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.”

………………….

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?

Moods of Doubt

A simple seeker had slipped into one of her periodic
moods of doubt regarding her spirit teacher. Did He
even exist beyond her mind? But, what can exist
beyond one’s mind? And yet, He voiceless thoughts
came to her. But, how?

Perhaps if she had something to eat, or did a load
of laundry. Simple activities seemed to help her
focus, or protect her from seeming to need to know
what seemed beyond her possible potential to know.

And, yet, the challenge to understand how she could
hear seemingly voiceless thoughts, other than her
own, gave her no peace of mind.

There has to be a way that thoughts can …

E.S.P.

I know, but how does it work?

It doesn’t work at all, in the sense of needing
a physical connection. Do you hear your own
unspoken thoughts?

Yes, but they develop within my mind.

And you think your mind is separate from mine?

People don’t hear other people think.

Why?

It isn’t possible, except via body language.

Whenever we claim that something is not possible,
we close the door, not of possibility, but of
our awareness of it.

Is it as intuition?

No.

Then, please explain.

Intention to hear and to be heard.

But, why can you do it and I can’t.

You haven’t practiced.

How can I practice?

By first believing that you could develop
the ability. And then using it.

Then, it is as a skill?

Is hearing as a skill?

Not for me. It seems to be a function of being
human that is declining as I age, as is my
strength.

Perhaps your reduced hearing is a blessing
in disguise.

How can it be a blessing?

Without all the distractions of needless sounds
you are more able to listen to me.

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.

When We’re Ready

A simple seeker clasped her head between her hands, to clear it from
the overwhelming visions that Spirit seemed to be flooding into her mind.

She needed a cup of warm water, not just to drink but also for something
to hold onto. Her mind was going into overload mode.

The concept of herself and everyone else as each being a Kabbalah-like
Tree of Life moving up a limitless Ladder of Light, with ever-merging
trees representing and reflecting the Universal and Sacred Triad of
Power, Wisdom, and Creativity, and then these three energy centres
merging together as Love and Compassion reaching down to everyone
reaching up, and everyone was/is reaching up to receive, whether or not
they were or are consciously aware of this pressure gradient type of
two-way energy flow.

Wow! It’s just too much for me to deal with.

Then don’t.

What does that mean?

We see what we have to see.

No. We have to block out what we’re not yet ready to deal with.

Yes, even knowing that someday …

Yes, someday for sure.

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?

A Simple Seeker Connects

A simple but sincere seeker of a higher level of
personal spiritual development somehow came under
the influence of a spirit guru whose understanding
of life seemed to be …

What do you mean by “seemed to be”?

Perhaps I don’t yet know what the limits of my own
understanding of life really are.

How is it possible not to know your own limits?

Perhaps I’ve been socially conditioned to accept less
of myself and my capacity for thought than possibly
exists.

Why would that have happened?

Not necessarily through the failure of anyone’s intent
to teach me, unless …

Unless what?

Parents and early educators usually seek to serve the best
interests of the community when teaching children what
to think and how to relate to their world.

Wouldn’t it be in the best interests of the community
for children to be taught as much about life as they
could understand?

Perhaps the natural or conditioned limits of understanding
of parents and early educators in itself restricts what they
can pass on to the younger generation in their care.

Yes, but there is always conscious intent to limit awareness
in the minds of children.

If so, that intentional limitation could have survival value.

For whom, or what, how, and why?

Perhaps it is as food.

In what way?

We feed babies on very soft foods that they can easily
digest and only gradually introduce food that requires
a more developed digestive system.

What has that to do with intentionally limiting a child’s
mental development?

Teachers and parents can only teach what they know …

Or what they believe is safe for the children to know?

How can children be endangered by knowledge?

Perhaps not the children themselves.

Then, whom or what?

Every society that exists can only maintain its present
way of life by gently, or otherwise, enforcing rules
on everyone within that society, including children.

But, societies evolve and transcend over time, as
new ideas and new ways of living become available.

Yes, but as eager as young people, and some others
may be to adapt and change, there is always repression
of adaptation and change by those who might lose
their positions of power within society.

That could be a healthy condition.

How so.

Survival needs of individual societies might depend
upon at least some control by leaders, teachers,
and parents, of the degree and type of change that
seems to be happening.

Yes. There are always reasons for suppression.

Is it necessarily suppression?

What else?

Suppression sounds so deliberate and intentional.

It is.

Could it not just be resistance to change that might
threaten the rules of order of the society in question?

Or the power of those who benefit from the current rules?

That, of course, would always be part of any dynamic
interaction between the past and the desired future.

Yes.

So, what’s the solution?

To what?

A peaceful transition from what was to what might yet be?

Yes. There is no peaceful way.

Winner takes all?

Yes.

Parents and early educators serve the best interest

If The Solution is Trust …

Our simple seeker has returned home. It was time out.
Even Spirit seemed to approve of family time.

She was worried that she might; no, she new she didn’t
have the power or will to totally disconnect from Spirit.
And she knew that He knew it, too.

Another thought seemed to suggest itself; that the very
close relationship – could it be described as intimate?
Whatever …

Spirit closed off her train of thought, as if it had been
as pouring from a kitchen tap. Our simple seeker was,
as always, impressed by Spirit’s power to control, at least
to some extent, her thinking. But, she complained to herself,
my mind is not as a water tank.

What were you thinking about.

I can’t remember, exactly. Yes, now I do, about our
relationship.

Yes. You were not considering it as of high value.

She was suddenly shaken. Somehow she must have offended
her spirit teacher.

I am neither pleased nor offended. I have long ago outgrown
immature attachments to either false or sincere praise,
or criticism. I know my own value. Do you?

Do I what? Was she stalling for time or confused by what
He was asking her? But, the truth was, and she knew it,
that she really didn’t know either her value or His,
exactly.

I confess that I did not express the respect I owe you …

Why would you owe me respect?

For all that you have taught me and for choosing to let me
be a part of your mission to share your teaching.

It isn’t my teaching. I share what has been shared with me.
But, concerning your disrespect …

Have i been disrespectful?

Yes.

Perhaps I don’t know how to show respect to someone I can’t
see. I know it was my idea that you not manifest in human
form but, what if you planted that idea in my head?

How?

You might have planted the suspicion in my mind that I would
wonder why you manifested as you did, if you did.

You were concerned that I would have a motive?

Yes.

Don’t we all have a motive?

For what?

For everything we choose to do or choose not to do.

Then, what is the solution?

Trust.

I’m not very good at that.

Yes.