One Being: Levels of Oneness 7

Inner Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

Inner Work

For the weeks of July 17 & 24, 2017

One Being

What does it mean to be? If we sit quietly, we first notice some of the many sensations coming to us: the visceral experience of being in our body, the endless thoughts streaming through our mind, the sights, sounds, and smells, the emotions. We sit and let all that come and go on its own. The stream of sensation does not need our help or our interference. It just keeps on regardless.

Sitting quietly, though, we begin to notice something deeper than our sensory experience: we feel that we are here, we feel what it is to simply be. This does not require us to do anything; we just relax and rediscover the simple fact that we exist, that we are, that we can just be. This is always true, that we are, but becomes more evident in the quiet, in the non-doing, in the unadorned awareness. Such practice clarifies what it means to be, what we mean by being.

In that silent inner space, where we simply are, where we are aware and present, our name and self-image, our memories and history, our goals and dreams, lose their grip on us. We are just here, being. As the personal releases us, we begin to see that there is no real barrier between inner and outer, between here inside this body and mind, and out there beyond our skin. We let ourselves ease into the wholeness, letting our walls and defenses down for the moment. Inside and outside lose their distinction, melding at their interface.

This shows us directly that this experience of being is not only personal: it is universal. If I am, then you are also, and so is everyone else. We all share in the same being. We move from the separation of inside and outside, to seeing their continuity, their sameness. We live in this one continuum, this unbroken, seamless space. We move from being the only center of the universe to seeing that the center is truly everywhere.

When we are with other people, we occupy the one space with them. Our inside and their inside are the same. Anything I can feel, you can feel also. We understand that on the level of body, experience, skills, and personality, we are different and separate. But we also understand and see that on the level of being, we are one and the same, we share in the One Being. My experience of being is the same as yours.

Indeed, we all participate in the same and only consciousness that extends everywhere. Beneath our surface thoughts, emotions, and perceptions, is consciousness. Beneath our differences is consciousness. Beneath our separateness is consciousness.

Consciousness is beyond the imprint of our individual nature. It is only through this one universal, cognizant space of consciousness that we can be. In the same way that we all breathe the same air, we all be through the same consciousness. At our core, we are not separate; we are all in the same, universal being, the One Being.

For this week, please notice the core sameness you share with everyone else.