The book, “The Untethered Soul” by Michael A. Singer, initially intrigued me at the time, but I felt that it was exploring ideas that either I wasn’t quite ready for, or perhaps that I assumed I already knew.
Picking up where I left off on page 34, I eventually came to this section on page 37:
“Once you become conscious of the consciousness itself, you attain a totally different state. You are now aware of who you are. You have become an awakened being….
“As you pull back into the consciousness, this world ceases to be a problem. It’s just something you’re watching…The more you are willing to just let the world be something you’re aware of, the more it will let you be who you are- the awareness, the Self, the Atman, the Soul.
“You realize that you’re not who you thought you were. You’re not even a human being. You just happen to be watching one.”
After reading that I closed the book and let those words percolate a little.
The idea of becoming aware of being aware isn’t anything new to me. I’ve been practicing meditation off and on for over 10 years now. I’ve experienced that state of stepping outside yourself to recognize that you are the observer and not what is being observed. Your thoughts, your feelings, your physical body, the world around you; these things all become distinct from your identity. You are not those thoughts, or those feelings. You are not your body. You are not contained by your environment. Your consciousness becomes conscious of being conscious, and there you are. You can see yourself observing those external realities and realize that you are the consciousness that is conscious; you are aware that you are aware.
In that moment, you – your core identity – becomes detached from names, labels, personality, feelings, fears, doubts, cares, concerns, and even time and space. You simply “are,” and this feels right. It is right. Because it is all this is real. Everything else you are experiencing and observing is temporary, and arbitrary.
When your focus is on your own consciousness, those feelings, emotions, thoughts and other connections to the physical world lose meaning and urgency. You have an inner peace that says “all is as it should be” and you know that it is true.
When I’m in that place, I don’t want to leave. I want to stay in that quiet, contented place forever. I just want to sit, and breathe, and be.
So, when I read that section of Singer’s book, as quoted above, it really resonated with me. Especially those last two sentences: “You’re not even a human being. You just happen to be watching one.”
That’s what made me stop and think.
What was it about that idea that stopped me? How is it any different from saying, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience”?
Most of us have heard these words from the French philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and perhaps we’ve even quoted them on occasion. But, perhaps not in quite the same way as Singer rephrases it.
Obviously, on one level, we are all human beings and we are having a human experience. But, is that who we are? Are we merely human beings? Or is this human experience a temporary state of being that our true, inner self – the spiritual consciousness – is currently partaking in?
But this is really only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
We cannot dwell too long on this fascinating aspect of our identity as spiritual beings of pure consciousness who are distracted by our human experience.
We must go further than this to realize that our consciousness is an expression of the Ultimate Consciousness, and that my expression and your expression are extensions of all consciousness.
Quantum Science would rephrase this as: Everything is the Quantum Field and the Quantum Field is Everything.
The ground of all being is Oneness. The reality of all things is Connection.
I am because you are.
You are because I am.
The Divine in me is the Divine in you.
The Divine in you is the Divine in me.
This is all there is.
This is all there will ever be.
Time and Space, You and Me, Us and Them, Past and Future…these are all the ways we perceive reality, but these are not true reflections of reality as it truly is.
The more we realize this, and the more we can learn to live from this state of being, the more our world will change to reflect this Divine Oneness.
Once we all become awakened to this reality, we will realize that no one is our enemy and everyone is our kindred.
In that day you will realize that you are in the Divine, and I am in you, and you are in me, and we are all – and always have been – One.
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Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
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