Musings #4

Dear,

Again we are here, gathered in the dark and silent night. Do come closer to the fire. The rustling animals will not come near it, and, if you do not go to close to it, you will not be burned. I want to tell you some important things, so I want you to listen carefully. Otherwise, please don't disturb those who do wish to listen.

Oftentimes, silence speaks louder than words. First, there is one thing you must understand. Reality is what It is. Only the mind can make something true or false. I repeat: Reality is what It is. Now, the mind can be said to consist of layers, and the innermost centre is the pure, undiluted consciousness of being. There is no distinction in this centre. It is said that the awareness of this beingness can be deepened and expanded. I do not know how deep this Mystery goes, but I have been surprised more than once in this exploration. The next layer of the mind is where the “I” and “The Other” is introduced. It is where one decides what values one will stand for, in relation to the other, and in relation to the Innermost. The next layer is the experiences one has in this life, and the next again, what one thinks is true about the world. This 4^th layer is highly dependent on what others have told one, what stories one has heard. The 5^th layer is what one wants to do about it all, how one will make all of these layers be consistent in relation to each other, especially, how the 2^nd and 4^th layers will be made to fit one another. They can be changed and transformed, according to an applied will, and to new experience. We all have a Free Will, and It is what we use to act and think. It is the bridge between our innermost centre and everything that surrounds It. It should be obvious that discipling the will is a healthy endeavour. Doing this will bear many fruits. Do you disagree? That is your birthright. I am happy that you use your own mind, and don't take everything I tell you to be correct. You yourself must find out if what I say is true, otherwise, it will have no value. I myself might change my perspective on this, based on new experience.

It is how it is how it is. Now is now. Some things change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Are you confused? I understand. It seems to be a confusing world we find ourselves in. Some things, however, never change.

All genuine Faith is constructed on experiential, concrete evidence, like a carpenter will gain faith in his muscled arm and his trusty hammer by using them, and seeing that he can build with them. Belief is opposite, in that there is no evidence for it, except a vague wishful feeling of “I want it to be like that”, or a fearful feeling of “I don't want it to be like that”. Belief and wishful thinking are often found together. Now, generally, but not always, the evidence for Faith is inner, or it is a private happening, where one is the only embodied witness, and thus, it can be said to be subjective. In other cases, one is the only one who understands what the happening means, although many see or hear it. This subjectivity, however, does not lower its authenticity, although others might, and often do, call one insane if one speaks about it. We see that there is a connection between faith and insanity, at least in the minds of those who understand neither. I would like to point out here that materialism and atheism are mere beliefs, hollow and useless. These schools of thought do not deserve to be called Faiths, since they are not interested in Truth, but only in fulfilling their wishes and avoiding their fears. Their search is not based on philosophically sound ground, but on their own myopic and greedy vision of the world. It is unscientific in the extreme to reject theories on the grounds of how one wants something to be, or not to be, as the case may be. A closed mind can be opened, but its possessor must be willing. The basis of all Faith, as well as all beliefs, is consciousness, as consciousness is the basis of all experience. What is consciousness, and from where does it arise? That seems to be two questions, but in Reality it is only one. It is the most important of all questions we can ask ourselves, and it can be asked in many different ways. One of them is: “Who am I?”.

It should be obvious that no-one can answer this question for you. You must dive into yourself, there to find the answer. It is a search that requires a diligent and patient effort, but according to those who have found even some success in the search, this effort was most definitely worth it. Again, Reality is what It is. It is uninfluenced by what we believe or wish about it. It is as solid as iron, as fluid as water, as light as air.

The mind has a wonderful and exciting faculty that we call The Imagination. The imagination can go where-ever it wishes. It can be unbounded and free. It can transcend all laws known to man. It can go to the scariest pits of damnation, and it can soar into the most rarefied spheres where beings of light sing and play. You know the imagination well. Dreams are Its province. The imagination needs just a little cue, and it will fly to where it wants, in a matter of instants. It is like a little healthy child, really, guileless, boundlessly curious and exuberantly alive. But, the imagination can be shackled, too, to old, crumbling walls in a maze, always ending up in the same place, even coming from many different directions. It can be split into many parts. These maze-walls, or worn-out beliefs, wishes, desires, or fears, can be like heavy chains, suffocating the mind, trapping it in patterns one has forgotten whence came. Please understand that beautiful fantasies can be prisons for the imagination, too. The mind cannot necessarily lift these chains off of itself, and especially not if it does not know it is trapped. If the Imagination becomes trapped inside one of these mazes or fantasies, the results can be both painful and terrifying, grotesquely comic or deeply tragic. The trapped imagination can be said to be the root cause of all Insanity, and depending on what mind-mazes we are talking about, the results can be more or less unhealthy.

Now, let me tell you what I consider Insanity to be, in simpler terms. I consider it to be believing in something that is not Real, and to hold onto that belief in spite of evidence to the contrary. However, if one wishes something to be a certain way, or contrarily fears that something is a certain way, one can trap the imagination, by this mechanism of willful and wishful thinking, effectively keeping the imagination holed up in a dusty old maze. I will give an example that I know to have happened. A man walks on an icy cliff, and wishes to go down. The man can see two ways down. One is a long, winding path, and the other is a steep, almost vertical slope, with a few narrow ledges. The man believes he has a Guardian Angel that hears everything he says and thinks, and that answers him inside of his mind, for only him to hear. So he stands on the edge, with a few thin trees, and asks the Angel: “Can I get down here?”, and inside his mind he hears: “Yes, my child, you will have no problems going this way”. Trusting in the Angel, he grabs one of the trees and lowers himself onto the first ledge. Here, he is at a loss how to proceed. He cannot get up again, as the tree is out of reach, he has no cracks or crevices to hold onto, and he cannot see the wall, because leaning out would make him lose his balance. After accepting this turn of events, he tries slowly lowering himself further down the wall, and, he slips, plunging down the cliff-side. He hurts himself badly, but is able to hump back to his living quarters. He is in pain for the next 7 days, and still he does not let go of the idea that he has a Guardian Angel that answers his questions with words in his head. This is Insanity. The man needed stronger medicine to understand the lesson.

Now, I do not know what is possible. Perhaps angels can speak inside peoples heads. But I do know that it is possible to believe that an Angel speaks inside ones head, and that that belief can be just wishful thinking, arising from the wish to have an Angel speaking inside ones head. This is not Faith, and it is no better than atheism. In both cases, we are dealing with wishful thinking, or, Insanity. Perhaps it is possible to have both situations ongoing at the same time, to be spoken to by real angels, and wish-angels. I do not know. One must learn to discern for oneself. It seems there are others out to try and define Reality for us, and not all of them with good intentions. It is important to keep control of ones own mind, lest it fall into the hands of someone who does not wish one well. Reality is a Mystery, but a beautiful, glorious Mystery. One could even call it Sacred. Sacred Reality. Yes, I like that.

Now, I am tired. The night is also meant for sleeping. You can watch the fire if you wish to, and dream yourself anew. Into the fire you can throw everything you don't need any longer. But, before I go, let me give Thanks to the Mystery that has brought us forth. Let me give Thanks to Being. I do not understand It, but It is right here where we are. Praise!