Sunday, October 14, 2007

OK. This is weird.

The moment I posted my first entry to this blog—that is, the very second my mouse clicked the "Publish Post" button, my cell rang with a call from "N," someone who is close to Gurumayi's inner circle and whom I've known and trusted for many years. "N" had called to tell me she's in town from LA and wanted to get together. We made plans to see each other for coffee in a few days and I hung up with a lingering, unsettling feeling that the Guru knew and saw what I was posting here, and had reached out to tell me so.

Let's look at that. The way I see it, there are several possible explanations for this incident:

THE RATIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
It was a mere coincidence, easily explained by the fact that I had called "N" recently after months of not being in touch, because Siddha Yoga had begun to occupy my thoughts more and more and her perspective was, and is, one I respect. The coincidence might have been dramatic in its timing, but that only has significance if I choose to invest it with special meaning. Otherwise, it was just two random events occuring at the same time, not unlike dozens of others twin occurences that go unnoticed every day precisely because they hold no meaning for me.

THE CONCEPT OF SYNCHRONICITY
"Synchronous events reveal an underlying pattern, a conceptual framework which encompasses, but is larger than, any of the systems which display the synchronicity."

I'm quoting from a Wikipedia entry on Jung, which should be all the evidence you need that I have neither studied nor truly comprehend Jung's theory. But, it seems to me to go something like this: we are all connected by a vast collective unconscious that at times makes our shared connections plain through coincidental events that have no causal relationship. Synchronicity, then, is an invitation to look at coincidence and invest it with meaning. To pull the threads of our experience apart and examine them, following each back to see where it leads. You don't have to believe in god with a capital G to believe in synchronicity, faith in a common ground of being is sufficient.

"COINCIDENCE IS GOD'S WAY OF REMAINING ANONYMOUS"
This maxim, popular in Siddha Yoga, finds its expression in all religions. Coincidence is not merely an invitation to slow down and look for hidden connections; it is a revelation from God (Her)Self that is pregnant with meaning for the believer. It might be a sign that what you are doing is good, and you have blessings to proceed. It might be a warning that you should go back, you've crossed a boundary and are trespassing on something holy. In either case, the believer isn't the origin of the meaning invested in the coincidence; it comes directly from God.

It's tempting to look at these alternate theories as a set of Russian nesting dolls. The rationalist perspective is the outer shell; big, bright and colorful but when opened—empty of any further content. Synchronicity hides just beneath the surface; it rewards the curious who are willing to twist apart their reality in the search for a deeper significance. And God is the innermost shell; meaning in seed form, the still, quiet voice that reveals our destiny.

That's the way I used to see things. But, I'm not playing with dolls these days. Rather, it seems to me that I've stepped into a labyrinth in which any of the above perspectives can be followed, and any one of them might lead to a blind alley, become a circuit that deposits me back to exactly where I started, or be the arc that leads to the very heart of the truth.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am wishing you faith and courage for your journey within. You are right to note the synchronicity and examine what is the significance of a synchronous event. I hope you will keep up with your blog, because I believe we all can learn from it. I have also been posting over at Marta's and also over at the exSY group.

BTW, did you get together with N and how did that go?

Former exSYer now Episcopalian

Anonymous said...

4.
You simply touched on the Guru in the sense you contemplated and manifested that contemplation, bringing about a non judegmental reaction from the universe. Gurumayi is not going to call you, but think of it as you were thinking of a friend and then they called. Bing, cause and effect, no judge.
-Das

Anonymous said...

"Ok this is weird" essay was fabulously descriptive of the spiritual landscape that I have experienced. I got very excited to have you make the labryrinth connection I have been missing, even though I knew about them in the wikipedia sense of the word.

On Marta's blog, I found myself describing my exit from SY as a backing out of something, rather than a moving through. It is visceral, below my consciousness, I sense that.

This essay makes it a little less lonely in that place.

MC

Anonymous said...

Das, Could you expand on your October 19, 2007 6:28 AM comment?

Anonymous said...

Everything being connected it not simply a SY concept, it is something many people have experienced in life. Seperating SY from life and making it the "owner" of universal phenomenon is a common misconception imho. It takes alot of the mystery out of life if you define all mystery as having a pointed source in the Guru or SY or anything in manifestation. The still pint within is everywhere. This is what I have learned from SY. Does that help?
-Das

Anonymous said...

Re: The still pint (sic) within is everywhere. This is what I have learned from SY. Does that help?
-Das
October 20, 2007 11:12 AM
----------------------------

Hello Das,

Yes, that does help. I decided ON PRINCIPLE, to be completely devoted to the guru. Some of that capacity must have come from early training about religious leaders.

It was interesting to read the phrase 'still point" in your comment. Pre-SY I stayed at spiritual retreat with that name.
It was a nice place, I mean the one inside.

It is funny, but the experience now is more like the still point is outside, not inside.

Thank you Das, MC

Anonymous said...

I am surprised to see people posting comments here. A guru is always with you, one need to find that. If guru is not having a public appearance, there will be some reason. One need to have belief and the day will come very soon.
Have faith, continue your practice, follow sadhna honestly and truly, you will achieve what is the end goal of it....
Focus and move ahead.....
Think what you were before starting on this path and what your are now after walking along this path after whatever years you have spent......
Love all, respect all, and focus on yourself, your spiritual improvement. Else other is useless not meaningful......
Love to all and god bless you all......
Kept moving on your sadhna, meditation... That will answer all your questions and queries....

Anonymous said...

I wish to God i could get away from GM im trapped in her limbo and i wasn't ever really invlolved because it soon made me quite ill. I still have the dreams and psychic messages and this torments me severely. I see a million hell's and not one heaven. I hear Krishna carry on and the dark blue energy whuch accompanies him. My closest friends all went mad and died and im close to the same. Siddha yoga cursed my life and the life of my dearest friends and i will never be able to reconcile SY with anything nice or safe or happy. Its like being taken out of one reality and being forced into another reality and you cant go home.

Anonymous said...

Abandon hope all those who enter here. God has nothing to do with SY