ok, this is a ramble that is intermixing two very strong feelings in my heart that are closely intertwined. sorry if it takes some sifting through. feel free to ask me or call me out on anything. it's not going to be for everyone. it may not be for you, and that's ok. if it's not, just take what you need (if anything) from it, and blow off the rest.
i'm currently reading the book "a new earth" by eckhart tolle, and as audre lorde says, "there are no new ideas. there are only new ways of making them felt."
though there is some hocus-ey pocus-ey things that i just have to brush off, overall it's saying things to me that i've already felt, but it's putting them into words that make WAY more sense than the gibber jabber i come up with when trying to explain myself. which inevitable ends in that, "huh?" face. ;-)
a year, or two, ago after i read "conversations with god" by neale walsh, i wrote the following:
"You have this idea that God shows up in only one way in life. That is a dangerous idea. It stops you from seeing God all over. If you think God looks only one ways or sounds only one way or is only one way, you're going to look right past Me night and day. You'll spend your whole life looking for God and not finding Her. Because you're looking for a Him." N. Walsch
my thoughts: dont become so blinded by why you perceive others to be wrong that you don't see their peace. ..and dont be so content in your right way that you miss out on what the universe is trying to reveal.
and here i sit in yet another phase of my life that has brought me to yet an even deeper understanding of our (yes OUR) higher power. i find myself refreshing the inner knowledge of who i am as a spiritual being.
you have so harshly and often cruelly over-complicated the beautiful simplicity of life, and in turn, spirituality. you have done things in the name of *basically insert any here* and have spiritually robbed people of their right to...believe.
the use of the word "you" makes you nervous doesn't it. don't worry, i'm not pointing the finger. i'm talking very loudly to myself as well.
we have GOT to allow ourselves (an in turn others) to just be. you really do know more than you think you do. but we've forgotten how to simply be. we spend so much time working on being "good" and "right" according to this and that and really, its right there within us all. it's been there long before we were even here. think about a baby. does it have any concept of right or wrong, good or bad, love or hatred? no. but as that child grows and learns and experiences, it will inevitably learn all of these things. and it/we inevitable forget that innate being/self/spirit that is within us. that which is our essence. and then we spend the rest of our lives trying be, what we already naturally are. and in doing so, we are sadly missing out on the abundance of freedom and goodness that is our birth right.
we have over-structuralized and materialized the spirit as to make life comfortable for us. to explain things we don't understand. to give reason to things we cannot fathom. we have essentially put God in a box and given labels of this and that, left and right, up and down.
but...
there is a oneness that moves throughout everything. every person, every flower, every butterfly...every thing. you call it God. i call it the Universe. she calls it Allah. he calls it Brahman, they see it in the Buddha. whatever you choose call it by name, however you choose to see it, spirituality is state of consciousness. a consciousness which is beyond all of us and our religions with our idols and our worships. it is a consciousness of the oneness that connects us ALL.
look, there's no way that your religion is right and so and so's is wrong. and i'm also not saying you're wrong for believing that. haha, confused yet? good. sorry about it. so let's stop thinking so damn much, get over that and be free and open to some truth.
as spiritual beings we're all headed towards the same goal, but that process looks different to everyone. just as we don't all learn the same. i have to see and then do to finally get something whereas others need to just hear it and others can just see it. spirituality is very much like that. based on our differences, we relate to the spirit differently.
religion at it's core is a basic belief in something higher than yourself. we are so busy fighting about whos is right and whos is wrong and let me save you and you've got it all backwards...that we're missing the point. all religions, as all things, come back to one. it is the consciousness of the unifying oneness in ALL, that will ultimately free your spirit self, "and the peace...which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds." (phillipians 4:7). it is something greater than our mere religion...
i am in no way negating nor am i poking at any religious beliefs/spiritual paths. as i said, we all need our own way to connect upwardly in a way that we can understand and comprehend.
but in that comprehension, we tend to have tunnel vision. and very much as we see cultures that are not "democratically free" like our own, as wrong (look at iraq). we also see spiritual paths that are not like our own as wrong as well.
and, we miss out on beautifulness of being. simply being. just being. being one with ourselves. being one with each other. being one with the spirit. we miss out on communing. we miss out on loving...
"so God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him..." (genesis 1:27)
yet i can't help but think:
maybe man has made "God" in his own image. took the eternal, the infinite, the UNnameable creator, and turned that into a mental idol so that we can all sleep better at night, knowing that we got it "right"...
i wonder how he/she feels about that?
to be continued...maybe.
peace and blessings / love and light
