At Openhand First Tuesday on June 7th, we contemplated the topic:

“every imperfection contains a hidden gift and is therefore perfect�?

Following the initial meditation we began with the seven deadly sins and what gifts they might reveal when the ancient light within them is transmuted. Afterwards this was expanded into what we consider to be ‘faults’ within ourselves. So for example ‘pride’ might be a distorted experience of self love. To some the quality of ‘pride’ suggests the need to ‘show off’ one’s self love. When you truly love yourself there is no need to do this - there is just inner contentment with existence as it is. So if one experiences pride in this way, the challenge is not to sweep it aside and ignore it but to go deeply into the experience of it - surrender to it - and then elevate it into something uplifting to the self.

However we discovered that each word represents a different meaning to each person. Words don’t accurately convey true inner feelings. In my view every materialisation of an inner experience will be less than a perfect representation. However that doesn’t negate contemplating these ideas. The words themselves represent only a small percentage of the energy with which they are delivered. We feel much more than we hear. As one person unveils more energy by allowing their consciousness to flow from the form - in this case words - it resonates with others causing their consciousness to release.

That is unless we go into struggle to understand or internal stress about the concepts. If we struggle to be right, or to have our view accepted by the group, we close down internally and consciousness identifies with the mind once more. ‘Tolerance’ was mentioned as a virtue. When we judge others or other points of view, we are in fact only judging ourselves and in so doing limit our ability to release and elevate our own consciousness. However by not being tolerant, there is a striving to settle only for the truth. So non tolerance can be transmuted into aspiration of truth.

In my view, each similar distortion that we may have offers the perfect opportunity to experience ourselves as the One Life in any moment. So the distortion of an inability to focus, might cause someone to surrender the need to focus and in so doing take the ‘holistic view’. Nothing needs to be done, nothing needs to be focussed on and in the realisation of this might come the experience of ‘dropping through the mind’ into existence.

I could write for hours on this, it is a huge concept. In my view it is the very essence of self realisation and enlightenment. However that is not the purpose of this forum but if any of you would like to take it up with me on a one to one basis, please feel free to do so.

In terms of what I feel the evening lacked, time went by so quickly that we ended up with little time to meditate. So my preference next time would be for more time set aside for meditation and/or experiential exercises. What are your views?