Be Skeptical, But Learn to Listen ...

Three days of no blogging ... wassup with THAT?!?

Sheesh..!

Saturday was spent at an art show ... which, despite being "non-productive" (sales-wise), was still a delightful way to spend the day ... as connecting with people remains my favorite activity...

I'm in the thick of a marvelous little book, that's messing with my mind (uh-oh! actually, these things I read only serve to show me what was always, already there). It's written simply, and yet manages to go deep ... zeroing in on yet-more unquestioned assumptions in my life ... things I've imagined to be "firm" and "resolute" ... and I find myself asking, "is it true? who says?"

And, as always, whenever I find myself mid-shift ... it's uncomfy. Even conflicting.

This too, I know, shall pass ... resolution will come, and all will be good. Because all IS. It just always, and in all ways, requires a perspective-shift, to SEE the good ... change, I'm discovering, is the inevitable. We cannot chain ourselves to what we once thought was truth ... nor can we be tethered to who we once thought we were ...

So, in order to process some of this, I'll share snippets (been at least 3 weeks since I've used that word!) of what I'm reading ... may it serve another, as I'm exploring this myself ...

The book, btw, is "The Fifth Agreement" by Don Miguel Ruiz, and his son, Jose Ruiz -- by way of reference, they're Toltec (ancient Mexican) shamans ... which is just a native American term for "wise one", or "awakened one" ... or "mystic" (don't let the words through you -- they're just symbols -- go deeper).

Yes, of course, I do recommend it. ;)

Might want to start with the prequel, "The Four Agreements" ... though this one can stand alone. And, rather than take everyone through my typical "guided tour" of the book, I'd rather just share what's speaking to me ... and if you're so led, you can read the book (or whatever reSource you discover, in your own life).

So, here, itself, is the "Fifth Agreement":

Be skeptical, but learn to listen.

Why skeptical? Because most (if not all) of what we've learned, assumed, heard, believed, and lived on ... is not true.

Pausing ...

Humans are creators ... and what we've created, in our ignorance of our creative abilities, is a skewed realm ... even an experiential hell. A sense of separation from God, from our true Self ... and separation from all that is ... and from each other.

We use symbols, and think that these symbols have foundational meaning ... but in focusing on the symbols, we lose the meaning of real reality.

LOL, cryptic enough for you? ;)

Anyone tracking yet...?

See, we humans tell ourselves, and each other, stories ... and when we believe these stories, collectively, they become myth, and then doctrine. And then Absolute Truth. And we build reinforcements, to keep these symbols, these agreed-upon-beliefs, in place. We use inordinate energy to do so ... thinking, falsely, that this is our bedrock, our security. We erect rules, and boundaries ... thinking that we're holding it all together, but we're really just putting ourselves, and each other, in shackles.

We don't trust. We don't know who we really are. We don't know why we're really here, having this material/physical experience. We're afraid to experience this realm fully ... we fear being obliterated by it ... so, we domesticate it, restrain it, suppressing who we are.

We live in a world of lies... masquerading as truth. And we fight to keep these lies in place, believing them to be true. We don't see what we're doing to ourselves in the process ... and to each other. The lies require a great deal of maintenance ... but truth just IS. It exists whether we're aware of it or not. Think the movie, "The Matrix" ... everyone blindly going on with what appears to be reality, but is really an illusion ... some see beyond the veil ... some see past the illusion ... and get to experience the much more. They can then re-enter the Matrix ... to show the Way, to share the Light, to BE Light. Unfortunately, the way it is right now, most who are in the Matrix are defending it ... resisting seeing the much more ... and those who see, throughout the ages, have been maligned, and worse.

Something happens when you finally see that most of humanity believes lies ... that we are distorting truth ... that we are dreaming, imagining the dream to be reality. It gets freeing to realize that everyone just believes their own story, believes that their version of the story is THE story ... and we don't have to force our perspective ON them ... we can let them be where they are, and love them as/where they are ... and live out our own life ... discovering who we are, and why we're here.

It's not personal ... we don't have to agree or disagree ... we can just listen. We can understand the words they use, knowing that they don't really affect us.

I am responsible for what I say ... but I'm not responsible for what you understand. That's YOUR responsibility. What you do with the words, and what you think of me, because of your understanding of my words, is not my business. :) Freeing, really...!

We're here to experience life! We can take what works for us, and use it to "modify the dream" we're here to have, and let go of what doesn't work. And, maybe something works at one point ... and then it no longer works. So, let go.

I'm seeing, more and more, that I'm not meant to believe in all that I've learned ... but to believe in who I am. Yes, as humanistic and scary as it sounds, I am to believe in myself. My Self, is what is connected to, and even manifesting as, God, in human flesh. The real me is connected to all that is ... the rest is illusion.

The cool thing about lies, is that once we see them, we don't have to believe them ... and the cooler thing about truth is that it doesn't come with knowledge ... or with words. The truth is silent. Something that we just know ... something we feel and experience without words.

And this! "If you're suffering, it's not because anybody is making you suffer; it's because you obey the tyrant that's ruling your head".

This spoke to me:

Once you realize that you create the whole symbology to communicate with your own kind, then you find out that the symbols are not really good or bad or right or wrong. You make them right or you make them wrong with your beliefs... when you go beyond symbols, what you find is a world of perfection where everyone and everything in creation is perfect.

Wow..!

What if it's time to unlearn the lies, and relearn how to follow the truth by following our hearts ... undomestication.

Let me close with this:

"Wherever you go around the world, you will hear all kinds of opinions and stories from other people. You will find great storytellers wanting to tell you what you should do with your life: "You should do this, you should do that, you should do whatever." Don't believe them. Be skeptical, but learn to listen and then make your choices. Be responsible for every choice you make in your life. This is your life: it's nobody else's life, and you will find that it's nobody else's business what you do with your life."

~Selah~

It's taken me (almost) half my life to learn this (I'm living to 120, at least, so I'm not even halfway there yet!). It's all been preparation for this. It's been context. Training.

Can we dare to surrender to life..?

Be skeptical, but learn to listen ....

Shalom, Dena