Understanding Oneness

“In the stillness of your presence you can feel your own formless and timeless reality as the unmanifested life that animates your physical form.  You can then feel the same life deep within every other human and every other creature.  You can look beyond the veil of form and separation.  This is the realization of oneness.  This is love.” – Eckhart Tolle

Beyond all the thoughts we have about ourselves, beyond all the concepts and ideas that shape our personal identity exists the core of who we really are.  The formless and the timeless reality grounds itself in the soul of each person and every creature.  When the mind is still you can feel this energy, the formless and the timeless reality, moving through you.  This is the awareness of source energy.  Yet, the vast majority of people seldom become aware of source energy.

Generally we tend to focus our awareness solely through the mind.  This blocks our awareness from sensing the presence of our own being.  Therefore, when we focus our awareness purely on our thoughts we minimize our ability to function optimally.  To be a seer into one’s life, to see your path clearly, requires an awareness that transcends the limitations of repetitive thinking.

The thoughts that we identity with make up the relative self.  The relative self only comes to know and understand itself through comparison and judgement with other people and things.  This is the basis of duality.  Of course everyone is differentiated in the sense that we all have special talents, unique physical attributes, and specific weaknesses which to transcend, but when this sense of relative existence all what we identify with a formula for inner and outer conflict arises. 

In the isolation of our own minds we lose sight of the formless and timeless reality that holds all of life together.  When awareness is filtered solely through our mind’s concepts and abstractions we diminish our ability to connect with the flow of life and create with life in the way that life itself operates.  Life is not an abstraction.  It simply is.  Therefore, your being-ness is the same as nature and it's is-ness.  So can you be with what is as opposed to being with what you think is?  Can you be more like nature?

The restless mind, with all if its constant analysis, comparison, and judgment, keeps our focus purely in the relative world.  This is the core of human suffering because in our isolation we seek out salvation by judging our selves as superior to another.  Or we mask our illusory inferiority and the pain derived from this sense of lack through addictive and self-damaging behavior.  Yes, it is damaging to incriminate yourself on the grounds that you could have done something better, or that you feel as if you are not as good as someone else, etc.  You did as only you knew how in that given moment…Nothing more, nothing less.  Self-forgiveness is an access point into your enlightenment.

Beyond the mentally defined and operated world is a sense of perception that transcends relativism.  Beyond our self-imposed isolation is our true nature…it is a feeling that we come to through pure awareness uninterrupted by the mind.  This sense of self cannot be judged.  It can only be experienced. So therefore, simply experience your life and stop trying to judge it.

Eckhart Tolle consistently states that only within a state of stillness, when we feel the self beyond the mind, will we come to know true love and peace. 

What does Eckhart mean when he speaks of the unmanifested life that animates your physical form [from the opening quote]?  What is he trying to convey when he states that this is something we can feel? 

What I believe he is saying is that there is an energy that resides within us that contains the source of unlimited potential to make manifest what it is that we are intending to become.  He states that this same energy that resides within us also resides within everything.  This is the unmanifested because it is the energetic all that has yet to be.  It is the all will be.  All aspects of existence flow through life together, evolving together, whether we see this or not.  This is what it means to see past separation.  He does not mean that you necessarily see this with your eyes, although this unity is something you can see, and in actuality it is all that you do see, but he means that we can see through feeling.  To feel with your eyes…

Judda Krishnamurti, one of my favorite philosophers of all time, posed the question.

"When we say we see a tree or a flower or a person, do we actually see them? Or do we merely see the image that the word has created? That is, when you look at a tree or at a cloud of an evening full of light and delight, do you actually see it, not only with your eyes and intellectually, but totally, completely?"

I believe that this is type of perception that Eckhart is talking about.  Both Eckhart and Krishnamurti emphasize seeing life without the interference of mind identification.

I will close this piece on one more of Eckhart’s insights.  He states,

“What is God?  God is the eternal one life underneath all the forms of life.  What is love?  Love is to feel the presence of that one life deep within yourself and within all creatures.  To be it.  Therefore, all love is the love of God.” 

So I ask you, for the sake of your own peace, to seek stillness.  Give yourself the space and time to get to know the real you.  In your stillness observe the mind, but do not give thought and abstraction your clinging awareness.  Do not let it become your identity.  If only for a moment seek to feel the life energy that brews within you.  That is the real you…And maybe then you will remember that you are already everything you need to be and become.  Maybe then you will remember that you are life…why not create your life from the sensation of self that is uninterrupted by the mind?  Create your life in the flow of your experiential experience in this moment and this moment only.  The mind cannot know the unmanifested and the energy contained within you, but your heart sure can.  This is were faith comes into to play.  Trust your heart.

Realize the oneness within you and all around you.  This is what love is.  How then would your life change if you walked the path of life with this realization in your heart? 

The Wall of Mind, the Freedom of Body

There are countless times when we condemn situations and experiences in our lives. From the little things like the troublesome reaction to a loud firetruck that passes by or something larger like that of being disappointed with a current life situation [i.e. your work situation, or something of that magnitude]. Yet, what is it that makes one situation more pleasing than another, or more desirable than another? Is it not the mind that passes judgment on such experiences? And if so, what is the mind using to assess the situation?

What other than mind is the aspect of self that witnesses the world and judges it? Yes, the body reacts, but the body does not judge. The body does not label anything, that is the reactionary endeavor of the mind. Yes, the the mind may decipher for the body what it is feeling, but can it accurately do this? Can words convey the entirety of the human experience? And if the mind does try to do this may it not create a reality for the body that is based on the accumulated past? The mind is the repository of memory, and hence is of the past. So how can the mind, which knows only the past, dictate for the body what it is feeling, now, in this present moment? Yes, the mind may observe the body and find it to be familiar, but is this familiarity not than directed into the past and away from the present? Is it possible than that the body becomes a prisoner too the mind? So how do we figure this out? How do we find out what is really going on here and how to break the chains between mind and body?

To figure out what is going on one needs to simply be aware. Be aware of the thoughts, be aware of the body, yet hold an awareness that does not let the mind control what this awareness means to you. I read in Osho last evening that the body has its own means of intelligence. Simply observe animals. They function with much greater ease than we do, and that is becuase they do not have a self-reflective mind that tries to circumvent this body intelligence. The animal is in a constant state of meditation...that is the animal is in a constant state of body meditation. That is what awareness is...it is a sensitivity to body without an interference of mind projections upon that body. The thing is, any mind projection is always inherently a projection upon the body...for the body is the vessel of the soul and the mind is the mechanisms which was created to understand soul [the fountain of human experience].

The mind is not here to understand intellectually what this soul experinece is all about in the way of analysis and deciphering, the mind is here to understand the aspect of soul by allowing the soul to be projected into the world with conscious intent. The soul does this by discovering what the body is doing and how it is reacting, nothing more. It is as if the human experience, and what it could be about, is to experience the "being" experience [the sensitivity of body experience] in a heightened experiential way. The rest of what we have let unfold is the the constant judging and criticizing of what is...This is the ego.

When we observe a situation with a negative reaction what is occurring, unconsciously, is that the ego is attempting to try and do away with a situation by judging and reacting to it in a way. Why would the mind, the ego, act in a way if it did not believe it did not have some power to control the situation. This is obviously an irrational action, for this sort we cannot control the exterior world with out minds. We can only control the internal reaction to the exterior world.

Yes, this is where the point lies between the creation of a new world or the perseverance of our ego centered world. Yet we should not be of concern of this, for we are only have the ability to control the inner experience. And to what end do we serve, but none other than feeding the ego if we believe we can actually change the world? Yes, great leaders have held this notion and persevered into great depths of social transformation, but I would propose that these great leaders understood that real change occurs from within, from having no attachment to results, nor expectations of how their work will proceed. In this they became self-less, they became ego-less.

So when you find your self judging the exterior reality...ask yourself and be aware...how does this judgment serve you? Yes, it may perpetuate your sense of individuality, but too what cost and too what pain? Can you imagine a reality where you were connected to the all that is, as opposed to observing the world as something outside of you, that you wish was different? Are you than, in a sense, not condemning yourself when you judge the exterior world becuase that sense of condemnation comes from a place within you? Maybe that is the wish of the ego, so that its sense of existence may continue. The ego, the mind, unconsciously clings onto the notion of individuality so that the exterior world can be something to which it can be defined against, yet when we step out of mind and into body we may begin to realize something so profoundly beautiful...It is a feeling that brings you home and brings you back to being...Only you than will know what that feeling of inter-connectivity is like...

Here is the kicker...both your individuality and your unity "with the all" exist at the same time. When the body senses this the ego will be put in its right place. It will be put in its place of simply observing the "what is" without any desire to change it, for the change is within you...not without. And a human race that realizes this is set free from mind, liberated by body awareness, and brought back into unity...but a type of unity that is beyond anything we have felt or experienced yet...so be excited...becuase eventually we will all end up there [in fact we are already they we have just yet walked into this realization as a collective society, but you can now!]...this is the inevitable destination...and what it feels like I cannot describe...Just simply be aware...and let the cosmos unfold the destination of your inevitable spiritual progression!

The Inner World of One Self

Ultimately, our perception is our reality. Yes, our perception is shaped by the collective society, but the way in which we are conditioned is nonetheless under the governing influence of ourselves. The social conditioning which I speak of takes form in our identification with symbols; words, ideas, concepts, etc. It is the identification with symbols, idols, and concepts that drive the separation we have with the inner voice within, for if our focus is in the mind, through the imitation of some ideal our actions become mere repetitions. Our being becomes an imitation of a thought paradigm and hence we stagnant for we loose our self in the word that we believe we are or the word that describes what we are doing. Identification with words creates a separation from our experiential experience. This separation diminishes our ability to be here Now.

In regards to the "past," we can become conditioned to believe that the words in which we use to describe a prior experience are actually who we are. We can allow our selves to hold onto certain things we find true about ourselves even when they are born of the yesterdays. This "certain thing" is the emotional energy tied up with the word or experience which we identify with. This energy, of which is a stored emotion from the past becomes your now. We can claim that we are the way you are because of what happened to us, or who our parents where, etc., etc...and this may be "true," but it is as only "true" as to the strength to which we give those convictions, those identified with conditions.

Once you assume that you "know" yourself, and you declare that there is something about you that is "real," you lock in place the perception you hold about yourself. Yet, could it be possible that we are beyond the symbols, words, concepts, and ideas we use to attribute a sense of meaning to our lives? Could it be possible that the words in which we try to assume meaning from are inherently limited in their ability to describe the experiences they are symbolized after, created after?

Furthermore when we declare that we know ourselves we are nonetheless using the past as a marker of who we are now. Yes what we have accomplished and experienced in the past becomes the energy of who we are now but there is also something about each and every one of us that escapes time. And it is this aspect of one self that escapes time that is really who we are. This aspect of oneself that is not bound to any time, or to even any experience is the absolute nature of your spirit. It is free of time in the sense that it will always exist, it always existed, and yet it exists right now. This is soul. And this the energy that is you beyond the collective emotional build-up of your past experiences.

Ultimately it is our choice that dictates whether or not our mental and spiritual energy gives heed to the collective energy of the past. Yes, the past is what it was, but it was, it is now no longer. So how can the words of the past touch the vastness of the now, of which is beyond words, for it is constantly taking shape, constantly becoming defined?

In regards to the past traumas and ills of our lives, they remain if we decide to leave the stone of our unresolved energy alone. If we use words and symbols, ideals and idols, to meander our perception around the things we wish to leave unobserved we become more entranced by our conditions, more repetitive in our actions, and we subsequently become more attached to mental identity forms we cannot come to move away from. For how are we to move away from the things we believe we are if we cannot move away from identifying with words and ideas? The past now an idea. The past may have left an energy residue that hinders your joy, but it is our identification with this energy, our identification with the words and ideas of that energy that either keep it alive and conscious to us or alive and unconscious [for words cannot touch what is conscious]. Yet, in either case, the "pain body" is alive.

Yes we must look, but be afraid not, for your past cannot inherently hurt you,...that is unless you choose it too...It seems "plausible" that sometimes we must unconsciously choose to first experience the pain, which in turn creates the need for our defenses. Yet, from a long term perspective, this enables the experience of, what it is to know experientially, the birthing of the "new self."

[did your emotion react in anyway to this; why not observe that if so...
also note how I said "your emotion:" implying that it is your creation...]

If we can look and honor whatever it is that comes up in us we allow for life experience to come through with our psychological defenses diminished. When the defenses are down we inherently accept the "what is." But how do we do this?

Defenses become as aspect of our intra-psychic reality that influences our perception of things by filtering the way our emotional body witnesses the world. Our "emotional body" becomes the reservoir of our consciousness, for consciousness is our spirit. Spirit is what enables consciousness to be and express itself through the physical body.

Our consciousness, our spirit, may be closed off to certain "avenues" of intra-psychic expression because we circumvent our conscious energy away from aspects of self that we hide from. The thing is that the aspects of self which we do not like, the aspects of self that are tucked away and hidden, are there. They are always there. They are just hidden. Yet, they are only hidden in the sense that they are unconscious to us. They nonetheless "occupy" psychic room in the inner workings of our spirit; for everything, that being the totality of our lives as well as the life of the universe, is known by spirit. And if the spirit is potential everything...it is inevitably everything.

To know spirit, to know thyself, on a deeper level one must let go of the "old karma" that is weighing them down, keeping the conditioned body unchanged, and keeping us living within the boundaries of the same defenses. To do that we must ultimately accept, but to accept we first must "purge" the emotion(s) that are withheld in spirit and which are unconscious to us [Remember: because spirit is inevitable everything].

To do this we must witness "it" [it being the "hidden"], be aware of it, and walk into it. Our emotions will come up as they do, but why not experience this with courage and have faith in the notion that whatever it is that is coming up is not to be ashamed of or judged as an inferior aspect of self in anyway? For we will see that these "old aspects of you" are what enable you to know yourself the way you inevitably want to know yourself.

Purge the emotional bodies that are constructing fictitious boxes around the inevitable expansion of our awareness. Remove the conditioning of the "thought paradigm" you witness all around you. Remove the tension that conditioned life has instilled upon you.

That tension is the spirit saying to body that there is disharmony present. In this case the spirit is trying to tell mind and body that there is an experience that is occurring that is "out of the line" with the natural order of things. The more we evolve consciously we become more sensitive to harsh realities of our day. Which may in turn build even greater tension within the mind and body of someone.

There are "breaking points" were our unconsciousness becomes so pressing that it forces, sometimes by "accident," our life into upheaval so we are forced to make changes. Yet, honor these upheavals. For anything you experience you should honor...why not honor your life? But more importantly than all...forgive yourself...always. Do what you need to to. Be "crazy" and do what your impulses call for, but why not direct these impulses [and be conscious of ourselves instantaneously] in a way that honors your life, not damages it.

Jump in the cold ocean and scream with fits of furry if you feel. Do whatever it is to allow yourself to love yourself enough to forgive the past that haunts you. Release the stored physical energy of, what Eckhart Tolle refers to as, the "pain body," in any way that feels passionate to your being.

Allow yourself to release your past through "careful catharsis:" careful in the sense that you know it is right in your heart not to hurt you or anyone else around you. For you know, in your feeling of love for oneself, that your rage will seize, your past will be forgiven, and you will come to know a "new" you. A you that moves beyond the past by living in the Now...

And to live in the Now, fully, we need to let go of the chains of our conditioned past. By allowing yourself to forgive those who have hurt you and subsequently "changed" your life, you ultimately alter your perception of things and you open yourself up to a higher aspect of yourself. You experience your self in a lighter fashion. You become of a higher, more ethereal vibration.

I guess the experience of going the deepest into now brings us to the point where experience becomes everything and we become immersed into something way beyond our being [this is "God-Realization;" or closer to knowing the "God experience", for God is always evolving too {this is the same movement that runs through us, and the same way in which we come to know thyself}].

The work to be done now, by enabling ourselves to drop our defenses [of which were put in place, by the choosing of our own soul, so that we could experience higher aspects of oneself through experiential catharsis and subsequent perception expansion] we again, move into higher, more realized, versions of one self.

[our expansion into the now: our ability to go into deeper moments of the now both in an intra- and inter psychic manor is thwarted when we label our selves in ways, or "know" things about "who we are." The ideas we have about ourselves are essentially who we are, but our self forgiveness and our self understanding will grow when those ideas no longer limit oneself to perceive oneself beyond the analytical and rational creations of the thought realm. Is maybe "who we think we are" our shield from coming to know the sense of self beyond all these concepts and ideas? This I am not particularly sure of, for we are all different, but I know that it is true that the longer we stay "inside" the ideas of who we think we are the more distanced we become from actually being able to "change." When we change we do indeed stay the same [for we are always our essence but we do nonetheless grow. We move into the now more so of our "emotional presence."

That "Emotional Presence" is your soul.

And again, when we step into soul, we step into the deeper reality of our own inner world. When we step into deeper experiences of the now we step deeper into the womb of reality, into the womb of Earth and the Cosmos. For we are understanding, experientially, what life is all about...Expanding consciously, the Emotional Presence of Self.

Feel You! Attempt Not to Hide

Our feelings can, at times can bring us ecstatic joy, but during other times they can also be a lot to bare. No matter what we are feeling it is best advised to sit with them, be with them and not run away or distract ourselves from them. There is often a message from the divine in these feelings - yet don't always expect this "message" to be something that is instantly understood. It can be a lifetime before we understand, conceptually, what it was that the universe was trying to tell us (you have to understand that the universe does not know time, becuase essentially there is no time, except for the measurements adhered too in the mind).

If we cloud our selves in distractions, if we numb ourselves with intoxicants (drugs and alcohol), over consume material (excessive eating, excessive shopping), or dissociate from our feelings by over indulging in escapist activities (excessive television, internet exploration, a reliance on tomorrows, vacations, etc) we hide from the emotions that are sitting in the seat of our souls. We can "stuff" these emotions, however unwanted, into the back of our unconscious, where they are out of sight out of mind...but they still linger within us and actually lower our ability to resonate at a higher level of conscious awareness. It takes a lot of psychic energy to store unwanted emotions in the unconscious body. And the reason why they lower our ability to resonate at a higher conscious awareness is becuase when our energy is stored in the unconscious reservoir of our being we operate, more so, from a reactive stance.

I understand your escape, for I have, at times, escaped like anyone else. To sit with the energy that feels unwanted is simply troubling. Yet escapism only clogs our conscious awareness...and these troubling feelings take root in our unconscious reservoir. We are more prone to reaction than, as opposed to conscious behavior, becuase we have a limited scope of perception. Just like the clogged artery that can not transport blood as easily, neither can the reactive mind transport consciousness from the soul into the body. We become reactive becuase our awareness first needs to pass through the unconscious filter that has accumulated these troubled emotions. This is what Eckhart Tolle refers to as the emotional pain body. This "emotional pain body" can severely affect our conscious awareness and make us more reactive for in our reaction (living life on auto-pilot) we bypass the troubles that are weighing us down. Our defenses allow us to function, however from a reactive state (and do we not see any correlation between the majority of us being in a sleep state and the perpetuation of Earth destruction, human destruction, and the like?).

The more defensive we are the more bottled up we are...and the more bottled up we are the more reactive we are...the cycle builds...But is 2012 our release? Because it is becoming clear to me that more people are having existential breakdowns than ever before (and more people more than ever before are becoming emotionally desensitized and affectually closed off)...yet for those who are breaking down you are choosing to SEE. This breakdown, however troubling, awakens us to the ONENESS REALIZATION. We can only heal ourselves and the world when we realize this.

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Back to the inner experience:

We may even have a calm mind during these troubling times. We may even know exactly what is going on, yet the body is feeling tense, anxious and the like. The body may be in a depressed state. But what is important that we do, that is if we want to move beyond and transcend...to evolve consciously through these experiential undertakings...is to "digest" these feelings. And one can do this in any way that allows them to be present. Some may want to meditate, some may want to walk, others may want to communicate through written or spoken word, either in solitude, or with others. Some may want to create music or art that portrays these feelings. This "release" is "digestion" for it allows us to transcend these feelings for we are accepting them through the declaration of their existence. It is our preference how we "digest" and there is no right way, But in order to really move beyond the feelings that have us in a troublesome state, it is important to "walk through" them..."digest them" so that they are understood (not necessarily conceptually)...and subsequently evolve consciously. [Remember, consciousness does not necessarily mean that we have too know something conceptually...we can be conscious of something...we can "know" something, and yet not know how to put words to it].

Consciousness and sensitivity are in many ways two branches of the same limb. Sensitivity is an experience by which we sense the inner and outer stimulus of our human experience. Consciousness is an awareness of both the inner and outer human experience. The more sensitive we become the greater our capacity to be conscious is. For conscious awareness is like a light in the dark...the more sensitive we become...the more we illuminate around us...the more we see and sense the ALL that is around us. And for those who are becoming increasingly sensitive to the world around them they are beginning to feel the "weight" of the world.

Essentially, if we always were sensitive to everything that was going on there would be no need for "transformation" and this movement into the new dimension (as we move into and out of the year 2012) would be an "easy" one. Yet it has been our collective apathy, our collective unconscious build up of suppressed emotions and energy that is making this transition (2012) a particularity heavy one in the spectrum of universal awakening.

The light bearers (who potentially, can be anyone who chooses to see the light, the all, etc), are now feeling feelings so heavy. They are, at times (like now during the Mercury Retrograde: http://www.alphalifetrends.com/mercuryretrograde.html), digesting feelings for many instead of just themselves...this is what is meant to feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.

So too all you sensitive ones out there...know that you are brave, know that you are strong, know that this is your destiny...for in your experiential undertaking you will come to know the what IS. You will know experientially what collective and individual transformation is to a very serious degree. Remember nothing is random...The dichotomy exists that this transition did not to be as heavy...yet here we are at the crossroads of infinite possibility...what will you do? Run and hide from the feelings that have you down, or choose to own them, feel them, and congregate with like minds? Because when those of the light choose to come together, their light, their consciousness is magnified. Essentially, the "transition" that is occurring now will not be done alone, but rather it will be done collectively. Yet it is up to all of us to lend our hands, even to those who loath in the rewards reaped through the destruction of the human mind and the Earth, and come together in the "ONENESS realization." But remember, all you can do is lend a hand...you cannot expect anyone to take it.

Have a faith, a "knowing" that these feelings are for the betterment of your spiritual awakening. Remember there is nothing random going on here. Everything that is occurring, everything!, is for you! So awaken to the knowing that your experiences are a gift, even if they are unwanted, even if they are hideous, for life and our experiences are the gifts which enable soul to experience life beyond concepts. To be alive is a gift...so have faith that these feelings and these experiences are just for you...Have faith that you have the courage to get through them. In fact you inherently have the courage, you are inherently "strong" enough for anything you experience. It is soul...it is the divine, that brought you into contact with whatever it is your experiencing. Soul, the seat of creation, would not have brought you anything which you can't handle. Because even in the wake of death you can handle anything...for the soul is forever.