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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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