Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing

Beyond Right and Wrong: Lessons from Rumi's Field and Genesis

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, There is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, The world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other Doesn't make any sense."

~ Rumi

When I "ran" (co-created) an underground psychedelics community, this quote was our main intention and healing modality.

In my early "training," I learned from the main Shaman, the "master of medicine" who brought his indigenous wisdom from Peru to the West. He didn't just bring it "as-is" - in our facilitator trainings, he told us he was passing the wisdom along so we could integrate it into our western, science-based culture. In fact, he claimed to have no children so he could truly pass the wisdom forward - so we could make it ours.

Through my experiences alongside his teachings, I understood "the work" as creating a safe space to loosen our traditional boundaries so we could see who we are beyond our masks, personas, and most importantly, the stories we tell ourselves.

"You guys don't know how to tell stories," he would teach us.

"You are so identified with who you think you are, that you are ignoring who you really are, forgetting rather." This one isn't a direct quote - it's my own mix.

Rumi's field concept is both simple and profound. Imagine having a space where there is no right or wrong.

In Genesis, there is the story of Adam and Eve. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, God's first instruction was simple: The Garden of Eden is for you to enjoy, with one caveat - do NOT eat from the tree of right and wrong.

Rumi's Field is exactly that: beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing.

Although I had my own challenges and internal battles about using "external substances," I never doubted the field. My experience of a true safe psychedelic healing space is exactly that - beyond ideas, pure and technically innocent.

The irony is this: once I myself bit the apple of good and bad, I fell from grace. As a leader, a facilitator, I had no business getting involved in the garden, but I rebelled against my role and the cosmic responsibility of ensuring the field stays clear of my own needs, wants, desires, and even healing. So I bit the apple and got kicked out of heaven.

In retrospect, from a zoomed-out perspective, I can see that I was conscious of my actions. I knew I was rebelling - it was part of my "teaching-from-the-fringe" style. But I truly underestimated the effects my actions would have, and for that, I experience remorse and pray for forgiveness.

However, it's important to come back to the field of innocence. It's so easy, and dare I say seductive, to stay lost in "being cut off" or "kicked out"... or whatever we consider punishment & atonement. In Western culture, it has a seductive quality - in my experience, most people would rather know what's wrong with them than not know anything at all. I catch myself in that trap more often than I would like, focusing on the mistakes I made instead of taking responsibility and turning those into truth-medicine.

That's why the Field is crucial for consciousness expansion and development - to continue stepping out of your own ideas, diving deep beyond the matrix of ideas, personas, and masks to meet the observer, the witness, the dreamer of it all.

Speaking of Adam, Eve, and Genesis, it states right there, very clearly, that we are made in God's image. The literal translation of the original Hebrew text is that we are a COPY of God. The original word isn't about images - it uses the same word as when a camera photo-copies, capturing the reflection of the Creator.

Being a copy of God, with all its abilities, is extraordinary. So much so that we are afraid of that truth. We are afraid of that power. As Marianne Williamson wrote:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us."

Our deepest fear is that we are God. The Light of God scares us the most.

This is appropriate for me, as my name literally means "the Light of God," and here I am being a true "Israelite" - eternally wrestling with my own divinity.

A quick Google search reveals the original meaning of Israel: "One who struggles with God." The origin comes from a Biblical verse referring to our forefather Jacob: "Your name is Israel, because you struggled with God and with man, and prevailed." Indeed, Jacob's life was a relentless series of struggles.

Think about this for a moment - wrestling (and prevailing!) with our own divinity.

The struggle is real yO.

This also offers a way to understand the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the rise of antisemitism. For as long as we pretend to be separated from the creator and each other, for as long as we keep biting from the fruits of wrongdoing and rightdoing - we remain in a forgetful state, losing the wrestling battle with our own light.

Shalom originally means "whole." Wholeness entails emptiness. Good includes evil. We are all copies of God. "All" doesn't just mean one side of the Jordan River. All is all. If God is one, then we are all it.

The extreme challenges we are experiencing - the wars, the killing, the bombing, the cruelty - are all part of God trying to reveal where we still believe in separation.

This war isn't about our physical security - no, that's the bitten apple version. This war is our one-soul rebelling against our severe forgetfulness. This war is our fatal reminder that we must step away from the tree of good and bad, stop biting the apples, stop identifying with separation and work towards wholeness - which brings about Heaven on Earth right here and right now.

This is heaven; earth is high enough. The difference between the hell we are living through right now and God's Field is in the “apple of illusory separation”. God didn't say "don't look at it, root it out, make it evil." The Creator just said "Don't bite into it" - in other words, don't identify with it, don't make it part of your flesh.

I personally experienced a mythical "fall from grace" because I bit the apple. The snake was tempting. The idea that I was lacking something, and something outside of me would provide my desired wholeness, took me down. Truth is, I have been biting the apple my whole life. It took being and rebelling against a role of extreme-responsibility-for-The-Field to become aware of it.

It's ironic and detrimental to create "The Field" and then defile it - but then again, it's exactly what we are now doing: wrestling, ignoring our divinity, and defiling this sacred experience called life. When we are at war with each other, we are really at war with our divinity.

In coming back to healing work, I take responsibility for my leadership role in the Field, committing to create the space and leave it as-is. My only job is to facilitate the remembering, the fusing back to our Godly image. This time, without external substances and resources. No more apple bitings!

I wish all of us would take some time to create and enter Rumi's Field, a sacred space in which we can remember who we are - the observer, the witness, the dreamer, the creator. From that vantage point, the only path towards peace is inclusion, forgiveness, compassion, and understanding.

I am honored to remind you, and praying to continue remembering myself.

Oriya