Tag Archives: consciousness

FREEING ONE’S “TRUE SELF”

Posted on by

1

There’s no consciousness without the material world
And there’s no part of that material world without at least some consciousness.

Also

There’s no physical entity that doesn’t include the potential for “life”
As an intrinsic and necessary part of its structure.

Because

Life is inherent in unlife –
And consciousness is innate in life –
So objective spiritual truth must be a fundamental element of the cosmos.

Eventually, over time,

God was born as a human being, bearing the name of Jesus,
And Jesus, in turn, matured into God while remaining wholly human.

In sum,

God created the universe by opening up an infinitesimally small gap into and through nothing –
Starting out with dust –
And is now partway on the path to re-creating God
In another time and space
Who, spiritually, is the ultimate perfect balanced combination
Of Love, Truth, Justice, and Beauty.

It’s like opening up one’s hand –
Discovering a trapped bird –
And allowing the freedom of an unborn self
To fly straight to its very own “true self.”

WHICH COMES FIRST?

Posted on by

1

Which comes first – life or consciousness?
(This may not be as obvious as it first appears.)

Is dumb animal life necessarily followed by ever-expanding human consciousness
Or is consciousness an eternal form of spiritual energy present in all living bodies
And even nonliving matter like rocks and dust –
That is, is “consciousness” something that’s omnipresent out there
Inherent in both life and non-life forms – just at different “levels?”

Who knows the answer to this – for now – except God?

Let’s review the most commonly accepted “steps”:

First comes existence
Then life
Followed by consciousness
Then, hopefully, a handful of human/God selves
And, finally, God
Who, of course, incorporates everything before and after –
Including, most importantly, the present.

The sense we have that “we” will not die –
Even though understanding it’s a physical impossibility–
Where does that come from?
Is it a lie or some kind of sophisticated self-delusion?
And, if so, why is this “sense” so strong – so seemingly unassailable?

I don’t think or feel I’m a living cognizant piece of  “meat” –
Instead, I feel like a fountain – a spiritual fountain –
And, given that, where does the supply of “water” come from?

I feel connected, yet remain independent and free.
I feel I’m part of a whole, but not subservient to that whole.
I feel I’m a spirit – similar to God – but certainly not the same as God.
I feel I have authority – but no important authority.
I feel I’ve joined a cosmic dance where I lead by not consciously leading.

Who am I?

GOD CREATING GOD

Posted on by

2

Each of our lives is a part
Of the lengthy process of the universe
Gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.
                                           Thomas Nagel

God is a rabbit in a hat
As well as the magician who owns both rabbit and hat
Along with an audience raptly watching.

When the lights go down
God appears
Pulling himself out of himself –
Even God is surprised
At what he’s been able to accomplish.

God, hat, and rabbit –
Are monistic –
Since through Spinoza’s eyes they’re identical
Along with the audience
Cheering or groaning
Depending upon where they sit.

God, when empty, became lonely for himself –
So sparked an inorganic universe
Of whirling, expanding particles
Bursting into existence –
Which eventually changed from original black/grey to “all” colors
On its way to organic life –
And then changed again upon achieving consciousness –
Where, finally, God was able to kiss God
On the lips
Then, God changed one last time
Creating cognitive human spirit –
Where, at its peak, Jesus came to life, beyond any colors
Up on a mountain, transfigured, face shining like the sun –
Garments “white as light.”

HOW EVE BECAME GOD AND SAVED THE WORLD

Posted on by

1

At first, Eve was a happy animal –
But one day she ate a piece of fruit
And, spontaneously, split in two.

Instantaneously as a result of this split,
She found herself outside the garden
Looking back at her happy self still inside.

She experienced herself “naked” – out in a tough world –
The fault of her newly-found “consciousness” –
A “mixed power” she had acquired through “seeing herself.”

Of course, the story doesn’t end there –
There’s both good and bad in the gift of consciousness –
For example, she was able to trick all the still unconscious beings
And take anything she wanted –
But it didn’t take long for them to join her in this newly conscious world.

After thousands of years of humans tricking one another
And getting pretty much nowhere –
One day, one of Eve’s descendants decided to “become herself” – i.e., her “true self”
And stop working so hard at trying to trick the rest of the world.

This descendant became her true self by mimicking “God” in human form,
And, as a result, became willing to lead human beings out of their ego-delimited world –
But, just before she could accomplish this,
Adam intervened by saying: “Get back, woman!”
“The world is not finished with tricky male egos yet” –
“We still have a long way to go” –
Adam enforced this command with a warehouse full of iron patriarchal laws,
Male-preferenced customs, and an infinity of direct and indirect physical threats.

This worked!
So well, that Eve was compelled to step back from her new God-gifted freedom,
And, as a consequence, the world fell into Male-Ego Hell –
Which eventually got so bad that even Adam began to get scared
And thought he might want to invite Eve back into a more active role –
But Eve said “No” –
“Not me.” “Not now” – “unless and until you admit you’ve been a jerk” –
“And a violent jerk, at that!” –
Adam refused to admit this, and so the entire world died.

The end.

An alternative ending is Adam did admit he’d been a jerk –
And allowed Eve to re-gain her freedom –
Free, she looked around, and thought, again, it might be time for her to embody God –
But only the kind of God a woman could believe in:

A God closer to Nature –
A loving and family-friendly God –
A truthful God.

This God was entirely a female creation –
So that when Eve determined that her God was “good”
She was able to immediately step into her waiting role.

Eve became God, as a human being, much like Jesus had done in the past –
And, as a consequence, took her turn at saving the world!

The result was that men eventually became happier (even if reluctantly),
And the earth and all its other inhabitants – animal, vegetable, or mineral –
Were saved
Because Adam was willing to step aside
And allow Eve to become the kind of “God,” in human form, she best understood.

Now, all the beings on earth live happily, including all the Eves and Adams –

This is the second, and fortunately happy, ending.

ONE DAY, SITTING UNDER MY FAVORITE TREE

Posted on by

3

I understand
We need light for clarity as well as its disinfectant powers
And darkness to grow underneath consciousness.

I understand
We need sweetness to lure us to habitual goodness
And sour to teach the necessity of a few bitter lessons.

I understand
We need pets while young to teach us about love
So that when we’ve grown up, we won’t fear vulnerability.

I understand
We need strong appetites both for learning and life,
Hearts that yearn after greater emotional consciousness,
And minds unafraid of any categories of emptiness.

One day, sitting under my favorite tree,
I hear a song I’ve always yearned to hear –
Starting low and steadily becoming stronger –
One voice – swelling into many –
Suddenly, I hear myself
Singing along with the rest of the world –
Aurally blossoming in a personal/communal joy –
One soul, one world, one God –

All of it – hopefully – in harmony!

DEATH CREATES BEAUTY

Posted on by

1

Death creates “beauty” since we’re unable to fully appreciate beauty
Without acknowledging the backdrop of death –
Especially when it’s shining through.

Death creates “love” because we won’t achieve our inherent capacity to love deeply
Without becoming aware of the curtain that’s about to fall –
When love, literally, “explodes” into our consciousness.

Death creates “life” because ordinary quotidian life doesn’t appear fully real to us –
So, unconsciously, when we start becoming aware of this –
Death sticks its ugly head through our window –
And “wakes us up” –
Forcing us to become totally alive!

In sum, so long as we refuse to acknowledge death,
We won’t have the ability to “see” ourselves –
Or much else for that matter.

Terror and the void are birthplaces of extraordinary “beauty,” “love,” and “life” –
So, shouldn’t we be a little more grateful for their existence?

THE TRUE “THEORY OF EVERYTHING”

Posted on by

3

Universalist theoretical physicists, like Einstein and Hawking, have worked at developing a “grand unification theory” –
Combining cosmology (star theory) with quantum mechanics (particle theory)
Into a “Theory of Everything.”

But that wouldn’t really be everything, would it?
Since such a theory would be limited to “physical nature” – (defined by the Ancient Greeks as “physics”).

By omitting the subjective, a large segment of existence would be left out
Since physical space takes up just part of reality –
While consciousness, of course, constitutes the other part.

Neither “makes sense” without the other!

Physical space – from galaxies to particles – encompasses the objective part of reality –

While psychic space – including mental/emotional thoughts and sensations, ranging from a high of ecstasy to the low of an itch; spiritual realities – like “love,” “truth,” “justice,” and “beauty;” along with “meaning” itself; as well as all the “mathematical tools” we use to measure anything in physical space – whether galaxies, or even the entire universe, by employing humanity’s elegant silver equations – is equally an important part of reality, in its own subjective way.

(So which of the two do you think is the “greater”?)

In fact, isn’t it true that both are essential aspects of “ultimate reality” –

Moreover, these two aspects of reality appear to be not only inter-related,
But, in some senses, and from God’s deeper/wider perspective,
They might, actually, be the same thing.

HERE COMES THE SUN

Posted on by

0

Growing old physically –
We start to fall apart
Which isn’t all bad
Since we gain opportunities to become more spiritual.

Our goal is the attainment of “wholeness” – or “holiness” –
Inside and out –
Accepting both the world and ourselves
Right up to the moment when we go crashing into the dark –
Which, God willing,
Turns light.

Do we awake when we die?
And, if we can accelerate this consciousness while still alive,
Mightn’t this bring us an even earlier “awakening”?

But what if we’re never able to find the “pearl” –
And what would be the consequences of not bothering to look?

Yes, it’s true that, as we grow older, we start to fall apart –
It’s natural –
But what would be “unnatural” is to become more loving
While, at the same time, becoming weaker, more stressed, and more helpless.

This would be like observing the sun rising up behind a dark mountain –
When we’re both mountain and sun.

NO “THERE” THERE

Posted on by

0

Everyone sings their own song
If only they can remember it –
Otherwise, they need to hum along with everyone else.

Potentially, consciousness is as open as sunshine –
But, unfortunately, we rely upon pebble words
To let the light in.

“Pebble” because we’ve lost the ability to “play” with words –
Having replaced them with tensile-strength numbers –
So, now, we find ourselves twice abandoned –
Because the mystic words we traditionally used to enhance subjective reality
Have now been transformed into electronic bits.

In the cities, everything has been speeding up
For fear something might get lost –
But this has resulted in lives passing us by with even greater efficiency.

So, our souls are fading,
What am I saying? – our souls have already gone –
Evidenced by the fact that we no longer pray.

So –
Going fast, going slow –
It really doesn’t matter
If there’s no “there” there.

BORN AGAIN

Posted on by

0

“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3

Christianity teaches that Jesus was referring to salvation based upon a belief in him.

But Jesus was actually talking about being born “into the Spirit” – not about a commitment to himself.

So, what does it mean for one to be born “into the Spirit”?

I think, first, this requires a determination of the meaning of one’s “self.”

Each of us is born as a “true self” – but, at this moment in history, a “true self” probably wouldn’t be able to survive past his or her childhood. That’s why a person, while still young, accepts the substitution of an “ego” or false self in place of their true self – so that they can successfully integrate their “self” into the world – i.e., with their parents, community, and surrounding culture, including their nation and religion. This successor “self,” in most cases, takes the form of the strong and healthy ego that Freud described.

But what are the costs of living through an “ego” self, no matter how successful it may be in the world?

Think about consciousness as an open circle. Then picture the part accessible to the ego as a very thin slice – maybe 10% – 20%. From early childhood on, that’s the part of ourselves we choose to live within – with all our experiences needing to fit within that narrow slice or be excluded. Excluded how? The ego self requires, as the price of an effective existence, that each and every experience outside the scope of its chosen roles be methodically and ruthlessly pushed back into the unconscious – sealing those experiences off from our consciousness.

So, what happens when we’re “born again”? Upon being born again, we gain access to all our consciousness – all 360 degrees of it – and are able to experience full reality. We become completely “free” and totally open to all our experiences – just like when we first came into the world as a newborn baby – but we also retain all the experience and knowledge of the person we had become by the time we were “reborn.” This rebirth, however, doesn’t happen to an ego – it only happens when we’re able to break free of the ego we had earlier accepted – and start living outside it. That’s what Zen training, for example, prepares us for – to get “outside yourself” in order to become “free of your ego.” This is essentially the same path which Jesus taught – that we need to be “born again” in order to become our “true self” – the self God originally provided us with.

Once you become your true self, you’ll enter “Heaven” – and no longer be creating karmic problems in this world. That’s because you’ll be experiencing everything clearly – by being able to see yourself at the same time as you’re participating in the world – by an ability to stand “outside” yourself. This makes it possible for you to see what God wants you to do in any given situation – just like Jesus was able to – allowing you to act the same as God would act if God were a human being like yourself.

Let me say this as simply as possible – once you find your “true self,” you won’t be Jesus, but you’ll have become someone like Jesus – because you’ll have done what he recommended – spiritually, you’ll be “born again.”

All the “Angels in Heaven” start singing when this happens –

or perhaps,

You’ll simply be able to hear the angels who’re always singing – once you’ve gained the “ears to hear” that everyone receives upon being “born again.”