"There is plenty of love"

This morning as I was slowly waking up, I was lamenting the lack of love in the world and particularly in my contribution to the world. At least, I said to myself, I have heard of God. Where would an atheist get love from? There are limits to how much love you can make, after all.

"There is plenty of love" said the voice in my heart. "Everyone has lots of it. But much of it is misguided: You love your own desires, or attachments, rather than other people. The old classics like lust and gluttony, sure, but in this age people particularly love status, or respect. If they worked as tirelessly for others as they now work to be recognized, respected and looked up to, the world would be overflowing with love. Just like everyone has got a certain number of hours a day, so each has got a certain amount of love, but it too can be wasted on yourself."

There is more to this, like, once your love runs in the right direction, its quality can still be improved. But this is a start, to recognize that everyone loves, but to a large degree we love "in the wrong direction", toward ourselves rather than toward others.

St Teresa the Awesome

Awesome! That is my first impression of Saint Teresa of Avila. I recently got a mail from Amazon.com recommending her book, "The Interior Castle". Since that is a concept which I have thought and written occasionally over the last couple years, in my more touristly than saintly way, I was intrigued.

(I first saw the concept of an interior castle in a Japanese martial arts TV series and it struck me as profoundly true. I have not taken much interest in Catholic literature until just lately, since Catholic countries suck.)

I have a problem with St Teresa's work. The problem is that I stop at the beginning and don't want to go on, because her words are so awesome I just want to stop and read them again and laugh with joy at the brightness of it all. I can only hope this improves further into the book. Probably, since it is supposedly for the most part about things that are too high and holy for me at this time. But the beginning. Whoa.

Would it not be gross ignorance, my daughters, if, when a man was questioned about his name, or country, or parents, he could not answer? Stupid as this would be, it is unspeakably more foolish to care to learn nothing of our nature except that we possess bodies, and only to realize vaguely that we have souls, because people say so and it is a doctrine of faith.

St Teresa, where have you been all my life?

(PS: The book is available for free download elsewhere, legally, being out of copyright for centuries.)

At home and work, as it is done in Heaven

I began to think: Should we not strive to make each our own country "God's own country"? And not in a tribal or warlike sense, but a theocracy (God-rule) of the heart, by each of us pointing the compass needle of our mind toward the highest spiritual entity of which we can conceive. (This will necessarily vary from person to person, even within the same religion or philosophy. Your God is greater than my God if and in so far as the love and purity that flows from God through you is greater.) And then, with our mind so ordered, seek to promote the happiness of all, on Earth as it is done in Heaven. For there is no doubt, is there, that Heaven is a place of immense, overwhelming blessing upon every soul that abides there? Or do you think the angels or the saints fly around whacking each other with a rulebook and scolding: "You must do better!"

If there must be a Hell, let it be of their own creation who reside there. We are hardly obliged to add anything to it. Not even a single word. (Sometimes hard words need to be said, in exceptional circumstances, but only when they are meant to cause happiness in the end, and as soon as possible.)

World without end

I live in a far greater world than I used to,a world which I fear is beyond the imagination of my old friends. And surrounding my world are even greater worlds, in which the world where I live is like a bubble. This is the nature of the universe. It has not only quantities but also qualities, and we can hold only so much, each of us. The limit of the world is set by the limit of each mind. What you perceive to be the limit is not the limit of the universe, but of your mind. In the timeless words of Solar: “We fail to imagine and are punished with reality.” (Namely with a smaller, more meager reality that we think is it all.)

Salvation through self-reflection

If I told you that you can save yourself through self-reflection, you would surely believe I had gone over to the Eastern side. After all, this is one of the main topics of Blasphemous Tax-cutting Buddhist. That's not who I first heard it from, though. As unlikely as it sounds, I read it in the Bible.

"Pay attention to yourself and the doctrine, keep doing that; for when you do so, you shall save yourself and those who hear you."

That's actually re-translated from the Norwegian translation of the first letter to Timothy, chapter 4, verse 16. That was how I heard in my heart this morning. Here are some other translations:

"Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."

"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee."

"take heed to thyself, and to the teaching; remain in them, for this thing doing, both thyself thou shalt save, and those hearing thee."

Paying attention to yourself and the Truth may be two simple things to do, but I never said they were easy. The average human has actually a pretty low level of consciousness. Even concentrating on a clerical job, as most people do these days, can wear you out. Observing yourself while doing this seems utterly impossible. We tend to forget ourselves when we work, when we socialize, when we eat, when we play, when we read, when we watch movies or even when we listen to music. We tend to even consider this a good thing. Even if we sit down and just observe our own thoughts meditatively, we usually find that within seconds or (in rare cases) minutes, they have wandered off and so has our attention.

Observing ourselves is a lifetime project, I think. It is difficult. It can be boring. And occasionally it can be terrifying. But the strangest thing of all is that it seems to be Biblical.

B influences and WTF influences

I recently responded to a blog post over at One Cosmos that had a brief mention of Boris Mouravieff and his theory of A and B influences. This is something that, when explained simply, made a wonderful take-away when I first saw it. Basically, A influences are those that relate to our life as a smart ape; B influences are those that relate to our being as an eternal spirit.

I have not yet actually bought Mouravieff's books. The reason for this is that even the most glowing reviews tend to cheerfully agree that his thoughts are pretty far outside what most people think of as sanity.

Of course, that is partly the point. Because most people are heavily dominated by A influences, anything that cannot be eaten or mated with is already pretty close to the border of their world. Music and some art is generally accepted, but from there on things get dicey. Religion is OK as long as it does not rock the boat and does not go too far beyond "let's be nice to nice people and hope that we can be apes in our next life too."

So those who want to build a castle keep of the heart from gathered B influences have to fight against an enormous restraining force that tries to keep them within consensus reality. Unfortunately, this struggle is necessary. Unfortunately, the restraining force is also necessary, because it is what keeps ordinary people from going off the deep end. Basically it is the same force that keeps you safe from clinical insanity.

It follows from this that a large number of those who live outside the common ground of A, are actually not in the common ground of B, but floating around in the great void that surrounds them both. Thus my division into A influences, B influences and WTF influences, which are simply insanity with little or no value to either our life in the society of Really Great Apes, nor our life in the Fifth Dimension and above.

What makes this more problematic is that even the individuals who have broken through from A to B, tend to have various degree of WTF residue. And until one is extremely well settled into the B world, it can be hard to keep these apart, especially when they come from someone who has dramatically improved your life and given you some of the most valuable insights ever.

Mouravieff himself seems to have a lot of this, but it is pretty widespread. For instance, the man I usually refer to here as Blasphemous Tax-cutting Buddhist. He has written a large body of very enlightening stuff, most of it eminently practical and with a great positive overlight, like being taken upstairs and shown the rat maze from above. He also thinks he is a god from Venus. I still think I'll sort these claim in the WTF bin until further notice.

Of course, Jesus Christ and Vasudeva Krishna both claimed to be basically God as well, or at least that is the impression people got. And while it was none too well received at the time, a lot of people these days think it adds greatly to their appeal. On the other hand, almost everyone agree that they can't both be right.

Compared to this, the notion that Nancy Pelosi is possessed by demons seems ... almost mundane. Though I am pretty sure she would file that under WTF if she ever heard about it. For now, I'm trying to collect some obvious B influences and leave the rest to the experts.

Cumulative time

If someone spent a day of your precious lifetime saying just one sentence, it better be good.

I have been on the other end of that. When I was young and more naïve (for better and for worse), I would speak to groups of people. Not only in my job, but in religious context. On a couple occasions this was thousands of people. An interesting thing applies when you do this: Each second you use, may use an hour or more of your listeners' time, when you add them together.

Imagine that. One second is an hour. A single sentence the equivalent of a day of human lifetime that never comes back.

Something similar applies to popular books. Thank the Light I have not done that yet, despite writing for decades. At least it is easier to put down a book than to walk away from a speech. On the other hand people have usually paid for books.

"Quick to listen, slow to speak" seems to be a good idea for the karma account.

In other's words...

"The purpose of religion is ultimately to help us grow as human beings. Through that growth, we can overcome and eliminate the problems, strife, frustration and suffering that right now might appear unsurmountable to us. Part of growing involves finding answers to the problems themselves, but another part of it involves all of us developing to a higher level. When we do that, our problems become comparatively smaller."

Yes, that sounds like a rewrite of my previous post. However, I just today found this quote in a magazine (translated from Japanese, so it may have appeared even clearer in original).

Another fascinating data point is that the quote is the first paragraph of the main article in the October issue, which was being read by people around the world shortly before and during the time I wrote my little piece.

Don't solve your problems

Of course, there are times when we must solve our problems, because they can be solved and good things are urgently needed on the other side of those problems. So this is not a rule without exception. But it is still a nifty and useful rule.

Don't solve your problems. Outgrow them.

By this I specifically mean to increase in wisdom, to get an ever higher perspective. This is nifty because the people who compulsively read blogs tend to be most strongly developed cognitively, that is to say, in their thinking. There are other ways to grow, for instance through heartfelt use of ritual, or enlightened ascesis. But for people like me and probably you (since you are here), wisdom is the key. Not pure theory, it must constantly be grounded back to practical life, otherwise it may run off and become unhinged. There is a lot of that on the web, in case you had not noticed.

By reading the words of the wise, wherever we can find them, we can feel the joy of truth, and are lifted up to a higher perspective. Here we can see clearly what seemed such a maze from below.

It is easy to see that humans have a higher perspective than animals, which are easily trapped and snared. It is easy to see that our perspective widens as we grow older: A toddler cannot see the connection between his stomach pain and recently stuffing himself with sweets, but an adult is aware of such things normally. A teenager may not see the connection between dropping out of school and living a life of poverty, but the connection is there, and poverty is not very romantic and heroic for most people. In the same way, many adults suffer from a low perspective, and this causes problems. Oh no! What shall I do? On one hand I want this, on the other hand I want that. Even at an arm's length, a small coin seems larger than a distant palace.

Simply living and observing calmly will give wisdom eventually. But it can't hurt to get a helping hand from the accumulated wisdom of the past. If it becomes too distant and abstract, double back till you find something that connects to life, your own or that of others. That is what we need it for.

A lot of problems don't need solving: They become trivial, forgettable, once we look at things from a higher point of view.

I still have some problems, so I still need to grow. But other things have fallen by the wayside, and I expect that to continue... if I continue.

Love and power

Another mental postcard from a strange land. This "came to me" as my teachers would say, while I was out walking some days ago.

Some people may desire to be like God out of envy, and some out of love. The first desire God's power, but not His nature. The others desire God's nature, but do not consider themselves worthy of His power. But in reality, the two are not separate, God's love and God's power.

We are obviously not talking about any random Iron Age deity here, but the Absolute and Infinite, the Prime Mover, the Tao if you want. Or the O of the Bionic Raccoons.

Because the Supreme God is self-sufficient and not in need of anyone or anything, the "overflowing of God" that creates the universe is pure selfless love. At the same time, this is the primary power from which all power is derived. It is one and the same thing. Thus, you cannot actually have one without the other.

This is certainly not to say that if you love selflessly, you will have magical superpowers to do miracles. (Although historically there certainly are treasure troves of such stories.) For one thing, even the great saint or bodhisattva has only a partial glimpse of the Original Love. But also because the creative power of the One is exceedingly subtle. Apart perhaps from the first Fiat Lux! (and I am not so sure about even that), it has all flowed so natural that it almost seemed logical, almost unavoidable, that it would have to run all the way to us.

This reminds me of what Lao-Tzu says: "When the sage has led a great work to completion, the people say: We did it ourselves!"

And with that we should certainly be satisfied, if even the Ultimate is.

Not that I know what I'm talking about or anything. I just heard it on the road, but it makes sense to me.

Different readings

Feeling a little peckish for some real religion, I checked out Psalm 119, which I vaguely remembered having looked at in the past. There I came upon verse 41:

"May your unfailing love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise;"

and my first impression of it was to mean: This was the salvation the Lord promised, that I should be filled with His unfailing love.

That is certainly not the only way to read it, and may not even have been what was intended. I believe it is not so long ago that I would have read it as a plea for God to love me and save me, which are in fact both sorely needed. I am not actually yet overflowing with love and practicing it at every opportunity. But at some point my focus has changed, so that this now seems like an obvious goal and a salvation in itself.

Now, the practice... that is lagging badly. Although at least I have no enemies that I know of, so there is that difference from my youth. At the time, I would read the Bible repeatedly and pray at length, sometimes with tears; but I was also ready to dismember any man who would belittle my person. So I doubt I would have read the verse in the same manner back then.

Action and reaction

I just wanted to share a thought that I have found encouraging.

In psychology, somewhat like in physics, an action is likely to be met with a reaction in the opposite direction. The psyche has a kind of "elastic inertia" - when you pull it in one direction, it may seem to budge, but then it snaps back.

This implies that when we feel a particular strong pull toward evil or selfish or pointless things, we are likely to have made some amount of progress recently. Or perhaps in the near future - the psyche is not too picky about such details. It just wants to restore the balance. Of course, if we allow that, if we don't resist at all and get whisked back to our equilibrium, we have kind of wasted our time both in moving forward and backward. But at least there is a chance of genuine progress, when temptations flare. It is not entirely a bad sign. It can in fact be a reason for joy - as better men than I have said, but I did not understand it back then.

Higher is not always better

I'm rereading parts of Huston Smith's Forgotten Truth, an exposition of the shared worldview of the traditional religions. One thing I notice is that he places the demonic realm also in the sphere that transcends and includes the ordinary world - basically demons are of the same category as angels. Fr Seraphim Rose in The Soul After Death also referred to the demons usually as "the powers of the air", and portrayed them as superior to us humans in our earthly lives. Likewise Ryuho Okawa places hell in the 4th dimension (compared to the third dimension of the mortal world). In his book The Challenge of the Mind he strongly warns against opening the mind to the spirit world without first repenting our wrong thoughts of the day and as far back as we reasonably can remember. Otherwise our mind will be in tune with "stray spirits" (their name for demons) rather than High Spirits (angels, saints etc).

If you are a materialist, none of this matters. In a manner of speaking you are lucky then, for the damage you can do to yourself is also limited. But today there is a wave of spirituality, in which people reject outright materialism but also organized religion, and seek personal spiritual experiences. Unfortunately newbies on this path may be unaware that some things are higher than us but not better than us - quite the opposite.

In psychological terms - which the religious person will see as the shadow play on the cave wall cast by a higher reality - you venture into your subconscious through such practices as meditation. Your subconscious is probably not a nice place. This depends on your life up to now, and your upbringing, but there is also a common human element. It is certain that you have a shadow. This is the human condition. And depending on your mental disposition, venturing alone and weaponless into the subconscious is a dangerous undertaking.

I am a big fan of trust in God, but although God is spirit, not every spirit is God. There won't be just flowers and kittens if you embark on a spiritual path, at least if you go beyond the slightly stoned feeling of just letting go of your everyday thoughts. And sometimes that is enough. When I was young, I eagerly proselytized for meditation, but most of those friends who tried did not enjoy it. In fact, found it creepy. I realize now why. And I no longer recommend meditation without some framework of theory and preferably a community.

As you travel past this intermediate realm, however, goodness predominates, closer toward the Source, the Ground of Being, or just plain God. But will you find your way there? The only reliable way I know of is being pure at heart. But that has proved surprisingly difficult, even with a good upbringing.

"The Soul After Death"

Some time ago, I bought the book "The Soul After Death" by Fr. Seraphim Rose. It arrived about a week ago, and I have been reading it. I kind of regret that.

The book is disturbing, which is not a bad thing: I know all too well that it is easy to get complacent in the matter of our eternal life.

The book is also discouraging, for which I honestly struggle to find an excuse. The impression it gives when I put it aside a bit past half-way is that I am sure to go to Hell, it is too late to do anything about it, and neither Fr. Rose nor his God has a problem with that.

I think I should have stopped at Chapter 4, at the paragraph where he dismisses out of hand the possibility that a Protestant may have caught a glimpse of Heaven. Actually I agree that the vision used as example is unlikely to be of the Heaven of saints; that is not the problem. The problem is the unreflected and unconcerned certainty that you have to be an official member of an earthly organization to not be condemned collectively. Actually it soon becomes clear that even if you are a member of the Orthodox Church, your chances are pretty slim, but at least you may get a fair trial. This is simply taken as an axiom, a starting point, though I suppose it may be elaborated on in other works.

Unless you follow the particulars of the Orthodox path (in this work not specified, but hinted to be some sort of asceticism), you can be assured that any impulse you receive, even if it is toward gratitude and love for others, comes from evil spirits. Any comfort and bliss you may experience is sure to come from demons.

If I were to take this book seriously, I would conclude that the Presence that has been with me since my youth, which once made the Scriptures come alive to me, which has advised me against evil and encouraged me toward good, which has forgiven me and comforted me through the years, must certainly be a demon. I find that hard to believe.

I may be harsh, but that is the impression the book leaves with me, and I suspect it could be even worse for those not already favorably inclined toward Orthodoxy. Strongly dis-recommended for those not in the choir he is preaching to.

It is rare that I even consider burning a book, but the risk of this work falling into the hand of a doubting soul after my passing is something I am not sure I want to have on my conscience. I have someone with depression in my close family who might inherit my bookshelf if I were to pass away soon. I don't want to risk their life. While I assume the book must have some positive value for some people, I fear that it may be too dangerous for outsiders.

I think I should say that I actually agree with Fr Rose on his main points, I am just horrified by his vision of a world where God has basically lost against Satan, being content with getting a few elite souls while the rest of mankind is and remains completely under the thumbs of demons, the good people with the bad. The word "dystopia" is far too mild. It is more like "second-worst case scenario" and one would tend to agree with the sci-fi author that "In the beginning God created the universe; this was widely considered a bad move."

More first-world problems

I should probably clarify the previous entry. A helpful voice in my head pointed out that I would probably not have written it like that if I was starving and had no food nearby, or if I was sitting on a rock in the winter. Likewise I would probably not belittle the need for security if I was a jobless cancer patient in America. All of which is true, although someone else might have done so under those circumstances or worse.

Perhaps we could say that outer circumstances tend to set one limit, while the soul of the individual sets another.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs, at the face of it, without context, is simply pure materialism: The naïve belief that humans can improve simply by getting more stuff. But humans are made of both matter and spirit. If it were not so, it would not really matter (no pun intended) whether we progressed to self-actualization, since there would be no self to actualize.

Even when we have fulfilled a lower level of existence, there are several things holding us back from progressing to a higher: Culture, subculture, family values and upbringing, neuroses, habits and simply our own free will. But by using the one little part we can actually do something about, we can gradually begin to move.

First-world problems?

With all due respect for Maslow, his hierarchy of needs imply that higher needs such as the need to realize truth, beauty and virtue come as an afterthought after you've got everything you ever wanted. History shows that this is not true.

1) History shows that through the times, there have been people living under pretty harsh conditions by our standards, who have gone on to bring Heaven down to Earth to an extent that is baffling just to look at.

2) Recent history shows that an increase in affluence has not really led to a mass migration up the pyramid to a more refined soul. Rather, people seem to become more active at or near their original level. Those at the basic level eat more (although some throw up afterwards), they have more sex (even if they need to take medication to keep it up) and they do it with more people. The vast majority, though, seem to be stuck at the "belonging" level: They can't ever get enough recognition from others, and their life becomes a desperate and endless fight to show that they are Good Enough and then some. In so far that some people transcend the lower levels and take an interest in spirituality, they will likely as not simply end up as paying consumers of spiritual entertainment, in which any superstition is as good as any other, if the wrapping is pretty.

My conclusion is not that poverty is cool. I am glad people live longer, healthier lives. But I think history shows us that money does not change people for the better, rather they just become more of what they already are.

As seen from the spirit world

I don't think I have said this before. Even if I did, it is still important.

Things don't look the same from the spirit world. Or that's what the voice in my head tells me, along with hints from various people, not least among them Jesus Christ. He clearly had a spiritual sight even while he was incarnate, which explains some of the things he said.

If you are a spirit and are looking at this world, you don't see photons reflecting off the surface of things, the way our natural eyes do. You see things more the way they are. Most notably, you can see a person's mind clearly, more clearly than their body if my source is to be believed. And it probably is, because this suddenly makes sense of the Sermon on the Mount.

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." Now, let's say you are a bodiless spirit watching someone who is angry but manages to ball his fists behind his back and restrain himself. Watched in the natural light of the electromagnetic rays from the sun, he looks OK. But if you see his body kind of like a wavering image through water, but see his mind clearly, you will see him actually attacking his brother and bashing his brains in, or choking him to death or whatever brutal fantasies flicker through his mind at the moment. I am not talking about someone who feels anger rise but immediately reflects on himself, but the kind of person who gives the anger room in his heart but fears the police / retaliation / public disgrace. If his anger is murder-level, then this is what fills his mind, and the whole horror of it is plainly visible to any spirit that may be watching. Given that "God is spirit", this is pretty serious.

We have the same thing with lust. I don't think I even need to quote that one! Here again, there is a difference from recognizing that a woman is sexually attractive, and make a choice to not let that matter, except perhaps to look elsewhere. But if you give the desire room to unfold a scenario, this will be plainly visible in the spirit world. In the physical world, it is only your gaze that runs all over the other person, but seen from the other world, you are literally all over her like some kind of tentacle monster. O_O

In the same way if you are alone, and you construct elaborate scenarios of lust or revenge or deceit or whatever your forte is, the whole pocket universe where this happens is wide open to the spirit world.

Actually I suppose this might spur some people on, but they are not really my target audience.

This also answers the old question of whether your angel is watching you when you go to the toilet. The answer is yes, but he (or she) is not watching your lower body but your heart. If you're sitting on the potty and your heart is filled with gratitude and beautiful thought, you are a beautiful sight indeed. But if you are sitting in the church and your mind is full of shit, you're a truly disgusting sight. Either of these is quite possible.

I don't have any miracles or clear-cut scriptural references saying that this is how it is, but I cannot see how it could be otherwise. In any case, I am not a spiritual teacher, at my best moment perhaps I am like a tourist sending home postcards. This is more of a curiosity that may help us retain a higher awareness in everyday situations.

Belief vs resonance

It is true that I read religious or spiritual books that range pretty far, including the holy scriptures of foreign religions. There is however a difference between the way I read these and the way I read what I believe to be my own faith. When I read something else, I test the spirit of what I read: Does it make my heart resonate? Does it strengthen the life within that I believe already is from Heaven? I am not a "seeker" looking for a new faith to give myself over to, but I am seeking to deepen what is already there. Unless I can say "I wish I had said this" or something like that, it goes in the "diverse mythologies and mythunderstandings" compartment, at least for now.

I would not say I read critically: By the time we write religious books, or even blogs, I assume we are seeking to share our happiness with other people. But neither am I looking to make a fresh start in my life: I already have something in my heart that I treasure and that I hope to retain for eternity.

Two ways of not being alone

"You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me" says Jesus Christ in John 16:32. When I say I could have said the same (though perhaps not in the same situation!), it is not to blaspheme. I realize that the unity of the Father and the Son was of a much higher quality, because of the purity. But on the face of it, on the bare words, it is also my normal condition to never be alone even when I am all alone.

For me, it is due to grace or mercy, a gift not deserved. But due to the Divine Presence in my heart or mind, I can spend days without seeing a human being and I hardly notice. Even when the Internet is down for a couple weeks, it does not cause me to become lonely - if anything, less so - although it certainly disrupts my daily routine otherwise. For many years, I go to work with computers, come home and stay home except for a walk or two. For so many years have I been alone that my voice has physically atrophied. When our job was recently changed to incorporate two hours of taking phone calls twice a week, I could not do it. My throat is sore after 15 minutes and my voice gives out. I had a specialist check me out and he found no other reason than the fact that I simply have forgotten how to talk. I don't need to, for the One who is always with me knows my heart.

Interestingly, this seems to have conferred on me a small amount of wisdom, even though I lack the purity of heart of a saint. It is just that the small nuggets are not washed away by a flood of useless words anymore. So that is good.

But children who grow up today will probably never be lonely either, for they are given a cell phone as soon as they don't need a babysitter anymore, if not before. There is no need for them to commune with their heart on their bed, for they can always send text messages or at least update their Twitter. I do get these from younger friends sporadically. "It is 2 AM, why am I even awake?" The answer is: So you can commune with your heart. But who even knows what that means anymore? "Yet I am not alone, for my iPhone is with me." Not the same thing. I wonder, will this age bring enough blessings to make up for such an unspeakable loss, to never know from experience the meaning of the word "alone"?

In other worlds

To say that the spirit world is created by the human brain is like saying that the atmosphere and the dry land are created by our lungs. Certainly to the tadpole the dry land is an unknown unknown, beyond comprehension and imagination. As he grows older, something changes within him and because of this he becomes able to learn of the world above water, not merely from a distance but firsthand. So to him, the lungs have indeed "created" a new reality. But objectively speaking, he is a newcomer in a world that has long been. It is likewise with the human mind and its ability to travel to worlds beyond the senses. This is the reason we can, for instance, come there and find something new, only to learn later that others found the same millennia ago.

Only selfish people have selfish genes

My genes live in stable, lifelong monogamous relationships. No, really.  My chromosomes are all paired up and cooperate seamlessly with their partners, even the X and Y chromosomes that are strikingly different.  Each of my genes knows when to act, so that they don't flood the body with enzymes trying to out-compete their partner, or refuse to do their part when the need arises. 

How you see nature is how we see you.  Thus it is written:  "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God."  And again, "To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure."