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Hello Dear Friends,
One exciting key, we can call it a hidden treasure, which Eckhart and Oprah touched on last session, was the acknowledgment of abundance. The acknowledgment of abundance, which is gratitude, is an essential aspect of the flowering of human consciousness, of our spirit. Without it, we seem to wither. Gratitude is the fuel for awakening. Eckhart said last Monday, "Acknowledging the good in your life is the foundation of all abundance." In my own process of awakening, like Oprah, I kept a daily gratitude journal. This helped me appreciate the little things in my life, the things we so often take for granted - the breath, the joy of a dog wagging its tail, the aliveness within my body, the laughter of a child, etc. I began to notice that through the act of gratitude, more abundance flowed into my life. What we think, we create. Of course, the only way to test this theory is to try it. If you haven't already begun to keep a gratitude journal, let us together, keep one, at least for the remaining three sessions. I would suggest that you write at least three things every day. Oprah writes five things. However, the number is not as important as beginning to do it.
Also, I invite you to write one thing that you are grateful for in the moment that you are writing to me on my blog. You may write it at the beginning or end of your question or comment. This, however, is not mandatory, but simply a suggested exercise to experience more abundance in your life. I can almost hear some people say, "Ugh." If you have resistance to this exercise, be aware of the resistance, feel it in your body, notice the thoughts that arise. Now become the space for what is and write from there. Perhaps the first entry in your journal will be, "I am grateful that I have become aware of my resistance to gratitude and abundance."
Slambert1a writes, "...The one story from the Bible that I am still trying to wrap my mind around is Eve and "Original Sin". In the fear based religion there seemed to always be the undercurrent of "women are to blame" since Eve ate the forbidden fruit. I never fully bought into that either but I realize now that my pain body did. And I think this contributed to my thinking/feeling of never being good enough... my question to you is, what are your thoughts on the story of Eve?..."
Thank you for such a thought provoking inquiry into one of the most basic errors of our thinking. There seems to be two schools of thought in regards to biblical texts and stories: literal and figurative. Behind every Biblical or Zen story, literal or figurative, lies a deeper spiritual truth and teaching.
Why does it appear in Genesis that the female is responsible for the "Fall"? I can only speculate that when the account was written, probably by a male ego, the female had already come to be seen as a threat and therefore had to be suppressed. Eckhart refers to the relationship between the ego and the male and the ego and the female (pages 155-157 of ANE).
Here are some more thoughts about the teaching intertwined with the story of "Adam and Eve" (Genesis 2) and "The Fall of Man" (Genesis 3). In my view it is about what has happened to us as human beings. Genesis 2 begins, "This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created." Can we for now agree that heaven is a state of consciousness rather than a place; and earth represents matter, form? As human beings, on the physical level we are either male or female. On the spiritual level we are neither male nor female. We are the formless, consciousness. Born out of the formless, consciousness becomes the world. The world as we know it, of opposites, duality, male, female, etc. The characteristic of Adam and Eve, male and female, lives within each of us. In other words, Eve, the female aspect within represents what the Chinese call the "yin" (feminine, intuitive, sensitive, mysterious, inward, passive, yielding). Adam, the male aspect within, represents the "yang" (masculine, logical, active, obvious, outward, function, mental).
As I see it, the meaning behind "The Fall of Man" refers to the birth of unconsciousness, spiritually speaking. That is to say, we lost awareness of heaven, our state of wholeness. How we lost that state of consciousness was through the arising of "knowledge." This is the beginning of perceiving and understanding the world through thinking. ("Knowing good and evil," Genesis 3:5). We categorize, differentiate and conceptualize. Simultaneously, with knowledge arising, the feminine dimension of our psyche was greatly diminished. With the identification with thinking came ego, and with the ego came pain and suffering.
Through suffering our eyes were opened and we now know that thought in itself is not the truth, and our identity derived from thinking is not who we truly are. This brings us to this moment, where we are awakening and returning to wholeness. Eckhart teaches that we cannot return to wholeness, stillness, through the thinking mind (yang, male). So then, how do we find our way back to heaven? We find our way back, through the "yin" (female), inner attention, awareness of the inner body, stillness, sensitivity, feeling rather than thinking, and yielding, the inner yes to what is. The feminine dimension that was seemingly held responsible for the fall is now enabling us to awaken!
Soarhighj says, "...I was thinking about Eckhart's statement that to say one religion is the only true religion would be the ego talking (which made sense to me). I suppose my question is Eckhart seems to be advocating his principles as truth. Wouldn't some argue that his ego/pain body concepts are theories? And the law of attraction being a theory as well?..."
I don't think Eckhart advocates his teaching as the only true teaching. His teaching is but one of many teachings throughout the ages which point to the truth. All statements, such as the one that you refer to above, we could say, are concepts, theories, until proven otherwise. How do we prove a spiritual concept or theory to be true? Through our own direct experience. In other words: are presence, ego, painbody and the law of attraction, merely mental concepts for you, or have you realized their truth in your own experience? Only your own experience can take you beyond concepts.
Soarhighj also says, "...I keep thinking about some things Jesus said such as "The only way to know God is through his son" (paraphrased-can't remember exact words). These words make me wonder if he really was enlightened or someone who really was seeking the worship of those around him?..."
In my understanding, the word God refers to the divine in its unknowable aspect, and son refers to the indwelling divine essence in man and woman. In India, this is known as Brahman which refers to ultimate reality, and Atman refers to the divine in the human form. It is through and within the human form, the son (man, woman), that we know God. That is to say, we cannot know God without experiencing form. The limitless and formless is concealed within the very limitations of form and apparent duality. The story of Jesus points to the possibility for you to know God. Not outside, but within. This is the "son", and this is the essence of who you are.
Antidiet writes, "...My first reaction was to say, "Pack your bags and be done with the pervert." Instead, I tried HARD to be present, make a space, not label, etc. I told her to reread ANE and maybe an answer would come to her...I know there is definitely something I have to learn out of this, but if you were me, what advice would you give her for what seems to be an almost unforgivable offense?..."
I believe your reply to your friend, in that moment, was the correct response. Your willingness to be the aware presence, the space, rather than the conditioned mind (reaction), is the foundation of a developing spiritual friendship. One aspect of our spiritual evolution requires that we learn the art of spiritual discernment. This means, we are able to distinguish between the thoughts that arise out of presence and the thoughts that arise out of the conditioned mind. At times, during the process of becoming skilled at spiritual discernment, the reactive mind returns, as you experienced, ..."But, now, this morning I am reverting back to "leave the pervert!"..." Then, of course, be there as the witnessing presence for what is. With practice, eventually, you will be able to access the power of presence and spiritual discernment instantly. (Since young children are often defenseless, as adults we are accountable for the welfare of all children, if you were to witness or hear, in the present moment, of such violent child abuse, it is our responsibility to take action. That is to say, report it to the authorities).
7plus2 asks, "...Oprah asked Eckhart whether when someone commits violent actions if it is the person who is responsible or if it is "only" their painbody who is responsible. Eckhart responded that the person is not responsible, but that it is the painbody that is responsible. At least that was my understanding of his answer. This is hard for me to accept..."
Eckhart did say the person who is in the grip of the energy field of the painbody is not responsible. Further to this, Eckhart said, "But they will suffer the consequences of their unconsciousness." In other words, every act, so called good or bad, has its consequences. You are not personally punished, but you suffer the effects of your unconsciousness. And when you have suffered enough, you begin to awaken from your self-created nightmare.
The real issue for you, 7plus2, is "...This is hard for me to accept. My ex-husband molested my children, raped my daughters. It is very hard for me to grasp or accept that he bears no responsibility..."
You are right, this would be a hard one to let go of. However, what are the consequences for you, of holding on to the story, unfortunate as it is, and blame towards your ex-husband? Immense anger, hatred, pain, suffering, in yourself, then perhaps passed on to your children. The time is now that your children need you most, not as the angry painbody, but as the aware presence, the guiding light, the lighthouse that beacons them out of their own pain and suffering that was caused by your ex-husband's unconscious behavior. Even if this event happened long ago, what is important is this moment, and whether you are choosing to cling to pain and suffering at this moment. Because you are awakening, I believe it is possible for you now to step beyond the story and the emotional wounds, access the power of the present moment and accept the form that this moment takes without judgment, criticism and blame.
In closing, I am grateful to all the people who have contributed questions and comments, which made for a truly inspiring reading. My fondest and deepest gratitude to you all!
I would like to leave you with two quotes from the book One Liners by Ram Dass:
Pure awareness is who I was when I was Nobody.
***
Information is just bits of data.
Knowledge is putting them together.
Wisdom is transcending them.
Be well...be still...be in peace...
Kim Eng
© 2008, Kim Eng
...after this story, i've heard that he would explain that the human Mind in it's present state, is exactly like little Igor: would chatter, would often crudely try to divert your attention into some useless crap getting completely OBSESSED about it while the situation may be of life and death (as it is when we drive). On top of that, the mind (and Igor) would be somehwat of taxonomers: they would impulsively create categories by "resemblance" and "assotiation" and thus arrange the world into neat files of categories. As: "fire engine" associated with "red", etc. So when a cognitive dissonance (as fire engine yellow) hits the Mind or Igor, he is completely 'out of function' and still...Hense probably the use of Koans (cognitive dissonance tools, among other things) in the Zen tradition: they'd force the Mind-Igor to shut up and thus offer a momentary doorway for the energy body's awareness to pop into the daily world...
Those shamans used to say that the Mind is an inventory. An inventory of things that can be named. Even abstractions, but nameable abstractions of the order of the known. They emphasized that to deal with this storage-house inventory is NOT to perceive but simply to toy with phantomatic shadow reflections of past things/events for which we took inventory by (as mr Tolle brilliantly explains it!) labeling them with syntax.
They said that there is nothing wrong with the Mind as a tool: it is the tool of selfreflection that can be useful to keep pragmatic notes, etc. Also it can be used for communication in the social world through the concensus of a given syntax we have all agreed upon. That's fine, only there is a problem, they say.
The problem is the reason of the downfall of humanity. And it has to do with the Mind and it is an energetic problem, energetic fact! It is the fact that we, humans got trapped into the Mind, trapped into the mirror of self-reflection! Trapped into past events' crudely filtered and minimized imprints into the mirror of selfreflection. We do not see/feel/sense energy as it unfolds, we don't even see it as it goes away, all we see is some label in our inventory that glosses over the infinite richness of energy interplay that is out there beyond words...
He would say: "we see with the corner of our eyes something that vaguely reminds us of a 'tree' and we don't even look, we speak in our heads 'um, a tree' and gloss over it even though it may be an octopuss,..or a yellow fire engine (haha)..."
In very very ancient times man had a very minimal and orderly mind inventory. Thus he was in touch with SILENT KNOWLEDGE. She/he knew directly everything, since he was able to perceive energy as it flows in the universe, which of course is not bound by linear time or language syntax, thus knowledge was immediate, not translated by language, abstract, yet pragmatically useful. Man took what was needed from knowledge, used it, then moved on elegantly.
From the state of this direct link with the NOW, with direct SILENT KNOWLEDGE great mindboggling feats were accomplished! All of the fantastic ancient mynths have truth int them--they really did amazing things! The only problem is that man witnessing his own fantastic deeds and being connected with infinity/universe at large saw everything as it really is: transient and evfemeral...thus not being able to "keep" his "achievements" and marvel at them for pleasure a little longer. We may sense the roots of the desire for taking a "solid inventory" in this desire!
To make things worse, an inorganic predatory being appeared from the depths of space. Ancient man was tricked by these inorganic beings into a "deal" of sorts, an axchange, an agreement: the predator gave man his predatory Mind and man got all the means he needed to sustain the ILLUSION of a solid world in which he could marvel at his own creations and self-reflection to his heart's content... What man lost in this exchange though, was dramatic in proportions: man lost his ability to SEE, he lost his connection with SILENT KNOWLEDGE, lost HIS WAY (as mr Eckhart put it). Man was trapped into an 'inventory' view of the world that permited only a tiny fraction of energy to beperceived and all the rest was filled in by the chatter of his Mind, because the predators installation in the head of man was very talkative, obsessive and repetitive!
To make things even worse, man got cought in a viscious circle of sorts: as he lost his connection with infinity and silent knowledge he lost his sense of awe and joy from within. Thus he sought solas into the pleasures of the ego/selfreflection. Since ego is NEVER content, it sooner or later produces exuberant enrgetic outbursts of enregy. The deal of the exchange was that the predatory energetic fields that enslaved man were feeding on those outbursts. Man had his "solid view" of "permanent world" and the predator got his food. Man finished completely oblivious of the vibratory nature of his own energy body and the universe. All he knew were the thoughts and judgements in his head!
This is in my view how we lost heaven: by obsessing with, not true knowledge, but with an inventory of labels: the MIND.
Those shamans said though, that through consistent practice of inner silence the mind will flee one day and leaves the man become a seer--a being who has the fredom of perception! The seers said that the foregn instalation into the human mind is like Igor: it has no true consistency and only rules our lives when left unoticed. The predator's mind will try to turn your head and repeat loops into it, but cannot stand consistency, awe, discipline, affection, largness of the gesture, cognitive dissonace, etc...
The moment the mind issilenced, the moment the vibratory loving touch of our energy bodies surface into awareness, as if waiting for chance! Until one day it permanently returns and becomes one single unit with us again 
As for the energetic nature of women and men, a being who is one unit with their energy body, i believe, can assemble either male or female being into this world. The energy nature of woman being is a being with a portion of true infinity in her, thus making her carrier of creative energy (the womb), and men are carriers of the energetic nature of unbending purpose: unbendin fibers of energy that will support women to dream the world into existence. Flowers and sunrays or sorts we are
I am grateful for been alive,for my wife, and my daughter. I am grateful for breathing and having the time and space to listen to Eckhart,Oprah,Elizabeth,and Kim. I am thankful for all the soul mates who have answered my questions on the Messenger Board. I have received great insights, which has allow me to stay true to what is happening NOW. Again, Thank You for taking the time to write this blog.