Perspective
An ant walking on a smooth but house-sized boulder has no
idea he is walking on a rounded surface. To him, it is flat. Neither does he
have a concept of walking on more than one plane as he gains and loses altitude
through his work and wandering. He would be mistaken were he to assume the
surface is flat and that there was only one plane. Yet from his perspective
both might appear to be the case.
In this culture, we see time as linear and this life as largely
one-dimensional in terms of the effects of our actions, beliefs and intentions.
Look at our calendar. It is linear. One second follows another and another into
minutes, hours, days, years and decades. These are accounted for in a
“one-follows another” fashion until the end of our lives. With regards to our
actions, the interrelatedness of all things has long been a subject for debate
among philosophers and mystics of traditions the world over. Yet the ideas of karma, of multiple realities
and of quantum mechanic concepts such as “superposition” are generally unknown
and do not interest the masses. I submit that neither the assumption of time as
linear or life as one-dimensional could be seen as true except from the
perspective of our mortality, from this one place and plane. Further, I submit
that it makes a difference as to the way we experience the condition we call
mortal life to the degree that it could be said – and often is – that we are
asleep as a species until we awaken to the truth of these matters. Until, that
is, we transcend false ideas about them.
Some estimate that practices that enable us to transcend our
mortal perspective in this regard have been in place for up to a hundred
thousand years. Transcending the mortal perspective regarding time and the
interrelatedness of all life was once the property of the shamans, mystics and
spirit workers.
It is no longer.
I submit that it is time for the human race to begin to look
in earnest at the wisdom of the Elders of the Earth, wherever they are found,
and that it is now incumbent upon the human race to comprehend Life as one
might comprehend the voice of the rain.
For instance, an individual drop of rain touches a forest,
for instance; a leaf, needle, rock, furry back, upturned face. The drop makes a
sound. In that instant, the raindrop has a voice.
Sitting on my deck in the pre-dawn darkness, I hear the
sound of millions of raindrops touching the forest. These million voices make
the sound that my mortal self has identified as that of a rainstorm.
If there were one voice less, the sound would be different.
The difference would be imperceptible to me, but it would in fact be different.
The fact that I, clothed in this mortality, cannot ascertain
the difference between a million drops hitting the forest floor and one less doing
so is not significant. The sound would be different whether I can sense it or
not. I acknowledge that there is a reality beyond my five or six senses.
We assume that Creator is not limited by mortality. We could
safely assume then, I suspect, that Creator would perceive this difference. It
would be sensed. One less drop would be missed.
I mentioned earlier that while I am clothed in this body, I can
hear the voices of many raindrops as they touch the forest. Follow-up questions
might include inquiries such as, “How is it that I can hear them? How does my
ear discern the sound?” One answer might be that I hear them because there is a
difference between hearing them and not hearing them. It is the difference that my ear keys to. I do not
hear them before they touch and I do not hear them afterwards. There is a small
instant where they sound. It is this that I comprehend as I listen.
Listening to the rainstorm, it sounds unified, like one
continuous sound. It is easy to oversimplify and miss the fact that I am
hearing millions of voices. Again, Creator does not miss this fact, but senses
the difference between a million and one less. Creator’s perspective is infinitely
expansive.
It is Creator’s perspective to which we as a species must
begin to comprehend, not with the mind, but with the traditional seat of the
soul, the heart.
Just as we can see that an ant walking on a boulder is not
walking a flat surface. He is not walking a single plane.
--Eric Marley
September 2014
