Jul 20, 2014

Pondering’s

Our Shadow is our defining mark of being a human. Our Shadow consists of the dark side of our being, those impulses towards the negative and downright evil acts that we try to hide and ignore. But the Shadow is persistent, retreating, then attacking with renewed vigor, encouraging us to become angry, selfish, and all the evil or negative acts that we think of, if not actually do.

 

But I have called the Shadow our Blessing, our defining mark as a human. How can the negative side of our being be our Blessing? Usually we shy away from this side of us, trying hard to suppress and ignore these urges, and when we succumb to them, either we suppress the thought of those acts and pretend we did not do them, or we hold it in front of ourselves and blame all the world’s problem on ourselves for we did do that act and can not forgive ourselves.

We, as human beings, live in the dualistic world of this universe. We are the greatest creation of all, able to Know Love because we have faced and expressed hatred and fear, we can Know Good because we have tasted evil, we can Know Compassion because we have seen and tasted ignorance and pain. We can know Freedom, because if we are lucky we tasted restrictions. Only one who has been falsely accused can understand true freedom, only when we have tasted pain can we Know what good health means.

We have been blessed to be able to truly understand these wonderful gifts. Now God has ultimate knowledge in that God has full knowledge that God is Love, and only Love, but not even God can understand the very being of Love, unless fear and all the negative aspects of a loss of Love entails is somehow also present. Now certainly God Knows the Being, the Nature, of God is Love. But knowledge is not the same as the understanding that is made real in the face of fear and loneliness. That is what we are, in the nature of being human: we are the “Experiencing part of God”, the Eternal Wisdom. Our Shadow gives us the opportunity to experience fear, and therefore in the light of fear, we can experience Love as it truly is: the absence of fear, a place where we can let our fears and pain go and let ourselves experience the Joy of God, because we have experienced Fear, we can fully experience Love. It is through our experiencing that God, the Eternal Wisdom, Experiences the power of Love in all its Glory. That is the purpose of creation, as part of the Story of God.

Now God certainly understands that Joy and Love are central to Who God Is. But that level of understanding is like the understanding from pictures what a rainbow is, lines of color arching overhead. But until we see one, we can not understand the awe and majesty of what a rainbow is.

We can describe the color ‘red’ over and over to a blind person, one blind from birth, but that person does not understand what ‘red’ is until a surgeon performs a miracle and the blind can see ‘red’ for themselves. So it is with all that is, including the nature of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Without ‘evil’, or the dark side of humanity, we would not truly understand what ‘good’ is all about. We (and God) can only appreciate the nature of freedoms enjoyed in this country by seeing the lack of freedoms and the fear that places like Iraq experience, even if only by reports and news. That is the reason, following world war ll this country rejoiced in freedom and the opportunity presented. Without WWll life would have gone on, but without the tremendous release of joy and love that occurred after the war, when the solders came home and life resumed. This has faded through the generations, as the knowledge and understanding based on experiencing of being in such a war faded, since the following generations did not experience the fears of WWll.

That is the purpose of exhibits of the horror of the holocaust museums that remind us of how a whole nation can be swept up to a level of evil unimaginable to us today. Just understanding book knowledge is insufficient to really understand evil and good for what they are. We must feel the difference. Only by getting our emotions involved do we truly understand what these terms mean. Walking through the home of Ann Franke was one of the most moving moments of my life. I had read the diaries of Ann Franke, seen the movie, but only when walking through those few rooms did it become real to me. We waited for close to an hour to get in, chatting with others, but once inside it became absolutely silent, as the spiritual nature of those few rooms became evident. I doubt if there was a dry eye there, and we had to stop for a cup of tea before venturing out so we could compose ourselves, as did most others.

I stated that we are God’s highest creation. That is so, even above the angels. Pure Angels are those without a Shadow, and do not have ability to have emotions, as emotions are part and partial to the presence of the Shadow. Without the dualistic nature and ability to feel good and evil, angels are limited to having only head knowledge, and are therefore one step below humans, who are capable of both Knowledge and Understanding, derived from the emotional core that is part of the Shadow. For it is from the Shadow that we can understand Love, and it is from the shadow that we understand Joy, we understand Beauty, we can be lifted to the highest mountain of Bliss and deepest pit of Pain. All of these are gifts from our Eternal Wisdom, arising from our Shadow and the dualistic nature of our humanity, giving us the ability to put the relative parts of our lives into a pattern from Dark to Light.

Can Angels have a Shadow? Well, Conversations With God, when discussing death and the afterlife, points out that we do not lose anything from our experience as a human, including the body, mind, and soul. The Body and the Mind just change frequencies to the point that they are spirit, as is the soul, and integrate into the Soul for eternity. Thus our Shadow, the defining part of our humanity, stays with us. We may choose to return to physical form at any time, or we may choose to be one of God’s “messengers” or angels, before returning — or not, as we choose, for all eternity. Thus those angels who had chosen to experience Love, Fear, and all in between by being physical, then yes, “angels” are equal to humans because they are then the tri-fold part of body, mind, and soul, with the shadow as part of that mix, but I do not believe that angels are ever above the body, mind, and soul that comprises the conscious beings of the universe as we humans are.

Did Jesus have a Shadow? Was Jesus human? If Jesus was human, and all our Christian religions say that Jesus was human, fully human, then he had a Shadow. It was the facing of his Shadow that the story of the temptation in the desert is all about. Jesus understood his Shadow, and accepted it with open arms. Only by embracing his Shadow was Jesus able to look past his dark side to see the joy and beauty in all his life. Jesus also understood that each of us has a similar dark side, and all of his sermons were based on trying to help us face and accept our Shadow. Only by facing, accepting and embracing our Shadow can we rise over the dark side of our being, and like Jesus, using the strengths of the dark side of us to become the beacon of light that Jesus became.

Yes, we can become like Jesus. Did not Jesus say “Greater things than this shall you do.” How sad it is that we have failed to accept the challenge of God through Jesus to reach that acknowledgment of Jesus in who we, you and I, have the capacity to “Do greater things” than Jesus.

Meditation

I am in deep gratitude, my Eternal Wisdom, for my Shadow. Even though my Shadow has caused me much pain throughout my life, it has enabled me to understand the Love I receive in my life. I can understand forgiveness and forgive others because much has been forgiven me. It is with this I bow my head to express my gratitude for my Shadow. This dualistic nature of my life brings me peace as I deeply understand the Love with which You have filled my being at all times. I have come to feel your Love for me within my soul, and how this Love allows me to savor the beauty that You have brought into my life. There were too many times I was too “busy” with life to fully appreciate all the beauty, but as my life has cleared with age I have been given the freedom to fall into the bliss of your Love at will, which so often catches me when I least expect it, causing me to see Your presence in the most surprising things.