“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves.”
― Nisargadatta Maharaj
I bought a book today, The Well-Tuned Brain: Neuroscience
and the Life Well Lived, by psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Peter Whybrow.
Peter says our culture is unstable as a result of our thinking from the small
mind of the ego – habituated to the quick fix, the rapid reward. He studied why
we, ALL of US, think we can live on credit and avoid economic collapse, as we
had in 2008. He says 3 year olds know more about brands than they do nature and
common sense.
And that our
fundamental problem is,
WE DON'T KNOW WHO WE
ARE.
Hmmmm, that’s familiar. It is the great fundamental
spiritual reason for suffering in all traditions and for all time –
The Buddhists say we suffer because we do not know who we
are. Or, in better keeping with the idea
of "no self," would probably like this worded in reverse: We do not
know who we are not.
The Christians and Muslims say our suffering is a reflection
of our relationship with God, and the illusion that we are
separate from God. The Christian scriptures repeated say, Do you still not see
or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see,
and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? (Jeremiah 6, Mark 8, Matthew
13, Psalm 135, Isaiah 6 and 32…..). I would ask you to reflect deeply, inwardly,
on, “Who do you think God is?” and “How are you in relationship with God?”
The Hindu Sanskrit teachings point to ignorance as the cause
of suffering. And that ignorance is of one single thing, lack of knowledge of
Self, our True Self, the one who Knows God and doesn't claim differently. It is
said "Who knows himself, knows his Lord." It is also said, "One
knows God only to the extent one knows oneself."
Our personal and social out of balance with self, with each
other, with our economy, and critically, ecology are all based on this
ignorance. We do not know who we are.
Religion is designed to point us in the direction of this
truth. The Latin roots of “religion” – re – ligare – mean, to bind back; to
return our minds from the illusion that we are separate physical entities to
the reality that we are connected as ONE spiritually.
Whybrow says we still allow our primitive neural survival
mechanisms to take precedence over the more recently evolved functions of the
neocortex. This too, the research on meditation and the scriptures have been
telling us for years. In fact, this is the Garden of Eden Story – the illusion
of the separation from God. We allow our ego defense mechanisms to override
what our mind and heart know is true and right, fair and equitable, sustaining
for the greater good rather than serving ME (often at someone else’s expense).
So here’s the thing: All religion is essentially about
psychology. Religion is about YOU, the person and YOUR relationships. Some
religions use a philosophical language that appears very straight forward.
Others use metaphor and story and we have to place our self into the story as
ALL of the characters in order to observe the whole spectrum of personal and
social implications regarding WHO WE ARE and HOW WE ARE IN RELATIONSHIP with
our Higher Power/God and with the world – people and planet – economy and
ecology. We are not “hearing” or “seeing” the meaning of the story without
imagining our self in the roles of the characters in the story – the good AND
THE BAD. You are “us” and you are “them.”
If we think someone
else will live this life for us, will save us from the suffering of the world,
we are mistaken. That is OUR job. And our primary assignment to complete the job is TO KNOW
WHO WE ARE.
We are nothing and we are everything. We are spirit and we are enfleshed. We are energy and we are matter. We are a receiver, poised at the intersection of time and space and we are able to know this.
Be Still and Know that I AM. and YOU ARE, WE ARE ONE. One Spirit. One humanity. One planet. One Life. One miracle.
_/\_Peggy @ Ecumenicus
Be Still and Know that I AM. and YOU ARE, WE ARE ONE. One Spirit. One humanity. One planet. One Life. One miracle.
_/\_Peggy @ Ecumenicus