Practical spirituality for a complicated world.
***image1***I continue to be overwhelmed by the understanding and support extended to me after the publication of my column on August 24. That particular column was about some rather painful challenges encountered through dealing with difficult family members. This topic must have struck a deep chord in many readers. I suppose it's not that unusual to have family difficulties. After all, families are composed of flawed individuals called humans. With all our flaws, we yet remain, all of us, children of the Creator. At our cores, we are sparks of the Creator. Our souls are literally eternal and divine.
Earth is a beautiful planet, but it's a level of reality where we experience duality. There is night and day, black and white, up and down, yes and no, male and female, rich and poor, happy and sad, etc. God has set things up this way, and it seems that at this stage of our spiritual evolution, we crave the experience of duality. There are planets, or levels of reality that, compared to our earth, are heavenly. There are planets where there is no violence. Creatures don't have to kill other beings for food. There is no poverty, or lack, and life time are measured in the tens of thousands of years, for bodies are less dense and don't deteriorate or sicken. Conversely, there are planets, or levels of reality that, compared to our earth, are hellish regions.
Let's just say you'd do well to avoid those places. Our Earth Mother is set up as a giant learning centre, or school. The Creator has designed it that way, and it is inappropriate, indeed disrespectful, to talk about transforming the earth into an angelic paradise. Many well-meaning people want us all to transcend into light beings, or have the planet ascend into other higher levels. It sounds nice, but they don't realize how they are insulting God, for this planet has been carefully crafted and designed to allow us our own spiritual evolutions, at our own paces. The Creator is merciful, and in the earth school, provides us with special teachers and faculty advisors. We call these special beings by different names: spiritual master, ascended master, spirit guide, or angel. They are the teachers and advisors on this wonderful campus of planet earth.
Most of the people on the planet now are having their first experiences as human beings. They're getting used to the novelty of human bodies, and
tend to focus on sense pleasure and material goods. They are in kindergarten, and it is not appropriate to expect them to understand algebra or advanced physics. They don't choose their curriculum, but rather have it chosen for them. There are also beings who've incarnated as humans for a while. They are at various stages of development and have interests somewhat beyond coloring with crayons, but still enjoy recess more than their classes. Then you have some who've advanced to the college level. They meet with their faculty advisors and plan individualized courses of study. They choose an area of study, but still have courses that are required of them all. Then, there are post-doctoral students, who have just about exhausted the system, and the campus holds little allure. They've been there and done it, numerous times. Finally, there are a very, very few who are on this planet because they have advanced to the point where they're here out of love, not from karmic necessity. These souls are rare, indeed. Most of them are undercover, and you'd probably not recognize them if you met them face to face. Occasionally, one surfaces as a spiritual teacher, like Babaji, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Jesus. You'd ask them, "Are you God, are you divine?" And they'd answer, "Yeah, yeah, but so are you." These special souls are examples, not for us to worship, but in order to remind us of what we're capable of becoming.
In my present lifetime as Robert Ransom Odom, I was born 7 February 1951, in Southern Mississippi…not just the South, but the southernmost part of the South! So, let me explain to you how that came about. I'll set the stage by recalling Sofia Patrillo, and saying, "Picture it. A crystal palace in the heavenly realms, around May 1950. A soul is hanging out with some ascended masters, discussing his next birth." So there I am, or rather my soul is, planning a course of study for the next semester (lifetime). I share with the angelic beings what my goals are, and that I'd really like to accelerate things. The angelic beings tell me that for what I'm seeking, there are two possibilities. One is with a peasant family in communist Bulgaria. The other is with a middle class, newly married couple in South Mississippi. I ask the angelic beings, "Well, which would be the most vigorous, the most challenging spiritually?" They respond, without hesitation, "Oh, South Mississippi, by far!" So, down floats my soul, drifting once again into a body, tightly confined within the womb, thinking "Now I've bloody done it again." Later on, in early February of the next year, out I popped, and slowly began forgetting who I was and where I came from. I began the process of becoming someone else, all over again. For a while, I bought into the illusion that it was all "real" in the sense of permanent. But, slowly, bit by bit, through various painful experiences and situations, I began to remember things, to awaken. The irony is that the cruelty I experienced from those who should have been my protectors, was actually a "marker" or a "buoy," that I, myself had placed there, all purposely designed in a crystal palace, before I was born, whilst hanging out with angelic beings in the Light.
How could I resent my parents for their cruelty, when I had chosen those very conditions to stimulate my growth? I must've had life time where I
goofed off a lot, and didn't pay attention to my lessons. That certainly has not been the situation for Robert Ransom Odom. He's had his cage rattled at every turn, shattering illusions and fantasies left and right (pun intended). I know that I've lived life time before with those who are my parents now. We've played our parts to perfection in this present lifetime. I know that my eccentricities and my rebellion have challenged them repeatedly. Okay, so I never got in trouble when I was a kid, but really, what parent wants a teenager who burns incense and chants Hare Krishna? I must've horrified them at every level. I'd like to think that I also challenged them to grow, to think outside the little boxes they tried to stay in. We chose each other. We danced together to every tune the band played. You can only do that for beings you truly love and who truly love you. But, this is a hard, hard teaching to hear sometimes, isn't it? Consciousness or enlightenment is sort of like jumping up in the darkness of the theatre and shouting to remind everyone that it's just a movie, and they need to go home and pay bills. They'll kick you out of the theatre if you do that too often. The theatre experience is based upon people forgetting who they really are, and living a fantasy. The theatre's playing
Nightmare on Elm Street
, and I find myself in the mood for something more relaxing, perhaps an old Shirley Temple film.
When the moment comes to leave this body, this lifetime as Robert Ransom Odom, I want to go peacefully into the Light and just hang out amongst the angelic beings in the crystal palaces, for a long, long time.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm ready to go any time soon, for I love my life. It's just that after I leave this time, I don't want to come back any time soon. That's why I watch what I do and say. I try very hard to choose love, to always opt for the least violent alternative, to not add to the pain already on the planet. I suppose that sounds a bit selfish, really…all that 'good' karma, just to benefit me. So I'll tell you a secret: we're all sitting in a darkened theatre, mesmerized by lights flickering on a screen. I'm tired of being a spectator in a darkened theatre. I want to go see what's happening outside in the street.
OM
To ask Robert a question, visit his Web site at www.RobertOdom.com, email desertrj@msn.com or send mail to PO Box 33, Santa Fe, NM 87504.
Santa Fe Reporter