Gathering Life Unto Itself, Part II

March 14, continued

On the question of gathering life unto itself.

This understanding – it is not an idea – of gathering life unto itself isn't quite correctly stated. One comes to an understanding of gathering the life within unto itself. This action is the action that everything else in life depends on. This gathering or concentration of force is created by the gravity of consciousness, as expanded on in The Quantum State of Being. 

Gathering of inward force into Being takes place whether I'm aware of it or not; yet if it begins to engage in activity under the authority of its own powerful awareness, rather than my own weak one, something new begins to happen.

Life has a natural tendency to gather itself unto itself. This is how the universe is arranged. Sometimes it happens automatically and naturally, as in a flock of Canada geese. Other times it happens consciously and naturally, as is possible in a human being. The more consciously and naturally the force of life gathers itself back into itself within me, the closer I come to my ordinary and natural humanity, which is usually masked by my ego and my desire. So the gathering of life into itself is also an unmasking of a kind. The scales fall from my eyes, so to speak.

And here I am. I live. I breathe, I write this. No matter what action takes place, I am already engaged in the action of living. This is where everything begins; and what happens after that isn't so important. It is merely a consequence; the central aim is always this life and this humanity, always and everywhere.

Let's face it, I'm no expert on how to be human. To be truly human is a huge thing; it encompasses a cosmological responsibility that eclipses anything I think about my day-to-day life. I keep getting this wrong, because I think of my humanity in a fractured way which depends on fragments of myself for understanding, rather than allowing to understand through the inflow of life. 

Yet by returning to the reliable grounding force of awareness within sensation, I always have the possibility of being at least a little more human. As I rely on this sense of inner gravity, focusing the attention on it as outward life proceeds, the possibility of a more apt alignment is forever present.

Outward life does not have to be the arbiter of everything that happens. From the beginning, the living presence of my inward being ought to have the greater influence. To live without this understanding degrades ones dignity. Dignity, that is, the honor and respect for life and other beings, begins with honor and respect first for God and then for my own Being—not my ego, but my being, the fundament of my existence. It's this fundament of existence that is fed by the gathering of life unto itself.

The sound of the geese in the morning is the sound they make collectively to gather together and to become aware of their gathering. There is no arbitrary, idle, or accidental quality to it; nature has provided quite exactly so that this vibration of relationship arises, and is shared. It is a call to a certain quality of Being. By becoming aware of this, by analogy, I understand that similar calls to Being and relationship are issued within my own nature.

I am able to listen. 

To listen closely, and intimately. If I hear a call to sorrow and a taste of grief in addition to the vibration of joy and togetherness, I can be sure that I am just a little bit closer to the truth of life as it is, instead of life as I expect it to be.

May your heart be close to God, 

and God close to your heart.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.