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..:: The Veil ::..

By

Alan Schneider

                                                                                                                                                      

              What is The Veil? This is the term customarily assigned to the perception of the conditions present on the Physical Plane of Conscious Expression. This perception is held in place by the anchor of the physical body, and created through the interaction of the physical senses, the central and autonomic nervous systems (including the brain and attendant neurochemical events), and that neurological consequence of brain morphology characterized by sentience known as the ego – our direct experience of ourselves at the focus of our awareness.  All of these combine to form The Veil of Physical Perception.  

            Why is this phenomenon called The Veil? Because it more or less completely conceals and obscures the perceptual experience of several additional levels of knowing and being that have been referred to in these essays as the Planes of Ascension. This Veil has many names in the Mysteries, including the Illusion, the Deception, Malkuth, and Maya, but all point to a condition that is either partially or completely unreal when viewed in comparison to Enlightened states of Higher Perception. 

            The utmost level of this Higher Perception occurs on the Logoic Plane – the focus of Divine Consciousness.  If one has been fortunate enough to attain this level of experience, one of the frequent results is the establishment of direct communication of several varieties with the Logos – including the Word, and words, of God. I have had this wonderfully good fortune, and, as the result, can (and do) regularly converse with the Logos as I do with corporeal human beings on the Physical Plane.  

            The general consensus of opinion in both the Eastern and Western Mystreries is that The Veil is thinner under some circumstances than others, thus facilitating enhanced spiritual communication. These circumstances include astrological configurations, certain times of the year related to the ancient crop cycles, states of heightened receptivity associated with appropriate spiritual practices (such as meditation), and specific times of the day or evening during the twenty four hour daily time cycle.  The period of greatest receptivity occurs during the darkness, and generally begins around 3:00 am, continuing until around 5:00 am. Within this interval, the physical world is at its quietest, generating the least extent of noise and sensory distraction, and the ego is least active in perception, creating a profound state of both internal and external stillness. It is said that God is nowhere as Present as in the Peace of Stillness, and the Mysteries confirm this through the knowledge of this period. Meditation conducted within this interval is known to be at its most effective, as are prayer and spiritual reflection.  

            Under the terms of the above referenced conditions, and in view of my personal spiritual experiences, it is perhaps not surprising that I have developed the tendency to awaken during the interval noted above, whether dreaming, or soundly asleep.  I will customarily observe the Stillness at these times, and on one such recent occasion I subsequently arose from my bed, crossed the room to my sofa, and sat down there.  It goes without saying here that my normal mode of conscious perception is very high at most times, and it takes very little effort for me to make the kind of direct contact with the Logos referred to in the previous paragraphs. 

            So, I sat there in awareness of the Presence, and intuitively framed this question – “What do you want?” The answer was immediately forthcoming – “I want you to be happy sheep!” Enlightened or not, I found this response to be both extremely perplexing and upsetting! Sheep?! Are these not the lowliest, most uninspiring of creatures? I was stunned by this answer...  

            I already knew, based on my extensive contact with the Logos, that God Is Love, and this Divine Condition generates all subsequent manifestations of the Divine Light, particularly those seen in the Act of Creation. But, to be happy sheep seemed to be an affront to any and all self-worth in the extreme. Therefore, I sat in refection on God’s statement, and the inevitable wisdom of His consul eventually became clear. Perhaps some of what I realized was also God’s realization – under conditions of intimate interaction with the Logos, the distinction between personal and Divine becomes indistinct, to say the least. Whatever the case, here is what came of these realizations. 

            The key to understanding the words of the Logos here resides in the Supreme Absolute Truth that God Is Love. God loves all of Creation with completely selfless devotion, including, of course, literal and symbolic sheep. To human beings, sheep may be contemptible or pathetic creatures, both stupid and timid (although this is certainly not what they personally mean to me), but to God they are beautiful reflections of Divine Love and Grace – perfect in function and form.  In fact, it is the human ego that has the negative evaluation of sheep, as it has of so much in this life. Driven as it is by the frightful insecurity of its own mortality, the ego prefers to be compared to externally powerful images – warriors, conquerors, dragons, tigers, lions, and the like – certainly not to sheep! But God has none of this insecurity, only Love and Grace – the necessary lenses of Creation.  

            God Loves the sheep, and, more to the point, God Loves humanity. Even though we are as sheep in comparison to the Infinite Mind of the Logos, our human sentience and introspective perception notwithstanding – the paragon of animals, as Shakespeare once observed – God still deeply cares for us, our Souls, and our Karma. So, what this all comes down to is – what are the conditions that will most tend to make us “happy sheep”? Is not the operant term here “happy”? How are we to be happy, satisfied creatures on the Physical Plane? 

            The short answer to these questions is – by realizing our Higher Nature through the attainment of Enlightenment, and the first step in this process is the acceptance of our limitations, both personally, and as a species. Of course, this is a most painful process for the ego, which prefers to think that it has no limitations.  To further explore the sheep analogy, a sheep that somehow miraculously acquired the sentient capacity to know that it was a sheep in the care of human beings would be a most miserable creature if it could not accept its role in existence as a sheep. A sheep could not aspire to be even a poorly functioning human being, no matter how much “positive intent” it brought to the quest – the best outcome possible would be an enhanced understanding of its condition, and the appropriate nature of that condition – in other words, the sheep could, under the most optimal circumstances, attain Enlightenment. And it could also become a bitter, unhappy creature for the term of its incarnation as the consequence of failing to attain Enlightenment, and the associated acceptance of its nature. 

            The literal sheep do not, of course, demonstrate the degree of sentience required for the realization suggested in the preceding paragraph, but human beings routinely do, and our existential relationship to the Logos is comparable to the sheep’s existential relationship to us. The best outcome we can hope for as sentient beings residing in the body of flesh on the Physical Plane is the Enlightened outcome – through the experience of Ascension – in which we can become like God.  We can never be God, for a very sound series of reasons – apart from our obvious physical and mental restrictions, most notably mortality, we have a need for Divine Guidance along the road of life. Essentially, we need a Shepard, a role the Logos is uniquely suited to play.  

            Now, we can deny that there is a God, or a Shepard, or any other source of Higher manifestation of consciousness, and ascribe all of life’s vicissitudes to our personal judgment, taking place in the broader context of fate, and there is no objective argument that can be made to refute this denial.  There is no “hard” evidence of the existence of anything beyond the Mental Plane, and even that level of consciousness is difficult to support in absolute scientific terms. But, the fact remains that people who have achieved an acceptance of the human condition in spiritual terms are generally more comfortable, satisfied beings than those who remain in denial of spiritual conceptuality – in a word, they are among the happier “sheep” in the human flock because they possess a sense of their location in a continuum of consciousness that extends beyond the limitations of the physical condition on the Physical Plane.  This perception creates a much more free conscious involvement with the universe and its psychological correspondent – the Psyche. Certainly, greater freedom is one of the components of the happy Post Modern sheep! 

            The conception of acceptance of our human limitations includes the willingness to accept responsibility for our freedoms, as demonstrated in our thoughts, words, and deeds, and this is often a tough call for many of us, steeped as we are in the “culture of convenience” seen in the Western world. Beyond this, the full spectrum of human frailty and fallibility must be confronted as a part of the price of happiness – these are the concealed blessings of our physical existence, and to ignore or deny them is to remain ignorant, and in spiritual darkness. In fact, God, the Good Shepard, gave us as human beings the greatest blessing of all – challenges of all varieties – spiritual, personal, physical, moral, and on and on in life. What would our existence be without this?  

            If we can at least partially accept our lot in life as limited mortal consciousnesses for the duration, we will have come a long way on the Path of becoming like God, the Path of Enlightenment.  Why does there have to be a Logos and Creator of all subsequent experience? Because the sheep need their Shepard, and their relationship with their Shepard, to give their lives meaning and purpose beyond materialism. This is the way we were created – in God’s Image – and we need that image to define our existence. And what does God need? Well, the Shepard has no meaning without the sheep. All love emerges from sincere self love, and God is Self Love expressed through Creation.  We are indeed created created in the Divine Image.

 

                                                                                 - With Love, Alan -

                                                                           (CR2008, Alan Schneider)

 

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