Happy "At-One-Ment" - Happy Easter!

The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, is really one, seek unity and that is love.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

All the talk of religion and spirituality is wasted in the end if we can't experience ONENESS ourselves. In the olden days, before the Fall, we experienced ONENESS every step of the WAY. There was only one VOICE in our head, and only one FEELING in our heart, and that was of GOD. When we ate from the Tree of Knowledge, a second voice popped into our head, and new feelings arose that deviated from the world GOD had created for us. We experienced this world as a new-comer; an external spectator of the Universe whose mission it was to find back that ONENESS that was once our own.

You may ask how exactly we can we embrace this ONENESS. The WAY of the East is observation: Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching observes the TIMELESS, the INFINITE, the DIVINE in people and in all daily events. Along the WAY, you experience ONENESS, and like a scientist, Lao-Tzu invites you to discover this ONENESS for yourself. Buddhists famously claim, "If you see the Buddha, kill him." That's the scientific mindset at work, no path is accepted unless the traveler makes it her own. 

Christianity - the Western road to GOD - wants to initiate ONENESS. Compared to the scientific mindset of the East, Christianity is a religion instead. The seeker appeals to the Son of Man, to the Holy Spirit, and to GOD to show her the WAY. The process of "At-One-Ment" is a blessing of HEAVEN. It is the alchemy that takes place when two or more people of the right intention come together; it is the divine symbol that GOD places next to us, ready to be discovered with a loving heart and a right-minded perspective. It is a blessing always at our disposal as long as we do our job to remove all the distractions and the debris in our WAY.

They say many roads lead to Rome. I consider myself part scientist, part believer and am ready to take any turn - the well-traveled journey as well as the virgin path - to return HOME. The Tao Te Ching can be observed and studied like a scientist, but the symbols you find there - and religiously hold on to - are the messages of GOD. I love the quote from the Hindu Nisargadatta Maharaj who neatly sums up the message of the Christ: Love is the uniting principle. Happy "At-One-Ment" - Happy Easter!

A Sign and A Conversation with God

Self-posssessed, resolute, act without any thought of results, open to success or failure. This equanimity is yoga.
(Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita)

Albert-Laslo Barabasi in his book 'Bursts' told a fascinating story about the freedom fighter Gyorgy Szekely who rose ranks from a nobody to knighthood when he slay an Ottoman war hero in a battle of Hungarian forces with the Ottomans in Belgrade during the medieval times. The church wanted to start another holy war against the Muslims to free Constantinople and chose Gyorgy Szekely to lead an army, mostly consisting of peasants, to march against the Ottoman forces. This was a break with tradition in many ways. Knights received special privileges for the promise to fight wars, so it was a new step to involve large forces of poorly equipped peasants. The aristocracy was in fact worried that if you arm the suppressed, they might use the opportunity to start a revolt. This was exactly what happened after a small army of Hungarian knights eradicated an outpost of Gyorgy Szekely's peasant army. Furious, he went after them and after a drawn out fight, the peasants won over the knights.

While this was obviously the end of the holy march on Constantinople, Gyorgy Szekely gave the peasant soldiers a choice. Either you return home to your oppressed life as a peasant, or you end this once and for all and help him fight against the aristocracy. He put up two crosses, one to mark the spot next to him to continue the mission, the other if someone wanted to lay down their arms. Well, pretty much everyone had enough of this misery and all they really wanted was to go home. But then the amazing thing happened, the second cross fell down. And while a monk put it up again, it fell down three times in total so that the superstitious peasants ended up thinking that fighting with Gyorgy Szekely was a holy mission. A freedom fight endured which started out promising but after a couple of months Gyorgy Szekely was captured and all the surviving peasants fled home.

Gyorgy Szekely was tortured to death in a gruesome fashion as it was customary in the medieval times and this is were Albert-Laslo Barabasi's story ends and my imagined Conversation with God starts. Just imagine what most have gone through Gyorgy Szekely's mind when his life departed. He probably accused God why it had to end that way when the sign of the fallen cross was so clear, and God may have reminded him that he was an important wheel in history that may have even set the Protestant movement in motion in outrage against the corruption of the Catholic church as well as the privileges of the prevailing aristocracy. It may have contributed to the fall of the Kingdom of Hungary, the birth of the Habsburg empire and that these ripple effects could be felt into the European world wars as well as the birth of Communism. He was probably told that he was just an instrument of the laws of karma that have to work their way through before the world was rife for the Second Coming. I am sure that this must have been a meaningful conversation for a medieval night with a holy mission; don't you think?

I find the story of the sign which sent our freedom fighter and those that affiliated with him into certain death an important insight. A Tao traveler neither anticipates to be successful, nor is she afraid of losing. Winning and losing, good and evil simply don't make sense from the perspective of a Tao traveler. A Tao traveler just is. You are connected to a Devine Force that leads you and you are secure in knowing what to do and that what you do is beyond good and evil and will most certainly be spiritually meaningful to you. Everything just is, and from the perspective of the Tao traveler, is just perfect.

The Cross

I went to church on Christmas eve and have to admit that I was offended by the huge cross hanging above the altar; the sad image of Jesus Christ being crucified. Why does this image have to be the chosen symbol of Christianity? Why don't we chose the image of the early Christians, the fish, instead? I understand why the church has a vested interest in choosing the cross, since it captures the idea that the Son of God has taken our sins away by being crucified. The Son of God who reigns in Heaven, much in contrast to us mortal sinners. Well, this message seems in contrast to everything Jesus stood for. There is no hierarchy amongst us children of God. Jesus might be thought of as an older brother, but he is still very much our equal before God. The flip side of this perspective, however, is that you have to accept your Sonship. I hope you are ready for this big step.

 The cross is an ego symbol and a very dark one at that. It stands for the mortality of our body. Just think of the subconscious fear it holds in store for you if even the Son of God can be killed. Read 'A Course in Miracles', the alleged channeled message of the risen Christ. This Jesus was embarrassed by the message of the crucification. No, humanity is ready for a new chapter, the promise of love and abundance. The fish symbolizes abundance. Wherever Jesus cast his net, schools of fish were lining up to be caught by him. You will find out for yourself, wherever you go, the Tao bends backwards to shower you with affection along the Way. Now is the time that you start walking in his foot steps, or even better, that you start walking your own unique Way.

Lining up Your Drives

When you bring up Christianity in spiritual chat rooms, you tend to get a negative gut reaction pretty much independent of what you say. It appears that our church has destroyed way too much pottery over the centuries and it is hard to fix this psychological damage. But there is more more to the problem, by embracing Christian values, many try to aspire something they are not.  Aggression, greed, arrogance and many other emotions are swept under the carpet, and these forces simmer deep in the subconscious.

I have met Christians who do all the right things, but if you really look at them, they appear like zombies - absolutely lifeless. They try to live up to a mental image, but all their true emotions are swept into the subconscious sphere. Let go of the lofty ideals would be my advise, you can still aspire to reach that state if you like, but recognize the ugly emotions inside yourself and find creative ways to let off your steam.

Lining up your drives means that you need to find a way to express your conscious and subconscious forces at the same time.  Life has a habit of creating the situations and environments that allow you to heal yourself. Take aggression for example - a pro-football player after banging his head into others for 15 consecutive seasons probably reaches a sacred 'been there, done that' feeling. If your problem is intellectual arrogance, become a professor, and after sparring the best and brightest mentally for 30 years or so, you are perhaps ready to move on to the next spiritual level as well. You can fill in your personal challenge here, and I am sure that after a little bit of soul-searching you will find your idiosyncratic way of expressing your pent-up steam.

Line up all your forces, conscious as well as subconscious, and trust that life as is happens to offer a perfect opportunity to express them. If you encounter problems along the way, take it as a sign from the subconscious that additional creative outlets are needed. Every problem is an opportunity to penetrate a new spiritual dimension. The bigger the problem, the higher the upside would be my hunch. Life your life to the fullest and bring it all together. With it, you have a shot at becoming whole.