Connecting the Pieces
The bridge to everywhere...
Where are you now? What are you experiencing? Who is this that is experiencing? Why have you chosen to experience this rather than other options?
Masters, gurus, teachers, paths, religions, scriptures, and so forth all proclaim truth and wholeheartedly abide in this truth if expressing such genuinely. Many times, these truths seem to contradict or cause question toward a state of current awareness.
We tend to find a bit of truth and it serves us as pertaining to that which we are momentarily seeking. Then something comes along, clashing with our current understanding causing discomfort or doubt, stubbornness or rigidity in our truth.
"It depends on the temperament and spiritual maturity of the individual. There can be no mass instruction."
--Ramana Maharishi
We are where we are on our journey. At whichever point you may take rest and reflection for a moment is where you are awakened. The truth you have found serves you and at no point along the way is enlightenment out of reach.
In the moment the desire for seeking again arises, this is when a new teaching may shed light upon these inquiries. Do these new teachings render the prior teachings null and void? Are they inaccurate? Incomplete?
Through constant self-enquiry we are allowing our Self to be realized. It is the ever-present. It is the changeless and immortal. Why then, do we change? Why do we put on a mask, a physical existence that will fall away? If these things are temporary, why do we choose to involve ourselves in these happenings?
We have been taught to be present. To what are we being present?
It is impossible to not be present; you are here. The here you choose to experience is the either the wholeness of or a fraction of a moment to which you have brought your attention. If you focus on the fraction for too long, you start to identify with that as the whole. But you are not this.
Who are you? Are you this or that? A duck is not defined by its feathers, otherwise it's just another bird. You may look at the feathers; see them as pristine or ruffled; either way this is an experience. The duck is not completely one with its feathers for they will molt, hit the ground and eventually fade away. New feathers grow and they too can be perceived as pristine or ruffled.
Your body and your temporal experiences are your feathers. They too will pass. What you are completely one with is ever present and is changeless. This is the divine Self. Does any part of this Self ever fade away and die? What is temporary about your true essence? You cannot be one with a temporary experience. The body is as temporary as an emotion or any other happening, we just experience it for a longer period of time.
You will experience many physical manifestations and evolutions during your incarnations on earth. You do not keep the same body. It is not who you are. It is the vehicle in which you can learn this set of lessons during this life journey.
Science tells us that over the course of a year 98% of the cells in your body are completely new... You molt as the duck. The other 2% are connective tissue and collagen which takes slightly longer to turn over. Are you "one" with that which is temporary, mortal? Or is this just a costume you wear?
The physical being is the expression of either harmony or disharmony between the spirit and mind. If in perfect harmony, perfect health ensues, if in disharmony, disease occurs.
The spirit is whole, perfect. The mind can be diseased and the body can be diseased. If the mind is the issue, why treat the spirit and the body? If the body is the issue, why treat the mind and not nurture the body?
Otherwise we are attempting to fix issues that do not need fixing instead of getting to the true root of the problem; treating side effects instead of the cause.
If the mind is clogging the connection to spirit, quiet the mind. If the body is out of whack, but your spiritual connection and practice is on point, nurture the body. They must be viewed as separate in order to truly target where the imbalance stems from.
You are the timeless and unchanging. The rest, all of it, are just your feathers. They are there for a season and a reason.
What is the reason?
Awakening, enlightenment, truth, and "getting there"...
We tend to spend so much time "getting there" that we miss the fact that we already are "there".
Enlightenment is about stripping away, not adding to, therefore as we try to accumulate new info to understand, we merely add info; information is not wisdom. The peace comes in the acceptance that you are there. Your spirit is there and always has been. It then becomes about acceptance and awareness. We are not transforming the spirit, for it is as God is, perfect and whole. We are created in the image of God. If that is so, what could need perfecting?
When we refer to a triune aspect, it is a conceptual symbology of the mind, body, and spirit.
The spirit: the holy oneness with God.
The mind: the child that needs healthy distraction; i.e. Learning, meditation processes, religious routines, daydreaming, and all the many ways we connect and quiet the mind through spiritual practice.