This week, I read chapter five of The Power of Now.
Many years ago, I remember trying to formulate words to ask an intelligent question to a well-respected Christian homeschool author and teacher and mentor. I began with: “Can we ever reach that point…” but she didn’t even allow me time to explain what I was thinking before she cut me off with “NO!” I remember feeling humiliated.
What I was feeling was “Is there hope? Will there ever be time, even a moment when I am at peace?”
And this spiritual elder told me no.
I wrote briefly about seeking that confidence in faith here.
That was the beginning of the end for me with that side of American evangelical Christianity. I always knew deep down in my soul that there was something more, something different than what was shallowly preached from pulpits and Sunday school by mediocre white men and women.
I began reading and seeking and trusting my inner self for guidance toward Being. I have come such a long way and it’s so encouraging to find like-minded spiritual siblings and elders who don’t just dismiss what they will never understand.
Chapter Five: The State of Presence
Favorite quotes:
What is the power of Now? None other than the power of your presence, your consciousness liberated from thought forms.
“Be like a servant waiting for the return of the master,” says Jesus. The servant does not know at what hour the master is going to come. So he stays awake, alert, poised, still, lest he miss the master’s arrival. In another parable, Jesus speaks of the five careless (unconscious) women who do not have enough oil (consciousness) to keep their lamps burning (stay present) and so miss the bridegroom (the Now) and don’t get to the wedding feast (enlightenment). These five stand in contrast to the five wise women who have enough oil (stay conscious).
Even the men who wrote the Gospels did not understand the meaning of these parables, so the first misinterpretations and distortions crept in as they were written down. With subsequent erroneous interpretations, the real meaning was completely lost. These are parables not about the end of the world but about the end of psychological time. They point to the transcendence of the egoic mind and the possibility of living in an entirely new state of consciousness.
Presence is needed to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature.
To become aware of such things, the mind needs to be still. You have to put down for a moment your personal baggage of problems, of past and future, as well as all your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not see, hear but not hear. Your total presence is required.
Because we live in such a mind-dominated culture, most modern art, architecture, music, and literature are devoid of beauty, of inner essence, with very few exceptions. The reason is that the people who create those things cannot — even for a moment — free themselves from their mind.
Since Being, consciousness, and life are synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness.
Everything that exists has Being, has God-essence, has some degree of consciousness.
The parable [of the Prodigal Son] describes a journey from unconscious perfection, through apparent imperfection and “evil” to conscious perfection.
Through you, consciousness is awakening out of its dream of identification with form and withdrawing from form. This foreshadows, but is already part of, an event that is probably still in the distant future as far as chronological time is concerned. The event is called — the end of the world.
The collective egoic mind is the most dangerously insane and destructive entity ever to inhabit this planet. What do you think will happen on this planet if human consciousness remains unchanged?
If it weren’t for alcohol, tranquilizers, antidepressants, as well as the illegal drugs, which are all consumed in vast quantities, the insanity of the human mind would become even more glaringly obvious than it is already. I believe that, if deprived of their drugs, a large part of the population would become a danger to themselves and others. These drugs, of course, simply keep you stuck in dysfunction. Their widespread use only delays the breakdown of the old mind structures and the emergence of higher consciousness. While individual users may get some relief from the daily torture inflicted on them by their minds, they are prevented from generating enough conscious presence to rise above thought and so find true liberation.
Christ is your God-essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence.
Jesus attempted to convey directly, not through discursive thought, the meaning of presence, of self-realization.
The “second coming” of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman.
If “Christ” were to return tomorrow in some externalized form, what could he or she possibly say to you other than this: “I am the Truth. I am divine presence. I am eternal life. I am within you. I am here. I am Now.”
Avatars, divine mothers, enlightened masters, the very few that are real, are not special as persons. Without a false self to uphold, defend, and feed, they are more simple, more ordinary than the ordinary man or woman. Anyone with a strong ego would regard them as insignificant or, more likely, not see them at all.
Egos are drawn to bigger egos. Darkness cannot recognize light. Only light can recognize light.
I love that I can glimpse The Now and Being more and more as I mature in my faith.
I love experiencing the Holy in Nature. I love that still quietness that settles my mind and relieves my stresses of everyday life.
I love watching my children in awe. I made them yet they are their own Selves.
I love that soul swell when someone is kind and I can return that kindness.
I am proud to be Insignificant and less and less Ego as I turn toward the Light.
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