Beloved Ashvin,AshvinP wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 1:16 amLou Gold wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 12:42 amOh, I agree about preparing for one's spiritual evolution and working to clear away one's own blockages. Who is it who you see as standing in her/his own way, lamenting in the abstract or being passive? Dreams are incredibly important, life-changing for me. Sometimes, all that's needed to trigger change is sincerely admitting that something is possible. Sometimes it requires more targeted work and cleaning/clearing. I see myself as a work in progress and hope everyone here holds a similar self-view. Along the way, I love to create poems and images and share stories -- to be a maker as well as a taker. I call it "having fun" but I don't mean to imply that there's no work involved.AshvinP wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 12:11 am
We often point out here that awakening in dreams and dreamless sleep can be realized by people now, as long as we sacrifice the expectation that it's something which will happen to us, someday or somewhere. It's not so much that the phrasing is incorrect - the spiritual powers do indeed approach us, rather than us forcing them to reveal by our will or thought - but that the expectant, entitled, dependent, and therefore passive inner disposition is not something which attracts them. The world of deep sleep is filled with spiritually luminous, warm, and creatively responsible beings - they want us to realize our full potential and join their ranks. In that sense, it is only we who stand in our own way to the deeper realizations. And the first realization is to become more conscious of how precisely we are standing in our own way. Lamenting about it in the abstract will do us no good and may only drive us deeper into passivity. Instead we should seek the understanding, love, and wisdom which allows us to actively discern and untangle the knots of our own being as they manifest in our daily lives, so that the Spirit finds more straight paths to inflow.
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough places smooth;
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
That's great you are able to remain at home. I would certainly make the same choice.
Me! And I can only recognize it in others to the extent I recognize it in myself, in ever increasing measure. Every version of 'me' I thought to be concrete, active, courageous, accepting responsibility, without excuse, has been much less so than imagined, without fail. It's not only that I see myself as not having reached the ideal yet, but I discern more and more ways in which I am actively working against against the ideal. And at every such realization it is tempting to feel, 'ok now I have cleared out those demons and it's a matter of growing straight towards the Divine'. It's actually remarkable how many times we can fall for the same tricks that we play on ourselves.
Since you are a spiritual poet, you may appreciate, and perhaps even employ, this prayer that I just now came across while reading, and which seems to fit this conversation perfectly.
"Not more of light I ask, O God,
But eyes to see what is.
Not sweeter songs, but ears to hear
The present melodies.
Not more of strength, but how to use
The power that I possess.
Not more of love, but skill to turn
A frown to a caress.
Not more of joy, but how to feel
Its kindling presence near,
To give to others all I have
Of courage and of cheer.
No other gifts, dear God, I ask,
But only sense to see
How best those precious gifts to use
Thou hast bestowed on me.
Give me all fears to dominate,
All holy joys to know,
To be the friend I wish to be,
To speak the truth I know,
To love the pure, to seek the good,
To lift with all my might
All souls to dwell in harmony,
In freedom's perfect light."
Your words bring a warm glow to my heart and gentle tears to my eyes.
I salute you.
Thank you for being my friend.
Much love to you,
lou
