One invitation in the dark night of the soul, and really any time after an initial spiritual awakening, is to deepen in seeing and feeling all as the divine.
In the initial opening or awakening, all is often and inevitably seen and recognized as the divine. All is the play of the divine. The deeper identity of all beings and everything else is the divine, sometimes temporarily and locally taking itself to be a separate being.
This can be recognized and seen quite clearly, and yet the invitation is to see and feel this more thoroughly, more consistently, in more areas of life, and in more situation.
And especially to see and feel the divine in and as what we, as human beings, tend to not particularly like. As illness and symptoms. Sadness, anger, and dullness. People we have a reaction to. Losses. Noise. A society apparently bent on self-destruction. And so on.
For instance, I walked home from downtown just now and passed some very noisy construction on both sides of me. I asked myself what if this is the voice of the divine? Can I find it for myself? This shifted my experience in the moment. I could find where it was the voice of the divine. The divine as noisy construction sounds. And also the divine as this human self reacting to it and sometimes feeling like a victim of noise.
Since I have done inquiry and some healing work on my reactivity to noise, it was much easier to notice it as the voice of the divine. It required just a small shift. And I was also reminded of how my very human reactivity to the noise comes from deep love and caring for this human self. It’s natural, innocent, and beautiful. (And painful when the mind gets caught in it. And that pain is also an expression of the divine.)
The noise. The construction. The reactivity in me. The discomfort. The getting caught in it. The not getting caught in it. All of it is an expression of the divine.
What do I mean when I say “the divine” here? It’s a shorthand. A pointer. And it refers to recognizing all as happening within and as awakeness (aka consciousness). As insubstantial. Here and yet not here. And as the wisdom and love that seems inherent in this awakeness.
As a side note, I can mention that I, of course, know it’s a projection. In my experience, everything is this awakeness. It can’t be any other way. It’s that way for everyone, although many don’t notice. (They haven’t had it pointed out to them, and haven’t investigated it for themselves.) This is a tricky topic since, yes, it looks like a projection. And yet, the idea of projection and a mind or being projecting it all happens within and as this awakeness.
In my immediate experience, there isn’t really anything that will absolutely determine if (a) I am awakeness (or consciousness) connected with a separate being and projecting this awakeness onto everything so everything appears as awakeness, and this mind then calls it the divine. Or (b) if everything actually is the divine, as it appears.
Another note: What have I had to learn to see more thoroughly and feel more deeply as the divine? For me, it’s been chronic fatigue symptoms (fatigue, brain fog, emotional instability), emotions such as fear, anger, and sadness, and even the situation I have found myself in. I have known and seen it as the divine for a long time, but when faced with life situations that I – as a human being – don’t particularly like, I have had to more thoroughly see and feel it as the divine. And it’s an ongoing process.
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Initial notes….
- One invitation in the dark night: see all as the divine
- often have seen it long time before
- but a deeper seeing + visceral sense is called for
- especially what we don’t like
- illness, symptoms, noise, losses etc.
- …..
One invitation in the dn
All as the divine
Visceral
Esp that we don’t like
Illness, symptoms, noise etc
….
For instance, I walked home from downtown just now and passed some very noisy construction on both sides of me. And the thought came ”
My human self doesn’t like noise very much.
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One invitation in the dark night: more thoroughly see and feel all as the divine