I’ve heard the saying, “You’re living in a bubble.” Could it apply to me? Everyday? Could I be living in a First-Second Degree Illumination bubble of my own making? I don’t know. Perhaps. And I wonder…
“Is it always this dark here?” (Stella Mia, pg 193, by Rosanna Chiofalo)
Perhaps we could start by listing some aspects of my First Degree bubble:
- Agreement-based reality: “Right?!”
- Value-based needs
- Sense of safety and security
- Competition for limited resources
- Certainty and conviction
- Sense of separation (you vs me, we vs them, me vs the world)
- Rightness OR wrongness
- Justified suffering: “I/You/They deserved it!”
- Solid, unquestioned, trust in and obedience to reality as I perceive it.
Next, let’s list some aspects of the Second Degree shell/membrane encasing my First Degree bubble:
- Defensiveness – offensiveness
- Vigilance for threats
- Logic, reasoning, evidence, and justifications – proofs
- Memories
- Answers (ego!) – “becauses”
- Blame based on relativity: “I have this feeling – someone else is the cause of it!”
- Force – willpower, courage, struggle, sacrifice – based on need for certainty (rightness)
- Protection
- Justification for reality as I perceive it
What’s Next?
To burst the bubble, I must extend myself outside it – transcend it. “How do I do that?” you might ask. I do – often.
“What’s wrong with the world today?” (NY Times)
“I am.” (G.K. Chesterton)
One way that comes to my mind is to begin behaving in Third Degree Illumination ways. Let me enumerate some of them:
- Questioning reality
- Doubting that about which I’m certain
- Reconsidering my beliefs about:
- What is possible and probable
- Pain
- Relationships
- Accepting criticism from others
- Releasing a need for validation
- Accepting reality as other than I perceive it
- No longer trusting senses to represent a true and accurate picture of reality
- Courage to step into the unknown
- Entertaining the concept of oneness as a reality
A bubble bursts when its membrane is breached. Like opening a door, escaping the bubble might happen suddenly in an “aha!”moment. Everything changes in that instant.
Will I notice? Maybe. I don’t know. I’d like to find out, though. And so I ask…
“What’s next?”
