Our lives amid uncertainty

Thursday August 18, 2016

5:40 a.m. Shall we resume?

The point that may not be obvious to you is that everybody, at every stage of development, contributes what they are. I don’t mean “everybody does their best,” although that is true too, in a way, but everybody as they are contributes to a complete picture.

I feel moved – though it also feels like an interruption – to mention the confused grammar around “everybody.” Noticed it yesterday too. Mixing singular and plural in the same statement, only now I get the sense it is more a deliberate choice than carelessness. Yesterday I assumed it was because you were on the fly.

You were doing the same thing, and for the same reason. The singular/plural thing is worse than distracting, it is misleading. In fact, it cuts against what we’re concentrating on here, which is that singular or plural is more an expression of a point of view than a description of anything really distinct. And your “interruption” just now assists, because that’s still what we’re talking about.

You could (and sometimes you do) see it all as one vast intricate organism whose parts coordinate in the way the organs of your physical bodies coordinate; or the way groups of spirits coordinate to form a soul.

You slipped that list bit in, but that’s something pretty major, isn’t it.

Yes it is. It isn’t anything very different from what we have been saying to you for 15 years, but it may tie it together for some in a way that hasn’t struck them.

Somehow – I don’t know why – it cements things that I had heard but hadn’t quite associated in that way.

Good. To make the analogy more explicit: “As above, so below.” This saying is not applicable merely to physical scale, but to scope. Physically, you can see it easily enough – your body may be seen as a collection of cells forming organs forming an organism (that is, in its constituent aspect), or it may be seen as an organizing principle imposed upon lesser components and forming a new unit (in its organizing aspect). Unit or community, it’s just a matter of viewpoint, because it is both and not only either.

But the same applies to spirit. Spirit is not some formless, unorganized force that happens to animate organized matter. How could it be? Such a description assumes differences between spirit and matter that are not real. It implicitly divides animation into spirit and soul. These are good halfway-house concepts, helpful as bridges, but that is all they are. They do not represent real divisions. We keep reminding you (and we will continue to keep reminding you, because it is important but not always obvious) that there are no absolute divisions in reality.

“Groups of spirits coordinate to form a soul.” Either this will intuitively instantly make sense to you, or it won’t make any sense at all (or anywhere in between the extremes). As usual.

Let’s look at it a little more. Spirit blows where it wants to, that’s what scriptures tell you. In other words, it is free and will always be free. So, you might ask, then how can it be bound in any way, as souls? That’s the point! In its spirit aspect, it can’t be bound. When it allows itself to be bound, or binds itself, we call it soul and describe very different attributes, the very last of which would be that kind of freedom.

Isn’t this your experience of life?

You are spirits in bodies. In accepting your limitations you allowed yourselves to be bound (you in a way bound yourselves) in order to give yourselves the possibility of reshaping yourselves by what seem outside forces.

That is all that is happening. Everybody guesses about the ultimate “why” of it all, and we’re content to let you go on guessing, only don’t be so sure that you have gotten “the answer.” Maybe there isn’t any “the” answer any more than there is “the” future. There are plenty of answers of various levels of sophistication, but no absolute answers. How can there be an absolute answer in a universe without absolutes?

So if somebody says life is just whatever – test it, see if it helps you as you proceed, adopt it or alter it or reject it, whatever feels right. Just, don’t confuse certainty with accuracy.

Avoid Psychic’s Disease.

There may be certainties for you and for this moment, and they may serve you well. Maybe they will continue to hold true for you for your entire life. (And, in saying ”hold true for you,” we are not implying that they are otherwise false, but that they may or may not be equally true for others who are differently placed in the world.) Besides, for some people, Psychic’s Disease is not a disease nor a pitfall but a necessity. For some, the opposite to certainty is

I can’t think of the word, but I get what you mean – blind panic when you can’t get your bearings, and you’re falling, disoriented and with no firm ground to cling to.

Yes. It remains true that Psychic’s Disease is to be avoided to the extent that one can; but it is also true that sometimes, or in some situations, or for some purposes, it not only can’t be avoided but may be one’s only hope.

Huh! Well, that’s another way of looking at it.

Moderation in everything – including moderation.

Okay. So–.

So certainty or uncertainty to the side, life has some goal that may or may not be obvious to you. (Or, you may conclude that life has no goal, that it is a random walk. Nothing wrong with concluding that too, if that’s where your life leads you.) When we say goal we don’t mean “the place or condition you are aimed at or intend to wind up at”; more like “the organizing principle that shapes life as you know it and life as you do not yet know it.” These later communications are designed to help you intuitively stitch together concepts and fragments that until now have not necessarily been obviously related one to the other.

Groups of spirits coordinate to form a soul. Think about this for a while, and we’ll see you later, not necessarily today.

Running out a little early?

Where else would we go with today’s lesson? That’s a pretty major point, as you noticed, and can’t be developed in ten minutes. Would you like us to put on a cartoon to fill the remaining time?

Sure, why not. Road runner, presumably. Till next time, then.

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