Date : Sep 25 '95, 15:48                                                       
From : Frank Gaude
To   : All
Subj : A Bridge

Hello, everybody!

A BRIDGE
Between Our Scientific and Suffering World

We are living in a wonderful period, but I guess many in the past have 
thought that of their time. Our time is characterized by an enormous 
development of science giving us a deep insight into the mysteries of 
the creation about which humanity has likely never known before. 

At the same time, this scientific development of technology has 
enabled us to nearly master nature, often in a way we have never 
experienced before. We can use nature in many ways; but we see that 
such has also created problems. 

One of the aspects of our technology is that all the different peoples 
of the earth have been brought closer together. We know of our 
likenesses and our differences. We can travel so easily and rapidly 
with jet planes; we have telephones, radio, and television, along with 
vast computer networks, that provide us information about what is 
going on in all corners of the globe, just about every minute of the 
day. 

Our times are asking us to come together. We humans have created the 
means for this to happen, this coming. And as this happens we should 
be able to live together in a harmonious way. Such is the possibility 
that has been created, but it is not realized just yet. For 
notwithstanding all this so-called progress we see that there are 
still serious problems, and some of them could appear to be getting 
worse instead of better. There is violence, fighting, there are 
religious wars, there is a great deal of suffering, both physical and 
emotional, in the world of today. Most of you will agree! 

In the most advanced countries like the USA, blessed with abundance of 
just about everything, we find many of us are unhappy. We see that 
many people are somehow dissatisfied with their life notwithstanding 
all the opportunities they have. No matter how much or how little they 
have in the way of material goods, they are unhappy with their lives. 
We have all kinds of problems and difficulties. And it doesn't seem to 
get better as we add creature comforts to our lifestyle either. 

Could it be that humanity, to be fulfilled, has to live not only the 
outer life but also the inner? We need to experience what is within 
us, what we truly are, as well as the external world of materialism! 

The inner life is neither the life of the mind nor of our thoughts and 
feelings, but rather something beyond, and combined with the outer 
brings a balance and a perfection. We seek such without perhaps being 
conscious of our journey. It is a life directed towards perfection! 
Towards an all embracing unity. Some would say it is a life directed 
towards God. 

As we become conscious of our journey, what is the immediate object of 
such? To remove our suffering pain, increase our pleasures? Certainly 
but the prime thing is to establish a relationship with the absolute, 
the universal, making God, so to speak, the object of all 
relationships. We see creator, sustainer, forgiver, judge, friend, 
father, mother, son, daughter, and beloved, in all things, from 
minerals, plants, animals, humans, jinns, and angels. We become so 
conscious of this relationship that it no longer remains an 
imagination. It is our reality. Such is the object! 

How can we achieve our object, our ideal? Many people in our 
scientific age have great difficulty in doing this because they feel 
the usual way of seeing God, that Ideal, is indeed just an imagination 
that has no reality and likely will never have. 

The traditional picture of God as an old man on a throne is not the 
way of scientific thinking, and certainly doesn't fit the scientific 
view of creation. Science has come to the point of seeing the absolute 
in the vacuum, the void of empty space, from which all else arises. 
Now this is progress! What next? 

What is wrong with starting with an imaginary idea about what the 
infinite, our God, is all about, and through work on self, slowing 
make the image the reality, make the contact with that which has 
become our ideal? 

We look around and find just about every person has an ideal, and we 
soon know that each has a somewhat different view of what that ideal 
is. But when we remember that such an ideal is just a stepping stone 
to come closer to the ultimate reality we begin to see the big 
picture. We are all coming home by somewhat different highways and 
byways. Most on this echo have heard this idea of paths expressed in 
similar ways. 

The scientific view of the world is more in harmony with the idea of 
an omnipresent life force or energy, a far more abstract picture than 
what our personal God appears as. 

Can we build a BRIDGE between the scientific or philosophical view of 
reality and the personal God ideal that we need for fulfillment? I 
think we can! 

It has been said that many of us, especially the ones who have read 
and studied many books, have eaten of the Truth but have not digested 
IT. How do we digest? 

Digesting means completely assimilating into ones being. (Some give 
this as the definition of a living thing: that which can take food 
into itself and make that food itself.) Now taking an idea, a directed 
thought, into oneself and living it, that is digestion! The saying, 
"Truth is sweet to the tongue but sours in the stomach", becomes clear 
once digestion is understood. For digestion to occur a little work at 
all levels of BEING must occur. 

Digestion doesn't come about by abstract thought manipulation. A 
thought doesn't manipulate another thought. Such is illusion! So our 
ideal has to be lived for reality to take place. One can jump with a 
leap of faith, real faith, and see that reality is absolute, is our 
ideal. So we become what we think our ideal is. We live our God. One 
says God is love, is truth, is being, then we become all these things. 
We live all these things. Make sense? Yes, it does. 

For the inner life to occur it is important that we develop a living 
relationship so that we have the feeling that we can surrender to God, 
that we can humble ourselves before IT, that we forget our 
limitations, our pre-conditioning. This surrender results in a 
blissful experience the likes of which can never be forgotten, that 
takes control of our lives for the better of the IDEAL. So in living 
our ideal we become that ideal. When our limitations are forgotten we 
gain health, our emotions are quiet, our defense is no defense, we 
compare not, we love all, even our rationalizations disappear. For 
when we see that all are worthy we are seeing through the eyes of 
creation, that purpose for which all came into being, into spirit, 
into mind, into matter (body) and back again. 

We are as a bubble of water in the ocean of the infinite. If we have a 
recognizable personality it makes sense to think that the infinite 
does also. We are a part of the whole! We breathe in that spirit, the 
thing that is the void, the vacuum, and such is the basis of "like 
begets like". We are of the VOID, the absolute. Each intake and each 
exhalation mixes us with the rest of creation. Our atoms move around 
the universe. We are of the whole. 

A drop of water is of the same substance of that the ocean. So! We are 
of the same spirit of which we breathe. Of the void, Void, VOID. So 
spirit is within the substance. We have a wonderful picture of spirit 
as the all pervading only being in we all move, and on the other hand 
we can still see this all-pervading being as a perfect personality, 
with a perfect mind, all-powerful and guiding the whole creation 
including our individual lives. 

The nice thing to consider, and is so important to harmony, is that as 
a drop in the infinite ocean of all we are all related, related to 
each other as we are related to the absolute, to God. Thus we see the 
why of such expressions as: all of life is relationship, a vast web of 
relationship. 

Our relationship with each other and also with God goes beyond 
imagination! It is the only reality as our consciousness rises to the 
ether. But often we have our eyes closed to this. The veils covering 
our souls are simply still too heavy, too dense. Lightness comes as we 
grow up along the evolutionary paths. 

Most of us are caught up in the intoxication of life, the beauty of 
materialism, the external life. Our being is absorbed in materialism 
and thus unbalanced. We know joy and pain, but not bliss! But if we 
open our eyes and observe life, as a silent witness, we find the 
divine guidance, that guidance that wants to know self, coming to us 
in many forms. We can see such in a most subtle way; we can find it in 
our heart, in our intuition. To be able to feel THAT we must be able 
to still our mind; then we can directly hear the voice of God coming 
through ever cell of our beings. 

Is the inner and outer life within our grasp? Yes, through desire, 
through patience and perseverance, through repetition, through breath, 
we find the fulcrum, that sword edge by which perfection is realized. 
This same sword is used to cut away the baggage of pre-conditions, 
that inertia for habits that keeps us in place where we find but joy 
and pain, not bliss! 

Our relationship with each other and also with our ideal, our 
absolute, goes beyond imagination! It is the only reality as our 
individual consciousness rises to the ether, the void, that 
nothingness which is our home. But often we have our eyes closed to 
this. The veils covering our souls are simply still too heavy, too 
dense. Lightness comes as we grow up along the evolutionary paths. 

Life can be divided into two parts: one most of us except as 
substance, and the other, a little shaker, vacuum, emptiness, void. 
All substances, all matter, exist in vacuum. What is that vacuum? 
Science says it is something we cannot observe, cannot touch, cannot 
measure with our instruments, is nothing! But you know that vacuum is 
everything, is all. That which is not substance is spirit. Thus we, in 
an abstract way, see that the absolute, our ideal, is both matter and 
spirit, both substance and vacuum. Together we have the all, infinity! 
Clear enough! 

But now how to tie this abstraction into a personal ideal? How to 
build a bridge between one world and the other? The abstract we know 
is the truth and our ideal that we feel must be also the truth? 
Achieve balance! We seem to need relationships in order to be 
fulfilled, is this not also the truth? Many, many times in postings 
this fulfillment has been related to "going home". 

Let's consider, or maybe recap a little. If the sea is as an absolute 
to a bubble on its surface, and a bubble is water, then the sea is 
also water. (Not easy to compare, relate the infinite to the finite, 
is it? but that is what religion is.) You see the infinite is beyond 
comparisons and concepts, just as zero is. But we try to use words to 
point to the unpointable ("unpointable", I do believe a new word is 
created). What we try to get at is if we are each personalities and we 
are in the body, contained within the all, of the infinite, then the 
infinite must also have a personality. There! Got it! Something that 
cannot be taught but can be caught! 

So if we are each a person, our personal ideal, our God, is also a 
person. Wow! But what kind of person could we be talking about, our 
God? Such is for each of us to determine. Yes, we are free! maybe, 
free at last when the light shows upon us, that bath that washes us 
clean... 

Make your ideal, let it be as true and real as anything in your life. 
Live this ideal and you become your God! Is this too far fetched? Can 
gnosis, peace (bliss) be found in this direction? Is balance possible 
from such living? I think so, what do you think? Now tell us where is 
the bridge? 

Once we have related to the infinite our path becomes clear through 
listening to the quiet voice coming into the common spaces, we know. 
This is gnosis! Once we have caught this wonderful ease, what happens 
then? We, on our path, relate to all as equals, from subatomic 
particle up through human and on over into the realms of jinn and 
angel. 

A part of us is our human body. Science says that body may be the most 
complex single organism in our known universe (if we forget the Gaia 
principle). Consider a large part of us lives in worlds known to the 
inner senses, but whose experiences echo in the physical world, as the 
physical world extends its influence into the worlds unseen. The whole 
universe is written within us, in ways both simple and complex. 

In order to honor, i.e., experience the absolute, either our personal 
God or the abstract one, we have to come alive to the miracle of human 
being, the miracle of this universe, this earth, this setting in which 
we live our present lives. 

We are called to recognize and enact our place and roles with the 
sacred dance of life--the consciousness which animates us, weaves the 
universe together. This is the task for which we are born, the 
ultimate act: to know and love all things. 

From such we experience relationship! 

We are on a collective journey through physical form and 
consciousness, giving birth to the richness of experience which in the 
past has been given names like "enlightenment" or "God-consciousness". 
What name do we put to these states now? Does it matter--it does if it 
facilitates further expansion of consciousness. 

Mystic traditions often seem to imply that enlightenment, full God-
consciousness, bliss, is a static state. Once achieved there is 
nothing more! But is the bliss of a 1000 years ago identical to the 
bliss of today? Is enlightenment static or dynamic, subject to the 
same evolutionary forces witnessed in the physical world? Is 
consciousness a static field through which we roam, or is it too in 
evolutionary process? Are consciousness and Divinity two words for one 
reality? 

For most of us, everyday life is a journey through the projected 
imagery of consciousness, images from the unseen taking form in the 
physical world, every moment a message from the Divine, our absolute, 
written in the tangible symbols of human and other nature. 

We get close to understanding the expression "as above, so below" when 
the experience of evolutionary forces comes into our earthly being. 
Certainly as spirit is under a certain set of laws coming from 
absolute will so mind and matter is also. 

Can we be conscious of the God within? Yes, and is this consciousness, 
this awareness of our God, an aspect of our Triune Being? 

You know our primary FOCUS is so filtered by ego (self) considerations 
that we are not seeing very much at all. And to think, we think we see 
it all all the time. 

Ego-consciousness, ego-awareness, but just what is ego? The dictionary 
gives a few definitions of "ego", "id", "psyche", and even "superego". 

As we have moved along with our lives, from our first willful self-
healing at age 18 years, we have understood ego to be in two 
categories, false and Real. (From the way the leading letter of "real" 
is capitalized you know whence I come. Lower-case nouns are of this 
earth, in our convention, capped leading letters are of heaven, i.e., 
transcendental, and words of all caps are absolute.) 

The ego is that part of us which is self aware and which is intensely 
aware of being separate from all other being.   

Furthermore, the ego is aware of both eternity and mortality, 
struggling to attain the first and deny the second. The primary wish 
of the ego is to become a god/dess, at any cost. 

The ego is more concerned with looking good than being good. Instead 
of Freud's Id, let us say that a part of us is dominated by our 
mammalian, animal heritage, that there's a bit of the animal in all of 
us. 

The instincts (in our low selves, our subconscious) of survival, 
dominance and as a result, procreation, still live within us. The 
hungry ego lets out as much of the animal as possible, while still 
settling for looking good. Instead of superego, let us consider the 
presence of soul. The pure livingness which precedes incarnation and 
enlivens matter into human being, and which sustains conscious life in 
matter. And further, let us consider the soul ally, the Witness, that 
aspect which sees the truth of things free of the limitations of ego, 
but free of religious and other forms of social programming--pure 
seeing, the eyes and heart of eternity. Now that is where we start to 
get the benefits of fringe vision, where much of our experience of the 
extraordinary is taken in peripherally, flickers of light surrounding 
our primary FOCUS. 

Though harsh things may be said about the ego, the ego is necessary to 
an ordered life and the choosing of responsibilities in this 
time/space continuum. Perhaps the greatest reality of human society is 
as a stable birthing place for further receptacles of divine 
consciousness, i.e., more human beings. Mystical training is not 
unlike dog obedience school (some of us think of our subconscious, low 
self, the child within, as a young barking dog). The grosser instincts 
and impulses, are tamed, so the dog becomes a useful and reliable 
companion. 

In mysticism, the ego is purified of grosser aspects, so it becomes as 
companion in service to the soul, our spirit that created our bodies 
and all its relationships. 

The ego as it goes from denseness to refinement could be looked upon 
as a progression of opacity to translucence, rays of light bundles 
getting finer and finer. 

The ego is not annihilated, instead it is rendered sheer, and thus the 
light of the soul may shine through, illuminating the experiences of 
life and illuminating the one who is experiencing. Hence we see as the 
ego is made invisible the "veils" lift, permitting the soul to fly 
free, fly home! 

All belief systems, religious, mystical, social, or other, are 
premises--until they have been proven, at least to the individual's 
satisfaction, by direct experience. The knowledge of another cannot be 
conferred, bestowed upon us by their description, no matter how well 
said. But there is a half-way point between belief and rejection and 
that is the "working premise". By this is meant that certain things 
can be accepted as worthy of deep examination, concerted effort to 
find their true worth. When we are shown the way we are on our way! 

These things I write, though I hope you find value here, please do not 
believe them, only consider them. 

As we look at the people of our planet we find the desire, the drive 
towards equality. But instead of rising upward toward the level of the 
best, most want to go downward and join the level of the worst. 

When we hear the word "equality" it seems a beautiful thing; it sounds 
nice, it seems a religious, philosophical notion. But what is life if 
it is not a symphony? And is not every person a note in this symphony? 
Now suppose that all the notes were the same, could there be music? So 
maybe the notion of equality could be thought of a little differently 
than at present. 

If all notes are the same there is no symphony! Equality should be 
viewed as rising to the best, hitting the highest note! And everyone 
can rise to that highest note, that pitch that is bliss. But since 
humanity takes the way of the least resistance, it falls to the level 
of the average person. 

The wise ones of all ages thought that God manifested in the form of 
humanity, from an individual to a person, developed as a soul, and 
that herein lies the fulfillment of life's purpose. You have heard 
tell that God is getting to know Self through creatures, through us, 
we being higher than the angels. Thus the main theme of "education" is 
for us to come to this understanding, to become one with our maker: 
i.e., do the Will of High Self, "as nudges come from on High", as the 
likes of me are wont to say. 

From individual to person, yes. We are born as individuals but we 
become persons with each a personality. And this personality is more 
important than all the diamonds, gold, and computers money can buy. 
Why? For in developing a personality we get to know who and what we 
are, whence we come and go. A rounded, gentle personality is more 
precious than pearls and rubies, for such permits the symphony to 
flourish, hitting many high notes. 

Humanity can be viewed as both the machine and the engineer. Such is a 
secret of life. When humanity's machine part covers the spark which 
maybe called the engineer, we are subjected to all the outer 
influences such as cold, heat, wind, storm. But the spark, the 
engineer can get control of the machine. 

It's easy to see that one condition is slavery and the other mastery. 
The machine (instincts, low self, subconscious, nafs) is placed by 
nature, but the engineer (middle self, conscious mind, manager) is 
brought about through development of personality. 

Now you may ask how to develop the art, it is close to being a 
science, of personality? Well, in the same way you learn the art of 
painting or drawing or graphic design. First you learn how to draw a 
straight line, a vertical line, a circle, a curve. In the same way, 
learning the art of personality, you learn how to say a thing and how 
not to say a thing, how to avoid saying a thing, and how to say a 
thing without saying it. Then you learn the art of light and shade. 
This art of light and shade is knowing how to hide a certain part in 
conversation and how to bring another part to prominence. Than there 
is the coloring. There is a great variety of colors. Every feeling, 
every thought, every notion has its particular color, and when you 
know how many of these colors there are, and when you compose with 
them all you say and do in life, then this becomes an art: the art of 
personality. 

All the material things of life are as nothing compared to development 
of the personality, for this is the lineage of our soul and its 
evolution. It is easy to see this development and experience it: 

First you become thoughtful, and so you begin to observe your thoughts 
and really see your actions. Thus the ancient axiom, "Observe 
Thyself". 

Next comes not only observing your thoughts and actions but also  
controlling them! 

Then there is a spontaneous outflow of sympathy from you (ask Jay Em 
about this, this welling up of emotions and compassion). And such 
happens in a natural manner, outgoing, wanting to help and share both 
pain and joy. Your personality attracts people and becomes a blessing. 
And you know that love is the power of attraction (just like gravity), 
and blessing is a passing out of love. So we see how things come 
together, birds of a feather flock together, such is "community" and 
"communion". All creatures, all creation flock together at times and 
places. Have you noticed? Thus the other ancient axiom: "Remember 
Thyself!" 

At last you find that no effort is made by you, the artist, you with 
the refined personality, to "realize". You become your art! And 
whatever you do is like a beautiful picture! You are creation 
fulfilling Will of Absolute. 

Some of you might find interest in comparing the four stages of 
personality development given here with the five and seven levels of 
"nafs" given in other posts. You see, one thing is of another, nothing 
separate. Nafs (singular) is the intelligence, the mind, that is the 
authority over your physical body. 

We humans are so placed we cannot live without being harmful. Got your 
attention? In Persian it is said: "Bandagi becharagi", i.e, bondage is 
helplessness. Humanity cannot help being harmful, and without being 
such we are helpless. 

You know, it is this dependence, this helplessness, that makes us the 
servants of God. The Qur'an speaks of "abd' Allah" as servant of God. 
Such is the highest title you can give to a human being. (The son of 
Baha'u'allah, founder of Baha'i Faith, is named Abdu'l-Baha, slave of 
God. It's easy to guess what Abdullah means in English.) 

Harmlessness is a good moral, but the difficulty is we cannot be good 
to one without being harmful to another. The moral is rather to be 
less harmful to the person than to the animal. Such moral is certainly 
likely to not set too well with many of us. 

For instance, we are good to our cat and give it the meat of a lamb to 
eat, thus we are harmful to the lamb by killing it for food. We feed 
vegetables for the sake of being good to the lamb so that it might 
live and grow to become food. We harm the mineral when for the sake of 
some flowers we put clay in water, bend and knead it, and then put 
into the kilm, to make a vase to hold the flowers. And how many things 
do we make out of iron and steel and plastic to make ourselves 
comfortable? And out of wood? The lives of how many trees and animals 
do we sacrifice in order to feed ourselves and make us happy, 
comfortable, and full? As to ourselves, how much do we sacrifice for 
the benefit, the comfort, of our fellow beings, as opposed to for our 
own benefit? Most of us don't ponder much these things. 

You have heard tell: Much of what we gain is at the expense of 
another. Such is the way of competition. 

And think, many of our shoes are made from animal skins, and we use 
their bones to fashion all kinds of objects of art. 

The flesh of animals we use for our food. Fishes, which never dreamed 
of harming us, we catch in nets and with hooks. We ride horses for 
pleasure and take milk from cows, make butter and other dairy 
products, upon which many people's livelihood depends. The whole food 
chain is visible to us when we think about it. 

All this shows what we have built up and with what we comfort 
ourselves: tyranny! Violence! Most of us don't stop to even think of 
what we humans have done to the planet, to its very being, and 
continue to do. 

The Kahunas of old, coming from the Pacific by way of India, Egypt, 
and Atlantis, had a simple philosophy: Harm not the fellows! No harm, 
no sin! Such is the essence of all religions. 

It comes down to where we each wish to draw the line: who and what are 
defined as "the fellows"? Many of us cut the line at the middle of 
organic life. We harm (eat) nuts, grains, fruits, vegetables, and use 
them as our food to survive physically. Others take another tack and 
eat (harm) any and all things. But neither way is right nor wrong. 
There can be no dogma here. The need of each person is according to 
his health. Some may need meat as medicine, others need only 
vegetables and grains. 

To be at one with the universe is to see the absolute, the infinite, 
in all. Such a one doesn't take sides, as all are worthy in the eyes 
of Divine Presence, else there would be no existence. Rain falls on 
both the so-called good and bad, equally. 

Our thoughts can always be in tune with "harmlessness". We can think 
and act to always minimize the harm we do to our fellows and to our 
planet. Such is the way of gentleness and it multiplies. Like begets 
like! This is an aspect of Law of Creation. As we kill others for any 
reason the reaction will be more killing. The ancient philosopher, 
Pythagoras (6th century BCE), understood this so well: "As long as man 
continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will 
never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they 
will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain 
cannot reap joy and love." Yes, much less bliss! 

As a person moves towards the universal the less harm he does to the 
creation. Such seems a law... 

Every person's pursuit is according to his state of evolution, and 
thus each soul is in pursuit of something. Does a person know where it 
leads? The first sign of knowing truth, the realization of truth (not 
facts of science), gnosis, is tolerance towards others, even the so-
called evil ones, like the Hitlers of this world. First truth, then 
tolerance, then wisdom, and from such we will find justice, but not 
before. Remember the golden progression, seven in number: truth, 
tolerance, wisdom, justice, faith, unity, love? Sure you do! 

Many feel that self-defense is justified and leads to peace. How much 
do we each know about what caused the necessity for defense in the 
first place. When each of us are at peace, have found our way, and our 
cities and nations are made up of we peaceful people, there will be no 
more war. What an ideal! 

It seems silly, but the road to peace starts within each of us. 
Defensive killing only appears to stop war, aggression. All of history 
shows that violence leads to violence. Can we find ways to stop the 
killing without killing? I think we can, if enough of us wish it. 

We human beings need but find our paths, for there is but one family 
in the parenthood of the absolute, our God. 

Yes, God is manifest, is immanent, is transcendent! 

What is it we want? We just about have control over nature, we have so 
much creature comfort, so many things of beauty man and machine made, 
our homes, furniture, cars, TVs, computers, toys of every description. 
We would have to go back to the times of Atlantis to find similar 
technology. Yet we are still not happy. Why not? 

Most everyone agrees that the world isn't exactly perfect, the way we 
want it! We see need just about anywhere we look, but can we ask: Is 
the need any different now from what it has been in the past? In outer 
terms our lives cannot be compared with peoples of the last 5000 
years. Yet if we look beneath the surface, to the inner reality, we 
find the same thing: people searching for happiness, fulfillment, 
peace. Such has not changed over the vast span of years. 

An example comes to mind from 12th century China, a poem by the poet 
Yang Wan-Li: 

"Already a year has gone by
 since I became governor of Ching-ch'i.
 I can't complain about my office and residence,
 but for some reason I've rarely been happy 
    here.
 If my servants aren't sick,
 my children are crying.
 We were once poor and didn't have enough to 
    eat,
 but it isn't hunger that's bothering me now.

"Early in the morning I put a book in my sleeve
 and climb to the pavilion to so some reading.
 The moon and stars are still shinning;
 there is dew on the ground,
 no shutters keep out the wind.
    Suddenly I feel my old, sick body
    can't bear clothing any more.
    How did I ever get through the recent 
       heat?
    The cold is what I really like!
    White birds look like butterflies in the 
       distance;
    a cicada hums what sounds like a poem.
    The pine trees turn my spirit to snow;
    I breathe in the icy fragrance of lotus.
    In an instant sadness and happiness 
       have disappeared
    and I feel as if I've left my body.

"The children don't realize what's happening; 
 they call me down to eat breakfast." 

Here Yang Wan-Li speaks for many of us: "For some reason, I've rarely 
been happy here." Why is that? What is it we want? 

What is it we want? It has been said that there are five basic 
appetites in human beings: life, power, knowledge, joy and peace. We 
have so many capacities, and because of our identification with them, 
we long to fill. The way most of us have tried to fill these appetites 
have left us empty, not filled! 

Let's take them one at a time. Our desire to live is filled by eating, 
drinking, and developing protection from all dangers and discomforts 
of our environment. But it seems to be never enough, for in the end we 
think we cannot escape the ultimate danger, death. 

We try to acquire power by gaining strength and influence and status. 
Here too we encounter disappointment, because no matter what we do, 
whatever we have gathered in the world around us, sooner or later gets 
dispersed. Such lesson is recognized in history but we rarely think to 
apply it to ourselves. You know deep down we know this. Countries have 
come and gone, kings and queens have too. 

Now knowledge, philosophy, the desire promotes study; but even all the 
books in the world would still not answer the question, "Why?". Nature 
is so profound that our limited life is not long enough to probe its 
depths. No one reaches true satisfaction by the outer study of life. 
Is this not true? 

Longing for happiness? This we try to satisfy with pleasure, pleasures 
of much variety; but few of us recognize that such doesn't make up for 
that happiness after which our soul really seeks. If one doesn't think 
in such terms then please state what it is within you that has this 
longing with which we so easily identify. Whence longing? Can you 
label it? 

And what about longing for peace? Well, we try to "get away from it 
all", leaving behind the influences we find so disturbing. That's our 
vacations! But do we find much peace? Even going to the High Sierras 
or the Himalayas doesn't seem to do much good as far as bringing us to 
peace. Are we ready for peace? Truly? At the nation-level wars are 
fought to bring about peace, but there is no peace. Could these wars 
simply be a reflection of lack of individual inner peace? 

Let it be said that none of these five basic appetites can be 
satisfied for long by any outer search. When we try to do so it is 
like giving a rattle to a hungry baby. The baby might be distracted 
for a moment if we are lucky, but the hunger persists. The hunger 
persists... our longing persists! 

Will our search be altered from what it has been? Will we come to a 
satisfactory conclusion, one with which we as individuals can live, 
really live? Stay tuned... 

You know, the only real satisfaction to our five basic desires, 
appetites, is in spiritual attainment. Believe it or not! 

Really, the desire to live can only be satisfied when the thing we 
call soul, many may call it something else but it is the thing that is 
doing the longing, realizes its eternal life. From the spirit's point 
of view, mortality is the lack of the soul's understanding of its own 
self. When the soul begins to feel itself, to find its own life 
independent of the physical garment, with its layer upon layer of 
veil, of the body, then it begins to have confidence in life and is no 
longer afraid of what is normally called death. When that happens we 
no longer call death "death", but simply a "change". You do have a 
name for whatever it is that produces the longing we talk about? Come 
on, call it "soul". 

In much the same way, when we consider the desire for power from 
spirit's view, we find that true power is not in trying to gain power, 
but in becoming power. Now just how is this to be done? Simply by 
letting go that which limits us, the element within us we call the 
false ego. When the false is crucified the real or true is 
resurrected. Before the world this may appear to be lack of power, but 
in truth all power is attained by this resurrection, this rebirth. 

As to knowledge, turning inward we find that it was not names, dates, 
places, events, tables, forms and formulas for which we hungered, but 
wisdom. And we only find true wisdom by diving deep into the sea of 
certainty (intuition) within our own hearts. Our hearts, not speaking 
literally, are the seats of light, truth and love. 

Much the same goes for happiness. Such is discovered, not 
accomplished, as it is in our very nature. What keeps happiness out of 
our lives is the closing of the doors of our hearts, and when those 
doors are shut, our hearts don't live in light and they is no 
happiness in the darkness therein. 

Peace is not made from our surroundings, from the environment, for it 
comes from within. Surprise! It is discovered by knowing self. 
Furthermore, the one who is so firm within self that no outside 
influence can disturb is the embodiment of peace itself. Such is the 
one who knows and recognizes self for what it is, a temple. 

Thus we see our longings are satisfied by spiritual attainment. Now 
just what is that, and how can it be found? 

Attainment of the spirit is not seen in the ability to work wonders or 
to command the attention of crowds of people, big followings: It is 
seen in the heart which has been purified of selfishness and 
bitterness. And who or what is the enemy to such attainment? It is not 
some outside devil roaming the earth; it is our own egos right inside 
us. Remove our false egos leaving our real ones to be born and we 
become what we are destined to be: a shrine, temple for our creator, 
our Mother/Father, the Divine Presence. If you don't wish to think in 
deity, maker terms, think your ideal, the goal you move towards. 

Think, imagine, what is the remedy for the ills of the world? If you 
realize that this ideal of yours, this Divine Presence, is not only 
within you but in all things manifest, we suddenly see the universe, 
our planet, its plants, animals and peoples in a far more loving 
light. Our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, all our 
relatives, friends and associates, strangers, even our most hated 
enemies, all contain this ideal. 

Again, imagine, everything and everyone you chance to meet, you can 
say to yourself, "Therein is my ideal, if I can but find it, harmonize 
with it." Such Divine Presence is in you and in all things, whether we 
and they are aware of it or not. What a lovely thought. If we find it 
in ourselves, others will too, following our example. One Eternal 
Parent from which we all come, everything comes! 

Can we, at every encounter with anything and everyone we meet, have 
the conviction that all is worthy of kindness and respect because of 
the ideal, that light, within the mineral, the plant, the animal, and 
the human? Imagine how the world would begin to change if we could. It 
starts with each of us. Just imagine! 

Love, harmony, beauty, let the message cover us all, 

tanzen


 * PowerEdit 2.3 * O Lord! From earth-born passions, set us free.

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 * Origin: HighSierra Online * Lake Tahoe CA 916/577-4438 (1:203/8888)