Being the inheritor's of a God-Spark is not a possibility easily accepted. Yet, within the human spirit lies a recognition that we are more than we appear. There is a cosmic urge to reach beyond our grasp, do the impossible, know the unknown, to live an examined life. This is all part of our evolutionary heritage. This God-Spark represents our essential core. We live, move, and have our being, as does all manifest life, from this Source. This idea is not some divine inspiration that was brought down to me by an angle or written in stone nor broadcast by the voice of God. I learned this idea by studying ancient philosophies and spiritual writings. I found the idea of Divine Consciousness expressed in the Old Testament, in Genesis, ..."the power of God was moving over the waters" (space), ... God's Consciousness, (his power), spoke the Eternal Word which energized all manifestations; from no-thing, to all things. Divine Consciousness was installed in all things and its vibration sustains All. I also found the idea in the New Testament, in St. Paul's letter to the Colossian, "It is my task to fully proclaim God's message, which is the secret he hid through all past ages from all mankind, but has now revealed to his people. God's plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all people. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God." Keep in mind that the name Christ is not part of Jesus's name. It is Greek and means "anointed one," and is applied only to those who have reached spiritual liberation. Becoming a Christ is achieved by acknowledging your God-Spark, connecting with it, and purifying your being until you become your Christ Principle. Just as Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha becomes the Buddha, which in Sanskrit means, "to awaken," when he sat under the Bodhi tree and become enlightened / awakened. The secret is, Christ is within you, not outside of you. I have also found the idea of Divine Consciousness being an essential aspect of our being in Rumi's poems, a Sufi -a mystical branch of Islam. I found the Divine Consciousness idea in ancient Egyptian, (5000+years ago), Chinese, Greek, Hindu, Buddhist, Hebrew, pagan, Gnostic, American Indian, philosophy and spiritual writings.
You can see that the idea of Divine Consciousness as an essential core to all things manifest, is "not knew under the sun." Let's take this idea and apply it to our lives, and see what it means.
We are, at our essence, a Spark of the Divine Consciousness. Therefore, if "We contemplate ourselves, we will see that we are not demons or animals or men or gods, we are simply the essence of perfection, perfect souls."
The quote is from a Hindu text, called "Jnanarnva." This is a difficult concept to wrap our heads around: (1) coming from first hand experience, that we in our daily affairs are not perfect- not by a long shot, (2) most of us in North and South America were schooled by Christion Faith, telling us we were born with Original Sin, have only one life to gain salvation, and if we fail to acquire salivation, our fate will be eternal damnation; successful salvation under those conditions is every unlikely. Yet, regardless of our religious instructions, we intuitively know deep within our soul that we are more than our thoughts and feelings and the mind that experiences them.
Listen to the mystically inclined Emily Dickinson, as she tries to come to terms with the medium of our own knowing, in thought.
I do not know the man so bold
He dare in lonely place
That awful stranger Consciousness
Deliberately face.
When we begin to apply the idea, that we have within our being a "spark" of the Divine Consciousness, our chances of reaching salivation increases infinitely. Divine Consciousness brings with it the attribute of infinity. Since we have a "spark" of Divine Consciousness our spark is also infinite. Our time to get things right is relatively infinite. Knowing that we are a spark of the Divine Consciousness, should quiet our anxiety by opening up our field of life from one to many life-times. This is in line with the natural cycle of all life: birth, growth, decay, death, and then the renewal cycle, birth, growth, decay death, ad infinitum. There is a story told about Gautama the Buddha, being asked about how long he had been reincarnating? He answered, : "Consider a mountain, the length and width and height that a water buffalo can walk in one day. Now imagine a bird with a scarf in its beak that flies across the mountain once every hundred years, letting the scarf brush cross the mountain top. In the length of time that it would take for the scarf to wear away the mountain, that is how long I have been reincarnation." An intuitive reader might be thinking, 'that sounds great, but if we just circulate our lives one after the another, where is the hope for progress.' If there is only continuous circulation of our life, our life would be a living hell, and I am sure that some of us believe that condition is exactly the case. The good thing is, movement through life is not strictly circular, but is cyclic with a spiral configuration. Therefore, the spiral movement leaves us the possibility for progress and also regress.
Our spark of Divine Consciousness is not completely veiled within the physical plane. Its voice is heard in a continuous loop echoing within, and felt as an urge, as an imperative drive towards perfection. Once this urge is engaged it becomes irrevocably established. That is because it is a Cosmic Force. Keep in mind, that we are a microcosm of the macrocosm. The urge will not be relinquished until it finds repose in its Source. In other words, we have a built in motivation to awaken, to connect, and finally to become our Source. So we have a universal purpose to become our Source, and we have all nature behind us and the whole glory of the living Universe to achieve that ultimate goal. As the Aussies say, "No worries, mates!"
Our biggest obstacle is overcoming our ignorance about our true identity. We have a dualist life. You can verify that idea very quickly by looking at a model of our brain. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and the right half, with a canal like crease down its middle, separating the two half's. The left side of the brain is related to our physical side, our ego side. The right side of our brain is related to our spiritual side, our spiritual self. Empirical evidence of the operational effects of the left and right hemispheres can be understood by reading histories of stroke victims. A graphic account of the effects of a stroke can be gained by reading a book called, "My stroke of Insight," by Jill Bolte. She is a PhD brain scientist, and therefore has an first hand perspective from which to analyze the effects of her stroke. She says, her left brain functions were gone; could not speak, make analytical judgments or apply them, relate experiences to herself, and had no feeling of her ego identity. She had awareness, but is wasn't individualized. In other words, she had no concept of separateness. All experiences where amalgamated into a continuous unity. Her only discrimination was an awareness of the kind of energy people would bring with them as they related with her. This kind of complete right brain awareness is difficult to explain, but I am sure there are readers who have had experienced its unitarian effects.
Once we make the discovery that our human nature is dual, and that a battle is ever waging between our higher Self and our lower self, we can enter the realm of the mystic warrior. As we enter the battle field within ourselves we call forth and analyze our life purpose, our motives, taking courage to compare wrong things with the right things. There sitting nose to nose with our truth, we do battle with our lower nature, and by harsh toil, by subduing pain and pleasure, by unbending faith in our higher Self we secure sacred wisdom. Only then can we wheel the spear of knowledge piercing through the world of shadow and illusion, to gain freedom from our own mortality, and to live eternally within the splendor of the light.
THE BRIDGE
It spans an abyss
where siren sounds from an impetuous
wind
lure and snag curious souls.
The curious become ensnared, not by
eagerness
to know, but by an affection for the abyss.
They are captured, by their own intentions.
The tantalizing, spinning wind, gently
urges
and coerces them, while filling their senses
with tastes of euphoria.
It whispers: "All yours. All yours to have.
Take and fill. Take."
As they succumb to their affection, the wind
bends their souls until their heads turns
down and their feet up.
Suddenly, the wind releases its hold and
head long they fall into the heart of the
abyss.
If only the poor souls' eyes, cleared, and
glimpsed the golden span within arms
reach.
If only they could have grasped it, and held
fast with all their strength, instead of
frolicking in self-pleasure. What a price
paid for such frivolity. Such unworthy
attention. Yet, alas! Too late.
The Bridge still spans the abyss,
as a humble signpost against
grand illusion, and high conceit.
And he need only grasp it with sincere
heart, to escape the torments of mortality.
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