“He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.” —Aeschylus
It seems that time repeats moments in ways that shake the fiber of our deeper selves and that shake is suppose to awaken us to the ignorance long stored in the cells of our own humanity. We our conscious, yes, but not awake. We are intelligent, yes, but not comprehending. We are powerful, yes, but not transcending.
In 2010 I posted this piece as we were moving out of darkness. Drawn on by fear and ignorance and power we slopped through the weeds with reckless abandon. Here we are again, under the misconception of skewed righteousness. Will we never learn?!!!
Effulgent Light Through The Darkness.
Over the last two years we have been stunned out of the illusion of “living large” into the great abyss of uncertainty. We are on an endless decent into the darkness with fear as our partner. We can see no way out of this loss of worth that we hold so dear to our existence. We sat in a bubble of illusion for so long that the burst has sprung us into a state of survival beyond the very borders of the physical state. Our mental and emotional senses have reached the breaking point. Our sanity is at stake and there is no remedy in this fragile moment.
Yet, this is the way of the warrior. The mystery of the beyond, the darkness at the edge of the forest. And as we step forth, with no security beneath our feet, we feel our very being lose its tenseness in the light of truth that lies ahead. Within our heart of hearts lies the real Self that has accompanied us on this journey into the realm of illusion. It is not only our best friend, it is our one true being. There is no greater essence than this that rides within us. For the rider has surrendered to this journey for the thrill of it and now has decided to lead us home. We must listen closely to the instructions for we have lost the way ourselves and forgotten that the rider has been with us all along.
The following excerpt from the new book of Letters is our instruction back to our home. As you read it let it pour through your mind. Allow it to fill the sensing area of your heart. It will pierce through to the Self sitting in wait and awaken you. This is the mighty call. Let us walk into the New Year with confidence because the rider has taken charge and the destination is Delight.
In duality, separation is a fact of life. It exists. But within itself—that is, within separation, lies the portal to oneness, formlessness, and non-existence. Our very existence contains, within itself, non-existence. It is the same as saying all creation is founded upon the Void. In duality, everything contains and shares existence with its opposite! Each thing contains a portal into its opposite. Thus, within your own duality lies the portal to oneness. Your ego is constantly en guard against that portal opening. It fearfully senses the underlying presence of non-existence. It works tirelessly to distract you from realizing this presence.
You were indeed working blindly in that little adventure just now. But you caught on rather quickly. That’s encouraging. You sensed the reality, without having to think about it. That is what we are asking all of you to do in your lives over the coming few years: Feel the reality below the illusion; feel the formless below the form and the oneness below the many-ness. I’m saying this quickly and in passing here. But I will elucidate each aspect of it in the coming letters. Take this statement as an overview of our objective. As our group voice declared, oneness is the vehicle we will ride through the passage of the Great Storm.
“And just what does that mean? It sounds so abstract and metaphorical for me. How do we ‘ride oneness’ like a vehicle?”
Perfect question, my friend. How does one ride anything? It might be a flying vehicle or flying animal; it might be on the ground or in the water. One can ride inside or outside, within or upon. There is one thing in common, no matter what the form. It is that you must give yourself over to the thing you ride. You must trust and surrender, or it will come to naught. At the same time you must take the reigns and direct the vehicle where you would go.
And what is a vehicle, after all? Let’s look at the root of that word. In Latin, vehere, means ‘to carry’. In Sanskrit, vaahana, means ‘transport’. A vehicle carries us, when we need or desire it to, when we know how to enter and command it. It lifts us above the plane we have been walking on; it moves us at greater speed and protects us from untoward elements on our path; and it propels us through time. It actually takes on and abbreviates the path we follow, transporting it into its own portal nature. In a word, a vehicle is a portal.
“Great. It all sounds great. But… how do we climb aboard this vehicle of oneness? That still doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Let’s look to one other kind vehicle for an answer. That vehicle is your own body. It is the vehicle of your soul in this incarnate world. Your soul has projected the physical, emotional and mental body into the world, to be carried through a lifetime here. Your body is a formal representation of the individuality archetype. As we discussed earlier, that means ‘undivided’. Of course, undivided means ‘one’.
“I’m following you, sort of. Are you saying that our individual bodies are symbols of oneness? That makes sense. But how can our bodies be the vehicle you were talking about? Are they going to carry us through the portal—into the Great Storm? If that’s the case, why bother telling us all this? How can we make sense of what you’re saying?”
Don’t ‘make sense’. Let sense make you. Remember the words of the Christ, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.’ The truth lies within—unspoken and unspeakable—as does the deep sense that makes you be who you are. Truth is the portal to freedom. Go into the center of your being to find that portal, that truth.
“How do we do it then? How do we know what we’re looking for? I’ve gone within my being many times before. All of us have. So what’s new here? I’ve never seen any portal like that before.”
Ah, but you have, my friend. You called it the Threshold to the Void. There are many other names for this space. But names are irrelevant. That so-called Threshold holds all the secrets of the most profound truths of creation—the akashic records, if you will. It holds all the portals of oneness and freedom. They are many and yet they are only one. Right there on the edge, at the brink of annihilation into the emptiness, and at the threshold of all creation back into the manifested Cosmos, lies the fundamental portal of truth. There lies the fulcrum of duality verging into unity.
Look into your body. Sit still and become even more still. Find the ultimate stillness within you. Just for a tiny moment, faster than the blink of an eye. That’s all you need in terms of time. Find that stillness and know its truth. Root sensation. Feel its vibration. Lie with it longer if you can, and let it surround you with its shimmering essence. Feel the vibration turn to resonance and alignment. Feel the resonance turn into connection, integration and dissolution of all separation. Feel it reaching out into the Void and into Cosmos. This is timeless. If you but feel it for the tiny moment, you will feel all eternity within you; you will feel it for all eternity.
There at the Threshold, poised to embody all things and no thing, poised to be and not to be—that is the answer—you will know the vehicle of oneness. It is not a thing. And yet it is not formless. Paradox. Call it the ‘first form’ for now. It is the form that formlessness assumes for duality’s sake. This is Oneness! This is your precious vehicle.
“O, excuse me. But this is getting very abstract here. Can we make it more concrete?”
I was just coming to that. Thank you. Here’s the bottom line, as you humans like to say. The vehicle lies within you—at the ‘bottom’ of you—and, from there, beyond you. It is not in your outer world. Oneness will never be found there, amidst the complexity and many-ness of manifestation. Humans have tried for thousands of years to impose oneness on the outer world. There is no need for this; and there is no possibility of attaining it. The purpose of the outer world is to be as illusory as it can be, to be unreal. Let it be as its nature is.
“All right. But the short version of your message here is that portals lie within us, not without.”
Yes. The outer world does not negate oneness, however. It fulfills oneness. Christ consciousness said, ‘Think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill’. Incarnation fulfills the truth of its Source within its destined manifestation; it does not destroy that which projects it forth. Christos is the soul of us all—‘teacher alike of angels and of men’. Thus does all the illusory, outer world fulfill the reality and soul lying within it. This is why we all must go within.
The fullness and fulfillment do not always appear as you might like. Your outer experience in the world reveals this. Many are trying hard to create oneness in some outer formation or other, such as your United Nations, your great religions, your New Age convergences. These can be beneficial in their ways. But they will not succeed in reversing natural authenticity; they will not manifest oneness where it cannot be. Nature must manifest multiplicity and duality. That is its function and its way. If you doubt me, just look at all the millions of species that evolution has created.
We look upon your human attempts at unity and solidarity as icons for inner truth, not for outer transformation. Their creators meant well—all the multitude of them; the more of these unity groups there are, the less unity actually manifests, however; they end up competing with each other. Know this— oneness does not manifest. Its integrity is maintained at the brink of creation. Do not look to your outer, human groups, therefore—as noble as they may or may not be—to be portals for your safe passage through the Storm.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert Lee Potter
Letters From 500 