We're still missing the point.

Sin. Literally translated from from ancient Greek, of which the New Testament (the Bible) was written, means to sin is to miss the mark. As in, an archer who misses the target. 

It means - to miss the point. 

Miss the point of existence. Of our humanly experience. Heaven on Earth.

Eternal Bliss. Oneness.

It means to live unskilfully, blindly, and thus to suffer and cause suffering.

Buddhism uses the word dukkha, which is translated to suffering, unsatisfactoriness, or just plain misery. 

Hinduism uses the word maya. The veil of delusion. 

The core common denominator of almost all ancient religions and spiritual traditions is the fundamental belief that the “normal” state of humans and the human collective is one of sin, dukkha or maya, or some other translation of the same concept - and that salvation or enlightenment, is essentially the process of transcending this state.

The normal state of human existing and living, one that is simply a deluded state of suffering, completely missing the point.

Yes? Anyone?

“The human mind is highly intelligent. Yet its very intelligence is tainted by [this delusion / sin / suffering / dysfunction]. Fear, greed and the desire for power and the psychological motivating forces, not only behind warfare and violence between nations, tribes, religions, and ideologies, but also the cause of incessant conflict in personal relationships. They bring about a distortion in your perception of other people and yourself. Through them, you misinterpret every situation, leading to misguided action designed to rid you of fear and satisfy your need for “more”, a bottomless hole that can never be filled.

It is important to realise, however that fear, greed and the desire for power are not the [dysfunction / sin / suffering / delusion] we are speaking of, but are themselves created created by the dysfunction, which is a deep-seated collective delusion that lies within the mind of each human being”

Oomph. 

I’ve only just started reading A New Earth, by Eckart Tolle. I’m a little late to the party. It seems almost all my friends have a copy proudly displayed in their lounge room somewhere. I knew it’d be good, but haven’t we already consumed enough of this kind of content? I’d think to myself. What else is there to “know”?

I was only called (slash / weightily encouraged) to read it this week, after some very specific conversations with friends about some community-wide projects we’re in the midst of birthing. So I grabbed it the library with a few other books on plant-dying.

Oh Eckhart. 

What a total gem that guy is.

90’s new age is so pure. I picked up his original book, The Power of Now, about a year ago and re-read it. 

It literally blew my mind (again). Except way differently this time. As if I’d never read it before.

He is a timeless guy. Totally unwavering.

His words won’t age through time. But our minds, as they open, can hear / see / feel different things in them, depending where we are on our own journey. 

Honestly, “A New Earth” feels like a saturated concept in these times. It makes my eyes roll, hearing it. Perhaps that’s why I delayed in reading it. The “new earth” conversation has been so hijacked by so many people jumping on the bandwagon of expanding “consciousness” (and capitalising from it). The paradox is, you can mostly thank Big Tech (Instagram) for that. 

You can mostly thank the skilful ability of our deluded minds for that, I guess.

* * *

At the beginning of the year, I sat down to write my 2023 vision and goals. Normally this is a pretty comprehensive process with an elaborate mind map and a beautifully decorated set of goals and scripts, that’s co-created with my husband, and we put up visually to look at all year.

This year, it’s a Word Doc on my desktop, with 33 very plain words on it. Size 12, Times New Roman. Lots of white space.

It’s the opposite of inspirational. 

I really came to a blank, because I feel so unattached from material ambition these days. For what do I want? Nothing.

The only things that came to me were pretty simple:

I want to learn German properly.

I want to read the Bible.

And I want to… create The Garden of Eden?

My heritage is German, my kids even have German passports, and I feel like I owe it to my lineage to at least be properly fluent. I’ve never read the Bible, I wasn’t raised around Churches, or have had any real understanding about the history of Christianity (and I feel like it’s time I have this knowledge - which is part of a bigger conversation, I’ll share in due course). 

And the Garden of Eden bit? 

Well that’s a bit more complicated to explain.

It’s not about the “material” world, it’s more of a spiritual message I feel I’m being asked to birth.

So now I have this weird pull towards flowers. Towards beauty, for beauty sake. 

Something got unlocked in me in the Kimberley last year about beauty and God. 

Something always gets unlocked in me in our annual pilgrimage up there.

But here’s the catch —

My husband once bought me an orchid for one of my birthdays early on in our relationship. It was meant to be symbolic of a few things. Including that we would tend to it together (like the garden of our blossoming love - oh how romantic). 

Except I just looked at him with my eyebrows raised and thought — you really don’t know me at all, do you?

I knew I was going to kill this orchid. And eventually I did.

I cannot keep plants alive. 

I am literally so scared of gardening, because I’m just so bad at it. 

But here I am, in 2023, being called to create a literal, physical Garden of Eden. 

The message is loud and clear, and it involves flowers. 

I’m being called to get intimate with understanding the plant medicine of flowers, create an apothecary from my garden, and create a literal, physical space of immense natural beauty - that has a deep spiritual purpose, that’s part of a higher Heart Villages vision, I touched on my last entry (and will write about more in due course). And of course, I share some reflections about the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden in my post, My Greatest Fear, if you want to get some more perspective.

* * *

If you’re new here, you’ll realise I don’t write linearly. 

The tone is different every week. 

Sometimes its poetic. Sometimes is rough and direct.

Sometimes its jumpy and circular. 

Sometimes it’s analytical or philosophical, or both.

But it’s always a form of some deep play. 

I hope you’re having fun. 

Today, is a sort of interwoven journey of short stories, that will coalesce at the end.

* * *

A local Pastor, that I adore and respect greatly for his HOT-ness (humility, openness and transparency), recently shared the idea that God has two kinds of will. 

Sovereign Will.

Perspective Will.

I think these were the words he used, anyway?

At the end of the day, God will always have His way (aka, Sovereign Will).

But He gifted us Free Will. So we get to choose how that plays out.

Hence, Perspective Will goes a bit like this —

God speaking: “The solution to your suffering is simple, just do XYZ, as I say”.

Humans: “Ahh no thanks, I’d rather run away from your obvious and simple solution, and try to out-think this, and create some technologies to find the solution, and do lots of ceremonies, and then just be on the hunt for more, for the rest of my life”

God: “Right then, well, I’ll keep trying to remind you — it’s all very simple…”

Humans: “La, la la, la, can’t hear you! Sorry! Too busy suffering over here….”

God “No but seriously…”

Human: “LA LA LA LA, I’m deluded in amassing my material life, trying to find my way out of all this pain and disconnection…”

God: “OKAY ENOUGH!”

<Enter Sovereign Will>

Eventually God will have His way. 

(Actually, this conversation feels like a nudge for me to go and get out that other 90’s new age classic “Conversations with God” by Neale Donald Walsche again. I reckon I’d perceive that as an entirely new book again too!)

When I reflect on the current trajectory of the planet (y’all know what I mean), I find myself in this balance of motivated action to change the course and trajectory of humanity, and also total trust and surrender that it’s all working out for good.

The universe is always in motion.

Atoms and electrons are always accelerating towards the God frequency.

We are always moving towards “The Higher”.

Whether we consciously choose to be, or not.

So what’s up with the planet? How can transhumanism and artificial intelligence (as a small example of all the ways we’ve gone of the Richter), truly be at the hand of God? 

I have to be honest, and say that I don’t think it is. 

But, I do have trust that in the end, God will have His way.

And I do believe, we have a choice to go willingly, or go unwillingly.

* * *

For lent this year, I’m giving up excess. 

Now I’m not Catholic, and I’m not really doing “lent”. 

But last year, I had a profound experience about 40 days before Easter. I knew that I needed to fast. I didn’t know why. I just knew. 

It wasn’t to cleanse my physical body (although I justified it that way to others - a means to reset myself after a long slog of back to back babies, tandem breastfeeding, etc, with zero days space between). Actually I was still breastfeeding at the time, and I was hoping to wean my littlest one whom, spoiler alert, KEPT FEEDING the entire fast and my milk never dried up and only weaned about 6 months after. 

I just had a strong message, that now was the time, and that I would need to finish it by Easter.

At the time, I thought that was because it’d be too hard not to enjoy chocolate with my kids.

I later discovered the Vernal Equinox (the March 21st Equinox) is the literal new year of the Earth / Stars, etc. It’s the point where all ancient cultures, religions and traditions reset their calendars and year, and align “time” to this point.

Because, actually, there are many ways to measure time, it turns out! Nonetheless, they are all measured against the Vernal Equinox. 

Easter is always the first full moon after it.

This is a symbolic and meaningful time of year. 

So last year, I dove into the greatest reset of my life. I was already on the path of resetting my life - selling my house, releasing my material belongings, simplifying literally everything, stripping it back to zero. 

Now it was time to do this in my physical and spiritual body as well. 

The fast, very clearly and very quickly became the biggest spiritual cleanse and decluttering I’ve ever had in my life. 

You could say, I gave up “consumption” for lent. 

Both physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

Nothingness. 

I started with a week long kitchari cleanse to ease me into it, then a 10 day juice fast (savouring the last days of warmth we were having before the Autumn turn), then it became a water fast, and eventually I broke consumption back in with broth fast. It was about 30 days in total before I broke the fast properly. 

And it was a total life changing journey! 

I did it on my own. I had approached some people who were coaches to guide and support me through such a big thing. It felt reckless to do it without some structure, support and guidance from experienced professionals. But I just knew this had to be an inner job. So I just started. And I took each day as it came and did whatever felt right each day. 

And of course it felt physically hard at times, but spiritually, I was unwavering.

It broke me. 

Broke, my ego, rather. 

It broke the constructed “me”. 

It removed all the consumption I’d been consuming that had been cluttering my life to truly see and feel who I was, beyond all of that. 

(Needless to say - I was also NOT on social media, emails, or other digital consumption distractions).

And now this year…. I am giving up excess. 

I don’t know exactly what this looks like yet, but I have this deep need to come back to my evolutionary purpose as a human. Undistracted by the “excess” that our culture creates and promotes. 

Since I decided this (like 2 days ago), I have already ordered a Chai and Muffin at my local organic food co-op (picking up my organic box), and ate some local hand-made organic gelato whilst watching the most horrendous Netflix show ever (Too Hot To Handle, German Edition), whilst my husband was out at mens choir. These things are sort of traditions. I guess they are habits and little guilty pleasures that I have when I “gather in the community” or “get a night to myself” or and of course, my new years resolution was to learn more German right?. 

Anyway, in the last 24-48 hours I’ve realised these things are definitely excess. 

They do not serve my evolutionary purpose (in the survivalist context I’m talking about). 

I feel a deep need to be in a clear, pure, state of spiritual preparedness this year. 

It’s not a cleansing, a stripping back, a breaking down into nothing - like last year. 

It’s more of a “getting ready” energy this year. 

At the end of the day, clutter and distraction are the bait of satan, no? 

They are the original sin — they miss the point. 

* * *

Now.

I was about to start my final story.

About how my wallet disappeared (like, literally, just vanished off the face of the Earth), and a wild and woolly prayer journey, literally on my knees on the floor, that led me to a vision, a message and more synchronicities about God’s hand (tying in the short story above around Sovereign + Perspective Will, my lenten journey with excess, and our delusional human condition getting in the way of Peace), and how it “magically" appeared again in a totally random place, far away from where I was or had been.

It’s a good story. You’d laugh and maybe have your mind blown a little.

But this is getting long. And the wallet thing, is not a short story.

I know y’all don’t pay attention for long these days. It’s not your fault. Our inability for presence and slowness, is part of that collective dysfunction we talked about at the beginning.

So I’ll end on some more Eckhart —

And you can do your own weaving and coalescing together this time.

“As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked to survival. They provided inspiriation to countless artists, poets, and mystics. Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. The Buddha is said to have given a “silent sermon” once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it. After a while, one of the monks present, began to smile. He is said to have been the only one to have understood the sermon.

Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the in the evolution of the human consciousness”

I reflect again, on my post of “Truth, Beauty and Goodness” (especially the second half) - the first post I ever used the word God openly. How, I had no idea of the profundity of the words I was truly writing, and how they would come to shape my life in the following six months.

I reflect again on how beauty led me to God.

I reflect on why flowers were the one spiritual message I received about 2023.

I reflect on the Garden of Eden and our human ability to miss the point of our existence.

So I finish this post - simply holding up the inner image of Red Rose.

Without explaining why this particular flower.

But maybe, like the monk, you’ll finish this post smiling.

And you’ll get the point, too.

P.S. Here is my desktop screenshot. I wasn’t kidding (look closely):