Can We Talk? We've Got a Problem Here ...!

The soul is the perceiver and the revealer of truth.

We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose. Foolish people ask you, when you have spoken what they do not wish to hear, "How do you know it is truth, and not an error of your own?" We kow truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.

We distinguish the announcements of the soul, its manifestations of its own nature, by the term Revelation. These are always attended by the emotion of the sublime. for this communication is an influx of the Divine mind into our mind. It is an ebb of the individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the sea of life.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his essays)


So, can we talk? Have you noticed that we've got a problem here? I'm talking a global, worldwide, humanity-planet problem. Hunger, wars, recession, earthquakes, famines, abuse, widespread psychological struggles, diseases, rage, suppression, misogyny, scape-goatting ... I mean, surely you're noticed.

Now, I'm not making a case for despair here -- despair is what got us *into* this mess, y'know. I'm no longer a pessimist (I was for about 4 decades, and it's just no longer working for me anymore) ... I enjoy life to the fullest I can, and I expect it to continue to get better and gooder (I enjoy making up my own words, too!).

Nope, I'm not advocating for despair -- but for being aware, and for repair.

We need to face where we are, and how we got here ... we need to look squarely in the eyes of whatever has caused us so much despair that we would seek to destroy ourselves.

Obviously, we humans have tried long and hard to fix what's wrong ... and we've tried to solve our problems at *every* level except the level at which the problem(s) exist(s): Our Beliefs.

Our notions about spirituality are destroying us.

We humans have sub-divided along lines of group-think, and we have doctrinalized, dogmatized, and divinized our beliefs, and we have demonized those who dare to believe differently.

This is spiritual arrogance. And it's caused more pain and suffering than any other aspect of life. We've suffered personally over what we believe, and we've caused others to suffer, due to what we believe. Our ideas about God have caused suffering...! We've twisted the Source of our greatest joy into a tool of our greatest pain!

It seems that we humans will give up everything for our beliefs ... we will give up love, peace, health, harmony, happiness, safety security and sanity...

But the one thing we seem to not be able to give up is this: Being RIGHT.

We've proven that we will sacrifice everything we've achieved, everything we've desired, everything we've created, in order to be "RIGHT".

In fact, we'll even give up life itself ... in order to be "right".

And we're terrified of being wrong.

What if it's not about right or wrong..? What if it's about what works, and what doesn't work?

And what if, while we need to question our beliefs, we don't need to *destroy* them? What if, instead of destroying them, we need to transcend them. Transcending means "larger than" more than "other than". The new usually contains some of the old ... it's even sometimes built on the old. We needn't reject all that we've believed ... but we certainly need to see it from a new, higher, deeper perspective, in order to find out what's really true -- experientially, revelationally.

(And no -- contrary to ecclesiastical opinion, those are not multi-syllable curse words.)

The really cool thing, is that we don't have to declare (to ourselves, or to others) that we were *wrong* at all... we just didn't have a complete understanding before (& really, completion/perfection comes incrementally). We needed more information, more experience, more revelation. I mean, a wise 6 year old doesn't think he was *wrong* to have been 5. The point is growth ... and to not resist the inevitable change that comes with growth.

Next - I want to look at some of the goofy things our beliefs have told us ...

Shalom, Dena