Today's Considerations
32. [More than one has asked, "Hey, where are my daily postings?!" I was working out of state this past weekend when storms blew down trees and power lines which blocked the roads used to return home and thus delayed the return trip. Will provide today all of the postings intended for the previous days. Thx, f.]
Pointers in the eBooks The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" and "Your Original Nature" reveal that if a seeker were to complete only four of the seven steps on the path to Realization, a significant shift in the way that the relative existence unfolds could still happen.
A Cherokee grandmother has been used as a "case study" of what abiding as THAT can look like if abidance happens as a "No-Knowing Child." Here's another "case":
An event that occurred in the area here illustrates what the shift might look like, and what that childlike condition can offer, and what the relative existence is going to be like if that shift does not happen.
An Advaitin pointer that has been offered for years includes this message to seekers from gurus: "If you would come to Me, you must come to Me as a child," a pointer that the following event will reinforce.
As those in the region classified as "the southern hemisphere" are seeing their spring give way to the fall and winter seasons, those in areas located in what is called "the northern hemisphere" are preparing to enjoy their spring and summer seasons.
Here in the southern region of the U.S., the season of spring is in full swing, [current storms notwithstanding] along with all that comes with that: the dark and gray drabness of winter is giving way to the bright colorings that are provided by freshly-blooming plants;
with some overnight temperatures in the 40's (F) to low 60's (F) last week, birds were singing throughout the early morning hours following daybreak; and the yellow flowers of the lantana plants scattered about the front of the house are attracting a variety of butterflies.
Additionally, as always during this season, female butterflies are racing about as they flee the unwanted advances of certain male butterflies, evidently saving themselves for Mr. Right Butterfly alone, as is the way in Nature;
the deer in this area that bred last fall are preparing to welcome the newest members of their herds within a month or so; and a few of the more feisty male squirrels are trying to inspire some females to join them in getting an early start on one of their two breeding seasons this year, the first of which will begin fairly soon.
To that end, there is some use made here of an ability to mimic certain sounds that will attract squirrels, including a clicking / clucking sound that many of them find so irresistible that they expose themselves in their search for the source of the sound. (This sound in different from the harsh chirping, chattering sound they make when angry or afraid.)
Over the years, many squirrels have become regular guests, becoming so comfortable that they will eventually eat the pecans that are held between an extended thumb and finger and offered to them. (On mornings when "sleeping in" occurs and there is some tardiness in delivering their treats, their harsh chirping and chattering sounds can be heard outside the bedroom window: "Hey! You! Yeah, you there, you the fool inside the house! You're a little tardy with our breakfast this AM. Roll out!!)
So it was that a few days ago during a post-blogging, early morning walk that I paused beside a fairly large section of woods in an undeveloped part of the area here, a section where squirrels share the space with a herd of nine or ten deer. The herd includes two bucks, several doe, and several yearlings that had arrived last May or June.
To attract the squirrels that nest in that area, two quarters were rubbed together because the sound that makes carries some distance and because that sound mimics one of the sounds that squirrels make. It does not take long to draw the attention of any interested squirrels. That morning, two showed themselves quickly.
I continued with the quarters: rub-rub-rub quickly, pause; rub-rub-rub quickly, pause. Then, as I replaced those sounds made by rubbing the two coins with certain clucking / clicking sounds made with the tongue, both squirrels ventured even closer.
As one climbed along the front of a tree about ten feet away, I took my phone from my pocket and snapped a picture of one of my "neighbors." Both then moved to the back side of the trees they were on, stretched their bodies out, peeked around the edge of the trees, and made direct eye contact with me. As the sounds continued, they came to the side, standing upside down and stretching their necks toward me at full length as they "checked me out."
Soon, the braver of the two ran up the tree until he reached the first limb which extended some fifteen feet out to where I was standing. The more the sound continued, the more curious he became, and the further out on the limb he came.
Looking up at him as we made and held direct eye contact, there was a movement detected in my peripheral vision: a yearling was venturing out of the woods and moving toward us. Soon, a second came, and then two protective doe followed them.
As the nearer yearling of the two stared at me, focusing on me and the sounds that usually come only from their small furry neighbors, the two uneasy doe remained in the background nearby. I lifted the hand holding the phone and snapped another picture [available in the eBook].
As the clucking sounds continued, the yearlings - conditioned as a result of exposure to so much human traffic in the area - ventured closer and closer, curious about the sounds and their source. Of course, the corn that a neighbor had scattered for them was piled some 35-40 feet away and was also an attraction.
The yearlings paused, approached, and paused again. During those pauses, they stretched their legs into positions that would allow them to beat a hasty retreat if I should display any sign of being a threat. (Unfortunately, they are hassled regularly, especially by some children and teens and adults in the area.)
Standing as I was in the middle of a very long curve in the road, anyone approaching from either direction would be able to see exactly what was happening with the squirrels and the deer and me.
And that is what happened when a young girl came around the bend on her bicycle and - being awake and aware and conscious - first slowed and then stopped completely. The deer turned their heads to the right and watched her for a moment and then quickly turned their heads back toward me.
The young girl - maybe seven or eight years old - began pushing her bike toward me, very slowly, moving, stopping when the yearlings turned their heads back toward her, then moving closer whenever they were focused on me.
Many minutes later, having moved slowly and calmly and silently, she stood next to me without having startled any of the deer at all. I looked down at her and she looked up at me and the smile that stretched across the entire width of her face reminded me of the smiles I usually saw on my daughter's face during the most joyous occasions in her early days.
This girl with her bicycle had come to Me as a child: conscious but free of any motives; fully aware of what was happening all around her; free of any self-consciousness; totally absorbed in what Nature was offering rather than being totally absorbed in self.
The innocent excitement and pure enthusiasm of this child was a thrill to see once more, especially because she was enjoying something in nature, something so removed from the typical interests of most of the youth in the area who usually only play with expensive, motorized toys.
The girl then made eye contact with the yearlings, and as they stared at her, they moved a few steps closer. It was as if there were a sense of kinship, a unanimity even.
The cautious, suspicious concerns of the two doe notwithstanding, the two yearlings were coming to us as innocent and pure children. The little girl looked up at me again, and it was obvious she was feeling as if she might pop wide open with the thrill of this close encounter with these forms that are living naturally in the wild.
I continued clucking, and when she looked up at me with a huge grin spread across her face, I used a movement of my eyes to signal for her to redirect her sight line to the squirrel that was a few feet away on the overhead limb, his thick tail fluttering and flicking back and forth at what looked to be a hundred miles an hour.
Then, just as the yearlings were about to step closer, a woman came jogging around the bend, pushing her infant male child in a stroller ahead of her. She saw us, and looked to see what we were watching. Then she saw the deer, but she never slowed.
The little girl next to me looked at her with panic in her eyes, as if trying to signal to the woman to slow down, to stop, to avoid disturbing this quiet and peaceful scene.
It was not to happen. The woman was one of those types that the Western European friends I made (during the days when I was conducting tours throughout their nations) would call "The Ugly American."
For them, the term pointed to a loud, obnoxious type of person, the type who would disturb the peace in Europe's most wonderful museums or would disrupt the quietness in one of their most delightful restaurants, the type that would inspire locals to begin signaling for their checks so they could leave what had been a most-enjoyable environment but that had been bastardized by those types who are so self-absorbed that they would never tune in either (1) to what was happening around them or (2) to the way that it was happening.
The woman ran right up beside us and then turned the stroller toward the deer, and the doe began to stamp their hooves and then snort as an alert to the yearlings; then the doe turned toward the thicker section of the woods behind them and ran. The yearlings became skittish. Then the woman shattered the quiet by screaming, "Oh look, Jeffrey. Look at the deer!"
And with that, the deer turned and we saw only the tails lifted in the air as they all raced away, retreating into the deeper and quieter parts of the forest.
The squirrels dashed to the highest limbs in the trees they were in, then jumped from one tree to another until they too were out of sight . . . only their angry, harsh chirping and their fear-inspired chattering sounds providing any evidence that they had moved to the topmost parts of other distant trees.
Then, the woman shouted out loudly, as if her child was not two feet away but as if the child were hundreds of feet away, "Oh, they all ran away, Jeffrey, but you got to see them for a second anyway. Okay, let's go."
And with that, she turned the stroller and began jogging away. Not so much as a "Hi," a "Bye" or a "Screw you very much," much less an "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. My big mouth ruined a neat, quiet moment you two were sharing with the deer and squirrels. I've become so preoccupied with myself that I could really be mistaken for a rudeness factory, couldn't I?"
Of course, hearing that last statement would have made no difference, so just as well she left without any more words than the ones she'd already shouted. Yet the fact remains that she is representative of those among the masses who are so self-absorbed that they never pay the least amount of attention to what is going on around them, to what they regularly interrupt, or to the peace that they - like that woman - often unilaterally bring to an end.
She came along, wrecked the peace, interrupted a natural moment, and then went her merry way after creating a disturbance. The little girl next to me looked at the woman as she jogged away, then looked up at me. I saw tears streaming down her cheeks from the corners of both eyes, overcome with a profound sadness. With the sense of Oneness that manifested, of course the same degree of profound sadness had to manifest with me.
Then, the little girl looked again toward the woman running away, disappearing into the distance like Mr. Magoo, racing through the relative existence, forever generating havoc and chaos, and moving right along in a totally blind manner that leaves such types totally oblivious to the relative effects of their actions.
The woman had shown up with a black contagion of self-centeredness within, a contagion which causes her to spew forth constantly and pollute her surroundings, like an invading army of arrogance and a navy of narcissism, wrecking havoc and then sailing away, leaving a trail of unhappiness in her wake.
I looked at the face of the girl standing next to me as she watched the woman running away, and I saw a jet of anger suddenly fire out of her eyes. But it was short-lived. Soon, the disappointment outweighed the anger and then I saw what seemed to be evidence of disenchantment instead.
Next, I saw, too, what appeared to be an element of disillusionment. Was that what the little girl was feeling? Did she realize, as a result of some inner sense, what she was most likely going to be exposed to for many decades on this planet? If so, that was the saddest part of what had happened that morning.
Is it possible that she may have experienced a momentary, archetypal glimpse of the fact that a part of the original nature of human-type forms and spaces - namely, a "primordial cooperation" - has now been lost almost completely?
And why? Nowadays, that primordial cooperation, which is rooted in an understanding of Real Love and the unicity, is understood only fully by the Realized because it is they that are also in touch with their Original Nature. Conversely, most among the masses understand neither Real Love nor the unicity at all, so they most assuredly have no sense of that primordial cooperation anymore.
[The invitation is to see another case study of those not abiding as THAT by witnessing the chaos in the streets in the U.S. currently and to see that it is rooted in decades of the widespread, race-based, dualistic belief held by far-too-many whites who are in hierarchical positions of authority and who are driven by their sense of different-from-ment (and, therefore, better-than-ment), whites who are playing their role of "The All-Powerful, Ready-to-Kill Guardians of All Things Good Which Are Being Threatened by the Purveyors of All Things Bad and Evil." Then, look around the globe and see a plethora of similar examples of duality-based chaos which are playing out on every continent.
That primordial cooperation has gone the way of the dinosaurs because persons (driven by self-will and deluded by self into believing in "free will") are now in cooperation only with their persona-based fears and with the selfish desires of their false personalities rather than being free of ego and egotism, a freedom which would allow them to align once more with the original sense of collaboration and caring and compassion and empathy.]
I reached down and put my hand on the little girl's head and ruffled her pageboy cut for a second and said, "That was a pretty neat moment, wasn't it?"
She answered, "Yes," but sadly. I said, "You may well see them again one day, and if you do, you will never be the type to disturb them. You and they will enjoy the company of each other." She showed me a half smile. I smiled and then turned and began walking away.
It took several minutes for me to reach the final bend in the road. With that being my last chance to see the little girl, I looked back over my shoulder and saw that she had not moved an inch; she still stood there, holding up her bicycle, looking into the woods. Then, she suddenly turned her head to the right and saw me looking back at her as I continued walking away.
Slowly, she raised her right arm and waved goodbye, with a smile. I waved back, with a smile.
And I knew in that instant that she would be making many natural moments happen in her lifetime. I knew without a doubt that there will be many moments when she will respect the quiet. I knew without a doubt that there will be many moments when she will enjoy the peace. But what obstacles will manifest between now and then that will hamper her ability to delight in all of that?
Yet I knew without a doubt that - deep within - she will continue to be tuned in to what is happening about her and that she will be awake and aware and conscious of the stillness when others are enjoying such tranquility.
And again, the message came:
"If you would come to Me, you must come to Me as a child."
The yearling above came as a child; the young girl that was awake enough to see what was going on - and that stopped her bike and then moved slowly and quietly so that she did not create a disturbance - came as a child.
Then a self-absorbed speck of consciousness-in-the-body-of-a-rude-woman came not as a child but as one so self-centered that she ruined with her earsplitting interruption a moment that will never be again. Focused only on herself and her child - who was too young to even know what a deer is - she brought to an end a blissful happening that another child was savoring.
Like the marauding Caesar, she came, she saw, she conquered, she destroyed, and then she left, completely blind to the relative effects of her egocentricity.
And in that illustration, everything that the non-dual understanding can bring, and what will happen in its absence, was played out for any to see who are willing to awaken to the message.
Such occurrences as that moment (which was being shared by two strangers who were united by an attraction to things natural) are able to trigger that subconscious, subliminal message regarding the peace and serenity and unconditional happiness that usually ends when the Child No-Knowing State ends.
But the guardian of that message - the inner guru - calls those who are even partially awake and aware and conscious to return to that former condition of the "No-Knowing Child" when a state of "pure" (that is, "not yet blocked") consciousness allowed unconditional happiness to happen. The little girl being discussed was already abiding in the manner prescribed by Maharaj:
"Remain as the silent witness only."
Is that not all that she was involved with? Not with self and self-ish-ness but with Pure Witnessing, which can only happen in the silence.
Maharaj: "This attitude of silent observation is the very foundation of Yoga." Yet earlier, a sense of caution was expressed. It was asked whether or not the effects of acculturation might be overcome and thereby allow her to be able to elude the influences that rob almost all persons of that "attitude of silent observation" which the young girl is presently exhibiting. As is most often the case in this culture, will she be drawn to the levels of self and self-ish-ness that were exhibited by the woman who interrupted the young girl's quiet time while the girl was silently observing the squirrels and deer that had come to us?
How about you? How are you "coming to Me," that is, to a state of Full Awareness? As a child? As an adult modeling for a child an appreciation of thing natural, for a child that is not yet capable of experiencing wonderment and joy? As an adult inviting persons to experience wonderment and joy? Or as a bastardized speck of consciousness, manifested in a loud and noisy and silence-loathing and silence-wrecking adult-body-cum-consciousness?
To be continued.
Pointers in the eBooks The Relative Results of Returning to "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State" and "Your Original Nature" reveal that if a seeker were to complete only four of the seven steps on the path to Realization, a significant shift in the way that the relative existence unfolds could still happen.
A Cherokee grandmother has been used as a "case study" of what abiding as THAT can look like if abidance happens as a "No-Knowing Child." Here's another "case":
An event that occurred in the area here illustrates what the shift might look like, and what that childlike condition can offer, and what the relative existence is going to be like if that shift does not happen.
An Advaitin pointer that has been offered for years includes this message to seekers from gurus: "If you would come to Me, you must come to Me as a child," a pointer that the following event will reinforce.
As those in the region classified as "the southern hemisphere" are seeing their spring give way to the fall and winter seasons, those in areas located in what is called "the northern hemisphere" are preparing to enjoy their spring and summer seasons.
Here in the southern region of the U.S., the season of spring is in full swing, [current storms notwithstanding] along with all that comes with that: the dark and gray drabness of winter is giving way to the bright colorings that are provided by freshly-blooming plants;
with some overnight temperatures in the 40's (F) to low 60's (F) last week, birds were singing throughout the early morning hours following daybreak; and the yellow flowers of the lantana plants scattered about the front of the house are attracting a variety of butterflies.
Additionally, as always during this season, female butterflies are racing about as they flee the unwanted advances of certain male butterflies, evidently saving themselves for Mr. Right Butterfly alone, as is the way in Nature;
the deer in this area that bred last fall are preparing to welcome the newest members of their herds within a month or so; and a few of the more feisty male squirrels are trying to inspire some females to join them in getting an early start on one of their two breeding seasons this year, the first of which will begin fairly soon.
To that end, there is some use made here of an ability to mimic certain sounds that will attract squirrels, including a clicking / clucking sound that many of them find so irresistible that they expose themselves in their search for the source of the sound. (This sound in different from the harsh chirping, chattering sound they make when angry or afraid.)
Over the years, many squirrels have become regular guests, becoming so comfortable that they will eventually eat the pecans that are held between an extended thumb and finger and offered to them. (On mornings when "sleeping in" occurs and there is some tardiness in delivering their treats, their harsh chirping and chattering sounds can be heard outside the bedroom window: "Hey! You! Yeah, you there, you the fool inside the house! You're a little tardy with our breakfast this AM. Roll out!!)
So it was that a few days ago during a post-blogging, early morning walk that I paused beside a fairly large section of woods in an undeveloped part of the area here, a section where squirrels share the space with a herd of nine or ten deer. The herd includes two bucks, several doe, and several yearlings that had arrived last May or June.
To attract the squirrels that nest in that area, two quarters were rubbed together because the sound that makes carries some distance and because that sound mimics one of the sounds that squirrels make. It does not take long to draw the attention of any interested squirrels. That morning, two showed themselves quickly.
I continued with the quarters: rub-rub-rub quickly, pause; rub-rub-rub quickly, pause. Then, as I replaced those sounds made by rubbing the two coins with certain clucking / clicking sounds made with the tongue, both squirrels ventured even closer.
As one climbed along the front of a tree about ten feet away, I took my phone from my pocket and snapped a picture of one of my "neighbors." Both then moved to the back side of the trees they were on, stretched their bodies out, peeked around the edge of the trees, and made direct eye contact with me. As the sounds continued, they came to the side, standing upside down and stretching their necks toward me at full length as they "checked me out."
Soon, the braver of the two ran up the tree until he reached the first limb which extended some fifteen feet out to where I was standing. The more the sound continued, the more curious he became, and the further out on the limb he came.
Looking up at him as we made and held direct eye contact, there was a movement detected in my peripheral vision: a yearling was venturing out of the woods and moving toward us. Soon, a second came, and then two protective doe followed them.
As the nearer yearling of the two stared at me, focusing on me and the sounds that usually come only from their small furry neighbors, the two uneasy doe remained in the background nearby. I lifted the hand holding the phone and snapped another picture [available in the eBook].
As the clucking sounds continued, the yearlings - conditioned as a result of exposure to so much human traffic in the area - ventured closer and closer, curious about the sounds and their source. Of course, the corn that a neighbor had scattered for them was piled some 35-40 feet away and was also an attraction.
The yearlings paused, approached, and paused again. During those pauses, they stretched their legs into positions that would allow them to beat a hasty retreat if I should display any sign of being a threat. (Unfortunately, they are hassled regularly, especially by some children and teens and adults in the area.)
Standing as I was in the middle of a very long curve in the road, anyone approaching from either direction would be able to see exactly what was happening with the squirrels and the deer and me.
And that is what happened when a young girl came around the bend on her bicycle and - being awake and aware and conscious - first slowed and then stopped completely. The deer turned their heads to the right and watched her for a moment and then quickly turned their heads back toward me.
The young girl - maybe seven or eight years old - began pushing her bike toward me, very slowly, moving, stopping when the yearlings turned their heads back toward her, then moving closer whenever they were focused on me.
Many minutes later, having moved slowly and calmly and silently, she stood next to me without having startled any of the deer at all. I looked down at her and she looked up at me and the smile that stretched across the entire width of her face reminded me of the smiles I usually saw on my daughter's face during the most joyous occasions in her early days.
This girl with her bicycle had come to Me as a child: conscious but free of any motives; fully aware of what was happening all around her; free of any self-consciousness; totally absorbed in what Nature was offering rather than being totally absorbed in self.
The innocent excitement and pure enthusiasm of this child was a thrill to see once more, especially because she was enjoying something in nature, something so removed from the typical interests of most of the youth in the area who usually only play with expensive, motorized toys.
The girl then made eye contact with the yearlings, and as they stared at her, they moved a few steps closer. It was as if there were a sense of kinship, a unanimity even.
The cautious, suspicious concerns of the two doe notwithstanding, the two yearlings were coming to us as innocent and pure children. The little girl looked up at me again, and it was obvious she was feeling as if she might pop wide open with the thrill of this close encounter with these forms that are living naturally in the wild.
I continued clucking, and when she looked up at me with a huge grin spread across her face, I used a movement of my eyes to signal for her to redirect her sight line to the squirrel that was a few feet away on the overhead limb, his thick tail fluttering and flicking back and forth at what looked to be a hundred miles an hour.
Then, just as the yearlings were about to step closer, a woman came jogging around the bend, pushing her infant male child in a stroller ahead of her. She saw us, and looked to see what we were watching. Then she saw the deer, but she never slowed.
The little girl next to me looked at her with panic in her eyes, as if trying to signal to the woman to slow down, to stop, to avoid disturbing this quiet and peaceful scene.
It was not to happen. The woman was one of those types that the Western European friends I made (during the days when I was conducting tours throughout their nations) would call "The Ugly American."
For them, the term pointed to a loud, obnoxious type of person, the type who would disturb the peace in Europe's most wonderful museums or would disrupt the quietness in one of their most delightful restaurants, the type that would inspire locals to begin signaling for their checks so they could leave what had been a most-enjoyable environment but that had been bastardized by those types who are so self-absorbed that they would never tune in either (1) to what was happening around them or (2) to the way that it was happening.
The woman ran right up beside us and then turned the stroller toward the deer, and the doe began to stamp their hooves and then snort as an alert to the yearlings; then the doe turned toward the thicker section of the woods behind them and ran. The yearlings became skittish. Then the woman shattered the quiet by screaming, "Oh look, Jeffrey. Look at the deer!"
And with that, the deer turned and we saw only the tails lifted in the air as they all raced away, retreating into the deeper and quieter parts of the forest.
The squirrels dashed to the highest limbs in the trees they were in, then jumped from one tree to another until they too were out of sight . . . only their angry, harsh chirping and their fear-inspired chattering sounds providing any evidence that they had moved to the topmost parts of other distant trees.
Then, the woman shouted out loudly, as if her child was not two feet away but as if the child were hundreds of feet away, "Oh, they all ran away, Jeffrey, but you got to see them for a second anyway. Okay, let's go."
And with that, she turned the stroller and began jogging away. Not so much as a "Hi," a "Bye" or a "Screw you very much," much less an "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. My big mouth ruined a neat, quiet moment you two were sharing with the deer and squirrels. I've become so preoccupied with myself that I could really be mistaken for a rudeness factory, couldn't I?"
Of course, hearing that last statement would have made no difference, so just as well she left without any more words than the ones she'd already shouted. Yet the fact remains that she is representative of those among the masses who are so self-absorbed that they never pay the least amount of attention to what is going on around them, to what they regularly interrupt, or to the peace that they - like that woman - often unilaterally bring to an end.
She came along, wrecked the peace, interrupted a natural moment, and then went her merry way after creating a disturbance. The little girl next to me looked at the woman as she jogged away, then looked up at me. I saw tears streaming down her cheeks from the corners of both eyes, overcome with a profound sadness. With the sense of Oneness that manifested, of course the same degree of profound sadness had to manifest with me.
Then, the little girl looked again toward the woman running away, disappearing into the distance like Mr. Magoo, racing through the relative existence, forever generating havoc and chaos, and moving right along in a totally blind manner that leaves such types totally oblivious to the relative effects of their actions.
The woman had shown up with a black contagion of self-centeredness within, a contagion which causes her to spew forth constantly and pollute her surroundings, like an invading army of arrogance and a navy of narcissism, wrecking havoc and then sailing away, leaving a trail of unhappiness in her wake.
I looked at the face of the girl standing next to me as she watched the woman running away, and I saw a jet of anger suddenly fire out of her eyes. But it was short-lived. Soon, the disappointment outweighed the anger and then I saw what seemed to be evidence of disenchantment instead.
Next, I saw, too, what appeared to be an element of disillusionment. Was that what the little girl was feeling? Did she realize, as a result of some inner sense, what she was most likely going to be exposed to for many decades on this planet? If so, that was the saddest part of what had happened that morning.
Is it possible that she may have experienced a momentary, archetypal glimpse of the fact that a part of the original nature of human-type forms and spaces - namely, a "primordial cooperation" - has now been lost almost completely?
And why? Nowadays, that primordial cooperation, which is rooted in an understanding of Real Love and the unicity, is understood only fully by the Realized because it is they that are also in touch with their Original Nature. Conversely, most among the masses understand neither Real Love nor the unicity at all, so they most assuredly have no sense of that primordial cooperation anymore.
[The invitation is to see another case study of those not abiding as THAT by witnessing the chaos in the streets in the U.S. currently and to see that it is rooted in decades of the widespread, race-based, dualistic belief held by far-too-many whites who are in hierarchical positions of authority and who are driven by their sense of different-from-ment (and, therefore, better-than-ment), whites who are playing their role of "The All-Powerful, Ready-to-Kill Guardians of All Things Good Which Are Being Threatened by the Purveyors of All Things Bad and Evil." Then, look around the globe and see a plethora of similar examples of duality-based chaos which are playing out on every continent.
That primordial cooperation has gone the way of the dinosaurs because persons (driven by self-will and deluded by self into believing in "free will") are now in cooperation only with their persona-based fears and with the selfish desires of their false personalities rather than being free of ego and egotism, a freedom which would allow them to align once more with the original sense of collaboration and caring and compassion and empathy.]
I reached down and put my hand on the little girl's head and ruffled her pageboy cut for a second and said, "That was a pretty neat moment, wasn't it?"
She answered, "Yes," but sadly. I said, "You may well see them again one day, and if you do, you will never be the type to disturb them. You and they will enjoy the company of each other." She showed me a half smile. I smiled and then turned and began walking away.
It took several minutes for me to reach the final bend in the road. With that being my last chance to see the little girl, I looked back over my shoulder and saw that she had not moved an inch; she still stood there, holding up her bicycle, looking into the woods. Then, she suddenly turned her head to the right and saw me looking back at her as I continued walking away.
Slowly, she raised her right arm and waved goodbye, with a smile. I waved back, with a smile.
And I knew in that instant that she would be making many natural moments happen in her lifetime. I knew without a doubt that there will be many moments when she will respect the quiet. I knew without a doubt that there will be many moments when she will enjoy the peace. But what obstacles will manifest between now and then that will hamper her ability to delight in all of that?
Yet I knew without a doubt that - deep within - she will continue to be tuned in to what is happening about her and that she will be awake and aware and conscious of the stillness when others are enjoying such tranquility.
And again, the message came:
"If you would come to Me, you must come to Me as a child."
The yearling above came as a child; the young girl that was awake enough to see what was going on - and that stopped her bike and then moved slowly and quietly so that she did not create a disturbance - came as a child.
Then a self-absorbed speck of consciousness-in-the-body-of-a-rude-woman came not as a child but as one so self-centered that she ruined with her earsplitting interruption a moment that will never be again. Focused only on herself and her child - who was too young to even know what a deer is - she brought to an end a blissful happening that another child was savoring.
Like the marauding Caesar, she came, she saw, she conquered, she destroyed, and then she left, completely blind to the relative effects of her egocentricity.
And in that illustration, everything that the non-dual understanding can bring, and what will happen in its absence, was played out for any to see who are willing to awaken to the message.
Such occurrences as that moment (which was being shared by two strangers who were united by an attraction to things natural) are able to trigger that subconscious, subliminal message regarding the peace and serenity and unconditional happiness that usually ends when the Child No-Knowing State ends.
But the guardian of that message - the inner guru - calls those who are even partially awake and aware and conscious to return to that former condition of the "No-Knowing Child" when a state of "pure" (that is, "not yet blocked") consciousness allowed unconditional happiness to happen. The little girl being discussed was already abiding in the manner prescribed by Maharaj:
"Remain as the silent witness only."
Is that not all that she was involved with? Not with self and self-ish-ness but with Pure Witnessing, which can only happen in the silence.
Maharaj: "This attitude of silent observation is the very foundation of Yoga." Yet earlier, a sense of caution was expressed. It was asked whether or not the effects of acculturation might be overcome and thereby allow her to be able to elude the influences that rob almost all persons of that "attitude of silent observation" which the young girl is presently exhibiting. As is most often the case in this culture, will she be drawn to the levels of self and self-ish-ness that were exhibited by the woman who interrupted the young girl's quiet time while the girl was silently observing the squirrels and deer that had come to us?
How about you? How are you "coming to Me," that is, to a state of Full Awareness? As a child? As an adult modeling for a child an appreciation of thing natural, for a child that is not yet capable of experiencing wonderment and joy? As an adult inviting persons to experience wonderment and joy? Or as a bastardized speck of consciousness, manifested in a loud and noisy and silence-loathing and silence-wrecking adult-body-cum-consciousness?
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
