Ida Lawrence, Contributor
Waking Times

Lots of people say it, and it can’t be denied… this would be a wonderful, balanced natural world if humans weren’t a part of it. Knowing how accepted this sentiment is, I feel for us. We’re not meant to be a curse. We see what’s been done to the earth and to us, and we’re working so diligently to comprehend what has allowed it, and what we can do to change it.

How did humans get so out of balance? By ignoring, fearing, demeaning, even hating and destroying a most vital part of ourselves. We were born into it, so let’s not go to guilt.

I started thinking about balance after watching a video documentary on the potter Lee Kang-hyo. This Korean artist makes the big pots called Onggi. The story followed him as he created his art, questioned his choice of Onggi, did some soul searching about his life, and came to realize that what he wanted was not far away… it was right there with him.

As I watched the story, I realized that the big pots looked like sculptures of the feminine… open, strong, inviting: containers that hold food for long periods of time while the food transforms itself through brewing and fermenting. Toward the end of the video we watch the artist put his spirit and energy into the pot, caressing and applying the color. The pot turns out to be quite a beautiful masterpiece, just standing there in readiness.

That’s a gorgeous image, isn’t it: picture the waiting, receptive, open invitation to transform. We all have her within, ready to contain our experiences and turn them into something life-giving… like the wisdom so desperately needed at this time.

We don’t get this wisdom by pursuing it or working our way to it logically; we get it in the ‘water into wine’ way – the right ingredients, the right pressure, the right temperature, the time fulfilled, in the perfect pot.

The inner worlds and the relationship with inner divinity are so vital to my life that it’s hard for me to imagine not being there. But it’s not so for everyone. The other day I talked with a young man who was having marriage issues. I asked him if he ever goes within, in order to relate to his inner life. “I don’t have time for that,” he said. “I have to work to take care of my family.” I understand, and I love him… but he’s not whole. He’s out of balance.

There is some resistance to wholeness, and it could come from conditioning or fear, or failure to understand the importance. We need to be honest, so I ask: since when is a man who looks inward to explore his wisdom and experience his divinity less of a man? Or, when is a woman who looks outward to see how she can relate to the world, and change things, less of a woman? There is no downside to balance, no loss of manhood or womanhood. There is wholeness. And we’d be wise to find time for that.

We find the masculine and feminine polarities within, and we find that the marriage of these aspects makes of every one of us able to create and relate to the world. The inner child, when acknowledged and loved, becomes the vital, enjoyable expression. This is inner balance.

What would happen if the inner perception and wisdom were diminished almost to extinction and the capacity for outer action were set free to ‘do as you will’? Well, that questions is answered. ‘Do as you will’ is the only law for the humans who rule – the top of the hierarchy.

For millions of others, the masses, ‘do as God wills’ is the law. They take, as the highest authority, an invisible male force outside of themselves; a moral force with rules and lessons, interpreted in every which way. Morals don’t apply to the rulers, but they are a gift to the masses, to keep them happy, because they naturally want to be good.

So, we’ve been living within the conditioning and under the authority of 1) do as you will, which places unbalanced humans in charge, and 2) do as God wills, which places moral rules, interpreted by unbalanced humans, in charge. Maybe this ‘no inner light’ experience was necessary to our evolution… that I don’t know. But if we needed to be in a spiritual dark age, brought near death, in order to align to what is within, it has been done and we’re ready for the change over. Turn on the light.

There is something we all know: the ‘do as you will’ top humans destroy the feminine Mother Earth, distort the feminine human being, and denigrate the feminine wisdom within all. And the interpreters of the religion say it’s God’s will.

SNIP