God Everywhere and the Illusion of "Place"

*******

In the ultimate analysis, only changes in Mind can create healing; and Love/compassion is a major-- Number 9 on the Francis scale-- alteration of Mind towards the positive!:)

Philosophically, I am in full agreement that darkness has no substantial existence, but is the absence of Something that does-- the Light. These are dramatic as well as "primordial" metaphors," and have served the masters, including Jesus, quite well. "God is Light," said the mystic John, and there is no darkness at all within Him." (1 Jn. 1:5)

Honestly, I do not feel well enough to invite and honor a guest....

Your Love for Shela [pseudonym] has been a high percentage of "God" (Love) in your life for many years. I encourage you to probe deeply into the situation, think about it profoundly, and discuss it several times in detail (with both Shela and others) before simply dropping it. Our God is Love, and, as mystics, we do not ever easily dismiss or deactivate any Love-relationships in our lives. For they are what save us, make us and keep us in enlightenment. Mystics are faithful, loyal, reliable, and dependable Lovers, and make the most excellent friends, because we treasure, value, and even worship Love. To abandon a Love of many years might betray the very matrix and foundation of our philosophy, and could very easily become self-centered or even antiagapic. So, try to walk very carefully here, my friend. For the lower nature has surrounded you with a field of land-mines, and they can "explode," damaging Mind and even Soul, at any time. For fidelity, not abandonment, is the Way of Love, the Way of the true mystic.

Your note refers several times to what "I" want, so you need honestly to examine your heart. For the mystic leaves behind any attempt to live for the desires of the self; instead, she seeks always to serve Love, even at great personal cost, or much personal inconvenience.

Your service of Love having been severely challenged by attempts to love your mother or brother cannot, with good reason or valid Love, be used to explain, or mask, a betrayal of yet another Love-- the greatest in this life. Reference is, of course, to Shela.

All the jewel-like beauties of the Upanishads, and other great and lovely classics of the Enlightenment Tradition, are as nothing-- just words-- if we betray Love, or refuse to follow Love, for selfish reasons. Right now, it is sensed that you are on a rocky and perilous path, in which betrayal of the core or essence of the Way is not out of the question.

So, walk very carefully, my friend. Recall all the sweet Love with which Shela supported your donkey... Know that the enlightened always return Love for Love, and never "run from" an uncomfortable situation.

Arguably, no one on earth has found a "perfect" environment; but this is irrelevant to the Way, whose goal is the "perfect" mental or interior environment. As Dr. Frankl pointed out, exterior environments, even if they are as hideous as concentration camps, become the very "food" that supports enlightenment. And no mere mayic or outer environment can prevent full illumination. Neither can maya in any way decelerate spiritual awareness. Indeed, mystics have proved, over and again, that the most Light emerges in the darkest places.

And, if you are in an environment not conducive to quiet, remind yourself, "Thou art that." It is here, not to prevent your growth, but to stimulate it through the utter demolition of all personal desires.

Thus, your personal desire to live out in the woods might be the first casualty of the Light.

For how much of the quiet, the woods, and the cabin, are mere extensions of fantasy? And by definition, fantasy can be the opposite of truth.

The ancient venerable writers of these great classics were usually dwellers in the forests, it is true. But, back then, the poverty was so immense that they had no other alternatives. Could they but have been provided with a house, obtained honorably by non-greed, they would not have objected. You have idealized the forest or woods to contain more, or better, visions of God than an urban environment.

But this is all artificial, and hence, untrue. For the Lord of Love indwells fully every human mind. And She lives in Mind only-- not in temples, churches, or forests. In seeking a greater realization in the forest, you are subtly abandoning the very principle of the interior Being of Brahman, and replacing it with an erroneous perspective-- that Brahman is "more present" or "easier to find" in the forest than in your own mind. This argument is subtle, and sounds correct, but it actually is at least a piece of the denial of the ubiquity and omnipresence of Mind. It is subtly being misled down the path of maya. And it is sensed that it is leading you into notions of a "real exterior" world-- firmly denied by the Upanishads.

It is only the lower nature that argues that it is "easier" to find God in a forest or quiet area. People are somewhat noisy, but, in the view of oneness, that noise is also to be embraced as the song of God. It is challenging to live a mystical life among people. But it is clearly the will of Love that we live among people, for only among them can Love have its expression. From this view, it is actually selfish to seek a "perfectly quiet and distant" location to seek for Her Who is everywhere.

And the Goddess lives most powerfully of all as Love, for She is Love.
So, she has lived a million times more powerfully through and in Cindy than in a thousand forests. I know that the views presented here are a little different from your own, as you are so enamoured of the cabin and forest. But please carefully consider them. For I sense that your belief in "exterior" environments is blocking your fullest awakening.
*******