Wednesday, March 31, 2010

GOD’S HOUSE IS NOT UNCLUTTERED (Copyright, March 2010).

A friend was going through a period of life where she felt overwhelmed by all the things going on around her. She longed for the simpler life she once knew, when she lived in a starker environment without knickknacks and a house full of mementos, and all the other possessions that filled her home. She was a nun, though no longer lived a nun’s life, and her desire to reconnect with that life meant to become more pure and connected with the divine.

It made me think of many other spiritual faiths that have long held views that in order to connect with the divine we must ‘clean up our acts,’ ‘purify our environments,’ ‘scour our thoughts,’ ‘modify our behaviors,’ and many other mottoes intended to purify, simplify, and reduce the effect of the physical realm upon us so that we can become more connected with the divine.

I looked around at my own home and garden. They were so cluttered and filled with things that an aunt of mine once told me that visiting my home was like visiting a museum. I raised my eyebrow at that term, thinking of a stuffy and musty environment, but she then told me that she meant that it is full of an eclectic array of things that keeps people fascinated exploring them.

My garden was overgrown because I was so busy with other things that I could no longer keep up with it. I had to learn to allow the dust on my tables and shelves, and on the multitude of photos on my walls, to just be, because I couldn’t keep up with all else I had to do.

From time to time, despite this stoic position, I wished my home was less cluttered and my garden less weedy. I wished that things were in their ‘places' and that tables and floors shone in the daylight glow from windows. I wished I had the energy to quickly attend the affray left behind by simply living life. But as I looked at the world around me and at the burgeoning greenery in my overgrown garden, and saw wildlife within it, I paused in those wishful thoughts. God’s house is not uncluttered. I then wondered, how does God cope with all the extraordinary complexities and overload that comes with such a vast manifestation?

In answer, I was brought to mind of the novel I'd then been writing for many years. Others read what I’d written and enjoyed it but critics made me hesitant to finish what I began. They said I wrote well. They said I wrote evocatively. They said I wrote copiously. They said I wrote unusually because as they read. and at a point when things could have become boring, I inserted a whole new thing that stopped the story from becoming that.

In today’s writing world, you take things out instead of putting things in, so that the story becomes ‘cleaner.’ I didn’t. I added things in, instead. It’s the way my mind worked. My threads followed other threads and, while they all connected and reconnected, they kept expanding the story. My critics said I wrote a good story but the unconventionality of my writing got to them. They wanted less. They wanted things to the point. I had points and I created journeys but it wasn’t quick enough for them. They were embedded in their views that a good story was quick and dramatic – not an unfolding adventure.

I then realized that God’s stories are not as clean as they would have liked them, either. Every time you think one of God’s stories has come to an end, another begins. Every time you think you have a handle on what the story is about, a new aspect comes into play. God, like me, doesn’t take away from the story but keeps adding new bits to keep our interest up and our investment in the story maintained.

When I looked at my home and garden again, truth to tell, I saw their beauty. I knew their presence. I felt their serenity. If I let things like dust I could draw hearts in or weeds so high a snake could hide in them bother me it wasn't because they were wrong or unclean or untidy or unkempt or disconnected from the divine. It was because I was feeling overwhelmed, lacking energy, lacking vitality, feeling disconnected myself, and needing less on my plate to deal with so that I could tackle what I had to maintain.

This was not a problem with cleanliness or untidiness. Our ancestors lived in homes with dirt floors. Did they dust their mud brick walls, then? They lived with their animals in the same room they slept in at night. Did they worry about keeping the muck separate? Did they scythe the weeds outside their doors or did they pick them for herbs? My modern problem was one of overload and overload is a problem of attitude. What’s really important?

So what if others thought crazy people lived in my home because the lawns weren’t mown and the weeds had grown high in my garden beds? Why should I think, 'If only they could remember how beautifully kept these yards of mine were when my life wasn’t so burdened?' Why should I feel that I could only have friends visit in my home if my tables were dusted and my clothes didn’t litter my floors? Are friends people you impress or people you hang with because you are comfortable with them through thick and thin?

Burdens help you prioritize. We can’t deal with everything. Human frailty doesn’t allow us to be superhuman, no matter how much our mind wants to complete its agendas. This doesn’t mean we have to give up what we love just because it can no longer be kept up with or because it doesn't meet our expectations and ideals of what living in the divine light is. I love my home and garden. I still find great peace and haven in them, despite those petty considerations. If God likes the clutter and keeps adding to it, then why do we think that decluttering brings us closer to the divine?

I am grateful for what I have. Of course, I like it better when my home is cleaner, my garden more navigable, and when I have the time and energy I deal with it as I can, if only so that I don’t trip over last week’s washing on my way to bed, or so that my dogs can go to the toilet in my yard without being scared a toad will jump out at them from the underbrush. Yet there are a multitude of lives happening in that underbrush. When we stop and look, life thrives in the messiest of places. I thrive. You thrive. We thrive…so long as we don’t get caught up in our concepts of clutter, of cleanliness, and of good and bad.

I live in the sub-tropics. Cockroaches are rife in most homes, here. They’re very hard to get rid of once you have them. Clutter helps them hide. It doesn’t matter how much you clean up after yourself, if there’s clutter around, they manage to keep on keeping on. Multiple pest controls haven’t got rid of them. They continue to thrive. I had to laugh when I realized that in part of our regular pagan rituals, when we do a house and garden cleansing that asks Mother-Father God to cleanse the place of negative energies and to fill it with their life force, their love and wisdom, and to protect it and everyone in it from harm or negativity, we unwittingly asked for them to be protected, as well. The cockroaches lived in our home. They were born there. They were God’s creatures, too. (That thought didn’t stop me squashing them when I saw them, though I did wish them a happier next life).

Snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, spiders, beetles, termites, ants, butterflies, moths, geckos, centipedes, mice, kookaburras, possums, blackbirds, magpies, parrots, and my domestic cats and dogs, and fish live in my home and garden, along with the humans. It’s a zoo. A thriving menagerie. Could they exist there if my home was less cluttered? Probably, but in lesser population. I deal with the vermin as best as I can, and wish them the best – after all, they don’t know they are vermin. They're just looking for homes and nourishment, too.

Do I truly want my life to be less cluttered in order to feel more in contact with the divine? Oh, no. Not I. I see the divine in every being, even those poor little cockroaches I am about to squish. But there are priorities. Having clean plates to eat my dinner on and a place to sit without bugs crawling on it are priorities. Priorities deal with what is most important. Dust is not so important as cleanliness. Weeds are not so important as serenity and diversity. Burdens are only as important as you make them. I chose not to make weeds and dust my burdens. There were other burdens I would rather carry than such petty loads.

In Tantra, yogis attempt to discipline their minds and bodies in order to reconnect with the divine, and to connect with the divine on more powerful levels. To do so, their regime includes extremes of meditation, prayer, and dietary restrictions so that they are forced to focus on the bare minimum of physical reality and can only focus on the spiritual. But an enlightened being doesn’t need such physical disciplines to refocus their mind. All they have to do is focus to reconnect with the divine. It’s a shift in time and space, and has nothing to do with physicality. You can be totally connected in body in a physically cluttered world, and yet be completely focused in the mind essence of divinity, where all life is one and naturally much simpler.

Buddha made peace with himself the day he became enlightened. For years he’d meditated and starved himself to try to follow the regimes of yogis in order to become enlightened. He’d reduced the clutter from his life in order to become more connected with the divine, but nothing worked. It was when he decided to accept life in all its diversity that the light went on in his head. In that moment, he realized that you don’t have to disconnect from the world in order to reconnect with the divine. Like making a phone call home, you just connect.

The key to living in a burgeoning and writhing physical universe is a basic tenet of Buddhism. Focus on the moments, instead of the sequence of events. Be mindful. Be here. You can’t be in the future because it hasn’t happened yet. You can’t be in the past because it has moved away from you. You can only be here, now. That means you can only deal with what is before you, and you can only deal with one thing at a time. What a wonderfully effective mode for decluttering existence!

I know that the weeds and dust will always be there, waiting, and will always become part of my here and now, some time. But as I deal with priorities, what needs the most attention gets it first. In doing that, I live life effectively, no matter what other people think or what notions I have about what they think.

I came to like my clutter. I realized I found it interesting. I made an uneasy peace with myself, instead, and whenever it got to me after that, I just decluttered my mind...

Monday, March 2, 2009

About Buddhism


Buddhism is the practise of being a Buddha.

A Buddha is a living entity manifesting God or the Divine Force.

A Buddha is aware of the Divine Force inside and that Divine Force imbues every thought and deed.

Buddhas are gods.

Gods are not worshipped – there is no need for worship – gods are equal to all others. They are Buddhas only because they are aware of their own Divine Force.

Gods are leaders. They lead by passive example, not by physical action.

Buddhas teach when others ask them to teach, but they do not instruct. They allow others the right to live their lives as they please, unless they ask for guidance. Then, they share wisdom, not advice.

We can all be Buddhas.

To do so, we need to understand that we are all gods. We are all living entities manifesting Divine Force, or God.

As gods, we are separate to the physical world our bodies live in.

Our minds are apart from the daily travails. Our emotions are guided by our knowledge of ourselves, as gods.

Our intellect is directed by the knowledge that, as gods, the travails of this world, and of any world, are temporal, ephemeral, and passing.

As gods, we understand that pain and suffering is part of the experience of the physical world. We understand that joy and elation is also part of the physical world – but, to allow ourselves to experience any of these, we open ourselves to pain and suffering as well.

This is the tenet of the Middle Path – that to avoid pain and suffering, we do not allow ourselves to become emotionally or intellectually invested in any moment or any thing.

But Buddhas do not have to follow the Middle Path to be Buddhas. They have the freedom of choice to allow themselves to feel whatever they wish.

Their knowledge of the physical worlds, and their spiritual objectivity, enable them to understand that by allowing themselves to feel whatever they wish means that they may be subject to the consequences of doing that.

Buddhas understand that the physical realms are coded with laws of right action. Whenever right action has been usurped, consequences ensue. This is called Karma.

Karma is not something to be afraid of. Karma is a cultivating factor. It enables all paths to conform to the laws of right action encoded into any particular realm of manifestation. If a life path steers away from right action, Karma teaches how to get back to it. It is the leash that yanks back the straying dog; the walls we bump into when we search blindly in the dark; the soft hand on the small of our back guiding us gently forward; the sharp slap of rebuke when someone has misbehaved.

Karma is the reason why Buddhas do not need to teach. Karma teaches. Life, itself, teaches.

For all the depths of experience that can be had in the manifest worlds, one lifetime is never enough. The realms of experience are diverse and multitudinous. They are the manifestation of the Mind of God (or Divine Force).

God thinks and God focuses on an aspect of Thought. When God focuses, a manifestation occurs. A world is brought into being. Life is created.

God’s focus creates us, and focus means that our lives deal with particular issues, or particular streams of function and relation. Each life created is a separate life path.

When God has done with a focus, or the thought tracing a life path, God recycles that thought along the next stream of thought, that has been created from the ramifications the last one brought to mind – just as our own thoughts move from their initial stream into new fields of enlightenment.

This is the basis of reincarnation. We are gods; the manifestation of God in form; the expression of God’s thought; sparks created by Divine Force. We live our lives until God has experienced all there is to experience of our life path. But our life force does not die. God is immortal. God’s mind is ceaseless. God’s thoughts move on, and so do we, to a new life path.

As Buddhas, we understand this – that manifest life is ephemeral. We understand that all experience is ephemeral, even the most painful and tragic moments of it - or the most ecstatic and blissful. We understand that God exists apart from such experience, and so do we. It is therefore an unnecessary pain to cultivate a deep investment of mental or emotional energy in the manifest realms of existence.

Buddhas recognize that we are living as the manifestations of God’s thoughts. They understand that our Divinity is inherent. In so doing, they recognize that such Divinity is also inherent in every other aspect of the manifest realm around them. When we understand this, we realize that to be emotionally and mentally invested as individuals in this world – to live with an egotistical focus – means that we are setting ourselves apart from the whole that is God.

When we set ourselves apart, it is possible to make war with ourselves. We may create difficulties where there is no need to be any. We create desires and thirsts and hungers that need to be quenched, and in doing so, we forget who we are, as gods.

Buddhas are objective. Egotism and feeling – investment in the physical realm our bodies live in – are natural, if people are to follow the flow of their life paths to their end. But Buddhas know that all the choices we make in life have consequences.

As Buddhas, we understand that we are manifest because God is enjoying itself, and has a right to do so. God is enjoying exploring its thoughts and following their creative manifestation.

Just as anyone has a right to be emotionally invested in a movie they watch, to feel what happens as fully and completely as they can, or to be detached and accept that everything that happens has been created to form a ‘good story,’ so do Buddhas understand that they have a choice to feel pain or not, to be invested or detached, to feel ‘real’ or to feel ‘divine.’

Compare a nightmare with a dream. A nightmare controls you – it frightens, stirs the emotions, makes the heart race. Nightmares can be scary. Yet a dream can be controlled at times – it stimulates without hurting, it shows ways of enjoyment, it soothes and delights. Dreams are creative.

Buddhas choose to view dreams, not nightmares. They follow a creative path, not an over-stimulated one. They understand that all life has choices, but that those choices are often not what action can be taken, but what thought can be cultivated. They understand that how you think about things, what stance you take, is often the crux upon which events turn.

They understand that the best one can do in life is not to give up, not to give in, but to live life as fully and completely as you can, in the best functional way possible, until it ends. And that ending only comes at the moment you die.

They understand that to do our best means that we must follow whatever path is right, to analyze every moment so that we do what is right for us, and right by others, though we can only do that by our own values. They understand that when we follow a wrong path, Karma will show us the right path again.

Buddhas are, above all things, AWARE. And they assume responsibility for their lives based on that awareness. They understand that, by being responsible for themselves, they will act in the best manner to enable others to live their lives with the fullest freedom they can give – that of non-interference.

Buddhas are not pacifists. If a Buddha is in a situation where action needs to be taken to ensure the Buddha is still following their right path, then action will be taken – as long as no harm or interference is played upon others. A Buddha will stand up for their rights; will talk and negotiate; will prevent wrong-doing if it is possible without doing wrong, themselves; but a Buddha will walk away rather than become emotionally invested in bad feelings, physically invested in violence, or mentally invested in ego.

The only investment a Buddha retains is spiritual, and even that investment is detached. Buddhas do not believe their paths are the only paths to enlightenment. The spiritual modes of Buddhas recognize the laws of the physical realm and how those laws create patterns of behavior in others that need compassion and objectivity to deal with. Only by compassion and objectivity can such patterns be broken.

Nirvana is not a separate existence. Nirvana, or Heaven, is a state of mind.

Wherever we cultivate a peaceful state of mind, Nirvana exists. The mind is the key to all the manifest realms. God’s mind creates worlds, and so do ours. What we create in our minds exists.

This is why Buddhas help others and are such practical people. What we practice, we think. If we practice compassion, care and peace, we become compassionate, caring and peaceful. By applying ourselves in practical ways, we avoid investing ourselves in emotions or intellect. We function as well as we can, until life ends. We try not to suffer, because suffering prevents progress, and creativity needs progress to exist.

Buddhas are not perfect – they are humans manifesting Divine Force. Buddhas can therefore return to the Karmic cycle by simply forgetting their own Divinity. And they can be restored to Buddhahood by remembering it again.

The philosophical path of Buddhism is cultivated with mythologies, rituals, divine stories and histories as much as any other religious or spiritual stream manifest on Earth today, but what has been written above remains the gist of what Buddhism is about. You cannot become a Buddha by knowing the life history of Siddhartha Gautama. His life is an example, but not a rule.

You can become a Buddha only by becoming AWARE of your OWN Divinity, and living according to its force, alone. You cannot follow the life path of Siddhartha. You can only follow your own life path, advised, as you may be, by his wisdom, or whatever wisdom you find along the way.

Buddhas do not attempt to attain perfection. They recognize that life is perfect, already, in the state God needs it to be to experience what God wants to experience. Buddhas accept imperfection and strives to see beauty in all states of existence. Practical creativity is the expression of the Buddha, even if that is just a state of mind.

We are all gods but not all of us are Buddhas. We are not all of us aware of the Divinity within us. But we are all God’s mind. We are all One, for better or worse. The acceptance of these things underlies the philosophy of Buddhism.

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religion. Do not believe in anything simply on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But, after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
~ Buddha Siddhartha Gautama ~

Find your inner strength through an open heart and a quiet mind.

“Life is nothing until it is lived, but it is yours to make sense of; and the value of it is nothing other than the sense you choose.”
~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Truth of Life

These are some of the spiritual themes that guide my life.

1. Karma belongs only to the manifest realms, the places where divine spirit becomes an entity, on whatever level of existence that may be.

Such things as karma do not belong to the fundamental god force behind all existence, and it is to that fundamental god force that all elements of ‘reality’ and ‘manifestation’ return once they have had their stint of ‘life.’

2. The fundamental god force is pure and immortal. It is detached and objective. It exists with its own impulses, alone.

In its existence, it pulses, like a heartbeat. Those pulses send out activity, that becomes the ‘manifest.’

There are no laws pertaining to the fundamental god force. It is a law unto itself. It is the source of all existence as we know it and is totally a creative element. Like a brain, it is, it thinks, and it's thoughts are multitudinous. Unlike a brain, it's thoughts become 'reality.' That 'reality' is us.

There is a saying, macrocosm to microcosm, all manifest existence is reflected in each element, no matter how massive, or how minute. If you want to know how the laws that shape our ‘reality’ work, you need only look at the minutiae of life and how its history and modes evolved.

In us, a reflection of the fundamental, or essential, god force also exists. Our brains also think, explore, and imagine new opportunities. But, instead of our thoughts just being able to go out and become manifest, the physical realm we exist in usually requires that we put some physical effort into making those imagined opportunities a reality.

You can think of our manifested 'reality' in the same terms as a computer game or internet simulation, where computer programming confines manifestations to certain limits, and computer language defines what can happen at any level, or what must be done at certain levels in order to gain the next level.

You can think of the essential god force input into that 'programming' as it thinking of a possibility, and then exploring the ramifications of how such a possibility might play out, and how that play would be connected to other aspects, and so on. In thinking through these things, and surmising how it could work, a 'programming' comes into effect in the course of the ‘reality’ created. In other words, as it thinks on how things would evolve to their end, it instils structure to events that become the rules that shape them.

Apart from any levels of ‘reality’ and ‘manifested existence,’ these sole facts underlie all existence, as we know it. The essential god force is the creator, the manifestor - sexless (or some might say possessing all sexes in it's single entity, since it is the sole progenitor), formless - a mind sleeping and active, in pulses, and the single source of all we know.

3. Anyone can talk to this essential, or fundamental, god force, if they wish, because we are all aspects of it's 'mind.' Therefore, we can talk directly to it, as a thought can ‘speak’ to us, in our own minds. But the difference between our talking to this fundamental god force is that it is extremely essential and detached from any of the roleplay of any mode of our existence. It knows that all existence is simply itself, expressing it's own mind. It is interested in the play of thoughts in it's mind, and loves an interesting conversation between those same ‘thoughts,’ but it has no investment whatsoever in what actually happens in our ‘manifest realities,’ because to it, we don’t exist outside of itself. And nothing that happens to us in our ‘lives’ is any more real than dreams, nightmares, and cogitations.

Those are the 'facts.' The essential god force has no investment in our lives, beyond being our creator/parent, (or even scientist/researcher), exploring the interactions of it's own brain with fascination.

4. All existence moves in cycles of pulses. There are ‘active’ phases and ‘inactive’ phases. As in our own existence, there are times of dynamism, and times of rest, in the life of the essential god force. So, what the creator god force puts ‘out there’ is also withdrawn, temporarily. Life is created, and life is withdrawn. These pulses are rhythmic, as those of a heartbeat, but they cannot be measured by us in terms of time. Time, as we know it, does not exist in the life of the essential god force. It is relevant, as a linear stream of passaging events, only to the realms of manifest existence. Instead, these cycles are measured by the pulses, themselves, which are totally an autonomous system of the ‘body’ of the essential god force, and are stimulated by an urge that arises in itself, automatically. You could say there is such a thing as 'timing,' but not a linear time stream, if that makes sense.

Of course, in our existence, questions arise as to how the essential god force, itself, might have come into being, and how it might be connected to other 'essential god force,' or perhaps how it might be part of a greater macrocosm, as well. Questions arise as to why the essential god force would have impulses, or a need to explore itself, but the fact is that such questions are really irrelevant to our own existence. All they do is put you on a cycle of questions that have no resolution in the realms we exist in, and cannot be answered in a way we can comprehend. It may be that the essential god force that created all manifest existence, as we know it, does belong to some even greater macrocosm, as this would fit with the law as we know it, of reflection. But then, we judge such matters from our own limited scope.

Just as a law clerk would therefore not think he had the skills to work out the science known to a cosmologist, so do most of us not have the skills to work out such wider, macro cosmic matters. A life spent exploring such matters, that we do not have the skills nor the ability to resolve or find answers to, is a life wasted.

So, for our own benefit, we need only know that the essential god force, the creator/scientist of our own manifest realities, has always been, is there in every moment, and will always be - at least, so long as the human race exists and thinks on it.

Further, we may know that in it's cogitations, as it created each element of existence as we know it, it delved into a minutiae of detail and ramifications, so that the realms of existence it created are also multi-layered and multi-faceted, and each element of existence, on whatever level, is interconnected. It is interconnected because the initial thoughts of the essential god force reached out and continued following the thread of each thought, until it had thought out all possible interconnections and ramifications. Each new thought was and is, therefore, related and connected to the previous thought that was seeded. And each new level of existence, that came into being with the thread of each new thought, is also, therefore, related and interconnected to the previous levels of existence that were birthed.

In this manner, you may also begin to understand how both 'good' and 'evil' exist in the manifest realms. They were not deliberately created in any specific manner, but became evident as the essential god force followed the thread of each 'thought,' for better or worse, until it reached an end, that actually only transformed into another new beginning – much as a thread of thought in us plays out, for better or worse, including all the best case and worst case scenarios, until it comes to a culmination and an ending, and then produces a new train of thought.

In the mind of the essential god force, therefore, there does exist the possibility of good outcomes and bad outcomes, and it does think on and therefore manifest these, but they remain to itself just elements of it's thought processes, and irrelevant in any way that truly affects it's own existence, except in that exploration of it's creative imagination.

5. How does this all affect us? Well, as I said, you can talk with or pray to that essential god force at any time. It is contactable, as a mind can speak to itself, in it's own thoughts, but you will never get any satisfactory answers to your problems from it, because as far as it is concerned there are no problems. It has simply been imagining, and thus the outcomes remain part of it's own imagination. This is what I mean when I say that the essential god force remains detached, objective, and uninvested in the personal moments of our lives.

That can bring up other questions like, why doesn’t the essential god force understand that it's own creative imagination is manifesting 'realities?' But again, that also brings up elements that are beyond the scope of most of us to deal with or fully understand. It also begs the question of what 'existence' truly is – are we ‘real’ or do we just imagine we are ‘real?’ Is what we deem to be solid, really solid? Or is it just the feedback from our sensory organs that tells us it is solid? Does the rest of the world and the cosmos really exist, even if we haven’t ever visited and experienced those places as a reality, just because we have read or heard that they exist? What if our lives are totally encompassed in programmed rules, and the extent of our 'reality' is only changeable as much as we move through any level, similar to a computer simulation, and that our 'deaths' come at a time when the program runs out of input information to create further areas for us to 'exist' in?

I have found personal evidence of this programming via astrology. (Liken the planets and star positions, and interactions to a binary code where the programming affects specific parts of the computer to behave in specific ways). Others deem their psychic interaction to be a dip into this 'programmed' information, e.g. Akashic Records, in the cosmic 'pool.' Our lives are full of limitations and culminations, of elements it seems we must live through as ‘destiny’ plays out. Free will plays out only via the inner choices we make, and even those are behaviourally 'programmed' to ensure our inner actions and reactions follow modes instilled at birth, or inculcated by 'programmed' outer events, to ensure we work according to our 'fate.'

Ultimately, reference to the essential god force appears to do nothing than reinforce our own interconnectedness with every other part of existence; reinforce our immortality as elements in the mind of the essential god force; reinforce our own personal and seeming immateriality in the grander scheme of things; and reinforce that whatever play our life roles enact there is no ultimate meaning to it other than the self-exploration of the essential god force.

For most people, it is enough to simply live their lives until all modes play out, and the transformation of ‘death’ comes. That’s perfectly okay, and stops the anxiety that can come from exploring the deeper ramifications of existence and those cosmically unanswerable questions. For a growing number, however, there is a need to have some meaning ensuing from their existence. They have dwelled enough on matters, and connected to the essential god force to such a degree, that they have learned that life exists beyond ‘death,’ among other things, and these have then brought up other questions. They want to believe that, if they are allowed the scope to delve into such matters and discover aspects beyond and yet connected to their realm of existence, they have more substance than mere threads of thought in god's mind, that come to an end without import.

Life exists beyond ‘death’ only because the essential god force transforms any thought thread that comes to the end of its trail into a new thought process, so long as that thought thread contained elements that created new avenues for exploration, meaning that the energy creating the life of that thread is transformed into a new existence.

Questions arise, also, that since the human race is so recently a part of the thought processes of creation, and that the human race is apparently so in-dwelling on these matters, that perhaps the essential god force has become aware that it's thoughts are so intensely invested in the dynamics of these processes that they are actually manifesting 'realities,' even if those 'realities' just exist in it's mind. It may be that the essential god force, itself, is coming to a culmination of all it's threads of thought processes, and perhaps a transformation in it's own life. Or, perhaps, it is coming to a culmination of activity, or pulse, that is about to lead to rest.

Again, cogitating on the essential god force in these matters does nothing for the understanding of our own lives as anything meaningful, other than the futile feeling thought that perhaps we don’t really exist at all. It is well to remember that the essential god force, whilst being the creator and observer of us and our realities, is apart and detached from them. In many respects, it is like the builder of a house. The builder does his job and moves on to the next job. It is up to the householder to make the house a home and an arena for activity. The builder can be consulted if major structural problems crop up, but has no input whatsoever in the lives of those who live in the house on any other level. Or it is like a scientist, conducting experiments or following theorems, to see what happens under such and such conditions. Moral and ethical ramifications in fact have no substance in the mind of the essential god force in matters pertaining to ourselves and our realities, because it is dealing with itself, and it's own thoughts - not dealing in relationships outside of itself.

6. So, then, here we are. We think, we feel, we act, we 'are.' To us, this life is 'real.' Our feelings ensure that our interaction with our manifest realm is poignant. We live, we love, we breathe, we die… We want our lives to have more meaning than just to be the elements of the essential god force cogitations.

In this, it is our choice, our free will, to some exent. For some, as noted, above, it doesn't matter. But for those who have been given the inner scope to ponder, and to want to understand better, should they just allow their lives to play out as threads of existence where there are no values necessary or choices to be made? If they don’t like what is happening, do they just give up and allow it to happen, anyway, because they are just elements in the mind of the essential god force?

Let’s look to how human beings have handled that, historically. No, mostly, they haven’t allowed themselves to be swallowed by the 'play' of their own existence. They haven’t allowed themselves to become mere pawns of thought in the mind of the essential god force. They demanded that they have value and meaning in the realm of their own existence. They sought vindication of that value and meaning by creating layers of 'reality,' not only in law bodies and government and rules and regulations in their own world, but by creating layers of worlds where angels and demons, and gods and goddesses, and other supernatural creatures exist, in order to bring some sense to the unanswered questions inside themselves.

Why would such things be allowed to happen in the thought processes of the essential god force? Because, as these particular threads of human lives played out, they produced greater and more intricate questions, and so interesting were these ramifications that the essential god force then focused on the ‘what if’ of such other realms co-existing with those of the human race. It therefore naturally created the realms of angels and demons, of gods and goddesses, and other supernatural realms, as it dwelt on and imagined them - and all because the threads that played out via the minds and urges of humans wanted them to be. And then, having been created, those supernatural realms naturally developed their own threads and themes, and interactions and meaning.

7. This brings up a facet of human existence. While it is impossible to pray to the essential god force and be given answers that we find satisfying, our own cogitations, and therefore ambitions or concerns, can stimulate new threads of thought and manifestation from the mind of the essential god force, thereby bringing the answers to our ‘prayers,’ anyway, if it sees fit. And there, also, lies the catch. The mind of the essential god force is skilled in playing out the ramifications of anything it imagines.

Only the prioritizing probability of that thought thread will become manifest, so even if what you want to happen is thought of with great focus and put ‘out there’ in prayer, for its perusal, it is not guaranteed that the result will be an answer to your prayer or desire. The result will be the right outcome, or the outcome guaranteed to ensue from any particular situation – the fullest ramification of that thought process.

So, we do have the power to change our own destinies, if we feel concerned enough about the way things are going – and even if we do nothing but fret over them, without actually doing anything on a physical level. Just by being fully invested in such concerns, as elements of the mind of god, and following through all ramifications of such investment, including our own manifested thoughts about what is happening to us, we can create new 'realities' as the essential god force focuses on our situations because of the gathering of energy we place in these pivotal issues. But there are no guarantees that what we want to manifest will be what is manifested. When the essential god force focuses on these intense crux points in it's thought threads, it will either redirect events in the thread of existence we are involved in, or it will allow our existence to play out, and will then attach the newly generated threads onto the terminating end of our existence. Which method it uses is based on whether or not the rest of our existence has been invalidated by these new focuses, and therefore new priorities, or if, despite new threads to explore being created by these new focuses, our own thread of existence remains interesting enough to follow through to their fullest end. In either case, whether such explorations change the track of our lives, or springs new threads of existence from the end of our lives, what is manifested is what will play out the fullest ramifications of those new threads of thought from the mind of the essential god force, including the influence of all other connections, whether they be people, environmental, or supernatural. The saying, be careful what you wish for, thus comes into play. Prayers and desires need to be cultivated carefully, with deep consideration for all ramifications, and even with the cautious knowledge that there may be hidden influences in play that may still change the results. And only if it is in our best interests, as these new elements override the priorities of what the rest of our lives may have been, will our prayers or desires become manifest within our lifetime.

Because of these modes of our manifest reality, we can say that supernatural realms do exist. If our reality exists, and our reality includes notions of supernatural realms, then those realms exist. This also brings up a question of how supernatural realms exist, since they have effect upon our lives on very personal, subjective, and apparently non-substantial levels. How do we measure the effect of miracles where there is no proof of how the miracle has been effected, except that some things have happened that previously could not happen? How do we say these things are an effect of a supernatural entity, and not just coincidence? How do we differentiate the mental aberrations of illness and psychosis from true vision and spiritual or psychic experience? The first multi-faceted question is answered in two parts. On one hand, having been thought into existence by any one person's cogitations bringing focus and new threads from the mind of the essential god force, supernatural and divine realms and entities exist. By existing, it is possible for more than one person, with that same focus, to key into those realms and obtain information about them, that aligns with what other people also 'know.' On the other hand, because of the 'programming' instilled along with the creation of those supernatural and divine realms and their inhabitants, the effect of such realms and entities will only ever be upon those who believe, who want to believe, or whose lives are ready for belief. Others can live in complete ignorance of the effect of such realms, despite their existence, because they don't even think of them, or because their thoughts deny their existence. This is not to say that those who experience these co-existing realms are experiencing things that have no reality. It is just that their experience is subjective and personal, even on a mass scale. Lastly, mental aberrations of illness and psychosis have clearly defined terms, and examinations that can be done to ascertain that what is imagined is a chemical or physical fault. Where true spiritual or psychic experience occurs is in situations where there is nothing wrong, mentally or physically, with a person, and in all other respects they live normal lives and portray logical and normal mind processes. That is where suppositions arise that something extraordinary may be happening.

8. Apart from being the 'mere' manifestations of the mind of the essential god force, for as long as our lives are in process, they are ‘real.’ They have outcomes. They have effect. Those effects and outcomes may only be in our lives and in our realms of existence, but again we can liken this to the realm created in a computer simulated environment. While that process only forges whilst the game is in play, and the players return to a safe environment at game's end, no matter what happened during the game, nevertheless, whilst the game is in play, certain rules shape the process, and certain limitations upon the environment is imposed. For the life of the process of the game, the game world exists. For the life of the process of playing out the fullest ramifications of our threads, our worlds exist.

This is where the laws of karma come into play. Karma is the law of action and reaction. It is the logical outcome, or ramification, of any action or event. It is the evidence of the process of our worlds – even the worlds of the supernatural. So, yes, even the realms of gods have karma, because they are part of manifest existence.

If our body dies with a thread of action or behaviour unexamined, because our lives and actions posed new threads for examination that could only be added after our lives had fully played out, then another type of karma comes into play. It’s not quite the karma that we know involving the consequences of existence as we know it. Instead, where some things remain unexamined as the thread of our existence in the mind of the essential god force comes to an end, our life force energy is immediately recycled to play out these elements in a new ‘life.’ Such is the way our own minds work, and such is the way the mind of the essential god force works, too – microcosm to macrocosm.

Where our thoughts play to an end that brings new thoughts into being, we immediately turn the energy already deliberated on the previous thought upon the new thought process. And this is the basis of reincarnation. If the play of our lives brings new questions into being, our energy will be transformed into a new life that allows those questions to be examined to their fullest ramifications.

9. In understanding these things, and wondering why we should make attempts to be better in our own lives, or if we should just give up and allow life to do what it will with us, we should think – is this the life I want to be living? Is this what I want to be happening to me? Is this what I want to be happening to those I love and care for?

If it isn’t, then no amount of ‘giving up’ will ever see us really give up. If we don’t form values and opinions, and create new opportunities for ourselves, the ramifications of our lives will be those of weak points in the thought stream, that imagine a better life but don’t have the strength, either in mind or will, to imagine the full ramifications of outcome that will ensure we capitalise on opportunities so that the best life possible can be manifested. We, instead, become 'a small pebble in a stream,' wanting a home for itself, but unable to do anything but roll with the currents, and hitting every snag on the way, unable to 'see' far enough ahead to find a cranny to lodge in.

If we want something badly enough, and are prepared to put in the effort to make it happen when the opportunity crops up to capitalize upon, we can make it happen. Every human desire can become manifest. However, again, only if the ramifications of the thread of existence it is connected to enable it to become manifest. All we can do is to have enough faith in our own ability to reach into the mind of the essential god force, (or into our future, developing from it's mind), to create new and better threads of existence by seeing how such things can play out, though ultimately, how those threads actually play out is out of our hands. With faith in ourselves and enough ambition to visualise a better future, a 'realistic' future that is within our scope, we develop the foresight that allows us to capitalise on events when they crop up. Without trying to do this, we remain at the whimsy of ‘destiny.’

On the other hand, there are times when the play of events, in any realm, ours or the supernatural, or even cosmic, passages through in such ways that are disheartening. It seems, then, that ‘evil’ has the upper hand, and all we can do is allow that to play itself out. That is a fact, to some extent, and natural events in the life of our planet can take loved ones away from us in ‘death,’ etc. at such times, or things on personal or environmental levels can seem insurmountable. During those processes, we can feel helpless, and simply the pawns of existence. The trouble that arises from allowing ourselves to feel that way is that our feelings and thoughts have power in the mind of the essential god force, as I noted before. When we give in to such feelings and thoughts, they enable new threads to begin to play out, stemming from our feeling of being helpless, or a pawn, and so, until the full ramifications of that thread play out, we may have even more intense situations to live through, where we are fully tested in those notions, where we feel helpless and a pawn, as god’s mind sees where such thoughts can lead us.

It is well, then, to remember that all such existence belongs to cycles – to threads playing out – and that all such cycles and threads eventually come to an end, if we can but live through them. It is well to not give in to ideas and notions that we are helpless, or just pawns, so as not to cultivate new threads of such negativity, that can effect even worse conditions upon us. It is better to accept what happens in moments of such impotence, knowing that these cycles cannot last forever, and to cultivate instead feelings of positiveness, and of ambition, and of desires for a better future, and notions of how that might actually happen, with the fullest knowledge of how we have the skills or can obtain them to manifest such desires. Then, if a new thread is created, it is created on the foundation of those positive desires, instead of the negative feelings of being overwhelmed.

10. Life is convoluted because there are so many threads of existence, all merging, and all manifesting new threads as they go through their processes. We can’t get a handle on life by trying to form a mere knowledge of it. The only way we can get a handle on life is by forming value systems that see us through both dark times and light ones, which is also the basis for most religions and spiritual faiths.

Because we feel helpless in some conditions, and want to retain a sense of meaning that we are unable to find at times of great distress and testing, the realms of the supernatural and divine were created by our very own needs for such positivity. They have been created, and are therefore as real as ourselves, in our manifest realms. And once created, with the notions of what they meant to us, and were about, their own threads of existence and interaction with us came into play, and still exist in our lives today. We therefore gave ourselves the means, when all else fails to keep us positive, of retaining a sense of positivity, via the manifestation of the divine realms, and of spiritual messengers and guides, and of beings who exist with a greater knowledge of the cosmos than our own, who can guide us to the correct forms of expression so that the very best forms of existence, or threads of thought from the mind of the essential god force, are manifested.

This is the gift we gave ourselves. Everyone has this ability, when their own faith in themselves and their lives cannot shake a cycle of negativity from manifesting, to change direction by concentrating on positive forces and modes that enable us to stay true to our desires for a better life for ourselves and those we love. When our own faith is not enough, we can put our concerns into the hands of ‘higher’ beings, to worry for us – and because we gave those beings the ability to remain detached from worldly concerns, they don’t get caught up in worrying about being tossed around like pawns. They do, however, having been given the ability to remain as detached as the essential god force, know that some events and situations must simply be allowed to play themselves out, for better or worse. So even prayers to them will be dependent upon the full ramifications of any particular thread of existence.

As can be seen by these musings, the mind is the most powerful tool any human being possesses. From it, we can fill the essential god force with a curiosity for establishing new threads. We can therefore affect our own existence. While there are situations we still have to live through, by maintaining a positive attitude toward them, and remaining optimistic that at some time an opportunity will arise for us to capitalize on and bring change to those situations, we can ensure that any negative situation we are living through will come to an end.

So, yes, values and opinions, strivings and ambition, seeking good actions and having good attitudes are relevant in the expression of any life in the manifest realms. But it’s not so much about the laws of karma, or about obtaining ‘higher’ levels of existence – at least, not in a manifest way. It’s about ensuring that we live the best possible life we can, until our threads come to an end. That’s not to say that even notions of reaching heavenly or nirvana states, or of manifesting bodhisattva or Buddha states, are irrelevant. Because they have been imagined, they, also, exist. But the truth of those states exists in any moment, in any life, in any manifest existence. The truth of those states exists in the equilibrium of our attitudes, that allow us to remain detached from negative events impacting on us or those we love, that allow us to flow through on the thread of our existence with positive notions and behaviour until all processes have come to their most complete end – thereby ensuring we live the best possible life available to us.

This, however, is a personal choice. There are obviously those who feel that the best possible life available to them is one where they get their desires by hurting others or ensuring that others existence is made miserable. We say, then, that those people are 'evil' or that 'evil' rules in our world. And there is a danger in saying that or believing that because, again, where our mind goes, power flows. In believing such things about those people or about the situations they impose, we allow new threads to manifest and to be played out, that have those same elements of ‘evil’ invested in them.

So, even when we think on others who display ‘evil’ attitudes or ‘evil’ behaviour, or impose ‘evil’ situations upon others, we need to cultivate a detached attitude. We need to remember that these are just threads being played out and that they have a natural end, so long as we don’t empower new threads stemming from them, and that these ‘evil’ people are also just elements in the mind of the essential god force. Therefore, they mostly can’t help themselves. While it’s best not to be involved in their activities or modes so that we don't establish new threads in our own lives that play out with the same negative energies, it’s also good to have compassion for them and their inability to shake their ‘destiny.’ It is possible to turn some of them from their negative modes by being positive ourselves and compassionate to their circumstances, because their ‘destiny’ might entail an ability for positive transformation, under the right input. But there is risk in such efforts of becoming caught in their negative paths ourselves, if their 'destiny' doesn't entail this ability. For most of us, the 'destiny' of others is as unforeseeable as our own, and we aren't strong enough to maintain the detachment necessary to enable their transformation. The risk of attempting to help must always be taken cautiously. The main thing is to not attach ourselves to 'evil' situations in any way that will create new threads of existence containing those negative elements or we end up caught up in them, too.

11. All existence pulses into manifestation from the essential god force, comes to synthesis and culmination as it follows all threads to their maximum ramifications, and draws back into the mind of the essential god force as it ‘tires’ and ‘rests’ again. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that each pulse of dynamic creative activity from the mind of the essential god force is totally fresh and new. It doesn’t mean that threads that were explored, and lives that were manifested in the previous ‘pulse’ are forgotten.

Just as we can wake up with ‘things on our mind,’ stemming from activities present in our lives before we went to sleep, so can the essential god force wake from 'rest' periods into new creative threads of thought, stemming from unresolved issues that remained at the end of the last pulse. The existence that arises in the new pulse may not be the same as before, or it may have elements that are similar because the essential god force memory wants to reassert them, or may even be exactly the same. But the point is that the existing cosmos can be retained in a form of ‘memory’ in the mind of the essential god force, just as it can be retained in our own memory, waking up from sleep, and may then be re-established in a new 'day.' Until the essential god force is totally finished exploring a thread of existence, that existence can be re-manifested in it's thought processes, even when it has emerged from a rest phase. There are, therefore, some 'plays' of existence that come forth time and again, with the same players and the same modes, forging through many phases in the life of the essential god force. They are not, however, immortal, as all threads eventually play out – even those of gods and goddesses. Immortality exists in the essential god force, alone, and we obtain it only as the energy repetitively used in the explorations of it's mind.

When it comes to choosing what modes to believe in, to retain or enaction a positive life for ourselves or others, the choice is ours, alone. We can believe in just ourselves, if we think we are strong enough to maintain the modes and attitudes necessary to not only establish but to maintain the modes that will see us through dark times and into better ones. Or we can choose a belief system that suits us, and helps us do that, because we are aware that we are not strong enough to do it by ourselves.

Any positive belief system, or any god or spiritual entity, that enables us to enaction the modes for obtaining a better life, is a good choice - whatever suits our needs for empowering us toward those ends. We may even put our faith in talismans instead of entities - but we have to keep in mind that whatever system we use to empower us becomes an actual existing energy, with its own thread of manifestation, if we really believe in it. If not, we waste our time and effort with symbols that have no meaning or value, and no effect. The meaning and value we give anything in life is an empowering energy, for better or worse. We should never invest ourselves in any of these modes dishonestly. If we do, they establish threads of existence where deception and dishonesty have the upper hand, and we suffer through the consequences of those existences until they play completely through to their end.

The power of our mind is connected to the thought processes of the essential god force, itself. Only the most aware, enlightened, and detached being can communicate with the essential god force, understanding the fullest ramifications of what life is and how threads play out, without taking that knowledge with a sense of personal disempowerment. Without the ability to remain detached and objective about the processes of the essential god force, we allow our subjectivity to instil feelings of being a non-entity. An enlightened person is able to honour their own existence as an expression of the mind of the essential god force and to enjoy that existence fully, for better or worse. They are able to experience themselves both as separate entities in the thought processes of the essential god force, and to experience themselves as the immortal energies that are always fully connected to that same divine 'body.' They are able to accept the gift of such knowledge as a treasure, because it removes them from the cycle of attachment to the more painful aspects of their manifest lives, due to that same immortal connection.

12. As noted previously, the power of our minds is a creative force for manifestation, due to their ability to stimulate the 'what if' process and therefore the creation of new threads from the mind of the essential god force, and this is inclusive of spiritual or psychic healing. This is why, when a person believes they can 'heal' others, and a person receiving 'healing' believes that person can heal others, healing can actually occur, but only IF the ‘destiny’ thread of either allows that to happen at that time, and IF the essential god force feels there is something worth exploring through a healing being manifested. This mode is the same used for success, on any level.

To establish successful outcomes in our lives, we can choose a god (an entity that exists in the divine manifested realms, not the essential god force) or belief system or we can choose none, but we should do anything with the full knowledge of our strengths and limitations and all the possible ramifications of any action, thought or physical, taken. That is the key to surviving the modes of life. It is the key to making the best of the 'destiny' we were born with, and the key to not establishing new threads that might work against those successful outcomes. True and full and honest knowledge of ourselves is the first step toward finding that key.

13. The meaning of life is another question. From the point of view of the essential god force the meaning of our lives is an exploration of it's thoughts and the ramifications of those thoughts, in endless circumference, for the reason of feeling 'alive' or of being dynamic, and of exploring it's own existence. But, for us, the meaning of life is not really connected to that. Whilst we originate there, like many other things in creation that take on a life and meaning of their own once created, synthesizing new threads that stem solely because they have existed, our lives and meaning exist apart from, despite being connected to, the essential god force.

The meaning of our lives, in the context of our manifest realms, is partly that of relationship. It is also that of achieving value systems that enable us to survive and to manipulate our existence effectively - interacting and analyzing that interaction with every other entity and object so that we can establish effective value systems that enable a better life for ourselves and for those we care for. If we don’t, our threads can play out to dismal ends. The choice, where choice is an option, is our own. And, part of that choice toward surviving the ceaseless exploration of the mind of the essential god force is to enjoy the existence we have manifested in, without strong intent that begins new threads, but with a real pleasure for the gift of life – because that pleasure stimulates an exploration in the mind of the essential god force and can foster the beauty inherent in our existence. The more we dwell on the glorious wonders of even the simplest elements of our existence, the more the mind of the essential god force wants to play those threads out, to understand better why we find such value in them. Beauty and love are the keys to meaning in our lives, therefore. Where they don’t exist, we desire them. Where they do, we want them to go on and on. Even prosperity is a means to obtain them, and even success is measured in the degree to which they can be established. In the darkest and most horrible moments, if they can be given or found, for the barest second, they bring light and the hope of a future. They are the key to all survival in the manifest realms. And, even if no other person exists to love, if we find beauty in life, itself, in its smallest and most fleeting elements, we discover love. Love is the connection and the foundation. Love is the meaning. If it can’t be found outside ourselves, in others, or in life itself, then it can be found in ourselves – in fact, it should always be found in ourselves, for ourselves, as elements of the creative essential god force. Love is the energy of life. The attraction and fascination the essential god force has for the threads of thought from its own mind are based in it. Macrocosm to microcosm, love is the key to existence.

14. Why, then, if good beings with good values and intentions, who do look inside themselves and outside themselves to see love, find that negative elements and situations keep testing them? Because of the natural playing out of the threads of thought from the mind of the essential god force, that will always test any process to its fullest, and will always test the full play of ramifications from it. So, even the best and most good of human beings, or gods, will find themselves severely tested by negative people and things. The more they attempt to concentrate, and to make themselves and their lives pure and good, the more they will be tested, until the essential god force is absolutely certain that their mettle is completely pure, that their intentions are completely honest and correctly based, and that their modes are the ultimate play out of their threads that can be had. There are very few who withstand such onslaught of ramification from the essential god force, but for those who do there are two options remaining – they either return to the mind of the essential god force and end their 'play' of existence, or they find the ultimate love and beauty in life that makes it an endless source of pleasure and graciousness, no matter what happens to them or others, and thus ensure for themselves and their threads a long, long 'life,' that can exist even beyond the pulses, allowing them to be restored to existence time and again.

If such modes seem beyond us - if they seem impossible, or not even things we feel we would want to attain - if we just want to live our lives in peace and love andprosperity until they end, there is no need to aspire to such heights of cosmic bliss. We need only remember love. We need only remember that relationship, with ourselves as much as anyone else, is the key to establishing love – and that love is the key to a blessed existence. With the positivity of self-love, alone, that can’t be taken away when another person leaves, we find strength and empowerment for all our best dreams, and obtain the greatest opportunity for having them come true. In such modes, we find a meaning to our own lives, even if we struggle to find meaning in anything else. The key to love is acceptance and appreciation. So, if we find it hard to love ourselves, we need to examine why we don’t accept or appreciate ourselves, and find ways to make ourselves more acceptable to ourselves, so that we do appreciate ourselves. That can be as simple as letting go of expectations, whether they are from ourselves or from others, and just living life in the most complete way we can, and understanding that if, in such complete attempts, we then fail to achieve some things, they simply are not meant to be – that they don’t belong to our threads.

I'll finish this discourse with a poem that describes my bent on how human life should unfold itself.

"One in the multitude"

by L. O. Hennig   (Copyright)

I am a little blade of grass.
I point up to the sky.
Ask me why I am doing this ~
I cannot answer why.
My green and furry bending self
Holds dewdrops in the morn,
Basking later in the sunlight
With other fellow lawn.
The deepest blue sky will urge me ...
The winds will bow me down ...
And when I'm fully grown, I'm mown ~
Weeping tips turn to brown.
The rain will try to pummel me ~
I channel to the ground,
Suctioning it through my system
Till colours outward bound.
Though they trod on me and pull me
I ever will aspire
To rise to meet the broad blue sky
And crowning ball of fire.
Take heart from my predicament ~
I'm sturdy, yet I yield.
Remember that it's grass, like I,
Spreads seas across the field.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Besting evil

There are times when it seems that evil has the upper hand in life, when you have tried everything you can do to change that, and yet it reigns supreme. I know that there is only one thing that is guaranteed in any manifest universe, and that is change, so even the cycle of evil will eventually come to an end, if you can wait it out. But it can be hard to exist in such times, and retain your sense of self. It can be difficult to not let that sense of evil seep deep into your soul and take away your light. In doing so, evil gains power over you.

There is only one way to stop that. It's not through war or any activity that can turn the tables. Until the cycle ends, until evil's natural upward flow has finished and comes to it's ebbing, there is nothing that can be done on an outward level to reduce its impact. Only when the cycle is ready to ebb can such actions have effect. But there is something anyone can always do when evil has the upper hand, and that is to not let it have power over you - to not let that sense of evil seep deep into your soul and take away your light.

How does one do that? By thinking back to the smallest of moments in your past, when you were in complete harmony with the universe, in complete harmony with your life, feeling the blessings of being alive, the blessings of the gifts of life and their relevance in your life. You have to think back to a time when you were grateful, a time when you were happy, a time when your spirit overflowed with joy. That time may have been fleeting. It may have been ephemeral. It may not have lasted beyond a fraction of a second. But if you can remember it, if it had the power to stick in your memory, then you can use it to empower yourself in the times when evil's cycle has the upper hand.

There is no such thing as time in the life of spirit. Time only exists in the realm of the manifest, physical world. Such feelings of joy and empowerment, of blessings and gratitude, belong to the realm of spirit, not the physical world. So, in those darkest hours, when you can remember and focus on those times, those moments, when the world just seemed right, seemed okay, seemed good and bountiful and blessed - then you bridge the gap, and bring that moment into the present. In doing so, you instil the empowerment you felt in that moment, into yourself, in this moment. In doing so, you reduce the effect evil has on you in its cycle of life.

So, when you are undergoing such periods in your own life, it's a good thing to remember those moments from your past. It doesn't matter that they may not have lasted. It only matters that in their fleeting presence, you felt empowered, and you felt blessed. That is what you gain from such moments, when you remember them. That is what can empower you in the darkest times of any present existence. And, if you can think on such moments at least once a day in such darkened times, evil loses its grip on you, and your own life cycles begin to turn, to change, and to become seeded with new life.

It's like smiling when you don't feel like smiling. Something of the action, itself, rubs off on you, until you end up smiling, anyway. The action imbues its spirit inside you, until you do smile, and feel your smile. And this is the same when you remember such moments of empowerment. Something of those moments rub off on you when you focus on them, so that you end up empowered, once again.

This is the blessing of spirit. This is how you survive. And this is how you 'walk through the valley of shadows and fear no evil.'

Look inside yourself, and remember - and do so, often. 

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Divinity Incarnate

I am a goddess lost, embedded
In the cycles of this world because
I placed my trust in the law that my
Body would unfurl and release at
Last the divine spark thus ensnared; not
Realizing that because I cared
My golden spirit would become so
Entrapped, dancing in an incarnating
Twirl where each torment acted as a
Blast to erase the knowledge of my
Past - awareness that the avatar
Is the designated host of my
Blessed and immortal holy ghost.

I am a goddess lost, because I
Cared to tread a path with men who were
Too scared of life in all its glory
And its dearth - of life amid heavens
And on earth; with men who were baby
Angels in the making, whose fears set
Their inner selves a-quaking, needing
A wise soul to set them free. Oh, why
Did I deliver that soul as me?
I forgot that those from lofty heights,
Who savored ambrosia's delights are
As prone as men when incarnate to
Succumb to the tragedies of fate.

I am a goddess lost who forgot
My friends and family, who pine and
Wait while my spirit is ensouled to
Fate until their loving messages
Can awaken me from sleep and bring
Me forth from somatic worlds so deep -
And yet, am I truly lost or not?
My path in mortal climes has cycled
Long, but the divine light within my
Mortal form always sang of the realms
Of glory which have ever been my home,
Where my loved ones keep my heart strings warm,
Knowing I must tread here till I'm done.

I may seem a goddess lost, but though
The pain can be excruciating,
On many levels I am merely
Having fun - those I came to help and
Guide are still emancipating, yet
I have joined the cycling of their clan.
In so doing have I learned that they
Always had it in them to ascend;
That time and linear dimensions
Are but brief; that all grief and sorrow
Even out to fairness - bright spirits
Find their way to true belief, ergo
I am just the twig 'tween tree and leaf.

While I have been a goddess lost, with
New awareness I'm awakening
To the truth of life and who I am.
Yet such seems wan in comparison
To the poignant heights and depths of heart
In man. So, though my sleep won't go on
Forever and to heaven's realms I
Will return, whilst these emotions still
I savor shall my bright family
Stay spurned as this delusive world I
Favor for the desired flavor of
Sacred cream to divine butter churned.

Copyright 2007 - L.O.Hennig

Grandchild

Child of my heart, soft golden curls
Flowing silken through my hand;
Rosy red lips frame a glistening
Smile as your arms around my aged girth span.

Child of my heart, born from loins of
My loin - gentle blue eyes glow
With delight as we swoop as one till
Our playfully flirtatious kisses join.

Child of my heart, measuring your
Delicate digits of pink
Against mine, as if in awe that hands
So vast intricately with yours entwine.

Child of my heart, climbing upon
My welcoming lap to mount
The horses of jiggling knees until
With chortling pleasure you shout, squeal and clap.

Child of my heart, free of the burdens
Of parenthood, I stand in
Awe of my fertile brood as I soak
In your aura of innocent good.

Child of my heart, bringing youth to
My life with your loving play,
Where time stands still yet flows too fast
Along each and every passing day.

Child of my heart - blessed fruit from
My child and line - I never
Expected to feel this way, as if
I have received a gift reward divine.

Copyright 2008 - L.O.Hennig