“It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”  ~ Neil Armstrong

Happy Sunday!

This week I have been given a lesson to consider about how I see things.
Friday evening I was out for drinks with Peter and we were talking about his work.  He was telling me about ideas he was considering in his work with counseling people.  I had ideas coming into my mind that I thought to offer such as using meditation.  I was about to mention this to Peter when I heard my inner voice say that my perspective was of the ‘big picture’.  I held my thoughts back due to this insight so to keep the conversation flowing, now expecting that my broader insights probably wouldn’t be helpful to Peter as he was discussing details for working with an individual.  I was pleased with my decision as I felt we had a very good conversation and that we stayed well connected.
That evening I was reading Book 3 of Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch and I saw a connection with my early thoughts on the ‘big picture’.  In Chapter 3 it speaks of the parable of the rock.  A rock is still, solid, and at peace from the perspective of its scale.  But at the subatomic scale it is not solid and it is very active with particles moving constantly.  From the perspective of the particles there is no stillness and no awareness of the oneness of the whole, the rock.
From the perspective of the rock, Neale writes, “From that distance could be seen what could not be seen up close – that all is One, and that all the movement hasn’t moved anything.”
Many of my teachers speak of the Oneness so in my past considerations of this idea I thought of it as seeing myself as part of different societies: a family, female gender, a nation, the human race.  The parable gave me the understanding to consider the level of my perspective.  The thoughts I had previously were not a new perspective but just relationships within the human level, which Neale called the microcosm.   The new perspective I became aware of was from above the rock level, that Neale called the macrocosm.
Thinking on this I recalled Caroline Myss speaking on how as we evolve in spirit and Grace our perspective changes; she used the analogy of a multi-story building.  Using her analogy I now see our microcosm perspective begins on the first floor and we can see only what is right in front of us; humanity moving and reacting to only the environment they experience right in front of their eyes.   When we become aware, we see things from a spiritual level, like going one floor up in the building. When we get a higher perspective we get a broader view of events with more understanding of the interactions, what is causing them, and we see patterns. One floor up also gives us more separation from events so we have less need to react to them.  You start to understand that everyone is not out to get you or that their actions are all about ourselves, it is just our narrow perspective down on the ground that makes us think that way.
I then thought about the view of the city from the top of the tallest building, like going to the top of the EmpireStateBuilding.  From there the city is quiet and beautiful.  This is the macrocosm view where the people just seem like minute parts of the system of the whole of the city.
I found I could easily elevate my awareness and now see the big picture; view the rock; see us all as One on Mother Earth.
This new perspective on perspective prepared me for the lesson that came my way on Saturday morning from my ACIM reading.  I was reading Chapter 24 entitled “The Goal of Specialness”.  Well I am a big fan of specialness, feeling special always makes me feel good, so when I got into the first subchapter entitled “Specialness as a Substitute for Love” I was concerned that I would find myself mistaken in my perception.  The first part of this subchapter spoke about asking and digging deep for what is holding us back from Love.  What we are asked to uncover is our deep need for feeling special.  Specialness separates us from our brother causing comparison and judgement.  If one is special then the other must be lacking something.
This is a tough lesson to accept.  I have recently realized that on the spiritual path our Ego becomes a useful tool to keep us striving and seeking lessons in Truth and awareness.  The reward for my Ego has been the feeling of specialness.  Until this point the specialness felt good so I was willing to accept it.  I tried to think around the lesson to try to make specialness still OK but found it was easier to accept this lesson as my thoughts brought me back to the awareness of the higher perspective of the macrocosm when the following questions where posed in the supchapter:

“Would it be possible for you to hate your brother if you were like him?  Could you attack him if you realized you journey with him, to a goal that is the same?  Would you not help him reach it in every way you could, if his attainment of it were perceived as yours?”

The text then reads, “You are his enemy in specialness, his friend in a shared purpose.  Specialness can never share, for it depends on goals that you alone can reach.”
From the higher perspective I can see that we are all the same and part of a greater whole.   I am sure I would not have had such an easy time in my understanding of the down side of specialness if I had not first been given the lesson of perspective and seeing the “big picture” of life.
I have much more to read on specialness but I am excited to go on, ready for new understanding.
Thanks Lord!
“We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.”  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.