http://www.realitysandwich.com/healing_vision_december_2012
Be Well.
A Healing Vision for December 2012
With
the end of the Mayan calendar now upon us, I would like to offer some thoughts
regarding where we have been, where we are going, and what this may all mean
for our present lives and the future of humankind. The more aware we are about
the choices we make, the less likely we will contribute to the coming chaos and
confusion that inevitably characterizes such periods of intense change. It is
my hope that this will shed some light and facilitate healing during this time
of transition.
The Old Ways No Longer Serve
Us
Genuine
science, once a valuable tool of inquiry, has been hijacked by corporate
interests on the one hand and fundamentalists on the other. Scientific
fundamentalism, or scientism, is a belief in science backed by religious
fervor.
Scientism
seeks to place science at the pinnacle as the one and only true source of
knowledge. As such it sees itself as discreditor of all forms of religious
authority and spiritual belief, which it deems superstitious.
In anointing
science as the only source of reliable fact and truth, scientism ironically
makes itself over into a fundamentalist form of religion. And one of its
favorite targets has been alternative medicine, which it considers to be
unscientific.
Several
hundred years of scientific conditioning have convinced the majority of
Westerners that they cannot trust their own internal sense of things, their own
intuitive judgment, their own experiences. In short, we have come to believe
that the only "facts" are the external facts "proven" by science.
The
modern world is divided between reason and faith, as if there is no alternative
to these two extremes of scientific certainty and blind trust. But there is
another very simple and powerful form of knowing. This is the knowing that
comes from personal experience.
This
is the very same source of knowing that science has undermined by convincing us
that our own subjective experiences are unreliable. If our experiences can't be
verified by objective methods like the ones promoted by science, so the
argument goes, then they can't be trusted. And many people have fallen for this
deception.
In
practical terms this means, for example, that the side effect we experienced
from a drug can't be possible because it is not in the medical literature, or
the autistic state that the perfectly normal child regressed into is not due to
the vaccine administered 24 hours ago because there is no research to prove it,
or the astrological influences of the cosmos upon our lives is superstition simply
because science has deemed it so.
The
net result is a vast database of fragmented scientific "facts" coupled with the
barren landscape of emotional confusion and spiritual emptiness that
constitutes modern materialistic consumer culture. It is the same landscape
that religious conservatives have been railing against for quite some time now.
This
state of affairs has given undue credibility to right wing ideology, which is
justified in its criticisms of modern materialism, but goes too far in the
other direction. Its equally distorted perspective on the nature of knowing would
have us believe that we need to throw all of science out the window and leave
everything to blind faith.
Consciousness, Experience,
and Inner Knowing
Because
we no longer trust our own internal knowing, we either defer to scientific
authority or to religious authority, which, by the way, has also fallen for the
very same grand deception. Religious leaders, too, feel inadequate in the face
of science, and have downgraded the religious life to one of having "faith" because
they cannot "prove" their assertions in scientific terms.
We,
especially in the West, have fallen for the deception that we can't know
spiritual truth through personal experience. The preacher says, "Just trust me,"
and we are encouraged to suspend our own capacity for judgment and discernment
in favor of truths handed down by religious authority.
After
all, who are we to claim that we can have first-hand knowledge of a higher
power? Only a select few in positions of religious authority are supposed to be
able to make such claims. And yet thousands of saints, sinners, mystics, and monks
have described just such life changing experiences that attest to personal
contact with their gods.
Many
of us have had similar experiences but, sadly, we have convinced ourselves that
they were just illusions or figments of the imagination. And this is just the
way that materialist science would have it. It does not want us to recognize
any source of truth other than the "data" provided by its reductionist worldview.
For
many of us this may not be breaking news, but it is important news for the vast
sea of Westerners searching for guidance and meaning in a spiritually deficient
culture of materialism.
The
dawning of the new cycle of cosmic change is all about overcoming the
brainwashing that deceives us into believing that only scientific or religious
authority can provide access to truth, fact, and/or knowledge. And while faith
is better than nothing at all, there is a higher form of knowing that comes
from both everyday personal experience and inner spiritual experience.
We
have already begun the process of reclaiming the truth of our own personal
experiences. But we are just beginning to comprehend the sense of empowerment
that comes with trusting our inner knowing -- a form of knowing that comes from a
deeper place than logic and rational thought will ever be able to take us.
The
entire manifest universe is endowed with varying gradations of consciousness,
from the tiniest grain of sand to the wisest being. The entire universe is
evolving in an arc from relatively unconscious matter toward greater degrees of
conscious spirit.
We
are all spiritual beings on this temporary, sacred, and profane journey through
material existence. And the journey will continue after death once we have shed
our physical exteriors.
Everything
is a manifestation of energy, consciousness, chi, prana, spirit, soul, or
whatever you wish to call it. In fact, the absolute solidity of matter is a
mere illusion that even the science of physics now repudiates.
Medical
science would have us believe that consciousness is produced by the brain. When
the brain dies, so does consciousness. In actuality, the brain is merely a
focal point of consciousness, a way station. It is a receiver and transmitter
of consciousness, like a two-way radio. Consciousness carries on even after
death.
In
spite of seeming evidence to the contrary, and in spite of what the modern
scientific worldview would have us believe, you are not alone, everything is
ONE, and we are all connected. All thoughts, emotions, and actions have effects
that ripple out into the surrounding universe.
Notwithstanding
the fact that we are all ONE, each individual being constitutes a unique facet
of the greater whole. This is the fundamental principle of unity through
diversity. We maintain our individuality while at the same time remaining inseparable
from that from which we came. Wave/particle duality is a concept in physics
that aptly mirrors this paradoxical phenomenon.
All
phenomena in the universe vibrate at their own unique frequencies and are capable
of being in harmony or disharmony with other frequencies. When our personal
lives resonate with the vibrations of our higher purpose and higher power, we
maximize our potential for physical health, emotional maturity, and spiritual
awareness.
It
then becomes a matter of learning to tune in to our higher purpose and acting
accordingly, even if that puts us at odds with the prevailing beliefs and
practices of the communities and culture that surround us.
Karma
is the self-correcting power of the universe that enables one who is out of
tune with Cosmic Order to alter course when he or she has gone astray.
Likewise, successive incarnations are opportunities to continue the unfinished
work left behind in prior lifetimes.
The Directionality of
Disease: Healing vs. Suppression
Healing
is always a process that takes place over time. It is not something that occurs
in a single moment by virtue of taking a pill or removing a body part.
Body,
mind, heart, and soul are ONE and, as such, no part of the whole can be
affected without influencing the rest of the whole.
We
are transitioning away from the old paradigm of material medicine -- which tends
exclusively to the temporary needs of the physical body -- to a new energy
medicine paradigm that addresses the needs of the body-heart-mind-soul in a
more holistic, comprehensive, and long lasting manner. This is the very essence
of green medicine.
Pharmaceuticals
and surgeries only address the body aspect of the body-heart-mind-soul, and
they do so largely by a process of suppression. All forms of suppression eventually
lead to an intensification of the same phenomenon, or a transmutation of that
phenomenon into a new issue/problem of equal or greater strength.
The
old medical paradigm seeks to suppress disease by stopping its symptomatic
manifestations at every turn. It does so unconsciously, not understanding that
the war against disease just leads to more disease. More enlightened approaches
to illness facilitate genuine healing. They do not seek to combat the innate
healing capacity of the body-heart-mind-soul.
In
fairness, suppressive measures are sometimes necessary when faced with urgent
life-threatening situations or unbearable suffering that have no holistic
recourse. Even then, suppressive measures should be employed only as temporary
stopgaps until less invasive, less toxic strategies can be employed in order to
initiate a true healing response.
The
universe exists as a spectrum at the bounds of which are polar complements, not
polar opposites. One pole cannot exist without the other. Positive and negative
poles -- yang and yin, male and female, light and dark, spirit and matter, healing
and suffering -- cannot exist but as complementary pairs encompassed by the Great
Tao.
Contrary
to New Age bromides, suffering cannot be avoided. It is part and parcel of growth
and healing. A painless existence would entail a changeless existence. Indeed,
the very purpose of suffering is to provide the painful stimulus that leads to
constructive change.
The
general anesthetic nature of conventional medicine, with its body and mind
numbing substances, is inimical to growth and change. It favors the status quo
and impedes the path to higher consciousness.
The
pull of evolution is toward greater balance. Likewise, healing is a process of
achieving balance. Illness is a function of being out of balance. Health and
happiness are the result of being in tune or in sync with personal destiny and the
Cosmic Order.
Psychological Maturation and
Spiritual Growth
Since
all is ONE, all aspects of the universe are of equal value. No one person is of
any greater or lesser value than any other person. Spiritual maturity does not
translate into superiority. In fact, it entails greater consciousness, and
therefore greater responsibility for our fellow beings.
No
one religion or person has a monopoly on "God." In fact, our conceptions of higher
being are as diverse and unique as the prints on our fingers.
Different
forms of religious belief and practice can reflect different levels of
spiritual maturity. Persons at different levels of spiritual awareness are best
suited to religious forms that match their phases of development.
Together,
the variety of religious beliefs and spiritual practices form a spectrum, no
part of which is of any greater or lesser value than any other. They simply
reflect the current level of spiritual development of different groups and
individuals.
The
minute some person claims to have the one solution to your health problems or
the one key to enlightenment, turn and run the other way. There is no such
person. There are those who may provide guidance, but the key to healing and
wholeness can only be accessed from within.
Enlightenment
as a moment of insight that results in permanent transformation into a more
evolved being is a misleading illusion. Spiritual growth and emotional
maturation is an unfolding process without an endpoint that takes time,
perseverance, guidance, discipline, hard work, and some cosmic luck.
We
are living during a phase of intense material emphasis in the evolutionary arc
of the universe. It is a phase of striking imbalance, the consequences of which
are desecration of the physical body and Mother Earth, emotional chaos and
confusion, the neglect of spiritual wisdom, and the eclipse of the human soul.
As
such, we must be ever vigilant to nurture all aspects of life that care for
material existence, honor spirit, and feed the soul. Since all is ONE, care of
the soul tends, sooner or later, to trickle down to greater health of the
physical body.
The
greatest impediment to positive growth and change is fear. Fear is encouraged
by the ego's black and white thinking, which convinces us that we are alone and
separate from others. I am of one persuasion; "they" are of another. They are
therefore to be feared because they are different. But separation is only a
materialist illusion.
Black
and white thinking serves to engender evil. But evil is not some objectified
external entity that threatens to infect us from the outside. It is an
imbalance that occurs from within.
We
have all perpetrated evils to greater or lesser extent at some point in our
lives. To deny the darkness is to deny the part of the whole that needs to be
healed. Likewise, to project blame for evil onto another is to deny personal
responsibility.
The
ego can easily convince us that some things and some people are good, while
others are bad. In such cases, we may labor under the delusion that we are not
susceptible to the darkness. We mistakenly believe that one pole is capable of
existing independently without the other, as if pure good can exist without
evil or vice versa. But pointing a finger at the enemy only perpetuates the
darkness.
Perhaps
the greatest indicator of human health and spiritual well-being is the capacity
to give and receive love without attachment.
What Will the Future Bring?
The
coming era will mark a return to a more mature manifestation of spiritual
values. Good versus evil, right and wrong, black and white, and fire and
brimstone projections of our own personal shortcomings onto others will give
way to a more healthy and realistic acceptance of the limited and flawed human
beings that we are.
The
impulse to align oneself with the "one true religion" will give way to an
understanding that all organized religions and spiritual callings are, in
essence, valid attempts at expressing their unique and limited conceptions of
the ONE Universal Great Mystery.
While
one religious tradition may focus its efforts on meditation and self discipline,
another may be adept at prayer and ritual, another may teach respect for Mother
Earth, another may focus its energy on good deeds, and so on. All are right and
none are wrong. They all bring something of value to the table of reverence for
the One Great Being.
Similarly,
on a smaller scale, humanity will come to recognize the inherent value of
medical diversity. Knowledge of human health and illness is part science and bigger
part mystery. There is no one true medical way that has a monopoly on cure. There
are only the personal medical truths of individual circumstances.
All
medical options have their flaws and reflect the values of the persons who
choose them. It is our fundamental and inherent right to employ the healing
modality that we believe suits our own needs. As such, when we make medical
choices, we also acknowledge that there are no guarantees, and that we must
accept responsibility for those choices.
Above
all, the beginning of the new cycle represents a return to trusting our own
experiences as valid sources of knowledge. We are not required to answer to the
authoritarian and inquisitorial impulses of Western science. Science is a
valuable tool, as long as it knows its bounds and respects the legitimacy of
other sources of knowledge.
Our
sense of meaning and purpose, our values, metaphysical beliefs, dreams, intuitions,
epiphanies, revelations, spiritual experiences, and explorations into higher
consciousness do not have to prove their validity to science. Such phenomena
lie outside the bounds of conventional science, which has no business passing
judgment upon them.
The
dawning new cycle represents a transition away from knowledge based exclusively
upon the rational mind and its offspring, science. Instead, we will begin to
develop our capacity for inner knowing based upon personal experience. In time,
evolution will favor a balanced union of analytical knowledge of the external
world with experiential knowledge of the inner world.
Don't
be fooled. There is no instant nirvana. These changes will take time, maybe millennia.
We are only at the beginning. We have just turned the corner, and we may be lucky
enough to catch momentary glimpses of humankind's great potential just waiting
to be fulfilled.
There
will likely be discord and unrest along the way, but the end result is an
inevitability. Science and spirit will come to appreciate and respect one
another. Left brain will cooperate with right. Balance will be the rallying cry
of the future.
When
we raise our collective vibration, humankind as a whole will then be prepared
to take another step forward in its evolutionary destiny. We will then be able
to assist all to aspire to the inner knowing that recognizes that all
incarnated and all spiritual beings are but unique reflections of the One
Greater Whole.
Peace
and good health!
Image by raymaclean, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
David
No comments:
Post a Comment