Beginnings – Part 4 – The Beginning of the End

“Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past
so the universe can write a new one.”

 

~ Marianne Williamson

Press play to hear an audio enhancement as you read.

Imagine surrendering the stories of your past that have defined who you conceive yourself to be and trusting a greater intelligence to script the rest of your life. This would mark the beginning of the end.

There’s a joke about a man who falls off a cliff and clutches at a branch, hovering above a thousand foot drop. He cries out, appealing to God for help. A voice booms down: “Let go.”

The man takes this in, thinks for a moment, then says: “Is there anyone else up there?”

Letting go is not a popular piece of advice, even on the spiritual path where the words are often used but not always followed with enthusiasm, especially when it involves letting go of who we have conceived ourselves to be. But who is that self? Do we really expect self-improvement of that self can deliver what we hunger for?

Those who debate the relative merits of doing vs being miss a third component, the space between these two polarities. There is something more, a space between that watches both. This can be a ground breaking understanding for those “on the path,” because it doesn’t position being above doing; it emphasizes a witnessing state beyond either polarized aspect of human, egoic identity.

As one abandons both aspects of human identity in favor of adopting and sustaining a witnessing consciousness, this space grows. It continues to dilate and your experience becomes more dominantly one of “consciousness watching.” Your awareness expands, delivering a more unified experience, regardless of the outer circumstance.

“Space” is the transformative ingredient. Here in the information age, where our personal processing speed continues to accelerate, we are suffocating in an overwhelm of data, 24/7. We are becoming more fragmented, more depressed, and more anxious. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to suggest that we now find ourselves in the midst of a mental illness epidemic.

This is impacting students, particularly. In response, universities are adding more counsellors. But the more they add, the longer the lines of students needing help become. Counselling is not the answer for students who are plugged in every waking moment, eating junk food, and not exercising. Space, space between being and doing, that’s what’s missing. Wisdom emerges from that space, with momentary, timely direction for how to live a balanced life.

From a fully awakened perspective, those two polarities are already balanced so the speed of information processing is not a problem. Everything, including you, is part of the same consciousness. In truth, there is no conflict and no stress and no fragmentation. In fact, it’s possible to reside in the midst of seeming chaos with an awareness that it is all the same, that nothing is wrong and needs fixing, that you are already who you are. You just need to let go.

Don’t suggest that to the scientists fretting about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence (A.I.) To many, biology and technology are in a race to some sort of finish line that will determine the future of humankind. Actually, some would further clarify that it’s about whether humans actually have a future. But consciousness is one and includes everything, including technology. Technology is a valid instrument of consciousness, meant to support you in your further ongoing evolution in consciousness, not sabotage you.

The old human story is that technology and biology are separate, different, and competitive. As you awaken in this space of witnessing oneness, it becomes clear that technology is part of the same consciousness as biology and that the two must coexist. But we are living in the dark ages of consciousness, what in Sanskrit is referred to as the Kali Yuga, where the majority of the human population remains unawakened. That explains the escalating fear about technology as a threat.

Modern shamans will tell you that we are in the final stages of the Kali Yuga, the darkest depths of unconsciousness. Their traditional perspective holds that ten avatars show up throughout the four ages but there is only one in this last age. He or she – known as the Kalki avatar – has not yet appeared.

Or, is that too an illusion, or at least an imperfect interpretation? Perhaps the last avatar is a collective one. Perhaps the one we are waiting for is “the one,” the realized state of oneness that emerges as we release our separate human identities. Perhaps our destiny is to let go and soar, not fall. Of course, there’s only one way to find out!

REFERENCES: