Recently, walking in the Tennessee mountains on retreat, a grasshopper leapt across my path and I exclaimed “You’re so pretty when you open!,” dazzled by the yellow & green of its wings.
And I thought—Isn’t this true about the natural world?
Butterflies. Birds.
A full Lion’s mane.
Every flower ever.
A puppy’s pink tongue.
A luminous geode (looking like a dumb ol rock before it’s cracked open).
Lolling cats, upside down with their underbellies showing.
The more open, the more enticing.
I & She (not Me)
A definition of terms:
“I”: The vast, formless, conscious awareness that looks out of our eyes and permeates all forms. The ‘ground of being,’ ‘fundamental consciousness,’ ‘what’s looking’ or your ‘true nature.’
“She” (and “He”) : The body, including the energy body. The form—the unique shape that awareness sees and feels through. The hands and organs and heart and guts and blood and brain, etc.
“Me”: The separate self. The self concept. The illusory ‘me’ that lives in the body and has a story. The Doer. The Thinker. The apparently separate subject that’s having the experience. The one who is seemingly operating things.
I have a friend who talks in the movie theater. I don’t enjoy going to the movies with her (bless her), because her commentary takes me out of the film. I am crying, or otherwise totally immersed, and she is opining about an actor’s performance or the musical score. It’s just not fun.
But really I’m talking about myself here.
Because we all have this judgmental ‘friend’ inside our psyches—it’s the same ‘friend’ for all of us—the armchair critic of our lives, sitting in sorta-like the top row of the theater—above your left shoulder—and attempting to rewrite this perfectly good drama, this perfectly embarrassing comedy that is my life, your life.
My favorite movie in 2016 was 'Arrival'--the one with the squid-like aliens and Amy Adams. One of the aliens' message is my message for this post. This is your spoiler alert.
The aliens don't quite 'land' on earth. Their oblong (weird?) spaceships float (menacingly hover?) just above the ground, in several spots all over the globe (ready for a global attack?). Things don't go smoothly. We assume that the gift/tool they are offering is a weapon---we project the idea that there is a zero-sum game happening, that the aliens are here to destroy us, to go to war (the aliens' written language even looks like a circular Rorshach--a perfect metaphor for a whole planets' projections).
Excerpt:
The real truth is that you are your own authority, your own light. Align with that, with the authentic and alive spirit that is moving you, right now, effortlessly. It goes by many names, this inner light: the quiet voice, intuition, inner knowing, flow, your 'yes', inner awareness, spirit, the force (Star Wars fans--it's real!). This light beats the darkness, the heavy conditioning we are burdened by—it is bright and light and easy. It feels effortless. And it is right here, inside of you--not out there, in their eyes, in their approval.
Excerpt:
I am stupidly confident that the biblical story of our fall from grace/heaven being 'knowledge of good and evil' is literally true---that the story is an actual description of the creation of human suffering. And I think tossing out concepts of good & evil, right & wrong, good & bad is an actual path to salvation/peace/heaven. I know, major hubris. Probably a terrible idea---but here goes.
