{"id":121,"date":"2008-05-23T19:26:35","date_gmt":"2008-05-24T02:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=121"},"modified":"2009-04-05T13:54:02","modified_gmt":"2009-04-05T20:54:02","slug":"faces-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Faces of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Egoic Mind:<\/em> Once again, I failed to surrender.\u00a0 Yesterday I called the paramedics when the pain became overwhelming and I felt I had no strength to take care of it on my own.\u00a0 Why is it that even – or perhaps especially when <\/em>– I have a deep insight it is accompanied by even more terror on the level of form?<\/p>\n

Yesterday, as I was in deep meditation and the pain in my face began to rise … I could feel this sense of “I am God”.\u00a0\u00a0 There followed a deep understanding that this was indeed true.\u00a0 Pain is the face of God; Fear is the face of God; Bliss is the face of God; Anger is the face of God; Joy is the face of God.\u00a0 There was not one face that was more godlike and there was no face to turn away from.\u00a0 In this knowing there came a dictum to invite and study all of the faces of God, to study each of them for they had something to discover.<\/p>\n

I began with “fear” – I looked into the eyes of fear, knowing that it was the face of God and tried to see what was the experience of fear if I was not pushing it away?\u00a0 Without resistance I could see fear was in fact an amazing powerful energy.\u00a0 Like my body could lift a car.\u00a0 There was a physical strength in fear that I could feel like I had never known was there before.\u00a0 Fear was a strong emotion.\u00a0 As soon as I made this insight there was a rush of power through my body … a small voice said inside my mind — Why would you ever want to banish this feeling of power?\u00a0 Use this accessible power without the label of fear.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next, I turned my attention to the experience of pain.\u00a0 By now the feeling in my face was intense and it seemed the ibuprofin I had taken was not making a dent in the piercing ache.\u00a0 I bowed to the pain in recognition that this too was the face of God and I looked with anticipation to see what the experience felt like if I was not resisting the pain.\u00a0 Unlike fear, pain had a different quality, not of strength or power, but a depth that was unfathomable.\u00a0 It was a like an unending reservoir.\u00a0 Pain was an endless reserve of abundance.\u00a0 It felt as if when my own resources felt depleted there was available to me this deep interminable energy from the pit of pain.<\/p>\n

But just as these two new insights were beginning to take root in my own body\/mind, as I barely began to relax into the power and reserve of panic and pain – my hand reached for the phone to call the paramedics in a misdirected attempt to rescue me from my suffering.\u00a0 Which once again only lead to more unanswered questions, deep embarrassment and further anguish.\u00a0 What did I do wrong?\u00a0 How do I learn from this and move on to a better path?<\/p>\n

Gnani<\/strong>:\u00a0 You are asking a dualistic question on the level of good\/bad that does not apply in the true realm of your authentic nature. Make no assumptions that what you did was wrong.\u00a0 Make no assumptions that what you did was right.\u00a0 Throw out these old concepts that make you continue to suffer on the level of form.\u00a0 Look only at the deeper meaning, the truths that were available to you when you let go of the reins of resistance.\u00a0 What was left?\u00a0 Powerful unending energy.\u00a0 Bow deeply that you were able to see a glimpse of yourself in the smoky mirror.\u00a0 Know yourself beyond the pain and clear of the fear but as the hidden quality of all that is experienced:\u00a0 the essence that moves through and animates the form.\u00a0 Why complicate matters by worrying if any action on the level of form was right or wrong?<\/p>\n

Egoic<\/em> Mind<\/em>:\u00a0 Why don’t these insights liberate me from the personal will of the Ego?\u00a0 I know that a flash of insight is<\/em> possible.\u00a0 But as mysterious and meaningful as the truth comes to me there is little noticeable difference in the size of the egoic beast.\u00a0 When will that change?<\/p>\n

Gnani<\/strong>:\u00a0 From where you stand trapped in the time\/space barrier, everything seems like it is moving slowly; that your suffering is too long and your enlightenment too far off in the distant future.\u00a0 But time and space are both illusions.\u00a0 No matter of time will be sufficient to liberate you from the chains and no amount of past suffering will prepare you to switch the lights on in your darkened room.\u00a0 But when it happens, the illumination will burn away all false beliefs and it will be as if time never mattered, because in actuality it never has.\u00a0 Be in peace when peace is present.\u00a0 Be with pain when pain persists.\u00a0 Be the fear fully when faced with fright.\u00a0 Each is a door to what it is that you are seeking.\u00a0 Leave no door unopened.<\/p>\n

Have you ever noticed the biggest bolt of lightning and the most defining thunder strike just before the rainbow appears?\u00a0 Small wonder then why you are baffled by these surges.\u00a0 It does not mean you need to send in more troops, the battle field is bloodied with wasted efforts.\u00a0 This is not a step-back, but rather an invitation to take the backwards step.\u00a0 Look inside.\u00a0 I know you have seen it already.\u00a0 That black cloud.\u00a0 The void of no-thing. \u00a0Clear you mind and be the void.\u00a0 Hush now.\u00a0 And Be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egoic Mind: Once again, I failed to surrender.\u00a0 Yesterday I called the paramedics when the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gnani"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}