When Bubbles Burst

Eventually all of our happy bubbles burst, our illusions are swept away, and if we are really lucky we might see things as they really are. It can be painful, especially the first hundred times. (This is not a letter from one of my daughters, I found it on Reddit. However, the time will come.) 

After the bubble is gone, and the truth about Santa is obvious, how hard would it be for them to go back to believing?  What would they have to give up?  Could it be done at all?

A problem for evil

Monotheism has one God, not two.

There is no separate force or entity that can be identified as "evil." Nothing frustrates God. Everything is easy for Divinity. Holiness has no opposition. There is no struggle. There is no war for Heaven. Paradise was never lost. Nothing is broken. Nothing needs repair.

Thus, one who opposes evil boxes a shadow while slipping instantly into idolatry. The fighter makes two gods, where only One is Real. So deluded, the soul spins in circles, biting its own tail. It hurts.

"Do not oppose evil" is a difficult commandment to remember and follow, especially for someone who is a lawyer by nature, education, and profession. Isn't opposing evil the soul of advocacy? How is political action possible without pinpointing the evildoer? Doesn't opposing evil serve as the basis for an active personal and civil morality? Isn't the opposition of evil the heart of conscience? Isn't evil the engine that drives the need for faith?

Opposing evil has nothing to do with those things. Opposing evil is nothing more than smashing a fist into a mirror -- the bigger the fist, the larger the mirror. Regardless of the size of the fist there is always a mirror to match. Small "evils" are opposed in the moment while big "evils" require a coordinated war. After a while, the wise one recognizes that the fist and the mirror are one. The rock thrown through the window of an "evil" Jewish neighbor is the firestorm that destroys Dresden.

Real advocacy avoids that self-referent delusion. It is the restoration of harmony through compassion, forgiveness, and the power of seeing things the way they really are. It is the gift of eloquence and fearless demonstration that lovingly presents truth. It is not shadow boxing. It is the finger that points in the direction of the Divine.

The Buddha mastered it, Gandhi walked that path in bare feet, Abraham dropped the knife, Mohamed forgave his enemies, and Jesus stood silent at his trial. Each became the perfect advocate.

We actively evade enlightenment

We think we know enough about dreams to understand what is at stake. We suppose that to embrace Divinity is to awaken to whom we really are.

Our fears say "do so and we will lose everything we have."

Fear says "Every person we have known, every success and all of our pain -- our hopes and acclaim, losses and fears, all of that space and eons of time, they will all dissolve into their nothingness as soon as we open our Divine eyes. That's the way it is with dreams."

Fear continues, "We are not here because we are trapped. Quite the contrary: we are here because we know the dawn. We know life has no handle. There is nothing to grasp and the entire universe will slip away as soon as we open our eyes."

Thus, we don't seek enlightenment and find it elusive. Instead, we actively deny and evade enlightenment because we are afraid we know exactly what enlightenment is and we dare not fall into that abyss.

It is true that we make everything in our dreams. Every branch that blows in the wind does so because we draw and direct every motion. There are no trees inside our heads and there is no wind. There is only our selves and the stuff we make from ourselves. We know too that in the morning our memory of the night is wiped clean by the dawn. All that we saw in our sleep is lost as we step into the day.

Yet, hope tells us that fear is wrong. Hope explains enlightenment is not about awakening from the dream, but awaking to the dream. Enlightenment is the lucid dream that does not fade. Therein, we make the dream as beautiful as our courage will allow while showering creation with affection. In this journey to the Source we are never alone, even for an instant.

Hope says, "let the dawn come when it may; fear is unreal."

Naked

If you have problems finding Divinity, perhaps your religion is in the way. Take it off and put it in the closet.

Then will you will find the One you seek standing in the middle of your bedroom, naked.

Epiphanies

Epiphanies spontaneously rearrange ideas, they do not change reality. Epiphanies are the collapse of old ways of seeing. Epiphanies can be common, real, life changing, terrifying or beautiful.

Spiritual epiphanies are gifts to you from Divinity, not commodities to be sold, traded, or proscribed by old men with strange garb and tattered books. Contrary to popular dogma Divine epiphanies are not rare. They are so common that William James cataloged them extensively in 1902.

Enormous religions sprout from epiphanies in a cave, on a road, or under a tree. They are much ado about nothing new. How well the religion works depends upon how well it communicates the great epiphany of the founder. But often the essence is lost and only aggressive marketing remains.

This epiphany will be mundane.

I saw it thousands of times and I never saw it at all. I looked, my eyes worked, my brain processed the message, and I missed it. You just missed it too. Just like me, your habits of seeing have prevented you from seeing old things anew.

Usually we need a clue to break us out of our habits of thought. Sometimes we need a disaster. Even a kiss will do, or a comment from a child.

Here is a tiny demonstration of an epiphany that a child showed to me. As you have walked around malls, stores, shops, or as you looked at magazines and newspapers, you have seen the same thing, repeatedly. You saw it on billboards, you saw it on television, you just saw it again.

Did you see the watches in the ads were almost always set to the same time? It's been that way for almost 100 years across a million publications all around the world.

Now look around again. Where do you think you are? Who do you think you are?

Perhaps a child will pinch your ear and remind you.

The instant, dancing

There was a dream about being on some minor adventure with my brother. His dreamself mentioned that deja vu is the mind replaying an instant.

"You have it reversed," I suggested. "It is the instant dancing to the mind."

"Like this."

Everything is easy for God

Some friends and family call with legal problems. For example, Jim called worried about some competition moving in next to his store. He had a complex legal theory about how he could force his landlord to keep the competition out.

I listened to Jim's legal theories and strategies for a few minutes. Some of his ideas were pretty good, some were not too practical. After hearing him out I suggested something else.

"Take a chair and go into those woods behind your house. Sit there for an hour and turn this over to God." I also suggested, "Ask for a solution that is in the best interest of everybody involved."

Jim immediately complained "Dave, this is a real problem, I need a solution by Tuesday, that's when they sign the lease." So, I replied, "That's easy, tell God you need an answer by Tuesday." We went back and forth for about 30 minutes, Jim insisted that kind of approach would not work. He needed a legal solution and he needed it now. Eventually, he gave in and headed towards the woods with a chair.

On Saturday Jim called and explained that the problem was resolved. The new business did not get its financing. Jim had his answer before Tuesday, it cost nothing and it involved no conflict. There were no hurt feelings, no oppositional reactions, and no sharp words. No attorney or judge could have given a better solution faster.

I have used this approach several other times. It has never failed. Similarly, never has anybody done it without arguing with me first that they had a "real problem" and they needed an "immediate solution."

They seem to think that some things are hard for God or that Divinity can't move fast. I wonder where those strange ideas came from? Everything is easy for God.

Have you seen the Beloved?

A gracious Sufi went to Mecca to meet the Beloved. He told me he sat and looked at God's house for a very long time and found it empty for him. Thus, he was working hard for the rest of his life to find God.

Had I seen the Beloved?

I knew a lovely devout woman who went to Mass every day to receive communion. On her deathbed she confided she feared the Void. What would she find? Was there anything there? Should she be afraid? She had not found the Beloved.

Did I know something of Him?

I visited a man in a mental facility who wanted to know God's name. It was a matter of some urgency for him. He had been told the path to recovery required he find God. He supposed it was a fool's errand.


Quick, tell them. Point to your heart and tell us all. Where are you hiding our Friend?

"Which version of Jesus?"

A new friend asked me what I thought of Jesus, especially in the context of my prior writings here and my fondness for Emerson's Divinity School Address.

"Which version of Jesus?" I generally replied. Was it an understanding of Jesus that was common before Augustine piled-on layers of guilt out of thin air? Did she mean the view of the Eastern Orthodox church, which split from the West before the development of Anselm's legalistic and noxious spin on a doctrine of atonement? Did she mean the modern American evangelical version?

Here is a beautiful presentation of Jesus, may peace be upon him, from the Koran. Is this the image she had in mind? (You may wish to note that this portion of the Koran gently reminds that everything is easy for God.)



So Peace on him the day he was born, the day that he dies, and the day that he will be raised up to life (again)!

Relate in the Book (the story of) Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place in the East. She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent her Our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects.

She said: "I seek refuge from thee to (Allah) Most Gracious: (come not near) if thou dost fear Allah." He said: "Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a pure son. She said: "How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?" He said: "So (it will be): thy Lord saith, 'That is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us'. It is a matter (so) decreed."

So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree. She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten!" But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee; "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee. "So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, 'I have vowed a fast to (Allah) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into no talk with any human being'"

At length she brought the (babe) to her people, carrying him (in her arms). They said: "O Mary! truly a strange thing has thou brought! "O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!" But she pointed to the babe.

They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?" He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah. He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet; "And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live; "(He hath made me) kind to my mother, and not overbearing or unblest; "So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life (again)"!

Interpretation of the Holy Koran, Sura 19:15-33, Mariam, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (paragraph spacing added)."


My friend replied she meant the Jesus she is head-over-heels in love with, the lap upon which she gleefully sits as a child. What a blessing for her and others that she learned to see and share such affection.

Perfect

A year or so ago Jim and I were chatting for a minute about a meeting we attended. I complemented that one of his ideas was "perfect." Jim disagreed, quickly stating "nothing is perfect."

I replied without hesitation. "The universe is absolutely perfect. Not a thing is broken, nothing is out of place, everything is exactly as it should be. It is all frictionless crystalline perfection." After pausing a bit, Jim agreed.

Perfection is the way things exist in eternity. Remembering that we are in eternity right now radically changes perspective in the direction of goodness.