| The stumbling-blocks
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What is Matter? Most people see matter as something given, something that is, and acts, on its own rules. That is in my opinion a misunderstanding, and is prohibitive for spiritual development, and for the understanding of the universe and of evolution. From the eastern religions we learn, that matter is not "real" that it is just "Maya", illusion. This does not imply, that it is unimportant. On the contrary. But matter exists in the consciousness of the creator. He does not create anything outside of Him, not anything, that is different from Himself. He is One, All. We are His fantasy, His imagination, His dreams, His ideas. We can make this understandable, when we think of our dreams. We can very well dream of people who act in an intelligent way, who produce and handle, in our dream, material things. That means, that all the properties of matter can exist and function in a dream. And also the people in our dream are conscious of what they do. So I think it is not "incredible" at all, that matter really is "spiritual". This understanding should be at the basis of all our thinking. If it is producing some kind of fear, we should look
into ourselves to find the reason. Is not being in God the most secure
"place" to be? The next theme of course will be: How can God create
this terrible world in His Loving consciousness.
This terrible world >>>How can God create this terrible world in His Loving consciousness?<<< The answer is very simple: the question is nonsense, there is no terrible world. Let's try to find out, when the world seems terrible. Johnny, age two and a half years, falls over a toy and smashes the lovely flowers, his mother picked an hour ago. Mother is really sad. Johnny's world falls apart. Peter learnt from his father Mark, "when somebody is in your way, kick him." Peter is a "young soul". In his series of reincarnations, he is in the phase, that he has to try out his limits. Father Mark, in this life, has to learn that giving a good example to children, is an important responsibility. Both are in a necessary phase in a good and holy, development. Yes, but why is all that learning necessary? Why don't we do good from the start? It would be so agreeable for everybody. First, a human being hardly can be satisfied. We get used to the high standard of friendliness and when somebody forgets to look at us when shaking hands, we are terribly vexed. Yes, but why can human beings hardly be satisfied... why aren't they perfect and happy from the beginning? Simply always? Well, in that case there would be perfect harmony all over the place. Everything would be consciously One with God. There would be no separate human beings, there would be no creation!! Indeed, creation as such is depending on there being harmony and disharmony, good *and* bad. What we call "reality" in daily life "consists of" black and white, hard and soft, beautiful and ugly, so called good and bad. Why "so called"? As we saw above, "bad" always has a reason, a good reason. Not a good excuse, but a good aim. And "good" is good because it has a reason, a good reason, a good aim. Exactly as good as "bad". "Good" and "bad" as such are illusions. The reason we have been taught, that "bad" is bad, is, that doing bad things is, on the long run, stupid. On our way to our ultimate goal, doing a bad thing is taking the wrong road at the crossing and so having to do a part of the road twice. The reason some of us have been taught, that God is sad or insulted when we do something bad, is, that we do something, that is hurting harmony, and God symbolises harmony. Of course God cannot be hurt. He/She is timeless and "cannot" change. When we insult God consciously, subjectively we hurt harmony and, probably unconsciously, we know that we have to find our way back to harmony by unlearning very much. Seen from the perspective of God, we do not leave harmony for one splitsecond. We are constantly on our way from Him.... to Him, in the meantime experiencing and growing, growing to be one with Him in a grown up state..... in perfect happiness.... perfect. I suppose that this is not easily understood and I suppose also, that not everybody agrees. In both cases I hope you will let us (me) know. _______________________
Truth God, the First Cause, also is called "the ultimate truth". It is extremely important to understand what truth is. I am not referring to philosophical knowledge, I just define truth for my personal use and hope it makes you think about the matter. When I say: "Rain is good" because my garden needs water, I am speaking the truth. When somebody else says: "Rain is bad" because it spoils his holiday, he is speaking the truth. Still, something cannot have two opposite qualities at the same time. To say: "Rain is good and bad" in my opinion is "illegal" thinking (the rules of thinking are transgressed). In our daily life, in many cases the opposite of a statement is true in another context, on another level, from a different standpoint, from another perspective. My definition: Truth is the set of statements, that are valid - applicable - on a certain level, perspective. "That pastry is too sweet" can be true in Germany and false on our island; it often is true for my permanent beloved Dagmar and false for me. "Dualism is right" can be true from a limited perspective, but becomes more and more false, when seen from a higher level. In this world truth depends on the level, standpoint, perspective, of the speaker. That is always true, I think. And it is good and should be recognised. Nobody has the right answer for all situations. Then, of course, on different standpoints, there can be (totally) different definitions of the object of a statement. The two sentences: "A tube of Aloe Vera is expensive" and "The Aloe Vera in our garden becomes to big", use the word Aloe Vera for different objects. Very often the difference in definition is small and not recognised and misunderstandings are the result. The sentence: "Signatures should not exceed 6 lines" means something quite different for an Internet user, than for the president of the board. For a RGB (red-green-blue) -programmer the word "red" has a totally different meaning then for a fashion designer. It is a good training to check every time there is a difference of opinion or a misunderstanding, if the standpoints are identical and if the definitions are identical. It takes training to recognise different standpoints. Definitions vary with the standpoints. Standpoints often have a connection with aims, goals. A judgement always has, consciously or not, a goal, an objective, in mind. Good? Good for what? "The king is well protected by the tower" can easily lead to a misunderstanding in a discussion between a chess player and a general, but also in a chat with the hairdresser. When we want to agree, we have to fix, consciously or not, the common definition of our standpoint and of the used words. Until then, a discussion on who is right, is senseless. A statement can be found seemingly correct from two different levels, with different definitions, without one being conscious of these facts. That happens more often than we normally think. The higher the level is, the more there are "truths" that are valid on many levels. There is no universal truth in space/time. (But there are "universal rules for space/time".) I don't know, but it could well be, that a generally valid truth for a certain level can only be seen from a level higher. Analysing the truth of a statement can lead us to different opinions on the correct standpoint. When I say: "there is no good and bad", the answer of a schoolteacher could be: "You are right from your standpoint, but from my standpoint of daily praxis, there is good and bad." Somebody else could react with: "Your standpoint is not realistic at all... it is nonsense to take a standpoint outside of reality." The tourist says to the farmer: "I am glad for you that it rains, but you will understand, that it is bad from my point of view." As long as we did not recognise the transcendent Truth, there is a "ladder of truths"..... The next rung is the most important one. But when we will have stepped over the highest rung, all truths in this world are equally true..... all rungs are equally important. Climbing levels is nearing to God.
Reincarnation and Karma When I look around in this world, it seems difficult to think of a Loving God. When I would believe that a human being has only one life, and I think of the totally "useless" lives we see around us, when I see the cruelty of some human fates, followed by embitterment, I could not think of a loving God. But when those lives are a period of learning an extremely difficult lesson, I can accept it without any problem. The result is only positive. The Teacher can be a loving Teacher. Those who do not reject reincarnation know that each human entity develops across many lives. This entity is developing from its conception out of God until it is reunited with God in final enlightenment. The path leads across mountains and through valleys. Development can only happen by falling and getting up again. Let's think of a child that has to find out, where it lives, where its limits are. That finding out is absolutely necessary. But finding out where its limits are, needs trespassing those limits. The same happens in the development of a human Self. It has to find out its limits by trespassing those limits. That is a necessary phase in a perfect development. Every Self has to make its own experiences to learn what is "good" and "bad". Only on the last few steps of the ladder we can advance by longing, by direct insight. That means, that all the "bad" things we see in this world, are a necessary phase of a good development, and so GOOD, seen from the higher level. That does not mean, that we have to accept the "bad" actions. On the contrary, the transgressing Self needs our human reaction for its own learning. Exactly the same way, we need their human actions for our learning. Oriental religions speak of "karma". Most often it is called a kind of punishment and when we have accepted all our punishment, we are free and enlightened. I think that is not the way it should be seen. God does not punish. Never. But we do have to take the consequences of our own actions. If, for instance, we are in a position that we kill another human being, that means, that our character has a severe damage somewhere. That damage has to be healed by learning, much learning. And, as we know, learning very often is disagreeable. So when we do something "bad", we will have to go through many difficult and disagreeable situations to heal our wounds. That is what is called the law of karma. Personally I prefer to define karma as the way we still have to go. When we do not follow the right path, we have to accept the detour. God creates us because He/She want to make all possible experiences and then return to His own Self. Only the difficulties and terrible situations in our lives can lead to the perfect happiness of becoming His Living Memory. So what are we to do in daily life? If we succeed in being very loving, clever, awake, thoughtful, than we can know what is good for us and for humankind. We then do not need to find the limits by trespassing them. When we see, that we are not so clever yet, than perhaps we can see ourselves as the child, making its necessary experiences ..... and loving the child - ourself - on the way. If possible we should anyhow try to be clever enough to see and use the opportunities to learn. Obeying commands out of fear does not help us to go on. We cannot grow by obeying commands out of fear... and growing is the only way to arrive. _______________________
Love As Love has little to do with intellect, I will try to let my heart speak. A. LOVE can only be found by the man or woman who longs for truth..... for recognising reality as it is. continue LOVE is reached through many stages. love, lovE, lOve, LovE, LoVE..... LOVE.
We love that rose, when we forget ourselves seeing it.
Love is attentive and eager to understand.
My Dear,
I find you have done that very well, My God,
My dear, thank you for your tolerance... My dear, thank you for your patience... But, my dear,
My dear, Then you will discover, Difficult, my dear? Of course... Don't forget, my dear, And in the meantime
You ask, Very simple. It's only you,
Do you feel dependent, my dear? Do you feel attached, my dear? Do you feel needed, my dear? Do you feel less responsible, being dependent? or......... Can you realise you are dependent, Can you realise you are attached, Can you realise being needed, Love and freedom only go hand in hand.
I discovered a funny thing, But mind, my dear, _______________
A perfect world? Many people aspire and strive for a perfect world. A world, where everybody is wise and loving to all their fellow men. It is a deep discontentment and hurting the pride of the human being, that the world is as it is, functioning mainly on egoistic motivation. In my opinion, that is totally false. As I said in previous messages, I think that all and everything is on its way, is in a necessary phase of a perfect development. A development through many lives. In my opinion, God is permanently sending His/Her young "children" to school. The first class accommodates the new souls, the primitive ones, who are just starting to be really self conscious. And in class 10 there are the few enlightened ones, who really are not of this world any more. 99% is in the classes 2 to 9. But all humans will reach class 10. After many or very many lives. Are the people of class 4 less in God's eyes, than those in class 6? Of course not. All humans are sparks of His consciousness. He wants to make our experiences. He is us. Well, if my picture is more or less correct, the world always will consist of people in class 1, people in class 2, etc. So there always will be the human who is just learning, with falling and standing up again, to speak the truth, not to kill his neighbour, to multiply 6 and 7, to run a state in a decent way, etc, etc, etc. There will never be a perfect world as most of us see that. It will always be a school with pupils in all classes. Now it is extremely important to realise, that that school as such can well be perfect. In fact it is perfect. When we can understand and experience that, we find ourselves in the perfect world. Here and now. _______________________
>>>.....now, how do I embrace the pain?<<< By insight and training. There are people who scream, when they see a spot of blood on their skin. There are people who scream, when they feel a signal, saying that there is something they have to take care of. What is pain else than a signal. Most of us cannot see pain as an abstract signal, but it is well possible. Why shouldn't I love a wound, even if it hurts. It is telling the small child not to touch the oven, it is telling the adult not to drive too fast ..... and all those other things that hurt, when the consequences fall back on us. Pain is a grace. How could we live without all those signals, telling us that it is time to stop? Aching feet, sneezing, burning eyes, etc, etc. Every pain only has the aim to tell us, that we did something that should be taken care of, or that we have done something un-clever. Let's train to look at the pain, ask what it wants to tell us and than feel thankful. _______________________
Constant awareness Many people in their spiritual development think, that they have to strive for a steady consciousness of being One, of being with the Highest. They feel sad, that they do not succeed. In my opinion, that is not right. There is a level of awareness that one is One with the Highest and there is a level of being, acting, feeling and thinking in this world. These levels cannot be compared. We are not in one OR in the other. We can be consciously living in this world and at the same time be conscious in the background, to be One with the Highest, with God. The same way I am a Dutchman. Perhaps once in a week I think of being a Dutchman. But when I hear our national hymn , I am wide open and proud. When I hear speaking Dutch (I live in Spain), I am fully attentive. So I am One with God. I not only know it, but it is deeply anchored in my unconscious, in my soul. It is always there and it cannot be influenced by anything. Even when (not: if) I (my body, with its drives) do stupid things, I am One with God. He does not stop loving me and I do not stop loving me. He also draws my body to be One with Him, and He will succeed some day, but my body is not me. So try to understand, that the ultimate force of creation never leaves you for one split-second. That is enough. The understanding and acceptance will on its own energy penetrate your subconscious, your soul, your whole being. And then, some time, the energy from within will come and tell you of its happiness.... and will draw your whole consciousness in its realm. It will penetrate your being together, your playing and working, and in the beginning nothing needs to change outwardly. But the radiance of peace will take hold of you. _______________________
Kill my Ego? Most people on their spiritual path say, that they have to kill their Ego. To me that is wrong. Of course, "who am I", but let me explain. The ego is the innate force, that makes us do the things, that are good for us. It already worked for the animals, our great grand parents. The animals did what they experienced as agreeable and useful and they did not what they experienced as disagreeable and false. The combinations "agreeable and useful" and "disagreeable and false" were innate. And also: the drive to take action in connection with "useful" was innate. Then humans developed and became "intelligent". Wow! It meant, that humans could undo the combinations "agreeable and useful" and "disagreeable and false". Humans can choose the agreeable, also when it is not useful. He/she can even decide to do something false, while evading the disagreeable. And we do so happily, all the time. Our ego cannot function properly, as long as we do not understand the mechanics of it. It certainly does not follow, that everything agreeable is not useful any more. But it is true, that we cannot rely any more on the combination "agreeable-useful" or the combination "disagreeable-false". What is useful? what is false? When the animal gets hungry, it eats what it likes. It does not eat what it does not like and that is very good, because evolution has taught, that poison tastes bad (disagreeable) and fresh meat tastes good (agreeable). When an animal needs to mate, it does so, by instinct, the way it is successful, useful, because that way is agreeable. The intelligent human is enabled to do the agreeable things without any necessity. Now, the solution is not: Not doing agreeable things. Many think that following our ego is doing agreeable things and that it is very good not to enjoy the useful things. They have sex in the dark, deep under the blankets, with that obligatory feeling of guilt. Nonsense. Is the intellect, in this connection, only negative? Of course not. We can, in a completely human way, use our intelligence combined with our ego, to do things the right way. We just have to tell our ego, for instance: That eating a bar of chocolate every day is an addiction and that addictions prevent us from really enjoying... That making love every day is an addiction and that addictions prevent us from really enjoying... That breaking up somebody's functioning marriage is a sign of lack of strength and Love, that prevent us from making headway on our spiritual path.. That lying, is 'grit in the gearbox of humanity' and that, it would be so much better, for us, to provide and receive valid information... So, when we inform our ego and act in accordance, our ego is our best friend. It is an innate force that should not be abolished. I think I found out what is best for me, what makes me happy, without alternating my happiness with sorrow. _______________________
Commandments The church, at least the ones I know, say: there is good and bad and when you do something bad, you are guilty and amass guilt. And the church teaches you how to do better and how to get rid of the guilt. In my eyes it is perfectly different. When Moses came down from the mountain, he had meditated and received insight about how the people, manhood, could survive and be happy. The bible calls it 10 commandments, but am convinced that there is no question of personal authority and no question of obeying. There was only Love. All the so called commandments are in our own favour and when we disregard them, we and our fellow men have the negative consequences. Trying to make no faults out of fear to hurt others sounds good, but in my opinion it is better to see it in relation to our own personal development. Fear always is a bad adviser and it inhibits personal growth. Why is one thing good and another thing bad? It depends on the aim. If my shooting is bad, I miss the aim. Every time we wonder what is good or bad, we should realise what is the aim. No lying? What is that good for. My mother in law would die when she knew that. Well, in this case I am sure that she would not die at all, when we had never lied to her. Simply never. The world would be clearer and more beautiful, including the uneasy things in life. Imagine a family would lie one full day. "no, I am not getting up. You look terrible, mom, etc. etc." What a complete chaos. But when we lie now and then during the day we create the same chaos. Nothing runs really fluently any more. How beautiful it would be, if people in the shops would advise us according to the facts and not the politics of the enterprise. Or at home: "Mom, it is difficult for me, when you look at me like that. That makes me unhappy." And so it is with all commandments. Disregarding them is following our childish petty own "interests" or fears or other impulses. We need not honour our parents, because our parents like that, or because it is one of the commandments, but because we need that for a stable character and to enable a continuous culture. We sometimes say: we can learn everything, except life itself. But we can, if we look at the aims behind all we "have to do". Then our consciousness is expanding and the good actions become normal and evident. And when we cannot find the good aims behind a prescription, we can ask people who made them. Why not ask the police why that street is shut from your direction? Perhaps they have overseen your argument. When we are young and cannot possible see how things fit together it is sensible to obey. But when we are older, its better to look for the aims behind the prescriptions, with a positive mind, and to listen to our heart. _____________________
Unconscious convictions We all have a structure of unconscious convictions. For instance: Rich is better than poor. If this is also one of my convictions, I will have, in most cases, more respect for a rich person than for a poor person. I will not invite poor people, because they will not be able to invite me back and that would be disagreeable for them. I prefer to live in a house that is situated in a part of the town, where people live who have at least the same kind of income as I have. Etc. Handsome is better than ugly. I intuitively avoid people with a disfigured face. I think, that such people should not come to a public party. Of course a beautiful woman is much nicer to talk with than a woman with an expressionless face. As an employer I prefer a very good looking girl as a secretary. Etc. Intelligent is better than only common sense. I think that intelligent people are much more interesting. They at least have some understanding for society. I can ask them all kind of questions and very often they can help me. You only can earn enough money for a normal living when you are intelligent. Etc. And some day I fall in love with a woman who is not handsome at all, who even has no bank account and who just smiles when I discuss my most cherished theories with my best friend. But she is so charming! She takes care of herself and of me as if we were one. She understands every situation at once and quite naturally follows her loving intuition. She always sees what is to be done but she is never in a hurry and never nervous. She always sees the funny side and can heartily laugh without ever offending somebody. My God, what am I to do? Other examples: I know that I sometimes am lying, out of fear, laziness or egoism. But it is not possible in this world to speak the truth all the time. I would make myself ridiculous. I would lose too much money by telling the whole truth about my products. I would have to tell my wife everything and that is nonsense. Life has taught me, that you better not trust anybody. So often I tried it out and relied on his words, but nearly every time I was disappointed. No, to me everybody is a lying egoist until I got the proof he is not. People say, it is wrong to drink more than 2 glasses of wine each evening. But they have no idea how I need those 6 glasses. And some day, in that most important splitsecond, I recognise, that I could be happy, free, loving... One with all. My God, what am I to do? It is not easy, to do away with those unconscious convictions. Our whole life is built on them. The first step is admitting that longing. Only very few can go the path on insight only. We mostly need a deep crisis or two. But it is worthwhile. Adrian _______________________ |