A Ten-Fold Path of Transcendence, Part 2: “No Boundaries”
People love to put things in boxes. By “boxes” I mean container of any shape, not just rectangular shaped boxes.
First of all, we live in boxes; that’s what houses and apartments are: boxes to live in and keep our boxes of stuff in. But it doesn’t stop there. Inside the home box are other boxes: closets, dressers, drawers, and cabinets.
Sometimes we keep boxes of stuff inside the boxes we call drawers and closets. In kitchen cabinet boxes we keep boxes of food, and boxes called pans in which to cook the food. We look in the refrigerator boxes for boxes of liquid to drink from the smaller boxes we call cups.
We like to watch stories in boxes called “television sets.”
We have boxes in which to keep papers and stuff we aren’t using; stuff we are saving just in case we might use it later.
We even keep our feet in boxes; we call them shoes. Some people have collections of dozens of the foot boxes called shoes. When they aren’t wearing them, they may keep their foot boxes in shoe boxes. We just love to put things in boxes.
Then, when we want to go out of our home box, we get into boxes with wheels called automobiles and trains. Or we fly in boxes with wings called planes.
And where do we go? Probably to some other box: the home box of friends or family or boxes called hotels and motels. We like to visit boxes called theaters, museums, and zoos. Zoo boxes contain boxes of animals.
We just love to put things in boxes. Figuratively speaking, anytime we create boundaries, we are making a box. So rules and laws are boxes we make to keep order in games or in society as a whole.
Words may be understood as conceptual boxes or idea-boxes. We use words to identify actions and parts of the universe.
Boxes and boundaries are good. They are wonderful tools for organizing our world and to some extent for controlling our world. The boundaries created by rules and laws help us live, work, and play with others in an orderly and harmonious way.
However, we sometimes forget that we are the makers of the boundaries and boxes. We sometimes make the mistake of trying to confine in a box that which is inherently un-confinable. The Infinite cannot be confined in idea-boxes.
Our idea-boxes about ourselves can become counterproductive. We think of the idea-boxes as having power and control over us, instead of the other way around. We confine ourselves in artificial boundaries made by our own thoughts.
Some idea-boxes are conventional conceptual boundaries; much of what is now conventional was once revolutionary. The second Commandment was such a revolutionary idea: “You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.” “Graven” means carved, so the commandment literally outlaws statues of God. Graven images were “God-boxes”; attempts to confine the Infinite within a finite form. The idea of not making statues of God was revolutionary because everywhere in the world at that time, people venerated statues of deities. Gods were thought to actually reside in the statues in the same way that today people think of luck as residing in charms such as rabbit’s feet. “Graven images” were thought not merely to look like gods, but also to literally contain gods. With the second Commandment for the first time in recorded history, a people rejected the idea that deity could be contained in a statue.
As the story goes, Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets and found the people of Israel worshipping a golden calf. The golden calf symbolized a god of fertility, productivity, and wealth. Many people still worship the golden calf; they make sexual potency and increase of wealth their gods. These ideas rule their lives and are thought of as the highest powers and the highest good. When people take their attention off Spirit as the highest power and good, they bring their attention down to earth and make gods of material values. That’s why Moses, coming down from his high place in consciousness and peak experience, had to destroy the golden calf.
The story of Moses breaking the tablets is also symbolic: not even a set of words written in stone can contain God.
Solomon’s temple was thought of as a house for God; a kind of “God-box.” However, according to the story, Solomon was wise enough to realize that the Divine Presence could not really be confined within a building. When Solomon dedicated the temple, he said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!”
Any attempt to contain God with pictures, locations, words, or symbols violates the second Commandment in spirit. “God” is a word for the Infinite; no word can contain the Infinite, not even the word “God,” not even the word “Infinite.” No set of words, however great and inspiring can put a box around the Infinite. God is not contained between covers of any book; not even the Bible. The Infinite is not contained between any book covers or all book covers.
There are some words we can use about God that do not imply boundaries: The word “Infinite” just means that which has no boundaries, hence it is an appropriate description of God. The word “nothing,” strangely enough, also implies no boundaries. Meister Eckhart realized this and described God as “No-thing.” Unfortunately, church officials didn’t quite get what Eckhart was saying and that got him in a bit of trouble. The word “One,” understood in the sense of “principle of Unity,” also is an apt description of God. Unity implies there is nothing separate from God and hence no separating boundaries. So there is a trinity of numbers that appropriately describe God: infinity, nothing, and one.
Our consciousness of God expands when we think outside the boxes. If you would know God, you must understand that God is incorporeal; God does not have the limits of a body with finite boundaries.
When you try to put God in a box, you are also putting yourself in a box. Spiritually, you are the image of God, therefore to put God in a box is to hold a limited idea of yourself and to put yourself in a box is to hold a limited idea of God.
You make your beliefs about yourself and you can unmake those beliefs and build bigger ideas. Some mental boxes people confine themselves in are beliefs that they aren’t confident enough, smart enough, or talented enough to succeed.
If you have put yourself in the “not confident enough box,” start affirming that you have faith in yourself as a child of God. Imagine yourself with more confidence in life situations.
If you find yourself confined in the “not smart enough box,” start affirming that you are one with Infinite Intelligence. Affirm and picture yourself having all the intelligence you need to achieve your dreams.
If you are trapped in the “not talented enough box,” start affirming you are one with omnipotence. Affirm and picture yourself having all the talent you need to achieve your dreams.
If you are content to stay in the mental box you have made, that is great. Nevertheless, even if you are content where you are, know that you can, if you choose, move out of your current boundaries into the Spiritual consciousness of no boundaries.
Here is one way to start removing or getting out of confining idea-boxes. Picture an image of some current idea you have of a life-challenge or accepted limitation. See it inside a little box.
Now imagine that outside of that little box is a vastly bigger and brighter box. In that bigger brighter box, picture yourself now beyond the challenge or limitation. Imagine a new more joyful you, feeling and celebrating the overcoming of the challenge or limit.
Imagine the little box fading into nothingness as your bigger box continues to expand and grow brighter. Imagine yourself now absorbed by the joy and light. Then let the boundaries of the bigger box dissolve and feel yourself now as you truly are: one with God, absorbed in pure life, light, and love with no boundaries.
Once you imagine and feel your greater possibilities, by thinking outside the box and thinking yourself outside of the box, you are ready to leave the box. Then simply take the first step out. Take some first action, no matter how small the step may seem, to move toward a brighter and expanding life.
Then, just keep walking. Let the momentum of the first step carry you toward ever expanding realization of your innate divine nature. Continue to let go of graven images. Let go not only of old limited concepts of God, also let go of old limited concepts of yourself. As you walk out your “home-box” today, know that you are walking toward a bigger and brighter world than any you have known before. Know that with God there are no graven images; with God there are no boundaries.