Geoff Freed           

Life takes the soul by the hand and gives it experiences in order to free it from illusion, maya.  Then absorption with the One is attained.                                                                                                                       Bhagavad Gita

Easter 1993 brought a well earned rest on a Friday and Saturday.  The rest was not to last long, however.  Saturday evening I sensed an energy boiling up in my head area and deep in side I knew this was an initiation, a test.

  Sunday and Monday brought marauding gangs of youths and juniors to an otherwise fairly peaceful housing estate.  In fact, the end in which I reside is said to be the quieter end...until then enjoying 14 years of peace.

  The peace was shattered by the noise of supermarket carts being rammed into garage doors, rubbish bins emptied over the street and set alight, garages and old cars in them set on fire and windscreens crashed out, battery acid strewn all over, and more.
 
  The police arrested the offenders, only to have the under age ones released - to return and repeat their performances in several variations, none of them pleasant.  The residents in my estate spent a 24 hour sleepless vigil, filled with fear and hopelessness over a situation which seemed out of control.

  My own reaction, after getting over the initial shock and fear, was to turn to inner guidance.  This led me to meditate and put light into the situation, which has worked for me to some extent in the past.  As I did this, the violence escalated.  Then, in a flash, in one of those inner, indescribable moments, I understood my particular opportunity for growth - my piece of this unusual learning experience.

  Assuming that God, Cosmic Consciousness, the Creator, the Supreme Being (or whatever we might call the higher awareness of which we catch only little glimpses now and then) gave us free will, then vandals have as much free will as I.  If the world works in duality, then by evoking light I also set up its equal and opposite reaction of dark.  One '-ism' sets up its anti- or complementary force.  God, being unconditional and in balance, is neither for light or dark, lower or higher self.  God is an all-encompassing being, without duality or divisions residing only in a state of being.

  It is most difficult to even approach this state of being.  If one is in attachment one is the middle of the raging vortex; the centre, axis or pivot where all revolves and evolves from but not attached to effects or outcomes or reactions.

  I felt a touch of this and was elated.  Strangely, the quiet became apparent outside.  Life experiences are my guru.  I draw to me the experiences of fear - the shadow - in order to heal or make whole all these fragmented parts.  I reclaim my fragmentation.  I deal with this by remembering that fear is an illusion and that a powerful, peaceful centre is the healer and therapist within.  As it is processed within, it can be reflected out into the world.

  The question arose: "Am I worthy to receive protection?"  If we all have free will, what entitles me to protection rather than the vandal?  After all, I might get protection from light beings and the so-called terrorist from dark beings...angels versus devils.  Being out of angel, good, light, positive and out of devil, evil, dark, is the indescribable state of being.  It dawned on me that the closest I could come to living in the light of the divine was to be myself in duality, attached neither to good nor evil but rather seeking harmonious living, alignment with nature's architect and with all life forms and expressions.

  What then of presuming to engage in healing?  Would this not be judgmental?  One must search scrupulously, with the deepest possible honesty, to come from a place without fear or manipulation, from the deep ecological self.  When one can be in that space, then it is alright to 'put things, people, atmospheres and the like in the light'.  This must be a spontaneous, intuitive decision, not one from 'the higher self', a 'guide' or an 'oracle'.    When happiness simply is, it feels alright without thought.  It is a state of being, an innocence, a child-like trust.

  If we examine ourselves leaving home, parking the car or leaving some other valuable article somewhere, when we 'surround it in light', what are we doing?   Why the house, car, article protected and safe before I left it?  Am I saying that the light (God, an angel) is not there now that I'm out of the house?  Have they taken a day off?  Am I saying that as long as I'm there, the object is safe?  If the former, I do not believe God is aware, caring or omnipresent.  If the latter, I am in charge.  I control.  It is my power which protects.  Aren't all these admissions of fear?  I do not trust God, the angels or my higher self.  I have to remind me to remind them that I need protection.  Who am I that is so specially favoured to receive this protection?  Judging by burglaries and car thefts, the thieves are well protected!

  Can it be the so called 'thieves' are our best teachers?  Perhaps they are telling us, "Why are you so desperate to protect your possessions and mammon?  Take them away and would it be that as I feel they are so precious and valuable to me they are teaching me to let go and trust, because where my possessiveness is, my heart is too?

  Could it feel right, without reason, without invocation or prayer or thought of protection?
 
  I knew all this in theory and bits have surfaced before.  Now, in my besieged council estate I was faced with it in fact and theory went out the window.  Through the living terror of this, I was forced to put my beliefs into actual practice - 'being in action' rather than 'advocating right action'.  I found myself knowing that life's laws are neither good nor bad.  I was fulfilling my creative urge to grow and be for no reason other than to grow and be.  I then knew I was worthy of protection, not by defence or affirmations, not by visualisations, but through the natural defence of being, which is neither defence nor attack but what simply what is.  Viewed from outside it may appear to be protection.  From the inside it is merely residing in one's centre of being, without conscious effort.

  I asked myself, what is this all about?  The deep answer for me was that in every situation there is a lesson.  The lesson for me is:  What is there in me that attracted that situation?  What part of my shadow resonated with the experience.  Outside events become my healer/teacher by lifting out part of the shadow to be cleansed and transformed into its ground causal being.

Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists.  Herein lies the peace of God                                                                                                                                                                         -- The Course of Miracles

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1993 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com 

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