By Rev. LeRoy E. Zemke
Pastor, Temple of the Living God
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens... When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Holy Bible, Psalm 8, v 1,3,4,5
At one pole of my existence, I am one with the stones and the tree branches. Thus, I must submit to the yoke of the universal law. It is this, in the end, that is the very basis of my life. And that force comes from that which is closely bound up in the unity of the world, which is in full communication with all things. But at the other pole, I am distinct from all of the rest. Here, I have broken the barriers of equality and I find myself alone, as an individual. I am absolutely unique, I am me, I am incomparable. The whole of the mass of the universe can not crush this individuality that is mine. I maintain it, despite the formidable gravitation of all that exists. It is small in appearance, but great in reality.
Rabindranath Tagore
When we begin to consider the height, width and depth of what it means to be a human and then add the ultra-dimensionality of the spiritual domain of our being, we touch, at once, the incredible vastness of the word LIFE!
We are, at this moment in human history, standing upon the threshold of scientific discoveries alone that defy the limits of our language to explain or clarify their impact on human life. From biology, to zoology, from the miracle of human reproduction to the ending of the human life cycle through the gateway called death, the enormous amount of data and research is overwhelming. One quite literally cannot read all of it, let alone absorb the content or implications offered.
What is significantly impressive to consider as some of this data is released to the public press is that it reveals what the ancient sages, seers and enlightened ones have shared in poetry or inspired writings from the Bible, Rumi the Persian Poet, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabarata, the Koran, the Tao De Chingand other sacred scriptures. Once again we are reminded that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We now know that life continually unfolds. Not only do the cells in our human biological body constantly renew themselves, they respond to
both deeply held intention to the quality of focus or attention.
Intention is the term applied to that aspect of our life that allows us to recognize at depth, that we have a soul related ability to intend a result or a desire we seek to fulfill. It arises out of some part of the self that is described as non-local. In other words, an intention is an aspect of a deep inner yearning to bring about a desired result. It is beyond our personal will.
If an intention is weak, or not clear, because it is clouded in lots of muddy emotions or fuzzy or unstructured thinking, nothing happens.
Focus is the inner capacity to bring our whole attention to a project, a goal, a specific set of plans and keep that energy activated until the proposed activity's actually realized.
There is much more to be said about these areas, but it is the subject of a future writing.
As we look at life from both the scientific and spiritual viewpoints, we can certainly begin to realize that the whole picture is unimaginably complex, interwoven and intertwined. Level upon level, layer upon layer, the individualized unit of consciousness we identify as a man or woman in the truly humansense is infinitely complex. If we might look into the starry sky on a clear night and attempt to explain something of the nature of the origins of the cosmos or universe or as some would offer intergalactic space, we can gain metaphorically, an appreciation of that exploration as we attempt to study our human life.
The human body is a composite of some hundred thousand trillions of cells ... yes, according to Dr. Depak Chopra some of the current research. ...trillions! We know that there are some 6 - 7 billion living human beings on our planet. Who can count the grains of sand on a single sandy beach or know the total dropsof water in any of the major bodies of water that surround 3/4 of our planet? Indeed we are "wondrously made" and in the words of the psalmist, "What is man that thou are mindful of him."
According to the ancient writers of sacred literature, man alone carries the seeds of a connection to our divine essence or the capacity for the consciousness we speak of that reveals something of our spiritual nature. At an ordinary, day to day level, that is not even possible to imagine. When we think of being totally awake, totally present to who we are as a man, as a woman, we cannot language the implications.
When we witness a great actor - on stage or in a film - or experience an operatic voice of the quality of a Beverly Sills or Luciano Pavorati can we know, even if we are informed with all of their lifetime training development and accomplishments to really know what the deepest potentiality of their soul remains for them?
In a single incarnation, we do not, I suspect, attain to our soul's greatness. Yet, we are ever encouraged to be more. Jesus the Christ, was reputed to say ..."Greater works than these, shall you do also." John 14: 12
Everywhere we turn, we are encouraged to be more. We are invited into this journey from earliest childhood where our parents, siblings, even friends and teachers offer to support us. Schools and all manner of special education around science, arts, finances, sports, language, literature and every form of learning imaginable to reach "into" the deeper dimensions of our nature.
Too often we settle for what's expected by family or by the folkwaysand mores of a specific group or community. We follow in the footsteps of a parent, or what a teacher suggests. While this effort is not in the right/wrong category of things, it means that we seldom discover our essential nature, our deeper impulses untilwe are older (or more mature as some would say!)
Yet, the eternal message of the Holy Ones, The Enlightened Teachers is that we're capable, potentially, of a greatness that we can only possibly imagine, or begin to imagine.
Because all of life constantly renews itself, there is no known limit to what we can be. We are always in a state of unfolding unless we deliberately close off, shut down or deny the impulse of life through some act of harm to ourselves - such as severe addictions, excessive fear, extreme trauma or any other kind of mental/emotional wounding that causes us to feel totally stopped or blocked.
The larger message, to me, is that from the wellspring that is life as we know it, what we call the individuated self, who we are, and what is possible for us, individually and collectively, is limited only by our restrictions or our self imposed limits of family, race or culture. But we can be more if we choose to see the world through more enlightened eyes, through the hopes and dreams that are born within each of us and can be reignited, anywhere, anytime upon the journey we call as incarnation. The work is to allow ourselves to explore our deepest yearnings to learn to uncover who we are!
What Is Real Never Ceases
The Self dwells in the house of the body,
Which passes through childhood, youth, and old age.
So passes the Self at the time of death
Into another body. The wise know this truth
And we are not deceived by it.
When the senses come in contact with sense-objects
They give rise to feelings of heat and cold,
Pleasure and pain, which come and go.
Accept them calmly, as do the wise.
The wise, who live free from pleasure and pain.
Are worthy of immortality.
What is real never ceases to be.
The unreal never is. The sages
Who realize the Self know the secret
Of what is and what is not.
Know that the Self, the ground of existence,
Can never be destroyed or diminished.
For the changeless cannot be changed.
Bodies die, not the Self that dwells therein.
Know the Self to be beyond change and death.
Therefore strive to realize this Self.
Taken from "God Makes The Rivers To Flow" by Eknath Easwaran
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