Peaceful World

During this morning’s meditation I became aware that the street outside was quiet, devoid of traffic and no other sounds apart from birds and the rain on the window. The soft occasional temple bell sound from my phone timer was the only thing to gently break into my reverie. I could have been anywhere in the world; halfway up a mountain or in the middle of nowhere for all the outside noise of which there wasn’t any. Nothing mattered really, and any passing thoughts quickly moved on unchallenged.

It reminded me of my first day at school when I was 5. I came from a home where there was only mum and no other siblings my age, the radio was on sometimes for Woman’s Hour or the “Play for Today”, the quiet would have been deafening had I had a comparison. I wasn’t allowed to make noise, shout, sing, keep up chatter and ask questions, I would be hissed into silence. Mum didn’t do people or social situations. She was reclusive. So I largely spent my time in the garden or drawing pictures and reading, (lucky I could read at an early age I suppose!) and thinking.

That first day in the playground was a terrifying experience. I spent it cowering in a corner with my hands pressed tightly over my ears against the barrage of noise that was nothing short of painful. I kept trying to escape back into the sanctuary of the school building, only to be turfed back out again. The staff obviously thinking I was faking it. The other kids got accustomed to calling me “weird” or “thick” because I didn’t have any idea how to interact on a social level, never having had to before. After a week or so (not sure how long) I got on with the hubbub and the people and surrendered to what is normal life. A final temple gong had sounded somewhere some long time ago in the back of my mind and with no real idea how long I had “sat” I attempted to move. Both buttocks had gone completely to sleep and my legs and feet were numb and difficult to move. I had been on that cushion for 40 odd minutes and it took me a while to kick myself into the day, but the insight and internal space I created for myself was priceless.

Love Love Love. Where did it go……

As it is Maytime and Beltane, and a fire festival in the pagan calendar, it’s Spring officially and Summer is fast approaching. As a pagan myself, this is a time of handfastings, declarations of love and a celebration of passion and sexual enjoyment out of doors. I’ve been to some lovely handfastings, and each one is as individual as the next one.

This is the time of year when the sap is rising in the trees and plants, animals and also in humans. We are no exception. We are driven by primeval desire and animal instincts through our animal brain stem and although we don’t have seasonal urges, we are always more “switched on” in the warmer sunnier weather. We do however, have the gift of the frontal lobes of our brain which have evolved over the ages and given us the ability to overcome our base urges with our intellect and sense of love and compassion for our fellow man.

Aliens landing now would find this hard to believe as they watch us warring with each other; imprisoning and torturing each other and imposing cruel regimes on our fellow man which is the stuff of sci fi horror. The older I get the more confused and disappointed I am at the combined mindset of my fellow man, particularly in the relationship department. What is commonly described to me as love seems as far removed from that as it is possible to be. I have always understood sex to be a raising of energy on a spiritual level, or an equal and balanced enjoyment of mutual pleasure and respect by spiritually mature people. Sadly I too often see it used as a conditional bargaining chip or a manipulative emotional or business arrangement where one is the aggressor and controlling influence and the other either puts up and shuts up or there is evidence of threats and coercion.

Of course there are relationships where it is agreed by the participants that one is the dominant and the other the submissive, and this is balanced, mutually agreed upon and purely between the people concerned and I am not referring to arrangements like this.

What I am referring to are the less balanced ones where one party gets enjoyment from overpowering the other against their will. A great many relationships would not exist if it were not for sex and its darker aspects. The thing that really upsets me and has become more apparent to me as I have got older is the amount of so called “spiritual” people who delight in manipulating devoted people in a less than spiritually sexual way, often against their will, and becoming angered when the recipient of their attention starts to object. I don’t think control and possession belong in any spiritual union and should certainly not occur to an attuned individual who has tamed the dragon energy inside, the serpent of temptation, and yet continues to demand obedience and submission form an unwilling subject.

People are people and holding a position of trust, particularly in a religious or devout context does not shield you from the normal temptations of excess. No one is beyond being exploited or exploiting another. It takes a constantly vigilant person to know themselves, accept their weaknesses, acknowledge the part they play in its continuation and take responsibility for the after effects of any decision they make. Until we can be completely honest with ourselves, and allow our higher mind to guide us and not allow the primeval mind to have full sway, we as a society, will likely continue the mistakes of the past generations and onward into an unknown future. No race is exempt and no religion or regime will have all the answers. The key to a life of love and compassion lies purely within each one of us. Our unconscious guidance, the small still inner voice, is the voice of love and understanding, the one we often choose not to listen to or to respond to. Sex and love can both exist equally together and also without each other, but beware of confusing the two.

All You Need is Love. The Beatles.  https://youtu.be/0oHeeEot35M