Supplying The Contrast

It never ceases to amaze me how many people cling to their politics--particularly spiritual people. If you mention anything that goes against what they believe and/or is something they don't want to hear they immediately react and have to argue why you're wrong. I have to confess, there are times when I rise to the bait even though I know better. Politics consistently supply the contrast we came to discover in this world of duality.

What does supplying the contrast mean exactly? Contrast is the play and pull between two seemingly different or even opposite things. Supplying the contrast means encountering a situation that places something new or different directly in our path. We then use these encounters to learn and grow. At least, that is the ultimate goal of the contrast.

We don't always choose to learn. On many occasions the contrast is so disturbing for us that we first get angry and then we shut down. We deny there is anything new for us to learn--we know it all and there is nothing here left to see. Of course, that is far from the truth. Anything that sets us off in such an extreme way is a valuable clue we have an issue that needs to be resolved.

My personal belief is that we come to this three-dimensional world to study this contrast and learn from it. We come from a place I like to call Oneness, where we are all connected and everything works together for the good of the whole. Because duality was created by separating out individual things (darkness from light, heavens from water, plants from animals from people, etc.) we are able to look at these pieces in new and interesting ways.

We have made the contrasts about separation itself. We look at those people and things that are different from us, and we push them away. It is too scary to accept those things we do not know and understand. The irony is, when we take the time to try to understand something different from ourselves, we end up learning that, deep down, we are truly one and the same.

The next time you encounter something you vehemently feel is wrong, sit back and ask yourself why you feel this way. Explore it. Ask different questions about it. Learn why it is important to someone else. You may just gain a whole new way of thinking that will expand and grow who you are in the world.

~CSE

   

The Separation Mindset

If there's one thing that gets me about the conspiracy theory crowd, it's their tendency to determine who the "good" guys and the "bad" guys are in the overall scheme of things. Who is helping our planet? Who is hurting our planet? Who are we going to throw our support behind? The fact of the matter is, this is the separation mindset and we cannot fix the world's problems from that place.

What if I told you that we are all here to fix the planet? How can destructive people be here to help fix the planet, you ask? People who do seemingly negative or destructive things are here to supply contrast. They are here to wreak so much havoc they wake up the most stubborn and resistant couch potatoes on the planet!

I have to confess, I am a fan of the Gospel of Judas. This uncannonized book is the story of Judas, the character the Bible blames for betraying Jesus to authorities, and it sheds a very different light on his life. Instead of being the betrayer, Judas tells the authorities who Jesus was because Jesus asked him to. This was done (supposedly) so that Jesus' life would go according to plan--the bad bringing about the good and desired outcome.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience. This human experience is not meant to be perfect. It is meant to be sticky, dirty and disagreeable. It is these "negative" experiences that supply the contrast we need to thoroughly understand each element in its individuality. This means exploring both sides of the spectrum--the bad and the good. In the grand scheme of things, there is no bad even though in our 3D existence we believe there are bad things. In Oneness, the contrast is evened out to the point where everything is joy.

As long as we focus on good, bad, and choosing sides, we are stuck in the separation mindset. This separation mindset keeps us from working together and creating the solutions we need to heal the planet. It keeps us from remembering that we are all One.

The answers lie within. Learn to drop the idea of blame and follow the direction of the heart. The separation mindset will become a thing of the past. We can retain the lesson, all the while healing ourselves and the planet.

~CSE

Triumph Of Spirit

It's funny. I know how evil the world can be. I understand how the desire to control and dominate hurts another being. I have seen cruelty forced on those who have no power to overcome it. I've seen the world slowly killed off by poisons in order to extract every last ounce of energy and strength on her. I've seen people cry out in pain at all the abuses they have to endure. Regardless, I have also seen the perserverance of all living beings to keep on going, even when there seems to be no hope and no point.

Everything ends up more beautiful because of the pain it endures. It may not always appear that way to the casual observer. The observer sees scars. He sees brokenness. He sees anger and hurt. It often takes going beneath the surface to see the beauty that is there.

 Look at the environment around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Back in 1986, there was a terrible explosion and meltdown that occurred, forcing inhabitants of the area to leave, never to return as radiation levels around the world increased prolifically. Even though humans refuse to go live in the vicinity to this day, plant and animal life has begun to thrive once again. Animal populations, which had been negligible while humans were around, have increased tremendously as the earth in that area has begun to heal.

Look at the wars that continue to occur around the world, usually over the natural resources that can be found within. The destruction wars bring make people flee with nothing more than the clothes on their back, like those currently leaving Syria. We hear less about the people in war torn African countries, who often slip across many borders in their attempts to flee the onslaught created by war. These people struggle to survive, but survive they do.

I see people struggle with conditions like cancer every day. It frustrates me so because I believe cancer can be cured and has been curable for a long time. Because of the greed of a relative few, we are not even allowed to know these cures exist. In the United States, the treatments are usually much worse than the illness. Sickness and pain accompany the process. If you live through it and are officially declared in "remission", it is probably only a matter of time before cancer will rear its ugly head again because they chemicals used in chemo are still in your body wreaking havoc.

Yes. I understand how evil the world can be. I also understand how good it can be and how the two forces can come together for the good of all. This is why we're here. This is why we do what we do. This is why we survive. This is the triumph of spirit. It is who we are and what we are about.

Often, it is the act of crawling that makes us strong enough to fly.

~CSE

The Lesson Of Duality

The creation story in the Bible intrigues me. The following is the first chapter of Genesis (KJV):

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Notice the use of the word divide. This is important!!!

What was the state of the world before it was created as we know it at present? The creation story talks about God having to divide, or separate, things from one another in order to create the world we know!!! It stands to reason if you create by separating, everything began as ONE thing!!!

Pretend everything that exists can be contained in a single piece of clay. The artist, some force or energy, removes a piece of the clay and shapes it into an object. The artist continues to remove pieces from the clay and mold them into various forms until the entire piece of clay has been used. Even though the clay has been separated into an endless supply of tiny pieces, each piece is still a part of that infinite piece of clay. Every piece contains exactly the same physical composition of elements, yet each one is an expression of its own unique self.

Our experiences in this dimension, timeline and place are adventures in this state of separation. Many know this state as duality. Duality is a gift we are given that allows us to experience ourselves and each other in new and profound ways.

The lessons of duality are not easy. We experience pain and suffering on a regular basis. There are times we hurt so much we long for escape. The other side of that coin is we also experience very different aspects of Oneness--things like love, joy and peace. Ironically, all these things and more have been separated out from the same piece of clay!!!

We are here to experience all aspects of Oneness in their own unique and varied forms. Most days we forget this and attempt to stay away from parts and pieces of ourselves we judge as "bad" or "evil". Many times, we don't even recognize these dark aspects of ourselves are really us.

Living in flow requires living in a state of balance. It has never been about separation but rather about understanding the uniqueness of each thing and appreciating the contrast. It is important to not let one thing dominate or control others. Extremism in any form creates unnecessary problems.

We live in a world of separation in order to experience a new way of being, a new form of expression. When we learn to balance the elements contained therein, we once again fall into a state of peaceful coexistence. We understand how to live as One. This is the lesson of duality.

~CSE