What is Creation?
Our special theme says, “God’s memory is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with their Creator. Let our function be only to let this memory return, only to let God’s Will be done on earth, only to be restored to sanity, and to be but as God created us.”
That says it all. As we wind up the first year of Gentle Healing and prepare to begin the second year, we are asked to look at our commitment to truth, and to make our commitment whole.
We have looked at Choice A and Choice B in Chapter 5 of The Most Direct Means to Eternal Bliss a number of times now. Today, I’d like to share these same choices with you from the perspective of an awakened Carmelite Nun, Bernadette Roberts:
In contrast to the divine, the human condition is so terrible and devastating that even the worst of descriptions could never do it justice. I am not referring here to sin, evil or suffering, but rather to bare human existence itself—and the whole natural world included. What we usually think is so beautiful in this world is actually monstrous and unbearable to look at, but only in contrast to the divine. …
Those who believe man can have both heaven and this world at the same time are very much mistaken; such a notion is a total underestimation of God’s utter transcendence, … Compared to the divine estate there is no beauty or happiness in this world; thus man cannot afford to have a glimpse or taste of the final estate and still expect to find this world acceptable. The ultimate estate is not of this world; it is not even compatible with it… For this reason it is good that man does not see the reality of the divine beyond consciousness, for if he did he could not endure this world. What man does not know, he does not miss, and what he does not know is how utterly transcendent the divine really is.
That is her description of Choice B, living in the world as a self.
Here is her description of Choice A, which is Manonasa, awakening to the First Principle of God, Nirvana:
About all that can be said is that if we put together man’s loftiest experiences of ecstasy, bliss, love and all things ineffable, they fall as short of the divine condition as the size of an ant falls short of that of an elephant. Consciousness’ most lofty heavenly experiences of the divine are but the palest shadow of the ultimate divine condition or “heaven.”
It makes you wonder what we are choosing by not fully applying ourselves to awakening, doesn’t it?
I choose the second place to gain the first.
Our workbook lesson begins by saying, “What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive are upside down until we listen to the Voice for God.”
I think Sister Bernadette made that perfectly clear with statements like, “What we usually think is so beautiful in this world is actually monstrous and unbearable to look at, but only in contrast to the divine.”
We put off seeking awakening with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and all of our strength, because of the things we value in this world. They get our time instead.
Could our sense of priorities be very, very wrong?
Is it time for a change?
Please read today’s workbook lesson in full, and contemplate it along with Bernadette’s description of the human condition compared to realization of the divine.
Also, reconsider your spiritual aspiration. Is it sufficient to give you the motivation you need to give even more to this spiritual path, or is there another spiritual aspiration that is more motivating for you? It may help to ask this question and write until the answer is realized. I did.
Meditation Options
