The Undivided One (ASMR)

is it's a typical reaction that people when you invite them to come to rest or to stop talking just be quiet and say I am quiet I am resting um Without Really realizing that there are levels of rest levels of Silence levels of Stillness and we really have little concept of the potential of How Deeply these things go it's like looking at the sky where does it end the infinite we talk of Without Really grasping how how can one grasp it of course one cannot can one and similarly when we consider our absence from the presence or this very useful but unfashionable little word sin it's hard to really grasp the depth of our sin How Deeply uh lost we are per that'ss this present uh attention on the state of the world is giving people an idea perhaps as never before how the influence of this of man this the corrupting influence of man has spread to to not only ourselves but all of creation and this is uh it what comes back to me who is to blame for all this and we'll come to see more and more that the only one really to blame is this first Primal stepping away from turning away from light to darkness which of course starts with me and this is I am the first of Sinners this is the most helpful statement to to take on board that we will would like it and we'll say but but what about the other so much worse than me it really is and I I told you how much I learned in Russia when I started to investigate Orthodoxy and it's it's a absolute uh key uh theme which is repeated several times in every Orthodox service I am the first of sinners of or rather saying of whom I am the first um this applies to every one of the multitude that say this um because it all starts with me either I have that vision of Oneness in which there is no division or I from a my foreign perspective look out on a world of problems it's it's that does this so I am the one who both am the cause of all this this Division and I which you may Glimpse in the depth of meditation when you let go of the separation I am one undivided one the same thing isn't it the same being so this is the the scale of man from the divine to the Demonic the Demonic being when he is totally dominated by absence from God which is Darkness pow of Darkness this is the work to turn from Darkness to light CU I suppose if we could grasp this on our first day we because we can't something that Dawns on us very gradually very gradually whether in this life we ever really grasp the full significance well I don't know but have no doubt that the work is very great and the responsibility is awesome the responsibility on each one of us is very great really is from God to the devil isn't it the devil being life live l i v e spelled backwards evil in other words it's reversal from light the darkness but when we turn back to to the one what happens to all the luggage we carry with us all our nearest and dearest and all that we've picked up in life do we leave it behind mind was it taken with us where is it it's in here isn't it it's it's part of our our sort of interior luggage and when this is is turned back and is let go and dissolves away isn't the darkness diminished the more one carries the more one carries not only one's own burdens but the world's burdens was in the process magnified why is Christ called the Great Redeemer and what is Christ if not I am for every time for example a situation arises which we may not like and we refrain from judgment criticism you see what happens the uh the potential aggro is diffused isn't it on the hand if we pick it up and make much of it it's magnified one of the first books on philosophy that I had as a young man was called Saints who moved the world and this title intrigued me um I was only really just beginning to get interested in in this in this work and I read about St Anthony of Egypt who lived in a cave and I liked that and I read about St Francis Who Loved animals and I like that and I read about one or two holy men in the Himalayas sitting up there I like that anyway it wetted my appetite but uh I've always remembered the fact that that these people who apparently did nothing apart from I didn't know what meditation was then were just sat in the cave I didn't understand what they were doing or trying to do you know move the world or so this book said how could it be that you know I was an action man then how could it be that uh this uh work of whatever it was could be so effective of course it's clear as Crystal to me now maybe you too are getting a getting a sense of it that that really we can do very little with our physical bodies pick up a two bits of rubbish and that can't really do much else can we can do a bit more with our minds maybe influencing others but when we surrender course it seems at first that we're surrendering to nothing doesn't it but in this room here now what is really substantial in other words stand ing under what is actually supporting this whole performance that you and I are engaged in yes how can it possibly move the world and yes any way just that's what I've said it explains it doesn't it from the world's point of view it just seems not go go doesn't Mak no sense just get a taste of the Stillness and it does begin to make sense doesn't it and up on the hill like we were yesterday without any philosophy or talk of anything really it just seemed very obvious doesn't it the world down there little bake with the traffic jams and the the problems of the High Street didn't seem didn't didn't seem to add up too much did they I said boy i l that verse from the Psalms I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help my Help Cometh even from the Lord who made Heaven and Earth that's what seems to happen um you in the I wonder if you're familiar with the What's called the old traditional English book of common prayer the 1662 there's something called a catechism which was what young people were meant to learn before they became full members of the church one of the question was what what about the um rituals of the church and the answer was they're all outward and visible signs of in Inward and spiritual Grace outward and visible signs of Inward and spiritual Grace it's worth uh remembering that at least I find it is because human tendency is always to go into the outward and visible that's where we feel comfortable normally this is what we call reality the outward and visible which is really a sign of what is Inward and spiritual and the whole work is towards rediscovering the Inward and spiritual origin of what is manifests as the outward and visible evidence out there in the world and so not surprising in man's interpretation of of of spirit the churches a packed with outward and visible signs of Inward and spiritual Grace for example the communion service baptism everything that takes place is is largely outward and visible signs of what is Inward and spiritual it was rather nice actually as we left the church yesterday uh evening that woman Judith who likes to sing and play the piano um I thought was one of those people that didn't like me but actually I spoke to her a few weeks ago and we suddenly made friends and discovered that not that we don't like each other at all we just sort of have never spoken before and she immediately started saying nice things about us who had been sitting in silence and now she's going to have a service which of course is full of singing and music and noise and uh so we laughed about this had a sort of sort of understanding that as I said it's like two wings of a bird one is the noisy Wing the one that goes flat flap flap and the other is the silent R you know it's not that they're contradictory they're just sort of you know like that the outward and visible and the Inward and spiritual you can say the whole world you see the whole uh world that we see and can feel is the outward visible signs of as we said yesterday that invisible spiritual substance here it is we're sitting in it now like fishes in the sea here is the I suppose you could say that fishes themselves are outward invisible that's sort of crystallizations of the water of the water that they live in aren't they so we we are the outward invisible side of the Inward and spiritual substance that we call Spirit so yes sin is naturally in common understanding sin has come to to to mean um you know don't do this don't do that and in other words Old Testament stuff whereas the uh Inward and spiritual is more the New Testament stuff that's really what it's all about and you know again what what happens um organizations that lose that sense of the spiritual get hooked on the outward invisible and say well that's it that's reality that's what matters another word for Spirit which I is very useful is is the causal world you see um you can you can really substitute the word causal for Spirit largely it's the causal world it's way things begin you think of God as the original cause um it's where it all starts the causal world first cause cause a def we live in a world of effect we try to change the world by manipulating effects one against the other but we got to come back to the C some people get the idea when they think of preventative rather than Curative medicine don't they you got to come back to the cause why do things go wrong why is the world in this predicament it is now why what's the cause of it all you won't cure the World by abolishing plastic you got to come back to the cause then the extraordinary thing is that once we stop the less we we try to control things see the miracle is that things happen naturally don't they the listening functions doesn't it the clock ticks springs on the way doesn't Jesus say take no thought for tomorrow but seek you first the kingdom of God which is this of course and then everything is added to you everything is provided well it's easier said than done isn't it but uh you can get the gist of it it's extraordinary isn't it you your your body still functions your digestion happens your blood your breathing your eyes blink you don't have to do anything do you all just happens your hair grows how does it happen let alone the world river river goes on running doesn't it begin to understand that the only problem in the world is me that's what gets in the The Way I Am The Great obstacle I think that's why mantras are often favored as the uh as a means of meditation because listening to a sound is uh is uh well I won't compare different much of the many ways of meditating but it it it you know the endless layers of subtlety to listening you can listen to the gross outter sounds but but more you listen then you sort of sink into deeper and deeper listening don't you so the Mantra can cor correspondingly become subtler and subtler and subtler deeper and deeper and deeper add INF an item we talk of the voice of God don't we rather naively we try to translate that into words didn't we but obviously there's something much deeper than that this uh classic icon from Russia was given to me many years ago when I was in Russia um and I've very very often studied it uh since because so often in the west representations of St George show him as a muscular um Soldier Saint with a military weapon slaying the dragon and even blood flowing um was in contrast this icon and also with big muscles you know um in contrast this icon is completely devoid of all aggression in fact St George's face is in total peace Serene and then the spear is really a shaft of light it's so fine it's like a gossam of thread almost nothing and uh the horse itself just dances over the dragon without any impact like a a horse of light and his whole demeanor is that of of Peace completely no judgment or criticism it is just to see them and realize they're just it's just a shadow there's no harm in a shadow is there Shadows just away from the light and what what caus these Shadows anyway look when I turn away from the that light my face is in Shadow isn't it so I am the cause of the Shadow aren't I I turn back there's the shadow it's not seen as said exactly so the pows of Darkness that's all they are so here you are there's no need to fight them but simply turns back to the light course here's the eye of God looking down and uh there's the Invisible Hand to hold the invisible friend to guide us and put our trust in that and then you don't hardly notice the paths of Darkness all we need to do is just see them look that's just shatter so there we are it's the it's the commandments of Jesus from The Sermon on the Mount you see resist not evil when we don't resist evil it simply diminishes but when you turn towards evil what happens it magn ifies we give it Consciousness you feed it with awareness and that of course makes it get bigger the moment you say something's awful it gets bigger doesn't it it grows you look at it and smile it's this all we have to do is try try when we remember to put it into practice then all that we've been talking about this last three days becomes practical and real we will forget of course we will we'll forget 5 minutes after we leave the room but then we'll remember again try to remember

Channel: Unintentional ASMR with John Butler

Views: 15,476

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Id: BUBbSWS1YpA

Length: 25min 40sec (1540 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 11 2024