Willingness to appear crazy

I remember being on the sidewalk at a table at the village's sidewalk sale announcing the opening of our Unitarian Universalist church and a woman said to me accusingly, "Are you Trinitarian?"

I said, "No, mame."

She huffed, "I thought so!" in an indignant and contemptuous manner.

One of my co-workers said, "What was that about?"

"She wanted to know whether UUs believe in the Trinity," I said.

"What's that, " my co-worker asked.

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," I replied.

"Don McLean, American Pie. Right?" he said.

"Yeah, right," I said.

When we turn from the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit, people will call us crazy. They will say we are mad, madder than the mad Hatter.

St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians that those who have chosen to walk the path of the spirit instead of the ego appear to others to be fools. We appear to be misfits and indeed we are. We no longer are going along with the herd. We are going against the grain, upsetting the apple cart, disturbing the status quo. This scares people. The things they have believed in and done and value are, by us, no longer believed in, no longer valued, and we no longer are going along in the same direction traveling on the accepted and "normal" path.

At first they criticize and say we are wrong and bad. Then they call us crazy and mad. And lastly they exile us or even try to kill us either socially through shunning or literally as they did to Jesus, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and John and Robert Kennedy, and Malcom X, and Gandhi.

Assassination, whether psychologically through gossip and false accusations, or socially through exclusion, shunning, and exile, or physically by murder, torture, and deprivation is often the price paid for choosing not to continue on the path of the ego and, instead, walking the path of the spirit.

And in making that choice, and taking the path less traveled, we experience such Love and joy and peace that the sufferings inflicted by those on the path of the ego seem inconsequential and like a mosquito on an elephant's behind.

And so, those who embark on the mystic's path appear crazy to the rest of the world. And it is this willingness to appear crazy that empowers a person to pursue the way of Love.

Laugh or cry?

Unitarian Universalists tend to be a serious bunch. They laugh once in a while but they are known for taking themselves very seriously.

One of the signs that a person is on a spiritual path is laughter. The spiritual person is full of comic delight. Once one understands the wiles and cares of the ego, how could one take the path of the ego and the things on it seriously any more?

The absurdity, the incongruity, the insanity is simply funny. And the hurt and pain which accompanies the works of the ego only add to the comedy.

When Jesus was being crucified and said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," I imagine Him saying this with amusement. He was right. They didn't know what they were doing. It was so tragic, the whole thing was a joke.

They say "you can either laugh or cry." The difference is which path you are walking on. The path of the ego is a vale of tears. The path of the spirit brings laughter and bliss.

Have you forgotten that you are loved?

The Universalists knew that they were loved, not condemned. They shared their message with the world and it spread in the early days like wild fire and then burned out. Few people believe it any more and when it is proclaimed, people sniff and turn back to their distractions.

They are afraid to look within. Afraid of what might lurk there. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, famously, "The greatest fear is fearing fear itself." And we are a nation on anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant drugs, and our kids and fellow human beings are killing themselves suicidally and with inadvertent overdoses in the hundreds of thousands.

The spirirtual impoversishment in the United States is apparent, depicted daily with a psychopathic, criminal government which the people have elected. As we rip children from the arms of their parents under the guise of national policy to keep America safe, we have lost our way, and it is time for the Universalists to step forward again and start another fire of awareness to remind people of the love that is within and there is no need to fear.

Some people think that achieving enlightenment takes a lot of work over a long period of time. Osho says this is nonsense as does A Course In Miracles. The truth is that you are already enlightened, you just aren't aware of it. You have forgotten.

You can remember your enlightened consciousness in an instant. A Course In Miracles even calls it the "Holy Instant," moments when we merge into the Oneness and experience cosmic consciousness. Psychologists call it "flow." It is an orgasmic experience of bliss.

The orgasmic experience of bliss is not just physical, not just mechanical, it is all encompassing of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. It requires a huge letting go, a letting go of the ego. For some people this is easier than others. Avoidant and anxious types have great difficulty. Secure types find it much easier.

Realizing that Godliness is already a part of us is the antidote for fear and it is, in this realization, that we remember our natural inheritance which is enlightenment or Love with a capital L.

Notes from the mystical path of Davey G.

The meaning of Love cannot be defined. However, one can remove the blocks and obstacles to the awareness of Love's presence. Love is only limited by the constraints and restrictions one places on it in one's life. Don't cling to them thinking they will eventually make you happy. It is a lie and you are mistaken. Choose again for Love not counterfeit idols.

Nonsense is nonsense and more of the same is just further nonsense. You know that there must be a better way. You feel its call as it elicits a yearning in your heart. Take the high road. The high road is narrow and requires intention while the low road is broad and seems at first very easy going and pleasurable. Your choice makes all the difference.

Notes from the mystical path of Davey G. - Beauty and Love are in my eyes

Is it accurate to say, "I love you because you are so beautiful," or "You are so beautiful because I love you?" Inherent worth and dignity are beautiful and if every person has it, every one is beautiful.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? What, my friend, is in your eyes?

What's the greater good? Ask the kids.

The unspirituality of self-improvment

Osho says, "Every idea that 'I am' is unspiritual. The idea of the self is unspiritual.

And what is self-cultivation? It is an effort to polish; it is an effort to create a beautiful character, to drop all that is unrespectable and to create all that is respectable." p. 183 "Ah, This!"

Polishing the ego is nonsense. It is a waste of time and effort. In A Course Of Miralces, it is taught that the ego is illusory. It is a figment of our imaginations and a social construction.

In Unitarian Universalism they covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This inherent worth and dignity has nothing to do with the ego. The ego has no inherent worth and dignity. It is a mirage. A mirage is not the real deal. A mirage is a hallucination. To polish and improve the image of a mirage is silly, nonsensical, ridiculous. How could an aware, wise person engage in fool's play?

Billions of dollars are spent in the United States and Europe and other First World Countries on self cultivation and self improvement. Self-help books abound. They have become a whole genre of literature and "how-to" videos and programs proliferate.

The emptiness of it all, the vacuousness, the banality is saddening. We are not separate selves. A separate self is not our essential nature, and so we can conclude that we don't know who we are. If we don't have an accurate understanding of who we are, how can we successfully cultivate it?