Oneness- Profound Listening

Greater listening and being still deepens my life experiences.  Exploring the difference between my pain and suffering allows me greater possibility.  When I examine what makes me unhappy then I may lessen this mind state.  Remembering that I do not have to suffer, I can rewire such unskillful patterns.

Exploring these unwholesome mind states is the critical.  How may I accept whatever comes my way?  Unpleasant or aversive situations are great learning experiences to embrace those.  Whatever shadows that may haunt me can be transformed into new teachings how better to deal with my fears.

Can I forgive myself?  Kindly listening to what has heart and meaning I may discover my greater gift.   I and we are all connected somehow and someway.  Only when I/we move out of our smaller illusion of self to touch our greater being then we may celebrate the benefits of being related to all things.

As humans we have a greater understanding of dying and the beyond.  Also now we have an awareness that we may be in all likelihood here as a species for a limited time.  Such awareness is reason why we may explore areas of higher consciousness and levels of being.

Ways we can expand of understanding and experience of oneness is in our well being.  No greater way can we invest our energies then in finding this spiritual link to the great inter and inner web of both life and beyond.

Opening ourselves to this tremendous mystery of the unknown requires us to become more vulnerable and fearless.  Such heartfelt examination takes faith and a radical commitment to explore diverse non ordinary pathways.  If I deeply venture into the soul and source of my interconnection.   May I blaze a new trail into a unified existence that allows me to better treasure our limited time here.  May I share my discovery with others in a loving kind manner so I fully reap the benefits of this spiritual adventure of oneness.

In the house of lovers, the music never
stops, the walls are made of songs, the
floor dances...
I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the
soul that lives within.- Rumi

Insights and Quotes from the book, The Eleven Rings

When you do things from your soul,  You feel like a river moving in you, a joy.  Rumi

Below are some of my insights and quotes from the Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success - Phil Jackson, and Hugh Delehanty, Penguin Books, 2013

There a tremendous new adventure awaiting all of us.  It is about deeply listening to our soul.   Being outdoors in a quiet and still place can help amplify this inner connection.  The human spirit has unlimited potential if only a diamond-like motivation is uncovered.

Allowing our small self to experience a larger and higher plane can awaken new possibility. Simply our ego can stand for the acronym, Edging the Greater Out. Such trust and dedication is what all spiritual tradition teach.   Whatever your connection with your higher power it can easily be lowered by selfish acts.  If we cultivate our greater actualization then a ripple effect of illumination will happen. What is your experience to finding greater well being? 

We can touch heaven or hell depending on our perspective.  Easily we can feel like victims or as benefactors depending on our fundamental attitude of how right now things are. Key is how we identify or relate to our thoughts.  Not become so identified with our mind can liberate us from much negativity. When meditating you don't stop your thinking. You watch it from a reference of following your breath, allowing it to rise and fall like clouds in the sky; dwelling in the present moment, gracefully arriving here to trust what comes and goes now. Discerning what has virtue from what has vice can do much to lessen our suffering. 

Below are quotes from the book;

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.  The sky is round and I have heard the earth is round like a ball, and so are the stars...The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle, the moon does the same and both are round.  Een the season form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were.  The life of a man is a circle from childhood- childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.  Black Elk

He drew the circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But live and I had the wit to win:

We drew the circle that took me in!  Edwin Markham

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secret is always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who do not believe in magic will never find it.   Roald Dahl

Invisible threats are the strongest ties- Nietzsche

Human beings are born not once and for all on the day  their mothers give birth to them, but...life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Forget mistakes, forget failures, forget everything, except what you going to do now and do it.  Today is your lucky day- Will Durant

if the spirit of many in body but one in mind pervails among the people they will achieve all their goals, whereas if one in body but different in mind, they achieve nothing remarkable- Nichiten

Do not try to see the objective world

You which is given an object is quite different from you yourself

I am going my own way and I meet myself which includes everything I meet.

I am not something I can see (as an object)

When you understand self which includes everything, 

You have you true way. - Tozan Ryokai

Greater Selflessness

When I become fearless I give up control, trust each moment, and live with compassion. When I take greater care of myself I enhance my experience of the world so I can be of greater service. 

Such courage comes only when we realize our full being. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs places self-actualization; the full use of exploitation of one's talents, capacities and potentialities on the top of this pyramid.  Self actualizers are spontaneous, naturalness, accepting of themselves and others, high levels of creativity and an effective problem-solver.  

To become self-actualized, you first need to satisfy basic needs building upon the other to form Maslow's pyramid. The bottom is where hunger, sex, sleep are primary; next up is safety, love, self-esteem and then the top, self-actualized. People fail to become self-actualized because they get stuck on behaviors lower on the pyramid.  

However self-actualized is really "higher" self-actualized.  Much of Eastern philosophy incorporates the concept of self as separate is an illusion or on a deeper level we are all a part of an interconnected whole

In Buddhist philosophy, the key to inner peace is trusting interconnectedness of all things. The path of transformation is seeing oneself beyond the confines of then small ego rather someone that interweaves all things together.

The basic of Mindfulness is based on no-self, dealing with what is unsatisfactory and all things are impermanent.  To lessen our suffering Buddha taught observing selflessness in the Fourth Noble truth to follow the Eight Fold Path:

1)      Right View- Is about unity, interrelationships, and one organic whole.

2)      Right Thinking- Is being with what's happening, quieting the mind and listening to the heart.

3)      Right Speech-Is saying what is of benefit and true.

4)      Right Action- Is being part of the flow.

5)      Right Livelihood- Is respecting what you do for work and being of service.

6)      Right Effort- grace, Is finding effortless effort.

7)      Right Mindfulness- Is remembering to show up, here and now.

8)      Right Concentration-Is focusing on each and every moment.

Actualizing the greater self is what that the Eight Fold Path is all about. Greater selflessness is about finding happiness and overcoming the hindrances of the smaller self (those behaviors lower on Maslow's hierarchy of needs).  With courage, our greater self unifies not divides our very well being. 

Our Greater Self

Since there humans we have experienced a conscience awareness of something greater then ourselves or oneness.  This sense of a greater source gives us a sense of peace and harmony wherever it may be; whether is found in nature or in a group of like minded people.  Exploring the divine from the heart is another way of describing this which mind state is hard to describe or explain to our very interrelatedness.

A unifying truth may come from stillness or silence. Redirecting our thinking to just being allowed to open to a greater connection is something all religions share.  All great wisdom speaks of this cosmic linkage in that is like a spider web.

This greater sense of the unifying universe creates an inner transformation outside the carbon based self.   For example looking up at the night sky full of stars gives this sense of oneness and how light touches us all.  

This being fully apart and not separate beyond concepts such as birth and death, we are all things, the sum not the individual parts.  A calm, peace or eternal mystery where wholeness and unity is experienced, where communion of ultimate transcendence.  This outside the physical, yet awakening in a non-conceptual, expansive and luminous place.  There is no ego and emergence outside the me, I and my just oneness.

This inner state of awareness can happen for a second to a the extreme of timelessness. Such vast space and awareness is a mystical presence to listen in profound silence.  Some poet’s have begin to describe this difficult to describe experience.

Fantastic natural events can bring this experience of oneness.  A beautiful sunset or snowfall, standing near a waterfall, looking out on top of a mountain all may give a unifying sensation.  Seeing a bear or eagle can bring about this sense of wonder.  There are countless ways we can touch our higher self.   Meditating in a group of people, sharing one’s vulnerabilities among friends, or just holding the hand of a lover.  Touching ones heart in a loving kind manner can bring this unity.

When human consciousness touches upon our common interconnectiveness then this form of inner peace defines a highest form of love.  This is a process of seeing what is already here and now.  Yet this is a deep exploration into all things is not separate yet interlinked. There is no absence, or lack or disconnect since everything is tied together in a mysterious manner.  Oneness is a universal quality of mind that all people experience in some shape or form.  Whether it is recognized or not humans, animals, plants, and all things on this earth share all the same chemicals, and life forces. 

Deep within the depths of the human heart there is an interdependent wisdom, an integral whole where there is no division.  What is heartfelt is how we see thorns become roses, a loving understanding that we share an infinite space of possibility.  This unified field of awareness produces greater compassion, a golden thread that unites us all. All converge with one, a light transcending and bringing together our divine commonness. Each spiritual tradition acknowledges this oneness even though they have their individual unique. Yes there is one denominator everybody and all living things share water.   We are different and separate; however, we are all made of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other shared substances.

While they truly brilliant know that they do not know there is a one ultimate connection.  Somehow and somewhere it is both a journey and realization of the unknown.  Ironically only individual experience can begin to educate us our collective self.   Only within can you see this truth.   A regular or daily concentration upon our unity can reveal it. Being still in one place over time you will be able to access our universal link. Observing our heart we can find these invisible threads that connect us.

A common divine interconnectedness, to see we are not separate yet united together by air, energy, water and earth.   When one ’s self or physical beings feels not separate this may be termed as “enlightened” or “awakened.” Such perception of unity can result between nature and such specific things as plants, animals or a localized setting, even inanimate objects.  This experience of interrelationships can be happen between the self and various external things.  Such interconnectedness can result with a loss of perceivable boundaries even with a person’s identity, body, group of people, and surroundings.

This oneness can also show the illusory nature of self leading to a feeling of egolessness or interwoven to one’s environment.  Another similar concept is nondualism where there is no difference between the self and the external surroundings.

It is like learning to play an instrument. However this one is both here and now and requires just paying attention.  The key is our choice to focus in to see.  This honest examination is a training to look from our own anxiety and stress to beyond.  The only path is self examination to find this greater self.

From birth we are in a spiritual journey, to realize what unifies all us.  To allow our heart to find this connection, a communion, a belonging, a freedom, is united not divided.  Through direct experience we fully realize our common bonds.  Once we are able to see the interconnected threads, a silent open awareness of everything.  Such unification produces the virtues of peace, kindness, compassion and other gifts of being and inter-being being both held and beholding everything.