Greater Reality Forum
 
Re: Confusion??


Message written by

Craig
November 14, 2004 at 02:12:47:

In Reply to
Confusion??
posted by
Jennifer
November 13, 2004 at 10:28:14:

 
Hello Curious Jenn,

I understand your dilemma about why we have to put up with the physical realm when the spiritual is imminent. It’s as though we were wandering, starving, in darkness while a banquet is set and waiting within a short walking distance, out there somewhere. We just need a tiny light to find it easily and enjoy its abundance, but we weren’t given that aid to our perception.

I think of it like this. We entered the physical realm with no understanding or abilities, like toddlers suddenly finding themselves on a vast terrain with only a hammer in their hands. They find a small amount of wood and some nails; they begin to nail the wood together in haphazard fashion, but soon learn to create objects. After years of experimenting and learning, they find they’re building something that resembles a boat, but they don’t know what a boat is or the fact that the sea is just over the hill from them. They just keep building as they grow through their teens, into young adulthood, and into maturity.

Some of these people are so preoccupied with building that they never stop making bigger, more beautiful structures, some resembling a boat and others gone far afield from the original boat concept. They see others’ structures and want theirs to be even more opulent, so they struggle and work themselves into sickness, and eventually die with the structure unfinished. If they never set sail, the boat is never finished; it’s always not enough.

Others become more and more adept at building their boat and eventually come to a remarkable intuition that the land isn’t where they were destined to be, and that they just need to take the boat over the hill to the sea and set sail. The boat will carry them to realms with unimaginable happiness and splendor. That takes some courage; they have to leave behind their shipbuilding, trying to create something more beautiful than the others’ ships, and be content with what they have, no matter how rudimentary it is.

And so they drag their boat over the hill, and with courage and resolve set sail. Others who are also setting sail inspire them and help them. And as they begin sailing, they never look back, picking up a wind from some unknown source that propels them along more and more quickly, until they lose the sense that they’re on the boat they built at all. The land fades from sight and they’re sailing as though weightless and without substance themselves. The journey is full of bliss and happiness, and they travel alongside others who are also enjoying the trip. Eventually, they lose the sense of the boat entirely, and just know the bliss they feel and love for those traveling with them. One day, the boat sinks from under them, but they have long ago lost their attachment to it, and continue sailing, blissfully unaware that nothing about them is physical any more.

That is what I believe the body is for. We enter the physical realm with no understanding, skills, or personality. We build ourselves into individuals and grow to maturity, where we could either keep building structures in the physical realm without setting sail for the spiritual or die to the physical realm while still living in it, set sail without looking back, and enjoy the spiritual wholeness and bliss that is ours to have when we choose to have it. We couldn’t come to that state without the boat on which to set sail, however. Our growth from childhood through young adulthood into maturity was necessary to build the boat, to bring us to the point where we could grow into spiritual maturity and enjoy the physical realm while sailing in the spiritual realm. When we take the step to set sail, we die to the physical realm and henceforth are able to enjoy its abundance unhampered by feeling we have to build a bigger and better boat to be happy, and unaffected by the fears that motivate people to build defenses and bigger structures. The boat is just a vessel in which we ride through the pleasures of the physical realm, but we have already set sail in the spiritual realm and have our direction in it. The boat then becomes unimportant, and we lost a sense of it. When the boat dies, we don’t even notice it.

To be able to enjoy the physical realm and feel the warmth of loving and being loved, we had to grow up through the stages when we were preoccupied with physical realm concerns. Then, when we matured enough, we could die to the physical realm and live in the spiritual realm, still in bodies, but feeling the bliss and happiness of knowing we are spiritual beings not preoccupied with mundane physical realm pettiness. That is why I believe we have to go through the naïve, often painful stages of growth in the physical realm.

At this point in humankind's evolution, society helps people grow through the first stages of this maturation, but only takes us to the point where we're fearful that others don't love us and our structures aren't grandiose enough. That is really a childish stage we should leave at about age twelve. Most people never leave it to go on to spiritual maturity. They are at the fearful, egocentric, group centric, self-absorbed stage their entire lives. In the future, when humankind has evolved spiritually, society will help people go all the way to the point where they're standing on the shore ready to launch into spiritual maturity. People will grow up with love and regard for one another, the Divine, their inner selves, and nature. It will be a natural stage to set sail toward their spiritual destination.

In the meantime, we have to endure the struggle of breaking with all the rest of a self-absorbed society to go beyond where it is into love and spiritual maturity. It's a difficult path now, but we're not walking it alone; we're preparing to launch our ships together.

Love and peace, Craig
 



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