8/29/2007
'Let go of 33'? No way!
After I had posted my entry, below, I received some nice replies from you folks. The first one said
this: "I think you HAVE gotten the message! So hard to keep remembering it, though."
Others have written to me to say essentially that they concur that it is worthwhile to let go of
33 experiences.
Perhaps I have been misunderstood by all but one! :-)
Please forgive me. After all, I had posted a mysterious list of questions. What can be discerned
from a list of questions, especially questions about a mystery? What about answers, Adam???
I may have some for you now, or at least one. Others have suggested something quite similar to this
in the past, and I'm not claiming anything particularly new, here. It's making more sense to me now.
Some of the respondents to my blog posting have said things like: Nowadays when I see another 33
I think, 'What the hey,' and just keep going.
That is not at all what I was getting at. In a sense, that is the opposite of what I meant.
What I would like to suggest is this: that 33s are very much to be EMBRACED - ALONG WITH EVERYTHING
ELSE THAT IS NOT THE 33, AND AT THE SAME INSTANT.
See what I mean?
We have been focusing a lot of energy, feeling a lot of awe and wonder - feeling a deep sense of
mystery, and often comfort or affirmation - when we see yet another unlikely 33...on a clock, a license plate, in our lover's
numerology or current age (my own wife is 33 this year, in fact)...
Maybe we can take the next step...
Here it is: Next time you find a strange 33 staring you in the face, at that moment, look all around
you. Look inside you. Remain calm and quiet, and just look. Don't ask any questions, don't generate any thoughts.... Just
amplify that feeling you have about the 33 and apply it to everything, and to everyone, around you... to everything you can
see, to everything you can hear and feel, to anything you are touching or tasting...
You see, I am by no means suggesting that you reduce your sense of wonderment when you see a 33.
Quite the contrary!
I am now convinced that it is possible in any moment to put that 33 at the center of everything,
and then to stretch out with your feelings to the very edge of your universe, as far as your heart can reach. The wonder you
feel about 33 can magnify many thousands of times, maybe infinitely, each time you see everything as the SAME AS 33
- as if 33 is at the very Heart of Everything, and you are standing there beside it looking out at all of it, taking it all
in, all back into your Heart in that moment....
Those of us who see 33s are immeasurably fortunate to have a reminder like this showing up in our
daily lives. We don't even have to exert the energy to remember to pay attention. This thing comes at us, saying: "Hey
you, right now: NOTICE! REMEMBER! LOOK AROUND...!"
It is as if the Heart of the Universe suddenly opens up to you, and you are standing there to behold
all of it.
Now, I feel confident that eventually - if we approach this in the best spirit - the 33s will no
longer need even to remind us. We will see wonder in everything, equally.
Let's not miss this opportunity.
Don't let go of 33... EMBRACE IT ALL.
With love,
Adam
Maybe I do have a new insight...
At the entrance to many Buddhist and Hindu temples, one may see some statues on either side of the
steps or walkway as you approach or as you enter. These may be in the form of lion-like figures or snarling "demon-dogs."
In some instances, humanoid figures near the entrance may appear alluring or even erotic. Here we have the notion of the "dragon's
gate," where the idea is that only those who are "worthy" may pass beyond and into the inner temple, toward the sanctum sanctorum.
The suggestion is that if you are caught up with any strong reaction to any of these figures, these
"guardians" - or if you are distracted from the purpose of your visit - then you are not yet ready for the type of calm and
openness essential for the greater experience and communion you seek inside the temple itself.
Allow me to pose this question: What if our 33s are like these temple guardians?
Over the nearly 14 years I have been seeing 33s all around me - not infrequently under very odd circumstances
or in unusually large quantities where they reasonably should not be - I have become perturbed, to state it honestly. While
my reaction has tended toward awe, sometimes it has included an element of fear, as well. During some periods, I have felt
somewhat seduced, magnetically drawn to this numeric icon. At other times, I have felt almost angry, like I am the subject
of some cosmic joke or conspiracy to which I alone am not privy!
What if this is the very point of our 33s?
What if when I discover in the lot all around me 5 cars out of 20 with 33s on their license plates,
right after I have parked the car at 3:33pm...what if I register no reaction of any kind, aside from merely observing the
fact?
Moreover, what if I regard this as nothing any more special than everything else around me in that
moment? What if I feel the same sense of wonder to park near a beautifully flowering plant as I feel when I unintentionally
park between two 33s?
What if everything I experience inspires a similar reaction; or better, maybe nothing throws me off
center, one way or the other? What if I remain in perfect equipoise in all circumstances, seeing nothing as any more or less
"special" than anything else?
Why do I react with awe, just because something unlikely appears before me?
What if I recognize that all of this human experience is, in a sense, "unlikely" and precious, just
like so many sightings of "33"?
Maybe 33s are the lions at the gate, reminding me that so long as I make distinctions - favoring
one thing over another, finding wonder or beauty in this, but not that - then I am still not really getting the message; the
message that all is wondrous, that all is Divine, that all is precious and lovely? ...Thinking there is some "message" in
33s, but not in my neighbor telling me again and again how much her long-since-passed, dear pet cat she had lived with alone
for 15 years, had especially liked me?
What if that's really what we are dealing with here?
I'll let you know how it goes after some time....
8/14/2007
No new insights....
I have the same kind of ongoing relationship with seeing 33s everywhere as most of you, for about
the past 14 years now, and still it remains a near total mystery to me. 33 does show up in many spiritual traditions, however,
and I intuitively feel that it is mostly a good thing (though we can become obsessive about it - not a good thing!). I don't
have many new insights about it at this time.
I know that in our culture, we do not have room for mystical experiences. Much of what gets
labeled "psychotic" might be considered mystical in other cultures.
I do not tend to associate 33 with the afterlife, but then I do not see a big distinction between
this life and the next. Our true nature is immortal, in my view, and this is just one chapter, one perspective we are having
in this present life.
The persistent mystery about 33 for me is why it shows up for some folks, but not others, and frankly,
HOW it can show up in the nearly impossible ways it does! My friends can attest that 33s show up in my life with a frequency,
and under circumstances, that really genuinely defies any kind of rational probability, so there is something going on with
it - something genuinely "paranormal" - and that is about the only thing I can be certain about.
It feels comforting to me, like it is saying I am on the right track. Many who write to me feel that
way. One woman wonders whether it is shown to people who are "pure souls in need of some 'correction'", and my reply to her
is that - in my view - that applies to each one of us, to all people!
Alas...the mystery continues... Do feel free to keep me updated with any discoveries or revelations
you may have about it.
