The problem of first cause

Obviously the big bang does not answer the question of first cause. The big bang is just the evidence perceivable to science -- the first measurable evidence of a beginning.

There must be an energy that is not measurable currently by science. That energy is that which spiritual traditions call the "Unmanifest." As unmanifested, it is outside of time. A reality that does not have a beginning, or an end.

For example, in the experiments where paired particles are separated by thousands of miles, a change in the spin of one particle is immediately reflected in the spin of its separated twin. This happens faster than the speed of light. Faster than any measurable time.

So we have evidence of power, or energy, that is not currently measurable by science. That this energy is not perceivable by science does not equal its non existence.

This unmanifested power is the first cause. Spiritual traditions have called it God. Although difficult to describe in linear terms, it is knowable. The mystics of all ages have proclaimed intimate knowledge of this power. It is the underlying reality, the first cause of all that exists.

The Eastern spiritual traditions have called the manifest world "Maya," which is described as illusion, or the apparently real. It does exist, it is measurable, but it is not the ultimate reality.

If you define reality as that which never changes, one can begin to see it as the screen on which everything appears. Reality is the unchanging screen and first cause of all that apparently exists. The operating principle for the screen is awareness. That awareness allows anything and everything to be experienced, or known. What we are aware of we call consciousness.

The conclusion is that unmanifested source, call it God, is the first and only cause. Awareness is the knowing principle of source which underlies all knowing. Science itself knows only via awareness, and therefore must bow to the reality of the unchanging unmanifest source as the ultimate reality.

Who is Hiding the Light

Who is hiding the light? You are - with your thoughts, your feelings, your prejudices, your likes and dislikes. You are the clouds hiding the sun.

You could think of clouds as being opinions, emotions, reactivity. These impositions form the clouds of ignorance that hide the light.

The light is love, for it accepts all things. It shines on the so-called good, and the so-called bad alike. It doesn't discriminate.

But you discriminate. You judge. You don't accept. You hide the light with your personal drama, forming the clouds that obscure the light.

No one is hiding the light from you. The clouds are of your own making. The clouds are nothing but your own ignorance, obscuring the light.

Ignorance is simply putting your own spin on things. And the clouds will persist as long you insist on maintaining your own spin on things.

But the world is not here to be according to your likes and dislikes. It is what it is. The best you can do is clear away your ignorance by stepping aside.

The light is simply Awareness. You, as a body-mind, are but a reflecting focal point of that awareness. And you are experiencing according to your likes and dislikes.

Ignorance will keep you in the darkness as long as you insist on believing things should be as you expect. But sun is shinning.

The light is Awareness. It has the potential to experience any and all things. Any like or dislike, any emotion, good or bad, all is fodder for the light.

Enough suffering will get you to take a look at why the clouds are forming, and why they remain. Do you ever wonder what would remove them?

Knowledge of who, or rather what,  you really are, will dissipate the clouds. As Awareness, you know the body-mind, but as Awareness, you are not the body-mind.

As Awareness, I experience the body-mind, but I am not the body-mind. The body-mind is an appearance only. From this knowledge dispassion arises, and freedom is known.

When you see that you are not the body-mind, but pure Awareness itself, the clouds will dissapate. The light will shine, as it always has, And you are free.

Not of This World

How well I do in the world and how contented I am, has nothing to do with the world at all. For the world is an effect, the result of a dream. What goes on in here, the silence creates. The world is but an out-picturing of choices made.

A contentment covers all, not touched by what appears. And what seems uncalled for, really was called. I would have known it, had I been paying attention. A lesson to be learned.

Where I am unconscious, still I create. Any suffering is to be listened to. How did I call it into being? From the silence, where all things originate.

We may look for cause and effect here, but it comes from there.

I do not live in the same world as you, because we see different, and call out different. Awareness brings light, and with it, what was called is seen. It is all effect. I know not to turn away.

Contentment seems uncaused. It is not of this world. It came from intention, surrender, and manifests here. How sweet to see myself here, reflected in the mirror.

The Natural State

"I determine nothing; I do not comprehend things; I suspend judgment; I examine." In his essays he compared primitive society to civilized society and found that natural society surpasses what man has wrought in many respects, that "pre-civilized man is possessed of natural virtues which civilization has obscured, perverted, or destroyed ..."

~Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Many call enlightenment "The Natural State." We might say that the natural state is the state prior to the original sin, which was the knowledge of Good and Evil, or judgment. To judge without suspending belief even for a moment, is the royal road to your own private mental prison.

The sages speak of discernment, not of judgment or condemnation. To see without judgment opens vast vistas of uncharted territory. To be in that open space is a joy, a relief, a contentment.

Discernment enables a quality of being which is able to grasp and comprehend that which is obscure. That which is obscure, has simply been covered up. It would be helpful to take care with our thoughts, looking at them from a space that suspends judgment. It is a means of seeing the truth.

The "Natural State" implies something that was always there -- before it got covered up.

The human condition seems to be one in which we are born into obscuration, the original error, a process of judgment which quickly veils the Natural State. Our judgments may help the body survive, but it is the royal road to suffering.

If we could take every act of perceiving and hold it without judgment, we might be able to discern what is usually missed. Suspending our own prejudices opens a door to pristine territory.

Our lack of discernment leads to disastrous choices. At minimum it leads to an unexamined life. Socrates said "An unexamined life is not worth living." Yet the Natural State is eternal and the fear of death is undone.

A lack of discernment may result in the inability to know a true friend -- to be a true friend to ourself. A lack of discernment leads to the failure to see who we really are. Who among us knows the Natural State?

Enlightenment is the Natural State. It can only be discovered. It is not new, it is not alien. That is why when the Natural State occurs, it is known as coming home.

 

Surrender Leaves Nothing But Love

This body is here and I am well aware of it, but I am not this body. I have a body. It is not the same body I had years ago, so it is obvious that it is not who I am.

And this personality that I seem to be stuck with is here, but it is not who I am. It used to be different, not so subtle, more critical, and not as forgiving as it is now - both of self and others.

No matter where I look I don't seem to be able to pinpoint myself. Where am I but everywhere?

No perfection in this bodymind from the human perspective, yet perfection is here and all around.

Surrender leaves nothing but love. Can't you feel it?