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.
A spirit teacher tells me that attitude exists unseen
and yet very visible to those who have eyes to see.
How can we learn to see attitude?
Whose attitude?
Our own and that of others.
Meditation.
Meditation on what?
Not what, why.
Why what?
Yes.
What does that mean?
What does it seem to mean?
To meditate on why we do what we do?
Yes, and to dare to question our basic motives
for doing what we do.
There might be many.
Such as?
Survival.
Yes.
Survival may be our primary motive, but
but there are surely many possible others.
No.
Please explain.
Survival is maintaining what we have
at any given time, of any given possession,
real or imagined.
An imagined possession?
Yes.
How can we m imagine we possess
what we do not?
Faulty vision.
What causes faulty vision?
Attitude.
Attitude towards what?
Whatever.
Priority?
What about it?
It just seemed to come to mind.
Whose mind?
Is there more than one?
No.
Spirit shares words of wisdom with me, and with
whomever else cares to join our one-to-one sessions.
Spirit tells me that acceptance follows awareness
or it does not.
But, this is not our I Ching lesson.
This is a truth that goes beyond I Ching.
How can truth go beyond a way to truth?
It must, of necessity.
As in the goal being beyond the journey?
Yes.
But, if a goal is beyond a journey, or path,
to that goal, then how can it ever be reached.
It cannot.
Then why do some of us struggle to find and
then to follow our way to wherever if
wherever does not exist?
It does exist, and it calls us to itself.
But, why struggle to go there if we can
never reach it?
We do reach it.
How?
As we travel towards truth, truth is
also moving towards us.
Is there a half-way meeting place?
No.
Then what?
As we absorb truth, truth is also absorbing
us. We become one.
But not equal parts of one?
Yes, never equal, for we are becoming;
we are even now, one within an all-
inclusive one.
Wow! But, back to awareness and acceptance.
We can never go back.
Spirit tells me that a new story must be told about our inner reality, an inner world of Spirit wherein all Life is eager to assist and share in the creation of our future, and to teach us how to care for each other, everyone, and everything we care for.
We are each citizens of this world, He tells me. We each blend our unique energies together into one. We are serving each other, in one way or another
Oneness is a core principle of Life.
Spirit tells me that our capacity to understand what is happening round us greatly expands over a lifetime. But, our awareness does not develop without experience and with reflection on that experience, with intent to understand why it happened and what effect it had on our development.
When we recall childhood memories we need to be aware that they are memories of a child, the child we once were. A child recorded, perhaps traumatic experiences, as seen through the eyes of a child. Now, as an adult, we revisit the past and view the situations from the perspective of distance and, hopefully, developed maturity.
In the event of a similar situation experienced today, we might respond quite differently than we did long ago.
A child is usually helpless and frightened in situations beyond her or his control or understanding. The memory of terror, felt as a child, would be possibly missing in our review.
Our personal collection of memories is as a history book. There is usually no continuous, interconnected series of events recorded. And, what we do remember may or may not have contributed, more or less, to our present level of maturity and understanding of our life.
“Then what purpose is served by our memories?”
“They tell us a human story that helps us relate to other human stories, real or fiction.
“And we are more able to feel a connection with other stories because they confirm our own life story?”
“Yes. It’s the collection that is the real story. Our individual stories make sense only as part of a greater one.”
“I think you’re leading me to something.”
“Yes, the awareness that there is only one story.”
Spirit tells me that I can only serve Life by serving myself, and
I can only serve myself by serving Life. It’s as simple as that.
How can I know when and if I am serving myself or Life?
It’s one and the same.
And if I’m helping a neighbour?
Your neighbour is Life.
But, there are some neighbours I would rather not serve at all.
What then?
Then you have a problem.
Spirit tells me that to tolerate ignorance and other base qualities
In oneself, or in others, is disrespectful of those others and oneself.
It is also counter-productive and slows progress, and so, is also
Disrespectful of our future.
Then how to respond?
Compassion is the answer and is the only way to achieve
Peace of mind. Pity is arrogance pretending to be
Justifiably superior.
If I pity the wretched conditions of others, then I am not
One of them, and, He claims, to be with them and not of them
Is impossible.
Spirit tells me that to serve Life is to serve ourselves, for
We are all as one with everyone and everything else that lives.
Life is an ecosystem wherein all life is interactive, interrelated,
And interdependent, in the same way that all biological systems
Within the human body are as one unit while functioning as
Seemingly separate systems within systems.
We seem to be able to accept that any diseased area within
The human body is a threat to the health and the survival of
The entire human body.
Why, He asks me, can we not just as simply accept that
The same relationship exists beyond the human body, and
That interconnectedness of all life forms functions
To sustain the individual life forms through a sense of
Co-dependency.
Co-dependency?
Yes. We are mutually sustained or mutually destroyed.
It’s as simple as that.
Spirit tells me that He and I are, or represent,
Two dimensions of one mind that is itself just
One of many dimensions of a more expanded
Expression of an ever more expanded
Consciousness that continuously and
Unendingly expands, or, as some say,
Evolves.
Spirit tells me that individuality does not necessarily mean
Exclusion from oneness.
We each are as we each are, alone or in a crowd. We can
Never not be what we are, but we can pretend, for
Whatever reason or reasons.
However, the danger of pretending to be what we
Know we are not arises when we forget that we are
Pretending.
Our response to any experience is a very individual one,
Regardless of how many others may share that
Experience with us. Our personal response changes us,
Sometimes at a very deep level of our existence, our
Being, our essence.
This, Spirit tells me, is the purpose of experience:
To help us become aware of who and what we are,
As individuals and as one with Life.
Simple Seeker Society 