« Previous | Next »
Armistice Day, The Law of Impermanence and The Law of Unity
Published on 13/11/10
by randy
- .
Everything changes. Everything affects everything.
Most of us spend much of our lives trying to fight inevitable change. We’re also continually drawn into the illusion of our separateness, developing egos we think are somehow defined by our thoughts, actions and achievements, identities, relationships, etc. Yet, when we look deeper, change is inevitable and we’re not our fixed notion of an ego. Energy disperses by law. Everything affects everything, by law. We’ll all shed our bodies as entropy plays itself upon us. Certainly, we can work to slow entropy through awareness and body/mind practice that recognizes the fragility of our time within these physical bodies. Yet, no matter how hard we try to stop entropy, the body deteriorates and we take our last breath. Through the Law of Unity, it’s impossible to ‘stop‘ our connection with the Matrix, the Oneness of Life. It’s quite paradoxical that we come to steward better lives when we face our inevitable body release. When we face our death, now we come to true living. Our courage to ‘face this moment’ comes from our felt awareness that ‘this is it’, this moment indivisible in our typical notions of time and space.
The thought of no longer being is quite terrifying. Many religions have evolved with stories about what happens when we shed these bodies. This gives relief to millions and for many, readies them to actually face their death in Divine Oneness. My mother had many cognitive traditional religious beliefs based on a God ‘out there’. They were eventually incorporated into her dying experience as she once again left conflict and duality for the experience of peace and Oneness. Christ was her mode of appreciation and her connection with the Divine was the greatest gift a mother could give her child. Her most profound question, just a few weeks before her last breath, was, “Randy, what are you holding on to?” This was the most liberating question I’ve ever been asked. At that moment I felt her Presence within me and through the Law of Unity, experienced the impossibility of her disappearing. Her Life Force was transforming, her physical energy dissipating, yet I carried great peace in knowing she didn’t stop and she didn’t disconnect from the Source of Being. She was transforming, moment to moment, much like the chrysalis changing to the butterfly.
On this Armistice Day it seems appropriate to question our fighting nature. The originators of this day set it as a commitment to never again repeat the grave mistake of WWI. It was set as a commitment to find alternatives to warfare. The very date of 11/11, signed at 11pm, carries the message of our Oneness in honor to the Law of Unity. When I fight you from fear, anger, greed or ignorance, I fight myself and harm the Universe with my dualistic thought. When I experience you as me I respect the fragility of our condition and minimize the harm I do. As Jesus spoke in Luke 6, “Love you enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you”, our life journey is to feel others as us, to do to others as we would have them do to us, because we are each other, bound in relation through the Law of Unity.
The intention of Armistice Day was lost after we experienced WWII and when President Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans Day. We lost the very strength of those spiritual leaders who chose this day of Oneness, 11/11 at 11pm, allowing us to further entrench ourselves in the illusion of conflict. This is not to take away from our remembrance of those lost in combat. Still, can we follow our intention to Oneness? It’s to challenge ourselves to honestly ask if war has ever worked. It’s to really do the work of responding in action to Christ’s mandate, a mandate from almost all great spiritual leaders. Cultivate Oneness. Seek to understand one another as mirrors of ourselves. At all costs, respond in action from love, not greed, fear and ignorance. How many innocent lives have been lost from poor intelligence? How many lives have been saved from patience, generosity, and love? Former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, made an insightful documentary about this evolution called Fog of War. Too bad it’s not a mandate for viewing on each 11/11. In these times of ever increasing respect for militarism, anger and fighting, I suspect the words of Jesus and Buddha may create some negative judgment. Yet, for me, as we approach 1/11/11 and 11/11/11, my intentions will forever strengthen in Big Hope and awareness to the Law of Unity and the Law of Impermanence, as we more deeply respond in love to our rapidly changing universe. Honor and mourn veterans and their sacrifice? Yes, for their sacrifice lives in all of us. Yet, let’s not loose sight of our spiritual mandate to forever increase our awareness to Oneness. Love one another as yourself, because you are in One, our completion Here and Now, the separation an illusion.
MIDVAS (from Charles Van Riper’s acronym for Motivation, Identification, Desensitization, Variability, Approximations, and Stability)
So how do I deepen my understanding of impermanence and unity? What ‘practice’ strengthens my capacity to accept what is within ‘this moment’? What practice deepens my awareness and consequent experience of Oneness? How do my thoughts deepen or weaken my understanding and experience of change and interdependence? STAY TUNED
That's it. What Next?
Please leave your comment so we know what you think about this article. Trackback URL: Armistice Day, The Law of Impermanence and The Law of Unity.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.