The Game of Separation

You’ve got your problems and I’ve got mine. Right? Isn’t that the way the saying goes? But what if the saying is wrong? What if it’s possible that we all share the same problems packaged to fit our own unique situation? Take a look at this and see if you arrive at the same conclusion that I have. For example, maybe someone you know has a problem with money. Ask yourself if you’ve ever had a problem with money. Or maybe someone you know has a problem with jealousy. Again, ask yourself if you’ve ever been jealous. Sure, the time and circumstances could be different, and maybe their jealousy was over a person and yours was over a possession, but still, the problems are the same. You can continue this inquiry over and over again only to find that the way we think and speak of the world “out there” gives rise to a sense of separateness that doesn’t really exist. It appears to me that we all have the same problems.

Still, the egoic mind that lives inside my head likes to believe that other people's problems, community problems, and world problems are somehow different. The fact that I experience them in my mind at a certain time and you experience them at another somehow kept me from realizing the simple truth of oneness. I see now that the energy we call problems lives within the sphere of human consciousness as one bandwidth of experience. Truly, we all share the same mind, but is it possible that we share more? For example, what about the body?

I know it might be a challenge to see it that way because it sure looks like we are separate.

I too, lived my life with this perception until one day many years ago, I discovered that my ordinary mind was steeped in duality.

I was sitting on the wooden floor of my rented room in Austin Texas reading “Siddhartha” by Herman Hess. As I contemplated a particular passage in the book, I stared blankly out the window at a giant oak tree in the backyard. Suddenly, an expanded awareness arose within me and the tree “spoke.” In a moment of “no time” I saw, felt, and understood my connection to this tree, and to this incredible planet in a way much deeper than words can say. Still, I’m going to try.

This wise and loving old tree shared its life journey with me by dying right before my eye. (I’ve used the singular form of this noun because I have no explanation for this experience except perhaps I was viewing with my mind's eye, or as some like to say, the third eye).

After it died, it disintegrated and re-emerged from the earth as other trees, flowers, grass, and even vegetables. I inhaled the fresh air around me and filled my lungs with the life-giving oxygen they gave off. In return, they breathed in the carbon dioxide that I breathed out and soaked up the Love I offered. This circular sharing of breath created a complete cycle of breathing as if it were one body.

I ate the food from the plants and fruit trees which became my cells. I felt my heart soar from the beauty all around me. I saw that when I died, my ashes became the soil from which the tree grew and started the process over again. I became all of it. I KNEW, felt, and actually experienced myself as a part of all living things. Separation was an illusion. It was a true “holy shit” moment. It blew my mind!

Though most of my former perception returned shortly after my experience, I realize now that the only thing which separates me from all other life is thinking. If we all come from the same source then how could it be different? To my rudimentary mind, it appears pretty simple really. The way I see it is there is a vast, infinite field of energy and information from which “I” can choose to align and identify with. That energy has already been created, so the consciousness that I Am, choosing to express itself through this alignment, now becomes a physical co-creator. (Man is made in the likeness and image of God the Creator) Once I merge with the vibration, the energy is stepped down like a transducer and is expressed in this reality through the medium of time and space which is the foundation of polarity. From there, thought, music, dance, and the countless variations that make us human are born into existence. Some of this stepped-down vibration gets translated as language which naturally reflects our three-dimensional world and, among other things, describes me as here and you as there. This then becomes our tangible reality. It's just a smokescreen through which I can learn to create, enjoy, and evolve by the contrast provided. It’s ingenious!

Since I now know that there’s only one of us here, it’s much easier for me to acknowledge my humanness. Life is calling me to understand that geed, false pride, judgment, fear, and all other negative aspects of human nature are within me. It is also calling me to understand that beneath those wounded expressions, I have compassion, Love, understanding, patience, forgiveness, and the desire to be part of a loving human family. We all do. Since life is a mirror reflecting back to me the consciousness through which I view the world, my perception regularly needs to be adjusted to embrace the new me that is constantly evolving.

No more denying the truth of oneness. No more “over there.” It’s time to honor all life on this planet as one life and end the game of separation. Perhaps then we can create a new and different reality that honors all life as one life. Can you feel it?