The MetaView – In search of enlightened ideas

Enlightened spiritual traditions often describe the material /eventful world that fills our daily lives as an illusion – something impermanent and insubstantial.

Reality, on the other hand, is described as infinite goodness and joy, an unconditional benevolence underlying all existence. This Reality is completely different from the illusion of the “material” world, and individual realization of Reality is recognized as the ultimate purpose of life.

When the word “illusion” is used, it is common to think that what we are calling “illusion” is worthless, purposeless and meaningless. This assumption can lead to much confusion to those on a spiritual search. For those of us interested in seeing the Reality beyond the illusion, we may attempt to “give up” the life we are living in illusion, or reject the spiritual teachings as impossible and undesirable. Do we become aloof and dismissive of the “things of life,” or engage with attempting to make them better?

A way through this dilemma is to understand that the Illusion is expressing something that can help us see Reality more clearly.

The Illusion is not a symbol of Reality –it is a symbol of what is in the way of seeing Reality.

Just as a shadow is a double negative – an expression (illusion) of something that is blocking the sun – the illusions of life are expressing perceptions that are in the way of our awareness of Reality.

When one experiences trouble in life, the good news is that it is an illusion. The even better news is that the illusion is a clear expression of a troubling thought that can be brought to light.

The disturbing illusions of life are like the letters on this page. Once the ideas have been communicated and understood, there is no need for the letters. Their job is done. The illusion is gone and only what was understood remains.

The illusions of life are then useful and worthy of our attention. Not to have more of them, not to attempt to fix them, but to come to understand the language of the experiences and listen to their messages so we can turn, once again, to the ever-present Reality of good.

More on illusion . . . .

This commonsense phrase refers to the futility of attempting to clean while dust is still filling the air. It also has within it all the truth anyone needs to know to live a peaceful, happy life. Like much folk wisdom, it transforms an everyday activity into a universal truth.

The saying has been applied to what often occurs when a group of individuals begin to solve a challenging situation. In this case, the “dust” symbolizes all the opinions, expectations, demands, political posturing, personal views, pre-conditioned ideas, etc. that seem to need to be expressed before a clear view of the issue and it’s solution can be seen.

The phrase applies equally well within a single individual. The very nature of a “challenging” situation reveals that there is the “dust” of expectations, personal history, assumptions and fears, preventing a clear view of the issue.

What a relief it is to know that what is needed is to just let the dust settle. There is no amount of convincing, cajoling, maneuvering or influencing that will elevate the “dust” to something that will lead to a real solution. It is just dust.

There are two things we need to know in order to “let the dust settle.” First, we need to know that clarity will arise when the dust settles. Secondly, we need to know that the dust is just dust, and that it will settle if our attention is withdrawn from it.
If we don’t know these two truths yet, we can at least hypothesize that it might be true and be willing to experiment to find out for our selves.

Once the futility of mucking around with the dust is discovered, the “experimental” approach becomes worth trying.

A fearful mind is in great danger, as it is liable to believe itself. There is less danger when one is aware that fear is being experienced. It’s a little like being offered something you “know” is too good to be true. Will “awareness” be the guide or the pleasure of seduction?

Will “fear” be the guide, or awareness that something seems “frightening?”

Thus, knowing that “I am frightened,” is the beginning of wisdom, for only then is the door to liberation also present.

Join the Mentors’ Roundtable on this subject Thursday, July 15th, 11amPacific time/2pm Eastern time. Registration is free.

You can add your stories and questions about “fear” by leaving a comment here.

On C-Span radio this morning, one gentleman called-in to suggest we try “praying to God” to stop the oil spill. The radio host responded by moving on to the next call. My first reaction to hearing this was “God cannot stop the oil spill as God is not a person, nor is he/she an “oil stopper.” But, then another thought came. What is God? And is there any way prayer could be helpful?

Within a few moments of that thought, BBC radio aired an interview with Luis Eladio Perez, an ex-Senator in Columbia who had been kidnapped and held hostage in the jungle, for 6 years. When AK-47’s were first pointed at his head he went “deep into my essence, which is in all of us, and belongs to God. . .” He went on to share that during a particularly difficult moment “ . . .I felt the temptation to be arrogant and proud. I realized that that would be exactly as if I was doing that to God, questioning God for this ordeal. At that moment, I fell down into the mud, and said very quietly to myself: ‘God almighty, I love you, and I offer you humbly, this predicament.’ A ray of light took me over – there was no more anger, no more pain – I was unbelieveably happy, and full of mud. At that exact moment, the head guerilla sent someone with a light to help me.”

This sounds very religious, yet it is useful to see if we can understand what took place in this moment of revelation. He did not pray to God to take away the situation he was in, as frightening and humiliating as it was. He prayed to heal his anger, so that he could be fully present to the situation, to whatever was being asked of him. This prayer is existentially valid, in the words of Metapsychiatry. It recognizes that God Is, and we are part of It. God is the capacity we all have to live by Divine intelligence, joy and love in any moment.

With that realization, he was no longer here to “survive,” he was here to bring the spiritual resource of his essential nature to whatever was happening. This kind of prayer establishes conscious awareness of his identity as a spiritual being, capable of love, compassion, intelligence and strength beyond anything merely “human.”

There is much more to this story, so go to BBC.com to hear more. For now, let’s apply his insight to the question of: “Can prayer help the oil spill.”

There is a world-wide wave of anger in reaction to the oil spill. Anger is an emotional outburst expressing: “ I don’t want/like what is happening.” The flipside of that thought may not be expressed, but it is there nonetheless: “The situation seems hopeless and I’m helpless against it.” “Helplessness” looks to either blame someone, or look for a savior. Either way, it’s a mental context where ones well-being is dependent on others: oil refiners; oil cleaners, government agencies, etc.

The truth is, we, as individuals, are helpless to stop the oil spill, and at the same time we are dependent on using oil every day of our lives. The complexity of oil refining points to our complete dependence on the intelligence and good will of others – no matter how conservative and frugal we may be with our own use of natural resources. This is an embarrassment to our “independent” egos, so it seems best to just stay angry and blame others, or pray for someone, like God, to come and fix it. (Yes, but how does one stop being angry when one is angry?)

Now we have the example of Senor Perez. What if, in the face of pain, turmoil and chaos, we give our complete attentiveness, including our concerns about this predicament, over to the underlying Intelligent-Love that is the substance of life. This is not wishful thinking, hoping for a miracle – this is spiritual clarity that the source of solutions is not in anger, blame or wanting, but in inspired wisdom accessible to all. Everyone is part of God, whether they know it or not, and, everyone can receive inspired, intelligent solutions – even armed guerillas.