Peace at the Pivot
Devoted Purpose
Some of us only respond to external stimuli. Thank God for suffering or we wouldn't know we were in danger; we wouldn't appreciate the gravity of the situation. Even if we go ages without calling out for light, we eventually find ourselves in enough darkness to finally open our mouths. This condition of suffering is not His doing per se, but a result of our own action or inaction. Pain is a result of our own wandering from the path of divinely ordained purpose. The choice is ours to call out and have our path alighted. Devotion grows from an inner longing... an insatiable thirst for God. God doesn't come because someone else suggests His light is the truth. He comes because you ask Him to, because you beg Him to. He comes when you ache for His presence and favor.
Thank God for the latent epiphany in suffering. Pain and pleasure snap us out of the numbness of complacency - the dullness of everyday survival. But peace lies in the middle; not over-seeking of pleasure and not afflicted with pain. Both states are ripe with potentially excessive emotionality. Devotion grows out of the emotion of love, found at both ends of the spectrum. It is the emergency exit from agitation and excess. His grace grants rest from the pendulum swing. You can recognize the bliss of peace because you are familiar with the extremes of pain and pleasure. If we dwelt constantly in pain life's misery would make us yearn only for the grave. If we dwelt constantly in pleasure, we would become miserly and self-absorbed... making life a torment to others who suffer by our self-indulgence. Peace is moderation in wisdom. Love God more than self-indulgence and self-pity. Complacency craves the snap of pleasure or pain... it craves feeling in the place of numbness. Don't give room to complacency. Let every moment be filled with resolute purpose in fulfilling His word. By crook and by flail, by pleasure and pain, may we come to know true abiding peace.
10/2014
10/2014
Neither pain or pleasure are points of peace. Both originate from a conditioned response of attraction or aversion. But, if oneness is the Truth, attraction and aversion are just two polar opposite shades of the same lie. Both presuppose distinction. Aversion and attraction are then as if schizophrenic responses to one's own mirrored reflection - a reflection misunderstood but nonetheless an expression of Self. If we accept that expression, the experience affirms our understanding and yields pleasure. If we do not accept it, the experience yields displeasure or pain. Neither pleasure or pain yield lasting peace.
Excessive pleasure yields agitation because it reiterates the lie of individuation. Self pleasure in excess breeds greed, superiority, selfishness and isolation. One wants more and more to the detriment of the larger interest. This negates the Truth of unity. A lie is not long sustained. Truth is preeminent and resurgent. Pain compensates. Pain reminds us we are not isolated... reminds us that we must look beyond the individuated self. Similarly, pain - also being untruth - eventually points back to pleasure in order to compensate... to cancel itself out. You are not so un-self that you must endure constant self negation. You are here after all. You are a localized immensity. Peace rests between the two polarities as exemplified in the exalted mystic union of husband and wife, master and disciple, lingam and yoni. Union is the Truth which yields peace. Moving as one we are spared... I and I are spared undue suffering and selfishness. We are an unceasing and eternal be-ing.
Excessive pleasure yields agitation because it reiterates the lie of individuation. Self pleasure in excess breeds greed, superiority, selfishness and isolation. One wants more and more to the detriment of the larger interest. This negates the Truth of unity. A lie is not long sustained. Truth is preeminent and resurgent. Pain compensates. Pain reminds us we are not isolated... reminds us that we must look beyond the individuated self. Similarly, pain - also being untruth - eventually points back to pleasure in order to compensate... to cancel itself out. You are not so un-self that you must endure constant self negation. You are here after all. You are a localized immensity. Peace rests between the two polarities as exemplified in the exalted mystic union of husband and wife, master and disciple, lingam and yoni. Union is the Truth which yields peace. Moving as one we are spared... I and I are spared undue suffering and selfishness. We are an unceasing and eternal be-ing.
On the road to this realization we are a point of awareness swinging between pleasure and pain... seeking. The constant momentum, back and forth between the poles of receiving and giving - pleasure and pain - builds a certain sense of familiarity and security for the seeker. It builds a certain resistance to peace... one is always striving for release via one extreme or the other. The sudden stoppage of such a momentum could imaginably be traumatic for an entity so engaged. The hankering for the opposite state is so strong, so deeply embedded in the psyche, in the soul, in the memory and hope of the being. Who is equipped to place a hand into the moving gears of your spiritual/physical machinations without causing harm to the precious pearl of your consciousness? Who is capable of taking over the momentum, guiding the pendulum swing from pole to pole unto ultimate resting at the center pivot of perpetual living peace? God... the Master of love. Here, control and freedom meet in ecstatic resolution. It is an artful point and counterpoint, a powerful awakening to the Truth from ages of dark night slumber and insatiable striving. From vanity to unity, it is a relinquishing of the self to the masterful hand of God.
A true devotee hungers for the Truth of lovefull peace in oneness with the Divine. No longer distracted by the pendulum swing, the devoted disciple offers acts of self sacrifice in a most natural realization of what is occurring. One becomes aware that one has been a taker. One becomes aware that God is the supreme giver of all and receiver of all. Complete. One begins to seek alignment with that perfect unicity until seeking finds rest in realization.
A true devotee hungers for the Truth of lovefull peace in oneness with the Divine. No longer distracted by the pendulum swing, the devoted disciple offers acts of self sacrifice in a most natural realization of what is occurring. One becomes aware that one has been a taker. One becomes aware that God is the supreme giver of all and receiver of all. Complete. One begins to seek alignment with that perfect unicity until seeking finds rest in realization.
Love and Justice
One lingers too long in adultery of the Truth, only taking, seeking pleasure... deepening the debt. The beauty of the Master is in his mindful, lovefull administration of just compensation. Pruning, refining and nurturing his own to overflowing, beautiful flowering... to an overflowing which quenches the thirst of other seekers. The taker becomes one who gives, first to the Master and then to the world - to the larger I. For such a communion, the cup must pour pure water. The Master must extract all pollution. Pain comes in the shedding of false skin. Pleasure comes as a benevolent nudging. Peace grants merciful reprieve.
And what is pleasure but the absence of perceived pain? One cannot exist without the other. You only truly know one because you have known the other. When you have been carved out by pain you can be filled to your depths with pleasure and only then can you see both as two sides of one whole... as empty cup and living water.
11/2014
And what is pleasure but the absence of perceived pain? One cannot exist without the other. You only truly know one because you have known the other. When you have been carved out by pain you can be filled to your depths with pleasure and only then can you see both as two sides of one whole... as empty cup and living water.
11/2014
Eternal Life is Eternal Pain and Pleasure
Who are you willing to suffer for? Who do you love and respect enough to endure pain outside the limits of your own choosing? The Beloved is a focal point for one's self-sacrifice, a self-sacrifice which, without that one, would never reach the heights necessary to merge with the divine ocean of God. In sacrificing for another we blur our own edges. Devotion to one outside the local self gives the pure motivation necessary to suffer humbly... for their sake. Devotion results from the dawning realization of God's underlying plan of unity.
The Truth of unity requires our allegiance and it sometimes calls for a pound of flesh as it sloughs away our vanity. Pain is a result of surface separation. How and why would I inflict pain on myself? The closer we come to union with the Creator - union with the all-seeing stream of being - the less we feel pain because there is no separate "I" to receive it. We merge - even here, even now, in this flesh.
The Truth of unity requires our allegiance and it sometimes calls for a pound of flesh as it sloughs away our vanity. Pain is a result of surface separation. How and why would I inflict pain on myself? The closer we come to union with the Creator - union with the all-seeing stream of being - the less we feel pain because there is no separate "I" to receive it. We merge - even here, even now, in this flesh.
Alex Grey - "Nature of Mind"
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Death is to some a cherished state because it includes an end to pain, but it also includes an end to living awareness and embodied experience. We are here, there will be suffering because we move freely in pursuit of desire... striving to stay within the bounds of Divine law... though not always successfully. God offers correction through our suffering. Exalted mystic union gives a proper venerated stage to the Truth of differentiated oneness, its resultant pain and pain's transcendence. In this union, because life is exalted, pain and pleasure are consciously mediated as both are experienced and transcended, experienced and transcended...
Life is the movement between pleasure and pain and peace is the stillness of acceptance in either case. Peace rests in the middle knowing full well that only love is abiding. Only God’s will and desire persists, creating the field of experience that we may know ourselves as one with Him. In spite of flux, in spite of our vanities, for the sake of His creative spark... we go on, eternally. 12/2014 |
Depression: A Doorway to Unconditional Peace
Depression can be a doorway to lasting peace, rather than a dead-end of hopeless apathy, if we accept our observations as valid. We reach for happiness as a continual state of being and fall into what's often labeled as depression when we feel any lapse in elation.
Happiness cannot be maintained indefinitely. Like sadness at the other end of the spectrum, happiness is an agitated state. Both happiness and sadness are conditional, dependent on external factors to trigger the mood. We must remember that it's okay to recognize the hopelessness of sustained happiness. That feeling of detachment is key, it ushers in a "witness" consciousness. You feel outside of game-play so to speak. Just watching allows you to feel the motion of life, the surge, the good and the bad, the happiness and the sadness, all moving around you as you sit still at the center... Embrace that stillness and peace can be enjoyed regardless of external influences. Happiness can then be experienced, like sadness, as a passing emotional phase.
Happiness cannot be maintained indefinitely. Like sadness at the other end of the spectrum, happiness is an agitated state. Both happiness and sadness are conditional, dependent on external factors to trigger the mood. We must remember that it's okay to recognize the hopelessness of sustained happiness. That feeling of detachment is key, it ushers in a "witness" consciousness. You feel outside of game-play so to speak. Just watching allows you to feel the motion of life, the surge, the good and the bad, the happiness and the sadness, all moving around you as you sit still at the center... Embrace that stillness and peace can be enjoyed regardless of external influences. Happiness can then be experienced, like sadness, as a passing emotional phase.
It's okay to just watch without emotional attachment. You can control the emotion; when doing so you retain power that would normally be forfeited to external forces. When you choose to, simply indulge in a pleasure - listen to music, look at something beautiful, sing, paint, dance, etc. Play. Just remember that pleasure's opposite is pain, and happiness has a twin in sadness. This way you are no longer blindsided. In perfect peace you control your response to both extremes.
With God in control, worry subsides; financial concerns dissipate. Merging with Divine order, with sacred purpose, allows peace. You don't feel the grasping, here. You feel incredible trust. You understand that you have all that you need. The freedom, the expansion this allows... it is greater than any fleeting burst of happiness. Peace brings with it a perfect relaxation. There is no wanting. You don't fear that peace will cease. With happiness and sadness, you intentionally try to keep yourself at one pole or the other, fearing or desiring cessation. If you lean toward optimism and a cup-half-full mentality, then you will tend to stay happier as you look for the bright side. If you lean toward pessimism and a cup-half-empty mentality, then you will tend to stay sadder as you magnify despair. If instead you simply observe the temporary state of the water, unaffected emotionally one way or the other, then you can know peace. Know that it will change states--as they say, change is our only constant. It doesn't matter if the glass is half full or half empty. You are provided for. Knock and the door will be opened. If you are in need of a full glass to fulfill your purpose, then it will be filled. If it is not necessary, then there is no loss.
In depression, overcome by despair at the cup's emptiness, one may feel a heavy apathetic pointlessness. This is due to the valuable realization that this item or that item, one experience or another, does not make one happy. It isn't supposed to... not for the long term. No "thing" is meant to have power over you. If you can't have it, so what? If you are meant to have or experience something, trust God to make it so. Depression feeds off of a low self-esteem and a low self-esteem thrives when we give power to external influences. Surrendering in peace does not require having a low self-esteem. After all, both powerful will and receptive peace are true and valid as demonstrated by the male-female dynamic. Knowing when to act and when to allow is key to maintaining peace.
In depression, overcome by despair at the cup's emptiness, one may feel a heavy apathetic pointlessness. This is due to the valuable realization that this item or that item, one experience or another, does not make one happy. It isn't supposed to... not for the long term. No "thing" is meant to have power over you. If you can't have it, so what? If you are meant to have or experience something, trust God to make it so. Depression feeds off of a low self-esteem and a low self-esteem thrives when we give power to external influences. Surrendering in peace does not require having a low self-esteem. After all, both powerful will and receptive peace are true and valid as demonstrated by the male-female dynamic. Knowing when to act and when to allow is key to maintaining peace.
Like the lotus, we are nourished by both earth and sky. The flower sits atop murky water, undefiled. The roots of the lotus reach down into the darkest depths yet it rises. It discerns. It reaches not for happiness but for the light of the sun which feeds it. The lotus attains perfect provision. At night, knowing that darkness brings no sustenance, it closes its petals until morning. It experiences the night, but does not internalize it. With the coming of a new day the lotus reopens its petals to receive light. So too can we choose light over darkness.
A final note on the glass analogy... When one trusts in God and is actively cared for by the Beloved, one can be appreciative for whatever one has in the glass. Or, if it's empty, one can still be grateful for having a glass at all. Knowing you are loved puts you in a romantic, whimsical world of possibility and blissful expectation. That joy helps one to bounce back from adversity which might otherwise cause depression. This is why house-holding is key. House-holding creates a space of loving kindness and beauty which nourishes a person at the core. Knowing God and being in love fosters a resilient, unconditional inner peace. Love someone. Work toward ending all suffering. This enlarges your little self to include others, eclipsing personal pain. Being at peace allows you, in that precious moment of respite, to fill the glass of another.
A final note on the glass analogy... When one trusts in God and is actively cared for by the Beloved, one can be appreciative for whatever one has in the glass. Or, if it's empty, one can still be grateful for having a glass at all. Knowing you are loved puts you in a romantic, whimsical world of possibility and blissful expectation. That joy helps one to bounce back from adversity which might otherwise cause depression. This is why house-holding is key. House-holding creates a space of loving kindness and beauty which nourishes a person at the core. Knowing God and being in love fosters a resilient, unconditional inner peace. Love someone. Work toward ending all suffering. This enlarges your little self to include others, eclipsing personal pain. Being at peace allows you, in that precious moment of respite, to fill the glass of another.
12/2015
~Gratitude to my Beloved Sun whose very presence sustains my peace.~
