THE MYSTERY AND WONDER OF LIFE — UNITY
Often it has been asked, “What is the purpose of life?”. To me, it is simple. The purpose of life is to live, and I add, live fully.
The theme of this writing is Unity. I suggest that you and I, living separate lives, are One entity, I am you, living a different life from the one you know, and you are me, living my life in a different form, with different experiences and learnings, different challenges, successes, failures, but many of the same questions. Perhaps we are like a single actor on stage performing many different rolls, simultaneously.
“Love your neighbor as yourself”. Yes, for in truth, your neighbor is you in different form. As I mention that most important word so often tossed around casually without real appreciation, LOVE is the All, more than the most powerful energy of existence, more than the glue that holds the Universe together, Love is simply all that is, beyond my conscious grasp, but occasionally glimpsed.
“All that is? What about the horrendous destruction, pain, suffering and absolute hell we can experience in this world. Where is this love?” I have no simple answer for this great question, except to say that we see our drama from the standpoint of being players on the game board. To see it from above the board, looking down on all that occurs, we get a very different perspective, and see great meaning and good purpose for all that occurs on the board, including experiences of hell.
It is not out of imagination for us to love all that is, all people, all things, the Alpha/Omega, the Creator/Destroyer/Re-creator, what may be called the All, the I Am, the Source, the Great Spirit, and on and on, generally labeled “God” as a title (not name). “Creator/destroyer?” Yes. The Source is One. There is no dualism. Please, if you have not yet done so, read the “Bhagavad Gita”, Stephen Mitchell’s translation recommended. I know of no more beautiful description of the One Almighty in all of poetic literature than this.
I have asked, how can I truly “love” that which is incomprehensable?” I have discovered that which is incomprehensible to reason can be known through experience when our focus shifts for a time from left to right brain.
Once “Love”, in a favorite form of Truth, came through me, for the sake of a young priest sitting next to me at a dinner, who was preoccupied with his struggle with God. I surprised myself by saying, “The finite cannot comprehend the infinite.” I thought, “Where did that come from”? He paused and then said, “That is my answer”. His answer did not come of me, only through me. His answer was my answer — a gift, a gift of love.
Our conscious, egocentric, rational minds, though stretchable, are always finite. Reason and logic are essentially left-brained thinking and are limited. But, when we struggle with whatever koan our Teacher has given us until our rational, “thinking” mind hits the top and begins looping back on itself, and we humbly, in a sense of defeat, must admit to our Teacher, “I have failed, I can go no further, I can find no answer”, then the real learning begins.
We are perhaps set back when the Teacher says, “Good, you are now ready to sit quietly, fully conscious, unthinking, and still, and eventually you receive the silent, unspeakable “Knowing” that can only be experienced, but never reasoned, never reducible to words, a Knowing that only comes through experience, and can be proven only by the life we live thereafter. As James said, “You prove to me your commitment to the Lord with your words, I prove mine with my actions”.
Some expect “salvation” by saying, “Oh Lord, I believe you are the son of God”. Jesus replied, “Great, even the demons say that”.
I write to myself. Your are me. I am you. We are one, seeking the same thing, the understanding which we already possess, but, temporarily forgotton, perhaps has not yet once more risen to the surface of conscious knowing. It is said, “The answer comes when the quest stops.” How many times do we hear a statement and say, “Wow. I never knew or thought about that”, vs. how often do we say, “Yes, I agree with that”? This is because we have Truth, temporarily misplaced, and only need to be reminded, not taught.
Thinking about these statements before writing, I sensed a surprising feeling of true Love for you whom I do not yet know consciously, the me I have not yet met.
Brother, Sister, other — we are One with each other and with our Creator out of whom we come, and to whom we return.
This reminds me what you have often heard, our ego centricity must go. When this finally happens, it feels like total loss, like death, — but nothing is ever lost. Though it seems we have been reduced to nothing, when we awaken from that seeming death, we discover that we have only gained. The ego self lives on, supplemented by unspeakably having merged with the All of creation.
If you made it this far, (if I decide to hit the publish button) thank you. We may not meet in conscious knowing in this life, but we have already met in Spirit.
At this moment, there are other voices clamoring to speak of many things that seem so important. They must wait their turn. Voices in my head, graceful enough to not speak audibly, and thereby scare the piss out of me. I thank them for being so thoughtful.
For the record, I have spoken of Jesus and quoted the Bible, but I am not an “Institutionalized Christian”. I have a special, mystical relationship with Jesus, a relationship he chose to impose upon me through profound dreams following Zen meditations which I pursued with commitment to the Truth, wherever it leads, whatever the cost. I did not know the cost would require me to meet Jesus. A shock, to say the least. Not everyone introduced to their path to Truth has the same experience.
The dreams came as a great surprise, having been running as fast as possible from all this “Jesus phonyness” all my adult years. I found he is full of surprises, but in no way claims exclusivity or (God forbid) “equality with God”. Follow YOUR path, whether or not the guy called Jesus meets you on it.
If you decide you’d like his company and advice, and check out whether or not he is real, ask for it. He will meet you. If not, so long as you know Love, you are cool with him, whether or not you two meet in this life. He rarely does to others what he did to me, so if you don’t meet him, don’t let anyone throw doubt on you. He had to hammer me, for the sake of humility. He has had to do so many times.
Bless you, bless me, bless us, bless the All with whom we have Unity.
Onward and upward, each following our assigned path. If you haven’t found your path, keep looking. It will find you.