I decided to make a rather large post that contains a bunch of notes that I have jotted down over the past 9 months or so. These notes are on a variety of topics and are some thoughts I had in the moment. These are unedited, unfiltered and... you get the idea! Enjoy!
Perfection
What does it mean to embody perfection? The first truth to embrace is that there is no failure on the spiritual path. As such, perfection includes both perfect and imperfect acts. We still call it perfection, because the very root of our soul is perfect. There is no judging or labeling of these acts, though, because, in the light of our soul's perfect love, they are perfect. No act that we can ever perform will ever change this truth; nothing can add to or take from our embodied perfection.
Being perfect is effortless, then, and a relaxing into our natural state of being.
Spiritual Evolution
I need constant reminders that the goal of spiritual evolution is not a goal in the traditional sense. The goal is a new way of being in the world. The goal is an ideal of perfect love yet we can rest in this ideal because "beingness" does not require "doingness.". The doing effortlessly flows from a place of being. This spiritual path has no end in that the goal is love yet love is infinite. Yet we can say that we rest in this unlimited love. That, in itself is the goal.
Why Spiritual Teachers May Speak Symbolically
The spiritual masters spoke in parables because, if they told you what you needed to know, you would get caught up in the words. The reality is that only you can find your path to the truth; if someone else shows you, then this is a copy of the truth rather than the real thing.
The other reason that the masters could not tell you directly is because what they can only talk about is the end result, what it feels or looks like to find your own truth. If they told you directly, you would identify with their words and try to follow them like a prescription.
The paradox is that you can only get to a place of truth on your own, because there is no where to go to. You are the truth. There also is no search. The search is an illusion and even your idea of "self" is an illusion. The truth is that there is no self and you are the truth. But your identity cannot even be in you being truth, because truth is fluid and is what life is if you would stop labeling and projecting onto it.
Original Sin
The corollary to original sin in Christianity is original ignorance. It's ignorance of who we really are, the Divine within us, rather than original sin.
We search for the meaning of life until we realize that there is no need to search and then the search is over. But the search can only be over when we experience that it is not over.
Doubt
Doubt should not be eradicated, because doubt indicates that you have free choice. However, improperly used, doubt can be used to create anxiety or cause needless worrying. In this way, doubt can be a cancer that eats away at your well-being. If I try to get rid of doubt, it just increases the amount of doubt I have, as doubt is natural.
Doubt may suppose a few things to be true, which I should take a look at. The first may be I think that the decision is black or white. However, this is never the case. There is never a black or white but different shades of gray. In fact, these shades of gray may change, because there is no absolute right or wrong. If this root cause contributes to your doubt, then what you can do is expand your notion of right or wrong. Have your 2 options encompass more of the gray area.
The other root cause may be thinking that a decision is permanent. No decision ever is. You are free at any time to choose differently and are not bound by anyone or anything. Even God herself does not bind you in a decision. You always have free will. You are never bound by an oath for all time but can choose freely again at any time. This is what free will is all about. If God herself gives you free will to accept or reject her, then surely you can accept or reject anything of this earth.
The short answer is go into your doubt and freely explore why you have it. Be willing to live with the questions that you bring up. It is more courageous to live in uncertainty and with flexibility than it is to be resolute in the wrong decision. At the same time, respect the decisions that you made in the past, knowing that, at the time, they were what you wanted. Accept your doubt. Trust yourself that, when the time is ripe, you will know the right decision in a resolute manner. In this way, you rise above your doubt and use it as a catalyst to accept the unknown and live in the moment.
Exclusivity
There is a confusion in some enlightened Beings teachings that their instruction to take their message to others was to spread exclusivity. However, they simply wanted their followers to spread love others. That was the message. All of the add-ons to the message are simply that, extra fluff around the central core of their teaching.
Morality
Morality and ethics should always come from what my heart discerns rather than by some rules. In other words, the state of my heart determines my conduct, rather than a set of rules. Some are led to renounce certain things in life, not becase they feel forced but because their level of spiritual realization led them to that path.
Trinity
There is another trinity that exists. This is the truth that God is inside me, outside me in the world and in other people. This does not have a close correlation with the Biblical trinity but is true nonetheless. At the same time, God is also One in that She is the building block of the reality that gives rise to all 3 manifestations of God.
There is a tension and paradoxical nature to this truth. This is part of the mystery of God. To me, what this means is that all 3 sources of knowledge and direction should be balanced. I can't rely solely on my intuition yet allow other factors into my decision making process. There is the voice of others, circumstance and reality. Yet the external ways in which God communicates with me and the voice of others need to pass through my inner intuitional filter. In that way, I am guided by a light from within but also allow God to speak to me through othe channels.
Happiness
The reason why we pursue happiness outside of oneself is because we have disowned parts of ourselves that we are trying to reclaim. These external things remind us of these disowned parts which is why we seek them. However, they do not unite us with ourselves when we attain them. The secret is to imagine our lives as if these things were already attained. How do we feel at that point? Integrate these feelings and attitude into our lives permanently, realizing that our natural state includes these emotions permanently. It is that we feel separate from them yet we are not.
That is the essence of consciousness, living an integrated life where we feel the entire range of our personality. We live an undivided life where these disparate parts of ourselves exist as one cohesive whole.
Duality
The truth about there being One God and the focus on God is really also means to put the focus on yourself, the light and the dark. The dark side of ourselves is perfect. Sin is perfect. That is the hard truth. A higher consciousness means abolishing wrong and right. There is only action, cause and effect. The right question is does action bring me closer to love or farther from it? Even actions not motivated by love are perfect. They are vehicles to bring the giver or the receiver to a greater awareness of love. Labeling things as right and wrong imposes my ego on the world. It inflates my ego.
Right and wrong are reserved for the legal system, not for the spiritual arena.
Attachment
That attachment to the outcome does not necessarily matter if the action itself is an "attached" action. That is it is possible to have the intention of being unattached but the action itself being attached. Therefor, I am attached to the action. The intention needs to permeate my action so that I can objectively look at it after the fact and know I am operating in an unattached fashion.
All trials in life are an opportunity to practice detachment. Trials are only good or bad depending on my reaction to them. If I choose to see the good, more good comes to me.
Joy comes from God. Attachment means that I am clinging to temporary things, attempting to derive happiness from these things.
How can I label an event good or bad if all things are just vehicles to bring me to God? What is good or bad.
My happiness comes from within; I choose to see the good in all things.
Mind of God
My goal is for my thoughts to come more in alignment with how God thinks. God thinks in a non-dualistic way. Either actions are motivated by love or the absence of love. This also means that I stop labeling and judging actions of myself or others. This is very freeing because the world becomes a perfect place. It is not a world of good and evil or something that we need to fix. It just "is.". We do not see sins or good deeds or mistakes or failures. All is perfect. This is how God thinks.
Goal of Life
The ultimate goal of life is union with the Supreme Power of the Universe. This Power wants all parts of us, what we label good and the bad, for these things are all part of being human. It is easy to give the good parts of us to God, our devotion, good works, and service. It is much harder to surrender the things in our life that we our embarrassed about or feel ashamed of. Yet, these very things are the barriers that separate us from God. God does not see the good or bad in us but has everlasting Love for each of us. She sees these things as simply a part of our nature, and it is us who put labels on our thoughts or actions. The irony of this is our shame and guilt arise from not turning these things over to a Higher Power yet this action is what will free us from these feelings. We are neither good nor bad yet perfect in the sight of God. The sooner that we realize this, the sooner this veil of separation is lifted.
Purpose of Religion
All religion is trying to cultivate, whether it knows it or not, a sensitivity to your own Spirit. Trying to train you to listen to that voice inside you, that voice of knowing that can discern whether something is Truth or not. Not Truth or not but that guiding voice within you that directs your actions and that, once you are in touch with that Voice, that part of you that is your Spirit, that is eternal. That, basically, knows everything... once you're in touch with that, religion is secondary. Religion is a vehicle to get you to that place. But, once you're there, religions are your playground at that point. They are something that are useful to play with. Are useful to try to see in what ways they can help you get rid of attachment, but they are not your guiding light/force anymore. That guiding light is within you. Religion is trying to light that candle within you. To really show you the light that is already within you.
Pain
Emotional pain is a necessary part of life. By avoiding pain, we are avoiding a part of ourselves. Pain essentially takes over a part of you. So the more pain you have, the less of you that you feel.
The solution is to always feel this pain. We think that not feeling this pain is safe but the reality is that feeling this pain is getting a part of ourselves back.
In this way, there is joy in pain because emotional pain is freeing. We feel pain because these parts of ourselves are unintegrated. But if we welcome the possibility of always feeling this pain, the pain is transmuted into joy.
Also, there is the idea that pain is the root of all problems. That we react unconsciously because of this pain. If we were all real with one another and lived our pain, then we would be real and joyful.
Pain is really joy inside me. The reason I associate pain with feeling depressed and not joyful is because it's the avoidance of the pain that creates a feeling of unhappiness.
However, pain is actually joy. If we go into our pain, we will see that it becomes joy. This is because the pain is a dissociated part of ourselves. That's why we feel pain, because we are not united with this part. The lie is that if we avoid pain that it will go away. However, this just numbs us; the pain is always there. The pain then grows because we are then dissociating more of ourselves from ourselves. This happens until we come to a breaking point.
The answer is to go into the pain and feel it. Feel these emotions. It needs to be a steady dose as this cannot happen all at once. As we go into the pain, this part of ourselves becomes reassociated. We become whole. This is a process.
There's always going to be additional pain that we are going to accumulate in life, because pain is a very necessary part of life. Suffering is identifying the pain as ourself. However, it is not. The pain is from the dissociation. So, go into it and you will find that it is joy.
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