Month: August 2017
The light that flickers underneath
can make you laugh until you weep
so lift the basket when you can
to show you’re not afraid of them.
They’ll flutter to your merry flame,
then scream and burn and lose their names.
No more to flit across the night,
leaving just the pure, hot Light.
Think there’s a God?
If not, soldier on!
If so, we might find common ground in the idea of a Universal Mind that is behind everything. Is God watching out over you? No. God is watching out from you. The mathematical point of pure I AM that looks out of you is God. Same as me. Same as all people. All animals. All plants.
Same as everything. Even the creatures like cars and computers. Like rocks and mountains. Like raindrops and oceans and all the myriad things that we ignorantly call non-living.
Can you understand this? At the core of everything is You.
This is the basis for what I want to address here.
To paraphrase the name of an old American television show, animals are people too. What is to me the most happy and joyous gift bestowed by having the Stone is the ability to commune with previously “alien” forms of life. Whether with pets or wild animals, the Knowledge that we are the same gives us the ability to share ourselves with each other. (I know, not making sense. Symbols. Rise above.)
The so-called “Golden Rule” is not just to be used amongst other humans. Every creature you encounter needs to be respected and given the same amount of attention as you would give to yourself because they are yourself. Once you are aware of this, magical things can happen.
My first realization along these lines took place many years ago. It was soon after our marriage. My wife was at work and I was home alone. Shortly before she left that morning, she mentioned a plan to purchase ant-traps on her way home to get rid of some ants that were increasingly being found in our apartment. Later that day, I myself encountered a large number of ants on the kitchen counter. Half in jest and speaking out loud, I told them that they were not safe here and that my wife was planning to kill them. They all stopped moving. Then it occurred to me that I was speaking to a single creature. A hive-mind. Then I repeated myself but this time with the air of a concerned friend explaining to them the danger and why they should go away. I described the poison. How unwitting “workers” would bring the deceitful food home and thus kill their entire “family” including the Queen.
Immediately following that “conversation”, I left the room and apparently, so did they. We never saw another ant in that apartment again. That package of ant-traps sat unopened in our closet for several years before we finally threw it away.
I was amazed at what happened but back then I still believed in “coincidences” and so did not mention any of this to my wife.
Over the many years since, I have developed the habit of greeting the creatures I encounter as equals and with the sincere desire know what it is like to be them at that moment. Because of course, I AM them at that moment.
Then, astonished and delighted by our newfound kinship, we dance.
Would you say that you have free-will? By which I mean the sovereign right and ability to make decisions free from compulsion by outside sources.
Or would you say that you are a robot? That free-will is an illusion and all of your choices are determined by your biology, your history and your mental programming.
Here’s a little experiment. Touch each of the fingers on your left hand to the thumb of that same hand in order from the pinky to the index finger. Do it now before reading any further.
Okay, did you follow my instructions or did you just keep reading? Either way, you made a decision and your reality went in a direction of your own choosing.
Right?
If you are a curious person who is open to learning and is willing to temporarily subordinate your own will to that of another in order to gain knowledge, you probably followed my instructions physically. On the other hand, if you are an independent-minded person who prefers to gloss over detail because you are confident in your ability to absorb a thing more holistically, you probably kept on reading.
For simplicity’s sake, lets assume that you fit into one of these two profiles, okay?
Now, who made the decision that you would become that sort of person? Did you ever choose to develop those traits? Or is that just the way you are?
Two different people encounter an insect in their home. One picks it up and takes it outside. The other crushes it under their shoe. Neither of them spends any time thinking about what they do. They are like computers reacting to situations in a programmed manner. They will to not have the insect in their environment. They both take action to manifest that will. One of them has a compassionate nature who imagines that small creatures have some type of value. The other one values expedience and feels no empathy for the insect. It is an object to be eliminated.
Is either person exhibiting free-will?
Or are they merely following mental programming? If so, who programmed (taught) them to be this way? Who taught their teachers?
You selflessly do charitable works. Help everyone you can. Try to make the world a better place for all. Does it make you happy to do so? Yes?
Well, aren’t you just being selfish then? The actual goal is to make yourself feel happy. If you were truly compassionate, you would help everyone you could even to the point of great personal loss, pain and suffering. If suffering for God, King and Country makes you happy, then you will not feel like you are suffering at all. In fact, you will only do it because it is (secretly?) your desire. Thus, you are still being (impressively!) selfish.
Is there more virtue in the person who is unapologetically and honestly being selfish? LaVey-style “satanism” is built upon this very premise. Satanism? Scary stuff? Actually not. Most satanists are Judeo-Christian atheists. Mostly good people who can smell a rat but aren’t yet sure where it is.
Let’s imagine what the world would become if we each declared and vowed to only live for ourselves. To only do the things that make us feel happy and fulfilled. Would we all begin to steal each other’s stuff? Would we all kill the people who tried to take our stuff? Rape and pillage? Survival of the most evil and ruthless? Complete anarchy?
Would that really be the result of our collective Will?
Does that world sound like a place you would will to live in? Of course not. What do we truly will? What really makes us happy to the point that we would selfishly seek it out?
Well first of all, love. To care and be cared for by special people who are close to us. Warm beds. Good food. Decent beer. Protection from violent idiots. Help from others if we become sick or our house catches fire. Cool toys.
In other words, modern society.
That is where being totally selfish gets us.
So we do have free-will whether we want it or not.
Right?
An elderly gentleman plays at a game,
conjuring images, handing out names.
Pieces are made and limits set.
(How the players soon forget!)
He closes his Eye and the die is tossed.
Losers will win but the winnings are lost.
Life and Death take different sides.
Duality now resides.
To see infinity with a finite mind;
ignorance needed, he puts on the blind…
So it seems an endless round,
ego rules the boredom-bound.
Circling stifles compassionate lovers
but loving ourselves admits there are others.
Gulping air leaves greater thirst
and swelling hearts must surely burst.
Eyes that are sleepy are prone to illusion.
Minds that are thinking are host to confusion.
All seems lost, a phantom race;
filed away, an unsolved case.
Now these are all pieces, the great and the small.
All is in all therefore, all is in All.