The Name That Unlocks

The human life is a life of duality. It is what makes us distinctly human. Our spiritual history of “tasting the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” establishes us firmly within that foundation of a life of mental opposites. While it is most likely impossible to escape the dual life, we can, through spiritual vision and intuition, rise above it to sense true Oneness. That is our essential nature after all, and it is only available for us to experience through transcending the human mind and experiencing the spiritual.

Personally, I find the name “God” problematic. Not only is it a “loaded” name (everyone has their own image of their own God and how do you know who means what or what means who??), but it also works to firmly establish us in dual experience. One only needs a name for something to distinguish it from something else and how can there ever be God and something else? If God is infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, there can literally be no “something else.”

Nonetheless, as human beings, it seems we can utilize our dualistic thought as a bridge to Oneness. In fact, outside of pure inspiration or intuition, it is the only method we have of experiencing that Oneness. In other words, it is indeed possible for thought to lead us to the point of no thought. Or the ego leading us to the moment of ego death. I have personally found that meditating on the word “God” can sometimes take me to an experience of Being beyond the word God. In that case, the name has proved to be a useful pointer.

Sometimes I discover that a particular name for the same “Being” will enhance my own understanding/experience of that Being, more so than another word. For instance, here is a list of words and names I consider to be synonymous:

God
Life
Consciousness
Awareness
Being
Is-ness
Energy
Truth
Tao
Knowing
Experiencing
Christ
Now
I Am
Infinite Invisible

There are other names that can belong on this list and you may have some of your own. Jesus was fond of using “Father” but that isn’t quite ambiguous enough for me so I’ve never been able to use it much. Still, it might work for you. The point is, when thinking about Truth and Being, sometimes it will actually give a greater meaning to what you are meditating on if you switch one name for another. For example, a person who is not particularly religious may find the statement “I am one with God” problematic. However, that person may respond quite well to the statement “I am one with Life” or even “I am one with Energy.” Same meaning, but just by exchanging the name, we might open our individual consciousness more to Truth.

I suggest keeping a “mental storage folder” of synonymous names you can try out when you are having a difficulty connecting with a specific thought about “Being” or “Reality.” You may discover a different combination may be the very key to unlock the door to your understanding.

You Are Not Less Than!

You Are Not Less Than by Rick Baldwin

Image by Barbara Jackson from Pixabay

We have been convinced by ignorant people to believe we are less than we are. We have been told by those who do not know, and are only repeating what they have been told, that we are flawed, limited, imperfect, and broken.

You can decide who and what you want to believe but I challenge you to examine the facts before doing so. Do not allow yourself to be trapped in someone else’s limited belief about who they think they are before you look within yourself and discover the reality of who you really are.

Who are you?

You are not your body. Your body is limited and changing and it is destined to return back to the earth of which it is made. If you believe you are your body, you will seem to be limited, changing and destined to die.

You are not your mind. Your mind is limited and changing and it is destined to disappear into nothing like the thoughts of which it is made. If you believe you are your mind you will seem to be limited, changing and destined to disappear.

If you are not your body and you are not your mind, what is it that you are?

Look within and notice another dimension which is your very Presence. This Presence doesn’t change and has never changed. You have noticed it before, that ageless, ever-present being looking through your eyes. It speaks loud when you are silent. It is that! That Presence is who you are!

It is that Spirit, that Presence, that Being, that Life who you are! You may say it is “your” Spirit but it is far beyond “yours.” It is pure Spirit. The Spirit of God! How could you have ever been convinced to believe you are less than perfect when your very essence is the Spirit of God?  

When you know who you are, when you see who you are, when you feel who you are, no one will ever be able to take it away from you. They couldn’t really take it before, but now that you are aware of it, you will never let it go because it is always there, always present, always YOU. It is never less than perfect. How could it be? It can never leave you or be extinguished.

Take some time to be aware and reside within yourself. Watch what happens when this awareness increases and becomes more permanent. You will soon discover you are so much more than you always believed and so much more than others have told you you are!

Protection From The Storms

Birds on a Wire

Image by roshanjoshi from Pixabay

A few years ago I was watching a documentary about the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. You may recall, there was a tremendous loss of human lives and property in that tsunami. To witness the destruction being captured ”live” on video, gave a sense of immediacy to the tragedy. I felt as if I, too, was there with many of the survivors, barricaded in an upper-floor house or hotel, hoping the sea of death and destruction wouldn’t swell any higher and sweep us away.

I was struck in particular by one scene of the video. Dark, muddy water flowed through the streets of a small village, taking everything in its path that wasn’t anchored to the ground. Houses crumbled, cars were tossed around like toy boats, and human beings, unlucky enough to not find higher ground, were hurled about in the debris-filled, ocean soup. A man and woman, thrashed about in the black water, hung on to a broken tree, and frantically searched for something more stable to cling to that would possibly rescue them from impending doom.

While the man and woman clung for their lives, I was soon aware of two birds that landed on a power line directly above the chaos. The juxtaposition of the two scenes hit me hard. The two birds, apparently deciding to take a break from their flight to relax, were oblivious to the heart-wrenching display of struggle and survival that was being played out directly below them. They surveyed the picture, determined there was no threat to them, and continued their peaceful pause. Meanwhile, human tragedy continued to take its toll beneath them.

I’ve never been able to shake the image of those two birds or to forget the idea that, in the midst of every human tragedy, there is an atmosphere of rest if we know where to search. Sometimes that rest is in the deepest of the ocean during a hurricane or it’s in the highest altitude during a tornado. And while those physical locations may provide for us some protection, there is also a spiritual dimension that ensures peace during any storm, tragedy, or catastrophe. We may not be as fortunate to be the birds on the wire, with physical distance from the calamity but we still have that spiritual location of peace and protection we carry within us wherever we go, even if it is in the heat of the battle or in the heart of the destruction. 

This spiritual center of peace within us is our true Being. Because it is who we are, we can never be removed from it. It is our secure foundation to hold to when we are being tossed about by life’s waves. When we become aware of this center of our Being on a regular basis, we begin to realize that it is never touched, moved, or injured in any way during any condition, even if our body is maimed or destroyed. We begin frequently to reside in the awareness of this spiritual location ”above the earth’s calamities,” similar to the two birds in the tsunami.  We anchor ourselves in this place of deep joy and peace, untouched by sickness, tragedy, or annihilation and, in doing so, we see manifested our true life of happiness, peace, and love.

Human Relationships

All human relationships will involve a certain degree of dysfunction until the realization comes that there is no relationship between human beings. There is only one being. With that realization, all dysfunction dissolves.

That’s Just Your Opinion, Man

Opinions

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

 

Surprise, it’s okay to not have an opinion about something! In fact, it’s completely acceptable to dump all opinions you currently hold about… well, everything!

I realize that isn’t a very popular opinion. (See what I did there?) We live at a time and in a society that values its opinions about everything from political parties, social movements, restaurant service, video content, social media posts, music quality, advertisement effectiveness, and on and on and on. Almost everything we run across includes a “Like” button, a review space, or a feedback feature and we’re continually pressured to decide what we think and to tell everyone. You’ll even find Like and Share buttons at the end of this article. (You don’t have to use them, you know…)

The essential Being which you are never holds opinions. You are not your mind. That which you essentially are does not, and even cannot, hold mental positions about anything. Clutching opinions forces you to live in a world of abstractions. It prevents you from really knowing the things or experiences you hold opinions about as they truly are.

Opinions keep us mentally locked into a conceptual past rather than consciously residing in presence. They are often based on former experiences or conditionings which prevent us from seeing the reality of what is being experienced now. They don’t allow for the truth that all things change, move, and transform. An opinion is simply a cartoon version of reality.

To not hold on to opinions doesn’t suggest we do not humanly have preferences. We can still enjoy the immediate experience of cardamom ice cream or Cardi B or House of Cards without needing to form an identity around that enjoyment. We do not need to make the dislike of Polka music into part of a personal story of who we are. Enjoy an experience in the present, agree with a religious perspective now, or dislike the food flavor you are currently experiencing, then let it go.

This is not an opinion: to remove opinions from your life is to move closer to the awareness of who you really are.