Post 10: Another Look at Relationships

Title of Painting: The Dance

“To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

(The date of this social media post: Nov. 9, 2015)

What are these relationships in our life? Are they not mysterious? I live mostly on the surface of them. Yet, at moments, they can move into such deep expressions of love—full of wonder and beauty beyond imagining.

What causes these shifts in the perception of others? We can feel the beginning of such shifts when our thoughts, judgments, and demands fade, and we move into the heart. We feel love’s presence. Love then freely extends itself to others. This movement into love brings a light to our lives. We are happy; things are pleasant in the dream.

But is this enough? We are still in an unstable place. We still exist in this separate, personal sense of self called the ego. There are still so many illusions. Here our emotions can shift at any moment and we can become moody and irritated again, and once more we move to the surface of relationships where things can become problematic.

How can we bring more sanity, more stability into our lives? There is a reality, if we can reach it, that is stable, dynamic, and worthy of your full attention. This is the place of living relationships and the state of oneness.

Our relationships can move from being just relationship with bodies and ego personalities to existing as pure living energy, beyond form. This is the beginning of moving into a state of oneness. Feeling the life and energy of our relationships is one of the most direct portals into oneness.

We can start now. For a moment be still. First feel your relationship with the present moment. Look at the relationship itself. How does that feel? Next, think of someone you care about. Imagine their spirit embracing you. Now focus on the energy and life of the relationship itself, beyond their body. Focus on that as long as feels comfortable. Realize this is the beginning of experiencing the dynamics of oneness.

Whenever you find yourself wanting to experience oneness, sense the relationships you have with the people around you. Let your perceptions shift beyond bodies to the living energy in the room where you exist with them in a relationship. When the living dynamic of your relationships becomes more real than their bodies, you know you are there.

Another helpful way to move to oneness is to realize that you are already in oneness! You cannot not be in oneness. It is the very essence of life in this present moment—this second. We are totally immersed in oneness. It is just waiting for our acknowledgment—your willingness and welcome.

Relationships and oneness can be better understood with the help of a soup metaphor. Take a carrot. Combine it with other vegetables, liquid and spices. The carrot has a relationship with everything in the soup. Even in its most transcendent state of the aroma of the soup existing in vapors, you can smell the carrot is there, existing in relationship with all the other ingredients of the soup. And yet, the soup is one thing. It exists in a state of oneness.

Bon Appetit, my friend!