Illusion #2

The taste of an orange is an illusion;

All you have to do is catch a cold to know this.

Opinion is an illusion;

All you have to do is look within to know this.

Lines drawn on maps are an illusion;

All you have to do is see the world’s strife to know this.

The passing of time is an illusion;

All you have to do is fly over time-zones to know this.

The passing of a lifetime is an illusion;

All you have to do is look in the mirror and see your 70 year old face through your 20 year old heart to know this.

The value of money is an illusion;

All you have to do it is loose your life savings in an economic crash to know this.

Power is an illusion;

All you have to do is gain and lose it to know this.

Material success is an illusion;

All you have to do is walk through one of the poorer places of the world and see the inherent wealth in life of to know this.

Religion is an illusion;

All you have to do it open a newspaper to know this.

Self is an illusion;

All you have to do is fall in love to know this.

God is an illusion;

All you have to do is find Him to know this.

Everything you see, hear, smell, touch, taste and know is an illusion;

All you have to do is die to know this.

Love is real.

All you have to do to know this is raise a child with patience and understanding through an endless succession of good days and bad days, until one day they leave and start a journey of their own.

All you have to do to know this is say goodbye to your mother or father for the last time.

All you have to do to know this is watch your lover while they sleep.

Love is all that is real.

All you have to do is attain enlightenment to know this.

Illusion #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, and he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father’s domains, and no sign of God, the prince believed his father.

But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace and came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.

“Are those real islands?” asked the young prince.
“Of course they are real islands,” said the man in evening dress.
“And those strange and troubling creatures?”
“They are all genuine and authentic princesses.”
“Then God must also exist!” cried the young prince.
“I am God,” replied the man in evening dress, with a bow.

The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.

“So, you are back,” said his father, the king.
“I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God,” said the prince reproachfully.
The king was unmoved.
“Neither real islands, real princesses nor a real God exist.”
“I saw them!”
“Tell me how God was dressed.”
“God was in full evening dress.”
“Were the sleves of his coat rolled back?”
The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled.
“That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived.”

At this, the prince returned to the next land and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.

“My father, the king, has told me who you are,” said the prince indignantly. “You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician.”
The man on the shore smiled.
“It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father’s kingdom, there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father’s spell, so you cannot see them.”

The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eye.
“Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?”
The king smiled and rolled back his sleeves.
“Yes, my son, I’m only a magician.”
“Then the man on the other shore was God.”
“The man on the other shore was another magician.”
“I must know the truth, the truth beyond magic.”
“There is no truth beyond magic,” said the king.
The prince was full of sadness. He said “I will kill myself.”
The king by magic caused Death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.
“Very well,” he said, “I can bear it”.
“You see, my son,” said the king, “you, too, now begin to be a magician.”

From “The Magus” by John Fowles.

Salvation

In recent years I have had two very transformative experiences. The first was receiving my first (and so far only) reiki attunement, and the second was the more gradual, less defined, but intensely powerful transformation that came with a short but (then) regular yoga practice.

How is this about salvation?

Well I have always associated salvation with Christian Soteriology; being saved from something (delivered) or saved for something (redeemed). But it seemed to be such a passive experience. Something that is done to you, by God.

The attunement was a bit like that, you just offer yourself, make yourself available and ‘it’ is done to you. However the real transformation happens later, through what you do with what is conferred.

Yoga was, needless to say, far more active. In fact I thought it was all activity, until I started noticing more profound spiritual changes. This is why I am calling it salvation. It wasn’t just the increased energy / more positive outlook experienced by many who take up some form of regular exercise. It was more complex and powerful, a gradual changng of who I am.

I asked some friends who have a more ‘orthodox’ (i.e.Christian) experience of salvation what they felt and a selection of their reponses are as follows:

I remember closing my eyes in prayer and just feeling like things were so much better – they were right again. I have a hard time remembering the bad things in my past. Well maybe that’s not the right way to say it….its more like those things I held on to that caused me so much pain at the mere thought, they didn’t hold that power anymore.

I still get sad and am dealing with my emotional distresses but they don’t seem to hold the weight that they once did.

This experience was the consequence of quite a profoundly moving moment which was both physical and transforming (as the original moment of transformation was quite personal I chose not to quote it, but focused rather on the calming and stabalising after-effects). I personally had no such single moment of metamorphosis into a saved being, but there were a number of yoga sessions over a period of time where I had mini breakdowns and experienced tearful waves of elation and despair.

Another friend states:

Reading the bible and learning the things that Jesus did in his short ministry causes a person to emulate that. You become a kinder, more patient, giving, loving person.

And:

Does something real happen when you accept Jesus as your saviour? A real “transformation”, so to speak? I believe so, yes. That your spirit – the real you (which is housed in your body) – is changed and becomes new. So, it does change you.

These two testimonies seem to me to be more theortical; faith rather than witness, and I am not knocking faith – I have a lot of respect for the faithful. However the Buddhist / Hindu journey I am on doesn’t leave much room for it; whereas Christian experience values is as much if not more than more concrete “evidence” of spiritual salvatation.

A former Latter Day Saint has an interesting take:

From an LDS perspective being saved is something that ultimately happens at the resurrection when everyone is assigned a kingdom of glory. any time before that you still have time to blow it (or salvage it).

This is theoretical in another sense, in that it doesn’t come from a position of faith but one of disenchantment or lost faith on the part of the speaker. There is distance, and this is “for information only”. It is forbiddingly absolute too, there is nothing to discover, no work to be done – or more properly the work is not in gaining the reward but in deserving (and holding on to) a reward that is freely given in exchange for love.

And finally:

This feeling does change me as it opens my Sight both physical and mental to this that this world is alive and there is an ever present spirit here. It puts my life in perspective to see this subtle change and makes me think on if what I am doing will be positive effect to all of existence around me. All I think in that moment in time is, I hope so. Then I continue on my way with this beauty captured in my memory.

This is closer to my experience than any of the others, but then the testimony is from a rather mystical Christian who is, I believe, strongly influenced by both oriental and new age thinking.

Clearly I am too early in my journey to find answers. In truth I am hardly able to phrase question or know whether a question is an appropriate compass for for spiritual orienteering. I will instead finish with a statement of faith. Intentionally, that very faith I questioned in this post:

I believe salvation is a metamorphosis. A change that effects every sheath be it flesh, or spirit, or soul. There is I before and I after salvation and they are distinct if not different. The transition can be gradual or instantanious, for many it is painful. But the consequence is homecoming, affirmation and tranquility. It isn’t enlightenment but it is a cosmic confirmation that you are on the right path.