“They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse.”
~Emily Dickinson, 19th-Century American Poetess
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This article is a repost from our old blog – originally dated April 2008.
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Today started out quite foggy and dreary, but now it seems to be brightening and drying up.
After months of focusing on my diet and introducing a vegetarian lifestyle, I begin now to bring my focus to my physicality.
As part of that process, I have decided to stop dabbling in Yoga at home and to actually go out and join a class.
I have chosen Sivananda style Yoga, partly out of a lack of options and partly out of what I learned about it during my research of yoga styles. It seems very balanced for me, who I am and what I believe.
I have just returned home after my first 2-hour class, feeling invigorated (and a bit out-of-shape) and looking at things with more open eyes.
I don’t know how long this buzz will last, so I will take this opportunity to write a post about what I have recently been observing.
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So many people, myself included, spend a great deal of their spiritual life or spiritual intentions attempting to find a connection with God, the Creator, the Divine One. We look for it outside of ourself, we expect and hope for grace and guidance to come TO us.
For some religions GOD is something that one must earn, something that one attains at the end of life. GOD is something that you must believe in, dedicate to and look for. GOD wants you to teach others to believe in him, to bring others to the path of seeking for him as well.
But God exists for you, already, within yourself. SO that is the only place that we can and should cultivate our connection.
But by its nature, the Creator is in all things. You are now, and have always been, God. God is in you and is in me. The oneness of all creation never ceases, not for one moment, no matter the circumstances.
The beauty of creation (ie. All that the creator has created) is that it is limitless. Creation has all possibility, there is no limitation to the forms that it may take.
I feel this truth acutely today. How the beauty and magic of existence is equal in both the flower and the thorn, in both the new leaf of this springtime and the old dried leaves of autumns past.
The death and the birth are equally magnificent, possessing equal mystery and magic. For without the one, there could not be the other. There could not be constant birth, for we live on a limited plane, a planet that is not ever-spacious. Thus death is equally beautiful. The magic of creation is the balance in all things. God’s loving creation, the true nature of the Creator, is present in ALL, whether light or dark.
We may perceive one set of creations as being more positive or more valuable than others, but this is only our perception, not necessarily a truth.
Both the water and the plastic bottle in which it is carried are a beautiful creation of God. They are equally amazing and loving in their existence despite any attributes that they may or may not possess. Goodness and Godness are the same thing, and all is of God.
So, if God is in all things equally, without exception, it is not wrong to say that you are God, as am I.
We are all of the same Creator. You and I, the flowers and the thorns, the dog and his feces, the mosquito and any disease that it may carry, the clouds and the sun.
Owing to this knowledge that the perceived attributes, behaviors and thoughts of a person or thing can never diminish the true Godhood that it possesses, it must be true that no action or thought, feeling or mistake that you ever make can diminish your true divine nature.
You are good. You are God. That makes you divinely good, no matter what.
Let yourself embrace both the vastness and the simplicity of this reality.
In speaking it we can feel the inner truth of it and begin to let go of the pain and heaviness that we have carried with us for so long in our hearts and minds.
At every moment your inner nature is one of divine goodness, even should you choose to act in a way that you or others perceive as not good.
Accepting your innate goodness, bestowed upon you by your very creation and existence, allows you to put down all of the collected “badness” that you have carried. You no longer have to accept that “badness” as who you are. It is simply what you have done or experienced, or what others have done and experienced, but it is not a living “thing” that you must tend to and care for. You are not required to carry it with you and make it your own.
Our badness, or our conception of our badness, is merely an energy. It has been attached to us only by our acceptance of its truth. When we realize that the ultimate truth is that of our divine goodness, we may see the untruth of our continued badness and be freed of its burden.
Like both the flower and the thorn, our true inner self as well as our outward actions and experiences are divine.
I am beginning to integrate this understanding into my view of myself and my purpose and to train my Ego-mind to treat me as a divine spirit instead of a collection of actions and thoughts.
You are welcome to accept the same process yourselves.
Blessings.