Into the Mist

I am almost ashamed to say that I am a latecomer in openly acknowledging the importance of expressing gratitude as spiritual ritual—Yes, I realized I’ve missed the mark for Thanksgiving.
 
You see, I got hung up along the way on what I suspect was personal semantics. But I also had some intuitive guidance that there was more to it than that—something I had to resolve rather than just complying. I always internally recognized my joy and pleasure for my good fortunes, and felt that this state of mind radiated outward as a complementary blessing to the entire universe around me. I did not, however, manifest my experience in any sort of focus on gratitude.
           
One part of the initial roadblock seemed to be the idea of just who was I offering thanks to? Yes, I believe in a higher consciousness, an initiator of all that is, a source energy or intelligence. My concept of an intelligence so expansive would not allow me to ascribe it with a personality trait that would require or desire tribute for boons.  Personality is ego, and ego is not the Absolute.
 
Tao Te Ching, Verse 34
To its accomplishment it lays no credit. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them.
 
If I offer a gift (gratitude) that is neither desired nor useable by the professed recipient, who is the gift (and the giving) actually for?
 
This brings me to the other part of my conflict. I often get my guidance by a process similar to feeling around in the dark (or with a more dignified simile, like dowsing). In a meditative state, I psychically ‘reach’ about (sorry, but it is very much like feeling for something in the dark for me) until I connect with an idea or an experience that resonates with my 3rd and 4th chakras (my “gut” and my heart)—truly finding a matching resonance that makes me certain that I have located what I am scanning for. In cases where I cannot find “an answer”, I have come to realize that this most often tells me that I am either asking the wrong question or proceeding into the process with preconceived ideas that are causing a conflict.
 
Whenever I have felt my gratitude, and scanned to know who I was connecting with in this process, I could never get outside of my own presence. Initially, I took that to mean that I was inappropriately focusing too much on myself. Yet, I eventually realized that for me the proper exercise of gratitude was being fulfilled, and in doing so I did not need to shift my awareness outside myself.
 
Next I looked into the definition of gratitude, thinking that this search might serve a function similar to a koan, some indirect inspiration. What I found was:
 
Gratitude: warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful.
 
So I looked up Appreciation: clear perception or recognition.
 
This led me to accept that the core essence of gratitude required no more than mindful recognition of what I possessed or what I received. With this, I noticed that gratitude for me is an act of personal significance, primarily. Now I am not speaking of or disregarding the individuals—physical or non-physical—that may have had a hand in bringing any blessing into my life. I am just speaking of the spiritual ritual or acknowledgement that was not being completed in my own experience.
 
I realized that I carry out gratitude as an act of internal focus, not external. In order to complete the spiritual process of a blessing experienced, it is not someone outside of myself that I need to offer acknowledgement to, but to my own spirit. In the offering of thanks, I realized I was validating my need or desire that had been fulfilled—my right to have that need, and to accept its fulfillment. In the expression of gratitude, I was accepting myself, in both states of need and fulfillment. In doing so, I am allowing the energy of my own spirit, manifest in this life, to complete its flow in this blessed act…the divine flow.
 
What could possibly have been wrong with expressing gratitude without first coming to terms with so subtle a distinction? Nothing at all. There are many paths of great value that I cannot follow, not because there is anything wrong with them, but simply because they are not the food that nourishes my spirit. My intuition would simply not allow me to be comfortable with sitting down to gratitude without first coming to learn the personal lesson that it had prepared.
 
“Anyone who imagines that their good fortune is achieved simply by their own merit or efforts is fooling themselves.”  Jon Pertee (a timber-frame contractor/yoga instructor that provides my day job at present), 2004
 
Copyright 2008 CG Walters 
 

C.G. Walters primarily writes fiction that focuses on the mystical, metaphysical, and mythical insight that we all possess. His current novel, Sacred Vow is first and foremost a metaphysical love story, a tale of soul mates—twin flames—a journey toward our one true love…in its infinite expressions…bringing together two individuals from disparate realities—but one spirit—to heal the rift in the Collective Consciousness.  

Receive new editions of Into the Mist through a reader  http://feeds.feedburner.com/IntoTheMist  

Get the full length FREE PDF of Sacred Vow by going to www.cgwalters.com/spirit_story.htm and clicking on the link in the page to download the eBook. This will allow you to save the book to your disk. Purchase a signed paperback copy from http://sacredvow.dragonsbeard.com/ – or buy from your favorite brick and mortar, or online store (Amazon.com ).  

This copyrighted article may be freely reprinted as long as the entire article and complete by line is included

When I bring forward anything I write—fiction or philosophy (never mind if there is a difference)—it is because I imagine that I see a possibility that the work might benefit someone I meet in print. Otherwise, the work remains private, as the exercise only meant for me to greet an aspect of myself. And it is assumed to be strictly for my benefit.

Once I imagine that the writing is not merely private, then I come to another question. What is one’s obligation to present truth or perspective as they know or believe it? If one believes that sharing what they know or see will avoid what they recognize as a disaster or as making another person happier, are we bound to deliver the information?

I end up turning this conundrum over and over. How does one decide the next step once writing is inspired?

First—for me—is the nature of truth. Enough people will probably consent to consider the idea that much truth (if not all) is—or at least might be—subjective to an individual and their needs or situation at any given time. You probably already realize that I do and do not believe that my truth is concrete and objective.

Yes, do and do not—My truths are right and invariable for me, at this moment.  And I hold to their guidance. But tomorrow will be a new world, possibly with new realities unfolded. If so, I do not imagine that truth of yesterday will be able to continue to justify itself.

 For me, “truth is but a resting place until the next revelation…an ever-progressing horizon…”* a collectively endorsed mythology. When it can no longer explain the world of our experience, it is surpassed, built on top of. Today’s truth may be tomorrow’s trash, and vice versa—But I do not imagine that even this must be the case for another person.  

When contemplating whether or not to share my truth, I consider that any descriptive (i.e. happy or disaster) that I may think I am responding to is always subjective. Therefore, my idea of ‘happier’ may be another’s idea of miserable! Even if their definition of ‘happy’ and mine are compatible (or the same, as best we can determine), our conscious perceptions are not always what state and/or condition we are most drawn forward by. After all, is it the happiness of the conscious mind/ego that is most beneficial to the spirit and will give us lasting joy? What element of our experience—conscious mind, subconscious, or spirit—do we gratify in order to produce happiness or avoid disaster?

There is a Taoist tale by Chuang Tzu that he speaks of the right service for the wrong individual :

 “Have you not heard that tale of old when a sea-bird alighted outside the capital of Lu, the prince went out to receive it, and gave it wine from the temple, and had the Chiu Shao played to amuse it, and a bullock slaughtered to feed it? But the bird was dazed and too timid to eat and drink anything; and in three days it was dead. This was treating the bird like oneself, and not as a bird would treat a bird.” 

So, the first requirement I make of myself in deciding if I should share my perspective is whether the information is truth for me at the time of my offering. Next, I make a point to consider whether I can perceive a value for others in my sharing the information.

If the information passes those two tests, I try to be certain the offering is relevant to the individual or audience before me at this time. I suppose this has a lot to do with why I am a writer. The free will of the reader to ignore any piece allows me some flexibility in responsibility on things that I am drawn to share. The reader can also take in installments any information that too quickly annoys their definition of reality—assuming they recognize sufficient personal truth in the writing to warrant reading it at all.

Finally, there is the issue of believing that the information can be “heard” by the anticipated audience, whether in a book or a personal conversation. The value is often in its timing. Offering perspectives of time as a great healer to someone who has just lost a dear one—even before they have had time to grieve—is insensitive (from my point of view), if not inappropriate. The same is the case for abstract concepts.

A beautiful quote by Sai Baba sums my considerations up:

Before you speak, ask yourself,
is it kind, is it necessary, is it true,
does it improve on the silence?

Ultimately, whether I speak/write of my perceptions of the truth in nonfiction or fiction, I am presenting my truth with the desire that “breaking the silence” will benefit someone who has been drawn to the work.

*“Strike a Cord of Silence” © CG Walters

 copyright 2008 CG Walters

C.G. Walters primarily writes fiction that focuses on the mystical, metaphysical, and mythical insight that we all possess. His current novel, Sacred Vow is first and foremost a metaphysical love story, a tale of soul mates—twin flames—a journey toward our one true love…in its infinite expressions…bringing together two individuals from disparate realities—but one spirit—to heal the rift in the Collective Consciousness.

Receive new editions of Into the Mist through a reader  http://feeds.feedburner.com/IntoTheMist

Get the full length FREE PDF of Sacred Vow by going to www.cgwalters.com/spirit_story.htm and clicking on the link in the page to download the eBook. This will allow you to save the book to your disk.
Purchase a signed paperback copy from http://sacredvow.dragonsbeard.com/ – or buy from yourfavorite brick and mortar, or online store (Amazon.com ).

This copyrighted article may be freely reprinted as long as the entire article and complete by line is included.

Who is your greatest ethical or moral role model? Is it someone famous, living today or from the past?

 For me, it is the unknown, unnoticed divine individual who gives openly, limitlessly, happily without desire to be seen, thanked, or acknowledged—without ever imagining they should be seen or acknowledged!

They are the ones who live their lives as their religion/doctrine/philosophy but based on their thoughts and actions you would never imagine they spend time on such impractical extravagances. I am in awe of the ones who do not seek out high places or position but by their nature cause others to automatically rise/progress/elevate.

These people manifest the world while driving a taxi, bathing their baby, working in a factory, trading stocks on Wall Street, or any other activity–from the most glorious to the most mundane. –as surely we all do manifest the world while simply living, but not nearly to this degree of impact.

But I am speaking of individuals about whom I cannot discern how they became different, or why they are that way. I do not know if their unlimited ability to give to the world around them is due to what they are, or if the individuals have become what they are because of their unlimited ability to give to the world around them.   

You may walk by them without seeing them, but not without feeling their presence–at that moment you will suddenly find yourself feeling better…noticing the best of yourself, the world.

  
  ******
 
There are tales of individuals called The Lamed Wufniks (or Muslim Kuth). They are on earth, and always were, thirty-six righteous ones, sometimes said to have the mission to justify the world before God, sometimes to each be 1/36th of God. They do not know each other and may show up in any aspect of life. If one comes to the knowledge that they are a Lamed Wufnik, they immediately die and somebody else, perhaps in another part of the world, takes their place. Lamed Wufniks are, without knowing it, the secret pillars of the universe.

Those I speak of may or may not be one of the Wufniks—and there are not merely 36 of them—but I suspect that such individuals inspired the stories.

copyright 2008 CG Walters

C.G. Walters primarily writes fiction that focuses on the mystical, metaphysical, and mythical insight that we all possess. His current novel, Sacred Vow is first and foremost a metaphysical love story, a tale of soul mates—twin flames—a journey toward our one true love…in its infinite expressions…bringing together two individuals from disparate realities—but one spirit—to heal the rift in the Collective Consciousness.

 Receive new editions of Into the Mist through a reader  http://feeds.feedburner.com/IntoTheMist   

Get the full length FREE PDF of Sacred Vow by going to www.cgwalters.com/spirit_story.htm and clicking on the link in the page to download the eBook. This will allow you to save the book to your disk. Purchase a signed paperback copy from http://sacredvow.dragonsbeard.com/ – or buy from your favorite brick and mortar, or online store (Amazon.com ).

This copyrighted article may be freely reprinted as long as the entire article and complete by line is included.