​Some years ago I awakened from the night's sleep with the words, 'Rather than exert power, emanate presence.'

This morning the feeling of the words welled up within me, without effort. I felt what it means to love — not something or someone, but to beam love from the self-existent unbounded source of love. This, my highest ideal, is attainable yet not by exerting power, making effort or even having it as an aim. I can only face what prevents me from beaming love as a constant, let it go, and surrender the differentiated persona to non-differentiated love.

Climbing Mount Everest might be less challenging. The stone walls I face are hardened anger, bitterness, resentment, resistance, jealousy and judgment, a mountain within that generates its own storms. I have sought to ascend it for more than 45 years. I felt the sunlight on the mountaintop this morning, but the warm, expanded feeling of beaming love  cooled and was distant as soon as I engaged with my surroundings.

If my theories have any validity, the foundation of existence in science and philosophy is the radiation of universal love from the one being of pure consciousness. Perceiving such love by the senses after it has trickled through layers of density and distortion is something like perceiving a never seen ocean of aliveness from a drop of water deadened by pollution. There is however, perception beyond the senses and no quest could be more noble. Even touching the pure love of Source with a human hand is well worth a lifetime of endeavor or rather letting go and surrendering.

This week an e-newsletter spoke to me.  It was from Phil and Suzanne of Canción del Corazón [1] near Vilcabamba, Ecuador. The dialog which ensued follows.

...

Hola from Vilcabamba !

Our retreat season is fast approaching, and we’ve just published a new video that you might enjoy viewing. The video highlights a retreat we’re offering in mid-december, but it also serves as an update on what we’ve got underway here, and it captures some interesting aspects of our way of life and some very beautiful and inspiring footage (shown at the end of this post.)

If it invokes a stirring of excitement about the opportunity it presents you, we’d truly love to share this enriching adventure with you, and would be more than happy to hear from you to dialogue about the possibilities.

may your autumn days be blessed with beauty and nourishment,
and your heart be full with smiling kindness…

Phil & Suzannah

...

Hola Phil and Suzannah,

There is a melody in your words to which my soul responds.

Did we meet you at Finca Sagrada?

Our intention was to move to Ecuador on that visit. We let go of possessions in the States and had extended visas. We left Ecuador early and I can go more into the reasons if that becomes helpful. Our interest in Canción del Corazón would be for long-term residency. Dialoguing about the possibilities is an excellent place to start.

We are very much aligned with the vision and purpose of Canción del Corazón, such as 'We craft and embody an integrated lifestyle that nourishes health, evolves consciousness, and honors our interdependence with the natural world. We devote to stewarding the earth in a way that regenerates its fertility, diversity, beauty, and abundance.'

Embodying is a key. I have worked out theory about consciousness in my head, and now emphasize embodying it. However, I am still up for philosophical discussion — such as, does consciousness evolve? Or is the one being of pure consciousness the self-existent source, the unmoved mover, the great observer, which empowers the laws and forces of Nature. Does the Origin evolve or does it simply radiate its own qualities of Being, and it is the intelligence of Nature which evolves?

I would say that human awareness is expanded by consciousness rather than consciousness evolves, but am always flexible to learn, and not fixed on my ideas or way of conveying them. How do I know my human awareness is expanded by consciousness? It is only by my actions and response to life, my embodiment of the qualities of consciousness which emanate from universal love such as kindness, compassion, equanimity, presence and caring for the whole. I value the transformation of resistance towards humanity and earth life into compassion and border-less love more than the alchemy of lead into gold.

Our artwork and writings are on the Emanate Presence and Whole Human sites. They do not reflect all the changes we feel inside us. Still, sites are also a place to start to get to know each other. 

...

The following words from Phil are interspersed with my response.

Thanks, Gary. Yes there’s much resonance between our perspectives. I’m not sure when we met you, did you perhaps pay us a brief visit? We must have gotten your email somehow. Are you planning a return to Vilcabamba? Any kind of long-term residency here would begin with an eye to eye, heart to heart conversation.

Phil, my memory is that you visited Finca Sagrada when Kati and I were there on a trial basis to consider long-term residency. I remember feeling I'd like to know you. It makes sense that long-term possibilities would begin with an eye to eye, heart to heart conversation. I do not know what the future holds, but imagine that another long distance move would require a high degree of certainty that the envisioned residency would happen. That certainty could be reached in my mind by having open and honest dialog over a period of time.

Yes, philosophical contemplation can be interesting and inspiring, but embodiment is the true measure of our “spiritual realization”, realization implies “reality” which implies “experiential” , so what we actualize calibrates the extent to which we actually apply, and thus have integrated, and then can have a direct experience of, whatever higher truth we aspire to align with. 

Yes. Can you give any input on how to align with higher truth experientially?

With the evolution question, I would say, and this applies to nearly every philosophical question, that “it depends”. The first thing it depends on is the definition of consciousness being used, as it can call up something slightly different to each person. I tend to use it as a general catch-all for any aspect of awareness that can intend, perceive, interpret, envision, remember, exert will, etc. 

Yes, so long as all who are party to the conversation agree with the meaning of the word, we can define them as we choose and will communicate with each other. For my own clarity, I like to distinguish between the various bubbles of awareness and consciousness. I wonder if awareness exerts will. As I see it, pure consciousness simply is. It radiates its qualities of being. From such radiating, the laws and forces and intelligence of Nature have evolved. Nature could be said to have a will, not as humans perceive it, but at least in its determination to expand and diversify what is and return it from chaos to order and balance.

In the case of evolution of human consciousness, it depends on what layer of our reality we speak of, i.e., there are at least 3 answers: For the human rational mind / personality / ego, which is what distinguishes us from animals and angels and generally has a big role in directing our will, consciousness clearly evolves from a mere seed at birth, through to the sophisticated cognition of adulthood, and for the occasional optimal case, to a clear channel for fully enlightened genius and wisdom. 

Yes, I usually call this human awareness or local consciousness. According to 'Athene's Theory of Everything,' it is generated by neural networks.

For the manifest realms, that which is co-created, perceived, and interpreted by human consciousness, the expression of nature, and our very bodies, evolves. Yet for human consciousness at the level of pure spiritual awareness, evolution is not an adequate descriptor, for evolution implies a sequence of development through time, but pure awareness exists in the eternal now. 

This pure awareness is what I call the self-existent one being or pure consciousness to distinguish it from localized awareness.

Cultural consciousness also can be seen to evolve, and this is at the crux of collective destiny, yet it is a composite of our individual contributions to it, so it is some six and half billion times more complex and inertial than our individuated person-minds, and thus evolves glacially relative to what is possible individually.

When we look at human history, has there been an evolution of mass consciousness? Certainly we see technological advances. And, there are pockets of conscious choices towards the earth and each other. But overall, has cultural consciousness evolved or devolved? With each glance towards a headline, I wonder.

Yet each “I” is a mere fractal of the “we", and as we self-develop and impulse the mass consciousness “upwardly”, it is generally impulsing us “downwardly”, especially given the presence of parasitic globalization efforts that exist in part to prevent human liberation, and whose influence breeds “pathological evolution”, which however unfortunate it appears to be, is what incentivizes us most powerfully to evolve in the first place. We swim in a muddy pond, at least until we find our wings and fly.

The parasitic effect may account in part for the devolution or stagnation of mass consciousness, which I perceive as disturbed. Human liberation has been thwarted until now. It is refreshing to encounter another soul who still can say, 'until we find our wings and fly.'

There are vastly more perspectives that “it depends” implies, for instance if we further tease apart the human mind-scape and consider emotional consciousness, intuitive consciousness, instinctive consciousness, trans-migrational consciousness, etc, some evolve and some simply exist in the moment and are either accessed by awareness or not.

For my use, such as writing blog posts, I like the word 'awareness' for all variations in transient human experience such as emotional awareness or emotional intelligence. I write 'consciousness' primarily to refer to the universal and eternal source of life which originates, sustains, in-dwells and observes all that is.

And yes, intentions are virtual and causal, words are vibrational and subtle, and actions are visceral and manifest. Authentic actions are pre-determined by the first 2, and thus demonstrate the true unified correlation of all 3. Otherwise, our intentions, words, and deeds might be completely contradictory, and therefore something must be phony.

What means have you found to be most effective, for living authentically and in alignment with what we know in our hearts to be true?

Kindness to you,

Phil

...

Phil responded to the question, 'Can you give any input on how to align with higher truth experientially?'

We have a little formula, which we call the “eternaculture compass”.  (Its a 3 pointed compass, we find that contemplating “trinities" is helpful to soften dualistic tendencies and help with orienting toward “unity” , so we work with a process we call “trinity awareness practice”, which in itself is also helpful in clarifying our deeper currents so that we can use them as a basis for manifestation within our day to day. Its a bit too much of a project for me to write much more about it, it takes the form of a faciltiated group contemplation during many of our retreats.) 

The points of the “eternaculture compass” are:  Inspiration - Activation - Evolution .  Its a simple formula, easy to relate to and use in the moment. The idea is to first discern among the inner voices and “motivators” that arise for us, seeking out those that are the voice of “inspiration”. This word has its root in “spirit”, and so what we’re seeking is the whispering of our own "higher mind", our ultimate spiritual identity, and it is our inner voice of universal truth, our innate source of spiritual guidance.

Some questions to help filter it out from the various other self-talk (voices of reason, emotion, cultural duty, etc) are “does this serve the greater good of all”, “does this make my soul laugh with ecstatic joy”, and “does this offer an infinity of refined energy toward its manifestation”. 

Others might have different words of contemplation, whatever helps one to summon and  discern the thoughts and ideas that align with our soul’s purpose and that are intrinsic to the currents of creation, which often carry the vibration of “revelation” or feel like an “aha” moment, when we feel a delicious surge of energy well up and we involuntarily do a little dance or click our heels in the air. 

So over time we gather these precious jewels of inspiration, which already may be vivid experiences in their own right, and then these provide our basis for Activation, for which we seek ways to bring these inward realizations into some kind of expression; we impulse our world somehow, we birth it into our day to day, we use it as a catalyst for our own direct experience and perhaps invoke it to serve in a like manner for others, we pave a path of light for others to follow. 

By being inspired, and activating, we become inspiring. And so by activating on our inspirations, we create greater possibilities for ourselves and the human family, we generate an updraft in consciousness and we Evolve. So we use this little tool as a handy reminder to stay true to the fullness of our destiny, so that our process of becoming, our evolution, is based on actualizing the imperatives delivered to us through refined inner guidance. 

The sides of the compass are Wholistic Wellness  - Interdependence - Integral Awareness. Each of these need a whole book really, too much to go into here, but they represent fundamental vectors of the eternaculture compass, some critically important areas of life to activate our inspirations upon, they are spheres of becoming that are ripe for evolution.

​Bruce Taylor, co-creator of 'The Way Home' [1] wrote to me, 'I found the title intriguing: The Whole Human Blog.

Bruce continued,

'We just finished running a retreat in which we were highlighting the shift from being a person (identified with the ego-mind and body) to being a human being (allowing the divine within / inner guide / soul to take over the reins of one's life from the ego-mind).  For me The Whole Human Being is one who has dropped the illusion of the false and no longer exists as a person.  They are simply being in the world.'

To this I responded, 'Where attention goes, energy flows. I have realized to be aware of but de-emphasize whatever limits....

'Recently I have shifted my own thoughts and conversation from ego (which is not well defined anyway) to the whole human — one who is living their true potential and a truly fulfilling life. I am still playing with alternatives for the term 'ego,' something that is non-judgmental and expresses the distinction without hierarchy or comparison. Rather than ego, there is simply an absence or presence in human awareness of 'one being' consciousness.'

Bruce wrote back,

Hi Gary,

For me life is simple.  I love the line that "Spirituality is simple.  If it is complicated then it is from the mind".  

I have dropped out of the world of right and wrong. I do not attempt to define anything as 'true' and do not believe anything. I am simply open to existence and to all possibilities.

I resonate with the Buddhist expression "The finger points at the moon but the finger is not the moon".  I feel that all of the words people use to define terms such as ego, consciousness, oneness, etc are simply fingers pointing at something that cannot be understood by the mind.  They can only be experienced and their truth become self evident.  I feel that the end result of people attempting to define the undefinable is to create a a set of belief systems that causes separation.  For example, Christians believe their finger is the 'right' one and Muslims believe theirs is the 'right' one.  Perhaps they are both simply fingers pointing at the same thing and there is no need to debate right and wrong?

So, when it comes to the ego, what is my finger?  For me, the ego is simply a set of false beliefs.  It is composed of a person's fears, desire, beliefs, and emotional traumas.  Every fear and belief is based on a lie.  Every desire is based on a person trying to satisfy something through the external world when the only satisfaction they can attain is through the internal world.  Even traumas are based on the false belief that we can be harmed in this world.  We can't.  Only the ego and the body can be harmed in this world and that is not who we are.

All of that said, please don't believe any of it.  I don't.  It is simply my description of a finger that is pointing at something.

I feel that much of the separation and violence in this world comes from people thinking that it is possible to define things.  That only leads to conflict with those who have created a different definition for the same thing.  My preference is to simply accept that everyone has their own definition, none of which are right and none of which are wrong.  They are all simply pointers.

You closed the previous email with the phrase, 'We are One Being'.  I smile at that phrase as I find that it has the potential to cause much separation and strife in the world; depending on the level of awareness of the one stating it.  If it is used as a justification for remaining identified with the false self and then trying to convince others to do what we want them to do then it is a source of separation.  If it is used as a pointer to aid a person in dropping the illusion of being a person then it is of value.

My experience of that phrase came after going beyond this world and then finding myself rather surprised to be back in the mind / body / soul construct.   My experience of being beyond this world was of having awareness from within every being and every object while being aware of all others.  In that state, there was no 'I".  The best way that I can describe it is simply 'awareness is'.  

From my experience, I feel that it is only when one gives up all identification with a separate self (including the identification with the soul) that there is only One.  Thus for me, it is impossible to state "we are all one Being" as the existence of a "we" means that we are separated from the One.  Instead, I feel that the phrase "we are all One being" is pointing at the possibility that we can drop all identification with a separate self (drop the existence of the 'we') and merge back into the ocean. I feel that the phrase is simply one more pointer.

Another phrase recently came out of me, "Man cannot connect to God, Man has to become God".  Or, as Kabir, put it, "all know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop".  I feel that it is time for humanity to remember who they are and to both drop their identification with the false and drop all of the power games that come with that identification.  I also feel that humanity will continue its inevitable slide into self-destruction as long as they don't do that and instead continue to identify with the false.

However, that is just the way I feel.  None of it is true and who knows what is actually going on.  Certainly not my mind.  For me, life is very simple.  I am not the person I used to think I was.  For anyone who reaches out to me, I simply remind them that they too are not the person they think they are.  

Thus, the intention for this farm is to create a space where people are lovingly supported to explore who they really are beyond the illusions of an ego-based existence.  Or more simply, a place to drop the identification with the mind.

Love and Light, Bruce.

***** "Are you searching for your soul? Then come out of your prison, leave the stream and join the river that flows into the ocean. Absorbed in this world you’ve made it your burden. Rise above the world there is another vision." Rumi

To this I responded,

Hi Bruce,

My words, 'we are one being' will be without force or effect unless I actually feel the one being of pure consciousness which animates and gives existence to all that is and act from that energy of universal love.

If I have some difference with a person, it is with my perspective on an aspect of their individuality. Both my perspective and their individuality are generated by the phenomena of separation from the one being, which is a fabrication, an illusion. That is something to de-emphasize, like ego. I serve my authentic nature by emphasizing Being.

The illusion gives me a sense of separate identity which might seem needed and perhaps was in an earlier state of development, in order to function. But the strong sense of individual identity is not needed to function now. I have experienced functioning in the flow while in a state of being.

Closing with 'we are one being' is still experimental. It has deep meaning for me, but the time is not yet to share it widely, and never as a slogan or teaching. I also need more experience of the being state.

When Aura, a unique being in a Husky's fur coat, jumped into the bed this morning and my hand stroked her silky fur, I knew her as another expression of the same being I am.

From that expanded stated I would never leave, but getting up and starting the morning routine still freezes and closes me down to mental and automated functioning. Next it is to function fully, while in the state of being and acting from universal love.

Your last email came just as I was about to send one to you, asking permission to quote from your previous email in a blog post.

The 'we' in 'we are one being' could mean to some that we are separated from the One, as ego is sometimes seen as an enemy to be defeated. I mean 'we are one being' as acknowledging that 'we' are defined individuals and in the same moment (in essence) the one being which gives existence to all. It is as you say, a pointer. And I see now it is overly complicated.

Thank you for your kindness to read my lengthy emails and respond generously. Your response helps me evolve my writing and the way I meet the world.

Being,

Gary

[1] The Way Home: Creating a Harmonious World

​​An invitation to create a peaceful, Loving, and Harmonious World.

The vision of 'The Way Home to Love' Society (The Way Home) is to contribute towards the transformation of today's world into a Harmonious one. 

Our approach to ushering in a world of peace, Love, harmony, unity, and balance includes transforming both one's inner and outer worlds. Thus, we provide Love, support, and guidance for people on their inner journeys and support those people in the creation of transitional communities. 

We invite you to join us in creating a Harmonious World.
​

This post continues from Dialog 001 - One Being, an e-mail conversation between a reader and me. Feel free to join in by using the FB comment box below or the contact form on the About page.

NATE:

Individual existence and greater existence - is this not an illusion of separation?

GARY:

For some, it will seem we are saying individual and the greater existences are separate. They are distinct from each other but not separate. I see the greater existence as the totality, the absolute, the unmoved mover. It is also O.B., pure consciousness, the creative source and the true self of all that is. If anything is an illusion, it must the flicker of individual existence -- a distortion of reality. The individual is separated from the 'greater' only by constricted human awareness which has not yet been expanded by O.B. consciousness. 

NATE:

Where do you draw the line? I can only see the lines drawn in the imagination.

GARY:

Lines would separate, wouldn't they. There are no lines, only distinctions of frequency. An individual who experiences O.B. consciousness experiences the dissolution of imagined lines as the borders between discrete objects become less and less defined.

NATE:

When my mind and body sleep in death, I cannot eat, drink, feel rested, notice the change in the air between summer and fall...so what then is the state of my being? 

GARY:

That is an unknown, a mystery unfolding. Your individual being may no longer have a sense of separate self when the body rests in death. It center of awareness may return to the origin from which it came. Or, it may have expanded itself by living from O.B. consciousness so that it does continue after the body's death, as a center of awareness. Maybe it needs dense slowed matter to know itself, maybe not.

NATE:

If the world continues after I die, which I believe it does, then I will no longer experience it. Other beings will, but I will feel none of it. I won't think anything about it. I won't interact with it.

GARY:

It sounds like you are convinced your center of awareness and sense of self will discontinue at the death of your body. That may or may not be so. My innate feeling is that my sense of self continues in some form after the death of this body.

NATE:

But what is practical and what is more? Where do you draw such a line? 

GARY:

We agree that O.B. consciousness only has effect in the world when it is embodied by consistent actions which are aligned with that higher frequency. Yes?

NATE:

Is not what we call practical actually being present in the one reality, which we are experiencing now and only now? 

GARY:

Where is the line drawn between being present and being absent? What is the quality that is present or absent? There is one reality, but varying degrees of O.B.'s presence in human awareness, which determines the quality of the experience. It also determines whether one lives from individual human awareness or from a foundation of O.B. consciousness with individual as needed.

The greater the absence of O.B. consciousness from human awareness, the stronger the sense of individual existence apart from all else.

I have experienced these degrees of distinction. With more O.B. in my awareness, I am more confident, compassionate, patient, tolerant and so on. What was aggravating or distressing is less so or not at all. I have greater equanimity, that is, calmness in the midst of turmoil though I am also more sensitive towards O.B.-absent chaos.

A dictionary defines practical as 'of or concerned with the actual doing or use of something rather than with theory and ideas.'

Two people can perform exactly the same task with apparently the exact same outcome, yet there can be a significant distinction between them according to the presence or absence of O.B. consciousness in the actions. A small child can be dressed, for example, by an adult with harshness or gentleness and it does make a difference in the child's life.

NATE:

I like thinking about the concept of One being, but if its foundation is not on the moment to moment observations and practicalities of our experience, then what does One being really mean?

GARY:

We agree.

NATE:

Einstein may have been speaking scientifically - that chemically, the whole universe is an interconnected web of stuff constantly mixing together and changing, and human existence is just a part of that web. Now, in line more with a more spiritual/experiential understanding of One Being, I believe that our individual mind is one with the universal mind of action, in the same way that a pebble dropped into a lake makes ripples. But I understand that not to be a realization that takes me out of my body and mind, but rather engrosses me more in it. If my nature is as a pebble and my fate is to make a ripple, then moment to moment action is the seed and substance of that ripple.

GARY:

I agree in the sense that O.B. consciousness engages me more in the body/mind rather than takes me out of it. I feel more attuned to my body's inner wisdom and have been led, e.g., by stretching instructions which come from that inner voice. As O.B., all we who exist are the pebble, the water, and the ripple.

Whenever 'external' (actually there is no external or internal) stimuli hits me a certain way and I react or contract — I say or think with feeling, 'We are One Being' and the effect of the stimuli is softened. Would you be willing to experiment with this?

​Is destiny real? The writers, Kati and Gary, feel that this story of their meeting is an example of the threads of destiny that are woven into their lives. Written from the perspective Kati's journey.

On a morning in May, one year before the millennium, a message was delivered by my Dutch friend, who is a healer and intuitive. By using a pendulum over a chart of letters, he was able to write messages from the inner worlds, the greater existence. That day, a prophecy for me came through his writing, “In exactly one year, you will meet the man you will live and do spiritual work together with for the rest of your life.”

His words sounded too perfect to be true. Besides, how could it be “exactly in one year?” I was with a boyfriend and two sons in the south of Spain. We were building a new life on a farm we'd bought, after moving here from the former East Germany.

Our active lives went on and the prophecy was forgotten. The New Year and millennium rolled in. I started getting the feeling to go to America. I knew no English and no one there, and was not personally interested in the States. Still, following intuition, we sold the little farm in Spain and traveled to America.

It will reveal itself

In a state of innocent trust, we landed in San Diego and journeyed through the southwest. I stayed the course through the challenges that came by trusting the words of my inner voice, “You are here on purpose and it will reveal itself.”

The four of us traveled in a minivan through an unfamiliar land with a language and customs strange to us. After weeks of this, our initial optimism ran low as our funds ran out, and we became exhausted. We were ready to give up. My last calling was to visit magical Mount Shasta in northern California.

Our dispirited troop arrived in Mount Shasta City in April. Grey skies drizzled constant rain, the air was cold and damp. The fabled mountain peak could not be seen through the dark clouds. Disappointed, I sipped my hot drink in a coffee shop now known as Seven Suns.

Suddenly my eyes were attracted to an advertisement in the paper lying on the table. My older son Arne, who'd had some English classes in Spain, called the number. Two hours later the four of us were sitting in the living room of Mary Ma, an intuitive advisor. “Yes, my friends,” she spoke, “you are still right. Just go another seventy miles north to Ashland, Oregon.”

A turn of events

Ashland, a college town in the Siskiyou valley of southern Oregon well-known for its annual Shakespeare festival, welcomed us with open arms. In one week we moved into our first apartment, my boyfriend got work, my teen-aged sons had fun with their jobs at a lama farm and I had two clients for healing work. We regularly visited the 'Conversations with God' Center. Inspired by all these wonderful happenings, my boyfriend asked me to marry him.

As I sat in the C.W.G. Center, feeling a little nervous about my marriage decision, my eyes wandered over the displayed books by Neale Donald Walsh (author of “Conversations with God.”) This gazing was interrupted when the secretary came in with an apologetic demeanor. She told us that the minister had suddenly become so sick she couldn’t get out of bed.

My inner alarm went off and the message of the Dutch intuitive echoed clearly into my awareness, “In exactly one year, you will meet the man you will work with for the rest of your life.”

He had spoken this message of destiny in the first week of May, 1999. The calendar on the wall showed the last week of April, 2000. I felt to wait with the marriage plans. Three days later my boyfriend was physically attracted to an American woman and, encouraged by me to follow his longings, they had a romance.

I realized he had been more like a brother and guardian to me than a life partner. Although it felt right from a spiritual standpoint to let him go, and I was glad for him, my heart was heavy.

The network of destiny

Arne, my older son, got me on my feet and out to be among others. At a meditation gathering, we heard about a meeting for networking among healers.

We arrived early at the meeting of healers and observed people as they entered the room. In the next moment, a man stood in front of us. With a peaceful smile he said, “You must be the German family. I sent you an e-mail in response to your poster about your ‘Light Hands’ healing.”

The start of the meeting saved me from having to give a straight answer. Of course I remembered his e-mail. I had not written back because my writing skills were quite underdeveloped.

As the meeting began, Arne translated the talking into German for me. Otherwise I would have been helpless with the language.

When the discussion of the group became a stage for shouting egos, I signaled my son that we could leave now. Shortly before we escaped, the man with thick black and silver hair approached us. He really wanted to talk with me and asked if I would accept a copy of his self-published book on awareness and energy medicine – Vision River Guide. I answered shortly “Maybe next time.”

But surprisingly my son reached for the book with a warm “Thank you.”

Back in our apartment I became curious about the gifted book. As I was starting to translate the first sentence with the help of my dictionary, my reality changed and spirals of light rose from the page. Very clearly, my inner voice commanded, “Now go back and talk to this man!”

“No, no,” my personality argued, “it is rainy, dark and I do not speak enough English.”

Against all protest my inner presence moved me back to the group meeting place. The building was dark and I projected with some hope that everybody had left by now. I was turning around when I noticed two men standing under a street lamp.

With a racing heart I went to the talking men. As if in a trance I heard my voice say to the book-giver, “Excuse me. I would like to talk with you.”

Another Dimension

I noticed his hazel-green eyes beaming with warmth. In a comforting melodious voice he suggested that we go for a walk around the block. The night was moist with misty rain. In my mind I wanted to explain the mission of finding the right people for a visionary healing center but instead I said “I am from another dimension. I am searching for people of the same kind.”

It was a strange thing to say, but the stranger smiled and responded, “Yes, I understand.”

We continued our walk until I saw my parked car. Paradoxically this man had a very calming effect on me but at the same time I had a haunted feeling under my skin. I learned that he had made a change in his life and arrived in Ashland from Georgia, the same week as we.

On the next morning, May 8, an e-mail appeared in my mailbox. This time I replied by inviting Gary to dinner for the following day.

GARY:

In the course of writing blog posts, a significant realization dawned.

At least, it seems significant to me. There's always the possibility I am deluding myself.

I feel a need to have it checked out by people who have the capacity to discern and will tell it to me straight.

It is a simple request, without expectation. When and if it is in the flow for you, will you check out this page and give me your honest feedback?

Dispel the Illusion with a Greeting!

Do my conclusions seem to you to have any merit?

Thank you for your presence.

We are O.B.

***

NATE:

Hi Gary, 

Nice to hear from you. I checked out your post, and I have a question.

If we are all one being, why is it that if me and you are both hungry, and I eat food, you will still be hungry?

***

GARY:

We have a common core - one being of pure consciousness - with all that is. Not only humans, but everything - plants, animals, minerals, planets, stars, empty space are at the most fundamental level - self-existent consciousness.

The one being is also the one true self, the first cause, the creative source. When I identify with the separated persona, my human awareness blocks itself from knowing that the totality is in cup and content the one being. Nothing, not even nothing, exists apart from the one being.

The design of diversity gives us unique experiences, yet the full design which has not yet manifested is that we know ourselves as the undifferentiated one being and the defined human in the same moment. Identified with the true self, neither of us is hungry! Identified with the persona, we experience a sense of separateness, of individuality - and if you eat food, my stomach won't be filled. That is the apparent nature of things until pure consciousness expands human awareness as the barriers dissolve.

We are one being.

***

NATE:

The only design that I know is manifest is the one right now. I do not know what will be or could be. But right now, if I eat food and you don't, I'm pretty sure you will die. I do not know of any mind that can overcome this truth. 

If I cannot satisfy your hunger by eating food myself, in what way are we one being?

***

GARY:

Thank you for taking the time to read the post and question me. It is needed, and what I asked for.

With regard to your questions, I have one in return, asked gently: 

Eating and living, not eating and dying — what have they to do with being?

Being simply is. In our 'is-ness,' our common existence, we are one being. Like viewing an optical illusion, we experience what we focus on. We live in a society of 'do do do'. I am not suggest we 'be be be', but as Amit Goswami says, 'do be do be do.'

Doing is practical, functional and often automatic. Being is brought into doing by expanding human awareness with O.B. consciousness.

That my body would eventually succumb to the unfolding we call death while you eat and continue in your present form is evidence not of our being O.B. but of the illusion of separation. Of course, it seems real. Perhaps the only reality.

It seems you are viewing this from a perspective of individual existence. I see individual existence in the context of the greater existence. There is no separation between those two distinctions, in the greater reality accessed in the Now. Separation is accessed in dualism, the linear. Separation is not an enemy when it is accessed consciously and in balance with O.B.

We perceive our separation over the five senses and the intellect, yes? The perception that we are one being comes over deep feeling and inner knowing. It bypasses the analytical brain, which for some I am sure is shaky ground. For me it is the most solid ground. That you eat and live and I don't and die does not affect the underlying reality.

There is wisdom in nature's design that apparently one of us eats and lives and the other doesn't and dies. It gives opportunities to consciously choose empathy, compassion, caring and kindness towards each other. In w.a.o.b. consciousness, dropping judgment, prejudice, jealousy and all things which put up barriers — and acting from the expanded qualities are natural. It is pure pleasure to do anything in this state of expanded awareness, which I have experienced in too brief moments. Most of the doing of modern life quickly replaces expanded awareness with mechanical action.

When emphasis is continually placed on separation, the one being at the foundation of existence is removed from perception by the cloud of numbed and distracted human awareness.

I see you are looking for practical, daily life proof that we are one being. O.B. consciousness has practical application and value when it is embodied through actions. We eat and breathe and act as individuals but our underlying existence in the present moment is one totality. This understanding is coming to light in the sciences. 

Your responses have been helpful.

***

GARY:

The feeling for answering you is present, but the words are not!

I'd like to take another shot at it, if you will indulge me.

You and I are apparently in separate bodies, though physics tells us that is also an optical illusion.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying 'Our separation from each other is an optical illusion' though the context is unknown.

In our apparently separate bodies, when you eat and I don't, you live and I die.

We also have apparently separate identities, sometimes referred to as the persona or ego.

In my search for a way to respond further to you, Google and Goodreads presented these quotes from Amit Gotswami, which say what I wanted to:

“It is not just do do do. It is not just be be be. It is do be do be do.” -  Amit Goswami

“Consciousness is the agency that collapses the wave of a quantum object, which exists in potentia, making it an immanent particle in the world of manifestation.” -  Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe

“The new paradigm posits instead a monism based on the primacy of consciousness — that consciousness (variously called Spirit, God, Godhead, Ain Sof, Tao, Brahman, etc., in popular and spiritual traditions), not matter, is the ground of all being; it is a monism based on a consciousness that is unitive and transcendent but one that becomes many in sentient beings such as us. We are that consciousness. All the world of experience, including matter, is the material manifestation of transcendent forms of consciousness.” -  Amit Goswami, Physics of the Soul: The Quantum Book of Living, Dying, Reincarnation, and Immortality

“Consciousness is the true reality, and matter is an epiphenomenon bordering on trivial.” - Amit Goswami, God Is Not Dead: What Quantum Physics Tells Us about Our Origins and How We Should Live

“THE ANTITHESIS OF MATERIAL REALISM is monistic idealism. In this philosophy, consciousness, not matter, is fundamental. Both the world of matter and the world of mental phenomena, such as thought, are determined by consciousness.” -  Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe [1]

Nate, what I haven't come across yet in my readings is that undifferentiated consciousness is the True Self of all that is. That is a leap I made on my own. If it is so, and this actuality is embraced by humans, it shifts everything in our daily actions and reality. Gotswami says, 'We are that consciousness,' and consciousness is the essence of Being. Yet somehow it feels more on spot and potent to say of the totality of existence, including our momentary individual expressions, 'we are one being.'

***

GARY:

I just came across these reviews of one of Amit Gotswami's books. They (especially the Kirkus review) give another view.

Also just had a thought:  what would provide convincing proof -- as sure as the earth is round and sailors won't fall off the edge -- that W?

Best regards,

Gary

KIRKUS REVIEW [2]

 Goswami (Physics/University of Oregon; coauthor, The Cosmic Dancers, 1983) uses quantum physics to promote monistic idealism- -the theory that both matter and mind have their origin in consciousness. The villain here is materialism--the teaching that everything is comprised of atoms--and its tag-along doctrines of locality (that interactions between objects occur in local space-time), strong objectivity (that objects exist independently of consciousness), and epiphenomenalism (that mind is an accidental by-product of brain function). According to Goswami, quantum physics has laid to rest this view of reality: Quantum objects jump from here to there without passing through intervening space, disproving locality; Heisenberg's uncertainty principle disproves strong objectivity, etc. Goswami's explication of modern physics- -which draws on everything from Winnie-the-Pooh to optical illusions--is a model of clarity. Vastly less satisfying is his brief for monistic idealism. For one thing, he writes off an important alternative, dualism--the ``common-sense'' view that mind and matter both exist, that a rock is a rock and a thought is a thought--in a few skimpy paragraphs. For another, his argument is inconsistent: He cites paranormal events as evidence for idealism, but when an exception arises (such as out-of-body experiences, which suggest dualism), he becomes a debunker. Worst of all, when he tries to describe how idealism actually shapes the world, he sounds like Madame Blavatsky with a hangover (``the universe exists as formless potentia in myriad possible branches in the transcendent domain''). Goswami's aim is inviting--who does not wish us to ``realize our full potential--an integrated access to our quantum and classical selves''?--but most readers will remain agnostic. More substantial than Fritjof Capra, which isn't saying much. This is one cosmic egg that may be too big to crack.


***

NATE:

We didn't know that it was sure proof sailors wouldn't fall off the edge until someone went all the way around and didn't fall off. Without experience through action, what are words speaking about?

Thanks for passing on these reviews. If I decide to pick up some philosophy in this line of thought, this will be a great starting point.

***

GARY:

May I have permission to publish our email exchange as a Whole Human blog post?

I feel this type of dialog is beneficial for readers.

***

NATE:

If you don't mind, I want to respond to your first response because it seems to come more from your personal thinking. I see what you are trying to clarify in your second email, and will have something to say on that at the end...

Individual existence and greater existence — is this not an illusion of separation? Where do you draw the line? I can only see the lines drawn in the imagination.

In the greater world, regardless of my perception, when I eat, my hunger is satisfied. When I sleep, I feel rested. When I walk, my body thanks me. When someone greets me with kindness, I feel touched by kindness and want to be kind in return...The change from summer to fall brings a crisp scent to the air. Plants are afraid when you bring a knife into the garden. The night-time quiets my mind. The taste of water after eating pineapple is sour.

When my mind and body sleep in death, I cannot eat, drink, feel rested, notice the change in the air between summer and fall...so what then is the state of my being? If the world continues after I die, which I believe it does, then I will no longer experience it. Other beings will, but I will feel none of it. I won't think anything about it. I won't interact with it. 

You are right that I am making points about practicality. But what is practical and what is more? Where do you draw such a line? Is not what we call practical actually being present in the one reality, which we are experiencing now and only now? I like thinking about the concept of One being, but if its foundation is not on the moment to moment observations and practicalities of our experience, then what does One being really mean?

...Thanks for discussing this with me, I enjoy our conversations. Please, feel free to post this email chain. 

About your follow-up email, the Einstein quote stands out to me - "Our separation from each other is an optical illusion." He may have been speaking scientifically- that chemically, the whole universe is an interconnected web of stuff constantly mixing together and changing, and human existence is just a part of that web. Now, in line more with a more spiritual/experiential understanding of One Being, I believe that our individual mind is one with the universal mind of action, in the same way that a pebble dropped into a lake makes ripples. But I understand that not to be a realization that takes me out of my body and mind, but rather engrosses me more in it. If my nature is as a pebble and my fate is to make a ripple, then moment to moment action is the seed and substance of that ripple.

I look forward to your response.

[1] Quotes from Amit Goswami

[2] Kirkus Reviews 

​​Year: 1999

Chug-clunka, chug-clunka. Screee, screee! The sounds echoed as I push the heavily loaded mail-cart down the long hallways.  There is a mail stop. Drop off the mail, pick up the mail, smile at the person behind the desk. Push on, there are five floors still to go.

In my mid-forties, after a rising business brokerage career which sputtered at the realization of the industry's nature and then launching a business enterprise which didn’t fly, I went to work for the mail-copy department of an electric power company. All the energy and vision I had for experimentation and innovation sank into the muddy depths of daily routine. 

Lily pads grow from the muddy depths. And that is what happened in the corporate hallways. As the cart rolled, a new vision took root and sprouted in me. I called it Vision River Guide, an anthology of one page profiles of books having a similar theme. The subject of the first Guide was “Finding Life Purpose.”

I began waking up in the wee hours of the morning to write book profiles and letters to publishers asking for review copies. During the day, while pushing the mail-cart down the hallways, I worked out the details of the project in my mind.

The vision was to put two volumes of the Guide into print and onto the infant Web, with links to all types of related resources. As the cart rolled and the gears turned in my mind, the enormity of the project overwhelmed me. “How can I do all this?” I asked myself. “I am just one person.”

I parked the mail-cart to go into the Men’s Room and the thought came, “I trust the River.” To me, the River was a metaphor of the ever-present, always flowing current of life. 

At the urinal my mind silenced for a moment. Then words welled up from deep within, “I Am the River.” This voice was distinct from the voice of my thoughts. It was in a deeper tone, knowing and wise. I could feel the eternal space from which it came. Tears flowed as I stood. 

In the months that followed, two volumes of the Guide were completed and printed. Someone who found my personal web site offered to host the online version in a collaborative effort. Greater still, when I committed to a choice to be true to myself and leave behind a life that was not me, Vision River Guide became a key in the hands of destiny for meeting my life partner, Kati.

***

In my position in the mail-copy department, I saw the waste of the company every day. Month after month, tons of recyclable paper went into a dumpster for the landfill. Trees were my friends. I calculated that the waste was equal to fourteen trees each month – from one company! The senselessness pained me at first, but I grew numb. The company was headed by a former military man. Recycling would not bring profit, and he had no tolerance for questioning or insubordination.

While heaving boxes full of paper into the dumpster and grieving in my heart, the voice said to me, “You will make a difference here before your days are done.”

After three years in the mailroom, it was time. On the last day of my employment, I distributed a letter to each department with a passionate call to recycle. The “big man” was furious and would have fired me if it weren’t my last day. However, the letter touched people who cared. Years later, I learned the company was still re-cycling.

***

After leaving the mail-copy job in Atlanta, I worked as a demo person in a Sam’s Club and gave samples to customers. My entertainment was watching people push their shopping carts. A woman came up to me and asked how I liked my work. I replied dryly, “It’s not my highest ideal.”

She looked directly at me and said prophetically, “And you won’t be here for long.”

She walked off and was gone around the corner.

A month later a psychic woman in Oregon invited me to work with her. I bought a mini-van, gave away most of the five hundred books I had collected for Vision River Guide and drove from the southeast corner of America to the northwest as the River carried me to the adventures which lay ahead.

***

In the Pacific Northwest, I met my life partner and joined with her on spiritual adventures which began with our doing energy healing work together in Mexico and led us into the Idaho wilderness and to India, Spain, Germany, the Hawaiian islands, New Zealand and crisscrossing the States as we made 45 moves in 15 years. One of the life-changing lessons of all the moves, as we hauled heavy luggage filled with what we owned, was about the burden of possessions.

Life sent us on assignments to care for the elderly, terminally ill, other-enabled, autistic and at-risk populations. We visited remote farm communities in Ecuador, on Maui and the Canaries. Now we are living a light footprint and sustainable lifestyle in central California. I still listen to the inner voice which set me on this grand adventure, and now know that 'all that is' and I are one being.

***

The image for this story is a rendition that was created for me by a talented young man. The final version, which did not survive the moves, distinguished the front cover of Vision River Guide.

​​The force and effectiveness of words is in their precise usage to convey or impart a common understanding with clear and consistent energy. In common interactions, such communication functions over the language processes of the brain.

All that is real is sensed over deeper feelings, which words have no power to convey. Deeper feelings are diminished the instant words are attached to them. They cannot be communicated, only communed with. Between two centers of awareness, there can be an empathetic sharing of the same feeling, without words. All beings are endowed with potential for empathetic telepathy.

When my words sound like a report, a well-researched, well-written article, I've been using the limited language center of the brain and the rational mind. To tap into something deeper and more real, I must empty the mind and enter the expansive present moment. From there, few words are needed and the ones which arise will be potent.

Life was sending me on a new assignment. In this one, I would be a house-parent with my partner to six at-risk teen-aged boys. Shortly before the assignment was to begin, Kati and I retreated from the world to a natural hot springs. In this relaxed space words flowed for me more easily. I did not think while writing but rather heard the words spoken by the inner voice and penned them. Still, I engaged the rational mind in places to find the rhyme and rhythm. 

Over the period of writing, my center of awareness expanded in moments of 'one being consciousness.' After such moments, I returned to more constricted mental functioning, which showed me how each feels. The poem which came out of this 'spiritual experience' calmed and supported me and other staff members through a turbulent year of troubled kids and a disturbed and dying organization.

The poem speaks of non-dualism. I did not have the words for it at the time of writing, but now would call it 'one being consciousness.' Whatever promotes 'us' and 'them' mentality serves separation. 'One being consciousness' is ever-present except in blocked human awareness, where separation thrives.

'Us' and 'them' mentality can be found obviously in religion, politics and the media. It is also found, perhaps more subtly, in such things as the concept of sacred sites versus not-so-sacred and special or important versus not. Unfriendly competition pits Pepsi against Coke and can be heard on playgrounds as kids vie to be 'better' than each other, shouting, 'I am the winner!'

Conflicting personal interests raise barriers between buyer and seller, plaintiff and defendant. Even the term 'spiritual experience' says there are experiences which are not spiritual. Is it so? In my world, when my awareness is open, all experiences are spiritual. Whenever meaning, perspective or preference are applied, separation is served.

The poem which came out of the 'spiritual experience' described is called 'All is Everything.' What remains is to ground spiritual awareness into the simplest daily actions. 

In service to the whole, all things have value — not as possessions or resources but as beings within the One Being, and a dollar is as appreciated as a million. Actions are performed not for an outcome but for being with them in the moment, in the flow. In that place, differences divided by walls dissolve into distinctions of diversity. We are O.B.