Back then, I barely had any idea of what he meant. But as I continued to study and encounter more and more esoteric treatises I began to see how different spiritual principles apparently contradict each other. I say "apparently" because this is where understanding paradox comes in, and what Master Choa was probably getting at in his book.
Once one begins to accept the nature of paradox, one can better appreciate questions such as: "If there is oneness, how can there be individuality? If God is all-powerful, why is there suffering?" And I mean truly gaining an understanding of the question. I recently saw a funny meme on Facebook that says the Bible is like a software license agreement. People never read it, but they scroll down to the bottom anyway and click "I Agree." Don't be like that.
Based on what I've observed, it is usually a lack of knowledge and understanding that makes things seem paradoxical. For instance, if an 18th century person saw today's airplanes, it would boggle that person's mind how something that is heavier than air could fly. That's because in the 18th century, people had not yet discovered the principles of aerodynamics.
We can use esoteric knowledge as a mental scaffolding to help build our understanding of the universe and its mysteries. Additional knowledge can reconcile certain things that are not obvious to our physical senses. One of the first steps is to familiarize oneself with the different esoteric laws. Just as scientists have used scientific laws to better understand our physical universe, so can one use esoteric laws to gain a glimpse of how subtle energy works.
When we touch upon metaphysics, one model I have found useful to illustrate paradox is the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang. The Yin and Yang symbol that we are all familiar with is called the Taijitu or what some prefer to call the Tai Chi symbol. We often associate Tai Chi with the martial art that millions practice for its health benefits, but Tai Chi means "Grand Ultimate." According to Taoist philosophy, the Tao (or dao) is the underlying principle of the universe which is intricately woven with the concept of yin and yang.
Yin and yang is a representation of the principle of duality, which expresses itself in the polar opposites of good and bad, night and day, black and white, etc. But the yin-yang symbol goes further, because within each opposite is the seed of the other (the black dot in the white field, and the white dot in the black field). What does this mean? Yin and yang are not static concepts. Yin changes into yang and back into yin again in an ever continuous flow. Everything always changes and this principle of change is what the Law of Cycles is trying to say. Night flows into day and back into night again. Winter gives way to spring, then to summer, then fall and back to winter. It is the dance of nature and of creation.
Because everything is dynamic, this means even ideas and mental frameworks are dynamic. This is important because mental frameworks are what we use in order to understand and process what we perceive. Take the case of the Cargo Cults. As extraced from Wikipedia:
A cargo cult is a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults focus on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture through magic and religious rituals and practices. Cult members believe that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors.
Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when the residents of these regions observed the Japanese and American combatants bringing in large amounts of material. When the war ended, the military bases closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and radio equipment, and mimicking the behavior that they had observed of the military personnel operating them.
From the example above, because the tribes weren't able to shift their framework outside of their traditional way of viewing and interpreting things, they totally misunderstood what was happening when the cargo planes arrived. We're talking about tangible things here such as airplanes, and yet the tribes perceived and understood them differently from how we perceive and understand those same things.. What more when one is dealing with abstruse spiritual subjects?
When one is unable to perform that shift in consciousness, understanding certain concepts becomes impossible or grossly misinterpreted. This is why blind belief and fanaticism are not good, because they hold you down to a very specific, and limited, mental framework.
Restriction is an attribute of form. We see it all around us. Take a chair, for example. The chair is a collection of atoms, but without anything to hold or bind those atoms together, there would be no chair to speak of. But just as restriction is necessary to be able to function in our daily lives, we need to shift to an unrestricted state in order to get back to the Source. Yin and Yang. A Kabbalistic teaching would illustrate this.
Kabbalistic legend says that God wished to behold God, but in order for that to happen there first had to be duality. So from Ain (No thing) which is beyond comprehension, there was a contraction or zimzum, a space like a womb within which all creation would manifest itself. In Hebrew this is called Ain Sof (without end) and in this we see the first hint of separation between God and creation. Within Ain Sof, God breathed Ain Sof Ur (endless light) where manifestation actually began and where things started to take form.
When we do meditation and let go, it's like we are traveling in reverse, going back to the Source, which is God. This is why we need to let go of form, to be able to shift our consciousness and experience God even while we are incarnated on this physical plane. In Kabbalah this is known as climbing Jacob's Ladder. In meditation sometimes we are told to be aware of the space, silence and stillness between OMs. It is by being aware of this stillness that one is able to go beyond the restrictions of form.
One of the ways that this connection with God manifests in our lives is the intuition. Through intuition one is able to get a glimpse, no matter how fleetingly, of the secrets of the universe. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries in our history have come about because of a flash of intuition, thus showing that logic and intuition are not as incompatible as one might think (again, yin and yang).
Developing the intuition to a high degree, now that's a tricky thing. It's not a "take three of these every morning and call me next week" type of thing. But this is where spiritual practice comes in, because as one goes deeper and deeper into the meditative state, one is slowly aligning one's consciousness to vibrate harmoniously with the substance of the higher planes.
But like in all things, it is through the blessing of God that we are able to achieve these things. There are many aspects to our being and the spiritual realms are limitless, yet we have been blessed with the tools and the capacity to explore these realms and perfect our being. As we make use of these faculties, we get that much closer to perfection and a return to our Source. After all, while there are two sides to a coin, there is only ONE coin.
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