Spiritual Remedial School

It was Edward Trappedbythought’s first day at the world renowned Spiritual Remedial School. The school was famous for providing intense one-on-one attention; with the hope that students would knowingly recognize their essential nature. The head master, a tall stately man known as Hewithoutaname, was reading Ed’s lengthy record. “It’s recorded here,” said Hewithoutaname as he approached Ed, “that you’ve been taking this whole human story just a little bit too seriously. Is that so?”

“Guilty as charged,” replied Ed, as his hands wrestled each other.

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?”

“No, guess not,” said Ed.

“You guess,” said Hewithoutaname, raising an eyebrow, “or you know?”

“Pardon, Sir, of course; I know.” Although Ed was middle aged, he suddenly felt as though he was five years old.

“At SRS, we have a strict three-strike policy. Do you know what that means?”

“Kinda,” muttered Ed, his face flushing. “I think it means if I get three three incorrect answers that I’m immediately expelled.”

“Well, you’re off to a good start. It seems you’ve done your homework. So let’s get straight to it. You’ll be given ten seconds to respond yay, nay, or with a full length answer that’s clearly audible. Do you understand?

“Yes,” said Ed nervously. A sheen had appeared on Ed’s forehead, threatening to rain sweat off his eyebrows.

Holding a timer in his hand, Hewithoutaname momentarily said, “First exam beings NOW:”

***

Head Master: “I am my body.”

Ed (nervously shifting in his chair, glancing at cheat notes scribbled in his palm….10, 9, 8, 7,): “Yay?

Head Master: “Buzzz–strike one! Pitty, had such high hopes for you.”

Ed: “So sorry.”

Head Master: “No talking.”

Ed: (nodds humbly).

Head Master: “I am my mind.”

Ed (eyebrows alternately raising, searching for answers on the ceiling…6, 5, 4,): Yay?

Head Master: “Strike two! Oh, dear my, this is worse than your record reflects.”

Ed: (close to fainting, with a pale give-me-a-chance expession on his face).

Head Master: “Okay, one last chance. Spell Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s birthname backwards, in his native language of Marathi.”

Ed (blank stare, drool coming from the corner of his mouth…4, 3, 2, 1, 0,): No answer.

Head Master: “And that’s strike three! Just kidding! Here at SRS, we’re famous for having a wicked sense of humor–guffaw, guffaw. But more importantly, we’re known for our unconditional LOVE. We’re going to give you a second chance! Tomorrow we’ll get started with a sixteen-hour meditation period, beginning at 4:00 A.M. Just so you know, no bathroom breaks permitted; so you might be advised to go easy on the fluids before bed. See you in the morning!

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡

Not By Accident

That you find yourself reading this article (perhaps with enough curiousity to read it twice), has not occurred by accident. In the right place, at the right time, conditions align. Such may be a sign that the real YOU is becoming weary of playing the persona you have erroneously assumed yourself to be. It may, indeed, be time to awaken to true Self and knowingly recognize that you are not the egoic self of name and form with whom you’re familiar. How can this possibly be?

From the human perspective, it’s often convenient to believe that we are responsible for the favourable circumstances of our lives. We naturally assume credit because it feels good to do so. However, when unpleasant circumstances arise, we may wonder what we did to deserve them, or blame ourselves for being such a fool. Upon the shifting sands of ever-changing circumstances, we attempt to forge rich and fulfilling lives. From the point of the Absolute, nothing occurs by accident. As challenging as this may be to contemplate (much less accept), the nature and quality of our predominant thoughts and beliefs have everything to do with the apparent events that arise in our lives.

To help deepen our understanding of our essential nature and of how events–both personal and collective–occur, I offer the following passages:

“We do not wake up into a really waking state. In the waking state the world emerges due to ignorance and takes one into a waking-dream state. Both sleep and waking are misnomers. We are only dreaming. True waking and true sleeping only the gnani knows. We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of the dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates. As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave. By imagining that you are born as so-and-so, you become a slave to the so-and-so.”

(I Am That,” by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

***

“Is there any reason to doubt that our dreaming mind functions uninterruptedly throughout the twenty-four hours of our time, that is, from birth, or before it, to death?“

(Why Lazarus Laughed, by Wei Wu Wei)

***

“You are at home in God, dreaming of exile but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. Is it your decision to do so? You recognize from your own experience that what you see in dreams you think is real while you are asleep. Yet the instant you awaken you realize that everything that seemed to happen did not happen at all. You do not think this strange, even though all the laws of what you awaken to were violated while you slept. Is it not possible that you merely shifted from one dream to another, without really waking?“

(A Course in Miracles, by Helen Schucman)

***

“No one doubts the reality of the world. They see trees and mountains, and they are certain that all of it exists. Only when this certainty is challenged is the dream doubted. Wake up, and find it was a dream.”

(Wake up and Roar, Satsang with Papaji, by Eli Jaxon-Bear)

***

“Every appearance on the physical or astral plane is just a dream before the soul. It is ignorance when it takes this experience to be real.”

(The Heart of Sufism, by Hazrat Inayat Khan)

***

“The fact of the matter is that our waking reality is as much a creation of our mind as our dreams.”

(The One in the Mirror, by Ramesh S. Balsekar)

***

Dear Readers: To identify with the perspective of the person is to invite suffering. Life may proceed smoothly for many years; but circumstances eventually change. When we recognize That which we truly are (Spirit, Awareness, Consciousness), we process the circumstances of life more easily. To help this occur for YOU is the reason that I share this information.

The Creator had no other way to apparently become a multiplicity and diversity of various forms except through the power of imagination. You are not who you think yourself to be. You are an Infinite Being, dreaming a human life. When we turn our attention inward, we can recognize a much deeper dimension of Self. The Bible states this in Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” Through Grace you may realize that Now.

Dare to Dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Are We “There” Yet?

Most parents will be quite familiar with the question that serves as the title of this article. The question (or variations thereof: “Soon? Much farther?”) often arises from our children during long car trips. To the children, the destination just seems so dang far away. The same mindset often lurks within us during our journey-less journey toward knowing recognition of true Self. In The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley, he expressed this very clearly:

This ‘experience,’ which is a state of emotional excitement–an excitement which may be mild and enduring or brief and epileptically violent, which is sometimes exultant in tone and sometimes despairing, which expresses itself here in song and dance, there in uncontrollable weeping. But emotional excitement, whatever its cause and whatever its nature, must be died to by anyone who aspires to live to divine Reality. ‘Excitement’ about God (the highest form of this kind of excitement) is incompatible with ‘experience’ as immediate awareness of God by a pure heart which has mortified even its most exalted emotions.”

The point that Aldous Huxley made so eloquently is about the experience of awakening to our essential nature and how that relates to the person. To fully awaken is to live from the perspective of true Self; as opposed to the perspective of the illusory conceptual self that we refer to by name and form. As with so many points related to spirituality, a paradox applies: If we (as a person) are incredibly jubilant about having experienced recognition “of” the pinnacle of our essential nature, we have still not arrived. We are yet not there (liberated) until we’re presently living “as” true Self, and fully aware of What–not who–we actually are. From that perspective, such just is what it is. The situation is also described through the following quote from St. John of the Cross:

"The fly that touches honey cannot use its wings; so the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness ruins its freedom and hinders contemplation."

The toggle switch between awareness of That which we actually are and who we think we are is incredibly sensitive. When we are knowingly unaware, it can be triggered abruptly by habits that belong to the body-mind. We can be reminded of the difference by contemplating a few questions: “In awareness of the inherent fullness of our true nature, who is it that could possibly be feeling lonely?” “In this dream called life, who is it that could feel guilty of acts labeled bad or rejoice in those labeled good?” As we stabilize in recognition of our essential nature, we may be surprised to realize that–yet again–we have descended a rung or two on the ladder toward personhood. When such occurs, it’s often wise to become still, take a few slow breaths, and regain our center. In time, the egoic voice that’s habitually asking whether we have arrived yet will lose energy and fall silent. And that’s good news.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones–released September 8, 2020), press here. My YouTube videos may be found through this link. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. 🙏🏻🧡

“Thank You” & “Note to Publishers”

“One In Other”

I have just had an up-close-and-personal reminder of the incredible goodness (Godliness) that’s shining just beneath the surface of human experience. I was shopping at a store in my home town, when I was approached by a man who made a huge difference in my life. He’s one of the many to whom I owe so much gratitude. We smiled and shook hands; and within a couple of minutes, I started to thank him for what he did several years earlier. A little back story is required:

In 2006, the apparent life story of Art included a sudden divorce from a twenty-year marriage. The shock of the event was like being driven off of a cliff; the after effects, a free fall that lasted for years. At the time, it was one of the most challenging circumstances I had ever faced. That life had fallen apart was the last thought on my mind before sleep, and the first thought to cross my mind in the morning.

Several months after the initial shock, I was shopping in the grocery store where Mark worked. We didn’t really know each other, beyond making a few passing comments to each other. On that particular day, I must have been having a tougher time than usual, which Mark sensed. For the next ten or fifteen minutes, he listened while I attempted to empty myself of some of the incredible pain that I was feeling. Patiently, supportively, non-judgmentally, he listened. When we parted, I felt better and a little stronger. And Mark was the reason.

As I began to thank Mark again today, he (remembering what had occurred) just patted me on the shoulder, looked me in the eye, and said:

“Hey, we look after one another.

It’s what we do.

It’s why we’re here.”

I was driving the short distance home, when I realized that Mark had summed up the whole purpose of life in just a few words. Whether we realize it or not, we’re here to nurture and look after “One in Other.”

The One that’s shining in me–“as” me–is the same One that’s shining in you–“as” you.

In Truth, there are no “others.” When we see beyond the differences in our personalities and fleshy costumes and recognize the God in all of us, life flows so much more smoothly. Our human experience then literally shines with immanent divinity.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Think2wice

CONSCIOUSNESS, SPIRITUALITY, & LAW OF ATTRACTION

Month: March 2023

Spiritual Remedial School

Not By Accident

Are We “There” Yet?

“One In Other”

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