EMERSON AND DAVENE

SELF-RELIANCE

Why are we so quick to dismiss our inner genius for the cheap imitation of society’s superficial ignorance?

Emerson: “Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

Why do we lack faith in ourselves? Why do we discount our own creative thought and assume it is naught just because the culture drowns out our innate truth with convenient senseless babble? Are we really that weak that we let the outer rule over and cancel out the inner?

Emerson: “The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”

As we have faith, so shall our powers and blessings be. With faith, all things are possible; without faith, nothing is possible.

We are like a radio receiver tuned to Cosmic Intelligence. The thoughts of God are directly downloaded into our minds. We are a magnet for Truth and Universal Wisdom. What made us doubt our inheritance?

Emerson: “ We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”

How did the contagion of cowardice, fear, and complacency get a foothold in our minds? How did we turn God’s gift into a twisted piece of confusion? When did we accept that being small would serve us? How did we get that belief of inferiority?

What is our destiny, our mission statement?

Emerson: “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.”

Society is an enterprise controlled by the powerful and the Elite for their own benefit and enrichment. They operate from the competitive mind rather than the creative mind. For them there is a limited supply for which they must be the first pigs to the trough in order to suck it dry.

They reason that there is not enough for everyone. Their materialistic religion blinds them to the unbounded Formless Stuff which has no limits to the power of eternal creation. For them, there is a limited amount of money; of energy; of air; of pure water; of food; of gold, silver and minerals; of creative intelligence. ‘There is only so much to go around so grab what you can, when you can, while you can.’ This is their narradigm which they feed through the media and the institutions to the unsuspecting and unconscious masses thereby solidifying it into an accepted and agreed upon paradigm. This is the shared illusion. This is the Great Lie. This is the Matrix.

When will we stand up and proclaim “Father, the sleeper has awoken”?

Emerson: “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” “ No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.”

But, do we speak our truth in the face of hypocrisy? Do we speak with the voice of firm resolve reflective of our inner Voice when we see corruption, decadence, and nefarious behavior?

Or, do we shrink like cowards and ‘go along to get along’ so that we fit into the mosaic, homogenous and unseen? Society resembles a stinking rotten corpse but dare we point out how it contradicts with our inner Truth.

Let us revisit Dharma. We often think of dharma as our purpose in life; our gift with which to serve mankind; our definiteness of purpose. But, there is another dimension to dharma. Dharma is the religious and moral law or code governing individual conduct. Dharma contains all of the divine virtues and attributes of how man should relate and act with his fellow man. It consists of truthfulness, non-injury, generosity, service, kindness, living in gratitude, courage, honor, and righteousness.

That which is opposite to dharma is called adharma. In Sanskrit, when you place an ‘a’ in front of a word it takes on the opposite meaning. It is also dharmic to speak out against anything that is adharmic, wrong or against the laws of Nature.

Emerson: “Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man and his virtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily nonappearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world, — as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virtues are penances.”

What has happened to the innate art of critical thinking? Does anyone question the pablum the masses are fed anymore? When you are told what to think; what to buy; what drugs to take; what behaviors you must exhibit; what rules to follow; what political dogma to believe; what to wear; what sexual preferences you should have; to ignore the laws of biology; to believe in limited supply, etc. do you check that with your inner Wisdom?

Or, are you just a Coppertop battery plugged into the grid? Are you buying the precepts of ‘be a global citizen’ ‘surrender your individuality’ ‘own nothing and be happy’ ‘don’t challenge authority’ ‘eat ze bugs’ or is your bullshit meter going off? Are you living from the silence within? Are you detached from the noise? Do you march to the beat of your own drum?

Emerson: “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

The world is as you are. What you put your attention on grows stronger in your life. Do not let the outer become the inner. Lead with your inner. Let the inner manifest into the outer world that you want to create. Know your own mind. Keep your own counsel. Be reliant on the Self. The Power of the Universe is the God within you.

Once the famous woman Indian Saint, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known simply as Amma, was asked asked, “Amma, I have seen so many spiritual masters. Can you please answer the question I have sought from all of them: How can I know—not believe—but know that God exists?”

Hearing his question, Amma laughed and said, “You yourself are the proof, because you are God.” Amma then explained that to deny God’s existence is like using one’s tongue to deny the existence of the tongue. Amma then called the man to her. When he approached, she said, “Open your heart and love like a child. Then you will know God.” Hearing this, he leaned forward and laid his head on her lap.

Emerson: “All men have my blood, and I have all men’s. Not for that will I adopt their petulance or folly, even to the extent of being ashamed of it. But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door, and say, — ‘Come out unto us.’ But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me, I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. “What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love.”