Deep conversations with an enlightened soul – such as we had one recent morning – can inspire us to step back and ponder the much bigger picture.
Is it that we are here on Planet Earth, in the Milky Way Galaxy, by random chance? Is there a god? One God, the Creator? Was Jesus resurrected bodily? Is Mohammed the one true prophet of Allah?
These are things we cannot know with complete certainty. Some people may believe them to be so, but beliefs change, especially as knowledge increases. The one thing we know, absolutely, is that we exist. That cannot be denied. It is Truth.
We have an awareness of ourselves. It’s not simply that we are aware of our surroundings – animals are, too, and plants in many ways – it’s rather that we’re aware of our awareness.
Is it our bodies that are aware of themselves? It would seem to be something else. Just like other animals, our bodies change over time. It’s been reported that virtually our entire collection of 100 trillion cells, in every one of us, is replaced every few years, each rebuilding itself from the food we eat.
Moreover, our bodies are in living contact with the environment around us. We breathe in air molecules that others have breathed out. We absorb and give off heat. We live in a water cycle, giving it off in breath and perspiration and taking it in by drinking. Can our bodies exist without air, warmth and water, for more than even a few minutes without the first of those? And consider the food we eat – it comes from living matter, animal or vegetable.
The Truth is, our individual lives are all interconnected, vitally so. But notice how easily we accept that phrasing: “our individual lives.” The Truth is, we have what we call individuality for a relatively short time. Life flows into a collection of matter for a time, a collection dependent completely on the living whole for that life, and in human form there is self-awareness, and then the matter combines with other matter in a new collection for a time, and so on. It is constantly changing.
The Truth is that awareness extends to all of us, existing in some universal sense. The word “awareness” is a poor approximation of the concept, and the concept itself is a poor approximation of the reality. Maybe “consciousness” is closer. Maybe the “awakening” of Buddha. Just as we share matter to live, we share consciousness. Or maybe Consciousness, which we can truly experience only in the present.
For the present is not part of “time.” It is not the split-second … now! And … now! Time is a physical quantity like length or volume, measured in seconds and centuries, in millimeters and miles, or in ounces and, here in Sonoma, oak. Physical time has a continuity from past to future, and present is not on that scale. Meditation, prayer, chanting – these are practices to diminish the sense of physical time and enhance the awareness of the present, which is not measurable by time any more than by length.
Is the present difficult to grasp, to experience and to inhabit? Well nigh impossible, if we don’t seek it. And even then, it takes dedication and practice, what we might call devotion. However, it is Truth.
And what of morality, now that we know of Truth? Aren’t moral rules part of what Truth demands?
Let’s say first that Truth demands nothing – it simply is Truth. And the Truth is that we all share awareness. To the extent we see ourselves as individuals, we recognize that other people have awareness, too, and that we are interconnected. The Truth is that we are all fundamentally elements of one whole. So hurting others hurts ourselves, and therein lies morality. Most of us recognize the dictate, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” We are our own neighbors. “Do unto others …”
Does knowing Truth set us free? Not really, as we still have pressures of family and work and health. Nor does knowing Truth solve the world’s problems, as human nature unchecked continues its legacy of ego and violence. But in our view, a little Truth never hurts, and a lot would be even better.
