THE TRIAD OF BECOMING #7

Let's take a meditation walk with the wisdom of the Ancestors.

TRUST, SURRENDER AND NON-ATTACHMENT

To trust more is not always to doubt less but rather to act with certainty in the face of doubtfulness. 

This is what is meant by caring enough to dare.

TRUST

 Doubt can protect us from harm but when unskillful, it will neutralize trust.

We are not asked not to doubt – we are asked to trust. 

We are not asked to give what we have not – we are asked only to give all we have.

Avoid the rhetoric of reticence and beware the sabotage, the odiousness and the subversiveness of doubt.

 

To trust more is not always to doubt less but rather to act with certainty in the face of doubtfulness. This is what is meant by caring enough to dare.

Doubt and trust are not mutually exclusive. We can doubt but forge ahead anyway and disprove our reason for doubting.

As you release, so you will be released. You must venture, you must risk, you must trust. Live so completely that it embraces others.

 

Patience is the heartbeat of trust, trust the hope of patience.

 

Trust your affairs to the Creator and your plans will succeed.
To know this is wisdom, to act on this is faith.

Trust in the Creator and He will give you the desires of your heart.

You have only to decide on a matter and it will be done,

 according to the measure of your humility, 

the measure of your love 

and the measure of your faith. 

To know this is wisdom, to act on this is faith. 

Make your prayer to Him and S/He will hear you.

Our ability to surrender depends on our trust. God wants a personal relationship with us all. It is said the God is playing hide and seek but no one wants to play. God wants to be loved.

  

Make smooth your path with trust. God’s love is not earned, it is given. Receive it with joy.

God is not a test of love. God's love is not a test.

God loves us all. Karma is set as a default into the soul. Karma is the test. God does not micromanage.

 The love remains but there are consequences for our actions - positive or negative.

SURRENDER

Trust is the heartbeat of surrender.

Our ability to Surrender depends on trust.

Trust allows for Surrender. 

Surrender and Non-Attachment also go hand in hand.

We see as we think.
We are as we believe.
We transform as we trust.

We transcend as we surrender.

Surrender is a giving in, resignation is a giving up.

“If a person wants to be sure of the road s/he treads on, s/he must close his eyes and walk in the darkness.”

St John of the Cross

Surrender arises out of Trust. Surrender in a spiritual sense is not a giving up, not waving the white flag as in battle. Surrender is about trust, flexibility, receptivity, a fearlessness, connecting with Self and the Field and a letting go, of being in the flow. It is not about grasping and focusing on wants.  

Non-Attachment differs from Detachment. 

Non-Attachment is not about having no expectation and not doing! 

We should be attached to our spiritual life, attached to doing things for the greater good, to healing the planet, to correcting injustice and hoping that even our small actions can make a difference. 

Non-Attachment is about being Non-Attached to "the yolk of ego," to the physical and material and all of its attractions. 

Non-Attachment was covered more extensively in the blog on the Triad of Ego. 

When it comes to the Triad of Becoming it is more about Trust in the Infinite One, the positive side of the "Field".., rather than being stuck in ego.

Resignation can create Detachment which can result in desperation, denial, despair, dejection and a feeling of defeat.

When we surrender our egos by acknowledging a higher force we become more connected with the “Field,” and other unrecognized forces. 

The journey itself is the place of being - it is never finished - the being is always becoming. 

The road to this place is the road of surrender.

Surrender is a giving in to something bigger than ourselves. It is the remedy for resignation and detachment.

To Surrender is to have courage.

"The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf." 

Shakti Gawain

Surrender  fortifies not weakens - it does not diminish desire nor dilute determination - it is the eyes of trust that see what seeing eyes do not.

The sages teach that that there are three attributes of surrender each when cultivated giving rise to that which liberates, completes and fulfills.
These attributes are trust, acceptance and gratitude.
Trust embraces equanimity, acceptance embraces love and gratitude  embraces happiness.
When lacking these attributes there is no surrender but simply resignation; a sometimes non-caring, sometimes hopelessness, sometimes fearful giving-up that is prompted by Narrow (Monkey) Mind.

Surrender is prompted by the wisdom of Spacious Mind.
It is a way of doing, not of non-doing, it is a way of being present, a way of becoming 

In surrendering are we then received, in emptying are we then filled, in opening are we then embraced. In loving do we then know love and are transformed.

In the sanctity of surrender, surrender empowers the vision of Spacious Mind to see the sacred in all creation.
We see in a pebble, a leaf  a feather the uniqueness of all within the whole - endless diversity in endless oneness.
Surrender allows Spacious Mind to silence speech so that we may hear the spirit voices of trees and listen to the song in the winds.
the Infinite One's talk is heard with the heart in response to its yearnings.

In surrendering are we then received, in emptying are we then filled, in opening are we then embraced - In loving do we then know love and are transformed.

Surrender is required for the first stage of Separation on the Hero/ine's journey. It is a yearning for the extraordinary and requires we take our boat out of our safe harbor. The journey requires courage, trust and surrender to what we may find in that ocean of potential change.

Non-Attachment will be covered on next week's blog.

THE TRIAD OF BECOMING #6

UNDERSTANDING

HOPELESSNESS, DOUBT, DENIAL, RESIGNATION, DETACHMENT

VS.

WISDOM

HOPE, FAITH, BELIEF, TRUST, SURRENDER

We need both sides for balance.

Balance is achieved by harmonizing polarities. Dualities come into harmony by negotiating a third or middle path, a path not of assimilation but one of coexistence. 

There are only two feelings Love and Fear.

The Ancestors urge us to find the way

between Contraction (Fear) on the left and Expansion (Love) on the right

between, 

Hopelessness, Doubt, Denial, Disbelief, Resignation, Detachment 

and

between

Hope, Belief, Faith, Trust, Surrender, Non-Attachment.

Trust allows us to Surrender and be Non-Attached.

 

UNDERSTANDING

 

HOPELESSNESS, DOUBT, DENIAL, RESIGNATION, DETACHMENT

 

There is trust; there is doubt. 

There is belief there is denial. 

There is virtue; there is domination.

 Doubting is acceptable as long as trust remains.

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for s/he shall never be disappointed.” Alexander Pope

 

Expecting nothing becomes a no-can-do attitude. One could rephrase this to … “Cursed is he who expects nothing and lives in a world devoid of hope.” The shadow side of Hope is hopelessness, denial, resignation and detachment . 

"Ever since I gave up hope I feel better." Anonymous

Hopelessness can allow for resignation and a certain degree of comfort ... as in there is nothing I can do about this so I may as well watch TV, eat junk food and drink beer - the couch-potato-syndrome.

The Serenity prayer has more wisdom.

 “O God and Heavenly Father, grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other..." Reinhold Niebuhr

When it comes to global issues there is often nothing we can do. That does not excuse us from embarking on the path of spiritual transformation.

"Render unto Cesar that which is Caesar's. Render unto God that which is God's." Jesus

“S/he who sees life as a process of spiritual perfection does not fear external events.” Tolstoy

 

DOUBT

 

Doubting can be useful. It is possible to doubt and trust at the same time. Trust and doubt are not usually mutually exclusive. The shadow side of doubt is disbelief. The Ancestors teach ... you will come from doubt to belief ... but this depends on our trust.

 

Doubt is a way of exploring wonder 

and anxiety and is a way of expressing caring. 

It is only in their excess and misdirection that they are futile and counter-productive. Better by far to use their service appropriately than banish them.

 

Hopelessness, denial, doubt, disbelief and resignation are about 

a giving up. 

Resignation leads to Detachment and Desperation.

 

Concerning detachment, one of its paths leads to a lifeless world without enthusiasm or hope. A place of indifference where one could become ensnared in hidden traps of dejection and despair, where one no longer cares to love nor dares to trust.

 

The mystery invites us to surrender and trust the inexplicable, 

to what we cannot really know 

and yet the not knowing fills us with wonder and awe.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF HOPELESSNESS, DOUBT, DENIAL, RESIGNATION, DETACHMENT

It is trust which sustains the vision and love that actualizes it.

It is Trust that propels us on the Hero/ine's journey in spite of our fears and doubts.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” Patanjali

Negative polarities can us lead down a slippery slope of limited   choices and defeatist action. They can prevent us from seeing what may be possible and what is achievable. Optimist are happier and more successful than pessimists. Pessimists are more often correct but because of their thinking may be creating their own reality. 

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford

 “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is to high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.” Michelangelo

HOPE

 

 Hope is about believing in the evidence and then watching the evidence change.

 

Hope requires action. Having deep knowledge alone is not enough to actualize it.

 

 Hope without expectation is an unlit candle and a single winged bird.

 

When the first white settlers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope they encountered the San Bushmen hunter-gatherers. These simple people shared everything and to them the bounties that nature provided belonged to everyone. They owned no land and their belongings were limited to the tools they needed for hunting and gathering and surviving – a digging stick, bow and arrows, tools to make fire, clothing made of animal skins and rudimentary grass huts which were impermanent because they were nomadic. They mostly slept together at night around a fire on the mother earth.

The livestock owned by the settlers seemed to be free game to them but when one of them hunted it he would be imprisoned. The jailers noted that young healthy Bushmen who could go without food and water for prolonged periods would be found dead in the cell even though they were provided food and water. The Bushmen lived so much in the present moment that they could 

not conceive of ever getting out of such a hell hole. Having lost all hope they would succumb.

Hopelessness can be fatal.

 

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The placebo effect has the power to help, to heal and to cure. It depends on the patient being given and having hope.

There is an interesting report written by a psychologist Bruno Klopfer in 1957 who was involved with the treatment of a Mr. Wright regarding a new drug called Krebiozen that had just been released for lymphoma. Treatment for lymphoma was seriously lacking at that time. Wright had been admitted to hospital, cachectic, bed ridden, on oxygen with hugely enlarged lymph nodes, fluid in his pleural cavities and a dismal prognosis. He had fulminating metastatic lymphoma. Wright was extremely well informed about his disease and had read all about the new drug's optimistic claims. He begged the doctors to find and give him this new drug. They complied and after it was administered his lymph nodes melted away, the fluid around his lungs disappeared and ten days later he was in complete remission. He was discharged from hospital,  ambulating, without oxygen. Wright was vey scientific and rigid in his beliefs and followed all the data available at that time. Information began to circulate that Krebiozen was not all that it was thought to be. He became depressed and was readmitted in his prior condition. His medical team had been amazed at the rapid response and being well aware of the power of placebo they decided on a new treatment plan which today would be unethical. They told him the drug was just as good as they had thought it to be but some of the shipment had deteriorated and that they now had an even more concentrated version. This time they gave him a placebo with the same excellent response. He was discharged again in complete remission. A short time later the A.M.A published a report that Krebiozen was ineffective. Wright died a short time after the report was released.

The combination of Hopelessness arising out of the 

nocebo effect (the power of belief to hurt, harm or even kill you) combined with guilt (someone was wronged)

supplemented with a hex from witchcraft's negative non-local effect can be a death sentence.

This story about an African employee (lets call him Jacob) in Johannesburg who goes to his employer (say Michael) and relates that he is going home to die. On further questioning Michael finds out that this is because of witchcraft. Michael had done something wrong. 

He takes Jacob to see a doctor who does a full work up; blood tests and imaging and tells them both that Jacob is perfectly healthy and has no reason to be concerned. Jacob goes home and shortly after Michael gets a call from Jacob's wife that Jacob had "passed."  Michael is distressed and tells her; "but we took him to the best Dr. and the blood tests and X rays could find nothing wrong." His wife replied; "Yes but the snake that the witch put in him was very clever and hid behind his bones where it could not be seen."

In the next blog we will talk about Trust, Surrender and Non-Attachment

 

 

THE TRIAD OF BECOMING #5

TRUTH

There is only one truth and that is the power of love … The only real truth is God’s love for us.

"Do not believe a thing because it is said by an authority or because it is said to come from angels, gods, or any inspired source. Believe it only if you have explored it in your own heart, mind and body and found it to be true."  The Buddha

“Wisdom is often at odds with accepted knowledge … that experience itself is not necessarily the inner truth of the matter. 

So one should test what one accepts with the measurements of love and compassion rather than the reality of mass appeal.”  Hillel

Truth is influenced on the right side of the Tree by;

Hope, Faith, Belief, Trust, and Surrender.

 

Those on the left by;

Hopelessness, Doubt, Denial, Disbelief, Resignation and Detachment

(The next blog.)

These two polarities help us shape the path to Truth. Truth can be a slippery slope acccording to the teachings of the Ancestors. It changes according to the circumstances - often those in that present moment. 

When we die and move across the veil between worlds we will be accountable to spiritual truths which are somewhat different from the truths held on this side of the veil. They hold, whether we believe in them, know them and understanding them, or not

Truth is balanced by many factors coming into being through the reconciliation of 

Wisdom vs. Understanding 

as well as being influenced by the 

Triad of Love's  

Judgment vs. Mercy 

which in turn will depend on how well we have managed the 

Triad of Ego's

Attachment vs. Non Attachment

...so that Truth can be actualized in

Kingdom

...the lowest sephira where we work out our individual realities on the planet. All these polarities interact and are never isolated. However, it helps to break them down into three Triads for better understanding and clarification. Mastery of the Triad of Becoming assumes that we have become or are becoming somewhat skillful in navigating the two lower Triads. 

 “Do not consider it proof because it is written in books for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.” Maimonides

More than ever so called experts lie in speech, the written word and now even more creatively and sometimes diabolically on the internet and social media. Hitler with the help of his propagandist Joseph Goebbels nearly changed the world order with radio alone. With the power of the internet and A.I. the deception is happening now on a much larger and frightening scale.

 

Reveal always truth and you will be guided about what to do. 

Truth should be modified by love.

If the law does not serve love, do not serve the law. 

(that does not necessarily mean disobey it.)

 God’s love is not a test, God is not a test of love. God loves us unconditionally. Karma is the test and is built as a default into the soul. Spiritual Truth will determine our Karma when we leave the plant and have to reconcile with a spiritual tribunal. 

Truth can also be in the present moment. Sometimes depending on circumstances, and when love is the mediator, the opposite can be true.

Data, dogma, conviction, arrogance, rules and laws about what is supposedly true can block access to Understanding, Wisdom and our Becoming.

 

Concerning truth, we must have the courage to challenge and be challenged. Whenever challenging ceases then accepted knowledge goes unexamined. Teaching becomes proselytizing and learning becomes rote.

  

“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.” Nietzsche

Truth can be ego clinging to its own image.

 

The negative side of Understanding is when it is under the influence of Ego, Narrow (Monkey) Mind and our Shadow. We must be sure to subordinate the three of them when searching for truth. 

We need to take the Truth from whence it comes whether it’s a scripture, a teaching of a sage from another tradition or a beggar in the street. 

 

 Insisting, clinging to one’s opinion does not allow truth to emerge. 

 

Facts of themselves are not the same as truth – they can be used to deceive or mislead. Many wrong conclusions are based on facts that are misused – sometimes with deliberate intent, sometimes out of prejudice, sometimes out of honest error.

There is so much information (portrayed as truth) available to us now through the internet. We should be careful of not losing ourSelves to those truths that may have merit but have little to do with our personal core strength, destiny and mission on the planet.

Be yourself is another truth.

"Be what you is, coz if you be what you aint, you aint what you is." Written on a tombstone in Arizona

 

The most dangerous distraction is the lure of beguiling but essentially extraneous information – be it false or true. More important, is it useful to you, does it inspire, support, advance and enhance who you are and your relationship with God or is it merely speculative, and appealing to your curiosity?

“The ultimate purpose of study (for the source of truth) is not for intellectual acquisition but for the experience of spiritual connection...not to fill the mind but to arouse the soul.” Kabbalah

There are multiples polarities all acting in the present moment which will determine why, if and how Truth arises. The concepts are relatively simple, managing them, however, is challenging. 

Moreover, as one ascends the T.O.L. it does not get easier, it gets harder for a multitude of reasons relating to chameleon like negative polarities inside of us as well as others outside of us. The state of the planet and our human existence at the moment being a huge one.

 

  

THE TRIAD OF BECOMING #4

 

UNDERSTANDING VS. WISDOM

Do not let learning distort your knowing and remember that wisdom is not dependent on either, although she will show herself respectful of both. Wisdom know the necessity of information and the value of knowledge but she is not confused by the former or mistakes it for the latter. Nor does wisdom confuse knowledge with knowing. She recognizes there are ways of knowing other than the brain.

Truth (the next blog) resides in Understanding's correct interpretation of information and knowledge provided to Her and from Wisdom and sources outside of ourselves. 

Understanding is Verbal, Differentiated thought which differs from the Non-Verbal, Undifferentiated thought of Wisdom. 

A deeper sense of knowing is contained in Non-Verbal, Undifferentiated thinking. 

The power of “seeing what seeing eyes cannot see” and “hearing what hearing ears cannot hear.”

The shadow side of Understanding is our Monkey (Narrow) Mind which is balanced by Spacious Mind in Wisdom.

 

Temper wisdom with love and compassion.

When the heart is muffled, the soul shrinks.

Wisdom without Love (the central Triad on the Tree) is the shadow side of Wisdom and Understanding and is an empty shell. Hence the Ancestors affirm;

You will come from Doubt to Belief, from Belief to Understanding, from Understanding to Knowing and from Knowing (Wisdom) and Seeing 

to Feeling (being heart felt.) 

This is the way.

Information is not to be equated with knowledge,

knowledge is not to be equated with understanding, 

understanding is not to be equated with wisdom 

 and wisdom is not to be equated with virtue, holiness 

and heart-feltness

UNDERSTANDING

Information is not to be equated with Knowledge,

and Knowledge is not to be equated with Understanding, 

We have a huge amount of information available to us on our smart phones. That does not mean we know any of it or even understand it fully. That's why we need to be tested during our schooling.

We can know a lot and understand little. Many are denied the faculty of Wisdom. 

In my medical school’s preclinical years there were straight A students who many of us believed would make the best doctors. This was not always so. The could regurgitate huge amounts of information but sometimes had difficulty making correct clinical judgments later in the wards. Also, some of them lost or never had the heartfeltness of having a “calling” rather than just a job.

Being aware of the lesson differs from learning it.

Knowing the path is different from following it.

 

If you say that there is much that you have never heard of,

 you should consider more importantly how much there is that you have not encompassed.

WISDOM

Understanding is not to be equated with Wisdom and Knowing

Wisdom is not to be equated with Virtue, Holiness and Heart-feltness

Wisdom without Love will not get us to Keter.

LOVE

If the law does not serve love, do not serve the law.

If information and knowledge do not serve justice and compassion they are but a conceit and a hollow sound.

Many sages, from different traditions, because of greed and power lose the heart-love component and the way.

"Kabir says; Friend there are very few who find the path."

"The gates are wide but few will enter."

That does not mean we should not give it our best.

UNDERSTANDING 

Understanding embraces the element of fire. Without Understanding we would all be living in the stone age. Understanding with the imaginative power of Wisdom has allowed us the miracle of science and technology. 

However, our educational system seems biased on the side of Understanding and of mathematics, science and computer codes at the expense of music, art, poetry and prose. Wisdom is put on the back burner in favor of data, the scientific method, evidence-based medicine etc…

Understanding and Wisdom each have their shadow side – Truth lies in the middle and Will decides what action we take if any. 

The only real truth and the greatest mediator, is love.

WISDOM

“People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind – imagination and intuition.” W.B. Yeats

Wisdom, whose element is water, flows best in the non-verbal and undifferentiated world of our imagination - in Spacious Mind’s, fantasy, magic, mystical inner knowing, and seeing. 

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rationale mind a faithful servant.We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift" A. Einstein

To think like God is to imagine.

Einstein wanted to understand the mind of God. He also said that his powers of imagination and fantasy meant more to him that his cognitive abilities.

Wisdom should be humble and acknowledge that it has limited understanding. It should enjoy and be in awe of the mystery. The shadow side of Wisdom is arrogance.

There are truths that go far beyond the cognitive understandings of all of us.

Nature is our most powerful teacher in terms of awe and respect.

 

“Nature hides her secrets with consummate modesty and speaks usually in an unintelligible tongue” Charles Huggins

 

The reality we can apprehend with the senses is only one percent of the universe. …nature has hidden most of the matter in the universe and hidden it in a form that cannot be readily detected.” The Zohar

 

“Miracles happen not in opposition to nature but in opposition to what we know about nature.” Augustine of Hippo

The saddest and most impoverishing notion human beings cling to is that we are limited by laws of the natural world (those laws we have contrived as to how the universe works.)
There is a crucial difference between being subject to, and being constrained by.

 

We limit ourselves when we believe that science has all the answers. The natural laws of the universe that we have been taught are incomplete and usually in the process of developing. As science and medicine evolve these laws keep changing. They are rarely absolute.

 

The San Bushmen hunter-gatherers are (or were when they had their habitat) nature bound. They are able to live beyond the five senses and are incredibly intuitive. They see what seeing eyes cannot and hear what hearing ears do not. They understand the laws and the truth of nature beyond what we can comprehend with a Western mindset. 

 

The intuitive is the closest to “I am that I am (the Infinite One.)”

 

The Force of the Primal manifest as love is the glory of God.

 

The hunter gatherers were not limited by our educational dogma. They knew Nature's laws more intimately. They did not know the laws we have created for ourselves about how we think nature works, which are deficient. 

The San had and have an inner knowing of things much like the spiritual masters we admire. 

Sadly, in each successive aboriginal generation that comes under Western influence there is an ongoing dilution and pollution of these original truths that should never change. We have paid a huge price for our amazing technology and few of us realize how much has been lost. Science can be arrogant and rarely admits to its ignorance. 

Quantum physicists do admit that anyone who thinks they understand quantum physics does not really understand it. We live in a one percent universe and have little idea of the other 99%. We need to respect and be in awe of the unknown.

The value of information is in its use for transformation.

  

There is so much information available to us now through the internet. We should be careful of not losing ourSelves to truths that have little to do with our personal core strength, destiny and mission on the planet.

 

The most dangerous distraction is the lure of beguiling but essentially extraneous information – be it false or true. More important, is it useful to you, does it inspire, support, advance and enhance who you are and your relationship with God or is it merely speculative, and appealing to your curiosity?

Are you nibbling on the apples of the Tree of Knowledge or are you nurturing whatever proud plant or humble weed is your present entrustment?
It is that which you are to make glorious.

Anything or anybody who does not make you more of who you are, makes you less of who you are.

Perfection can be the shadow side of Understanding. Excellence resides in Wisdom since She knows that seeking perfection is folly and unhealthful. There should always be, a sufficiency of excellence unto itself.

It makes no sense spending an inordinate amount of time to make a tiny difference in a task you have already accomplished well.

The fallacy of perfection is in thinking that there is a point of such completeness beyond which there is no place to go, improve or strive for. This is very different from excellence which is achievable, always desirable, and often necessary but in varying degrees for varying tasks and purposes.

Striving for perfection is more a quality of misunderstanding.

Excellence a quality of Wisdom.