Destiny or Unlimited Potential

The Ideas of Predestination and Unlimited Potential are often discussed, argued about, and sometimes reasonably considered. I hope to do the latter here.

I will grant, right from the beginning, that we are but actors fulfilling roles, and that we have no independent will, but I will not accept the concept of predestination. Predestination requires the existence of time, and time exists only in the relative, not in the Absolute. Predestination admits to a Past, where the "pre" destiny took place, and a future in which the "destiny" will take place. Time, being an illusion of the mind, makes predestination a mind work as well.

With Unlimited Potential, we have just that: no restriction of time, all happening at once. Unlimited Potential unfolds like a plant in a garden, or a child in the womb, always moving, always Loving. It is the Love that leads, which makes even the "mistakes" right and perfect. The wingless fly, the armless man, the Developmentally Disabled Child, all find their place in the flow of Loving Potential.

The story of the seed is an apt one here. Of course, the story of the seed can be used to demonstrate predestination as well. In the seed, tiny as it is, is the whole tree. This seed contains the potential for the tree, indeed ultimately, for the whole forest. This would tend to prove predestination we might say. But wait! Where does the potential for the tree that is within the seed come from? It comes from Ultimate Potential.

This Life force, this Love, that is Unlimited Potential is the glue that holds everything together, holds us in Love and unfolds before us. We see the reflection only. Beautiful as it is, we create flaws by separation, time, and ego. Instead of living in the real flow of energy and Love, we live in the "I", which is "separate" from everything and everybody else.

Predestination says all is fixed. This brings about complacency. Many of the Great Masters have said that we are evolving toward enlightenment, and everyone will reach their goal sooner or later. This no doubt is true, but even if we are simply "role players", we can work to be the best role players we can.

I am an on and off Bird Watcher, or "Birder" as It's now called. Birds play their roles very well. They follow the seasons, and wait for just the right combination of temperature and daylight to time their migrations. They know where their food sources are, and where to find just the right nesting materials. This could be predestination, or in this case "instinct" But the interesting thing is, when there is a change, everything adapts.

If the winter is especially long, or the summer unusually hot and dry, there are more or less insects.

If there are less insects, the birds have fewer young. They follow the time changes, and work around unseasonal weather. This is not a pre-written script, this is flowing Love, adjusting instantly to it's own flow.

Every day, you wake up and begin all over again, believing yourself to be a person with a destiny, or at least a random life. Until you see yourself as the Unlimited Potential that is Love, you will try to live up to your non existent destiny as a person; even as a seeker. Until you realize that you are the "seeking" not the seeker, you will keep looking. And what is this "seeking"? It is Love fulfilling itself.

We are the substance of Love, the Unlimited Potential itself. We can "adapt", through prayer, service and sacrifice in a way that uncovers who we are. Not some "person" with a destiny, but Unlimited Potential itself.

The Unfolding of Love

Recently I had the opportunity to observe the blooming of a Century Plant.Very interesting growth pattern. And the term "pattern" is a good one here, as this is exactly what I observed. First, a pattern is " imprinted" on the stalk. Almost like a line drawing. Slowly, over days, the lines become "real" as the stalk slowly turns, and the lines become separations, and slowly unfold into leaves, stems and future unfolding flowers.

Pictures I have seen of Human babies developing in the womb offer a similar "pattern". Fingers appear as little flower like "buds" which unfold into delicate little hands, beginning as nothing but lines and "patterns".

So it is too with the "patterns" we observe in our minds. First just ideas; the "patterns". Then the separation, and on to the unfolding "reality" of the "I AM". Once the "I AM" unfolds, the entire manifestation unfolds with it.

This "unfolding" is the constant movement of the Love that creates. Thoughts are created, and taken as one's "own". A body is created, and taken as one's own. A tree is observed, and seen as separate from the observer. All there is creation, and observation. No need for an Observer here. No need for a body. Not even a need for a thought. Just the creation and observing happen, spontaneously, and the "objects" appear with the creation and observing.

This unfolding Love is what we ARE. Not the objects, just the Love. "We" unfold like the Century Plant, like the fetus, but not as objects created from a line drawing, slowly unfolding as "real". But as the unfolding reality; ever unfolding, ever creating Love.