[thoughts from ~burning woman~ by Sha’Tara]
Premise: If my whole hearted desire, my single-minded focus, my goal, is to make this world a better place for all to enjoy – in the proper sense of the word – then I need to determine the kind of power needed to accomplish such a thing. Then I must assure myself that such power does indeed, exist. Then I need to determine where such power comes from; perhaps who owns and moves that power. Then I need to literally place myself in the flow of that power that it may transform me. And finally, I need to learn how to use such power.
Three years ago I arrived at this realization: At what point do you no longer belong to yourself? That would be when you have determined your purpose. You will belong to your purpose until you become the purpose. Then it no longer matters for you and your purpose are one.
A couple of years later I wrote this down: When is there ever a time to be proud? Never, for of this I am sure: having determined a purpose for my personal life, I no longer own it: life owns me. I have become its servant.
Yesterday, while reading through “The Avatar Syndrome” (Stan Law) I came across this quote on the subject of healing: “You don’t own the power. The power owns you. Its nature is universal. If you are to channel it for whatever cause, you must withdraw your ego. At least, until you learn to act consciously.”
What is the toughest admonition here? “You must withdraw your ego.” Jesus put it this way, “Unless you become as a little child you cannot enter…” and “Be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.”
And more appropriate quotes from my favourite Avatar: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve...” (from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 20)
I study life and observe people as they interact with each other and other life on this world. This proclivity has given me much food for reflection over the years. Eventually it forced me to mentally separate myself from the world of man. The more I saw of it, the less I liked it; the less I enjoyed it; the more I felt alienated from it. Perhaps focused observation awakens the empathetic sense and one becomes painfully aware of how much horror man inflicts upon his world and upon those of his own species. Man in his hungry quest for self-aggrandizement or lustful pleasures is a predator who far outdoes in means and cruelty any great white shark. These are tame by comparison.
Man doesn’t kill to eat or to survive. Man kills for pleasure, for profit, for self-satisfaction. Man, from any honest observation, is an evil entity. Even those who think themselves “good” are not. This too I observe constantly. A man may be better than another in one aspect of life, but grossly fail in another. A man may scrupulously pay his taxes and never lie under oath but exploit his employees or abuse his wife. A man may be a wonderful husband and father and as a prison guard, mistreat and abuse prisoners. A man may belong to a group promoting the sanctity of life yet spend weekends and vacations fishing and hunting – and never admit the hypocrisy of his actions.
It is said that since the world entered the age of Kali Yuga, man has been de-evolving mentally. Granted, these ages spread over thousands of years, but the effect is historically visible. Because of technological advances in very recent times people have been blinded to their terrible loss of simplicity and innocence, leading to a catastrophic decline in morals and ethics. The more talk there is on these issues, the less their relevance to daily living. Witness current events: the farce politics and the justice system have become; corporate lawlessness; the endless conflicts and resource wars of aggression; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; the death of thousands on a daily basis, dying of totally preventable causes, victims of the marketplace; expanding numbers of prisons and refugee camps and a visible decline in morality and ethics world-wide giving rise to a laissez-faire hedonism whose end must be the destruction of billions of individuals as these things exacerbate a powder-keg global condition.
As long as man accepts this payoff for the good life brought on by a heartless, soulless, mindless technology; as long as the great catastrophes, conflicts, wars and famines happen to a relatively small percentage of the total population; as long as these problems penetrate no closer to home than the TV screen, the “majority” of those who could make a difference remains hooked in its state of desensitized voyeurism, uncaring, apathetic, unable to sense; to feel, what the victims are actually enduring.
So? So much for man. Perhaps no one who has consciously experienced this place should make a pact with Life to save this world from itself; from the foolishness and ignorance of its ruling species. But man is not the only consideration. Man has children whom, brought up in a truly safe, kind, compassionate environment, would grow up to be angels. There are all those others as well, those non-man creatures demanding nothing but to be left to their own means to develop as their nature intends. Must these victims of man be destroyed entirely because of hubris and ignorant cruelty?
I realize now that no amount of “charitable works” or involvement in groups can ever hope to change anything. Yes, an individual can, through such efforts, find a way to assuage feelings of guilt that arise in the mind of the more evolved. Charitable efforts may even make life better for a few victims of man’s society. But while this is better than doing nothing, that is not at all what the power to change a world is all about.
All my life, at times more, at times less, I have pondered the concept of a power great enough to change a world; a power not dependent on groups or organizations but wielded by an individual who has given all to this force. It is obvious that anyone truly serious about this would seek this power through divine worship; through religious performance or duty. So many have gone that route, as have I… and the world never changed. The great evils may have traded names and places, but they were never in any danger of being disempowered in the least. And if not through divinities or religion, then where would a change agent go for the power needed?
Where indeed. Oh, I can already hear the glib answers, some of which I quoted above. The power is within you. Fine. Well and good. Great. So you turn inward in meditation or contemplation and begin to intone your “Aummmm… Aummmm…"
and when you open your eyes, you raise your hand and presto: the power manifests from your fingers, or a ray of light shoots out from between your eyes: the hungry are fed, the sick are healed, the evil doers are thrown into confusion and the world becomes that better place you had dreamed of all those years… yes?
Sorry, that’s not how it works either. Perhaps in a more propitious environment where innocent faith still exists despite the onslaught of technology and its host of false promises, miracles can still manifest. Perhaps. But let the media sharks get hold of the story and there goes that power. Again, the Matrix forces non-conformity into conformity. No cure without a medical degree and legalized drugs. Case closed. “We have a law and by that law he must die.” That should be a very familiar quote to many.
So I’ll tell you how it works. It works in accordance with certain unobserved, un-provable laws of Life. Going back to the above quotes, the change agent, the Avatar, has no power. Remains unseen, unknown and unaware should any suspicious effects actually manifest because of her or his passage among man, over this world. That’s what “withdrawing ego” means.
On the personal level, what matters to me is that I have made a free will, self-empowered choice to live my life a certain way; a hidden life, basically. On the surface, at the level of Matrix-permitted awareness, I am no different than anyone else. In fact, in my introspection I see that I am least of all – for having all that I have been given and “done” so little with it all. But I know another level, a place where I live, where everything is different. A world of dreams and visions; of true beauty. From that place earth is far from hopeless for I am empowered to see it as it is meant to be, and shall be. Either I shall find the power to bring Earth to this place, or I shall bring this place to absorb Earth and transform all that resides here.
There is a price to pay for choosing this path; for admittance to this esoteric place. Though the price is not the same for everyone who chooses to become a change agent from compassion (there being many who choose rather to become change agents for evil) the price is always high. It must match that which you would ransom for payment is always demanded and required. Nothing in Life is free and those who teach such are dissemblers, deliberate liars or simply ignorant of the rules.
I close this bit with Hamlet’s famous soliloquy. Though it may seem to come across as contradictory, it speaks to what I tried to express above.
Hamlet’s Soliloquy – Shakespeare
(this is the more modern version)
To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely,
The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
The insolence of Office, and the Spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveler returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o'er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
With the pale cast of Thought, And enterprises of great pitch
and moment. But to serve.
Interesting write.
Lady Mary Ann
Be All My Sins Remembered,i.e. There Are
More Hells To Endure(Upon Your Own Death) Than
Are Billions Of Stars In Entire Universe As
Beyond All Galaxies Of In This Evil World
We You Live In!!
Be Open Mine Eyes Sayeth Lord (God) I Assure
He (God) Will - May Make Your Own Death More Than
Less Meaningful-**Save 1 Child(ren) You Save Your
Own(Self) Soul!!
** Whence All Is Said As Done After Your Death
Only Thing That Counts Is Your (My) REPUTATION...
Tears, TRASK...
Ron
and when you open your eyes, you raise your hand and presto: the power manifests from your fingers, or a ray of light shoots out from between your eyes: the hungry are fed, the sick are healed, the evil doers are thrown into confusion and the world becomes that better place you had dreamed of all those years… yes?"
I found this going hand in hand with this part of Hamlet’s Soliloquy:
"To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,.....".
...........so much to ponder here!
Love ya!
Jane