More lessons from the Crossroad

After completing the last post (whose ending felt most inconclusive to me), I went downstairs to have lunch. As is my habit, I looked for something to read and picked up David Richo's book, Shadow Dance, which was recommended by a friend, and which I seem to be having trouble getting through.

I opened it to the page where I last stopped reading, and found, on that page and the following page, numerous additional insights into this photo, so I am re-posting the photo and will list the insights in the order that they appeared:

1. "Every person and thing is simultaneously everything and all." Which is, I believe, pretty much where I left off at the end of the last post: the horizontal isn't just my axis; it's an all-inclusive plane.

2. "The Self is the vehicle of an unconditional yes to the conditions of human existence with all its dust, and a yes to the the condition of human sanctity with all its grandeur." So, yes, we exist here on the road, with the dust, and at the same time in the vertical/holy/sanctified dimension.

3. "The Self is the Buddha nature, our essential wholeness that waits for full awakening. Our work is to take steps in that direction." To me this feels like standing where the photographer stands in this image, taking in the wholeness, the connectedness with what is around us, and at the same time the call to move forward onto the road ahead.

4. [When we take these steps] "the shifts occur in our consciousness that engender compassion because they actualize that potential of the Buddha nature. This is why when we are awakened from the slumber of ego, the first thing we say is: "May all beings benefit from my work and from my gifts." I love this: it's like suddenly getting that there are three dimensions, not two, and then saying "Hey, it's all connected, everything we do affects all of us." Well, duh!

5. "The compassion happens when and because we realize we all have this same enlightened nature, but some of us are so caught up in ego fear and desire that we miss our access to it." What I had forgotten is that by focusing on the vertical I was getting caught up in ego, focusing on MY connection to MY God.

6. "The Self, Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, is our essence, always and already whole." We are not two-dimensional beings, we are three-dimensional; to only see the two dimensions would always be to be less than whole.

7. "The purpose of spiritual practice is to display in our lifetime the timeless life of the Self, our Buddha consciousness. Existential work unveils the essential reality. This essential reality is described as a void or emptiness because it is empty of separate, self-standing existence... in this freedom from division is the access to awakening and to compassion." Yes! (and this might explain that big red X, and the no-turn sign) The purpose of spiritual practice is to choose to step forward, but not into the future, or some other separate vantage point. Rather we are called to step into the picture itself; to move from the sense of a separate observing ego, the photographer who stands apart and takes the picture, into the mystery at the intersection of the axes; to move into an experience of oneness, not just with God, but with all creation.

8. "The Self cannot be defined... it is a mystery...not something hard to understand becuase it is so complex, but rather that which is not graspable by the analytically, linearly limited ego that has the wherewithal only to solve problems. A problem is something to be solved; a mystery is something to become involved in. The deeper we reach into a mystery, the deeper it becomes, that is, the more mysterious. The reach takes letting go of ego, which is the point and aim of spiritual practice."

Ah. Amazing, isn't it, how these lessons have a way of falling into our path...