Posts by Ron Rattner
How Shall We Pray?
“When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing — nothing.”
“We should seek not so much to pray, but to become prayer.”
~ Saint Francis of Assisi
“Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.”
~ Socrates
“Prayers go up and blessings come down.”
~ Yiddish Proverb
“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
“Prayer is nothing else but an intense longing of the heart.
You may express yourself through the lips;
you may express yourself in the private closet or in the public;
but to be genuine, the expression must come from the deepest recesses of the heart…”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you,
it will be enough.”
~ Meister Eckhart
“Your own will is all that answers prayer, only it appears under the guise of different religious conceptions to each mind. We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga
How Shall We Pray?
Introduction to “How Shall We Pray?”
Dear Friends,
To augment my recent tribute to Saint Francis of Assisi and the peace prayer attributed to him, I have posted the foregoing quotations and the following written and recited sutra-poem, “How Shall We Pray?”, with explanatory comments about prayer.
These writings are deeply dedicated to encouraging our frequent loving prayers, with faith that they’ll be answered; and that, thereby, as Divine instruments we may help bless our precious planet and all life thereon.
May such prayers inspire our energetically uplifted transcendence of ego-mind’s evolutionary impediments, to hasten our inevitable spiritual transformation, beyond fearful ego-mind sufferings.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
How Shall We Pray?
Q. How Shall We Pray?
A. Pray for God to do through you –
Not for you.
Pray like Saint Francis of Assisi:
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy Peace.”
Ron’s audio recitation of “How Shall We Pray?”
Ron’s Comments on “How Shall We Pray?”
Dear Friends,
On seeing sudden dire emergencies or threats most humans instinctively pray for help, even if they didn’t previously pray, or are atheists.
People who customarily pray, have differing ideas about the meaning and methods of “prayer”. Most consider prayer as asking for divine help or expressing gratitude to God. But additionally “prayer” can be broadly considered as all spontaneous, heartfelt, or worshipful longing or communion with Divinity or Nature.
And all such loving prayer may be magically powerful. Until our Self-Realization, we have infinite prayerful-potentiality to help bless this world, because
“everything we think, do or say
changes this world in some way”.
Becoming Prayer
Saint Francis of Assisi exemplified our infinite potentiality to bless this world and everyone, everything, everywhere. He was completely devoted to blessing all Life, without exception or exclusion. His extraordinarily inspiring life demonstrated that it’s possible to live life as prayer, not just with prayer.
Thus in the rule for his Order of Friars Minor, Saint Francis instructed:
“When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing — nothing.”
“We should seek not so much to pray, but to become prayer.”
Realization of such a perpetually prayerful saintly state is humanity’s deepest instinctive aspiration.
Conclusion and Dedication
Consciously or subconsciously, no matter who or where we are, all humans universally share an irresistible instinctive aspiration to transcend ego-mind’s seeming separation of us from our inseparable Source – a transcendent state beyond words or thoughts, so marvelous that its subliminal memory attracts every sentient being to BE ONE – as Infinite LOVE.
Today’s “How Shall We Pray?” writings and recitation are deeply dedicated to encouraging our frequent loving prayers, with faith that they’ll be answered; and that, thereby, as Divine instruments we may help bless our precious planet and all life thereon.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Saint Francis of Assisi: His Life and His Prayer
“All the darkness in the world can’t extinguish the light from a single candle.”
~ Francis Of Assisi (The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi)
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”
~ Francis of Assisi
“While you are proclaiming peace with your lips,
be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”
~ Francis of Assisi
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today”
~ Francis Of Assisi
“Vi volglio tutti in paradisio!” [ “I wish all in heaven!”]
~ Francis of Assisi
“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”
~ Francis of Assisi
“When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing — nothing.”
“We should seek not so much to pray, but to become prayer.”
~ Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi ~ September 26, 1181 – October 3, 1226
Saint Francis of Assisi
[*See footnotes]
Saint Francis of Assisi is one of history’s most beloved saints. For almost eight hundred years since his canonization by the Catholic Church (in the year 1228), he has been remembered and revered not only by Christian denominations, but by countless others world-wide, who have been inspired by his life of universal love, his teachings, and his oneness with Nature.
More than three million people come every year to his tomb in Assisi.
He is patron saint of Italy and of many other places, like San Francisco, a city blessed with his name, his spirit, and a national shrine including the Porziuncola Nuova, the only papally declared holy place in the USA. Also, he is patron saint of birds, animals and ecology and is so remembered on his annual October 4th Feast Day celebration.
Francis loved peace, communed with all living creatures, and lived a life of kindness, simplicity and poverty in contrast to the wealth and apparent corruption of the Church. He was the founder of the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church, and inspired founding of the Poor Clares order for women, and a third secular order for laity sworn to peace.
After living a worldly life of youthful revelry for the first half of his short lifespan, Francis volunteered to fight in a war between Assisi and neighboring Perugia. He was captured during a bloody battle at Collestrada, and was imprisoned and chained in solitude for a year in a dark Perugian dungeon, until ransomed by his wealthy father. Beginning during this time, and thereafter, he suffered a period of protracted physical and psychological illness, remorse and reflection. After fervent prayer, deep introspection, and profuse tears, Francis ultimately decided that money and worldly pleasures meant nothing to him, and as a traumatized battle survivor he came to abhor war. Whereupon, he devoted his life to solitude, prayer, helping the poor, caring for lepers, and promoting peace. Seeing himself as God’s troubadour or fool, he lived in absolute poverty, patterning his life after the life of Jesus and dedicating himself to God.
On returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at Church doors for the poor, Francis received a mystical message from Jesus while praying in the ruined church at San Damiano outside of Assisi. There while he was enchantedly gazing at the painted wooden crucifix – a Byzantine image of the crucified Christ still alive on the cross – the silent voice of Jesus telepathically ‘spoke’ to Francesco, instructing him: “Francesco, Francesco, go and repair my house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” Thereafter, he devotedly began rebuilding San Damiano and other ruined churches.
Though Saint Francis took literally that mystical message from the crucifix, its true meaning was metaphoric and profound. And by the end of his short lifespan, Saint Francis and his orders had by their example inspired a renaissance of the Catholic Church.
Francis’ exemplary lifestyle inspired and attracted followers who joined with him in his in his Divine mission and life of poverty. Clad in ragged, gray robes with rope belts, they went out barefoot in pairs to spread the Gospel. When they needed food or shelter, they asked someone for it. It was against their rules to “own” anything. Thus, they were known as the “begging brothers”.
In 1209 Francis received permission from Pope Innocent III to form a brotherhood, a religious order of the Church called the “Friars Minor,” (littlest brothers). As “friars” they worked in communities, actively preaching and helping residents, as distinguished from “monks” who then usually lived alone in isolated places. They soon acquired the name “Franciscans”, proliferated and today remain important international symbols and instruments of Francis’ legacy.
The Franciscans’ first headquarters was a simple, tiny chapel near Assisi which Francis received from the Benedictines, and personally restored, naming it “Porziuncola” [“a small portion of land”]. The Porziuncola became Francis’ most beloved and favorite place. Because of his presence and prayers there, it was and continues to be one of the world’s rare holy places. Here, Francis lived, fervently prayed, wrote his rule, created his order of friars minor and consecrated his friend Clara (Chiara), who became Santa Clara, founder of “the poor Clares”, a female religious order dedicated to Franciscan ideals of holiness and poverty. Francis so loved this little place that he chose to die there.
In 1216, while Francis was fervently praying in the Porziuncola, a light filled the chapel and he beheld above the altar a vision of Christ, the Virgin Mary and a company of angels. They asked him what he wanted for the salvation of souls. Francis replied: “Vi volglio tutti in paradisio!” [I wish all in heaven!] And Francis then asked that all those persons who shall come to this church, may obtain a full pardon and remission of all their faults, upon confessing and repenting their sins. The request was granted based on Francis’ worthiness, and the indulgence was later officially confirmed by Pope Honorius III, and became known as “The Pardon of Assisi”.
Francis was extremely democratic and humble. He referred to himself as “little brother Francis” and called all creatures “brothers” and “sisters”. He loved Nature and pantheistically considered it to be the “mirror of God on earth.” He spoke of “Sister Water” and “Brother Tree” and in one of his writings, he referred to “Brother Sun” and “Sister Moon”. There are legends about sermons he preached to trees full of “Sister Birds” in which Francis urged them to sing their prayers of thanks to God. And it is said that rabbits would come to him for protection.
In another legendary story, Francis spoke to a wolf which had been terrifying the entire village of Gubbio, scolding “Brother Wolf” for what he was doing. That wolf not only stopped his attacks but later became a village pet, and was fed willingly by the same villagers, who missed “brother wolf” after he died.
Francis was determined to live the gospels and was strongly influenced and motivated by Jesus’ teachings. “Give to others, and it shall be given to you. Forgive and you shall be forgiven” were his frequent teachings.
Also as a traumatic battle survivor and war hostage Francis cherished peace. So, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” ~ Matthew 5:9 and “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” ~ Matthew 5:44 were often recited by him.
According to a recent biography, Francis was “the first person from the West to travel to another continent with the revolutionary idea of peacemaking.” On a mission of peace, Francis journeyed to Egypt in 1219 idealistically hoping to end the 5th Crusade by converting the Egyptian leader – Sultan Malik al-Kamil – to Christianity. Though his visionary peace mission did not succeed, it proved nonetheless a miraculous portent and important symbol of potential reconciliation between Christians and Muslims and others.
At a time when most Christians demonized Muslims as enemy “infidels”, Francis regarded and treated Muslims with respect, never echoing the negative comments or conduct of his contemporary Christians. Moreover, in Egypt Francis – a devout and gentle peacemaker – was appalled by the crusaders’ sacrilegious brutality.
Francis arrived in Egypt during an ongoing violent and bloody conflict at Damietta, an important city on the Nile, besieged by the Crusaders. There, in the midst of horrible bloodshed, Francis miraculously crossed battle lines totally unarmed and vulnerable, and was able to reach the Sultan’s encampment unharmed and welcomed. Moreover, Francis was admitted to the august presence of the sultan, who was nephew of the great Saladin who had defeated the forces of the ill-fated Third Crusade.
The Sultan was a wise and pragmatic devout Sunni Muslim, influenced by Sufi mystical teachings. He was ready to make peace, and reciprocated Francis’ peaceful and respectful attitude. For at least several days Kamil hosted and dialogued with Francis as an honored guest, before having him safely escorted back to the Crusader encampment. The Sultan – who was amenable to philosophical conversation, but not to conversion – probably noted and honored Francis’ sufi-like appearance and peaceful demeanor, and his regular greeting – “may the Lord give you peace” – uncommon for Christians, but similar to the Arabic “salam aleykum” greeting.
Reciprocally, Francis was deeply impressed by the religious devotion of the Muslims, especially by their fivefold daily call to prayer – call of the muezzin.
On returning to the crusader camp Francis desperately tried to convince Cardinal Pelagio, whom the pope had authorized to lead the 5th Crusade, that he should make peace with the Sultan. But the cardinal who was certain of victory would not listen. His eventual failure, amidst terrible loss of life, brought the barbaric age of the crusades to an ignominious end.
In 1224, near the end of his earthly life, according to legend, Francis became the first saint in history to miraculously receive crucifixion stigmata. It happened after he had been taken to Mount Alverna, a wild nature place in Tuscany, to be in solitude for a forty day retreat.
Though already in a very feeble state, he fasted and prayed intensely with deepest longing for God. In the midst of his fast, while he was so praying he beheld a marvelous vision: an angel carrying an image of a man nailed to a cross. When the vision disappeared, Francis felt sharp pains in various places on his body.
In locating the source of these pains, Francis found that he had five marks or “stigmata” on his hands, feet, and sides—like the wounds inflicted with nails and spears on Jesus during His crucifixion. Those marks remained and caused Francis great pain until his death two years later.
On October 3, 1226 A.D. Francis died in a humble cell next to the beloved Porziuncola, his favorite holy place where the Franciscan movement began. He was blind from trachoma, suffering from malaria and other illnesses, emaciated and racked with pain from the stigmata and other wounds. As he lay dying, the brothers came for his blessing. They sang “Song to the Sun”, a song which Francis had composed.
Sometime before he drew his last breath, he said, “Let us sing the welcome to Sister Death.” Francis welcomed ‘Sister Death’ knowing that “it is in dying that we are reborn to eternal life”, the concluding line of a beautifully inspiring and best known peace prayer mistakenly attributed to him. (**See Footnote)
In conclusion, we offer that prayer in grateful tribute to his blessed life and legacy. May he ever inspire countless beings to become instruments of Divine peace and love, in perfect harmony with Nature and the kingdom of heaven.
“Vi vogliamo tutti in Paradiso”; “We wish ALL in Heaven”.
And so it shall be!
Prayer Of St. Francis Of Assisi **
Beloved, we are instruments of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
despair, hope;
darkness, light;
discord, harmony;
sadness, joy;
Divine Mother/Father, grant
that we may seek not so much
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved, as to BE LOVE.
For it is in giving, that we receive;
It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying – to ego life –
that we are reborn to Eternal Life.
Ron’s audio recitation of the Prayer of Saint Francis Of Assisi
Footnotes
* This narrative is based on Ron Rattner’s intuitive interpretation of many disparate and sometimes conflicting historical accounts of the life of Francis of Assisi. The reader is free to accept or reject any part of it.
**This inspiring peace prayer does not appear in any of Saint Francis’ known writings. According to researchers, the first appearance of this prayer was in a French language magazine, La Clochette, in 1912; it was probably then first written by a forgotten Catholic Priest, Father Bouquerel. Later, the prayer was translated into English and widely distributed on cards with a reverse side picture of Saint Francis, without any claim that he wrote the prayer. But, because of his picture and because it invokes his spirit, the prayer thereafter became commonly known as the Prayer of Saint Francis. The foregoing version of the prayer has been edited by Ron Rattner.
Becoming a Faith-Based Optimist
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“When I despair, I remember that all through history
the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible;
but in the end they always fall—think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Faith is intuitive conviction, a knowing from the soul,
that cannot be shaken even by contradictions.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“I’m only a cockeyed optimist . . .
stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can’t get it out of my heart!”
~ Oscar Hammerstein II, South Pacific, lyrics
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”
~ Helen Keller
“The highest thinkers of the ages,
the seers of the tribes and the nations,
have been optimists.”
~ Helen Keller
“An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“Steady faith is stronger than destiny.
Destiny is the result of causes, mostly accidental,
and is therefore loosely woven.
Confidence and good hope will overcome it easily.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Even faith in God is only a stage on the way.
Ultimately you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Optimism optimizes opportunity.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Hanuman
Becoming a Faith-Based Optimist ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Introduction to “Becoming a Faith-Based Optimist”
Dear Friends,
In prior postings I’ve told how “I’ve Found A Faith-Based Life”, and defined faith as distinguished from belief. And I’ve explained that inner faith in the Divine, is the same as faith in one’s Self, and that such inner faith can bring us previously unimagined happiness.
Today I’ll tell how I found faith in Divine Self in a midlife transition from self-reliant secular litigation lawyer to devotional “born-again Hindu”; and how that faith became an optimistically unshakable conviction that everything happens for the best, until we transcend the ego illusion of existing separately in space/time.
And because these memoirs are published on commencement of important Equinox religious holy days, I’m including a 2022 Equinox Epilogue.
Memoirs of “Becoming a Faith-Based Optimist”
Soon after receiving 1978 shaktipat initiation from my beloved Guruji, I began daily Sanskrit recitations of a Ram mantra and the Hanuman Chalisa – a rhymed poetic ode to the mythological Vedic ‘monkey-god’ Hanuman (pictured above). The Hanuman Chalisa (composed by poet-saint and philosopher Tulsidas) metaphorically venerates Hanuman, who faithfully served Hindu avatar Rama, as the epitome of faith in God.
Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (with whom I feel deep devotional affinity) often cited an epic Ramayana story about Hanuman heroically leaping over the sea between South India and Shri Lanka (Ceylon) to serve Rama, as illustrating the epitome of divine faith. In the Gospel of Ramakrishna, he taught:
“You must have heard about the tremendous power of faith. It is said . . that Rama, who was God Himself – the embodiment of Absolute Brahman – had to build a bridge to cross the sea to Ceylon. But Hanuman, trusting in Rama’s name, cleared the sea in one jump and reached the other side. He had no need of a bridge.” . . . . “Once a person has faith he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith.”
While repeatedly reciting Ram mantras and the Hanuman Chalisa, I felt their devotional energy while unconcerned about their precise Sanskrit meaning. And I became instinctively harmonious with Ram, as Divinity. Even today (at almost age ninety), I still often instinctively call out to Rama in devotionally honoring the Divine. And Hanuman energy became and remains for me symbolic of both enduring Faith and immutable optimism.
After I became an instinctive Rama devotee, I realized that my initial secular self-confidence and optimism had gradually grown to heartfelt Faith in God; that I’d evolved from being a pragmatic secular optimist into living a devotional faith-based life, with both conviction and optimism.
Also, I realized that with Faith it’s always best follow one’s conscience in all behaviors, and to surrender outcomes of such conscientious behaviors to Divine Source (or Tao) – to let go and go with the flow; because karmically whatever happens could not be otherwise. So, to clear our karma, we must non-judgmentally and forgivingly accept and bless everything and everyone NOW, as ephemeral and illusory appearances in ever impermanent space and time of our sole Divine Source – ineffable, immutable, and Eternal LOVE.
My insights revealed that our earthly sufferings arise from fearful and illusory ego-mind thoughts because we forget our true Divinity and immortality.
But that as omnipotent immortal spirit we have nothing to fear from anything that seems to happen in always illusory ego-mind space, time, and duality. Moreover, that our transcendence of ego-mind is inevitable, and always advanced by our loving behaviors.
2022 Equinox Epilogue
These memoirs are published concurrent with commencement of the Jewish High Holy Days, and the Hindu Navaratri shraddha period. In prior times I participated in both Jewish and Hindu religious ritual observances of these important holidays.
But in recent years, I’ve stopped attending all scheduled religious ritual services. As an innately faith-based optimist, I now continuously honor God every day and everywhere with Divine intentions, behaviors, and prayers, and with the SillySutras spiritual poetry and philosophy website.
Yet, I’ve instinctively realized that beyond ego-mind’s persistent “optical illusion” of a space, time, and duality worldly “reality”, all that is, was, or will be is NOW. Thus, that being a worldly faith-based optimist (with hope for the future) is like aspiring to an “impossible dream” of a never-attainable mental mirage – a time-based dreamlike fantasy “reality” that can never exist.
Optimists instinctively hope for the best. But “hope” is always “then” while Life is only NOW, ever NOW, never then.
However, since inception of the current historically unprecedented post-pandemic “new normal” era, I’ve become optimistically convinced, and foresee, that a “critical mass” of energetically elevated humans will soon co-create (as a cooperative global family) an infinitely more compassionate world, without fearful ego-mind deprivations and sufferings.
And these faith-based equinox memoirs are deeply dedicated to inspiring and hastening our imminent fulfillment of that optimistic prediction.
Conclusions
I’ve become and irreversibly remain a faith-based optimist, despite apparent cataclysmic threats against survival of human life as we’ve known it. And I equate my instinctive optimism with inner Faith in our sole Divine Source – ineffable, immutable, and Eternal LOVE.
Therefore I’m especially grateful to be able to now share these memoirs with you to help us realize and enjoy supreme fulfillment and happiness from ever optimistic faith in Divine LOVE, until we ascend and transcend all ego-mind perception-deception illusion.
Invocation
“May we ever ascend –
as LOVE and Light,Beyond-all suffering,
from ego-mind fright.”
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
“Cockeyed optimist” video
To further encourage our heartfelt faith-based optimism, I’ve embedded below a YouTube video performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein ‘cockeyed optimist’ song from “South Pacific”.
Please optimistically enjoy it as we energetically ascend as Love and Light,
beyond all suffering from ego-mind fright.
Raising “Human Consciousness”
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“The key to growth
is the introduction of higher dimensions
of consciousness into our awareness.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Our separation of each other
is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein
‘Time, space and causation
are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen…
In the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation.’
~ Swami Vivekananda [Jnana Yoga]
“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
“Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness.
If you are conscious of anything,
you are essentially conscious of yourself.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
Thought divides Universal Awareness,
as a prism divides light.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Human consciousness is conditioned consciousness;
it is pure Awareness conditioned by conceptions.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Lau Tzu
Raising “Human Consciousness” ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Ron’s Introduction
Dear Friends,
In these critical times when humans are the only species causing unprecedented climate collapse, warfare and other catastrophic crises which insanely, unsustainably and imminently threaten all life on our precious planet, it appears urgently imperative that we bring expanded awareness of our true immortal identity and infinite potentiality into the world. So recently I posted quotations, poetry definitions and explanations about Clearing “Human Consciousness”.
Today, to further emphasize our urgent need and unlimited potential to honor our beautiful planet and all it’s life forms by energetically elevating a “critical mass” of our species, I’m posting memoirs explaining my awakening process and perspectives about raising “human consciousness”, a concept with immense spiritual significance.
Also, I’m hereafter sharing an optimistic prediction of an energetically ascended new Earth reality beyond current fears and sufferings.
My Awakening Process
At midlife I was spiritually awakened (through Amazing Grace) to self-identity as pure awareness, rather than as a mere mortal body, its thoughts and its story. That realization initiated an inner evolutionary process, bringing previously unimagined blessings of peace and happiness, to be shared with others.
After initially self-identifying as pure awareness, I gradually surmised that Ron’s awareness must be the same as that of every other sentient being; that I’m not merely an individual consciousness separate as a person from other sentient beings, but Universal Awareness – the mysterious spiritual Source of all manifestation and all phenomena.
Thereafter I began wondering about seemingly differing space/time states of “human consciousness”, and common consciousness of all other life-forms. For example, I became curious about how “human consciousness” might differ from dog consciousness, cat consciousness, bird consciousness, fish consciousness, plant consciousness, insect consciousness, cell consciousness and perhaps even consciousness of apparently inanimate and lifeless forms like rocks and manufactured objects (like the 1976 Volvo miraculously blessed by my Guruji).
After much reflection, I decided that what we call “human consciousness” apparently differs from common consciousness of other life-forms – which seem spontaneously harmonious with Nature – because most humans mistakenly perceive and think of themselves to be separate from each other and Nature due to what Einstein called “an optical illusion of consciousness”, and what for millennia spiritual scriptures and non-duality teachings call “ego”. Hence I’ve realized that
Universal Awareness is the sole essence and Source of all life/forms; and that human ego-mind divides universal Awareness as a prism divides light.
So, “human consciousness” is an ego-mind mental conception which seemingly circumscribes Universal Awareness; it is Universal Awareness conditioned by conception.
Thus I’ve concluded that all our ideas about “human consciousness” arise and subside in Universal Awareness; that we are never in differing states of consciousness – they are in us as Universal Awareness; and, that as we “widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty”, we gradually free ourselves from our optical ego-illusion of separation from other life-forms.
Thereby we increasingly experience elevated consciousness of Universal Awareness – our true Source and Divine essence; and we are more and more blessed with infinite potential to collectively advance all life on planet Earth.
An optimistic “New Reality” prediction
Although most people are now experiencing a matrix programmed era of unprecedented post-pandemic fearful sufferings, this is also an age of immense evolutionary opportunity.
Hence I optimistically foresee that current sufferings are energetically awakening and elevating “a critical mass” of human beings to a prophesied “new reality” of egalitarian and cooperative Earth-life sharing and openness, beyond ego-mind’s optical illusion of separation from Nature and its lifeforms.
Occasionally our Earthly “doors of perception” are opened beyond ego-mind’s 3D (‘mental mirage’) illusions of space, time, and duality by psychic experiences, which can’t yet be explained by conventional material sciences. So they’re called “miracles” or biblical “signs and wonders”.
But such Earthly “miracles” (like astral projection, synchronicity, telepathy, remote viewing, prophesy, or energy-healing) are energetically ordinary in subtler energy realms of 5D and higher.
And so I optimistically predict an imminent new Earth reality, with raised “human consciousness” beyond current fears and sufferings.
Dedication
The foregoing writings and optimistic “New Reality” prediction are respectfully dedicated and offered to help encourage and inspire our collective participation in the elevation of “human consciousness” to resolve and transcend all crises on our precious planet, bringing us universal peace, light, and love.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Healing is Wholing
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“Life is a healing/wholing/gnosis/process.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Feeling hastens healing,
and happiness heals.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Evolution is an endless process –
from nescience, to gnosis, to apotheosis;
From bestial to celestial –
We ever evolve, as our boundaries dissolve.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Healing is Wholing” ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Ron’s Introduction to “Healing is Wholing”
Dear Friends,
The following “Healing is Wholing” writings epigrammatically express and explain my post-awakening perspectives about spiritual healing.
They include quotations, sutra sayings and verses (with mp3 recitation) defining, describing and revealing an holistic and evolutionary earth-life ego-mind “healing” process; also included are memoirs explanations about the synchronistic circumstances which motivated their composition long ago.
They are dedicated to inspiring our transformational transcendence of ego-mind’s evolutionary impediments, and so to hasten our spiritual evolution from “nescience, to gnosis, to apotheosis” – our continuing process of “healing” beyond suffering to health and spiritual freedom.
Explanation of “Healing is Wholing”
Since my midlife awakening I’ve gradually realized that all humans and other life-forms are deeply inter-connected.
So to heal our planet’s pervasive pathologies and disharmonies, our lives and ills must be viewed and addressed holistically and systemically, not just symptomatically. Identifying and treating separate symptoms may afford temporary relief, but it can’t cure their causes.
We live in an earth-age of mental malaise – in an extremely fearful, stressful, disharmonious and turbulent illusory world, with widespread human psychological and physical sicknesses and suffering; a world so insane that we appear to be on the brink of human caused nuclear cataclysm or ecological omnicide.
So this posting is dedicated to elevating energies of “human consciousness” beyond illusory states of fear and suffering by identifying and healing the causes of our pathologies. As explained in many other Silly Sutras postings, the root cause of our problems is ego-mind.
“Ego-mind” is our mistaken mental self-identification as mortal entities separate from from each other and Nature, and from Universal Awareness, our Eternal essence and sole spiritual Source.
So to spiritually “heal” many human pathologies, disharmonies and sufferings we must identify, and holistically transcend “ego”.
Memoirs synchronicity story about “Healing is Wholing”
Today’s “Healing is Wholing” poetic verses and sutra sayings arose from these synchronistic circumstances:
After my inner awakening and years of public service as Board Chairman of the California Institute of Integral Studies [CIIS] , I retired from all other public pro-bono activities, but continued serving on the Board of New Dimensions Foundation, a groundbreaking independent producer of spiritual radio interviews. And then became friendly with fellow Board member Dr. Anne Wilson-Schaef, Ph.D, a long-practicing psychotherapist, and best selling spiritual author.
Following years of conventional psychotherapy practice, Dr. Schaef had decided that psychotherapy didn’t work. So she originated and began leading worldwide ‘workshops’ based on 12-step therapy principles which she called “living in process intensives”. She described her “living in process” ideas in her controversially popular book: “Beyond Therapy, Beyond Science: A New Model For Healing The Whole Person”.
In that book Dr. Schaef described society as addictively and psychologically alienated from the whole universe and its universal spirituality. And she asserted that traditionally dualistic Newtonian sciences and psychotherapies co-dependently enabled an “Addictive Society”, just as individual enablers co-dependently fostered addictions (like alcoholism).
So to heal and spiritually transform our alienated societies she proposed going beyond conventional dualistic psychotherapies to a natural evolutionary process of experiential transformation, which she called “living in process”.
At Dr. Schaef’s request for my editorial comments, I carefully read a pre-publication galley proof of a new edition of her “Beyond Therapy” book. In it I recognized that many of her then controversial conclusions and proposals, were harmonious with my perspectives about conventional versus spiritual psychotherapy. For example Dr. Schaef’s proposals were consistent with my view that secular psychology merely attempts to alleviate ego’s inevitable mental suffering, whereas spiritual psychotherapy aims at eliminating our psychological imprisonment. (See https://sillysutras.com/spiritual-psychotherapy/)
Dr. Schaef’s proposed text often used both concepts of “recovery” (as from addictive habit patterns) as well as “healing” (as in the subtitle “A New Model For Healing The Whole Person”}. Though I understood Dr. Schaef’s proposals, I was concerned that other readers might mistakenly conflate the separate “recovering” and “healing” concepts; that “recovering” implied returning from addiction to a prior condition of adjustment to a sick society, whereas “healing” meant being uplifted beyond habitual dependencies to a higher and freer state of being.
So, to tactfully communicate this concern to Dr. Schaef, I ‘channeled’ and sent her these sutra verses about the “healing” process as revealing a new state of spiritual wholeness, beyond adjustment to a sick society:
Please consider and enjoy them!
Ron Rattner
Healing is Wholing
Healing is Wholing.
Healing is revealing,
Not re-covering.
Healing is un-covering;
Healing is dis-covering:
Wholeness,
Holiness,
SELF!
Ron’s audio recitation of “Healing is Wholing”
Conclusion
Healing is our individual (and societal) experience of transcending suffering; not of recovering from illness to a prior state of wellbeing, but a process of ever evolving to elevated, expanded, and previously unknown psychological perspectives, beyond prior states of suffering – of continuously discovering and experiencing freer states of being until we become and BE WHOLE, beyond ego-mind’s illusory psychic self-identification separation.
Dedication
These verses and writings are dedicated to inspiring our transformational transcendence of ego-mind’s evolutionary impediments, and so to hasten our spiritual evolution from “nescience, to gnosis, to apotheosis” – our continuing process of “healing” beyond suffering to health and spiritual freedom.
Invocation
“May we Wholly heal –
as LOVE and Light,Beyond-all suffering,
from ego-mind fright.”
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Let Food Be Thy Medicine
Let food be your medicine.”
“First, do no harm” [Primum non nocere.]
~ Hippocrates
“Everyone has a doctor in him or her;
we just have to help it in its work.
The natural healing force within each one of us
is the greatest force in getting well.
Our food should be our medicine.
Our medicine should be our food.”
~ Hippocrates
“Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot,
if you can heal the patient with food.”
~ Hippocrates
“Each of the substances of a man’s diet
acts upon his body and changes it in some way,
and upon these changes his whole life depends.”
~ Hippocrates
“Just as food causes chronic disease,
it can be the most powerful cure.”
~ Hippocrates
“Let nothing which can be treated by diet
be treated by other means.”
~ Maimonides
Let Food Be Thy Medicine
Ron’s Introduction
Dear Friends,
To help us be healthy I’m today posting the excellent University of California Television (UCTV) video embedded below, titled “Let Food Be Thy Medicine”.
In collaboration with the UC San Diego Center for Integrative Nutrition, the Berry Good Food Foundation convened a panel of highly qualified experts to discuss nutritional principles for maintaining general individual, societal, and environmental well-being; for preventing disease and degradation; and for nutritional treatment and healing of chronic diseases, and biodynamic restoration of environmental degradation.
From differing experiential perspectives, the panelists impart and discuss much helpful information, and cite resources for further investigation by interested viewers. Also continuing current updates are kept available online by hashtag at https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/foodasmedicine.
The considerable importance of this video, is reflected by its almost 14 million YouTube viral viewers; its title is a presumed direct teaching of legendary Greek philosopher and healer Hippocrates. Hence I have posted the title quotation above, together with a few other apt Hippocrates quotes consistent with ancient wisdom.
Please watch and carefully consider this important video.
May it encourage us and countless others to enjoy optimal health by making food our medicine.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
UCTV YouTube video: Let Food Be Thy Medicine/
Sometimes It Hurts To Heal
“Your pain is the medicine by which the
physician within heals thyself.”
~ Kahlil Gibran
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.”
“And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life,
your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.”
“It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity: For his hand, though heavy and hard,
is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.”
~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, Chapter 16
Sometimes It Hurts To Heal
Ron’s Introduction to “Sometimes It Hurts To Heal”
Dear Friends,
The following essay-poem was inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece “The Prophet”, and composed thirty years ago during my extended post-retirement reclusive period of prayer and introspection.
As hereafter explained, I’m now republishing these verses because they remain consistent with my long-life’s experiences as a senior traveler on a unique path to Self Realization.
Sometimes It Hurts To Heal
Life is a healing/wholing/gnosis/process.
Sometimes we hurt as we heal;
But our healing pains are growing pains.
And as we are healing,
Life is revealing
Ever vaster vistas
Of inner light,
LOVE and Peace.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Sometimes It Hurts To Heal”
Ron’s Explanation of “Sometimes It Hurts To Heal”:
Dear Friends,
Composition of “Sometimes It Hurts To Heal” was inspired long-ago by Kahlil Gibran’s masterpiece, “The Prophet”, especially Gibran’s insight that:
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
Three decades after its composition, this poem remains consistent with my most painful long-life experiences.
Thus, my greatest psychological trauma – a painful divorce – triggered a mid-life spiritual awakening which revealed previously unimagined new insights about self-identity and “reality”, and led to meeting my Guruji on the luckiest day of my life.
Similarly, my greatest physical trauma a sudden near-death taxicab rundown – began a still continuing revelatory spiritual evolution process which has energetically opened me to greatest psychological happiness of this lifetime, with unprecedented Faith in our Divine “physician within”, and enjoying an immensely elevated ‘attitude of gratitude’– with every day a bonus, and every breath a blessing.
Currently, from my optimistic perspective, the current extraordinary post–pandemic “new normal” era of anxiety, fear and deprivation of normal activities and God-given liberties has become so hurtful and painful for so many people worldwide that it’s about to trigger a societal “tipping point” breakthrough to an elevated heart level of “human consciousness”, which will soon cause an historically unprecedented transition to a wonderful “new normal” Earth-age of love, peace and justice, beyond fears and sufferings.
Hence, with infinite Faith, I continue to confirm that:
Life is revealing
Ever vaster vistas
Of inner light,
LOVE and Peace.
Invocation
May these writings help assuage our anxieties
about current crazy times,
and inspire our abiding Faith
in the Divine “physician within”,
which wondrously heals everyone everywhere
of all afflictions, individually and collectively.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Evolving ‘Out Of The Box’:
Into The Light Of Creation.
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
~ King Solomon – Proverbs 23:7
“The release of atom power ..changed everything
except our way of thinking..the solution to this problem
lies in the heart of mankind.”
~ Albert Einstein
“I think with intuition. The basis of true thinking is intuition.
Indeed, it is not intellect, but intuition which advances humanity.
Intuition tells a man his purpose in life.
One never goes wrong following his feelings – for feelings and intuition are one.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
~ Albert Einstein
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness
that created it. ”
~ Albert Einstein
“Humanity is evolving out of the box and into the light of creation.”
~ Ellie Crystal
Evolving ‘Out Of The Box’ and Into the Light of Creation
Ron’s Introduction
Dear Friends,
Twelve years ago I optimistically first composed and published the following poetic prophesy of Humankind’s transcendence of current cataclysmic threats to life on Earth, predicting that “we shall soon reach a “critical mass” tipping point which uplifts “human consciousness” to transcend and resolve crises created by outmoded and illusionary beliefs.”
Since then, it appears that we have experienced unprecedented self-inflicted threats by only our species of nuclear war or climate collapse cataclysm, potentially portending destruction of Earth life as we have known it. Accordingly, most humans are now experiencing an extraordinary (matrix programmed) post-pandemic “new normal” era of fearful sufferings. So we urgently need energetically elevated “human consciousness’ to avert such catastrophes.
However, from my still optimistic perspective, this is not only a time of unprecedented threat to Earth life, but also an age of immense evolutionary opportunity. It is increasingly apparent that current global sufferings are energetically awakening and elevating “a critical mass” of human beings to a prophesied “new reality” of egalitarian and cooperative Earth-life sharing and openness, beyond ego-mind’s optical illusion of separation from Nature and its lifeforms.
So I’ve hereafter reposted my ‘utopian’ poetic prophesy of Humankind’s transcendence of current cataclysmic threats to life on Earth. Please deeply consider joining the “critical mass” it predicts.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Evolving ‘Out Of The Box’ Into The Light Of Creation
Individually and societally, humankind have been caught in a psychological box, self-created by mistaken perceptions and ego-mind ideas of separation from Nature and each other.
We’ve mistakenly regarded ourselves and others as mere limited entities, rather than as limitless souls – spirit drops in an infinite ocean of Eternal Light. And, our worldviews have been mostly based on such unrealistically reductionist ideas of who and what we are.
Thereby, individually we’ve been caught in a mistaken self-identity box;
and societally we’ve been “boxed in” by an outmoded Newtonian
pre-quantum worldview. Though quantum science now knows that “reality”
can’t be reduced to objects or entities in space,
we’ve kept acting as if this is so.
We’ve thus been self-limited by our mistaken ideas of “reality” and of our true identities, powers and potentialities – which are infinite,
though yet largely unknown and unrealized.
But, spurred by extraordinarily critical inter-personal and planetary crises, and innately blessed with an intuitive evolutionary impetus in each us, more and more people are realizing their true spiritual nature and awakening with compassion from their egoically imagined limitations.
From seeing everyone and everything as discrete and separated by apparently immutable boundaries, we are gradually realizing that everyone/everything is connected by our common essence:
ever-changing energy in a matrix of immutable eternal Awareness –
our true Source and common Divine essence.
We are evolving from a Newtonian “reality” of polarized duality
to a quantum “Reality” of holistic connectedness; from either this or that, to this and that are ONE. And so we are beginning to envision, intuit and implement ‘Out Of The Box’ solutions to current crises.
And as we evolve ‘Out Of The Box’ and into the Light of creation,
we shall soon reach a “critical-mass” tipping point which energetically uplifts “human consciousness” to transcend and resolve current crises arising from outmoded and illusionary ego-mind beliefs.
Ron’s comments on evolving out of the box into the light of creation.
Dear Friends,
While long aware that “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it”, I’ve often wondered how individually and societally we can most effectively elevate “human consciousness” to resolve critical interpersonal and international planetary problems. And I’ve concluded that we need to be ever more loving and compassionate; that our love is ‘contagious’ and will inevitably bless and change the world as it gradually spreads to others, until ultimately we will reach a “critical mass” tipping point triggering new societal worldview solutions to old problems.
So many years ago I optimistically began predicting in the foregoing essay that
“we shall soon reach a critical mass tipping point which uplifts human consciousness to transcend and resolve crises created by outmoded and illusionary beliefs.”
Yet paradoxically it appears we are now nearer than ever before to nuclear or ecological disaster, potentially portending destruction of Earth life as we have known it. So, more than ever before, we urgently need energetically elevated “human consciousness” to avert such disaster.
A century has passed since quantum science revealed to us that “reality” can’t be reduced to objects or entities in space/time. Yet we’ve kept acting as if this is so – clinging to a false Newtonian materialistic worldview that sees everyone and everything as discrete and separated by apparently immutable boundaries.
Three generations have passed since immensely destructive nuclear weapons were first developed, atmospherically tested, and savagely used by the American Empire against innocent civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet these dreadful weapons have insanely proliferated worldwide and now threaten our precious planet more than ever before. In a May 1946 letter to prominent Americans, Albert Einstein wrote:
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
Einstein foresaw that such “unparalleled catastrophe” could be averted only from levels of consciousness beyond those which created it; thus he observed that “the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.”
After much deep reflection, and with unspeakable faith in the Sacred Heart of all Humans – which is LOVE – I have today optimistically reposted the foregoing poetic essay with my intuitive ‘utopian’ prophesy of Humankind’s transcendence of current cataclysmic threats to life on Earth.
I still foresee the imminent onset of a new age of nonviolent cooperative societies which will advance the highest good for all life on our precious planet, transcending the outmoded and illusionary beliefs which created current crises.
So I optimistically pray that we shall join together – each from our unique heartfelt perspective – to fearlessly follow our hearts and ‘contagiously’ bless all Life as LOVE.
Dedication and Invocation
This posting is deeply dedicated to inspiring us to lovingly BE and bless all Earth-Life as LOVE. So
May we honor as LOVE
the spiritual Source and essence
of everyone/everything/everywhere
thereby energetically uplifting “human consciousness”
to lovingly transcend and resolve
crises created by long outmoded
illusionary ego-mind beliefs.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Clearing “Human Consciousness”
“If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
but by making the darkness conscious.”
~ Carl Jung
“It is only through a change of human consciousness that the world will be transformed.
The personal and the planetary are connected. As we expand our awareness of mind, body, psyche, and spirit and bring that awareness actively into the world, so also will the world be changed.”
~ Michael Toms, New Dimensions Radio introduction
Everything we think, do, or say,
changes this world in some way.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Just as dreamers ‘create’ their dreams, together we are a ‘dream-team’, karmically dreaming our world into being; and, consciously or unconsciously creating a ‘common dream’.”
“As we ever awaken, we shall consciously and cooperatively participate to co-create an ever better reality –
as we intend, intuit, and imagine it to be.”
~ Ron Rattner, SillySutras.com Home Page Dedication
Clearing “Human Consciousness”
Ron’s Introduction
Dear Friends,
The following verses were composed during my extended post-retirement reclusive period of prayer and meditation. They are explained in the comments below.
Clearing Consciousness
“Christ consciousness”
“Cosmic consciousness”,
“Enlightened consciousness”,
“Buddha nature”
All are different terms connoting
the non-dual universal Absolute –
Unconditioned Awareness.
Ordinary “human consciousness” is
conditioned consciousness;
It is pure Awareness
conditioned by conceptions.
And our conceptual conditioning
determines our condition.
Everyone wants
enduring happiness,
freedom and love.
And what we seek,
we shall find –
As mindfully,
we decondition the mind.
As we lose illusory conceptual constraints,
we shall experience
ever expanding awareness,
And so we shall find –
enduring peace of mind.
Ron’s audio recitation of Clearing Consciousness
Ron’s explanation of Clearing “Human Consciousness”
Dear Friends,
We are all part of a participatory natural order wherein everything/ everyone is interdependent; and in which everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way. (See, e.g. Synchronicity Inquiry) Even without words or thoughts we can powerfully communicate through our vibratory energetic emanations, and our tears, smiles, music, and other arts.
So by our compassionate or fearful energy emanations each of us (in our own unique way) is either advancing or deterring evolution of earth life everywhere.
As part of the divine ‘design plan’, we are graced with infinite potentiality to individually and collectively advance all life on planet Earth, through our loving and compassionate thoughts, words, and deeds, even while we’re still experiencing illusionary ego-mind separation from Universal Awareness – our Divine Source and sole ultimate identity and Reality. Thus, as spiritually awakening beings we are helping to transform the world by clearing “human consciousness”.
In furtherance of the SillySutras website’s dedication to advancing our ‘conscious and cooperative co-creation of an ever better reality’, I have today posted the above poem and quotations about our unlimited human potential to transform the world.
May they inspire and encourage our active participation in clearing “human consciousness”, each from a unique perspective and in unique ways, to
“co-create an ever better reality –
as we intend, intuit, and imagine it to be”.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
From Seeing to BEING:
Wholeness, Holiness, LOVE
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
~ Albert Einstein
“The more we grow in love and virtue and holiness,
the more we see love and virtue and holiness outside.”
“This perfection must come through the practice of holiness and love.”. . . “Every step that has been really gained in the world has been gained by love; criticizing can never do any good, it has been tried for thousand of years. Condemnation accomplishes nothing.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
However many holy words you read,
However many you speak,
What good will they do you
If you do not act on upon them?”
~ Buddha
“Many good sayings are to be found in holy books,
but merely reading them will not make one religious.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“The mind, unless it is pure and holy, cannot see God.”
~ Seneca the Younger
“What the world needs today
is neither a new order, a new education,
a new system, a new society
nor a new religion.
The remedy lies in a mind and a heart filled with holiness.”
~ Shirdi Sai Baba
It’s not our longitude
Or our latitude,
But the elevation of our attitude,
That brings beatitude.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedom —
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.”
~ Viktor Frankl
Ron Near Sofa Altar
From Seeing to BEING: Wholeness, Holiness, LOVE ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Dear Friends,
At almost age 90, as an elder on the path to Self-Realization, I remain deeply motivated to help inspire others spiritually. So I’m continuing to write memoirs about my evolutionary experiences.
This memoirs chapter hereafter explains how my living room sofa became a sacrosanct spiritual altar; how I prayed and meditated there for decades; and how my worship of perceived outer images there was gradually transformed energetically to become an open hearted inner experience everywhere – a grateful and soulful process of honoring the Divinity and Holiness of “all living creatures and the whole of Nature” on our precious blue planet.
How my living room sofa became an altar
On meeting my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, I was profoundly affected by his powerful cosmic life-force energy [“shakti”]. And I learned that his extraordinary inner energy was independent of his physical vitality, and physical presence. Moreover, I learned that Guruji was one of those rare yogis who could intentionally transfer “shakti” to others not only by touch, gaze, or mantra sound, but also by thought. Thus I’ve experienced Guruji’s shakti when not in his physical proximity, and even when his physical body was very weak.
In 1980 Guruji stayed at my apartment just before returning to India. His physical body and vitality were then exceptionally weak and exhausted. He was so weak that he had to be carried out of my apartment to the van bringing him to the SFO International airport. But his cosmic shakti energy was as strong as ever. After Guruji’s departure, I soon discovered that even objects touched by Guruji had become imbued with his intense cosmic energy.
While at my apartment Guruji slept at night on a large mattress brought here from his Soquel ashram. Daytimes he often sat on a living room sofa looking out at the panoramic view of San Francisco Bay. Soon after his departure I helped carry Guruji’s mattress out of my twelfth floor apartment, via elevator to a devotee’s van parked in the basement garage to be returned to the ashram.
After only a few minutes of clutching Guruji’s mattress, I became tremendously “enshakticated” – intoxicated merely by closeness to Guruji’s cosmic life-force which had amazingly permeated the mattress, rather than by ingesting some inebriating or hallucinogenic substance.
From that amazing energy experience, I realized that my living room sofa where Guruji had sat had been transformed to be a holy relic imbued with his shakti. So I made it an altar. Afterwards for over thirty years I worshiped, prayed, cried and meditated at that altar, and no one sat on it. But sensitive visitors and I felt Guruji’s holy energy still radiating from it.
Here is 2012 photo of Ron, at age seventy, at his sofa altar:
When not then meditating at my living room sofa altar, I began and ended each day worshiping at a bedroom floor altar beside a futon.
Only after being seriously disabled by taxicab rundown injuries did I start sleeping on a bed at age eighty one.
How my sofa altar’s energy was elevated and transformed
Soon after my eightieth birthday, the life-force emanations from my sofa altar were energetically evaluated by my dear spiritual friends Gayla Yates Gordon and Barry Gordon, who are both experienced and genuine masters of Feng Sui.
They tactfully persuaded me to remove the sofa altar images, because the altar’s spiritual energies had so elevated that they’d expanded throughout my living room and beyond. So now only a few inspiring images of Guruji, Jesus Christ, Sri Ramakrishna and a few others have been moved beside my computer desk across the living room.
And especially since my miraculous survival from deadly taxicab rundown injuries eight years ago my worship, prayer and meditation has been transformed to become a continuous open-hearted inner experience of honoring the Divinity and Holiness of all life everywhere.
How I’m now viewing and living this precious human lifetime
I’ve learned from Sri Ramakrishna that ego (either helpful or harmful) is unavoidable on Earth; and that with ego we have apparent free choice of our behaviors, or at least our states of mind – our mental attitudes.
And especially inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I follow my conscience and (if possible) nonviolently refuse to actively or passively obey or condone immoral or discriminatory government activities, laws or edicts.
Further, thanks to Albert Einstein, I’m aware that everything’s energy [E=mc2] in Cosmic Consciousness, with each unique energy form vibrating at a particular rate according to its degree of consciousness. So as a unique energy entity with a unique space/time perspective my views may be inappropriate to others. But I’m sharing them now for those for whom they may be harmonious.
From my optimistic perspective we are now experiencing an unprecedented “new normal” energetic ‘quantum leap’ in human consciousness, and are ascending to a prophesied “new reality” of egalitarian and democratic sharing and openness beyond prior deprivations and sufferings. In this extraordinary era the immoral low energy vibrations of division, fear, anger, greed and deception are being overcome and transcended by the elevated energies of Self-awareness, gratitude and freedom, as more and more humans are awakening and BEING the eternal Light of LOVE.
I’m aware that with apparent freedom of choice we each create and experience a unique “reality” with unique thoughts and behaviors from unique perspectives. And I adamantly refuse to reify this insane world of immoral human caused catastrophic wars, climate collapse, illnesses, injuries, and psychopathic deprivations of God-given rights and necessities.
So I choose to see this world as an unreal, immoral and poorly programmed matrix movie in which I will not participate. Instead of reifying this matrix mirage, I’m envisioning and creating a wonderful new world beyond needless suffering, where everyone everywhere is happy – and where living is Loving.
To avoid being psychologically “brainwashed” by matrix propaganda and gossip I refuse to view all addictive “news” and social media of mass deception and distraction. And I avoid reifying “news” or “op ed” articles that evoke fear, worry, anger, or frustration.
What I’ve learned from elevating altar worship
In space/time duality relative “reality’ we have freedom to live lovingly and fearlessly.
And the more we live with energetically elevated mental attitudes the more we experience peace and happiness, and help to positively co-create an energetically elevated and wonderful world.
Accordingly, all of our fearless, forgiving, and loving thoughts, behaviors, and emotions inevitably uplift this world and everyone/everything everywhere. So:
It’s not our longitude
Or our latitude,
But the elevation of our attitude,
That brings beatitude.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedom —
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.”
~ Viktor Frankl
Dedication and Invocation
Thus, this memoirs chapter is deeply dedicated
to encouraging all others on the path to Self-Realization
to open, listen to, and follow their Heart.
Thereby may we empathetically and lovingly
live for giving, not getting;
for helping, not harming
all beings (not just humans),
and our beautiful precious planet Earth,
which birthed us all.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
