pray…with these words, the Catholic tradition kicks-off its daily mass celebration. As I pray in the tradition of worship I grew up in, I often resort to the Our Father and the Hail Mary; more often of late, to the Prayer of St. Francis.

Today, while watching the daily mass from St. Michael’s on YouTube, I found myself praying along with the presiding priest. It struck me that, in ‘praying along’ I was adding my voice to those of all the others, and together, a melody of voices in prayer would rise up from the Earth to the hearing of the creator; that the hearing was resonating with joy in the heart of the creator in the way the songs of many birds combine to produce a beautiful chorus, lightening our spirits.

I found myself wondering, what if I should learn a special prayer of the Moslem faith, and join the voices of the Moslems, at the time of day they offer it to the creator, so that another voice is added to that melody rising up from the Earth. Would that not be pleasing to the creator?

Also, a Jewish prayer. A Hindu prayer. A Buddhist prayer. At the time when their faithful pray in unison.

All prayer is music to the creator. Music is the language and staple of the soul. The more souls participating, the louder the music, and the more the soul of the hearer is buoyed and rejuvenated. The louder the music, the more the soul of our creator rocks with joy.

 

The soul is the source of the Light. The Light is the ‘carrier wave’ we ‘photons’ exist in, whether we know it or not. It is only human ego that prevents us from ‘knowing.’

The Light goes on forever and so do we.

 

Let us pray…together.

Unconditional Love

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In my life, I have experienced two sources of unconditional love:

  1. A parent’s love for their children, and
  2. God’s love for his/her creation.

‘Unconditional’ means you are loved, no matter who you are, what you are, what you have done or not done. On the basis of that definition, I know beyond any doubt that my mother loved me unconditionally, because, no matter what I did that ‘peed’ her off, she would get over it quickly and return to her kind, outgoing self. She never reminded me of past transgressions, nor did she ever feel a need to tell me all of the things she does for her kids and our father; of how little time was left her by us, at the day for her day, for her to recuperate, to heal, to have her own fun.

The creator loves so unconditionally that he/she gave humankind free will -and mastery over his/her creation. The creator must have know he/she was going to be in for a rough ride, but gave us free will anyway, because it is the only way a living soul is conscious, ‘living,’ and not just ‘going through the motions’ like a robot.

God intended for us to extend and be stewards over his/her creation. But it is necessary for us to want to be, to choose to be ‘stewards,’ else, a spiritual disconnect, a rift in the soul occurs, between our ego and our ‘good sense/aka ‘higher’ self.’

When we experience the rift, we progressively go further and further into our own heads. We begin to ‘sleep-walk’/’sleep-talk.’ The Sounds of SilenceRockin’ In the Free World. It is the only way left to us to manage with the lives we are living.

We and the World, our world, are far, far, from where we need to be; from where the creator intended for us to be.

This is because the World, our world, is plagued by ego.

Ego is of its nature, conditional; transactional. Ego is our barometer. It provides us feedback. Our ego let’s us know what is enjoyable TO US and what is not.

Ego can only tell us what it likes and what it doesn’t like. It therefore takes a binary view of everything.

Ego has infected our religions. In my tradition, Jesus, who went around healing people he knew nothing about apart from the fact they needed healing, and preaching that ‘God the Father’ is not  transactional god, but rather a forgiving, loving god, is also supposed to have said this:

 I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [John 14:6]

Here Jesus is supposed to have attached conditions. Very restrictive conditions to receiving the benefits of the creator’s love (agape).

And yet, agape, god’s love for his/her children, is by definition, love without conditions attached. It is just love. It is just loving. There is no condition attached to this love, only the hope that the be-loved will be happy!

How then do conditions, such as worshipping the creator in this way, but not that way, come to exist? It is because humans have developed many different systems of worship, and raised them up to the creator; but it was not the creator who is responsible.

Therefore it’s people. Us. Human ego.

We have attached conditions upon god’s love. We are not only telling one another that it is wrong to worship this way or that way, we are speaking for god. How can any of us presume to speak for god, much less persecute or ‘correct’ anyone with a different way than ours?

‘Knowing’ god requires a lifetime of search and discovery. The search does not end until we are ‘birthed’ from the womb which is our body (and Mother Earth’s womb), and have crossed the River to the other side.

Do this and you will have eternal life (Say that and you will not). 

‘I am the only way.’ Worship me and you will have eternal life. (Worship anyone else, and you will not).

That is transactional. That is not ‘long suffering.’ What is transactional is entirely of the ego. Only this time, we are talking about the ego of religious institutions. William Blake had the Catholic Church in mind while writing The Mental Traveller.

That’s where the conditions come from. From us. Not from god, IMO.

In the ‘Temptation of Christ’ Lucifer first tries to tempt Jesus with the power of acquisition: ‘Command these stones to become bread,’ because Jesus was hungry, having not eaten for some time. Jesus wouldn’t bite.

Next, Lucifer tries to tempt him with power over the Angels (among others, I assume): ‘Jump from here, to make the angels catch you so that you won’t be hurt’ but Jesus did not want to put god to the test, as if he had some authority over god. Jesus didn’t bite.

Finally, Lucifer ups the ante and offers Jesus rule over god’s earthly creation, if Jesus would only bow to him once. Jesus didn’t bite on that one either.

There is an ‘if’ attached to each of Lucifer’s temptations. Just like there is in the book of John and other places in the bible. In fact, the notion of ‘covenants’ forged between god and man, made and then broken, is a recurring motif of the Old Testament.

Transactionality, even as it manifests in covenants, or contracts between humans and their creator, is entirely of the ego. Ego is transactional by its very nature.

Jesus was not. Everything he did, even his crucifixion, as brutal as that must have been, was done because he felt compelled to serve. He felt compelled because HE SAW HIS FELLOW HUMANS IN SO MUCH MISERY. He couldn’t just ignore their misery, therefore, he spoke up about it, to remind folks of the Golden Rule.

Even during the lead-up to his crucifixion, Lucifer tempted him through Pilate and at his trial before the Sanhedrin. All that Jesus needed to do was say he was sorry for preaching. All that he had to do was to ignore what was in his heart and use his head; to save himself rather than devote it to the consideration of the needs of others. All that he had to do was give up everything he stood for and adopt the worldview of others.

He denied Lucifer. He denied ego. He chose to serve in the Light, rather than to be served in the darkness, where you cannot tell if it someone honest or Lucifer doing the ‘serving.’ That is what Lucifer finds so frightening. He is afraid that others will see through the veil of ego just like Jesus did.

And then, they would see, feel, and hear the presence of the creator in all things, they would know they are not alone, they would see the world of Light, aka the Garden, and learn how to find their way back to it after being absent for so long. They (we) need only put our egos aside. Remove the  moat from our own eye, as it were.

The spiritual battle between the ego and the light is the subject of the Last Temptation of Christ, a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. The movie version, starring Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, and Barbara Hershey, is on YouTube. This is the battle between the ‘spirit and the flesh,’ the darkness and oppression the human soul exits in under the cloak of ego v. the liberation of the soul living in the Light.

I have often been put off by the call for repentance. Today, while listening to St. Michael’s daily service on YouTube, it occurred to me why the focus is on ‘repentance.’ It isn’t because we are flawed beings (our creator loves us and would not have doomed us that way), but rather because ego is part of the fabric of life, that we all have one, and that it must be breached for the light of the creator to enter into our souls.

Even the creator has an ego. This makes me wonder if the Gnostics didn’t get it right when they claimed the god of the Old Testament was an entity inferior to the creator (to wit: was created by the creator). The existence of the ‘demiurge’ explains the transactional nature of the Old Testament.

Ego could also explain the New Testament, in places where people are being judged and condemned for their beliefs, or being told that there is only one way to the creator, and that the ones saying this own it. Scholars believe the ego we see in the NT are interpolations at the behest of those pursuing Christian orthodoxy, a one party-line scenario, such as Emperor Constantine had done, but there have been many others.

When you ‘repent,’ you effectively reject the rule ego has over your thinking/over the lens through which you see the world around you.

You are suddenly no longer ‘transactional.’ No more quid pro quo. À la your mom and Jesus, you want to give to others because you see that others have a need which YOU can fill. That’s it. That’s enough. That’s ego in balance with the mind and soul. It is the individual human spirit living in the Light.

In fact, in the act of repentance, it is your ego that ‘rejects’ itself, because something the mind created from an epiphany it experienced (the proverbial lightbulb coming on in your head) has breached the ego’s cloak upon your soul and mind and allowed the creator’s light in.

Your light is simultaneously exposed for all the World, our world, to see. This does mean you will no longer encounter opposition, only that you will know others and be known, that you will tolerate and be tolerated, you will not condemn others or live in fear of condemnation.

You suddenly operate at a different frequency; your ‘photon’ is spontaneously elevated to a higher level, that of the ‘visible light spectrum.’ You are fully cognizant of your existence in, and as, light.

Ego gives shape-reference-a starting point(POV) to things with souls. It is what differentiates us from all other living things.

Ego is designed to react, not to think. It provides us with feedback  (through our emotions and sensations) on what we are experiencing in and around ourselves. But if we allow ego to do the ‘thinking’ for us, we are giving it permission to do that for which it is not designed, and it is tantamount to giving your child the keys to the family automobile.

We need to educate and nurture our egos, but the mind needs to parent the ego-child, else we may discover it is the child, not us, doing the driving for us.

Even with respect to ourselves, we must love ourselves and one another unconditionally. To the extent we are able to do this, we extend the love of the creator upon his/her creation.

That is the effect of setting the ‘self’ aside as we go about our daily lives.

‘Dying to self, that’s when we’re born into Eternal Life.’ [the Prayer of St. Francis].

An epiphany after posting, while on my walkabout:

Our Sun sits at the centre of our solar system, casting forth its light. The darkness surrounding the Sun is vanquished by the Sun’s light, for as long as the Sun shines. It’s light reveals the existence of other objects, like our Earth, which exist independently of the Sun. The planets, moons, and asteroids orbiting the Sun reflect its light and are thus brought into ‘relief’ against the background of  darkness which surrounds everything.

Without the Sun’s light, we would exist in darkness. Actually, we wouldn’t exist at all. None of the objects are able to make their own light to drive away the darkness, ever encroaching upon them.

The Sun informs us, by its example, that it is not enough to be a reflector of light. To stem the encroachment of darkness upon one’s psyche, you must produce your own light, like the Sun does.

This is easy. At the centre of each human’s being is the Soul. It is the light of the soul that imparts the energy of ‘life’ to the mind-soul-spirit of the individual. The soul is of the creator and is forever. Every soul exist with and in god, the way every leaf exists with and in the tree.

The human soul is the light that dispels the darkness that is forever encroaching upon it, like the Sun drives away the darkness which surrounds it.

To prevent ourselves, our spirits, from becoming awash in darkness, to become conscious of anything apart from wondering what might be hiding in the darkness, WE MUST let our light shine. It is the only way to drive the darkness that surrounds us away.

More importantly, it permits us to expel the darkness that is in us, that has infiltrated our spirit, and which weighs our spirits down.

Be as the Sun. Be as the creator intended for all things with souls to be: creators in their own right, of their own light.

That’s likely how Jesus rolled. How Gandhi rolled. How Mohammed (PBUH) rolled. How Joseph, Moses and Noah rolled. How the Buddha rolled. How my dear departed mom rolled.

They all had egos. They all overcame their ego to let their light shine forth into the World, our world, for THE MUTUAL AND ETERNAL benefit of other folks, including you and me.

They had different life experiences, they were born to different cultures at different times. They did, however, have one thing in common: they had hearts that loved. Loved other folks, other things, because they were created by god. They loved god.

Without attaching any conditions to their love of god: Jesus was brutally crucified. The Mahatma was gunned down in the street. Mohammed (PBUH) died a short while after leading a bloodless assault upon Medina. He may have caught fever. The Buddha may have died from something he ate. None of them, even in their great physical and spiritual travails, ever said they ‘hated god,’ or that they should have gotten a better deal from god. It was their love of god that allowed them to endure and to persevere on god and creation’s behalf.

That love had to be unconditional. Had it not been, none of these venerable folks would have inspired a major religion; in their turn, inspiring untold millions of human souls across the ages to be kind toward one another and toward the planet and its other inhabitants, to practice the Golden Rule, to never do violence for any reason, save for when your own life or that of the vulnerable is under direct and immediate threat, and to be happy. [Aside: the creator relates to us the way the tree relates to its leaves. If all of the leaves are healthy and happily doing their thing, the tree is healthy and happy too].

Love is the Light. By their example, the leaders of the world’s faiths have revealed this to us and the World, our world.

Let’s light up the World.

NOW-ness

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In the world of today, we are increasingly obliged to maximize the use of our time. Not only at work, where you make the direct connection between time-wasted and money-wasted, but in virtually every aspect of our daily lives. In fact, as time goes on, more of our time and energy-resources are taken up to just keep our noses above water; leaving less to think about what we are doing, what are kids might be up to, WHAT ARE GOVERNMENTS are up to?

Two ‘social’ operatives appear to be in vogue these days:

Division: In the division, trenches are allowed to form between the divided, MAKING IT HARDER  TO UNITE IN A COMMON CAUSE against a common problem; since you must first bridge the divide. We stand united; we fall divided.

Busy-ness: We are too busy to properly give consideration to things. We have time only to react, according to how one is already wired. ‘Reaction’ implies the absence of any premeditation. We react to events according to our personal, ‘hard-wired’ default.

Do you find yourself thinking about something other than what you are doing AT THE MOMENT? As our lives get busier and busier, the ‘must-dos’ gobble up a greater portion of our time and energy; leaving less time for other things, like giving consideration to raising our families (unless you call jogging behind your stroller quality time with the kid), and de-stressing and rejuvenating oneself after a particularly hard day. To catch-up, we are still working on the previous task or working on the next one before we get to it. No time to recharge our mental batteries. Our social environment is predisposing us to mental health issues: you simply cannot apply unrelenting, increasing pressure to anything, willy-nilly. Given enough pressure, ANYTHING will snap.

So, the government comes to our aid by providing us with mental-health professionals. These are intelligent, well-meaning individuals thrust into a task that is doomed to failure. I say this because the root causes of mental illness today are largely external, as indicated above. The root cause are what need to be addressed, or the symptoms will continue to express. Government needs to provide the political will to create an environment that is conducive to mental health.

As it is now, the environment many folks are living in, pounds away at their mental stamina like Superior’s waves do the shoreline of Batchawana Bay. We are changed, slowly, imperceptibly; eventually we no longer know ourselves. We leave no crumb trail to find our way back to the ‘place’ we once were as children/young adults, where our dreams and hopes still live. The mental health pros try to help us find our way, but the goal posts keep moving and so does the ground beneath our feet -this because of the worsening social, environmental, and geopolitical situation the World, our world, is in.

Even machines breakdown and require repair and maintenance. If machines are properly maintained (this is always thought a good idea, but is the first thing to get jettisoned from the business plan once profits begin to fall), they likely won’t breakdown unexpectedly. When machines aren’t routinely maintained, they are run with the anticipation of breakdown, at some point. It will be replaced when it does. The old broken machine ends up in the Dump. There is always a newer version ready to take over, only to be ‘run into the ground’ in turn.

Humans deserve more consideration than that.

Some get it. The children of wealthier folks are educated to become the next employers, leaders, professionals, politicians. But more and more children in society will not experience the opportunities the children of wealthier parents do. When opportunity is determined by wealth, the basis for social cohesion is compromised. The binary, two-tiered social structure that evolves from the condition of ‘unequal opportunity’ is the beginning of the end of that society. [China, for example, is openly two-tiered: if you follow the party-line; if you never dissent,  if you look the other way and maintain your silence when ‘the party’ does something insidious), then you may get an opportunity to join the upper tier. Else, you risk being sent to a forced labour camp. It is only a matter of time before the Xi regime will collapse into itself. I pray a democratic order will emerge, phoenix-like, from the ashes of the Xi regime. I pray this will happen without bloodshed, or the onset of WW III].

Humans are not machines, hello? but just like machines, if properly maintained, they will last and produce for a good, long time. Folks need downtime, recovery time, time to energize the spirit. Acts of love and nurture, ‘acts of giving’ are spiritually energizing for everyone. Time away from the daily litany of responsibilities, to just be, in a forest, say, is spiritually renewing. But when is there time for it?

The point is, we are working hard at cross-purposes with common sense, spinning our wheels, accomplishing nothing, save for digging ourselves deeper into the snowbank, while trying to climb to the top of a mountain, one that is growing larger all the time.

It is the situation that is making it impossible for us to keep up. We compensate by using our ‘away time’ to catch up on the must-dos, when it is needed for us to recharge. Because we have less opportunity, time-wise to unpack and process our experiences, less time for the energy those experiences have evoked to dissipate, we end up with mental and spiritual breakdowns.

No worries: if you have enough money, you can pay someone else to do all of the running around (a situation your lifestyle is creating for many, many other of your compatriots), while you take the time to rejuvenate on a golf course Wednesday afternoons, sun yourself in the Caymans, take in an opera, show your children all the wonders of the World, and oh yes! give yourself a pat on the back for all of the opportunity you provide your own children, while the children of working-poor parents struggle for ANY OPPORTUNITY AT ALL. The proverbial ‘scraps from the masters table’ aren’t even scraps anymore, but only the opportunity to look for scraps.

Until the ‘puppet masters’ of the World, our world, get with the program and desist from an egoic social vision (profit for us, misery (or virtual happiness) for everyone else), we will need to help ourselves and one another. Here’s what I suggest:

Cultivate the discipline to be in the NOW. When you leave a task behind, allow yourself time to not think, to just ‘be’ as you progress toward the next item on the todo list. Keep your attention on what is around you and upon your feet as they contact the ground under you. Don’t allow your mind to move onto the next task until the task is at hand. Don’t allow your mind to remain with the task or issue you had just completed.

Do this, and your soul will neither feel the drag of the past and its regrets, nor the pull of the future and its anxieties. Your mind will be given rest and fill its sails.

You remove the weight your being consciousness of past or future casts upon your soul.

Do this, and you will open up to the healing, rejuvenating, magic of Now-ness. You will feel happy.

You will become grounded (your starting point) in joy, completeness, and fulfilment, rather than proceeding from a basis of lack, of regret and anxiety.

Accomplish this, and we will live in a World, our world, under the auspices of the Golden Rule. A world that will resemble the Garden we turned away from, many years ago.

Perhaps our Liberals in Ottawa will incorporate the needed changes into their COVID-19 recovery process? So far, I have heard nothing, despite the fact that ‘equality of opportunity’ is a prime tenet of the Liberal Party and of Liberalism.

The Liberals routinely parrot the notion of ‘evidence-based’ policy-making. There is nothing more in evidence than that poverty excludes folks from opportunity. The wealthy among us are incapable to acknowledge this, just as the child cannot acknowledge that the parent is doing them the greatest good by not allowing them treats before supper.

But the wealthy would benefit equally along with the poor, from the ‘parent’ (the government) who acquires the political will TO DO THE RIGHT THING, for this generation, and the ones to follow.

When the ‘rope’ which connects us as Canadians is strained too far for too long, it will break, and the Canadian vision will be forever lost, to wealthy and poor alike.

The Little Pixie – a tale in the tradition of Aesop

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Little Forest Pixie

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Once upon a time, there was a little pixie. The little pixie would wander into the forest every day to gather food and herbs for her family. On her daily walkabout, she encountered many creatures, and she was always friendly with them.

Some of them, however, happened to be mosquitos. They liked the little pixie’s joyful company, but because they were mosquitos, they did what mosquitos do: they landed on the little pixie and bit her, for their  sustenance.

Over time, the little pixie grew weaker and weaker, while the demands upon her time (and blood supply ) grew stronger.

Soon, she grew so weak, she could no longer go into the forest to gather food and herbs for her family.

She fell asleep. She slept for a long, long time.

When she awoke, she felt renewed. She felt energetic (and hungry enough to eat a whole cow). She felt she could take on the World, just like she used to.

She got up. She cooked breakfast for her family out of what was left in her cupboard. Then she went back into the forest for the first time in a long time.

She gathered.

After a while, she realized the mosquitos weren’t biting her as before. They were landing and swarming her as usual, but they no longer drew blood.

She asked them ‘Why do you not feed? Are you not hungry?’

The mosquitos answered: ‘In your absence, we were forced to find other sources to supply our needs. We had come to rely so much on you because you let us take it from you, willingly, without our ever having to struggle for it, or risk being swatted. We realized that the demands we were putting upon you were making you sick.’

‘We lost our food. More importantly, we lost your joyful company. We could find our food elsewhere, but we could never replace your company. That’s when we decided to stop biting you.’

Ever since, Pixies and mosquitos have coexisted in perfect harmony. On occasion, pixies allow their mosquitos to ‘bite,’ only now, they risked getting swatted if they grew bothersome.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY:

It is better to be a pixie who swats, than a mosquito that sucks.[ It is even better to be neither; to simply give and receive without restraint, to look out for one another, and to never take from others that which you can achieve for yourself, with only just a little effort. ?]