Gateways.

  The not-such-good-news is that the pariahs, those who early in life consciously sold their souls to the devil – the money-speculators, bankers, brokers, agents, priests, politicians, ‘professionals’, conmen, thieves – who would have us believe they are the backbone of modern society, but really predate on their own kind; their way is a consuming cancer.  They seek to draw us into their web, which appears against the sky like scaffolding, but it’s a trap.  They seek to devour what they can of our beings before discarding the remains.  Worse still, they seek to sell their wickedness as a right way for others to follow.  Theirs is the path of damnation, degradation, destruction, devastation.

  The Good News is that there is another way, the Real Way, but we have to shake off the detritus to find it in ourselves.

 

  “ You have within you a ‘spark’, some call it a ‘divine spark’, some ‘soul’, which are all the same, really.  All very well to suggest such a thing, but how can one know it to be true ?  By finding out !  We will call this finding-out the ‘original search’, for that is what it is; one’s first real search for what one can absolutely know is true, which turns out to be ‘what is true for you’, as the real you is all you have to go on.  The sense of the ‘real you’ is at once both the goal of your original search, your guide, and destiny.

  “ Very many humans avoid this all-the-way-deep soul-searching for shallow excuses, like they’re too busy chasing their fantasy, ‘chasing their tails’, and so forth.  Very many are too attached to what they subscribe to, to what they have been taught, to what they may want to believe in, to the conventions of a world so crazy it is destroying itself.  They know nothing else, no better, nor does anyone else they know, other than some crazies chasing the scent of a dream. 

  “ The door, or ‘Gateway’, to one’s ‘original search’ can be an ‘end-of-tether’ situation of a personal nature.  In other words, humans seem to need a reason – a powerful fed-up-ness, inner desperation, sorrow, ‘nose in the gutter’, end-of-the-line confusion – to bring them to the point of sitting down alone, to work out who in heaven or hell they really are, what life is, whether to live or die.  Sometimes, this moment may come to a young person confused by years of poor parenting, inappropriate ‘education’, social pressures, trauma, and the prospect of an adult lifetime ahead with little object beyond some seemingly prescribed compromise of self.  Sometimes, it can come a little later in life, when the compromises and confusions have become overwhelming and unbearable.  Sometimes, it may come to the aged who have endured a difficult life and would like to live out their days in peace.  Many endure, clinging to what have become the chains that bind them, and never come to it.

  “ There are other ‘gateways’ to profound inner seeking and learning, too.  Imagine a circle over here of the gifted, thems blessed with extraordinary talents, good intentions, well-meaning innocence, bright-eyed trust; and, in that direction over there, another ‘group’ of wind-in-their-hair folk in woods and gardens, on the land with the animals and growing crops, hunting and caring for wildlife and the environment, out sailing, surfing, mountaineering, adventuring, exploring, and the like; and then, over there, the thoughtful and creative, dreamers, poets, artists, sculptors, musicians, singers, writers, wood-carvers, story-tellers, designers, the transformers, creative artisans, and the rest; and again, somewhere else over there, the natural healers, those whose nature or experience leads them to helping and healing others in need, some near-saintly in their provision.  And there are some with a cornucopia of all these elements of human-being, too.

  “ And one must suppose the majority of nowhere people sitting in their nowhere land, not knowing where they’re going, the confused, the cold, homeless and hungry, the weak, the alcoholics and addicts, the down-trodden, and the ‘idiots’ – those addicted to modern materialism and claptraps – might find reason to begin to find their way, somewhat shakily, (perhaps from the rejection of their children); but very few will get far without help.

  “ Any and all of these people can be moved to enquire deeper into the self, towards soul.  Many will have had this or that sort of experience – some of them ‘spiritual’, without really paying much attention – too busy with ego, the false self; others paying too much attention, imagining they are special, much too busy with their wannabe selves.  But then again, some, here and there, may begin to be touched profoundly, imagining they experience a non-event as guidance, as a nudge, a mystery, a puzzle, a challenge.  Then again, one may suffer a series of wonderful, or dreadful, man-made experiences that may or may not have profound meaning.  Are such experiences a test, a consequence, an inspiration, or what?          

  “ So, one might find oneself sitting down alone to embark on one’s ‘original search’.  What then ?  One comes to realise the only way to get anywhere, to get to the bottom of it, is by being honest with oneself; completely, utterly and ruthlessly honest.  Only that way can one progress on the journey.  Anything else misleads.  So, one’s original searching begins in earnest. 

  “ To be ruthlessly honest with oneself demands letting go everything one has ever been taught in order to be able to discover what one really thinks and feels; because that alone is our guide; that alone we can know; and that alone is how we learn who we really are.  Each one of us is potentially important, whatever that might mean.  It’s a battle of right and wrong, of real and unreal, that must be won.  One must let go the ego-nonsense, the wanting, and make-believe; perhaps what one’s parents or school have leaned on; what they may have inflicted on the child; prejudice and conditioning ?  At every turn, there’s challenge, confusion, conflict to be shrugged-off in order to progress to the depths of one’s being, because that is where one is going; to find out who one really is.  

  “ If one is brave enough, sometimes desperate enough, possibly both, one may come to perceive one’s essence, which may appear as the yolk of an egg surrounded by albumen, or a sun surrounded by clouds.  And the realisation may come that this concept of original essence represents one’s Life Spark, one’s ‘Soul’, within and without.  The thing is, this concept of essence within – this soul – is the realised Real You, a silent recognition, but only the very beginning.  We can call this essence your ‘spark’, the source of your spirit-energy; and the realisation of it for-real becomes the one and only ‘first-day of the rest of your Life’. ” [1]

 

  This will be the way of survivors.

 

[1]  from ‘Come Sunrise’, chapter two, 2019-20.  Gaunts Publishing.