Excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk: "A Word Unsaid: Bridging the Abyss."
The idea here is: In defining and expressing the word unsaid by naming, you bridge the abyss. So let's begin with a few definitions. By abyss, I mean the metaphysical abyss, an abstraction, a space, between the concrete, physical, manifest world and the transcendent, immaterial spiritual realm, or to simplify, God. We envision an abyss as something very deep or unfathomable, immeasurably deep, endless. Abyss often has a negative connotation, a place of despair, and hopelessness, or suffering. The 'unsaid' is unspoken, unexpressed, or something we perhaps think, but do not mention; it is withheld.
Today, I am invoking what I am calling two-directional spirituality, which is dualistic, like life. Even though personally I affirm a unity, ultimately one field that is multi-directional, let's simplify this to two view points: God creates us and we create God, a two way street. There are other ideas and beliefs. Some in New Thought elevate human beings to a kind of Divine partnership--God and humans as Co-creators. Other views invoke ultimate oneness or a unity of reality: humans as a cell in the being of God, an atom, or a ray of energy. This morning, we look at our part in bridging the abyss, between our experience as human, and the content of our spiritual consciousness--the human role in spirituality..
In essence, the problem is our sense of separation. The very fact that human beings end up in search of the transcendent, of explanation and meaning of life and reasons for troubles, reflects separation. We feel isolated, alone, we face suffering. Our sense of this wondrous world, this cosmos, this infinity that we reach to understand, but fail to grasp, leaves us longing. Religion is our attempt to bridge the separation. Our solitary spiritual search is the same attempt to bridge the separation. With religion, we rely on the discoveries and ideas, and models of others, analogous to scientific models that we build on as we add further theories and constructs to previous discoveries, research, concepts over time. We layer knowledge and belief. This building up of ideas/discoveries/frameworks is the human contribution of consciousness in an unfolding cosmos. When that consciousness is directed to understanding what transcends the concrete world, we name it spirituality. But consciousness is not just thought, right?, not just ideas, it is also feeling. It is subjective. It is both our awareness of our inner being and our outer world.
Today let's take a look at the human side of how our consciousness and choice can close the seeming separation between those two poles of matter and spirit, human life and cosmic forces, to bridge the abyss. This is a call to clarify your spirituality at this point in your life and renew your commitment to live it--direct your consciousness, your awareness to it. It is about appreciation of life and tipping the focus of your vision and your thoughts, your consciousness, to expect and appreciate satisfied moments, while considering positive solutions for dissatisfaction. I am reducing all of this to 'naming'. Our job is naming events and moments. To bridge the abyss, you find and name the good. In naming, we fill in the 'unsaid'. Words become the building blocks of ideas and perception that make the bridge real. (Susan Nettleton)
For some of today's poetry, follow the links: https://poets.org/poem/song-myself-50
https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../the-way-it-is-by-william.../