|
Los Angeles, Fall 1996
Is there benevolence in the universe?
 Q: How can we know that in the quiet that you speak of we will experience goodness and clarity? Do you presume a benevolent force in the universe?
CI: Look to your own nature because, after all, we are each a microcosm of totality, inseparable from the macrocosm. Those moments that you have known pure love, have they not been the truest? Have you not felt the most authentic, the most alive? Through all the strange turns and wanderings of your life, isn't love what you have always yearned for, what you have wanted to express, what you have wanted to give? And can you imagine that on your deathbed the love that you have known and shared will be all that will have mattered?
So whenever you find yourself in doubt about a benevolent force in the universe, just return to this, back home, to your deeper nature, love itself.
Q: I know that is true in my heart of hearts. But how does that explain the horrors that go on in this world?
CI: Love gets twisted sometimes. And it shows up in all kinds of sad and tragic ways when it has been perverted, suppressed, and denied. Though love is everyone's essence, not everyone is aware of that at all times. Stay with your own knowing of love. It transforms your vision of the horrors.
Q: It seems that things are worse than ever in our time.
CI: The world has been mad for as long as we know. And yes, it does seem to be worsening with our technological ability to destroy vast amounts of life in a single act and with many people willing to do so. In addition, we have the pressures of an overpopulated and polluted world. What is also unique to our time is that through extensive media we have awareness of the darkness all over the planet. This may result in a quickening of the light or we may be headed for our own extinction. In either case, choose to rest in your own goodness and offer as much understanding as you can. Even those whose behavior is an outrage and whom we might work to deter are seen as wayward children, blind to the consequences of their actions. "They know not what they do." You will then stop worrying about how bad it is in our time. That worry will be transmuted into compassion and love for what is shining before you.
Q: Will you then know how to be, what to do, how to help out?
CI: Being and doing become one continuum. Action flows from silence and dissolves back into it. In this, you discover that love is running the show and you just follow orders. You take dictation. The love that you are says or does whatever needs to be said or done and you find yourself as surprised as anyone else by what is coming through you. It will be completely unique in its manifestation, something nobody ever taught or told you. After all, the great ones just went out and did their own thing. The Buddha, Christ, all of them. They didn't follow anyone else's formula. They followed only the dictates of their own hearts. And the power of their integrity in that surrender was such that religions were created around them, but they themselves were not out to create religions. They were just living their lives in a wild, unconventional and creative expression. What moved through them is now moving through you. You may find yourself blazing for thousands or you may discover that you were not as pivotal in changing the world as you once had hoped. In any case, your life will be authentic.
Q: In recognizing this true nature, is the body a distraction, like thoughts are a distraction?
CI: Thoughts are not necessarily a distraction, nor is the body. Thoughts are arising in present awareness and dissolving back into it. The awareness remains untouched, unstained, immaculate. Thoughts are only a problem if you are preoccupied with them, giving them all your attention. But thoughts in and of themselves are not some kind of enemy. Thoughts can be very useful, functional, and even entertaining. They are allowed in this vast clearing. No problem.
Q: Isn't there a process? Don't we need to go through some sort of mental purification to realize what you speak of?
CI: No. You don't have to purify anything. It's all done. This awareness, this love that you are is not diminished by your dips into neurosis nor exalted by your soaring or poetic insights. It is always pure and clear, here and now.
Q: I want to believe that.
CI: No need to believe this. Taste it. Experience it. This is the feast and this feast is so rich that we couldn't possibly begin to take in even what is in this room. Think of it, each of us a human universe, yet made of all the same components. And all of this--the floor, the chairs, the flowers, the microphone, shimmering with this presence. Shining and shimmering and pulsating with life. Release your notions of "someday, I may experience this," "if only," or any sense of deficiency or postponement. There is no need to sit at the feast and feel hungry.
Q: Catherine, sometimes I have experienced what I think you are pointing to and it has come with a sense of boundlessness, nothing to hold onto, a sense of being in some great wilderness with no end in sight. It is occasionally frightening when I am in that state.
CI: You get used to it.
|
