Expect...Something...Wonderful!!
I really do encourage feedback, and often the "negative" ones are the most helpful.
Hopefully you have found that to be true in your own life. If you haven't, I respectfully submit that you try it. Perhaps the criticism is right, maybe wrong, but either way you will be strengthened by doing the examination...Unless, of course, it is old, well traveled material, in which case you can refer them to the Frequently Asked Questions section!
Anyway....A couple weeks ago I was talking on the phone with one of my dearest friends, who also happens to be a member of TCOY. (And yes, I do like to talk to people, and I know that if I had an 800 number the phone would ring off the hook, sorry, but the # is (615) 773-6084.)
The conversation basically centered around politics, our reactions to them as Spiritual people, the role the Church has in commenting on it, that type of thing. And the most remarkable thing happened...Frankly I don't the dear person even remembers this particular part of the exchange, but it has proven to be a catalyst for major transformations in me.
I said, da da da da da, "...just like all this silliness in Florida." (The contested U.S. election, all that.)
And she said, "But why do you call it silly? These are hard working people, with families who love them. Calling it silly seems mean to me."
And that was it. As I've said elsewhere about the lintscreen and cats and things like that, if you keep your heart and mind open you can, indeed, find truth anywhere and everywhere. And that one little question has proven to be absolutely essential in my life the last 2 weeks. I will explain why.
If you are going to drive to my house, but do not know where I live, there are 2 ways we can deal with the situation.
- I can tell you where I am. Address, cross streets, longitude and latitude, whatever. The advantage is that I only have to give this information one time, for my house does not move. The disadvantage is that it is up to you to figure out the specific directions, the actual pathway and turns you must take to arrive. Here, the major burden is on the student to "get there."
- Or, I can give you specific directions, roads to take, miles to drive, when & where to turn. The advantage is that you will have a personalized guide. The disadvantage is that the teacher must know exactly where you are coming from, and the directions given will be different for each person. Here, the major burden is on the teacher to tell the student how to get there.
The destination may be the same, but the journeys are very different depending on where you start from. Some may need to travel north, some south, or east, even west. In fact, unless they start from exactly the same place, no 2 people will ever take exactly the same route to get anywhere!
This is a particular instance of the general principle of Point of View. Perspective.
Your conceptual starting point, "where you're at" (to use the vernacular) affects every aspect of your perceptions! Our ideas, opinions, thoughts, feelings, are all colored and affected by our starting points, the conceptual framework that has been shaped by our emotional, intellectual, personal, physical and spiritual histories.
In short, people have different opinions and thoughts on a subject because they react from different perspectives.
And I realized...like a crystal diamond shot into my soul, that the central problem was that my friend and I were coming from very different perspectives.
And I further realized that I had done a very poor job as teacher.
You see, I know something...
Something Wonderful......
Something so far beyond the bounds of our weak imagination...
My perspective is different....
And I know now with a clarity I have not had before, what I must do.
- I must do a better job of describing the destination. Where are we really going on this journey called life? What actually is its purpose? I have not been completely forthcoming about this, and there are reasons though no excuses.
- To the extent possible, I need to do a better job of helping reach people where they are.
You see, all communication and teaching is a 2-edged sword, exactly like the "How to get there?" example I just gave.
- Where and what "it is." The purpose of life, what really is happening in this universe. That is the purpose of the writings here, to explain what is "going on", to give each person a glimpse of the Infinite Glory which is your birthright. This I can only "offer-up", explaining as clearly as I can the address, cross streets, latitude and longitude of what the word "God" really means, what the word "Human" really means, what the word "Universe" really means, and how they are all related.
- How we get from where ever we are, to the goal. That is the point of the one-on-ones, thru emails and conversations and the discussion groups, wherein I try to get a better understanding of exactly where you are, and help sketch suggestions for the best way to proceed.
You see, with the technology of the Web I simply cannot give one-on-one personalized instruction to every individual.
This is a very important point, and may seem obvious to you, but it deserves some comment. You see, for the first several thousand years of human evolution we only learned on a 1-to-1 basis. Fathers taught sons, mothers taught daughters, grandparents taught the grandkids. Try to think about this for just a moment. In such a society age is honored, because it relates to experience, which is knowledge, which is power and strength.
The next step was apprentice programs...learning from someone outside the biofamily, but nevertheless still one-on-one.
Then came classrooms. the one-on-one was broken, but still it was face to face and person to person.
And now? Oh, my friends.....One of the miracles of humanity is our adaptability...but how quickly we lose perspective with that ability...The strange, amazing fact is that now, through the Web technology, we have gone as far from the biofamily as is possible:
 | No more within the family, but the entire world. |
| No more one-to-one, but one-to-the-world. |
| No more face-to-face, but bodiless thought presented to the masses. |
Family --> Apprentice --> Teacher --> Web
And I know why I have not given "full disclosure" here...Why the "Silliness" question still rings in my ears...Because she doesn't know...doesn't really have any idea...And that's because I haven't told her, or you, or the world, what you really need to know...Yes, the hints are here, but there are way too many dots left to be filled in...Because of the fact that the real Truth of a God-Centered Consciousness is soooo far beyond our normal human thinking, that my fear has been that of being completely useless to the human race, not that their approval matters, but that This Must Be HEARD! (Even the phrase "God-Centered Consciousness" contains a universe of growth, challenges for me to communicate and the world to understand.)
But since I cannot meet everyone "where they are", all I can really do is the best job I can of Painting Pictures of God.
OK. So that is the reality. And we can deal with it. Being aware of it is essential, I think, toward a proper perspective...
Perspective? Oh yes...that ultimately is what it's all about!
In short, I will spend the rest of my life trying to do 2 things:
- Drawing pictures of God.
- Helping, wherever I can, people move from their current human, space-time conditioned perspective, toward something new...something wonderful...A new perspective, a new consciousness, a new way of looking.
You see, one of the places I realize TCOY is weak is in its very strength...There is SOOO much here, that at present it is a jumbled-mass of seemingly unconnected ideas....A bit of The Name here, a bit of Christ there, a bit of cosmology, not to mention cats and lintscreens and all that kind of thing....We suffer, at present, from a wealth of riches.
But it does have a common thread...One which I can now communicate, and re-organize all of this material into one cohesive whole.
I seek your help...I look forward to the journey, as we start on
