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

Intensifying the Social Trance or Waking to One?

Published on 10/11/11
by randy

Tomorrow marks a shifting moment.  There’s an opportunity to deepen in our notions of ‘two’ or deepen our awareness of One.  We can expand our circle of belonging or diminish it.  We can sharpen our sword or open our arms.  We can be carried away by repeating thoughts from the head or touch the Divine from the heart.  This is not a day to try to persuade another that we’re ‘right’.  It’s not a day to try to ‘fix’ things.  It’s a day to pause, to quiet the mind and find the love that’s available.  This experience of One (Love) is who we are.  It’s an exquisite balance of head and heart, offering tremendous ability to manifest.

This is a time to step out of what’s happening in front of us in a way where we can see it.  Moving into this Witness mind, the more we move into a broader dimension (One, the Ultimate) of our collective experience.  Moving beyond the physical and beyond emotion, there’s an allowing of the energy of the world to pass through us, to reveal it, without us getting caught, wounded, or conditioned by it.  Some have called this the ‘aha’ mind, looking at the trauma in the world as Witness.  The culture would have us deepen our sleep, caught in the realm of the relative, material, dualistic world.  It would have us deepen in greed, fear and our ignorance to the power of One.  In One, we deepen to our real purpose…to experience the beauty of this moment, in all its beauty.  Even in the most difficult of places, beauty is continually asking to be seen.  There’s a tremendous challenge to not claim ownership of this moment.  It’s just the instant opportunity to participate in the ground of Being, outside notions of separation.

This is a day to recognize the peace that comes from One and the pain/suffering that comes from notions of two.  It’s recognizing real healing and wholeness through connection, deepening our awareness to our lack of ease (dis-ease) that comes from the mind struggling with alienation, with smaller circles of belonging.

A major question for us this day is, “Where does my sense of belonging stop?”  Just as a circle has no sides, the feeling of One has no barriers.  This making of peace is a dire need of the human condition, even when traveling through difficult times.  We’re constantly being asked to make peace with the world the way it “is”.  It means we hold our judgment of others, we send energy aimed to reduce their suffering, and it means the unkindness stops with us.  In troubled times, we’re asking how we can take our life as its actually unfolded to grow kindness rather than to use it as an excuse to be unkind?  It’s not asking to forget the betrayal, but to re-open the heart to life, to One.  It’s not a time to condone bad actions, but to hold the person who did them in a more gentle way.  In the realm of the Absolute we’re not only mirrored through our enemy, it’s more like a hologram.  There is no division.  We all carry seeds of greed, fear and ignorance.  We all carry seeds of compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness.  Whether caught in the trance of “not enough” or in the realm of “great fullness”, we ultimately come to ask the question of efficacy, “Is it working for you?”

Today’s Occupy Wall Street movement is doing just that.  It’s asking if monetary/corporate influence in our politics is working or not?  It’s not saying that making money is bad.  It’s asking if it’s bad when making money harms others.  It’s asking if making policy decisions that cause great harm to others is working.  And perhaps the greatest question to the extremely wealthy .01 of the 1%, “Is your hoarding really working to bring you lasting peace and happiness?”  The social trance would have us believe there’s a point of material accumulation and achievement where we no longer suffer. Yet, the more they accumulate the less secure they seem, the more ‘dis-ease’ they reveal.

The healing of America and the international community will come when  more and more wake to compassion for all.  Our real purpose is to waken others to One for the purpose of reducing suffering.  For sure, throughout the day we move in and out of Oneness consciousness.  Fear, greed and our ignoring of One happens.  Yet, in holding our human vulnerability with compassion and softness, we water the seeds of faith, hope and love.  We reach our own armistice moment, a pause in the battle with Other.  This compassion involves an inner release.  Can I sit in softness to my own experience?  Can I calm the complaining mind in me?  When the problems seem big, can I get bigger than the problems?  Can I breath deeply, opening for a greater solution?  Can I acknowledge the fullness of life and step from feeling like a victim?  When tempted to enter into whining, can I open and acknowledge wonder and mystery?

Armistice Day was established in 1938, a day to lay down our arms, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month (11/11).  In the realm of the Ultimate, it’s a day to recognize our One, our Divinity, our non-dual nature.  It’s a day to rest from fighting, persuading, arguing, and debating others.  It’s a time to enter the Witness mind, to open our hearts instead of closing our minds, to cultivate the sincere energy that penetrates all, to connect rather than separate, to wake from the social trance of two, to touch the silence of One in full gratitude for the opportunity to Be.  With this polished heart we desire the best well being for one another.  With this wanting of the best, we know we have to let go.  It means we touch love in the face of impermanence.  It’s realizing the One exists only in this moment, the Present.  It’s a quiet mind and a peaceful heart.  It’s a moment of no struggle, a moment without effort.  Again, it’s the experience of looking for who you are.

This 11/11/11, may you suffer less.

May you be in peace

May you be healed from all resentment

May you awaken

May you be happy

May you be in love (One) now

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