Life can be difficult and even though we live in a magic world of infinite possibility, the world is crowded with bad magicians. It is not that the magic is bad. It is that most of us are unequal to the task, so it makes the world a place of shades and shadows, instead of a timeless Eden filled with light. We can't say that it is anyone's fault in particular. It is the fault of all of us collectively and those singular souls who are given wide latitude to perform, also sometimes fail to measure up to their own potential. In times like these, the singular souls are unaware of their own possibilities and fall short out of an inability to deal with their own loneliness and wind up conforming to the crowd. The shepherds get lost among the sheep.
One of the hardest things to recognize is that every moment counts. We diminish ourselves with the memories of our failures and cease to believe in ourselves accordingly. The hammer hand of our conscience turns us into cowards. The promise of our youth inevitably turns into resignation. No one has to die but then... we refuse to change. What is that line from The Bible? “We shall not all die but we shall all be changed.”
What most fail to understand is that forgiveness is always at hand. We seem incapable of forgiving ourselves, as if it were somehow unique that we made all those errors, when errors are commonplace. We manufacture a god that is a larger extension of ourselves, as if god were nothing more than a larger expression of ourselves, exemplifying all of our imperfections and prejudices. That is the fatal mistake of most and accounts for all that “Onward Christian Soldiers” bullshit. A dog thinks that we are a bigger smarter dog, some kind of alpha wolf. The dog is wrong, just as we are. You cannot see what you are not, within the dimension of such limited parameters and so we enslave ourselves to a harsh taskmaster whose personality is based on our own limited perceptions.
It may not seem so at the moment, but the world is awakening. Not only are we awakening but the very ground we walk upon is awakening. The air is electric with the suspense of pending transformation. What we have not captured in understanding previously and which we have misidentified by labeling it in the terms of what has been convenient for us is now identifying itself and we will see this or we won't. The only difference between those who do see it and those who do not, is whether we allow it to stand alone or whether we color it for our own personal purposes. This is what people do. They take that which is itself as it is and make it conform to the shape of what they desire it to be. That is heartbreak on a walkabout, in motion, as I write these words and... it is evident all around us but we don't even see that because we have all secretly agreed to let these mistaken identifications pass, on the understanding that our own mistaken identifications will also be allowed to proceed. It is the unfortunate contract we have made with our collective shortcomings so that we can all wallow in whatever it is that we think will complete us but... of course it does not. Herein lies the anguish of the human state. We look for fulfillment where it cannot be found and therefore cheapen the experience of our passage here.
Some would say it takes great courage to go to war. I would say it takes a particular kind of dumbass. The reality is that war is a reality, just as the elements in our bodies are at war with each other and the reason for the inevitable dissolution of our forms. Of course, life is war but which war are you engaged in? What exactly is it that you are fighting for and what tactics do you employ? Sometimes the way to win a conflict is to simply absorb your opponent. Sometimes is is a matter of understanding that there is no opponent; only an expression of our own internal conflicts. I have never seen it better defined than in The Bhagavad Gita and in the writings of Lao Tzu. One will note that both of these give a seemingly inordinate amount of attention to this very subject. Who are you fighting and why? First master yourself and you will have no opponent.
Before I understood certain things about self defense, I was picked on all the time. I was easy meat because I was so intimidated by my father that I found it impossible to defend myself. Then in what seemed no time at all, following my kundalini awakening all of my past lives opened up and abilities from other times came into play and within the space of what it took for my muscles to accommodate the capacity, I was not longer meat and from that moment on, no one bullied me again and... to be honest, I really wished someone would try because I had this payback mindset at first but that went away. I realized they were only passing on what had happened to them and I never thought about that form of recompense again. Still... there is an irony to this sort of thing- anyone can get caught off guard, if you don't expect it and it comes from outside the periphery of your vision, it doesn't matter what you know; as I found out not long ago. Your only true defense is the one that rules all things and sometimes you just have to take it for reasons that might not even have to do with you. I know now that it all works out in the end and that whatever happens is less than what might have happened. Faith is not just about believing in what you cannot see. Faith is about going through things when they make no sense at all. Because in your heart and in your mind's eye, somehow... you can see beyond any occurrence to the green fields beyond.
If what was required of us were easy, there would be no trouble in this world, yet... every one of us is each other at a different level of understanding. Even the most brutal of us are representatives of places that we ourselves once inhabited. We might have behaved differently but we were, in our own way, not unlike them. There are so many important details to our evolution that they can never be covered here or even in all the books ever written but... for me, one of the most important things is to remember that all those things we aspire to will one day appear in and around us and we have to be aware that the higher the point we achieve to, the greater the distance we can fall. Everything we imagine in our dreams of aspiration will come to us, yet most of us only give lip service to it and never realize that it actually will arrive, so that often we fail to recognize that we are suddenly in possession of it. If we are one of the lucky few (as if luck had anything to do with it) we catch on and deliver as we always promised ourselves we would and we find that there are laws and powers we had no recognition of previously and they all work on our behalf and on the behalf of everyone, including ourselves ...that we swore we would be generous to. Sooner or later you have to stand and deliver on all the things you said you would be on the day you become yourself.
It is so tiresome to hear the easy road people say that you are already what you aspire to be; that you are already yourself. Sure... in theory that may well be true but... there is a large difference between seeking to be aware of something and accomplishing the state of being it refers to. If it were as easy as all that... there would be no trouble in this world. However... this world is a place of conflict and resolution. I do not imagine there will ever be a time... here... when we are all in syncopated harmony. It is said that the great work is arrived at here. All those points in the beyond exist for reward and punishment but here... here is where it gets done. You don't go anywhere that you haven't already wound up at. Heaven begins where your feet touch the Earth.
If the struggle were not as challenging as it is, the rewards would not have the meaning that they do. People can argue to their wits end about how unfair the world is and make fatuous statements about how there can't be a god because any god fitting the description would never permit what goes on here. Once again anthropomorphism reigns. Anyone trying to explain what they have no experience concerning, is just blowing smoke up the ass of the credulous. You only know what you are allowed to know based on your having earned the right to know it. You don't get from a crayfish to a god without a terrific effort. Some might say... “ah, it happens all by itself, just sit back and let it flow.” Uh huh... right into the abyss.
There is no easy way. Once again, if it were easy, everyone would be there already. The things of this world may seem difficult to achieve but a whole lot of people have them and if they don't have them now, they will. It is guaranteed that you can have anything here if you are willing to strive after it, or just wait in line. The states and things of the unseen realms are of a whole different order but they can be acquired by the same process. It is all a matter of what one puts their attention and industry on. “As above, so below.”
Nothing amuses me more than the convoluted and dense arguments of philosophers who write with such intricacy that the only people who can understand what they are talking about are people like themselves and for whom the whole point of dissecting these tedious masturbations is to look wise and intelligent while doing so; peacocks in full rut.
God has seen it all and is not impressed with our posturing and he doesn't give a shit about how smart we think we are or how much we think we know or how much we impressed the world with whatever our antics amounted to. God has seen more civilizations rise and fall and more exceptional performances than there is sand on the shore. That there is a god is beyond doubt, unless you are a fool. What god is... only a fool would attempt to define.
