All or Nothing

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“If you cannot see God in All, you cannot see God at all.”~ Yogi Bhajan

@Namasteman on twitter shared this quote last night and I was struck by the deep challenge it affords our sensibilities. There are two ways to look at this quote, and both seriously challenge us to expand our conscious awareness.

First lets take the perspective that with any enemy, opponent, oppressor, anyone at all that you might have a resentment with, the blindness of resentment means that God cannot be seen at all. This seems clear enough. But a tough task. The work of living totally free of resentments is a full time job.

Second and perhaps even more challenging to our awareness is the idea that even within dark places, the contradictions and the defeat, the disappointments and even in the cruelty we witness, the work of a higher power is taking place.

Either way, the idea that unless seeing in all, we see not at all, opens the possibility of magnitude. For in my own experiences I gain slight glimpses of the Other, and certainly resentment and confusion over contradictions are a steady part of my experience. So perhaps the takeaway is this: so dimly do we see through this veil, in comparison, it is as if nothing at all…

Gregory Reading ~Namaste' Man~

Hey Henie,

Thank you for THIS wonderful quote:
“By any measure, no one’s life is so ordinary
to not warrant as much as a glimpse.”
~Henie~

Do you have a twitter name per chance?

I found your blog to be most profoundly beautiful and look forward to visiting it often. Thank you for sharing your creations!
At your service, Namaste' G

p.s. Thanks Richard for this space as well....there is much more ground to cover on this subject 4 sure..but I did enjoy going lighter to the blueberry Pancakes for now.... ;-) Peace G

Henie

Gregory~Namaste Man~

Thank you for yet another wonderful quote! This time, I sat quietly in my library absorbing and savoring. :-)

Thanks again Richard for providing us this platform.

Detlef Cordes

Thank you, Richard. I appreciate your kind response. I believe this is the end of the road for reason. At the end of this road we can still sit down and tell a story, like the great story of Job, or Voltaire's story of Candide. We can exchange stories - but we should not translate these stories for reason: into a message, or a handy sentence. Human reason must accept: this is not the realm to make sense.

<abbr>Detlef Cordes´s last blog post..ISP Not Providing Proper Service</abbr>

ccseed

Detlef,
Yes, the stories must not edit out the irrationality. It does not always add up, and to force a solution is a form of deceit.

Gregory Reading ~Namaste' Man~

Richard,
Thank you again for taking our conversation to this place where more can be expressed and appreciated on so many levels. For a visual of my now... I am sitting at my desk looking out at the clear blue skies and life with a fresh welling of gratitude assembling it's dew at the ports of my soul~
~Henie, To Feel that even the smallest ray of light/hope has been illuminated between you and your son bring boundless joy to my heart!! Allow me to share another quote that seem to share these feelings rather eloquently: (since this is how we got started ;-)
~"When a miracle happens, even if not to you, its nature is to naturally expand. You can almost feel the warmth on your face".
Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, 06-02-04~

More to your point Richard, let me post yet another quote from one of the most respected scientist and we will hear echoes from his empirically trained thoughts as they resonate with the original quote in question by a spiritualist. (even though I've never been a big fan of lables)
"You either believe there is no such thing as miracles or you believe everything is a miracle" Albert Einstein

Yes, of course , like your thread about the ego, there are challenges...but I say, the basil plant I am growing indoors in a safe and controlled environment is not doing anywhere near as well as my "kick-Ass" basil plants that I grow so wonderfully out side in all of the harsh elements that summer can throw it's way.....
Just because we do not see something does not mean it is not there.. and ironically, many times it reveals itself where and when we least expect it. Allowing and accepting as we have agreed is key.

I've observed that people whom operate from the strong and powerful perspective that we are all "cut from the same cloth" so to speak, tend to look for and find the commonalities in their adversaries as a foundation for peace in any given situation. While seemingly idealistic to many, I would look to Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to see what has been accomplished from this mind set....yet, I also look to their ultimate fate to be reminded how far we as a people are from this vision becoming viral.....
It's coming though and it is my honor and privilege to simply live by this example to the best of my ability at any given time.
Thank you again for this space to share as it has already provided doors where there seemed to be only walls....
Namaste'
G

ccseed

Gregory,
I'm appreciative that this space is functioning and cultivating these dialogues, and thank you for being a part of it. My initial response to the quote you posted was that I immediately saw the difficulty in attaining such a perspective honestly. The forces in history, like King and Gandhi, do seem to embrace the "all" and to the extent that my own common life can do so, I think anything that we half measure in terms of commitment is not worth doing at all. Often the most useful quotes set up a sense of the reality just beyond our frame...it that striving for beyond which makes them useful

Detlef Cordes

Again synchronicity: strange that I should meet here with Yogi Bhajan's dictum. During the last year I had lots of very controversial discussions with Kundalini Yogis and Yoginis about this. I cannot see God in Auschwitz. I don't want to see God in children being sent to the gas-chamber after being tortured in front of their mothers' eyes.

I don't want to see God in people walking barefoot through the snow, scratching bark from birches with bleeding hands just to find something to eat.

Those people had bad karma and will benefit in their later lives? Those were necessary steps in the evolution of mankind? That is utterly unacceptable for me. In all eternity: there will be no vindication.

<abbr>Detlef Cordes´s last blog post..ISP Not Providing Proper Service</abbr>

ccseed

Detlef,
What I like about your response is it takes my second proposition to the fullest extent...which would have to admit the darkness in a big way...a posture and understanding best seen in Job and what Jung so challenged us with in his "Answer to Job" to embrace the difference that wholeness is instead of perfection. When the shadow is not integrated, it becomes a force like Wotan, an out of control berzerker. I think sometimes we want to put to much of the failings we see on human mistakes(don't get me wrong, those are horrendous) without fully appreciating the darkness beyond the human frame.

Henie

Richard! (exclamation fully intended)

Please forgive me if this turns out to be a cold-induced diatribe...the above quote slapped me upside the head and had me running to my library...pulling books upon books: The Bhagavad Gita, Life and Teachings of The Masters of the Far East, The Tao Te Ching, Physics, Philosphy and Theology, Rumi, The Bible and yes, Jung, etc. etc.

What was I looking for? The answer clearly was not in any of my books...it was staring me square in the face: my 16 year old son.

That during our difficult times of sorting out his passage and my passage into the next stage of our lives, I realized that I am remiss in seeing "God" in him when he is rebellious, angry and hurt; therefore, how can I be so bombastic in my own thinking that there is a God in me during these times and not in him?

As though God is a "conditional" God...that unless we do such and such a thing first and thus only then will He provide? I think not.
God is unconditional and never changes, yes?

So perhaps the next time my son and I become oppositional in thinking and in action, I shall remember that God is within both of us, just as I see God in every weed that I delight in photographing.

Who knew that I would experience my catharsis in a blog post?

Thank you, Richard! I admire (and aspire) your expert brevity in words with full impact and depth of thoughts.

ccseed

Henie,
Little needs to be added to the way you poured out your insights for us. What you have written is a great gift, showing how experience is the road to wisdom...

Jay

To me, The Shadow comes to mind. This may be a result of my in depth study lately, but when you look at the Shadow, you see a great deal of negativity but within the shadow is also good. I am not positive who said this but someone said " God loves your shadow more than your ego." Another pointer is the Yin/Yang. There is good yin "good" on both sides. It challenges us on both sides I concur, but even though the challenge exist, I can not help but have complete faith in its validity.