Awake and Aware

...all mystics-Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion - are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.-- (Anthony Demello, Awareness)

It is said that soon after his enlightenment the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by the Buddha's extraordinary radiance and peaceful presence. The man stopped and asked, "My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?" "No, "said the Buddha."Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard?" Again, the Buddha answered, "No." "Well, my friend, then what are you?" The Buddha replied, "I am awake."

According to Anthony Demello, "Being awake means being aware." Most of the time, we really are not aware, meaning our eyes are not fully open to see what is really going on around us and within us. We have eyes, but we don't see, as Jesus put it. What we see is our conditioned and programmed version of reality colored by imperfect perceptions, prejudices, fears, judgments, concepts, and labels that taint the plain truth of what lies before us and within us.

A concept or label omits something that is precious and unique that is only found in unfiltered reality. The great Indian sage, Krishnamurti recognized the costs of languaging reality when he said, "The day you teach the child the name of the bird, the child will never see that bird again." Before the child has the word for this creature it observes its uniqueness and takes in its variety of color, shape, movements, behavior with open curiosity. Once the child is given the name for this creature, it will readily name the next sighting and cease to observe with the same open perception.

Our awakening to greater God consciousness is a sowing and reaping process; of more of this and less of that. We awaken through acquisition of experience, and by letting go of conditioned mind patterns. This is what Jesus referred to as the need to "become as little children" in order to enter the kingdom. We learn to label in order to comprehend and communicate about our world, and we must abandon those labels if we wish to fully embrace and enjoy our world.

Because we are spiritual beings in a physical universe, we have the innate capacity to witness our reality in a present, aware state of mind. We are in the world but not of it when our awareness of life takes precedence over our reactions to life. When I can remain aware of the part of me that observes my life experiences, I remain connected to the part of me that is spacious, changeless, and invulnerable. Then whether I gain (or lose) the whole world, I do not lose my soul sense. I am not carried away by victory or upended by defeat. I am able to stay centered in the big picture, able to recognize the interconnectedness of life, and awake to infinite possibilities. In this aware state, I am more likely to meet life situations with curiosity, resourcefulness, and creativity. I am more likely to conclude that despite all appearances, all is well.

Sow What?

Every man's world picture is and always remains a construct of his mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence.

Erwin Schrodinger, Quantum Physicist

On this first day of spring, I have been enjoying the warm sun while lounging in the backyard (somebody has to work this way), musing about this message.

These weekly messages, like all the greenery around me, start with a seed of an idea. I have frequently started writing willy-nilly; hoping that out of the flood of disjointed thoughts and feelings, a nugget of inspirational clarity will drop out and show me the course to pursue. This sometimes works, but more often these days, I open my mind and heart like a sail and wait patiently for the winds of inspiration to set a course and get me moving.

As every writer and sailor knows, there are times when you are "dead in the water" and you must sit waiting patiently for something to fill your sails. The winds always return, thank God. But the mind can begin to haunt when "too much time" has elapsed with no progress to show for it. All too frequently when this happens I'll begin to run an old inner tape about inadequacy, "who do I think I am trying to write when I can't even begin", or even more horrifically, "I'm empty!” Then I need to do some quick self-therapy or my sails will remain limp for a very long time.

That therapy comes from our innate capacity to choose how we construct our world with whatever is before us. Our surface mind tells us that we see the world as it is, and the quality of our experience is dependent on the quality of our circumstances. You may recognize this perspective. It's the victim mentality, the world determines my experience. Yet wisdom teaches us that we are not victims of the world we see, we are victims of the way we see the world. Quantum science corroborates asserting that there is no objective reality out there, apart from our perception of it. Shakespeare recognized it too when he said, Nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Jesus said Do not judge by appearances but judge by righteous judgment.

You and I have a whole committee (of thoughts) in our heads who willingly and forcefully chime in with a host of preprogrammed opinions about what any particular situation says about us, or other people, or the way the world is, etc. None of these opinions are based on Truth, all based upon past conditioning, almost always fear based perceptions that bear witness to a world of suffering, limitation, and I'll never be good enough.

Like the dandelions in my yard, they all started as seeds and if allowed to remain embedded in the soil of my consciousness, will flower into full-blown neuroses, or worse. The way we can deal with these errant seed thoughts is not identify with them. It takes awareness, to recognize that I'm thinking poorly about myself, and an even deeper awareness to notice that I am not my thoughts! I have thoughts, but my true self, the I of me, the one who observes the thoughts, is not those thoughts. If I do not attach my sense of self to those thoughts, I remain free, I remain creative. I am able to construct my world in the best possible light. This is what Jesus referred to as righteous judgment.

What we sow, we reap. It's a law of life that will not be mocked. We can however be conscious in our planting practices this spring, sowing and nurturing only the most nourishing thoughts that reflect our God given nature. No, it won't always be easy. But the difficulty will be well worth the effort when we're enjoying the sweet fruit at harvest.

Building Your Trust Fund

I once saw a cartoon entitled, "mastery" that showed a man standing in the middle of a one-way street, cars whizzing past him, while he pointed in the direction that the traffic was moving. A bystander provided the caption that read, "He even controls the flow of the traffic!"

The enlightened ones are the ones who point in the direction that life moves, and in the absence of resistance discover ease and grace in the way things are. The rest of us make a stand against the flow of life, argue for what should be happening, and are run over or run through by the isness of life that we oppose.

We may know better but we resist this wisdom. We find it hard to go with the flow and trust in this world. No matter how many admonitions and parables exhorting the value of the path of least resistance, never mind the track marks evidencing the consequences of standing against the flow, somehow our faith fails to assure us that the universe will operate without our control.

Jesus had a lot to worry about in his time, and yet he preached, "Do not worry." I doubt Jesus had a healthy pension, or even a stocked pantry, and we know he had some serious enemies. He had some very good reasons to worry, but he did not worry. How was he able to respond to the lack of outer assurances with confidence, ease and grace? Answer: He had a big Trust fund. He truly knew the source of his well-being, and found true security in the invisible and very real Spirit of life within him. He was identified with an indwelling Father, who knew his needs before he asked and whose pleasure it was to fulfill them.

Jesus was not in denial about the difficulties of life and we know he had his preferences (remember the Gethsemane cup moment) but he could see beyond the appearances, and trusted more in the Greater Good than his personal will. He could see beyond a fallow field, to a harvest; beyond evil ways to ignorance; beyond death to life eternal.

You and I have the same indwelling Father to rely upon. Jesus did not have a bigger God than we do. He had a bigger faith, a bigger trust fund. The potential for us to live in trust is equal to Jesus. We can begin in small ways to release the opposition in us, to relax and let go in small things. As we let go of the wheel and discover how a
GPS (God Positioning System) works (independent of us) in the minor excursions through life, we will begin to build trust for the major journeys.

As every farmer knows, the real magic in the field is beyond his control. He can plant the seed, but the earth bestows. There is a Life force that conspires for our good; that knows what makes us grow, thrive and prosper. The more we can trust it to work through our lives the more we will witness the ease and grace of life flowing through us. This is the path of mastery.

Opening to the Path

During these difficult economic times, many people are going through experiences leaving them feeling sad, angry, depressed and fearful. What is the relationship between the events and a person's experience? Our ordinary human perceptions would say that the events caused our experience wouldn't we? It seems relational, logical, and symbiotic. We don't allow for any intervening process. But the fact is that we never directly experience the world around us. All we ever know are the contents of consciousness, the thoughts, feelings, perceptions and sensations that appear in our mind.

It is so easy to turn outer events and circumstances into stories with meaning for us, that then takes the place of the "facts." So what can we do when life gets really hard, and there is no ready fix in sight. How can we manage our inner world so that we are not victims of an awful story.

Our forgetful self, the part of us that feels cut off from God, tells stories that bear witness to lack, personal limitations, that we are alone, and isolated in our own private hell, facing the challenges of life that seem insurmountable. In this story, we are victims of the world. Events and others are seen as against us. Life is a battleground. We feel like strangers in a strange land.

Wisdom calls us to re-examine in a moment of awareness, the stories we have been telling; calls us to reconcile what has been for Truth . It is more than getting the facts straight to decide if a story is worth repeating. It is the context in which we remember the story, the macro perspective that can give transcendent purpose to the events in our lives. When the story we tell is life affirming, rife with hope, meaning, possibility and connection, its re-telling can liberate us from our suffering.

This story was alive and well at the time of Jesus' ministry. He would frequently remind the people that there was another viewpoint worth considering. Repeatedly Jesus said, "You have heard it said ___(conventional wisdom of the time) but I say to you___(The greater truth) He invited the forgetful people of his time, which is equally applicable to us today, to see from an enlightened perspective.

Jesus modeled the dual nature of being as he fully embraced his humanity, and fully expressed his Spirit. That is our slogan at Unity Center of Davis, embracing the human, expressing the Spirit. It encapsulates for us the parallel purpose as described by every spiritual master; being in the world, present to our physicality, human needs, honoring our embodiment, people, circumstances and conditions, while always seeking to realize, experience, and express the Greater I, that I am (we are). It is the path of being fully human and fully divine, walking in partnership, in which the human stuff is a vehicle through which the Divine is expressed.

As a master teacher of Life Jesus was aware of the human condition and was compassionate to those who suffered. His ministry emanated from both his human eyesight and his spiritual vision. He had a personal transformative relationship with God. He awakened to discover an indwelling God, that good is everywhere present, that the Spirit of the living God indwells everybody, and there is a power in us that overcomes anything. The only truthful story going on is that Spirit is seeking to reveal itself; that our souls are here to heal and grow. Every other story is just a human interpretation of a sacred event.