WHEN WE SAY ' I '

A few deep breaths to settle fully into my body, into this place and moment. A simple gesture, like a bird spreading its wings to rest on the guiding winds. In this luminous connectedness of the Wholelife Energy Bound, there's no need for thought. Nothing in my mind at all. It has flourished far beyond its contents into pure and total Presence. The natural wonder of flawless peace and inner well-being fills it.

I am still. Absolutely without tension. There are slight ripples of thought and feeling, like sunlight refracting off a distant pond. Empty of myself and waiting with pleasant anticipation, prepared to accept whatever is. My Third Eye tingles with life-force flowing through it, with conscious access to every realm and resource. Totally here. Choicelessly aware.

Inwardly, devotionaly, I guide that Wisdom Eye down into its waiting place. It becomes the Eye of my Heart. I pray as I sit here, head bowed, not to One distant and unknown, but to One I experience within me, as my true Self, this Self that is the Source of all our beings and their purposes.

Lord of Darkness and of Light,
Now all is merged within Your sight.
I pray You use me in this place,
That each may know You
As their true Face.

Peace flows through me, peace that fills the mind while it touches all realms, peace that nurtures my heart with my Heart. An effortless miracle.

I sense the beckoning, the Call. Now, now is the time to be Its witness and servant. I open my eyes and gaze into each face before me. Simply through intention, I come into resonance with this same Self of Light within each one. I see them, not with the body's narrow senses, but from the knowing that I am part of everything, that each one of them shares some part of me through the work of this Light.

Seeing the radiance of the Divine Impulse shining through them, every nuance and coloration in the layers of their personhood stand out boldly. Their life's gifts and tasks, their blessings, wounds and longings, the buried parts that move them, but that they may never see. In this Light, all is transparent to the Eye of my Heart as it moves from soul to soul.

Yes, this is another gift of the Wholelife Energy Bond. In the Cosmic Whirlpool, I knew its power to free, to raise many of us out of that spiraling torrent down into oblivion. Now I experience it connecting me with all these people, all of us bonding through the light-beams of our Essences.

Each being before me is a separate cosmos, unique and self-complete, worthy of full and caring attention. Each is wondrous beyond all wonders, yet here awaiting me, seeking crumbs of the Miraculous that fills them. Is there a way to tell, to show them not to be so meager with themselves? A way to help them come to ripeness and a readiness to step off the edge of their world, when they are called.

My gaze sweeps on. After I touch in with the last person, my focus of awareness opens to include them each and all, as individuals and together in this gathering. I close my eyes for a moment more, to bathe in the eternal peace, to give thanks and prayer for all who share this moment with me, who join with me in becoming the Visible Face of the One. Inwardly, I hold them in my cupped, outstretched hands, held in the gesture of offering. I place them, each and all, on the altar of the One that is our Source and Goal. Beyond name, form, thought or imagining, without which all this is merely meaningless swirlings in the dust of Eternity.

Attuned to this composite aura that fills the room, I patiently await for clarity to source my words. Then guidance comes, for them, for me. I open my eyes and cough a few times to clear my throat.

"Perhaps, dear co-seekers," I give voice to what waits to be spoken,

"Some part hears. Some part, of me, some part of you,
hears and knows we are not trapped in the thorned nest
of memories and self-pretends. Some part that watches
itself watching, heals the delusion that we are transitory, accidental.
Within all the questions we ask, that's the first, that's the ground. The infant grabbing at its toes and the sage in a cave are drawn and driven by this question. "Who is this 'I'?"

Because when we know and experience that,
then we know what our being is all about.

Then we make choices from that place within ourselves
we really live from. Then we recognize each other for the right reasons.
Like the multitude of sub-selves
that are facets of our being, so each of our hearts and
minds are facets of the Divine Heart and Mind.
Isn't that what we really mean when we say 'I'?"

I let the question settle in for a bit, for them, for me.

"Well, let me put it to you this way..." says the Wizard.

Return to top

Copyright Nathaniel Schwartz 2003