Spirit tells me that once we begin to move
uphill in spiritual awareness, we are unlike
a ball rolling downhill. It would take
an inner force to slow or stop us.
What inner force or forces would slow
or stall our progress?
Resistance to oneness.
Please explain.
We are never alone on our journey of life.
We share our experience of physical life
and its multitude of situations, events,
and challenges with a cast of seemingly
unknowable numbers of people, and other
life forms, interacting with each other,
or pretending not to.
But, in addition to all the the physical
senses are aware of, there are also
untold numbers of non-physical beings who
send their energies as loving arms,
to assist and protect us.
What good can they do for me and others
if we are unaware of their existence?
We can imagine they are with us.
Make believe?
Not exactly.
Then, what?
We each have an inner sense – call it
intuition, or conscience – of how
to respect and care for each other.
We also each possess a unique gift
or calling, some more than others,
for reasons beyond the scope of
our discussion.
We each seem to need to develop in
unique ways that emotional desire
directs us toward.
So, we need to listen to our own
inner voice?
Exactly.
As a first step to visualizing
spirit teachers, guides, and friends?
Yes.
Does that describe my relationship
with you?
No.
Yes. I thought not. Then, where
do you come in?
Not where, but why.
Then, why?
Why what?
Why would you spend precious time
and energy with a slow learner,
not to mention an aging one,
such as myself.
It’s never too late to learn. and …
And what?
Perhaps we have reasons of our own.
Simple Seeker Society 
‘. . . we are unlike a ball rolling downhill.’
I am not clear as to the intended meaning just here Jean. Are we ‘like’ a ball rolling downhill in that momentum gathers, or are we ‘unlike’ one in that we are going against the stream so to speak?
It is rather lovely to think of invisible beings – devas and the like – watching over us in some sense, prompting us in barely noticed ways that are all too easy to ignore. Even imagining they are with us is a boon.
I hope you are keeping well.
Hariod. ❤
Dear Hariod,
Thank you for actually reading the possible meaning of the post. So many seem to go no further than to enjoy, if they do that,, the visions the words present. Neither of your possible suggested meanings fits this particular thought. Balls rolling downhill require forces other than their own to slow or stop them. They cannot do it on their own. Spiritual progress, however, as Spirit explains, cannot be slowed or stalled by outer forces. Only our resistance to the concept of ultimate oneness with all that is, can do that.
As to your apparent skepticism re “invisible beings” I would not think of attempting to convince you of the reality of my lived experience. We must each believe what we must each believe, at least as long as we do.
Sincerely,
Jean
Dear Jean,
I always read your posts, even though I don’t necessarily make a comment. And I of course read them in an attempt to understand your dialogues; though cannot also confirm that I am always entirely successful!
I need to be clear, there is no “apparent scepticism re: invisible beings”. On the contrary, my words were meant entirely as stated; there is no sub-text, no coded cynicism, and no half-concealed sneers. It would be perverse to continue reading your posts, as I do, with such things in mind would it not?
All best wishes to you as ever dear Jean.
Hariod. ❤
P.S. As you may recall from our previous conversations, I underwent a rigorous training in Theravada Buddhism for a period of some 20 years in the middle of my life. [ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html ]
Dear Hariod,
I meant no offence.
Love,
Jean
None taken Jean; though it was as well to clarify things for want of understanding.
Hariod. ❤
Please feel free to question my simple understanding at any time. I almost expected you to ask me if Spirit was gently rebuking me, personally, re resistance to oneness. He was and does, speak personally to me and everyone in general. My weakness (or one of them) is not resistance to oneness in itself but in the process of developing such awareness. Spirit and I seem to differ in that regard, or else He is testing me. He seems to see oneness absorbing me (and everything else) into itself, while I prefer to gradually absorb everything into me., as in expanding to include.. Perhaps I was born to resist, as in a rebel looking for a cause..
Love,
Jean
Many thanks Jean. And yet, as regards ‘oneness’, what could possibly ‘absorb’ into what was already within a seamless oneness? Any resistance is not separate from oneness; even dry logic would dictate as much surely? You know this!
Hariod. ❤
Exactly, and yes, of course. There is an element of the absurd within my relationship to Spirit.
Love,
Jean
All of us adults are absurd Jean. [ http://wp.me/p4wkZJ-aL ]
Hariod the absurd. ❤
Me, too. But, perhaps we have to dare to appear to be, or even, in the final analysis, prove to be, absurd, if we intentionally seek to develop awareness beyond what we seem capable of, and then to attempt to understand what it in essence is that we have developed limited awareness of.
Spirit tells me that life is only a mystery in the sense that everything we do not yet understand is a mystery until we know it
Is that supposed to inspire me with hope?
Love,
Jean
There is a Buddhist monastery in Northern Thailand, of which the abbot has very astutely placed a sign with the inscription ‘All hope abandon ye who enter here’ above the entrance. [Dante’s Divine Comedy]
Hariod. ❤
My dear Spirit teacher would second that one, claiming that unless hope is unspecified, then it is a barrier to openness. I’m not that brave, yet, even though, in principle, I must accept that any form to hope is still form.
I seem to still want awareness to be of specifics. He tells me that ultimately it must be potential. How to visualize potential?
Love,
Simple seeker Jean
How to visualize potential?
Far from it being a suggestion, which it’s neither my place nor desire to do Jean, but this is something I incorporated into practice myself. As I see potential, it is no more or less than the pellucid mind prior to all traces of mentation. So this means that for me, it is a concentration meditation of a kind, though not with any volitional intent or perception inherent within it. It is not a narrowing down into a one-pointedness, rather it is boundless and utterly formless. Retrospectively, one perceives it as pure potential, as it is the point – the tabula rasa if you like – from which the mind proceeds to create the world as it is known to the individual. It’s rather tricky to describe in short, though I daresay you have a good sense of what I’m saying in any case.
Hariod. ❤
I’m so very impressed with your meditation techniques; a result not doubt of long years of dedicated study and practice. I may have shared that my early TM meditations were a lost cause. I fell asleep, every time. It was a very stressful time in my life (perhaps much of my life has been the same, for whatever reason). Besides; Spirit would be sure to interrupt my efforts and suggest that I just listen to Him, and He seems to possess ways and means to ensure that I do.
But, your generous suggestion did remind me of an insight that Spirit offered. As we expand our awareness to include all of life; all of life is expanding its awareness to include us – it is, He assures me, a two-way pressure-gradient type of energy movement. Only my resistance slows the process. Somehow, for now, I need my resistance, but it definitely is not gaining ground, so to speak.
Thank you, Hariod, for sharing.
Love,
As ever, Simple seeker, Jean