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Did Jesus get zits?

Ten years ago, I began a series of one-year courses with my teacher, Ethel, called Multidimensional Energy Work. I’ve mentioned this before, as well as the profound impact that this work/play has had on my spiritual evolving.

One of Ethel’s teachers has been Mother Meera, a woman from India who lives in Germany and holds darshan there and when she travels the world. Her followers believe that Mother Meera is an avatar, an actualized being, the Divine in human form. I once read a book about her and scoffed when I discovered that she’d had nose surgery (not cosmetic) to correct a painful and annoying condition. What kind of god(dess) has body parts that don’t work? I mean, really, why not just fix it? Why the need to involve a surgeon?

I never really found an answer to the question about how an all-powerful and all-knowing being can have issues until years later when I was taking Ethel’s multidimensional energy class at the same time I was teaching 7th grade geography. I was teaching a unit on what happens when you smush a globe of the actual three-dimensional entity — the Earth — into a two-dimensional map. The teacher-guide of the textbook suggested having the students take a whole-as-possible orange peel and try to flatten it down so that no parts raised or buckled.

Turns out that when you turn something three-dimensional into something two-dimensional, there is distortion.

I applied this new analogy to Mother Meera. SHE is a multi-dimensional being (as am I, as are you). SHE is living as a three-dimensional being (as am I, as are you). THIS is how illness, misfortune, difficulties, horrible circumstances can happen to divine beings. On some level, we may actually be creating these experiences — for the sheer juiciness of being human and experiencing fallibility and the full spectrum of emotions.

I am going through a distortion of high magnitude now. I’m not sure what, if any, I will unfurl here publicly. But all this is to say that living and mindfully as I try to do, taking  good care of myself and my family as I try to do, breathing and being present and all the things that I know I should do and yet don’t often enough put into practice — all these deposits in the karma bank did not protect me from a really tough thing. Nor did I expect them to.

~~~~~

This weekend I took the kids on a theatre-hike. As we settled at the first clearing where Hansel and Gretel unfolded in front of us, we laid down the blanket that the theater company had loaned us.

Another mom and her two young children asked if they could share our blanket. I said yes but Tessa’s body language said “No!” as it occupied as much of the blanket as she could cover. The lady drifted away, not wanting to further engage with us.

We walked to the play’s next clearing and I said to Tessa something we’ve talked about before: “The Universe has a way of showing you yourself. So watch in the next week or so for someone to not share with you when clearly they could if they wanted to. This is so that you get the chance to see what it’s like to be on the other side of your actions.”

Soon we were at the next stage of the play, another clearing on a beautiful hike. Tessa laid down our blanket and, without any encouragement from me, sought out that lady and invited her and her children to sit with us. Which they did.

I smiled at her and she smiled back.

~~~~~

I attended my very first yoga conference this week, a day at the Hanuman Festival. One instructor took us into a deep meditation where we were, in theory, accessing our intuition and experiencing the all-encompassing love of the divine, the unity of all.

I, deeply wounded from the events of the week and the absolute stuck-ness that had a stranglehold on my life, had difficulty getting my thoughts out of the way to fully experience the session.

After the meditation, the leader told us about the five yogic sutras. I needed only the first two she mentioned (there is no order to them).

  • Recognize the other person is you.
  • There is a way through every block.

If we see qualities that we dislike in another – again, we are only seeing ourselves – perhaps a disowned part called the shadow. The more we are identified with our ego, the more judgmental we will be toward others and the more we will project our own personality traits onto others…

…Every challenge, no matter how great or small, has a solution or a way through. This solution, however, doesn’t come from the rational or logical mind. A pros and cons list will not work. The solution will come bubbling to the surface through your intuition. How do you know the difference between intuition and thoughts from the mind? Intuition is neutral in energy – there is no judgment, no ‘shoulds’ and no fear. Intuition is the creative energy.

— CatalystYogi.com

~~~~~

Not that I’m an avatar, not that I’m actualized, not that I’m anyone’s savior.

But within me is the seed of the divine. The boundless, multi-dimensional divine, which is playing around  on a three-dimensional stage and experiencing distortion in doing so. I am perceiving myself in others and reflecting others to themselves on this stage.

We are learning to love, really love, our blemishes.

So simple. Not so easy.

17 Responses

  1. so often “love this” is the reaction to what you do here… as you have gone through whatever down it is that matches the up somewhere else, i find corollaries in my own life “ride” and have begun reading Chogyam Trungpa’s thoughts on spiritual materialism and it’s been so refreshing to realize we just need a sense of humor about human existence married to spiritual practice. Jesus with zits certainly qualifies..
    the notion of “life” having distortions as part of its basic nature has the ring of innate wisdom. it’s almost as if it wouldn’t be sweet if there wasn’t a little salty..and it would truly be hard to be compassionate if we’d never experienced anything other than bliss.

  2. ah Karma, what I live by…faith and karma…it all comes back I think.

    I believe it’s our “blemishes” that make us beautiful, human, part of..and I hope that in your journey you embrace all of the things that make you beautiful inside and out. See yourself the way I do…as an AMAZING HUMAN BEING.
    xxxooo

  3. Darling,
    I don’t know what you are struggling with right now but it hurts me to know you are hurting. I always think of you so strong and smart and capable and unflappable and I hope you see yourself that way too. I see you surrounded by light. I absolutely loved the Tessa story and I am going to use your wise way of teaching through that experience with my own kids one day. xxo

  4. L3, You are, indeed the divine avatar for me today, the “Blog Bender”…not to be confused with the “Bog Blender”. Hugs!

  5. So interesting that you wrote this. Here’s my connection to your post today…

    Before reading here, I found myself offering advice to another female blogger today about being ‘open’ to the change that is infront of you. You just have to be ready to see it and believe in it. This, in particular, being open to adoption and ‘letting go’ of biology. For me, remember…my big ah-ha moment was hearing this quote;

    “Just when we think we figured things out, the universe throws us a curveball. So, we have to improvise. We find happiness in unexpected places. We find ourselves back to the things that matter the most. The universe is funny that way. Sometimes it just has a way of making sure we wind up exactly where we belong. ”

    Remember???? 😉

    I heard your voice in my words as I counselled her today. It is so true. Once you see it, and believe it, it will come to you.

    Such a powerful lesson you taught Tessa. Even more incredible that she was willing to ‘see it’ herself.

    I love this post!

  6. Here with you during your tough thing. I hope you can work your way through it as quickly and painlessly as possible.

    And, may I say again – you are a great mom. Your children are going to be lovely adults someday, due to the lessons you teach them.

  7. The world definitely has a way of teaching us that we’re all hypocrites, but you had an amazing way of saying it to Tessa right in her moment. This is going to stay on my mind!

  8. A perfect post — one that makes the reader think for a long time after they close the screen. First and foremost, sending love on the difficult moments. But beyond that, a thank you for this new way of seeing the three dimensional go two dimensional.

  9. I love this post. I’m sorry there is dimensional distortion affecting your life and leading to this post.

    BTW, love the orange analogy and the lesson Tessa so easily learned.

  10. My thoughts are with you right now! I can certainly identify and empathize with experiencing those moments in life when you are less than proud of yourself or disappointed in your short-comings. The visual of flattening an orange peel really struck me! I thought the way you handled the situation with your daughter was wonderful and gentle and powerful. My daughter is just four months old, but I do look to you as a kind of parent mentor 🙂

    One thought–there is a book called Shadow Dance by David Richo, and it is so wonderful. It changed my life when I read it, and I’ve had it sitting on my dresser to read again just recently. It provided comfort for me during my own time of distortion a few years ago….

    Thank you again for your illuminating words!

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