Earth
stretches to
recall summer's
expanding skies -
a return to
panoramic detail
within our
sun-filled eyes
Thursday, September 23
Friday, September 10
Wednesday, September 1
Opposites
Nothing in this reflection about America is meant as commentary on any other country. A lot of folks on the forums I visit finish their entries with "my 2 cents"- a good idea. Since there are about 6 and 1/2 billion of us so far, here's my "one six-and-a-half billionth" of a cent:
I'm one of those who believes that America originated within a divine impulse, a momentum built for individual effort, creativity, ingenuity, expansive spirit, and understanding of the interrelatedness of our shared resources and the effects of our efforts. But according to the news, we are strongly polarized in many areas of our lives: political, cultural, religious, financial, etc. We are acting like two sides of a coin - some of us are on one side and some the other. The division is especially strong right now and there doesn't seem to be any way around it. How can we truly live beyond constant opposition as we cycle back & forth between one side and the other? How can we keep from getting caught up in one side or another of America's story and live so that everyone is reasonably satisfied? How can we truly live beyond opposites?
While it's true that revelations can enter one's life unexpectedly, the only formal answer I know lies in the world’s religions and, more specifically, their spiritual aspects. Every religious and spiritual tradition that I know of has accounts of the experience of "Unity", of Unity beyond all opposites, the Divine Ground of All Being. Usually limited to "saints" and such, in reality it's everyone's birthright and closer than you might have been led to believe. There is an individual experience "waiting" for each of us that will forever change our limited perspective.
The "coin of opposites" is within ourselves and expressed in the tangents we initiate when we live as if we were "exclusive" individuals. Once having experienced Unity, we are no longer only individuals. A new understanding, universal in nature, is born, and opposites lose their extreme significance.
I'm one of those who believes that America originated within a divine impulse, a momentum built for individual effort, creativity, ingenuity, expansive spirit, and understanding of the interrelatedness of our shared resources and the effects of our efforts. But according to the news, we are strongly polarized in many areas of our lives: political, cultural, religious, financial, etc. We are acting like two sides of a coin - some of us are on one side and some the other. The division is especially strong right now and there doesn't seem to be any way around it. How can we truly live beyond constant opposition as we cycle back & forth between one side and the other? How can we keep from getting caught up in one side or another of America's story and live so that everyone is reasonably satisfied? How can we truly live beyond opposites?
While it's true that revelations can enter one's life unexpectedly, the only formal answer I know lies in the world’s religions and, more specifically, their spiritual aspects. Every religious and spiritual tradition that I know of has accounts of the experience of "Unity", of Unity beyond all opposites, the Divine Ground of All Being. Usually limited to "saints" and such, in reality it's everyone's birthright and closer than you might have been led to believe. There is an individual experience "waiting" for each of us that will forever change our limited perspective.
The "coin of opposites" is within ourselves and expressed in the tangents we initiate when we live as if we were "exclusive" individuals. Once having experienced Unity, we are no longer only individuals. A new understanding, universal in nature, is born, and opposites lose their extreme significance.
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