Sharings from a Shopkeeper

Shiva a.k.a. Allah a.k.a. God and Well Being in Troubled Times

In the late '70's I was living in France, teaching English and taking some university classes.

One of the people I was studying with was a young woman from Morocco, a Muslim, with already one university degree, that is to say,. an educated woman.

I was very interested in learning about world religions and had been studying a lot of Hinduism.

We spoke about that as well as Islam and Christianity. She, and others in her Islamic community, people she "learned" from, thought that Christians drank blood and ate some sort of raw flesh in their religious services. Of course, I tried to explain that it was wine and bread, etc. and the discussion turned to religious "mysteries" and miracles. But what this demonstrated to me was that probably a lot of problems in the world come from sheer ignorance, bad translations, semantics, and misunderstanding.

I just read an article in Newsweek by a young Muslim woman who made the same point regarding their name for God - Allah. Most people on the planet today do not come close to understanding other religions. According to the article a lot of people don't even know that Allah, God, Shiva, are simply words which give reference to a Supreme Deity. Everyone makes reference to That in their own way, using their particular language and culture to name the unnameable, and describe the indescribable.

I sell a lot of books on Wicca in my store. It is a particularly popular religion among young people and women (partially I think because it embraces the feminine (AND masculine) aspect of the Divine and is a hands-on religion i.e. individuals perform rituals and ceremonies.) It is also not particularly understood by too many people. I have seen some individuals come into the store, look at that section of books and turn and run out as if they had just seen the Devil Himself. (They seem to be afraid of the books and tarot decks which, well, are made out of paper and ink, let's face it) One day two women came into my store and as they approached the Wicca section I overheard one panicked woman say to another "Oh my God, don't go any further, let's get out of here." I know these people knew absolutely nothing true about Wicca. It is a religion based on unity and reverence for all things. So, can we not stretch these examples of ignorance to reach minds and hearts bent on overcoming the world with their own dogma??? So the world can be??? hmmm...what?... in line with some version of what God wants of mankind????

There is a great story of several blind men sitting under an elephant describing it to one another.

One guy says it is like the trunk of a tree, large and solid. One says, no it is like a snake and moves about. Another says, no, it is bristly and swishes. With eyesight we know each blind man only sees a leg, the trunk, the tail. The elephant, however, is all of these things and more. Similarly, God is simple and God is complicated.

Here is one of my favorite stories. Centuries ago, a great spiritual master gathered his disciples around him each night to talk about God and to pray with his people. Each night a stray cat showed up and walked all over the crowd of people, and all over the master, meawing and annoying everyone. So, after a few days of this annoyance, before each evening's lecture, the master took the little cat, tied it to a pole a distance from the group, spoke about his philosophy and experience of God, prayed with his people. Then afterwards he would untie the creature, pat it lovingly and let it go on its way. Today people find a cat and tie it to a pole before their religious ceremonies; they don't know why, they just do it. Religions are born from spiritual experience and great masters but become dogmas and full of strange things by people over time.

My teacher (Swami Muktananda) was a lineage master of an ancient path called Siddha Yoga. We called him Baba (sort of means grandfather). In the 1970's he established a tradition of two-day weekend workshops, called Intensives, where people receive initiation into this ancient path of yoga. People also receive instruction in meditation and other practices such as chanting in Sanskrit, and they hear the basic philosophy and teachings of this path. One of the philosophies behind Siddha Yoga is Kashmir Shaivism, the bottom line being "Nothing exists which is not Shiva" a.k.a. GOD a.k.a. All Pervasive Consciousness a.k.a. The Self a.k.a Divine Love. This is both a complicated and simple philosophy which basically means that God has created everything out of his own being, is everywhere, is everything. But it takes awhile to let that soak in and apply it intelligently while keeping dualistic reality and free will in proper perspective.

Well, a young man took one of these Intensives and had a great spiritual experience of everything he looked at, felt, knew, was God, was indeed Shiva. He was in a mellow state of Divine Love and just "knew" this was "THE TRUTH." He was employed as a delivery person and the day after the Intensive he went to work. He pulled up at a house to deliver a package. The house was heavily fenced and gated and had a big sign BEWARE OF DOG. He could even see this large beast through the iron bars. However, since EVERYTHING WAS GOD, how could there be a problem? He opened the gate and proceeded to deliver the parcel. The dog viciously attacked him and the man had to be taken to the hospital for stitches and have his battered and bruised body tended to. With his spirit and faith injured as well he went back to Baba and asked how, if these teachings were true - i.e. if the Universe was Love and nothing but Love, how could such a thing have happened?? Baba removed his glasses, leaned forward and kindly said to him "But the dog didn't take the Intensive."

And because dogs don't take intensives, because not everyone has a policy of kindness, because there are murderers and thieves on this planet, we must lock our doors, buy insurance, have security at airports, military machines, and be alert on dark streets. This does not mean that we cannot recognize that beyond that we are One in a way that is hard for the mind to grasp. This does not mean that we cannot or should not strive to love one another all the time, not just in troubled times. In fact, the awareness that goodness and love do exist, should make us all strive towards manifesting more and more of it in our world, not turning against God in times of adversity.

Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun living in Cape Breton, Canada, has written a new book, "The Places that Scare You" which just happened to be released in the time-frame of the terrorist attacks. She talks about some of the things that a person can do and contemplate in times of stress and fear. One chapter is dedicated to the great Buddhist practice called tonglen, which literally means "taking and sending." Basically you sit in a meditative posture and you breathe in suffering from an individual, a group, the earth, or mankind in general and then within your own being you transform this pain and darkness into goodness and light and then breathe out that energy in a gesture of blessing to the person or the world. You can do this for whatever length of time and as often as you wish. It is a key component of this ideology that it is important to send positive energy to victims of negative actions as well as perpetrators of negative actions so that everyone's consciousness may be uplifted and all may return to a natural state of being.

Individuals need to understand their own power. Each one of us has the ability to bless the earth, to bless others to affect and transform our environment and this world.. Every human heart has an infinite supply of love. We do not have a fixed amount, or a small amount. If we tap it, it is unending. I'll repeat that: the love in our heart is infinite.

After awhile, tonglen, prayer, meditation or any spiritual practice brings you into the awareness of Oneness, because how do you separate the Dance from the Dancers??

There is no power in the universe greater than Love. Love literally can move a mountain, heal the sick, or as Mahatma Gandhi believed, love can conquer a nation. There is no effort greater than movement towards Love - in all our daily acts, towards all things, all of nature, all people. Love is without limit. It belongs to no race, nationality or religion. Love is the very nature of Shiva, of Allah, of God. We all know it exists. We have the freedom to move towards it or away from it in every moment of our lives. In all times, troubled or otherwise, Love is the means and Love is the goal. This is not new advice or a new message. This is an eternal truth beyond all other teachings.

By Bonnie Castonguay