23-26 | theomjournal

Questions 23-26

I worry that I’m not doing enough to improve myself and that I’m not nearly as connected as I want to be to people and to God. How can I resonate with Om instead of with angst?

Om is the holy sound that pulses inside you. How can you feel at odds with the world when you are one with it? You and everything have the same holy source. You and everything else throb with the sound that Om sings to the world. Listen to it. How is your song any different than anyone else’s? How is it less resonant and lovely to hear?

Om made you for a special purpose. Om wants you to thrive and to share your joy with the world. Sometimes this joy is hidden from sight. Sometimes it feels as though a boulder has been placed on top of the spout that joy flows through and that it will never surface again. But is that true?

Om knows that life on earth is not an easy matter. Om has designed it to be so. And still Om has given you so much to balance the scale, to tip it toward joy and gratitude. Do not despair. Don’t measure your moods as if they matter. All that matters is that God is inside you and outside you and loves you more than you love yourself.

Open your spigots. Let your love flow to everyone and everything around you. Don’t look to see if it’s returned. It will be in time, and even if it isn’t you contain so much love inside you that you don’t need to court it from others. How can they change your view of yourself? Can they take a hammer and chisel away the false image that you made for yourself?

Only God and self-effort can soften it so that it can be comfortably removed layer by layer. And that is happening every day of the week.

Om sings its holy song to you. Om throbs inside and outside you. You and Om and the world are one. Melt into Om and the world like a pitcher full of warm golden butter. Add your joy and color to the world. Smile at those you pass. See them as Om, as people who strive to know Om and to be released from their pain. See them as you. No matter who you pass on the road, feel as though you are gazing into the mirror and seeing your own sweet particular soul on a given day, a day when fear or happiness or worry or insecurity or confidence is ascendant. See the people you pass as aspects of you and of God in the role that God is playing at the moment. Tip your hat to these aspects. Have compassion for them. Say to yourself, “I am fine and worthy whatever my mood.” Say to yourself, “I am a child of Om, a recipient of Om’s love and hopes.” Om has created you to do a special job on earth. All have their special tasks and tests and barriers to surmount. Look about you and enjoy the passing parade, knowing that you and Om and those that strut past you are one and the same.

Loneliness is a self-imposed state, a state of isolation and cares. Step out of that costume. Breathe deeply. Let your skin feel the breeze and the warmth of the sun. Say to yourself, “I am Om in all its splendor and majesty, its power to create and negate its creations.”

I am a woman and I am Om, and that is a wonderful combination. Could there be a better one here on earth?

Marvel in what you are and in what you can do to uplift the spirits of those around you. And if you slip up for the moment, if you say the wrong thing or feel captive to your more negative aspects, then that too is part of life and part of Om’s plan.

Love yourself and everyone else as fragments of Om that will one day be joined together in the most wondrous of moments when all grief and fear will fall by the wayside and love and grace will prevail.

That day is coming. Welcome it and welcome the day that is at hand. It too is a wondrous gift and full of knowledge and teachings and love and pain that is being released at the proper pace.

How can I change my behavior to reflect that Om is inside me?

Om is the great parent. Om sings the world into being. Om is the primordial sound that gives birth to all sounds. Om’s great and sacred vibration is pure and good and pulsing with unimaginable strength and intention. Om is like an arrow shot from a bow, but Om propels itself and chooses its direction; its movements are that swift and unimpeded.

If you could see Om at work, if sound became visible, you would be stunned at the beauty and force of what you see. A geyser is nothing in comparison, nor is the greatest flow of lava that has ever poured forth from the mouth of a molten volcano.

Om is a force beyond comprehension, beyond anything that the mind can conceive of or understand. Om’s power is greater than the Big Bang, greater than the power of a thousand stars. For who caused those things to come into existence?

And yet Om can be gentle. It flows through the smallest bird and newborn baby without causing a ripple in the delicate creature’s tiny system. Om is always appropriate, always aware of what its creation can stand and needs.

Be the same to those you come upon. Temper your strength and your voice and your words to fit the occasion. See who faces you and respond in a way that is perfectly fitting to the need at hand.

And if you don’t, if your old thoughts and reactions get the better of you and you act as though you are the powerless creature you once thought you were, then think again. And realize the truth of who you are, what propels you and who you face. Temper yourself. Om has made you in a way that isn’t fixed and iron-clad. Om has made you pliable and eager for change. Om has made you someone who can change, can adapt, can learn at every instant. Use that gift to be more and more like Om’s dear servant on earth, Om’s representative who goes about bringing good to the world. Om wants that from you. Om is patiently waiting and also urging you to hit your stride and become Om’s glorious helpmate.

No role in life is better or brings more joy to all involved in any action that you undertake. Undertake your actions with this goal in mind. Act as Om would, as Om does, as Om is acting though your gentle healing actions. Become a healer in Om’s name, Om’s army of those who come here to fix what is broken and leave joy in its stead.

Why did Om create a world where creatures have to devour other creatures to live?

Om created all sorts of worlds where various things occur. In this world, animals devour other animals and plants are trampled as they stretch toward the sun. Our world is a challenge to be in from the moment a creature, whatever it might be, takes birth. Our world is self-sustaining. Our world feeds on itself in order to continue to thrive. Our world is a very strange and harsh and beautiful place, if truth be told.

Animals devour other creatures that are weaker and smaller than they are in order to survive. To survive, a death of sorts must occur, a death of a weaker substance or creature or mood.

One thing devours the next, and life continues on this plain. But that is not the whole picture. Our world is a game of hide and seek, of creatures blending into the background in order to survive. In our world the small and the weak must be wary and scamper away from their enemies. The bigger creatures move about as though they are the kings and the possessors of the world. The rich do the same, as do the world’s rulers. But what is the truth?

When one creature devours another, when a weaker creature sacrifices itself to another so that the other might live, is that a sight that the tender among us must hide our eyes from? Or is there a different, larger, more mysterious interpretation of what is occurring? As the antelope succumbs to the lion and the lion succumbs to the hunter’s gun, who is in charge of this circle of violence and sustenance?

Om is in charge. Om has turned this world into a place that feeds on itself in order to live. Om has created a dog that lives on its tail, that chews it and nourishes itself on itself.

Om has created creatures that apparently are devoured and spit out of the mouth of a mightier being. But is that truly the case?

Here is the truth. Nothing can truly be destroyed. The outward appearance, yes, the bones, the sinews, the meat. But the light inside the creature cannot be put out. That light is Om. And Om is eternal. Om has created a world where life is precious and seemingly fragile and can be destroyed in an instant. But the light of life remains untouched by the teeth that claim the flesh. The light of the soul persists.

It is all a dance of light and mirrors, of drama and death, fear and loss. Yet nothing truly occurs beyond the constant shedding of endless skins.

The antelope falls to the ground. Its fellow antelopes mourn it and flee for their lives. The lion gives chase. And yet who is the lion, and who is the antelope, and what is the ultimate result?

How can a light that is eternal and stainless and loving devour itself? Why would it want to, even in jest?

It does so on earth to create a pageant of life and apparent death so that none are complacent. And love and loyalty are heightened by the fear of loss.

The earth seems to feed on itself, but nothing is ever lost. No soul, no matter how tiny and short-lived in this world of life and death, darkness and light, fear and blame, love and surrender, is ever truly lost.

Om has given us a world where we must stay on guard, protect the weak among us, and champion those who can’t champion themselves.

Om has done this to test our mettle, to see if we side with the weak or the strong, the victim or the merciless bully. Om has given us choices. Om has put us in a world that is stark in the way it operates, that appears to be a very cut-and-dry place, a place of victims and victors, a place where might seems right. And yet is that the case?

Om wants us to develop compassion, to be tender to tender beings, to hold the tiny bird to our breast and love it for its bravery and fragility.

Om wants us to be brave, to see the chase on the plain and to say to ourselves, “I can run that fast if I must. I can defend myself. I can survive. Om is within and without. Om propels me. Om gives me strength and an inner light that can never be doused. And so I can be both brave and tender. I can be powerful and use these powers for good.”

Om has given us a world that appears to feed on itself as though it was a dog that lived by devouring its tail. And yet Om is eternal and stainless and good.

Om hovers over each creature great or small as its soul departs this earth. Om croons to the beautiful antelope as its soul ascends into Om’s light. It thanks the antelope for the grace and beauty it brought to the world, for the speed at which it dodged its prey for as long as it could. Om thanks the antelope for raising its young and then surrendering itself to the lion, leaving this world for a kinder one where Om is there for the eye to see. Om’s bright light and brave love are palpable to all who go there to be revived and to heal from their past ordeals.

Om is not as callous as it might appear to someone who eats meat and feels confused about what goes on here and why. Om has created a world where all must sharpen their skills and tend to those who can’t defend themselves. Here in this world some seemingly win while others lose. But is that the truth about what occurs here?

Look about with a different eye, an eye that sees Om wherever it turns and sees Om’s intentions for those who inhabit the earth. Take your time. This is far from an easy matter. Look about, contemplate, strengthen yourself while you defend and care for the weak. See what happens to your opinion of Om and Om’s motives here on earth. Love Om. Strive to see and feel Om’s love wherever you turn.

What did I do to deserve these astonishing lessons?

Om appreciates your effort to learn about the forces that propel this earth. Om is happy for those who strive to know the truth about what occurs here. Om is a patient teacher who gives its students clue after clue, sign after sign so that the student can discover the truth about the life she possesses and who has given this life to the soul so openly and freely and with such a vast and generous heart. Om relishes the student who devotes herself to knowing God, to peeling away the veils that shelter the world’s greatest mystery.

The center of our earth blazes with fire and light and heat. The center of our bodies, our cells, our souls also blaze but with Om’s great light, the flame which Moses saw that doesn’t consume the bush but gives it a holy life instead.

Om waits with great patience for its creatures to discover their inner light and strength and knowledge. Om is bliss and complete and full in a way that those who haven’t yet experienced Om within themselves cannot understand. Om is bliss and wholeness, yet Om can still rejoice at the progress its creatures have made.

Om watches its creatures with a patient, tender heart. Om knows the end of the story. And yet Om is interested to see the progress that occurs, the events that Om has devised to bring about this progress.

Om would not try to rush the game in the way that you want to rush what happens to you. Om doesn’t want the clock to spin faster so that the letter will arrive and the man you seek will find his way to you and ring your doorbell with such eagerness and impatience that that he soon begins to pound it and shout, “Let me in!”

Is that the best way to behave? To barrel your way toward what you crave, to shove those who stand in front of you aside, to trample the plan that has been devised with your greatest good in mind?

Om is patient because patience goes hand in hand with true and lasting progress. Om knows not to rip off the bandage before the cut has healed, exposing it to germs that will lead to infection. Om knows that a person’s psyche is tender and prone to lasting hurts and so must be treated with great care and respect for its current infirmities.

Om knows the proper pace at which a person must move toward the light. Go too fast and confusion occurs. A person loses her equilibrium and sense of herself. She sees things that unsettle her and leave her more fearful than when she started her efforts to give up her fears and live as a godly, intelligent warrior.

Have patience, my dear. Learn from Om. Treasure the moment for what it contains, a gift from Om, a tiny amulet to wear on a chain. And that amulet is trust and patience, the knowledge that Om has given us a perfect existence where everything occurs at the proper time.

A seed must grow. It can’t be forced along and told to unfold before it is ready. The same goes for your hopes and dreams. Some will become reality, others will not. And the truth is that in hindsight you will praise the outcome and say that it was perfect for the lessons that you had to learn.

Have faith, my dear, and trust and patience. Glory in what you’ve received and do not fault Om or your efforts if life doesn’t move at the pace you wish and spew results so that all that is accomplished is fleeting outward success, while the inner work and progress remains undone. Which is more important? Which would you choose? The answer is obvious. Tunnel into your heart and reap its treasures.

THE OM JOURNAL

Questions 23-26