A Walk in the Physical

The very act of seeking itself can be a move away from peace. In a sense, in wanting something we are actually moving away from it, because pursuing it is often done in service of the idea that we lack it in the first place. In trying to become rich, we become poor; in trying to become free, we lose sight of the freedom we already have; in trying to become spiritually enlightened, we can become self-centered.

Pursuing something to satiate a need is ultimately empty; all things are already present right now.

There is no place we truly need to go. There is no thing we truly need to do. There is no object we truly need; no reconfiguration of the play is actually necessary. In knowing that fully, there is peace.

In hearing this, we may decide to even reject seeking itself (a new thing to pursue or reject). But rejection is not the way. The way transcends and yet can arise within all objects, all paths, all searches. That truth is actually not an abstract or far away thing – rather, it is the closest thing to us. We simply need: to Be.

Be. You are, and that is more than enough! Be today, be here. Give the world the gift of your attention, your full presence, with no seeking required.

“Become at ease with the state of ‘not knowing.’ This takes you beyond mind because the mind is always trying to conclude and interpret. It is afraid of not knowing. So, when you can be at ease with not knowing, you have already gone beyond the mind. A deeper knowing that is non-conceptual then arises out of that state.” –Eckhart Tolle

In its desperate striving for control, the ego hates uncertainty. Because we have fear and ego, we hate uncertainty. But the uncertainty that can occur within this veiled experience of this rigorous physical universe is actually taking place within the larger context of spirit, which is built on the law of love. Therefore, even when great uncertainty arises, we need not fear it. We are always in love’s care.

Uncertainty is an opportunity. As it arises, it provides valuable counter-pressure which can allow one to face and feel the real fear that is within. There is no shame in feeling fear when our physical life or stability is threatened: even acknowledging that we feel it, and allowing it to arise clearly, is a step toward integrating it and healing it forever.

While uncertainty may evoke the fear of lack of control (the perception of powerlessness), that perceived lack of control is actually an opportunity. Power lies in accepting powerlessness. When that acceptance is done not as an idea, but as a deep personal surrender, true power is regained.

The process of becoming comfortable with uncertainty may not be a swift one, but that is OK- every step toward conquering fear is accomplishing real work! It can potentially take many moments or many lifetimes to face and heal our deeper fears. Yet we need not be daunted by the scope, for there is immeasurable power in this present moment!

What uncertainty is arising in this present moment for you? Whatever it is, be here. Listen to your deepest heart, and meet it as truly as you can. Do not fear- it is how the “play” on the stage is arising for you at this time. Your inalienable power to choose has not been removed, and it never will be. Make a choice from love, courage, honesty, and non-resistance, rather than fear. The circumstances do not have to land a certain way for you to be free, for you to be you. Spirit is with you, indeed the very Source of All Things is with you right now! In that, truly- what is there to fear?

Life is always present in everything, because Life (which is synonymous with awareness, or spirit, or consciousness) is always present in every experience. An experience cannot occur without awareness of it. Life is present for everything ever experienced. You are living awareness, too- and as your awareness is a part of the “sea of awareness,” you are connected to everything, everywhere.

How can you be alone, when everywhere you go, everything you see, and everyone you meet, is Life? How can you be alone when the you that sees is the same you that is all things?

There is no content that can occur within Life that can separate you from Life. There is no experience of distance, no experience of pain, no experience of loss that can truly separate you from what you really are. All things are made of Life, and you are Life- so how can you ever be absent from its care?

The belief in an objective external physical world can inhibit us from understanding the larger context in which we exist. Reality is ultimately consciousness based, not ultimately based on our shared physical environment or the activities that we can mutually validate here. The content of our shared physical environment is of course valid and worthwhile, but it is not fundamental. And indeed, in the Big Picture, our physical experience of Earth is actually quite a specific and unique form of experience!

In thought responsive systems our personal nature gives rise to reality experiences of incredible richness and depth. Our thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and intent all have profound power to shape what we and others experience. Our innate creative power becomes immediately evident.

Since our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations are currently based on what we’ve learned during our time on Earth, when we (as the human personality) encounter thought-responsive systems, we often engage with them in ways that are very “human.” We see human environments, we interact with human objects, we perform human activities, and we encounter very real forms that arise from the rich and varied content of the human collective consciousness- including religious, mythological, and symbolic forms. The symbols become alive, and we may forget that they arose from us.

But you and I are far more than human! We are far more than the patterns, sights, sounds, teachings, ideas, thoughts, and beliefs that we have become so wrapped up within while we have been veiled in the human experience on Earth. In large part, our limitations are something we learned while on Earth. You and I are not so limited as it may seem!

Here and elsewhere, be aware of your power! You are not powerless- except that you believe that you are. You are not trapped- except that you believe that you are. You are not the forms and restrictions. You are not even your body. Rather, you are a powerful spark of the creative Source of all things! And whether you are consciously aware of that or not, you will be wielding your creative power: you can choose to do so consciously.

Be aware of who you are! The “content” that you are holding within you is the fuel of your current experience. Face that content, process it, integrate it, overcome it- and find who you really are! Face yourself, your motivations, your intent. Face your fear! You always hold the keys within you to what you see around you, both in this system and in others.

The joy of Being expresses through form. Form is of Being, even as Being transcends it- and so Being revels in the forms that it loves and that are expressions of its native Love. The love of a sunset, the love of the beauty of a child’s laughter, the love of color and song- these and more are Beingness being what it is, even as it rejoices at the forms that exist within it and of it.

Beingness revels in manifest creation! Beingness revels in creating sunsets, and laughter, and color, and song. Consciousness loves sensation. Consciousness loves experience.

This love is at the root of all manifest experience- even experience that can, for a time, have a most severe edge in the world of duality. The soul is so churning with this love that it may even seek to test the very boundaries of manifest expression- to test the farthest extremes of duality; to know them. Our world is one of many that fulfill such powerful love-based creative ambition.

Even though here on Earth we have accomplished a daringly deep dive into the world of the discreet, that love is still what we are! Every single experience is, ultimately, underlined by this love. And thus any form- no matter what it is- has the potential to be known in joy. We may feel constantly experientially distanced from this joy by the boundaries of the separate self: by our addiction to thinking, by our thick association with our labels, by our resistance to truly feeling what we feel, and by our fierce and constant grasping for human identity- but even those experiences are made of the same substance. Even the separate self arises in love and from the joy of Being as that joy of Being actualizes its powerful adoration of manifest experience! And that joy of Being, rather than the separate human, is what we really are. 

“You are not just a part of God. You are altogether God, and God is altogether you. This is not blasphemy. This is your identity.” -Wayne Dyer

Even in deep humility, you can simultaneously recognize that you are a part of Source. You contain the potential and power of the Whole.

That which is perfect and unlimited, when divided into parts, is no less so. As an individuation of the One, you are simultaneously not God, and yet you are God. You are just a drop in the ocean, and yet in the words of Rumi, “You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the mighty ocean in the drop.”

While the ego can easily try to claim this idea, the truth of it far surpasses the limitations of the separate self and its ego’s fierce quest for identity.

Yet, even as we feel separate, there is power in acknowledging what we are. For in the truth of what we are there is nothing to fear! In what we truly are, there is no lack, and there is no limitation. In what we truly are, there is no death, or captivity, or disease. Acknowledging that helps to liberate us from the fear of the lack and limitation that we have bought into while “lost” in the dream of being human. The truth of what we are is freeing!

The power of the Whole that belongs to us is the same power that gives rise to universes, the same power that is the root of all beautiful or ugly expressions of form! As creative beings, we are responsible for how we use that power. For where you go, and where we go, reality ultimately follows. Acknowledging who we really are then can be the first step to more deliberately using our power and intentionally carving a path in the world of form that is more reflective of our true nature of love and joy!

Fear and ignorance are the only real obstacles to being able to fully actualize our true loving natures on Earth.

When we wield an intent based in fear, we are acting in alignment with the illusion of separation, and we perpetuate suffering. When we act from fear, we are promoting a temporary contraction away from the full vibrance, power, and peace that is inherent to Life, towards the much smaller and inherently limiting protection of the self. Acting from fear is painful.

When we are unaware of the truth and are ignorant of our true nature, we try to take shelter in all forms of illusion. We pour tremendous energy into erecting and defending the structures of the ego: into belief, identity, and self-justifications. We would rather protect ourselves in stick shelters made of paltry ego beliefs, than expose ourselves to the ego-burning and identity-searing truth of who we really are. When we know our true nature, the painful trappings of separation evaporate.

Both fear and ignorance can be- and will be- overcome! They can only exist within the illusion of separation- and while you are here in the illusion, confronting them and healing them is an extremely powerful act. You are incredibly important! Your choice to confront your own fear, and your willingness to surrender what no longer fits and to dispel your own ignorance, is powerful indeed. Fear and ignorance are the only real obstacles- so when you work through those even in yourself, or when you help another to do so, you are working directly to address the heart of Earth’s problems.

Since we believe in and associate so strongly with form, when we learn that form is not fundamental and awareness itself is primary, we may make the mistake of thinking that spirit is something abstract or ephemeral. We may make the mistake of thinking that “no form” or “beyond form” means “nothing” or “not very real.” In fact, formless aliveness is the completely tangibly rich wellspring of Being from which all realities of form spring! Some of those realities are clearly perceived as being far “more real” than the Earthly experience when you are there. And even those are ultimately transcended by the rich realness of Beingness itself.

While this may sound abstract now, your whole Being is full of far, far more than you may be able to conceive of with Earthly ideas. And that fullness is rich, and alive!

When you attempt to let go of the Earthly ideas and associations, do not be discouraged by the initial apparent emptiness of the silence. Often one must first be surrendered to silence before the extremely tangibly real wellspring that dwells beneath and within it can arise on its own. That process is done not as a search for more form (more thoughts, or feelings, or objects), but as a search for what is actually real in the alert present moment. It is an investigation of the present moment for exactly what it is; it is a conscious exploration of the aliveness itself that is always present bearing silent witness to every experience. That aliveness is real- and rather than being nothing, or some things, it is full of everything!

All things are connected: you, me, the seat you are sitting in, the sky outside, the screen or page you are looking at right now, and even the thoughts of the person next to you are all connected to each other. All things are connected because at their deepest root, all things are Source. There are no exceptions. “Source,” or “God,” is just a word– but truly it is beyond any name and definition, because all form itself exists within it. Source is conscious and alive, the great and loving I Am- and you and I are part of that, precious individuations of The One. We are forever a part of its Light, even as we exercise our individuation through experiences of separation. And there are few places in Creation where separation can be more starkly experienced than right here on Earth.

The world we live in is a real experience of the illusion of separation. We are not actually separate. But we have adopted the illusion of separation for purposes that are often beyond our human understanding. We have committed to all the definition that goes along with the human condition: we have committed to being biological, temporally constrained (bound to time), and subject to the laws of physics and discreet location (distance). None of those things are fundamental. Distance is not fundamental, linear time is not fundamental, biology is not fundamental. What is fundamental is our awareness, our spirit, our living consciousness itself! Because consciousness is a part of every experience everywhere, and because we are consciousness, we are connected to every single other thing in all of Creation!

But the multiverse of form is not “perfect.” We as spirits, who seek to engage in the integration of experience and to participate in all that is occurring, are not necessarily “optimized” for any given context or set of constraints. In all the many varied experiences we find ourselves, no matter the reality system or lifetime, there is one “primary action” that remains constant: our intent. We always have the power to choose things, in accordance with the “rules” and context of whatever reality we are participating in. The decisions available to us may change drastically depending on a myriad of factors, but always the action of consciousness itself to choose something remains.

When intent operates in a way that is supportive of the whole, and is in alignment with the unity that exists at the foundation of all things, we call that love. When intent operates in a way that is divisive, or promotes the illusion of separation by prioritizing the self over others, we call that fear. Every intent exercised in our world is either a movement towards a more integrated, expansive, and mutually supporting state of manifestation (one that is more in alignment with our native fundamental unity); or away from it.

This is why love and fear are the two great themes in spirituality. Love reflects the power and perfect unity of our true nature; fear reflects the incomplete, non-fundamental, and ultimately powerless illusion of separation. Loving intent supports the other, and is unity-promoting; fearful intent supports the illusory separate self, and is separation-promoting. Since separation is not fundamental, and not reflective of what we truly are, we suffer when we act from fear. Our experience on Earth currently includes a great churning cacophony of suffering because as a whole, most of us exercise fearful intent, rather than loving intent, every day.

Exercising loving intent is about honestly choosing what is best for the being next to you, and best for the world. Exercising loving intent is about, among a great many other things: being willing to act on the behalf of another even when it is difficult, being willing to actually feel the pain of being wrong, being willing to feel the humility of being imperfect, and being willing to face the fear of not knowing all the answers, or even not having much physical power at all. The true playing field for this great endeavor is not primarily out in the objects of the world- it is within yourself! The true playing field for this great endeavor is in your heart and mind. Some of the most important work you will ever do will be in the quiet moments of your heart. That is where the truly meaningful actions of Creation are occurring- and you are an incredibly important part of that process!

You have the power to choose! Your heart and spirit will always speak to you: if you are willing to relinquish the stories of the ego, you will always be guided as to where love is leading. You can be brave, for you are a powerful part of the Source of All Things. What will you choose then in this powerful moment, now?

The wearing of the bodily constraints enables consciousness to know and integrate a very unique type of experience. Much is possible in the body that otherwise is not possible.

For the spirit, the body is metaphorically like wearing a space suit that enables the spirit to enter a hostile environment. But unlike a space suit, the body is living: it adapts, changes, and biologically remembers everything that the spirit has experienced in this local journey.

If we want to fully use this physical life for all it can be, we must fully experience the body. The sensations, limitations, and memory of the body are all valuable elements of the physical experience. So rather than resisting the often highly constraining and challenging experience of being bodily, we should embrace it! For doing so facilitates the integration of this experience by immortal consciousness, and allows us to spiritually grow in important ways that will remain with us long after the body is gone.