What Life and the Universe Mean to Me

We are the living universe (the Deepest Self). It is expressing itself through all of our finite forms and growing understandings, in all places and times. We all come from that common source. We are this universe at our deepest level. Not only is that source us, but it is living all of our particular lives. Like the surface of the ocean, we are only separated by our wave-forms. We are still the ocean. Physical forms and thought form identities only separate us superficially; we are the deep ocean.

Many of us feel like strangers in this world, like we were just thrown here out of the depths of randomness with no say in who we become. But what if we are life itself. According to the popular philosopher Alan Watts “You are what the universe is doing.” If you can feel the life in you - your breath, your muscles flexing, your senses perceiving – you can at least imagine that you are alive. Writer and teacher Eckhart Tolle has a sensory meditation that I find useful. Close your eyes and try to sense the aliveness in your hands. Can you be calmly aware of them without moving or touching them? Now try to sense your feet. Are they there? Pause for a moment, breathe. This is the spirit of life within you and it is the one consciousness that allows you to perceive it. 

So we're alive, so what? Many Westerners would say that there is a universal creator that brought all things into being, some number of years, or eons ago. Some say that He is paramount in the development of life as we know it. I don't disagree entirely, but I suggest an adjustment. We did not come down from God as a complete humanity, ready to tackle life on life's terms. Instead, we came out of the universe as a developing expression of its greater, deeper meaning. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle says this reality is something like a great consciousness. He says that the purpose of life is to grow in the awareness of ourselves and this consciousness. I call it Zen. I would also say that this Zen is alive. If we are alive, then is the source of life itself alive too? We should be aware of it. Where else could we come from but the deepest ocean that is the universe itself?

The cool thing about the universe is that it is patient, it'll be patient with you too (I use the term "universe" to name any tradition's "great wisdom source."). If you take a wrong path, and are sincere in your seeking, you will find your way back in short order. The universe is not offended by missteps, only by causing harm. When you start to awaken, it will be like life itself gets activated in you. The Source of all Life and Breath is the very core of your being. It is the deepest self (consciousness itself), which is also deeper than you. Stillness within Stillness.

It's unfortunate that so many of us are still living in such an egoic type of way in a world where we've had this much suffering. Life is beautiful, but it's not just about achieving and collecting. Those things are good, but we have to wake up to the suffering in the world that unconsciousness perpetuates. When we can connect to our roots, which are humankind, earth, the universe, and the Source (which can be named well as God, Tao, Zen or Om), we can start to see the rich beauty that is everywhere. Largely, the name "God" has been misunderstood. If He is not the essence of life, the absolute foundation of breath, matter, space, and depth itself, then what can He be? If God is those things, and we are those things, then God is us, because we are a living example of those things too.

If The Source is life and depth of being, breath and space, then everyone is included. I am alive. You are alive. But, the unconsciousness of our world leads to all kinds of evil. If we continue to live in the darkness, refusing to be aware of (and pursue) the foundational essence of living well, which is loving kindness, our deepest selves, then we will continue as a species, and as individuals, to do mortal evil to ourselves and to the world. I know that the world we live in today barely permits non-violence, so we just wake up, one person at a time, until there are no violent souls left.

The same consciousness that is life, is in us too. We are an expression of that consciousness like a child, or a ray of sunlight.  We can’t live in the darkness anymore. We have to wake up! The world can’t bear its own suffering anymore. I won't claim to be of any high order either. I'm just following the breadcrumbs to a healthier life. Peace and all good to you, brothers and sisters. Can we share the warmth with our world?