This is in response to a friend who wrote and asked me, “Why isn’t everyone interested in becoming enlightened, when all I see is the River of Truth that runs through all things, everywhere. When I speak with my mother and brother it’s like they don’t even understand what i’m talking about, my passion for self realization. Do you have any insights, lordflea?”
the flowing river of life's truth
Dear Friend,
you ask such a poignant, provacative, and very basic question that I too wondered about once. Ahhhh, but then comes the idea of “karma” and “reincarnation” and one begins to see, perhaps, an answer. of course we have no “proof”…we just go on our gut feelings. But for me, i was lucky to be handed “proof” when my father was passing into the next dimension, and he “saw” the Oneness, the River of which you speak, and his dying words to me were….”isn’t it a shame that it takes some people so long to see that we really are all One.”
so there you go. yes, some people don’t get it. never will, and that’s okay. Why? because that’s their karma. They are just “beginning on the path to enlightenemnt”…even if they’re our parents (as mine were also, like your mom, not “aware”…until my dad was on his deathbed, that is…and my mom still isn’t). So…the way my teacher tells it, is that we’re all on the path, it’s just that some of us are further ahead, and some of us are just starting. but we’re all on it. so perhaps in previous lives, dear friend, you experienced things that took you to the place, the understanding where you are at now. And therefore, you are “further along” than someone who, in previous incarnations, never had the experiences you did. Or the teachers you had. Or noticed the “cosmic coincidences” that you were privy to. They’re happening all around us all the time—“signs.” Some of us “see” them continuously. But some of us laugh and scorn those of us who claim we do.
some of us were kings, other plumbers and exterminators in past lives
Not to compare ourselves to others, that’s not the point, and never to “judge” that we’re “better” because we have more understanding, but rather to exercise the compassion we must when we interact with others who do not have the understanding we do. And to protect ourselves, and our well-earned understanding. Just yesterday, for example, i had to create space from a good friend, temporarily I hope, because she is forever criticizing me, making me feel uncomfortable when I express my views, and always insisting on talking about the horrors of life, politics, the blah blah badness of life, and i on the other hand, see things differently. But friendship is about accepting each others’ differences so i hope we shall both learn more tolerance of each other. Everything in life is a “play.” It’s call maya in yogic scriptures. We all have choices: we can focus on the “dream” of our lives here on earth, or we can focus on the “realness” of the One, the River that Flows through all of us. Likewise, we can choose to focus on the light, or sink deeply into the black muck of hopelessnes.
i choose, like you dear Friend, to go with the flow of the river, and let this experience of life take me to the heights of what it’s like to be a human: i’m gonna work for enlightenment, in other words, even pray for it. Please don’t think your mom or bro have “not gotten it” because their path is their path. what’s true for them is true for them. But your truth comes from another perspective, and if they don’t want it, or can’t acknowledge that you have it…well….you must learn detachment. Just “witness” other’s folly, but don’t judge them, and don’t expect them to believe what you believe, because they are either not “ready for it” …. or have not done the purification that is necessary to receive this information.
are we prepared to "see" the truth?
in the Bible they talk of the “burning bush.” this is, to my mind, how God presented himself to the prophet Abraham because, if God, or “pure consciouness” which i prefer to understand God is, revealed Itself to be the magnificence It is…a person who is not prepared would be…blown away? made insane with the infinite unknowable? who knows? the idea of “God” is safer to a lot of people when it’s presented in the human-ness of Jesus, and I think a lot of Christians don’t want to know much more than that. But thank God they have Jesus (or anyone has their deity) because a life without a Higher Power is a pretty shallow, unhappy, and confusing existence fraught with fears and anger about injustices, politics, etc. etc. Me–I think life is a test. I want to pass, go on to the next level in this school, this journey we’re all on. I choose to accept bad things as being part of the good. They are opposite. Not better, not worse. Just part of. Like dying is part of living. Everything in balance, is the understanding of yogic wisdom: equipoise.
we are ONE
ask me anything. i love your questions. i’m going to copy this and use it as a blog post, not with your real name of course. i’ve been so busy writing my book proposal i haven’t had time to make an entry in a couple weeks. sigh. soon i’ll have a more balanced time for play-work-spirit-play life. like NOW.
lots of love, in Light, lordflea