I don’t get it. I know, it’s the $64 question, but I must not have the $64 in my pocket, because I can’t figure it out. If we are, in fact, spiritual man, right here and now, and if we are one with our Maker in His image and likeness, which I deeply believe, then how did I get here, sitting in this chair on this material earth still struggling with my mortality in the first place? Why do we need to go through this earthly experience at all?

I can’t opt in to the “be a good boy and when you die, you’ll go to heaven and live with the angels” concept. It’s just a little too human-fairytale an explanation for me in this digital age. I’m more for the “we have our own opportunity to make our own heaven here on earth and it’s up to us to work our way up the ladder (proverbial) back to our original (and ever-present) state of grace.” Whew!

I believe in a God of pure goodness, not a punishing God. I believe in a God of love and the Bible supports that when John says, “God is Love”.  So I figure if God is love, He, She or It is just that, love.  So I tap into that source whenever I can.

And if we are, in fact, made in God’s image (I don’t take that literally because I don’t really believe in an anthropomorphic God) or are God’s reflection, and God is all good and God is love, then I am good and at my best when living in love. I believe this because I’ve seen it demonstrated in my life over and over again. The proof is in demonstration.

Yeah, I know, I’m getting’ kinda heady here, but why not? Sometimes you just gotta deal with it. The juggling of the human with the divine or the material vs. the immortal or the material vs. the spiritual is a constant mental battle for me. The lure of materiality is great, but the rewards of spirituality are what I know in my heart and mind to be what I’m after. It’s just that sometimes I get lazy or better, I lose my good sense of direction, and grab the nearest mortal plum.

Cut to the chase, Pete. The best explanation I’ve heard so far is this one:

This particular earthly life experience is just like the dream I had last night. It’s the same thing, a dream, an illusion. In the dream I had last night, it all seemed very real and I did not know I was dreaming and yet then I woke up and realized it was all a dream. Similarly, in this dream I live today called life, it all seems very real and I do not know that I am dreaming (or living in an illusion) and I will awake some day to the fact that this life experience was all a dream.

Sometimes at night I have dreams of “the know”, in dream study that’s what they’re called, dreams where you suddenly know you are dreaming. I have these experiences sometimes and am able to step in and out of the dream – I, in the dream, think, “Oh, I’m dreaming”, but then the dream becomes too interesting and I’m right back into the center of the dream experience having once again lost my secondary “knowing” awareness.

This too runs parallel with life. Here I sit having a moment of life of “the know” (I’m seeing myself as God’s spiritually perfect man), but then, when I finish writing, I’ll get up and eat my breakfast and plunge right back into life with little awareness of my spiritual self. This must be why the gurus go off to the mountain tops or the caves or why Jesus went to the desert for 40 days and 40 nights – to live fully in their life of “the know” experience and prepare themselves for this rather confusing duality of life on earth.

And yes, I could go on and on…

But the Sao Paulo sun has come up and today I get to once more visit the sky on a material level and come back down in Cape Town, South Africa.  So I’ll sign off for now with this song I wrote a number of years ago which got me started on this whole line of thought to begin with.

This Is All I Ask (click to listen)

I am a quiet man
A gentle man
Oh yes I’ve tried to live
By God’s own plan
Seeking the open sky
Giving me room to fly
On my own

And this is all I ask
For all I’ve known
Here on this tired earth
This rolling stone
Keeps me from rising up
From filling my rightful cup
On my own

So in my solitaire
My dark despair
I long for Thee
To take me there
Into the quiet sky
The open air
My liberty
This is all I ask of Thee
Yes this is all I ask

And when the time has come
When man shall stand
Each one and every one
As God’s own man
Then will my soul have flown
Then will I roll the stone
On my own

And when the sky rolls back
And opens wide
And I can touch the other side
And when the soul of man
Is one again
Forever free
This is where I long to be
This is all I ask
Forever free
Yes this is all I ask

You can listen to a sample or purchase this song at Watchfiremusic.com

Or, click here for This Is All I Ask Sheet Music