Blessings With Persecutions:
Living With Enemies...and maintaining groundedness.
|
© John Erickson
Say you're undertaking a personal discipline - dieting, working out, studying - and out of the blue some little demon accuses you of something you've never done, insults your intelligence, your accomplishments... or generally your right to exist. Suddenly your personal goals are compromised by this negative energy.
Our social impulse causes us to value comments and opinions of others, even if they're entirely unqualified to comprehend the issue they're discussing. We react to people not via a logic process but by learned social reflexes. We don't want to be exiled into an anti-social limbo so we usually humor all comers on the social landscape. Unfortunately, that lets open a shield which would normally filter the comments from the rabble according to their proven value.
Consider the logic process one employs when assessing inanimate objects: replacing a worn appliance, deciding which model has the best reviews, best track record and the like. These decisions are made much less self-consciously than decisions about the comments we allow to rent space in our heads. But, being human, we can't freely eradicate harassing comments once they've been smeared upon us. We can develop our self-actualization tool kit to prodigious degrees, but knowledge alone won't slay this beast. The catalyst that enlivens our self-sovereignty is "time."
Devoting time to oneself impresses an image of substantiality and import upon our minds with respect to whom we are and the things we value. This isn't just time spent consuming mass quantities in front of the tube. This is a sequestered moment of an uncorrupted awareness of your spirit and a simultaneous immersion in the Lifesource. A journal exponentiates this energizing process, I find, as it reacquaints us with our roots via past entries, then builds on these strengths as we substantiate our present revelations by the physical action of putting them to paper.
This is the "service" that is routinely performed in your temple.
And, without notice, those emotional ghosts of the past die of neglect in the shadows of your reawakened self.
|
Renewed Spirit, Warring Ego
|
© John Erickson
The Spirit soars at morning's break
Unhindered by matter
Energized by light
"All is possible," Spirit proclaims
While intellect awakens to hop a ride.
Intellect nudges Ego.
"All is possible" Ego repeats in blissful ignorance. "I revel in my power," it hamfistedly concludes.
The body stirs, grasping its environment in hopes of molding it to the ego's will.
The leaden material world keeps Ego in check with its uncooperative heft and impliability.
"Lies!" Ego rages to Spirit. "You inspire me with fictions! You lure me into consciousness that I may waste my day on vain labors."
"You are deceived," Spirit counters. "Possibility is not license. I open the doors. You're tasked to morph the Will such that it does not violate the pure. Greater worlds await - but not without order.
"Fear not humility. Your power is too faint to craft what you seek. Submission to the Source is your power. Let the bondage of errant cravings and corrupt visions be burned away by the bitter forfeiture of your claims to power, that greater power may be known: not by you - but for you."
"How Can an Intelligent Person Believe That in This Day and Age?"
© John Erickson
Religion stirs up violent arguments within every strata of society, and it is no different within intellectual circles — with the exception of the arguments being more loquacious and the arguers being more resolute in their respective positions.
One question too frequently shouted from the housetops is: "How can an intelligent person believe in a spiritual existence?" The shouter may be uncomfortable with having to contemplate a force he cannot substantiate intellectually. Perhaps he's had negative experiences with religion - which is a valid basis for one's personal preferences; but significantly less valid as a reason to declare spiritually-minded people to be categorically unintelligent.
The difference between the atheist and the believer is not simply one of physical facts vs. wishful thinking. There is a fundamental personality difference that guides each party's thinking.
The believer is comfortable with accepting life's eternal "solve for 'x'" characteristic - the realization that no matter how much knowledge we gain, there will always be a black hole in our comprehension of the mass and movement that lay behind our experiential reality.
An atheistic personality is uncomfortable with loose ends and is constantly itching to declare that the present level of knowledge is the only thing worth entertaining. Anything lacking physical evidence should not be embraced for any reason. To do so would leave him in the psychologically untenable state of accepting an unsolvable "reality" governing some portion of his existence.....More...
|
Fragmented Hideouts and the Rising Spirit
|
© John Erickson
The Gifts of the Spirit bring us to a state of increase: in our awareness of God, awareness of our *own* spirit... and - an increase of responsibility in the use of this freedom and power. "Discerning the spirits" is a foundational theme of the Bible and other spiritual writings, and the process can find us in the midst of a wildly volatile storm in which we're tempted to change "doctrines" every ten days! But with time, a broader view emerges, one that shows us that our original understanding was not so far off, it only needed a few flecks of illumination.
For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. (Psalm 18:28)
Fragmented Hideouts and the Rising Spirit
Empty fragments of the ego scream
"We're real - we hurt - we need"
Nature whispers, "what is it you need?"
The fragments respond: "that which you denied us long ago."
A voluminous yet subtle wind whispered, "All you had need of was yours, save for your failure to reach."
My spirit rises from my core; my energy propels my consciousness beyond my fears.
"Don't feed the ego," my inner eye warns, "the fragments fuel their lusts from the rising spirit."
I consider. Hadn't the fragments arisen from starvation of spirit during ego's growth?
"Certainly," consciousness responded. "But their now-corrupted forms will misdirect the energy toward the dark. You must guide them with the knowledge they were denied in the ignorance of youth."
One step closer. The horizon gleamed an additional lumen with new understanding.
One's spirit must rise if we are to be whole.
We must deprive man's artificial constructs from leaving us orphaned from nature, from spirit, from life.
Do not fear the dark.
Observe it from the vantage point of light.
As enlightenment filters through, let your rising spirit nourish your being.
The fragments will mend, morphing one step closer to their intended design.
|
