Where Does Chaos Rule?

A spirit teacher shares His understanding of timeless wisdom.

He tells me that there was a time, not very distant into
the past, when children everywhere learned, at a very young
age, to understand and to speak a particular language, and
the language they learned to understand and to speak became
their language, and more; much more.

From a child’s perspective, language is a means for sharing
his or her world with other people, their people.

Also, many of us learned to believe in a particular religion
at a very young age. Whether we were aware of it or not, we
also learned social rules specific to that particular religion.
as separate from legal or traffic rules. The religious rules
we learned served as a social code, to guide the way we would
learn to live our life.

Many of us no longer live in a community where we all understand
and speak the same language, or accept the same religion, and
the same specific social rules that specific religions teach.

Perhaps even the same traffic rules may not apply to all
communities?

Yes.

Where does Chaos rule?

Chaos never rules except as a transitional force between
one set of rules and another, or between individuals or
groups of individuals adjusting to the larger realities of
Life, and learning to understand that no rules are necessarily
acceptable to all people in all places, or for all time,
unless they serve and make sense to all people.

All languages and all religious social customs or rules serve
or did serve a purpose, when societies lived separate from
each other. They provide or did provide a sense of community.

Today, for many of us, it is the language, religion, or social
customs of others, not our own, that contribute to disharmony
and conflict in our relationships within a world community.

Our attitudes may invite Chaos to rule, when simple respect
would serve to unite us.

Where

Reaching For The Light

Spirit tells me that I need to learn to live in community
in a mutually satisfactory way, with all others who are
also living, or trying to live, within the same conditions.

How’s that possible where I am?

Where are you?

Below ground level, it seems, in the mud of a bog,
entangled within roots of weeds, as well as among
roots of more respected plants, who are each also
striving to live their life, their way.

All ways are one way.

Which is?

Reaching for the light.

Caring for Community and Relationships is Personal

Spirit asks me if I practice caring for my home.

I don’t need to practice. I know how to do that.

Do you do it?

Yes.

How well do you do it?

As well as I can, all things considered.

What things?

The time available, my energy level, and
my interest in doing so at any particular
time.

So, caring for your home is a job?

Not as a paid job. It is a duty.

A duty to whom?

To myself.

Why?

I enjoy living in a clean and well
cared for home.

Yes.

Where is this line of questioning going?

To your community and to your relationships.

Caring wise or duty wise?

Yes.

As with my home, I do what I can.

All things considered?

Yes.

What things?

Is this a second verse or round two?

No.

Then, what?

With personal possessions we have
a personal interest to care for them.

Surely we also have a personal interest
to care for our community and
relationships.

Yes.

I walked into that one.

Yes.

Creative Passion as a Dance of Yang and Yin

Spirit tells me that creative passion is a dance,
as much as a joint venture, between intellect
and emotion, each directing the other to music
they are co-creating as they respond to each other,
in a continuous blend of unrehearsed movement.

Wow! That sounds seductive.

It is, intentionally so.

Then, to bring it all back to reality …

It never left.

How does such a …

Way of life?

Wouldn’t it be exhausting?

In what way?

In relation to spiritual development.

It is the only way.

Even for a Bodhisattva?

Especially for her, or him.

Then, in serving others more
while serving ourselves no less …

More or less of what?

Personal and community care.

And environmental?

Yes.

Intellect provides us with means
to learn to understand what needs
to be done and what we can do
to satisfy that need.

And emotion?

Knowing what and how to contribute
is totally unproductive without
desire to inspire us to act on
the awareness intellect provides.

Yang and Yin?

Yes.

It Serves us Well to Remember

Spirit tells me that it serves us well
to remember the horror of tragic events
that might never have happened if …

If what?

If violence was not socially acceptable.

By whom?

By those who commit acts of violence.

How is that possible? Surely, for
whatever reason or reasons, surprise
attacks on thousands of unsuspecting
and unarmed people, as happened
on a day like today, not many years
ago, must have made sense to someone.

The attackers?

Perhaps they were persuaded by some
evil genius that what they were asked
to do was of value to a cause
that justified mass murder.

Yes.

Then, how can we create a world community
wherein such thinking is unthinkable?

We can only create such a community
with individuals who learn to care
for all other individuals.

Surely that is impossible.

Why?

We seem to need to come together
in small groups of people wherein
we each contribute our unique skills
for the benefit of the whole
community; our chosen community.

How would such a small community
be chosen?

Shared values.

And, how would you develop
shared values?

Education?

Yes, but education is never enough.

Then, what else?

This world, and every community,
large and small, within it, needs
individual role models, mentors,
teachers, care givers, and leaders
who understand why they were chosen
to lead.

Is it possible to create such
a world community?

Yes.

All ways are one way

Spirit tells me that I need to learn to live in community in a mutually satisfactory way, with all others who are also living, or trying to live within the same conditions.

How is that possible where I am?

Where are you?

Below ground level, it seems, in the mud of a bog, entangled within roots of weeds, as well as those of more respected but stronger plants, who are also striving to live their life, their way.

All ways are one way.

Which is?

Reaching for the light.

Free will and community

Today’s I Ching is 60 – Discipline

Water over Lake.. Discipline follows Dispersal.

 

Spirit explains:  When a river flows into a lake then water overflows

Onto surrounding land, unless it is restricted from doing so.

 

Dispersal suggests an unorganized scattering, such as seeds or

Dry leaves by a wind.

 

There is no free will choice, no sense of freedom involved when

We have no self-control concerning where we are going with our life.

 

Self-discipline determines what we will do with our potential; how

It will be directed. Without self-control, we risk being controlled by others.

 

How to have it both ways? I need to be free and still be a contributing part of

A community. I need to think for myself and still learn from You and others.

 

Yes, we need both.

 

Then how do we work both sides of the street?

 

We don’t.

 

Then what?

 

We compromise; we find an acceptable middle ground between extremes

Of individualism and group control. But we must always be aware of

The price we choose to pay, or we risk losing choosing.

 

 

After the show is over

After the show is over, when I finally leave

The stage of human life; after a

Wild and glorious celebration,

I know that I will collapse into

A long, deep and well-earned,

More or less, sleep.

Then I expect to awaken to

A reunion with loved ones

And learn to adapt to living within

A loving, all-inclusive and

Non-threatening relationship

With family and friends,

Not necessarily those whom I

Attempted to develop

Meaningful relationships with, here,

In the necessarily heavy atmosphere

Of matter.

 

Then I will ask Spirit, if I can find him,

What was it all about;?

If physical reality is a school,

Then what did I learn?

What was I expected to learn?

How was I expected to learn

Whatever, and why?

I always needed to know why.

 

Spirit tells me – perhaps He tells me now

So He will not have to face me later.

The purpose of physical experience

Is to teach us how to live

In community with all life, as if

We were one, and we are.

 

 

All that we can do is

Spirit tells me that

All that we can do may never

Be enough to achieve what

We might have achieved if

We could do more, but that

All that we can do is

All that we can do, and

We will do all that we can

To serve Life by caring for

Ourselves and our community,

As if such caring was

A sacred duty, and

It is.