The Rainbow Swan

      The Creator calls in many voices. Primalatemost of these is the urge to be real! Genuine! When one's perception of this plea becomes dulled by muffling layers of stilted sophistication and narrowed pragmatism, existence, in all of its invigorating tones and hues, is abandoned for some substitute that is only a fiction.

      Sincerity is the soul attitude whereby one offers to others the genuineness within oneself.

      Trust is the soul attitude whereby one accepts from others the genuineness within them.

      Only genuineness is reality: all else is unreal.

      Sincerity and trust are an attitude of offering reality and of accepting reality, respectively, both of which are required in order to be real. Sincerity extends one's personal foundations down to the infinite bedrock. Trust extends one's personal ceiling up to the possibilities of infinity. These two personal attributes are necessary, but not sufficient, in order for one to be real.
      They are the first prerequisite.

      Summon up in your imagination, if you will, an image of the sea of life: endless vitality and diversity, summoned into existence by the hand of the Creator and impelled toward individual and collective destiny. Visualize a bright current flowing through the sea of sentiency. This is the processional of the children of light, individuals who have heeded the call of the Rainbow Swan and are being guided into the realms of light and beauty. Draw near in imagination. Inspect the luminous faces. Do you see? The childlike innocence?

      The call to the peak of the Rainbow Swan is the divine invitation to be once more a child, this time a cosmic child, imbued with sincerity and trust admixed with experience and consciously chosen values of higher meaning.

      To hearken to the call of the Rainbow Swan is to build an ark for eternal occupancy by God. This vessel is not physical. It is the God-committed portion of one's existence.

      How, you and I wonder, does one construct an ark for inhabitation by God?

      With sincerity as one's foundation of being, we suddenly realize, as we review what we have learned about the peak of the Rainbow Swan. With trust as one's ceiling of being. In childlike innocence.

      As you and I gaze with our inner eyes upon this relationship of oneness-of-being between two realities, one divine and the other mortal, we recognize it as pseudo-expandence; more specifically, endo-estatism, or immanence. And we understand the need to be sincere and trusting, for these two attitudes of reality sharing allow the functional alignment of the two diverse estates that is required for trans-estatism. In accordance with the law of expandent completion, as the Infinite immanends a mortal, that mortal transcends mortality, functioning at the levelate of God.

      Thus you and I recognize a further prerequisite, beyond sincerity and trust, that one must meet in order to be real: a relationship with God.

      A builder can proceed only as commissioned by an architect. One becomes commissioned to build an ark for God by entering into a relationship with God as one's unifier . . . focalate . . . ruler . . . purpose of living . . . total motivation. The reality of this relationship is infinitely tender, the archetype of the father-child bond.

      As the awareness of this innefable bonding penetrates into your consciousness and mine, we gaze back down the processional of the children of light to the point where distance shrinks it into imperceptibility. A wondrous thrill grips us with the dawning realization that countless persons have performed this act of supreme personal consecration through the ages, in incalculable situations of infinitely varied detail.

      You and I ask ourselves in puzzlement: how does one enter into such a relationship with the Infinite?

      And the answer echoes back in our hearts: You speak the binding pact in your own words or thoughts now, as you are. Whatever your state of morality or sin, I will hear. I will cleanse. I will consecrate.

      A relationship requires sincerity on one's part and trust in the other. To enter into a relationship with the Infinite means to give oneself to him irrevocably, unreservedly, and forever. Trust the Infinite. Know that he hears when you speak; he knows your heart; he is changeless and dependable; he desires a relationship with you, his child, now and as you are. Having established a relationship with him, never doubt it or your standing. Follow his guidance as best you can and, with the untroubled trust that is your part of the relationship, leave the rest to him.

      Man and woman, enstructurated, as they are, in the realities of multiple dimensions, can find numerous ways of viewing their relationship with the Infinite.
      Some persons perceive their relationship with the Infinite in a purely physical context. There is stabilizing symmetry in the concept that one exists solely as a partate of the Physical Absolute. In this view, worlds, universes, and persons march through the ages in an unbroken chain of cause and effect forged by unvarying physical laws.
      Other individuals conceive of their relationship with the Infinite in terms of mindal reality. Intellectual satisfaction can be found in the idea that one is a cell in the Absolute Mind. This perspective conceives of all phenomena and all realities, including persons, as thoughts, or shadows of thoughts, in the mind of the Infinite.

      Some persons visualize their relationship with the Creator as purely of spirit. One can in concept overcome the apparent inequities of existence and attain to the rule of righteousness by seeing oneself as a spirit partate in the Spirit Absolute. All things, in this view, are vitalized by the Spirit of the Infinite, which waters the inert vessels of existence with life and sets the sun of rectitude in the heavens.
      Others see their relationship with God as one between two persons. Those who know the Infinite as the Absolute Person experience the joy of the truth, he lives! Some of these know the Infinite as King, others as Lawgiver, Provider, Friend, Brother, or Father. All order their lives around their individual perceptions of this truth, in so doing shaping their emotional framework, outlook on life, and expectations.

      The Infinite is more than one's perception of him. There are corridors of infinity that a given person will never know, though they may be trodden by countless others. One knows in truth only the turns that one's own life has taken on the way to the peak of the Rainbow Swan. Others know only their trails. One can speak of -- and perhaps evaluate, to some degree -- only one's own experiences. None but the Infinite may rank the approaches and the lives on the wending adventure.

      My perception of my relationship with the Infinite is that he is my infinitely loving Father. Some others, I know, relate more with him as King. Yet others as Judge. I believe these things, too. Even if I did not, I can enjoy the thirst for righteousness of those who do. We are all comrades.

      Drift up in concept with me, if you will, to a position above the daily affairs of life. We float quietly, like two balloonists, out of range of the noise and pressure. See below us countless persons traveling their life's journeys on a moment-to-moment basis. They jerk randomly, convulsively, reacting to the things of the moment, following no plotted course.
      Look closely. Observe how some individual paths, analyzed from our vertical advantage, are each a series of jagged redirections. Sometimes they reverse. On occasion they circle. They go nowhere.
      The reason for the incoherency below us lies in the maps used. A map measures position in reference to a center, the selection of which is dependent on the architecture of the map. Every person pursues the journey of life by consciously or unconsciously using some map. The chart that naturally arises from life's experiences has one's own being as its center.

      As you and I peer down below us, we see that each of the aimlessly moving persons is surrounded by a hazy bubble that clouds the view from within. The inside surface of the sphere is a map centered in the individual.
      To attempt to travel using only a map centered in oneself is futile. Navigation requires a chart centered in a fixed, changeless feature of the world through which one travels.
      See below us how some individuals travel steady paths. Straight they go, with evident purpose, from feature to feature of the terrain of life. Always each proceeds consistently toward a distant light where the orderly paths all converge. The trails of these individuals, though distinct from one another, are mutually coherent and harmonious. Suddenly you and I recognize the flowing summation of their paths as the processional of the children of light, which we have seen before.
      Observing one of these persons more closely, you and I detect that the individual carries a map of light, centered in The Infinite One. And we realize that God is the one fixed, changeless reality. The map of light is the map of life, with which one can travel limitlessly, with absolute certitude.

      Our hearts leap as we follow the noble drama played out in the life of each child of light whom we observe. High purposes and portents, apparent in our skyborne view, are less visible from within the dusty plain of daily living. As our eyes adjust to the light toward which the children of light stream, we recognize the subtle fact that these persons do not follow the path of light: they create it in their passage. Their eyes always focus on the living reality of the Infinite Father, independent of futile, dry, formulaic routes.
      From our eyrie, you and I perceive that the lives of the followers of the map of light are imbued with thrilling relevance.  High purpose. And true fulfillment. And we realize that it is these qualities that the others below seek in vain, without knowing it. For these realities of light are not attainable as goals; they emerge naturally in the lives of those who plot their course through life from the map that is centered in the Father of All.

      Travel in concept with me, if you will, to the geometric center of infinity. See, floating here, a crystal box, fashioned by the Creator and filled with treasures for his children, in abundance enough for all.

      You and I gaze into the crystal box and behold the first of its treasures, the resolve to hold out for the real. One can be drawn into meaningless or temporary situations in the stream of time as if they possessed significance beyond the moment. To hold out for the real is to be free of smallnesses, greeds, self-deceptions, rationalizations, and other unrealities and to hearken instead to the call of light and life.

      Within the firmament of the crystal box you and I discover the treasure of the universal voice. God speaks in all of the realities of his creation. The scampering squirrel bearing a precious peanut in his mouth is, to ears attuned to the universal voice, an invitation-instruction to be diligent in the pursuit of one's ordained affairs for God, others, and self. The irrepressible little pine tree bursting with cones is, in its cone bearing, utterly industrious in carrying out the task for which it was created. Listen and hear the universal voice saying through all of these, Do you the same!

      See, among the treasures of the crystal box, the deep currents. Through the sea of life course invisible currents, each momentarily invested by the Infinite with the glow of truth. Sensing these currents and perceiving which bears truth in each passing instant, one can follow a succession of them like steppingstones through the confusion of temporal life.

      Among the treasures of the crystal box you and I discover the thirst for goodness. To some persons, goodness is a topic for discussion. To others it is a living reality that gives life meaning. The thirst for goodness is the desire to do good.

      The treasures of the crystal box are beyond final enumeration. You and I espy one more, the heart of purity. A pure heart is a gift from God, which one can have for the asking. It is an attitude, not a thing of ritual or abstinence. Once it is received, one can retain it simply by wanting to.

      Throughout the sweep of galaxies and the whirl of planets, nothing of time and space is fixed or immutable. From within the temporal flow and the spatial blanket of relative existence, realities seem to surge into being from nowhere, only to fade and vanish again.
      The finite, however, is a mode of being, embedded within the reaches of infinity. From a higher perspective, there are no beginnings or endings, only endless transformation.

      Gaze with me in your imagination, if you will, at the incessant appearings and disappearings of realities within creation. Planets swell into being, then vanish through interaction with other space bodies. Civilizations arise, only to fall to earth and become blowing dust. Humans come forth from their mothers, then close their eyes in the final earthly sleep.
      Our view is too close to follow the true trail of the realities involved. Let us drift up, in our visualizing, to a height whose perspective includes more of the panorama of being. Observe, from this increased elevation, wispy streamings in the scene below, not visible from close proximity. Each reality carried on the currents of time leaves behind it a wake which, shimmering and expanding, joins with reality wakes from other realities.
      Keeping our eyes focused intently on the reality wakes as they fade, you and I detect faint stirrings, within the spaces where the reality wakes were, which gradually solidify and emerge to the light of being as new realities, or temporo-precipitates. Not absolutely new, but relatively new: reality consequences of the passage-of-being of the original realities, which created the reality wakes. And suddenly you and I understand that the realities of creation do not appear or disappear: they transform, through the coils of time, into other realities. The universe is a cosmic butterfly of many parts, and time is the medium through which it waves its scintillating, metamorphosing wings.

      Personality, upheld directly by the Infinite Personality, who is also the Infinite Unifier, always functions to unify its constituent realities. Some personalities are infinite, as the Infinite Deities. Some are more than finite, as transcendent personalities. And some are finite, as mortal persons. Some are estate-progressive, as mortals who, after death, repersonalize in higher estate, taking with them only the character consequences of their previous living and leaving, in the universe domains of their previous activity, spreading reality wakes and gradually appearing and transmuting temporo-precipitates.
      As you and I study the reality transformations of temporo-precipitation, we gradually realize that personalities of mortal ascenders are exempt from the cycle of disappearance and reappearance through reality wakes. Each ascending personality periodically detatches itself from its associated cluster of personality realities and reattaches itself, like a celestial comet's head, to a different ensemble of cosmic reality. Personality is the reality organizer and unifier of the cosmos. It can function at any levelate of being. Existing at the dimensionless line where the temporal and finite meet the eternal and infinite, personality is the edge of infinity.
      Personality's dimension of action is choice. Volition. Action selection based on values. Goals are not values, they are means to ends. As you and I gaze, in our imaginations, at the endless reality transactions of life, we perceive that choice is sometimes abandoned for reaction. Cultural or environmental circumstance can cause mere conformance to appear to be personal volition.
      Contemplating the magical function of choice, you and I resolve never to abandon this gift of the Infinite.
     

      There is an attribute of life that I call the gentle kiss. It touches one in innumerable moments, in all of life's activities. It is the Creator speaking through the universe, saying:

      I love you.

      All is well.

      I am here.

      It all fits together.

      Behold and be glad.

      The Infinite is perfectly unified. The personality of infinity is one with the absolutes of physicality, mindality, and spiritality -- actual and potential. The dimensions are parts of the One. The Rainbow Swan, timeless, beginningless, endless, unutterably real, glides through the infinity and eternity of its own being. Its parts are the Absolutes, within which all things have their existence.

      Our journey together is closing. You and I prepare to launch apart once again on the seas of infinity. The object of our trek has been not only to perceive the changing landscapes that we have traversed, but more importantly to sense the changeless realities beneath. If I have described badly or perceived mistakenly, no matter. The shared intent was enough. Whatever may have been good in what I have said, the Infinite exceeds that immeasurably.
      In the end, the Great Teacher of All will crown every diligent student with success. The treasure of our comradely sojourn is a thing of heart, soul, and spirit that joins persons, no matter how different their concepts, to each other and to the Infinite.

      When you look up, somewhere in the Rainbow Swan you will see me.

      And I, looking up into the Rainbow Swan, will see you.