Musings

I've been thinking lately that those who are leaving the planet in these downturn times are probably the lucky ones. They've done their best, and are being given a chance to rest up from it all--take a time-out break, so to speak.  Since I've lasted into my 70s, I guess I am just a determined earth plodder who needs more lessons--a slow learner.  It may be my curiosity has kept me here this long--trying to figure out what in heck is the purpose of it all.  Am not sure, but I think some never ask that question and just get too embroiled in the drama, believing it to be the be-all and end-all.  I am thinking of people like the greedy politicians we have seen come and go throughout our lives. They rise and they fall -- and yet their numbers just keep increasing/returning, as more and more of them seemingly appear in every age. Nothing seems to deter them or make them stop and think: Wait a minute: is this the best way I could be spending my short life that is only going to last a few years?  Will the Hitlers and Mussolinis and the Nixons, Bushes and Cheneys and the Clintons keep coming back, playing the same old roles--or will they eventually have to take their turn reincarnating as the poor and tread-upon victims in this grand play?  Is there a divine justice that balances out everything in a perfect way?  I've come to believe there is.  No matter the appearance of unfairness and cruelty in any age or time, it is all evened out on the scales of cosmic justice.

Some believe in an anthropomorphic judgmental God who sits on a heavenly throne, surrounded by continually bowing-down cherubim and seraphim. To me, that is akin to the equally naive conjecture of hell, where an evil horned and cloven-hoofed Satan pokes people with a pitchfork, condemning them to everlasting suffering in his fiery realm.  People who believe in such things see everything in black and white--there are no gray areas for them. All is settled. You are either "saved" by Jesus -- or you are a sinner.  That's it. And everyone is a sinner!  That is, until you are baptized and "saved."  Sigh. 

It's interesting to note that these folks who believe themselves to be headed to the heavenly shores, are so quick to condemn everyone else!  Even their own scriptures tell them to be merciful and charitable to others.  Yet they condemn anyone of a different color, religion, or belief system--unequivocally--as not being "one of us."  It seems to me their definition of "us" is way too small and finite.  What if who we believe ourselves to be (separate bodies/minds) are momentary appearances in an infinite, vast ocean of Oneness, from which nothing is separate?  What if our true essence/identity is that vast Oneness itself?  What if we are only seemingly wandering in a dream world but actually have never left "home" to begin with?  Kind of like a dreamer lying in his bed at home, but dreaming of all kinds of adventures in his sleep -- then waking to find he has never left his bed or his home.  Quantum physicists are beginning to discover this is exactly the way things are. Sages of all times have told us the same thing throughout the centuries.  What would happen if we all discovered this is actually the truth?  Would we disappear in a POUFF! or would the play continue, with the actors knowing they were just actors, never forgetting their real identity while they played out parts on the Earth stage?  Would this realization come to everyone at once? -- or just one "person" at a time, to those who were curious enough to pursue answers to the primal question Who Am I?  ???

Interesting to contemplate, isn't it?