"Everything that lives, lives not alone, nor for itself." -William Blake
I experienced my first epiphany when I was eleven years old. It was a spontaneous realization that a conscious presence exists within all things. It was my first inkling that we all belong to this presence, that we are all alive and aware because of its power. Since then, I've experienced countless other epiphanies in which my sense of individuality was dissolved into this infinitely greater presence, into a reality that is greater than, and yet encompasses, the mind and the senses, a reality that is greater than, and yet encompasses, the phenomenal world.
I could try to recount some of these experiences, but the truth is that the experiences themselves have faded from their original color, like old photographs. But there is something of which I am now constantly aware, whose colors remain bright and vivid, as though each moment is a new picture, freshly developed, still wet to the touch. So, I will speak to you of these bright colors and vivid feelings in which I am immersed, for these are the living legacy of countless encounters with what is most truly beyond words. Ah, yes, the paradox! Real and unreal, transcendence and immanence, spirit and matter, mind and heart, time and eternity, space and emptiness, action and inaction! Beyond all of these polarities is the wisdom beyond words. Nonetheless, let us speak as best we can.
We are each expressions of a fundamental reality, an essence that some call God, some spirit, some consciousness, some love. It doesn't matter what you call it. It doesn't care. It is beyond names. But it is real, and thus we all belong to the same family. My blood is the same as yours, my heart is the same as yours, my body is the same as yours. We seem to stand apart from each other, but our essence is one. We only seem to be different, but we are all parts of a whole. Naturally, whatever any one part does touches and affects the whole. If we think that we do not effect the whole, we are wrong. We can say that whatever we do to ourselves, we do to each other: each action is a stone thrown into the pond of our common existence. Within minutes, or hours, or days we will feel the ripples of our actions wash over everything. This is why we cannot war our way to peace, because the killing keeps coming back. We have to wage peace, not war. And then peace will keep coming back.
Not only do we belong as brother and sister to other human beings, but we belong as brother and sister to all living things. We are not meant to have dominion over other creatures or the Earth, though we behave as though we are. This wrong thinking is based on the idea of separation, of being independent from the whole. This wrong thinking leads us to believe we are entitled to do anything we please, to usurp Nature for our own purposes. We are not entitled to do as we please. We must live within the law of universal truth, within the heart where we are all brothers and sisters under one roof, in one house, with one father and mother.
The crux of wisdom is the experience of Oneness. This is not an idea or a theory or an ideal. It is the most salient fact of the mystical experience and it is universally true. We each exist as expressions of the same fundamental reality. We are each unique expressions, yes, but of the same essence. This is both spiritually true and practically true: whatever we do to another, we do to ourselves. Every thought, every word, every slight touch of our hand sends energetic impulses racing outward on the trillions of strands of connective tissue that enfolds us all in the One. To believe otherwise is the source of all suffering and violence and pollution on this Earth.
It is not just the belief in separation that creates problems. Beliefs-in general-separate us from the whole of existence and lock us into the prison of our thoughts. Thoughts, beliefs, concepts-these are tools to navigate the limited, physical plane of reality. They are not in any way capable of understanding the limitless truth, which must be felt with the heart. We cannot think our way through life, we have to love our way through life. The biggest problem in the world today is that people have come to believe that what they think is what is real. This is wrong. Reality-truth-lies between thoughts, behind beliefs, before concepts. Truth is revealed in silence, and silence restores our connection to the whole. This is where my humility comes from: silence. Silence reveals that what we think is not what's real, it is what hides reality. We must listen to Silence.
Silence is where our conscience is born, where we rediscover that love is our essence, and where we remember that true happiness lies not in personal fulfillment, but in service to others, and thus to our true Self, the Self in which all exist as One, in which all life is our life. Silence is where the arguments and arrogance of egocentric living are dissolved as salt into the sea of wisdom.
When we come to the end of our life, we are likely to have misgivings. This is because the purpose of life is to realize, consciously, that we are the embodiments of love; and many of us have not sought to realize this. When we realize that we are a manifestation and embodiment of love, we become full and complete from the inside. All of our materialistic pursuits are called into question, and we find that we need far less than we might have thought. We realize we don't have to live in a state of constant becoming and acquiring. Within each moment we find peace and deep contentment, which are inherent in our essential being.
With peace and deep contentment filling us from within each moment, we do not need to manipulate external circumstances to attain happiness. We do not have to tear at the fabric of life. We do not have to be greedy. We do not have to be afraid we will not have enough, or be enough, or do enough. We can live simply. We can simply live. Once we recognize who we are-underneath all the thoughts, ideas, and beliefs we hold about who we are-this will happen naturally.
With peace and contentment filling us from within, we open without effort to the surrounding beauty. We have created a lot of ugliness to be sure, but underneath that is the natural beauty of life itself. Life is so beautiful. Everything is alive! The same conscious presence that lives within you lives equally within all. Is it not amazing to feel the living spirit in this way? You feel yourself in others. You feel yourself in all that exists. Feeling this, how can you harm others? How can you not feel the fear, or suffering, or despair of others? How can you throw ugliness onto beauty? We cannot do these things anymore.
Feeling is the key. Feelings and emotions are not the same. Emotions are mind states like jealousy, anger, and fear. Emotions are sponsored by thoughts. Feelings are sponsored by the heart and are signs of wisdom: love, awe, joy, wonder, beauty, connectedness. Feelings are the consciousness of the heart. The heart feels, the mind does not. The heart is alive, the mind is inert. The heart experiences, the mind conceptualizes. The heart joins, the mind separates. This is why we must emphasize heart, not mind. If we do not live from our heart, we will be unable to account for our own actions, because all our thoughts will be in the way. We will be victims of our own thinking, looking elsewhere for the one "who did us in." It is no one but us.
Our thoughts are good servants, but terrible masters. Our thinking must reflect the wisdom of our heart. We cannot allow the mind and its constant stream of thoughts, beliefs, and concepts to persuade us that the heart is not real, or true, or useful. It is indeed the only thing that is. We have forgotten this, and now we must remember.
Why must we remember? Because of this:
Too many children are suffering. Too many people are being murdered. Too many species are being hunted to extinction. Too many lakes and rivers, once pure, are now polluted and dead. Too many forests, once pristine, are now cut and crying. Too many people are hungry and afraid. Too many people are tortured, broken into pieces and discarded like trash. Too many mothers are crying for want of milk and bread. Too many poor people are scavenging for food. Too many are sick and dying from neglect. Too many elders are alone and forgotten. Too many orphans are living without love.
We are all born as embodiments of love. We are all born with this knowledge; it is not lost, only ignored; not forgotten, only disregarded. What we once knew can be known again, right now. We have only to enter our heart to remember who we are.
Robert Rabbin is a contemporary mystic; a speaker and writer who presents Radical Sages programs throughout the world. He is a leading exponent of Silence and self-inquiry as a way of revealing our authentic being and of living an inspired life.
