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And so this week has found me loosely ruminating about "the spirit made flesh" and how the term "image" was used in "God made man in his own image"... As usual, there were many comparisons and mini discussions with Ramana and Nisargadatta as well. Would it be safe to say that at a certain level it all sort of boils down to one Being anyhow? You can call it whatever you like and, yeah, sometimes I do joke and call IT the Grand Poobah because my humor is weird like that! Anyhow, "spirit made flesh" has been intriguing "me" as well as something Ramana had said about perspectives which basically says "that if you see all as spirit then all will be spirit and if you see all as flesh then all will be flesh." I've got to a point where I DO see it ALL as one undivided spirit or "Being" as I often say but it also extends past spirit or flesh if that makes sense. It's very reminiscent of the "One without a second" statement from The Vedas. I can't find anything other than this One that does not appear and disappear within the One. Now we can call the One spirit or whatever but it's simply EVERYTHING and, yes, I do mean every pixel, grain of sand, or whatever... The name or form of spirit or flesh really doesn't make any difference to the One Being nor do the polarity ripples which rise and fall like play. Bad is as good as good and good is as bad as bad, boom, boom, it's all the same Being so where is the actual difference? This story comes, this story goes, and somehow "I Am" regardless of a story or not. And, getting back to the "image" thing, is it all really just Lila or Holography? REALLY seems that way and yet also not. I mean, then your girlfriend will throw up something like, "so you don't believe I'm real?" or "I'm not real to you?" and then what do you say? "Yes, you're real as the one spirit but not real as an individual," was what appeared to be said... And then how do you deal with individual wants, desires, needs, etc., which includes your own perceived said items? Do you reach a point where you simply see the insubstantial nature of them all and just laugh or do you simply nod and smile and grow quieter and quieter? Would it make any sense if I said IT was all perfect just the way it is unfolding and that nothing really can be done to alter the program except a continual turning back to the seer-source? I do not mean to sound indifferent but the dream really does come and go so how to deal effectively with that dream? Is there anything that CAN be done? Well, at this juncture, it certainly doesn't seem like a character in a revolving dream can do anything other than exactly what is being dreamed and that will be just as it needs to be so back to turning toward the seer... I think of an eternal eye a lot and Ramana's statement of "Seeing IS Being" but I also still see many contradictions in some teachings. For example, teaching A will say "trust everything to the higher power" and teaching B will say "you are the higher power" and, yes, that can cause a contradiction between Jnana and Bhakti yet the end result is supposed to be the same. And, yes, you can say the contradiction is in the thought "contradiction" in itself and just revert back to silence. And, yeah, I could go on and on about apparent differences and I guess the desired outcome would be an "unshakable knowing of the truth" or something similar. Yeah, maybe it all comes down to a need to know beyond the shadow of the slightest doubt but who needs to know? "How to know for sure?" definitely seems to be at the heart of all this exploration. Or, "how to realize once and for all that you are indeed the immortal, timeless, presence, that you extremely strongly feel is yourself?" Hmmmm...sometimes I think the simplest answer is "what else is there?" Do "I" or "You" know anything beyond THAT? So, it's back to one Being everywhere, every time, and as the essence of all things. Zen-wise, emptiness and form are same, and so on... Nisargadatta, I think, would say something like "Same/Same" is probably second level, relatively, and you need to strive on to the final level of Beyond but, of course, the irony is that you already are Beyond so even such striving gets laughable! Can you be more Brahman than Brahman? Hahahahahaha, see? How to get to where One has always been? How comical and yet seemingly frustrating all at once. That said, I hear Ramana reminding me that all one can do is keep refocusing back to the seer and finally see all the camouflage as camouflage... Ok, in other news, I've been thinking about smallness and the fact that I only have one or two people in the dream world which might miss this body if it passes. I don't know why that has been darting in and out of the nether but it has. Does it speak of needs or what? I dunno but I do know I am about as insignificant as a reflection can get. In fact, I've sort of embraced the whole Bhakti thing of "It's All God!" except I deeply realize "God and I" still speaks of duality. "Brahman Alone," is what I would say but, yep, that would be "I". Feelings of unsettlement pass... Now recalling Ramana saying, "The door to God is always open but the lintel is mighty low!" Now considering feelings about dissolving or fading away except where could I go? These are strange hypothetical days my dreamy friends and now I picture Jonah descending into the gullet of the whale and now even Tiamat. I have no clue how I got into all this or even if I am in it. The dream becomes more surreal and yet sort of like ripples just easing back into still pond. So, I guess I will leave off "here" for now and loosely continue contemplations... Peace!