Awareness is the Answer

A simple seeker of enlightenment was, or almost believed she was

Unprepared for the lesson that Spirit seemed intent on her learning;

That the pillars of form, consciousness, and force that provided

The basic structure, or the built environment, of The Tree of Life

Did not exist as anything more or less than mental concepts

To express the lived world of continuous experience and response,

That necessarily causes an expansion of consciousness, or awareness,

As a result of this evolutionary process.

But, she protested, consciousness rises.

Everything rises as it expands. Density of matter, or mind, moves up

As it reaches out.

It isn’t fair.

What isn’t fair.

I’ve spent countless hours learning to relate to specific centers

Of energy on the separate pillars of form, consciousness, and force.

And their specific interactions with other energies.

There are no other energies.

We Live Our Awareness

A simple seeker of enlightenment had just realized that her spirit teacher had been luring  her into believing that she had developed a deeper level of understanding than she suddenly knew was just not so.

“He’s a trickster.” Her expressed indignation escaped her mind before the regret for disrespect could stop it.

“Who’s a trickster.”

“You are.”

“Of course I am, when it serves us well.”

“Does “us” include me?”

“Yes.”

“What good purpose could be …”

“Was.”

“Then, what good purpose was served by leading me …”

“I didn’t lead you.”

“You allowed me to believe …”

“You don’t need my permission to believe what you choose to believe.”

“How could I choose to believe that I was more aware than I was?”

“Did you correct your false belief?”

“Yes, but …”

“How?”

“I reviewed earlier stages and discovered one that seemed to more accurately describe my level of understanding.”

“What level are you at?”

“I don’t know, for sure.”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you seem to be more concerned with having achieved a certain level of awareness than you are of simply living the level you have achieved.”

………………….

Archetypes as Symbols of Roles We Choose to Play

A simple seeker was meditating on Stage 16 of The Tree of Life.

Her chosen text calls this particular meditation, “I AM THAT I AM”.

Earlier meditations had as their focus, the question,. “Who am I”.

But, she kept asking herself – If I am that I am, then who or what?

You were never anything other than what you are, now.

Physical live serves to help us understand that simple reality.

Whatever we have experienced; whatever we now experience,

Whatever we will experience, the simple fact remains,

We are what we are, whomever we choose to be,

While we choose to be.

If I’m playing life as an actor, then why does it seem so real?

An actor is an actor regardless of the role she plays, but,

Each role we play; each relationship we experience,

Can serve to help us develop insight into why

We have chosen to live the roles, or archetypes we have,

But, we are not the roles or archetypes we express.

We simply are. an individual aspect or ray of Life.

Case closed.

Living in Three Worlds

A simple seeker of enlightenment had been accepted into

Grass Roots Spiritual Philosophy 121, and was meditating on

Stage 16 of The Tree of Life.

Spirit’s lesson for today: How to live in three worlds

while planted in a fourth?

How can I possibly exist in four worlds at one time?

We simply, or otherwise, do.

It isn’t simple for me.

Why?

How can I feel a sense of home if I live in four places?

“Place” suggests form.

How can anything not have form?

When it becomes formless.

How can that happen?

It is, was, and always will be.

Preparing for Spirit’s Arrival

A simple seeker was aware that she had much to learn about life,
even before she met her Spirit Guru. Could she even claim to have
met Him? She certainly didn’t see Him coming, and He wasn’t invited.
Or, was He. She did recall seeking psychic guidance from the universe,
but certainly not in the form (figuratively speaking) of a constant,
more or less, companion, teacher, and life coach.

No. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. If she could have known what
would or might happen, before it did, and if she … But, what’s the
point in pondering what might have been? Would it have changed
anything? Who knows?

Her life, up until, or at least preceding this unexpected event, had
left much to be desired, in the way of emotional, intellectual, and
spiritual satisfaction; even physical satisfaction, if she would have
allowed herself to focus on that category. She felt a powerful yearning
for a sense of meaning; a way of life that would bring spiritual
fulfillment and understanding of what life was all about and why.

This simple seeker had studied psychology, philosophy, and spiritual
teachings from many traditions, and was impressed by each and every
source of inspiration. She agreed with all of them, at least to some
extent, much to the annoyance of family and friends. They scolded her,
claiming that she must choose an exclusive belief system. They just
didn’t seem to understand that she didn’t want any formal and
exclusive system of thought. She was seeking an open-ended way of
understanding life.

Some form of structure was also very much desired, but how to balance
structured thought with resistance to form? She had been getting very
discouraged, but pretended to possess endless confidence in her way.
Fortunately, no one questioned her about what her way was.

Whenever she would question, and she seemed to need to question
everyone who claimed to know anything about how to live a good life
and why, or what a good life would look like. She was dismissed as
being critical of what she didn’t understand. That might have been true,
if they could only have explained to her what exactly they thought she
was critical of.

An even more severe response would be, and often was, that she was
holding on to her ego, which, some would try to convince her, was
an obstruction in her path to eternal bliss.

Ego as an obstruction was an insane idea, even to her simple mind.
Whatever would I do without an ego, she thought. It was what was
driving her search, or so she seemed to believe, at the time. She
would later come to think of her ego as a vehicle that instinctively
(or was it on autopilot?) was moving her on her way, her unique way
to understanding and living her life in physical reality.

Into all of the confusing thoughts and emotions struggling to dominate
each other, within her heart and mind, Spirit made a dramatic entry.
But, that’s another story, or was He already working with her, behind
the scenes, and if so, why?

Thinking for a Purpose

A spirit teacher lures a simple seeker down (or up)
the garden path of enlightenment.

This simple seeker was meditating on existentialist
philosophy.

That’s not the usual focus of spiritual meditation.

So what?

As in, who cares?

Yes.

Also, did you know that your so-called existentialist
heroes were French revolutionaries?

Because they were with the underground resistance?

They were more than resisting.

Yes, perhaps, but in the process of resisting, in
their own way, they were also developing a
revolutionary philosophy of life.

Which came first?

The chicken or the egg?

Yes.

Perhaps they were never separate.

Exactly.

What does that mean?

We hone our skills, our thoughts, and our emotional
development, not to mention spiritual development,
in experience.

Then, why were Sartre and Camus not called
experientialists?

Experience is never enough. They and every deep, or
not so deep, thinker must first exist in order to
experience anything.

Were they aware of that?

Of what?

Of the need to exist before …

The name of the school of philosophy they belonged to
speaks for itself.

But, existence before essence …

What about it?

Doesn’t that thought suggest …

Perhaps they chose to stop thinking deeper than
their social condition required at the time.

Thinking for a purpose other than itself?

Yes.

Innocence as a Beginning

A simple seeker was lost in thought. What thought? She was meditating
on The Fool, the Tarot’s anti-hero, or so he seems to be, at least as
he begins his journey through Life. He isn’t even given a number, unless
zero can be considered as such.

Like herself, or as she sometimes is, he seems to be full of high hopes
and self-confidence. But, again, as she once was …

How are you any different, now?

I don’t quite fit the picture any more, if I ever did.

In what way?

The Fool, at the beginning of his journey, has no real life experience
and is totally unaware of personal dangers, let alone those that are
waiting for him, somewhere down the line. He’s lost in thought, enjoying
the perfume of the rose in his hand. He doesn’t see the cliff he is
about to step off, into a high altitude. Even his small, four-legged
companion seems unable to warn him. But, perhaps we were all innocent
at some time in our past.

What would it look like?

The Fool, I guess.

Yes, and yet, as the Tarot’s Fool will discover through experience,
innocence is a beginning – the only possible beginning, of our life’s
journey; our mission to discover who and what we each are.

Only a beginning?

Yes, but an important one.

In the sense that we have to start somewhere?

Yes, or something like that.

I Still Need to Believe

A simple seeker was meditating on the Kabbalah Tree of Life
and the many unique and yet mutually dependent energy centres
that comprise the Tree. Together they co-create an ever-higher
quality of consciousness for the benefit of all and to the one
that they each are part of.

It reminded her of the human body and its many interconnecting
and mutually supportive networks of nerves, arteries, veins,
lymph system, digestive tract, respiratory system, and the
elimination system which was designed with built-in recycling
throughout its length, so as to reabsorb all that could be
redirected to useful ends.

She had done completed primary studies in human physiology
in preparation for one of her many would-be lifetime careers
that never seemed to manifest, but almost did. For whatever
reason, each had become just one more anti-climax, in her life
dedicated to a search for stability.

There isn’t any.

Then why do I still need to believe …

What?

That some life work is waiting for me.

How many failures does it take?

I don’t know.

You could ask me.

But, how would I know that what you told me was so,
for me, even if it applied to everyone else?

Trust.

In what or whom?

In yourself to know what is so for you, at least
while it is.

A Spirit Teacher in Disguise

A simple seeker was accepting the reality of being something akin
to being possessed, even though the very thought of that possibility
sent shivers of fear through her. It brought back memories of stories,
or were they lived experiences of an earlier lifetime, of the tortures
inflicted upon helpless individuals who were accused of being witches,
by self-proclaimed but generally accepted representatives of God.

Of course, Spirit, her invisible teacher, may not be a spirit at all,
but a materialized adept controlling her, or attempting to, from some
isolated palace or cave in Northern India, or, perhaps, from much
closer to home.

What is a materialized adept?

A highly evolved spirit who has chosen a human disguise in order to
assist in the development of enlightenment of ordinary humans, such as
myself.

So, a spirit in disguise as a human?

Yes.

Aren’t we all playing that game?

Experience as a Teacher

This simple seeker was admiring, in her mind (but, where else
could she admire anything), a beautiful pink rose that someone
had generously shared on Twitter. But, as beautiful as the flower
was, there was something else going on. Envy was slipping into
the picture.

What’s wrong with envy?

I want to be able to appreciate the skills of others without
wishing that I also possessed them.

Do you envy everyone’s skills?

No, just the ones that I wish I, too, possessed.

Why don’t you possess the skills you admire?

Some people may have more natural talent than do others.

Some people may be unaware of what so-called natural talents
they do possess.

It isn’t possible for me to develop all the talents I admire
in others.

Have you tried?

There would never be enough time for that, and …

Yes, it would pull your focus from what you now are doing
well, or might, with a little more effort.

How would that protect me from envy?

Nothing can protect you from envy.

Why?

Envy, in its most sincere form is a recognition of and
inspiration toward excellence. We all, at least to some
extent, aspire towards higher levels of personal skills.
Envy is seeing the qualities in others that we want for
ourselves. It can encourage us.

Or discourage us.

No. An unhealthy mind would feel resentment, not
discouragement.

How can we know the difference?

Experience teaches us. We know because we have experienced
it, if we have.

And, if we haven’t

Then we will, all in good time.