Simple Seekers

A simple seeker was meditating on the Kabbalah Tree of Life and its many individual and unique centers of energy, with each center representing a particular quality and/or type of psychic energy. Each of the energies contribute to the whole, and yet each are mutually dependent upon each other. Together they co-create an ever-higher level of consciousness for one and all, and for the one that they each are a part of.

It reminded her of the human body with its many interconnecting and mutually supportive networks of nerves, arteries, veins, blood circulation system, lymph system, digestive tract, respiratory system, and elimination system, with its built-in recycling system designed to reabsorb all that could be recycled to useful ends.

She had done primary studies in human physiology as preparation for one of her many would-be lifetime careers that never seemed to manifest. Each almost did, but for whatever reason became just one more anti-climax in her life dedicated to a search for stability.

“There is none.”

“Then why do I still need to believe?”

“What?”

“That some life work is waiting for me.”

“How many failures does it take?

“I don’t know.”

“You could ask me.”

“Yes, but how would I know that what you told me was so?”

“Trust.”

“In what? Or whom?”

“In yourself, to know what is so for you, at least while it is.”

…….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“How to choose the path that is right for me?”

“You don’t choose the path. It chooses you.”

“How can it choose me?”

“The so-called path that you follow through life is no more than the trail you’ve left behind you, projected forward, unless …”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you become aware of the path that you’ve been creating, and then choose to create a future of your conscious choice.”

“Is it possible?”

“Yes.”

“What would it look like?”

“What would you like it to look like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes.”

………

A simple seeker was meditating on the Ace of Swords, the Tarot card she had randomly selected to direct her focus on relationship issues of today. The Ace of Swords represents the full range of intellectual capacities and potentials.

“Then” she thought to herself, simple common sense would be a form of, or prerequisite to, higher levels of intellectual development.”

“What would connect them to each other?”

“Perhaps different levels of awareness.”

“Are they related as you and I are?”

“If common sense is a prerequisite to intelligence, …”

“It both is and is not.”

“How is that possible?”

“What is common sense?”

“An instinctive or intuitive knowing.”

“Are they the same?”

“What?”

“Instinct and intuition.”

“Is one more primitive?”

“Primitive?”

“More basic, in that it developed before the other.”

“As in emotion and intellect?”

“Instinct and intuition may be more closely related to each other.”

“In what way?”

“Perhaps instinct develops into intuition.”

“As in transcending?”

“Yes.”

“Would instinct then dissolve?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Transcending doesn’t involve exchanging one for the other.”

“Could they each operate, or function, separately?”

“What?”

“Instinct and intuition.”

“Yes.”

“Then there is no transcendence from one to the other.”

“Perhaps transcendence still plays a role in the game.”

“What role? What game?”

“Perhaps as instinct develops, …”

“It never develops. It transcends into awareness.”

“Then, perhaps instinct is more emotional and intuition is more intellectual, as in Yin and Yang.”

“Yes.”

“Wow!”

“Now, where does awareness fit into the picture?”

“I’m becoming more aware of the interrelationship between emotion and intellect.”

“Yes.”

“Do they develop separately?”

“”Is that possible?”

“They each need the other to be able to develop in a healthy way?”

“Yes.”

“I think I’m over my head.”

“Yes.”

……..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“All I had wanted to do was to focus on the Ace of Swords, and try to imagine how the powerful intellectual energy of that card related to relationship issues of today.”

“What relationship?”

“Any and all relationships that became part of my life, today.”

“Did I distract you from that goal?”

“Yes.”

“Is our relationship not a part of your day?”

“Yes, of course, but I had human relationships in mind.”

“Why would our relationship not be included?”

“I don’t know.”

“Perhaps you know more than you might think you do.”

“How is that possible?”

“Are instinct and intuition forms of knowing beyond thought?”

“Yes.”

“Do they bypass thinking processes?”

“Yes.”

“Now, back to my not being included in your focus on today’s human relationship issues.”

“Our relationship is not included in the same category as human relationships?

“Yes.”

“So, I wasn’t intentionally excluding you, because it wouldn’t be possible for me to do so?”

“Yes.”

……

A simple seeker was talking to herself, or was she thinking out loud, without making much sound, or possibly much sense, either.

“I may be what I have become, but perhaps what I was to begin with was not entirely my idea. So, how can I know just how much I have become that I can accept responsibility or credit for?”

Spirit would know. This simple seeker was beginning to feel more comfortable interacting with this Voice of Authority in her life, for now.

“Why for now and not later?”

“Now doesn’t necessarily exclude later, does it?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On what now has a potential to exclude in the future.”

“Such as?”

“Recklessly squandering resources today may limit or, in the extreme, exclude them from your future.”

“Is that a general observation or a personal comment?”

“Yes. We each have the potential to improve the quality of life for ourselves and some others, today, tomorrow, and beyond. We also possess the potential to do ourselves and others present and/or future harm, with or without intent to do so.”

“How can we know if what we’re doing may harm ourselves and/or some others?”

“Whatever has potential to do harm today may possess the same potential tomorrow and beyond.”

…

A simple seeker’s note to herself

“Spirit can seem to get so heavy in His thinking, at times. How can we go through life continuously concerned with what future affect will develop from whatever we may be doing, or thinking about doing? I mean, where’s the spontaneity?”

“Spontaneity?”

“Yes. How to be relaxed and enjoy the moment if we have to be concerned with possible dire consequences of everything we do?”

“Not everything you might consider doing will likely have dire consequences.”

“How to know?”

“How to know what?”

“How to know that what I may be doing, or considering doing, has potential to harm myself and/or others?”

“Didn’t we go through that in the so-called lesson?”

“Yes and no.”

“How so?”

“You explained that anything that has potential to do good or harm today might possess the same potential tomorrow and beyond. And yet you didn’t seem to be aware that there isn’t much that we could do today that wouldn’t have potential to do good or harm sometime in the future.”

“Such as?”

“Everything we eat has an affect on the environment, today and beyond.”

“Not everything you might choose to eat will have the same potential to affect the future environment.”

“Everything we might choose to do today may ..”

“Again, not equally.”

“So, how to live in awareness that what we do may have negative affects on our future and/or the future of others, without depriving ourselves of the pleasure of relaxed living?”

“How relaxed?”

“Without unnecessary stress.”

“Any stress is unnecessary.”

“How to prevent it?”

“Be aware of tension.”

“How to become aware of tension?”

“Practice.”

“How?”

“One moment at a time.”

“Isn’t that more of when than how?”

“When and how interact.”

“In what way?”

“Whenever you feel tension, something is causing it, and how you respond determines whether the tension relaxes or develops into stress.”

“What has that to do with potential harm?”

“Stress causes harm to your psychological well-being.”

“Can’t I just make the most sensible choices that I can, and let what will happen?”

“Yes, and that’s the most natural thing for anyone to do.”

…

A simple seeker was meditating on the possible differences between the concepts of initiation and transformation, and if in fact ..

“If there were differences, then what would they be?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question.”

“Sometimes it helps when there’s an outside ..”

“You’re hardly an outside voice.”

“How do you know?”

“I can feel your thought.”

“Singular?”

“A single energy.”

“Perhaps we’re each and all part of a single energy.”

“Perhaps, but ..”

“Perhaps but what?”

“How does that relate, if it does, to the differences, if there are any, between initiation and transformation?”

“Even as you ask, I sense awareness developing within you.”

“You might have pulled back a curtain.”

“From within you? Or from within your mind?”

“Is there a difference?”

“None at all.”

……

A simple seeker’s note to herself – re initiation and transformation

Initiation and transformation as being the same experience? How can that be if initiation is as a ceremony or celebration of a student’s successful graduation from one level of achievement to another?

“As a reward for effort?”

“Yes.”

“What about transformation?”

“That takes place within us, as our emotions and thoughts develop ever-higher levels of quality.”

“As a movement from within?”

“Yes, an inner growth, as similar to physical growth, as we mature and develop from childhood, through adolescence, to adulthood.”

“Yes. As within, so without.”

“What does that mean, concerning initiation and transformation?”

“It means that there is a certain correlation between whatever is within and its outward expression.”

“So, we transform, if we do, from within, and ..”

“Yes. The outward expression of that inner transformation is experienced as a celebration, or initiation, into a higher level.”

“Of what?”

“Awareness and understanding.”

……..

A simple seeker was enjoying reading Dan Millman’s “The Laws of Spirit.” He obviously shared a high quality relationship with an awakened spirit teacher.

“Are we jealous?”

“Perhaps, a little.”

“Why?”

“He’s so much more …”

“Intelligent?”

“I can’t know that for sure, but ..”

“Then what?”

“He seems to be so much more comfortable with sharing his relationship with a spirit teacher than I am.”

“Why?

“Perhaps he has more self-confidence. After all, he is ..”

“Male?”

“That helps, but also, he earned recognition and respect in his personal life.”

“Is his relationship with Spirit not also personal?”

“Yes, of course, but he was a world-class athlete before he shared his spiritual wisdom.”

“His?”

“Well, it’s his, now.”

“How so?”

“Anything we learn from whomever, or from whatever personal experience, becomes our own personal wisdom or understanding, at least until we begin to doubt it, or to believe that there may still be more to learn.”

“Where do I fit into this personal philosophy of yours?”

“Is it a personal philosophy?”

“Yes, and we each possess one.”

“How can we know what our personal philosophy is?”

“We each know, whether we claim to or not. But some others may be more aware than we ourselves are, if they have eyes to see.”

……..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Spirit seemed to suggest that ..

“It was more than a suggestion.”

“Some others might know some things about us that we don’t know ourselves?”

“Yes.”

“How could anyone know what I don’t know about me?”

“What do you know about yourself?”

“I can only know what I know.”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you know what you know, and I know what I know.”

…….

A simple seeker had returned home after time out. Even Spirit seemed to have approved of family time. She had been worried that she might … No. She knew that she did not have the power, or the will, to totally disconnect from Spirit. And she knew that He knew it too.

Another thought seemed to suggest itself, that the close relationship… Could it be called intimate? Whatever.

Spirit closed off her train of thought as if it had been as water pouring from a tap. She was impressed, as always, by His power to control, at least to some extent, her thinking. But, she complained to herself, “I’m not as a water tap”

“What were you thinking?”

“I can’t remember, exactly. Oh, yes, now I do. About our relationship.”

“Yes. You were not considering it as of high value.”

She was suddenly shaken. Somehow she must have offended her spirit teacher.

“I am neither pleased, nor offended. I have long ago outgrown immature attachment to either false or sincere praise or criticism. I know my own value. Do you?”

“Do I what?” She was stalling for time, confused by what He was asking her. But, the truth was that she did not know either her value or His, exactly.

“I confess that I did not express the respect that I owe you.”

“Why would you owe me respect?”

“For all that you have taught me, and for choosing to let me be a part of your mission to share your wisdom teaching.”

“It isn’t my teaching. I share what has been shared with me. But, concerning your disrespect ..”

“Have I been disrespectful?”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps I don’t know how to show respect to someone whom I can’t see. I know that it was my idea for you not to manifest in human form. But, what if you placed that idea in my mind?”

“How?”

“You might have planted the suspicion in my mind that I would wonder why you manifested as you did, if you did.”

“Yes. You were concerned that I would have a motive.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t we all have a motive?”

“For what?”

“For everything we choose to do, or choose not to do.”

“Then, what is the solution?”

“Trust.”

“I’m not very good at that.”

“Yes.”

……….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

How does one develop trust?

“In what? Or whom?”

“In myself.”

“It doesn’t come from intention to do so, unless ..”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you act consistently, more or less, in line with your highest capacity to do so.”

“Why capacity? And not potential?”

“One expands into the other.”

……….

A simple seeker was enjoying the privacy of her secluded patio garden. She sat surrounded by several perspectives on the study of Tarot, with each author seemingly confident that she/he was presenting the final word, more and/or less.

“How did you manage to move your perspective from a focus on The Hermit as a solitary seeker of enlightenment to a comparison of Aces?”

“The Major Arcana relates to general personality characteristics, while the …”

“Did I ask ..?”

“The Aces introduce each of the four suits of cards, that represent the four major energies of Fire (Wands), Air (Swords), Water (Cups), and Earth (Pentacles, or coins). Each Ace offers a sacred gift, a promise, almost.”

“How could a gift or promise be sacred and still be no more than an almost?”

“It’s not a freebee.”

‘Then what does it cost?”

“It’s not for sale. It can’t be bought.”

“Then how does one receive a gift that’s not for sale, and can’t be purchased.”

“It’s a promise of reward if effort is made to follow one’s dream or path, and is meant to inspire self-confidence.”

“How does Tarot differ from I Ching?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Yes.”

“With my limited understanding?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. They have little or nothing in common with each other.”

“How so?”

“I Ching explains, and supports, social stability within a system of generally accepted basic laws, or rules of order.”

“And Tarot?”

Tarot describes and explains inner dimensions of personal experience; feelings, needs, desires, fears, and interests, and helps us to make sense of them, and to learn to blend them together. And more. Tarot encourages individuals to discover and believe in their personal values, and inspires them to reach for success and happiness.”

“And I Ching does not?”

“Personal satisfaction and happiness don’t seem to be high priorities from an I Ching perspective.”

“Then why study both?”

“Humans seem to need both individual and collective general rules of order. But we also need personal emotional satisfaction, sometimes referred to as needs fulfillment.”

“Where does awareness fit into this scenario of a two-sided view of the ideal society?”

“I didn’t call it ideal.”

“No. I did.”

“Then I’ll let you explain where and how awareness fits into the picture.”

“Awareness is understanding the reality that the individual and the collective are as two parts of an infinite oneness, within which they share a dynamic relationship.”

………….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

I wish I more clearly understood what Spirit was explaining to me re the relationship between I Ching and Tarot.

“What don’t you understand?”

“How they can harmonize with each other.”

“They do not.”

“Then what does a dynamic relationship mean?”

“It means that they each serve a personal need, and a societal purpose.”

“What personal need would I Ching serve?”

“Security, protection from real or imagined enemies of any particular collective society, and a sense of inclusion within a group of like-minded people.”

“What societal purpose would Tarot serve?”

“Societies are groups of interrelated individuals. If the individuals develop a sense of self-satisfaction and confidence from studying Tarot, or whatever so-called mystery school, then the society in which the satisfied or enlightened individual lives benefits from the positive attitude of those individuals.

……

A simple seeker was meditating on, or was she just thinking about, next year’s garden.

“Why not just call it planning?”

“Planning has to develop out of ..”

“Out of what?”

“Out of awareness of what is pleasing, and given the limits of a small garden area, what might be even more pleasing than was pleasing this past season. Also, there’s the yearly chore of restricting the space that existing plants can be allowed to expand into.”

“And attacking those who have spread beyond their alloted area?”

“Attacking sounds violent.”

“Is there a gentle way to cut them back?”

“I’ve tried restricting their spread by placing patio stones between them, but ..”

“Their roots find a way to reach under them and ..?”

“Yes. Then I cut them back, but it doesn’t work.”

“What does work?”

“Digging up the whole clump and subdividing it.”

“Then what?”

“One-third gets to return to the original area and the rest goes to a new home, or the compost.”

“Do all of your plants get the same treatment?”

“No. There are some who are too dear to me to risk disturbing.”

“How to deal with the invasive nature of their roots?”

“Their indivdiual root systems spread at individual depths and densities, beneath the surface of the ground. Of course, their roots too must be cut back when they endanger more fragile plants. But if they can work it out together, I try to provide enough water, nutrients, compost, and loam to keep them all happy. Also, gentle hoeing discourages wandering roots.”

“How would such a system of control work in keeping the peace between groups of people?”

“What do you mean?”

“Does your garden’s collection of competing needs remind you of human society?”

“In a way, yes. We each have personal needs, and so does everyone else.”

“Yes.”

“So, how to resolve such a situaton of competition for limited resources?”

“Self-control, co-operation, and mutual respect.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Then the law of the jungle will.”

“Survival of the fittest and those who adapt?”

“Yes.”

……..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

The law of the jungle and survival of the fittest sounds so uncivilized.

“They are.”

“So, why would Nature develop such a system?”

“What do you mean?”

“If Nature is an example of how humans are meant to live …?”

“Humans are part of Nature.”

“Are we supposed to see the rest of Nature as a role model?”

“A role model for what?”

“For how to live.”

“Sharp teeth and claws?”

“Yes.”

“Not all of Nature is aggressive, and even the most vicious animals kill only to live.”

“And not all plant life contains invasive roots.”

“Yes, and some multiply simply by producing seeds that are scattered by the wind.”

“Yes. The vegetable and animal kingdoms can provide for human needs, and as examples of possible ways to interact with other species.”

“But humans also have intelligence, and humans also are capable of love”

“Humans are also capable of very unloving actions.”

“Perhaps we have the potential to learn from the rest of Nature, and to develop a more loving society.”

“Yes, and in time you will.”

…………

A simple seeker was slipping into a mood of overwhelming sorrow. Memories of her first child’s lost battle with a rare form of cancer, before he was old enough to understand what possible purpose his suffering could serve anyone, flooded her mind. But neither did this simple seeker understand then, nor does she now.

Of course, medical science gained. The horror was with her, as it was then, when she learned that the medical specialists knew, and had known, before so many surgical intrusions … Why did they tell her that they had known it would come back, again and again, until it won? Why not just let him die in peace, in one piece?

“Stop!”

“What? And how?”

“Many more parents than you have grieved for loved ones.”

“Then, perhaps we’re each grieving for each other.”

“The living and the departed?”

“And for each other’s departed?”

“No.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes, but do you?”

“The departed, or so-called, may be rejoycing while the so-called living are grieving.”

“Could you rejoyce while those you left behind were not?”

“There are traditions where rejoycing and celebration replace morbid funerals.”

“Yes.”

“But surely, that could in many instances be no more than fulfilling societal expectations, while grieving was accepted as a personal and private affair.”

“Private grieving can also be as fulfilling societal expectations.”

“Perhaps there’s a case for both ways, as in a time and a place to honor the life of the deceased, or so-called deceased.”

“Yes, and more.”

“More? What more?”

“Transforming our grieving into a tool of self-discovery.”

“How?”

“We can meditate on the effect the lives of the those who are no longer with us in physical form still have on our lives. In this way we can practice turning our grieving into a search for understanding of the so-called mystery of life.”

“How?”

“Meditate with a focus, a focus on the value of our loved one’s life to us. Their life was a gift.”

“Then to meditate on the meaning of their gift of life?”

“Yes.”

………..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

I was so young, and so emotonally immature, and had never experienced such a painful situation before. I seemed to have expected that God would protect him.”

“God did protect him, and you.”

“From what?”

“From living in ignorance of life.”

“There must be an easier way.”

“An easier way to what?”

“To learn about life.”

“Did the experience affect your thinking?”

“Yes, very much.”

“How?”

“I had believed in a loving God, even though so many unpleasant things seemed to be happening in the world around me.”

“And your child’s death changed that belief in a loving God?”

“Yes.”

“So, your belief in a loving God was conditional?”

“What does that mean?”

“It was easier to love God as long as your own loved ones were protected.”

“I guess.”

“Did the experience help you to feel as one with others who had also lost loved ones?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“Then it expanded your sense of self.”

“Where are you going with that?”

“Where might I be going?”

“We’re not isolated from others?”

“Yes.”

…………

How Can I Know What is Possible