Last revised: Sept. 15, 2009.
Perhaps a review of “emergence” might be useful at this moment. Afterwards, I may also remind us of who is on this discussion group and why.
This is a “sacred” site; that is, we are here for spiritual purposes. We cannot meditate together; we cannot hold sathsang or sing bhajans (hymns) to God.
What we do is we “discuss.” We sit down at a keyboard and talk to each other in writing. As I will discuss later, we undoutbedly were called to be together.
Because of the nature of our circumstances, I find it not as appropriate to say that our goal as a group is “awakening” or “enlightenment” as it is “emergence.”
To “emerge” means to come out of my shell, to speak my personal truth in spite of my fears. As I see it, we emerge in many ways. In everyday life, I might emerge in a moment of love towards another. I might emerge in a moment of courage.
But, here on this “discussion” group, although we may emerge in love and courage, inevitably that emergence will be “discussed” or conveyed in writing and so I say that we emerge in “truth.”
Truth yearns to be uttered and heard. Truth lives in formless space, but is socially fulfilled in language.
You’ll know when your truth presents itself to you because you’ll rise up from whatever you are doing and feel compelled to share it with another.
What truth? If we emerge in the ultimate truth of formlessness, well, that is cause for celebration. I would call that “ascension.”
But what is much more likely at this time is that we will emerge in the relative or personal truth of ourselves. That may be the truth of you or the truth for you.
Here now comes what Atmos called “the fly in the ointment.”
The truth of and for you is probably not going to be an attack on someone else. If truth were an attack, then we all might look forward to our future with some trepidation.
But the future, where truth reigns, is said to be peaceful and compassionate.
Truth releases us from fear, anger, and all the other lower human qualities. So if what you are moved to say doesn’t release you, but keeps you gripped in or sends you further into lower qualities, then it isn’t the truth.
The truth unites; it seldom divides. I grant you that we are still in oppositional times as the dark attempts to vaccinate us all with nanococktails. The truth for us may be a resolve to say “no” to something.
The truth for us may unite us with some and divide us from others, but it shouldn’t set us against even those we oppose, or it’s not the truth.
In the case of vaccination, the truth does not involve an attack on another, just a resolve not to be vaccinated – in the name of truth.
Truth is a divine quality, just as love and courage are. They mix together well.
Truth does not mix well with the lower human qualities like anger and jealousy. In fact, the two probably cannot coexist.
Leo Buscaglia said that “love is letting go of fear.” I would go further and say that love, or courage, or truth expressed, transcends fear.
Emergence comes when we reveal ourselves until we ache. It comes when we find our courage and trump fear. It comes when we share a secret that has bound us for years.
Suddenly we share our truth and the result is that we emerge.
Emerge from what? From fear, shame, inhibition, anger, jealousy – from our shell. We emerge and stand forth seen.
Now, the man I served who asked that this discussion group be started wanted to publish intelligence from certain sources. But I began it to facilitate people in emerging. This site had two sides, as it still does.
Therefore, from the start of its life, one of the accents has always been on sharing our hearts out in a “safe, sacred, and workable” space, designed to be that way so that you could remove our masks here and be seen for who we are.
You notice that we do not have on this site a large collection of trivia and jokes? The floors are swept clean and everything is left in a state that invites sharing our truth or the truth of who we are.
So you are humbly and kindly invited to use this space for what it was intended for – your emergence.
And not just your emergence. I call upon the group itself to emerge.
Wake up at the level of group. Take “ownership” (i.e., be personally responsible for) the space of this group. Feel from the level of the group. Emerge (yourself) as group.
Emerging as group means getting bigger. It means feeling the entire space of the group from the postings. It means noticeing when the group turns icey with fear. It means seeing how the group responds to one member’s share of difficulty.
And it means communicating our truth in a way forwards the action and restores “beingness” to the group by making the truth of the situation know, whether it be negative or positive. Namaste,