A Mutual Debt
It’s really hard to get your head around the suggestion that all of existence is one being.
To consider that the origin of all of humanity emanates from one being defies any mental construct that your mind is capable of producing.
How is it possible that the other person is you? And that you are the other person?
If you accept the notion that your Self is concealed by way of the ego, by way of your mind, that, of course, it would be impossible to see who the other person, much less anybody, really is.
Said in a different way, if you don’t know who you are, then how can you know who the other person is?
If you aspire to, if you wish to free yourself from the mental, physical and emotional slavery of the mind and there’s no need in putting it any other way, then the only way you can accomplish that is by uncovering what is covered up, by causing to be revealed that which is hidden. And it is in that process that you stand the chance of reaching or at least coming into contact with that unity of being, that unity of consciousness. But things being what they are, if you insist that your state of mind and that the very nature of your being is predicated around that a unified state of affairs that is governing not just you but the entire universe, then one of them has to be false…one of them has to be wrong.
Either a conscious, unified existence with everything and everybody or an existence of separation, of survival, of getting what you can when you can and doing the best you can to enjoy it while you can…but both can’t be true. You’ve got to get rid of one of them.
But before you do, I would only encourage you regardless of how old you are to examine carefully the uncertainty of the life you are living, the lack of understanding you have about your life, why you are living the life you are living, the innate suffering that you are undergoing, and the reason I know you are suffering is because there is no one and I mean no one does not feel imprisoned in some way. It is that framework that serves as our prison cell. Now, while I am absolutely suggesting that all of existence is one being, that all of us are connected to one another, my greatest interest is keeping our conversations real and helping you solve the problems of your daily, life and work.
I want to address the issues of being stuck in the mud but I’m advocating not living in the mud to do it…and to do that, you are going to have to become more conscious, one step at a time, one thought at a time, using everything and everybody in your life as a vehicle for getting unstuck.
And to do that, you have to stop focusing on your experiences and start focusing on your existence. And to do that, you’re going to have to admit that you pretty much don’t know very much about your existence…your birth, or your death. But it is that not-knowing that makes you powerful, that lows you to consider other possibilities and other realities. Now, let’s go back to what I was saying earlier.
One is real and one is not. From the beginning of time, many if not all sacred texts from a variety of differing philosophies have stated that what you see with your eyes is an illusion. In truth, the world is reality and the physical is reality. You are real. The world is real. But what you think about it, what you project onto it, whether it is a judgment about another person or a judgment about yourself, that judgment does not exist. That’s just your stuff and it’s your stuff that has you imprisoned. Most of what you believe to be true is not. It’s stuff you made up but what I’m suggesting is that you made it up for a good reason…you made it up in order to survive, in order to be safe, to be OK. Now, you may not really be OK but that’s OK…what you made up was doing the best you could to protect yourself.
Where therapy will examine that and find your demons, we examine that and find your gods and goddesses. Because all of existence is one being, then, with the above statement, then that being is either a demon or a god or goddess. And since you’re right back in the situation of making it up as you move along, then why wouldn’t you choose to see that being as God, as the goodness and joy and abundance that you have spent your whole life seeking? Well, of course you would! And now, to be perfectly clear, the bridge between those two worlds, between the you who is imprisoned and you who is not, the one who is conscious is knowledge. The bridge is knowledge and that’s not the same as information.
The knowledge that we here at TruthSpring are advancing is not about your mind, your body or your emotions. The knowledge we teach has nothing to do with your brain. In fact, I go so far as to say that if you haven’t yet figured out that you’re crazy, you’ve got a ways to go. Therapy can help you stop being so crazy. But therapy, lacking any connection to consciousness or the understanding of the metaphysical, cannot help you understand the purpose of being crazy and why you chose. Yes, I said, you chose those circumstances.
Now, don’t forget, please don’t forget, that the riddle you are trying to solve is the riddle that you created in order to hide from yourself and that the answer you are seeking is the thing you already are! It’s quite an adventure!
It’s a wonderful quote from the Sufi Master Pir Khan that says “The Divine (Self) cannot be the object of your knowledge because it is the subject who knows.” He also said, “Discover yourself in another yourself in whom you are the object.”
The Bible in Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God”…or perhaps more to the point…be still and know that what you call ‘I’ is God.
The mystic Meher Baba said, “It is not so much that you are within the Cosmos, as that the Cosmos is within you.” Even Christ said, “I and the Father are One.”
So, what I am suggesting to you has its basis in truth and reality. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states, “Whoever worships a divinity as other than the self, thinking ‘He is one, and I another,' knows not” and this is the barrier that you may face if religion has been your source of understanding who you are. As I have shared before, I grew up in the church and I, too, saw myself as disconnected from the source.
So, now, if you are that and everyone else is that, then the One existence is the source of the many.
The source of the multiplicity is the One. And if that’s true, then it’s either a random phenomenon or it’s intentional. If you believe it’s random, then stop listening to me and buckle up. It’s a crapshoot. Heads you’re OK. Tails, you’re not. If, however, you are able to surmise there must be a reason to this, that there must be some intention, then that immediately infers that there is a will, a force, behind the process.
Consciousness is will. Consciousness is force.
And the nature of its will is joy. In fact, it is joy? And that means that you are, too, since the source of your existence is that one existence, that one God, or whatever you want to call it.
So, your unfolding life is the play of that one consciousness, that one existence, in the act of experiencing itself in physical form. It is the singular reason, the true motive of its objective. Bliss, joy, existence (versus experience), knowledge, consciousness. But if the object, as has been taught in many religions, that the objective is not joy and fulfillment in a physical body, but an escape to an afterlife, an out-of-body transcendence of life and body, that death is the ultimate vehicle into the great clam, and peace of God, then a greater life here is impossible. Union with God, the presence of the divine, is going to be found here, in the physical body and nowhere else because that was its objective in the first place.
Knowledge is the bridge between the two that consist of an ascent to that knowledge and descent, a return if you will, back into the physical in order to transform, to transfigure the physical.
And that is what you are doing here. As the eternal, motionless, keyless absolute comes into physical form, the extensions of Time and Space are the tools of the absolute to create the playground for your unfolding life. Your fate is the truth and reality of who you really are working its way out through your own ignorance and stupidity. How can you not have a great time when you realize this? How can you suffer when you realize that everything that is happening to you is part of that process of awakening? How can you grieve when you not just see but experience that everything is perfect, that oneness exists even in pain and setback and failure, and loss… and are you ready to hear this? Even death. And I know how hard this is,
The illusions of your mind that create your separation from God and your separation from others become that which has to be neutralized at minimum. This is the process of your yoga, your practice, your path. Now, this is where the mutual debt comes in. From Sri Aurobindo’s masterpiece, “Savitri,” I want to read these 5 lines:
"A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme:
His nature we must put on as he put ours;
We are sons of God and must be even as he:
His human portion, we must grow divine.
Our life is a paradox with God for key."
It could be said differently that essentially, you agreed to come into the world of ignorance and it is God that guaranteed that she would provide a way out. It could also be said that each of us owes a debt to humanity and helping those who are stuck and by agreeing to do so, we have been provided the means by which to accomplish the task. If God or Truth-Consciousness has guaranteed that she would provide a way out, then that way out is knowledge.
“His nature we must put on as he put ours;
We are sons of God and must be even as he:
His human portion, we must grow divine.”
Debts must be paid, not only ours but God’s. So, there is a binding of Truth-Consciousness to the physical world, to mankind and there is a binding of mankind to Truth-Consciousness, for they are each other. From this greater understanding, you can begin to refuse to see your life in any terms other than blessed and protected.
So, the struggle is not so much battling against the negative forces and daily limitations but maintaining the balance of harmony and joy even in the middle of a painful situation, a setback, a loss, for these events are the very situations that you have drawn to yourself to force you to evolve, to awaken, not after dying but while alive in the physical body. In doing so, your debt is being paid. And the debt owed to you is being paid through the unveiling of a truth that even though it may be an infinite process, and may not be experienced in a single lifetime, that in that transcendent moment, you will know joy and fulfillment.
Because everything and everybody in your life, including you, is some form of Truth-Consciousness seeking to realize itself, you can increase your ability and your willingness to unite all parts of your life through as a willed perception of all things that gently erases the separation between yourself and Truth. The mutual debt, as Sri Aurobindo describes it, that exists between you and God, between you and Truth-Consciousness, is binding.
The stronger you become, the more conscious you become, the stronger the resistance will become, the greater the problems you face will be.
The greater the growth, the stronger the Shadow will be that you must face.
For this is the debt you have acquired in choosing to be human. But in the repayment of that debt, you are here to not just know but to experience joy and abundance and fulfillment.
It is a debt that is not just owed to you, but a debt that will be paid when you are ready.
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