Reply: pdgm
10-23-18

Dear Erne,
Getting gushy for the gusto of an exiled protagonist is sweet to see.

Yes, to infinity! And beyond! As my Toy Story doll says. I fully agree with your biggest wish regarding my progeny. Someday, I'm certain they'll desire to know. Yet I'm afraid that posthumously they'll have to read between the lines of historical news articles and glean what they can from my reflections on Between the Bars. That is if George Orwell's Big Brother has not erased the name of--

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http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/FacetsOfInquiry/Number8-Mar.-Apr.2000.html

DUALITY OF WILL

The key then lies in our dual nature. We have a higher, spiritual self (the individuality) that is immortal, that persists from life to life; and we have a lower, material self (the personality) that is mortal, that lasts but a single life. Each of these aspects of our nature has its own will. The will of the higher self is to love unconditionally, to sacrifice, to share, to help others, and to produce beauty. This will needs to be strengthened. The will of the lower self is to amass wealth, power and position; to hoard; to compete; and to harm others if they stand in our way. This will needs to surrender itself to a higher power -- surrender itself, that is, to the higher self, the higher will.

Each moment of our lives we face choices. For instance, as we are on our way to work one morning, we see an old man vainly struggling to cross the street. Do we hurry past him in order to get to work on time and to stay in the good graces of our superiors and maybe get a good raise at the end of the year? Or do we stop to help him and risk being late and possibly sacrifice job performance? That is, do we act for others (the higher will) or do we act for ourselves alone (the lower will)? Again and again we face these choices, and again and again karma brings us the result. Ultimately we face sorrow on the one hand, joy on the other.

As we evolve, we make less and less selfish choices and more and more selfless ones. As we do so, the lower will, by sacrificing itself, becomes one with the higher will, just as a grain of rice, by giving itself to be eaten, becomes one with the man eating it. And just as the man becomes stronger from the sacrifice of the grain, so the will becomes stronger from the sacrifice of its lower tendencies. Therefore, no contradiction inherently exists. The will is both surrendered and strengthened, only it is the lower will that is surrendered and the higher that is strengthened.

Reality is a flowing. This does not mean that everything moves, changes, becomes. Science and common experience tell us that. It means that movement, change, becoming is everything that there is. There is nothing else; everything is movement, is change. The time that we ordinarily think about is not real time, but a picture of space.