|
* * *
We explored, last writing, the meaning of indifferent as being without preference. Grace does not choose for one and against one, for Life Itself, Oneness, is prior to differentiation and embracing of differentiation arising within Itself. Plurality arises in Simplicity. All ones express One, all ones lead to One. To see 'God,' see this here now, not merely with eyes, with Heart.
* * *
The human experience of consciousness, of Life, located now largely in body and mind, now stuck at its high level in logical reason, otherwise in animalic body sensation, is not Life but a particular reduction of that Totality. This is so with every form of consciousness in Creation. And each human is moment-to-moment invited to surrender the sense of partial to the fact of Totality, the fragmented to the Whole. The surrender to Grace is surrender to this Whole, eternally present. This Wholeness is right here, now, in a world filled with fragments at battle with one another: in nationalisms, in war, in politics, in local communities, in marriages, in work places, in religions, ... The ego alienated from Life, apart form Wholeness, must have an enemy, even if the enemy is not really an enemy, is addicted to conflict within and outside. Conflicted egos contending for world peace is a contradiction, for the world will only become what we become.
* * *
A self may say, "I like an oak tree more than a pine tree," but 'God' would have no preference for one or the other, seeing each of equal expression of Life.
* * *
This is not saying preferences are wrong, they are natural in the evolution of Life in nature. We are each a manifestation of the Totality. As our consciousness embrace expands, so does what one is able to include in and by Love, as we grow into Wholeness. And, so as not to be moralistic, inclusion is, first, a matter of consciousness, not morality. Moral values arise in a group that educates others in ethics. Consciousness is a 'law' to itself, only learned by direct experience. Societal preferences naturally evolve from prejudice toward oneself, the infant, and, then, toward the groups one has been socialized to see as special and deserving of more honor, this training to group prejudice beginning in childhood. Infants are by instinct prejudiced, for survival, children are taught to be prejudiced by choice. Yet, to the extent we follow these inculcated preferences, we are not thinking, we are reacting. Rare is the person who has learned to stand alone, to go onward leaving his most cherished group loyalty behind, when that loyalty contradicted the summons of Life for him or her to move in another direction. And the human is to evolve to transcend the merely human and, in doing so, integrate into itself what transcends itself and its group loyalties. Life transcends the life of a human and any group and any social movement, indeed, the lives of all humans and collectives of humans of the apparent past and present and future. We evolve within Totality toward Totality. In the seen world, we can locate no creature most gifted with the capacities to choose to forfeit loyalties to be drawn closer to the irreducible Oneness. And for this Oneness to have preference within Itself would be against Itself, denying the harmony of Itself. Indeed, Oneness is Harmony, and all harmony, free of conflict, expresses and relies on this Oneness. So, diversity, when in harmony, is in harmony due to the Oneness that is its background and inspiration.
Continued... |
