Remembering (#2010)
Reflections while wandering the way of the path:
Be at peace in all things. This is the way of the path. In remembering twia, the ways of the world become moot. What are they to the power of being?
We all return to nothing. This is consciousness, our truth. Our serenity of being is peace with death. Be like the mother: patient, kind, understanding of the joy and suffering that come with living as the me of the body. Here our desires are never truly fulfilled. The body hungers constantly, yet is never fed. Go to the room within and be ready for death. Then you will be free from hunger.
To say we return to nothing makes it sound like we left when we never did. There is no source that we left and now return to. This idea flies in the face of oneness. There is only oneness. It does not separate as source and creation. Separation is an illusion. To return is to remember oneness in a mind replete with thoughts of separation. Oneness is forgotten by the me of the body. This me perceives itself as real when it is not.
Oneness has many names. I use several: consciousness, the whole of the all, eternal field of infinite possibilities, emptiness that is nowhere. Do you get the idea that it cannot be named? That is what Taoist say. They say the Tao named is not the eternal Tao. Tao, too, is another name for oneness. Although oneness is given many names to describe it, it is futile to label what cannot be described, but we try.
Like the many names of oneness, there are many names of gods. Our construct of God is an aspect of our thoughts of separation. Many gods, many names. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, most reflecting a separate supreme being. These gods are separated from us, and we, their creations, worship them. They are oft described as larger than life versions of ourselves whom we would ignore at our own peril. What is common among all gods, including oneness, is that they are answers to the fears and mysteries that plague humankind. They are the backdrop against which we explain our existence and give it meaning.
I have known a few gods. Oneness may just be the latest. Who knows? The god I knew in youth was on a throne in the sky. He was the creator god in Genesis that looked down on his work in judgment. There was also, El, the god of Abraham, and Yahweh, the god of Moses. Later, I knew the Father as described by Jesus, who called him Abba, or Papa, and said we could find him in the kingdom within. The god within, whether the Father, Christ, Atman, Tao, et al., is prevalent throughout the ages of human spirituality. Knowing this god within brings oneness into our awareness.
The God of Heaven, who was far outside and separate from me, gave way to God-within, who was more personal and heartfelt; albeit closer, but still separate. In later years, oneness crept into my awareness. I touted being one with God but struggled with what that meant. Oneness was a nice thought, but I still saw separation. I could not imagine being the same as the mysterious, powerful creator.
The turning point came when I accepted oneness as real; that is, if there is only oneness then God and I are one. If God and I are one, then there is no me and no God. That realization brought Darrell’s search for Self to a grinding halt. I knew, then, that there was nothing to find. I am it. I am oneness. I AM that which I am. There cannot be God and me in oneness. There is only I AM. I call it twia. It is consciousness, intelligent and aware. Do not deny the power of I AM that is you. You are more than you can ever realize as the me of the body.
My seeking brought me to the door of the room within. There I stood befuddled. I had been taught to knock and it would open, but I also knew I had to leave my baggage outside when I entered. In that baggage was the god I still clung to, for I did not know my power as I AM. Instead of knocking, I sat at the door and wept. The tears I cried formed a pond, muddied by the dust I carried from walking the path of the world. Its murky waters rose around me. These were the waters of my human failings, filled with sorrow and regret. I was drowning in fears of my own making. My only hope was to breathe calmly, letting the warm breath of forgiveness dry the waters and blow away the dust. At last renewed, I saw the door had opened. I had knocked at the door with my own forgiveness.
The wisdom of Jesus reminds us to ask, seek, and knock. He says to ask, and it will be given, seek, and it will be found, knock, and the door will open. Jesus uses the symbolism of knocking on a door to say that entering the room within is up to us. Nothing can cause us to choose the way of the path over the ways of the world. Do we seek gratification by clinging to wealth and power, or do we choose true fulfillment by remembering twia? Twia knows reality, and knowing twia creates a greater understanding that we are the I AM. In the reality of the room within we find love, joy, peace, and abundance to bring into the world. This is our expression in twia. Do we ask, seek, and knock to find fulfillment in the inner room, or do we collect the dust of the world? The choice is ours alone, but in time we will remember twia.
The room within is all encompassing. It is not a hidden place with dimensions inside the body. It is everywhere and nowhere. We feel it first inside, then enter its expansiveness. The room within is like Doctor Who’s time-traveling spaceship the TARDIS. It may look like a British phone booth through the eyes of separation, but inside it encompasses the eternal. In truth, there are no boundaries, no limits, to the room within. You are the eternal power that is the I AM.