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Why We Sometimes Feel Lost Here is another great
email that I recently received:
If you take the concept that life is but an illusion, and all you see and experience is actually just inside you, that you are connected to every one else, that God is a name tag for the collective "all", that we live for eternity, that time and space are dimensions that are only relevant to us when we are inhabiting this form. - Then why should we give a shit about "Mother Earth" - changing / saving the world - learning and growing spiritually - unlearning! - etc etc etc.Your question, and the sentiments expressed through it, is common among those who ponder the secrets of life, living and the physical universe. It is more likely to be expressed when one is overwhelmed with the "immensity" of it all; much like those who deduce that nothing can be done to combat the evil so prevalent in our governments and corporate structures these days. While it is nothing to be ashamed of, the question is merely symptomatic of realizing that one is in a condition of powerlessness. The solution, therefore, is to be found in knowledge that will increase one's power. Rarely do we ponder the challenges of living and creating when things are going well. Our attitude is more likely to be one of casual enjoyment and sincere gratitude when life brings us the manifestation of our pleasurable desires. But sometimes, out of the fullness of living, and other times, out of despair or frustration that our desires are not being manifested, we stare into the abyss from which all things come because our curious nature knows that something more "is going on". If we gaze long enough, the unlearning begins and our perception of the world is forever changed. Imagine, if you will, being a toddler again. You are about to begin the first year of your schooling. Even though unlearners are aware that our present educational systems do not truly promote empowering knowledge, play along with me anyway. In that first year, the teachers will instruct their pupils in knowledge that has been deemed sufficient for them to understand; most likely colors, numbers, letters, speech, some physical coordination and social interaction skills. The pupils will not be taught university-level philosophy, science, mathematics, graduate-level economics or politics, or doctoral-level medicine and psychology. If the pupil were to be able to grasp the entire spectrum of all that could possibly be required to be known over the course of her life, she might not begin the road at all, or more accurately, think that such knowledge was impossible for anyone to grasp. So it is with human beings. When faced with the entire span of what we have yet to learn and do, we doubt that we have within us the time, ability, or patience to master it all. We sink into despair and wish that our existence come to an end or that it were never so at all. But like that little grade school pupil, we handle what is in front of us at our own pace and to the best of our ability. As hard as it might be for the little one to imagine all that an adult ponders, it is equally hard for an adult to have the desire to return to diapers and ignorance. The way is only forward once begun! Crucial on this journey is the moment when one begins to unlearn. It is at this moment when one must honestly accept that he has been powerless up to the awakening point. One has lived a life full of illusions that have served others more than it has served oneself. Your power is scattered about like the four winds and you must now recollect it if you are to fully come into your own. One feels weak because one is weak. This state of weakness, however, is not your pure potential expressed, but a temporary state experienced. The experience is valuable, as it is the trigger for a new desire, which leads to a new kind of thinking. The desire is to "see things" as they truly are so that you might know yourself as you truly exist and don't exist. While it is possible that "you" may not have to "come back" after your death to realize these great truths about yourself, it is more probable that some part of you will remain connected to earth and all that transpires on and within it. It will remain this way until you have sufficiently removed all your illusions about it and yourself, as the two are intimately joined in this most physical of realities. If there is a "trap" that constantly returns us to the eternal wheel of experience on earth, it is a self-created one. Our desires, mostly inspired by physical sensations that trigger feelings, continue to obscure Who We Really Are as we seek validation for them in the physical surface reality. After innumerable experiences of every kind under the sun, some of us will tire of them and begin to look within for the satisfaction the senses can only temporarily deliver. Others will remain "addicted" to physicality and continue to live at the "lowest" or "outermost" borders of self-perception. If you are a frequent reader of this website, the latter does not describe you, for the most part. The more one looks within, the more one sees he has been the architect of all his experiences. This realization brings to the unlearner an ever growing perception of her power, which brings with it a rising sense of responsibility and duty. If we perceive that there is a mess on earth, then we must act to clean up the mess as our thinking shows us the way. One "gives a shit" because one's power and conscience dictates this, not because of any outwardly imposed rules. In time, we bring our thoughts into balance and release each illusion from our perception, gaining more power. The cycle beings again, each time becoming a little more "lighter", just as each illusion we created made us a little more "lost" and our reality a little more "dense". If we return one more time to our grade school child scenario, try to recall the feeling you most likely had when the teacher would bring in adults, from time to time (like firefighters, doctors, police personnel, etc.) to tell you about their careers. You sat there with rapt attention, wide-eyed and wild with imagination as you thought to yourself or said out loud, "When I grow up, that's what I want to be!" You would run out and get some sort of costume to aid this imagining as you marched in your world or tramped around with your friends. Little did you know at the time, but it was the desire to experience all that power that put all that energy into your growth process and made you "bigger" with each passing year. Unlearners are called to be that kind of model for other grown-ups who have turned the disillusionment of life into despair and sadness instead of joy and power. When feeling like you can not handle another experience, another lesson, another responsibility, another life, simply know that you are still a child and that there is much more to unlearn. Imagine yourself as something "bigger" than what you presently know yourself to be. Just like you mimicked adults in your childhood games, why not try to mimic what an unlearned life might look like in your adult life right now? Use the gift of imagination, your conscious light, to transform your inner perceptions and the exterior world. With each passing moment, there are more and more who would enjoy your game. May that child-like excitement and the pure joy of play remove the cloud that darkens your spirit now! Whose Life are You Living? |
