Chapter 8: Empathy, and The Mystery of the Path Between You And Me (non-edited version )
The commentary on the common knowledge game, and the lemming effect, should have given the reader a huge window to look through to humanity’s potential for both corruption and healing within our social connections. Another facet of the most fundamental truths of our existence is the extraordinary potential for the depth of our connections to each other, and how strongly that connection influences all of us, for good, and for bad. If we learn to collectively embrace this universal fact, we will have a clue as to how to reduce the incidences of disease and distress in our world without just tattooing more medical technology upon our bodies and souls..
Several American pandemics are raging right now, including COVID-19, lying by high level Republican political operatives such as Trump and Vance, cultural divisiveness, addictions, obesity, cancer, and all traumatic influences, including MAD, or mutually assured death, the acronym for the gun lobby, 2nd Amendment zealots, and the proliferation of firearms used in the murders and suicides of our innocents. These pandemics are creating more opportunities for eruptions of drama and anxiety, which interbreeds with any potentially unhealed pain and suffering already inherent within our lives. We must become more conscious of how the unconscious actions of others, and our unfulfilled healing response, tend to introduce more traumatic influences into our own lives. Those on the healing path will attempt to be spiritually present for others while recognizing and transforming both individually and collectively, all internalized trauma dramas…
Love, hate, and indifference are three terms that we use to help describe the quality of our relationships with each other. To some extent, in various proportions, all of us employ these three qualities of energy exchange in our lives, depending on the person and/or the situation involved. As human beings, we experience love and hatred as powerful emotions, which guide all subsequent feelings and perceptions in predefined directions.
Love is an open system of friction-free energy exchange and hate is more of a closed, attenuated system of energy exchange, both of which bind us to each other, in easily identifiable, though divergent manners. As we know, love is the open channel which compassion may flow through.
Hatred is an extreme emotional response, blocks positive energy exchange, and closes the channel between the hater and the hated. Hatred unfairly and illogically separates the hater from its object, traumatizing both the receiver and the giver, of that energy. Extreme emotions trigger the release of stress hormones in the brain. Over time, these stress hormones lead to increased inflammation throughout the body, resulting in significant health consequences.
Indifference is a quality of attention that attempts to keep everybody and everything separate from the observer, and the emotionally detached individual is choosing to live in a closed system or spiritual vacuum. Those practicing total indifference live in an isolated world, with little real emotional connection with anybody or anything other than their own emotions, thoughts and feelings. Indifference is oftentimes the result of traumatic influences and results in the emotional and spiritual oppression of others, and a repression of the personal spirit, as well. For most normal people, indifference is only applied to special situations and is not applied to a complete life experience. Yet, the quality of indifference gives the practitioner the illusory sense of having no personal accountability to that which is being witnessed. Personal responsibility for a collectively shared error in the heart is denied, and the potential for a shared healing experience is negated.
We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to
say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’
Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those
people my heroes.
— Fred Rogers
The word “empathy” has a secret message built into it, by doing creative interpretation. Let’s take the word apart into three components: em—path —y (ou). Empathy is now seen to be the healing (path) between the mirror image of me (em) and y(ou). When the concepts of ‘you’ and the “mirror image of me” are realized to be identically ONE, me and y(ou) disappear, and our empathy becomes just the “path”.
Empathy, in both its positive and negative expressions, is a name for the mechanism for transporting emotional energy to create a form of resonance or attunement between sentient beings and is always in play in both love and hate relationships. In positive empathy, energy flows freely in both directions, between the “giver” and the “receiver”. There is a shared sense of the “expansion” of the self. (In a radical variation of positive empathy, one may even experience shared mental images- telepathy- and spiritual healing, but those are subjects that I will not address here). In negative empathy, energy flow is uneven, and dominated by one party, potentially resulting in forms of oppression of the other, and repression of aspects of the self, by the “giver”, and, potentially, the repression of aspects of the self by the “receiver”. There is a strong sense of the “contraction” of the self by at least one party in this energy exchange.
Contemporary research into neuroscience tells us that our brains, like those of other primates, contain mirror neurons. These neurons are triggered in our brains when someone else is sad, angry, or happy, and those mirror neurons, in coordination with other pre-cognitive and cognitive functions, help us to feel what that other person is feeling. What they help us to feel is what we would experience if we were in that person’s place. If our experiences are similar enough, we can empathize in a way that promotes a connection that can be soothing to the other person. The effort to understand someone else, when made in good faith, can go a long way towards helping them feel better and even, sometimes, to change their behaviors. This can be considered to be a collaboration between the spirit of the individuals in communication. The changing of another’s behavior is not the conscious intention of empathy, though most find that through the empathetic connection, each participant is taken beyond the former boundaries of their understanding of self and others..
Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.
– Anaïs Nin
Human beings are usually quite empathetic beings. Studies are showing that all animals, especially those mammalian in nature, share in this oftentimes sublime characteristic. It is very difficult to harm another person if we can sense the suffering that they are presently experiencing, or that we may be causing them. The exceptions are when one is in an extremely hateful state, or those whose indifference may arise from sociopathic or psychopathic natures. A conscious person would never abuse any person, or animal of any species (including eating it, unless there were no other choices for food), after recognizing the unity of sentience that exists in our natural world. Of course, much of mankind is unconscious, and we can’t even keep from harming each other, let alone the whole of the animal species. Mankind has “dehumanized-de-sentienced” humans and animals to justify cruel and destructive relationships, as well as with the natural world that supports all of us. The Judeo-Christian Western religious tradition and its misunderstanding of the wholeness and unity of life, and it subsequent influence on thinkers throughout the ages has been at the forefront of this travesty for millennia.
Empathy has been found to have not just a positive or “good” aspect to it, but empathy can also drag an unsuspecting empath into the ditch with someone who may be of low consciousness. It might be termed ‘negative empathy’, which is a state of being so sensitive to other people’s experiences that we become overwhelmed by their suffering, to the point where we begin to suffer ourselves. This has the opposite effect of the collaboration that occurs through positive empathy, instead becoming an alliance of shared mutual personal pain, which eventually results in new forms of emotional isolation. The extreme form of this empathy is the stigmata syndrome, where the empath takes on so much of the suffering energy and experience of a hated or a treasured person, that they manifest in their bodies and minds the wounds and symptoms of the person that they have become obsessed with. Those who have read all of my works are well aware of my profound experience in 2017 with a dying friend with brain cancer, and the dangers, and spiritual growth potentials, of such an extraordinary relationship.
Empathy, positive or negative, is one of several powerful transmission vehicles for human collective consciousness to be carried to us as individuals, as well as acting as a return vehicle for our individual experiences to be delivered back to the collective field. Collective consciousness contains the history of the knowledge that human beings have accrued over eons of time. It contains a vast matrix of dedicated/fixed pathways of responses to all manors of environmental and social interactions. This is the entirety of our species’ training which has been transmitted to, or handed down to, countless generations of human beings, through parental interactions, education, religious training, and the lifelong social and emotional training gained by our continuous interface with other members of our species. Yet, as so much of this “common knowledge” is a result of incomplete or inaccurate information, and is the accumulation of all the theories embedded in our cultural past. If we act in a “knee-jerk” reaction, or unconscious manner, to any societal or environmental stimulus, our response is all too likely to be dated and inappropriate. The Judeo/Christian religious metaphor here is that our “firstborn” of thought may need to be “sacrificed” to make way for the truth of the moment.
In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
– Eric Hoffer
As human beings in social environments, we have come to expect that our leaders will lead with integrity and morality, though inevitable weaknesses will often be exposed. If our leader is of high enough integrity, we may even want to pattern ourselves after them, should we also aspire to any leadership roles in our future, including taking charge of our own lives. Patterning after others who are successful is considered to be a normal and natural response, while also being an evolutionary adaptation. To survive, and prosper as a species, we became willing to adopt attitudes and perform actions that others may have succeeded with in the past, as well as remaining open to any new unfoldment in our understanding that will complement our unique role..
Perhaps our knee-jerk reaction has been to hate and despise Donald Trump. There has been much written by conscious, caring people about the necessity of not hating Donald Trump, but to instead perceiving him as an ill person, as a poor person, or even as a suffering person. This change of perception may open our personal doors to compassion, sympathy, and love. It is OK to be angry with the President of the US, past and present, as long as that anger does not get institutionalized into our minds. By clinging to anger and resentment over a long period, there is an enhanced susceptibility to them becoming transformed into hate-filled memories or personally institutionalized hatred. We witness daily the collectively institutionalized hatred within our world culture, manifesting as religious persecution, patriarchy, xenophobia, misogyny, racism, bullying, homophobia, nationalism, earth ecology destructive (including the extinction of countless species) and other self-destructive energy exchanges. We do not want to add to the suffering of others, or of ourselves, by creating new pathways of institutionalized hatred.
Constructive anger is spontaneous, arising from being an active witness of the present moment, and is always relevant and productive, wakes up the oppressed and repressed spirit, and helps generate extra motivational energy for constructive engagement with a world needing change. Constructive anger gives all parties involved an opportunity to share in the perception of a wrong or injustice and share in a plan to right the wrongs. Hatred and its divisive energy, on the other hand, have much deliberation behind it. Hatred arises from the historical deposits of unresolved anger or repressed pain and suffering within our memories and looks at punishment and/or the destruction of others as a primary objective. Hatred develops from the collective deposits of darkness that our culture has handed down to us over many generations, as well as also arising from our personal painful and negative memories incurred throughout our lives. Hatred, both collectively and individually acquired, becomes entrenched as a mostly unconscious dark power broker within our minds, keeping each of us pilloried to the past, and emotionally chained to the object(s) of our hatred. We are no longer free to respond to each new moment as it unfolds, instead substituting old patterns of self-defeating and oppressive responses to others while repressing the desire to connect with peace and love.
What can be most difficult to consider is the truth that people who habitually hate others also hate themselves. Some may try to hide from self-loathing and hatred through false narratives of their own greatness while deriding and demeaning all unlike self. The multitude of lies and deceptive behavior, and the need to manipulate others’ perceptions show an absolute need to hide from the truth a diminished sense of self. This is manifested through continuously projecting out of this mind, by accusing the innocent, and the guilty, of one’s own personal shortcomings, deceptions, and criminality. This communication style is crazy-making for any rational, intelligent human being, and the witness to his expression can feel like the fabric of sanity is being ripped apart right before their eyes. For those not under a hypnotic trance, this spiritual depravity is easily perceived and felt. The unwary watcher, in an involuntary and forced relationship with this disfigured being, through negative empathy can inadvertently share in others’ hatred of self. This is another manifestation of the stigmata syndrome, where the entrained observer inadvertently takes on the negative energy of the person under observation, and through the mirror neuron phenomenon, or negative empathy, shares in the disfigured spirit that this darkness continues to manifest.
This is a normal and natural response. Yet, as we become more conscious, it is revealed that we need no longer climb into someone’s, say a Donald Trump type, pigpen and unconsciously support them in their self-hatred and self-loathing.
We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.
—-Anais Nin
According to the latest research on the human brain and its capacity to form perceptions, the brain works by “predictive coding”. It integrates new information based on the beliefs provided by old information. A typical human being moving through the world is not just passively perceiving sensory inputs through the senses but assembles a model in the mind based on what is expected to be seen. This mental setup allows the perceiver to move unbothered through the world, taking in each detail without too much analysis. The brain has been found to have the capacity to over-predict, at times expecting something to be there that is not. That expectation can create a self-hypnotic suggestion, and a non-existent thing can be perceived as if it were there.
A difficult truth must be embraced:
All that we will ever see, unto eternity, is the extension of our consciousness. How we see ourselves determines the quality of our life experience and the integrity of our connection with our “higher power”. Insight into the corrupted matrix of human consciousness and its limited understanding leads to the new pathways of consciousness where intuition and spiritual power are more readily accessed—-Elisha Scott
This fact has been verified by mystics, sages, and now, quantum theorists, so it should not be passed over like an unpopular dish at dinner time. Historically, the human race has become addicted to the religious junk food continuously being processed from the limitations of our distant past, rather than feasting at the table of the infinite Spirit of Now. Former Vice President Pence justified sharing in hatred of gays and drug users in the 1980s and 1990s by claiming AIDS was God’s punishment for all such people that God hated for not obeying “God’s laws”. We all suffered because of the collective narrative of hatred being shared by the victims and their accusers.
The Real World
One can only wonder what the twisted, secret narratives that both Mike Pence and Donald Trump entertained in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am not sure that Pence has evolved much from his hateful AIDS postures of the past. His self-hatred, as represented by a corrupted view of the “will of God” may well be one of the primary reasons behind that administration’s incompetent, hands-off approach to the disaster. Pence has entertained more than one “apocalyptic narrative” that justifies his position as a passive witness to God’s wrath punishing the wicked and the heathen, rather than him acting as an active healing participant in the salvation of the oppressed. Like Trump, he disregarded the seriousness of the pandemic, and wouldn’t consistently wear a mask to protect others from the potential of his viral infection. They both continued to manifest their hatred of the world through their shared callous disregard for the safety of the people whom they made contact with.
Trump and his administration, while in office, were guilty of many mistakes throughout his leadership, but their response to the pandemic is enough to stir anger and distress in any saint, or sinner that I know. Trump’s actions appeared to be that of a broken, spiritless man.
- refusal to heed early warnings from abroad,
- refusal to listen to expert advice from within the US healthcare system,
- punishing those seeking to implement a timely strategy,
- lying to the American people about the pandemic,
- failing to provide enough tests soon enough,
- failing to produce adequate medical equipment soon enough,
- refusing to get samples of the virus necessary for work on vaccines and therapeutics,
- prioritizing contracts for companies connected to Trump or to the Kushner family,
- failure to implement enforceable social distancing and face protection rules,
- failure of federal leaders to practice safe social distancing and face protection,
And, most damning,
- failing to formulate a coordinated national response.
- failure to acknowledge a massive loss of life, and a massive amount of suffering, with no caring, conscious leader to lead the national mourning for our victims.
As their response to the “outer world” is their response to their “inner world” (remember, all that we ever see, unto eternity, is ourselves), it is obvious that they do not respect or honor much of who they are, or their neglect, but sacred, relationship with all of humanity. As we “empathized” with Trump, or even Pence, with their self-hatreds, that hatred attaches itself to neglected or disassociated fragments within ourselves, and circulates within our consciousness underneath the surface, taking on a disturbed life of its own. Many of us allowed this administration to plant seeds of our self-destruction into our minds. We were all susceptible to some extent, depending upon the depth of our own self-awareness and personal insight. Thus, a “trickster” of hatred can be introduced into our consciousness, taking us to sometimes undesirable and uncomfortable psychological places. Yet this awareness may lead to amazing, healing insights for ourselves, so we need not judge or be harsh with ourselves. In the “seeing”, these illusory processes, or “mirages of thought” are no longer unconscious, and our freedom of perceptual choice is returned to us. We are learning and healing!
Trump still is a pathetic, and, at times, a deplorable human being, as are some of his ardent supporters, yet we can all be spiritually reduced a notch or two by supporting this devil and his tribe by sharing in their hatred of themselves.. We will no longer “waste our hate” on Trump, or anybody else for that matter, realizing that they (the image of the other created in our own minds) has become a projection of a newly formed aspect of our own unconscious collectively shared negative self-image. “You” can never be real in any ultimate sense, since the “you” or the Donald Trump, exists as only a conceptual image in our minds. The mental pugilist blows that we direct at Donald and his friends end up being directed predominantly against ourselves because we are fighting the creations within our own minds, and the collective mind that we share with others, rather than actually exchanging energy with the objects of our objections, which is the only place where objective change may occur.
Donald Trump, like far too many national leaders, retained an advantage by being a one-way transmitter of negative energy to the world. They rarely place themselves in a vulnerable position where they can be a genuine receiver of the abhorrent behavioral energy that they emit and is continuously attempting to reflect back to them. We all have witnessed deplorable confrontations with reporters, who can only serve as surrogates for us, as a concerned public. So, we must still write our letters to our congressmen, stage our protests (when safe), and hold community meetings to speak our truth and maintain our sanity.
Jesus, amongst many other real, or imaginary, wise people from the past and present has stated that we must not judge others, lest we be judged, as well. On the surface, this sounds like good wisdom, doesn’t it? If I think someone is an asshole, and, they might be an asshole, I risk being judged as one as well.
Talk about the boomerang effect!
Yet, we can easily see the inbuilt fallacy of this perceptual admonition, if it is just taken out of context without other supporting wisdom. And, spiritual misunderstanding continues to aid and abet truly bad people in continuing their egregious behavior (see Donald Trump, amongst millions of others). Who wants to be judged as a Trump equivalent, at least spiritually, because we made an accurate and necessary call on a misbehaving fool and criminal?.. Yet, my behavior towards judging, or not judging, others did not originate with Jesus Christ’s teachings. The “wisdom” originated as a self-protection mechanism for me. i don’t recall the exact first time this happened, but I do remember as a seven-year-old boy thinking that I would ignore X,Y, or Z’s misbehavior, hoping that they would in turn ignore my own. I dared not judge others, for fear that I would be judged. And whenever my father found out I had misbehaved, there was to be an ass whipping by his unforgiving belt, so the immature thought, which is more universal than we may care to admit, was to please turn away from my malfeasance and make no report of it to others, and continue to enjoy your own without fear of recrimination from me! (wink, wink, nod, nod)..
Did you ever wonder why some people would rather just watch the world burn, and prepare for Armageddon than join the spiritual fire department and help douse the flames?.. Did you ever wonder why so many Trump supporters continued to support him, even after he showed his true darkest intentions?.I don’t!. People are more attached to wounded modes of past being, behavior, and experience than openness to the healing possibilities inherent within the present moment. They see reflected in Trump’s outward shenanigans aspects of their own unhealed and unawakened natures. They celebrate their dark hero, rather than feel ashamed. because they have a champion who makes it OK to not be their best self. They may appear indifferent or hateful to the rest of the awakening world, yet, in truth, they are only unwilling and incapable of honestly facing themselves..
Of course, mutual non-reporting of offensive and unacceptable behavior is not conducive to positive change, growth, healing, or mindfulness, is it more turning away, folks? Do not fear your perceptual software but be prepared to add new algorithms to it to aid in more accurately representing our intentions to see truly in this often chaotic, wounded, and imbalanced world.
There is still so much needless and unnecessary suffering in our world, yet if we are still suffering, we will remain under its dark controls and not be fully inspired to reduce its damaging influence, both on ourselves and on others..First, let us heal ourselves of our own glaring deficiencies, and traumas, so we no longer look through those fogged lenses at our world. Then, let us look out at the world with a more coherent healing intent one likes being judged, especially by a person with so many glaring deficiencies of their own..Often, though, the judged deserve every bit of our assessments of their, and our own, once, or ongoing wayward behavior.
Let us not rest and celebrate until we turn our wounds into wisdom..
Here comes the judge, here comes the judge, here comes the judge. . . . .!.
Your Honor, what is your most accurate verdict?.
GUILTY?
INNOCENT?.
We are all guilty as charged, until we regain our lost innocence, and can see that innocence in others, as well..No more turning away from our wounds as suffering human beings..No more turning away from the inherent goodness and beauty that lies, often ignored, within the heart and soul of the other..
“Remove that log stuck in your eye, so that you may more accurately see the sliver stuck in another’s eye”—Jesus of Nazareth.
The only way to permanently remove spiritual eyesores from our vision is to heal our inner sight, realizing that profound changes in our own consciousness eventually impact our world, remembering that “all that we will ever see unto eternity, is ourselves”. Because we also remember that our minds are inextricably intertwined with the collective consciousness of the world, we will continue to have ample opportunities to bring healing to the world, and to our sense of self which is in relationship to the collective.
We remain wary of the theological theories and dogma surrounding Jesus and Christianity. In their misunderstanding, Jesus negatively empathized with THE WORLD, and took on the sins of the world, in the ultimate act of the stigmata syndrome. Love and Truth do not accept any scapegoating! This folderoll is an unfortunate leftover from from the Old Testament Jewish tradition. The dogma of his crucifixion was that his sacrifice to God was to save us from our sins. Apply grains of salt liberally here, ok? There is no God in heaven or on earth that would EVER use this dysfunctional philosophical vehicle to bring redemption and “salvation” to the human race. If Jesus truly believed that by sacrificing himself, the world would be saved, Jesus was much more unevolved than history would leave us to believe that he truly was. The only sacrifice acceptable on our unique way to our resurrection and transcendence is letting go of our false sense of self. People, and civilization, hate negative feedback, and punish liberally the innocent, to discourage further review. Sadly, he was victimized by the evil projections of others, as are all true prophets…
If you believe that bringing harm to others is a wonderful pastime, suffering continuously is acceptable, and death is the only hope for release, and for heaven, that you have, you might want to reexamine that mindset.
Our “salvation” is only worked out within the individual minds and hearts of true seekers of Truth and Love, and can never be delivered through the efforts of someone else, no matter how historically exalted of a position that individual occupies in the religious pantheons. We must sacrifice our misunderstandings of who we mistakenly thought that we were, and who and what we thought the rest of creation is, allowing for the new universal truth to resurrect our understanding of self and others. Failure to do so will make us more vulnerable to unconsciousness, where the process of negative empathy, and in the extreme, collective suffering and the stigmata syndrome, may expose us to spiritual chaos, and potentially death. We do not need to self-crucify, to remain connected with the rest of the human race, and to bring healing to the world.
The world will always be reminding us how far we are, collectively, from healing. We do our best to remain engaged with the world, while not allowing the world to overrun our morals, ethics, and spiritual intentions. And we need not spiritually die because of the “sins” of the world, whether it is toxic capitalism, toxic masculinity (and patriarchy), toxic politics, or toxic religion. We always retain freedom of choice and must exercise and accept personal responsibility for those choices, in all of our lives. If our choices bring harm to ourselves or to each other, we are free to choose again. We make amends wherever possible after any error in our presentation, which keeps our empathy channels fully open.
While what Donald Trump is, in truth, remains impossible to ascertain, his negative, self-defeating behavior will likely continue to be troubling to all thoughtful, moral, ethical, and caring beings. Is he the Devil? Is he a rattlesnake, just waiting to bite all of us, and inject us with deadly venom? Or is he an angel, and we just don’t have the perceptual tools to see it? Well, I am sure that he is not wholly just one of these assessments. Trump probably carries a fair amount of all of these qualities, though unevenly weighted toward the darker sides. The point is for the rest of us to maintain a keen curiosity about our world, and all of the people in it, including Trump, and continue to be conscious, and aware, of our tendency to overreact to each assault on our spiritual and political sensibilities.
We all must cultivate a better spiritual presentation for ourselves than did this President. To hate Trump is to negatively empathize with him, and subject ourselves to his divisive energy. We must save our empathy and energy for those who truly can benefit from it. Donald Trump does NOT want to change, he wants everybody else to change to conform to his disfigured understanding as to how life should be. Yet, most mindful people have certain aspects of their own lives that they would like to change, to enhance their self-image and self-worth. These are things that we can work on successfully. Those others who also want to change, while still suffering under the disfiguring conditions of our civilization, want and deserve our empathy and compassion.
Wasting energy on a man who is wasting himself is not a productive endeavor. I am not advocating indifference towards the President or to his supporters, but instead more like taking the posture of a detached witness to him, his continuing shenanigans and his minions, while responding in emotionally intelligent manners that do not bring harm to ourselves or to others. We can cultivate the thought and feeling of wanting better for the man than he wants for himself, remembering that Trump is indeed sick, and suffering under the conditions of his spiritual disease.
Donald Trump created the conditions for his disrepute and destruction. This is why Donald Trump is now dying, for he has lost love and self-respect for everyone but his limited tribe of understanding. Roger Stone, the sleazy political operative and personal confidant of Trump, has publicly stated, as far as political advertising is concerned, that “hate is a more powerful motivating force than love”. We can see that Trump enlists and employs that energy to mobilize his base. We need not follow him and his supporters into the darkest of ditches. Trump steers his consciousness towards chaos and division, while we steer our own towards unity and understanding.
It is little wonder why any of us found ourselves becoming repulsed by this man, and some even hating this demon. Yes, negative empathy, in sharing Donald Trump’s hatred of himself, while not sharing the objects of his hatred, has brought to us many lessons about ourselves, and how we might see the whole of life more clearly. We have cleared the film off of our glasses, but Donald Trump remains blinded by his hubris and self-hatred. We have healed the parts of ourselves that would create hatred and havoc as a response to this damaged, corrupted human being. We can hope and pray for this disfigured man to see the light of love and reason, yet none of us are holding our breaths until it happens.
There is as much to learn from a spiritually disfigured human being as Donald Trump, as there is from exalted figures from our spiritual heritage and history. Trump is part of our present existence. Trump remains an emanation of our universal consciousness. Yet, the thought of Trump brings few to a state of bliss or contentment. By seeing of Trump as he is, we can see the blocks to our access to that which exists BEYOND such a distorted image, which just might be universal love and truth. In the seeing, we may transcend that which is seen, and soar to new heights of understanding and experience. Some of us may even experience the same realms as those pointed to by Jesus, the Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, or other revered saints and sages.
A long-term friend of mine, who is also a long-term friend of the Dalai Lama has said that my understanding is contrary to the teachings of this Buddhist monk, but I will not let that deter me. Had the Dalai Lama been raised under the same conditions of life as I had, and vice versa, our spiritual theories and realities would have been significantly different from our present positions. There are millions of opinions as to how to best live life, and even my friend’s take on the Dalai Lama is only an opinion. Today I choose to not allow other people’s opinions to support my tendency to be repressive of my true nature, and I instead opt to be more fully present for my truest sense of self in this moment.
The conscious people, the people who have already embraced healing and transformation, are co-writing with me a new story for mankind. Together, with my spiritual brothers and sisters, we are co-creating the new religion, the new world order, the new blueprint for humanity and its eternal evolution through this universe. Together we are overcoming millennia of oppression and repression of the human, and the animal spirit. Together, we are defending and honoring our sacred Mother Earth, the true creator and sustainer of life on this planet.
We must remain spiritually vigilant as we continue to be a conscious presence engaging with a world still dominated by toxic masculinity, toxic politics, toxic capitalism, and toxic religion. We must be able to access our anger, not hatred, as we address the injustices wrought upon the human soul through the ignorance and toxicity of others. Love will be our guardian as we make the difficult confrontations with those who do not respect, or honor, the wholeness of life on our Mother Earth that we all share in love and in truth.
If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
—Maya Angelou
In case it was not directly observed, what I have presented here is a meditation on love, hatred, indifference, anger, and the process of forgiveness. Mindfulness allows for us to see what is immediately before us, and choose between the knowns of the past, and the unknown present. Forgiveness is an openness to the mystery of the present. Forgiveness, however, does not forget or excuse the offender from his misdeeds, especially while the offender continues abhorrent behavior. Forgiveness releases the practitioner from the damage of incurring negative perceptions of others. We still must act consciously and decisively against all forces that continue to imperil our lives, our family’s lives, and the life of our planet. We must continue to be willing to speak truth to power, whether the power is in the White House, or in our hearts.
Life’s spiritual journey is forever like a dotted line pathway. It is the quality of our connections with each other that fills in the space between the dots. Empathy is the major vehicle for our consciousness to transcend our apparent differences, enabling each of us to connect the dots in a mutually affirming manner. It is only through each other that we can see who we are. I am you, and you are me, and together we are everything, apart, we are still chained together by whatever separates us. We find our shared meaning, which links us together on our journey in Spirit.
Love unifies, while hate fragments and traumatizes. As human beings, we must be conscious enough to choose the best way to present ourselves to the world, and to ourselves, as we face the challenges of the insanity within our world. Our world is in greatest need of hearts that are expanding through mutual positive empathy, rather than contracting through negative empathy, or indifference. We did not create the world as it is now, we cannot control it, nor can we cure it. But we can evolve, and, collectively, we can address the disease of the spirit that is dominating our world civilization, and which continues to bring devastation to our world, and to all of the life upon it.
Each of us are beings with infinite potential. Yet, each of us must break free from the conditioning of our personal past, and our cultural past. Four pillars are supporting higher consciousness, which are (1) via negative- through negating what is not real, seeing what might be real, (2) via positiva-through constantly affirming the goodness inherent in life, reading the writings of mystical poets and saints, and being a grateful participant of life, we may experience Grace, (3) via transformativa- through re-creating or re-birthing ourselves through educational means and/or mystical connection, and bringing forth a new person, or our new understanding of our self, into the world, in the image and likeness of a more universal consciousness, and (4) via creativa- developing and/or expressing our innate ability to co-create with the Universe, by expressing ourselves through art, music, writing, or other means. We must access the deepest of desires to transcend the boundaries of self, and to reimagine our existence.
Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.
– Matthew 9:17 (NIV)
We must travel new paths of consciousness, letting go of all controls that keep us tethered to the past, with its incomplete perceptions and understandings. In the end, no teacher will affect our salvation, for it is a personal journey, where we must accept responsibility for the totality of our lives, and make all necessary adjustments in the course that will take us to our spiritual goals. We can rebirth ourselves, into a new understanding that the Universe has birthed itself in an infinitude of forms through the portal of Mother Earth, and each of us is “one verse” of the song of creation.
As we see the totality of the movement of thought as time, and its nature of keeping us tethered to a past, or to a future that is always an extension of this past, we can free ourselves from those illusory controls. We can live more of a life based on the ever-unfolding now, or present moment, thus unleashing vast reservoirs of intuition and spiritual power. As we look upon all of life, we finally gain the insight that ALL is the extension of the “I am” that we are. All that we will ever see, unto eternity, is, thus, our SELF. for “I am” is distributed throughout all of creation. Everything that we see is our brothers and sisters in Spirit, and, in Truth, and all are extensions of the “I” that “I am”. Our collective error in understanding is believing that “You” has any reality in ultimate Truth, for “you cannot be real”. “You” is forever just an image of thought, created by the collective, or by the individual, mind of man, while believing that he is a separate, isolated being in a lonely universe.
The further along the path of Truth and Love that we travel, the more that we understand that all we will ever see, unto eternity, are extensions of our Self. How we see ourselves today determines the quality of Love and Truth that we manifest in our lives. How we see ourselves today determines how much spiritual power can be brought to our damaged planet, which is now dependent upon us. How we see ourselves today determines how much, as awakening beings, we can bring healing to our shared, damaged human consciousness. There is no power in Heaven or on Earth greater than “I am”. Yet our world suffers, because of the collective belief that we are not of this world, not of each other, or not of this Universe. The unconscious people of the world continue to bring harm to Mother Earth, and to all of her inhabitants, in the name of their religions, their own disfigured political and economic principles, and their ignorance. We all suffer accordingly.
I realize that I am an insignificant voice. I am yet another voice calling out from the wilderness of human misunderstanding, trying to locate lost fellow travelers and aid whoever I may make contact with, in whatever humble way that I can, in our shared journey towards healing. We will heal together, or die alone. I am one of the millions of spiritual “Johnny Appleseed’s”, spreading the seeds of our potential for transcendence on the rocky grounds of human consciousness on our planet Earth. I will not live to see the good that may arise from my work, and the greater works of others, and that is OK.
“The finger pointing at the moon, can never be the moon”.
—The Buddha
Were the reader to ever have a similar apocalyptic spiritual experience as I did, on July 21, 1987, the reader would see, as I now see, how pathetic and inadequate can be our words. Words are limited containers for infinite energy, and though they point to a shared reality, they will forever fall short in their intention to communicate what lies deep within the heart. While living in a verbal consciousness, the word remains the way the human world is measured. And the word, because of its inherent limitations, continues to create imbalances within the mind of man. Mankind, with its religions and its political science, continues with its pride and hubris, and clings to its knowledge like it is truth itself, forgetting that our words and thoughts will forever only be theories chasing after the truth that is continuously being updated by the present moment. The universe laughs with us, when we see that all of our words are but simple pointers, to that which exists within each of us, yet also exists far above and beyond the limited and limiting boundaries of human consciousness.
So, We Were Created In Who’s Image?
So, who are the ones we trust to guide us whenever we are uncertain of the next step on our path to our metamorphosis?
In a therapeutic relationship, the therapist attempts to create a bridge image to the patient’s innate healing possibilities. This bridge image is nothing more than an internalized representation of the therapist’s teachings, associated with and blended into the internal picture of the therapist, which eventually informs the patient of his/her better choices for making conscious, self-affirming decisions for their life, in the absence of the therapist’s physical presence. In the positive, this also helps the patient with any attachment to the therapist, for when the therapeutic relationship finally ends, the patient still carries the image of the therapist and the teaching, which brings comfort in the therapist’s absence. Yet, the bridge must be eventually discarded, lest the client just carries the bridge, the teacher and teaching, as an embedded narrative, which covers and obscures the natural light of pure awareness that being healed reveals. This therapeutic relationship has great healing potential and, of course, in the negative, manipulation, and abuse if the therapist had not previously reached an optimal personal healing quiescent point. The therapist must have risen beyond their own need to be emotionally manipulative to be of help. And, the therapist must NOT become financially dependent on payments made for services by specific clients, or abuse is inevitable.
This same principle of entrainment or neuro-linguistic programming is involved with the spiritual teachings embedded within a student and guru in any spiritual teaching relationship. Often, just seeing the picture of the guru stimulates memories of the teachings transmitted throughout the teaching relationship and brings a sense of warmth or comfort to the evolving student. The same potential for attachments form between guru and student, and the wise guru does not encourage emotional attachments, lest the student regress, and remain dependent on outside influences to affirm their value. It is well known that popular gurus profit immensely from the imaginary or real services provided to the student. See Eckert Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Tim Robbins, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (aka OSHO), etc., etc. You better have a fat wallet if you want big-name guides providing direction for your next spiritual step.
Finally, this same principle resides at the foundation of all religions. Within the Christian faith, where the practitioners attempt to embody the teachings of their prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, they worship mostly unread bibles, paintings, sculptured works, idols, stained glass panels, and statues of Mary crying, Jesus’s face miraculous appearing in cloud formations, their morning toast, or wherever their imagination creates an image similar to their most revered teacher. Yet, the teacher and Mary have been dead for 2000 years, so the student must be taught through other less enlightened teachers and their often disfigured interpretations of the dated sacred texts. They try to teach the religious neophyte that this is one-stop shopping, and the practitioner is dependent on the church and its teachings for the rest of their lives for any hope for an eternity with the church’s distorted, though often sincere, images of God.
Jesus, his image and his teachings, were never intended to be utilized the way that so many churches, including those promoting “new age” and “new thought” understanding, now use him.. It is disgraceful that it is used to generate more income for the all too often corrupt leaders of the faiths. And, PLEASE, do not forget to tithe! Never mind that the Catholic church has more money than several countries. The more you pay, the happier that God, er, the church is! That pastor has a family to feed, too! Prosperity theology has an appeal to the unhealed, greedy money accumulator within all of us, eh Joel Osteen, and 100 million others? Come on, open up the wallet of the parishioner in the pew next to you, and give like you always wanted to! You have to give to receive! The surest sign that God loves you is that you have a big, fat bank account, with a big spiritualized ego to match! Just remember, the size of your bank account, or the account of the church of your choice, is no direct indication of the presence of the Spirit of the Universe. It does indicate how well you have adapted to the Capital-lust economic system, however.
The object, in truth, is to also internalize the teaching vs. just internalizing the teacher. When we internalize the teacher, we have created an idol, and yet another break, or fragmentation, is encouraged within our consciousness. The average human being has over a dozen (though some are plagued with “legions”) or more fragments of self or “the other, or you” images, floating around in the unconscious parts of their self. These may be historical archetypal images, including God, the Devil, the Trickster, and other disowned and unconscious or conscious and celebrated parts of our awareness of our self, along with the distortions in judgments of “the other or not me”. If God is still speaking to us, rather than through us, we are not ready for the real Kingdom of Wholeness and its Sublime Universe of non-duality. Similarly, if we are still plagued by the voices or the echoes of our unhealed past, we remain on the periphery of our true potential while still wrestling with hyperactive minds.
Either way, conscious or unconscious, healing is not possible until all of the exiled, disowned, and otherwise unconscious and conscious aspects, or images of self, and the misinformed judgments of “the other, or you” are integrated, or woven, back into the conscious fabric of our undivided being. You can tell how good of a job you have done by evaluating the sum total of your relationships with the outer world. If there is still a lot of trauma and drama with outer relationships, there probably is still work to be done on the inside, and/or it is time to “shake the dust off your feet” and move on to a new location.. You can also tell by how much negative self-talk remains. Whatever you imagine God to be, remember, that God has qualities that incorporate love of self, love of the other, and the peace that comes with resting in the assurance that our creation, or all of our created images and narratives, point to the inherent goodness of life.
There is no room for duality in truth. There is no room for The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost in Truth. There is only room for God seeing Itself, for God is omniscient. So, all past images, where relevant, just inform our present moment with their insight and wisdom rather than dominate and control our life experience, if we are to see as our Creator has created us to see, in the truth of who we are.
Each one of the images that we, or our culture, created in the past was to be yet another bridge to a new land, and potentially, closer to our truth, but often they were never completed, and thus continue to lead us astray, and to eventual dead-ends. Rather than just looking at Life through a revolving, hypnotizing collection of kaleidoscopic images, it is possible to achieve a vision where we are the unified wholeness of our healed Self, rather than unenlightened worshippers of some unknown, unknowable and unrealizable spiritual fantasy.
Social conformity attempts to maintain the rules of the teachings in a social setting. In a therapeutic setting, it is typically just a simple relationship between the therapist and the client, and the therapist establishes the majority of the rules of engagement, yet group therapy offers up a much more complex dynamic, where social dynamics become part of a healing intention. The guru/student relationship is similar to the therapeutic relationship, and parallels continue in the setting of an ashram, which is the community of followers. Christianity, and other religions rely almost exclusively on the social setting to practice and enforce tribal values, values that were once inspired by, and perhaps practiced by the originator of the faith.
There are over 2 billion human beings who claim to be Christians. Yet, as we see in America, to claim to be a Christian is to claim any number of differing and often conflicting ideals and values. The teachings of Jesus, especially the Sermon On The Mount, have been rejected by a sizeable portion of those claiming Jesus as their teacher. “What would Jesus do?” used to be an important question to those following his teaching, yet it has now morphed into “What can I get away with”, in the now disrespected names of Jesus and Donald Trump, while celebrating right-wing conservative billionaire values.
So, in whose image have you created yourself?
Are you willing to let go of all the controls of teachers, teachings, and their aging, corrupted images?
Are you willing to be healed, and made whole?
Free yourself of all idols, and images.
Free yourself from the ignorance of others, and social conformity.
Free yourself from religious hucksters, fundamentalists, and propaganda.
Free yourself!
You are the Teacher.
You are the Teaching.
You are the Taught.
You are, and that is enough!
What would Jesus do? Oh, that is an easy question to answer.
“Straight is the way, and narrow is the gate, and very few there be who enter in,”
And,
And Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold idols in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he said to them:
“My house is a place of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
And he said:
“It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier pulling a camel through the eye of a needle than bringing a rich man to the kingdom”.
And, he said:
“The things that I do, you shall do, and even greater things than I have accomplished.”
Umm, there might be a need for a lot of humbling experiences to bring a person to totally reject their current dysfunctional and materialistic course, but those millions of dollars are like a strong magnet to hold peoples’ attention away from true change..
We can’t buy a real stairway to heaven. We can’t even rent the steps to Heaven either.
There is real work to be done, and Jesus, your guru, or your therapist can not do it for you.
If your headlights are dirty, you cannot see clearly.
If your mind is cluttered with illusion and materialism, you can not see clearly.
You are heading for the ditch if you don’t take care of your consciousness.
The image remains forever materialistic, a mere limited placeholder, or bridge, to our fundamental, culturally obscured, infinite nature.
The chasm that exists between you and the other, which is another you, and between you and God is the image, and the nearly infinite narrative, that you, your family, your religion, and your culture created in ignorance and misunderstanding. That chasm is you until you see its unreality.
.Then, all that you see, and will ever see, unto eternity is the unified self, and its infinite expressions of its infinite loving creativity, which “you” are now a most conscious and active part of.
.
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper (Comforter) will not come to you. I will send him to you “—Jesus of Nazareth
God helps those who help themselves.
Do you get it now?
I think we all can do much better for our lives, and for our Spirit, by not becoming yet another profit-centered ego passing as the latest minstrel of Truth, whether Western, or Eastern based in understanding.
True guru’s know that no Teacher, no matter how popular, has any permanent effect on our so-called “salvation”, it is always up to the individual to work out their life’s details and heal from their childhood, and adult, traumas. Issues that aren’t addressed forthright and without reservation will haunt all of us like specters. Just because the “fickle finger of fate” has appeared to choose one writer, speaker, or teacher over another (or a million others) means only that the public, whatever that means, resonates with their message of hope, though verbal transience is once again masquerading as permanence. They market “hope”, and we are susceptible to messages that imply that we too can be wise, become enlightened, ascend to heaven after death, or whatever the empty promises of this type of marketed hope, and hype, imply. Writers who leave wishful thinking behind and directly confront Life’s issues may really have something to say, but in this capitalist world there is no guarantee that any promoters will rise up to support the work, or bored, disinterested readers will catch fire with the message, however. Sharon and I have a little personal experience with that one.
The ego was created as an intelligent, though misinformed, agent of our deep need for safety and love, in a world that still does not know how to be safe, and to love itself and each other. Our ego is a birthing canal for the energy of the Universe, so let us not be permanently stuck in it. The ego is the river water of consciousness that eventually carries us back into the ocean of Spirit, and is not our enemy. Never forget the world also has an ego, though every bit as fragmented as the most mentally ill among us. Attempting to fix the world will only drive one crazier than they already are, if the personal ego is still affirming its terminal uniqueness, and has not yet begun collaboration and reunification with what is true.
Patriarchy and misogyny (especially in religion, Eastern or Western based), capitalist systems gone socially awry, racism, hubris, and lack of empathy and compassion towards each other AND TO THE PLANT AND THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, continue to make the world an unsafe place for all life upon this planet. We forget that our biological origins are through the plant and animal kingdom, and if we don’t respect their rights, we have lost respect for ourselves. This only encourages more irrational, unskilled behavior from our most precious creation, our ego. Many won’t speak out against troubling social, ecological, and/or religious issues. One of ego’s avoidance subroutines is to ignore the evil of others, knowing that to judge others of misbehavior is to have to acknowledge the malfeasance within itself,
It is time to follow new paths of consciousness, the worn-out ruts of our world culture are about to become our graves if dramatic and lasting change is not made.
There is a timeless path, but we first must unhitch our ego from the overworked horses of our troubled individual, and collective, past.
There is much money to be made off of human suffering, in religion, in the legal and medical professions, or in work as undertakers. Unenlightened capitalism encourages profit-making at the expense of others, and from their misfortune.
As leaders of prosperity-conscious churches (Hello 50 million dollar pseudo-saint Joel Osteen, etc.,), established and embedded religious institutions (Catholics have a source of money greater than that of many countries), and those who can promote their own opinions skillfully enough to capture the often limited attention span of seekers after social conformity, but rarely the Truth. People who don’t take the time to understand their own lives become hypnotized by the opinions of others, be they the power brokers of cultural, political, and/or religious/spiritual agendas.
Gee, you are you!
Or, GURU.
Let me steal your watch from your pocket, then sell it back to you—-Alan Watt’s opinion about gurus, enlightenment, religion, and truth.
We are all enough.
The spiritual Path is the journey all must take to become reunited with our True Value. It is unique for each of us, and It will not be found along Capitalism’s competitive superhighway
No saint, sage, guru, or prophet can walk the Path for us.
It is healing to have company along the way. Bring snacks, it will be a long walk into eternity.
Tread lightly, with a curious mind, and an open heart.
Gee, you are YOU!
TIME TO CELEBRATE OUR REAL LIFE TODAY.
And, your real Self is free!
Spiritual capitalism need not corrupt any seeker for Truth.
JUST SAYING
Perhaps if I charged people to listen to me, there would be more perceived value in what I say.
Argh, then I would be a f..king GURU.
Perfection
Perfection still lies behind all image-darkened eyes
To look within ourselves without judgment is to find
The sublime surprise, of which all life is comprised
The divine energy that supports all life, including mankind’s,
With courage drought, from fear and illusion made naught
We move from materialistic shadows into spiritual light
The Kingdom once sought is the new vision caught
To overcome the fragments of self is to see with unhindered sight
A love all-knowing, supported by the truth that’s showing
With the Divine, we are destined to walk hand in hand,
In us, it’s growing, through us, it’s showing
A love for all life between space and land.
Our hearts entwined, with one soul divine
To this world we become a blessing immense
Though we pass this earthly way for one short mortal day
Who, with a spiritual healing experience, would dare dispense?
As I look at my life’s history, I bear witness to Love and its healing Mystery. The greatest insights that I have ever had continue to arise through the sacred silence within my being. Words are formed to become the bridge from that silence, to the conscious mind, in its attempt to bring balance back to which the verbal universe has brought imbalance to. Yet those words, though sacred to me, are only pointers to the potential for others.
Yet, to continue to point I must.
Hatred, indifference, positive or negative empathy, love, healing, or mutual destruction are parts of our infinite potentiality.. The choice is ours to make for our own unique life experience, when we have become more healed and conscious There is a Silence within each of us attempting to inform our consciousness as to how to best exercise our free will. What is our choice today?
The Silence continues to reach out to the turbulence within our world, and to bring balance back to our imbalanced soul.
My world will never be the same.
How about yours?
