Tag Archives: courage

NOT A PICTURE BUT A STREAM

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Born faster than the eye can see –
Life as a “true self” –   

Because, as soon as you stop birthing – you’re dead!

It takes courage to stay in a stream of constant birthing –
Uncomfortable and scary.

The authorities of the world demand acceptance of a fixed personality
So people can be manipulated without violence –
Yes, even those who “love” you want you to remain the same
For a lifetime.

But anyone who can change faster than a thought or heart feeling
Is not a picture, but a stream –
An actual stream.

Such a person arrives from the state of being nobody –
Dodging all the bullets aimed at them –
No matter from which direction they’re coming –
No matter the intention with which they’ve been fired.

They dream of escaping a frozen old age
By fighting “downstream” – towards infancy –
Towards spontaneity –
Towards the art of “coming-into-existence” –
Brush touching canvas –
Pen, paper.

Someone, who’s a “just-about-to-be-made”
Kind of person –

The real thing!

THE VALUE OF INTERMITTENT ENLIGHTENMENT

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Talking over some earlier posts with my brilliant wife
She pointed out that complete enlightenment –
By achieving “no one” or “no thing” – was too abstract for her
And that she, as a woman, couldn’t “feel” the reality of that kind of existence.

I gave her examples, including Jesus and the Buddha, but she rightly countered
That women with families and worldly obligations
Wouldn’t be attracted to becoming “no one”
And that such “freedom,” even if achievable, would be meaningless to most people.

This made me think she might be right.

So I reflected further, and determined I should not be arguing
For achieving complete and absolute enlightenment –
That is, for people to become “god-like,” in imitation of Jesus or the Buddha,
But, instead, an enlightenment that’s more like the periodic use of a physics equation (e = mc2),
But, in spiritual terms, a formula showing (“no ego” = “no one”) –
Available for use, intermittently, that is, whenever one actually needs it.

I believe that enlightenment is available to everyone on this planet –
But, thanks to my wife’s critical observation
I no longer think it’s an “all or nothing” enlightenment –
But rather enlightenment available for use at critical junctures in our lives
So that important life decisions can be made at the highest, best level –
Individually, as well as for those desiring to affect the world as a whole.

The first, and most important, step in this formula
Is to become conscious of one’s ego self
Because, without an objective view of oneself, nothing else is possible –
This is not an insignificant step because it’s where people face the most resistance –
Taking that “first look” – since almost no one dares it –
But if you do have sufficient courage to look directly at yourself,
You’ll be able to see the puppet you’ve become (and that everyone else can see) –
And then, if you wish, decide you don’t want to be a self-driven puppet –
At least during that precise next moment – given what’s immediately facing you.

Of course, a lifelong attachment to one’s ego is not easy to efface–
So you don’t – all that happens is you become aware
That you can, consciously and contemporaneously, look at yourself,
See what you’re actually doing at that moment,
And then decide whether or not you want to do something entirely different.

That is, you don’t have to helplessly continue along the path
Of embodying the ego your mother so loved
Or that your friends and world have accepted as being “you” –
Instead, at this critical juncture, you can simply look at yourself and say “No” –
I want to do something else – something my heart and mind agree upon –
Something my “true self” has decided.

This “true self,” later on, may itself come to appear somewhat limited
Even though it’s infinitely superior to that former ego “puppet” –
Limited in the sense of not having all the freedom God possesses –
If you want that kind of high, almost infinite freedom – you have to take the next step –
And, again, through the use of our spiritual formula – become “no body” or “no thing” –
Asking, at this particular inflection point, “What would God do?
Not as an all-powerful being –
But as a vulnerable human being called upon to act as God would act if God were human –
And then, do it!
After all, this is what Jesus had been able to do!

This is what I’m saying anyone can do any time they want
Through the use of intermittent enlightenment.

Most of the time, people, including myself, act only through their ego selves –
For example, when eating, going to the bathroom, or talking quietly with friends –
But the possibility of acting through one’s “higher self” is always present
And can be acted upon at critical life-changing moments.
You don’t need to use this knowledge, this ability, solely for saving the world
Like Jesus or the Buddha (since you’d probably get killed for having such presumption) –
I’m saying that you can use this hard-earned spiritual ability to consciously see yourself
And then make a decision about what you really want to do –
Anytime, anyplace you decide.

This is the singular value of having access to intermittent enlightenment –
You can have it whenever you actually need it!

This is my gift to you, dear one –
The realization that you can be as enlightened as Jesus, Buddha, or Socrates –
Not for saving the world – but for use in ordinary, but important to you,
Day-to-day life situations.

By the way, all enlightened beings – including Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Socrates,
Were never enlightened during every moment of their lives –
History captured them as acting at specific critical moments at their highest, best level –
And then spotlighted that period as being a permanent condition.
But, actually, it was only an intermittent moment – even for them –
Remember, the spotlight of faith and history bounces off
The highest, most critically important moments experienced by humanity –
Which is not the same as actual ongoing reality.

All of them were human, just like you and I are,
But they could and did act at critical moments with the ultimate freedom of God –

Just like you and I can also!

TWO REVOLUTIONS

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Evolving from animals into humans, the issue has always been one of freedom –
Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual –
Because freedom releases huge amounts of energy,
As well as increases our demands for self-fulfillment.

With limited freedom, human beings are dull, subdued – frequently subservient –
While with more extensive freedom – available mainly to the few at the top –
They do have fun!

Athens was the cynosure of the world’s first revolution –
A political revolution that’s still playing itself out –
Providing people with individual responsibility for their nation
As well as for their personal lives.

Today, this battle is still raging on – the 1% versus, literally, everyone else.

This revolution, begun in Athens, has now become partially successful
And is responsible for releasing stupendous amounts of energy across the globe.

The second and a parallel revolution was the attempt to achieve spiritual freedom –
Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed pushed open those stubborn doors
To a freedom providing human beings with the soul-openness of God –
That is, so that people could live pretty much like God does – but in human form –
In spite of their mortality.

Unfortunately, this revolution failed –
Primarily because it involved too much work and too much risk –
Requiring us to give up our cherished egos – those utilitarian “self-puppets.”

Jesus died providing us with a spectacular example of human spiritual freedom
But those who followed, later on, established a world religion instead –
Which taught that only one person could become as free as God –
Jesus himself –
While everyone else needed to live “through” him –
Giving up their own, once in a lifetime, opportunity to achieve a similar spiritual freedom –
In exchange for a promise of some “afterlife”
Available “nowhere,” “no-time,” and “no-place” –
Which is how Christianity turned Jesus’ spiritual revolution upside-down and inside-out.

This failure, and the consequent abandonment of radically increased spiritual freedom
Has resulted in an almost infinite loss of energy and hope for the entire human species.

Political democracy has always been thrilling because, with it,
We’re personally able to improve our society and individual living conditions.
Spiritual democracy, however, could provide us with an even more profound freedom –
The key to almost infinite human energy –
Freeing human souls to become their “true selves”
And allowing human beings to mature in a straight line after being born
Without having to stop along the way to develop an artificial “ego” for self-protection.

Freedom, political and spiritual, takes a lifetime of hard work and courage to achieve –
But, without both these freedoms, human beings will never be able to experience ultimate joy.

It takes guidance from Athens and someone like Jesus, Buddha, or Mohammed
To achieve ultimate human joy in our everyday quotidian lives –

And that’s no joke!

FREEDOM IS A PRE-CONDITION

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Freedom is a pre-condition to experiencing God –
Or love, truth, justice, or beauty, for that matter.

Without freedom, and the courage it takes, “you” are nowhere
Because outside ideas, powers, and institutions
Have the ability to take you away from yourself.

Without freedom you’ll have no true life
No true being
No true existence.

Before you “do” anything
Before you say “yes” or “no” –
First, become free.

There’s really nothing else worth having
Spiritually, politically, or economically
Than to be a free “true self.”

Actually, the definition of “human”
Is “freedom.”

AT ANY MOMENT

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Once you become nothing – that is, no thing,
You instantly become a door –
A spiritual door that, once entered,
It’s possible to find your “true self.”

Surprisingly, it doesn’t take much “work” to surrender one’s ego
Since it’s only “dead weight” accumulated from birth –
Manufactured and transmitted by culture, politics, society, and religion.

It’s surprisingly easy to find your true self – the easiest thing in the world –
But does take courage
Because you have to give up everything –
That is, the glorious ego you pieced together over a lifetime.

Easy, because you’re already “there” – beyond ego – without consciously knowing it –

Yes, it’s true, you can find your “true self” at any moment –
Your very own spiritual “pearl.”

SOME QUESTIONS

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What, if anything, exists
Beyond matter, time, energy, and space?

What’s possible to imagine
Outside humanity’s collective memory?

Where should we look
For what’s been lost in the found?

How discover fresh love
In what’s been so long-possessed?

When will we gain courage
To approach the deader aspects in our souls?

The answer is always the same –

In a Holy Celebration!
Upon discovering our “true self” –
That exquisite gift from God described by mystics as

The “pearl”.

NO EXCUSE

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We can encounter God as “revealed”
Anytime we’re out in nature
(To mystics known as God’s “Back”).

To see God’s hidden “Face,” however, takes a pure heart, courage,
And an intense love.

Looking at God both ways allows us to experience God whole – that is, as “Holy” –

And there’s really no excuse for our not doing that.

JESUS DID IT FIRST

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After, spiritually, we’ve fallen fast asleep –
Suddenly, God will open a door
Where, apparently, there had been no door –
And, with a good-natured chuckle, surprise us back to life!

Inside God’s voice may be heard another – more distant voice –
We hear it by being able to glimpse a face
Behind the face of society’s accepted quotidian “God.”

At times, though, it can seem like we’re a leaf floating downstream – just being carried along –
Sometimes exhilarated, at other times, getting stuck –
No matter how fast we go, however, usually we’re pretty passive –
So that what seems to us like “action” – is more like being a stone flung up into the air.

Given this, how much work and courage would it really take
To become fully conscious and fully alive –
To even start such an effort?

It might be easier than you think!
First, just wake up –
And then wake yourself a second time to your highest state of “awakeness” –
Walk to the nearest window
And look out –
If you’re fully “awake” by that time – more than you’ve ever been before –
At that very moment, you’ll get hit “right in the puss” with joy –
Human beings’ natural state.

It takes only a single moment to pass into eternity
Where we come to “life” without passing through a womb –
Avatars call this “life beyond life” –
Jesus called it pretty much the same thing – “being born again” –
But no one has described, specifically, what it’s really like.

Jesus lived through these peak experiences many times –
Especially, and finally, when singing the 22nd Psalm on the cross –
“My God, my God, why ….”

A touch of joy in death – unimaginable –

But Jesus did it first.

COURAGE IN THE FLOW

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We earn the title of “human being” when we’re able to live out values
Higher than our everyday concerns –

Some examples are:
Love, truth, justice, beauty,
And “Good” – an alternative word for “God.”

Before enlightment, if and when that ever happens,
Each choice we make will be determined by our earlier unconscious choices –
Made without self-reflective thinking –

But to live “in the moment” – like God does –
We need the same inner freedom that God exhibits.

In order to accomplish that, however – we’ll need to shake off our elaborate egos
And ersatz societal roles –
And become free enough to resurrect our original true self.

It’s not sexuality that our predecessors, Adam and Eve, wanted to cover up –
It was their “self-made” artificial reality –
Which can only be changed by gaining the ability to see the world through God’s eyes.

Christianity, in order to justify itself, has promoted a misleading standard for all humanity –
“Perfection” –
But, after all, even God isn’t perfect in a mathematical or abstract sense –
Because God is alive –

Like nature – just on a higher level.

So, to condemn ourselves as sinful because we haven’t achieved “perfection”
Is irrational
Because we aren’t –
And never will be.

One day, however, we might decide to be “born again” – like Jesus recommended –
And, as a consequence, be able to experience full reality –

The same as God –

After which, hopefully, we’ll start making intelligent-loving decisions,
Discovering all it took was

Courage in the flow –

That’s all –

Just a little courage
In the flow.

IF YOU’RE ABLE TO DO THIS

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In some senses, you are who you look at –
When you meet someone, in a way, you become whom they’re experiencing –
Because, if you truly look –
You’ll see what they are seeing when they look at you –
So be careful about who you look at!

My advice is to look at God as much as possible –
When God returns your attention, God sees “perfection” –
Meaning all your potential in fully-flowered form –
Of course, that’s hard for you to accept
Because, in such binocular vision (looking through the eyes of God and self),
You’ll see yourself through the eyes of both –
And, of course, end up attempting to reconcile these two disparate visions.

So, if you dare to look at God,
You’ll experience God looking back at you –
It’s amazing, really, that you can do this
And not die!

You won’t – but it takes a lot of courage not to look away.

It can result in the sweetest “death” you’ll ever experience –
Because it’s only the death of an artificial entity – your ego,
While, simultaneously, your “true self” will be in the process of being born –
Something about which you dreamed your entire life
But could never remember – until this very moment.

When you look at God and discover
God looking back, it’s so wonderful
That, immediately, you’ll start singing: “Thank you,” “Thank you,” “Thank you,”
Letting gratefulness stream wildly out of your heart
That, otherwise, might explode
With Joy.

This is what I mean in saying: “Look at God” –
and not just a sidelong glance –
I’m saying: “Look, Look straight into God’s face.”

If you’re able to do this
You can have everything!