Everything is God (the Universe) and God (the Universe) is love"
Does this ring true to you? It is the core belief of the various New Thought religions such as the Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL) . The truth of these words live in my full body not just my head. Back when I was still an atheist I spent many Sundays in CSL church standing in witness to the music and crying as I awoke to this deeper truth. The words started me on the journey but the music they played at church is what got me there. Everything is God. Including me. Including you. Seriously, no-kidding everything.
I’m always a little surprised when I tell people this belief and they just nod and don’t push back. There is an awful lot packed into just this one sentence! Following it fully can be quite challenging. Let me give you some examples
I see people arguing earnestly about how important it is to get rid of your ego. I find that alarming. Our ego is an important part of us and it serves us. It is there for a reason. The key is to notice how attached we can get to it and the suffering that can happen when we do. As an aside I confess it is deeply amusing to see people attack the ego in what (at least to me) seems like such an ego-full way.
Whether you spend two years in a forest monastery or spend two years learning Quantum dynamics in both cases you are devoting yourself to loving one of the faces of God. There are many paths. The way I found my way to spirit was to reassure my rational mind I would never forsake it. It too had an honored path to Truth. It is hard sometimes because I live in two worlds. I live with the Rationalists who don’t fully get Spirit. And I live with the Spirit people who quite often don’t get Reason and science and don’t seem to respect them. There are so many paths to Truth! So many faces of God that I/we don’t know yet.
Time for confession. During this latest pandemic surge I did the math for how many amongst the vaccine refusers were Trump supporters. I wanted to see if the number of their deaths would change anything politically. The super dark side of this? I was hoping it would. Do you know who else had this kind of mindset? Hitler. All of me is God and deserves love. Even those dark, super scary places? Especially those places. There is no darkness that is in another that is not in me. How could it be?
But here is the paradox. Yes everything is God, and yet I personally am not OK with much of what is going on. It is like part of this shared consciousness that is Us thinks it is time to wake up and part is resisting and wants to keep on sleeping just a little bit longer. I vow to help people wake up. I think that is what wants to happen, but I don’t know yet exactly how I can be of service.
Forgive me if this all seems too preachy. Please know that I’m crying as I write this. As I open myself wider and wider to the All it hurts. There is a lot of joy too of course, but oh the pain! What I want very most is for the world to wake up from this trance of separation and know itself as one. To know that most of this suffering is not necessary. To remember that what our hearts truly long for is to find our way back to the one.
I love you. Thank you for reading this. I hope it is of use.