Can You Look Without Judgment?
When it comes to “looking,” and in this case of ART LOOKING, what do you see and how do you see it? What makes a work of art “great” in your eyes? Could it be some genius in the artist who transmitted something truly profound and beautiful for you to look at? How do you RESPOND TO WHAT YOU SEE, and why do you respond the way you do? Can you “look without judgments” of what you are looking at? Can you see with the Eyes of God that created everything? These are the questions I would like to explore in this ART LOOK.
At Tirta Empul in Bali, there is a spring of water that for over a thousand years has been a place of cleansing and spiritual purification for the Balinese. We go there every year on our BALI QUEST, our International Breathwork Retreat. It is incredibly beautiful in our eyes, and also powerfully transformative to us in our ascent to fully embrace a Spiritual Life. It is also an “immortality spot” on the planet, designed for us to overcome all disease and live as long as we choose by the power of our own mind. Beauty abounds in this sacred space of Tirta Empul, according to us who have been there in its waters many times.
What do you see? Clearly there is Sondra Ray in the water, bowing in some kind of prayer pose, getting drenched. Then some kind of JOY, some kind of happiness in the aftermath of rising up after this dunking. What you don’t see, but is there in the energy field of this sacred site, is the build up of repeated intentions for a thousand years of people all doing the same thing—bowing in these waters with some kind of prayer on their mind, in some kind of surrender to Higher Forces that are manifesting in the very elemental presence of this Holy Spring.
You may not see this but it is there. There is an aura of Holiness at Tirta Empul by virtue of an infinity of high intentions, and also by virtue of the element of water itself to naturally cleanse and elevate the soul of whoever or whatever enters its pools of cleansing Love. I say Love because that is what is coming out of those fonts of this Sacred Spring—pure liquid Love comes pouring out freely, and anyone can go there and partake of it and be renewed. It is a Baptism of all Baptisms. There is no other place on the planet with such Powers that I know of. Not like this anyway—a place that has consciously been built to step outside of time and space to impart the immortal nature of Divine Existence.
Between Heaven and Earth
In a place like Tirta Empul, you feel like you are between Heaven and Earth in some kind of Vortex of Divine Frequency. There is an “other worldly” nature to it, even though it is incredibly grounded in the Elements that compose this Universe—Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Space. Earth and Water are mostly present in your experience of this holy place. Yet there is a fire in your belly that gets awakened in your intuitive ability to think and move outside the box of your routinely limited thinking. Ganesh is the “remover of obstacles,” and His presence is between the two pools. On more than one occasion I received incredible “Downloads” from Divinity bathing in these sacred waters.
All of our Lifetimes are cleansed. We embrace them in this Holy Spring, thinking about extending this Life into the infinity of the elemental components of the world we live in. Earth, Air Fire, Water and Space. These are the Divine Mother’s “five elements” which compose our bodies and our Universe. They are unified in places like Tirta Empul to infuse us with incredible sacred Power. Things start to look very good, and nothing is impossible—not even Immortal Life—in the midst of these special waters.
You may think that Heaven and Earth are two separate dimensions. But at Tirta Empul they meld as One Thing. Between Heaven and Earth there is a third place of total Unification. You can enter into this dimension of Holiness if you join your intentions with all the souls who before you enetered these springs with the desire to know God directly. In this realization is immortality not only a good idea, but a fact of Life itself. You can dive into its power every time you go to this incredible place of inner transformation. Can you look at this without any judgment? Can you trust what I am saying is true? Are you willing to go there, if not in body, but in the core of your soul to be elevated above the mortal bonds of your former reasoning?
The Most Famous Baptism
The most famous Baptism in our Western world, of course, is the Baptism of Jesus by his cousin John, after which He began His mission. The above painting of this event is probably the best you will ever see. It is “larger than life” and painted by Tintoretto. It is housed in the Church of San Silvestro in Venice. I saw it in Washington at the National Gallery of Art a few years ago at their retrospective exhibition of Tintoretto’s greatest works. Some of these works, mind you, had to stay in Venice and could not travel. But this one was a pillar of genius in the retrospective, which struck me very powerfully. The show was so moving I was inspired to go to Venice a few years later for my 70th birthday, and see other works by Tintoretto that could not travel.
Even if one did not believe in the whole Christian story, the dramatic effect of this painting could convince the viewer of the authenticty of the moment. Even the symbolic descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove becomes very plausible and real. Bridging the gap between Heaven and Earth, the figures are lit with a natural aura of Holiness that captures the moment of the Baptism and communicates this grace to us viewers nearly 500 years later. Tintoretto for sure was a master of motion and real time transmission. We are engulfed by the dynamism of the scene and taken into its reality. It transcends belief, and takes us into the world of the actual. We are blessed. We are Baptized as well by the proportions of this Holy Action.
Can you look without judgments upon this work? What is actually happening here? What do you see that you really feel? What do you see that comes into you in a way that changes something inside of you, that gives you an experience of Divine Connection that you did not have before? Can you be annointed in a new vibration of inner Peace and Joy? This painting holds out these possibilities. It transmits an Energy that is the ultimate Spirtual Purification.
Jesus bridges the gap between Heaven and Earth. His is the quintessential Child of a Living God incarnated. You are that as well, but could be in various degrees of amnesia to this fact. All of us have need of One who is clear of His Self-Identity, One Who can transmit the true knowledge of this awareness to us. Can you by example arise in your awareness of Who you are as God Created You? The Christ Consciousness is available for anyone to access. We possess it already within us. Anyone can meld Heaven and Earth within his or her soul. But usually a Teacher is needed, One who has already done that, Who can lead us past the pitfalls and self deceptions that we too often fall into.
Bridge to Bliss
Heaven and Earth are not separate dimensions, yet, in many cases we may need a bridge to make the transition from what we perceive as “this side” to what we perceive as the “other side.” A bridge could be needed. We are on one side, the Earthly side, and earnestly desire to get to the “other” side, the Heavenly side. The waters could be “troubled.” Our Earthly side could be filled with “problems”—sickness, relationship conflicts, financial woes, anxieties of the future, pressures at work. There could be a whole series of grievances we have on our “Earthy” side of life, prompting us to seek an escape from the pain we are feeling. And this desire for release requires we build a “bridge for healing,” a “spiritual spanning” that gives us a way over these troubled waters of our Life. We can start by forgiving ourselves for the place we are in now. Whatever “problems” we face, we do not need to face them alone. There is a “Spritual Confidante” Who can hold our hand and lead us over this “bridge for healing.” There are Spiritual Masters who have brigded the gap between Earth and Heaven. They have “crossed over,” so to speak, from the Hell of “earthly problems” to the Heaven of God’s Mind of Peace and Joy.
What exactly is this “bridge for healing? What do you see as the way over to the Heavenly Side? “Forgiveness is the key to happiness,” it says in A Course in Miracles in Lesson #121 in the workbook. Forgiveness is the bridge over which we must cross to meld the Earthly Side with the Heavenly Side. There is really only One Side, and that is all-pervasive Unconditional Love. This is the nature of the Universe, of the Divine Creator—Father, Mother, Child as One. The unification of Spirit, Mind, and Matter is nothing short of establishing Heaven on Earth.
Our focus needs an order of Creation. The Ultimate Reality of Spirit, which is Love, imbues our Thoughts with Divine Power, and this in turn manifests all of Creation, all Matter in the Unified Field of total Manifestation. Our mind is part of God’s and we are Holy. Our Spirit is One with Everything. Therefore, our Body can follow in alignment with this Divine Perfection. Perfect Love of this alignment takes us over the Bridge into Bliss. We can forgive everything. Even the physical and mental “problems” in which we may find ourselves.
Spirit is in a State of Grace Forever.
There is a prayer in A Course in Miracles that goes someting like this:
SPIRIT IS IN A STATE OF GRACE FOREVER.
YOUR REALITY IS ONLY SPIRIT. THEREFORE,
YOU ARE IN A STATE OF GRACE FOREVER.
This is a profound statement when recognized, understood, and realized. We can receive its boon if we give it attention. So many wise statements fail to ground themselves in our vortex of being simply because we do not give them a chance to take root and grow. We may say, “Yes, I agree,” but then impatiently move on to the next consumption of a tidbit of wisdom without having integrated what we just heard or read.
Do we really get it that our Being is Spirit, and that this Reality is immortal? Therefore, we are immortal? Our Self-Identity is in a “State of Grace, Forever.” Do we really get this point? Crossing the Bridge to Bliss depends on this acceptance. Otherwise, we will not feel we deserve Heaven on Earth.
We will probably doubt that knowing we are Spirit has any real benefit in our daily life now. Just what is this “Spirit thing?” It is an Energy beyond the senses, which infuses itself in every atom of Creation. It is that invisible ether that gives everything the impetus to BE alive! We can witness it in the Divine Mother’s Matter in all things, and we could say it is the Spark of Heaven that gives actual Life to Earth. We cannot separate the two. And when we give up this notion of Separation from Spirit, the Whole of all Creation is laid at our feet. We have it all. It belongs to US in its entirety~! It “encompasses us in totality, and holds us in It’s arms that never sleep.” (From Ode #6 in “Odes to the Divine Mother.” )
It only seems like Spirit is Eternal “Nothingness.” It is a Love unfathomable that has no Form. Yet, It provides the Creative spark that enters into Form and manifests a Cosmos, ourselves included, in that action of Divine Grace. The seed of the Divine Father enters into the first Point of Matter of the Divine Mother, and the Big Bang takes effect and creates a whole Universe, with all of Their Children intact. That would be Us, in a State of Grace Forever.
Out of Nothing Came All
At Babaji’s Upper Ashram in Chilianaula in India, you can see the snow covered peaks of the High Himalayas. It is a humbling affair. The highest points on the planet are there. You feel their ascendency. They are very real. They have a presence of purity the likes of no other points on the planet may have. They are the home of Lord Shiva. Shiva is the aspect of God Who takes us back to our Source before Time or Space began. He is the Great Void of Stillness and Silence, the Potential Manifesting Power of Nothingness, the Energy before the Nada Bindu Point from which Creation all emeged out of the womb of the Divine Mother, Who gave birth to Universes of Universes.
Babaji is a manifstation of Lord Shiva in our Lifetime. Truth, Simplicity, Love and Service are the four pillars of a beautiful life that He would suggest we live by. We go every year to His Ashram, during the time of the Divine Mother Festival, to charge up our spiritual batteries and be in the Presence of Saintly People He left in charge of His Mission on earth in these times. It is a humbling experience, and also an uplifting one. Anyone who sees with the eyes of spiritual maturity is aware immediately of the elevated nature of experience at this sacred place and sacred time. Babaji’s Presence is all around, and the Divine Mother’s Grace is offered freely to anyone who has the capacity to receive it.
I went here with Sondra Ray in 1987, three years after Babaji had taken Conscious Departure (Samahdi) from His body in 1984. I was transformed. Little did I know then I would go on a 20 year journey into A Course in Miracles that would reduce my life down to Nothing. After nearly 20 years of association with my Teacher of A Course in Miracles, Tara Singh, I found my life in the Void of Shiva’s Nothingness. Nothing in my conventional life had any meaning after my tutelege with Tara Singh ended in 2006 when he chose to leave his body for good. I was on the verge of a New Mission.
Enter Sondra Ray. I am in love with Sondra Ray. She is my “everything,” I like to say. I find her attractive in every way. And, even when I am in some piece of my own “case” (some part of my negative thinking from my past) she lifts me into the Immortal Spring of my Soul, and sets me back on the right track of my illustrious life with her. Out of my sacred “Nothing” came my holy “All.” Truly~!
What Do I See?
I see the Grace that the Life of the Spirit placed me in Forever. I see my Reality is a dance of Truth, Simplicity, Love and Service to humanity. I see Sondra Ray as my Divine Consort Whom the Holy Masters lined up for me. “I behold myself with Love, a radiant Being Who God created whole and innocent.” This is what I see. When I am not seeing it, my Consort Sondra Ray reminds me to look again, choose once again my own Sacred Reality, not my ego’s illusions.
Shiva is the “Destroyer of Illusions.” Ganesh, His Son, is the “Remover of Obstacles.” And Jesus of a Course in Miracles is the bestower of complete forgiveness, the Aonement. And with the Unconditional Love of the Divine Mother, in the form of my Consort, Sondra Ray, what do I have to worry about? I see my Spirit that is in a “state of Grace forever.” I accept myself as God Created me. You can too.
Here we are in the Light Tunnel of Love at the National Gallery of Art in our Beloved Washington. BOLE, BABA KI JAI!
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