Holy smokes:doing unto others

The fires are burning outstate, but we are safe here. I know none of us are alone in our experiences, and am more convinced of that lately. To explain, here are some excerpts from recent emails between me and another soul searcher:

This one is from me....
"Last night I went to a neighborhood dinner, and found out that a poacher (uncaught) had slain and taken the head of our only resident bull moose several months ago. I was feeling anything but considerate and gentle! So I told BiL last night that I was going to put my will out there, that the poacher be blinded and crippled to 'correct' this human flaw to the earth. I knew I could not bring the moose back, but I wanted to do what I could towards stopping the poacher from ever doing such a thing again. BiL tried to talk me down from my high horse, saying that teaching is another way of correction and that anyone can learn a new way; anyone can change their ways. I doubted there was hope that such a person could really change their ways.

This morning, I talked with Phillip our minister while we were setting up the booth ... and I asked what his response to all that is. He said I was right in asking the earth (that's where I got the 'correction' idea vs the 'justice' idea that originally vexed me when I first heard a rumor about a moose killing a couple weeks ago... I went out and stood barefoot on the ground and asked it what the answer was, and in its way it said "correction, not justice").

He also said wisdom I ask is wiser than us, and to stipulate the details of the correction is probably not gonna help. In fact, he said, and this is what really got to me and I'd love to know what you think about it..... What I would be stating to the universe with my "blind/cripple intention" was the belief that learning can only be done in the most maiming and excruciating ways. Hmmmmmm..... so even tho I was stipulating that I would want no harm be done to anyone but the perp, I would still be setting something into motion that I really would not want to happen. I think he's right. I never thought about it that way.

So tonight .... I am putting forth the intention of the correction being done, as soon as possible, in the wisdom of the earth.

Now, if you choose to put any time into this, what do you think about the story above? What are your views? I have a feeling I am gonna get some teaching about right and wrong being illusions, after all, and yet, we are here by choice, and aren't we supposed to know some rules that apply to all? Or is it all really about letting go? But come on, how can you let go of everything yet still say you love the earth and all her critters???? And the biggest trick of all is to love the poacher and not his actions, right? Or is it?? "

My email guru responded:
" This is just my observation, coming from me where I stand these days. The first answer is, this Moose killing is not about what it says about the poacher, but what it says about you, especially your response. In other words there is nothing going on outside of you/us, the reason we are here is not to love and protect our mother earth, but to become fully conscious. In other words your killer instinct has been revealed, part of the real you has been revealed, so you are not only this sweet loving, kind, helpful, considerate little girl, but you are also this witch who casts evil spells upon people you dislike.

This is not even about you loving the poacher and hating his crime, this is about your true nature being revealed and seeing that in the grander scheme of things, there is really no difference between you and the poacher, no separation, you are one and the same person in that you both have unconscious sides to you where you do things without really understanding the broader implications to your actions.

I don't think we are here to become good or enlightened by choosing the correct path, join the right group, practice healing arts, we are here to experience. I put a period after that word for a reason. We are here to experience. We are here to experience.

Has that line sunk in yet? Through the natural process of experience we become enlightened, but never good. Enlightenment is the perpetual learning process we go through until eternity. Good and bad are just earth bound polarities, they do not exist outside of each other, they are one and the same thing.

The poacher did nothing bad on the cosmic scale, he/she experienced the poaching and learned and still is learning from that experience, it was supposed to happen so that he/she could see a part of themselves and so you could respond and see a part of yourself as well as countless others.

.....Oh and how much of your curse would be revenge? and if you go through with it be sure to dig two graves after enacting it. "


Me again.... so while I was feeling like I'd just been given a breath of understanding, he flies this next one by me:

Again Rox, this is a great lesson for you and just for a new perspective for you I took your paragraph about the curse and changed it for you to see what it would feel like to read it that way, here it is,

So I told BiL last night that I was going to put my will out there, that me and the poacher be blinded and crippled to 'correct' this human flaw to the earth. I knew I could not bring the moose back, but I wanted to do what I could towards stopping the poacher from ever doing such a thing again and from me ever wanting to put a curse on anyone again and I knew that this would do just that, teach us both a good lesson. And the great thing is that after we are both crippled and blinded, we can both get electric wheel chairs, meet in a clearing and have a demo derby, trying to find each other so we can crash into each other to show which one of us is ultimately right. Bil could film it and it would at the very least win top honors as the America's funniest home video. If one or both of you were killed, it might even win the Darwinian award.

We have to laugh at this kind of thing Rox, because we humans are such wingdings in our humaness sometimes. If we take it too serious we end up creating even more karma.

See, there is no separation. Putting a curse on a poacher is like putting a curse on the entire world.

I think about all the mental pictures I created over my lifetime, secret mental pictures of people who I think have wronged me, getting their just deserts. This was done in my subconscious, secretly in the back of my head. The thing is that that's no different from what you were contemplating. It's just another atom bomb being tossed into the cosmic pond to see what ripples it makes, thinking we are not living in that pond, but we are.

Try not to get down on yourself or the poacher, because he/she did you a big favor revealing a side of yourself you were unaware of before. I don't try to be good or right anymore, it's futile. I just watch myself closer to see what other side of me I was unaware of.

Wow. I wasn't thinking of my 'correction intention' as a curse, but really, what else is it?

I know that every reader of this blog does not agree with the principle of 'experience' being the point of life, but I tell ya, what my friend wrote rang SO true for me! I have always had the idea in the back of my mind that whatever I do or think will come back and affect those I love.... and I think he is right. I mean, I would be fooling myself to think that I could 'will my way' out of what my intention (you can certainly read that as blessing or curse) would do in the big picture. Like the pond, if it affects part, it affects the whole. There is no getting around it.

This really brings home the Do unto others as you would have done unto you" teaching of Christ. Have I ever thought of myself as having a killer side? A curse throwing side? Nope, but I do believe the power of thought (Christ spoke of people committing adultery or murder in their hearts being as potent as the deed itself, and I've always thought that statement applied to the validity and power of thought). And now I think I get it. I think my friend is right. It really does matter that I pay attention to my response to what is going on. And I can truly thank the stupid moose poacher for bringing this all to light. He is not the first individual that has shown me my sharp edges, and I doubt he will be the last. I just am thankfully not in daily practice of coming up against these people, so I loose track of the bigger vision of things.

As my minister Phillip said, I can agree with the wisdom of earth to make her correction in a gentle way, and I can safely add, "expedient".

This feels better to me. What does this have to do with fires? Well, I will not add my intention to potentially make them worse.

What do you think? I'd love to know.