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.

All We Need

"All you need is Love . . ." ~ The Beatles

 

What more needs to be said?

What if?

"What the world needs now is love, sweet love..." ~ Jackie DeShannon

 

What if Unconditional Love was at the Center?  

Everything would change. 

 

Love is the Answer

"Love never fails." ~ 1 Corinthians 13

It's time to revisit 1 Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter.  Why?  Because Love is the Answer.  What 1 Corinthians 13 has to say tells us everything we need to know about what we need to be focusing on right now in the world.  It doesn't matter what your spiritual background may be - 1 Corinthians 13 has something important to say to you.  Love never fails.

Saturday at 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT, listen live to 1 Corinthians 13: Love is the Answer on The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast, or to the podcast afterwards at the same link.

 Heart on Trail 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.

 

Out of Control

"Fear may speak volumes when amplified, but Love controls the dial." ~ Susan Larison Danz

What happens when fear runs rampant?  Whether it is impacting an individual or a society, or both, it leads to skewed choices.  Because that's what fear does.  It skews things.  It distorts.  It leads to aberrations in "controlling" behaviors, which are even contagious.  Soon disrespect, dishonesty, egos on parade and plenty of nastiness results, and some of the worst examples in history show the extremes. 

This is what fear does.  It skews and disrupts.

What is the antidote?

Compassion.  Mutual Respect.  Honesty and Transparency.  Respecting personal boundaries and choices, the hallmark of enlightened spiritual paths (and societies) - and Unconditional Love. 

Too much control is actually out of control.  That's the irony of it.  That's what results from fear running rampant.  And no, it's not aligned with Spirituality, either.  How could it be?

 

Window Well photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

 

 

Authenticity and Spirituality

"Authenticity brings invisible people to life!" ~ Susan Larison Danz

Authenticity and Spirituality.  You really can't separate the two.  An authentically spiritual path is a path that is freely explored.  

How many times can I say it?  We are not here to be clones, robots, or to echo one another in echo chambers.

We are here to be uniquely expressed aspects of the Divine.   We wouldn't bother to be here at all if the idea was to be the same, or to always agree.  

It is of very great concern to me that uniformity of opinion seems to be elevated above all things, these days.  Not only is that an unattainable goal, it is not an attractive one.  It has nothing to do with an authentically spiritual life.  I'm already in "disagreement" with such an impossible and undesirable notion.  It is fundamentalism, that's what it is, the most rigid form of thought - such notions lead to the very OPPOSITE of a spiritual path.  And you can see it, very visibly, in the stress and discord that results.

We are here to celebrate our choices.  Only the most oppressive forms of non-spiritual thought demand absolute conformity, and that is not a characteristic of the open-hearted Divine.

Why we have strayed so very far from such basic spiritual concepts, even in parts of the "spiritual community" which never would have advocated for this in the past, is indeed troubling to me.  

Honesty.  Authenticity.  Non-judgment.  Empathy.  Forgiveness.  We all do it imperfectly.   These are fundamental aspects of Unconditional Love, the very Center.  "Fundamentalism" for its own sake, absent of Divine Unconditional Love, is just that: fundamentalism.  Those who cling to it can insist all they like and even demand or oppress - it doesn't make any of it Real or True.

 

 

Shadow photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

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.

 

Miracles out of Nowhere

 "It's so simple, lying right before your eyes, if you'll only look through this disguise.  It's always here.  It's always there.  It's just Love and Miracles out of nowhere." ~ Kansas

It must be Saturday night.  I'm listening to music, again.  This is a real classic, one that reached me long ago, and always has.

 

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.

Omnipresent Love

 We can never truly be apart from the Love that binds us all together. ~ Susan Larison Danz

On days like today, we are reminded.

Heart Walk photo by Susan Larison Danz.

What it Means to Build Bridges

 "People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

If anything is plaguing our society today, it is our inability to truly understand these beautifully wise and heartfelt words.

It takes courage to communicate.

It takes commitment to communicate.

It takes maturity to communicate.

It takes wisdom to communicate.

And communication is not a "one way" endeavor.  It requires that very rare skill: actually listening.

When we listen, we may discover some things that surprise us.  We don't need to completely agree, and there will always be those things we just can't quite comprehend.  Even so, we'll come closer to truth instead of illusion.

We are in a world of hurt right now.  Some of us seem to be celebrating the conflict - instead of genuinely doing the difficult work of understanding how it is happening.  Derision runs rampant, instead of love and humility.  And in places one might not expect.  This is very dangerous because that's what leads to cruelty.  We cannot allow our society to go down this perilous path.  Sometimes, there's no return for a society when that happens.  Who will assist us if we falter?

A long time ago, I did a lot of writing under the pseudonym BridgeBuilder.  In those days, discussion forums were common, and we were even encouraged not to use our real names.  One might think this would lead to some really horrible things, that relative anonymity.  Sometimes, I suppose it could, but more "mature" forums were moderated.   What it actually led to was true discussion.  Hearts would shift.  We came to care about one another.  We didn't need to agree.  We lost something, all of us, when this remarkable experience a number of us participated in fell away.  

At the time, I wrote something, and I may be stating it imperfectly now.  It used to be a part of my "description" as a writer, as a person who shared sincerely from the heart.

To build a bridge...(I just tried to search for it, but it isn't on my current computer)....To build a bridge, one must not only have an understanding of both sides of the river, though that is a challenge indeed.  Only with the guidance of Love can one master the chasm in between.

This is what we need: more bridge building.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said something very powerful about this notion.  This is what he said.  It's being quoted all over creation today, but are we actually listening?

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here's another one, not quoted quite as often:

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Perhaps he was in his own way translating "Love your enemies..." (Matthew 5:44)

I would tend to put the word "enemy" in quotes, as there can be no actual enemies within the space of Omnipresent Love.  That is an Earthly illusion.

We can't afford the immaturity of anything less.  We really can't.  The "grown-ups in the room" (and those like Martin Luther King, Jr., who sadly, prematurely left it) will guide us when we listen.  There is a reason why we call such people wayshowers.  It's really very simple:  They show us the way.  (And a true wayshower never actually leaves us, thankfully.  Do we have the courage to follow what they say?)

 

 

Bridge rails photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Love Controls the Dial

 Fear may speak volumes when amplified, but Love controls the dial. ~ Susan Larison Danz

  

Everywhere we turn right now, we hear the voice of Fear speaking.  Perhaps many of us cannot recall a time quite like this.  It's best to catch our breath and literally retrieve it.  Because we all need to breathe.

Hate may appear to be the opposite of Love, but many spiritual seekers have been led to realize it is actually Fear.  If we truly want to get a handle on the situation, Love is the only way.  ("I Am here" was literally echoing while I was writing, on the TV - which I really shouldn't have on right now, but it is difficult to resist - we all want to better understand what the situation is.)

"I Am here".  That's a synchronicity, and a good one!

Because what IS Love, truly, for those of us in the spiritual community?  Love is Divine, and there can be nothing that is stronger.  Several spiritual traditions share this foundation.

I'll place my faith in Love.  I'll place my trust in Love. 

Love controls the dial.  Because it's the Answer. 

 

 

Light in the Forest photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Reflections on the Omnipresent Divine

"Namaste means that my soul acknowledges yours - not just your light, your wisdom, your goodness, but also your darkness, your suffering, your imperfections." ~ L.R. Knost

I intended yesterday to write about the concept of the Omnipresent Divine tonight, and I will not deviate.  There is no better time for this reminder.

Those who have lived through tumultuous, divided times, people such as Immaculee Ilibagiza, who have experienced this in the extreme, know how important this concept is.  I will not deviate from it, not under any circumstances.

The Divine is Omnipresent.  That is what many of us believe in this world.  It is shared by multiple belief systems.

Many of us also happen to believe that the Divine is Unconditional Love.

Others may express this concept as Namaste, recognizing that there is no human being on this planet who is separate from the Divine.

Many expand this concept to include Everyone and Everything in the entire Multiverse.

There is a reason for every dark passage.  This requires a very deep spiritual trust, even when we don't understand - in fact, especially so.

I wanted to write about the Omnipresent Divine after I wrote about the Golden Rule last night.  And it's exactly what is needed.

 

Light & Shadow Apollo photo at museum, where photography was permitted, by Susan Larison Danz.

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)]

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...

All the Angry People....

"...but angry people are not always wise..." 

~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Lately, I cannot help but notice...the "world situation" is making any number of people angry, and in very personal ways.  Because world situations are always very personal - they have to do with human life.

It is indiscriminate, the outrage.  If you are angry about something, and the more openly you express that anger, I can just about guarantee there is someone across "the divide" who will match it willingly, or even without thinking.

Sure, I have felt it, I have at times expressed it.  Openly.  And not so openly.  But I'm thankful I have gradually learned throughout my life to find a way to deal with it (even if imperfectly).  I'm dealing with it now.  Right here.  Right now.  Because something made me angry earlier today, and I consciously chose a different approach.

I claim no particular expertise, except to know what I have observed:  When we are angry, we are generally judging more than we are observing, and we are very rarely breathing, or at least not particularly well.

What if we could do our best to put our anger on a shelf and decide to understand instead? 

What if we could actually make an attempt to glimpse the other side? 

Wouldn't that be astonishing!?! 

(OK, fine, that last remark was just a little bit angry, because you see, I'm just a little bit angry about the anger itself and what it's doing to our lives and to our society.  I choose to see mine too, when it arises.) 

What if you could try on someone else's shoes by trying on their hearts?

You might begin to hear.

And some of "them" might very well begin to hear you too.

I must include a warning.  It takes a lot of courage to "try on" someone's heart, to allow yourself to understand.  Because the absolutes begin to fade, and that can feel uncomfortable - if you decide to tell your friends, some of them might choose to judge you, and you need to let that go. 

The starkly outlined blacks and whites begin to shift.

Some say they blur to shades of gray.  And you may see the gray at first, the mind sees gray, you may only see the gray, the mind sees ambiguity.  Keep going through the gray, keep going, keep on going (this is a very important step, it's still in process for me too).  Because when you keep on going, when you consciously choose to understand, you begin to see the colors, at first they come in softly.

There is a knowing that is impossible, yet real.  It embraces every contradiction of the mind.  It is a knowing that can only arise from Love, from heart to heart to heart to heart.

And the anger falls away.

You can look into "their" eyes, completely, without flinching...you can look into their eyes and See.

And the tears begin to flow.

The New Earth doesn't exist on one side of the bridge or on the other.  The New Earth is the Bridge.

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...

Amazing Grace

"Field notes" from my walk this morning....

"Acceptance" can be an active word...one need not accept any sort of consolation prize in this abundantly miraculous world!  Joy...

It has everything to do with your perception of what comes your way...

It is the deeper meaning of Amazing Grace...

It's not salvation we must accept. It is Joy.

It is Love...

"I'm OK, You're OK"

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." ~ Henry David Thoreau

When I was a young child, this book tended to be laying around the house.  A popular bestseller by a psychiatrist in the early 70's, I remember staring at the cover several times, pondering the title, my young mind not able to get a handle on it, yet wondering what it meant. 

The title came to mind this morning as I was reflecting on what we often tell each other in this very loose spiritual community where I tend to hang out.  "I'm OK, You're OK."  Repeat after me.  It begins to feel familiar.

Here we go again.  I felt much the same way hanging around Fundamentalists, where the mantra was actually "I'm Not OK, You're Not OK" (well, that is, until you obtain the secret formula to flip the magic switch to "OK").  Hmmmm, then again, they aren't only ones who claim to have a switch.

We feel there must be a rule, some kind of rule, there just HAS to be a rule, like a rigid "Law of Attraction" (explained and understood in a myriad of disparate ways) - because if there isn't some magic formula, some magic switch to "OK", then that's really very terrifying, isn't it, almost as terrifying (though really not nearly) as Fundamentalist heaven and hell.

During my forum days, one of my most popular (and controversial) posts was essentially based on the question "How can you be happy in heaven while others are suffering in hell?"  It was directed towards evangelicals because it was my contention that there was no way anyone could truly be happy in heaven, not if they loved anyone in hell.  I rephrased it much more strongly the first time I posted it:  "If hell exists, everyone is going there," triggering quite the evangelical firestorm in response.  I'm wasn't afraid of a firestorm, not if I spoke my truth.

I have observed an unhealthy trend in some circles I travel.  People are far too often feeling restrained from saying when things are not going so OK.  Because if you say it too strongly, that might make it worse, your words and thoughts betraying you in the process.

Or in the worst of mental mind traps, maybe if you DO say you aren't fully experiencing "OK" at the moment, people will determine you are not walking the walk in some way, not thinking the right thoughts, as you supposedly are required to be OK if you are following the rules.  And before we know it, as much as we might resist, we are quietly judging others and ourselves, litmus tests in hand, just like the Fundamentalists, with ideals impossibly out of reach.  The thought police on overdrive, that's basically what happens.  So let's all watch our language, get out the brooms and the rugs, sweep in unison together, repeat, repeat, repeat and repeat again...and just say we're ALL OK.

And sadly, any chance of actually being real with one another (or with ourselves) is swept away in the process.  To be human is to experience both OK and Not OK and everything in between.  That's why we are here.

In my mental house, I'm putting away the rugs and the brooms.  I invite you to do the same, if you dare, or at least attempt to leave them at the door if you come to visit.

Do I believe in co-creation?  Actually, yes, as it makes sense if we are aspects of an omnipresent God.  Does it always make sense?  Is there some magic switch?  If I say "I do believe, I do believe, I do believe" enough, will fairies magically appear?  Perhaps.  Sometimes.  I'm really not sure when.

Do I believe dwelling on the negative can do us harm?  Of course it can, if it becomes an obsession, but masking what we feel can harm us just as much.

If I can't say if things are going not so OK to a dear friend, if all that comes out next on both our parts are the brooms, the rugs and the mantras, then something is very NOT OK with that.  And I'm left to walk the path alone, the page my only friend.  

Most of all, I believe in Unconditional Love, which generally transcends all the "rules".  Aspects of God, I sense we willingly come here to create certain lessons for ourselves, that's the closest I can come, because every time I have a challenge (like this time now), I come away with a lesson, forever changed - the more powerful the challenge, the more powerful the lesson.  And especially the compassion and empathy for others (and for myself too). 

Might I ask a favor?  (And by the way, I'm listening to my own advice too...)  The next time a friend tries to tell you things really aren't so OK, allow that person to BE REAL (and if you are the person doing the telling, if in a space of trust, allow YOURSELF to be real and say what is upon your heart).  Listen, dear friends.  Reflect.  Empathize.  And of course, offer encouragement and advice if you can.  See both the "OK" and "Not OK" (and everything in between) - and within yourself too while you're at it.  Share yourself openly in response if you dare.  And maybe, just maybe, you will both manage to be real, a gift well beyond the words.

Compassion.  Empathy.  Love.  Yes, it has much to do with that.  Those are the words I choose to focus upon as I begin a New Day.