Our Joy Is Within
The Miracle of the Present Moment
Go to Preface
Go to Table of Contents
Comments or Questions? Visit our Forum
Please visit our Bookstore
Introduction
Do not be concerned about whether or not you will understand the concepts discussed in this book. Not only do you not need to understand what is most fundamental… that which constitutes the true essence of all things… the Source of Life… All That Is… you cannot “understand” it. Your mind cannot comprehend that which transcends thought. Basically, there is nothing to understand. You can observe and evaluate that which has been made manifest in our physical world, but the Unmanifested is like the silence between the sounds, the emptiness between the physical forms, the stillness between the thoughts…. You will find you cannot intellectually analyze it, and consequently, that your mind does not “understand” it. However, you can know it directly. You are a “part” of it. That which is unlimited, eternal and free is without form, without physical limitations, without boundaries of any kind…. You are an exquisitely perfect expression of All That Is — literally an aspect, a manifestation of God — and that is something you can experience, but your human mind is far too limited to comprehend it.
This is what I now know to be true. Of course, you don’t need to believe it, if you don’t wish to do so. But this is the truth. At some point I’m certain you, too, will come to know that this is the truth. Perhaps not in this “lifetime” — but you will come to know. You’ll adopt a perspective that allows you to come to know what is ultimately true. You’ll embrace a context that’s broad enough, expansive enough, that it will allow you to see the truth as what it is.
After reviewing a few things I have come to recognize as being “true” (concepts that, when viewed from my current perspective, are clearly true for me), we’ll discuss some techniques you can employ, if you wish, to help yourself know, in your own experience, your truth. We’ll touch upon some concepts that I have found to be fundamental — they appear to be aspects of the very foundation of reality — even when viewed from within different contexts. We can come to see that, in fact, ultimately there is only one context, one underlying reality — a reality of which each of us is an integral “part” and which each of us can come to know more about in our own experience, if we so choose.
You do not need to “believe” what is true or convince yourself of anything. You already know. You will come to know in your own experience what is your truth. No one will need to explain it to you, or justify it, or defend it…. You will know. As you continue to grow and evolve, what you know to be “true” will change. Your perspective will change and this will result in your beliefs changing, as well. Life is a process. It is not static. You are an expression of the Whole of all Life. Consequently, your evolution is a critical aspect of the evolution of all Life… and the growth and evolution of Life will never end. The creating and experiencing will go on and on… forever and ever… in the eternal present moment of Now.
We’ll discuss what I will call “enlightenment” — but please don’t become attached to the word. It’s the concept that I address. Some people view their ultimate Spiritual objective (although I suggest to you that, as mentioned above, our Spirits will never be finished re-creating themselves, so I use the phrase “ultimate Spiritual objective” very loosely) as attaining Nirvana, while some want to achieve enlightenment, while other people are seeking to enter the kingdom of God. Again, please do not become attached to which words are used, but rather, just seek to understand the concept. And please apply this same thought throughout your reading of this book. While I might often use the term “enlightenment” to describe our conscious reunification with the Source of Everything… with All That Is… with God… you might think in terms of entering the kingdom of heaven, or attaining ultimate bliss, or whatever. So, let’s agree that we won’t attempt to ascribe literal meanings to our words, but rather, we will allow ourselves to become aware of what is ultimately true. We will remember what we already know. Our main objective, so to speak, will be to bring what we know into our conscious awareness.
Recognizing that knowing truth is a much stronger “understanding” than merely deciding to believe something, we’ll want to discuss various ways in which we can come to clearly know what our most deeply held truth might be. When we have become consciously aware of our truth, we can then consider some ramifications of such knowledge. Again, when I speak of knowing, I mean far more than intellectual understanding. Let me assure you, for lack of a better phrase, “You’ll know when you know” — and you are always your own best teacher, your highest authority, and your own most compelling evidence.
It’s our perspective that determines what we believe is true — what we “know” to be true. We can generate a very significant shift in our perspective if we can quiet the incessant prattle of our minds and allow ourselves to become aware of the infinite power and endless peace contained within the eternal moment of Now. Yes, while this might be fairly easy to say, it often seems to be extremely difficult to do. Anyone who has ever tried to “stop thinking” will tell you that it seems very difficult. But when you finish reading this book, you will be able to experience the deep peace contained within the present moment, if you so choose. You’ll understand how to stop your mind from taking over your life, and you’ll realize that you truly are not your mind or your thoughts. You’ll understand that often a very significant obstacle to the direct experience of peace and tranquility in your life is your misidentification with your mind-made false self… the entity that we’ll generally refer to as your “ego.”
As long as you continue to confuse Who You Really Are with your ego-driven mind, you’ll often experience conflict, anxiety and stress. The more you identify with your mind or its constructions, the more likely you are to continue to believe that you’re separate from, and in competition with, others. Your mind has spent many, many years creating the illusion that you are your ego — a vulnerable entity that constantly feels as if it’s separate and often feels as if it’s being attacked by practically everyone and everything else…. The ego’s tremendous fear revolves around the fact that it’s ultimately subject to annihilation. It’s not easy (in fact, you’ll likely find that it’s extremely difficult) to completely break your identification with your ego and its myriad fearful misperceptions and judgments.
In reality, you are unlimited, eternal and free. You are inextricably “connected” with all of Life and you cannot actually be harmed in any way. You are now, you have always been and you always will be. While your body is subject to birth and death, you can never die. You are infinitely more powerful than anything you experience on this Earth or within the universe you perceive with your bodily senses. An objective of this book is to provide you with some guidance you can use to come to know in your own experience that this is true.
You need not believe anything someone else has told you, or anything that you have read. You can move beyond belief and come to know the truth. In fact, you do know the truth. However, you may have forgotten how to be aware of the feeling of ultimate Unity that is always within you, awaiting your willingness to “notice” it. When you experience this feeling once again, no one will need to “explain” it to you or “convince” you of something. You will consciously know the truth. You will have awakened once more. You will have remembered “your place” within the magnificent, unified Whole of all Life. You’ll consciously know that your most fundamental purpose is to participate in the eternal growth and evolution — the eternal becoming — of All That Is.
Intellectual understanding of the truth is simply not enough. You might “understand” the reason you feel an almost overwhelming dread about something you imagine might happen tomorrow is because you have made up a story in your mind about it, because your mind has taken past experiences and projected them into the future, because your mind (for what it perceives as “very good reasons”) wants you to feel separate, vulnerable and afraid…. Yes, you might intellectually understand all of these things. However, in the situation described above, how do you feel? You feel awful. You have this almost overwhelming sense of dread about what might happen.
Is it clear to you that in terms of how you are feeling — whether or not you’re experiencing peace and tranquility in your life — it doesn’t matter that you understand you’re actually making it all up? In terms of what we might describe as the “quality” of your life, it doesn’t matter that you intellectually comprehend the fact that you have again allowed yourself to become immersed within the illusions surrounding you to the point that you have forgotten they’re just illusions. At the time being described above, you’re still feeling terrible. Do you want to go through your life intellectually understanding that you’re making it all up, but still feeling terrible much of the time? That’s not a particularly pleasant thought, is it?
If we can move past intellectual understanding, if we can transcend “belief” and move to a place of knowing (a place of certainty because we have realized [that is, made real through our own experience] that we have created the illusions as tools to be used by us to help us remember Who We Really Are, and that only Love truly exists), then we will experience the peace and boundless joy that are characteristic of Who We Really Are. In short, we won’t continue to feel bad. Our knowing will result in our feeling peaceful, regardless of the situations or circumstances in which we might find ourselves. (Yes, “find ourselves” because we put ourselves there….)
A question many of us would like to be able to answer is, “How can I truly realize — come to know in my own experience so that I make it real — that there is, in fact, nothing to fear? How can I realize that I need nothing at all beyond what I have? How can I realize that, in fact, I need nothing at all?”
Perhaps if you said over and over to yourself, “There is nothing to fear,” you might eventually get it. How long will it take? Who knows…? There must be a more certain, direct way. There is, in fact, a more certain, direct way to come to know in your own experience that there is nothing to fear. We’re going to discuss the dissolution of your mind-made fears and anxieties throughout this book. You truly can come to know — experience for yourself — the peace and tranquility that is already within you. Having done so, you will most probably decide you do not wish to revert to the fearful, agitated, mind-driven mode in which you have lived most of your life. As you realize that there truly is far, far more “going on” than your five bodily senses can detect, you’ll want to feel more and more of your “connection” with the magnificent Whole. The clarity you have about your invaluable “worth” as an aspect of Life will increase and grow sharper. You’ll become more and more enlightened. You’ll want to bring more light to the world around you. You’ll choose to be the light. I believe you’ll no longer want anyone to feel as if they must grope around in their self-imposed darkness. I believe you’ll want to shine the light of your consciousness — your conscious awareness — onto the paths being traveled by others. I’m quite certain you’ll want to continue to increase your level of conscious awareness and live more and more of your life with beneficial intention.
This is not a theory. It is not a guess. It is not just a supposition or someone’s wishful thinking. We are all One. Everything is “interconnected.” EVERYTHING. While we need not concern ourselves right now with aspects of cosmology that can quickly overwhelm our minds, all of us can come to realize that everything we can see or touch or hear (and everything we can think or imagine or feel) are all, somehow, “connected” together. They are, in the most fundamental sense, “made of the same stuff” and the way in which we experience them is determined by our beliefs and our perspectives — by what we are being. It is your state of Being (and not what you are doing) that drives the way in which you experience your life.
Having had this broad realization, the restriction of our observations to one another, to our true Selves (noting that we are, in fact, all simply different aspects or manifestations of the very same, magnificent, indivisible and unlimited Whole) is then not so mind-boggling. We can come to know in our own experience that this is true. We need not believe stories about someone else’s experiences as he or she might try to convey them to us. We can have our own experiences, and thus acquire the certainty that comes from knowing.
It may not be “easy,” but it’s not that difficult to gain total clarity concerning the fact that you are, in some very fundamental way, “connected” to every single person you have ever encountered, or ever will encounter. You are somehow “connected” to every single person who has ever lived, or ever will live. You are truly “connected” to every sentient being in the universe. In fact, you are “connected” to everything in the universe — and even to whatever is not within the universe!
It might be difficult for you, personally, to feel your connection to a brick wall, or a dining room table, or to a mountain. But you can feel your connection to another person quite easily, and with a well-developed sense of awareness, you can feel your connection to all living things fairly consistently. One purpose of this book is to provide you with tools you can use on your personal Spiritual path to assist you in recognizing — in “knowing again” — these connections. When you consciously feel this incredible connection to all of Life once more, never again in this lifetime will you feel alone or separate. You will know that such feelings of disunity are truly illusions generated by your mind. You will fully realize that it’s not possible to separate yourself from your Self. You will come to know, not just “understand,” that there truly is only One of us. You will use the illusion of being separate — that which you are not — to come to know in your own experience Who You Really Are.
Join me now. Awaken from your Spiritual slumber. Cut through the foggy uncertainty generated by your mind, and come to know, in your own experience, the truth. There is far, far more going on than your mind can ever comprehend. But you can. Who Really You Are can directly experience the truth. You are not your body and you are not your mind. You have a body and you have a mind. You can know the truth, even if your mind cannot comprehend it.
Come with me now, and remember (or, if you prefer thinking of it in such terms, “learn”) the truth. Know that it is real. See the illusions for what they are. Realize the vast understanding available to you within every cell of your body, beyond the thoughts you might have. Realize the power contained within the present moment by bringing your consciousness to bear on it by becoming present and embracing the only moment there actually is: Now. The truth is more astounding, more wonderful and inclusive than you have most probably ever even imagined, and it is all, every single bit of it, within you. Now. It’s available and awaiting your decision to become consciously aware of it.
Let’s enjoy our journey within, to the very depths of our Being…. Here we go!
Adobe PDF Format; 263 pages
To purchase a copy of Our Joy Is Within, please visit our Bookstore.
