Man in the darkness of human ignorance sets out on his search for God, aided by the flickering light of human wisdom. As it is revealed to man that his I AM or awareness of being is his savior, the shock is so great, he mentally falls to the ground, for every belief that he has ever entertained tumbles as he realizes that his consciousness is the one and only savior. The knowledge that his I AM is God compels man to let all others go for he finds it impossible to serve two Gods. Man cannot accept his awareness of being as God and at the same time believe in another deity.
Neville
I realized yesterday that I’m not the same person who started quarantine. I’m probably more like the person I was in college than at any other period of my life.
My day is taken up with learning. Learning a new language, learning how to meditate, learning from Neville.
My son tells me, “Mom, I know this is true because I’ve proved it over and over.” He’s visualized his life completely changing by using Neville’s techniques. I haven’t had that happen yet, although I don’t doubt that it will. For me, that part of myself that recognizes truth leapt in my breast when I started reading The Complete Reader. I call it the “My sheep hear my voice” part of me, and it was that part that said, “This is truth.” Because of that, much of my focus has been on the spiritual part, learning about “I Am.”
I still battle with myself over this. Jehovah, to me, has never been a slave master. Following him wasn’t a hardship. To me, the Bible has always been a love story. My belief, pure and simple, is this: God is Love. Love is God.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Cor 13:12
I keep coming back to the glass darkly and the blind men with the elephant. I have caught the tail. From everything I can tell, because the entire sum of my knowledge of the elephant is that tail, I think the heffalump is very like a rope. This is the sum of my knowledge.
There are two ways to gain more knowledge about the elephant. Because I’m blind, because the glass is dark, I can feel my way up the rope until I come to the wall. Now I know a little bit more about the elephant, or at least I know that the rope ends at a wall.
The other way is to find some way to enhance my vision. To remove my blindness and increase my sight. Maybe cleaning the glass will allow me to see through it more. The actual translation is to look into a metal mirror and see a riddle or an enigma. Reading further, the only way to get a somewhat clear view of yourself with the mirror was to use more than one, set at different angles, ie, to get other perspectives.
That’s definitely what I’m doing now, although I’m struggling because getting the perspective of the side means I have to let go of my rope. The rope felt secure, even though the problem with holding onto the tail is that stuff can and does fall on you. Still, the rope gave me something to cling to, while the side is wall-like and I feel unprotected from anything that tries to come at me.
I’m still learning. There’s a LOT more of the elephant to figure out. But I feel like I’ve taken a major step, letting go of my tail-rope and moving to the wall-side, which doesn’t give me anything to cling to, but does give me a perspective, a part of the riddle, that I’ve never realized before. And there’s still the foot-tree, ear-fan, spear-tusk, and trunk-snake to discover. Perhaps there are more than 5 perspectives and the roof-underneath and the boat-ride on top round out the mirror image.
THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT
IT was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me!—but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried: “Ho!—what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ‘t is mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“‘T is clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL
So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
