Wholeness
Imagine – The World Will Live As One
“Imagine… the world will live as one ”
~ John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980)
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand,
while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
~ Albert Einstein
Imagine – The World Will Live As One
Dear Friends,
Almost forty years ago our great ex-Beatles visionary ancestor, John Lennon was too soon taken from us (at age forty). But the luminous light of his eternal soul continues to bless and inspire us.
In this holy season of Eternal Light, it is especially appropriate that we remember and honor him.
So I have posted below lyrics and two live video performances of John singing “Imagine”,
his inspired and inspiring expression of our shared aspiration for enduring planetary peace and happiness.
May these classic performances inspire us to remember that together we can and must
“live as one” with compassion for everyone everywhere, while never forgetting that
“All we need is LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.”
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
John Lennon – “Imagine” (live performance)
“Imagine”
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
~ John Lennon
Divine Time Release Capsules
“Our destiny is Divinity.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Life is a round trip metaphoric journey,
on which we are destined to return to point of origin.
On return, we learn – we never left.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Divine Time Release Capsules
Our destiny is Divinity.
Our human body/minds are like
Divine time release capsules
Of ‘congealed’ consciousness encapsulated by karma –
Enveloped by eons of illusory thoughts, words, and deeds
of imagined separation from others, from Nature
and from our ever immanent inner Essence.
But our optical illusion of separation is being released in time,
As our imagined karmic coatings are inevitably dissolving into
The eternal inner Ocean of Universal Awareness.
So, with ever increasing awareness,
In time we are slowly melting
into the mystery of our inner Divinity,
and merging with our eternal Self.
Thus, beyond time –
Beyond ego’s optical illusion of separation –
Our common destiny is Divinity.
And so shall it Be!
Ron’s audio recitation of “Divine Time Release Capsules”
Ron’s Explanation of “Divine Time Release Capsules”
Dear Friends,
Metaphorically we are fellow spiritual space travelers – like “astronauts on a little spaceship called Earth.”
As seemingly mortal humans we are journeying on a planetary “pale blue dot” through a vast and mysterious space/time universe beyond scientific comprehension. Thus our ultimate destiny as space/time travelers is unknown.
So often we’re fearful, anxious, or stressed about our uncertain future. To help assuage inevitable anxieties, I have posted the foregoing “Divine Time Release Capsule” verses which metaphorically reveal why we never need to fear or worry. They explain that:
Until now, we have mistakenly perceived, believed and behaved as if we are somatically separated from each other and Nature, and from our sole spiritual essence – which is Infinite Awareness. Consequently, to learn our true Reality and deepest non-dual Self identity, our eternal souls have become unconsciously encapsulated in “self-woven karmic cocoons”, in which we are exploring the Cosmos in mortal human bodies on ‘spaceship Earth’.
Our human bodies are like “space/time soul suits” (comparable to astronauts’ space suits or deep sea divers’ suits). As we so explore this seemingly vast space/time universe (while encapsulated in karmic cocoons), we gradually learn that the Cosmos is but an ever impermanent mental illusion (like an ephemeral mirage).
And as we thus realize that time and space are illusory, our karmic cocoons are gradually but inevitably dissolving and melting (like time release capsules), and merging into an Eternal ocean of Infinite Awareness, which is our ultimate destination. Like beautiful butterflies we are evolving as living metaphors for metamorphosis to emerge totally transformed from self woven cocoons, and fated for ascension to a wonderful new Reality.(https://sillysutras.com/butterflies/)
Thus, we are assured to safely survive our mysterious metaphoric journey, because “Our destiny is Divinity” – eternal Reality, beyond this illusory phenomenal world of ever passing appearances.
May these metaphoric time release assurances bring us ever less stress and ever more happiness as we inevitably fulfill our destiny of divine discovery on “spaceship Earth”.
And so it shall be!
Ron Rattner
Butterflies
“What the caterpillar calls the end,
the master calls a butterfly.”
~ Richard Bach
Butterflies
Butterflies are living
metaphors for metamorphosis.
They symbolize our
knowing or unknowing
quest for transformation;
for transcending inevitable
earthly miseries and mortality.
We are inspired by the butterfly’s metamorphosis:
from creeping, crawling caterpillar,
to cocooned chrysalis,
transformed by amazing imaginal cells
to beautifully winged wonder.
Butterflies can inspire and symbolize
not only human aspirations and potentialities
for transforming our life on Earth,
they also can remind us that there is much more
to our ever changing “reality”
‘than meets the eye’.
Some butterfly wings which appear to us in colors,
are actually transparent.
Their iridescent scales overlap like shingles on a roof,
refracting light – like rainbows –
so as to give the wings the colors we perceive.
But in some species, like the Glasswing (pictured above),
we can observe the transparency of the butterfly wings.
With such transparency,
we can see what normally we don’t see.
In the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11-12),
Paul observes that “now we see through a glass darkly”,
but that some day we shall fully know,
as we are fully Known now by the Divine.
Now, we view our “reality”
through the ‘mirror of the mind’,
which imperfectly refracts and reflects
the unseen light of Eternal Awareness
onto the screen of our human consciousness.
But, with meditation and other mind-stilling methods,
we can evolve and transform our mind mirror
from opacity to translucency to transparency.
And thereby, with ever expanding
human consciousness and ever deepening insight,
we can and shall ‘see’ more and more –
we can and shall see what we couldn’t see before.
So, beautiful transparent butterflies
can symbolize and inspire our highest aspirations:
our aspirations for elevating and expanding human consciousness
so as to transform life on our precious planet.
And butterflies can remind us that Reality
is much more ‘than meets the eye’;
That beyond this phenomenal world
of ever passing appearances is one changeless Reality –
One unseen Source and Essence of
all appearances, all phenomena, and all ideas:
Infinite Potentiality – our Eternal SELF.
Truth is Everywhere/ Nowhere/ NOW!
“Truth is a pathless land.”
~ J.Krishnamurti
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”
~ John 14:6
“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”
~ Buddha
Kandinsky, “Yellow, Red, Blue”
Truth is Everywhere/ Nowhere/ NOW!
Truth is pathless.
Truth is mindless.
Truth is wordless.
Truth is timeless.
Truth is everywhere and nowhere –
NOW.
To know truth,
be Truth.
To know life,
be Life.
To know the way,
be the Way.
NOW!
Ron’s audio recitation of “Truth is Everywhere/ Nowhere/ NOW!”.
Ron’s 2018 comments about “Truth is Everywhere/ Nowhere/ NOW!”.
Dear Friends,
Knowingly or unknowingly, everyone seeks spiritual Truth – realization that we are “the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”
But in this troubled and tumultuous Trump era, rather than seeking eternal Truth, many people are impelled to pursue worldly political activities aimed at addressing current global insanity fomented by psychopathic oligopolist world “leaders”.
Concerned citizens worldwide justifiably perceive urgent need to avert apparently imminent nuclear or ecologic catastrophe, and other insane threats to earth life as we have known it.
But rather than deterring our pursuit of spiritual Truth, our determined nonviolent political actions to avert worldwide disaster can help further spiritual evolution. We need only follow the visionary truth-seeking path of Mahatma Gandhi, whose extraordinary life and nonviolence legacy have immeasurably blessed our world and inspired countless others.
Gandhi was a deeply spiritual man who often equated ”Truth” with “God” and who was influenced by teachings of Jesus, writings of Tolstoy, and Thoreau’s famous essay, “Civil Disobedience”. So he called his nonviolence movement (which began on September 11, 1906) “satyagraha”, a Sanskrit neologism he coined meaning the “relentless pursuit of Truth”.
Thus, Gandhi’s satyagraha movement was not just political, but encompassed relentless pursuit of spiritual Truth through the practice of active, faith-based nonviolence.
To help remind us that the deep meaning of Humankind’s search for Truth, includes political pursuit of peace and justice as well as the spiritual search for God or Self, I have posted the foregoing “Truth is Everywhere/ Nowhere/ NOW! ” poem and quotations from Jesus, Buddha and J. Krishnamurti.
Today’s poem was composed many years ago during an extended post-retirement reclusive period when I could not begin to imagine the extraordinary dystopian insanity of the current Trump era. Yet, I am now sharing it because its perennial Truth message remains especially relevant in these crazy times.
May it help bring us at long last to an era of worldwide peace and goodwill, as we realize that we are the Way and the Truth and the Life – not in the sky, but in the sole Sacred Heart of Humanity.
And may abiding Gandhian political/spiritual “satyagraha” impel current world political “leaders” to join democratically with their peace seeking citizens everywhere in nonviolent relentless pursuit of Truth, ending insane violence, injustice and oppression now rife on our precious planet.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Evolutionary Impetus
“Consciousness is the basis of all life
and the field of all possibilities.
Its nature is to expand and unfold its full potential.
The impulse to evolve is thus inherent in the very nature of life.”
~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
“I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as a plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear?
When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man,
To soar with angels blest;
But even from angelhood I must pass on …”
~ Rumi
“Man’s highest aspiration – his seeking for perfection, his longing for freedom and mastery, his search after pure truth and unmixed delight – is in flagrant contradiction with his present existence and normal experience. Such contradiction is part of Nature’s general method; it is a sign that she is working towards a greater harmony. The reconciliation is achieved by an evolutionary progress. Life evolves out of Matter, Mind out of Life, because they are already involved there: Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Mind, May not Mind be a form and veil of a higher power, the Spirit, which would be supramental in its nature? Man’s highest aspiration would then only indicate the gradual unveiling of the Spirit within, the preparation of a higher life upon earth.”
~ Sri Aurobindo
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Cosmic consciousness is infinite evolutionary impetus in each of us.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Every adversity is an evolutionary opportunity
for everyone, everything, everywhere.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Evolutionary Impetus
Q. Is human spiritual evolution possible? If so, is it optional or inevitable?
A. Humankind are self conscious integral aspects of a conscious, orderly and harmonious universe.
As part of such conscious cosmic order, there is an evolutionary impetus in each of us for ever expanding universal consciousness to experience itself.
We are all “pre-programmed” to transcend ego’s “optical illusion” of seeming separation as body forms from all other forms (and so from the universe), by evolving from this separation illusion to experiential realization of cosmic Oneness of all forms and phenomena as undivided Awareness.
Our universe is an ever oscillating and vibrating energy “reality”.
So, our evolutionary pre-programming involves subtle vibratory vortices – or chakras – each potentially resonant with ever ascending vibratory levels of Awareness. As evolutionary energy – sometimes called kundalini – is awakened and activated in each being it gradually purifies and eventually opens these subtle energy centers, until ultimate transcendence is attained.
Everything that happens to us until we transcend ego’s “optical illusion” is in our best interest, because it affords an opportunity to evolve.
Although our evolutionary “pre-programming” assures that such transcendence is ultimately inevitable, our progress rate is optional, depending on what we think, do and say – individually and collectively – while misidentifying ourselves as separate.
For example, compassionate words, thoughts and deeds hasten spiritual evolution, while selfishness deters it.
But, cosmic consciousness will eventually provide life experiences leading to transcendence.
Paradoxically, life’s most painful and difficult experiences often prove the best evolutionary opportunities, and biggest blessings,
because they most challenge and motivate surrender of ego misidentification and provide greatest transcendence incentives.
So, human spiritual evolution is inevitable, but rate of evolutionary progress is optional.
Ron’s explanation and comments about “Evolutionary Impetus”
Dear Friends,
Throughout world history, philosophers and theologians have perennially asked:
‘How could an all loving, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Divinity have created this world with so much suffering, evil, violence, and misery?’
For example, influential German Christian philosopher Gottfried Leibniz optimistically postulated that God created Earth, though imperfect, as “the best of all possible worlds”. In his Theodicée, published in 1710, Leibniz described a harmonious universe in which all events are linked by cause and effect, and in which apparent evil is compensated by some greater good that may not be evident to the limited human mind.
French philosopher Voltaire sharply satirized and questioned that optimistic philosophy in his popular novella, “Candide”. Without addressing subtleties of Leibniz’ philosophy, or possible causes of evil, karma or ‘original sin’, Voltaire’s protagonist “Candide” discovers, after many emotional ups and downs, that everything does not seem to happen for the best; and he concludes that each person must learn from past mistakes, and proceed stoically with kindness and virtue, no matter the pain and difficulties confronted.
After many years of experience and reflection, I have adopted a philosophy more harmonious with Leibniz than Voltaire: that everything in space/time does happen for the best – to afford impetus for spiritual evolution; that human suffering, evil, and misery are not “created” by God but by mysterious karmic causes and conditions arising from unskillful Human behaviors; that what many call “God” is indescribable, impersonal and nonjudgmental Universal Awareness which is the mysterious Source and ever immanent Essence of space/time “reality”. I have also adopted the non-dualist philosophy that our ever impermanent energy “reality” is like a mental mirage, arising only from projected Human thought; that true Reality is universal Infinite Potentiality beyond the Human mind.
In many Silly Sutras postings I have shared these philosophies, to encourage others to decide for themselves about such perennial questions. So, my theories are not offered as expressing ultimate spiritual truths, but to inspire our intuitive and experiential introspection on ideas (often paradoxical), about who and what we are and our life’s purpose and plan, if any.
Retrospectively, I have become convinced that my life has unfolded and evolved perfectly, as if a Divine novelist was writing Ron’s life-plan script. Accordingly, my attitude toward life’s inevitable ups and downs became that everything happens ‘for the best’ – to promote our evolution; that in every adversity there is an evolutionary opportunity. (See e.g. I’ve Found A Faith-Based Life. ) So, paradoxically life’s most painful and difficult experiences often prove the best evolutionary opportunities, and biggest blessings, because they most challenge and motivate surrender of ego misidentification and provide greatest transcendence incentives.
The above posting, “Evolutionary Impetus”, considers whether human spiritual evolution is possible, and if so, whether it is inevitable or optional. And it elaborates my philosophy that whatever happens to us until we transcend ego’s “optical illusion” of separateness is in our best interest, because it affords incentive to evolve. It suggests that human spiritual evolution is inevitable, but that rate of progress is optional depending on our behaviors while misidentifying ourselves as separate entities.
May these philosophical theories inspire our continuing intuitive and experiential introspection about who and what we are, and our life’s purpose and plan, if any.
And may they help us find ever more joy and fulfillment in our unique life experiences.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
I Have Learned So Much ~ by Hafiz
“I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist and Confucian.”
~ Gandhi
“Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.
Not any religion
My place is the placeless, a trace of the traceless.
Neither body or soul.”
~ Rumi
“There is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.
Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is illumined nothing,”
~ Rabia of Basra
“I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew”
~ Hafiz
“The great religions are the ships,
Poets the life boats.
Every sane person I know has jumped overboard.”
~ Hafiz
I Have Learned So Much ~ by Hafiz
I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself
a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of itself with me
that I can no longer call myself
a man, a woman, an angel
or even pure soul.
Love has befriended me so completely
It has turned to ash and freed me
of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.
-Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky in
The Gift: Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master
Ron’s Reflections on “I Have Learned So Much” ~ by Hafiz
Dear Friends,
“I Have Learned So Much” by Sufi Poet-Saint Hafiz, is one of the most inspiring writings on this website.
Though composed seven centuries ago, Hafiz’s enlightened verses continue to bless the world as LOVE.
And they deeply inspire our soul’s remembrance that – beyond any words or concepts or religious rules – Eternal LOVE is the only Reality.
As we read these illumined verses may we – like Hafiz – be freed as LOVE “of every concept and image (that) mind has ever known.”
And so may it be!
Power Source
“If you put your soul against this oar with me,
the power that made the universe will enter your sinew
from a source not outside your limbs,
but from a holy realm that lives in us.”
~ Rumi – “That Lives in Us”
“You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours.
It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“The power to think is a great gift;
but the power to not think is a greater gift.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Knowing you don’t know is wholeness.
Thinking you know is a disease.
Only by recognizing that you have an illness
can you move to seek a cure.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Without stirring abroad, one can know the whole world;
Without looking out of the window one can see the way of heaven.
The further one goes the less one knows.”
~ Lao Tzu
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”
and it will move.”
~ Matthew 17:20
Power Source
It is said that “knowledge is power”.
However, transcendent power comes
not from mental knowledge, but from thoughtless Knowing;
And, until we really Know,
it is approached from unknowing –
What we think we know, but don’t.
We become ever more powerful as we
forsake our false beliefs,
And ever open to the vast Unknown –
To the Eternal Mystery –
To the Tao –
To the Universal Source of all Power.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Power Source”
Ron’s Comments on “Power Source”
Dear Friends,
This is an especially appropriate time for us to consider the foregoing timeless quotations and online essay about Power Source.
As above so below.
Did you know that on Earth there already exists potentially unlimited ‘free energy’ yet to be revealed and used for everyone everywhere?
Or, similarly, that beyond our perceived space/time “reality”, there exists within everyone everywhere a timeless and infinitely potential divine Power Source, awaiting our discovery?
Nonetheless, because of ignorantly insane Human ‘power seeking’ activities, we face possibly imminent ecological or nuclear disaster which could end Earth life as we have known it.
So this is an extremely appropriate age for all of us who cherish our precious planet to awaken from our “deep state sleep state”, and to fearlessly and mindfully access for everyone everywhere our divinely bequeathed limitless free energy “on Earth as it is in Heaven”.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
We Are All Relatives!
“We are born and reborn countless number of times, and it is possible that each being has been our parent at one time or another. Therefore, it is likely that all beings in this universe have familial connections.”
~ H. H. Dalai Lama, from ‘The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom”
“In this wonderful world of relativity,
we are all relatives.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven
is my brother and sister and mother.”
~ Matthew 12:50
We Are All Relatives!
In this wonderful world of relativity,
We are all relatives.
We are all connected kith and kin,
With our precious planet,
and all Life therein.
We all belong here,
as we all long here –
For everlasting LOVE.
So as ONE earth-life family,
let us live our lives with LOVE
As the Kin-dom of Heaven,
Blessed on Earth,
as it is Above.
AND SO IT SHALL BE!
Ron’s audio recitation of “We Are All Relatives”
That Lives in Us ~ by Rumi
“From wonder into wonder existence opens.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Consciousness is the basis of all life
and the field of all possibilities.
Its nature is to expand and unfold its full potential.
The impulse to evolve is thus inherent in the very nature of life.”
~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
“There are no mistakes, no coincidences,
all events are blessings given to us to learn from.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful
for the evolution of your consciousness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
Life can be found only in the present moment.
The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
That Lives in Us ~ by Rumi
If you put your hands on this oar with me,
they will never harm another, and they will come to find
they hold everything you want.
If you put your hands on this oar with me, they would no longer
lift anything to your
mouth that might wound your precious land –
that sacred earth that is your body.
If you put your soul against this oar with me,
the power that made the universe will enter your sinew
from a source not outside your limbs, but from a holy realm
that lives in us.
Exuberant is existence, time a husk.
When the moment cracks open, ecstasy leaps out and devours space;
love goes mad with the blessings, like my words give.
Why lay yourself on the torturer’s rack of the past and the future?
The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities
will find no rest.
Be kind to yourself, dear – to our innocent follies.
Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance.
You will come to see that all evolves us.
(Source: Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, by Daniel Ladinsky )
More Enlightened Rumi Wisdom Words
“There is no reality but God,
says the completely surrendered sheik,
who is an ocean for all beings.”
“When you do things from your soul,
you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
“There is a life-force within your soul,
seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body,
seek that mine.
O traveler,
if you are in search of that
Don’t look outside,
look inside yourself and seek that.”
“Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you.”
“I have lived on the lip of insanity,
wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door.
It opens.
I’ve been knocking from the inside.”
“The world is a prison and we are the prisoners:
Dig a hole in the prison and let yourself out!”
“You were born with wings.
Why prefer to crawl through life?”
“Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? ”
“I long to escape the prison of my ego and lose myself in you.”
” You have been a prisoner of a little pond,
I am the ocean and its turbulent flood.
Come merge with me, leave this world of ignorance.
Be with me, I will open the gate to your love.”
~ Rumi
