Living luminescence

                                  
                                           "There is light within a man of light, 
                                            and he lights up the whole World. 
                                            If he  does not shine, he is darkness." 
                                                                     Gospel of Thomas  vs. 24

                                            
                                          "Split a piece of wood, and I am there.  
                                           Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."  
                                                                   Gospel of Thomas vs. 77

From fireflies dancing in the moonlight to forests scattered with magical mushrooms, all of life is alive and breathing with a delicate radiance vibrating from within.  All of it is glowing, and not only these mysterious plants. Even sea urchins, man of war along the ocean shore, pearls and shells, and many species of salt water fishes, all radiate a translucent rainbow of  inner light. In fact, all of life glows with the life-force itself. This luminesence is clearly visible to us - if we have eyes to see, ears to hear. 

I guess that means, it's all a matter of perception. And, maybe that's the whole point. Do we see this iridescence all around us, vibrating with a kind of universal huming, buzzing? If we can't see this, or hear this life - this breathtaking miracle right before us in which we're also immersed as part of it all in this garden, I think we have to ask ourselves why we don't. Is it we don't take time, value it enough to make time?  Or, even if we made time, would we still not see / hear it?  If that's the case, then why?

It is heartbreaking that we're missing this incredible mystery right before us. It seems that's why we're here - to experience this magical place.  And, too often we don't.

If its a lack of perception, then we have to ask ourselves, what is blocking our perception?

Psychologists say we don't really see with our eyes, or hear with our ears.  We see and hear with our minds. Our minds tell us what is important to see and hear and what isn't. It's so deep within us that we do it automatically, even subconsciously.  We all do. So, we're taught what to value and that's what our eyes see or look for. We also tune out the birds singing while we're watching TV.  Oh, so sad. Have we been brainwashed to tune out the birds to watch the terrors on the  news?  

Is getting to work, checking on the news, making and spending money - is all of that more important?  If it is, then why?  Have we sabotaged our power by closing our hearts with fear by aligning ourselves to this commercial, materialistic culture we live in at such an excruciating high price? Our power is in our hearts, which, when full of love, glows. I wonder if we could detach from our culture - be in it but not of it - we would heal our hearts and restore our power, and connect to life in a way we may never have experienced before?

To be honest, I've been engaged in this deep reflection since I moved into this remote rural mountain community six miles from the nearest town. Here the sounds of the birds resound across the small lake. It would be impossible to miss the neighbor's rooster down the road. The horses, the cow with a new calf, the beaver in the nearby pond, the deer with her two fawn are all very present. Even more common sounds like two chipmunks sparing over a small pile of sunflower seeds or a squirrel running across the roof are loud enough to wake you in the middle of the night. The real world is loud enough if we are living with it, one with it.

Before, we didn't know what we were doing.  We were doing what we'd all been taught to do. We learned the rules from early childhood and, believeing we were doing what was right, we followed them, and still are following them.

The problem with that is that we've been controlled by those early rules, which were set in motion since time immemorial. We are controlled by those every sort of authority figure, including hierarchies of power, and each is part of a larger system until you'll see the entire structure of our culture has a million interlocking pieces. It is a conglomerate that runs on our devotion and obedience to it, and it is anti-life. It is the ultimate lie and the ultimate con artist.that has seduced us away from what is real to an artificial edifice. It has been around for a lot of years and we have been feeding it for a long time. It set up a mind game of prey and predator - victim and victor.  You get to choose which role you'll play, but both are equally controlled by the game.

How do we get back to what is real - this beautiful life in this garden we live in?

Challenge everything you think.  Ask yourself why you're feeling as you are. Trace it to its source. When you begin to break free from control, you'll feel the chains by which it held you back. They feel like guilt, shame, and fear. When you feel those feelings you can know you're moving in the right direction. As hard as that may seem, you need to keep going. 

Rock the boat a little. Maybe together we can topsize it. When you think about what you're thinking about when  those scary feelings rise up in your belly, you'll always find that the source is a controlling thought that has pretty ancient roots in your life. An old teacher from the third grade is still in your head as is that mean neighbor who yelled at you for picking his wild flowers.

Judgment and condemnation are in the very air we breathe and water we drink, and yet none of it is love. It takes but gives nothing in return. We don't question it. But, we have to question it.  We have to ask ourselves why we're judging, condemning, gossiping, saying hurtful things about people. We are only adding to the pollution of control that runs on judgment, condemnation and control.  If we're going to break out of this collective mind prison, we have to not do as it teaches.  Stop the competition to the top because you know, and i know, there's nothing up there.  Eveything is down here, right here, around us all.

If life is calling you into the moonlight on a soft summer evening amid the symphony of tree frogs and crickets; and if you can hear the morning doves in the early morning, then you are seeing and hearing rightly. If you hear it so loud that you find yourself completely surrounded and immersed in their world, then you're healing from the world's disease. Then you will soon see and feel the futility of the collective culture that has owned us. 

I wouldn't waste a single second lamenting what has happened to you - to us as a human race.  I would just get up and get on with this new awesome adventure of perception. This doesn't mean we have to quit our jobs. It means we have to awaken our perception and then choose carefully how we want to spend out lives.

In our perception a new awareness arises. Through it you just might discover the sheer delight of the beauty of life that is stirring around us in a way we never saw before.  It is the creative mastery of a universal intelligence that breathes an exquisite love that so far surpasses any of the silly perverse romantic iimages pimped by the advertising and media empire to con us into giving them our money which we've sacrificed so much to earn.  

There may come a time when it will be unbearable to play the world's game anymore. There may come a time when we would rather sit in the soft damp moss-covered carpet of the forest and watch the deer, birds and squirrels, occasional timid racoon descend from his tree fort, and feel a sense of wonder and presence and oneness in the breathing of the forest.  

Then, for a moment, you may realize that you are part of this great life in this beautiful garden. You are in sync with it and you realize that it is in you as much as you are in it. Your perception has enlightened too, brighter than ever, and quite possibly you are as radiant as any fluorescence around you. And, you are.