Feste, nice writing. Who were the spiritual teachers that you allude to who helped you come to this?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "feste37" <feste37@...> wrote: > > > > > > , but I have all my adult life (I started TM when I was 17) imbibed the > Indian philosophy of "unity is all there is." And thanks to spiritual > teachers who showed me how simple it is, I do experience myself, whenever I > choose, it seems, as existing within a vast Nothing that is also myself > (there seems to be no other way of describing it)-- although I do not > experience that Nothing as God. That's not the word that comes to mind at > all. > > My experience of God -- and it is an unmistakable and quite recent > experience, unlike anything else I've ever had -- is of a being who is quite > Other than me, completely separate from me, and yet who knows me intimately, > and has infinite compassion and a complete lack of judgment about me (neither > of which qualities have I ever been able to muster by myself to apply to > myself), and all without making a big deal out of it -- it's very gentle and > quiet and simple and practical. I find it rather humbling to have such > experiences, the most recent of which came at a time of crisis, and I don't > think I am fooling myself about it. I was being guided at that time by a > Being who, one would have to say, even though it feels rather awkward, is > worthy of the name Lord or Heavenly Father, just as the Christians say. I did > not in any way at that time feel that I was being guided by my "higher self," > an overused New Age term which is probably due for retirement. > > Mind you, I'm not convinced that there is a dichotomy between these two > perspectives. They are just different viewpoints. > > After all, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna early on that the > eternal is within him. He is, in essence, a part of the one reality and can > therefore never cease to exist. (I take that to be close to the "Nothing" > that I seem to be able to experience at will.) > > But when Krishna reveals himself to Arjuna in Chapter 11 in his full glory, > he is a Being who stands wholly apart from Arjuna, superior to him and > infinitely more vast than he, in every way imaginable. > > Arjuna, then, in addition to receiving the knowledge that he is eternal -- he > is the vastness of the absolute that cannot, in the nature of things, ever > pass out of existence -- also has an experience of God as Other, as Not > Myself. > > I would like to continue to live with both perspectives. I can feel the > presence of the Nothing as the Self, but I don't feel that that invalidates > an I-Thou relationship between the individual person and the all-knowing and > all-seeing God who knows even when a sparrow falls to the ground. It's a > paradox in which the individual self may at once know a Unity that brings > peace and a sense of the vastness of Being, but also an Otherness that is > beyond anything that the individual self can merge or be at one with. It is > just too vast to be comprehended. > > Such are my puny musings on a hot humid Saturday night in Fairfield, IA. > > Once again, I have enjoyed your posts, MZ, which are written with such grace > and conviction and ruthless honesty. I think you are on an amazing journey. > > >
