Bev's Journey Continues…

Those of us who have explored spiritual paths in search of our true Self, often find it confusing.  It seems there is always something we have to do like meditate,  recognize our ‘false’ selves, forgive, stay in the present moment and generally unravel the mess we’ve made of our Selves.  What we’ve made is interfering with our journey down the yellow brick road.  It does beg the question: What is it all about?

It all sounds like very serious business.  Some proclaim if we don’t get it right according to them, we burn up, over and over.  Others believe we recycle until we get it right.  Then there are those who say this is just a hologram and we exist simultaneously  in multiple dimensional universes which is probably where the term multiple personalities originated.

I personally like the model that we created this 3 dimensional world of form amidst a larger energetic field that has very cleverly captivated our attention.  We have chosen to occupy this form in a seemingly solid universe of time and space.  Therefore, since the nature of form is to appear separate,  we have become “I”.  This “I” then makes decisions and judgments based on the well being of this form that is essential to it’s survival.  That’s just the beginning.  This form then morphs into many expressions carved from experience and proceeds to declare, ‘this is who I am’ and ‘I have a name’.   I might add, ‘at any one moment’,  since every frame of our emotional, mental and physical perception is instantly recorded on the celluloid of our mind.  These images soon become distorted like raindrops on the window.

So, here I sit on a rainy day, wondering where is the “I”  from years ago this summer, and light years from infancy to all the lives and identities I’ve worn since agreeing to produce this movie.  It’s like watching a dozen sitcoms at once on an ancient TV with very bad reception.  It does tend to have the effect of not taking myself too seriously.  Who am I?  Who cares?

What seems real to me is being fully  accepting of any manifestation of my particular form or any other form, imagined or present, with open arms and an open heart.  “Identity” becomes unnecessary when just ‘being’.  Time, space, form, separation and fear, the glue that holds all this together, no longer has meaning.  We experience these moments in those times when we are absorbed in something we love like art, music, gardening, even cooking our favorite dish.  No expectations.  Just being.  It is so ‘natural’ that we are not often aware our love of it comes from the freedom from thought it gives us.  These are mini vacations from the reruns in our mind.  So this incredible opportunity to peek behind the curtain of our play is actually effortlessly.

All in all, it is very simple to transform a world of fear and separation to one of love and gratitude.  It’s called creative decision making. We do have a choice. A Course in Miracles says we choose Love or Fear and manifest the results of that choice.  Phrases like ‘Being in the present moment”, “Forgiveness is the key to happiness” and “Love is the answer”, are used to point us to the realization that we are not who we think we are!  At some point, we have to laugh at the characters we’ve invented and used to create our world.  I find myself chuckling a lot.  Choosing Love brings a sense of freedom from our self imposed bondage of fear  creating the natural condition for laughter.

As we bask in loving gratitude in this present moment, the mists of our past identities dissolve into the tides taking us to the shores of our Self.  Home at last…and yet we never left.  Now that’s funny!

Our first experiences as infants teach us how to traverse this world we  inhabit.  The person who feeds us eventually returns to feed us again.  We learn to cry if it isn’t timely, often bringing desired results.  The same is true with all subsequent learning.  So our initial experiences establish our belief about how things work for us in this physical world.  Gradually we then become intrigued by the subjective world or the world we cannot see and it teases our imagination.  Some children even have ‘imaginary’ playmates or see ‘angels’.

We observe how animals seem to know instinctively what behaviors are necessary for survival. Documentaries on animals and their behavior from March of the Penguins, swimming with dolphins, living with bears, The Migration of Birds, are just a few that have given us a rare insight into animal culture and instincts.  For instance, young birds know when it’s time to leave the nest, unlike other species I could mention!

In his book, The Universe in a Single Atom,  His Holiness The Dalai Lama, explores the convergence of science and spirituality. Quote: “Given the highly subjective nature of our experience of consciousness, is an objective third person scientific understanding of consciousness possible?” It’s amazing how someone trained in an ancient spiritual system from a very early age, has had a life long passion for the mechanics of how things work in the physical world.   This  has led him to meet with  the world’s most renowned neuro-scientists and physicists who have mentored him in learning more about the brain and quantum physics.

This book also compares  the varying disparate findings of science with the same subtle variations existing in the philosophy of his religious traditions. Of course, I didn’t really understand all that was written and it left my head spinning.  However,  the fact that this revered spiritual leader is pursuing the possibilities that these two systems could, at some point in time, converge, got my attention.  Death is where this convergence becomes most obvious.   A Course in Miracles states: “There is no point at which the contrast between the perception of the real world and the world of illusions becomes more sharply evident.”

Often belief, which is an abstract concept,  is used as an attempt to freeze in time observations of our physical and non-physical universes into comfortable, safe, and predictable packages.  Beliefs can take on a life of their own becoming doctrine and dogma, a convenient tool for those who would use it as a source of power over others.  So it is refreshing to know The Dalai Lama likes to open the packages of belief and discover something new.

We can believe in flying saucers and aliens, things that go ‘bump’ in the night,  winning the lottery, any number of religious theories or that we’re the top of the food chain.  However, belief doesn’t necessarily make it ‘true’, whatever that is.  You see how confusing it is to figure out what is real from any point of view.  As one who learns through experience,  I  like to play with my subjective and objective realities which seem to always be in flux.  Often we are motivated to learn because of desire or need, whether it’s how to grow food, cure cancer or get to Heaven.  I personally want to know where Ulf is residing.  I’d like to ‘believe’ his loving energy is with me at this moment.

The Course says, “The world is nothing in itself. Your mind must give it meaning.  There is no world apart from what you wish…. Change but your mind on what you want to see and all the world changes accordingly. Ideas leave not their source.”  So what is in our mind except the past and future?  Maybe it’s suggesting we change our perception by emptying our mind and welcoming life in the present moment.  The Course, along with other systems of thought, guides us to do just that.  For now, I’ll accept that ‘belief’ as a way toward an expansion and creative experience.  After all, most creative tasks emerge from that state of just being in the present moment.  Maybe that’s what is happening ‘now’ as I write!