Living forever in one body is not as creative as reincarnation.... ~Mellen-Thomas Benedict
Now that's a cool quote, if I've ever seen one, but much of the web article about M-TB is quotable, and cool. He died of terminal cancer in 1982 and after an hour and a half, revived. During that time, he went into the light and explored the universe. I've read some NDE literature, but its never been a major topic of exploration. I've always been more fascinated about the "here and now" than the "there and then."
But something's shifting.
It could be that I'm 50 and having intimations of mortality. Pause.
Yes, it could be that. Maybe it's serendipity...coming across two articles in a few days' span that have ignited something in me (Contemplative Spiritual Formation -- 3/11 blog -- and the above-referenced article about M-TB).
Or maybe my thinking and being are evolving, growing in a new direction. Pause.
Yes, it could be that.We are the most beautiful creations. The human soul, the human matrix that we all make together is absolutely fantastic, elegant, exotic, everything. I just cannot say enough about how it changed my opinion of human beings in that instant. (M-TB)
Certainly one of the things I find the most fascinating about M-TB's experiences is that they reflect major pieces of my cosmology, arrived at from my near-life experience(s):
- we all have a Higher Self, a direct connection to the Source
- all Higher Selves are connected, as are their humans, so we are all one Being, "different aspects of one Being," a mandala of souls
- we can transcend truth, find profound stillness beyond all silence, be one with absolute life and consciousness
- the Big Bang is only one of an infinite number of Big Bangs, creating universes infinitely
- the "void" is not a void but absolute consciousness, full of energy -- chaos from which all possibilities form
- the "reality" of the mystics looks like the "reality" of the new scientists
- God/dess is "in here" (and "out there" too, because we acknowledge that we are individual parts of a greater whole)
- everything is alive, everything is intelligent
- "we are part of a natural living system that recycles itself endlessly"
But what I didn't expect was this:
The mystery of life has very little to do with intelligence. The universe is not an intellectual process at all. The intellect is helpful; it is brilliant, but right now that is all we process with, instead of our hearts and the wiser part of ourselves. (M-TB)
Loving is more important than knowing?
It's the heart, stupid.I've been thinking of Goddess as "the mind of nature" since the late 1980s when I saw the video,
From the Heart of the World: Elder Brother Speaks-- been fascinated with and awed by the incredible intelligence of the self-creating universe.
And now this? The mystery of life has very little to do with intelligence?My friends who've studied NDE say that folks consistently come back from the other side with this info: what we're here for is to love and to learn. MT-B goes a step further, stipulating love over learning:
What all people seek, what sustains them, is love, the light told me. What distorts people is a lack of love.
Loving, learning ... heart/intellect ...
Ok, they're both important. But is this dualism, a polarity, an either/or?Stay tuned.
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