Getting moments

Sometimes it appears to be clear - we can see precisely, understand clearly. We have our moments of clarity, sudden awakenings or realizations. These flashes of understanding come and remind that we are something higher, beyond the everyday troubles and worries that we find ourselves engulfed in.

Sometimes it seems that we belong somewhere else, to some different kind of reality. Alternatively, as a part of something more important.

‘To be’ means unsatisfied, worry and suffer, because of the beingness of being. The being is not perfect, and the worrying belongs to its imperfect nature. However, it’s viable to rise above this, to see things from a much broader viewpoint, than from that of these everyday worries and troubles. It is possible to feel eternity, absolute and universal, which has much more joy, much less worry, more clarity, more purity, more freedom, more peace and tranquility, and which exists all the time, doesn’t disappear.

We can be reminded of it by somebody says something, by reading something, noticing or seeing something. It can come in different ways. Somebody’s looking at you, and suddenly you understand - this is the moment of cleanliness.

We can recognize it instantly, and also immediately forget it, because it is not connected with anything directly. Such kind of awakenings or understandings, such kind of moments cannot be used instantly. They can be quite clear or less precise, but we cannot repeat them, invite them to come again, investigate them once again, and we cannot experiment with these experiences. They just come - they are - and then they disappear, like options, like possibilities, like everything else.

However, anyway, it seems like we like to feel as if we belong some place else, not just in our everyday living and interactions. It looks we wish we have something additional to our everyday world, to relations, to our family, friends - all possible relations, and in a certain sense, we know all the time that we belong somewhere else, that we are like a part of something more general, more important.

For example, even the so-called horoscope every day in the newspapers - of course, we know it doesn’t matter very much - but we are interested in what is written about our particular sign. We don’t believe in it, we like to take a look. It is a bit ridiculous since it doesn’t mean much. However, what’s interesting is that while looking at our astrological plane we are placing ourselves in another frame of mind, another world, to another kind of relations, another meaning, because our astrological sign puts us in like a cosmic category which bears no ties with our everyday lives.

Even if it doesn’t matter to us very often, too if we don’t pay much attention to it, still, to be a part of some mystical sign or some constellation, some zodiac sign - we can feel that it adds something to us - something more - another dimension, something eternal. Also, what is more -  every sign in the zodiac is again represented by a particular planet - each symbol is connected to a specific planet, and as we know - all the spheres represent gods. The names of the planets are mentions of the gods. Moreover, because of birth, we are instantly connected with some god or another, some divine being, or something else of that nature. So why not?

Another point of view - in Buddhism, especially in Mahayana Buddhism, is that there is a significant role of bodhisattvas. The bodhisattvas are beings who can leave this world and disappear into Nirvana at wish, but who instead chose to stay here and be born again in this world to help and assist all other beings to reach the same level - to help us all because of their infinite compassion. So they come and live here and keep on coming back - reincarnating unto our earth. One of the most famous or acknowledged bodhisattvas is Avalokiteshvara, who according to Tibetan Buddhism is incarnated again and again in the Dalai Lamas.

However, the bodhisattva can reincarnate, be in our world, and at the same time also be in different beings, in different persons or entities both of this world and another simultaneously. There is an infinite number of bodhisattvas in all. Both in Hinduism and Buddhism, there are many gods - divine beings - devas, who can reincarnate, or can appear in our world as humans.

Not all of them may be friendly towards us, not all such kinds of beings are always full of loving kindness. Some incarnate very rarely and some of them probably not at all, at least not as humans. Moreover, yet, such ideas that we all can be reincarnations or manifestations or beings reborn from some spiritual nature or another, or that we might be a representative of some spiritual being in our world - this idea is considered in history and different cultures quite extensively in many ways.

According to some traditions, every Buddha, every God, every Bodhisattva, Deva or other spiritual being creates its field - his world or paradise, and everything which appears in this manifestation. This understanding is also prevalent and has very many variants and kinds.

The Indian lotus is highly venerated and is considered the holy flower in Hinduism and Buddhism. It lives in the muddy water. We don’t know and don’t see the roots. The real source, the real beginning of the lotus is unknown to us. We can only see its appearance on the surface of the water; we can look at its leaves, flowers, and fruits. They appear opening, flowering and withering away, over and over like a circle of life and death. Something sends them from the underwater world to the surface, living continually and never disappearing. ‘Om mani padme hum’ - one meaning of this mantra is also ‘truth in the lotus.’

As we are talking about plants, we can also notice and be reminded again here that spiritual beings, may they be gods or bodhisattvas or whoever, frequently have their tree or flower, their animal or bird or fish or something similar. You can incarnate in anything including mountains or rivers or lakes or crystals, gems. With no hurry. Time is not limited.

Almost all cities, churches, monasteries and temples are dedicated to particular gods or saints, and so they will be connected with this god or saint, who will protect them, and also appear through them.

Giving the name to a child is a sacrament in Christianity, and the name which is given to the child, at least in the Christian world, is the name of a saint. This act of devoting the child to the saint who is already a spiritual being in the invisible world, is creating a connection between the human and the divine.

All kinds of devotional or dedication acts are widespread even for different types of buildings, bridges, ships. Blessings are a way to create a connection between our world and the invisible, the holy, the eternal, or the spiritual world. Such blessings are also quite common for organizations, for universities, for communities and even for companies, for banks, for shopping malls. Why not? Even some nations consider or considered themselves as a nation chosen by this or that God or that they are the actual bearers of this God.

Knowing or believing that everything in this world or this world as a whole, is somehow alive, or having spirit, or that in this appears certain kinds of a universal soul or spirit - this is very common all around the world, and in all the time. It is pantheism as we know.

On the other hand, it’s also possible to look and see how an immortal and unique soul might continuously travel from one body to another - being born, living, dying and being born again - reincarnating. Also, with each rebirth, each reappearance, the previous experiences, taking along some sorts of knowing or knowledge from the earlier lives. Moreover, so the soul will develop and rise like a human being from childhood to adulthood and even further. A way of thinking or believing, and why not?

We cannot see anything else, but only how the beings appear - are born, and disappear - or die, but these appearances and disappearances might be a part or manifestation of someone or something not reachable to our knowledge or senses. The visible birth and death in our world may be a little part of something else, of somebody else, that is much bigger.

Metaphor or way to see is that these manifestations are like buds or flowers, fruits or leaves from some transcendental tree. We cannot know the reason, the source; we only see the appearances, the results. We don’t know why we are born, and we don’t know, can’t see the reason, the purpose of our life. Maybe in such a way the invisible world can touch, see, understand our world in some way. Perhaps we are their antennas, eyes or ears.

“To be the eyes and ears and conscience of the Creator of the Universe, you fool.” - Kilgore Trout’s unwritten reply to the question “What is the purpose of life?” from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel ‘Breakfast of Champions.’

So it goes.

These are just imaginations, metaphors, about something that we don’t know, don’t see, and that is not available to our senses. However, we may think about it, and we might also understand and realize through this way too. Maybe some of us can even feel it, explain it like this. Why not?

No comparison or metaphor or description is ever useful in any sense. These are all just models, just examples or opinions or ideas because we don’t know enough because we lack the abilities to see clearly.

But if we continue with this way of thinking, for example, with this image of trees which are growing outside our world, in the invisible world, and of which we can see only their flowers, then we can of course very carefully also think about these trees in their hidden world, in the spiritual realm - how these trees, or powers, or forces or gods or energy fields or vibrations... how they could act together. Maybe like in Homer’s epics,  intriguing and fighting along with each other. However, we can also think or understand how they collaborate, act in coordination, like in nature, like the forest. The trees, as we can see every day, maybe they are also interacting with each other - growing, changing not at their random individual whims, but according to a mutually very well thought out and exact plan. Who knows?

It’s possible that the trees in our world remind us of this option, this possibility, this way of thinking, to help us to understand more widely and clearly who we are and where we belong. There is an ancient fairytale or myth or parable titled ‘Why the trees don’t speak anymore?’

Probably they are still talking, but we are unable to hear them, who knows.

There is an exciting book by Jeremy Narbi - ‘The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge.’ In this book, the shamans from Brazil tell the author how the plants are teaching them directly and naturally. It looks like the creepers, spiraling around each other resemble the double helix of DNA.

If we imagine the thicket which reaches to us only with the tops of the branches, only with the barks and flowers and leaves - this picture gives us an opportunity to reflect also about other beings in the wood - like ferns, moss, lichens, mushrooms, ants, birds, butterflies, spiders, snails, earthworms and all possible other animals and beings - both in our world and also in the invisible world - what is their importance, their meaning? Who are they representing? Moreover, with what kind of invisible spider networks may we all be connected? It seems to be too arrogant and downright stupid to think that only we, mortal beings, have some godly possessions, or that the gods or eternal spirits only appear in us human beings. It overestimates our importance.

If we define life as a self-regulating or self-organizing, then we have to acknowledge that everything, from atoms and molecules to galaxies and the whole universe are also self-running systems.

So from this, it’s only one step forward to think of all the sensible world is perhaps created by some invisible forces. Maybe all these holy rivers, lakes, mountains and rocks represent these kinds of powers. We already know that the plants hear and react accordingly. We also learn that the water has a memory that it remembers how it was treated. Crystals develop according to the moods around the area they are in. These effects have already been proved in the case of snowflakes.

It may be that our Earth is a living being - ‘Gaia,’ and why not? Perhaps the sun also lives? So the moon and the planets and galaxies and all the universes are also living beings? Maybe it’s true that everything that we can see, what can exist, is spiritualized - having a spirit, a soul - is living.

Yes, this is animism - the oldest belief and religion in humankind. Moreover, maybe it is also true that some other forces direct us, are manipulated by - some invisible beings from other worlds just playing games with us - that it’s just a giant illusion, simulation, theater-play, or matrix.

This is undoubtedly a question of believing and just a point of view - how to see, how to understand, how to look. Not everything what we imagine must be real in every sense. We can freely believe or imagine something because of practical, pragmatic reasons, to better act, relate, to do. We can think or imagine this field or force, to recognize this god or power who has created us, or what we represent by our life, in our living, our actions - it’s possible. Alternatively, perhaps recognize soulmates who might appear from the same branch of the same tree, from the same group of souls. We can image soulmates as flowers of the same ‘soul tree.’

They may not be related in our world by family or other relations, but it may also happen sometimes, that even your brother or sister, father or mother, son or daughter appears to be from the same ‘soul source.’ Also, it should also be understood that while some person may have many soulmates, another might almost have none, just like some tree may have many flowers, many blossoms, whereas another tree flowers only very rarely. These all are just imaginations indeed, just for pragmatical reasonings, and not for firm beliefs or dogmas.

Hanami, the traditional Japanese custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers, especially cherry blossoms, has more and deeper meanings than just for beauty. Poems would be written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.

For the sake of simplicity, reaching towards the Ockham razor, we can believe and hope that each appearance, thing or phenomenon has only one reason or force which appears in that phenomenon. However, it will be confusing when thinking about complex matters. We can believe or imagine that in a field of wheat there appears the spirit of Demeter, or in the forest, there appears the arborio soul, but in case of every single tree or plant these forces or fields can, of course, be different. Everything depends on where we are looking, whom we are approaching.

If we are approaching Gaia, then we are bearing in mind all Earth as a whole, but if we are approaching the local spring in our backyard, then we are holding in our mind only the guarding soul or spirit of this particular spring. We see what we are looking at, or in other words, what we are looking for.

Although the seer, the seeing and the sight are anyway the same.

If one particular force or spirit likes to appear or manifest in some specific tree, for example, a linden tree, then it doesn’t mean that it lives or incarnates in every linden tree. The same force may at the same time also appear in the spider on the branches of the same linden tree, or around another tree’s roots as a network of mushrooms, or even in your self.

The same power or god or divine being can appear at the same time in a couple of things or people, in the groves. In the novel of Bulgakov, for example, a Satan is visiting Moscow with his retinue, and of course in all of them appears the Luciferian spirit.

Usually, people don’t think about these. People are not interested; they don’t think it’s possible that they could be appearances or incarnations of some higher and invisible powers. People don’t believe that they have some more significant meaning or role or task or duty, or something like that. They don’t like to think that they have some general meaning or purpose.

In general, no need to think or believe in that way. It may be that we fulfill these tasks, or accomplish our purpose in this world without even knowing anything about it, without even consciously acknowledging, being aware of this.

For example, if a bee is visiting a flower on the linden tree to collect the nectar, then the bee probably isn’t aware that it is helping to fertilize this flower, this tree. The bee may not be aware that its action has meaning in a more profound sense also, like a meeting of Andromeda and Jupiter, who knows. We usually don’t need that kind of knowledge and are free to think of ourselves as individuals, as persons with our families, relations, troubles, and problems. Why not?

Just fighting, reaching out to get something, being and causing stress, loving, taking care and dying at last - you can freely feel yourself as an individual - an independent soul who is circling from the beginning of time - permanently being born and dying. In western society, this kind of individualism is encouraged. Personality, self-importance, self-improvement, and personality development seem to be fundamental goals.

However, there is also a possibility to see and understand it all a bit more excellent, detailed, more precise way - that every one of us is like an ambassador, a representative of some certain force or power - god or energy. That in every one of us appears just this particular field, this vibration, this connection or spark. It can be recognized and explicitly acknowledged in deep states of meditation. It can be understood and realized in dreams or chemically induced psychedelic experiences, or sometimes through some seemingly illogical reason - appearing in random through ominous signs or numbers alternatively if somebody explains something to you, or with yourself in more profound reflections. Also, it may merely be just an idea, just a belief. Why not?

There is no reason, no need to promote it to everybody, even if you already have a piece of fine and explicit knowledge or belief about where you came from, what your source of power is. For example, Krishna and Arjuna were just good friends, but in the critical moment, Krishna decided to let it be known to Arjuna whom he is a representative of. No need to tell anybody  ‘my kingdom is not of this world,’ unless some twist of circumstance were to demand it. So it’s also possible to just completely forget it yourself.

Let others think what they like believe.

Jesus probably didn’t call himself the Son of God. The others started to believe it and let it be known.

In China, there was a legendary monk in the 10th century who did not belong to any temple or monastery. He was wandering around, always carrying a cloth bag. He was known by the name Budai, meaning ‘Cloth Sack.’ He was still joyful, helpful, smiling, joking, making surprises. Children were frequently around him. He liked to eat sweet things, to play with children, to give out gifts from his bag - he just enjoyed life. He could see the future, what weather was coming the next day. In the winter time, he could sleep in the snow, in the hot summer refuse from bathing. He was found passing away in the year 917, sitting in the corridor of a temple, and with him, there were some lines of a poem:

“Maitreya, the true Maitreya has billions of incarnations. Often he is shown to people at the time; other times they do not recognize him.”

From this time on he was very widely considered as an incarnation of Maitreya, the future Buddha.

It’s easy to make mistakes concerning all this stuff and stories, but probably there is nothing certain, at least when looking from our side.

For example in a thick forest, we can also not be very sure where one tree or bush or mushroom begins and where another ends.

There is no need to understand everything and nobody can understand everything. The same power or spirit or force or god can be recognized and named in different places and ages in different ways, and one can always ask - was or is it still the same god or force?

Although in most cases it doesn’t matter. Also, it’s also true that it’s impossible to say something very firm or sure or concrete about this - because what we are talking about is something invisible and insensible to us, impossible to investigate or to measure. After all, reality can be changed merely by someone looking at it, the same phenomena can appear as a particle and as a field or vibration at the same time, and Schrödinger’s cat can at the same time be both alive and dead until it is not checked.

Of course with this theory, this vision, and with everything that we think or believe, we can understand and realize something better. For example - it can render quite understandable of prophecies, oracles, mediums, and channellers, who supposedly receive direct messages from some spiritual beings without interfering themselves, like superconductors. Spiritual beings are incarnating at this moment during this seance, this time of mediumship, in these people.

Also, frequently these oracles can also say with exactitude who it is that is sending the messages through them. In ancient Greece, the famous oracle of Delfi got the messages directly from Appolo. So these kinds of spiritual beings who send these messages through channelers even in our day are also frequently named: Seth, Kryon, Michael, Ramtha, Abraham, Ashtar, Ra, Tobias. Also, it’s true that very many of their sayings or their predictions were not realized, at least looking and thinking from our world and our point of views.

Through different times and cultures, these spiritual beings have been named in different ways - they are considered being gods, devas, angels, demons, spirits, and many efforts have been made to create lists and hierarchies of them. In the Bhagavad Gita for example, in chapter 10, one such kind of spiritual power or god or force, through Krishna tells Arjuna where he is most likely to be found:

“Of all trees, I am the fig tree, among beasts I am the lion, of fishes I am the shark, of flowing rivers I am the Ganges,” - and particularly interesting - “among sons of Pandu I am Arjuna.”

In other words, Krishna and Arjuna are incarnated. have the same spirit from the god or power, or again in other words - they are soulmates.

It seems that none of the already mentioned systems, being it Vedic or Dharmic or whatever, excludes the possibility of a kind of cosmogony wherein: (1) there may be many, various kind of powers, spirits or gods - and (2) all things, all phenomena, including us, maybe their appearances or representatives.

It should be understood, that these supernatural, eternal, weird, awful, irrational powers or forces may cause quite strong feelings, like fear and fright, even panic. Therefore, it should also be understandable that people are continuously trying to diminish, to scale down, to ration and even to set up some relationship with them - giving them names, personalizing them - or, on the contrary, just ignoring or overlooking them, like they don’t exist, which is also right, because they don’t exist in our reality, anyway. However, it will also be clear, that through this process these powers or forces will change, deform and become unclear.

Therefore, it’s not necessary to take them for too sure. We could call them ‘spiritual powers,’ or more specifically, in a singular, just ‘the Spirit.’

So, some first conclusions. We should keep in mind, that if there appears one of these spiritual powers in every person, that if every one of us in this world is a representative or ambassador of their Spirit, then our being here may have the almost general idea or meaning. All that we see, hear, think, feel or understand, may not always be the most important. There is no need to overestimate our selves, not a good idea to involve in everything, to create unnecessary noise and confusion.

Can take it naturally and calmly, notice and recognize. Can be just an ambassador, polite diplomat, mindful listener, opened channeler. Hardly the majestic tree would care much about the breezes or raining moving some of its blossoms or leaves. We should resolve our small troubles and problems by ourselves, cleaning and repairing our channels, in order not to let them blocked by our greedy wishes and irrational fears. Even the death, withering and falling is not a very important issue to worry about. It will happen anyway.

Sometimes we should remind, that maybe we all are not from the same trunk, tree or family, that perhaps we all are not brothers and sisters in every sense, children of the same God, and that the people are entirely different. It may be, that general idea of equality and universal humanism are myths or imaginations also, just like some models to explain the world. Maybe we are not obliged to understand everything; there is no need to love all the people equally.

Getting moments, as well.