Stress Relief For A New Era: Transparent Trophy Revised

 I was just honored for achievement in high school and college basketball by being inducted into The Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association's Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2012. So much is coming together. Signs abound. There is the transparency of my award and its shape as a kind of clear glass tower pointing to heaven. All this suggest to me a kind of concretization of a higher consciousness emerging in and around me and all of us paying attention.  The photo of me having my picture taken by a woman was the one the newspaper chose to publish. It was a photo within a photo, like a dream within a dream. It struck me as very unusual and seemed somehow significant. There is  the implicit higher consciousness of the unseen photographer. The photographer is  witnessing a scene of the opposites of male and female facing each other respectfully. There is a amicable air of equality and mutual respect. . Many spiritual writers are suggesting that a new balance between the male and female principles is being sought after 2000 years of male-dominated attitudes.  It could be said that I am being seen through a feminine lens. It is time for all of us to see the world through nurturing, maternal eyes. We might say the paternal perspective in terms of the masculine emphasis on domination has polluted our planet.  I excitedly have a sense of my vision quest leading to a kind of deeper and more elevated or enlightened perspective. It is both a preparation for the upcoming trip to Abadiania, Brazil to see the healer John of God and my ongoing quest for true vision. 

The following is from the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle with my thoughts interspersed and set off in brackets. 

"In the sea most life forms don't survive for more than a  few minutes.  The human form turns to dust pretty quickly too. And when it is gone it is as if it never was. Is that tragic or cruel? Death of a form is tragic only if we forget consciousness is God essence expressing Itself in form. But you don't really know that until you realize your God essence as pure consciousness. If a fish  is born in your aquarium and you call it John, write out a birth certificate, tell him about his family history and 2 minutes later he gets eaten by another fish, that's tragic. But it's only tragic because you projected a separate self where there was none. You got hold of a fraction of a dynamic process, a molecular dance, and made a separate identity out of it.

"Consciousness takes on the disguise of form . . .until it . . . loses itself in those forms. In present day humans, consciousness is completely identified with its disguise [physical and mental forms]. This is how it is today, Consciousness only knows itself as form and therefore lives in fear of annihilation of its physical and psychological form. This is the egoic mind . .. where dysfunction sets in . . .this is part of Lila [Hindu concept], the divine game. [The Kabbalah's creation story tells us that the Creator, the Endless Light creates a Vessel to receive Its Light. The Vessel pushes back the Light, and wham! The Big Bang occurs as the Vessel shatters into all the souls that will ever exist, and the Light goes into hiding. A cosmic hide and seek game begins].

"Finally the pressure of suffering . . .created by this apparent dysfunction forces consciousness to disidentify with form and awakens it from form and its dream of form. It regains self-consciousness but at a much deeper level than when it lost [or appeared to lose] self-consciousness.

Prodigal Son

"This process is explained by Jesus in the parable of the lost son [Prodigal Son] who leaves his Father's home, squanders his wealth, becomes destitute, and is then forced by his suffering to return home.

When he does, his father loves him more than before.  The son's state is the same as it was before yet not the same. It has an added dimension of depth. The parable describes the journey from unconscious perfection [wholeness] through apparent imperfection  and apparent evil to conscious perfection [wholeness].

"Can you now see the deeper and wider significance of becoming present as the watcher of your mind?

[So, what is the benefit  of learning to disidentify from endlessly-thinking mind by watching it? A respite. Inner peace. At the very least, we gain relief from the internal pressure created by our thoughts as we step out of the ongoing stream and observe it] Watching the mind withdraws consciousness from mind forms [thoughts and images that endlessly arise and pass away]. Consciousness then becomes the witness or watcher or pure enlightened consciousness beyond form. This consciousness beyond form becomes stronger and the mental forms from which consciousness has been withdrawn becomes  weaker. 

The Larger Significance of Watching the Mind

"When we talk about watching the mind, we are personalizing an event that is truly of cosmic proportions. Through you [us] consciousness is awakening out of its dream of identification with  form  and withdrawing from form. This foreshasows but is alredy part of an event that is still in the distant future as far as chronological time is concerned. The event is called the end of the world.

When consciousness frees itself from physical and mental forms it becomes what we may call pure or enlightened consciousness or presence. . . . This has already happened in a few individuals.  it seems destined to happen soon on a much larger scale. There is no guarantee it will happen. Most humans are still in the grip of the egoic mode of consciousness, identified with their mind and run by theri mind [physical and psychological forms]. If they do not free themselves in time [free themselves from identifying with the time-bound mind and sense of self, i.e., mental form] they will be destroyed by it. They will experience increasing violence, confusion, illness despair, and madness. Egoic mind has become like a sinking ship. If you don't get off you will go down with it. 

The collective egoic mind is the most dangerous entity to ever inhabit this planet.

"What do you think will happen on this planet if human consciousness remains unchanged? Already, for most humans, the only respite is to occasionally reveert to a level [of consciousness] below thought, Everyone does this every night during sleep. But this also happens to some extent  during sex, alcohol and other drugs that suppress excessive mind activity.

"If it weren't for alcohol, tranquilizers, anti-depressants as well as illegal drugs, all of which are consumed in vast quantities, the insanity of the human mind would become more glaringly obvious than it is already. Deprived of their drugs, a large part of humanity would become a danger to self and others. These drugs, of course, simply keep you stuck in dysfunction. Their widespread use only delays the breakdown of old mind structures and the emergence of higher consciousness. [These mind structures or mental constructs are epitomized by the angry vengeful male deity depicted in the Old Testament (a projection of the ego and its mechanisms of defense, i.e., the mind and its workings)  which has extended into  2000 years of patriarchy, of male-dominated society, with its emphasis on the judgmental, constantly evaluating mind and linear logic seeking to control, dominate, manipulate and use nature. And, this mode of consciousness is cut off from the feminine characterized by compassion, softness, non-judgment and a recognition of our interdependence with all of life on this planet]. While some may gain relief from the daily torture inflicted on them by their minds, they are prevented from generating enough conscous presence to rise above thought and so find true liberation. 

Only Option is Going on to the  Next Stage 

"Falling back to a level of consciousness below mind,  the pre-thinking level of our ancestors and plants  is not an option for us. There's no way back. If the human race is to go on, it must go on to the next stage.[In this stage we realize that a fear-based consciousness helped create the world we see and a consciousness that realizes we are all one and that we are spiritual beings in bodies can help us all at this time in human history. This is what I learned from the Mayan Shamans regarding the shift of consciousness taking place in the space of time they call the End of Time. we could say, in line with Tolle, we stop seeing ourselves as time-bound minds with bodies, and, instead, realize we are eternal beings, consciousness, in physical forms that fade, decay, bloom and pass away while, we recognize in the timeless lyrics of  George Gershwin, "our love is here to stay" and love is who we are. Love is the stuff, the energy of which the spirit is made. Only our bodies are like the Rockies which may tumble and Gibraltar which may crumble, "they're only made of clay." ]