Ida Lawrence, Contributor
Waking Times
“We enter the world with something and leave with something.”
That’s pretty cut-and-dried. Is it true? Could it be that the precious little baby with the unique spirit came in with zero, zilch, nothing? Could it be that the old woman, no longer breathing, ends right there – zero, zilch, ‘is no more’?
Of course not… and I’m confident you don’t think so either. We inherit memories and we remember feelings, we watch ourselves, we observe nature, we think and study and experiment following an inner guide, and we look inside through meditation. No one has to tell us to live like we’re eternal… it just seems to be hardwired. Who would believe that birth is the beginning and death the end. Not me… not Consciousness.
One thing is sure; we don’t have a very long time here in the physical. Let’s say that we choose the body we’re in, so it’s perfect for us, wonderful in fact, with so many sensations to enjoy. But even as we take pleasure in sounds, smells, sights, the soft touch and the taste of a sweet kiss, we know we can’t take the body with us.
So what is the something that we take with us? Memories, experiences, debts paid, promises kept, a new book for the Spirit Library, or some other kind of indefinable spiritual wealth?
All of it is possible, but today I’m thinking about the wealth. What kind of pressure has to be placed upon human beings for the individual or the group to take on spiritual wealth… and the best way I can find to express what that might be is to say ‘enlivened by Truth’.
Common sense: you’re not going to go beyond capacity or dig deep into a resource you didn’t know you had, unless there’s a reason to. Change doesn’t occur in placid, comfortable circumstances… there would have to be pressures, tests, friction, and these might cause suffering.
No one in their right mind would advocate suffering, so why would I mention it? Ever since I was a child I’ve been asking why so much suffering. In particular, I saw the painful condition of Native Americans and I wanted to know why God (the God in the sky that I imagined at the time) would allow it.
It seems that a number of the Peoples and Tribes who collectively went through great trials, were told by their prophets that it would be so. The essence of the message was that your way of life will be taken away, and that will cause great suffering. When the time of the darkness is over, those who remembered the prophesy and kept the faith would emerge as a greater people, able to lead and help the world know peace.
There are additional prophecies that the Afrodescendents hold dear, and the Aboriginal peoples as well. I don’t know about the Dalits or the many others who as a people, race or ethnicity, were attacked, diminished and destroyed in huge numbers. But we can safely say that peoples and individuals have been put under intense pressure, and they have struggled and suffered. When I was a child I asked why, and I kept asking… still do ask.
Today I can check around the Internet and see numerous articles about how the system is enslaving us through names or laws or conditioning, propaganda, fear, terrorism. We see ourselves being poisoned, lied to and exploited. We’re feeling the pressure, and there is very good reason for it. But our focus is narrow. Let’s ask… what has already been learned in slavery and what can we glean from that learning?
There exist a people, with elders living today, who are able to remember: grandma or grandpa was a slave, in every sense of the word. They survived the capture not just of body, but of mind and spirit. We have watched, greatly admired, and gained inspiration from the powerful leaders who broke the binds. So here’s the question: what was it that sustained the people over centuries; what truth can I read in the narratives and hear in the voices?
There is a Place inside of the human being that cannot be owned, cannot be touched, cannot be enslaved, cannot even be killed. Regardless of the human experience, it is free.
We are emerging from a Big Lie: someone has tried to separate the human being from God. I’ve wondered the reason for it, and when it began and how. I can’t say that I know. But we do know there is an end to it. Yes… we know it because we are witnessing the end, and we are it.
Emerging awareness: there is no God outside of the human being. We embody the Life Force, the Source, the Divinity. We are what we seek, and meditation is prayer… so go within and pray. There you will find such great love for you.
Frederick Douglass, who went from slave to emancipator, gave simple words to that profound truth: “I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”
As individuals, living a lifetime of limited duration, we do suffer. To relieve the suffering we must dig deep, submit to truth, and do some discarding. When we are down the road a ways and able to look back, it’s obvious that wisdom, understanding and spiritual growth have been the outcome.
Some of the hard times we go through willingly and intentionally, because we know we need to. Other hard times are seemingly placed upon us. I often wonder if all of the things we go through could be intentional on some level; even those things placed upon us by external forces.
If this Big Lie, which has become a matrix of enslavement, came into existence for a reason, that reason could be the outcome we are seeing. When we recognize what we truly are as human beings, and we embody it, then will come the time when we live as One. As far as I’m concerned, we’re making it so.
Finally, considering the statement that we enter the world with something and leave with something, what did we enter with? To me it seems we have entered with a task… to participate, along with many others, in the homecoming of God.
About the Author
Ida Lawrence is an author, blogger, copywriter and editor based in Atlanta, Georgia. She has contributed to and edited two books on racial justice and human rights, and numerous articles on human rights, self-empowerment and related subjects. Her latest book is entitled The Warrior’s Way to Heaven on Earth. Ida has also published a companion book of blog favorites from http://talk2momz.com/.
This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.
Source:
www.wakingtimes.com/2014/11/24/pressure