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gaian carols
October 2009 
The Great Symbol
Posted on Jun 14th, 2009
by 
Gien
Gien
We spend time in this virtual environment,
Gaia, the internet, chatrooms, blogs, social websites, twitter
browsing, chatting, purchasing, giving / receiving ideas
keeping up with news, finding out about the world, finding out about life
improving our relationships, finding new ways to make money
expanding our horizons
Look at the technological marvel
this thin screen
now getting ever smaller and more compact
with images and sounds and words
voices, faces, music, dance and movement
Our ancestors would consider it magic
this thin rectangle
which seems to contain an entire universe within
Yet it is all symbols
streams of voltages and currents
just "1"'s and "0"'s
that get translated into things we humans resonate with
As we become enthralled by this virtual world
knowing it is pure representation
and reflecting upon this
can lead to deep wisdom
Just as these symbols appear on the screen thru the magic of science
so reality appears to us as well
thru the magic of pure being
we are humbled by knowing
that science itself is simply arisen from pure being
These technological marvels are the manifestation of human potential
Yet, in the same way,
human beings themselves
are the manifestation of this universal potential
We live our lives in this symbolically created world
full of words, language, conventions and representations
What would our life be like
if we were to extricate ourselves
from this symbolic world?
Stripped of our conventions
down to our bare bones
is there something fundamental in life
that is not part of this convention
and that we have forgotten?
Gaia, the internet, chatrooms, blogs, social websites, twitter
browsing, chatting, purchasing, giving / receiving ideas
keeping up with news, finding out about the world, finding out about life
improving our relationships, finding new ways to make money
expanding our horizons
Look at the technological marvel
this thin screen
now getting ever smaller and more compact
with images and sounds and words
voices, faces, music, dance and movement
Our ancestors would consider it magic
this thin rectangle
which seems to contain an entire universe within
Yet it is all symbols
streams of voltages and currents
just "1"'s and "0"'s
that get translated into things we humans resonate with
As we become enthralled by this virtual world
knowing it is pure representation
and reflecting upon this
can lead to deep wisdom
Just as these symbols appear on the screen thru the magic of science
so reality appears to us as well
thru the magic of pure being
we are humbled by knowing
that science itself is simply arisen from pure being
These technological marvels are the manifestation of human potential
Yet, in the same way,
human beings themselves
are the manifestation of this universal potential
We live our lives in this symbolically created world
full of words, language, conventions and representations
What would our life be like
if we were to extricate ourselves
from this symbolic world?
Stripped of our conventions
down to our bare bones
is there something fundamental in life
that is not part of this convention
and that we have forgotten?
Access: Public
well let me think about that
The being that has forgotten is still remembered by the Being having this experience!
Wonderful thoughts, Gien. As always, a compassionate perspective.
Yes, remembering
There is something within each of us, Meenakshi,
that still vaguely remembers something
something indefinable
yet which drives us to ask our deepest questions
and gives us a yearning to get back to something
of which we know not
What inspires us to do the things we really want to do each moment?
What do we REALLY want?
We may spend large amounts of our life
chasing after things that WE THINK we want
but as life brings us its lessons
we learn these things weren't really what we wanted after all
We begin to see that these needs
once considered so fundamental
with accumulated wisdom
become superficial
We begin to see
that they have arisen from conventional wisdom that we have accepted without question
Dogmas disguising themselves as truths
….passed down to us
and which we have simply swallowed as children
continued to swallow growing through our teenage years
and onto adulthood
Only through our own reflection and life experience
do we the opportunity to penetrate our wants
and once we see them stripped of conventional, dogmatic wisdom
we find no substance there
just an empty shell, a facade
And then
we return to the simplicity of the child's mind
who encounters something new for the first time
we return to questions long repressed by social norms
return to that state of pure wonder of being alive
Many Blessings
Congratulations for being the same all the time.