When the mind is still, the heart opens.
When the heart is open, love flows freely.
When love flows freely, our oneness is revealed.
When our oneness is revealed, all suffering ends.
When all suffering ends, the search ends.
When the search ends, we have awakened.
When we have awakened, no thought can disturb us.
When no thought can disturb us, our mind is still.
We hate before we understand or know.
We do not take the time to understand or know.
We express anger before we understand or know.
We make judgments before we understand or know.
We make assumptions before we understand or know.
We stand in righteousness before we understand or know.
We disdainfully look at others before we understand or know.
We sit on the seat of white privilege before we understand or know.
Do we have to understand or know before we show compassion, empathy, kindness, or love?
What can you really understand or know? The truth of someone else’s experience cannot be known if we have not shared the experience. We cannot know someone else’s suffering if we have not carried their burdens. It can only be imagined, and that is not the truth, that is not reality. It is more comfortable to sit in judgment than to understand or know.
Human beings are souls of the Divine creator, no matter their religious beliefs, skin color, country of origin, or any other difference your mind points to, or says this person is not like me. Does everyone have to be like you to be accepted by you? Does everyone have to look like you, walk like you, talk like you to be approved by you?
When fear arises in you because of these differences, what do you do with that fear? I know the fear feels real to you, but do you need to be afraid? What if your fear was an indicator to take the time to get to understand and know, to see this person, their religion, or country on a deeper level, what would you find out? Would you find that perhaps at the core of their being, they are no different from you? Would you find that they want the same things for their children you want for yours? Would you find that they practice their religion for the same reason that you do? Would you find that many teachings in their faith are the same as yours? How would you figure this out unless you take the time to understand and know?
Sharing and feeling the burden and pain of others is genuine compassion.
It is time that our differences are no longer seen through our conditioning. We cannot allow our senses to be the guiding force of our reactions; we must respond appropriately from a place of understanding and knowing.
We must wake up and reach deeper to connect with our oneness, our sameness, and not just our differences. We must take time to understand and know what others are going through before we react from a place that does not reflect the truth of their experience. What would we find if we make this effort? Are we willing to try, or is it too hard? Would the world change if we did? Would we finally understand and know.
We must strive for connection over control. Connection must be first because, without it, we become self-seeking. Once we become self-seeking, the life of others becomes unimportant. The fear of losing what we have becomes greater than compassion, higher than love, more significant than the experience of others. The outcome is the expression of hate, racism, and a feeling of superiority.
What we fail to see is that what we perceive as this other life is part of our very own and contingent upon our survival.
Suffering will be required to wake-up from this state, which is why so many suffer now. The pain is needed to awaken from the insanity of our self-seeking, and to see the truth.
Know that oneness is not some platitude, but the connection between all things that when explored through quantum physics can be known.
Destruction of the planet, animal kingdom, and the lives of other human beings out of fear or for profit is the demise of our future and the lives of everyone who follow us.
When the mind is still, the heart opens.
When the heart is open, love flows freely.
When love flows freely, our oneness is revealed.
When our oneness is revealed, all suffering ends.
When all suffering ends, the search ends.
When the search ends, we awaken.
When we awaken, no thought can disturb us.
When no thought can disturb us, our mind is still.
As we remember those that we have lost on this holiday, it is equally important to remember those that are still here, human, animal, and plant and how we treat them. The mistreatment of other human beings, the planet and animals can be seen everywhere these days.
My heart is heavy now with those that I have lost in recent years, but today I mourn those that still live on this planet with me. I hope that each one of us will take a moment to let go of our pain, bias, misguided and conditioned thinking. To look deep within and connect with our hearts, the true spirit of our religious and spiritual teachings, and to let go of our conditioning long enough to see that we must widen our circle of compassion. We must awaken to the oneness of all things through that which connects us all.
“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self.
We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”
~ Albert Einstein, 1954.
Remember no two snowflakes are alike. This is true for human beings as well. It is easy to see the beauty in snowflakes, how about looking for the beauty of each person you see today and the common thread that binds us all together. It is always there, you only have to look with an open heart. Instead, we choose to judge without knowing and to hate without understanding. It is living in this way without ever questioning our thoughts or beliefs that we perpetuate the suffering in this world and its destruction. To think that we do not have to take care of each other no matter who we are, what we believe or where we are from and this planet is a recipe for disaster and one that will ultimately destroy us all. I am not speaking metaphorically, I mean literally.
As an individual, a country and a planet that is becoming more connected than separated we must learn from our deepest fears. Otherwise, we will continue to inflict suffering, pain and even death to others, and ourselves instead of compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and love. When will we learn? When will we face our fears instead of acting out from them? When will we have the courage to do the right thing?
“What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
When our desire for money, security and even safety is driven by fear, are we following the teachings of our religion, especially when it is at the expense of those who are suffering? Would this be the choice of Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha? In addition, if you are not religious, are you doing the moral and right thing when you allow these choices to be made?
What are we so afraid of in this life that we would put our own interest ahead of those who are suffering, perhaps that we too will suffer? Maybe our greatest gift will come in taking this risk and reaching out with our hearts instead of trying to put walls up to protect what we think is ours and ours alone. Remember nothing is ours to begin with and all is meant to be shared. We should no longer be the selfish child on the playground, but the generous and loving adult that we grew up to be.
It is always easier to be frustrated than to be kind.
It is always easier to be angry than to forgive.
It is always easier to hate than to love.
We all have the opportunity to look within and make different choices in this life, today, tomorrow, and always.
The spiritual seeker who seeks enlightenment for himself or herself to help everyone else is being misled by their own ego and thoughts. In a covert way, it perpetuates our separation. We must recognize that this is a collective journey. The future of spirituality will not be found in the “enlightenment” of a single person or group of people, it will arrive through us collectively.
Therefore the phrase, “we are all one” is not just a catchphrase, but brings to light the totality of consciousness. Our recognition and experience of this truth brings our energy into alignment with the creative force of the Universe. This shift in thinking is more valuable than our efforts up to this point. Once we embody this truth, any action we take from this higher level of understanding will accelerate the ongoing evolution of our collective spiritual journey and it will accelerate the arrival of enlightenment on the collective level.
The recognition and experience that “we are all one” is shown to us through an internal knowing, intuition or personal experience, and is accessed in a state of non-thinking. A state of non-thinking can be reached in many ways, meditation, contemplative prayer, time alone in nature or any other way that quiets the mind.
You do not seek this experience, but allow it into your awareness by awakening to what is. When we are awestruck by a beautiful sunset we do not seek the feeling out it just happens, because the awe that you experience is in the sunset. This is also true when experiencing the totality of consciousness and our oneness. However, if you are too busy experiencing the busyness of life, your thinking will never slow down enough to connect with your True-Self, which is one with the totality of all things.
Do not allow the thinking of your False-Self to tell you that you do not have time or that when you do take time that it is not working. Because this is how the cunning False-Self keeps us looped in a perpetual state of busyness. From here we cannot experience our oneness, release our conditioning or see the truth that is all around us.
When we are unable to see the world through the eyes of another, we are empty of empathy. We become cold to the suffering of others and we ignore their feelings. We make excuses as to why their feelings or circumstances are not valid. We may even insinuate that it is their fault for their circumstances.
Have you seen this kind of behavior from someone or even our politicians, world leaders or other authoritative people? Are you awake enough to know that you have also acted this way sometimes during your life? Are you able to see the world through the eyes of another now?
How would you answer the next few questions?
There are many examples like these, and you may understand one and not be able to comprehend another. The point is, are you willing to listen? Are you willing to try and understand? Are you willing to see someone else’s suffering and validate their truth even if you do not understand?
When we see through our conditioned eyes, we cannot see the conditioning. This conditioning also forms our current beliefs. I say current because beliefs can change with experience and with awakening to the truth. When we see the truth, our conditioning disappears.
Too many forget that we are all human beings living on this earth together. No race is better than another. No one religion is the only true religion. Underneath our conditioning, beliefs, clothes, and skin color, we are all just human beings or more aptly said, spiritual beings having a human experience. We are looking for validation, love and the freedom to live our lives. These are common threads that connect us all.
We do not have to feel threatened because someone else is different in some way because the truth is we are all different in some way or another. We choose the group that is the most aligned with our current beliefs and when we see someone a lot different we begin to judge the differences instead of seeing how alike we are. We do not see the other as a kindred soul.
If we become too focused on our group, beliefs, or way of life, we can feel threatened by anything or anyone that is too different. When our differences keep us from seeing our sameness, then we are disconnected from our True-Self and are living out our lives from our outdated beliefs, and from our conditioned or False-Self.
From this place, we may try to convert the other to be just like us, ignore them or we may try to impose our beliefs on them. When we see our ideology as the only way, our fear takes over, and that is when bad things happen. Then our only choice is force, so we engage in fighting or war.
If you look back through history, you can see multiple times where war and oppression have happened because of this and it continues today. If our leaders and politicians do not have empathy then they cannot see through the eyes of another. This can lead to horrendous problems for a country or the world. Look at the reign of Hitler, Genghis Khan or what is happening in the world today, for instance in Venezuela.
When we embrace our differences, we can explore the rich diversity of this planet. We do not have to agree on everything, besides that would be boring. And yes, there is evil in the world, but we do not have to be evil to conquer it. In fact, the opposite is true. The more we bring empathy, compassion, kindness, and love into our lives, the more the world will reflect this state. This does not make us weak, it empowers us. The first step is loving yourself. Many who commit evil acts are either conditioned by someone else to believe a certain ideology or they themselves have become lost and have no self-love. We must find our way back to self-love and then help someone else to do the same because that is the foundation for a sane society. If we cannot love ourselves then how can we be expected to love, have empathy and compassion for someone else? How can we expect to see through the eyes of another?
It all begins with you. Feel deep within, to those hurt and painful places. We all have them, stop ignoring and hiding from them. Be present with your pain as you would with your child or anyone else you love who is suffering. Stop looking for a solution. Looking for a solution means you have to hold onto your pain until you find it. Your pain is already healed; you just cannot see this yet. There is nothing wrong with you! The love that you seek is already in you, it is who you are and all you need to do is to breathe it up from deep inside. Let it fill all those painful and empty places. Let it mend your broken and tender parts. Love always works!
This is how we transform evil: with love. We begin with ourselves and that alone will begin to transform the world. If you think that this will not be enough, that something outside ourselves has to be fixed or how could something so simple possibly work, then you are once again listening to the voice of the False-Self. Do not let it stop you from doing what you know in your heart is true. When this happens, reconnect with your heart, the love that you are, and hear the voice of the True-Self once again. Remember to be gentle with yourself, to love yourself and every other human being who lives on this planet. There is power in this truth and you will know it is true because you will begin to feel empowered by it. You have felt this feeling before. Therefore, you know that what I am saying is true for yourself and you always have known it. You do not need me to tell you, you only need to remember.
Tim Custis 