NAMASTE

Friday, January 21, 2011

The Absolute - Life as it is - Even the Sad bits!


I was recently in a comment thread on Facebook. My comment did not have to do with the subject of the thread itself, but in response to a comment made by the author of the thread, which was Only egos are sad.


I took exception to this, and responded with the shortest verse in the Bible;"Jesus wept." Jesus, of course, in this context, was responding to the news that his dear friend Lazarus was dead. Now, Jesus knew that in a short time he would raise his friend, so his sadness was out of compassion for Lazarus' sisters; Mary and Martha, and for the mourners gathered there. This is compassion in action.There is sadness. There need be no Mary, Martha, or even Jesus to be sad and weep, for there IS sadness.


There is only Love. Sadness lives and arises within Love. Here, I am not talking about a love that is the opposite of hate or fear. That is the emotion of love, and a mere shadow of the Absolute, which is Love itself. The Absolute is what you are. The Absolute contains all potential, is all potential. It is not a "thing", but an unfolding.


In the comments in this Facebook thread, it was said that:


" The natural state of the reality of you as God created you is pure joy-ever increasing joy without limit."


"love and joy are the same thing".


"If you are love/joy then you can not be sad."


If we accept that Love and the Absolute are the same, and that this is the only reality, then saying that joy is the only natural state of reality is limiting the Absolute to what the mind conceives of as joy. The bliss of the Absolute is only experienced by being it. Nisargadatta Maharaj expressed it this way:


"There is in you the core of being which is beyond analysis, beyond the mind. You can know it in action only. Express it in daily life and it's light will grow ever brighter."


Living the life you have; this "expression" you see all around you, is the only way to "be" the Absolute. Just as the Christ recognized his divinity, he also recognized his humanness. This is not duality, but a merging that has already taken place. To say that humanness or sadness are not part of the functioning of the Absolute, is to say there is something apart from the Absolute or separate from it.

Another comment in the Facebook thread stated that "The Absolute doesn't contain opposites" . The Absolute contains everything, including opposites. Where else would they arise from? You might answer that they arise from themind, but is not the mind functioning within the Absolute? The same commenter went on to say:


"When you are loving, are you not joyful? When you are joyful, are you not loving? The same is not true of despair and joy. You are not joyful in despair."


Love indeed brings joy. Joyfulness, however does not necessarily meanuniversal love. It could even mean selfish desire. In despair there is no love seen, but love is what sustains during sadness, which may arise, even in universal Love. Sadness, human behavior were experienced by the Christ. He lived his humanity to the Cross. He never ran from it, but accepted it. His life was not always joyful, but always in touch with Love. The parent who loses sleep over a sick child, or the elderly couple watching one another slowly fade in abilities and vitality, experience love as the reality they are in. Sadness and death are inevitable, but they arise and live within Love; the Absolute.


Life is as it is. Accepting all that arises, letting the illusory go it's way, not by chasing it off, or denying the pain, but by open acceptance, is living the life of Love. If we wait for "perfection", or an "end to sadness", ideas that live only in the mind, then we are waiting on a non-existent future for something that is unfolding RIGHT NOW!


Life is already perfect. The pain often is the love beckoning. To tell people, especially seekers, that there is a reward of "perfection" and perfect bliss, when life is already perfect, is to send them to look for a dream, not to awaken them out of one. Life with all of it's painful "illusions" is a perfect seamless thread. All one need do is see through the illusions, stop seeking perfection and realize it's presence, even in apparent sadness and death. Stop dividing the "real" from the "illusion", and accept all as life.


Life as it is. Isn't it wonderful!

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