The Universe and Personhood

(Book notes)

One of the principles of the Rasa Coaching Model is that ours is a relational Universe. Everything is in communion/communication with the whole, even if the apparent parts do not speak the same "language." Just like modern computers we need to find a way to interface with the component parts in an intelligible manner. This can open up some great possibilities.

The Universe becomes more accessible when we can personify its energy and intelligence. This personification or persona of the life-force is not entirely made up. It is archetypal and compatible with the idea of Sheldrake's morphic fields. This persona can also act with great autonomy.

A professional psychic friend of mine came to see one of her "guides" as an image of herself from the future.Whether or not such things like angels in Judeo-Christan tradition, Buddhas in the Vajrayana sense, or Spiritual Guides in the New Age view are "real" is a moot point. I now a couple of talented young  men, one who sees Fairies and the other gnomes and they have evidence in the form of practical guidance.

I am not suggesting such entities exist in objective reality so much as challenging narrow views of how consciousness expresses itself via the Intelligence of the Universe. These are a pragmatic devices which makes unconscious processes available for diverse workings within awareness. Without awareness, consciousness may become fragmented and diassociated and manifest as a expression of multiple personality disorder.

A recent positive example is the work of Mogana Rae, who took the popular idea of money as an energy, and teaches people how to personify that as a sexy "Money Honey" for the purpose of increasing prosperity in all forms. This is excellent Tantric working in light of the rasa view.

Jesus did something similar in personifying the Alaha (Unity) as Abba (Daddy). It can be argued that if our idea of G-d is something like an abstract energy, that we may lose something in terms of the intimacy of relationship inferred by the Greek term gnosis, or the Hebrew da'at.

In what Rabbi Aquiva called the holiest of scriptures; the Song of Songs, Solomon's relationship with Wisdom (Hokmah) is personified as a maiden in an erotic relationship with the hero. In both the Bhakti (devotion) and rasa view, the highest form of relationship with the divine presence is one that mirrors the relationship of husband and wife.

The Islamic and loosely "Christian" Poetsof the Fideli D'Amore and the troubadours of coded Courtly Love teachings also understood this practice of the chaste wooing the unattainable "lady." Dante is an exemplar here in holding the Image of Beatrice as a divine muse and heavenly guide.

In shamanistic teachings it may be found that a Shaman takes a "spirit wife" and should he desire to marry a mortal, he is obligated to inform her that she will be his second wife. In my own case when I desired to marry, I felt the need to ask permission of my own animus figure, as the small fold wedding band I wear on a chain around my neck belongs to her.

In view of the above we can see perhaps the original erotic teachings of Tantrika that are still alive In the Vajrayana Buddhist teachings of vajra (diamond) love and Wisdom Seal practice. It is not about intercourse as physical union is not possible with a mental/imaginal construct, but none the less can be quite sensual energetically as Julie Henderson teaches in her book The Inner Lover. Thus the idea of union in the Vijnyana Bhairava sutra is one of kisses, licks and caresses. Thus it has been said here is the Tantra of Niguma - sister/consort of Naropa - it was the woman's way of spiritual practice, an embodied relational practice opposed to the austere male practices taught by Naropa. 

In Jungian theory, this anima/animus figure is both "soul" and guide to the underworld or unconscious. Working with this figure  in integrating the contents of the unconscious was called soul making. From a practical viewpoint of human relationships, this soul work would allow the withdrawal of projections as found in romantic love and allow a couple to experience each other as equal wholes and not incomplete halves.

From a Christian view, I was at first astounded to encounter women who enjoyed a highly erotic relationship with Jesus. One on line friend wrote such amazing poetry it would be the envy of many Sufi poets, which by the way were comfortable in addressing Allah (Unity) as "she." For heterosexual male monks this was less easily embraced and the devotion to the Virgin Marry became a real resolution to the problem. Humans understand love most deeply in relationship to human bonding's and the erotic relationship is part of the familial relationship. Agape is certainly not void of the erotic element as it was the word of choice in translating the Song of Songs into Greek long before Jesus was born.

Should you chose to experiment with such a practice, please keep in mind that it is a powerful device, but a device not to be confused with literal objective reality. So many teachers have fallen and scandals raised and  followers abused by understanding these teachings on to literal a level. Unlike much of my "musings" here, there are subtleties and cautions which radically affect ones experience in this inner working and I must advise personal coaching/guidance on this material.

The Futility of Understanding

This post is offered on the eve of a presentation I am to give on spiritual discipline according to The Gospel of the Beloved Companion. The Audience will be composed of Unitarian Universalists who have spent the last several months studying mysticism. This denomination is deeply devoted to the idea of understanding things. The idea that Werner Erhardt put forth that "Understanding is the booby prize" is offensive to some there but will become inescapable in my presentation.I offer some thoughts on this view below.

A mystic is one who has in some measure experienced the immovable ground of being. It is this ground in which they are rooted and from which they take their "stand" midst the unfolding uncertainties of life. Others seek to under-stand, meaning they seek a kind of security in a knowledge which shifts with time. Our religions, social institutions, traditions, rituals, belief systems and motivations are reflections of our under-standing - the futil knowing of that that which is temporary and changeable. This may give us the illusion of security, of peace, of happiness, but it is without foundation, it is all conditional and conditioned.

When I teach I expect that I will share information which will broaden anothers understanding - which will allow them to broaden their view of the issues presented. Yet this is not the primary intent of my sharing. My shareing is idealy to challenge the very comfort zone of understanding people continually build, revise and rebuild their thinking upon, that some superior truth may be distilled from it. Such a truth will remain only partial at best, whereas the truth which satisfies the desire for our higher good is that which sets us free. Such a truth is never an object of knowledge but is unfolded in the skill of letting go, of abandoning all that is changeable. It is like peeling an onion until finaly there is nothing left. This is the province of spiritual discipline. No amount of scholarship, no prestigious degrees, no amount of speculative reasoning can substitute for the direct experience of the mystic.

So this is what marks the mystic, not their knowledge of the changable but their experience of the naked eternity of being. Those who touch it are changed by it. No longer will they place false hope in that that which fades. And too, no longer will they presume to capture it in their understanding of history, or philosophy, or even science. They will see the limits of these clearly. The mystic understands knowledge as the intimacy and immediacy of personal experience. This has been
called "gnosis." It is an experience of the unarguable, undeniable and unchanging. In spite of this certainty it is often called "mystery" for it is beyond knowing and labeling in the piecmeal fashion of fact collection and interpretation which we exercise so incessantly in the cause of increasing our understanding.

As a teacher of the mysteries I majorly explore two choices by which others may be led to the precipice of this mystery above understanding. One is to use information to offer an ever wider viewpoint which challenges the student to revise their concept of the known. The other is to encourage the student to abandon all judgements and presuppositions, and question all second hand "facts" as they are but filters which hide the eternal. Both these processes are the same in the sense that they train the student to let go, to release their grasp on the false knowledge I refer to as undertanding. One route is faster that the other but requires a willingness to more directly tolerate ambiguity and insecurity. The other unfolds more gradually into the realization that understanding can not liberate us from ourselves.

It is here where I may be told by others that I have not made myself understood. It is also here where I may extend the invitation to explore the path of the mystic, the gnostic, the knower by exercise of experiential testing that words will always fail to capture. If I fail to inspire others to prove my words, then my time has been spent as an entertainer. I am a good entertainer. The problem with entertaining is that people always want another show, just like understanding always requires another detail. 

One of the reasons I enjoy healing work so much is that the distinction between understanding and doing becomes crystal clear. To be sure debates can rage here over who has the superior understanding. One can educate and become educated about healing interventions, but such understanding does not heal. One must do, one must act. Even not understanding the mechanism healing or even having it be completely wrong, one may experience a healing. Understanding is indeed a booby prize if healing fails to happen. if it does happen words become unnecessary, even pointless. One is released into joy and gratitude.
 

The Seeds of Change

Three certainties:

1) Something is happening.

2) I don't know what it IS.

3) It's nature is change (flow).

 

1) As long as there is perception #1 is an observation of the obvious. Become simple and and reality will meet you in that mirror. 

2) "The map is not the territory." My understanding tells more about me than about reality. Become comfortable with mystery and live by inspiration rather than memory. 

3) "The only constant is change." All attempts to negate change create a turbulence in the flow of life. To the degree one can allow change one abides beyond all bondage by conditions. Befriend change and change may be your best friend. The intelligence of change computes all possibilities. 

Question:

Q: How much change of conditions can you allow?

Make sure the answer to that question is not just the glib mind out of touch with the heart.

 

Commentary:

A small ruder steers a big ship. The "will of the heart" is the helmsman. Steer the course of love-bliss as it is revealed. Allow this beauty as best you can. There is an intelligence in beauty which surpasses logic and senses. 

Practice:

Release all obscurations on the idea of change:
(Use any healing or energy psychology process one is comfortable with for.)

Must change

Could change

Can't change

Should change

Will change

Won't change

Fear of, anger about, uncertainty over, abandonment about, having control over, trusting, &c.

Do this for all body, emotion and belief states that present themselves. 

Then for perhaps the first time, you may discover Choice and free will. Then you may begin to engage spheres of whyat are called the miraculous.

Original Sin

 

This posting is inspired by a great post in the Energy Medicine Exchange group by Huston Vetter, referencing his blog link:  http://docresults.com/blog/sin-is-not-a-behavioral-problem/

 

Below is a commentary written primarily for my Judeo-Christian friends but others may find some benefit as well.

In Natural Philosophy there is only energy, which can be neither created nor destroyed. It is Alaha, the Unity of all things, being without a second, without duality. 

 

In the Story of Gan Eden, the enclosed garden of bliss, the whole of nature communes with the Divine Presence in innocence. The all that is   expresses the innocence of all energy and phenomenon in accordance with its indwelling creative intelligence or wisdom. 

 

The appearance of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good (Tov) and evil (ha'ra - the evil) is marked by the appearance of the serpent - which is a perennial symbol of consciousness. Knowing good and evil is consciousness  of separation, exemplified by judgment. No longer is Alaha known as a unity. Now even the idea of G-d is exiled to some realm outside of nature and outside of ourselves. We project this exiling of the Divine onto a separate deity that casts us beyond the paradise of bliss. (this is fundamentally a rejection of responsibility. 

 

The story tells us more about ourselves than about reality. It is a story of the loss of our identity, and the reclamation of our identity is the age old search to "know thyself". In the language of the psalmist that Jesus quotes; "do you not know that you are gods (elohim - male and female expressions of the sacred Unity of life). Sin is literally missing the mark, an archery term which is without judgment of the act as good or bad, only successful or unsuccessful. 

 

In nature the tiger is faulted that it kills for food. It's tigerness demands it. being a tiger is its identity and it's appropriate behaviors are considered in light of it being a tiger. Yet for a Physician to take a life, could call into question the identity of being a physician. Actions therefor are not the measure of sin but a reflection of identity. Original Sin may therefore be considered a fundamental loss of human identity as a child of G-d, a child of the Universe.

 

It too is a loss of the uncreated, unconditioned bliss of being oneself at home in the living realty of existence. With this loss of knowledge of the Self, we become dependent on the knowledge of judgment, of belief systems and ever more limiting conditioning from our environment. We fall away from the love-bliss of being who we are and dramatize the fear, anger, depression and isolation of separation from life.

 

These and other obscuring emotions, attitudes and the rationalizations we invent to justify them are the signs of our ignorance. They in fact may come to define us. Our attachment to this drama has produced all the horrors and suffering which have pricked the conscience of mankind and led us to conclude there is no guiding intelligence outside of our personalities or personas of limited identity.

 

The restoration or recovery of the knowing of our true identity, lies in the abandonment or release of the wounding we have inflicted upon ourselves and others. Required is a deep healing which may restore the Joy of Eden, the Joy of communion with the Whole of life, the Joy of finding ourselves in the Oneness without opposition. 

 

Know that when our joy is full, that which we call evil actions can not follow, nor can any pain of living cause us to contract from life or believe life can be extinguished. Life, or living energy, only changes form and our holy identity is formless and beyond change. Learn to release everything and peel back the onion layers of identity until there is nothing to grasp. Know then that you are and forever shall be ... incomparably free.