May 30, 2008

Here we are at the original Memorial Day and I just finished listening to a talk show centered on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the military services, especially among those who have been in Iraq combat. Some of the callers were in denial and treated the affliction as a character defect, but if we consider what combat really is, we can hypothesize the damage that killing others inflicts.

We are eternal souls living, for a period of time, in a physical body in order to comprehend our true identity, which is that we are members of a great Holistic Intelligence that is loving in nature. We are thus a part of everyone else, if only in spirit. Religions have made bumbling attempts to bring us into brother and sisterhood, but usually get sidetracked by their need to create a duality between the Godhead and our apparently-separate self. Then, with commercial and political manipulation, at least some of us can be taught to take the lives of others, if they are not us. Self vs. Others.

A friend told me of his father’s near-death experience. Apparently, Clarence (a lifelong avid hunter) was without vital signs for fifteen minutes. Then he returned to what we call life, and told his son that that inter-in-between state, he felt the pain of every animal that he had ever killed for sport. Let’s assume for a minute that those words accurately depict the experience. What must it be like to leave our body for the last time and see and feel  all that we have inflicted on others, whether human or animal!  (read Sydney Sailor Farr’s book, What Tom Sawyer Learned From Dying, Hampton Roads Pub. It’s now out of print, but available in used condition on Amazon and other book search sites. Read what Tom experienced as a result of his treatment of others.) We are not automatons and we do great psychic damage to our spiritual selves (the part of us that survives death) when we attempt to live out the ignorant purposes and schemes of unspiritual manipulators. I, myself, in hypnotic regression, re-experienced my death as a Confederate captain in the Civil War. I remember being totally overcome afterward at how futile wars and combat are.

So, at this time of honoring those who have gone forth in good conscience, believing they were defending their wives, husbands and children, and who went elsewhere in the world to kill the sons, brothers, wives, husbands and daughters of strangers, we pause to pray for guidance. What does it do for our soul self when we come to understand that needless damage we have done in a fight that is not a defensive war? How and when will more people see the great damage that killing (For oil? For territory?  For power?) does? When will enough near-death experiencers and ghosts share their soul grief (which can register in us even while we are alive) with the living? The goal of true brother and sisterhood is still so far away as humans count time. The ones that should feel shame are those with large bank balances who pay poorly-educated or desperate young men and women to prop them up. Life is short.

Wednesday, May 7^th, 2008

Here in the Adirondacks, Spring has finally arrived in a show of earth tones and greens on the mountainsides. The streams are slowly retreating to their normal channels after overflowing for the past few months. One can see order being reestablished. But this is partly illusory—flooding, blizzards, droughts and many other uncomfortable conditions in nature are natural. All operate within the bounds of scientific laws that we seldom ponder. If something seems out of whack in nature, it is more likely that we don’t know the rules by which events occur.

So it is with death. I recently attended a wake for an esteemed woman in my old hometown. Her family and friends gathered to say goodbye to a woman whose entire life had been one of good example, both in raising her children and in community activity. If one had listened in on all the funeral home conversations, the many different dimensions of this woman’s just-ended life would have been apparent. Yet, there was so much of her spiritual essence that escaped all who knew her. We can see how people appear, and even what they do, but we can never know the WHY of these occurrences. What motivations lay behind her love of music and even performance? Where did her inner strength arise from, when she was confronted with the most horrible of family disasters? Where did her spirit, that was both perky and cultured, come from? There is so much about any of us that the world cannot know. Maybe that is because our focus of appearance, activities, beliefs, prejudices, and talents is necessarily narrow in any given life.

The after-death state involves accepting our full cosmic identity, most of which has become obscured while tending to issues great and small in our life. This state also involves slowly letting go of our limited self-definition so that we may merge for a time with the fullness of One, wherein lies our true life. During this transition period it is NORMAL for the consciousness of the departed person to walk old streets, visit old friends, inspect former treasures, and wrestle with unresolved issues. The spirit still walks, seeking peace. The body has been laid aside, as it is no longer required for lessons.

I recently came across this site and hope you enjoy its theme.

http://pixiesplace.com/trainride/ http://pixiesplace.com/trainride/">Train
Ride