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Awakening
by zoe Monday, Jun 2 2014, 1:26pm
international / prose / post

I apologise for not waking to the obvious earlier and disseminating that which i took as widely known by the majority but discovered was hardly known. But as is most often the case few see what is directly before their eyes and as a trained analyst, habitually searching layer upon layer of material for (hidden) meaning, i have a legitimate excuse but not a vindication!

The awakening occurred in another context, a poem and a theological text. An action was indicated in both texts by the word ‘open’ and the action of ‘opening’ (the heart). The text highlights an age old problem humanity has faced since the first day of our ‘humaness.’ A two thousand year old Greek text covers the topic and we can be sure that it was not the first time the topic was raised among men and women.

The protagonist of the theological narrative, acting as ‘God/Saviour,’ makes a very clear unambiguous statement, perhaps even a promise, ‘Look,’ he says, I am [already] at YOUR door knocking, if you are able to hear me and OPEN the [locked] door I will enter and commune with you and you with me.’ -- Revelation 3:20. Also note the inference that we (all humanity) are in the immediate presence of our redemption -- not a man made God but the infinite cosmic intelligence that created us/everything.

As previously stated, i never get carried away by first order/layer discourse but view/read all texts -- including the world -- as broadly as possible. If we accept the first literal layer of discourse we immediately deny ourselves the opportunity of discovering gems of truth hidden in the text by the usual literary devices.

I first dumped the obvious mythic crap about ‘God’ and read everything as social discourse, which always informs and instructs, especially when the story is delivered as narrative. After reading/decoding the texts mentioned what became evident was the human propensity for psychological retraction, the process of locking ourselves away from the totality of experience/LIFE and living a confined, restricted and narrow existence (in a 'box'), in a sense hiding from the greater experience; which behaviour applies to all people in all cultures.

That propensity is clearly a universal social malaise, i have not found any society traditional or ‘developed’ where this odd destructive habit does not occur! So a question goes begging, what universal factor causes humanity to retract or lock themselves away and guard against any form of intrusion?

The obvious answer, which is covered extensively in the theological text, is of course FEAR; the number of instances that “fear not,” ‘have no fear or be afraid’ is mentioned in the Bible is staggering; however, the condition is treated in a very matter of fact way, as though it is to be expected that humans are essentially ‘chicken shits’ and scared of everything.

The next question that arises is whether this condition is prevalent today and of course one need only look at America to verify that nothing has changed -- the most powerful nation on earth is host to the most fearful population on earth, which is a very sad irony as frightened people are violent people?

The poem, written by a woman, implores us to be brave and open our hearts and let the light of love, nobility, kindness, exaltation etc, into our contractionist, terrified lives -- to heal ourselves in other words! The religious text is more brutal and mentions morbid fear as inherent to the human condition something almost to be expected.

What does it all mean? Surely the answer to that question is also obvious. Liberation or REAL freedom waits patiently for us to overcome our FEAR SYNDROME and open ourselves to the totality of life/knowledge/experience. I need not labour the point.

In conclusion i would emphasise a warning mentioned in a veiled manner in numerous theological texts, and that is the existence of a minority criminal class of people that use FEAR to enslave the majority to their advantage. You see, what is occurring socially today has always occurred in large organised societies; the remedy for this age old problem is also encoded in numerous ancient texts in a wide variety of cultures. Is it necessary to ask which nation has the most enslaved population today -- genital groping anyone?

It becomes clear that our primary task is to overcome fear, as a life lived in fear is no life at all. Yes, I am ware that sounds trite but have we forgotten so soon? The perfect antidote to FEAR is LOVE -- as love increases and becomes part of our everyday being, fear diminishes until it is finally overwhelmed.

i am completely at a loss to account for why it took me so long to appreciate the obvious and the simple solutions to one of humanity's oldest and enduring problems.

Peace.