Seeing and being in a non dual mindset

A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or a bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there. -Meister Eckhart
Below the relatively superficial levels of the mind - beneath the emotions we are ordinarily aware of - lie layer on layer of the unconscious mind. This is the "cloud of unknowing," where primordial instincts, fears, and urges cover our understanding. The deepest flaw in the mind is what Einstein called the "kind of optical delusion of consciousness" that makes us see ourselves as separate from the rest of life. Like a crack in glasses that we must wear every moment of our lives, this division is built into the mind. "I" versus "not-I" runs through everything we see. To see life as it is, the mind must be made pure: everything that distorts must be quieted or removed. When the mind is completely still, unstirred even in its depths, we see straight through to the ground of our being, which is divine. ~Easwaran

When I strip off all the layers, I am simply me, "sammy", the
little boy from "behind the pine curtain" in East Texas.
Yet, there is still so much more.
Even that simple-little-boy-self is layered...there are elements of the false self in all of us. Yet, what brings me hope on this Memorial Day 2009 is that within each of us is the unitive, pure, unconstructed self. This oneness is what draws me to celebrate and give thanks for the gifts of my ancestors and of all our ancestors. For my uncles who fought in the last World War, for my dad and mom who worked in factories during wartime, for my great, great, great grandfather, Aurelius Monasco Chitwood, who risked his life coming to Carolina to seek life giving opportunities for the sons and daughters which were to follow. The naked truth is, we are one.
...that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Jesus had prayed for us -his disciples-to be One with him and with the Father. There is so much about the unitive consciousness that Jesus taught that I do not grasp fully. I really want to! Yet, every once in a while, I "get it", and he delivers insights and understandings that help me to see the oneness of the church and of His children.
One such insight is the oneness of all humans. Memorial Day is about those who died in the war. I want to remember all of the human race, and realize that we are all in this life together. I must have compassionate concern for all...not just Texans, or just Americans, but for Iranians, Iraqis, Chinese, French, and Africans. For this simple East Texas boy, that indeed is a transformational thought.

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