May 9, 2026
In contemplation
The Energy of Existence
In the beginning introduces both the Book of Genesis and the Gospel According to John. These three words imply that existence is not eternal, that it has an origin. Genesis narrates primeval creation stories. John portrays Jesus as a preexisting divine agent coming into a world brought about through him. These are origin stories found in Jewish and Christian scriptures, and to some extent in the Qur’an. Modern origin stories include the Big Bang. Today’s cosmologists theorize that the universe exploded from a singularity so dense that it was no larger than the period at the end of this sentence. However one explains existence, all portrayals seem to agree that it had a beginning.
From yet another view, the Tao Te Ching relates that the nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth. This perspective suggests to me that before the beginning there was consciousness without form. Like Tao, consciousness cannot be named and for lack of comparison it cannot be described. I think of consciousness as an eternal field of infinite possibility, with separation being one of the possibilities. From its thought of separation, a beginning occurs in consciousness.
Even though consciousness is eternally whole, it harbors a thought of separation. In only a nanosecond of thought, existence originates from the possibility of separation. It appears as illusion within consciousness, much like a unicorn enters your mind suddenly. It is there but it cannot be real. Existence is not real like consciousness is real.
In existence you appear to be separated from all else. This is not your true nature. You cannot be separated from consciousness. There cannot be consciousness and you, or you and something else. There cannot, for example, be you and a separate creator except as illusion. There cannot be a separate presence that brought about your existence. The me of the body exists as illusion in a transitory state within consciousness. Although it perceives objects with time and distance between them, these perceptions are not real. They are thoughts of separation. Your unicorn, for example, has no existence or experiences except in your imagination. It cannot be separated from you.
You know existence as the universe. You experience existence as the me of the body. Your experience of existence is unique, but your awareness of existence is not. Like a single water molecule, you are discrete awareness in the continuous ocean of awareness that is consciousness. You appear to be a fragment, yet you are the whole.
The whole of consciousness is a continuum of discrete awareness much like an ocean is a continuum of water molecules. However, and this is important to remember, you are more than the form of the molecule as an object. You are the energy holding the molecule in existence. That energy is the same that keeps the whole of the ocean in existence. That energy is consciousness expressing existence. You are the expressing that is the unicorn. You are the dancing that is the dance.
You were there in the beginning. You are the energy of existence. You are the power within that brings about the world like John says of Jesus. You cannot be separated from consciousness. The world tries to say otherwise because the idea seems preposterous. The me of the body cannot comprehend what it considers an absurdity. You perceive yourself as a form with a personality. You think you are the effect of creation instead of its cause. The reality is that you cannot separate your existence from your true nature as consciousness just as you cannot separate the unicorn from your imagination. But you can, and you do, forget your true nature as the expressing that is existence. Forget all want. Knowledge of your reality is still within you to be recognized and accepted when you are ready.
To be ready, do nothing. Receive what is yours by grace alone. Your truth lies latent like an ember in darkness waiting to burst forth gloriously as the light of wisdom. Then you remember that all of existence is but transitory illusion in the reality of consciousness. Then you know that you are the energy of existence, that there is no other than consciousness.
