passage I read in a book

[Blue Star]

I read this passage in the book I am currently reading. It really spoke to me. This may or may not resonate with you and I respect all religious/spiritual views. I am just sharing this because I really like the book.





"The Buddha began in the same place where you begin. So did I. The nature of suffering does not change. You have not been given a special handicap, nor were you given fewer abilities. There is no difference between you and Buddha, or between Buddha or I. You are pure being. The Buddha is pure being. You struggle with identification with form. So did the Buddha. So did I. We are all tested. We all build on quicksand and get sucked down into the muck of conditioned existence. But we are not the conditioned. We are the lotus swimming on the murky surface of the pond. We are the awareness, the profound discovery that grows out of the darkness of conditions. We are the white flower, nurtured by those murky waters. If you are looking for beauty without sadness, you will not find it. If you are looking for celebration without the poignancy of pain, you will search in vain. All that is transcendent comes from the lowly, the light from the dark, the flower from the mud. Give up your linear thinking, your rigid, left-brain expectations of what spirituality means. Life is not one-dimensional. If you are looking for the absolute, you must find it wherever you look. If the absolute is truly absolute, then there is no place where it is not found. Don't choose one side of the argument. Learn to take both sides and work toward the middle. Both extremes reflect each other. Those who are in conflict share the same lesson. There is only one way to freedom. Buddha called it the Middle Way, the way between all extremes. You can't get there by taking sides. You can't get there by choosing the good over the bad, or the light over the dark. Your path goes through the place where good and evil cross, where the light is obstructed, casting long shadows. There are no maps that take you to this place. If you ask one person, he says, 'Go to the right.' If you ask another, he says, 'Go to the left.' If you ask the pessimist where you can find truth, he will say, 'It was here yesterday. You missed it.' If you ask the optimist, he will reply: 'It will be here tomorrow.' Who gives the correct answer? Is there, in fact, a correct answer? Or is the expectation of a correct answer itself the illusion? When you can observe the argument without taking sides, when you can be in the middle of the battleground without attacking anyone, then you have arrived in the place where the lotus blooms. Few will notice you, but it will not matter. You have come home. You have slipped through the veil. You are no longer an object blocking the light, but the window through which it passes. Can you imagine being a window that lets in the light, a window that shuts out the cold and opens to let in the fresh air? Can you imagine being so flexible and useful at the same time? No longer imprisoned in a role, you are glad to be of help. No longer seeking, you are happy to point the way. When someone asks, 'Which way to the divine?' you answer, 'Any way will do.' You know that the outcome doesn't matter. Only being present on the journey, moment to moment matters. Between now and then, between this and that, the Buddha dwells."



- From Reflections Of The Christ Mind by Paul Ferrini (pages 119-20)

 

[johnDoen]

I read this passage in the book I am currently reading. It really spoke to me. This may or may not resonate with you and I respect all religious/spiritual views. I am just sharing this because I really like the book.





"The Buddha began in the same place where you begin. So did I. The nature of suffering does not change. You have not been given a special handicap, nor were you given fewer abilities. There is no difference between you and Buddha, or between Buddha or I. You are pure being. The Buddha is pure being. You struggle with identification with form. So did the Buddha. So did I. We are all tested. We all build on quicksand and get sucked down into the muck of conditioned existence. But we are not the conditioned. We are the lotus swimming on the murky surface of the pond. We are the awareness, the profound discovery that grows out of the darkness of conditions. We are the white flower, nurtured by those murky waters. If you are looking for beauty without sadness, you will not find it. If you are looking for celebration without the poignancy of pain, you will search in vain. All that is transcendent comes from the lowly, the light from the dark, the flower from the mud. Give up your linear thinking, your rigid, left-brain expectations of what spirituality means. Life is not one-dimensional. If you are looking for the absolute, you must find it wherever you look. If the absolute is truly absolute, then there is no place where it is not found. Don't choose one side of the argument. Learn to take both sides and work toward the middle. Both extremes reflect each other. Those who are in conflict share the same lesson. There is only one way to freedom. Buddha called it the Middle Way, the way between all extremes. You can't get there by taking sides. You can't get there by choosing the good over the bad, or the light over the dark. Your path goes through the place where good and evil cross, where the light is obstructed, casting long shadows. There are no maps that take you to this place. If you ask one person, he says, 'Go to the right.' If you ask another, he says, 'Go to the left.' If you ask the pessimist where you can find truth, he will say, 'It was here yesterday. You missed it.' If you ask the optimist, he will reply: 'It will be here tomorrow.' Who gives the correct answer? Is there, in fact, a correct answer? Or is the expectation of a correct answer itself the illusion? When you can observe the argument without taking sides, when you can be in the middle of the battleground without attacking anyone, then you have arrived in the place where the lotus blooms. Few will notice you, but it will not matter. You have come home. You have slipped through the veil. You are no longer an object blocking the light, but the window through which it passes. Can you imagine being a window that lets in the light, a window that shuts out the cold and opens to let in the fresh air? Can you imagine being so flexible and useful at the same time? No longer imprisoned in a role, you are glad to be of help. No longer seeking, you are happy to point the way. When someone asks, 'Which way to the divine?' you answer, 'Any way will do.' You know that the outcome doesn't matter. Only being present on the journey, moment to moment matters. Between now and then, between this and that, the Buddha dwells."



- From Reflections Of The Christ Mind by Paul Ferrini (pages 119-20)

The middle way: avoiding the extremes to find peace. Gautama Buddha used this term to describe the character of the Noble Eightfold Path he discovered. It was basically 8 things to know and to do to escape all the sufferings in life.

A similar concept is the Flow in Taoism, well "tao" itself means "the way".

 

[Blue Star]

The middle way: avoiding the extremes to find peace. Gautama Buddha used this term to describe the character of the Noble Eightfold Path he discovered. It was basically 8 things to know and to do to escape all the sufferings in life.

A similar concept is the Flow in Taoism, well "tao" itself means "the way".

Buddha's got some great teachings for sure.

 

[Blue Star]

Here's another passage from the book that I found interesting:

"There are three stages in the development of human consciousness.

The first stage is subconscious knowledge. Driven by instinct and emotions, this is the state of ancient man/woman.

The second stage is self-conscious knowledge. It is characterized by the quest of information, which builds the intellect and the ego structure but does not establish lasting happiness or peace. This is the state of modern man/woman.

The third stage is God-conscious knowledge. It is characterized by the relinquishment of abstract, intellectual solutions driven by guilt and fear. It is rooted in present-oriented acceptance of experience as it unfolds. This is the state of the divine human, or co-creator.

You are living at a time when stage two is coming to closure and stage three is being born. The entrance into stage three calls for a different way of living individually and collectively. It calls for a repudiation of the controlling mind. It calls for a thorough investigation of that mind, the fears on which it is based, and the utter futility of its creations.

The Old Testament is the teaching for the stage one human. It says, 'Do this or God will punish you!' It is fear-based at the deepest emotional level. That is why God destroys whole cities in His wrath. The message to humans is 'become aware of God outside of you.'

In stage two, people are aware of God, but still separate from Him. The New Testament as it has come down to you is the teaching for the stage two human. It says, 'God is not vengeful. He loves you and asks you to come and embrace his teaching. Your life will be happier if you make room for God in your life.' Stage two teachings focus on what you will miss if you keep God out of your life. It is the teaching of persuasion and it is still based on fear and separation.

My teaching was and is a stage three teaching. I have always said to you, 'You will find God in your own heart and in the hearts of your brothers and sisters. God cannot ever be separate from you, for the divine is your very essence.' But when the stage three teaching is heard by stage two ears, the result is a stage two interpretation of that teaching.

Now this is changing. Many of you are hearing the teaching as it was originally intended. You are in communion with me and you are realizing that much of what you have been taught about me is false. You know that the only way you can verify truth is through its resonance in your heart and its revelation in your experience." (p.157-8)

 

[Blue Star]

Another passage from Reflections Of The Christ Mind by Paul Ferrini (I forgot to write page down)

"I do not want your exclusive allegiance. I simply ask you to choose a teacher and a teaching that empowers you to discover truth within your own heart, for there you will find it. When you give your power away to me or or to any one else, I know that you have not heard me.

You and I are God's children. We carry divine love and wisdom within us. All the answers to our problems lie within us. I stand before you as a model of one who realized his divinity while living in a body in this world. I demonstrate to you the power that manifests when one listens to one's inner voice and follows it, even when other people judge or object. I stand for the universal authority of the heart-mind that holds everyone in equal reverence. I know that when you trust the divine within, you cannot help but become authentic."

 

[Aquarius123]

I wonder whether the following could be of interest to the theme that's being discussed here:

Reflections On Our World’s Legends - Part One

The Buddha Legend

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The legends of the Buddha and Jesus are the most significant tales for the present state of humankind’s development. Our earthly existence only begins to make sense when one joins the higher esoteric meaning which, for wise higher educational reasons, for a long time had to remain hidden behind the surface words of both stories. As the Jesus legend has been dealt with extensively enough in my writings, the time has come for doing justice to the Buddha legend. Let’s start with taking a closer look at the Wesak Moon.

The Full Moon during the Sun’s transit of Taurus is known as the Wesak Moon and that’s always an extra special event in our world’s spiritual calendar. In the year 2020 it took place on Thursday 7th May at 10.45 hrs Greenwich Meantime. The following is the essence of two teachings from the White Eagle group of spirit guides that came my way in ‘The Vibration of Light’ of the White Eagle Lodge’s Stella Polaris June/July 2006: ‘There is nothing that has not happened before in your world or anywhere else in the whole of Creation. God’s wisdom and truth that existed in the beginning is as valid now as it will forever be.

‘However, through the learning that at all times is taking place, not only in your world but everywhere else, ever more wisdom and knowledge are added to this rich store. In the course of Mother Earth’s long evolutionary process certain cycles of light have come round time and again. The word light in this context means spiritual knowledge and the art of understanding it. Throughout the ages, God and the Angels from time to time released some more spiritual knowledge that brought enlightenment to those who were ready to receive it and therefore capable of acting as one of their channels, through which more light could flow into humankind’s consciousness.

‘Ever more knowledge was given in this way that slowly helped to develop humankind’s individual and collective intelligence. Simultaneous with this people’s superconscious faculties began to open and that enabled the more highly evolved of them to understand the meaning of some of God’s sacred wisdom that up to that time had been hidden from public view and knowledge, simply because nobody could as yet do anything with it. That applied as much to knowledge about your environment as to every human being’s inner world.’

The second part was inspired by ‘The Festival of Wesak’ in Stella Polaris April/May 2006: ‘Up to a certain point of every human being’s development, every bit of your world’s evil and suffering was caused by what then looks like people’s selfishness. That, however, is only what’s visible on the surface of things. In truth everything that ever happened in your world has been part of the lessons every human being, in the course of many earthly lifetimes, has to take part in. On the deepest innermost level your spirit/soul has always been yearning to be released from this developmental stage. Your world’s suffering causes the higher part of your being to cry out and it yearns that humankind’s homecoming into the awareness of its true God or Christ nature, should be speeded up.

‘Your Highest Self knows that the next stage of it’s earthly self’s development will be the merging of its upper and lower nature into one loving union that through the gift of friendship is connected with every form of life in the whole of Creation. This is how it comes about that, what once started as a journey of spiritual infants whose explorations took them into getting to know the lowest and darkest corners of humankind’s earthly existence, eventually winds up with every one of you kneeling before the throne of the Highest. The wise ones in charge of you and your world are delighted about every one of you who has evolved into mature and responsible spiritual adulthood.

‘Doubtless these things are difficult for you to imagine at present. Yet, when you look at them from the higher spiritual perspective, you will be able to recognise that everything that ever happened in your world and is continuing to do so in many parts of your world to this day, serves a wise higher educational purpose. Each time your soul is born into another lifetime on the Earth, it is nailed to the cross of earthly life, the oldest symbol known to humankind of its existence in physicality. The whole of humankind is also fastened to this cross and each one of you, who is presently taking part in earthly life was granted the gift of another lifetime for getting to know God’s true nature and your own. And everything that to this day is taking place on the earthly plane of life is an essential and necessary part of humankind’s individual and collective evolutionary process, on the material as well as the spiritual level.

‘Wise ones who comprehend these things feel the need to share their learning with as many as possible of their siblings in the great family of humankind. And whatever you do, refuse to fight against anything. Pay attention to your inner guidance, listen to what comes to you intuitively and respond to it by going with the flow of your life. That’s the best way of living in harmony with God’s laws and all life. As soon as this has been achieved, there is no more suffering for you. The Jesus legend’s crucifixion is a symbolism that provides humankind with a better understanding of this process. If Jesus had been a human being, his spirit/soul would have withdrawn when his physical body was crucified. As a spiritual Master he would have been able to observe the scene from the perspective of his Highest Self. And that’s how every human being eventually learns how to treat not only every one of their own earthly problems, but also those of your whole world.

‘Do not allow yourself to be crucified and tortured by anything. Instead, observe your life and everything that ever happened to you from your Highest or God Self’s angle. This empowers you to lift yourself above the tribulations of earthly life that may still be ahead for you, because of your remaining karmic debts. Make an effort to learn something from any situation. Recognise things for what they truly are, i.e. personal and collective evolutionary lessons and temporary development phases that will most surely pass. This approach will help you to rise above and cope with everything you still have to encounter, because you are then viewing it dispassionately with the perception of your highest God or Christ Self. This helps you to grow ever more into one with it.

‘Not only every individual spirit/soul but the human race as a whole has to experience the various initiations the Jesus legend describes. That’s how you, individually and collectively, each at their own pace is constantly moving forwards and upwards on the evolutionary spiral of life. This happens slowly and by degrees, and whenever a certain point of this journey has been reached, another initiation has to be dealt with. On every occasion your consciousness expands and you advance one more step towards your final destination of spiritual perfection or wholeness.

‘It has been achieved when all aspects of your higher and lower nature have been integrated and become one. The more you bring forth the characteristics of your higher God or Christ nature, the more your God-likeness increases and the more you become consciously aware of your oneness with your Creator, the Great Father/Mother of all life. This is what’s also waiting to happen for the whole of humankind and your world.’

Recommended Reading:
• ‘Myths and Legends For The Aquarian Age’
• ‘The Very Best Of White Eagle’

From 'Our World In Transition'

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