Everyman's WEEKLY Journal #56
© 2013 Rev. David Seacord
December 29, 2013
An Oracle's Message…
On Christmas Eve my mother gave me a 'perfect' gift…an 'oracle'…. a six-inch high male doll made of stuffed cloth, with a hugely smiling plastic head. When I push or squeeze on it it speaks to me one of it's seven messages. All of these messages are 'training-by-imitation opportunities' for men--at least for men who have the desire to increase their women-relating skills. It's like somebody had an insightful moment descend upon them…. that dolls could be used to train adult men, just as they have been a part of female childhood training protocol for centuries.
I have no idea where the doll came from or how it got into my Mother's hands. It just appeared, and she offered it to me. I did have a few moments of hesitation at the idea of receiving a doll, and that hesitation increased to a slight resistance as I listened to the messages for the first time. I don't normally say (to women) the kinds of things that this male doll was saying. Then I got it…that THAT was the point. Oh. So I accepted the doll graciously and brought it home. And every once in a while now Ambrose and I have a little game… I will call out "You're perfect just the way you are! I wouldn't change one thing!" and he will chose and respond with another, such as "Thinking of you is the best part of my whole day!" When we do this, I can feel a smile on the face of the Universe.
I admit that memorizing seven short female-appreciating soundbites may not seem like much, but if they are used, it does help to get the ball rolling in a relationship-positive direction, yes? Certainly there are many other such soundbites that could also be created or discovered… and which, with practice, could be available to be used by men learning improved relating to the female half of humanity. I know it of itself is only a beginning, but the second step of any journey requires the first.
_____________________________________________
Do you recognize that the subject of femaleness/maleness cannot be ignored if we are to thrive as a species? Can you see that clarity here is critical if we are to have any real chance of awakening to ourselves--via our sadhanas… or our cultures--via our creative actions? In my seeing only a truly transformed male/female paradigm will allow the arising of a transformed world. And I suggest that the Universe is conspiring to assist humanity in achieving this key benchmark in an all-or-nothing way. By saying this I am referencing the general existence crisis that I/we am awakening to as the profound truth of our planetary situation. So let us speak straight about that…
I once had a dream of being tortured to death on a medieval torturing wheel, and in the dream I 'awoke to myself' during this being tortured… so completely that I erupted into a huge laughing. This made my torturer very curious and he demanded to know why I was laughing as he was torturing me to death. I answered that I was laughing because I had just realized, had just seen who he really was… that he had in fact been my loving mother in another lifetime…and from this I had now realized just how far our sourcing Godness would 'go to the mat' in supporting me to awaken…that my/your/our Divinity will stop at nothing…that no configuration of circumstances is off-limits, if my/your/our experiencing it might assist me/you/us to awaken. This is LOVE… as in 'the truth without limits'.
Clinton Callahan, in his book "Radiant Joy, Brilliant Love" (which I am now studying/absorbing/digesting [and which I highly highly recommend to you]) makes this point also--- that it is necessary to increase the pain of our moment-to-moment awareness if we are to awaken. Although it is natural for our comfort addictions to resist this idea, is it not self-obvious that our best motivation for transforming ourselves is to experience for ourselves the hells that our unconscious thought and actions have created? Do we not discover what is not workable by directly experiencing it? Is not experiencing the consequences of our choices the best education possible?
Heaven-on-earth will only manifest as the result of the sum of the choices of humanity. In regards to our destiny of surviving upon this planet either as Godmen/Godwomen or as dinosaurs, the game is not only 'on', the hard data evidence is increasingly overwhelming that it is in it's final stretch. As you/I/we awaken to this probability..our species extinction possibility, it is likely we will at first fear for ourselves, our personal survival. This is an old-paradigm response, and the call within us to become Divine requires we transcend this view. In our hour of choice as a species, we are called to go far beyond ourselves and our private smallnesses. How will we answer? If we can find the courage to squarely face our own non-existence and be willing to experience being fully aware of the suffering we have visited upon millions of other species in our unconsciousness, we shall also then find and receive our truest spiritual freedom…our Self-Knowing. And, in that freedom, to discover the true power of being One Self. To this One Self, nothing is impossible (including the restoration of this eden-like planet).
However, as the ancient Zen writings teach, 'attachment cannot be limited'. To me this means that even to be attached to the idea of being a man or woman must be relinquished …if the One Being is to be entered. For is it not self-obvious that the authentic One Being would include BOTH maleness and femaleness? The word androgyny applies to this state of being…as being neither one nor the other, but both… in a state of fully healed and harmonious forgivenness.
Awakening to our Self-Unity through Conscious Love---and ending the war between the sexes---is the prerequisite to ending the race to our own extinction, for all the environmental/economic/political disasters surrounding us and falling upon us are predicated upon motivations derived from the unhealed nature of being a man or woman. The path to our One Heart is found in the embracing of all opposites. I am that it IS possible. Among other educative experiences, watching Ammachi live her amazing selfless service life has been a good modeling for me… ( www.amma.org). And, to reiterate and underline my already-given recommendation, I am finding my study of Clinton Callahan's "Radiant Joy Brilliant Love" to be providing essential direction and guidance to my self-explorations. I fully trust you would likewise.
Namaste & Sat Nam,
David
FYI: If you would like to share this Journal as a webpage, at the very top of the email where it says:
"Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser." etc.
…. well, the word 'browser' is a clickable hyperlink that will open this email as a webpage…
which you can then copy and paste anywhere (like to share it on Facebook, or elsewhere).
ALSO: If you would like to share the link to the SUBSCRIBE page, here is the clickable or paste-able code:
If you get value from reading this Journal, I do appreciate your assistance in expanding it's distribution. Thank you so much.
________________________________________________________
Addition links to other writings, websites, etc:
Rev. David Seacord
Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment