Welcome to Gloria Karpinski's Center Circle

Where Two Worlds Touch
An Excerpt

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Beyond the Enemy

I poked through the hand-me-down opinions of others.
Reshuffled the phantoms of battles won and lost.
Where is it? Do you know?
A string of shiny words, another book.
A pilgrim’s tale retold.
Another’s promise, another’s way
Each a child’s bubble, clear, iridescent
—in a moment, gone.
“I give up,” I screamed into the pale, silent sky.
Had I known the power my cry unleashed
I would have made it the mantra of my heart—
I give up. I give up. I give up.

There is the sacred place within each of us where the two worlds touch—the world of Spirit and the world of mat-ter—where the inner and the outer are recognized as one. It is a place beyond the enemy.

Who and what is the enemy? The enemy is the lie that says you are anything less than creative Spirit. The enemy is the illusion that wears a thousand faces, some terrifying, some thrilling, all of them seducing us into believing that we are the role we are playing. Instead of realizing that “I am experi-encing sickness, wealth, or confinement,” we believe, in effect, “I am sick, wealthy, or confined.” The enemy keeps punching our ticket for the karmic wheel and we keep buying it.

But no matter how fascinated and identified we become with our creations, or how well we play the parts, or how many myths we construct to support them, they all eventually die. We don’t.

Surrendering brings us closer and closer to the shift from I do to I am. When we focus on false identities, most of our energies are invested in supporting these illusions. But once the inner shift is made to I am, we can then “do” with greater imagination, boundless energy, and a lighter touch. Poised in the place where our God self and our human self fuse, we are able to identify with Spirit and begin to create with a conscious awareness in the physical world. We have learned how to be in the world, but not of it.

Once we are beyond the enemy of illusory appearances, we know that our true identity is Spirit, essence; we know that we are neither male nor female, neither rich nor poor. No matter what happens in the outer world from this point on, the inner self is undisturbed. With each surrender we acquire more of that steady calm.

To live beyond the enemy is to accept Grace. It is a small step from there to becoming an expression of Grace in all the roles we play in the human drama. Every time a false identity is surrendered, the vacuum it leaves is filled with Grace. When we consciously move into harmonious alignment, at-one-ment, with Grace, we become self-realized, enlightened—saved, in the words of Lord Krishna, “from the endless ocean of death and rebirth.” We begin to live unconditional love on Earth. No longer invested in appearances, we breathe love—and therefore Light—into even the densest congestions of confusion and hate. We are free to choose how and where to apply energy.

As Spirit penetrates every level and frequency of energy, we are free to use the laws of creation that govern the mental level or to direct energy at the emotional or physical levels. Because we are no longer locked into identifying with any one level, we are free to create on all of them. As long as we are being whipped about by the capricious dictates of the enemy, we look at the wounded world and think, It’s too much. But once we are freed of the illusions, we can look at the world with the eyes of the incarnated Christ and say, “The burden is light.”

It doesn’t feel so light when we are still being held prisoner by our illusions. So we practice surrendering our limitations a bit at a time. And every change that we allow to go full cycle teaches us a bit more about letting go. Every purification we endure prepares us for the release and enables the new container, the new form we are creating, to hold a bit more Grace.

Purification demands that we die to the past. Surrender calls us to live in the present. During purification we are backed up to the edge of the cliff. And when we surrender, we jump.

At story is told of a famous Rabbi much sought for his spiritual wisdom. When a young man entered the Rabbi’s home after making the arduous journey, he was quite astonished to see that it was only a simple room filled with books. The only furniture was a table and a bench.

“Where is your furniture?” asked the young man.
“Where is yours?” said the Rabbi.
“Mine?” said the young man. “But I’m only a visitor here.”
“So am I,” said the Rabbi.

We tend to speak of surrendering—or “the surrender” —as though we finally make one choice to let it happen. Actually it’s more a choice to keep choosing. Usually along the way we are saying, “Thy Will, O God,” but continue to whisper, “And a little bit of mine.” We let a piece go, then rearrange and integrate what’s left into new combinations. Then we live out the new setting until we are ready to release yet another piece and then another.

Surrender gives up more than a compulsion; it gives up the desire that fuels the compulsion. The wisdom of the Buddha teaches that it is our desires that hold us prisoner. Before an old form is purified, it desires to fulfill itself. As long as there is anything left, it will continue to say, “I need, I want.” It is learning the slow releasing of desire that frequently keeps us in the pain of purification. It is really a blessing that we are not released from purification before the desire itself is given up. Otherwise the desire would settle into the subconscious and continue to be part of the creative magnet that pulls people and situations to us without our having any idea why.

Desire is about the last bit of the illusion the ego-self is surrendering. Until the end it keeps insisting, “If I just get this or achieve that, I’ll be happy.” We think that once we get what we desire, we’ll be safe. As Helen Keller once said, “Security is mostly a superstition. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright experience. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

From pages 250-253 of WHERE TWO WORLDS TOUCH