April 18, 2026
In contemplation
You Are the One
Who answers when you pray? The one who adorns your altar. That altar may lie within. The god within is your own true nature. It is your own voice answering your prayers. Listen. Your true nature knows the way. You, as the me of the body, do not. You are lost in ignorance and fear. You cry out for help. You hope for release. These actions are not your true path. You are eternally whole, complete, and perfect, not as your body or its personality, but as that which I AM. I AM is consciousness in existence. I AM is your true nature.
Do not add to the world’s confusion. You know that the world is not your reality. It seems real with pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow, but this is not your true nature. Your truth lies within. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God. Hindus say it is Atman. There is the awakening of the Buddha. There is the natural flow of the Tao. Mysticism says to turn inward to know your god. That god is your true nature. It is the I AM that is consciousness.
You are that which I AM. You are the expressing of consciousness in existence. The world is stuck in the eddies of existence while you are the flowing that is its river. Move beyond the swirls of the world. Escape. Freedom awakens your senses. Eyes that see, ears that hear, and heart that knows are revived. Jesus went into the wilderness to hear the voice. The Buddha sat under the Bodhi Tree. Each entered the silence to find his way. Find your way within. Find freedom in its innocence. You are the river of life meant to flow freely.
Maybe you do not feel the flow. Maybe you may feel alone and afraid, rejected and inadequate; or maybe you feel connected and fearless, accepted and accomplished. Either way, these feelings are not you. They are not the flow. You are not your thoughts and emotions. These are the ways of the world. How you think of yourself brings pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow, so choose your thoughts wisely. Your world is your thoughts. Do not let them strengthen the illusion of separation. Choose joy as your expression of the world instead of separation. Express joy as lovingkindness. Lovingkindness brings the world together. It does not separate.
Joy opens your heart to lovingkindness. The me of the body holds many sorrows. Do not harbor such inflictions. Push away from the rocky shores. Let the current within catch you. Float far from worldly ways by not attaching to judgment and hope. Do not let your thoughts of this and that trap you in the eddies of life. They are not you. Let the river carry you to the sea. Be the joy in the world that you are.
Joy does not cling to this and that. Attachment binds you to life’s constant cycle of gain and loss. To cling is to attach yourself to expectations. When expectations fail, you feel let down or even betrayed. Then resentment sets in. You are hurt and seek revenge, when all you truly want is pleasure and happiness. You want meaning in your life. Some purpose that makes you feel whole and complete. All that gives you meaning and purpose is temporary. You fear its loss. You seek tighter bonds. The losses become greater. What you do not cling to cannot be lost. So, do not claim the transitory world as your reality. Stop clinging to what you cannot keep.
You can release the world, but you cannot escape your true nature. Your true nature is the entirety of your existence. You are contained in its reality, and its reality knows no bounds. Embraced as you are by your true nature, there is no mystery, no separation. Only you as the whole of the all. You are consciousness in existence. You are grace adorning the altar of your own heart. Sit in the still silence of the room-within and listen to the voice that knows the way. It is your own. There is no separation. You are that which I AM.
