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June 28, 2004 Friends of ours (who I’ll call Matt and Sarah) recently visited another mutual friend (who I’ll call Simon). Instead of the usual hugs and greetings, they were asked to stay on the doorstep while Simon, looking embarrassed, rushed inside and came out to explain that before they entered his house, he needed to clear their negativity with a smudging - dried sage was lit and the smoke was passed over them. When that was done, they were allowed to enter and, before anything else was said, they had to read a letter that had been sent to Simon and many of their friends - though not to Matt and Sarah. The letter was from a lady (who I’ll call Dusky) who ran regular channelling and spiritual development sessions. In it, Matt and Sarah were accused of being, among other things, “rapers of angels who opened channels of darkness”. Greater insults could not have been heaped on them! The cause of the letter originated from a disagreement at one of the channelling sessions, over ‘spiritual truths’. Matt and Sarah are always happy to discuss ‘truths’ with anyone - knowing that exploring differences is healthy. They had no idea that such public invective had been aimed at them. They actually found the whole situation quite comical but were dismayed that so many of their friends took it seriously and wouldn’t allow them to visit again. Before they visited us, two weeks later, we were warned to be careful of them by a letter recipient and they actually checked with us if they could visit - something they had never done before. Well, they turned up and were the same hard-working, humorous and interesting people that they had always been. Luckily, they had the maturity to see the whole situation as the comic turn that it was - those with less self-esteem could have been irreparably damaged, emotionally. I simply don’t understand. I don’t understand how sexless beings like angels can be raped. I don’t understand how smoke from dead plants can turn ‘bad’ people into acceptable people. I don’t understand how otherwise intelligent people can run in fear from long-term friends, because of the opinion of someone else. I don’t understand how philosophical differences can give rise to such severe feelings. I don’t understand how someone who claims to teach spiritual growth can lash out with so little compassion and so much invective. I don’t understand why anyone needs to involve everyone else in a personal difference. There was a lot I did not understand about this situation... until I watched the film Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe. Professor John Nash, the main character, a Nobel Prize winner, spent his whole life trying to explain every possible interaction and relationship in the universe with mathematical formulae. In the end, he publicly admitted that the only way of explaining anything was through the formula of love. Seen through the ‘numbers’ of love, everything is explainable to the simplest of people. Actually, the simplest of people seem to understand love, the universe and everything else the best. Let me try to explain my philosophical truth. Imagine a perfectly formed, dew-glistening cobweb. The cobweb is a pattern, a very beautiful pattern. If you were to destroy that cobweb, the spider would make another identical one. Love is a beautiful pattern - though we may not know what that pattern is. Let us imagine that love is like the cobweb created by the spider of creation. If you were a dewdrop on the cobweb, you might not be aware of other dewdrops or the complete pattern. Yet, without you, the pattern would not be complete. Without you the pattern is less beautiful than it could be. And this web of love on which you shine has been able to withstand the whispering winds of change through the eons. It endures through our pains, our triumphs, our wars, our compassion and everything else we have been able to heap on it. Its form remains constant and unchanging for the spider, our creator, has perfected its art. As the web is incomplete without us, we are incomplete without it. Though we sometimes imagine we are without the web of love, the tapestry of life, we can never be - it exists because we do and vice versa. The fact that it exists is proof of our sacred part of the web. It has always been and we have always been a part of it. We are it and it is us. We are the component and the whole for without our shining component, it ceases to be. The strands of the web are what bring us into contact with the experiences and people we need for our nourishment. We cannot see the strands for they are a part of us. Like asking a fish to explain water, it is impossible for us to explain (and even be aware at times) that in which we shine. We are never without the strands and web of love, the glue and the pattern of the universe. When we are aware of our glistening place in the web of love we feel complete. When we feel the pattern of life, we feel our destiny and know our passion. We also feel the passion of others (compassion) and appreciate their place in the web of love. With compassion we feel the love of others, which is the love of the all - the pattern of love itself. We are complete and we rejoice in the completeness and passion of all others and we have nothing to demand of life for we are that which we strive for and cling to. No further effort is needed, except to shine with all others in the beautiful tapestry of love. Without an awareness of the pattern of love, we feel unconnected, purposeless and without support. We feel set adrift from the web of life, rudderless and pointless. We become vulnerable. We become fearful. Though we are never separated from the tapestry of creation, we all feel it at times and that which is perceived is more powerful than that which is ‘real’. And so fear (False Emptiness Appearing Real) creeps up on us in those dark moments of unconnectedness, and we flail about, desperate to grasp at anything that will steady our rudderless soul. We grasp at assets, fame, people, activities and anything else to repress our feelings of worthlessness. In this vulnerable state we cry out for that which is familiar, that which is manageable and that which restores our feeling of being valued and appreciated. And yet, as we desperately flail about like this, our behaviour actually causes separateness. As we argue and justify ourselves, others are driven away. As we submit to self-pity, others stay away. As we grasp for that which isn’t ours (while we feel that ours has been stolen) we start our wars and conflicts, on whatever scale we create our own fear. And each time we go into battle, we create many more opponents than friends and so our isolation and defeat are imminent. We all feel like this at times and there is no knowing when or why those feelings come over us. They just do... perhaps to remind us of the water in which we swim but forget. We expect the sun to rise because it always has. We expect life to be fair because... well, just because we expect it to be. In expectation and without appreciation, we forget the beautiful web that we weave, the tapestry we shine on, the pattern that is both our creation (for we are all the spiders of creation) and our home. We never leave this home but we sometimes forget it’s there. And so we lash out at ourselves (self-blame, depression, suicide, addictions) or others (blame, justifications, war, invective) and wonder why we feel even more isolated. Yet, when we stand back from the pattern of love (or the pattern of our behaviour) the simplicity and power is obvious to see - if only we could do it more often! Yes, as Professor John Nash discovered, it is a numbers game. But the numbers are not in chalk on a blackboard but in experiences and relationships and the formula is very simple: appreciation = awareness = connectedness = passion = compassion = love = achievement = appreciation of love. The other formula is also true: expectation = forgetfulness = disconnectedness = emptiness = blame = fear = lack = expectation of fear. Which formula do you choose? ------------ About the author: Philip John Bradbury has written 5 books, the last being "Whose Life Is It Anyway" - based on the workshops I have been running in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa for over seven years, helping people find their passion and to find and implement ways of living it. Available through the following website: www.bradburywow.com Email: philip@bradburywow.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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