Which Came First?

I want to toss around a few things here and see if and how they land. This morning I read somewhere the idea that Love, among other things, like wisdom and joy are simply byproducts of clear seeing; seeing through separation. This would seem to be in line with Nisargadatta Maharaj's famous quote, which I use all the time:

"When I see that I am nothing, I call that wisdom. When I see that I am everything, I call that Love. Between the two, my life continually flows."

That statement would seem to confirm that Love and Wisdom are indeed byproducts, or at least the results of seeing through separation. But is this really true? Lets have a look.

I think that we can at least assume that Love, joy, and Divine Wisdom are beyond the mind; not describable in words. If we can box in Love, joy, or Divine Wisdom, in our words, concepts or thoughts, they are not the genuine article; the genuine article being indefinable.

"When I see that I am nothing ", "When I see that I am everything ". That certainly sounds like clear seeing; seeing through separation. And it is. But does the "seeing " come before the Love, joy andDivine Wisdom, or is the clear "seeing " a byproduct of Love, joy, and Divine Wisdom?

I would propose that the Love, joy, and Divine Wisdom must come first. Clear seeing is not available to the mind. Clear seeing lives only in Love. Joy and Divine Wisdom are the byproducts of Love only, all being beyond mind. The mind, of course, wants to come first. It will try to usurp the Love, joyand Divine Wisdom, and try to present them as it's byproducts; it's "discovery ".

This false belief that the mind is "seeing " through separation is one of the pitfalls of "spirituality without spirit ", that I have referred to in previous writings. As soon as the heart opens to Love, joy, or Divine Wisdom , and the truth is reveled, the mind, like a hidden snake, sneaks in and grabs the "awakening ". Love, being our very nature, the "very form of "God" ", as Ramana Maharshi put it, is the only place where no separation exists, all else being dualist. This is not available to the mind, but the mind tries to claim it.

The late, and loving American Jnani, Robert Adams took this idea even further, in that he felt it was valuable to "worship " the "absolute " as "God " in form. He expressed that worshiping (Loving) a formless "God " would not produce sufficient energy:

" if you worship God without form, the energy is not as strong. For what kind of a God are you worshipping? An invisible God that has no form, no shape. Therefore, you have doubts. You are not too sure. And, the energy you send out is not that strong. But when you worship God as form, you can give that God all of your energy, or totally Surrender ( to that particular deity.) That is the purpose of worship. To finally, totally, surrender your ego, your pride, your body, your affairs, your life, to that deity. And then, ‘You’ ( as divine Self rather than human person) become that deity, itself."

This "energy " that Robert is talking about is Love itself. Only through Loving can we "be " Love. Only through practicing Love (silence, devotion, service) can we step into the unseen realm of Love itself. We can practice all the mind games and "awareness " tecniques that we like, but to allow that the mind is quieting itself, illuminating itself, is to follow a road that leads only back to the mind, and not beyond it.

Here, in this teaching that has been given me by Grace, there is difficulty in this idea of "God " in form. Robert Adams believed that "the importance of loyalty to one Teacher in personal reverence and practice " results in "powerful practical results in life." He went so far as to say that:

"Worshiping God in the form of Sat Guru or in the form of a Buddha or a Christ, whichever, is even better."

To many, the personal "God " in form, becomes a stumbling block. The Guru "as "God " also leads many astray. This is why seeing Love only is the start of understanding. You can look at it as "God's Love " if that helps, but to see something "personal " in the universal , unconditional Love is an error. We, the world and the whole of the universe are not nouns,, but a verb. We are not a "thing", but life itself.

But this "argument " with Robert is a small one. We both see that Love, devotion and "worship " are vital to any awakening. To simply say that Love, joy and Divine Wisdom are "byproducts " of clear "seeing " is to believe the deception that the mind "saw it first ".

We open our hearts by Loving, as that is what the heart does. No matter how "clearly " we can explain the mind's "discovery ", it will not open the heart, Love being the only key. Love in Silence(contemplation), and Love in action (service) are the shortest route to "awakening ". The mind with all it's clever words, concepts and ideas will try to tell you that, with it, you can, and indeed you have discovered "truth ", but it is simply deceiving you by swapping a vision it couldn't understand, for one it makes up.

Make no mistake, the mind exists in Love, not Love in the mind. Clear "seeing " results from Love. Everything is a "byproduct " of Love, including this "clear seeing ".

Peace

Living Out Non-Duality - Is there a Choice?

I spent most of the first fifty years of my life as a Christian believer, with the exception of a dozen years or so in early adulthood as an agnostic. Even during those agnostic years I read and searched everything from spiritualism to channeled entities. Today I live out unicity as best I can, and see no separation between this body and this world.

Upon awakening to the one reality, and after a period of ten years, I attempted to write about my findings. Having been asked to write the rule for the religious community I was a part of, by the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral fifteen years earlier, I decided to put my findings into the context of that rule. I would attempt to see if this understanding, that came to me in an instant of awakening, could be understood in this rule that I had solemnly made vows to follow so many years earlier. The result was "Community of One - The Journey Beyond Christianity " While unfortunately this book has never seen print, it was a chance to see if I had remained "true" to both the rule and this "awakened" understanding.

This was an arduous task. I was working at a HUD property for the elderly at the time, and would spend my time, while working, thinking about the next chapter I would write on Sunday. Sunday was the only day I had access to a computer, my employer kindly allowing me to use the apartment office computer to write. This led me to meditate/contemplate for most of the day, every day for over a year.

One of the principal reasons that I rejoined the Church and sold my possessions to lead a life of solitude and service was to live a life of integrity. Integration of spiritual "search " and the work I did, and the life I led became one piece. I had always tried to live in integrity, indeed I could, and can not see any other way. If we want to understand non-duality, we must live it out every day. To say this is hard, or make excuses that we must separate "spiritual " from "everyday " life, is the reason so many who follow this "path " can't reach the understanding, and allow themselves to settle for an intellectual understanding. Compromise is the enemy of awakening.

"Community of One - The Journey Beyond Christianity " proved a success, in spite of it's lack of publication, in that it showed me that the rule of life that I had established as a Christian Monk could be, and indeed was being lived out now in Oneness. I know that many criticize my "teaching "; my insistence that service and self discovery go hand in hand. There is always the "no doer ", "nothing to do " crowd that look for easy answers in the mind that they never apply to life, but keep "special ", as if life had two parts. But non-duality, life itself is One.

In the gospel of Matthew, the Christ says:

21 Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" 23 And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."

Simply mouthing the words of the teacher, or even having an understanding that is not applied to life is not doing the will of the Father; the Absolute. Adayshanti says much the same thing in his talk about absolutism in non-duality:

"To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true nonduality. If emptiness cannot dance, it is not true Emptiness. If moonlight does not flood the empty night sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass, then you are only looking at your own empty dream. I say, Wake up! Then, your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot contain."

"A love you cannot contain " requires action; living out the teaching, not just sitting mouthing words of "no doer ", "nothing to be done ". If we do not share what we experience, what we have learned, then it not only dies with us, it is dead within us.

I have paraphrased the Apostle Paul's comment as "Work out your enlightenment with fear and trembling ", meaning that living the teaching is not always easy, not always accepted. But life requires courage. Seeking is not for the weak. "Finding " requires even more courage, for here we must live it out daily. The "dance of emptiness " is not always an easy dance, but do we have a choice?

Peace

Negative Space, as the Lighted Screen

In Art, the concept of Negative Space is used to cause an object; a shape, to stand out against the background. This often results in the negative space becoming the subject of the Art, rather than the "recognizable" shape, be it familiar or abstract.

In Spirituality, this concept is sometimes used to present the "objects" of the Manifestation as they appear against a backdrop of "nothingness". This has been described by some sages as being like a Motion Picture Screen upon which a pure light is projected. The mind, as represented by the "film" casts "images", shadows, if you will, on the screen. The screen remains unaffected, always bathed in pure light, no matter how distorted it appears to the mind, which "clings" to certain "shadows", and judges them "acceptable" or "unacceptable". This analogy has a number of failings, even though it does accurately mention the interference of the mind.

The main problem with the Screen, film, light analogy is the fact that in "reality", the Screen and Lightare one and the same, and are not passive at all, but alive with "projection" and "reflection". The "film", this bag of thoughts we take for the "mind", is what distorts flow into "objects". The Lighted Screen; the Absolute, is always there as Negative Space, but neither passive or negative, but alive with simultaneous "projection" and "reflection"; unlimited potential.

Within this unlimited potential, which is Love, is caring, compassion, acting, and all of the Verbs we "experience". It is the mind that "creates", out of memory, nouns; us and those "cared" for, us and those toward whom we have compassion, and the mind also attributes all "action" to us or to be 'about us'. The mind takes all of the flow of the Lighted Screen; all the movement of projection and reflection, and "personalizes" it to the "me", the "I am".

It is the dynamic of the Screen that is alive; the projection and reflection. We must see beyond the mind, which can only interpret this still movement; this "unfolding" as objects in motion. This is why we call it Negative Space, as it is not available to the mind, even though it is neither negative or passive, but movement; unlimited potential itself.

To return to Art, students are often taught to recognize negative space in a drawing by copying a drawing upside-down. This allows them to see just the shapes, without the mind turning them intorecognizable objects. This is what we must do in our hearts and minds, when it comes to the spiritual. If we concentrate on the moments "between thoughts", rather than the thoughts themselves, we are looking at the negative space, the "still movement" that flows as unlimited potential. This unlimited potential is Love itself; the "space" we all occupy.

When we live with the conviction that the Lighted Screen is self functioning, and needs no "me" or "god", or any other "shadows", we can rest and let it be as it is; Love without "lovers", Life without end. Seeing this Negative Space as the "subject" of the art, and all the "objects" as only existing to draw attention to that fact, opens us to true "seeing", and pure action.