Over the past weeks, I’ve noticed I’m coming to an understanding of a way of relating to others. I call it "being there."
Being there is a state of mind. An emptying of the self so that the other may be filled. A decreasing of the little self so that the greater Self may increase. Being there is being lived. I used to be the marker that wrote on the board. Now I’m becoming the board on which the markings are etched and cleaned because I’m learning to be there.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Ratatouille and the Inner Guide
On Sunday August 12, 2007, we watched Ratatouille at the Loews Alderwood Mall theatre. Brad Bird directed this multi-layered Pixar Animation Studio movie.
On the surface, Ratatouille tells the outlandish story of intrigue at a leading Parisian restaurant. Its distinguished owner, Auguste Gusteau, had died because of a foodie’s harsh review. Remy, a sensitive rat and who has a flair for cooking, contacts the deceased restaurant owner, who reveals to him his culinary secrets. Linguini, the garbage boy, is forbidden to cook because he is clueless about cooking and has not yet gone through the rigorous training required. Unknown to everyone, though, he is Gusteau’s son. Remy and Linguini become friends. The movie is about this unusual alliance.
On a deeper level, Ratatouille dramatizes the challenges of communicating with an inner source of knowing. Throughout human history, sages have told us we all have our Inner Guides. In Plato's Symposium, Diotina and Socrates discuss the idea of a daemon that “great spirit…who interprets, between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods.”
In the New Testament, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples when he is gone. "I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!"
In Hawaiian mysticism the Inner Guide is the Aumakua, an “utterly trustworthy parental spirit” The Aumakua is “your spiritual guide who has access to all the resources you could ever need to accomplish your goal.”
In Ratatouille, Remy symbolizes the Inner Guide, the daemon, the Holy Spirit and the Aumakua. He hides in Linguini’s torque where he directs him in the same way that the Inner Guide is invisible to others. Linguini becomes a superb chef by simply following Remy’s guidance just as those who have established the connection with their Inner Wisdom know that their genius is not the result of their own efforts.
Many stories surround the origin of the chef’s torque. It has been used as far back as 1500. The torque has functioned as protection for the chef’s head from falling grease in badly ventilated medieval kitchens as well as falling hair from bald chefs. It is believed that the torque functioned as a symbolic crown, signifying the important role cooks play in the royal court. It is in that symbolic torque sitting on top of the head, where Hindus locate the Atman or High Self, that Remy hides.
Trusting our intuition, a form of the manifestation of the Inner Guide, does not come easily. Our intellect and cultural domestication squelch the Inner Guide and it is shameful in Western society to admit that one has an Inner Guide. The struggle that comes with this partnership with the conscious mind and the High Self is clearer after watching Ratatouille.
The power of the movie resides in the transformation that occurs when Linguini realizes that he owes his success at the restaurant to Remy. Until an individual has developed trust in the functioning of the Inner Guide, the will to revert to the logical mind remains a tempting alternative. With time, when the Inner Guide has proved itself, we are willing to risk everything because we know that the Inner Guide does the work. “It is not I but the Father in me who does the work,” Jesus said.
Many of my friends work successfully with their Inner Guides but it is not easy to explain to others how the process works. Ratatouille helps us understand in a funny way the mysterious psychological and spiritual phenomenon of connecting with something greater than ourselves living within us. Beyond the comedy and the fantasy, Ratatouille is a dramatization of a powerful spiritual process, which explains the satisfaction it gives because it points to the deep truth of the peace and confidence that comes from connecting with the well of wisdom within. There is a Linguini in each of us as we struggle to survive in our Father’s restaurant, called life on earth.
Plato's Symposium
Aumakua
History of the Torque
How to contact your Inner Guide: Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
Jesus on the Holy Spirit inner Friend
On the surface, Ratatouille tells the outlandish story of intrigue at a leading Parisian restaurant. Its distinguished owner, Auguste Gusteau, had died because of a foodie’s harsh review. Remy, a sensitive rat and who has a flair for cooking, contacts the deceased restaurant owner, who reveals to him his culinary secrets. Linguini, the garbage boy, is forbidden to cook because he is clueless about cooking and has not yet gone through the rigorous training required. Unknown to everyone, though, he is Gusteau’s son. Remy and Linguini become friends. The movie is about this unusual alliance.
On a deeper level, Ratatouille dramatizes the challenges of communicating with an inner source of knowing. Throughout human history, sages have told us we all have our Inner Guides. In Plato's Symposium, Diotina and Socrates discuss the idea of a daemon that “great spirit…who interprets, between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods.”
In the New Testament, Jesus promised to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples when he is gone. "I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!"
In Hawaiian mysticism the Inner Guide is the Aumakua, an “utterly trustworthy parental spirit” The Aumakua is “your spiritual guide who has access to all the resources you could ever need to accomplish your goal.”
In Ratatouille, Remy symbolizes the Inner Guide, the daemon, the Holy Spirit and the Aumakua. He hides in Linguini’s torque where he directs him in the same way that the Inner Guide is invisible to others. Linguini becomes a superb chef by simply following Remy’s guidance just as those who have established the connection with their Inner Wisdom know that their genius is not the result of their own efforts.
Many stories surround the origin of the chef’s torque. It has been used as far back as 1500. The torque has functioned as protection for the chef’s head from falling grease in badly ventilated medieval kitchens as well as falling hair from bald chefs. It is believed that the torque functioned as a symbolic crown, signifying the important role cooks play in the royal court. It is in that symbolic torque sitting on top of the head, where Hindus locate the Atman or High Self, that Remy hides.
Trusting our intuition, a form of the manifestation of the Inner Guide, does not come easily. Our intellect and cultural domestication squelch the Inner Guide and it is shameful in Western society to admit that one has an Inner Guide. The struggle that comes with this partnership with the conscious mind and the High Self is clearer after watching Ratatouille.
The power of the movie resides in the transformation that occurs when Linguini realizes that he owes his success at the restaurant to Remy. Until an individual has developed trust in the functioning of the Inner Guide, the will to revert to the logical mind remains a tempting alternative. With time, when the Inner Guide has proved itself, we are willing to risk everything because we know that the Inner Guide does the work. “It is not I but the Father in me who does the work,” Jesus said.
Many of my friends work successfully with their Inner Guides but it is not easy to explain to others how the process works. Ratatouille helps us understand in a funny way the mysterious psychological and spiritual phenomenon of connecting with something greater than ourselves living within us. Beyond the comedy and the fantasy, Ratatouille is a dramatization of a powerful spiritual process, which explains the satisfaction it gives because it points to the deep truth of the peace and confidence that comes from connecting with the well of wisdom within. There is a Linguini in each of us as we struggle to survive in our Father’s restaurant, called life on earth.
Plato's Symposium
Aumakua
History of the Torque
How to contact your Inner Guide: Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century.
Jesus on the Holy Spirit inner Friend
Monday, August 13, 2007
On Grace
As we tour this sacred site called Earth, we work hard to visit many spaces, to make the best of our pilgrimage. I remember going on a vacation one summer with a friend a couple of years ago to Victoria, British Columbia. We walked to many of the tourist sites, we visited the museum in the building that looked like the British Parliament, listened to music on the waterfront and explored the Butchart Gardens. The experience remained unforgettable but tiring. I thought vacation was meant for rest.
Between too much walking and sleeping throughout this pilgrimage called life, emerges a middle way. As we reflect on what the spiritual life entails: overcoming our human weaknesses, taming our animal tendencies, living mindfully and uniting with the divine in the process, serving ourselves in others, and the list goes on and on, this thing called spiritual practice can assume the dimensions of tedious work served us by a cruel taskmaster.
If we forget one great secret, that is. Spirituality is all about grace. If we meditate for hundreds of hours without the touch of the Master, in vain we practice. In vain we punish the body through fasting and vigils, through torture of any kind, in vain the struggle to overcome our faults if we fail to invite the Unknowable One to sanctify it all, if we refuse to allow the All-knowing to do the work in us.
Around February 2007, I noticed a particularly devastating planetary configuration in my partner's natal and progressed charts involving the planet Saturn. The aspects would be in force for about four months. I didn't know what to do.
I told her: "Please, please, please, do me a favor in the next months. Pray, meditate, connect with your high self." I have come to understand that when people have challenging aspects, the solution is for them to raise their spiritual vibrations.
Sure enough, in early spring Saturn knocked at our door asking for Dawn bringing her fear at work, rejections, depression, and more. I was tempted to do the work for her.
I remember one morning just when the four-month ordeal started. I had finished assisting her with a particularly powerful meditation. When she left I had this insight from within me that said: "Let go and let her work through this herself. Just be there for her. Don't do anything on her behalf."
I listened. Every day, for weeks, I heard one work trouble to the other. All I did was listen. It was so difficult.
Let me cut a long story short. She came back home one day almost four months after it all began, I think it happened the week after her birthday. She came home and said she had an amazing insight that brought her relief. All her troubles seemed to have melted away. Someone who made Dawn’s work particularly difficult resigned that same week.
Dawn's story reveals the power of surrender. The power of grace in our spiritual paths. The power of trust in the Great Mystery we call God. She helped me understand this spiritual secret: it's all grace, the path is God's work.
As we allow ourselves to be the living temples of the divine, God will walk with us through the darkness and through the abyss. God is on our side as we climb to the spiritual mountaintop. The spiritual path is an effortless journey of surrender to the power of God's grace.
To read Dawn's account of her experience, please visit: http://www.thelongarc.blogspot.com/
Between too much walking and sleeping throughout this pilgrimage called life, emerges a middle way. As we reflect on what the spiritual life entails: overcoming our human weaknesses, taming our animal tendencies, living mindfully and uniting with the divine in the process, serving ourselves in others, and the list goes on and on, this thing called spiritual practice can assume the dimensions of tedious work served us by a cruel taskmaster.
If we forget one great secret, that is. Spirituality is all about grace. If we meditate for hundreds of hours without the touch of the Master, in vain we practice. In vain we punish the body through fasting and vigils, through torture of any kind, in vain the struggle to overcome our faults if we fail to invite the Unknowable One to sanctify it all, if we refuse to allow the All-knowing to do the work in us.
Around February 2007, I noticed a particularly devastating planetary configuration in my partner's natal and progressed charts involving the planet Saturn. The aspects would be in force for about four months. I didn't know what to do.
I told her: "Please, please, please, do me a favor in the next months. Pray, meditate, connect with your high self." I have come to understand that when people have challenging aspects, the solution is for them to raise their spiritual vibrations.
Sure enough, in early spring Saturn knocked at our door asking for Dawn bringing her fear at work, rejections, depression, and more. I was tempted to do the work for her.
I remember one morning just when the four-month ordeal started. I had finished assisting her with a particularly powerful meditation. When she left I had this insight from within me that said: "Let go and let her work through this herself. Just be there for her. Don't do anything on her behalf."
I listened. Every day, for weeks, I heard one work trouble to the other. All I did was listen. It was so difficult.
Let me cut a long story short. She came back home one day almost four months after it all began, I think it happened the week after her birthday. She came home and said she had an amazing insight that brought her relief. All her troubles seemed to have melted away. Someone who made Dawn’s work particularly difficult resigned that same week.
Dawn's story reveals the power of surrender. The power of grace in our spiritual paths. The power of trust in the Great Mystery we call God. She helped me understand this spiritual secret: it's all grace, the path is God's work.
As we allow ourselves to be the living temples of the divine, God will walk with us through the darkness and through the abyss. God is on our side as we climb to the spiritual mountaintop. The spiritual path is an effortless journey of surrender to the power of God's grace.
To read Dawn's account of her experience, please visit: http://www.thelongarc.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
