CONSIDERING THE EXCEPTION (UNKNOWING) — PART 2

 

(This part is the “me” experience…)

Without ever knowing how it is that this knowing came about, I found myself intuitively guided to step away from immersing in “healing circles” of people with shared experiences, or working with counselors who are experts or “know exactly (or a lot) about the trauma you have experienced”… and expecting that these will bring healing. Even if there was some engagement, it quickly fell away.

It was somehow clear that anyone who knows or is “trained” is ultimately conditioned and limited (if not crippled) by their knowledge, and frequently by their own trauma experience that brought them to the work, which functions as unhealed baggage. I organically preferred and ended up being in situations or around those who simply embodied exceptions. I even preferred the clueless friend or acquaintance who asked all sorts of awkward and “incorrect” or “damaging” questions, for especially if there was a trigger, it served as the opening to the healing… to clearly see what beliefs and constructs and mental-emotional patterns the mind was holding, thereby withholding the experience of the wholeness that I am.

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LEVITY AND LEVITATION

In total enlightenment, compassion can look like not taking anything seriously and seeing everything lightly.

[Truth is Paradox series]

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ANTI-DISEASE?

Say a disease is manifest in your body.

How does being anti-disease resonate in the the bodymind?

How does being for healing, health, wholesomeness or wholeness resonate in the bodymind?

(Don’t mistake this for mere wordsmithing.)

And which gets to what you truly desire? Do you wish to be right (against the disease) or be well?

How are your actions motivated or inspired based on the orientation that resonates?

The world is the body of the one mind.

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VALIDATION

Recently I came across this quote by Brene Brown on a friend’s Facebook timeline, and it inspired a mini (paradox) post on validation… and now this more full-fledged one. This exposition need not be viewed as a “higher perspective.” (In anything I offer, it’s isn’t about higher or lower perspective, but simply direct seeing. As Awareness.)

So, let’s look directly at what’s been said in the quote.

It suggests that we can only totally trust the other’s experience (yes, correct). Giving their account total trust necessarily means we have a blank slate with zero assumptions and projections, that is, we have no idea what it’s like to be them (in their shoes) and we can only simply accept their experience. So, if it’s impossible to directly, inwardly know their experience, no matter how closely we listen via the mind, no matter how well we imagine, no matter how similarly we might think we’ve experienced something, then we cannot possibly validate it, as we can only validate what we know exactly and directly. And if we cannot validate it, we cannot invalidate it either! (Nor can we have empathy in the meaning of “being in their shoes.”) So, “empathy” can only mean simply accepting another’s experience, which can just be called Love, no?

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EMPATHY #2 – “BEING IN ANOTHER’S SHOES”?

A few days ago, I wrote a shorter piece on empathy (on Facebook), and with reference to the obvious villain, the police officer Derek Chauvin, and his horrific act of killing a helpless Black man, George Floyd. This post sparked many questions, one on the post itself, but many more privately. So, here I am, with a second post, to expand and clarify.

While understanding the below may be difficult, once it dawns it also cannot be unseen. And once seen, it is clear how the claim to “be in another’s shoes” prevents us from looking at our own unconscious biases and judgments, and even keeps us complicit in oppression… all in innocence (ignorance), of course!

So, please do see if you are interested in understanding. And if not, I am totally understanding (of that)!

One friend who shared my previous post, got another gentleman commenting in utter incredulity. And understandably so… we have assumed empathy as such a strong value and virtue, and left it unexamined. Everyone uses the word, including the Dalai Lama! So what is this foolish girl on about? The gentleman called bullshit on what I wrote, suggesting through multiple comments that I was bypassing and “washing my hands off of” the heinous crime by sugar-coating with lofty ideas of unconditional Love, and that I was suggesting we should somehow understand poor Chauvin and humanize his inhuman act.

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THE MYTH* OF PHYSICAL SPREAD

First, any sharing/offer contextual to the current pandemic does not imply that I’m refusing to comply with the present guidelines and mandates in all their unequivocal strictness. As one does as a respectful house guest, I’m happy, able and willing to follow the rules of the house exactly as laid out. Not because I necessarily believe in them, but just because. Just to be amenable and cooperative, as it doesn’t matter to me either way. Besides, in this case, I have been following (most of) the presently mandated protocol anyway, for more than a decade. In fact, this writing arises from a period of social (+media) distancing, which will promptly resume.

Now, on to the piece of writing.

For all of us who believe in space-time and materialist laws, the study of data around physical spread and contagion is interesting. Sure. I’ve seen a few sophisticated ones thanks to beloved ones sharing them with me, with particular note to the much circulated one published by Tomas Pueyo. (Though, it’s not clear to me how he ends up using a mortality rate of 1% instead of any other number between the 1-6% that was the obtained range from China/Asia, or the 2-3% used in other models, and it makes a significant difference. With mortality rate being inversely proportional to the number of actual but unreported cases estimated backwards, his selecting the lower mortality rate projects a far, far larger number of actual cases floating around in the WA area. Even the most sophisticated thought process and beautifully presented data *can* end up being torturing data to tell any story!)

When the belief in space-time ceases, however, one realizes that in the moment a ‘virus’ shows up anywhere, it is simultaneously and instantaneously present everywhere. Like a thought arising in One consciousness. If something arises in the Ocean, it is instantly in all the ocean, regardless of where in the Ocean the manifestation is first/most apparent. An apparent you or me being this wave or that wave, is still the Ocean alone.

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BHAVATU SARVA MANGALAM

Bhavatu sarva mangalam means wishing ultimate well-being to absolutely one and all: to (as) the One whole.

The virus, too. That asks to be welcomed, received, accepted.

And death, too. That asks to be welcomed, received, accepted.

In 2006 I sat on the bed by my beloved family member, telling me they couldn’t live anymore, that they might just have to take their life. I heard myself saying spontaneously, that I completely understood. That I wish they’d live by my side, that I would miss them dearly, but if this was right for them, I’d never blame or wrong them for it, or even entertain thoughts that it shouldn’t be so. And that I’d do my best to live Life. Bhavatu sarva mangalam.

In 2014 I did that again with another beloved family member, though from a physical distance.

In 2017 I sat completely unexpectedly in Indian district and state high courts, in multiple plea hearings for a cruel and wrongful incarceration, saying bhavatu sarva mangalam. Wishing the highest and best also to the devious, corrupt, malicious, cruel people present in the courtroom, who had trapped my beloved one. Not praying for a “win,” but only that universal order be served.

In 2019 I got news of a past partner having done the unthinkable. Right here. Bhavatu sarva mangalam.

In 2019 I also got news of the one-and-only music guide on the planet who matched step with me all the way into shunya, having suddenly departed. Poof, just like that. Bhavatu sarva mangalam.

Bhavatu sarva mangalam is not a preventative, defensive, wanting, yearning, may-this-or-that-happen stance. It is an abiding knowing that in universal order is every benefit and every lesson exactly as it must be. It is knowing that Life and Love have no opposite.

Bhavatu Sarva Mangalam is the only ‘prayer’ I’ll ever (not)have, never needing utterance.

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UNINTERRUPTED BY THE VIRUS

I suddenly see that this virus thing brings into focus the inherent sustainability of the life flow I’ve been living — absolutely nothing has changed in my flow. I see as few people as I always do and I still see the people I always do. My “work” and small income are unaffected, my eating and outing patterns are also the same. (If anything, more people have the pause in their flow to work with me online in the guidance sessions, and those who already see me regularly in person for music or guidance, experience being in my presence and/or singing as strengthening to their immunity). 

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THE NEUTRALITY OF ENLIGHTENMENT

The neutrality of enlightenment is that nothing (no-one-thing) is either wanted or resisted. It’s seen that wanting something is, paradoxically, resisting it; and resisting something is, paradoxically, wanting it.

Once it is seen that the ‘it’ (that is wanted or resisted) is I, ‘it’ must (appear to) either dissolve in or merge with I. If ‘it’ is a natural (universal) preference/wellbeing, the merge appears as a having of it. If ‘it’ is not a natural (universal) preference/wellbeing, the dissolution appears as a healing of it. In actuality, neither a having nor a healing is happening, only the (already-always) wholeness of Self is realized, and so appearing as manifest.

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(Mythical) Acceptance

The essence of all egoic activity is to say, “not this.” Or, “don’t want.” Or, “don’t like.” It is to incessantly reject what is, and seek what is not.

So, immediately upon the first rejection of What is, there is generated a second (or third, or fourth…) rejection of the rejection — a brand new not this / don’t want / don’t like! Meaning, the egoic activity now rejects the What Is within — feeling poorly about what it has just rejected! It doesn’t like that it doesn’t like something (as, of course, it doesn’t feel good to be off the natural Peace that One is), but it conflates this feeling with that objectified, outer something it first rejected, rather than see that it is the rejection of the consequent disturbed state within. 

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