Simple Seekers

To accept that I am as I am, but not as I was or may yet become.

If we are what we have become, then that would suggest/confirm that we each and all are works in progress, and yet, even to know or believe that we are what we have become, doesn’t answer the simple (?) question of, how did it all begin, and why? as in that so-called nonsense rhyme that goes, “How did it all begin and why? I asked a cow as she walked by …”

Also, to contemplate on the concept of having become what we now are suggests that we may yet become, in some way(s), something even more than we now are.

Are we as children in school, with a sense of confidence at how much we have learned, while our teachers seem to know that we still have a long way to go?

How to move the focus of our mind from the questions of what, where, when, or how, to why?

Perhaps, befoe we begin to ask our self how, when, and/or where we should do whatever, our best interest might be served by asking our self why we desire, or might desire, to do whatever.

Are there reasons that we don’t fully understand? Are we being influenced by outside sources, such as advertising, that may be intended to benefit others much more than it could ever benefit us, except, perhaps, with short-term pleasures at long term costs?

Are we influenced by personal greed more than need?

Just why do we do what we do?

A simple seeker was meditating on a confusing dream of being lost in traffic and intensive construction, on her way to church to celebrate a harvest festival.

She could hear the service begin. A loudspeaker was being used, and yet it didn’t seem to cause her to wonder why, even though it had never been part of any previous experience.

“Perhaps, during a dream, we’re unaware of any other previous experience.”

“Then, why was I aware of where I was trying to go, to a church that I once attended?”

“Yes. There’s always a blend of the reality that we’re familiar with, and that which we are not.”

“Anyway, I was lost.”

“Were you alone?”

“No. I was lost with a friend. But I was not totally lost. I was aware of being close to our destination.”

“But something was different with the landscape?”

“Yes. Traffic was incredibly intensive, as was the density of new buildings under construction.”

“What happened next?”

“I was almost hit by an expensive-looking car attempting to make a left-hand turn at an intersection. It was chasing after another car that had now sped away. I must have crossed the street before the car shrieked to a stop, close to me. What did it mean?”

“What did what mean?”

“My dream.”

“What makes you think that it meant anything?”

“I know that it meant something.”

“How?”

“I experienced it.”

“What did you experience?”

“The possibly bad guys were very polite.”

“Would they have been polite to whomever they were chasing?”

“No. He’d likely be dead.”

“But you were impressed by their behaviour toward you?”

“Yes. They were well-mannered and seemed sincere.”

“And yet, they might be killers?”

“Perhaps whomever they were chasing was the bad guy.”

“Are bad guys necessary?”

“It’s easier to think of conflicting sides as having opposite values.”

“Yes.”

…..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

As Spirit seems to suggest, perhaps my ideas of good guys and bad guys are socially-conditioned attitudes. And yet, as a society we seem to need to develop values of right and wrong.

“How?”

“From lived experience, I guess. But, until we’re old enough and experienced enough to determine right from wrong and/or good from bad, we seem to need guidance and limits to what is acceptable and what is not, for our own sake and for that of the community we live in.”

“Yes, and that’s how certain traditions develop, over time and in different communities, with the elders of the community accepting responsibility for guiding the younger bodies and/or minds to develop healthy attitudes and ways of living that seem to fit the needs of a particular society, at a particular time.”

“That makes sense. But why wouldn’t the wise elders of all societies have a similar idea of what was right and what was wrong?”

“They did, as ancient writings of all societies show.”

“If they were similar in the beginning, then how did they become so different, now?”

“They’re not much different, even now, except on the surface. People are basically the same, all over the world. They each and all need to feel safe and loved.”

…..

If an expanded capacity of awareness, and the limit to which we have developed our unique potentials, is all that we can take with us, then how to make the best use of the time we have left?

Welcome to anyone who has stopped by to check out this future gathering place of Simple Seekers, here on this future home of our shared thoughts about seeking truth about life as experienced and expressed in language simple enough for the average person to understand.

Future is all that I can offer at this time. As of April 29, 2021 “Spirit Teaches a Simple Seeker – Thirty-Three Lessons of Life – Book Two” was published by Balboa Press, and is available also on Amazon, in both softback and ebook. It’s also available in hard back but at a price I wouldn’t pay.

Back to our Simple Seeker Society. What will it be all about? It’s a place, or will be a place, to come with ideas and questions about living a simple spiritual philosophy of life. The Simple Seeker series (there will be three by next spring, hopefully) will be the primary focus of our group study. But, as I mentioned above, members and visitors are welcome to go beyond anything (if there is anything that Spirit hasn’t touched on in His books) that relates to how and/or why to live a quality life that brings understanding and happiness to each of us, without harm to any other.

The mantra of our group will be: We belong to a mutual simple seeker society.”

….

A defender of the race said, “I dare you. You try being a human.” And here we are.

Social conditioning gets the blame when we choose fast foods and brand name wear.

Advertisers know what creatures of habit we mortals be, and they use that weakness to persuade us to buy whatever they tell us to.

Tell us enough times that pop and fries taste good and we’ll believe you. They will even become popular.

We’re lazy thinkers and will ignore the warning that excess sugar and fats are unhealthy. That’s in the fine print, and we’ll ignore it until we start to develop lifestyle related chronic diseases. Then, instead of changing our lazy ways, we’ll reach for medicines to undo the damage we continue to do to our bodies.

Medicines are not yet designed to replace intelligence.

To talk the walk and walk the talk sounds easy enough to do, but is it safe to seem to be wise? Or wise to seem to be safe while talking the walk and walking the talk? And, how and why would we do it, if we could?

I mean, the only talk that we could walk, if we would, and the only walk that we could talk, if we would, would be our own. And yet, even then it would and must, even at its best, be the me that I am, at any given time, who is doing the walking and talking, while I am. Bearing in mind that I am evolving minute by minute, slowly or more slowly. For me, it’s probably much more slowly.

Basically, we may be whom we always were, but we’ve evolved and/or developed into whom we now are. Who can tell whom or what we (in our state of mind) might yet become?

Our destiny is evolutonary . We are developing more and/or less according to our individual potentialities, whatever they might be, and the choices we make along the way.

The coming expansion of human awareness will bring with it both personal and social benefits and problems .Perhaps our children are safer not to know, and to be taught by teachers and under educational systems that are not yet aware of all that they might each become. How to control people (even children) who know that they are becoming even more unique than they now are, and perhaps, uncontrollably so?

“Existence comes before essence.” Who said that?

“Likely, an exisentialist.”

A simple seeker was aware that her spirit teacher didn’t seem to approve of assigning names as credits . He kept reminding her that ideas come to us. We don’t go to them, nor do we create them from nothing. But then, what we do with them is our choice.

His position on this and some other matters, she thought, might be as a gentle put-down of her tendency to hero-worship.

“We don’t call our parents by their personal names.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Calling your parents Mother or Father, or more casually, Mom and Dad, is a cultural tradition, and perhaps a step toward learning to respect authority, and those who have earned it, one way or another. The Kabbalah has much in common with your own cultural tradition, in this respect.

The Tree of Life represents needed structure in our lives. We develop from the bottom up. The Tree helps us to focus on our form before our essence.”

“Why?”

“The letter of the law must be accepted and respected before attempting to understand the spirit of whatever law.”

“Even if whatever law seems to make no sense at all?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Laws represent order and, even if it’s time to change a law, one must attempt to understand what purpose it might have served at some earlier time.”

“Then, it should be accepted without necessarily approving of it?”

“Yes. Law, as form, is both structure and a foundation, while essence has potential to expand and deepen, after the form is acknowledged, and then, perhaps, adapted to meet changing circumstances.”

“I really am blessed to have you share your wisdom with me. But I’ve been developing some insights of my own; a deeper awareness of …”

“Humility?”

…..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Perhaps, sometimes I do get too sure of the truth of my own ideas, and I may need to learn to accept that there may be many more ways than one to see and/or understand any situation and/or idea. But, how to learn to see from other perspectives?

“You might try listening with intent to understand.”

“The problem with that advice is that I might decide that the other position has at least as much validity as my own.”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you might then be able to reach a compromise, or synthesis, with differing opinions and/or ideas.”

“Yes. Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For helping me to understaand that differences are negotiable, or they might be.”

“Yes.”

…..

A simple seeker was mournng for someone she had never met, at least not in person during this lifetime.He was, to her, as a hero – a giant of a man. Even the trees around her hung heavy, as if to share her mood.

“We each come for a purpose, and when we’ve completed our chosen role…”

“I like that story, but …”

“It’s more than a story. But ..?”

“If it was time to go …?”

“And it was.”

“Then why did he have to …?”

“Perhaps that was part of the plan.”

“What plan?”

“His.”

“And we each …?”

“And we each …”

“Did some of us choose to be bombed?”

“Not everyone who is.”

“Then, what …?”

“We each choose, if we’ve developed the capacity to choose.”

“And the rest of us …”

“A supporting cast of millions.”

“What purpose …?”

“To learn to develop your capacity to choose.”

“To choose what?”

“And where, when, how, and why.”

“And who?”

“Yes.”

…..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Thinking back on my discussion with Spirit, it still distresses me to think that some of us might actually choose to live a seemingly meaningless life, or one full of dangers.

“What kind of dangers?”

“Any kind.”

“Any is vague and general. Be specific.”

“Why would anyone choose to be trapped between warring armies, or between forest fires that seemed to be merging?”

“Is that where you are, now?”

“No. I was just using those scenarios as examples.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Why not dare to come a little closer to home?”

“What does that mean?”

“What might it mean?”

“My personal situation?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure how to describe it.”

“Try.”

“Okay. Why would I have chosen to struggle with someone I can’t see?”

“Perhaps you didn’t trust your physical senses and wanted to bypass them. Would I have had the same effect on your mind if you could see me?”

“Perhaps not.”

“Yes.”

…..