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* * *
A prophet of old voiced one of the most beautiful visions of peace, a world in which all oppositions are healed into friendship and companionship, a world of saftey and equality for all. This vision lives within us, and if we have forgotten it, it lives still, for it transcends time and place, so resonates in all who are for peace and are peace.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
the calf and the young lion and the yearling together,
and a little child will lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze together,
their young ones lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like an ox.
A nursing child will play by a cobra’s hole,
and a weaned child will insert her hand into a snake's den.
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Living One,
as the waters cover the ocean.
*Isaiah 11.6-9
* * *
A seeker asked the Sage, "Where do you go, when you go to sleep?"
I don't go anywhere.
But you lose consciousness, don't you?
Better to say that Consiousenss loses the self. I don't lose consciousness, I am Consconsiousness conscious of Itself. The self fades into Consciousness, for the self is a thought-sensation linked with the body. The sleep of the body is the sleep of the self.
I don't understand.
When awakening, Consciousness reclothes itself with the self and, so, the world; only the dream changes. Yet, there's re-cognition, as when saying, "Wow! I enjoyed that deep night of rest." Cognition continues in sleep, or re-cognition could not occur. Only now, Awareness projects an "I," the self, where before it was solely Consciousness aware, or Consciousness self-conscious. After the sleep, the self claims it enjoyed the rest in the night, where the self didn't enjoy it, Consciousness did, God did.
But what of dreams at night, in which you're part of the dream.
As I said, the dream changes, but a dream is a dream, whether when the body is awake or asleep. Inquire, "Who is the dreamer?"
In the sleep state, one returns to Unity, not insensibility or non-being - Being cannot become non-Being, or un-be Itself. On awakening, one re-members Unity. Unity is devoid of the self. So, to transcend self in the awake state, one does not negate the self; the Self, or God, surrenders the self into the Self, or God. Unity is who we are, self appears and disappears in Unity. This is why the self is involved in reconciliation, but the self cannot itself be the one who reconciles. How can that which is being reconciled be the reconciler? Something more than the opposites being brought into the Harmony must enact the coming together. All unity arises from Unity, never those who are parts acting from Unity. Parts cannot create Unity, only re-call the taste of Unity.
* * *
You have to reconcile yourself with the universe. . . . The mineral kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. . . . Just the reconciliation with the universe will free you. After all, when you love everything, . . . what else can you do? There is nothing else.
*Robert Adams. Silence of the Heart.
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