The ego wants nothing of the idea that we are, in fact, part of a perfect and loving order that connects all of us to Source. The ego is, however, nothing more than our supreme test, the trick question on the exam paper of life. It is our lesson to be able to understand what we really are (spirit) in the face of the compelling and overwhelming evidence of what we are not: a body.
We are the manifestation and the expression of our Source. We are what our Source Is. Thus we all have a spark of the Divine in us, and all that our Source Is is ours for the asking. Again the image of the ocean and the wave is useful. The ocean is something far greater as the source of the wave, but the essence of the ocean is contained in each and every wave.
Although this material world is illusory, and thus imperfect, the perfection of Life and Love is nevertheless perceptible. Perfection is manifested in this world as a perfection of process. Because we can never truly be separated from our Source, then the process by which we come to understand our at-one-ment is perfect. It is perfect because the end is sure, and everything that occurs in this process perfectly enables the shifts in our perception towards the realisation of Oneness.
In our native spiritual state, which is the Reality, we need neither a body nor miracles. Whilst we are in this material world, however, we need both. They are the necessary, and compassionate, means of our enlightenment, where we will see and understand Truth in Its entirety. In that state there is, of course, no gap between us and our Source, and therefore no need for miracles to bridge the gap.
When we understand that our origin and ultimate is in Spirit, we will see our wholeness and our Oneness with All That Is. Two important points must be made about wholeness. Firstly, no one is ‘special’ as we understand it in human terms. No one is more worthy, more valuable, more able, or more desired than anyone else. How could they be when we are all the emanation of the same Source?
In Spirit we were made, and in Spirit we remain. Even if we cannot understand it, we can rely on the intellectual argument alone. To be the image and likeness of Spirit, it follows logically that we must be spirit. There are no levels in Spirit. Spirit just Is.
The idea that some are special, superior or of greater value is a mistake many people make, especially in raising their children. They believe that to establish and build a child’s self-esteem, they must continually tell their children how special they are. But setting up this sort of dichotomy only leads to competition and divisiveness.
Further, if we are special in one way, then there must be times when we are not special, for even in human terms none of us are special all the time, or in all things. So if we are One, we can exist in the harmony, peace and contentment that come from the knowledge that we do not have to struggle and strive for pre-eminence. All that Spirit Is is ours, all of ours.
In Spirit, we are all ‘special,’ in that everything that is possible is available to us all if we could but see it and manifest it. But, as A Course in Miracles states: ‘Equality does not imply equality now’ (5). We are all at different stages of our understanding and at varying points along the path to enlightenment. But even this imagery is limited, because sometimes we are at one point in some aspects of our understanding, and at other points – either more or less inspired – in others.
It might be helpful to think about our experiences when we first meet other people. Our first impressions almost always prove to be inaccurate. Once we take the time to look beneath the external and superficial, do we not start to see and appreciate their so-called ‘specialness?’
This ‘specialness’ is the specialness of us all. It is the light and love that is our common spiritual heritage that never fails to gratify and delight us when we see it evidenced in others. One of our greatest pleasures is the moment we discover that someone, whom we had at first judged negatively, turns out to be nothing like we first thought, and instead we find we really like and enjoy who they are.
After fifty years on this planet, I’m starting to believe that, given the chance to get to the very core of each person, I would love and like every other person who walks this earth. This came home to me forcefully recently. In my search for a new way of living after Ian’s death in 2005, I visited an ashram in India. Whilst there, I participated in an activity that involved sitting opposite an absolute stranger. We were instructed to hold hands and stare into each other’s eyes for five minutes.
I do not have the words to fully describe the transformative nature of those five minutes. All I can say is that at the end of that time, I felt I ‘knew’ this young man. I felt totally connected to him as a fellow traveller on the path of life. He clearly felt the same. We didn’t need to know anything else, the details of our humanness. We knew each other as fellow ‘souls.’
After a distressing experience during an exercise in the class, which led me to feel rejected and unworthy (but which actually made me more aware of how much I judge and reject others on the basis of physical appearance alone), this lovely guy came up to me to console and reassure me. He then stayed close by me for the rest of my stay at the ashram to ensure that I was okay. We had established a deep bond and connection that I will remember for the rest of my life. We felt an affinity based on nothing more than the willingness to look deeply into the other, past the superficial detail of our bodies, and beyond the distracting details of our personae.
We achieved in five minutes, what can take days, months, and even years to achieve in our interactions with all the people that come into our lives. We spend so much wasted time and effort making judgments, latching onto preconceived notions of who and what others are, only to find once we have the chance to really get to know them, that we are deeply connected and that we are One.
What is important is not that we all express and manifest our spiritual identity in equal or similar ways but that we understand that the process of enlightenment is perfect and that everyone is receiving their inspiration both in the form they need it and at the speed that is optimal for their spiritual growth. No one is ever in a position to judge the progress of another.
It is like the reflection of the sunset on the water. When we walk along the shore, the sun seems to be coming directly at us and no matter how far we walk, the sun dances on the water and the rays bounce right up at us. Everyone else seems to be experiencing just the flatness and dullness of water without the sparkle of sunlight, but in fact they are receiving the same amount and the same brightness and persistence of light, wherever they go. It is just not visible to us.
No matter the circumstances of other people’s lives, they are always receiving the light of inspiration, which gently guides and guards them on their own path to enlightenment. It is only our faulty perception that leads us to judge their lives as a series of mistakes, or believe that they suffer ‘sin,’ disease, unhappiness, grief or loss. But we judge amiss.
What Really Makes Us Happy
The exciting and activating cause of duality is the illusion that, firstly, we can be separate from our Source, and secondly, we possess a single, separate and individual self/ego that has its own power, capability and agenda. However, if we look carefully at our experience in our less-than-perfect body, in this less-than-perfect world, we begin to see that all sorrow, grief, and unhappiness is the result of the fear that we do not have something we need.
It is amusing, yet at the same time instructive, that babies learning to talk usually get everything they want for a significant period of time with only two or three words, one of which is almost always ‘more.’ Once on this earth it doesn’t take long for us to feel we don’t have enough.
Modern capitalist nations are founded on, and continue to exist on, the notion of more: more for the seller, the consumer, the shareholder, and - increasingly more importantly- the company director. More is almost always seen as better.
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