If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor

– Voltaire

A dialogue about the urge for “more”

Gabriela:
I do not see the need for more as a distancing from oneself. The kind of accumulation I am speaking about, doesn´t reffer to tangible stuff, but to soul: the urge for more, is wanting to improve your soul.

Escaping what is, is not necessarily escaping the good. It may entail that you feel different now than the one you once were, and that you may want to become your former self again.

This is not necessarily evolution or involution, it´s growing.

You can not stay in the same spot, no matter how contented you are in your soul.

Even the hermits that renounce the material side of life seek to learn more about
God, they strive to perfect themselves.
I do not indulge in empty theory, or at least, I try not to.
And if you see things subjectively, it’s because I am a friend of pure reason.

Me:
Wishing to “improve” your soul is projection. Ego… – cheating itself.

How can we ever speak about “improvement” when divinity knows no degrees of comparison?… Divinity is a mighty continuous flow that we can not conceive with
the tools of our limited perception.

To put it this way: The Flow is never static but highly dynamic, total, inexpressibly
alive, eternally renewing itself second by second.

It may sound conceited, but even hermits can be wrong trying to “perfect themselves”.

How can you perfect your being, when Being is its own perfection?…

The only perfection we can speak about is the immediate realization that you have to empty yourself of the content of your I-ness.

If you feel different now than the one you once were, trying to become your former
self again, you are moving inside the maze of illusion… again, inside the egoic projection…

Moving within the different degrees of is self-delusion – which is ego in a nutshell – is being stuck in a spot. To invariably empower Illusion is not “growing”.

Reason has been given to us to understand that it is of no avail.

God has great humor after all…

Whose name shall I take for today?

Says Pauls:
“We could all answer to the same name.”
Does this imply “God,” whatever that may mean? Just curious!

Me:
Let ‘s leave out God for a change.

Utterly speaking there is no such thing as “implication” – implication doesn’t exist as everything is already implied. :) Being is implicit, “to be not” doesn’t exist in Being’s mind. On “that” level there are no differences.

The “differences” exist as the outcome of our mind, and due to these so-called differences, names, categories and definitions arise. For a certain name to exist, it needs something “different” to differentiate itself from. This differentiating means category. Categories entail that certain things exist and others do not…Likewise, for name to exist it means that something is, and something “is not “. Again, Name is denomination – it denominates something existing from something “non-existing”…

Only when we grasp that non-existing is a mere concept for mind to function,
that non-existence doesn’t really exist in reality, then we comprehend that everything is intertwined, similar, undifferentiated and simultaneous.
Strange isn´t it?…But you know that I don´t indulge in nonsensical concepts…

So our real name is Sameness. Sameness Paul, Sameness Julien…That’s funny: at a deep ontological level,
we can be whoever, wherever, all in one… – constantly sharing the same Name. This sameness – or name-ness, is both individual and collective and neither nor…

Does it make any sense to you?

The simultaneity of opposites

There is this extraordinary word in Greek: χαρμολύπη – harmolypi, which I don´t think is to be found in any other language.
It means to be sad and joyous at the same time. Paradoxical, isn´t it? Not easy for our reasoning mind to grasp this.

We think that we are either sad or glad, we are either this or that. But what if there is no such thing as “either or”…? Especially when it comes to emotion, when it comes to real life.

Reason is univocal choice, – “this” and “not that” – reason is the outcome of constant dissociation, it is distance between one thing or another.
Reason is the outcome of conflict ultimately – conflict between opposites – that is, it can function only in the range of two-ness – to illustrate – either the inside or the outside, you are either tall or short, ugly or beautiful, good or bad.  Oneness is for Reason the ultimate threat, as reason can only exist within fragmentation, in fact REASON IS FRAGMENTATION.

Within oneness there is not such thing as only good or bad, more but not less, only dark or lesser light, obviously – the inside is the outside and vice versa. Everything is interplay, everything is intertwined.

Oneness is both dark and light, cold and warm, up and down and all the shades there in between.

All classifications and categories are the outcome of reason. Reason has invented time – the interval between one thing and another – that is, distance. Distance means either near or far…Reason means suffering cause it tries hardly to be either “near or far”, always fighting “for or against”. Reason is struggle, it is constant judgement, reason is projection. Reason always tries to compensate its missing counterpart – wholeness. Abuse or violence is also reason´s way to compensate its fragmentation, to reach unity. More of this in another post. What I am trying to emphasise now, is that classification breeds fragmentation and fragmentation is misfortune.

“Either or” is the beginning of suffering!! Reason means eventually affliction.

Life is all-embracing, “whole” and simultaneous. You are both near and far, ugly and beautiful, existing and non – existing, you are light and you are darkness. Move swiftly, don´t get stuck in one thing or another – unless you want to be unhappy.

Get to know thoroughly both sides of reality, be “together”, learn to explore the opposites in Oneness. And when you have learned the secret of extremes, you will see that Oneness is both joy and sorrow, light and darkness, existence and non-existence – but also neither nor.

Yes, when you have learned the secret of the opposites you will know that Oneness is neither light nor darkness but ever-existing and non-existing Joy.

Are you redrawing your map right now?

This is written by Jane.

Dedication to the truth requires the tool of discipline. Truth is reality.  Each of us holds a view of reality.  Our minds become confused by misperceptions of what is really happening when we cannot perceive people, places, and events clearly.

We get to choose whether our map is true or false.  Most people do not want to see the world clearly because it requires a lot of self-study.  It is much easier to keep the map we drew of the world when we were children.  Many of us feel that whatever map we were given by family, friends, teachers, religious, economic, and political institutions is the one and only map we will ever need.  This is a “just getting by” map.

Our maps are only accurate if we continually revise them all day long three hundred sixty-five days a year.  People, places, and things change every moment of the day.  All day long we are bombarded with new information.   The secret to living well, lies in our ability to continuously revise our view of everything we think, see, and do.  What worked for grandma twenty-five years ago, does not necessarily work today.  And sometimes, what worked for grandma twenty-five years ago can be a solution for something happening in our lives today.

The question is, “How are you redrawing your map right now?” Would you rather live with your outdated map?  And what about the maps of our teachers, leaders, corporations, and religions?  Dedicating ourselves to the truth of how “things really are” requires us to face some pain.

Revising our maps is not an easy task.  Are you up for the challenge of living your life in total dedication to self honesty?  In order for the world to change, I must change.  I must constantly step back, contemplate my perspective, and then act appropriately every single moment of the day in order to relieve suffering within myself and the world.