Responses to Responses

I'd like to stay on this topic one more time before I move on. Thank you to each of you who commented on my previous post. Your insights have been the words of God to me and to each person viewing this site. Blessings and Namaste to each of you.

Let me take a moment and make a few comments based upon each of your responses.

MEREDITH... I think you understand the heart of where I was coming from. Many teachers, like the one you mentioned (Akilesh), ask us to seek acceptance of the way things are. Doing otherwise means we have internal resistance to WHAT IS, and that is what many of the eastern texts and philosophies are trying to get us to overcome. This is the heart of my quandary, but perhaps it can be reconciled for as Akilesh also said as he concluded, once you get beyond your self and attachments you will "as a non-entity...be immensely helpful to others."

DARRELL...Thank you for the reminder of the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. He is indeed an example of one who seeks the nonattachment reached through mystical reality and yet is full of compassion and action. And as you said: "The link between detachment and activism is certainly a paradox!" Yes, Yes, and Yes!

ALLISON...I love your comment that once you know about suffering, you cannot forget it, and there is a definite feeling of responsibility in that. And you have perhaps summed up nonattachment in a very real way when you say it means that "you are motivated and pulled solely by love, and you are not concerned with impressing others by your actions, but you trust that God will take the seed that you have sown, and put it to good use." You're not only NOT "way off base" - you're right on top of it!

DAVE... Your comment "If our motivation is love then we are not focused on the results so much as the doing an expression of love" resonates well with the quote from Allison above. And you made me chuckle when you so graciously reminded us that Christianity was originally Eastern Thought! As an example, Jesus is indeed one who has gone beyond and experienced Unity Consciousness (and therefore must have "accepted What Is") and yet his sole mission was that of the Bodhisattva - enlightened yet living to ease others' pain.

ISAIAH...I hope you all can hear what Isaiah has said here: "Why are we encouraged to act without attachment, expectation, and concern? I believe it is because to act in any other manner is to act from a selfish viewpoint of ego, which is not our true nature. Ego attaches itself unrealistically, expects certain results, and when the results do not come about, must go through a process known as suffering. " Excellent, Isaiah. I also realize that my passage from the Gita did not suggest that the world will always have suffering (it was a bad selection to make my point, by the by) but there are many teachers and scriptures that will say just that (though I'm not saying that I agree with them). Thank you also for for the reminder that "All mankind's suffering is brought about through the thought process."

JON... You have said so much here that I find myself blissfully whirling. Your comments themselves WERE the love that you spoke of. Thank you for again directing us away from egoic mind and back to The Witness. Om Mani Padme Hum...

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CONCLUSION:

What are words? Sometimes I struggle with philosophies, debates, and discussions about the spiritual life, because they are only symbols that can point us to reality ... and they are not - in themselves - what we are seeking. It is indeed easy to get stuck simply TALKING and not living or practicing or experiencing.

And so my hope for you is that in some way through reading these posts, the truth that is already inside of you has RISEN UP and that your heart centers have bursted open with a divine love for all that IS. As your peers and fellow beacons of Light have shared with you through this conversation, act in this world not from a place of pride, unrealistic expectations, or with a belief that YOU are the one acting. Know that it is God acting through you - nay, AS you - to ease the suffering you experience in the world. Live it. Know it. Take no man's words for it, for until you experience it you are falling short of your divine inheritance. If we are indeed all One, how can we not act when we see suffering around us? And through the struggle that is often required to bring about change in the world and in ourselves, "may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds" completely and forever.

"Love people. Feed people. Serve people. Remember God." (Neem Karoli Baba - 'Maharaji)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." (Gandhi)