Archive for Stories
As a child, I was fascinated with mysticism. Raised in a determinedly christian family, religon itself seemed little more than a control device. But the lives of the mystics…. that was a central sun for me.
Questions…. so many questions. How was it that an individual could actually hear the voice of God? How was it possible to understand and converse with animals? What understanding and connection did one have to be able to smile, joke, and converse with one’s torturer? …to heal, to levitate one’s body, to develop stigmata, to learn and know things not of this world?
Despite attending a seminary for eighteen months, answers were not forthcoming. Eventually I put the questions on a mental shelf where they could itch in seclusion. Mostly they gathered dust for several decades.
In those intervening years I perused a few religions. Most western christian held little to interest me. Also they were derivations from the catholic church. That august body, I felt, was steeped in control issues and mystery. Sacred Mysteries that were to be accepted as such by the lay person I could very well do without. I wanted answers, and more importantly, experience…. not more mysteries.
Inately, with some small degree of awareness, I knew there were perfectly understandable reasons for everything.
So the years passed. I traveled the States, then realized suddenly that if I saved my money, I could achieve my childhood dream of going to Australia. Within a year I arrived there. It felt more like home than anywhere else I’d been on the planet.
On the island of Tasmania, the first thunderbolt struck. I listened as a friend recounted an out of body event in which he had traveled to another “place” for teachings. Afterwards, of course he had to fill me in on his knowledge of oobs and reincarnation.
This was new to me, groundbreaking and dynamic. Suddenly, the Sacred Mysteries of the catholic church began exploding. It dawned on me; reincarnation explains why one child is born to a starving mother, another to a well to do family; why a child is born deformed… another not. It is the soul’s choice of experience. When the catholic church decided to eliminate mention of reincarnation from the bible, they were left with no other explanation to give, other than “It’s a Sacred Mystery.”
My knowledge that everything in the universe had to make sense and was understandable was becoming a reality. A huge chunk had fallen into place. Now it was up to me to allow my own personal horizons to expand in affiliation with my heart.
Intrinsically man recognizes his relationship with a Source; whether his is conscious of it or not… that relationship as an active communication seems long lost.
In its stead man seems to establish a god as God, made after mans image. In this process mankind selects what attributes he wants this god to display.
Those who enjoy the thrill of fear instill their god with attributes that invoke fear in themselves.
Those who are ready to accept full responsibility for themselves and their actions establish a god who commands… an authoritarian figure; someone who will direct and\or intercede for them.
To me these seem to be two basic ways most of western civilization\religion create their God.
Yet, when one has finally touched the heart of the Source, he\she is left with the realization that the attributes of fear and authoritarianism projected onto a god figure are but human attributes …. attributes that are “merely” learning steps in drawing nearer to the Source.
When one finally touches the heart of the Source…. that touching allows all the limitations of religion and created gods to coalesce coalesce into the background of past learning experience….
I am an alien tree, growing under an alien sun. The little flying creatures nest in my limbs. They are at home here, bringing me news of their travels. Into the cliff my tendrils explore, learning the ways of stone and chemistry. That which may be called my leaves are also my communicators, playing with the breezes, giving and receiving. Local creatures stop by with news to exchange. I am home.
No others like me live near… by nature we are solitary. Yet we are a family, aware of the generations that lived before us, altho we do not view time as linear as much as malleable. Within us is present the learned knowledge of all our generations, back to when we first incarnated on our wonderful planet.
We have no need for mobility, for in all other ways we are indeed mobile.
In entwining our lives with the life of this planet, we nurture her as she nurtures us. Together we evolve in our experiences of beingness.
She and we are also entwined with the universes…our energies co-mingle. We know the universes as they know us, for All That Is is all the same energy, with the same source. We simply explore it’s uses differently.
5 Oct 08
When I came across the information that one can create new pathways in the brain via thinking in new ways, and doing daily events in different ways, it didn’t occur to me that one might need to pay a bit more attention to what one is actually doing.
As I was preparing to shave one day, I realized I’ve always shaved the right side of my face first, then the left. So, right… now I would do it in reverse. I did shave the left side first, thinking about how it felt. The process, other than the starting point, still felt normal. I finished and went about my work. After noon I went into town for groceries, then went to my local coffee bar… where the barrista asked if I was making a statement. “I am the statement,” was my reply…to which she looked confused.
I sat down to think about that event… but it wasn’t until I absently passed my hand over my face that I realized I had shaved the left side of my face…and finished there, also, as usual……..