Truth

Bagwan Shree Rajneesh pointed out that orthodox religions go to great lengths to portray a world that strips humanity of its dignity: "the holy men of these religions are presented as so far above us that life becomes discouraging. Mohammed did not die but ascended directly into heaven, on his horse no less, which you will never be able to do. Jesus was born of a virgin woman and is the only begotten son of God. What does that make you? You are not even his cousin. He walked on water, brought dead people back to life, and resurrected after death. You cannot manage any of those things and all that you can do is feel humility and worship him. Buddha was born standing up and then proceeded to walk seven feet then declare that he was the greatest enlightened man that ever was and ever will be. What chance have you of any real accomplishment, any great awakening?"

His words echo those of Ralph Waldo Emerson who spoke on the same subject some 150 years earlier. In his Harvard Divinity School Address of 1838 he said, "That which shows God in me, fortifies me. That which shows God out of me, makes me a wart and a wen. There is no longer a necessary reason for my being... Jesus Christ saw that God incarnates himself in man and said, 'I am divine. Through me, God acts; through me, speaks. Would you see God, see me; or, see thee, when thou also thinkest as I now think.' ...But the church in the next age said that 'this was Jehovah come down out of heaven, and I will kill you if you say he was a man.' the world Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and the falling rain... [Jesus] I think, [was] the only soul in history who has appreciated the worth of a man."

Emerson saw that Jesus was a man who counseled other men (men and women, of course) that access to divine being was our fundamental nature, and his message was one of shared inspiration, not of a separate god or son of god speaking down to a forever separate mankind. He declared the church corrupt and pointed out that as Christianity was taught man found "that virtue and truth were foreclosed and monopolized. You shall not own the world; you shall not dare, and live after the infinite Law that is in you...but you must subordinate your nature to Christ's  nature and accept our interpretations and take his portrait as the vulgar draw it."

For his words against the church and its leaders Emerson was driven out of the intellectual and social circles of his time and was shunned and ignored. Those who opposed and hated him for the truth that he had spoken sought to remove him from their world and make him disappear.   Ha.    Ha.   Ha.   Do you know even one of their names? Do you know a single word they ever uttered? Their names have never crossed my mind or lips, nor yours either. They no longer exist, and for all intents and purposes, they never did exist.

But over the last century and a half the truths that Emerson spoke have been written into a hundred languages across the earth and are read anew every day, every week, and the words ring with the same clarity and inspiration as the day he uttered them at the Divinity School Address. As long as the words of men are read and understood, those words of Emerson will glitter in the firmament like lighting on water and, perhaps, will remain even when the speech of man has slipped on beyond the edges of time and memory. The truth does not tarnish. It does not languish. It does not become untrue over time. And the eternal in you seeks the eternal wherever it can be found.

Open your heart. Open your mind. Listen for what is true, in your seeing and in your speaking. The truth is seeking to be seen, the truth is seeking to be heard. You are a wellspring of vision and inspiration. Wake Up!   YES!    It's coming from within you! Are you listening? Are you willing to hear? Are you ready?  You are the incarnation of being! In you the world arises and is given form!

You are more vast than the heavens

The immensity of our soul exceeds our ability to imagine about it. You do not sleep, you do not rest, you are never weary and you never tire. It is only our body that tires and sleeps. And even in dreaming or in dreamless sleep our consciousness resides eternally aware, eternally open, eternally conscious. The body can be strengthened but our consciousness, our soul, is unbounded and without limit. The mind cannot grasp the magnitude of the soul, only see it from within the constraints of its own limited perception.

You are greater than you can dream! How far would you stretch forth your arms if you felt the unbounded reach of your soul? Imagine that. Not only how far would you reach, but more importantly, what would you really reach for if you truly experienced the depth and completeness of your true being?

Nor All Your Tears

Not only is this moment as it should be, but it is as it must be -  along with our imaginings, our joys or regrets, our confidences or doubts and opinions about what is unfolding. What is cannot be anything other than that, no matter how vividly we see an alternative or wish otherwise. That's the part that is so hard to get our arms around when we do not like what is, cannot bear what is true. And our not being able to bear, our vividly wishing or wanting something else, that is part of that perfect, true, reality of here, now. You cannot stand it? That is as it must be, for what is could be no other way. And the future and past do not exist except in our imaginings. Damn it! We can only be  here  now , like it or not, feeling what we feel and thinking what we think.

And the point of seeing the moment for what it is? Freedom. Freedom to let things be the way they are, freedom to let things turn out the way they turn out including all the machinations of our mind and our feelings. We will do well or we won't. We will succeed or we will fail either gloriously or in humiliation. We will do what we must, and what is and what will be will turn out exactly as it will. Damn it! I want it to be better! I want it to turn out happily everafter! Of course I do, and that's as it must be!