Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience

  • Possessed of the Knowledge of Truth

    I slept and I dreamed that
    life is all joy.
    I woke and I saw that
    life is all service.
    I served and I saw that
    service is joy.
    ~ Kahlil Gibran

    Today’s blog was inspired by last evening’s question from a dear friend who is also a faithful reader of Yellow Brick Road. “Related to your pre-election posts, do you mind my asking whom, if you have a preference, do you prefer would win?” I was tempted to cut and paste the section from my journal in Pondering Becoming a Pundit before recognizing the much larger opportunity her question presents.

    A sister on the Dharma path is Jewish. She is deeply steeped in Mussar, a spiritual practice that focuses on character traits like truthfulness, generosity, patience, and humility in an effort to help people overcome inner obstacles. At about the same time “Whom do you prefer would win?” was being asked, my friend was sharing with me a practice one rabbi suggested for navigating these times, specifically related to Covid, but for sure inclusive of the election:

    1. Develop a relationship with the one above.
    2. Pray — using formal prayers or just when you want to communicate.
    3. Look for signs of divine intervention.

    I have continued to binge watch Rupert Spira on non-duality so I can let go, relax, fall backwards, and sink into, “There is nothing we can say with the mind.”

    I spent some time looking up formal prayers in other traditions (similar to the Lord’s Prayer in Christianity). Here are two that really speak to me:

    Lakota Prayer

    Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery,
    teach me how to trust
    my heart,
    my mind,
    my intuition,
    my inner knowing,
    the senses of my body,
    the blessings of my spirit.
    Teach me to trust these things
    so that I may enter my Sacred Space
    and love beyond my fear,
    and thus Walk in Balance
    with the passing of each glorious Sun.

    – Found on: http://www.sapphyr.net/natam/quotes-nativeamerican.htm

    Judaism Shema Prayer (in English)

    Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One
    Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever
    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

    The most honest answer I can give about whom I would prefer to win is this:

    I prefer love to win.
    I prefer wisdom to win.
    I prefer kindness to win.
    I prefer truthfulness to win.
    I prefer generosity to win.
    I prefer patience to win.
    I prefer humility to win.
    I prefer service to all beings and harm to none to win.

    These traits are the essence of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They are the essence of you and me. They are the essence of every candidate who runs for any office. I prefer whomever wins the 2020 Presidential election to live and lead from these traits and from their true essence.

    Hinduism The First Book of Yoga: The Enduring Influence of the Bhagavad Gita

    The unreal has no existence. The Real never ceases to be (never ceases to exist). Men possessed of the knowledge of Truth full know both these.

    Meditation for the Day

    Constantly claim God’s strength. Once convinced of the right of a course of action, once reasonably sure of God’s guidance, claim that strength now. You can claim all the strength you need to meet any situation. You can claim a new supply when your own supply is exhausted. You have a right to claim it and you should use your right.

    ~ Twenty-Four Hours a Day, A Spiritual Resource with Practical Applications for Daily Life

  • It Is Only Mud!

    I was going to stop at a nearby apple stand on the way to my doctor’s appointment, but was a wee bit tight on time. Thanksgiving would be missing something without my mom’s Dutch apple pie. It is my contribution to bring Michigan apples to Tennessee for the pies.

    I had just loaded my precious apples into the front seat of my van when another customer arrived. The man had a couple of questions about the varieties and prices, and since he assumed I am a person who knows something, I helped him make his selection.

    As I came back around my van to get into the driver’s seat, I noticed another vehicle in the circle drive way across the lawn. A woman was standing in front of it, looking stressed.

    I called over to her, “Do you need some help?”

    Nodding her head, she called back, “Yes, we are stuck.”

    Thinking I was just doing some quick in-and-out-of-the-car errands, I had no hat or gloves. The wind was brisk as I walked across the lot.

    A younger man, perhaps a son, was on his hands and knees, digging behind the back tire with a small stick. Dressed only in athletic shorts and a light jacket, he was down on the cold, damp ground.

    “We could use some cardboard,” the woman said.

    I hiked back across the lawn, and opened the back of my van. I knew I had unloaded some cardboard boxes earlier, sending them to recycling. I grabbed the only thing in there—a white rag rug. By standing on tip-toe, and leaning over the counter into the apple stand, I was able to reach a small board that had “PEACHES” painted on one side.

    I hiked back across the lawn, clutching the rug in one hand and the board in the other.

    The woman looked at the rug and shook her head, “I don’t want to get your rug muddy….”

    “It is only mud,” I pointed out.

    I was finally able to convince them we could use the rug under one tire and the board under the other for traction. Cautioning the woman to step on the gas very slowly, I went to the front of her vehicle to push. She got in, put the vehicle in reverse, and I pushed.

    Success!

    It is our experience that if we feel hateful, we act hatefully. If we feel loving, we act lovingly. Likewise, if we truly feel that everything and every one is an expression of the same one Reality that we ourselves are, we will act accordingly and will quite literally behave towards others as we would behave towards ourselves.

    (The Transparency of Things, by Rupert Spira)

    Today is only November 19, but the season of kindness has already arrived.

    This year, let’s see if we can all remember it is only a rug, and it is only mud, whatever it is. Let’s be intentional to have kindness last until this time next year, and then let’s start the season of kindness all over again.

    Here is the freshly washed rug, no worse for the wear.

  • If and When

    “Happiness can be found,
    even in the darkest of times,
    if
    one only remembers to turn on the light.”
    ~ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

    and

    “When
    we have accessed the peace that is ever present in our self under all circumstances,
    the body, mind, and world are profoundly affected,
    and, in time, become increasingly permeated by it.
    They begin to shine with the peace of our true nature.”
    ~ Rupert Spira, The Art of Peace and Happiness
    (Presence, Volume I)
    (Our True Nature; The Nature of Peace, Happiness and Love;
    The Origin of the Separate Self; The Body; The World; Experience)

    The afternoon did not unfold the way I had expected. I had been invited by a friend to attend a “Reader’s Theater” about 30 minutes away. I invited two mutual friends to join us. It was a lovely drive. Autumn colors dotted the woods on either side of the two-lane road, and we listened to the recording of a sermon given earlier that morning.

    One car sat forlornly in the parking lot when we arrived a mere 15 minutes before showtime. A phone call solved the mystery: the event we had come to attend had taken place the prior week!

    As so many people suffer profoundly, we find ourselves searching for the most appropriate way to be all that is happening in our political culture. For my part, I am reading Rupert Spira’s writings about nondual awareness. In an almost wordless way, it is clear our awareness is key.

    Although Spira does not use the phrase, “If and when,” that seems an appropriate title for this post. It is a phrase used to say something about an event that may or may not happen.

    Here are two books on nondual awareness by Rupert Spira:

    1. The Art of Peace and Happiness (Presence, Volume I)
    (Our True Nature; The Nature of Peace, Happiness and Love; The Origin of the Separate Self; The Body; The World; Experience}

    2. The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience

    My friend recommended Spira to everyone who desires to experience liberation. She said to read the books in that order. Although they are both dated 2016, she thinks they may be reprinted from earlier material.

    Our thoughts go out to people who are feeling so very afraid. Fears loom around loss of freedom, the environment, racism, sexism. There is no denying the fear. Fear haunts our thoughts. Fear is felt in our bodies. Fear makes us experience the world as a web of hatred and dissonance humanity is caught in.

    But Spira makes a good point that our true self is not our thoughts, feelings, sensations, or perceptions. Rather, our true self is aware Presence. “Like someone whose fists have been clenched in defence for so long that they are no longer aware of it and thus feel perfectly relaxed, so our body and mind have been permeated by the tensions that are generated by the idea of a separate self.” (The Art of Peace and Happiness)

    How interesting that what we thought we were going to enjoy had already been enjoyed.

    If and when you read Spira, you will realize there is no separate self. Our “aware Presence” is inherently peaceful and, thankfully, this peace does not depend upon what may or may not happen.

    We are peace itself.