I kicked off this blog a little more than six months ago with a blog entry on Ekhart Tolle.
I had first heard of Tolle earlier that same day when I caught a special on him on Public Access Television. I was surprised at my own interest as I am not or was not generally a "New Age person" but I went ahead and bought his book "A New Earth" anyway and read it.
It resonated with me. I went on to buy some of his audio books. I did not become a devotee but it made sense to me. It led me back to other areas of interest - varied but all spiritual or metaphysical in scope. That began this blog.
I still listen to Tolle from time to time and I was listening to him today in my car or rather relistening to Tolle's A New Earth. In the beginning pages of this volume, Tolle speaks about a spiritual flowering of humanity and he draws a connection between things that at first seem unrelated: flowers, crystals and birds. Each time I hear or read this passage I am struck by how significant this message is.
Any life-form in any realm - mineral, vegetable, animal or human - can be said to undergo "enlightenment." It is, however, an extremely rare occurrence since in its development, a leap to an entirely different level of Being and, most important, a lessening of materiality. What could be heavier and more impenetrable than a rock, the densest of all forms? And yet some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, and so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat and pressure turn into diamonds, and some heavy minerals into other precious stones.
Most crawling reptilians, the most earthbound of creatures have remain unchanged for millions of years. Some, however grew feather and wings and turned into birds, thus defying the force of gravity that had held them for so long. They didn't become better at crawling or walking, but transcended crawling and walking entirely.
Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones, and birds have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life-forms, they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special significance and the reason why humans feel such fascination for and affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality...
In the case of a flower, a crystal, precious stone or bird, however, even someone with little or no Presence can occasionally sense that there is more than the mere physical existence of that form, without knowing that this is the reason why he or she is drawn toward it, feels an affinity with it. Because of its ethereal nature, its form obscures the indwelling spirit at a lesser degree than is the case with other life-forms. The exception to this are all newborn life-forms...
So when you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal or bird without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless. There is an inner opening however slight into the realm of spirit. This why these three "en-lightened' life-forms have played such an important part in the evolution of human consciousness since ancient times; why for example, the jewel in the lotus flower is central symbol of Buddhism and a white, the dove signifies the Holy Spirit in Christianity. They have been preparing the ground for a more profound shift in planetary consciousness that is destined to take place in the human species. This is the spiritual awakening that we are beginning to witness now.
What seems to me suddenly significant about this understanding of enlightenment or transformation is the implication that these events, though exceedingly rare, are natural phenomena. This is not to say that there is not a "super"-natural component to these states of being but it is my contention that this is always the case. In my conceptualization of reality, multiple dimensions exist and this is not magic or make believe but natural though largely unobserved phenomena. We consider it "supernatural" only because it is beyond the realm of the five "natural' senses which most people rely upon exclusively.
The question is - is this transformation of which Tolle and others speak, an evolutionary process which will expand our sensory perceptions and therefore our ability to sample to reality? How interesting it would be to all of humanity expand their sensory perceptions into a universal sixth sense. An ability, if you will, to directly sample spiritual energy and the divine.
Recommended reading: Tolle's A New Earth available in print, ebook and audio.
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