None But The One
Received in early 2023 Listen to the complete audio on SoundCloud
Look into my eyes and know,
The essence that exists between us
Is the space that lives inside of us all.
As we live to be in the beauty of being,
Ever may we behold,
The presence perceived
Of love in each soul.
Jayā Saraswatī
Aho Mitakuye Oyasin: For all my relations, from the Lakota Sioux Nation.
Ayllu Masikunapaq: From these mountains here in Peru, from the Q’ero nation, we are all one family; we belong to this family.
Namaste: I salute the essence within you and when I do I see that essence in me is equal and we are the same.
Inlakesh: I am another of yourself, from the Maya in Central America.
Mashallah: The beauty, the wonder of God in all things.
Shalom Aleichem: May peace be upon you always.
La Ilaha Illallah: A Sufi mantra, which whirls us around in the tradition of the dervishes of Rumi and his companions, teaching us to forget everything but the One. It means there is none but the One. There is no other but God, only God exists, nothing else.
There is none but the One… Where does that leave you in the equation? [Giggles in room]. Think about this very hard: if the universe is one, how can you be one with it?
If all is emanating from one source, then that one source is not just in everything, it is everything.
If you perceive the source of yourself you will perceive it in everything else. And, if you perceive the source in everything else you will perceive it in yourself.
In the Vedas, thousands of years ago, it was said: Ekam sat vipraha bahudha vadanti– The truth is one, though the wise call it by many names.
Don't be confused by the names, for the truth is nameless and formless, yet all forms have its form and all names have its name. In this way, when you perceive this one true reality, this divine being that is existence, then there is no existence but existence when you perceive this one reality, this unity, this divine force. Every sound echoed is calling out its name.
We don’t have to sing a special mantra to say the name of God, because every sound is its name. We don't have to do a special dance to interpret our devotion, because every movement is its movement.
In this sense, the path of devotion is the path of remembrance. The falling from the Garden of Eden is our forgetfulness. The forgetfulness of our inheritance, of where we come from, of what we are, of who we are, our true essence. When we fall into forgetfulness, that is hell, that is suffering. When we awaken into remembrance, that is the promised land, the Pure Land, heaven on earth here and now and nowhere else. If the synonym for heaven is here and now, then the Kingdom of Heaven is not just within, it is all around.
And when the gates of the heart open, there is nothing that is not heaven.
It is a perspective. All things exist here and now. You can't wait for it to be somewhere else. Zen master Dogen says the biggest obstacle to your enlightenment is thinking that it is in some other place other than here and now.
So, stop seeking and start finding. What is here now?
There is something here and now that has always been. There is something here now that has never left. From before the beginning until after the end, there it is. And it is not over there, it is right here. It is this. As the great saying goes: This is it.
So receive it, be blessed by it.
May you be blessed by it.
May you be blessed.
