Posts Tagged ‘self identity’
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
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
Discovering Sri Ramakrishna’s Teachings About God in All Beings ~ Ron’s Memoirs
“You should love everyone because God dwells in all beings.”
“Have love for everyone, no one is other than you.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“One day, it was suddenly revealed to me that everything is pure spirit.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“I have now come to a stage of realization in which I see that God is walking in every human form and manifesting Himself alike through the sage and the sinner, the virtuous and the vicious. Therefore when I meet different people I say to myself, “God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“Yes, all one’s confusion comes to an end if one only realizes that it is God who manifests Himself as the atheist and the believer, the good and the bad, the real and the unreal; that it is He who is present in waking and in sleep; and that He is beyond all these.” …. “God alone is the Doer. Everything happens by His will.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without God’s grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to receive grace? One must altogether renounce egotism; one cannot see God as long as one feels, ‘I am the doer.’
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
“A man cannot live on the roof a long time. He comes down again. Those who realize Brahman in samadhi come down also and find that it is Brahman that has become the universe and its living beings. . . . The ego does not vanish altogether. The man coming down from samadhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings. This is known as vijnana.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
February 18, 1836 – August 16, 1886
Introduction to Sri Ramakrishna’s Teachings About God in All Beings
Dear Friends,
This memoirs posting includes explanations and quotations demonstrating how Sri Ramakrishna’s timeless teachings about God in all beings, philosophically and pragmatically augmented and transcended ancient non-dualism ego teachings of Buddhism and Taoism.
It supplements prior general postings which explain how the ego–mind’s illusion of separation from non-dual spiritual Source causes inevitable karmic suffering. It is also related to recent memoirs postings about Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings that explain (with quotation collections) his key general teachings, and his specific teachings that God (as sole Doer or cause) can be seen in all manifestation. (See: “Sri Ramakrishna’s Timeless Wisdom”; “Seeing God”; and “Transcending Ego-Suffering.”)
My Background
In other memoirs postings I’ve told how at age 76 my quest for meaning of a transformative out-of-body [OOB] experience was rewarded with an extraordinary spiritual re-awakening and rebirth which began a profound spiritual evolution process, with previously unimagined discoveries which are still unfolding at almost age ninety.
I’ve recounted that, as as secular Hebrew litigation lawyer, in 1978 I met my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, a hundred year old self-realized Hindu holy man; and that I became a devotional “born-again Hindu” after receiving his shaktipat initiation, which created our inseparable causal connection through which he has ever since guided me spiritually.
After initiation I learned that Guruji’s Self-Realization had been prophesied and encouraged by his rare inner vision of Swami Vivekananda, the designated successor of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, nineteenth century Hindu sage and Avatar. Though as an itinerant yogi, Guruji had read very few spiritual texts or scriptures, he was greatly inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s Raj Yoga book and writings about Patanjeli’s Yoga Sutras, which Guruji recommended.
Upon learning of those teachings I too became extremely inspired by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda’s Vedanta teachings, which have helped me more than any other written spiritual teachings. Accordingly, in prior memoirs chapters I have told generally about discovering those timeless teachings, and about Sri Ramakrisha’s “Seeing God” in all beings.
And in “Discovering The Inner Spirit Of ’76” I’ve recently concluded that it’s crucially important for us to always emanate energies of Divine Light and LOVE, because the energy of Divine Love always prevails over fearful energy, which can be “our greatest inner enemy”.
Spiritual Evolution Advancement
The following memoirs chapter explains how Sri Ramakrishna’s Teachings About God in All Beings have advanced our spiritual evolution process by helping us realize and remember that – even in this illusory 3D space/time world of samsara or maya (where some separate ego-identity is inevitable and unavoidable) – we only perceive Divine spirit or God. Such remembrance that everything is Holy helps us serve as crucially important instruments of Divine Light and LOVE, which always prevails over fear.
Ancient Eastern non-dualism teachings of Advaita-Vedanta Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism all identify (as humanity’s spiritual goal) Self-Realization through a deep state consciousness dissolving ego-mind illusion of separation from ONE Spiritual Source. They are our most evolved and elevated spiritual philosophies.
These Eastern philosophies (which I have accepted) all recognize “ego” as the greatest impediment to Self-Realization, and define it as illusory mental separation from non-dual Ultimate Reality. Only in the past century has ancient non-duality philosophy been scientifically validated by Albert Einstein’s revolutionary relativity realization, that everything is energy (e=mc²), so that:
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”;
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness”; and
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”.
Although all Eastern non-dualists broadly agree about the dangers of “ego”, there are subtle philosophical differences between them, which are unknown and unintelligible for most common people. However the doctrinal differences between Hindu and Buddhist non-dualists may soon prove pragmatically important because of Sri Ramakrishna’s revelations that incarnate ego is unavoidable, even after Self-Realization of God.
Buddhism doesn’t conceive or believe in a Creator God, and influential non-dualist Buddhists view “Emptiness” or “Voidness” as Source, whereas Hinduism identifies a universal Divine Reality called Brahman. Thus, Buddhism regards as unreal what Sri Ramakrishna (a Hindu) Self-Realized and saw as omnipresent and infinite Divine universal spirit.
Differences between Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings about persistence of ego, even after seeing God, and core Buddhist teachings about realization of “Emptiness” or “Voidness” (Sunyata) can help many creationist spiritual aspirants who conceive of one “God”, but not “emptiness”, as our sole spiritual Source. Such aspirants can readily understand and aspire to Self-Realization of God, but not to realization of “Emptiness”, as their spiritual goal.
Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings about persistence of ego
In deepest meditation (nirvikalpa samādhi) Sri Ramakrishna’s ego-mind individuality dissolved and merged thoughtlessly and formlessly with universal Divine Reality – Brahman. Thereafter, on returning to individual bodily consciousness from this state of Self-Realization (moksha), he taught that God (as sole Doer or cause) can be seen in all manifestation. Sri Ramakrisha could have remained eternally merged with the Divine. But he elected to return to his mortal body to help humanity realize our timeless Divinity, beyond inevitable suffering from deceptive ego-mind illusions of being separate from ONE God.
Although Sri Ramakrisha realized that ego dissolves in nirvikalpa samādhi, he also realized that as long as humans choose to physically incarnate some ego-identity is inevitable and unavoidable.
“The ego cannot be done away with. As long as ‘I-consciousness’ exists, living beings and the universe must also exist.
After realizing God, one sees that, it is He Himself
who has become the universe and the living beings.”“The ego does not vanish altogether.
The man coming down from samādhi perceives that
it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Helpful and Harmful Ego Energies
So he taught that egos can be either harmful or helpful:
That when we devote our precious human lives to serving others our egos are helpful; but that they are harmful when we are fearful, materialistic, or hedonistic. (Eg. see Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6:05-6)
Thus Sri Ramakrisha demonstrated and taught the desirability of maintaining a helpful ego of service or devotion to God in our worldly activities. Those teachings of dedicating our lives to God, may be more important now than ever before (during the unprecedented current violent post-pandemic “new reality” era) because countless humans worldwide are now awakening from eons of harmful illusionary ego self-identification and limitation to higher energy levels of consciousness, beyond fears of death or deprivation as supposedly threatened mortal and limited life-forms.
Until now, such fearful ego-mind energies have psychologically ‘imprisoned’ us in illusionary energetically lower consciousness dimensions where we’ve suffered for eons. But a “critical mass” of humankind are rapidly awakening from those fearful illusions to elevated loving and compassionate levels of awareness, beyond such suffering. Thus we are remembering and realizing the crucial importance of compassionately caring for one-another and all of Nature’s life-forms.
And as fearless servants and instruments of Divine LOVE we are invariably destined to ultimately enjoy our innate God-given freedom from all inner-ego oppression.
And so shall it be!
Dedication
This memoirs posting is dedicated to hastening that inevitable transformation when we shall melt and merge into ONE Universal Awareness – as Divine LOVE.
Until then may we ever BE ‘givers not getters’, and pray:
“Infuse us, enthuse us, and use us, to bless all life as Love!”
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Synchronistically Discovering The Inner Spirit Of ’76, at Age Seventy Six, in 1976
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“The ego cannot be done away with. As long as ‘I-consciousness’ exists, living beings and the universe must also exist.
After realizing God, one sees that, it is He Himself
who has become the universe and the living beings.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
“The ego does not vanish altogether. The man coming down from samādhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
“All paths ultimately lead to the same Truth. But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
“The ego cannot begot rid of; so let the rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Introduction
Dear Friends,
As Americans commemorate our founding fathers’ July 4th, 1776, declaration of political independence from tyrannical British rule, this memoirs chapter tells how at age 76, in 1976, I synchronistically discovered a profound inner ‘Spirit of ’76’ evolution process (still unfolding at almost age ninety) revealing how we shall transcend previously unimagined fearful ego-mind obstacles to enjoyment of a god-given happy life.
Synchronistically Discovering The Inner Spirit Of ’76 at Age Seventy Six in 1976
On New Year’s Eve 1974-5 I was blessed with a transformative out-of-body experience (OOB), which impelled my relentless investigation of its profound meaning. Until then, like most Westerners, I self-identified only with my mortal physical body, its thoughts and story, and assumed that inevitable bodily death would forever end my life.
However in spring 1976, at age seventy six my quest for meaning of that OOB was suddenly rewarded by an extraordinary and spontaneous aha spiritual rebirth and re-awakening experience, which forever changed my Self-identity and reality paradigms. And it began a profound spiritual-evolution process, revealing previously unimagined and continuing discoveries which are still unfolding at almost age ninety.
Synchronistically my spiritual awakening at age 76 happened during the auspicious 1976 bicentennial commemorations of the 1776 American Declaration of Independence which widely celebrated “The Spirit Of ’76” .
Spirit Of ’76 Background
On July 4, 1776, thirteen American colonies declared their independence from British royal rule, in an historic document inspired by Thomas Paine’s Quaker philosophy and written by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence morally proclaimed that under “the laws of nature and of nature’s God” government is established by people to secure their “Life, Liberty and . . pursuit of Happiness”, and is to be overthrown as illegitimate if it no longer does that.
Thomas Jefferson who authored the Declaration of Independence later explained that its principles
“promised to lead America—and other nations on the globe—into a new era of freedom. The revolution begun by Americans on July 4, 1776, would never end. It would inspire all peoples living under the burden of oppression and ignorance to open their eyes to the rights of mankind, to overturn the power of tyrants, and to declare the triumph of equality over inequality.”
Thus the Declaration unequivocally affirmed the inherent god-given human right to “Life, Liberty, and Happiness”. Though it emphasized outer liberty from immoral and inequitable political oppression, it’s spiritual philosophy also includes perpetual freedom from inner oppression, because (as Thomas Payne revealed) “our greatest enemies . . . are within.”
My Inner Spirit Of ’76 Discoveries
Synchronistically, at age 76 in 1976 I began discovering within that:
1) Spiritually we are not mere separate mortal physical bodies but ONE immortal and universal consciousness. Our mortal physical bodies are only impermanent energy vehicles with which we explore earth’s dense 3D environment. But because we are eternal consciousness we never die, just replace our temporary ‘space/time soul suits’ with new models.
2) Planet Earth’s space/time relative “reality” isn’t really real, but an energetic optical illusion of universal consciousness – like a dream or mental mirage, which Eastern religions call samsara or maya.
3) In space/time everything is energy [e=Mc2] appearing and disappearing within universal consciousness. But most humans mistakenly identify only with their thoughts, instead of their consciousness of those thoughts, and don’t realize that in Reality we are consciousness disguised as persons.
4) Because we mistakenly think that we’re only individual persons or entities separate from each other and Nature, we ‘create’ an illusory reality with our ever changing thoughts, words and behaviors.
5) Our self-identification with thought is ego. Ego-mind ideas about supposed separate self-identity and reality inescapably subject us to to the karmic law of cause and effect, whereby “every action, every thought, reaps its own corresponding rewards” – either joy or suffering. Thus ego-mind self-identification metaphorically confines us in psychological prisons in which suffering is inevitable, and which restrict realization of our infinite potentialities.
6) As long as humans choose to physically incarnate on Earth some separate ego-identity is inevitable and unavoidable.
7) Such Earthly ego-identity can be either harmful or helpful:
Egos are harmful when they are fearful, selfish, materialistic, or hedonistic; but when we fearlessly devote our precious human lives to serving others our egos are helpful. (Eg. see Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6:05-6)
8) Maintaining a helpful ego of service or devotion to God in our chosen worldly activities is highly desirable. Helpful ego-minds quicken our transcendence from cause and effect earthly sufferings; but harmful ego-minds prolong such sufferings.
9) Thus, I’ve discovered (in the Spirit of ’76) that harmful and fearful inner ego-minds can be “our greatest enemies” by preventing our realization and enjoyment of innate human freedom from inner oppression. However, the energy frequency of LOVE always eradicates and dissipates fear as an assured antidote to fearful ego-minds.
10) So as fearless servants and instruments of Divine LOVE we are invariably destined to ultimately enjoy our innate God-given freedom from all inner-ego oppression.
And so shall it be!
Conclusion, dedication, and invocation
The energy of Divine LOVE always prevails over fearful energy. So as instruments and servants of God, we will invariably evolve human consciousness –beyond our mistakenly perceived separation from each other– by fearlessly realizing and actualizing our common Oneness with all Life as LOVE.
This memoirs posting is dedicated to hastening that transformation until we have merged and melted into ONE Universal Awareness – as Divine LOVE.
Thus may we always BE and pray:
Infuse us, enthuse us, and use us, to gratefully bless all life as Love!”
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Good 2 Go, But Glad to Stay
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“In order to know through experience what happens beyond death, you must go deep within yourself.
In meditation, the truth will come to you.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“Birth and death are virtual, but Life is perpetual.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Love blesses the world; fear afflicts it.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Our deepest fears hide our highest potentials.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“To be afraid of dying is like being afraid
of discarding an old worn-out garment.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“And it is in dying [to ego life]
that we are reborn to eternal life.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi, peace prayer, edited by Ron Rattner
“Death is truly part of life … ‘what we called death is merely a concept’.”
“This happens at the gross level of the mind. But neither death nor birth exist at the subtle level of consciousness that we call ‘clear light.’”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama, citing Tibetan Book of the Dead.
“The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time, nor does it come into being again when the body is created. The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed. Just as a man giving up old worn out garments accepts other new apparel, in the same way the embodied soul giving up old and worn out bodies verily accepts new bodies.” “The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable, immovable and primordial.”
~ Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Krishna to Arjuna
“Reality transcends both birth and death.”
“There is no birth, there is no death;
. . . . We only think there is.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“The heart of the matter is always
our oneness with divine spirit,
our union with all life.”
“The greatest of all miracles is to be alive.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Ron Rattner on 5/24/22
Good 2 Go, But Glad to Stay
Good 2 Go, But Glad to Stay ~ Ron’s Memoirs
Dear Friends,
Some years ago, while taking a (then) daily walk by San Francisco Bay, I was invited to use a ‘a pay to poop’ antiseptic toilet then being promoted for people reluctant to access often dirty or unsafe public toilets. As part of that marketing promotion I was offered (and gladly accepted) a green cap with the slogan “Good2Go”.
Since then I have often worn that cap, and recently its “Good2Go” logo has epitomized a newly fearless state of mind about death rather any fearful bowel movements.
At almost age ninety, this memoirs chapter summarizes and explains my present (and previously unimagined) inner psychological state about death, despite diminished physical health from advanced age and prior traumas – especially June, 2014 near-death taxicab rundown injuries.
Although age and injuries have noticeably diminished my physical health, they have karmically blessed me with greater psychological happiness than ever before imagined or experienced. Beginning with my midlife awakening I’ve gradually become convinced (by out of body and near death experiences) that there is no death; that our true Reality is immortal and transcends death, which is only an illusory mental concept.
Therefore, I no longer self-identify with only my physical body, its thoughts and story, and I no longer fear leaving that precious human body. So psychologically I’ve become “Good2Go”. Yet, because I’m happier than ever before imagined, I’m very “Glad to Stay” while enjoying health.
So I sanctify and dedicate every day of what’s left of this precious human lifetime, with the deep aspiration and constant prayer, to bless all Life as LOVE.
From my unique perspective, being part of a “critical mass” that is helping others energetically transcend their fears and sufferings is especially important during the current extraordinary era of warfare, deprivation, turmoil, and polarized violence affecting most humans.
Invocation
May these teachings
help us live ever happier lives,
both individually and societally,
as we lose our fear of leaving life,
and gain the art of living life.
And so may it be!
Namasté!
Ron Rattner
Ron Rattner in May 2022
Good 2 Go, But Glad to Stay
Our Mentality is Our Reality:
~ Quotations and Reflections
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.”
~ George Orwell, “1984”
“Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward.”
~ A Course In Miracles (ACIM)
“We do not see things as they are;
we see things as we are.”
~ Talmud
“Our mentality is our reality.
Our “reality” is what we think it to be.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“All appearances are verily one’s own concepts, self-conceived in the mind, like reflections seen in a mirror. To know whether this be so or not, look within thine own mind.”
~ Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
“Objective reality does not exist” ….
“the universe is fundamentally a gigantic … hologram”
~ David Bohm
“Reality” isn’t REAL!
“Reality” is an holographic theater of the mind.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are,
based on your personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego.
It consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it … it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind. …..
As long as you are identified with your mind, the ego runs your life.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
“If the doors of perception were cleansed
everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
~ William Blake
“If you could get rid of yourself just once,
the secret of secrets would open to you.
The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe
would appear on the mirror of your perception.”
~ Rumi
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
~ Antoine de Saint Exupery
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
~ Carl Jung
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
~ 1 Corinthians 13:12
“True vision is insight, not eyesight.
‘[N]ow we see through a glass darkly’,
but 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.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“There are two ways of spreading light –
to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.”
~ Edith Wharton
“And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the glory of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect.”
~ 2 Corinthians 3:18
“Reality’s essence is Divine luminescence.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Nothing Real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.”
~ A Course In Miracles (ACIM)
Introduction to “Our Mentality is Our Reality”.
Dear Friends,
The foregoing quotations, and following poetic essay and comments, describe and explain how Humankind mistakenly conceive, label and self-identify ourselves as supposedly separate mortal entities in a misperceived space/time “reality”, through persistent ego/mind thought processes.
These writings are dedicated to helping us recognize and reverse those thought processes, which inevitably subject us to karmic-causal sufferings and limit our inconceivably infinite potentialities.
[See e.g. The Way In, Is The Way Out ]
And so may it be!
Our Mentality is Our Reality
Through the ‘mirror of the mind’
we think we see space/time “reality” –
as multiplicity of seemingly separate
beings, objects, forms and phenomena.
But our perceptions and self-identifications
as separate mortal entities is a mere mirage;
“an optical illusion of consciousness” .
What we think see is merely our state of mind
reflected and projected outward.
Such illusory vision is invariably obscured and distorted;
it arises from our personal and cultural mental conditioning – our ego/minds.
Ego/minds distortedly refract, reflect and project
onto the ‘reflective’ screen of human consciousness
the unseen light of Eternal Awareness – our true Self.
As Eternal Awareness, what we really see
are ego-minds’ ever conditioned
misperceptions, reflections, and projections.
As a mirror’s reflection depends not only on its optical transparency and precision , but also on the angle from which it is viewed,
our perception and response to the space/time world,
depends not only on our state of mind,
but on our unique point of view – each from a different place in time and space.
As still, clear water best reflects light –
while permitting perception of its depths,
a still, clear mind best reflects and reveals
the invisible Light of Self-awareness.
The fewer our thoughts,
the clearer and calmer our mind,
and the deeper and more transparent our awareness.
The more we think,
the more conditioned, disturbed and perturbed is the mind,
and the more it refracts, distorts and dims the eternal light of pure Awareness.
The clearer and calmer our mind,
the more skillfully we experience
ever changing quantum energies,
without attachment or reflexively reacting to them.
With meditation and other attentive mind-stilling modes,
we can clear and enlighten our mind –
From opacity to translucency to transparency –
from mental mirror to window of the soul.
Thereby, with ever expanding awareness
and ever deepening insight,
We can and shall ‘see’ and be,
more and more –
what we couldn’t see or be
before.
We can and shall see and BE:
Wholeness, Holiness, SELF –
Infinite Potentiality, Awareness, Bliss;
Eternal Peace, Life, Light – LOVE!
And so it shall be!
Ron Rattner
Ron’s Commentary on Our Mentality as Our Reality.
Dear Friends,
Have you ever wondered why the world seems so insane? Why countless people worldwide fearfully suffer from wars, poverty, illness, lack of basic life-sustaining necessities? Why suffering is everywhere, even in the richest nations on Earth? Why even materially super-rich people are often fearful, depressed, addicted or mentally disturbed?
For millennia mystic teachers and spiritual scriptures have consistently identified ego/mind as the “biggest enemy of humans”. Therefore recognizing and eliminating ego has always been of supreme spiritual importance.
But in current “new normal” times of unprecedented global turmoil, violence and suffering, it is crucial that a “critical mass” of Humankind now realize (at long last) how we are ignorantly and unsustainably creating enormous problems by habitually misidentifying ourselves with our thoughts.
After my mid-life awakening, I began deeply reflecting on root causes of our pervasive pathologies, both individually and societally. In the above essay/poem and quotes, I’ve shared my perspectives about how and why our illusionary human projected perceptions and thoughts are causing or allowing extremely psychopathic behaviors which threaten life on earth as we have known it.
If you agree, please consider sharing these insights, to help heal the world.
Conclusion.
In the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11-12), St. 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 and shall evolve and transform our mind mirror, from opacity to translucency to transparency (as ‘window of the soul’). And thereby, with ever expanding human consciousness and ever deepening insight, we can and shall ‘see’ more and more – what we couldn’t see before.
Ultimately, we shall SEE that Infinite LOVE is the only Reality; that
“Nothing Real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.”
~ A Course In Miracles (ACIM)
Invocation.
As ever more we inwardly SEE
May we ever-more inwardly BE:
Wholeness, Holiness, SELF –
Infinite Potentiality, Awareness, Bliss;
Eternal Peace, Life, Light – LOVE!
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Different Person, Different Path
Q. “Sir, shall I ever leave the spiritual path?”
A. “How could you?
Everyone in the world is on the spiritual path.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Q. “What is the path?”
A. “Everyday life is the path.”
~ Zen Master Nansen
“The spiritual path –
is simply the journey of living our lives.
Everyone is on a spiritual path;
most people just don’t know it.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“Overcoming negative tendencies
and enhancing positive potential
are the very essence of the spiritual path.”
~ Dalai Lama
“When I let go of what [I believe] I am,
I become what I might be.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.”
~ Shirdi Sai Baba
“Each person’s life – each lifeform,
in fact – represents a world,
a unique way in which the universe experiences itself.
And when your form dissolves,
a world comes to an end –
one of countless worlds.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
At bottom every man knows well enough
that he is a unique being,
only once on this earth;
and by no extraordinary chance
will such a marvelously picturesque
piece of diversity in unity as he is,
ever be put together a second time.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“Today you are You,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is Youer than You.”
~ Dr. Seuss
Introduction to “Different Person, Different Path”
Dear Friends,
“Different Person, Different Path” is an essay-poem (with oral recitation) about perennial principles intended to help us respect and accept all other humans as Divine spiritual siblings, each following a unique ‘spiritual path’ to ultimate Self Realization of our common inner Divinity.
Also to realize that (through mistaken illusory perception-projection) we continuously appear and reappear as supposedly separate ‘players’ in differing ‘roles’ on the world’s ‘stage’, in an endless Divine process and play in and of Cosmic consciousness, until we realize our true Universal non-duality Self-identity as Eternal LOVE.
The essay’s principles (with above quotations and explanatory comments below) are especially important in current unprecedentedly troubled times, when a majority of humans are fearful and polarized by earthly illusions, which they can transcend spiritually.
To help each other and the world, please enjoy and intuitively reflect upon these writings.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Different Person, Different Path
No two people experience identical perceptions
or states of consciousness;
Each one’s awareness
is mediated and limited by a unique body/mind;
And each person’s consciousness state
is ever changing and unique.
Beyond each individuated body/mind, is
Unlimited Awareness – Cosmic Consciousness – Infinite Potentiality.
But, body/mind consciousness is
localized and limited, and uniquely experienced.
Purpose of body/mind
is transformation of human consciousness,
which is collectively and individually
created by our thoughts.
Since each body/mind is unique,
each person’s transformational path is also unique.
Different person, different path.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Different Person, Different Path”
Ron’s Comments on “Different Person, Different Path”
Dear Friends,
The foregoing essay-poem and quotations concern perennial wisdom principles about spiritual paths. Unlike earthly paths, spiritual paths do not lead to space/time destinations, but to experiencing and ultimately transcending karmic limitations which are unique to each person.
As each human soul evolves, it repeatedly incarnates into distinct body/minds, to experience and to learn from the effects of its unique karmic causal history. (Like snowflake crystals, not even identical twins are exactly the same.)
Upon incarnation as human body/mind lifeforms we experience ‘amnesia’ about our true spiritual Self-identity. Then, perceiving and believing ourselves to be separate from each other and Nature, we mistakenly identify, think and behave as separate entities, and thereby become subject to the universal law of cause and effect – karma.
Whereupon each soul becomes ‘encapsulated’ and ‘entangled’ in a self-woven “karmic cocoon” attributable to its unique behaviors – through which we inevitably experience personal and world sufferings.
Spiritual transcendence of our mistaken earthly illusions of being separate from each other and Nature is especially important in current unprecedentedly troubled times, because a majority of humans worldwide are polarized and fearful of death, disease and/or deprivation of necessities and God-given rights.
Thus, this posting is dedicated to our helping each other and the world advance toward achievement of such transcendence with our loving emotions and behaviors.
Invocation.
May we transcend such sufferings,
as we learn to forgive and accept ourselves
and all other humans
as Divine but fallible spiritual siblings;
as children of Eternal LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Biophilism
“Beyond atonement theology,
Let us BE at-one-ment Reality –
as Eternal LOVE.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them humanity cannot survive.”
~ Dalai Lama
“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
“Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.
Not any religion, or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, nor out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story.
My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul. I belong to the Beloved have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know,
First, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human.”
~ Rumi, Only Breath
“I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself
that you have built against it.”
~ Rumi
Ron’s Introduction to “Biophilism”
Dear Friends,
“Biophilism” is a poetic essay which declares our urgent need for a universal religion of LOVE.
The title “Biophilism” was derived from “biophilia”, which means “love of Life”. It’s interpretation is suggested by the above key quotations and by my following explanatory comments.
This essay is closely related to my Reflections on Religious Beliefs, which tell why humanity can no longer survive without universal ethical behaviors beyond conflicting religious beliefs.
Ron Rattner
Biophilism
The new millennium demands a new universal religion –
A religion of Love.
So, let us curb our dogmas
and park our hierarchies.
Let us leave atonement theology,
and live at-one-ment Reality.
Let us transcend our ism schisms
and live a Universal ism —
Biophilism –
The love of Life.
Let us live life
as love of Life.
Let us let go, and
let Life live us,
as
LOVE.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Biophilism”
Ron’s explanation of “Biophilism”
Dear Friends,
Many years ago the then obvious threat of nuclear war catastrophe inspired composition of the foregoing poetic essay, envisioning a new universal religion of LOVE.
After the horrendous 1945 US atomic bombings of the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and especially since the ‘miraculous’ resolution of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis between the USA and USSR, I have been deeply concerned by obviously insane dangers of a nuclear war catastrophe which would end earth life as we’ve known it. So I’ve long realized the urgent need to abolish all nuclear weapons, and all wars.
The “Biophilism” poetic essay was composed after my midlife spiritual awakening, long before the doomsday clock of the bulletin of atomic scientists was moved to 100 seconds to midnight. Since then we’ve experienced increasingly violent and politically polarized times, beyond those which motivated this essay. So the essay’s message is more urgently imperative now than ever before.
In order to avert current catastrophic threats to Life on our precious planet, humanity needs egalitarian societal organizations – beyond hierarchical religious organizations; we need democratically participatory organizations which promote and practice coexistence, compassion and cooperation over insanely autocratic domination and unsustainable exploitation of people and other lifeforms.
Though countless people have benefited from religions, it has become obvious that survival of Earth-life as we’ve known it urgently requires universal human ethics of empathy and LOVE, transcending current insanely polarized violence and turbulence.
Thus, today’s essay declares our urgent need for a new universal religion of LOVE. Although some may consider this declaration impractical or Utopian, I deem it not just feasible but evolutionarily imperative that we end and transcend current human warfare insanity.
As lovers of God and Nature, let us communally remember, envision and experience our true spiritual Self-Identity, which is Universal and Eternal LOVE!
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
