Simple Seekers

A simple seeker planned to impress her spirit guru with evidence of her advanced (or, so she thought) views on the power of attraction. After all, she had read so much about this so-called Universal Law.

“Why do you consider the power of attraction to be a so-called Universal Law?”

“Well, it is, isn’t it?”

“Yes, of course it is.”

“So?”

It is not a so-called anything. It is reality. But, go on and tell me what you know of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Explain it, if you can.”

“That’s easy. Like attracts like.”

“In what way? And to what degree? And with what result or results? I might also ask …”

“Where? When? And Why?”

“Perhaps later.”

“Birds of a feather flock together. They are attracted to each other.”

“Perhaps there is survival value in their behaviour.”

“Does there have to be a reason why we’re attracted to anyone or anything?”

“There is always a reason for whatever.”

“Even attraction?”

“Attraction plays a basic role in any activity. But it is never of equal proportions. The lesser is always attracted more to the more than the more is to the lesser.”

“Then why do we become attracted to whomever and whatever that we do?”

“Desire and a sense of perceived lack of whatever it is that we are attracted to.”

“Can’t we just want to hang out with similar people?”

“Why?”

“It could be lonely …”

“Yes. We desire to fill a personal need.”

“What about synergy?”

“What about it?”

“Evidence has shown that two horses pulling a load, together, can pull more than twice the weight of each pulling alone.”

“Yes, but what has that to do with the power of attraction?”

“Can a Universal Law have power?”

“Universal Laws have ultimate power.”

………….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

I seemed to feel smug about my understanding of the power of attraction. Now, I’m not sure that I understand anything about anything.

“You must know something about something.”

“What?”

“You know that you and I are attracted to each other, for whatever reason.”

Yes, I guess it must necessarily be so, but …”

“But what?”

“What possible reason, other than my need to learn what you seem willing to teach me?”

“And why would I be attracted to you?”

“Perhaps I’m a means to an end.”

“Yes.”

“What end?”

“I’ve explained that to you, many more times than one. You share my teachings with your social media groups, as my teachers have shared their teaching with me, though, perhaps on a little more one-to-one basis.”

“On a personal basis?”

“No.”

“Why not? That’s what I miss in our relationship. It’s so impersonal.”

“There is no personal, other than a socially-conditioned one.”

“What’s wrong with relationship?”

“Nothing.”

“Then how can there be no personal relationships?”

“Personal relationships are not inclusive.”

‘Then why do we become attracted to whomever or whatever we do?”

“As I’ve told you many times, it’s a desire for a perceived, personal lack.”

“Perceived?”

“Yes, and it’s an illusion. We each are part of all that is.”

…………..

A simple seeker of enlightenment had studied and thought deeply about different possible meanings of images portrayed on a Tarot card that she had pulled from somewhere near the middle of a freshly shuffled deck, and was now contemplating the possible personal message expressed by the Two of Pentacles (or coins).

A juggler, or clown, had seemed to stop tossing two large discs, and was now staring at one as if it represented the chosen option between two lifestyles.

At the same time, a stormy sea behind him seemed to have stopped tossing two ships. One was atop a high wave and the other seemed to be slipping into a deep trough. The two boats were as much at the mercy of the sea as the discs were in the hands of the juggler.

But why did he/she stop? And why did the storm end, and now seemed to be preparing to ease its demonstration of its awesome power over those who dared to risk its instability?

“Why call the ocean unstable?”

“It can be.”

“Then it has potential to become, or appear to be, unstable.”

“What about the juggler?”

“What about him, or her?”

“The two large discs seem frozen in time, with one high and the other low.”

“Which is the object of focus?”

“The lower one. Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you ask?”

“To focus your attention on the relative positions of the discs, and how this might explain a personal, psychic message, for you.”

“Wow!”

“Yes. You were looking at the general picture and not at the details, and the message they might offer.”

“But, there is no steady middle point in juggling, nor in a stormy sea.”

“Nor is there any middle way to travel through life.”

“Then why do the wise ones speak of The Middle Way?”

“They don’t mean neutrality, as might seem to exist between positive and negative.”

“Or between good and bad?”

“Yes.”

“Then what does The Middle Way mean?”

“The true middle way is always on the side of …”

“Transcendence and truth?”

“Yes, but neither rigidly nor casually.”

“The middle way as relaxed awareness, acceptance, and commitment?”

“Yes.”

“Then the middle way resists both neutrality and self-righteousness?”

“Yes.”

“Then, how can a pendulum ever settle near the point on the positive side of its swing?”

“A perennial problem.”

………

A simple seeker’s note to herself

I was looking at the general picture presented by the Two of Pentacles card, and not at the details.

“Yes, at the high and low of the two discs, and the two ships.”

“But the juggler was looking a the low …”

“Yes.”

“Does that suggest that I need to focus more on the details of my life?”

“Does it?”

“Perhaps.”

“Yes.”

………..

A simple seeker was meditating on the possibility of individuals possessing a unique, individual frequency of energy.

“Not frequency as singular, unless …”

“Unless what?”

“Unless there’s no variation in our individual thought processes.”

“Is that possible?”

“No.”

“Then, our thoughts harmonize?”

“Or they don’t.”

“Is it possible for them to harmonize?”

“Yes.”

“Is it desirable?”

“No.”

“Then, awareness …”

“Yes.”

“How to become aware?”

“Of what?”

“Of the degree to which our individual thoughts …”

“And emotions?”

“Yes.”

“It isn’t a matter of becoming aware of our thoughts and emotions, but rather to what degree they harmonize with each other.”

“And the degree to which our personal thoughts and emotions harmonize with each other at any particular time, and in whatever possible situation, determines the strength and quality of our individual frequency and vibration?”

“Yes.”

“Wow!”

“Why, Chela, does that understanding seem to distress you?”

“Couldn’t some mad, military scientist use that information to create a means to identify different energy types?”

“For what purpose?”

“To fingerprint and control, or destroy?”

“Yes.”

………..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Spirit didn’t seem at all distressed about the possibility of us all being fingerprinted for our personal energy type.

“There is nothing to get stressed about.”

“Why?”

“It isn’t going to happen any time soon.”

“Then it will happen, in time?”

“Yes.”

“What affect will it have on individual freedom?”

“What individual freedom?”

“Our freedom to be individuals.”

“How individual are you, now?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yes, but do you?”

“I mean, when I’m out walking and/or shopping, not everyone knows who I am.”

“And being recognizable from your energy would deprive you of being an unknown?”

“Yes.”

“What if I told you that you, and everyone else, is now recognizable to anyone who can sense your general characteristics, and your likely unique pattern of energy vibration?”

“How can they do it?”

“Can you know when someone near you is upset?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He or she seems to express their distressed state of mind in body language.”

“Yes.”

“And more.”

“Yes, there is a certain tension in the air around them.”

“Yes.”

“We don’t need a mad, military scientist to identify our emotional states of mind. We usually express them physically, and with psychic energy, in a way that almost anyone can recognize.

…..

A simple seeker was meditating on Stage 16 of The Tree of Life. Her chosen text calls this meditation, “I AM THAT I AM.” An earlier meditation had as its focus, “Who am I?” But, she kept asking herself, “If I am that I am, then who or what am I?”

“You were never anything other than what you are now. Physical life serves to help us understand that simple reality. Whatever we have experienced, whatever we experience now, and whatever we will experience, the simple fact remains. We are what we are, whomever we choose to be, and while we choose to be.”

“If I’m playing life as an actor, then why does it seem as real?”

“An actor is an actor, no matter what role she plays. But, each role we play, each relationship we experience, we have chosen to live the roles or archetypes we express. We simply are an individual aspect or ray of Life. Case closed.”

……..

A simle seeker’s not to herself

“Could I have chosen to play the role of a simple seeker?”

“Yes.”

“But what of all the many other roles that I have seemed required to play throughout my long life?”

“Each and every one of them were no more nor less than a subset of roles that contributed to the roles that you now play.”

“What role does memory serve in contributing to how well, or not so well, I play the roles that I now play in life?”

“Memory is as a script that you have learned to read, to help you focus on your role.”

“Some people seem to lose their memories without changing the way they play their roles in life.”

“They have learned as much as they can with memory as a guide, and now are challenged to live without it.”

“Can social-conditioning replace memory as a guide to living social roles?”

“Yes, and it does. The roles we play today are not all as those our ancestors played. Life situations required us to adapt to changing conditions of life.”

“Then, our children will not necessarily live as we do?”

“Even now, modern technology and rapid access to the thoughts of others around the world, are expanding the information that future generations will possibly call memory.”

“And yet, they too will be playing archetypal roles, even if those roles differ from the ones we now may see as a way of life?”

“Yes.”

“And yet, they’ll still be whom they are?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a beautiful ending.”

“There is no ending.”

…………

The Tarot Page of Wands looked strangely familiar. It was a young boy dressed up in clothes that he didn’t seem to feel comfortable wearing.

“What does it say to us?”

“it wouldn”t say the same to me as it would to you.”

“How do you know? Or do you?”

“What does that mean?”

“When anything, or anyone, speaks to our inner knowing, we’re receiving a message, and we know it.”

“Can it be an important message?”

“It’s always more than important. It’s vital to our best interest and to our personal world.”

“That would create inner tension.”

“Yes.”

“Who wants inner tension?”

“It’s not a case of wanting.”

“Then, needing?”

“Yes.”

“Why do we need inner stress?”

“There’s a difference between stress and tension.”

“In degrees?”

“In cause. The situation creates tension, and ..”

“Ignoring the message of tension causes stress?”

“Yes.”

“So, if we feel stressed, it’s not directly caused by the situation?”

“Yes. Too many people seem to attempt to cope with stress with medications, instead of meditating on its possible cause, alone or with a trusted and qualified teacher.”

“Are we talking about you and me?”

“Yes, and anyone else who cares to listen.”

……….

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Why didn’t I see that coming down the road?

“What didn’t you see?”

“You were setting me up, again.”

“Yes.”

“I guess I do tend to let myself get stressed out, now and then.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Yes. You have a choice, you know.”

“Between what?”

“Between feeling stressed and feeling the tension.”

“How can we know the difference?”

“It’s a matter of perspective.”

“Perspective?”

“Yes.”

“What difference in perspective?”

“The difference between awareness and ..”

“Physical experience?”

“Yes.”

………

A simple seeker was overwhelmed with what she was reading on a website she had connected to via a Twitter tweet. She could not pull herself away to wind down.

“So now you’ve discovered depth psychology?”

“You know that I studied that many years ago. But this goes far beyond a simple review.”

“Jung as a spiritual teacher was not part of your formal studies?”

“As far as I can remember, spiritualaity and thinking were not even considered ….”

“Compatible?”

“Something like that.”

“What’s your take on this new ethics?”

“It isn’t new in that it would replace the old.”

“Then how can it be considered as new?”

“You’re setting me up, again.”

“Yes.”

“Then please explain how the two can merge, and why they must, now.”

“They’ve never been separate.”

“As in the letter and the spirit of the Law?”

“Yes.”

“Then the old and the new ethics of spiritual depth psychologoy refers to developing an inner awareness of the purpose of outer forms of ethical conduct and social expectations, and why these serve us well?”

“Yes, and more.”

“What more?”

“The process of increasing awareness requires and stimulates intellectual development.”

“And emotional development?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“When we each start to develop an inner perspective of how and why to express compassion toward ourselves and others, then our emotional development will be the stimulus to intellectual awareness.”

“They develop separately?”

“Yes and no.”

“How is that possible?”

“We each are usually more mature in either thought or emotion, but each is continually, even if very slowly, developing and influencing the other.”

“Then emotion and thought are as yin and yang?”

“Yes.”

………..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Emotion and thought as contained within spirituality?

“As yin and yang within the Tao.”

“Wow!”

“Why does this surprise you?”

“It brings yin and yang into so many other seeming dualities within our so-called Western culture.”

“Yes.”

“As within – so without.”

“Again, from the East.”

“Yes, but we’ve brought that concept into everyday life.”

“How so?”

“Via psychology and logic.”

“Yes. Correspondences exist in all possible fields of thought.”

“What about emotion?”

“What about it?”

“Do correspondences exist within emotions?”

“No.”

“Why within thought and not within emotion?”

“One is form and the other is force, or moving energy.”

“Emotions are potentially too variable to support correspondences?”

“Yes.”

…………

A simple seeker was meditating on the thought of who and when trading places.

“How does it work? What would it look like?”

“It’s you and me when we interact. I’m here and you’re there, but only from my personal perspective. From your position it would be the reverse.”

“Why are we separated?”

“Isn’t that just the way it is?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“We’re as connected as we each care to be.”

“As we choose to be?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“As we each care to be.”

“What if we don’t, or didn’t, know each other?”

“It would still be the same.”

“How can we care to be connected to someone …?”

“To everyone and everything.”

“How?”

“We each are more connected to each other than anyone is aware of.”

“Is that a structural concept of oneness?”

“Oneness is more than a concept. It’s a reality.”

“A structural reality?”

“No. An essence reality.”

“And in essence we’re all connected?”

“Yes.”

“What connects us?”

“Love, as expressed in awareness, understanding, and compassion, as well as love’s many other varieties of connective tissue.”

“Love’s varieties of connective tissue?”

“That hold us all together.”

“Would they necessarily all be healthy tissues?”

“Potentialy, yes.”

“But in reality?”

“Potential is real.”

“Are these connective tissues aware …?”

“Of what?”

“Of being …”

“Of being what?”

“Of being connective tissues.”

“Between whom or what?”

“You’re leading me on.”

“Yes.”

“Where are you leading me?”

“Where might I be leading you?”

“To an impossible thought.”

“No thought is impossible.”

“But the reality that it might suggest …”

“It’s the only reality.”

“That the many qualaities of love are more real than I am?”

“Yes.”

………..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Love as connective tissue?”

“Yes.”

“But love is variable.”

“Yes, in quality and strength.”

“So, we may be held to different people, places, and things by different qualities and strengths of love?”

“Yes.”

“Does love have a negative aspect?”

“How would that be possible?”

“So, then there may be more or less love, or stronger or weaker love, but there’s always some love holding us together?”

“Yes.”

“Where would hate fit into this picture?”

“Hate doesn’t fit into relationships.”

“What causes hate?”

“Dissatisfaction with one’s life.”

“Can we feel hate and love at the same time?”

“Yes.”

“A love-hate relationship?”

“Yes.”

…………

A simple seeker was meditating on the concept of resisting what seemed to be.

“Why?”

“To protect myself from attachment.”

“How?”

‘By accepting that any pleasure or possession is no more than a temporary experience.”

“Some might cling all the more, to enjoy what they have while they can.”

“So, acceeptance is not enough?”

“Enough what?”

“We need more than awareness?”

“To what?”

“To resolve the problem.”

“What problem?”

“The problem of how to let go.”

“Of what?”

“Of whatever seems to need to be let go of.”

“A two-way street?”

“Yes, and yet more.”

“Yes, a pressure gradient.”

“Please explain.”‘

“Whatever or whomever we cling to is also clinging to us.”

“How?”

“Everything and everyone is energy in relationship with everything and everyone else.”

“So, it’s the relationship and not the temporary forms that need to be released from each other?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“Everything and everyone relates to everything and everyone else.”

“Then how to let go of a relationship?”

“We can’t.”

“What can we do?”

“We can, with practice, learn to accept the existence of relationship and its power, and its immunity to our will, individual and collective.”

“To focus on the relationship and not on the why or what?”

“Yes.”

“And then what?”

“To meditate, from as detached a perspective as we can, while remaining calm and non-judgmental of ourselves and/or of whatever relationship we wish to understand.”

“Can we learn to understand the why and how of relationships?”

“Yes.”

“And then they dissolve?”

“No.”

“What does happen as a result of our understanding?”

“Acceptance.”

“And then?”

“Tensions relax.”

“Without detachment?”

“Detachment from what?”

“From whomever or whatever we were attached to.”

“We never were attached to anything or anyone.”

“Other than relationship itself?”

“Yes.”

“How are we attached to relationship?”

“We are relationship.”

………..

A simple seeker’s note to herself – Lesson 26

We can’t understand a relationship until we accept it?

“Yes.”

“What if we don’t want to accept it?”

“It doesn’t go away.”

“So, if we accept it, then we can understand it?”

“Not necessarily.”

“How to learn to understand why it’s in our life?”

“Meditate on possible reasons why it exists in our life, and what seems to weaken or strengthen its power over us.”

“Can relationships have power over us?”

“Yes.”

“How do they gain power over us?”

“We give it to them, or we do not.”

“How to regain power that we have given away?”

“Learn to relax about the situation, and then accept personal responsibility.”

“What happens then?”

“We become detached from its hold on us.”

“We stop resisting?

“Yes.”

“And then?”

“Tensions relax and we learn to be aa a witness, and not as a victim.”

“Are personal relationships necessary?”

“Personal relationships are necessary until we learn that relationship is all-inclusive.”

“So, personal relationships help us to learn about a more inclusive relationship?”

“Yes. It’s a necessary beginning to developing a sense of unconditional love.”

“And personal relationships are necessarily conditional?”

“Yes.”

“Is that also a Universal Law?”

“Yes.”

…………

A simple seeker was meditating on the concepts of projection and rejection, and wondering if they were one and the same.

“One and the same what?”

“Perhaps not exactly one and the same, but ..”

“But what?”

“Perhaps they are the same whatever, from a different perspective.”

“What different perspective?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Yes. If you have an idea, then you owe it to yourself to at least attempt to express it, if only to yourself.”

“But isn’t just toying with an idea the same as expressing it?”

“Not as long as it’s too vague to take any recongnizable shape.”

“Then, rejection as a form of projection.”

“How so?”

“With photography, we reject what we don’t plan to project our focus on.”

“Yes, but that wasn’t …”

“I may have forgotten.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then what?’

“You were stepping into thoughts too deep for your comfort zone.”

“About rejection being a twisted form of projection?”

“I think it goes the other way, and not twisted.”

“Then?”

“An unhealthy mental attitude. When we project our shadow, to use Jungian symbolism, in referring to aspects of our personality that we would prefer to deny ownership to, we are attempting to project them onto someone else. We then think, or pretend to, that we are free of our rejected emotions or thoughts.”

“Self-delusion?”

“Yes.”

“Then photography does express the concepts of both projecting and rejecting our focus on some aspects of the same background.”

“Yes.”

……..

A simple seeker’s note to herself

It sure sounded as if Spirit was trying to nail something on me. What could it be?

“What might it be?”

“I was just asking myself that question.”

“Did yourself come up with an answer, or alibi?”

“Alibi?”

“Yes.”

“What would I need an alibi for?”

“For not facing reality.”

“What reality?”

“The reality that you were toying with the idea of rejecting our relationship, and looking for someone or something to project your rejection on.”

“To escape accepting responsibility for any decision I might choose?”

“Yes.”

“Is there no escape?”

“Yes. There is no escape from personal responsibility for any and all decisions we make. Decisions are choices and we choose one way or another, but the good news is ..”

“There’s good news?”

“Yes. We make our choices throughout life, one moment at a time. We can always reject past choices, but not responsibility for their outcomes.”

“So, we choose for the future?”

“Yes.”

…………

A simple seeker was recovering from yet another surgical procedure.

“It hurts.”

“Yes.”

“Why do you say yes as if my pain was a blessing?”

“It is.”

“A blessing?”

“Yes.”

“How is that possible?”

“Are your wounds healing?”

“They seem to be, this time.”

“How do you know?”

“The nerves in the area are active.”

“Does their activity indicate healing?”

“I don’t know.”

“But they live.”

“Yes.”

“That in itself is a blessing.”

“Yes, but they hurt.”

“Are you suffering?”

“Where are you going with that?”

“Where might I be going?”

“Pain vs suffering?”

“Yes. We feel pain with physical nerves, while suffering is an emotional response that can be controlled, if we choose to control it.”

………

A simple seeker’s note to herself

Perhaps my suffering comforts me in my time of pain.

“Is that a healthy situation?”

“Healthy?”

“Yes.”

“In what sense?”

“Life enhancing.”

“Surely, rejoicing in pain would suggest an unhealthy mental attitude.”

“How so?”

“I’m aware of feeling pain, and my awareness seems to activate self-compassion.”

“Yes. Go on.”

“You’re leading me down one of your paths, again?”

“Yes.”

“So, I feel compassion for my suffering and not for my pain?”

“Yes, and in the deepening awareness that it is your suffering that attracts your compassion, healing gradually takes place.”

“My suffering is reduced?”

“Yes, and more. When your natural healing energies are released from their focus on your suffering, they are then more able to cope with the source of pain.”

“I need to learn to relax and feel the pain, without self-pity?”

“Yes.”

……