When you ascend into the infinite void “out there”, towards our Divine origins, ultimate power manifests. We haven’t learned how to do it yet—but I’m working on it! I consider it true spiritual healing; putting things right; getting back to our original powers and lofty viewpoint. Thus a doctor or a healer is the person to create the shift, not some jumped up self-serving guru or an agent of priestly powers, which have exactly the opposite agenda: to keep people servile and subdued and controllable.
Meantime, let’s look at what I call some “earthly powers” (available to use right here and now, on this planet!) I have pinpointed four: LOVE, GRACE, COURAGE and REASON. These could also be called The Four Wisdoms.
1. LOVE
Let’s start with the paramount wisdom: LOVE. It’s an age-old truism LOVE INFORMS EVERYTHING.
I have a powerful maxim which is that, Love is not something we get or give; it’s not something we do; love is especially not a tool to get what we want (you probably know the old saw, “Men use love to get sex; women use sex to get love”); love is actually what we are. Love is a state of Being. As such it’s not a flow of emotion, as often portrayed but an act; an act of enfoldment. Cherishment.
We embody love, meaning real love, not need, want or desire. Not that I exclude romantic sexual love; far from it. But I’m not talking just about what the Greeks called agape or non-sensual love. Again, as I said, it’s a state of Being. Love is what we are!
There are many quotes about love, of course; Shakespeare plays; whole novels! Some portray it as a madness; a disease. It will get you killed. Other’s point to its sublime and nurturing properties. You can’t live a complete life without love.
Real love is divine and informs even sex! Don’t be coy. In many religions, sex is how you get to God. You have intercourse with the priestess, you get to Heaven! You can see this clearly in the glorious temple carvings of Khajuro in India:
How much more inspiring and heavenly than cruel crucifixes as a symbol of the divine!
Come to mention it, the famous sex manual Kama Sutra is just that: a sutra is a Buddhist or Jainist scripture!
OK, moving on…
2. GRACE
Love gives rise naturally and graciously to GRACE! There are many garbled definitions of grace, mostly around the matter of how the person looks and moves. But here I redefine it to mean the acknowledgement of a person’s Being.
It is recognizing and honoring another’s place in the scheme of things (English use of the word scheme, not American use). To grant a person grace is one of the highest and most sacred of human accomplishments… and at the same time one of the most difficult.
It means respect where respect is due.
To deny, attack, criticize or denigrate someone is the exact opposite of according him or her grace. Thus murders, robbery, wars, even punishments, are all matters which repudiate grace, as I am using the term.
Thing is, you have to have it before you can give it. If you cannot sense and live by or within your own panoply of grace, how would you know what it is, to offer to others?
Especially, is not something you save up and grant only to figureheads, leaders of saints. Grace is not an emotion. You have to go about life with an ATTITUDE of grace.
I consider it a fundamental wisdom and may be out of a limb here. Others occasionally recognize it and respect it but it’s not common!
Perhaps the word “charity” in the famous Biblical passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 could be substituted by grace?
Grace is patient and kind; grace does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It might be fun to transform a few other famous quotes with this idea of grace?
3. COURAGE
Courage is important. Without it, you fail because you lack the commitment. It’s one thing to know what you SHOULD be doing; it’s another to have the guts and wit to actually DO IT!
It’s also relevant to honesty. You have to have courage to tell the truth, no matter what. Honesty, of course, is an aspect of integrity. Interestingly, you might also want to reflect that integrity means much more than telling the truth; it means wholeness.
Brené Brown is worth reading in this respect. She points out that the word courage comes via the French word cour, which means heart. Bravery is having your heart intact. You do not flinch.
Professor Brene Brown
Here’s a quote from her super Netflix special The Call to Courage, which is now streaming in 190 countries and 29 languages. You should watch it.
I’m going to live in the arena. I’m going to be brave with my life. I’m going to show up. I’m going to take chances, and if you’re brave with your life, if you choose to live in the arena, you’re going to get your ass kicked. You’re going to fall, you’re going to fail, you’re going to know heartbreak. Today, I choose courage over comfort.
Yet how many of us take the easy route? More than all the times we regret something we did, there are a thousand times more occasions when we end up regretting something we DIDN’T do! As I wrote in one of my 1994 essays:
“More than all the times we have hurt or been hurt are those moments when life presented us with a golden opportunity which—through neglect, fear, folly or other failing—somehow passed us by and so the fame, glamor, riches or success that we craved so earnestly still evaded us.”
Trouble is that Brené uses courage to segue into vulnerability, which doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe nobody defined vulnerability to me in a way that is positive. I’d rather be bombproof than vulnerable! But of course I don’t mean arrogant, cocksure, unfeeling or foolish. I just mean secure within my own resources; knowing that Higher Power is on my side: that I can survive a considerable degree of shock and hurt.
Mind you, that was tested to the absolute limit when my first marriage broke down! But then I did survive! In fact I grew in wisdom, strength and love. So maybe “bombproof” is better for people like me? Haha!
Finally…
4. REASON
This is my long suit, as you would expect. I’m fond of saying that human beings did not use “intuition” or snug, comfy feelings to get down from the trees. We used hard logic to invent transportation, farming, smartphones, computers, heavier-than-air flight and space rockets!
It’s a common myth to set logic and reason against supposedly warm, friendly, loving feelings; it’s one or the other; you are either task-oriented or people-oriented, say some. I say NUTS to that. That’s posturing, not love or logic.
What would have happened to the world if Alexander Fleming had been people-oriented, instead of task-oriented? He invented penicillin, without which millions (actually billions) of people would have died. Isn’t that being people-oriented?
I just want to make the point that reason has a relentless advantage. If it’s “right” it will benefit us all. Truth is a kind of reason, just as lies are stupid and illogical. Reason is friendly. Reason solves troubles, problems and pain. Don’t back off from it and go all woo-woo! Wait a minute: isn’t that what we mean by woo-woo (no logic or reason)? I think so.
One of the greatest words in our language is actually what I call a logical operator: THEREFORE. It’s a kiss!
Therefore can substituted by “it follows that…” But I prefer to phrase it as an operator: if this is true, it follows automatically that THAT is true! It’s the whole basis of good science. But it is also the basis of good living and human interactions. It is reason come to nest as loving and care! At least that’s how I see it.
Love is gentle, kind, honorable, pleasing and protective THEREFORE I choose love in all things.
To The Courage I Know You Hold!
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor
[This is destined for the Scriptures in The Making series: www.scripturesinthemaking.com]
