Looking before and aft, through lifetimes in matter, from God to God
On Feb. 13, 1987, I was shown, in a vision, the entire journey of a soul from God to God. (1)
It did not occur to me until a few moments ago that this reconstruction ** WAS ** the Divine Plan for life.
Excuse me while I recover from the shock of just realizing that.
I’m going through this process of realizing in stream of consciousness for the value that lies in recording it.
This is not about rehearsing the vision. Footnote 1 gives that. This is about looking at the process of realization – and in this case, delayed realization.
I can’t believe that I only realized this thirty-three years after the event! I am still in shock.
What have I been thinking all these years? I always stopped short of making the statement that the vision WAS the Divine Plan. What else did I think it could it have been?
I guess I always thought of it as a part of the Plan. No, it was the Plan in its entirety for an individual soul. Etc.
Once one sees or realizes something, what has been realized thereafter appears obvious. The reasons for not making the connection in the first place (not wanting to look arrogant, not wanting the attention such a claim might bring, etc.) have nothing to do with truth.
The very longevity of my interest in the vision should have been one indicator of its origins. Only something divinely-originating would have the power, magnetism, or whatever it may be to hold a person’s interest this long. (2)
If that was not clue enough, the bliss that I felt at the time is another pretty sure indication of the Divine Mother’s presence. I think of bliss as her calling card.
I never tire of quoting Krishnamurti on the subject, with apologies for the sexist vocabulary:
“The really important thing is … the knowledge of God’s plan for men. For God has a plan, and that plan is evolution. When once a man has seen that and really knows it, he cannot help working for it and making himself one with it, because it is so glorious, so beautiful.” (2)
I wouldn’t change a word of it. Well, maybe one word.
One “cannot help working for it … because it is so glorious.” Yes.
A vision doesn’t come with a manual. No words were spoken in mine. There was no button to press to speak to an agent.
That means that even a lived-through experience like this has elements that need to be realized later, connections that need to be made which may have not been made until now. I’m living proof of it.
When we map out a new academic discipline called “Realization,” somebody remind me to include this point.
Leaving that aside, I see that it’s what we do with a vision that matters. Some people consider it a unique but somewhat confusing experience and store it away in the dusty attic of memory. Others regard it as a vein of gold that needs to be mined.
Well, if I don’t talk about my experiences, someone knocks me around the head (spiritually, that is) until I do. I volunteered to be a guinea pig, I believe, on the expectation that I’d write about it.
Well, there you have it. An in-the-moment realization. Whatever the level of my knowledge was until now (intellectual or experiential), it was not up to realization. (3)
What difference does realization make? I feel more peaceful. A major connection has been made. I now see the content of the vision from an altogether-different angle and will probably make altogether-different uses of it in my spiritual practice. I feel less confusion, frustration. The penny dropped.
While I may not write on the vision again, it’s in the nature of an event like that that even a small part of it rewards deeper investigation. Somebody remind me to….
Footnotes
(1) For an account of that vision, see “The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment – Ch. 13 – Epilogue,” August 13, 2011, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/08/13/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment-ch-13-epilogue/
(2) Apologies for the sexist language. J. Krishnamurti, At the Feet of the Master. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974; c1910, 17.
(3) This explains why a person can talk about something without it being up to realization.
They may have intellectual knowledge of it like written proof, an idea of it, a felt certainty around it.
They may have experiential knowledge like meeting the person, feeling the pain, seeing a UFO.
But whatever the matter may be, they may have spoken or written about it but not yet realized its truth.