Sunday, July 9, 2017

Our Actions: Coerced, Compelled, and Chosen


Our Actions: Coerced; Compelled; Chosen 
Copyright 2017 Don Ray

The answers are all right before us.  The structure of existence, the nature of our being, the summary of purpose and meaning, it is all right before us.
Look just a little deeper, just a little deeper.
Gently peel away the worldly façade and recognize what is really transpiring in most of our human endeavors.
Everything we do falls into a few categories.  1) We do that which we think facilitates our survival-security-and comfort.  2) We do that which connects us to something or someone.  3) We do that which is irrationally loving. 

1)      We work at our miserable jobs - defend our homes – fulfill the contract - in order to survive.
2)      We create  music - plant our flower gardens - get romantically involved – cheer for our team – join the gang -  in order to connect, whether with each other or with something greater. 
3)      We go out of our way to give someone a ride - we forgive the transgression - we overlook the offense - we volunteer our time - in order to sacrificially love.

1)      In our efforts to survive we express our evolutionary position in a violent world of perennial shortages.  This is our most basic level, the level of our species’ birth, the level that for the most part enslaves us.   Our bodies and instincts and genetic programming know well this level.
2)      In our efforts to connect we express the universal drive toward Unity.  This is our next higher level, a nascent spiritual awareness of our eternal self and its calling and potential and destiny.  This unrecognized level underlies much of our behavior, but this level of existence is largely masked and disguised by the carnal world. 
Our souls cannot deny this level and, through various distorted expressions, long for this level, though our worldly minds may not recognize or acknowledge it.
3)      In our selfless efforts to forgive and love we express our highest level, the level to which we can aspire, the level to which we are called, the level that does not come automatically or naturally.  This is the level attained by Choice, the level that is purely voluntary, the level attained by exercise of our uniquely human freewill capacity to change ourselves and choose our direction of growth.

1)      Our carnal forms dictate our lowest level behavior, and what passes for love is primarily rooted in our instinct for procreation.
2)      The underlying imperatives of the Universe, the expression of the foundational structure of the universe, direct our longings for a higher level of bond and connection and Unity.  Romance is born, teams are formed, tribes are defended.  We love our spouse(s) and team(s) and country, as we are supposed to in the most profound sense.

3)      However, our highest potential, that height to which a human soul can aspire, is a creation to which we contribute, a creation we craft in wholeness with all Creation.  This selfless and sacrificial Love is never dictated by this physical world, usually not encouraged, and often not even condoned.  This is Love in spite of the world, Love arising not from practiced response or genetic programming or evolved instinct or social dictates, but Love new and pristine that we allow to enter through us. This is Love eternal.  This is the Love that completes the meaning of “human”, and begins the meaning of “Children of God”.

Copyright 2017 Don Ray
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