*Mooji. The Mala of God.
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At this time in the history of our home, Earth, we cannot afford to continue to walk separately, our survival depends on our walking as one. Time is here for us to relinquish the propaganda of those who want us to be in opposition to one another, in their gluttony for power and prestige and ownership. We are far more wonderful and beautiful, together, than we have yet begun to imagine. When we awaken to our glory, we will awaken to our power, and to Love. And Love is our greatest power to transform life on this Earth.
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A few words sometimes captivate me, I feel the truth in a nutshell, so to speak. This goes beyond intellectual agreement or mentally liking what someone says. I was captured by the direct, simple truth of those words above: "Your heart is waiting to be recognized."
Additionally, Mooji, writing a blessing I often use in times of prayerfulness, shows that absolutely the heart that summons me to itself is our heart. When I recognize my heart, I recognize our heart. There is only one heart in many disguises. We can use other words besides heart, of course: Buddha Nature, Christ Consciousness, Self, True Self, Atman, soul, essence, ...
Yet, we may not feel I am the heart of everyone, and all evidence may appear to disprove it. I see myself walking around and there are truly others. Where we are misled, however, is we identify the disguise, the selves, with the one Self.
A rough comparison would be what we do daily. We change our clothes. We do not say, however, "I am my socks." Or, "I am the socks I am wearing today." Or, "I am my dress," or, "I am the dress I will wear tomorrow." We recognize we as body are not the clothes worn on the body. Yet, we see the clothes of the heart, and we mistake the relative truth of selves for the absolute truth of one Self dressed in all these clothes. And this Self is dressed in different colors, diverse personalities, and with varied lifestyles.
So, all healthy spiritual practice will lead us, in the words of Mooji, to appreciate and honor that we together are "one family of being" having a single heart of "imageless perfection."
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Disciple: Sir, I thought you said through meditation I would realize oneness with every being.
Sage: Yes, that is true, I did.
Disciple: Well, I have engaged this path for years, and I still do not feel one with every being.
Sage: Good.
Disciple: What do you mean, "good"?
Sage: Simply recall, as you said, I said you would realize oneness with all beings, I never said you would come to feel one with every being.
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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One of the most challenging lessons on a wisdom path is the truth that oneness is not a feeling, as we usually mean by feeling. Some of us may realize oneness with all life, and we may never feel it, at all. Realization is a term for awareness of oneness, not feeling oneness or being able to explain oneness. Oneness is not grounded in the body, with the mind; oneness is grounded in, again as Mooji reminds us, the "Infinite."
We may have moments when a sense of oneness arises strongly, however. I sat at a coffee shop in Clearwater, FL, many years ago. The shop had a glass wall looking out into the hall, where shoppers were passing. I did not know anyone there. Yet, as though given this momentary gift, the sense of all those beings and I being one arose within me. I did not lose consciousness of myself as the witness of this oneness. "I" did not disappear. I was simply alerted that this "I" and those "I's" were absolutely, while not the same, one. This is like saying, "I likes to become i's." Why? Who knows? Then, after a time, the sense was gone.
So, I will conclude today with words from Thomas Merton of a revelation he received in 1958, recorded in his Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. And, before I do, recall your heart, our heart, is essentially who we truly are, and to recognize the heart is to bring the body and mind into recognition that we each arise as the garb of Grace, of the Infinite. Our heart yearns for recognition, not to judge us, but to confirm we together reflect the beauty of Life; this recognition inspires us to respect other humans and other life forms as equally belonging as one, together, and respectful of our amazing diversity of expressions.
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness.... This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud.... I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
*Brian Wilcox. 'a spacious embrace'. Flickr
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2019
