Status Updates From Falling Upward, Revised and...

I encourage you to focus on a call to BEING rather than a call to action. Learn how to live in a relaxed, peaceful way in this nondual world of mystery. Then, eventually, God will place something on your doorstep that can move you into action.
The Latin meaning of “contemplation” is the way you stare at reality. If you don’t change your basic stance then your “doing” will be artificial, halfhearted & phony.

Like any true mirror, the gaze of God receives us exactly as we are, w/o judgment or distortion. Such perfect receiving is what transforms us. Being totally received as we truly are is what we wait & long for all our lives. All we can do is receive & return the loving gaze of God every day, and afterward we will be internally free & deeply happy. Soon we can pass on the same accepting gaze to all others who need it.

In the 1st half of life, the negative, the mysterious, the scary & the problematic are always exported elsewhere. Doing so gives us a quick & firm ego structure that works for awhile. But such splitting is not an objective statement of truth! It is just helpful for our private purposes. Eventually, this overcompensation in 1 direction must be resolved & balanced- this brings integration, growth, maturity & holiness.

Dualistic thinking is the well-practiced pattern of knowing most things by comparison- labeling one thing as good and so the other less good (or bad).

Typical sequencing of the dualistic mind:
It compares, it competes, it conflicts, it conspires, it condemns, it cancels out any contrary evidence, then it crucifies with impunity. (The 7 Cs of delusion & the source of most violence).

In your 2nd half of life you can bless others in what they feel they must do, but you can no longer join them in the first half of life. You can belong to such institutions for all the good that they do, but you no longer put all your eggs in that one basket. This will keep you and others from unnecessary frustration & anger, and from knocking on doors that cannot be opened from the other side.

The reminder that groups & institutions are 1st half of life structures is not meant to discourage you, but to keep you from losing hope (due to false expectations). Don’t expect/demand from groups what they usually cannot give- will make you needlessly angry & reactionary. They must and WILL be concerned with identity, boundaries, self maintenance/perpetuation, & self congratulation. It is their nature & purpose.

Institutions must, by necessity, be concerned with membership requirements, policies, procedures, protocols, and precedents. If they are working organizations, they need to have supervision & management, rules for promotion & salaries, and concerned about lawsuits & litigation. We would resent them even more if they did not do these things well- but these are nevertheless ego needs and not soul needs.

The Saint is precisely the one who has no “I” to protect or protect. Their “I” is in unconscious union with the “I AM” of God, and that is more than enough. Divine union overrides any need for self-hatred or self-rejection; these people just try to be in right relationship. Shadow work literally saves you from yourself (your false self), which is the foundational meaning of salvation to begin with.

Shadow work is humiliating work, but properly so. If you do not “make friends with judges & courtrooms” (Matt.5:25)- (ie, all those who reveal & convict you of your own denied faults), you will surely remain in the 1st half of life forever. “Shadowboxing” continues until the end of life, with the only difference being we are no longer surprised by our surprises or so totally humiliated by our humiliations.