In the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, Adam is
described as going into a "deep sleep" from which his rib was removed
and voila! we have womankind. Whether you buy into the story or not, I have two
thoughts: shouldn't we be short a rib? And, there is no indication Adam was
awakened. Things just sort of moved on.
Perhaps it's a metaphor in faith. We need is to
overlook the details and understand the teaching. Maybe so, but I will pursue
the thought that humankind is still asleep and has not come-to in understand
reality. The evidence is the shape of the world around us. I have 50 years of
adult life during which I've observed our culture going into the tank, worse by
the decade. It doesn’t seem possible it can get worse but the breakdown of
family, the schools and most visceral, politics, is disheartening to say the
least. This won't be a lecture on what's wrong. Instead I want to share with
you my theory on why we haven't awakened, why we should, and how to do it.
Let's start with a fundamental idea that extension of
thought, word or deed has it's effect on the person who receives it. If God is
in your life you might agree that God extended himself to creation and imbued us
with the very same ability to extend. Not only are we an extension of creation
and able to create in kind, but that we came perfect and are able to create
perfectly. After all, if perfection created us, then why couldn’t we be as
well? I have a very hard time with the notion that an innocent new-born baby is
already carrying my scars. There may be some truth to that notion, but largely
it doesn't make sense.
What makes sense is taking Genesis
"Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness......."
One's first reaction might be Oh, that means we look like God. There's no way to refute the thought, for after all,
Jesus looks just like us, and the teachers of two billion Christians teach that
he is God. However, our teachers offer that the text is metaphoric and that
it's our spirit that is like God and
Jesus, not our physical appearance. Could very well be, but again, how do you
dispute the unknown. They are both theories.
Since the physical aspect of image, after our likeness
is futile to discuss, let's indeed look at the spiritual. If God created us is
it reasonable to say we are like him in spirit and we carry his DNA? If so, we are born with everything we need to
be perfect and live a life of joy. This would somewhat contradict Genesis
Turns out there
is a catch and it isn’t about an imperfect earth: we are the ones who
need to do our part to make it happen. It involves the gift of free will and
the choices we make (or our parents made for us). It seems logical that if we
make the right choices to assume our perfection, we can wake up from the very
long bad dream started by Adam.
Extension is a
great word when God or other (near) perfect humans are doing the extending.
When things go wrong another word something like it comes to bear: projection.
My parents projected onto me, their parents onto them and into the distant
past. They all did the best they could, just as do we. In dissecting the word projection,
it occurs because you believe an emptiness or lack exists in you, and
projecting what you want is your attempt to fill the void. Great, if it’s the
truth, but not so great if it’s not. So, who knows the truth? I’m great on
processes and here’s one that takes the opposite path to perfection and points
out anti-truth:
1. I believe I
can change what God created.
2. Therefore,
it’s as if to say I believe I can improve upon perfection.
3.
Is so doing, I’m saying I’m not distorting any of God’s creation with
which I come into contact, just changing it to what I want.
4. I believe I
can “re-create” myself and the direction that it takes me is up to me.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. What I’ve “created” is
distortions of the type when Adam and Eve decided to go the way of the separation
we still encounter. If those distortions didn’t exist before the separation why
can’t we peel back the eons of dysfunction and see how many layers are covering
the truth. Ah, so there’s the truth, under the layers of goop, awaiting my
paint-scraper, to discover that with which I was born. Doesn’t that make it a
just a little exciting to think I could find truth?
Humor me and
agree for the moment that everything God created is like him. Extension
means the inner radiance of God is
inherited from him by his children. It is an internal extension, for our spirit
never dies. It is not external for certainly our bodies will die. Our inherited
dysfunctions lie between us and being healed of them. Here’s where free will
comes in. I maintain that we have free will for the sole purpose of being
aligned with our creator, whoever or whatever he/she/it might be. We may think
our free will is for other selfish purposes but it just doesn’t work that way.
The evidence is all around us as I described in paragraph 2. There has been a
straight line of perfection offered to we humans from the first humans to the
current humans. Extension has not been interrupted in its transmission. What is
interrupted is the line of reasoning our teachers teach us for it is obviously
in opposition to each of our humble beginnings since it is they’ve given us
their best shot and it is quite short of the mark; again I refer you to
paragraph 2.
The Garden of
Eden was the pre-separation condition where it’s inhabitants were of such a
state of mind that nothing more was needed. At some point Adam and Eve’s opposition
to free will kicked in and, as the story goes, decided to try something on
their own for certainly they were as worthy and wise as their creator. Their free will became imprisoned will. Guess
what, it didn’t work out. The long slumber began from which the world has not
yet experienced any comprehensive reawakening or rebirth. Such a rebirth is
impossible as long as we make bad decisions, project, and miscreate. We have
the ability to at least try to be perfect, an ability and potential that
resides in our body and mind every day of our lives. To become aligned with God
with our free will means we should extend back to him that which he extends to
us. To do that requires an awakening from the deep slumber which means we should
each pause, come to understand the makeup of our free will and choose awakening.
We are given free will to enjoy life, not to continually pay the consequences
for bad decisions, generally by those before us and in particular ours.
Fear is a
powerful factor. Accept for the moment that our most basic misperception is
that we think we have the ability to usurp God. I cannot usurp God and if I
try, my first bad experience in bad extending has occurred. My deep sleep will give me nightmares
and I am now afraid of everything simply because of my basic misperception. A
light being turned on suddenly during the nightmare may make the light seem to
be part of the nightmare. Or it could be
that it is the light of freeing illumination leading to release from
projection, nightmare and illusions. That light can come on at any time once
you’ve agreed that the negative process of usurping God is hopeless and that
the new process of transformation you’ve tried recently is working.
Incidentally, transformation rarely happens in a twinkling. Normally it’s a
process limited only by our self-imposed limitations.
The truth is the
same for all of us. Either God created us perfect out of his eternal love or he
didn’t. If so, then reclaimed perfection should be your goal so that unity is
achieved between God and you. To reach the goal you need another set of rules
than the one’s you’ve created or were created for you and projected onto you and
have been playing by for all this time. Here is a new positive path and process
of transformation:
1. Find your peaceful time and place.
2. Come in humility by clearing the decks of all the junk you've dragged along
in terms of being unforgiving, and
thus far too proud to ask for forgiveness. This could take awhile.
3. Suspend your current conventional wisdom.
4. Ask your inner spirit to bring harmony and unity to your thoughts.
5. And "listen".
6. Act upon what you “hear”.
Blessings Always,
Vern Schanilec
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