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| SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | DECEMBER 2018 | 35 There are different strands of luminosity. Or, we could say there are different emanations from God, like different pitches on a musical instrument. God or Consciousness has multiple expressions. The highest expression is akin to a vibratory Stillness. This Stillness is like Scintillating Aliveness… but there are other expressions too. Sometimes there is just STILLNESS, sometimes overwhelming LOVE, sometimes PEACE, sometimes POWER, sometimes even ANGER (as example, when Christ upset the tables of the moneychangers in the temple…). The difference between the Enlightened Person and an ordinary person is that nothing clings to the enlightened One. He operates not from the mind, but from the underlying Essence of Being. He no longer identifies himself with a person, but with God, the Vast Absolute. Love, as one of the expressions of your God Self, is spontaneous, has no conditions attached to it, is not wary, has nothing to defend, is Free and Open, and just Loves. Never mind if the love is not returned… Love from God can also be Fierce. If you love God then God will show the way to love him back, and sometimes that is not so easy because we have been too long associated with an individual 'I' self. To love him back is to be willing to endure hardship in order to give up identification with an ego 'I' and become one with Essence, with Pure Consciousness, which is God. God knows best how to bring this about. All experiences are designed for this, good or not so good, all is for the sake of dissolving misidentification with an ego 'me'. I like the image of what God, Essence is. Imagine rocketing off into space. At first the pull of Gravity, the ego self is strong, hard to get unstuck as it were… Nevertheless, the power of God, the power of the rocket is stronger and eventually you find yourself traveling through various layers of the stratosphere, becoming thinner and thinner (ego dissolving) until you eventually reach SPACE, neither pulled here nor there, just cruising in Stillness, in that Infinite Void. SATSANG (GROUP MEETING WITH A SPIRITUAL AIM) begins with a 30 min. meditation (15 min if new people are present) followed by a discourse and a short video presentation offered by a teacher adhering to the teaching of Non-Duality. As always questions are warmly encouraged. We meet in the Main Clubhouse Multipurpose Room (next to the Library) on Sundays at 11:30 am to 1 pm. This is a FREE offering. My background includes 29 years of formal spiritual practice under the guidance of two masters and nine years of teaching (seven at Sun Lakes). You need not bring anything except an Open Mind. My name is Gina and I can be reached at gina-sat@msn.com or 846-1220 if you have further questions. Meditation: a pathway to truth