just be it It’s about the work involved in establishing a dedicated practice to feelings of a bigger belonging through practices aimed at increasing feelings of compassion, gratitude and forgiveness

11/11/11

Published on 20/10/11
by randy

Where does our suffering come from?  Isn’t it because we ‘think’ we’re separate?  Isn’t it because we’re caught in our resistance to change?  Isn’t it because we’re drawn to the illusion of duality over the reality of our interdependence?  And isn’t our peace found in touching stillness, feeling the interdependent and impermanent nature of all things?  For me, this is what our great spiritual teachers have shared.  While we struggle with words, the directive is to love one another as ourselves because we are each other.  Our pain and suffering comes from our ignorance to this.  Our healing, rooted in the word ‘wholeness’, is cultivated through our transformation from dualistic thinking to nondualistic ‘feeling/thinking’.  When we reference God, we speak to omnipresent (11 letters), that God nature can’t be divided.  This brings us to an awareness of the fragile nature of things, to the mystery of our relatedness, and to a deeper vow of compassion, generosity, and love.

Can we say love is nondualistic and notions of duality are obstacles to love?  Aren’t the virtues based in a sense of One?  Aren’t the poisons of greed and fear based in Two?  Doesn’t our cultural focus on competition at the expense of others and our mindless consumption without regard to harm create more suffering?  So how do things change when we move to greater awareness to One?  What happens when we let go notions of Two?

Stepping from notions of Two to One, we may discover the following:

Debate moves to dialog.

Need for fixed answers moves to need for deeper questions.

Conformity and persuasion moves to precision and curiosity.

The need to be ‘right’ moves to courageous curiosity.

Dogma and rhetoric moves to expression from the open heart.

Busy-ness diminishes to make space for cultivating stillness and silence.

Thoughts, emotions, words and actions are examined for potential collateral damage.

Gratitude for what ‘is’ deepens.  Pain is reduced through dedicated forgiveness practice.

Awareness to interdependence and impermanence drives our mindful, quality living.

The art of ‘taking care’ deepens as we aim to reduce suffering in ourselves and others.

In wholeness, we awaken to the delusions of time and space, honoring the mystery.

Greed, fear and ignorance transform to generosity, courage and humble confidence.

In short, we’re here to love.  Love is One.  The more we practice from One, the more peace and joy we live in.  For several years, when I’ve looked at a clock, I’ve been struck with how often it’s been 11:11 or 1:11.  Now more than ever, I take it as Universe (God, Source, the Indivisible) ‘waking me’ to the power and truth of One.  We can numb ourselves to this or we can wake.  The social trance of Two is accelerating just as the awakening to One is picking up speed.  It would seem that 11/11/11 is a critical mass point where more and more of us are waking up to the indivisible, to the truth that God is in each of us, in everything, indivisible.  With this awareness we’ll lead more generous lives from moderation, compassion, gratitude and forgiveness.  From this awareness we’ll find our healing, our awakening to Wholeness.

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