Spiritual Reality, Material Illusion

 "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." ~ Albert Einstein

 

When we speak of "reality", actual reality, we are essentially engaging in our relationship with truth.  An entire world can embrace utter illusion, but that doesn't change our personal relationship with truth.

"Reality" is far too often silently prefaced with the word "material".  

That's the assumption.  

That's the illusion. 

Those of us who have objectively witnessed and studied things that cannot be explained by the illusion of "material reality" know the truth goes deeper.  A materialist might say (and this is a hypothesis that fits for materialists) any evidence of a "non-material" reality must necessarily be evidence we are living in a material simulation.  Materialism is assumed, without question, and nothing else.  The simulation hypothesis contains the convenient aspect of necessarily negating verification of ANY observation.  After all, if you are living in a simulation, how can you objectively observe and verify anything?  Anything at all?  Thus it implicitly discourages the honest exploration of reality.  It's only a hypothesis, nothing more, and it arises out of materialism.

We spend a lot of time evading exploration.  We lack the courage to consider our paradigm may be collapsing.  We even deny that paradigms have regularly collapsed, those things we assumed were true.  No doubt we would dwell on intentional evasion even more intently should observation defy our presumed constructs.

Why is spiritual reality important?  Does spirituality exist because we can observe it?  Could it even be a part of a "material illusion" if it didn't have a foundation as a "concept"?  Spiritual Reality is such a profound discovery, even to observe it is to create it.  Love is at its Center.

How tragic it is to see just how much we have sacrificed at the altar of materialism.  We also sacrifice our authenticity daily.  We pretend the Real doesn't exist to "fit in", even when we know better.  We allow everyone and everything around us to pretend it doesn't exist as well, without question.  We even immerse our children in learning about what we know is a material illusion.  And then we are surprised when spirituality is mocked - and silenced.  

We participate in the silence.  We even silently participate in the mockery.  We appear to accept it.  And so we propagate it.  We project an illusion.  And we do know better.

This isn't going to work anymore.  The material world we live in is hanging in the balance.  The materialistic paradigm appears to be nearing its final gasp. 

This is an excellent day to share some videos demonstrating what happens when materialism fails - all of our centuries of "development" have brought us to this.  I hardly have room to share them all, but I will trust my inclination.  We aren't learning enough about this, lately.  We were schooled in it well long ago.  

 This particular scene was widely viewed on "network television" in 1983.

An astonishing number of people watched The Day After.  Back then, we would have "network television events" that reached a lot of people, and people surely paid attention to this one.  It depicted just one place, but people understood it was bigger than that - the counter-attack was referenced as well, but not shown. (See War Games, below, for a demonstration - RE: "mutually assured destruction", aka "MAD".). 

I was actually more moved at the time by the quieter movie Testament, as it better demonstrated the "slow motion" personal poignancy in intensely tragic ways.  It reminds me in a way of how a family member returning rather recently from a trip described the bottles of water people still leave as an offering in Nagasaki (because people who survived could find no water to drink).

Another 1983 movie was quite popular (and considered "lighter" entertainment).  WarGames even included AI in the equation.  This is a pivotal point in the film ("Spoiler Alert"), but worth viewing.

 

 

We had a lot to think about back then - at least back then, we were given something to think about, and thinking about it was considered totally OK.  Talking about how we felt about it was fine, too.

 

Here is one particular way we saw the future (from a film made in 1984, though the story is older).  2010 seemed far away (yet very close).  This series also happened to famously (or infamously) contain AI, though it's not relevant to the following scene.  Other things are.

 

 

 

Things have "progressed" since the early 1980's, materially.  How have we progressed spiritually?  Whatever has brought us to this insane level of material ignorance (and denial) - and it's taken centuries of it - I can tell you one thing - it isn't worth it.  

 

It will never be worth it.   It was just as "mad" then, as it is now.  

Is Spirituality itself capable of "winning"?  Hint: Spirituality is capable of ANYTHING.  It is, after all, about mutually assured survival (aka LOVE).  

Omnipresent.  Unconditional.  And even beyond our imaginations.  Sometimes we can glimpse it.

That's Reality.  It's no illusion.

("Spoiler Alert", below.)

It's time to be open and honest about how more and more of us truly feel about it.  

Why not today?

 

Nature photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Love Train

"Start a love train, love train..." ~ The O'Jays

 

Love is the only way forward.  

There was never any other way, really. 

Love is the way.

 

Celebrating Our Authentic Paths

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." ~ Mother Teresa

Sometimes we need to simply take a moment to appreciate the beauty of our authentic paths.  This is the very essence of freely expressed spirituality and divinely derived unconditional Love.  This is the path to inner peace and peace on the planet.  There is no other route.

 

 

Forest Path photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

There is No Separation

 Love is the common thread which weaves the world together. ~ Susan Larison Danz

I know there is a compelling tendency right now to see separation everywhere.  So it is with the human condition.

If we choose to look at the world through a spiritual lens, a simple lens, a lens that is clarity, something deeper comes into focus.  There is no actual separation.  Separation is an illusion.   

We resist these reminders.  We're experiencing being human right now, and so we resist them. I get it.  Completely.  It happens to all of us.  I'm not immune.

I talk a lot about this notion of "being spiritual".  I know I repeat myself.  Spirituality is a gentle way of being.  We often fail at this gentleness, but that's what it is.  And yet, I can't think of anything more powerful.  

How can something be both gentle and powerful?  Love is exactly that.

Sparkling Waters photo by Susan Larison Danz.

The Peace that Passeth Understanding

 "The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength." ~ Marcus Aurelius

If it's not one thing, it's another.  We are continually barraged with peace-disrupting information.  Does it ever really change?  I remember worrying about nuclear war in the 70's as a teen.  Life is filled with vast and scary things.  It is natural to feel it.  

But how can Spirituality help?

It isn't necessarily about breathing exercises, yoga or meditation - though every one of these things can assist those who feel called to learn them.

It goes even deeper.

It's not a 10 or 25 step program.   

I'm not talking about steps.

I'm not talking about a formula.

There is no "formula" for "the peace that passeth understanding".  It is a mystery.  It can seem entirely illogical.  Who can understand it?  And that's the point.

But I will say this.  It takes a single step, not 10.  And that step is to be sincerely open to it, even when you don't understand what it is you're asking for.  Mysteriously,  it arrives.  Can it change the world as well?  Everything is possible.

Breathe Deeply photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Giving it a Rest

 "Conflict cannot survive without your participation." ~ Wayne Dyer

I decided to give it a rest tonight, and so I turned on the Classical music.  It was exactly the right thing to do.  I had seen something really inspiring and uplifting and forward looking right before, and I wanted to hold onto it.

Much of my evening was very peaceful.

I assist a few people with social media, and after deciding to give it a rest, from this notion of "following the news/commentary", after actually finding a welcome space of trust, I couldn't help but see someone being nasty to someone else, on social media, and more than once. 

I didn't want to see it.  But I saw it.

About the same time, a piece came on the radio with notes that felt askew.

Sometimes such notes are OK, but not tonight.  I wanted to hear a simple melody, not dissonance.  And so I turned the radio off, and I finished my social media work, and I tried not to look at the various things people were being nasty about (not anyone I was assisting, just in the feed), but still it got inside my head.

And so I came in here to write.  And I feel better.

Light Emerging photo by Susan Larison Danz

Love is the Only Answer, Never Hate

 "Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule." ~ Buddha

While reflecting deeply upon how we need to truly move forward in the way we consciously choose to treat one another, this particular segment from West Side Story, which is highly poignant and direct, kept coming to mind.  This movie (and play, but mostly the movie) had a significant impact on me when I was young.  

 

Next, I'd like to share another powerful film clip that is masterful, from Romeo and Juliet, on which West Side Story was based.   

Stories such as these carry impact over time because the lessons they share are ever relevant.  Yet so often, we don't listen.  We need to listen.  Every one of us will suffer if we don't.

The Golden Rule

 "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." ~ Luke 6:31

 

The Golden Rule, as often "commonly" stated.  It may seem so "foundational", it is hardly worth mentioning.  Right?  Isn't this one of those basic things we were supposed to learn in kindergarten?  True?  

And yet, there is a reason why it is so fundamental and simple to state.  It is easy to forget, to overlook, and without a doubt, universally, everybody gets it wrong, sometimes.  It is human to fail, but the key is to make the attempt to do better.

That's why foundational values like these are so very important to express.  There's a reason I consider it "foundational".  Remove this "brick" from your foundation, intentionally, and that's when things can topple.

I mentioned the Golden Rule last night, and I've been intending all day to write about it.  It couldn't be more important to understand at this pivotal time in our history (or any time in our history).  It carries every answer, really.  And it would be wise to pay attention.

I was going to list all of the ways The Golden Rule appears throughout the world.  It exists in an astounding number of cultures and spiritual systems.  This Wikipedia page does it far more justice than I can.  Sometimes, it is stated in the negative, advising what not to do.  But one way or another, it is foundational.

Values like these matter, even when we fail, because this is the bridge to a world based on empathy, freedom and mutual respect.  It's a world worth creating.

 

 

Summer flowers photo by Susan Larison Danz

Somewhere Over the Rainbow....

"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high..." 

~ The Wizard of Oz

Independent of the lyrics, this is what is playing on the radio as I begin to write, essentially the lullaby of which it speaks.  What a quiet joy it is to heed the gentle flow of late night Classical music, especially in these times.

Perhaps if we begin to breathe and listen very closely, we might begin to realize that what we seek is not up high at all.  It is not far away.  It exists without the seeking.  The Rainbow is within.

Tearing Up

"People will oppress each other—
    man against man, neighbor against neighbor.
The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored." 
~ Isaiah 3:5, New International Version

I didn't realize I could see it.  I noticed this morning.  The sign.  

We all noticed it of course, or at least those of us who noticed - though there really wasn't an opportunity for any of us to manage to talk about it.  Right here, in what (they say) is one of the top ten "best places to live" towns of our size (smallish, mostly) in America, here in semi-rural, attempting-to-be-suburban Oregon.  

One day, the neighbor down the street put up a sign.  Block letters.  Across the garage.  Two cars worth of width, double spaced (if one could double space a sign on a garage, perhaps one might call it single).  "WE MUST RESIST THIS PRESIDENT.", it said, I think in all capital letters.  I would need to look at the picture to check.  Yes, all capital letters.

I saw it when I got the mail - it's very close to our community mailbox.  I think perhaps I noticed something was up when an oversized, souped up red (was it red?) pickup truck drove by and deliberately slowed, like we sometimes slow down in our neighborhood to look at a house strung with lights.  

The guy in the truck didn't look particularly happy.

"I wonder how long it will be up."  I thought.  I had a feeling it wouldn't be.  

Sure enough.  I don't know when or how it happened.  But I sense that it did.  It doesn't look like the rain or the wind.  Had I known I could see it from my house, I would have captured both the "before" and the "after".

Torn.

I always forget I can now see houses out that window.  Or a couple of flags. 

That particular neighbor cut down a beautiful tree, a very healthy, wonderful tree I would have said was worth attempting to save (but often opportunistic tree cutters earning a profit on trees here in Oregon might tend to say otherwise - and they always have plenty of "reasons", not all of them good ones or actually true).  

I was so astonished that day, as if frozen, horrified actually, watching those vibrantly abundant limbs efficiently and methodically sliced, this rough cut sort of a man (kind of like an older version of the guy in the truck) so very casually shimmying up.  Jolting awake, I ran to get my phone with the camera because I wanted to remember the tree as it once was - but I mostly managed to capture how it wasn't.  Mostly too late.  People tend to think trees aren't actually "Alive".  Some of us tend to Know otherwise.  We honor their space and the gifts that they bring to us.
 

Torn.

On a day when I wasn't expecting it.

I'm moving soon.

Let's talk about this notion of "resist".  I totally "get" what people are talking about, but let's talk about why that's completely the wrong kind of an energy.  Let's talk about how "resistance" only energetically empowers that which you are pushing against, so that it pushes back.  In fact, it even creates it.  Is that what we all want?

Torn.

And it is utterly and completely the opposite direction of where we need to Be.  We need to Flow like a river and not "push up against" anything, really.  It is Flow that carries Real power.

I hear it all the time now.  Friends and family are no longer speaking.  Neighbor no longer talking to neighbor.  Rampant Facebook unfriends.

Torn never really solves anything.  Torn just makes matters worse.  And sometimes those things become buried, unresolved, so they can do more tearing later.  Torn unfolds exactly what it is. 

It just leads to more tearing.

Instead of tearing one another to bits, we need to be talking.  Talking does not imply agreeing.  It doesn't imply either being any less firm about the things one chooses to be firm about.  Talking does, however, have a tendency to reveal that the "sides" don't quite exist.  And those on the fence become apparent.

We need to be teaching - when there are opportunities to teach.  And we need to be learning - and there are always ways to learn. 
 

We need to be listening.  Listening does not always imply actually understanding, but it does tend to help.

Add forgiveness to the mix, and the tears begin to flow.  And suddenly you have Empathy.  There's another way to treat a neighbor, and it's in the Bible, too.

Oh no, I didn't claim it is going to be easy.  This sort of work rarely is.  Ask people like Immaculee Ilibagiza .  Or Archbishop Tutu.  But the alternative is worse.  (Ask people like Immaculee Ilibagiza.  Or Archbishop Tutu.)

"Persistence" instead of "resistance", that's the general idea.  Persistence leads to Peace.

Because there are Miracles.  Immaculee knows...so does the Archbishop.  So can We.

(Just in time...remembered as Whole.)

On This Day, November 9

"Shining true and smiling back at all who wait to cross.  There is no loss." 

~ Kansas, The Wall

On This Day in History, November 9, 1989: "East German officials today opened the Berlin Wall, allowing travel from East to West Berlin..." 

And that's not all this date carries, for those who might look, for those who remember.

We get to choose.

We get to choose what sort of a November 9 THIS one is going to be.

I feel we are choosing already, many of us. I'm personally choosing the same thing I chose yesterday, in what might feel like an imperfectly perfect kind of a way (that's why we chose to be human).

We can simply choose to choose Love.

L-O-V-E

The choice doesn't need to appear to be perfect. Just by existing, it IS. It's about honest, heartfelt intent, in the most human of ways.

I remember early November 1989, perhaps more in feelings than in details. It was like some kind of a Miracle, back then, inexplicable, yet Real.

How could it be?

It simply was.

I remember the years leading up to it. I remember the years that came after. No, not all the details. I remember the feelings.

On November 10, they started tearing the wall down. I DO remember at least some of those details. I was 25 years old. And I had recently fallen myself - that Fall, I had fallen in love. I remember studying the images, astonished. They didn't arrive quite as rapidly in those days, but still, we all watched. I remember the front page of the newspaper. I remember the evening news. And we did already have cable.

We tended to believe back then that the wall would never actually fall (except through the madness of mutual destruction). I remember a friend telling me what it was like to have visited there, how forbidding it actually was - traveling there wasn't needed to feel it - we felt it in plenty of ways. Falling like that, truthfully, it wasn't even "a concept", for a very long time, not for most of us. As long as many of us could remember, that wall simply >was<. Yet fall it did. And it all came about in a way nobody expected.

It's time to begin.

It's time to continue.

We get to choose.

November 9.


Photo from July 1, 1988, permitted use with this attribution from Wikimedia Commons: By Neptuul (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

Thankfulness now: It's logical!

"The most thankful person is the most fully human." 

~ Thomas Goodwin

How often is it said when we look back on our experiences, we find ourselves so very thankful for every single one?  Take any piece of you away, no matter how small, no matter how grand, no matter how joyous, no matter how dire, and you simply wouldn't be you!  Experience is growth.  Experience is transformation.  Experience is you!  So we find that we are grateful, grateful for every piece, every part of life that helped us come to be.

That brings us to this minute, this very moment now.  It doesn't matter what this moment brings.  It could be big.  It could be challenging.  It could seem insignificantly small.  No matter what it is, some day, if the logic holds and it most certainly does, you will be thankful, thankful for this moment.

So if you know you will be thankful then, why not be thankful now?  You have nothing to lose starting early!   Every piece matters....

 

Rules of Engagement

"An open heart is an open mind." ~ Dalai Lama XIV  
Lately I have been noticing how the way we all tend to interact and perceive has everything to do with our own relationship with Love.  If what we see is drama or fear or some form of division, then perhaps we need to spend some time working in the space of our own hearts.   

I claim no particular state of perfection.  I am reminded continually of my own heart work to do.  But little by little, by leap and by step, I seem to make progress.  To avoid the divisions of judgment that inevitably create suffering, my primary rule of engagement needs to be Love.  It starts with the healing of divisions within.
 
And that is the Miracle.  The more Love we consciously let into ourselves, the more Love we will perceive in the hearts of one another - and the more Love we can meaningfully and openly share.  

The divisions we were so very convinced were so very real mysteriously fade.  What remains at the Center is Love.  It is Infinite, you know...

Transistor Radio Summer #11: All Over the World

"There's gonna be a party all over the world." ~ Electric Light Orchestra

As the summer draws to a close, the Autumn Equinox just hours away, I can't help but include a song that had a magical, expansive effect on me in my teens and still does...

"I got a message on the radio....from where it came from, I don't really know....and I heard these voices callin' all over the world...."

By the way, I found the radio.

Transistor Radio Summer #8: Voice of the Living Light

"The truly holy person welcomes all that is Earthly." ~ Hildegard von Bingen

Tonight, a diversion from my transistor radio of long ago.  We go much farther back, to the 12th century.  A portion of this transcendent piece by the astonishing Hildegard von Bingen came on my radio as I was driving.  

[LINK OBSOLETE - REMOVED]

Voice of the Living Light.  The segment I heard earlier had to do with Dawn.  It is worthy of reflection in the evening too...

Just Keep Loving...

"Everyone just keeps loving through it." ~ A wise anonymous teen

Overhearing this snatch of synchronistic conversation from two young ladies jogging by, I reflected as I walked...

No matter what "it" we might encounter, all we need to do is Love. That's the very Key to Peace on Earth, Peace with one another and ourselves. 

At first I got a different meaning, multi-dimensional for sure...It is only through "It", the Universe, that we always find a way to Love.  "It" is Love Itself and so are we!  Life Itself is Love...

Three Words

"Enjoy Every Day"

Today I encountered these three words, reminders from Harold and Barb...

The Three Words.

The View.

The Path.

Thankful...

The Path to Peace

True security resides within.

As I begin to take in what happened today in Boston, where I have more than one dear friend (thankfully ok), I don't need to know the how's or the why's, not tonight anyway.  There will be time later for better understanding how we can begin to heal whatever rift or wound was at its source.

In the old days, I might have allowed the TV or the radio to loop endlessly in search of more details.  But not tonight.

By its very definition, terror only operates in the fear space, not the Love space, except where healing may begin.  My heart goes out to anyone caught in fear, or pain, or despair.

We may feel many things today and in the tomorrows to come, feelings we must allow in order to heal, but how we ultimately choose to respond to fear in the long run is entirely up to us.

Of Mountains and Molehills

Perhaps it is not in releasing our memories, but in accepting them, that we finally find the peace we seek.

I had something come up in the past week that was intensely important to me when I was young, yet in retrospect, at least on the surface, seemingly should be quite trivial now.  It was resurfaced for me in an entirely new way, and then I found myself not only in a kind of obsessive mind trap regarding the topic, even mentioning it to an old friend, but then later berating myself for caring about it at all (and worse yet, giving it even more life by talking about it).

From afar, it looks like a molehill...

What it was exactly is of significance only to me, and I'm not going to get into it right now, but what I do want to get into is this process of coming to peace with those things that have troubled us, whether they be mountains or molehills.  And how do we know the difference?

From a higher perspective, it's so easy to say that everything is a molehill, no matter how daunting, and in a way, that's indeed true.  At that level, all of the concerns on Earth, trivial or not, are miraculously resolved.

But from the perspective of why we came to be on this Earth to begin with, if indeed we came from a place where every mountain is a molehill, could it be that we actually wanted to make mountains out of every single molehill so we could have the richest of experiences in exploring their intricate detail?

Transcending the Storm

For many hours yesterday I found myself utterly engaged in a modern-day version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington unfolding in the U.S. Senate.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

I was fully prepared this morning to publish a bold and detailed blog in response, outlining meticulously in multi-partisan fashion all the many ways our rights are being infringed, not only in America, but throughout the world.

A person didn't need to be an ultra-right conservative, a Tea Partier, a Libertarian, or any kind of Rand Paul supporter at all to join the conversation last night (which trended worldwide).

My scattered Twitter contributions started with retweeting Amnesty International in the afternoon, not exactly a right-wing organization (nor is my very liberal Oregon Senator Ron Wyden):

Thanks to @SenRandPaul @SenMikeLee @RonWyden for speaking out on #drones & lethal force http://owl.li/it3Pl #filibuster

And then I RT'd someone else's response to Amnesty Internationall:

@amnesty This goes to show that bipartisanship for true principles is possible! (via @cacarrillo)

A sampling of my other tweets:

If you want to find true security, look within. #innerpeace #peace

Tune out the voice of fear and tune in to #Peace.

Our rights, our #freedom & our very way of life transcend politics. That's a good reason to #StandwithRand. #Filibuster 

#Peace requires far more courage than war.

The Senate may be going to sleep for the night, but America is finally awake. Thank you @SenRandPaul. #standwithrand #freedom

Last night, rather early on, I also RT'd:   

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. ~ Louisa May Alcott (via @ShareAwakening)

So why did I choose just now not to publish what was quite a detailed, albeit artfully diplomatic, diatribe?  In the end, fully embraced by the Light of day, I chose not to allow resisting the storm to rip my sail to shreds. 

When I spoke of "transcending politics" last night, I was correct, but perhaps not quite in the way I saw it in the passion of the moment.

Resisting the storm is not what is going to steer the boat this Earth is on. I don't regret my writing exercise this morning, as it was quite cathartic, as were my tweets last night.

But it's my words of Peace I finally choose to heed today.  Truly transcending means not engaging the storm.  Truly transcending means blazing a trail to the Light that shines above it.

Yet another RT of mine last night:

Sometimes your voice finds you. #Little Mermaid (via @high_on_glitter)

I thought I had found a kind of voice, fully engaged in the storm, yet another found my heart instead.  Perhaps it will take sail.


P. S.  After I posted this blog post to Twitter, I noticed another tweet I had forgotten, my last before I went to sleep last night - somehow it wasn't in the window I was looking at before:

When you surrender to #peace, everybody wins.

I think that sums it all up quite perfectly...


Mr. Smith Goes to Washington photo considered public domain and obtained from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Stewart_in_Mr._Smith_Goes_to_Washington_trailer_2.JPG.