“Stand before it and there is no beginning.  Follow it and there is no end.  Stay with the ancient Tao, Move with the present.” ~ Lao Tsu translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
“Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end. You can not know it, but you can be it, at ease in your life.” ~ Lao Tsu interpreted by Wayne Dyer.

Happy Sunday!

I began the week feeling distant from God.  There were several lessons happening that had me working on the impersonal aspects of All.
A few weeks ago I started reading the Tao Te Ching; knowing that I wasn’t getting all that I could from the short verses of the text I put it down for a period.  Of course help quickly came my way, an email from Hay House promoting Wayne Dyer’s new book mentioned he had studied the Tao Te Ching and wrote about it in his book “Change Your Thoughts…Change Your Life.”  So I am back to my study of the Tao with Wayne’s help.
My sense of an impersonal God came from the Tao being referred to as a thing.  From the study of the Tao one really gets the sense of God as energy, a field of conscious requirements.  When Caroline Myss was on Super Soul Sunday a while back Oprah asked her, as she does all guests, for her definition of God.  Caroline said “Law”.  I understand her answer better now with my study of the Tao.
I next felt this impersonal energy last week writing about Jesus as the bridge; I was uncomfortable about what I wrote after I finished it and wasn’t sure why.  I think now that my vision of Jesus as a bridge of light did help in my understanding of how invoking his name can help me, it still was an impersonal image of him as a tool in the form of energy instead of the person.
The last thing that happened that pulled me way past my sensing of God within me, and making me uncomfortable, was my learning of Tom Campbell’s “My Big TOE” theory;  George mentioned this to me at lunch last week.  Tom Campbell is a scientist who also studied the metaphysical, beginning with OBEs (out of body experiences).  He wrote a book and and lectures regularly about his ‘big theory of everything’.  I watched 5-6 hours of his lectures on Youtube and to me his theory does explain it all.  He brings science, faith, and metaphysical together and resolves in his theory the known experiences of each. I haven’t gotten through a full seminar of his yet but I just felt too distant and unable to feel the Love.  (I do expect that Tom where bring it back around to Love, I just haven’t continued watching his message at this time).
By Wednesday I was feeling cold and empty.  I thought about the Sufi and their continuous reflection of God as beloved.  That, I thought, was what I know of the other extreme, of the personal God.  With a grin I recognized that this was a duality, as in all aspects of life: male & female, good & bad, light & dark.  I was learning of two aspects of God.
As I reflected I considered that perhaps my seeking to understand All was not correct as I found it not to be fulfilling and it didn’t bring peace.  I thought ‘I don’t need to understand the ocean to enjoy floating on it.’  This helped a lot to just appreciate where I am at here and now.  Why the want to understand?  Is it the ego or is it just that the knowledge is there for us when we are ready to receive it.  I know from my past to trust my uncomfortable feelings, to pull back and let the next lesson come in its own time, then I can work through it, understand, and be ready to take the next step on the path – there is no need to get ahead of my self.
Thursday morning I thought more about the duality of God, the personal beloved of the Sufi and the impersonal force of all of the Tao.  My lessons have me moving back and forth between the two like a pendulum – this was the definition I recall that Michael Singer gave of the Tao in his book ‘The Unteathered Soul’, the energy that wants to bring us back to balance.  The Way in the middle.
I swung one way and found I do like the loving sentiments of the Sufi with God as beloved.  I have been given the opportunity to swing the other way to experience the impersonal God, the God of Natural Law.  As the pendulum swings toward center I guess I will need to see how I feel finding balance between the two aspects of my God.
Namaste’
“When you spend your energy trying to maintain the extremes, nothing goes forward.  You get stuck in a rut.  The more extreme you are, the less forward movement there is.  You carve a groove and you get stuck in it.  Then there’s no energy moving you in the Tao; it’s all being spent serving the extremes.  ~ Michael Singer