Just who are we really – as cosmic
beings? None of us can know for sure, but I’d like to share a few of my ideas
about the Cosmic I Am – some of which I have gleaned from the thoughts of
others, but none of which I am declaring to be the absolute truth.
Most
theologies begin with a creation story, so here is mine:
Before
the beginning of everything there was nothing but What I Am. I Am all-knowing. I
Am still . . . and I know that I Am:- All-That-Is. I Am Love. . . I Am Peace. . . I Am Joy. . . I Am Light. . . I
Am eternal. I Am for eons and eons. I Am That I Am. . . never-changing.
I
Am bored.
I
love that I Am One, but I cannot grow and evolve when I Am all the same, and I
Am just TOO perfect.
So, I am creating an
infinite variety of beings from what I Am . . . now life will always be new and
exciting and beautiful . . . and never the same.
The
All-That-I Am explodes into song – creating an infinite number of particles,
expanding forever outward into Space.
Now . . . I Am stars and comets, planets
and moons. I am water, air, earth, and fire. I am plant and animal, fish and
bird, insect and reptile. I am god and goddess, man and woman, mother and
father, daughter and son. (I am other creatures on other planets, but those are
other stories and not part of this one.)
I
love infinite variety in my creation, so every part is different. I am many in
one. I love every aspect of myself equally. I love every grain of sand, every
blade of grass, every person. I frequently forget that I Am many parts of one
being, so I leave clues to help myself remember. I create every snowflake with
a different design, and yet each one is formed from frozen water. Every tree
spreads its branches and leaves in a unique pattern, yet the roots of each grow
into the same earth, receiving nourishment from the same water and nutrients. Every
human being has a unique DNA, face, and thumbprint. And yet, I Am the spirit of
each and every one.
In
most people the spirit that I Am is buried and forgotten under all the ideas,
traits, and memories that make them feel separate from each other and from the
great I Am. However, some have learned
how to re-connect with the Source of all creation – by spending time in
stillness, going deep within, where the Light and Love of I Am dwells. One of
these people has spoken for all with the words: “Be still, and know that I am
God!”
Many
religions have sprung up around the world, each one trying to explain who I Am
in a way that the people of that area can understand. Since I have manifested
in a myriad of ways, I need thousands of religions to meet the needs of the different
aspects of who I Am. The funny thing is that so many of them think they have
found a truth that should work for the whole world, and they even get mad at
those who disagree, or threaten them with Hell.
What
is Hell? I never created such a place, but I did create Heaven, the state of
knowing the Love and Light that I Am. One person that I Am, who is known as
Jesus, taught that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
Jesus taught many things
about who I Am. He said: “I am the light of the world.” He also said: “You are
the light of the world,” so we would understand that when he says “I am” he
means the part of himself that is connected to the I Am self of each person. When
he says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” he wants us to understand that
each of us is the way, the truth, and
the life. We will know this when we peel away the layers of our outer selves
that separate us from one another. We will know this when we love our neighbors
as ourselves. We will know this when we realize that our enemies are our
brothers and sisters, and we love them, too. Jesus says: When we know this
truth, the truth will set us free.
When we are free we are
at peace. Black Elk, a Native American medicine man, said: “Peace comes within
the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with
the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of
the Universe dwells Wakan-Tanka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is
really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
When
we know the truth, that we are all One, barriers come down, not only between
peoples, but between people and Nature. I can be still and know that I Am God,
and I can be still and know that all of Creation is God. Zen Master, Thich Nhat
Hanh, reminds us to spend still moments appreciating each part of Creation. He
says: “When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds, sunshine,
minerals, time, the earth, and everything else in the cosmos. Without clouds,
there could be no rain, and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower
could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made entirely of non-flower elements;
it has no independent, individual existence.”
There
is a great awakening that occurs in the experience of those who discover the
deep-most part of themselves that is what I Am. Jesus awoke and said: “I and
the Father are one.”
Saint
Catherine of Genoa awoke and proclaimed: “My Me is God, nor do I recognize any other
Me except my God.”
Abraham
AbulAfia, founder of the School of Prophetic Kabbala awoke in the 13th
century, and wrote: “For now the awakened one is no longer separated from God,
and behold you are God, and God is you’ for you are so intimately adhering to
God that you cannot by any means be separate from God, for you are God. So now
that I, even I, am God. God is I and I am God.”
Also
in the 13th century, the Persian poet, Rumi, awoke and wrote:
I
am dust particles in sunlight.
I
am the round sun.
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To
the bits of dust I say, Stay.
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To
the sun, Keep moving.
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I
am morning mist,
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and
the breathing of evening.
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I
am wind in the top of a grove,
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and
surf on the cliff.
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Mast,
rudder, helmsman, and keel,
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I
am also the coral reef they founder on.
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I
am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
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Silence,
thought, and voice.
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The
musical air coming through a flute,
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a
spark of a stone, a flickering
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in
metal. Both candle,
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and
the moth crazy around it.
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Rose,
and the nightingale
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lost
in the fragrance.
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I
am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
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the
evolutionary intelligence, the lift,
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and
the falling away. What is,
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and
what isn’t. You who know
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Jelaluddin,
You the one
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in
all, say who
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I
am. Say I
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am
You.
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So yes, I Am everything:
All-That-Is. To live in harmony as an infinite number of unique individuals,
all growing and changing and being ourselves – and remembering that we are all
connected as ONE Cosmic Consciousness – is really hard! But I keep working at
it - because it’s the only way to keep growing wiser and more peaceful and more
in love with who I Am.
