Who are we and where are we going? This is the primary question of this article. It also is a question of giving up our ideals about God while entering into a state of a de-conditioned mind. Yes, in order for us to evolve, the article speaks to the need to let go of what we think we are. Can we do that?

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When God gazes into the depths of the creature,

God sees Himself and no one else.

-Meister Eckhart

In considering our quest for God, for whom are we truly looking for? In Judea-Christian-Muslim traditions, God is Yahweh, literally meaning I AM. I AM is one with the Hindu Brahmin, meaning the Self. The Self is who we are in our Nature. God is Nature, the Nature of all that is. What is true in the cosmos is true in our inner being. Thus our search for God means we need to be the one we are looking for. And, in that realization, we find ourselves in all as all.

The Self has three primary functions in life. In the Hindu trinity, these are identified as Brahmin, which is associated with birth into this world (in women, this is conception and birth); Vishnu, which relates to the sustaining of our form (being nursed as an infant and eating food as an adult) and Shiva, which signifies the process of death (intercourse, man emerges from a woman at birth and returns to her in marriage, sex and death. This is why we often go into a fetal position in deep sleep and at death).

Death is not the end of life but a process of life. Thus, the saying goes, "She'll be pushing up daisies when she's gone!" Death is a process of life and instrumental to our evolution.

Here I don't want to deny after-life experiences. What I'm not sure of is: "Do we keep our same persona?" I tend towards not because I feel staying in the same form or persona entails our not letting go to the ego that we misidentify with the Self, which is God / Nature.

I am more in line with the Navaho chant:

The mountains, the birds, the bees, I become it

The sun and sky, I become it.

The stars and space, I become it.

We are all in All. So, why are we so alienated?

E Pluribus Unim (in the many one) needs to stop being seen by corporations as a joke via their practice of standardization in everything from a Burger King hamburger to the education of our children. The motto of Burger King and all corporations is a lie. With or without pickles is NOT a sign of diversification.

I also send the same critique to the "no child left behind" act regarding the education of our children. Standardized tests do not tap into a child's passion or ability. They are simply another form of Henry Ford's assembly line. Standardized test are not about "no child left behind." Rather they are about controlling and pigeon-holding a child's talents, abilities and personality.

No! Our children are not McDonald's made!

In meditation it is often the goal to tap into cosmic consciousness more so than maintaining our personal expression of that consciousness. This brings up the idea of reincarnation. On the deepest level, I believe it is God-Goddess that incarnates and some of our traits may or may not reincarnate with Him / Her.

Yet, since I believe we are all Christ in our depths, then we are the incarnate Sophia of God. It is She that incarnates as our Soul. Yes, believe it or not, you are She in the same way that your mother's egg became you via the seminal influence of your father (Eros, Desire). As it is said of Her in the "Book of Proverbs:" "She is at play throughout the world."

That play (comedy, tragedy and looseness (chaos)) is as much in your atheism as well as your theism and my rejection of both because I see the same arrogance in atheism as I do theism. All three are born of Her.

The Way, as reflected in this image of Sophia under the name of Prajnaparimta, Wisdom of the Yonder Shore, is reflected in this image.

I do want to comment on this statue. I realize that the Bible speaks harshly about "graven images." And, I agree. However, in meditating on this image, you can get past the statue and understand the process it is pointing towards. Even during visions and dreams, I always realize that the characters, including Sophia, were metaphors for deeper truths. In other words, you need to get past the noun vision of God and into the verb.

The two are not two, ultimately. Indeed, I would say the Verb manifests as the Noun. Thus, Prajnaparimta, Sophia, Christ and Buddha all reflect the essence of the Godhead, which manifests in each one of us. Or, as Christian mystic Meister Eckhart puts it, "all creatures shout God." That includes theist, atheistic, and neither.

Not realizing this is the essence of not knowing ourselves in both our cosmic view (which is imageless) and earthly (image). Our incarnation as woman, man, plant, animal and rock is simply a manifestation of Sophia's Eros (desire) to manifest and express all facets of Herself.

This is why Mother has the term "other." If there were no other, then that which is no other would never know Herself. If we remained in the ovaries as eggs, then we would have never have expressed God in the essence of our Being. Thus, God becomes an-other serving as a mirror to God.

How many parents see themselves in their kids?

And, what of death? Unfortunately, we deny death as a process of life. Thus, we lock ourselves into coffins at death because we are so attached to what and who we think we are, our smaller ego-self. In ancient Egyptian times, this was the purpose of mummification. Our western culture is thus saturated in a non-evolutionary process. We allow ourselves to live, think and die inside a standardized, circumscribed box. Thus we have been stuck in a non-evolutionary status.

Mirroring this, many Christians say Christ died so we don't have to. He is the scapegoat for all of us. He dies so we don't have to.

However, this is not what the Man said. Indeed, He said to pick up and suffer the cross as He did. It was due to this death that He was resurrected into higher form. Thus, I would ask these Christians to please read what the Man actually said.

Evolution demands death. I'm sorry to tell you this. Get over it and you get out of your boxed in thinking. Death is the Mother to evolution.

Indeed, many scientists now hypothesize that dinosaurs went into extinction yet evolved into birds. To grow wings like the angels, we need to die to the monster we have become in our western civilization. We need to stop violently modifying and molesting the environment (all that is non-human that we come in touch with) to fit our desires and comforts. We need to allow ourselves to adapt to that which Is or I AM.

Death is a process of life. Our birth, sustaining and dissolution are simply the ways of evolution.

Unfortunately, Christians often see death as a portal to another dimension, such as Heaven. Heaven is a function of Greek idealism that ultimately locks us into a perfectionistic box. This is why we put ourselves into coffins. We just can't let go of ourselves, which we falsely identify as our egos. This is a mistake in the same way that identifying an ocean current or wave as the entire ocean.

In behaving this way, we allow ourselves to be under the control of corporations and politicians who don't give a damn about us, or the planet. "Its all about me!" That is the essence of the religion of today. "Oh, how I want to be mummified. Embalm me and keep me as I have always been and forever shall be."

How can we evolve if we don't get past ourselves?

Based on modern culture, I do wonder if we human beings have not devolved rather than evolved. I know we have cars that go "zoom-zoom" and planes flying high above our heads. Yet, is this evolution? "No" is my response. Evolution is to take wings and fly or learning how to disappear from one place and appearing in another.

If you can do that, I'll be impressed. If you are flying in an airplane, I'm not so impressed.

It is interesting, though, that folks who read my articles say, "I find you hard to understand." "Why?" I ask myself. Easy, I'm a challenger of the status quo. In terms of my intelligence level, I will tell you that I came out closer to the mentally retarded range than the genius. (I was low average).

Our true "Book of Revelations" is OUR revelation. In revealing ourselves in our full and divine potential, we become modern day strippers who without shame remove every stich of clothing to reveal themselves in their Truth. Yes, striptease and belly dances are sensuous, sexual and spiritual.

Who says the two are opposed to each other? More importantly, why do the puritans embrace opposition while demeaning lovemaking and nudity as evil? Who is truly counter to Love incarnate on our planet?

There was a well-written article that criticized my notion of a verb-based religion. I do want to emphasize the reasons I think becoming verb-based is important. These are:

*Reducing alienation. We don't see ourselves in the world. Being verb based, we can see how we operate as Nature operates. We reconnect to the evolving flow of life and love.

*Reducing conflict. Let go to the grip of dualism which pits this against that. In becoming empty of conditioning and becoming more verb or process oriented, we can enter a state of peace via letting go of conflicting thoughts such as "God loves you and if you are not giving money to the church, then He will send you into an eternal hell."

*Letting go of top-down governance (including organized religion) which often fosters conflicts between nations, races, genders and our relationship to Nature and ultimately who we are.

*Releasing ourselves from a sense of powerlessness by surrendering our thoughts, beliefs and lives to "The Man," i.e., the corporation, government, churches and bosses. This speaks to releasing ourselves from internal dis-empowerment. Pro-active, verb based living could foster evolution. Perhaps this is how we will earn our wings?

*Fostering evolution from the inside out in relationship to the environment rather than the devolution that top-down, standardized, industrial and pre-determined practices produce.

In essence, we have thwarted our evolution and in turn are creating mass extinction on a planetary scale. Perhaps this is Nature's way to renew Herself? Perhaps She is menstruating and aborting this egg She refers to as human? "Hey, nothing personal," She says. "No pain, no gain. You just don't work well anymore! Bye, bye!"

Thus the Prince is turned into a frog in myth.

Could we turn this around and reclaim the Prince by kissing the frog?

What you say and do matters. Sophia and Christ are within you. Not in any church. Underneath your ego you become revealed as the Verb made flesh (the Noun).

So, become a stripper and take it all off. You can only become pregnant when you are nude and living in the embrace of Love. You are the story of Psyche and Eros. Your individual life is a manifestation of the "Never Ending Story."

And you feel alienated? Why?

If you want to watch the "Never Ending Story" the url is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF3K7Ja_C5U Its one of those movies you have to pay for, from $2.99.

Authors Bio:
Burl Hall is a retired counselor who is living in a Senior Citizen Housing apartment. Burl has one book to his credit, titled "Sophia's Web: A Passionate Call to Heal our Wounded Nature." For more information, search the book on Amazon.

Burl's philosophy entails the idea that "everything effects and causes everything thing else." His spirituality of Sophia i.e., Wisdom is universal as well as within each of us. He also sees the idea of Chaos as not being "all over the place" but as infinite relationships.

The question I present in my articles speak not so much towards the politicians, but how WE the people can empower ourselves within a planet that is healthy, wealthy and wise.