Start Sowing
the Seeds of a New Life
by Guy Finley
I live on top of a small
mountain in southern Oregon where each morning, from a chair seated next
to a large window in my small house, I sit quietly and watch the world turn.
Right outside, usually less than ten to twelve feet away from where I am
seated, it is as though Mother Nature mounts a wildlife parade just for me.
Deer, wild turkey, gray tree squirrels, rabbits, and more than a dozen species
of birds all congregate and then move through an area just beneath a cluster
of spreading oak trees. The birds come for the seed I provide in a number
of stations, and the turkeys come for their table scraps. Why the rest appear
as they do is anyone’s guess. Maybe they just enjoy the party!
At any rate, come early March, signs of spring appear and this change means
many things to my visiting friends. For most birds, mating season begins
in earnest. This usually means lots of singing, posturing, and aggressive,
territorial behavior, while for some of the other creatures, this time heralds
a season for giving birth to young conceived some months before.
But regardless of these varying conditions, one thing remains in common to
one and all; and it is apparent to anyone watching with an eye willing to
observe and learn: these creatures are constantly active. They are as alert
and as sensitive to life going on around them as is a silk spider web responsive
to the slightest summer’s breeze.
And along with this natural feature of all wild creatures, in fact very much
at the root of what enables them to expend so much vital energy, is another
highly noticeable behavior: their lives are a never-ending search for food.
Apart from propagating their own species, feeding themselves is their principle
work on this earth.
The silent turning of the seasons, the latent desire of all creatures to
fulfill the purpose for their being, the invisible hand that ensures that
necessary supplies of food stuffs will be there for them at the right moment;
these elements, their balance and concert with one another all speak of what
the Wise have called (and still do) the “Invisible Eternals.”
These Invisible Eternals are the unseen Timeless Principles that sit behind
the expression of our physical world, and that are to its existence as is
the sun to the shadows that pay silent witness to their creator. To be able
to see these Eternal Forces as the true backdrop of a greater reality is
to become a witness to an Intelligent Universe at work.
For the one who would become consciously aware of these Invisible Eternals,
the same is brought into a whole new order of reality where intelligence,
action and harmony are as one thing; herein the Light shines upon and animates
all creatures alike. Even conflict serves something greater than its lesser
causes.
This journey of awareness between one’s first glimpse of this Higher
Reality, and one’s realization of it as the ground of one’s own
being, is the true spiritual path and task of those who would know and be
known by Truth. And we are created to enter this Higher World, to know this
heaven and its Love while we dwell on earth. Make no mistake about this.
All Scripture, the Wisdom teachings regardless of origin, confer this same
truth. To take one example, the great Christian mystic Boehme points out
that Christ taught, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me, and I give them the eternal life.” Here Christ did not say,
“You may know life eternal in a time to come (i.e., after death),”
but now, in this life.
If anyone has “eyes to see” these Invisible Eternals -- where the
celestial is hidden in the common -- and “ears to hear” the truths
about themselves and their relationship to these everlasting Principles,
then such a person is ready to begin the inner work required for the next
step to make this change in their being. Yes, it takes work; and any who
teach otherwise mislead.
What is the nature of this inner work that we must do, and how can we be
sure it is required of us? When is this work to be done, and who or what
determines all of the above? These are the questions that seekers have been
asking since time began.
Our need to discover and realize these Invisible Eternals cannot be over-stated
because, the truth is, we are their embodiment. It is this same fact that
makes it possible for us to awaken to their existence, align ourselves with
their will, and to realize our oneness with them. Now let’s take one
of these Timeless Principles and see how exploring its Wisdom increases our
own.
One Timeless Principle that is evidenced throughout creation is that all
things “lesser” have their origin in something “greater.”
For instance, the branch owes its being to the vine from which it originates;
the rivers run back to the seas that give them birth. And so it is when it
comes to these Invisible Eternals; amongst them are found “greater”
and “lesser” Truths.
With these insights to guide us, let’s look into one of the greatest
of these Principles taught by every great teacher since time began. In these
so-called progressive times, this all but forgotten Principle is as simple
as it is prophetic: “We reap what we sow.” Share this fact with
someone who hates his life and he will hate you for the truth you tell about
why he feels as he does!
Everywhere you look today people are only concerned with getting what they
want, when they want it, and as fast as possible. The fires that fuel their
appetite (for this envisioned success) create so much smoke that they lose
sight of the fact that all they reap for their insistent sowing is one regret
after another. And of course when things go badly, there is always someone
to blame.
If we are ever to realize our Timeless True Self, if we long for heaven on
earth while we live here, then we must sow the seeds that help bring that
Higher Life into fruition. One cannot expect to reap what one does not sow,
and imagining or hoping for a higher life is not the sowing of true spiritual
seeds any more than dreaming about climbing a mountain is the same as reaching
its top.
To sow spiritual seeds means that we do spiritual work. Spiritual work is
always interior work first, even if, as a matter of course, this work becomes
manifested through some outer or social action. What is this interior work
by which we sow the seeds of the celestial within us? Following are four
ways to work at sowing the seeds of a Higher Life.
-
We must learn not to
burden others or ourselves with our disappointments, fearful future visions,
or past regrets even as, in the same moment, we learn to ask Truth for more
insight into those unseen aspects of our present nature that is, at once,
reaping its regrets even as it sows more of the same dark seeds.
-
We must learn to sit
quietly with ourselves and wait patiently for the Light of God’s Peace
to replace those dark, noisy thoughts and feelings telling us we have too
much old baggage to make the Journey Home. Each time we sow these seeds through
some quiet meditation, we reap the strength that comes with realizing that
this Silence that comes to us is our real Home.
-
We must learn to remember
our intention to start our whole life over every moment we awaken to find
ourselves reliving some past conflict. To sow these seeds of a refreshed
outlook born of remembering that our True Life is always New, is to let go
of who we have been and to begin reaping a life free of anger and fear.
-
We must learn to look
our fears, our weariness, our anxiety, directly in the eye and, instead of
seeing what is impossible (according to their view of life), sow the seeds
of a whole new possibility by consciously daring to doubt their dark view
of things. Our refusal to identify with self-limiting negative states reaps
us the reward of realizing ever-new and higher realities.
The key lesson here is
that it is not enough to just sow seeds in this physical life, regardless
of how sublime they may seem when we set them out. Even those seeds that
“succeed” in rewarding us for our effort can only grow forms that
must fall in time. If we wish Heaven, Wholeness, Love, and Light to fill
our lives, then we must sow their Eternal Seeds within us. That is the Work.
Make your own list of ways to work at sowing the seeds of a New Life, being
careful to remember the infallible Principle behind another of the Invisible
Eternals: the inner determines the outer. Set yourself to the task of being
an inwardly awake person and watch how you begin to reap the awareness that
makes all things possible.
(From Guy Finley's Monthly
Chatroom Classroom - March 2003)
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