RANDOM THOUGHTS (on what it means to be a human being.)
... Merlyn
At the end of Thomas Sugrue's wonderful biography of the seer Edgar Cayce,
which was entitled "There is a River", the last chapter is entitled Philosophy. The
chapter begins with the sentence, "Man demands a beginning and a boundary".
That's true, and it is our collective problem. We do insist on having boundaries
and limits to everything so that we can measure it and somehow understand it
better. The difficulties we create for ourselves by this insistence are, if you'll
pardon the expression, endless.
Many of us have enjoyed the fascinating feeling of swimming underwater.
Especially in a natural surrounding like a coral reef, there is something magical
about immersing oneself in a completely different and amazing aquatic envir-
onment. To experience this watery world, we merely have to accept the limit-
ations it imposes for a short period of time. Those limitations, of course, are
many, and rather important.
We no longer have access to the air that we need to stay alive unless we
take some along with us, and even then we only have a short period of time
available. We cannot walk, talk, or hear normally anymore, and our vision is
often severely reduced as well. Specifically, without electronic help, we have
almost completely lost our communication with the world above the water
suface. Eventually we tire of working our minds and bodies in the modified
efforts we call swimming, and happily return to the familiar realm of sunlight
and fresh air.
This is almost a perfect metaphor for what happens when our real multi-
dimensional self, sometimes called a "soul", elects to dive into the relative
world of time and space. When we voluntarily lower the curtain of our aware-
ness to focus our new "conscious" minds on the merely three-dimensional
realms, the shock is very much like abruptly plunging into cold water. Our
new infant physical body invariably begins to cry ... loudly. I suspect that for
many of us our first thought immediately after our "birth" is, OMG, now what
have I done?
In spite of the narrow view of the skeptics among us, there exists a huge
body of information, much of it now in writing, about the circumstances surr-
ounding a human soul when it is not presently here on earth. Apparently, there
is a limitless variety of experiences available to all of us, and no two are exactly
alike (think snowflakes). However, there is an amazing consistency in the
reports that we have about the quality of the reality we have when not focused
in a physical body.
Descriptions of this reality always contain words like freedom, joy, security,
beauty, oneness, peace, contentment, wonder, excitement, lightness, well-
being, harmony, balance, etc. These are words we might use to describe a
place like the one we call heaven. It certainly seems significant that everyone
who tries to describe this experience uses the same terminology - it implies
that the viewpoint has definite validity.
In order to carry our swimming analogy forward, we are forced to assume
that the "souls" we are talking about exist prior to physical birth on this planet.
In our mind that is a far more logical assumption than the notion that an eternal
entity is created only when a human baby is born. Even the scientific society has
now concluded that time does not really exist, so eternity becomes a permanent
NOW instead of merely a one-directional extension of time.
At any rate, it is not surprising that a soul living in the blissful freedom of
a heavenly environment would have a big adjustment to make when suddenly
faced with this world's limitations. It begins to make sense that we all require
a growing up period before accepting the responsibility for our own earthly life.
This raises the inevitable questions. Why on earth would we come here in
the first place, and why can't we remember where we came from? These
questions have been answered repeatedly over the centuries by countless
enlightened souls, many of whom have been ignored, laughed at, or even
martyred for answering them. Now, in the century we call the 21st, there seems
to be slightly more open-mindedness and a quickening global trend toward
awareness of who we really are. It's about time - we're coming dangerously
close to destroying the whole game (again?).
Wisdom tells us that the limits we encounter here are voluntary, self-
imposed, and temporary. The enlightened ones say that we are here because
we chose to come here, and we are "swimming" in the ocean of time and space
for the sheer exhilarating experience of doing so. The boundaries of relativity,
like the rules and the sidelines of an athletic contest, are what make the game
satisfying and fun if we let them.
Like all the self-help gurus have been telling us, "attitude is everything".
We can jump right in, live in the NOW, try to remember who we are and why
we're here, and thoroughly enjoy the challenges we call life, OR - we can claim
we didn't ask to be born, bemoan our fate, imagine that we are victims instead
of creators, and make ourselves and others unhappy in the process. It's our
God-given "free will" choice. What is the potential result of choosing to be the
eternal multi-dimensional beings we truly are? I thought you'd never ask.
In the 1970's a remarkable woman named Jane Roberts "channeled" for
several years an entity who said "I don't really have a name, but you can call
me Seth". With the help of her husband, who transcribed every word, Jane/
Seth produced a vast and profound body of consistent observations, in writing,
on the human condition. It is available to anyone in several books and in book
stores as well as on-line. This is a sample from "The Nature of Personal Reality".
(copyright 1974 by Amber-Allen Publishing)
"The human personality has no limitations except those which it accepts.
There are no limits to its development or growth, if it will accept no limits.
There are no boundaries to the self except those boundaries which the self
arbitrarily creates and perpetuates. There is no veil through which human
perception cannot see, except the veil of ignorance which is pulled down by
the materialistic ego.
That which appears empty, such as your space, is empty only for those
who do not perceive, who are blind because they fear to perceive that which
the ego cannot understand. The ego, however, is also capable of greater
knowledge and potentiality and scope. It dwells in the physical universe, but
it can indeed also perceive and appreciate other realities. The ego is part of
the personality, and as such it can partake of sturdier, heartier, more vivid
realities. The personality can dwell and does dwell in many worlds at once.
The inquiring intuitions and the searching self, like summer winds, can
travel in small and large spaces, can know of actualities that are more minute
than pinheads and more massive than galaxies. The power and ability of the
human personality, in a most practical manner, can be seen as unlimited."
... Seth
If perhaps you are one of those who are not satisfied with channeled
information, here are two more examples of the same kind of advice offered
by different sources. One is contemporary 21st century wisdom, and the
other refers to centuries past. Nothing has changed. Those who are aware
have always been so.
FROM THE PRESENT: A quote from a wonderful author, speaker, and
modern-day guru named Mike Dooley, who inspires thousands of people daily
with his personal "Notes From the Universe" at www.tut.com. We heartily
recommend that you do yourself a favor and get to know Mike.
"Admission into time and space requires a belief in limits; a belief that
both time and space are real; that you can therefore have and have not; that
love can be lost or found; and that you are what your physical senses show
you and no more.
These illusions immediately lead you to believe that you are incomplete.
Yet, far from indicating you are flawed, they reveal your brilliance by filling you
with desire, igniting your emotions, fueling your passions, and catapulting you
out into the world where journeys are begun, connections are made, and dreams
come true ... only to be replaced by new dreams as your divine sense of
incompleteness persists.
This is by design. Feeling incomplete does not make you so. It's how
legends are born, giants are made, and history is written. It's why you're here.
To ever so briefly escape your true identity as you live with an unquenchable
thirst that will lead into adventures of grandeur, discovery, and a realization
that love is all there is."
FROM THE PAST: There is a treasure trove of knowledge often referred
to as Ancient Wisdom, and is sometimes called The Mysteries. The Mysteries,
or Mystery Schools, were ancient colleges of spiritual training. They existed
all over the world in various forms from Polynesia, to Mexico, to Europe, to
China, to what we now call the Middle East, and specifically Egypt. Undoubtedly,
the knowledge is older still, but our historical records are incomplete.
The curricula were long (often twenty years), rigorous, and highly motiv-
ated. Their objective was no less than to produce super-human beings who
would be the spiritual teachers and guides of the human race. This training
pre-dates Christianity by thousands of years, and its true objective was to
elevate the selected trainees to the level of conscious co-creators of the
universes. The key word in that sentence is conscious, because we are all
co-creators whether or not we know it consciously. The only reason that our
world struggles to survive is because of a majority who tend to co-create un-
consciously, thus generating less-than-ideal results.
In the foreword of Manly P. Hall's encyclopedic volume on philosophy
(copyright 1988 by The Philosophical Research Society), Henry L. Drake, the
Society's Vice President, says:
"In the program of the Mysteries, each individual must grow into the
comprehension of truth. Before he could be entrusted with the divine powers
of mind and will, he must accept knowledge as a responsibility to his Creator
and his world, rather than as an opportunity for the advancement of
personal ambitions. The masters of the Mysteries taught secret practices and
disciplines by which the properly qualified disciples could develop the potent
abilities latent within the soul, and so, come into conscious communication
with spiritual realities."
So how do we, as Seth's "human personalities", access our unlimited
potential? First, by realizing and accepting that it is there, and second, by
repeatedly directing our attention inwardly to the source of our power. The
connection is always there. It is our responsibility and our destiny to remember
how to turn it on. Is there one "secret" that will allow us to open the door to
our hidden potential? Probably not. There are no doubt as many secrets as
there are seeking souls trying to find one, because each of us is walking his/
her own path, but there is one attribute we all have that can provide a clue.
It is a talent that belongs to every child from day one, and grows daily until
"maturity" slowly eats away at it and renders it ineffective. It is the MAGic
we refer to as iMAGination.
Why is our imagination so important? Consider this. We cannot see
the end of the heavens. There are literally billions of galaxies in the heavens,
and we will never be able to count them all, but we can imagine them. We
cannot see the energy we call atoms, either. Atoms are really invisible, but
even if they weren't, they are so small as to be almost beyond our under-
standing - and now we have dissected them into far smaller components.
How can we grasp this reality? By imagining it, that's how.
What are the limits of imagination? There are none that I know of.
The term "limited imagination" is an oxymoron, since no matter how vast we
imagine our multi-verse to be, it could always be greater. Science has
postulated the "big bang" theory which imagines our physical universe to be
expanding at an accelerating pace. Nobody yet to our knowledge has
mentioned that it could also be diminishing at the same rate in the opposite
direction, but that is equally plausible. Or perhaps the universe is expanding
in multiple directions simultaneously, and we are only aware of one. Who
can prove this is not so?
How many realities can you imagine? The final chapter of the book I
mentioned at the beginning of this article (There is a River) makes it clear that
all of man's philosophies combined are not large enough to begin to explain
our reality, which has no beginning, ending, or boundaries. And the beauty of
it is that we are all participating in its ongoing creation.
Let me offer a gift left for us by Jane Roberts in 1979. In addition to
being a channel for Seth, Jane was also a gifted author and poet.
What magicians we all are,
Turning darkness into light,
Transforming invisible atoms
Into the dazzling theater of the world.
Pulling objects
(people as well as rabbits)
Out of secret microscopic closets;
Turning winter into summer,
Making a palmful of moments
Disappear through time's trap door.
We learned the methods
So long ago
That they're unconscious
And we've hypnotized ourselves
Into believing that we're the audience,
So I wonder where we served
Our apprenticeship.
Under what master magician did we learn
To form reality
So smoothly that we forgot to tell ourselves
The secret.