Mar 01, 2015

Pondering's

Step 7. Acknowledge both the light and dark elements of my nature as to who I am in the deeper reality of my being.

 

Our human nature contains both light elements and dark elements. God created this duality within our being as part of the evolutionary being that we are, for without the dark side, or perhaps better to call it our “shadow” side, we would have nothing to evolve from or to, since we would already be perfection by our nature.

 

 

Our “shadow” is not a mistake by God, the Eternal wisdom, but is part of the perfection of Who We Are in this created form. Only be accepting and welcoming our dual nature, and treating it as it truly is as a gift from the Eternal Wisdom, can we begin to understand the wisdom of our Universe in the realm of the Divine.

 

We are a creation of the Divine, given the greatest gift by our Creator possible, a creature of free choice to choose the path to the highest evolution quickly or slowly. We can not miss the goal of perfection, for we are indeed perfect in our essence, since we are a “wavelet” of God, that is, just as the tip of a wave is part of the ocean but it is not all the ocean, we are a part of what we term God, but not all of God. The term that might be best used, as suggested by C. J. Jung, is an “individualization” of what we know as God, who is something so much greater than what we can understand that the reality is beyond comprehension. We have been given glimpses of the Divine, and I have been allowed to breath some of that essence once many years ago, as have many here on earth (there are an amazing number of people, and you may be one of them or know some, even though they may not speak of it, who have had breathtaking experiences with the essence we call God).

 

This being we call humanity, made in “The image and likeness of God”, (Genesis 1), contains the essence of that portion of God that is always learning and changing. Yes, God is always learning and changing, since is not one of the greatest joys of humanity is to learn something new and change how one thinks of the Universe? Is not one of the wonders of our world the constant gaining of knowledge of the universe and all that it consists? And are we not made in the Image of God? Therefore, since curiosity and a thirst for knowledge and experience is part of the created essence of humanity, does it not become imperative that God, from whom we sprang and in whose image we are, is also finding great joy in gaining ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’ through our very being? And will we not bring that knowledge and experience, freshly made, back into the essence of our Creator when we join with God after passing from this creation? Is this mission of discovery and experience, happening not just with you and me, but by 7 billion others on this planet, and who knows how many other planets in just our universe, and perhaps in countless universes for all eternity, become the essence of what we can perceive of what we call God?

 

This may be a mouthful to swallow, since it seems to fly in the face of all we have been taught, But the image of the unchanging and ponderous Being we have been taught as God does not fit what Jesus tried to tell us, or any of the Masters, such as The Buddha, over the years in the past. For if God is Joy made manifest, as all proclaim, and much of joy in this universe that we know, is based upon discovery and learning fresh and from new perspectives of Life, and God is truly Life, then how can we not consider our God as a vibrant being, dancing the Dance of Life throughout eternity, sending forth rays of creation constantly and reveling in the possibilities that are constantly being created as the very Being of God?

 

And so we have our very Being, our personification of God, slowed down to include what we call time, made with a nature of Light and a nature of Dark, or Shadow, a dual nature built to experience joy and sorrow, for without the dark, how can we know the light? Ponder that for a bit. Unless we have differences, we have no measure of what is. How do I know I am tall unless shorter people than me exist? Unless I know pain, how do I know comfort? Our life is a series of comparisons, as we mature from a baby with a very limited sense of differences to an adult where we understand millions of differences, including “good” from “bad”, and everything in between.

 

The Shadow

 

The concept of the shadow comes from the work of C. J. Jung, who developed that concept to introduce the Spiritual side, our consciousness, into the work of Sigmund Freud structural model of the psyche. One of the best books to read on the Shadow, that is very clear, is “The Shadow Effect” by Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford, and Marianne Williamson, that explains clearly from three different perspectives how important the Shadow is to a well rounded human psyche. The shadow is that part of our being that sees the differences, that pushes us to have compassion (“There but by the grace of God go I”), that helps us differentiate our life to choose the better that helps us to reach that next step in our life in the quest for the highest version of the highest vision we have ever had for ourselves. Without the shadow we would have no function in the plan of God that Jesus talked about, for why would we heal the sick, help the poor, or do any of the things Jesus and the other Masters talked about, unless we can appreciate what we are seeing through our own experience. Only because we have what we call the Shadow can we appreciate the poor or have compassion on the destitute or the ill.

 

One of principle tasks in this life is to know our shadow, accept it for the proper role it can have in our life, and use the shadow in the positive manner it was meant to be used. Without the negative experiences of my life, I would not be writing about these steps. I learned the original 12 steps of AA while fighting a problem that threatened all I held dear, and learned the secrets of comfort and wellness that the original 12 steps presented. These studies of the 12 steps under the guidance of one of the early members of AA, Tom Powers, whose sponsor was Bill Wilson, the original person behind AA and the author of the 12 steps, (who considered them a direct dictation from God, as he wrote them in one sitting and reportedly never modified them), who, as one of my Teachers in my life, gave me many insights into the richness of thought that these 12 steps represent.

 

Our Shadow is a true gift from God. I will repeat, it is a gift, not a mistake. How can I state that when we ‘know’ the pain the shadow causes us? But this pain represents growth, life experiences, both of which are the very essence of Life, or God. We are the part of God, the Individualization of God that is the Perfection of Life, the very Joy of God personified. How strange that sounds when we are in the midst of pain of loss; loss of a loved one, through what we call death or separation, the loss of our health, our job, our house, and so many other losses that humanity suffers. But our task is to understand that pain and loss and use those very moments to be able to join in God to be able to see, at some level, the flow of Life that supports all, and provides the strength and support at those times of pain and loss that permits us to move forward in this time of physical life.

 

God is Love

 

As we grow in our maturity of Love, we begin to understand the enormity of what we say when we say “God is Love”, taken from the first letter of John, 4:16, and is referenced in many parts of the bible. Understanding that saying of God while in the midst of Pain is difficult, if not almost impossible. Our cry to God, “How could this happen?”, and ‘If God is Love, how can so much pain be in our world, and how can I suffer so?” is so much part of our life, that we find it extremely difficult to believe that phrase, “God is Love”. My personal experience is that only by surrendering ourselves into God can we begin to understand that God is indeed Love, and Love Personified. Understanding and falling into that embrace allows me to say with Truth: God has never, ever, let down in my life, and has always, always, given me what I need and overflowing beyond all measure, at all times in my almost 81 years at this writing.

 

I have come to understand and accept as part of my creation my Shadow, and yes, I put that out with a capitol letter because it is the one part, if not the most important part of my life, that has let me see how deeply God Loves me. Through my Shadow I have experienced forgiveness, especially on the receiving side, which permits me to forgive others with surprising ease. Through my Shadow I can see, and accept and forgive, the Shadow of others. I have come to understand the beauty of our seemingly “flawed” lives, not as being flawed, put as perfection, where we grow and evolve through the interaction of the Light and Dark of our lives. Without the Shadow in our lives, we would be a one dimensional being, unable to express the beauty of God that underlies all we do, for we would not have the duality of life to understand Who We Are.

 

Yes, God is Love, and we are made in that Image of God, so that we too are Love. Our purpose in life is to discover that we are Love, with as much Love in our very Being as our souls can hold. As a part of the Ocean of God, even though we are only a Wavelet of that Ocean, we are Love, and the Shadow in our life opens us up to experience that Love in a unique way that only I can feel and absorb, just as you are able to feel the unique way that God is Love in your life, by the forgiveness and the various attribute of your version of the Shadow.

 

The Shadow for each of us is as unique as our very being. The complexities of our Shadow is ours alone, each individual, like the preverbal snowflake, no two ever alike. That is why all descriptions of the shadow can be only a general description, for each one of us is unique, and while common descriptions can be used such as anger, resentments, etc., the varying levels and details are always different, always forming a unique picture of our individuality.

 

And yet, we are the same, we are all part of the One being. We all contain the same general patterns, angers, resentments, our ego drives, etc. No one avoids having all these parts of our psyche, even though they differ greatly in each.

 

So celebrate your Shadow! Celebrate our Oneness in Being, and Celebrate our uniqueness, that part of us that requires each one of us to find our own unique path to perfection. It is truly the part of us that permits us to see perfection and understand it as perfection, something better, or great. Without the gift of the Shadow we would be blinded to all the uniqueness of our being and our universe, and we would not be what our Creator intended.

 

Step 7. Acknowledge both the light and dark elements of my nature as to who I am in the deeper reality of my being.

 

Meditation

 

Our Eternal Wisdom, your gift to us, our created self in this passage through physicality, is perfection, including that portion of ourselves that seems to be so negative. We accept all that You created as ourselves, and marvel, how after passing through what appears to be painful events, we can see the growth potential in each event, not despite the pain, but because of the pain. We grow mostly through these negative experiences that make us stretch ourselves far and wide beyond our comfort zone, and we thank you profoundly for these opportunity to grow in your Love.