Tag: oneness

Unplugged and Reconnected

Not long ago, I decided to unplug myself from technology for a month. I took a mini-sabbatical from computers (including all email and editorial work), TV, and radio (I don’t own a cell phone). It was with a huge sigh of relief that I did this. My days had begun to be filled with such constant busyness that even finding time to meditate or take long walks seemed difficult. When I stopped sitting for hours in front of the computer, my life opened up all around me.

At the same time that I closed the technology door, I opened another door—to the natural world outdoors and the world of spirit present everywhere. Outside in my backyard, I gardened, read, meditated, or just gazed at passing clouds in the sky or the sun on the flowers in my garden. I often felt transported to another dimension where only infinite variations of light were real. Life seemed as fragile and precious as a flower petal or an inhaled breath. There were moments when all I felt was gratitude for the gift of being alive.

In my journal I wrote: “We have this one lifetime to live in a human body, to look through human eyes and see the beauty of the world. I just want to drink in the wonders all around me, to feel in my heart each exquisite detail of flower, leaf, and cloud. I could look at the sky forever and never come to the end of its magnificence. Every bird and butterfly and bee is a tiny miracle. In the swirling center of each flower is a sacred universe. I am so blessed to have this life on Earth. I don’t want to miss a thing. I don’t want to lose a second looking at a computer or TV when the world and all its breathtaking beauty is just outside the door.”

Along with the wonder and awe came a deep connection to the living spirit that existed in the natural world all around me. The spirit within me embraced the spirit everywhere outside of me, and I stepped into a profound experience of oneness that expanded with each passing day. I found that within each exquisite detail of the universe that I perceived with my physical eyes was an invisible thread that led to the infinite Source of all things. William Blake described this perfectly: “To See a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wildflower/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/And Eternity in an hour.”

So did I renounce all technology for the rest of my life after discovering “God in the details”? No, of course not. We live in a human world that has manifested global communication via the Internet. If it doesn’t overtake your life, it can be a wonderful vehicle for experiencing worldwide interconnections. The key is balance, as in all things. I still check my email, visit favorite websites, and even listen to spiritual webcasts, but I’m now more in touch with when it’s time to turn off the computer and walk out the door into nature’s paradise.

New-Earth Day

“A new heaven is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and a new earth is its reflection in the physical realm.”—Eckhart Tolle

Forty-two years ago, the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. It was the beginning of a long journey back to fully recognizing our planet as our mother, our home. Our energy, our consciousness, and our ultimate destiny are inextricably interwoven with that of Mother Earth. Humans have strayed so far from that awareness, lost in the extremes of separation and denial. Yet, slowly we are making our way back to seeing our oneness—our oneness with all living beings and our oneness with the planet we call home.

Some may look around and see only disaster and suffering—global warming, human destruction of the environment, the callous attitudes of corporate and political leaders. Still, there are ever-widening cracks in the facade of business as usual. People, young and old, are gathering together to bring about life-affirming change, in spite of the forces set against them. People are speaking out against the proliferation of chemicals in the food we eat, against the uncurbed killing of trees for timber, against the unnecessary dependence on fossil fuels for energy, against the loss of habitat and wilderness. Countless groups are working to bring our planet back to full alignment with its blue splendor and green magnificence.

One such group is Trees, Water & People (www.treeswaterpeople.org). Their stated goal is to “improve people’s lives by helping communities to protect, conserve, and manage the natural resources upon which their long-term well-being depends.” Specifically, their work includes a fuel-efficient, forest-saving cookstove program, community-led reforestation projects, a tribal renewable energy program, and watershed health programs. The Organic Consumers Association is another dynamic grass-roots public interest group (http://www.organicconsumers.org). They are concerned with issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, fair trade, and environmental sustainability. Their over one million members take part in campaigns to urge public officials and politicians to address matters of concern to local and global communities, such as labeling genetically modified foods and stopping the pervasive use of pesticides, herbicides, etc.

Thousands of other groups and millions of individuals are now participating in the co-creation of a new Earth, one in which humans no longer heedlessly destroy the very environment that sustains them. The wisdom of indigenous peoples who have traditionally thought of the impact of their actions upon generations yet to come is finally approaching critical mass in the collective world consciousness. We still have so much yet to do, but looking back over 42 years, what we have achieved together is no small feat.

Celebrate Earth Day this year by buying organic vegetables and fruit at local farmers markets or food coops, taking part in a local tree-planting activity, or asking two or three friends to help you pick up trash in a local park. Attend an Earth Day celebration near your home and learn about all the community activities available to help our planet in small and large ways. You can also visit global online sites such as Earth Day Network (www.earthday.org) and participate in projects like their Billion Acts of Green campaign. Finally—take a few moments to look around with conscious awareness and appreciate the extraordinary beauty of our precious home sweet Earth. Happy New-Earth Day!

 

All You Need Is…

Love. The Beatles sang about it more than 40 years ago, and their message is never more important than today, during this time of a Great Shift in human consciousness. Love that is about universal sister/brotherhood. Love that links all beings in oneness, in unity consciousness. Love that connects us through the heart to something greater than our individual lives. This is the love that hundreds of poets and musicians have written of. Bob Marley sang about it in “One Love, One Heart,” and his son Ziggy carried it forward with “Love Is My Religion.” Tracy Chapman expressed it in “Heaven’s Here on Earth.

Love is the one value that seems to run through all cultures, countries, and religions. Many spiritual leaders and ordinary people have lived their lives in its service. Yet the world has remained divided by wars, violence, and hatred. Why have we failed as a species to hold to this value that we claim to believe in? Perhaps we had to live the extremes of human behavior in order to find our way back home. Perhaps we are evolving, finally, as a people and as a planet, to the point of irrevocably embracing the fact that love is the only real solution. Perhaps the veils are falling away at last so that when we look in one another’s eyes, we see our own reflection.

The truth is we are love at our very core. Layers of life’s hard knocks may have covered it completely, but it’s still present. As we move through the ongoing vibrational shifts on planet Earth, those layers will be peeled away or will fall away on their own. As we face monumental changes and challenges, we will be stripped down to our essence. We will reach out to our fellow beings for comfort, for reassurance; we will reach out in celebration, in joy. We will link arms and hearts in recognition that love is, and always has been, the universal truth of our lives here on Earth. It is why we came here—to embody human love and divine love simultaneously. It is why we are living the extremes of this time of radical change…so that we can finally stand together as one world united in love.

The next generations, too, are being born with the greater truth of love strong within them. Click on this link to see a wonderful children-produced video, “One World, One Heart Beating”: http://youtu.be/kY9HieCkT9c

I and We: One Tribe

If you’ve read my recent posts, you may have noticed the recurring theme of oneness. As the energies of these times accelerate and take us along for the ride, it becomes increasingly important to remind ourselves of the consciousness we want to carry forward, as individuals and as a people. Unity consciousness, or oneness, seems to me to be a key focal point in the evolution of a new Earth and a new way of being human.

Large numbers of human beings on this planet live life primarily from the point of view of the ego; “I” consciousness rules. Many people fear losing their individual freedoms within a greater “we” (often seen as “them”). But it’s really all about balance. We become truly free as individuals when we embody freedom within our communities in an ongoing process of receiving and giving: the dance of I and We, which acknowledges the primal connection between self and other.

Enter the Great Shift in humanity’s awareness. Gradually, ideas about sharing, giving back, and “paying forward” are entering the collective consciousness. People are beginning to see their neighbors in all parts of the world as not so different after all. In the aftermath of disasters near or far, we hear countless stories about individuals and groups who have dropped everything to help those in need. It is a time of coming together, of realizing that we are all part of one another.

In the realm of quantum physics, scientists describe a universe in which the smallest particles that make up everything are interconnected in one huge expanding energy field. Spiritual masters throughout history have spoken of a Divine presence that fills and surrounds us in a golden sea of light and love. This “I AM” consciousness has no boundaries; it flows through us all, and within it, there is no separation between I and We. From the point of view of both science and spirituality, then, we are indeed all connected.

As more and more of us awaken to this basic truth, it becomes our joyful responsibility to think and act from a place of spacious oneness, not constricted separateness. We are here to embrace that awareness, to birth a new way of being through living our lives as conscious connected spirit in human form.

 

Open Doors, Open Windows

What images does the phrase “open doors, open windows” evoke in you? Do you think of summer, when open windows and doors allow the outdoors and indoors to blend into one harmonious experience? When heavy clothes and closed buildings no longer separate us from one another and from our environment? This analogy could be used to describe the times we are living through now, when sharply defined boundaries are beginning to fade as we move more fully into recognition of humanity as one family.

In the past, we have been closed off in the illusion of separateness—nationality, religion, race, age, sexual identity, and belief systems of all kinds. The language we used to express our thoughts or ideas often divided us further. Countries under the spell of nationalist fervor have fought wars with one another for centuries, yet human beings are basically the same, down to their very DNA. Why do we fight and kill our mirror images? Wars have been fought over religion as well, yet if we look closely, all spiritual belief systems stem from the same Source. The Divine does not speak a language of comparison and judgment. Spirit is about love and love alone. In the light of love, differences in national origin, spirituality, race, age, sexual identity, and beliefs become interesting facets of human expression, not causes for mistrust and hatred.

Today, as we experience the expansive energies of what has been called the Great Shift, and we ourselves expand, a new world is evolving that is not separated by words or beliefs—one centered in oneness, or unity consciousness. This does not mean all differences will disappear. It just means we are learning how to accept and celebrate our differences instead of fighting wars over them, either physically or ideologically.

So how do we help this energy of inclusiveness to grow and circle the globe? Perhaps by stepping out of judgment in our own lives and seeing others (and ourselves) with compassion. By looking for similarities and appreciating differences. Let’s end separation now and open our hearts to feeling oneness with every friend or stranger who crosses our path. Find one thing you have in common with another person (and one difference you can learn from), and the door will open wider to reveal many more.