What If It Isn't Broken?

There's a lot going on in my life right now. My mom is having heart problems. My husband is dealing with his own health issues and isn't working presently. My daughter is having personal struggles. Finances are stretched tight, and my eleven year old car has been in the shop for the better part of two weeks. Needless to say, my stress levels are at an all time high with no end in sight. Tears have been a daily occurrence of late as I struggle to cope with it all. Still, with everything that is taking place I find myself asking this question: What if it isn't broken?

As humans, we are conditioned to see the world in black and white--good/bad, right/wrong, sin/righteousness, etc. We are also programmed to do what we can to fix what is perceived as broken. I'll admit, some of this comes naturally as what we see as problems often bring pain. Very few of us enjoy living with pain so we work to achieve something different.

What if the circumstances of our lives are not really problems? What if they are only perceived as problems? What if the goal our life is not to avoid situations deemed sinful or wrong or bad but to experience all the nuances that this three-dimensional life has to offer? What if we came to earth to play in everything--messy, outrageous or otherwise?

Yes, I am stressed out. Yes, I know it will all pass eventually. What experiences are to be gained in this moment of now? What insights? What awarenesses? How can I use all the messy circumstances of my life to grow as a person?

I have said this before. We didn't come to planet Earth to be perfect. We came to Earth to be human. BEing human encompasses the full range of experiences and emotions--not just those considered "good". 

There are many things in my life at present I have been conditioned to see as bad--things I am supposed to fix. I'll ask again: what if it isn't broken? What if I am here to feel...to experience...to think...to grow? What if this series of events is designed to expand me so much I am a new creation?

It is only in brokenness we are made whole.

~CSE

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

   

Why We're Here

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote,

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

To me, the difference in the two statements is profound. The first statement places us firmly in an imperfect state with perfection as the goal. The second acknowledges our perfection and our desire to play and experiment in a messy world.

If you haven't figured it out yet, this human life is not about perfection. It is complicated. It is chaotic. There are times we jump out of the frying pan directly into the fire. While there can be big rewards there can also be massive failures. It's all part of the process. It's what we signed up for!

That's right. We signed up for this! As crazy as it sounds, we signed up for this pain and nastiness! Why? We signed up because we wanted to learn what it was like to experience everything in the Oneness through the experience of individuality. This life of individuality, or duality as it is called, is the perfect vehicle to experience those things we already knew in unfamiliar and different ways.

Our 3D existence is a world of separation. I find the creation story in the Bible fascinating in regards to this concept. In the first book in the first chapter (Genesis, Chapter 1), it describes how God began pulling individual things out of what exists. He said, "Let there be light," and he separated it from the darkness. He continues to separate the heaven from the earth, the waters from the land, and then begins to pull plants and animals and even people out of the Void (or Oneness as I like to call it).

When we chose to experience this mess, we knew it would be a rough ride. We knew there was the potential to experience profound joy. We also understood that it could develop our souls in profound and unique ways. We believed the journey was worth it.

Understand that whatever good or bad you are experiencing now is all part of that process. Be thankful that you have been given such an opportunity and have made it this far! There is a beauty and richness that comes from traveling through dark places that you would never have fully understood without this experience. This is why we're here.

~CSE

The Importance Of The Gospel of Judas

In the 1970's, a deteriorating papyrus document appeared at an antiquities shop in Egypt. Written in Coptic and dating to around AD 280 (according to radiocarbon testing), the document, known as the Gospel of Judas, told the story of Jesus and his disciple Judas from a very different perspective. As the story goes, instead of betraying Jesus for money, Judas was asked by Jesus to let leaders know of his whereabouts so his destiny of dying would be fulfilled.

The whole idea that Jesus asked Judas to betray him goes against pretty much every Christian philosophy believed in the present day. Yes, it was supposed to happen, but Jesus didn't make it happen. Judas was just a bad guy for performing such a dastardly deed and will burn in the pits of hell forever. That, of course, fits into the whole good/bad, right/wrong philosophy we are taught is the basis of our existence, otherwise known as duality. We're all supposed to be standing for good and fighting evil, right?

What if there is another way? What if the Gospel of Judas is trying to reveal something more about the divine nature of man? In my way of thinking, the Gospel of Judas imparts some extremely profound teachings about the nature of Oneness.

Going back to the cannonized Bible, there are several places where believers are instructed to give thanks in all things, which I have to believe includes the "bad" things right along with the "good". If you live your life from a right/wrong, good/bad belief system, the idea seems pretty counterintuitive.

The first time I was able to visit Oneness, one very powerful thing stood out to me. Everything I had ever known was in this place--people, plants, the Earth, cars, buildings, songs, paintings, money, emotions, etc. Many of these things were what I had always considered to be "bad", yet there they were in this place of Oneness where everything melded together in blissful perfection. In Oneness, there was no bad. In Oneness, it made perfect sense to be thankful for all things!

The Gospel of Judas portrays a belief system where there is no judgment. A circumstance that appears bad or negative (Jesus death) was necessary for the eventual salvation of man (the resurrection). Jesus, through Judas, made sure it happened. No duality. Just everything working together for the benefit of the whole. Oneness.

I can't say whether or not the Gospel of Judas is history or mythology. I can't even tell you for sure Jesus had a near death experience. What I can say is this: the Book of Judas allows us to see an alternative to duality. When we can appreciate the concept that all things work together for good, we will have traded duality for Oneness.

~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