The blind see. When that remarkable statement is made, it is an admission that vision is an inner phenomenon. We see things out of nothing. Except there is no nothing. What do we all see, without a single exception? We see that we are one. That the creation is one. That our destiny in one. When people write of mystical experience this is the heart of it. The unity that means finally that we are unified.
This is not mystical dreaming. Nor is it pie in the sky.
All you need to do is read a little James Ellroy to be aware that hell is not some notion of the basement of an imagined three-story universe.
Hell is the way things are when we allow our freedom to let all the stops of evil out. We are all aware of that phenomenon. We can watch temptation take its toll by setting our eyes on hellish scenes of greed and cruelty.
Last word
But vision tells us this is not the end. Everything comes down to this one Truth. The last word is not chaos, rage, and doom. Justice, truth, and beauty conquer all.
Still, we insist on turning "is" to "should." The way things are is how they are for real. What really is inside us all is oneness, the fruit of knowing why we were made free. Without freedom dignity is toast. Respect is based on seeing dignity. If all are free, then all can become good.
Universal vision
Martin Luther King, Jr.
understood. But we fail if we do not perceive that King like all of us was made of clay. Our clay is part of what will change someday. We are embarked upon a common journey, whether we starve or lie on beds of silk. When we divide and cut and slice and dice, we make a travesty of underlying truth.
The final truth is oneness through and through.
Dr. King’s Interconnected World https://t.co/1ihEh3woN1
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) December 23, 2017
None righteous
It's wrong to point to one and venerate. Each one of us has things that cause us shame. Beyond all shame, forgiveness is the means, by which we rise to try and try again. We have no leg to stand on, have no claims.
And yet that inner voice says, "Start again."
Self-righteous judgment is not Christmas-like, but it is thick as thieves online and off. The vision of one eye might be a clue, which lets humility creep in the door. Look closely, see the beauty, see the calm. Then drink of wisdom that was always there.
Jesus
The enduring significance of Jesus is that he is a universal guide. It has nothing to do with his churchified identity which has so often been used to divide, judge and condemn. But no force can or will contradict his goodness. When the church truly forgives and does not inundate the world with "shoulds," it will be more in tune with the one whose birth it celebrates each Christmas season.
