Using the Innernet

During these past months, many of us have come to be more dependent on the internet. Through it, we have been able to stay connected with friends and families, participate in meetings and other events, and keep track of what is going on in our country and the world. Chances are that many of us would be less sane without it. Along with this increasing dependence we may have experienced, and we probably know some who have experienced, the internet being “down”. I am less wound into the internet than many folks I know; but still, I can imagine the disorientation and distress of those who lose their internet connection (or cell signal) in these times.

We may not be able to keep the internet from going “down” when we need it, we may not be able always to have a cell signal, but I think that we can develop a practice that can soften the shock should that happen. We can develop our acquaintance with the innernet, and practice turning to it for connection.

As I see it, “underneath” the innernet and more resilient, ancient, and indestructible is what I am calling the innernet, that subtle and incorruptible connection we have with all humanity, indeed, with all creation. The internet may “go down;” the innernet may sag from lack of awareness and exercise, but it cannot “go down”. Our bafflement, distortions, and defenses may block our access to it. We may be living in denial of it. We may be living as if it were “down”, or as if it never existed. Yet it is there. It exists. That, at least, is what our experience in the spark work implies.

Can we explore becoming defter at accessing the innnernet? At developing and exercising our use of this resource? Let’s sketch out how it might fit into our spark work.

It is a foundational premise of the spark work that our sparks cannot be extinguished. They cannot be put out. Neither can they be damaged or corrupted. They can be defended, distorted, and baffled; sometimes (generally, to be honest) all three. We might suggest that the innernet, as the implicit, inchoate, connection between all sparks can similarly not be corrupted or damaged. Our access to it can be corrupted or damaged through our bafflement, distortions, and defenses, through our conscious or unconscious misuse or neglect or denial. But the innernet is there, available, in all its integrity.

Our spark work can support our becoming defter at using the innernet. Through our spark work, we can explore its possibilities. Again by analogy to our becoming agents of transformation, I suspect that our exploration of the innernet will be most effective and satisfying if our sparks are strong. It seems that this means, again and still, that we need to be willing to be transformed, that we are asked to allow our defenses to be eroded, our distortions be released, our bafflement be clarified. What do you think?

-Martha