The Reflective Universe

The reality of our universe seems very static, unmovable, until we discover that our beliefs work at a deeper level than Newtonian Physics.

Beliefs can remain unconscious for years until life brings them into focus. Our life as it is, is a reflection, like a mirror when we walk in front of it. When we see what life is reflecting back to us, and we don't like it, it's a wakeup call.

We often don't know what we believe until they are reflected in the reality around us. Beliefs are abstract, often unconscious, and therefore not ponderable, until our actions bring them into sharp focus.

Perhaps Newtonian Physics is only the base structure on which we begin our journey. We learn the basics quickly. We see quickly the basic laws of gravity, and the simple concepts of up and down. We learn to manipulate physical objects with our hands.

The world changes slowly when we use force. Force uses a lot of physical effort. But when we learn that there is a deeper reality, which works at a deeper level than Newtonian Physics, we enter the Quantum world, a world of possibilities.

The world of possibilities begins with belief and imagination, with faith in things unseen. We learn to create with imagination and feeling, another world, alternate situations, with different results. Persistence in this moves the physical universe around like a play thing, a toy.

We are given a perfect example of the user's manual every night when we go to sleep. The dream state is very real and entirely believable. It is the perfect reminder every single night that a virtual world is possible and entirely believable. No different, while we are in it, than our waking state.

We wake up once every morning, but we forget to wake up during the day. Day to night is no different than birth and death. Only the length of time is different. Yet we open the manual every night, experience the truth it, and immediately forget it upon waking in the morning. Just as the dream state is virtual, so to is our so-called daytime life.

We simply don't wake up as easily from our daytime dreaming. We are still asleep in our daylight ours, and the days turn into a lifetime, with death the only waking from the dream.

But do we have to wait that long? Can we become awake in the dream, and like lucid dreaming, create a life that is not unconscious, not the program we inherited unconsciously from our parents, our family?

The world seems very real, and normal consciousness knows it takes a lot of energy to change it even a little bit.
But there is another power available if we wake up that takes a lot less effort. It is conscious imagination, conscious creativity. It works at the Quantum level, and has a power multitudes greater than Newtonian physics.

So, what is our responsibility when we begin to have glimpses into the actual state of affairs: to the virtual reality that is our life? Our responsibility is to wake up. And the only way to wake up is to use the manual.

Some people play with lucid dreaming. But this doesn't go far enough. If we are in a dream state, believing it entirely different from our sleeping dream state, then we are missing the message. We need to wake up to the fact that our daily life is a second dream state, and that the our nighttime dreaming is just a hint.

So our responsibility is to play with our waking dream state and learn the rules? There are a few.

1. Use your imagination to create an alternate picture for the universe to mirror. You don't have to discover and change all your old beliefs, just make new ones.

2. Get into and experience the feelings of newly imagined results. Make the feelings real.

3. Expect your new result. Relax, you do not need to know how the new results will come about. Just watch for the signs. They will appear everywhere, out of the blue.

4. Know that the mirror is flawless. As the signs increase, and the results increase, you know that the power of belief is real, and that the virtual world is yours.

Buddha Mind

That we are all "Buddha Mind" is true. Many understand this intellectually, but have not felt the touch of "Buddha Mind?"

The touch of that is Satori, it is an "Aha," experience. It is subjective, for there is only One. The touch of that aha is a world of difference from the mere mental knowledge of that.

The aha is a direct knowing, a unitive experience of oneness with Buddha mind though no more in the Buddha Mind than before. With aha, one is no longer just in it, but one with it.

While knowledge about is a beginning, joining is the goal. Understanding with the mind, is just an itch. The bitten will scratch until there is direct knowing.

What seekers are seeking is not just intellectual understanding. They sense that. The true teacher knows that intellectual understanding is not enough.

It may be easy for a teacher to say, "If you would just stop seeking, you would be free." Yet there are thousands who do not search, they don't know, and they do not itch. The student knows that these do not have what is being sought .

Those not seeking may be divided into two camps: those who don't know that seeking exists, and those who have sought and found. The first group doesn't know that they don't know and does't care. The second group knows that that they know.

Students are not searching for those who don't know that they don't know, and never looked. Students are looking for the ones who have sought and found.

Seeking seems to be a precursor to Buddha Mind. Recall that Jesus said, "Seek and you will find." And Nisargadatta said, "Be earnest."

The student is looking for the rare ones who know they know. There is something intuitively felt around those who know that is not experienced around others. In the end having sought, or not sought, all are in Buddha Mind. But some know and experience that, the rest do not.

It is the direct, subjective, unitive experience that establishes the knower. Yet this does not change the fact that those who never sought, and never found, are also in Buddha Mind.

Metaphorically, a fish that doesn't know he lives in water cannot help. The fish that knows he is in water can. Most of us are like fish, not knowing; not knowing what water is. The herd follows itself just fine.

The stragglers, those outside the school, know they are in water, and before they follow the school, they want to know, "What is this water I find myself in?

The blind man and the sighted man see differently, yet both are in the same physical world.

All men are in Buddha Mind. Most function just fine, but few are they that know they are home.

Only the one who has asked will find. Only the one who has found can teach.

No Mind the Tree

Who or what is now thinking about "No mind?" Do you need to think about "No mind?" Do you get to "No mind," by thinking about "No mind?"

Is a tree, a tree, before you label it? Is it separate from the ground, or just a emanation from the ground? Do Its roots not go deep into the earth, and its branches reach for the sun?

How separate is the tree from the sun, when that which was sun a minute ago is now absorbed in the leaf? Is not the universe joined from sun to tree by streaming ribbons of light? Father sun, mother earth.

Is the leaf separate from the branch, the tree? When it falls, is it separate then? When the ground absorbs it, is it separate then? It sprang from the earth, did it not?

Perhaps we, and trees, are just aspects of the Oneness: fractal appearances in the energy field, particles in the wave of light.

This body is so earth! I cannot live without taking in earth air many times a minute, and earth water every day. So how separate am I?

This body is just one part of the unending flow of light. An unending whole. A picture fractal, a flow, leaving and returning into One.

I cannot be separate except in mind. Is it not my senses, my labeling, my interpretation, that separates? This labeling objectifies, and separates, and personalizes what is one.

Can you see the flow? From sun to tree. From earth to tree. From tree to fruit. From fruit to you. One unending, unrestricted, flow of light, forming this, then that, in one Self reflecting connected stream.

Surrendering to this Oneness is the only way to no mind."

Enlightenment Is Like Thirst

Most in whom awakening is acknowledged will agree that there are universal, fundamental similarities. And there is much acknowledgment that some who attained awakening were corrupted by power.

Some newly awakened rant and rave that there is no such thing as enlightenment, because the awakening exposes the non separateness of the individual. And yet, one easily sees that enlightened words come from one "apparent' person, yet not from the rest of humanity. This makes it rather difficult for the common man to understand.

Perhaps a distinction needs to be made regarding gurus speaking of their impersonal condition, and the person seen speaking. For what is fact for the observer, there is a person there, despite whatever protests the guru may made. Even the guru must admit that there is a body the needs to eat, sleep, and have shelter.

If you define a guru as someone whose always blissed out, whose eyes glow with a faraway look, who doesn't have fear, and leaves ashes on objects he touches, we've certainly lost our way. If we had enough people fall into this condition we'd have a highly dysfunctional society, covered in ash, waiting to die out.

For the rest, for making it clear that although their basic experience is of non separation, impersonal experience, that there is in fact

May years ago I wrote a benchmark of guruship. It was picked up and placed on several major Hindu sites, so it must have had some universal application. You can verify this by clicking on these links. It is below.

Enlightenment experienced in a person cannot stay in the blissed out, ecstatic condition very easily and survive. In the West in particular you can end up in a mental institution, as did Robert Persig, the author of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He is fine now, enlightened, but certainly not dysfunctional.

Ramana Maharshi didn't speak for several years, and was near death when people started taking care of him. That does happen. But that is not the process for all gurus.

Is enlightenment just an idea, or does it have some basis in fact, in experience. Just like thirst, it can be spoken of, it can be experienced, but can you find it anywhere?

Purpose Driven Life

We are often very purpose driven. We set goals, benchmarks, keys for success. This is all based on a judgment system. As you may recall, Jesus asked that we not judge.

As long as we believe that we are an individual, we will have goals, agendas, beliefs to coordinate our lives to. And there is certainly a place for this, especially in the early part of our lives. We need to discover what this body is and how it functions. We need to develop our small self, and come to know our likes, dislikes, and abilities.

If our conditioning has been severe, and unhealthy, therapy may be a good avenue of endeavor, for a while. It's pretty hard to see clearly, to feel clearly, when one is very neurotic. A little cleanup is in order.

One benefit that may ensue, if therapy is successful, is that we come to clearly see that we can change, and how difficult that is. We may also come to see that which we cannot change, and come to terms with those aspects of ourselves.

Once we have established that we can change, it may dawn on one that who we are is not static. Our bodies may be static in form, but our mind is a program, and programs can change.

If our program, our conditioning, our idea of ourself can change, then who we are as a person is not substantive, but more like ephemeral image. How tightly we hold on to this image may determine how much suffering we bring to our life experience.

With the knowledge of our changing personal self, further insight might become natural. Here comes the great inquiry, "Who am I?" This is the end game.

When the person is examined deeply enough, we may not even call it a who, but a what. What is this thing? And who is looking at it? If this is pursued long enough, the who that you think you are dissolves into an ephemeral, ghostlike thing. You use it to move about the world, and function, but it is no longer who you are.

So, now that you are looking from the outside at the illusory self, and you know that that self is something you see and use, much like any other tool, who are you?

You can only be that Awareness that is looking. It uses your body/mind and all other body/minds for it's own reasons. On what grounds then is the individual self going to have its own purpose driven life? Perhaps only as a soul, with Karma delineating the choices. Still, ultimately, The One.

The Means is Now

The means is now, and the result is now. There is no future in which the result bears fruit. The result is now, and always is.

"The end justifies the means," is a thoroughly arrogant statement. The results have always been disastrous. In this scenario anything can be justified, and anything justified in this manner will come home to roost.

It seems far more insightful to say that "The means you use become the result." And the result is now, and now, and now. You can't escape the means.

As you go about your day, consider the means. And if love, kindness, and patience, are the means you use, your life will reflect it. Now.

How to Improve Your Ego

There is one sure way to develop your ego: refuse love. Yes, it is really that simple.

As one matures spiritually and looks back upon one's life, it readily becomes apparent that the simple refusal of love was the simplest, the most expedient way to juice the ego, to bolster it, to make it real.

But, of course, as the years go by one sees all the times love was offered and refused. And what was the purpose of that refusal? Who did you put down in that refusal? Who did you aggrandize? Yourself of course.

The simple practice of observing yourself throughout the day as you refuse love can really open one's eyes. For we are surrounded by love, and only in refusing to see can we avoid it.

So what shall it be today? Love or ego?

The Call of the Future

Since many of us know and feel the call of the future, can we then also deny destiny? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, the future is not set in stone. The future is a direction, a projectory.

It is Karma that set the directory, the trajectory, and it is only our choices in this lifetime that alter its course. Our direction is like North. There are a lot of paths North, or South, East or West.

All rivers run to the sea. All souls are headed home, we just don't know when. But our previous lives have set the tone, the power, and accuracy of the direction.

And that's where resonance comes in. Our path, our destiny is the result of previous lives, of previous choices. And this determines resonance. For when we enter this world, our level of consciouness is already there. What we resonate with in the Akashic field, the nonlocal, information arena, in which we are all immersed, is already set.

Like a fish in water, we cannot escape the field. It is everywhere present, everywhere available, knowing every thought, every feeling, every act.

The level of our consciousness, like the tuner of a radio, the crystal, set to a certain wavelength, tunes us to and directs us on our path.

The level of our tuner attracts everything in that field. It will bring us habits, attitudes, friends and foes. The resonance with all that matches our notch on the tuner sets our path.

So we bring with us trails of glory, and trails of pain. Our past pushes and our future pulls, and we are the tension, riding on the wave.

Due to the field we see, because that is what we are tuned to, choices arise. And how we choose makes all the difference.

So we don't need to claim free will in it's entirety, nor are we condemned totally to destiny. We are held between the two with loving arms.

For love is giving us the power to choose. It gives us the power to rise, and it will let us fall if we so choose.

In the end, all is as it should be, no more, no less. And there is harmony, but to see it we must really look, with eyes wide open.

The Brain Bliss

When I don't have to go to work, and I have a good night's sleep, I often awake with a physical sense of bliss in my brain. I like the feeling of it.

It feels physical. It's as if I feel directly my whole physical brain inside my skull, and the feeling is exquisite. It's peaceful, it's just plain goodness.

This doesn't happen on week days when I wake to the alarm and have to transition into going to work. There is no space in that mode for sleeping in, laying till the body-mind is rested.

It makes one wonder what the modern world and its slavery to time has done to our natural state. J. Krishnamurti got it right when he talked about the violence of every day life. There is a violence to time, an imposition on the natural state.

This waking to physical bliss in the brain is something that just happens. I don't look for it; don't expect it. It just happens, and when it does, I always have a good day. Everything goes slow and easy.

What is it? I don't know.

An Inside Job

The search for enlightenment is an inside job. You travel alone, sort of, except that Source is with you all the way. You may never even notice your guardian angels

And you discover that the Zen you get at the top of the mountain is the Zen you brought with you. There is no one at the top or at the bottom to give you accolades.

Satori doesn't last, and the birds don't always sing. And once ambrosia has been tasted, everything else tastes false. Beware, the Ides of March, turn into years.

No one sees what you are doing, knows or cares. Except perhaps the One. There is little to measure, and less and less to know.

Every time you stumble and fall, no one notices. Except perhaps the One. And the way things fall, seems more random than random. But the call doesn't stop.

Be still my heart, be patient. The end is now, and now, and now.

Karma and Freedom

Karma does not absolve one from action. Karma delineates the range of choices available, but it does not release one from the responsibility of the choice. Though the range may be limited, your freedom lies in the choices you make.

You may not be free to fly without taking an airplane, but you have the choice to smile at the person boarding with you. You may not be a spiritual genius, but can humbly accept the teaching of one with whom you resonate.

Every step you take is recorded forever in the Akashic field. And every choice for the positive, for the good of mankind, makes your future choices vastly different.

You may start out in a mental desert, devoid of hope, but even there, persistence in the direction of the good, your own, your family's, your neighbor's, points you in the direction out.

Yes, in this embodied form there are limits. But this is temporary, and cyclical. Your future is in your hands, Karma is just the path you trod.

Intuiting Home

There is always the scientific debate to arrive at the final answer. However, if the water is in the field next door, you have to leave the field you are in, to get there.

Science will eventually get there, but it will only be after much fussing and fuming, and grinding of teeth. You see, the First Cause is not in the physical world, and cannot be explained by Newtonian, linear thought.

The Theory of Everything ( ToE ) is actually easy to come by. God did it! Substitute for God any term you like, Source, The One, The Force. Scientific reductionism will never explain this first principle.

The first cause will always remain unexplainable by science. The Big Bang is a concept. God is not a concept. Explanations will change, become more sophisticated, but only the truly ignorant will be satisfied.

In the book of Genesis, it says, we are "created in the image of God." The mystics knew this long ago. But science doesn't know its limitations and thus can't see this.

We who know meaning is not defined by Newtonian logic, and know that there is more to this world than meets the eye, know God to be eternal. And we intuit that, made in the image of God, we too are eternal.

The ground of being is unmanifest. It is not an object, as all objects are immersed in It. God being unmanifest, so too are we. The only reasons we can even intuit that God is real, is that it is true. And we know this beyond reason, beyond logic, beyond labels.

To know is not to be able to prove. As David Hawkins says, in the non linear domain, truth is knowable, but not provable. Scientific theories can be proven true or false. Not so with the unmanifest.

Karma is complete nonsense to those who have not glimpsed or felt the unmanifest. But once one has taken a step beyond science, beyond logic, into the unknown, one can begin to see that Karma is real.

Karma is not often mentioned in the Jewish Christian traditions. It is, nevertheless implied. And when Karma is acknowledged, much in life that seems absurd, becomes acceptable. Eventually, it is seen as the key that makes the harmony.

The assumption that we are our bodies fades as we get older. All that we cannot explain gets surrendered to God. And the more we surrender, the more peace comes in to blanket us.

This is not to be understood with the mind. In fact it cannot be understood with the mind. And once you have a satori or two, experience mystical union, even for a minute, you are hooked, for there is nothing in the scientific, linear world that will strike you with as much authority.

Because the authority one experiences is not provable, neither is it disprovable. In fact, there is no explaining it. But, once you know that you are eternal spirit, your path is sure.

The part is essential to the whole. The whole is eternal. And we are here, temporarily embodied, only for awhile. Our home is eternal. We only left for awhile to experience this.

The path is narrow, that leads to the goal. You are drawn to it. Even though for much of your life you didn't know what it was that was calling. But the still small voice gets louder, and the peace greater, and the joy brings you home.

The Other

I have a very subtle feeling that someone is watching me read this book. It is not a person, but it is enjoying watching me read, watching me smile, watching me savor a good line.

This Other is here with me, but there is no person in the room with me. It is not another person who is watching. It is an unknowable watcher, formless, tasteless, but it tastes what I taste, feels what I feel, knows what I know. And it enjoys it.

Since I have given up knowing, the watcher has appeared. Perhaps it is the humility of giving up, of letting go, that allows this Other to be felt. I know that it watches over me, protects me.

It's not that this Other will keep things from happening to me, but that this Presence is there, and by it's presence, I am safe.

Waking up may simply be becoming aware of this Other. The Other is always there. In fact, it is so there, and been there so long, and so taken for granted, that I didn't notice it. I was too busy being myself to notice.

While we are busy being ourselves, our focus is narrow, limited. Any sense of any other is dimmed. Others are just a means to an end. We may get what we are focused on, but miss everything else.

In our busyness we forget we have excluded others. The downside is that we miss Otherness, and the big Other of others, is the One.

The Other doesn't tap you on the shoulder. It doesn't say, "Hey, here I am. See me?" No, it is a very humble presence. It is presence that is willing to stay on the sidelines, unnoticed, until you look.

When we are busy with trying to understand, assuage our egos, protecting our positions, we don't notice any other, especially a quiet, subtle Other. The Other has infinite patience and will wait as long as we live, and longer, perhaps many lifetimes.

Lately, having given up knowing, praying only for revelation, perhaps I opened the door to the Other, just a crack. But that little crack has revealed a presence. And it's fun to notice the Presence. It's interesting to be aware of It.

I am just walking down the hall at my office and I am aware of something other walking with me, knowing I am walking, knowing I am aware of It. There is a confidence in the person when I know I am not alone.

It is a soft presence. And I wonder why it has come now? I can only guess it is because I know that I cannot do this understanding alone. It is not my understanding, but the understanding of the Other.

I cannot figure this out myself, for myself. No, I have to submit to It. For I, a person, an idea, built of experience in this body, did not create myself. I am a created being. To understand, I have to give myself to the Other.

As long as I am defending my ego, feeling that I am going to figure this out myself, with my own mind, my own effort, I could not sense the Other. How could I?

This body/mind is a product, a program through which something greater than myself experiences. That greater power, that greater consciousness, is the Other.

This body/mind is just the container of content, limited content. And when I focus on the limited content, I get limited results. If I want to know Otherness, the context must be included.

Context is the greater, the broader, the Other. I the person/body/mind am a vehicle only. One among many vehicles. As long as I believe I am the driver, I have lost the larger context. For I am a created being, a product of something greater.

I am the driver, experiencer in appearance only. The Other is the real driver, for he created the vehicle, and the space, and all the others. This experience of being in a body and having a mind is really His.

I am the content, the object through which the Other experiences. My miss perception, that me, myself, is the experiencer is only eclipsed when I become aware of the Other.

That Other is looking through my eyes, and through my neighbor's eyes, and through my boss's eyes.

I am in the play, unconscious that I am an actor, until I am willing to admit that I know nothing. When I know I know nothing, then I am open to what is really here. And what is really here is this Other, this creator, this force, this Source.

My only prayer is "Source, reveal yourself to me, so that I may merge with you. Reveal yourself to me, for I cannot find you. I can only ask for revelation, so reveal what I cannot find and understand."

And with this prayer, made in earnest, I begin to sense the Other. And in this Other's presence, I can merge. And only in merging can I know.

Intuitively We Know Nothing

"...I wanted to cry with joy and just lay with him in the bed and stay that way for hours, saying nothing, doing nothing, being nothing, thinking nothing, just loving him and becoming nothing but one nothing inside another nothing and that nothing not bothering with anything."

~ Denise Chavez ~ from her novel Loving Pedro Infante.

I like light reading sometimes, especially if it's funny, raw, and well written. Escaping into this novel, I was surprised to run across the lines above. Who doesn't know this? Who hasn't experienced the above when madly in love.

What this tells me is that we DO know this. We just don't stay there. This is what enlightenment is all about, that merging into nothingness. Nisargadatta stated that "When I am nothing, then I am everything."

When it comes to enlightenment, at the end, one finally admits that "I can't do this." Perhaps this is getting close. It doesn't mean you don't want enlightenment. It doesn't mean your longing has ceased. I just means that you know YOU can't do it. You can't remain an individual separate self and do this.

The only thing left to do is pray, and that prayer goes something like this, "Lord, you know I want this, don't want to live without this, but I can't do it. I know I can't do it. Lord have mercy on me and take me there, into that nothing that is everything where I can be at peace."

Peace is only in the oneness that is everything. Since that is the natural state, it is not too much to ask. But you really have to want it, and you have to know that you as a person, a mind, can't do it, can't go there. Give it up.

Endearment

First you fall in love
because you are blinded by
your own projected light.

When you pull back your light
and the projection ends,
you can choose to love.

Choose to see past your ego,
your judgments and condemnations,
which block the light.

And if you keep on choosing love,
and seeing where you are not love,
Endearment can only come

Beliefs and Nonduality

Belief is a position, a perspective. Truth simply is. Our beliefs about it are simply limitations. If one listed all one’s beliefs and then tossed them out, would you still exist? Where would you be standing? What would you be standing on? Wouldn’t you simply be awareness, open, willing, waiting to see what came next? Wouldn’t you simply react without choice? Wouldn’t that be pure action?

Without belief, what is there not to love? Without belief, wouldn’t there be less conflict, less violence?

Pure awareness is when all mental positions and beliefs are set aside. Then there is more space, more openness, more peace. In that space, love becomes easy.

Without beliefs, without the need for positions, the background in which all of these play is seen, perhaps for the first time. That awareness then may experience itself. That recognition is non duality, or oneness. The non dual recognition is unshakable. It does not need to be maintained. Truth is when all else is left behind.

Searching for Universals

Most of us who have been on a spiritual path have to admit to a fatal flaw, and that flaw is the inability to give up the search.

The search causes a lot of misery. Some of us even claim to be cursed with the search, as for us it is comparable to an addiction.

It is a well known fact that fundamentalists tend to be happier because they don't question their beliefs. As long as they can function with them, they tend to be a happy, (although perhaps self righteous).

It is only when reality roars it's ugly head that the whole personal facade of beliefs collapses. Then depression sets in. If it is serious enough, we call it a nervous breakdown.

When an idea held by a state or country collapses, we have a recession or depression. Notice the correlation?

The social structures of the world are not immune from belief. Just as personal selves rise and fall on beliefs, so do states.

A manic depressive person does not have a true center, so thoughts can grab them easily. A good thought causes manic, and a bad thought depression.

Since universals are part of the search, it is rather a small step to look from personal beliefs and their consequences, to cultural and market beliefs, and their consequences.

What do teachers of enlightenment have with some of the great financial gurus? What universals do they share?

On the personal level, J. Krishnamurti gave talks for sixty years. His pointing was that if you want the ultimate truth, you have to submit all thoughts, beliefs, positions to criticism. One of his greatest works was titled "Freedom From the Known."

Now, to step from everything one knows and believes into the unknown, is not something the average person aspires to. And the person who attempts this will be tested indeed.

To subject oneself to this level of self examination is painful, shattering, and dangerous. If one manages to do it well, perhaps enlightenment will result.

Dr. David Hawkins, perhaps the wisest living person currently on the planet, says to keep all beliefs, tenets, positions as tentative. This is the only way to stay open to change, to raise one's consciousness. His term for the misperception of reality due to beliefs is "positionality."

Positionality holds that one cannot see the truth while holding on to a position. And hold on we do. There is an unconscious fear that if we let go of our beliefs, we will no longer be able to function.

George Soros, the great financial guru, who himself would prefer to be a great philosopher, has also come to the same conclusion as J. Krishnamurti and Dr. David R. Hawkins.

George Soros, however, writes more on the level of culture and society, rather than from a strictly personal perspective. Rather than write about being open as a person, he writes about the "Open Society."

George Soros, just like the mystics and enlightened gurus, elevates the unknown to the highest consideration. Like the mystics who experienced the mystery, the scientific Soros, embraces the mystery as ultimate.

Like the physicists who became mystics due to Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle," Soros takes this into account in his philosophy of "Reflexivity."

Soros' theory of Reflexivity is based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. As applied to humans, he calls it "The Human Uncertainty principle."

I doubt that George Soros is familiar with J. Krshnamurti or David Hawkins, but he has come to the same conclusion regarding respect for the unknown. Below is an excerpt from his book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy."

OPEN SOCIETY

"As participants in any given social situation, we must have some beliefs on which we base our actions. But on what basis can we act if we accept that our beliefs are likely to be false or incomplete renderings of reality?

The answer is the same as the one Popper gave for the scientific method: We must treat our beliefs as provisionally true while keeping them open to constant reexamination. This is the foundation principle of an open society."

~ George Soros http://www.soros.org/

It appears from these great thinkers, that any of us who want to know the truth need to be aware of our own fallibility. We need to make effort to see how our positionalities distort the truth and fall short of reality.

From personal experience, it is clear here, that one can experience the truth, but one can't express it in words. It is beyond any idea. It can be pointed to, but it is so subjective that it cannot be repeated, captured, or explained.

As for the world as it is, we can only work to be more open ourselves, to keep our views tentative, and yet to act. Perhaps the best we can do is to "Be what you want to see in the world." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Ordinary Enlightenment

What do you get when you finally give up searching for enlightenment? What is, as is, now.

Rather ordinary, isn't it? But, there is one subtle difference, you're not resisting anymore. When you're not resisting, suffering lessens. When you're not resisting and suffering, your brain quiets down.

When your brain quiets down because it doesn't have to figure everything out, and it's not resisting anything, then the ordinary can seem pretty nice. At least it's mostly peaceful.

No, you won't be blissed out all the time. You might not even be able to say you're happy.

Allen Greenspan and Bernadette Roberts have something in common to say about this.

Greenspan, while considering macro economics and the level of happiness, has noted that once people get used to wealth, they no longer have a sense of happiness from it, although they may be more content than the poor. Soon enough, they want more.

Roberts, observing her internal states very carefully, stated that one had to write down current states, such as happiness, in a journal, because once one was in that state for awhile, it became the norm and was no longer experienced as ecstasy, or a change.

It must also then be noted that a highly evolved, or enlightened person, may feel their state is ordinary. However, outside observers might describe them as ecstatic, or blissfully peaceful. It is merely a matter of the position one is viewing from.

Homeostasis may occur at various levels. Once a high level becomes the norm, it is ordinary. But this ordinary may be vastly different from the ordinary of the average person.

Absolutism

Absolutism doesn't mean that we know what all the absolutes are. It means that we understand that the universe is based on laws, whether we are aware of them or not, whether we understand them or not.

Absolutism often has a negative connotation, such as expressed in "My country right or wrong." Fanatics also provide a negative connotation, willing to kill the bearer of opposing views, rather than confront the possibility of being wrong.

Being willing to kill another over bumper-sticker-wisdom is the travesty of the modern world. Fanaticism is a choice to die rather than confront one's own insecurity. It is the exact opposite of all universal spiritual teaching -- the opposite of "Know thyself" and the tradition of self inquiry.

Absolutism is the knowing that all that is, is God, by whatever name you give: God, Source, The One, Natural Law, The Force. All point to an acknowledgment of the absolute nature of reality.

Absolutism does not eliminate uncertainties about choices we make, but it may provide an ultimate security, a serenity, due to knowing that all is covered in a blanket of Oneness -- the security of Love.

Under the mantel of the security of absolutism, we may also hold on to humility, taking all knowledge as tentative and subject to change, providing us ground to stand on, while being willing to listen, being willing to amend. This is the opposite stance from fanaticism

Before the earth was flat, it was round. It was round when we knew it to be flat. It is still round now that we know it is round.

Before quantum physics, Newtonian physics was the only law we knew. Now quantum physics has expanded our understanding to embrace the non linear Absolute. Quantum physics has expanded our knowledge, bringing science into the realm of consciousness research.

The absolute does not change, but our understanding does. This ability to act on what we know, yet remaining tentative about what new understanding may come, keeps humility in place. We agree to be changed as understanding deepens.

The fanatic believes that his mental position must be defended at all costs. The fanatic would rather die than allow his position to be questioned. In the end, fanatics have to make all others like themselves. This is the opposite of freedom.

On the other hand, the spiritual person embraces the Absolute with humility, knowing that any position taken is only a step on the road home. With an open mind, there is less to defend, yet the position is stronger.

Humility is the strong suit in the game of life. The face of the Absolute is seen by few, but we are all on the way. Let us journey on, knowing that the Absolute is there with open arms. The end is sure, but the journey must be taken with freedom from the known.

Karma, Souls and Oneness

The "not two" of nonduality poses that although manifested bodies appear separate, they are all One. Countless sages have proclaimed this the fundamental reality.

However, sages are not in agreement on the issue of souls, reincarnation and Karma. Why not? It appears that some have had direct experience of past lives, and some have not.

For those that have, Karma and reincarnation make sense. For those that have not had such an experience, Karma and reincarnation are irrelevant. They point to the actual nondual nature of reality. What more could you want? Why get into those details?

It is already a big step from duality into nonduality. This step requires that one knows that all bodies are one, despite the evidence of the senses. This knowing is huge. Is it any bigger a step to postulate that souls travel through various bodies over time? If many bodies are part of the One, souls also are part of the One. Both are equally outrageous to the five senses.

A human being learns only so much in a lifetime. The level of human consciousness has remained rather stagnant over millennia. It would stand to reason that it would take the average person many lifetimes to really change, grow, and learn the truth.

If we are here to learn, to grow, to rise above ourselves, certainly more than one lifetime would be required. Isn't it clear that certain individuals have risen far above the heap. How is this best explained?

Reincarnation is certainly the best explanation. A soul that has traveled through more lifetimes would certainly be more experienced, would have had more opportunities to learn, and would likely be at a higher level of consciousness. More experience, more lessons learned.

Haven't you known young people who seem to be wise souls? Aren't there many who seem wise beyond their years? Is it not the youth who often rise up and require change? Is it really far out to believe that they may have the advantage of having been here more times?

If there is a soul that travels though various bodies over time, then the concept of Karma comes in very well. Just as a person's current reputation precedes him, just so, a soul brings with it the weight of the good and bad from previous lives. This certainly explains why a particular life may seem lucky or tragic. The trajectory is in effect.

Karma helps relieve a lot of tension around the question, “Why me? That lives are the way they are may not be accidental, but the effect of previous lives. Just as the sins of the father are afflicted upon the son, just so, the sins of your past lives may be affecting you now.

I have tried to make three points.

One, that it is no bigger leap to believe that souls travel through various bodies over time than to believe that many bodies are actually appearances in the One.

Two, that souls are appearances in the One, just as bodies are appearances in the One. Non duality is actually a bigger leap than believing in reincarnation.

Three, Karma is the result of each soul's travel. The soul is the real traveler, changing bodies for a different view, and gathering good or bad energy along the way.

In the end, whether you are a soul or a body, you can be nothing other than the One. You are both.