Steve Beckow
Ibn Arabi: “To know God is not an easy matter, until one becomes a knower of one’s self.” (1)
Al-Ghazzali: “He who knows himself knows God.” (2)
The illusory, apparently-individuated entity known as the “Self” is like a Babushka doll.
Whatever its original form might have been, that’s the largest of the dolls. And we in Fourth Dimensionality are the smallest.
But, I believe, they’re nested inside of each other in a non-physical way which I couldn’t possibly describe or understand.
We’re out here in the cold and rain and the door into the locked warmth of the interior of the Babushka Doll has this sign over it: “The Heart.”
We want back in to the light and warmth. Who’s got the key to this door?
Well, of course, the Divine Mother does. And, along with her, our archangel does, and our Higher Self, all agents of the Mother’s Will. (3)
We look back and we see that we approached the door by Awareness Avenue. Others are beginning to congregate now, also wet and cold, some coming from Service Avenue; others from down Wisdom Street. All wanting in at the door.
Let me spin the metaphor a little longer.
I can only talk about Awareness Avenue.
We cannot become a knower of God until we become a knower of the self. It could not possibly be that God is everything and not us. Since everything is God, if we know ourselves as deeply as is possible, we should eventually know God. God is the residuum, the default, behind all appearances.
Moreover, we now know that things are provided for us along the way, to make things easier or speed our journey. Channeled messages, spiritual experiences, mentors, books falling off shelves, suggestions whispered in our ears. (4)
We’re not being asked to do something exotic – climb a mountain or cross a river. We’re asked to know, most deeply, the very thing we carry around with us night and day and use for everything – our very own self.
Example: Since our feelings don’t last, they cannot be what we’re looking for (God). But our divine states don’t flee as quickly. They bear looking into as a stairstep to God.
And, yes, at some point we have to stop looking. It’s only brush-clearing. If we keep on past its point of usefulness, we busy the very thing we’re looking for: The “I” that’s looking is the “I” we’re looking for!
Crazy-making!
***
If something is not divine, or God, it will disappear when the truth of it is known. An upset will disappear when the truth of it is known. A headache or other pain may lift when its true message is known. (Maybe not. I’m not a doctor.)
The opposite is also true: I for instance am fond of using the phrase “a pain in the butt.” I now have a slipped lower disc which is causing … you got it … a pain in the butt. No accidents.
Or if you prefer the path of love to address an upset, love it and it will release its grip and gradually pass away: This too shall pass. Resist it and it will hold onto you forever: What we resist persists. (5)
***
Using the truth as our machete, we clear away the brush of our misconceptions, revealing the Truth that is and was already there. Well, that’s my preferred route, as a writer.
At Xenia, gazing upon the Self, I felt my own native purity and innocence (I can feel it now). We labor under the memory of countless lifetimes of errors and mistakes, which burden us like Morley’s chain. (6)
But free of that burden through, as Kathleen points out, the forgiveness of everything, we are as pure and innocent as her granddaughter Amelia.
Just here. Without a care in the world. Just love and curiosity.
Can you imagine that that’s you? Because, deep down, it is.
Raising the ways of the self to awareness causes them to lift, if they’re held in place by anything other than love – such as jealousy, strategizing, fear, etc. Underneath them, we’re all just like Amelia.
Only love persists eternally. And that same love, in ways that are beyond my understanding, turns out to be the essence of who we are, now liberated from the endless desiring of the ephemeral self.
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