Remembering, By The Stream
It has been my custom early
each morning for several years now to take a brisk 5 mile walk. Part of this walk
is through an old village to a Provincial Park, within which is a footpath
through the forest and along a slowly moving stream. As well as providing
needed exercise, the outbound walk allows me to work into my system those ideas
and concepts encountered the previous day – seemingly one can “walk them into
the body” in the manner of Sri Aurobindo’s yogic teachings, the bio-feedback
findings of Elmer Green, the ‘body armour’ psychology of Reich, or the
proprioceptive ways of the Amerinds as discussed by Edward T. Hall and Gregory
Bateson. In the words of Dr. Ida Rolf: “When the body gets working
appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through. Then, spontaneously, the
intended effect occurs."
Does daily brisk walking ‘work’?
Well, for myself – when the process is intentionally applied – brisk exercise
seems to enhance memory connection, and allow for the assimilation of the
previous day’s material into thereby modified experiential constructs, clearing
my ‘platform’ for new perspectives in the new day. And that is on the
‘outbound’ portion of the walk.
By the half way point I am by the
stream and, sitting quietly on the bank, can observe the wild waterfowl, listen
to the frogs and birds, and occasionally a muskrat, beaver or deer is to be
seen. It was here by the stream several years ago that I first stumbled onto
meditation – the state wherein after one has offered up the contents of their
‘work’, often a response is realized. Sometimes what is received is so clear
and ‘other’ that a person, if describing the experience in its literal sense to
others, may say he “heard” advice or guidance – but were he to unfortunately
imply it came from a divinity – he may thereby shock and frighten others and be
subsequently stigmatized. This happened to myself
many years ago, when I was rather young and naïve. It was not until after
several bouts of memory damaging electro-convulsive and insulin shock treatments
that I – when responding to a psychiatrist’s query as to whether I “was still
hearing voices” – was able to explain that I had never actually “heard voices”,
but rather had personally understood the experience as discrete aspects of my
own mind “communicating” internally. Release from the institution quickly
followed. As in many communications, one’s choice of words is very critical.
The memory of this acquaintance’s
experience was brought back to mind while sitting by the stream one morning.
The previous day I had read an article by the ‘anti-psychiatry’ therapist -
Thomas Szasz – who had written:
“Prior to the eighteenth
century, people who committed heinous crimes and acted strangely were thought
to resemble wild animals. Hence, the antiquated "wild beast" model of
insanity and the defence based on it. Seeing the "deluded" person
whose "voices" command him to kill as similar to an automaton or
robot - that is, an object that performs human-like motions but is not human -
is a modern idea. Accepting the assertion of a "schizophrenic" that
he killed his wife because God's voice commanded him to do so is not evidence
of the validity of the explanation. In my view, such a person kills his victim
because that is what he wants to do, but he disavows his intention; instead of
acknowledging his motive, he defines himself as a helpless slave obeying
orders. As I have shown elsewhere, the so-called voices people "hear"
are their own inner voices or self-conversations, yet whose authorship they
disown. This interpretation is supported by the fact
that neuroimaging studies of hallucinating persons reveal activation of Broca's
(speech) area, not activation of Wernicke's (auditory) area.”
In other words, a virtual internal
dialogue for the purpose of deriving one’s own functional truth.
And then at that moment by the stream while seeing the connection of the forgoing, I concurrently felt a communication – as surely as from any mortal’s lips – as follows:
“Be still – release the ego identity and be
transparent – remember – remember back to a state beyond
‘time’ and ‘place’ – before this experience known to you as your present
ego life. Remember – the ‘answer’ seemed so clear to you then –– you
altruistically thought that you could help others, could make a difference
–– and for this you desired re-birth . It seemed to you that “love”
was the liberating power – and somehow, you thought, you would be able to
transfer this knowing through and beyond your own conception, rebirth
and re-culturalization, to others – and with that knowing you could
help them. Remember also how a part of yourself – having been through this ‘life’
process so many times before – knew that nothing of any knowing
from there could itself survive re-entry and hence the effort would
be futile – unless, possibly, one could exist in life for a duration of
sufficient scope and effort to ‘re-connect’ with one’s Self, so to
say. And thus, because re-connection is not a fast-fix, you
‘negotiated’ for rebirth this time around when you would have at least 50
years of existence – a “contract” for at least 50 years between
wars. Allow
yourself to remember – again be transparent – listen – perhaps you can
catch a hint of an ancient resonance – an echoing within; a wisp of melody
that has stayed with you from your true Self. Beyond your material senses,
beyond the sun and stars, past everything now seen and yet somehow familiar
- is the golden light and melodic sound current of your own Creation
spirit, which is your real Self eternally sustaining you from that state
beyond ‘time’ and ‘place’. So, you had your ‘contracted’ time, and
perhaps only now can you see the true challenge in a way you were not able
to then – when you thought you could “help”. Just realize that you came here because the journey
was your choice, for your own sake. Yet no one undertakes to
do what he, himself, believes to be meaningless. In reality, when you made
the choice to re-enter, you yourself had not yet attained Unity
– Unity is one’s ultimate goal from which there is no subsequent
separation. You re-entered solely for your own needs, and so there was, and
is, but little that you either could, or should, do to “help” others become
‘liberated’ from the Wheel of Life. All creatures in life are on the same path,
just at different stages, and all need to work out their realization and
re-connection for themselves through processes of evolving self-creativity,
just as you yourself have been attempting across countless lives. This is
the only purpose that gives this world, and the long road to and through
this world, whatever meaning lies in it. The cosmos and its components are
already perfect for any true needs – challenges in learning and material
aplenty for every creature’s realization. Be still and know that I am in all,
and from within I guide all creatures in their serial contexts
through ‘time’ and ‘place”.
So, gentle
reader, what is one to do then? I don’t know what you would do, but this
one gratefully arose from his resting place by the stream, uttered a soundless
“Gracias a Dios”, and thoughtfully returned home to wife and breakfast.
Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site
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