Late Night Chat with Jeff Wolverton: Self-Effacement, Aug 13, 2023, live on Baba Zoom

We have some informal chat after every arti, the "post-arti party"! But once a week, Jeff Wolverton joins us for some serious mining of the spiritual depths. Join us for conversation, more readings, songs, quotes - you never know what treasures will be uncovered!

Dear folks of Baba,

This Sunday we will again explore Darwin Shaw’s book, Effort and Grace, which is an in-depth inquiry into the inner life with Baba. It describes one of the major approaches to Baba by one who was devoted to Him for over 70 years, which culminated in a glorious intimacy with Him. Darwin was always so encouraging and optimistic in what we can do to open up to Baba’s immediate loving presence. He asserts that many of the blocks to this intimacy can be removed by our efforts and by inviting Baba’s ongoing intervention and grace.

There are two major paths that Baba describes on our way to the Goal. There is the path of realizing our spiritual potential, going up through the planes of consciousness from the gross to the subtle to the mental (the planes of the saints) on to God Realization. The other path that Baba is taking most of the mandali and His lovers on is the path of self-effacement in which the personality self is vacated to make room for Baba to move in. Gradually, He takes over, and more and more, we become "the pure witness". Darwin spoke extensively about this path. There is the line from the Bible that Kitty Davy, one of the women mandali, used to often quote, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

Darwin would say that while using our consciousness or awareness, most of us look at life through the lens of our personality self, and so everything is colored and distorted by our past impressions (our sanskaras or conditioning accumulated over countless lifetimes). Consciousness, he would explain, is riveted to the personality self and can only see everything through the personality self. From this perspective, to all intents and purposes, we ARE the personality self. In the path of self-effacement, we seek to detach ourselves from seeing through our personality self and instead to see only through pure awareness or consciousness (the soul). Always with an amused and enigmatic smile on his face, Darwin used to say, “Sooner or later, you discover you are nobody, and that is not an unhappy discovery!” It is possible through Baba’s grace to set the personality self aside and see with the eyes of pure awareness. We become the witness, and as such we are “nobody". It is an entirely new perspective, very liberating, and very gradually everyone and everything is seen in its immediate and timeless freshness. It leads eventually in its highest aspect to what Mani, Baba’s sister, used to say, “You have to see things through Baba’s eyes.” I take this to mean that when we witness life through the eyes of empathy and compassion, we are moving toward seeing things through Baba’s eyes. Until Mani shared this, I didn’t realize there was such an option!

Here is a poem by Bill Ramsey, a dear friend, entitled,

“Renovations”

I sit, gutted and dazed.

You have broken down my drywall,

Ripped out the insulation,

Mangled the wiring and plumbing,

Split open the rafters beams,

And bulldozed my foundation.

Divine Beloved, thank You for moving in.

Each session evokes invaluable discussion that does not require having attended the previous sessions; each section stands alone and provides a window into the inner life of the lover/Beloved relationship and is virtually independent, like facets of one diamond—Baba.

For those who do not have a copy of the book, below is an attachment for following along:

https://issuu.com/ompoint/docs/shaw_effort_grace

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