Tangling with Thorns on the Way to Wonderland.

Ah well, I almost didn’t make it here again today. I’ve been working on my various web pages, minimalizing everything and related projects go forward as well. Also I have found a property which seems ideal for all of our needs and aspirations inasmuch as they can be carried out within the limitations of this terrestrial bandwidth. It is remarkable how it reflects what I've been looking for. So, there’s this and that and of course there is this too. But here I am; only a little off my usual time frame.

I’ve been thinking about ‘baggage’. We’ve got so much of it and a good portion of it we don’t even identify as such but it is. Anything but our essential self and it’s mechanisms of expression are baggage. If there’s a ‘me’ or a ‘you’ and it has colors and sounds and circumstances where it appears other than it actually is and in all of its movements and noises and varieties of expression it goes on to manifest more and more apparent permutations of itself it could eventually gain the appearance of an entire world. It would be pretty difficult to separate the real from the unreal. It might seem impossible to locate the source of all that phenomena. That’s actually the situation we are in, big wise and small wise.

If you had gone running pell mell down a hill and stumbled and fell into a tangle of thorns; getting out might seem more painful and problematic than getting in. A slow and careful extraction of every thorn would still be an uncomfortable procedure. It would be made even more unpleasant by rising impatience with the situation. Some would go into a frenzy of wrenching, willing to suffer greater wear and tear for the relief of a speedier exit. This might well serve to only embed one deeper into the thicket with the addition of all that added pain. Sometimes finding our way out of something that we seemed to have gotten into with very little difficulty can take a much longer time to get out of.

Where do you go after you have gotten out? That’s not the only thicket of thorns in this world; nor is it the only kind of danger and confinement that might present itself. I’m thinking of all the tales that are allegory for the real circumstances we all find ourselves in at one time or another; though, because of the magic of appearance, an ogre may not look like a classical ogre and so on. There’s Theseus and Odysseus and even Alice in Wonderland and many others.

Our life is such a journey. It’s often dressed in mundane characteristics though. We don’t usually see fantastic beasts and shape-shifting tempters and temptresses. Everything is cloaked in the ordinary; if you can call what occurs here as ordinary in the sense that ordinary might mean normal. Actually what passes for normal here is a clear definition of crazy in the cosmic sense and vice versa.

In most stories there is always the impression given that most of the people don’t survive. Hundreds of people go into the minotaur’s cave and one or two come out. In all the legends where the king sets a test for the willing; where one either achieves a great fortune or dies as a result of failure or in the attempt, there are few success stories. That’s because the degree of difficulty you think you see is only a veil for other, possibly greater difficulties. Sometimes there are swamps and fires and what-have-you as well as thorns. Remove all of these challenges and you still have one problem you can’t get around. That problem is you.

Here’s an interesting thought. Let’s take a golden-haired youth and make him a football hero who gets the girl, has wealth etc; sort of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof if you will. Now, looking at it, you can see he surmounted many a challenge on his way to the collective prize. He was left with one challenge he failed though; coming to terms with, or better put- understanding himself. And all that he was and got was none of what he wanted and had the taste of ashes.

Looking from the outside it appears that some favored few (given our numbers it’s millions); are invited everywhere, have wealth to spare, can travel to exotic locales, get to rub up against expensive flesh (little do they know), hob nob with all the other ‘hail fellow well met’ bonhomie laden counterparts, flushed with the good life and patted down with the after-shave of success. That’s how it looks from the outside. That’s not how it looks from the inside and therein you have one of life’s greatest illusions and the eternal lure into one of its greatest misfortunes. The worst kind of thorn thicket is the one you don’t know you are in.

The interesting thing is that whoever does get trapped in the thicket isn’t you. You, essentially, cannot be confined in such a manner. One could learn a great deal by reading the Bhagavad-Gita. Well, the Pilgrim’s Progress continues. So does the search for those many grails of many names. What would you do with the Holy Grail? If it’s an actual object then it would surely put you in even more danger than the possession of Mowgli’s jewel be-crusted elephant goad. I know that there are physical objects that have power for those who understand their use. They don’t attract me though. I happen to know that the Holy Grail is an internal affair, the way to which is blocked only by the shadows of one’s false self. All the blind alley’s and circumlocutions are attended by one guide or another in the service of the false self.

We live in this world that looks so depressingly ordinary. Where are all the chimerical creatures and members of the Devic Realm and fairylands? We read stories about princesses in towers guarded by a black knight. The black knight is your ignorance. The tower is your spinal column. The princess is your Kundalini. Wait a minute; who are you? (grin)

I’m of the firm opinion that you are not going to get past the perils on your own. You have to have a guide. You’ve the automatic guide of the false self and his army of Legion and you’ve certain other guide options; or maybe it’s only one option. Those who say the new avatar is Lord Kalki and those who say it is the returning Christ are both correct. We need to find the clothes most comfortable for us to wear to the benefit of our understanding. It’s critical to remember that the crucifixion of Christ is one of the most important elements of mind control for the established church. Some say there was no crucifixion. Some say it wasn’t Jesus who was crucified. Some say it was Simon and some Judas. One thing for sure, probing into such things and discussing them is sure to make the Luddite’s and wolves in sheep’s clothing howl. I’ll go so far as to say that nothing is what it appears to be and that historical record is mostly fabrication and written to the benefit of controlling interests. I’m certain that there ‘is’ a Christ and that Christ is a manifestation of God, but NOT the only one; though he is unique to this point in being the most complete expression of divinity to date.

Then again, as long as you are wearing clothes (metaphorically speaking) they can be snagged on thorns. Crucifixion is a symbolic representation of the relationship of Spirit to Matter (It is interesting to note that what you usually die from in crucifixion is ‘suffocation’). Both are composed out of the body of God. But, in order for the relationship of duality to exist- shadow must come with light; in order for us to have a world in which to experience life; to have a stage upon which to gesture and display, sorrow and joy must be handmaidens. If we get lost someone has to go looking for us; ‘thank God’ for that.

Now, I’ve been in a few briar patches, for whatever reasons. Sometimes you don’t need a reason, not paying attention will do. I like honey too but I’m not about to brave the bees for it. In other words, I don’t like honey that much. No, actually I like honey a great deal and I would risk far more than bee stings to get it. But I’ve my own definition of honey.

For some the goal is Disneyland and its got golf courses and graveyards and they’re both in the same place. In Disneyland the bad stuff is behind the scenery in the Soylent Green factory. For some the goal is Wonderland, though ‘wonder’ can take many forms. Many want to get out of this world but have no clear idea of what waits beyond, or ‘where’ it waits. Once again, I’d have to say; you need a guide. There are more worlds at more levels of varyingly refined substance than you can imagine. Even the most beautiful of worlds may be no more than a temporary flower in a thorn bed; at least it bears consideration. So, before I decide I want to go anywhere, I will have to decide why I want to go and whether what I am after can be found there. What do you want? Making God the fruit of desirous quest promises a reduction in painful entanglements. In other words, go to the source and in the process, all extraneous thorn catching devices will melt away along with the thorns.