Simple Seekers

A simple seeker was trying to visualize the different stages of personal spiritual development, such as transcendence and integration of the capacity and potential of the human attributes of emotion, thought, justice, and mercy, as symbolized on the Kabbalah Tree of Life.

She was also deeply puzzled by the feeling that Spirit seemed to encourage her struggle without …

“Without what?”

“You don’t seem to think that I’ll ever fully understand.”

“Understand what?”

“Life.”

“What would understanding Life look like?”

“Total awareness.”

“Total awareness of what?”

“Of why people are, or seem to be, the way they are.”

“Only people?”

……

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“I wonder what Spirit meant by “Only people?””

“Did that push a button?”

“Yes. I still can’t figure you out.”

“In what way?”

“It doesn’t seem to make sense that you would bother with me.”

“Why?”

“There must be tens of thousands of people who would learn more quickly than I ever might, what you have to teach or share.”

“Is there a difference?”

“With teach or share?”

“Yes.”

“To teach suggests a form of schooling, with intent to instill knowledge within the mind of the student.”

“And share?”

“Perhaps a desire to pass on to some others the awareness and understanding that is of value to you, with no interest in personal gain.”

“With whom?”

“With those who seem willing to learn, and seem to benefit from what you have learned.”

“Do you appreciate and seem to benefit from my sharing with you what has been shared with me?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“That’s all I ask.”

…..

A simple seeker was meditating on the powerful symbolism of The Tree of Life. It suddenly almost seemed to overpower her with a feeling of intense devotion, when respect and reverence were her usual spiritual limits.

“Have they been self-imposed limits?”

“How could that possibly be?”

“Resistance.”

“To losing control?”

“Yes.”

“That’s possible, but it surely makes good sense to have a small supply of …”

“Defensive mechanisms?”

“They do have survival value.”

“How can you explore the complexity of the qualities and intensity of thoughts and emotions, and the ever-developing interdependence between them, armed with …?”

“Protection from them?”

“Not protection, distance.”

“How do they differ?”

“I explained that to you, long ago. Once you have opened your mind, there is no way you can close it.”

……..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“Perhaps I do seem to resist …”

“Surrender?”

“I’ve never felt comfortable with that concept.”

“It’s more than a concept.”

“To me, it has always seemed as a military or political power-over ending to a battle.”

“A win/lose situation?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“So, surely there’s some other term that could more adequately express …”

“Express what?”

“Recognition of and devotion to a higher …”

“A higher what?”

“A better way.”

“A better way to what?”

“A better way to live than …”

“A better way than what?”

“Better than I now seem to be living.”

“In what way?”

“In my attitude toward life and its future possibilities.”

“And to your relationship with me?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“So, what’s the solution?”

“To what?”

“To my resistance to surrender.”

“What term would satisfy you?”

“Acceptance.”

“Of what?”

“Of seemingly infinite degrees of differences in our capacities to understand, and of our different states of awareness.”

“How would acceptance differ from surrender?”

“Surrender may only be in form, while resistance lives in essence.”

“And acceptance?”

“There’s nothing to surrender.”

“Why?”

“Acceptance comes with the awareness that we’re each, to differing degrees, part of the same reality.”

“Yes.”

……

“Now do I understand Kabbalah? You know that I’m totally over my head, and I can’t swim.”

“Then relax and let your mind float until you develop more skill.”

A simple seeker was reading “The Practical Kabbalah” by C.J.M. Hopking, and was puzzled by the author’s explanation that the Trees representing each of the five worlds interpenetrated each other, or at least the four lower worlds did.

Fortunately, the author referred to the psychologist, Carl Jung, as saying that some problems that we encounter on our path of spiritual development are not solved, but transcended. Simple seeker felt a little smug in connecting Jung’s thoughts to the way each of the worlds on the Ladder of Light emerged from the world beneath it, except for the bottom one, and the top, which seemed to her to stand alone.

“Yes, from the one Tree, which represents a path to spiritual wisdom, higher and ever-higher levels of awareness develop. As in mountain climbing, first a base camp is established part way up the mountain, and then further camps are built as the climber ascends. Each new. level achieved is an accomplishment in itself. It also allows for time to rest and evaluate, and share with new arrivals, and to learn from those who have reached higher levels and are now returning, to share what they have learned.

The four lower worlds represent stages of transcendence. We each live in each and all of these inner worlds at one and the same time. Developing spiritual knowledge, understanding, and wisdom is a never-ending process. Do not place rigid boundaries between the worlds emerging from each other. They are concepts, designed to express the interconnectedness, or web of life, wherein our consciousness gradually develops higher and higher levels of awareness. Any concept of boundaries represents no more than horizons, as seen from any one stage of spiritual development.

Each level becomes no more than a necessary foundation upon which we build, and we do, each in our own way, and in our own time, deeper faith in ourselves. Faith in anyone or anything beyond our self expresses a lack of faith in self, and self is Self. We are as one with all that is.”

……….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“WOW! Spirit covered so much material.”

“Material?”

“Yes.”

“What about understanding?”

“What about it?”

“Did I cover any?”

“Is that possible?”

“Yes, and no.”

“Please explain.”

“I can share my understanding, but I can’t …”

“We each develop our own understanding, if we do?”

“Yes, and each at a speed and depth that our mind is capable of, at any given time.”

“Do we each have the same potential to develop our mind?”

“No. Some seem born to develop into a particular form, even if provided with the same care and nutrition.”

“So, we each have unique potentialities?”

“Yes.”

……..

“

A simple seeker was meditating on the concept of non-local consciousness.

“But, I’m conscious” she thought to herself. “And I’m also local. I’m here.”

“How conscious are you? How local are you? And where is here?”

“Are you trying to confuse me?”

“No. You do that very well, for and by yourself.”

“So, then, what does non-local consciousness mean?”

“It simply means that consciousness is local, but not necessarily exclusively so.”

“As in cosmic consciousness?”

“That’s the non-local aspect of it.”

“And my portion is …?”

“You don’t have an exclusive portion.”

“But I’m conscious.”

“Yes, at least to some extent.”

“Then do I have a limited capacity to be conscious?”

“Of what?”

“Of being conscious.”

“Again, of what?”

“Of whatever I’m conscious of.”

“To what extent?”

“Haven’t we been there before?”

“Where?”

“Okay, please explain what non-local consciousness is.”

“Consciousness that is non-local.”

“As in unlimited awareness?”

“Yes.”

“And my awareness is …?”

“Yes.”

“I can accept that. But, I intend to become less limited.”

“How?”

“Study.”

“What?”

“Does it matter?”

“For this purpose, no.”

“For what purpose would it matter?”

“Local and non-local are specific and general.”

“And general can be as expanded …?”

“Yes.”

“Then, to study a specific subject would expand my awareness of that subject, or way?”

“Way?”

“To enlightenment.”

“Yes.”

….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“Non-local consciousness as unlimited awareness …”

“What about it?”

“It sounds so expansive.”

“It is.”

“And my local, limited consciousness, is restricted in scope?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Yes. Why must I be restricted?”

“For your own benefit.”

“Please explain?”

“We each and all have an ever-expandable level of awareness. As we mature, we learn to accept responsibility for what we know.”

“Knowledge and consciousness are connected?”

“Yes.”

“In what way?”

“Life experiences teach us, if they do, how to live in harmony in our world.”

“And our world expands as we develop harmony within it?”

“Yes.”

……..

A simple seeker was enjoying a warm and misty afternoon beneath gently-moving foliage. The near-by trees shaded her from direct sunlight, or would have if the bright sun had been able to reach her North-facing patio at this time of day. Fortunately for her, her neighbours across the hall would be coping with Summer heat, while she enjoyed the breeze.

That thought distracted her from a message the trees seemed to be sending to her. Their branches and leaves were anticipating rain, and were quivering with delight at the expected pleasure. Now, moist air, or the hint of moist air, turned her attention to the sky. She saw what the trees may not have noticed. The wind had picked up and was blowing the clouds away. Of course, more clouds might replace them.

Meanwhile, “Tarot as a Way of Life” by Karen Hamaker-Zondag seemed to need to be reconciled with itself, at least in her mind. This Jungian approach to interpreting Tarot suggested that the Major Arcana cards represented a personal path to individuation. However, this simple seeker still clung to the concept of psychic integration and transcendence that the Kabbalah Tree of Life seemed, to her, to express. It appealed to her need for clear and simple explanations.

“What card would seem to share your present state of mind.”

“Wow! I’m not an expert, yet.”

“Would that change your choice of card?”

“It might.”

“How?”

“For now, Seven, The Chariot, would seem to express my intent to discover.”

“What?”

“What Life is about, and why?”

“And, if and when you become and expert, …?”

“It’s not “if” but “when.”

“Then, when …?”

“Seventeen – The Star, although I do wish she didn’t expose her nakedness. Clothes would have expressed a sense of modesty.”

“Perhaps she wishes to express transparency.”

“But, to express it so obviously suggests that her nakedness is a cover-up in reverse, a pretense of transparency, rather than the real thing.”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“Could it mean agreement?”

“Possibly.”

“What else?”

“Perhaps a pretense of agreement.”

“Yes.”

………

A simple seeker’s note to herself

The nakedness of the woman in The Star card ….

“Made you feel uncomfortable.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, unless …”

“Unless what?”

“Perhaps I was socially conditioned as a young child to cover myself up. My mother was very rigid in her thinking about social conventions. And, she may have tried to protect me from a slack attitude.”

“Yes, we are conditioned early in life, and only with great effort are we able to relax the hold of those early mind constraints. Would you wish to feel as free as the woman in The Star card?”

“No.”

“Yes. We each have our own comfort zone.”

……..

A simple seeker could not let go of the mystical insights of Kabbalah symbols, such as The Tree of Life transforming …

“No. It represents human consciousness continuously transforming and transcending itself.”

“And blending into higher and higher, or deeper and deeper levels of integration and harmonization …”

“Is there such a word?”

“You interrupted an intensive insight developing.”

“You were about to lose it.”

“How do you know?”

“Your so-called understanding of mysticism was evaporating into mist.”

“What’s wrong with mist?”

“The mist of false understanding is as a curtain that prevents one from clear vision.”

……

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“Human consciousness continuously transforming and transcending itself .,,”

“What about it?”

“It sounds so romantic.”

“Romantic?”

“Yes, as if there will be no end to pleasure.”

“Pleasure?”

“Yes, pleasure.”

“What has pleasure got to do with transcendence of consciousness?”

“It must be a very pleasurable experience.”

“Yes, it is.”

……….

A simple seeker had slipped into one of her periodic moods of doubt regarding her spirit teacher. Did He even exist beyond her mind?

“What can exist beyond one’s mind?”

“Perhaps if I had something to eat, or did a load of laundry. Simple activities might help me to focus.”

“On what?”

“Or protect me from seeming to know what is beyond my possible potential to know.”

“What can possibly be beyond your potential to know?”

“I don’t know.”

“You haven’t yet accepted that our communication is a very natural one.”

“If it’s so natural, then why isn’t it a generally accepted one?”

“It may be more generally accepted than you’re aware of.”

“It just isn’t publicly acknowledged?”

“There’s no money in it, and not much potential to control it.”

“ESP”?

“What about it?”

“ESP allows thoughts to be projected.”

“Thoughts are projected in many more ways than one.”

“Yes, but with ESP some people can project their thoughts across great distances to a particular person.”

“Or group of persons?”

“Can a group of people receive the same message?”

“Mental speaker systems existed long before so-called modern technology played around with the idea.”

“How does it work?”

“It doesn’t work at all in the sense of needing a material or physical connection. Do you hear your own unspoken thoughts?”

“Yes, but they develop within my mind.”

“Where within your mind?”

“I don’t know.”

“And, do you think that your mind is separate from mine?”

“People don’t hear other people think.”

“Whenever we claim that something isn’t possible, we close the door, not of possibility, but of our awareness of it.”

“Is it as intuition?”

“No.”

“Then please explain.”

“Intention to hear and to be heard.”

“But why can you do it, and I can’t?”

“You haven’t practiced.”

“How can I practice?”

“By first believing that you could develop the ability, and then using it.”

“Then it’s as a skill?”

“Is hearing a skill?”

“Not for me. It seems to be a function of being human that is declining as i age, as is my strength.”

“Perhaps your reduced hearing is as a blessing in disguise.”

“How can it be considered as a blessing?”

“Without all the distractions of needless sounds, you are more able to listen to me.”

………

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“ESP”

“What about it?”

“Is it as a phone call? Or, for those who can hear the thoughts of others, is it one-way?”

“Yes and no.”

“Please explain.”

“ESP, or extrasensory perception, is a human potential.”

“Will we all have it, someday?”

“Eventually, yes.”

“Will it replace telephones?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Telephone conversations are two-way communications.”

“And ESP will be developed more quickly by some than by others?”

“Yes.”

“Will this technology …?”

“It’s not a technology.”

“Then, will this human skill be used for group connections?”

“Can phone conversations be used to connect groups of people?”

“Yes. There are even video group calls now.”

“Yes.”

“Does that mean that our vision, as well as our hearing, will …?”

“Evolve?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

……..

A simple seeker was studying with intent to learn more about Neo-Confucianism.

“How does it differ from reading?”

“Learning, or seeking to learn something.”

“Intentionality?”

“Yes, and expecting to learn. I’m learning and I’m aware that I have learned something of value to me, if to no other.”

“In such a short time?”

“Yes, and no.”

“Isn’t that my line?”

“If it fits, …”

“Yes. If what we are studying now is built upon a solid foundation of earlier studies, then we can absorb our new learning into an expanded and deepening understanding of earlier studies. Formal education is, or should be, built upon these same principles.”

“Principles?”

“Yes.”

“One step at a time?”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“How then does it work?”

“Expanding, integrating, and transcendence. How did the concept of transcendence come into your study of Confucianism?”

“Neo-Confucianism.”

“Would Confucius be impressed?”

“He’d be horrified.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why do you say that? Do you have inside information?”

“Yes. The trinity that you saw (Simple Seeker had visualized an I Ching trinity, or triad, involving the Supreme Ultimate as a force that produced Yin and Yang) may well have developed from your understanding of the Kabbalah, and the Supreme Triad of energies.”

“Isn’t it curious and interesting how it all comes together?”

“What?”

“Knowledge.”

“It can come together if we continue to open to new ideas without letting go of what we have learned in the past.”

“Perhaps, all along the way we need to be aware that what we are now learning may itself become a foundation for future learning.”

“Would you want to reach an end?”

“Is there an end?”

“No. Awareness is knowing that there is no end or boundary to awareness, and in the end, learning is a form of awareness.”

…….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Learning may be a way to self-awareness.

“How so?”

“I’m aware of learning who I am.”

“When you are what? Learning? Or aware?”

“Are you suggesting …?”

“It’s more than a suggestion. We can’t be aware of not being aware.”

“What about learning?”

“What about it?”

“Can we learn without being aware that we’re learning?”

“At what level?”

“What do you mean?”

“Learning and awareness are not the same activity.”

“How do they differ?”

“Awareness is as vision.”

“And learning?”

“Learning is development of skills and/or information that you might not be consciously aware of.”

“How can we benefit from skills and/or information that we’re not conscious of having absorbed?”

“Absorbed?”

“Yes. In our mind.”

“Our conscious mind?”

“Can we absorb skills and/or information into our unconscious mind?”

“Yes.”

……..

A simple seeker of a higher level of personal spiritual development had come under the influence of a spirit teacher. She was very aware of an inner energy, a high level of vibrating and intelligent energy that, no, who seemed to challenge her to explore a depth of understanding beyond her ability, so extremely far beyond, and yet she seemed to need to pretend that she possessed the potential to learn whatever this higher energy could teach her. Humility was not one of her personal attributes. But how did it happen, and why?

A more realistic aspect of her mind seemed to sneer at her attempts to understand the how and why, suggesting that she just confess that she was over her head and beyond her depth, which of course, was true. Her spirit teacher, or guru, was probably very aware of her intellectual limits.

“Why does He even bother with me” she asked herself. “Has he been assigned to try to raise the level of my spiritual understanding as a test of His teaching ability? Or was she something akin to a lab rat or guinea pig?”

Perhaps her spirit teacher, for she had begun to refer to Him as such, was using her to teach a class of spirit students who aspired themselves one day to being able to serve Life by raising mankind, one person at a time, to higher levels of compassion and love. If so, were such students of Spirit quietly watching without interrupting? Or were they, if they existed at all, part of an interactive research project designed to study how to raise the level of human consciousness, from the ground up?

This simple seeker’s personal life experiences had taught her that very many people seemed to need to learn how to develop a healthier and happier life by attending more carefully to activities of daily living, with intent that they contribute to a healthier and happier life.

Another thought came to the mind of this simple seeker. Was she only one of many subjects that higher energies might be using to jump-start a more expanded program of direct involvement of spirit energies with humanity and, possibly, other physical creatures?

A sobering thought stopped her speculations. Would she wish others to share her struggle to defend her uniqueness, such as it was, from an invisible (to her) possibly self-appointed teacher who seemed to expect from her more than she was capable of learning? The stress might be more than some, perhaps many, could safely deal with. She accepted that it might be only a matter of time before her own mind shattered under the relentless pressure to expand.

“So, why don’t you just give up?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have you considered that you may have been born to experience a higher awakening?”

“What does that mean?”

“What does what mean? Being born with a purpose? Or a higher awakening?”

“Both. Can we be born with a purpose?”

“Yes, and everyone is born with a unique purpose in mind.”

“And my unique purpose might be to awaken to a higher level of awareness?”

“Yes.”

…..

A simple seeker’s note to herself – Lab Rat or Guinea Pig

If I was born to awaken to a higher level of awareness, then why did I live so long without becoming aware of it, if I am now aware of it?

“Are you asking me or talking to yourself?”

“I was thinking to myself.”

“Did your self come up with an answer?”

“No.”

“Then perhaps you should ask me.”

“Okay. Please explain.”

“Explain what?”

“How I would live so long without being aware of my purpose.”

“It may have been part of your plan, and mine, that you first live a life of experience in the physical world before you became aware that there was more than a world of physical reality, and came to understand that so-called physical reality is an illusion.”

“Physical reality is an illusion?”

“Yes.”

“Why would anyone create an illusion?”

“Anyone?”

“Well, maybe not anyone.”

“Have you learned anything from experiencing human life?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“I’ve learned that all humans experience emotionally and intellectually stressful situations.”

“Do they seem to learn anything from their experiences?”

“Some do.”

“Then it served them well.”

…….

A simple seeker was feeling blessed to be receiving lessons about life from a spirit teacher as wise as any guru she had ever read about. He helped her to understand Kabbalah teachings, as well as those of Taoism and some other forms of perennial wisdom.

“What do Kabbalah and Taoism have in common with today’s educational system?” Today’s lesson had begun.

“A transmission of knowledge.”

“Knowledge of what?”

“Wow! You expect me to explain that?”

“Yes, and to explain it simply and clearly.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

“Well, the Kabbalah Tree of Life, to my limited understanding, represents seeking ever-higher levels of integration and transformation of an individual’s emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development.”

“A basic understanding. Now, Taoism …?.”

“Lao Tzu described the core structure of all life as Tao, The One, which divides itself into two, and then The Two together create The Three, and from The Three come “the ten thousand things,” meaning everything else.

“How are these two systems of thought similar, and how different from each other?”

“Wow! You didn’t prepare me for this.”

“I prepared you very well, all things considered. Carry on.”

“Wow! Okay. Taoism encourages simplification of our lifestyle, as if in moving from clutter to a sense of oneness with all life.”

“And Kabbalah?”

“From my very limited understanding, the symbolic message is one of awareness of the Absolute that is boundless, and of our capacity and destiny to seek to develop and express ever-higher levels of emotion, thought, wisdom, understanding, and creativity, as reflections of the qualities of God.”

“Acceptable, for now. And finally, how are children being educated, today?”

“Where?”

“Yes.”

………

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“Spirit does not seem to be impressed by the way children are being taught today.”

“Should I be?”

“We’ve come a long way.”

“In what way.”

“There was a time when children were educated to become no more than their parents, and no different.”

“How so?”

“Sons of farmers learned to become farmers from helping their fathers, and not as agricultural students learn about farming today.”

“And the daughters of farmers?”

“They learned from their mother and other women in the farming community, basic skills such as cooking, cleaning, preserving, sewing, knitting, and other useful skills such as caring for others.”

“What do the daughters of farmers learn today?”

“The farming communities today are not as they once were. There are fewer small farms. It’s now mostly large-scale farming. And, with modern transportation, many young people have moved into towns and cities. Many daughters of farmers are now learning to become workers in offices, shops, or factories. Others are learning nursing and teaching skills.””

“Do all sons of farmers follow their fathers, today?”

“Most probably do not. Most likely study in towns or cities, to learn skills that will prepare them for jobs in a changing world.”

“What can Kabbalah and Taoism teach your people today?”

“I don’t know.”

“Perhaps, if you thought a little more deeply …”

“Kabbalah seems to teach that we start from the bottom and work our way up.””

“Yes. Basic, foundational skills must be taught first, and then more complex skills and habits developed gradually, as a foundation is built in the student’s mind.”

“Then why do you seem to not approve of today’s educational system?”

“It seems to focus on skills development designed for individual survival purposes, and not for community benefit.”

“Communities do benefit from skilled workers.”

“Yes, but there is little focus on the quality of life, beyond a materialistic measurement.”

“School programs are not designed to offer spiritual development.”

“Why?”

“It would produce conflict between different religious belief systems.”

“Yes.”

“So, how to educate our children to be more than physically self-supportive?”

“Spiritual philosophy from a grass-roots perspective, from early childhood.”

“The very term ‘spiritual’ would be unacceptable to some educators, and to some parents, who wouldn’t want their children indoctrinated into any belief system.”

“They already are being indoctrinated into a belief system.”

“What belief system?”

“That materialism is the highest value.”

…….