Southwest Sierra #116 – The Hope Essays: #2 Part 3

(Revisiting the writings of my youth) ~ I have been sharing these essays originally written in Alleghany in 1994-1995. I did not remember how LONG these essays are when I started sharing them! Following is an abbreviated version of the remainder of #2. Some of my readers will be happy to know that I’m taking a break from the Hope Essays for a while after this. For those who would like to see more, I registered the domain name thehopeessays.com and I’ll let my readers know when the site is up.

The Garden continued

It was also at the age of 13 that I purchased a book at the Society of Friends booth at the Nevada County Fair: The People called Quakers. Quakers are one of the more misperceived groups that I know of. Most of us associate the word Quaker with Puritans and people who dress like Pilgrims. “Quaker” isn’t even the name these people call themselves, it was given to them by outsiders. The reason they became known as “Quakers” is because often, before they speak at their meetings, they feel a quickening which causes the body to “quake”. The name that they chose for themselves, and that they prefer is: The Society of Friends. They are Christians and their beliefs are based on trying to live as closely as possible by the teachings of Christ. They hold the wisdom of the heart in highest esteem, and they rely on their “hearts to be their guides”. There is no minister at their meetings. They meet in silence and when a person feels a quickening he or she speaks. Songs are sung at the end of the meeting. I found the beliefs shared in this book to be the closest to my own of any religion that I’d learned of.

I don’t remember which of Jung’s books I read, but I read two out of the four that my mom had. I was 14 and I don’t remember a lot about these books except that they reinforced my feeling about the importance of dreams and that I grasped the concept of “the collective subconscious”. Carl Jung studied the myths and legends of primitive cultures all over the world. These cultures had no contact with each other, yet he found common symbols, stories and teachings (slightly varied of course) in many cultures. He drew the conclusion that humans have a sort of “group mind”, our source of wisdom, the collective subconscious. I remember very clearly the image that I saw when I grasped this concept. It was a flock of birds flying through the sky. I instantly knew that animals are naturally tuned to the “group mind” of their species and that this is how they work in unison, such as when birds migrate or fish swim in schools. The group mind is in tune with the “Divine Laws of Nature and Nature’s Divinity”. Our link to the group mind is our subconscious.

My freshman year of high school I was fortunate enough to attend John Woolman School. This is [was] a “Quaker” school near Nevada City. On my 15th birthday I was on a two-week school trip volunteering work at a Catholic Workers farm near the town of Sheep Ranch. I browsed their library and pulled out a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita. This was a Penguin Paperback, and I did not associate it with the fancy illustrated hardback copies that Hari Krishnas sell. I read the book cover to cover. My heart responded very strongly, I felt that it contained much truth. I concluded from reading it that “enlightenment” and the “kingdom of heaven within” are the same thing.

In my late teens and early twenties, I was a member of The Theosophical Order of Service. This simply meant that I received a quarterly publication of articles written by other Theosophists. To me, Theosophy is the sifting through of all religions for shining pearls of truth. I found that all the religions I came across taught the same basic truths and morals. This affirmed for me, the concept of the collective subconscious, and my growing belief that Christianity has its roots in ancient wisdom. Something that always intrigued me about the creation story in Genesis is that, in the beginning, God is referred to as the Elohim, and Elohim is plural. Then suddenly God is singular and “he”. I believe that the bible is a combination of historical fact and allegorical myth. This ancient wisdom which is at the root of all religions strengthens my faith, it does not detract from it.

During the time that I was a member of The Theosophical Order of Service, I had a dream that made a deep and lasting impression on me. I dreamt that I was flying through the air and being led by an angel or being of light that was holding my hand. Below us I saw the most incredible gardens. The colors were unearthly; they pulsated in their vibrancy. The gardens were of varying sizes, but all were incomparable in beauty. The separate gardens were divided by walls of gray-brown brick that contrasted sharply with the splendor of the gardens. The angel spoke directly (non-verbally) to my mind, and the message was: “each garden is a religion, when the walls are gone, there will be peace on earth”.