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Martin Lass: S.O.L.A.R.®
Beyond Materiality. Beyond Spirituality.
Toward the Complete Human Being…
Being and Doing
—Are we here only to sit under the Boddhi tree?
by Martin Lass
A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. - St. Basil (329-379)
Recently, I had a discussion with somebody who regards himself as being on a spiritual Quest. We got to talking about what an enlightened person would look like. How would they act? What would they do? What would be their purpose in the everyday world?
One of my friend’s responses was (and I paraphrase), “What should they care about the outer ‘world’? Having detached themselves from the dualistic illusions of the world, of what use is the world to them?”
I answered that such a person should care 100% and more, because it’s this very “world of illusion” that has provided the grist for the mill of their inner evolution of consciousness—for their enlightenment. Without this “world of illusion,” they would have no chance, no mirror, no grist for the mill, no lead for the crucible of inner alchemy, etc. After enlightenment, would I spit on the path that has brought me to where I am now? Do I use the world of illusion as grist for the mill of my evolution of consciousness even while I am regarding it as lowly and unbecoming of my higher Nature?
Something was not sitting right for me in my friend’s formulation, to say the least.
Given that my higher Quest is not possible without this “world of illusion,” I then ask the question, who/what created this world, this life, and why? For what Purpose? Big questions, no doubt, but ones that we need to ask at some point.
And then, from here, inspired by true Gratitude for the Gift of this “world of illusion” toward my evolution of consciousness, I ask who will maintain it, continue it, re-form it, i.e. maintain the ladders of evolution of consciousness so that others might follow after me? Does the idea of co-creation have any meaning to us?
The manifested world did not come into existence just by accident or by mere visualization. All up and down the octaves of Creation and Evolution, there is consciousness, at various stages of evolution, both creatures (descending) and creators (ascending).
We’re talking about bricks and mortar, not something “invisible,” although the consciousness behind the bricks and mortar is indeed invisible if we are still asleep and disconnected from our higher perceptual capabilities.
We’re talking about galaxies, stars, planets, bodies, microbes, atoms, as well as everything created by Humanity that makes life possible and sustainable... factories, farming, production lines, fuel, financial structures, social stratum, ideological edifices, relationship interchanges, exercise routines, You name it! This does not all just happen by somebody sitting in 7th Heaven simply Being in a state of Divine Bliss.
Are we all destined upon our spiritual Quest to get to a point of simply sitting under the Boddhi tree, contemplating our navels, helping others to come and sit there with us, everybody in a state of Divine Bliss? And while we are doing this (not doing anything, actually), who or what is looking after the ladders/octaves of Creation and Evolution? Who is maintaining the “world of illusion,” or to name it more accurately now, the “world school of consciousness”?
For the sake of argument, let’s say that the whole Purpose of Creation and of our collective spiritual Quest is to “dismantle” the illusion of Creation, at which point the whole Creation dissolves into pure, pluripotential, omnipotent, omnipresent, unmanifest Light, and we’re all One, sitting around on our collective Butt, wondering what to “do” next. No need to recreate or maintain the Universe. Shiva wins the day and Brahma and Vishnu can take a vacation. Okay... so we’ve dissolved the Universe back into its true nature as pure Light and Love. Now what?
Doesn’t the Holy Trinity of all the great religions and spiritual traditions consist of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva together? And one aspect of this Trinity cannot be separated from the others? So that, where there is destruction (Shiva), there must be equal creation (Brahma)? And where there is evolution, there must be equal involution? And where there is an expansion of consciousness, there must be an equal contraction of consciousness? And as galaxies are forming out of quasars, galaxies are equally being swallowed into black holes, only to emerge once again on the other side of the cosmic commode as anti-galaxies, only to then repeat the eternal cosmogonic cycle?
Every stick has two ends. There are no monopoles in Nature. What goes up must come down. Every particle of matter has a complementary opposite anti-particle. Yin/Yang. Time’s cycle, as opposed to time’s arrow.
Creation and Destruction are eternal and completely balanced. We cannot deconstruct the “world of illusion” (destruction) without equally recreating it in some other form. There is no such thing as Divine Bliss without get-down-and-get-dirty Creation! Spirit and Matter eternally co-exist.
Are you still with me, dear readers?
Given all this, what is the complementary opposite to Being—to sitting under the Boddhi tree is a state of Divine Bliss? Surely, this is only half the greater Picture. What is the other half?
What about “Doing”? Where does this sit in this cosmic equation?
(From this point onward, I will use uppercase “Being” and “Doing” in relation to a person who is living more or less from their higher Natures and “being” and “doing” in relation to a person who has not yet come to their more conscious and intentional Quest. In Truth, though, we all have both sides of this, in different parts of our lives and in different parts of ourselves. Refer to the archives for my columns about personas and Natures.)
The Cosmic Bliss Universe described above—the Universe where there is only unmanifest Light and Love—is a one-sided illusion and is the same fantasy that many New Agers have been trying to make into a reality. Without Doing, though--practical bricks-and-mortar Creation and Maintenance of the ladders of evolution and involution of consciousness---Being becomes empty.
Spirit without Matter is impotent; Matter without Spirit is empty.
Being without Doing is impotent; Doing without Being is empty.
What are we here to Do once we are able to Be? Tangibly? Practically? Not some elitist, esoteric answer about sitting in Divine Bliss raining down Light and Love on lesser mortals in the Divine Hope that they will one day “get it” and join us and Bruce Almighty in eternal Heaven... How is conscious Being translated into conscious Doing?
As St. Basil says in the first quote, “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds.” As I Become, what am I here to Do? How can I be of practical Service?
East and West
Let me describe what I’m talking about in different terms now…
It may be a gross generalization, but there in some truth in the following: in general, over history, the East has been more concerned with Being, as opposed to Doing, and the West has been more concerned with Doing, as opposed to Being.
The aim of many Eastern religions and spiritual traditions has been to dissolve the world of illusion and to perceive a higher reality—to attain a state of awakened, enlightened Being… a state corresponding to Spirit. The consequence of this focus—dare I say infatuation?—has, in places, been the most abject material poverty the world has ever known (India being the prime example).
Conversely, the aim of the West, particularly exemplified in recent times by America, has been to Do, i.e. to become the masters of the material world and the material condition—a state corresponding to Matter. The consequence of this focus—again, dare I say infatuation?—has been an increasing sense of spiritual emptiness.
In more recent times, though, the East has embraced Western materialism and we see a gradual improvement in living standards, taking India and China as examples. On the other side, the West has embraced Eastern spirituality in many diverse forms. The whole New Age thing is an example of this. From this, we see a gradual improvement in people’s sense of meaning and purpose—something to fill the emptiness.
Surely, there is a lesson in just this! Both sides are needed.
One of the drawbacks, though, of the West embracing Eastern spirituality has been that we tend to tick-tock between extremes, now grabbing one end of the proverbial stick and now grabbing the other. What I mean is that, in embracing Eastern spirituality, many people—in the New Age movement in particular, me included up until recently!—have decided that Being is better than Doing and, as a result, tend to aim to return to Truth, Light, Love, and Oneness in order to get away from the material world. There is a kind of tacit (or even overt) disdain of materiality, of doing, of worldly activities, which are regarded as lesser than spiritual activities and aspirations.
Which brings me back to my first point, i.e. while we are getting all spiritual and removed from the “world of illusion,” who or what is looking after the world school of consciousness, which provides the very grist for the mill of our evolution of consciousness—of our potential enlightenment?
One might argue that to become enlightened, one must remove oneself from the world. Again, this is an offshoot of the historical Eastern approach to life. But if everybody were to remove themselves from the world and sequester themselves in caves and monasteries, the world would collapse.
Some might think this is a good thing, having extreme negative judgments against the world, but I do not subscribe to this. If everything is, in essence, Love, and is part of the Creation of some indefinable Source (singularity, Absolute, God/Goddess, Cosmic One, Brahma, Whatever), then, to use a Judeo-Christian reference, “Where is God not?”
Not only this, but if we, in our spiritual prowess, sequester ourselves from the “world of illusion” and from all the rest of the people who have yet to become “enlightened,” who or what is going to assist these other people to become enlightened, too, in the same way that you and I have been assisted by those who have come before us and, most importantly, by the very school of our everyday lives on planet Earth?
I guess where many spiritual-religious paths and my own take (in the S.O.L.A.R.® school) differ is that I believe that life is teaching us everything we need to know in order to attain our enlightenment. Without everyday life, in ALL its manifestations, there would be no possibility of enlightenment. (The Sufis come closest to this view, i.e. that our evolution of consciousness happens in life, not outside of it, even while the result will be an increasing detachment from life, even while continuing to participate in everyday life.)
Put even more simply, the spiritual world is the material world, and the material world is the spiritual world.
When we infatuate or over-express one side in favor of the other, we remain stuck where we are, even while we might think we are getting more “spiritual” by detaching ourselves from the everyday world.
We are not only here to BE (more “spiritual”), but we are also here to DO (more “materially”). A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. Each of us has a function in the world, arising from our innermost and truest Being—from our true Self. And as we reap the benefits of living increasingly from our truest Self, increasingly there is something in us that wishes to give back, to share, to assist others, to be of Service to the Creation that has given us our spiritual and material Paths, to co-create.
Being without Doing is impotent; Doing without Being is empty.
What will you Do the more you Become (conscious)? How will you express, share, and manifest your Gratitude and Love for the Life you have been Given—for the assistance of people, places, and things that have helped (and continue to help) you Wake Up, Get Real, and Come Alive?
Truth, Light, Love, and Oneness
(alongside Illusion, Darkness, Polarized Emotions, and Manyness),
Martin Lass
S.O.L.A.R.® Founder
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Martin Lass,
The first S.O.L.A.R.® Emissary, Astrologer, Author
& Musician
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The first S.O.L.A.R.® Emissary is Martin Lass. His background includes over twenty years spent studying in two separate mystery schools, each with a direct lineage extending back into antiquity—one school coming through Egyptian traditions and the other from a hidden Central Asian tradition combined with the Sufi Way.
He is also a professional astrologer, astrological/spiritual counselor, accredited practitioner of various healing modalities, musician, composer, and published author.)
S.O.L.A.R.®
Beyond Materiality. Beyond Spirituality.
Toward the Complete Human Being…
www.solarjourney.org
info@solarjourney.org
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