Illuminating Happiness

"Our minds, which are even now only just awakening after
years of materialism, are infected with the despair of unbelief,
of lack of purpose and ideal. The nightmare of materialism, which
has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game,
is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.
Only a feeble light glimmers like a tiny star in a vast gulf of
darkness. This feeble light is but a presentiment, and the soul,
when it sees it, trembles in doubt whether the light is not a
dream, and the gulf of darkness reality."
Wassily Kandinsky

We live in a time of tremendous uncertainty smeared over with thick veneers of ever whiffle-waffling confidence that science and the purveyors of technology will find the way to solve our exponentially escalating problems so that life will continue ever upward towards its peak of material prosperity and thus some semblance of peace for all. There are real lives at stake here: the hopes and dreams of countless parents for their children’s right to live out their lives in a harmonious world.

The “feeble light” that glimmers is the same Light that Moses knew burning in his bones, that Buddha discovered beyond all form and emotion, that Jesus proclaimed himself to wholly be. It is the Light of Life in all of our eyes, purified of the deeply immersed trauma birthed emotions and their pernicious defense mechanisms and strategies.

How shall the Light emerge and harmonize the body-mind with its own inherent nature of Freedom, peace, spacious bliss, and beauty making instincts?

I wish, wish, wish it could happen because people stretch their imaginations, open up their intuition, affirm the facts they don’t want to admit to and thus start waking up from the corporate spell woven by the super rich, the carrot dangled on the end of their enticingly extended sticks. I wish it didn’t have to come through the intensities of pain inflicted when mutual dreams collapse as the oil-based economic systems of ever increasing growth cough, and choke, sputter and sigh into exhaustion.

It is such a small shift, and yet so momentous, when people put Spirit above money, peace above material prosperity, time for leisure above acquisition, the highest good of their own children and all others above their own self interests. But it will take something powerful to enact it, like economic collapse, like total disillusionment, like the anarchy of despair.

This is just how the majority are, so this is how it will be. But there are many, many people out there, right now, who sense what is coming, who are awakening to a deeper realism, who are thinking for themselves, who are making the time to get in touch with their souls. For them the ancient words of the prophet Isaiah hold true:

“Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory (beauty) of the One Light, the Great Love will shine upon you. For though dense darkness covers the earth, the Light will arise upon you…”

In the original language of Hebrew this could also be translated:

Be Luminous for your illuminating happiness is come and the splendor and reality of the One who becomes in time is shining upon you. For the dark that obstructs the Light will fill up the world, but the Eternal One(ness) shall arise upon you, and his splendor shall be seen on you.

Materialism as the controlling paradigm of existence is a dense dark. We have enjoyed the bright side of it, for the material sphere is not evil, of course. So much good has come in the form of tools, knowledge, expertise… and yet, because of vested interests of powerful entities, mankind has been exploited, medicine poisened and drug warped. Massive economic ponzi schemes have been developed which are money making machines for the super rich. Do we really realize that for every corporation that flourishes there are countless small, family run business that go bankrupt and with them dreams destroyed, families stressed, marriages failed, children traumatized?

Do you know that during the recent economic crises the number of billionaires have increased in the world? Just recently the news quoted Warren Buffet as saying, “When it is raining gold it is time to get out the buckets.” His wealth has vastly increased as has most of the most wealthy people in the world. Do you realize that his opportunities for profit come at the expense of millions of poor and middle class families who are losing their homes, their business, their hopes? When are we going to wake up to how things really work in a system of ruthless competition?)

The collapse of a civilization is a major historical event. We are in the midst of one. But the future is very bright for the bright and clear souls who are awake to the true nature of the Universe and the laws of Love that govern the higher good and harmonies. This is one wild ride!

A New Way of Thinking

Einstein wrote, "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our way of thinking. Thus we are drifting toward a catastrophe beyond comparison. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."

Can we hear Einstein with the sobriety and seriousness these words should evoke? A new way of thinking requires a recovery of the truths and values written inside us by the fingers of Nature, or Hand of God. We must let Life start thinking in us. What I mean is there is an inherent wisdom in all Creation. This wisdom does not think in human symbols — but it can! We can allow the Language of Life to harmonize our bodies and brains.

All Life is singing the glory of its existence and the wisdom of its delicate relationships. It is an unbroken field of interrelating energies. All, except for us. We must now clearly see ourselves as broken off from this web through 300 years of excessively left brained thinking and the paradigms of life we have developed that are inherently self-destructive.

It is the nature of the left brain to distinguish differences, to analyze, to break down into parts, to structure in new order. But without the inspired, insightful, creative, mystically related right brain the order it creates is too inclusive and limited. We create independent systems without regard for their relationship to the whole. We are now experiencing the catastrophic potential of such imbalanced and partial thinking. We must, must, must shift to new patterns based on universal values expressed in new ways.

Thomas Berry eloquently echoes this. "The New Prosperity requires a new language. This new language is primarily the language of the earth, a language of living relationships that extend throughout the universe."

New thinking demands a new usage of language. The two are inseparable. If I think differently I will express myself differently. If I am growing more attuned to the rhythms of the stars, the energetic shifts of seasons, the balances or imbalances of our food producing soils, the quality of water, the greater good of humanity and all wild creatures, I will speak of stars, weather, earth, fire, water, birds, deer and bear, the laughter of children.

We have journeyed away from nature for 300 years now and learned much. We are in a tremendous place where we can take the best of our insights, tools and technology and the ones that shall yet be invented in order to create a new world of harmony and peace, where people love nature in a way they never have before: seeing it as both motherly provider and source of inspiration, beauty maker, marvel and delight.

We are on the cusp of a new era. Those who cling to the dying age will resist the changes with all the strength born of their fear or greedy lust for power. Those who let go and embrace the challenges and changes are in for a very inspiring ride through the death of life based on consumption into life based on quality of relationships, simplicity, creative freedom, harmonizing with the whole, sanity and peace.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BIRDS

How do we know that birds aren’t singing with bubbling gurgles of joy warbling and trembling inside their bodies? How do we know that their little energetic systems aren’t alive and luminous with the ripples and cadence of song? How do we know that when they can’t contain it any more—because the ecstasy is so great—that they don’t dive and dip out of the trees or off of wires to soar?

How do we know they are not blithe and happy as they eat seeds by the road? How do we know that the robin isn’t perpetually cheerful because it savors the sensation of a worm wiggling down its throat into its belly? How do we know birds are not savoring the warmth of soft nests amongst twigs as snow falls on feathers? We who filter out Life with our bodies and left lob limited brains: how do we know anything?

How does a bird feel when it makes love: when feathers part and soft tissues touch? Is the ecstasy so filled with Light that their body feels like it flies with its wings folded? And does a bird know pain that drains its brain and flutters its body out to the edge of extinction as its orifice stretches thin, budging open to expel an egg?

And how do we know that birds do not grieve in song when they see their brothers or sisters in peril: when the cat pounces or shots ring? How do we know that when a bird friend falls and its eyes darken a black stone doesn’t weigh their hearts down so heavily that it strains their wing bones and feathers?

We who filter out oceans of brimming Life with our biological brains, we who dumb down and dampen our senses so we can darken and immure ourselves in abstract thought symbols, the supposed and seditious security of familiar emotions and endless chatter of words — how do we know anything real at all?